Arc 3: Marik the Prisoner

Takes place during Stories 26-34 in Sonic the Hedgehog: Heroes of Mobius

Part 1: A Life in a Day at a Prison

Marik had no idea how it happened. All he could remember was being caught up in the explosion of his ship and being hurtled into the air and then passing out after hitting the ground. Right now, he was sitting in a police car, in laser cuffs and being driven to presumably, a prison station. Marik remained sitting in his seat, frowning so hard he was giving himself a headache and wondering what a prison cell on Mobius looked like. The policemen in the car where Melchett the Hedgehog, who was driving the car, and his goofy sidekick Big Dave the Gopher was in the passenger's seat and laughing like an idiot. Marik glared out of the window and watched the scenery whiz past him as the hover car whizzed down the road, wondering where the heck he was. The police car had just left Green Hill Zone and was now going through the under construction Mobotropolis. Marik remembered that city so well, he had tried to ransack its castle on his first day on this planet* and that infernal hedgehog Sonic had ruined everything for him. He even remembered Castle Acorn, standing there proud and majestic over the city, the very place he tried to take over. He had killed the king and queen and attempted to kill Princess Sally but he had somehow failed to kill Sally and Sonic and friends had ruined everything for him. Mobotropolis was not where Marik was staying though since the city was being rebuilt from Eggman's total levelling of the city on his first time here** so there wouldn't be a police station there. Melchett continued driving on and Marik watched despairingly as Castle Acorn vanished from view.

A short while later, Melchett arrived in Empire City, the fourth largest city on Mobius and the current residence of any citizen from Mobotropolis. There was an MPD (Mobian Police Department) station here and that's exactly where Marik would be staying from now on. Melchett pulled up in the car park and turned the ignition off. The hover car lowered down and rested on the ground and the two officers got out of the car. Melchett opened the back door and yanked Marik roughly out of the car. The Martian remained tight lipped and furious as Melchett roughly dragged him by the collar of his jacket and hauled him to the station.

"I'm so glad I've managed to arrest you Martian boy!" snarled Melchett "No one kills any member of the Royal Family and gets away with it, not while I'm around!"

Marik just ignored the arrogant cop and remained silent. This was probably the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to him, getting arrested on a planet with species so much weaker then his own and thrown in a prison cell that was probably nowhere near as good as the cells back on Mars. Not to mention he got beaten by an overly polite rabbit named Cream and the biggest thorn in his side since the war with the Seedrians started, Cosmo, a pacifist who couldn't fight to save her life. Losing to those two was a big enough wound on the Martian's pride as it is but being thrown in a prison cell on another world was just rubbing salt into the wound.

Curse that filthy stinking Seedrian and that annoying, loud mouthed bunny! thought Marik bitterly as he was dragged into the MPD station Once I escape from this primitive station I shall make sure their deaths are too horrible to put into words!

Melchett dragged Marik up to the counter where an officer was sitting at and writing things in a notepad. His name was General Chipper and he was a chipmunk who despised working with Melchett due to his stubborn and unkind nature and wished he was working with a better cop. Chipper looked up from his notepad and his eyes widened to the size of a baseball.

"Great acorns above! It's that alien freak who murdered the king and queen the other day!" gasped the General.

"Look you lump heads! I have a name you know now use it!" snapped Marik.

"We don't know what your name is scum-face!" snarled Melchett, giving Marik's arm a sharp twist in an attempt to hurt him "So we can't use it!"

"I guess you cops haven't heard everything about me then." muttered Marik "My name is Marik the Martian and arresting me will be the one thing you'll live to regret I promise you!"

"More like coming to our planet and trying to ransack the kingdom will be the one thing YOU will live to regret you scoundrel!" retorted Melchett, giving Marik's arm another sharp twist "I am going to make your life a living hell in here and then you'll be wishing you were back on your own planet instead of here suffering badly."

"Go ahead, hit me with your worst hog-face." dared Marik "I can take the pain."

"Oooooh! Taking chances are you?" said General Chipper crossly.

He got up from the counter and marched over to Marik with his baton in hand. He patted his other hand with the baton threateningly and glared at Marik. Marik just gave him an "Am I supposed to be scared?" expression.

"I think me and you should beat him Melchett!" said Chipper "Let's put this psychopath in his place shall we?"

"With pleasure general." said Melchett with a sadistic grin on his face.

Marik was powerless to do anything since his arms were cuffed behind his back so all he could do was stand there and wait for the beating to begin. General Chipper pushed Marik sharply onto the floor and then he and Melchett began to beat him with their thick, hard batons. They cracked him all over his back and then his legs. Marik was made of strong stuff though so he just took the pain but it did make him insanely angry to be beaten up by a bunch of mere cops with primitive batons. Melchett gave Marik a sharp whack around the back of his head and Marik cried out in pain. Then General Chipper turned Marik onto his back and whacked him in the stomach. Marik coughed and spluttered after that sharp whack but he still remained unhurt. Melchett and Chipper didn't seem too pleased at the fact their brutal beating didn't seem to have hurt Marik much.

"Tough boy isn't he?" asked Melchett "He wasn't kidding when he said he could take the pain."

"I think I should do some research on this guy." said General Chipper "See what these Martian guys are really like. Good thing I have just the right thing now."

He went back behind the counter and pulled a book out from a shelf under the counter. The book was entitled "The owner's guide to the universe." and it contained files on every alien species and planet in the galaxy. General Chipper searched through the book, flicking the pages by at a great speed, until he found the page he was looking for.

"Ah, Martians." said General Chipper. He read the pages aloud "Martians are highly sadistic, ruthless, peace-hating, violence loving monsters that love to destroy peace and turn planets into war zones. They spend all their lives wrecking planets and fighting other beings or each other just for fun. Due to how much they spend training and fighting, they have strong muscles and bodies, making it hard to hurt them and even harder to bring down in a fight."

"Whoever wrote that book must know us very well." said Marik with a smile "Because that's me to a T. Sonic and five of his friends weren't enough to defeat me!"

"Wipe that prideful smile off your face you miserable midget!" snarled Melchett "Thanks for the information General Chipper, we shall rethink our methods and hopefully, find a way of seriously hurting him."

"Happy to help Melchett." said General Chipper, putting the book away "It's a good thing I brought that book isn't it? I always had a feeling we'd have a prisoner from another world so I brought that book to give us an idea on how to handle the foreign prisoner."

"And I defiantly know how to handle a peace hating sadist." said Melchett, grinning like a wicked wizard.

Marik just scowled at him. You have no idea how to handle me! he thought bitterly.

"Let's take him for a haircut shall we?" said Melchett "That'll hurt him a lot won't it?"

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't have hair!" spat Marik "Why would I need a haircut?"

"Just to hurt you." said Melchett "Hair or no hair, it'll be painful all the same. Let's go to the hair-dresser shall we?"

And with that, Melchett dragged Marik through a door and down a corridor. Marik just scowled even more. He scowled so much his face was practically laden with wrinkles from his angry face. He knew he was not going to enjoy his time here at all…


Before Marik even knew what had happened, he found himself strapped in a chair and an inmate stood behind him with some hair clippers in his hand and itching to use them. Marik could tell this by the occasional excited shake of the inmate's hand. The inmate was a weasel and he had biceps as big as grapefruits and a beastly temper. Marik could see why this inmate was picked to give people painful haircuts, because he had the temper and roughness for it. Marik just remained sat in the chair with his eyes half closed and scowling. Melchett stood by the door, watching with a nasty grin on his face.

"OK Gordon, you may remove the Martian's helmet now." said Melchett.

"Whatever officer." muttered Gordon.

"You will not touch my prized possession you walking waste of flesh and bone!" snarled Marik "If you touch my helmet, I will rip your face off and stuff it down your throat!"

Gordon ignored the ranting Martian and he yanked the three spiked golden helmet off Marik's head and put it on the counter nearby. What he saw after taking Marik's helmet off was a peculiar sight for the imprisoned weasel. Marik's cranium was full of tiny, round bony lumps no bigger then an ant that spread to the back end of his head. It was like Marik's cranium was covered in tiny pebbles. And like his helmet, he had three spikes on his head, all dull grey in colour. This is why Martians wore helmets or some other kind of headwear; they hate the look of their craniums so they cover them to save themselves the embarrassment of having their enemies see them. Marik went red with anger at the fact everybody in the room could see his horrible cranium. Melchett was rather surprised at what Marik's head looked like without his helmet on but he dismissed it.

"Go on Gordon, give him the treatment." ordered Melchett.

Gordon obeyed and he turned the hair clippers on. The hair clippers buzzed louder then a million bees and Gordon ran it slowly but roughly across Marik's cranium. It isn't easy to hurt a Martian but their craniums are rather sensitive and roughly running hair clippers up and down their craniums hurts ever so much. The hairdresser room was full from top to bottom with Marik screaming at the top of his voice as if someone was scolding him with a red hot iron. Never before had Marik experienced such pain. Even crippling his hand on a rock and Cosmo kicking him in the groin didn't hurt him as much as the hair clippers being roughly run up and down on his sensitive cranium. Melchett smiled to himself as if he was getting great pleasure in watching his new prisoner get hurt like that. That's why he brought Marik here, to let the hairdresser hurt him and show him who's boss in this prison station. After ten whole minutes of the worst pain he'd ever felt in his life, Gordon stopped running the hair clippers on Marik's head and he switched the hair clippers off, the loud buzzing fading into silence. Marik breathed heavily. All that pain had just made him even angrier and more determined for revenge on Cosmo and Cream for getting him in here. Gordon un-strapped Marik from the chair, slammed his helmet back onto his head and pushed him roughly towards Melchett. Melchett grabbed Marik by the arms and glared at him with an evil smile.

"How did you like that Martian boy?" he sneered.

"Hurt me all you want cop!" growled Marik "All you're going to do is make me mad and more determined to get out of here so you're just making a big mistake!"

"The only mistake around here is the one you've made." said Melchett "The mistake of thinking you can kill the royals and get away with it. Now come on, it's time to take you to your cell and as luck would have it, there's one empty for you."

"Aren't I the lucky one?" said Marik sarcastically.

"Thank you for your services Gordon." said Melchett "Now get back to your cell."

"Whatever officer." said Gordon, stalking out of the room.

The moment Gordon left; Melchett dragged Marik out of the room and led him to the cell blockade.


The cell blockade was where the prisoners were kept. They were kept in small cells that only had a bed and they had glass doors instead of barred doors like traditional cells. Marik was impressed to see the prison cells on Mobius were a lot better then other prison cells he'd seen on other planets. A lot of mean, horrible, ugly, frightening looking inmates glared at the new prisoner that had been dragged into their territory and they looked happy to see they had someone to punch.

"Oooh look at that will you?" said a cellmate who was a warthog with ferocious looking tusks and he had a thick Brooklyn accent.

"Frrrresh meat to soften our knuckles on!" said another inmate who was a purple bat with a stereotypical Transylvanian accent and a habit of rolling his R's "How wunderful!"

"Can't wait to see you at exercise time shrimp!" said another inmate who was a bulldog with a throaty, gravely voice and a lot of scars on his arms.

Marik ignored their horrible comments and insults.

"Be quiet you bunch of stooges!" bellowed Melchett "You're supposed to make the prisoner feel welcome, not like he's with a bunch of bullies!"

"They could treat me like royalty and I wouldn't feel welcome here." muttered Marik "So they can be as horrible as they wish."

Melchett ignored him and he came to a stop to a cell that was next door to a cell containing a brown and white falcon with trimmed wings and a devious scowl on his face as if he was waiting to come in for the kill. Melchett opened the door and dragged Marik into the cell. The cell was just as dank and dusky as the others with a ragged old bed and it was very cold in there due to the fact there as a draft coming in from a tiny hole in the wall that was only big enough to prod a finger through. Marik began to shiver. He was not pleased to have a cold cell as his cell but he had to live with it since he was going to be here for a while.

"This is where you'll be staying Marik." said Melchett "I hope you'll be comfortable in here. Although I don't think you will be since I've told General Chipper to put a mattress of rocks in your bed. I wouldn't be too surprised if you suddenly got rheumatism from sleeping on a bed of rocks."

Marik remained silent, he wrapped his arms around himself and shivered from the chilling draft that drifted around the cell.

"Oh dear, is poor Marik cold?" sneered Melchett "Don't worry, I have just the thing for you."

He leaned out of the cell and called to General Chipper who was at the other end of the blockade giving uniforms to new cellmates.

"Hey Chipper! Do you have a uniform to spare at all?" called Melchett.

"Sure do Melchett!" General Chipper called back.

He ran over to Melchett and handed him a prison uniform. Melchett turned back to Marik and tossed the uniform in the Martian's face. Marik yanked the uniform off his face and glared at it. It was an orange jumpsuit with an ID tag on it and brown patches on the elbows and knees. Marik stared at the jumpsuit in disgust.

"Put it on." ordered Melchett dryly "Now."

He pulled his pistol out and pointed it sideways at Marik to make sure Marik wouldn't try anything. Marik scowled at Melchett and he slipped the uniform on over his glorious leather jacket. After he'd finally gotten into the uniform, he pulled a horrible face. He looked ridiculous in the jumpsuit and he was not pleased to be wearing it. Plus, it didn't make him feel any warmer, he still felt cold in this cell. Melchett laughed at him.

"Boy you look ridiculous!" he sniggered "Just like the other filthy criminals of this prison! Oh well, have a nice day Marik." he said cheerily as he walked out of the cell and whistled to himself.

The door closed behind him. Marik was trapped in this horrible, dark, cold cell. Marik had had enough of the horrible uniform. He gripped the uniform in his fingers and he ripped the thing off himself and threw it on the floor. The uniform lay in shreds on the floor and Marik stomped on it. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a long, thin piece of folded material. He unfolded the material, which was actually a long ragged, flowing robe that he wore on his shoulders. The robe covered his body but his legs were still visible. Martians had robes with them in case they were on a cold planet and Marik definitely needed it now since his cell was so cold. Not to mention he wouldn't look like a lowly prisoner unlike everybody else, he'd stand out from the rest and look strong and prideful at the most. Now Marik had the robe on, he was nice and warm and no longer shivering.

"Aaaah, this is much better." he said to himself "Much better then that orange piece of filth they call clothes!"

He spat on the shreds of orange jumpsuit that lay on the floor at his feet. Now Marik was warm, he could see to getting out of here. He swiped his arms at the cell door and sent an energy wave flying into it. But the energy wave did no harm of any kind to the cell door. In fact, it didn't even dent it or scratch it! Marik couldn't believe it. That was one tough door! Marik tried the back wall instead. He sent an energy wave flying at the wall but the wall was too strong for his attack and the wave bounced harmlessly off the wall. The walls were steel and not rock unlike the floor and Marik could not break through metal substances with his energy waves. Marik slumped against the wall and growled like an angry dog.

"Oh the indignity!" he moaned "I'm stuck in a cell with no means of escape! Can my time on this planet get any worse? Once I escape from here, I'll make sure Sonic and his friends will pay ever so dearly for all this indignity they've ever caused me!"

All Marik could do now, was try to find a way to escape. Until then, he would have to get accustomed to prison life and that was not what he wanted to do at all. He dreaded to think on what was going to happen next as he rubbed his cranium, still sore from the hair cut episode earlier.


A few minutes very slowly ticked by (Well what do you expect in a prison cell? There's nothing to do in a prison cell so time ticks slowly by) before it was time for the prisoners to go into the exercise yard. The inmates all lined up in single file and were led by General Chipper out of the cell blockade and onto the yard. The exercise yard was a large, open area blocked off with tall fences with barbed wire all over the top of it. There were basketball hoops for those playing basketball and nothing more. Marik hadn't been in the yard for more then a second and already he hated it there. He eyed the walls that fenced him off from freedom. He could just imagine himself climbing up the wall and hoping over it to freedom but he had a few problems. Tight security, a lot of witnesses so someone would notice him escaping and tell on him and his jet shoes were damaged from the explosion so he couldn't fly over the walls, much to his dismay. Once everybody was on the yard, they all lined up in a row and General Chipper came by with a checklist to make sure everybody was there.

"Harold?" he said, coming up to a lion with a trimmed mane and a hideous scowl on his face.

"Here." said the lion known as Harold.

"Scourge?" said General Chipper, coming across a green hedgehog who looked remarkably like Sonic the Hedgehog only with different foot wear, green fur and blue eyes.

"Here." muttered Scourge.

"Marik?" said General Chipper, coming across Marik who just stood there with his hands on his pockets.

Marik didn't answer him, he remained silent. General Chipper looked up from his checklist and saw Marik was there. Then he saw Marik's robe and glared at him.

"What on Mobius are you wearing?" he said crossly.

"Real clothing if you MUST know you insolent waste of flesh!" retorted Marik "I refuse to look like this bunch of morons in their ludicrous orange jumpsuits so I'm wearing this and you can't make me wear anything else!"

The inmates all shifted their glares to the Martian standing in line with them. General Chipper marched up to Marik and grabbed his robe.

"You take that off and put on a prison uniform or I'll rip that robe off!" ordered the General.

Marik grabbed General Chipper's arm with his metal hand, squeezed it and twisted it to the side, causing the chipmunk to yelp.

"You will let me wear what I want or I'll break your arm off and beat you round the head with it!" snarled Marik "And that's a promise!"

The inmates murmured to each other. It's not often that an inmate dared to stand up to a police officer before. Maybe Marik wasn't so bad after all. Marik let go of General Chipper and bared his teeth. Even though his voltage compactor was broken, he managed to get some electricity to crackle between his metal fingers in an attempt to scare the cop. The chipmunk didn't want to lose his arm so he stepped back from Marik timidly. After that frightening episode, the general decided he was going to stay away from Marik from now on.

"O…OK…." said the worried general "I'll let…you keep that…robe…on. Sorry I…protested…um…you may start exercising now everybody." he added quickly, running to his station as fast as he could.

With that said, the inmates all spread out across the exercise yard to do their daily exercise. Some sat near the walls and played a game of cards, some played basketball and some just gathered around and chatted. Marik watched them all with a grim expression. He did not feel like doing anything in this yard, he felt like standing there and doing nothing. Then somebody pushed him from behind and he fell onto the floor. Marik felt a foot being pressed on his back. He turned around and saw that it was none other then Scourge the Hedgehog standing before him with his foot on the Martian's back and glowering at him.

"Hey chump!" he growled in his raspy tough man voice "That was tough stuff you just did back there. No one has ever stood up to General Chipper before."

"I'm amazed." said Marik "General Chipper can't possibly be that intimidating to all you tough looking inmates."

"He doesn't scare me." said Scourge "And I don't buy your tough act at all alien boy. You look like another pretentious little jerk who thinks he's tougher and more important then everybody else. Well guess what? You ain't! I'm the toughest around here and I won't have you challenging my authority and toughness!"

"Pretentious? Jerk? Thinks I'm tougher and more important then everybody else?" repeated Marik "And I'm buying this from some jerk who looks like Sonic the Hedgehog? I think YOU'RE the pretentious one Scourge the Hedgehog not me!"

Scourge stomped on Marik's back good and hard. Marik didn't feel much pain though.

"I AM NOT PRETENTIOUS!" he bellowed "And the only reason I look like Sonic is because I'm his brother! The only difference is I'm much better looking and much stronger then that wuss bag. He got me in here two years ago when he denied me what's mine, which is total domination of this world and I want to spin-dash him into a pulp when I get outta here!"

Marik was intrigued with this. Sonic has an evil brother? Maybe he could make an alliance with the green hedgehog and break out of prison. Then he and Scourge could both destroy Sonic together and wreck Mobius forever. Scourge lifted his foot off Marik and Marik got back to his feet. He dusted himself off and pulled Scourge close to himself.

"Well Scourge, that's interesting. You hate Sonic?" whispered Marik "I hate him too. Me and you have something in common here so I have an idea."

Scourge listened on.

"Me and you could team up and break out of this prison and destroy Sonic together." said Marik "My strength and your abilities are bound to destroy that insolent hedgehog and once we destroy Sonic, we can rule Mobius together and everybody will bow down to us! What do you say?"

Scourge just gave Marik a terrific uppercut to the chin. Marik flew through the air and landed on his back, catching the attention of some inmates.

"No deal chump from space!" growled Scourge "I wanna rule Mobius by myself, I am not sharing power with anyone else, especially you! I will destroy Sonic myself; Mobius will be MY kingdom with MY rules and MY punishments! You will be a snivelling servant grovelling ay my feet when I conquer the world alien boy!"

Marik got to his feet and leapt at Scourge, snarling wildly.

"I'll make you sorry for that you egotistical snot-faced worm!" he roared.

Scourge dodged Marik's attack and let the Martian crash into the ground and get a mouthful of dirt. Two huge inmates stood over the Martian with evil scowls on their faces. One was an ox with giant horns and enormous muscles, the other was a rhino with three horns, one large one and two smaller ones and spiked wristbands on his wrists. They cupped their hands around their fists and snorted at him.

"Hey Scourge, is this guy bothering you buddy?" said the ox gruffly.

"Yes he is." said Scourge "Do me a favour and put him in his place will you?"

The ox and rhino obeyed and they began to shower Marik with punches that felt like fists of steel to the poor Martian. They punched Marik all over his back, in his face and in his stomach and every single punch hurt. Marik had never felt punches as hard as this in his life and all he could wonder is how did those two ever get so strong. The rhino punched him in the eye. Marik fell onto his bottom and he rubbed his throbbing eye. It had swollen up and become purple in colour. Then to finish it all off, Scourge spin-dashed Marik and sent the Martian hurling through the air and crashing into a basketball post. Some inmates playing basketball glared at him.

"Oy! We're playing here shrimp!" snarled an inmate who was a female ferret with little tolerance for people getting in her way.

"Let's use HIM as the ball shall we Stella?" asked another female inmate who was a bear and considerably larger then the ferret and she had muscles to show how tough she was.

"Good idea Loretta." said Stella, seizing Marik by the collar and throwing him at Loretta.

Loretta held Marik firmly by his head and then she threw him straight into the hoop. Marik's head was too big for the hoop though so he ended up getting stuck in it. He was stuck, upside down, in the basket ball hoop by his head. His legs waggled feebly in the air and Stella and Loretta laughed at him.

"You ruffians get me down this minute or I'll make rock paste out of you!" yelled Marik, flinging his arms out madly.

Scourge leaped into the air and spin-dashed the basketball hoop. The hoop wobbled furiously and Marik was shaken out of it. He fell from the hoop's great height and landed sharply on his back. He felt his spine crack in several places as he made sharp contact with the ground. Marik felt terrible right now. He'd had a hard beating from Scourge and two inmates and now he'd been used as a basketball. He was more determined then ever to escape this horrible place now. Scourge and the ox and rhino stood over Marik, all with evil glares and smiles on their faces. Stella and Loretta joined in too.

"You see shrimp." said Scourge "I'm the head man here. Everybody loves me here and everybody does what I say. You will have to get used to my way of handling things here or I'll make sure you get an even bigger beating next time. Now stay in line and know your place!"

Marik just growled at Scourge and swiped his arms at him, knocking the hedgehog off his feet with an energy wave.

"I will not stay in line!" yelled Marik "And my place is not in here! I will not succumb to your rules and limits so easily! It's going to take more then that to break me you know!"

"Right! That is it! Get him inmates!" ordered Scourge.

The ox and rhino and Stella and Loretta leaped on Marik. Marik dodged their leaps and ran for it as fast as he could. He was not having another beating this time. As he ran for his life from the inmates, who were chasing after him, he trampled through a deck full of cards that four inmates were playing with. The cards were sent scattering everywhere and the inmates were furious. They got to their feet and joined in the chase. Marik looked over his shoulder to see Scourge and the inmates chasing him. Even though Marik's jet shoes had been damaged, he could still use them to go fast. He activated them and picked up speed. But Scourge could run the same speed as Sonic so he could easily catch up with Marik. Scourge picked up speed and ran after Marik. Marik looked over his shoulder to see Scourge catching him up. But he should have kept his eye on what was ahead of him because he was running towards a wall. Marik crashed straight into it with an enormous crash. That crash was so hard and painful, he felt like he'd just smashed his face to pieces. Marik turned around and saw that he was now trapped between the wall and Scourge and the inmates. Marik just remained where he was and awaited his punishment. The inmates all let loose on Marik. They punched him, they kicked him, they walloped him, they pushed him, they did all sorts of horrible things to the Martian. Then Loretta picked Marik up and tossed him into the air like a rugby ball. Stella caught him and tossed him to Scourge. Scourge punched him into the ox and the ox threw him to the rhino. The rhino threw him to a card playing inmate and the tossing continued on and on after that. Marik began to feel a little nauseous after all that tossing around he had began going through. Finally the throwing around stopped and the ox threw Marik into the ground like a rugby ball being thrown down in a touchdown. Marik scrapped across the ground and ended up with a face full of dirt. Marik sighed and groaned loudly and the inmates all laughed at him.

"Come on guys and gals." said Scourge "We've got better things to do then tussle with a loser like him there."

And with that, the inmates all walked away, laughing like hyena. Marik lay there with his face in the dirt, not knowing which part of him to rub better. His body felt like his entire skeleton had broken and he felt lame and weak. Too weak to get back up. Plus his stomach felt queasy from all that throwing about. Never, ever in his life had he suffered such punishment. He never knew Mobians could punch that hard. And all that punishment he'd just suffered made him more determined then ever to escape and kill Cosmo and Cream as well as Sonic the Hedgehog. It was all their fault he was here, suffering such torment from the wrath of Scourge and his cronies behind prison walls. He couldn't wait to escape. The only problem was, he had no idea on how to escape. As Marik lay there, feeling miserable and beaten, Scourge and his gang of inmates began playing basketball. Marik lifted his face out of the mound of dirt and scowled at the green hedgehog. He had the sudden urge to kill Scourge now but he knew he was powerless against him and his inmate gang so he decided to make himself scarce for the rest of the time out in the yard. No other inmate seemed interested in beating Marik up right now, they were too busy doing their own thing or beating up the weaker inmates. Marik picked himself up and wondered over to a bench attached to the wall and sat on it. He decided he was going to stay there until recreation time was over and it was time to go back to his cell. He'd be much safer in his own cell then out in the yard with a bunch of thugs. Any inmate passing by the bench Marik sat on either ignored him or shot a death glare at him. Marik just ignored them all and entered a train of thoughts. He was thinking about war with the Seedrians currently going on and what was happening there. He thought about how much fun he'd had being part of the war and how much fun he had blowing things to pieces.

"If only I stayed put instead of chasing the Seedrian children." muttered Marik "I wouldn't be here right now, I'd be in a glorious war killing Seedrians and blowing their planet to pieces. Now I'm here, in a prison cell full of thugs and a jerk who looks like Sonic. I used to be a great soldier in a raging war, now I'm a joke behind bars and used as a punching bag. Oh the humiliation!"

"Quit talking to yerself you weirdo!" shouted the Brooklyn accented warthog whom Marik had seen earlier, smacking Marik on the head.

Marik didn't even feel that smack due to his hard helmet protecting him. Then suddenly, an alarm blared through a megaphone attached to a wall and the voice of Melchett the Hedgehog rang out through the megaphone.

"Attention inmates, recreation time is over. The hour is 5:00pm meaning its dinner time. Line up at the station before you go to the canteen."

Marik stood up from his bench and joined the inmates as they lined up. The inmates all lined up and General Chipper checked them off again before they went back inside. Everybody was here again, there was nobody missing much to the delight of General Chipper. Now the inmates had been checked off, General Chipper led them inside the MPD station and escorted everybody to the canteen. The canteen was full of tables and benches and stalls of food that the inmates would go up and get. The food was served on trays and once the inmates got their required food and drink, they would sit at a table and eat it. Marik was not interested in what food was on offer but he had to eat something or he would starve. Maybe food on Mobius wouldn't be bad, maybe it might taste as good as food on Mars. Marik grabbed a tray and went up to the counter. The chef stared at him as Marik came up to him.

"I have no idea what you Mobians eat so just serve me whatever you like." said Marik "I don't care what it is just, make sure it tastes nice."

The chef nodded and dumped a big lump of mashed potatoes on Marik's tray. The steaming hot mash looked disgusting to Marik but he didn't care. Then the chef dumped a portion of vegetables on his tray. Marik carried the tray away and filled himself a cup of plain old water from a water machine. Then Marik took his meal to the table and sat down. He was not looking forward to eating it but he didn't want to starve so he picked up his fork, plunged it into the mash and shoved it in his mouth. His eyes widened and he gagged. The mash tasted HORRIBLE! It was the most disgusting thing he had ever eaten in his entire life! The mash was so horrible Marik had a horrible coughing fit. All the inmates looked up at Marik. After Marik had finished coughing and spluttering he began to rant angrily.

"What the bloody hell are you trying to do! Poison me?" he bellowed at the top of his voice, not really caring everybody was watching him. "That revolting pile of sludge does not deserve to be labelled as "food" at all! It tastes like something that comes out your bottom!"

Unfortunately for Marik, Scourge the Hedgehog and his cronies were just sitting down to eat their meals and they had stood there and watched Marik throw a fit. Scourge saw the opportunity to torment Marik again.

"Hey shrimp!" called Scourge "Enjoying your meal?"

"You shut up you overbearing Sonic clone!" snarled Marik "I haven't got time for your insolence right now!"

Scourge resisted the urge to tear Marik apart limb from limb. He snapped his fingers which to the ox and rhino who were with him, was an order to attack. The rhino stomped over to Marik, grabbed him by the head and slammed it straight into the mash potato on his tray.

"Hey shrimp! How does that taste?" asked the ox mockingly as the rhino rubbed Marik's face into the mash "Do you like it? You like it? Does it taste nice? Huh? Huh?"

Marik couldn't answer since his face was being smeared in the mash potato. The rhino finally let him go and Marik began spitting out bits of mash that had made it into his mouth. He grabbed the water cup and gulped the entire thing down in one gulp just to get the horrible taste out of his mouth and he wiped the mash potato off his face. Then, just to get revenge on the rhino, he threw the wiped off mash straight into the rhino's face. The rhino growled and tried to attack him but Marik slashed the rhino across the face with his metal claws and then punched him in the stomach.

"I have had enough of your abuse today!" yelled Marik "It's time I showed you how strong I really am!"

The ox pounced on Marik but Marik reacted first and gave the ox an uppercut that sent him flying into the air and crashing down on an empty table. That made everybody watch the whole scene with interest. Scourge growled at Marik. Marik growled back. The two rivals stared each other down and got into battle ready stances, ready to beat the snot out of each other. Then suddenly, Loretta began to chant.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" she chanted.

The inmates were thrilled by this and they began joining in with the chanting.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" chanted everybody in the room.

That did it. Marik and Scourge lunged at each other and they tackled each other to the ground. Marik pinned Scourge down onto the ground and began to shower the green hedgehog with heavy punches. His metal hand gave the hardest punches due to how hard the metal was. Scourge grabbed Marik's arms just as Marik tried to plunge his claws into the green hedgehog's throat. The two began to grapple with each other, growling furiously.

"Hey Loretta! Fifty Mobiums says Shrimp beats Scourge!" betted Stella, who was enjoying the fight so far.

"Double on Scourge." said Loretta "No one can beat him."

Scourge and Marik continued grappling with each other furiously. Scourge tried to push Marik off himself but Marik was too strong. Scourge was secretly impressed at what Marik had been putting up so far. If HE was having trouble with the Martian then he could almost imagine Marik fighting Sonic and mashing him to pieces. Unfortunately, before the fight could continue or come to a close, Melchett, Big Dave and General Chipper burst into the canteen and ran up to the brawling hedgehog and Martian. Big Dave, being a strong cop, effortlessly hauled Marik off Scourge and General Chipper blasted him in the neck with a quick shock from a taser. Marik yelped loudly as the taser painfully shocked him and the Martian fell into silence. Melchett roughly hauled Scourge onto his feet and gritted his teeth at him.

"What happened Scourge?" demanded Melchett fiercely "Suppose you decided to start another fight huh?"

"No Melchett!" retorted Scourge "Shrimp boy here started it! He attacked my cronies…uh I mean friends, for no reason and then decided to attack me!"

"I did not start this fight at all!" roared Marik "You started this by not letting me have my peace!"

"You! Be quiet!" snarled General Chipper "Or I'll taser you full blast and you won't like it!"

"Big Dave, take that dirty little scab back to his cell since he can't play nicely with the others." ordered Melchett "And don't let him out until lunch time tomorrow afternoon!"

"Yes sir." said Big Dave dopily.

"Um…I'll go with him just to make sure Big Dave doesn't do something stupid." said General Chipper, remembering an unfortunate event that happened the last time Big Dave had to escort someone back to their cell.

The prisoner had violently attacked Big Dave due to him stupidly letting go and ran for it, only to be caught be Melchett and General Chipper did not want a repeat of that so he went with Big Dave as he pulled Marik out of the canteen and dragged him down the corridor to the cell blockade. Marik made no attempt to get free from Big Dave's grasp since he knew Chipper would just taser him again. As for Melchett, he just stayed behind and tidied up the mess that Marik had made in the canteen. He groaned loudly at the very sight of the broken table and the spilled trays of food. Scourge smirked to himself triumphantly. He had gotten Marik in trouble and he'd gotten away with it. Now that Martian would finally know his place and would not dear to stand up to him again.


Big Dave and Chipper had dragged Marik to the dark, empty cell blockade and they threw the Martian into the cold, dark cell. Marik scraped across the floor painfully and scowled angrily to himself.

"That'll teach you to senselessly attack inmates unprovoked!" growled Chipper "And you'd better apply to the prison rules or I'll give you worse then I've already have!"

He slammed his hand on the control pad outside the cell and the glass door slid down with a thud, trapping Marik inside. The two policemen walked away to get their dinners, leaving Marik alone in his cell. Marik picked himself up and wondered over to the bed. He felt the mattress and just as Melchett had said to him earlier, the mattress was full of rocks. Marik moaned and sat down on the floor. There was no way he was sleeping on a mattress full of rocks, he would rather sleep on the cold, damp floor and since he had his robe on, he would be nice and warm at least. Marik lay down on the floor on his side and mumbled miserably to himself.

"I never imagined prison life being this horrible!" he grumbled "I know our prisoners don't exactly like the treatment we give them back on Mars but I never knew prison life could be this bad. I don't think even dad gives prisoners treatments this harsh! He just gasses them to death and it's all over in a jiffy! On here, inmates have to suffer from excessive bullying and food fights! Oooooh Mobius is such an uncivilized planet and I'm definitely looking forward to finally destroying it once and for all! And I'm going to start with this place!"

All that would have to wait though, he needed to escape the prison first and he had no idea on how he was going to do it at the moment. For now he had to grit his teeth and bear the life of an inmate until he had the perfect plan to escape…


That night, everything was silent and all the inmates of the prison were peacefully snoozing away in their cells. Even Marik had somehow managed to fall asleep, even though he wasn't even sleeping on a nice warm bed. As Marik slept the hours away, he began to dream.

He was dreaming a wonderful dream about him being back on the Seedrian home world and destroying oncoming advances from the Seedrian army with his ferocious parents and wicked uncle. He blasted several Seedrians to bits with his disintegrating rifle and fired a missile at an oncoming wheeled cannon. Watching all this destruction and mayhem going on made Marik laugh with joy. In fact Marik was so caught up in his dream, he was actually laughing in his sleep!

Then suddenly his dream was interrupted by a loud blaring sound that blared all throughout the entire MPD station and woke everybody up. Marik jolted awake and sat up. What was going on? He sat next to the door and watched, wondering what was happening. Then a green blur ran straight past his cell. Several police officers ran after him. It was Scourge the Hedgehog! He had escaped from his cell, ripped off his prison uniform and he was running down the blockade and to freedom. The alarm stopped blaring and everything fell into silence. Marik waited for a few minutes before hearing the sound of Melchett's voice from further up the blockade.

"Damn it!" he cursed "I can't believe it! Scourge the Hedgehog, our number one prisoner has escaped! How did this happen?"

"A witness claims to have seen Scourge knock an officer out just as he was escorting him to his cell and then the green menace ran for it." said General Chipper "He killed about twenty police officers with that Sonic Tornado of his."

"Oooh woe is me!" moaned Melchett "How did I let this happen? Scourge should not have been able to escape! He hasn't attempted for all the time he's been here so how did he manage now?"

"Maybe he decided to play it nice until the time was right and then executed his plan." said General Chipper "Scourge must have been really patient to wait so long before attempting to escape."

Marik had overheard the entire conversation and had mixed feelings about the whole thing. Now Scourge had escaped, he was gone for good and he couldn't pick on him anymore. But Marik was wishing that had been him escaping instead of Scourge. He lay back down on the floor and drifted back off to sleep.

You may have escaped Scourge but don't think you're safe from me now! he thought in his sleep Because I'll be joining you shortly!

Marik was now more determined then ever to escape the prison and get revenge on the ones he hated more then anything in the universe…


Footnotes:

*See STH: Heroes Of Mobius Story 21

** See STH: Heroes Of Mobius Story 2

See Sonic the Hedgehog: Heroes of Mobius Story 28 to see what villainous antics Scourge will get up to now he's free!


Life in prison really sucks for Marik doesn't it? And it's only going to get worse from here for him... Read and Review.