In the Zone, Part 2
Describing this pocket dimension would be like trying to describe the inner workings of the mind of the criminally insane. Small islands made of inorganic material floated through swirling chaos made of colors that looked off enough to be mistaken for impossible at first glance. Some of these islands had collided together to create one giant three-dimensional "continent" in the center of an asteroid field of random matter, mostly made of crystal. Somewhere on this continent, Sonic found himself driving away unconsciousness.
He came to with a jolt, and sat up, swiveling his head around quickly. He paid no mind to his environment. All he could tell was that it was a solid chunk of crystalline rock and that was good enough for him. Sonic got to his feet and called out, "Tails! Amy! Sally! Trys! Where are you guys…!?"
His voice seemed to carry for miles, and yet never got far at all. He took another quick glance around before jogging through a small crevasse in front of him and he traveled through a few areas, not bothering to scan them in-depth, and he had traveled about a mile from his starting position when he called out again hoping someone would answer. This time, he heard something in reply. To his left, a faint call of his name. He didn't need to think twice to know it was Tails' voice, and he sped away, over jagged mounds of crystal and bleached stone, until he caught sight of Tails bracing himself against a wall.
He stopped short, and Tails noticed. He walked forward unsteadily and almost fell, but Sonic caught him, and hugged him tight for a second before realizing something. "Tails, why're you here?"
Tails was still trying to catch his breath from whatever rough entry he'd suffered, but choked out, "I...I couldn't j-j-just...stand by and let you dis...disappear, Sonic…"
"Tails, I keep tellin' ya not to worry about me. You could'a died, bud," Sonic muttered, still holding him tight. Tails gave no response, so Sonic held onto him until he said he felt steady enough to walk.
They both took a quick look around at everything, with Sonic scratching his head intermittently. "You think this is the Special Zone, Tails?"
"Most likely," he answered while searching the sky.
Sonic looked over at him and stated, "C'mon. We gotta go find the others before things get worse."
"Right behind you, Sonic!" Tails jumped and began to hover, which Sonic took as a sign to start running.
"Amy...? Amy? Come on, wake up!" Sally gently shook her shoulder to bring Amy back from unconsciousness, and she stirred and sat up slowly, clutching her head. Sally gave her some room as she stood up, albeit shakily. She did have a better time of it than Sally did, oddly enough, as Sally had a couple cuts across her arms.
After regaining her balance and composure, Amy suddenly whipped her head around, searching for something, and Sally was quick to try and calm her down. "Amy! What's wrong?"
"Where's Sonic!?" she cried.
"I don't know, Amy, but we'll find him. Just give me a minute to-"
"No, Sally! He could be in trouble! We gotta go find him now!" Amy was about to book it over the nearest hill before Sally grabbed her by the shoulder and held her in place.
"Amy, breathe for a minute."
"But…"
"Just...breathe." Sally tightened her grip until Amy did as she asked. "Sonic will be okay. Just relax a minute. How do you feel?"
Amy crossed her arms and huffed. "I'd feel better if Sonic was here, but other than that, I'm fine."
Sally smiled and shrugged slightly. "If you're sure…"
Amy took that as a sign that she could stand up again. "Of course I'm sure!"
Sally held out her hand in a "you first" gesture. "Then lead the way. You've always had better luck tracking Sonic than I'll ever have."
"Call it girl's intuition," Amy giggled.
Sonic and Tails had been tearing across the landscape for awhile. It was impossible to say how long for sure in the absence of a sun or anything else that could tell time. Tails had been serving as a scout, although the chaotic sky unnerved him enough that he wouldn't go too high in the air.
"Any signs of life, Tails?" Sonic called up to him.
"Nope."
"Well, shoot," Sonic grumbled. He kept sprinting toward the horizon line, which seemed to carry on forever in this dimension. Eventually, he caught sight of something in the distance. It looked like some sort of castle, and as they drew closer, the crystalline landscape around them began to even out, and some formations even resembled trees in a tightly-knit grove.
"Wow. Not bad," Sonic whistled as he ran down a narrow path between the forest.
He had barely any time to admire the scenery before he heard Amy call out, "Sonic…!" and a split second later, she had lunged out from between the crystal trees and tackled him. He yelped and they both fell, with Tails swerving to the side to avoid being hit by either of them. After the initial shock, Amy got back up and put her hands on her hips in a playful manner. "Found him, Sally!"
Sally herself stepped out of the forest a moment later, and she chuckled a bit. "Really, I wish I had that kind of sixth-sense of yours."
Sonic got up and dusted his shorts and vest off. "Yeah, well, I sure don't. I don't need one chick chasing me and another one nagging me all the time," he replied.
Sally punched his arm harder than usual, and Sonic exclaimed and rubbed it to numb the pain. "Ow...welp, anyhoo, did either of you see any sign'a Trys? 'Cause we haven't run into'im."
Sally and Amy looked at each other and shook their heads, and Sonic snapped his fingers. "Crap...Guess I gotta go find'im. C'mon Tails, we gotta juice." Tails nodded and went back to flying at Sonic's side as he told the girls, "Be back in a flash, you two!" He didn't wait for an answer, and immediately raced away, back the way he and Tails had come. This left Amy muttering indignantly to herself about "how she just found him" and Sally with one question:
"Now where do we go?" In all honesty, it didn't take long for either of them to know that their best bet was to continue up the path toward the structure in the distance.
The walk toward the building took longer than expected, but when they got closer, they could make out that all the details made the building look like a castle made of crystals and lavender stone. It looked eerily familiar.
"It...it looks like a reflection of the old castle," Sally whispered, momentarily forgetting Amy and Tails were walking alongside her. The castle, in actuality, was much smaller than the one that stood in Mobotropolis before Robotnik conquered it. It actually only seemed to hold the throne room, something the two realized as they entered through an archway that completely lacked a door.
The throne room itself was just as grandiose as Sally herself remembered it. All it needed was the actual tapestries with the crest of the kingdom on it hanging from the arched ceiling. Familiar as it was, she and Amy opted to proceed with caution, which was well-deserved until they heard someone call out.
"Hello? Who's there…?" It was a man's voice, gentle yet firm as a father. Sally knew who it belonged to without even consciously thinking about it, and she turned in its direction to see a tall, lean squirrel mobian in a sky blue uniform and khaki trousers walking down a spiral staircase. He still wore a crown proudly on his head.
As soon as he caught sight of them, he stopped short, but his eyes and mouth twitched for a second before they lit up. "Sally! Is that really you…?"
In turn, she beamed with joy. "Daddy!" Sally rushed over to him, and they both embraced each other in a hug. Amy hadn't heard Sonic tell any stories about his childhood when he had lived in the old castle, let alone King Nigel, but for some reason, he looked exactly like she imagined him to be: regal but jolly.
Nigel took a small step back to exclaim, "Sally! My daughter! Merciful God, I've missed you!"
Sally went right back to hugging her father tightly. "I missed you more." He recoiled slightly, but laughed and placed his hands on her shoulder, smiling warmly.
The throne room was silent for a moment before Nigel looked around at both her and Amy and gestured out of an archway to the left of where they entered. "Shall we, ah...go for a walk? There's so much we need to talk about."
Trystan had been watching the roiling sky above him for what felt like hours. At first, it nearly made him want to puke, but he eventually felt like the numbness in his body had subsided enough that he could stand up. He pushed himself to his feet after rolling over a couple times like a limp ragdoll.
When he managed to get up, he felt something snap and he yelped and clutched his lower back. "I'm going to need a trip to the fuckin' chiropractor after this," he hissed.
After an impromptu self-adjustment, Trystan checked his belt. The car keys and revolver were still in place. His grenade launcher was still attached to his hand. He nearly had a heart attack when he couldn't find his knife, but after a little bit of searching through some nearby craters in the landscape and some colorful words, he picked it up again. "...Now I gotta find where the fuck everyone else is," he muttered, staring up at the sky.
Trystan figured his best bet was to pick a direction and walk until either he found someone, someone found him, he hit the horizon line, or he keeled over dead. It took him only five minutes to find another bizarre locale in this backwards dimension, a kind of network of crystal walls that looked like a funhouse mirror-maze on meth. The walls of the network had hundreds of individual faces in them, which bounced and skewed his own reflection so much, he sometimes mistook it for a different person. He continued working his way through the maze, etching small marks into some of the crystalline features to mark where he had been, until he heard some unholy screeching noise.
It sounded like nails on a chalkboard, but the frequency was far more intense than that. It was like he could hear a dog whistle. Trystan screeched and covered his left ear while spinning around with his gun drawn. However, as soon as the noise started, it stopped. Trystan was both thankful and extremely unnerved, but nevertheless, he carried on, this time with his revolver loaded and ready.
And as luck would have it, there were more sounds of nails-on-crystal, except now there was a cacophony of the noise, echoing in all directions. Trystan cursed as loud as he could and started shooting the crystal walls around him. Some of the smaller and weaker ones came down, shattering into millions of shards, which did nothing to help the noise problem.
He kept shooting until the horrendous noise stopped, and this time he addressed the situation head-on. "Whoever's doin' that, you're not funny! Keep that shit up and I'll stick your entire arm down your own throat when I find ya!"
There was deafening silence. At least for a couple minutes. Trystan could hear the scratching noise again, but it was more subdued. And it was coming from his right.
He whipped around with his pistol drawn and ready fire when he caught sight of a mobain squirrel, dragging a long, sharp piece of crystal along the edge of one of the walls of the maze. He looked like he had seen better days, his uniform torn to shreds, yet there was something in his eyes that conveyed the impression he wasn't done fighting yet. He came within fifteen feet of Trystan, stopped, and pointed the crystal shard at him.
"In the name of the Kingdom of Acorn, state your name and your leader, Overlander," he demanded. His voice, though coarse, still commanded respect.
Trystan lowered his gun, but not too much as he replied, "...Trystan Cronus. I'm from New Pacific City, and we don't have a leader. And by 'we,' I mean 'me,' because I'm all that's left. I think the bigger question is, who are you?"
The mobain remained still, pointing his jury-rigged sword at Trystan before lowering it completely and placing his hand over his heart. "I am King Nigel Acorn the Third, the true ruler of Mobotropolis. And if you have any sense about you, you'll-"
"Ah, so you're Sally's old man..."
Trystan's comment made Nigel choke mid-sentence. "H-how…? How did you…?"
He shrugged. "Long story short, I ran from New Pacific City, stumbled into Knothole completely by accident, now I'm trying to make Robotnik regret the day he was born." He let his words sink in a minute before grinning. "You're not gonna believe that story even if I showed you pictures, are ya, your majesty?"
Nigel placed his sword in an empty, jury-rigged sheathe on his hip and crossed his arms. His expression remained neutral, however. "I...am certainly having a hard time believing it, yes," he mused. "But I suppose, in absence of a better explanation, I will have to go by what you say."
"I do hate switching subjects so abruptly, but where exactly is here?" Trystan asked, spreading his arms out to indicate everything around them.
Nigel's following sigh was tinged with regret, but he spoke evenly. "This is what Julian Kintobor dubbed 'The Special Zone,' a pocket dimension where the impossible occurs on a daily basis, and where he banished both myself and my court wizards." Trystan was thankful that he'd been filled in properly about Robotnik's coup by now. By the looks of it, pushing any more boundaries might either cause Nigel to break down in tears or worse yet, try attacking him. But the fact that Nigel had court wizards was an intriguing fact, and something he couldn't help but ask about.
"Ah, yes. Walter and Wendy Naugus. They both served as advisors when no others were available, but after we were banished here, I quickly learned they cared not for me, only my throne. I've been avoiding them ever since."
"You have my condolences, your majesty." Trystan was about to bid him goodbye to continue searching for the others, but he suddenly heard odd footsteps, and it sounded like they were meandering through the maze. Trystan froze after pulling his gun up and whispered, "Sir...Did you hear that…?"
Nigel, to his surprise, cracked a small joke. "I might be getting old, but my hearing's still far from gone, Overlander." They both waited as the footsteps wove around, and then a voice came from the other side of a wall close by.
"Man, this is why I hate going through mazes." Unmistakably Sonic.
Trystan approached the wall in a hurry and hit it a couple times, yelling over the top. "Sonic!? Sonic…!? Yo, can ya hear me, dude?"
On the other side, Sonic and Tails were both more than surprised to hear Trystan shouting at them. "Yo! Trys, holy crap! Where were you, man?"
"Doesn't matter right now, just help me break this wall down!" he yelled again as he cocked his gun.
Sonic looked at Tails, who seemed to understand enough to back up. It was something he commanded Trystan to do, and he did so after putting his gun back into his holster and retreating a few steps. Nigel backed up as well, just in time to see Sonic spin dash through the wall, flinging crystal shards all over. Trystan and Nigel had to pivot around and crouch while covering their heads to be sure nothing got embedded into their skulls.
When the crystal rain had stopped, they both stood back up to see Sonic dusting himself off and Tails jogging through the hole in the wall. Nigel squinted at the both of them before smiling brightly and approaching them saying, "Sonic? Is that you?"
Sonic shook his head to move a couple loose quills out of his face. "The one and only...Hey, waitaminnit...King Acorn?" Sonic looked the deposed king up and down before tentatively saying, "Woah. I, eh, guess you've seen better days, huh?"
Nigel only laughed and quickly hugged Sonic. "By God, Sonic you're quite the sight for sore eyes. And who's this?" he asked as he looked down to Tails. "...Ah, you're Amadeus' son, correct?"
Tails, instead of affirming anything, looked down at his shoes and subconsciously wrapped his tails around his body. Sonic muttered, "He doesn't like talkin' about his parents. Robotnik ran'em through the roboticizer, sir."
"Oh...I'm terribly sorry."
After an awkward pause, Sonic shifted his attention over to Trystan. "Anyway...Trys! How'd you get here?"
Trystan crossed his arms like an incredulous housewife and started going off. "One, I got here by foot, genius, how else? And two," he marched a little closer and hissed in Sonic's ear, "You are a goddamned idiot. What in God's name were you thinking, just throwing yourself into a vortex of destruction like that?"
"Amy was in trouble! Ya know I couldn't just stand by," Sonic whispered back.
"There's a million ways to go about rescuing someone, Sonic, and the idea you had was the last viable option on the list!"
Sonic's temper flared up a bit. "Then tell me, Stonewall, what was your idea?"
"Don't be a fucking idiot and think for a bit!"
"And then…?"
Trystan hissed again and tried to catch the right words, but logic simply failed him. He sighed in defeat and conceded, "Okay, okay, I'll give you this one. We didn't have many options. I just can't believe Tails and Sally followed you like lemmings."
"A-hem!"
Trystan's attention was drawn away from arguing with Sonic and over to Nigel, and by extension, Tails, who were staring him down. He remained silent for a moment before kneeling down and apologizing to both of them. Nigel didn't seem too keen on accepting it, as he commented, "I could easily behead you in that position, Overlander."
This made Trystan tense up and squeal a little bit, but Sonic stepped in front of him and chuckled. "Sorry, your highness. He's not as much of a jerk as you may think he is...most of the time."
"...Look who's talking," Trystan muttered under his breath.
"I will reserve judgement until I see it with my own two eyes," Nigel commented. His expression quickly shifted to concern as he asked, "All that aside, how did you get here exactly?"
Sonic gave Nigel the whole story, from his perspective at least, and when he mentioned Sally had come along with them, the king insisted they go back out to find her, something everyone unanimously agreed with. Before they set out, Nigel explained something something pivotal: "Once we find both your friends, Sonic, we must come directly back here, and quickly. The Naugus Twins will follow us and find the Warp Pole, I'm certain of it."
Sonic cocked his eyebrow. "Beggin' your pardon, but what's a Warp Pole?"
"In all honesty," Nigel elaborated, "it's hard to explain. Julian was looking into traveling to this zone before he betrayed me and I found one soon after I entered the Special Zone; I don't know if Julian was able to make any others, but the one I found is the only one like it for miles in this godforasken place. I only hope it truly is the only one of its kind...that way, if I destroy it, the Naugus Twins will never be able to enter the physical world again."
"Sire, I think he also meant 'what does it do?'" Trystan cut in.
"They act as portals to and from The Special Zone. Activating one creates a dimensional door to the plane respective to the one the original Pole is on. It's something your uncle was looking into before Robotnik seized power, Sonic."
Sonic crossed his arms, and shook his head solemnly. "He sure never got to tell me about it…Gah! We're wastin' time! Let's move!"
Trystan pulled out his keys to summon his cruiser, which made Nigel jump back from his sudden movements. He motioned to it with a small smile. "Your chariot, my liege."
The castle garden was, despite not having any actual plants, breathtaking. Sally could remember, even with faded accuracy, which crystal represented which plant. The garden itself was actually raised off the ground, about one story up with a very large staircase descending to ground level.
She was busy marveling at all of it as King Nigel walked up beside her, and stood facing the same direction. "I, erm...tried to recreate it as accurately as this old memory of mine could manage…" he began.
Sally faced her father and smiled warmly. "It looks fine, dad. In a lot of ways...I think it looks better."
He nodded with a small smile still on his face, but quickly turned his attention to Amy, who was standing off to his right and slightly further back. "And you!" he exclaimed, "You're miss...erm…"
"I'm Amy!" she exclaimed, still wearing a smile on her face. "Sally's told me a lot about you, your highness!" She quickly bowed to him
King Nigel chuckled. "Ah, I would expect nothing less." He paused briefly before looking back at Sally and asking, "So, tell me...how exactly did you both get here?"
"...Robotnik pulled out a new weapon on us," Sally explained, gazing off to the horizon. "He called it the Zone Flux Cannon, and apparently, it can warp people directly here." She waited, expecting an answer of "Oh, no," or "That's terrible," but no such words came. Taking a glance over her shoulder at her father, he seemed to be stroking his chin, his eyes unfocused. "We...we weren't the only ones who came through that portal either," she added, hoping to illicit a response. "Sonic and a couple others came through too."
The only answer he gave after some time was a muted, "I see…" Sally couldn't help but cock her eybrow up at that.
There was a tangible silence hanging over the scene, only broken by Amy's keen eyes when she saw, far, far off in the distance and well beyond the crystal garden, that something was approaching them. "Hey, look you two! Someone's coming!" She clasped her hands together. "I bet it's Sonic!" All three of them descended the massive staircase as fast as they could, at the behest of King Nigel. It became definite, as the figures in the distance got closer, that they were Sonic, Tails, and Trystan on his hovercraft, with someone riding with Trystan.
King Nigel marched past the girls to greet them with open arms. "Ah, Sonic the Hedgehog! It's been such a long-"
He cut himself off and his eyes went wide when all four of them stopped a few feet in front of him. For some reason, there was an exact duplicate King Acorn on Trystan's bike, and now it was obvious to everyone.
The second King Acorn who was covered in tattered rags as a stark contrast to the other, slowly stepped off Trystan's bike. Trystan was glancing around, waiting for someone to explain just what was going on here; but nobody spoke for what felt like hours, until finally Sonic looked from one Nigel Acorn to the other and scratched his ears. "Somethin' wrong here…" he muttered.
The more regal-looking king glanced from side to side, as if he had been suddenly trapped in a cell. This, understandably, made Sally somewhat concerned, though she had opted to back up a few steps. This was an arbitrary choice, but soon became a lucky one.
The well-dressed King Nigel suddenly straightened up, his hands curled tightly into fists, and he shouted, "Wendy! The jig is up!" His voice was now completely different than it had been moments ago, being high-pitched and coarse. Almost as quickly, he brought one of his fists down onto the ground, causing it to crack and explode outward. He became enveloped in bright white light.
"Woah!" Sonic doubled back with a couple dramatic flips before rolling out of it and running straight toward where the false king had just been. He was going too fast to react to someone materializing out of thin air and smacking him upside the head with some sort of cane. He grunted and quickly retreated back to where Trystan was, now frozen with shock and awe; on the other hand, Sally was frozen with more disbelief than anything else, and it took Amy grabbing her wrist as she ran by her and over to Sonic to get her to snap out of it.
Trystan was about to ask just what the hell was happening when his and everyone else's attention was pulled back to the swirling lightshow in front of them. It had died down completely by now, and standing where the second King Nigel was, was Walter Naugus, along with Wendy to his right. Wally sported bat's ears, a crooked nose, long white beard, and a crab claw for a left hand. Sonic only guessed that Wendy was the one who hit him with the staff she was holding.
The previous false king took a heavy step forward, a devious grin on his face. "My king," he spat. "So glad I've finally found you."
Nigel gritted his teeth. "Go to hell, Naugus."
Sonic, on the other hand only seemed to chuckle. "He-e-e-y, Wally and Wendy! Glad to see you two haven't changed a bit," he teased.
Wally's face immediately contorted into an expression that oozed seething hatred. "Why, you smug little rodent…" he hissed, "You seem to forget that you're in our domain. You should at least have a little respect."
Sonic, in response, nudged a chunk of crystal that had come loose when Wally dropped his disguise. He poked it with his foot a couple times, before suddenly kicking it directly at Wally's head, which landed with a *thwok!*
Wally screeched and Sonic ran directly at him, but was blocked by Wendy who quickly raised up the ground in front of Wally to shield him. Sonic veered right, but by then, Wally had recovered from the surprise and pointed his own scepter at Sonic. "See, I don't think even your own domain respects you!" Sonic jeered.
Trystan quickly looked over at Sally, who was mostly focused on Sonic and the Naugus twins. "How fast can you run, kid?" he asked urgently.
She swiveled her head around to face him and only thought for a second before answering, "Pretty fast, for not being Sonic. Why?"
"Gah...take the bike anyway," he instructed, hopping off. "We gotta get back to your dad's Warp Pole, like, right goddamn now."
"Trystan, I don't know how to use this thing!"
"Kid, all ya gotta do is push this button and turn this handle, and then drive like all hell's on your ass!" he exclaimed. Sally hesitantly got on, although she did turn around to smile at her father.
He smiled right back. "Sally…! I'm terribly sorry, but I don't get any chances to write to anyone outside," he joked wearily.
She hugged him, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "I...I guess Robotnik throwing us in here wasn't so bad after all, since I got to see you again."
"And we're gettin' him out of here, too!" Tails added, pumping his fist.
"Not if y'all keep sittin' around here, you're not!" Trystan interjected. He pointed back in the direction they had come and yelled, "Get movin'!" He pulled out his revolver and knife and turned back around to face Sonic running laps around Wally and Wendy. He stalked forward as a predator stalks their prey before he got a hammer thrust in front of him. He froze and looked over to see Amy sporting an uncharacteristically serious expression.
"Not so fast, mister."
"Amy, what the hell?" Trystan kept his gun raised and pointed at the commotion in front of them.
"Hey, I'm not normally the one to keep anybody out of a fight," she began, "but I don't think having you fighting these two is a good idea."
"Explain," Trystan commanded, losing his patience.
"Well, you just saw Wendy, or whoever she is, raise up the ground in front Wally," she said. "I don't think you're very well equipped to handle them is all."
Trystan's intense expression faded into neutrality as he deadpanned, "You have a hammer. A big hammer, I'll admit, but it's a hammer."
"Trystan, I won't stop you from staying behind either," Sally interrupted, still trying to adjust herself on the bike's seat, "But let me warn you that Walter and Wendy are wizards. They can probably use spells that would make your weapons useless."
"And considering they can manipulate crystal, you'll always be treading on dangerous ground," Nigel added.
It took Trystan a minute, but the longer he looked at his weapons, he quickly realized: "Goddamn. You're right." He took a few steps back and put away his knife. "You'll be okay, though, right?" he asked Amy, and Tails, by extension (he knew the guy wouldn't leave Sonic's side come hell and high water).
Amy waved him away. "I'm not worried, and neither should you!"
Trystan paused before cracking a small smile. "Whatever you say, Amy." He signaled to Sally to rev up the motor, which she did after fumbling with the handle on the bike a bit. It quickly sped away and Trystan ran after it yelling, "Okay, slow down a little, will ya?"
Wally had shot several crystal shards from his scepter at Sonic. All of them missed completely, no surprise there, and he was doubly surprised to get smashed in the side of his head by a now indignant Amy as she swung her hammer at him. Then, there was a sudden flash of ice-blue light and she ducked in just enough time to receive a glancing blow from another shard of crystal that was shot by her head
Wendy then struck her scepter into the ground, causing it to split open into a chasm directly under Sonic's feet. He didn't scream so much as yelp in surprise; in all honesty, he would have fallen to his death if Tails hadn't swooped in and picked him out of the jaws of death
"Wendy! They're getting away!" Wally raised his wand into the sky, and he suddenly turned into a crystal statue that sunk into the ground.
Wendy herself turned around to glimpse Trystan, Sally, and Nigel making a getaway on Trystan's hoverbike. "Why those little…!" She too raised her scepter, and became a statue that melded with with crystalline ground.
Tails landed and put Sonic down on solid ground. Of course, they had seen everything the twins just did, and Sonic knew exactly where they were headed, so the second the tip of his shoe met the ground, he was off after the others. It took Amy and Tails a second to process where he was going before starting after him.
And of course, he made it over to the other three in record time, and managed to get in front of Trystan, stop, and start up again in such rapid succession that before he had time to notice he had tripped, Trystan was already holding onto Sonic for a high-speed piggyback ride.
It took Sally a second to notice the rest of her Freedom Fighters were keeping pace alongside the bike. "Guys…!"
"Heya, Sal!" Sonic winked at her, along with a thumbs-up. "We saw the two wizards make a run for it, and we're pretty sure they're comin' after you," he said.
"That's not good," Nigel muttered. "If they follow us to the Warp Pole, they might get out before we have a chance to close it!"
"Nah, you worry too much, your kingliness! We'll be there in enough time to have a lunch break-god God, Trys, will ya stop squirming around so much!?"
Trystan was spitting needles out of his mouth and rocking his upper body back and forth. "I'd...fucking love to, Sonic, but...it's kinda hard with your hair flying into my face!"
"Hey, careful with the language, we got a king, two girls, and a kid present!" Sonic chortled.
"That's not helping!" he shouted.
Nobody got the chance to comment, as they heard a high-pitch cackle behind them, and they turned around to see Wendy jump out of the ground, brandishing her wand, and she pointed it straight at King Nigel. A crystal bullet shot out of the tip, but Sally swerved hard to the left to to avoid it. In response, Wendy, still high up in the air, shot an entire volley of shards down on them. "Fly, my pretties!" she shrieked with glee.
There was a lot of yelling coming out of the Freedom Fighters as they jumped, swerved and dodged around the barrage. Trystan took advantage of his perch on Sonic's back to pull out his gun and shoot as many crystals out of the sky as he could, but it didn't make much of a difference in the long run.
Nigel pointed forward, after ducking his head down to avoid a stray piece of crystal. "Keep moving! We're almost to the Warp Pole!" Up ahead, just over the horizon, were the steep walls of the crystal maze he had hidden in for years.
"Trystan, how do I make this thing go faster?" Sally called.
After taking a random potshot at Wendy, and seeing her subsequently dive straight back into the ground, he replied, "Kick it! You literally just kick it!"
Out of nowhere, Wally appeared and flew out of the solid earth in front of them all. Sally shrieked and kicked the bike out of reflex, and it quickly shifted into its high-speed setting and almost instantly shot ahead of everyone else. Trystan groaned. "Sonic, I'm gettin' off!"
There was a sudden surge as the ground under them began to buckle and shift as if under immense tectonic stress. Sonic was having a better time adapting to it than Tails and Amy. "You sure about that, buddy?"
"Not anymore, I ain't!"
Sally, now a good yard or so ahead of everyone else, took a quick glance behind her to see Wally was busy putting the work on the other four. She would have been more worried, if she wasn't trying to pilot a three-fifty pound death-missile. Sonic, of course, picked up the pace, with Tails and Amy right behind him. Trystan thought either Sonic was going slow to keep both of them close, or the two of them were faster than he initially thought.
They made it to the outskirts of the maze, and Sally yelped when she got too close one of the walls and instinctively pulled back on the handles. That was enough to stop the bike, and when Sonic and the others pulled up alongside them, they both jumped off. Sally looked a bit shaken by the whole thing.
"So, Sal...have fun?" Sonic chuckled.
"No."
"Well, that's weird," Sonic scratched his chin while Trystan shut his car down. "Every time I pick you up and start runnin', you don't seem to mind."
Sally was still breathing heavily. "That's because I don't have to ride you!" Sonic's grin got even wider and he raised his index finger up. "Don't even think about it," she muttered to shut him down.
Nigel remained unaware of Sonic and Sally's exchange, and he motioned for everyone to follow him and do so quickly while Trystan choked and nearly lost his shit. They all hustled through the maze, Sonic breaking down a couple walls where it might cut down on their time, eventually reaching a dead end with a small cave carved into a wall on the right. Directly in front of them, however, was a metallic pole with a red bulb on top, marked with a star. "Here it is," Nigel breathed a sigh of relief.
Tails immediately pushed through everyone else and went over to inspect it, while Trystan spun around, holding up his revolver. "Wow...how did this even get here, your majesty?"
Nigel strode up to the Pole as he explained, "I specifically remember Julian looking into finding ways to plant one of these posts as a failsafe for exiting the Special Zone. It seems he was successful, though he certainly never told me about it."
Sonic was the next to walk up to the Warp Pole. He kicked it out of curiosity, but it seemed to cause the ball on top to spin around and light up. He was about to say, "Hell, that was easy," when the wall the Pole was embedded into suddenly twisted around unnaturally, and a hole opened up in it, revealing a dark forest, swathed in night.
It got Trystan's attention quickly enough for him to say, "Oh, now we're talkin.'" And of course, as per Murphy's Law, he took one step forward and was quickly pushed forward by Wally and Wendy, materializing out of thin air. They nearly trampled him as they barrelled toward the portal, shoving Tails, Nigel, Amy, and Sally out of the way. Sonic had spin-dashed his way directly into Wally's stomach, knocking him backward, which left Wendy enough time to get through the portal.
"Hey! Get back here!" Amy shouted as she picked herself up. She charged forward, yanking her hammer out and taking a power swing at Wendy as she went through the portal. It hit her in the back, but after a second, she suddenly felt the wind taken out of her, and staggered, trying to stand upright.
Wendy cackled. "Now's not the time to be getting tuckered out on me, dearie!" She leapt forward, trying to grab her. Amy had no choice but to backpedal.
Sonic threw a couple punches at Wally, but he was quickly deterred by a blast of invisible force. Trystan took this opportunity to scramble to his feet, and he picked up Tails and Sally. "You two okay?"
"Yep," Tails affirmed.
"Just a little shaken."
"Good!" Sonic called as he ran by, grabbing Sally's hand. "Let's go!"
Trystan and Tails made a beeline after him, and jumped out of the portal. They all walked a couple steps to see Amy and Wendy trying to steady themselves. Before any one of them could ask Amy what was happening, they all felt extremely weak. Even Sonic found it difficult to keep himself upright. "W...what the hell was that…?"
To answer his question, Wally stepped through the portal after shoving King Nigel back down to the ground as he tried to get back to his feet. "Spatial disparity," he wheezed. "It only affects you, hedgehog, because you were so rude enough to enter and exit the Special Zone in a timely fashion. For myself and my sister, however...we've had time to adapt." He strode over to Sonic, and loomed over him, a toothy grin breaking his lips. He snatched Sonic up by his neck. "I'll make this quick," he mocked with a sneer.
Sonic, however, always being full of surprises, kicked Naugus right in the chest, causing him to recoil and scream, "Garaagh! You disgusting little pest!" as he dropped Sonic. His screeching helped Trystan clear his head and focus, realizing he was facedown on the grass. He pushed himself over, and saw Tails helping Amy out, despite looking pretty green himself. Wally was fighting Sonic, Sally was reaching into the portal...he groaned. A nanomorphine shot probably wasn't going to clear his head.
He was still weak from the system shock, but Sonic could still run fairly quickly around Naugus, a testament to his iron will. Sally saw them both start fighting again and forced herself to her feet. She had to take this chance; she jogged quickly but quietly back to the portal. Her father was still trying to get back up again. "Daddy!"
Nigel's head shot up, and upon seeing his daughter, he scrambled to his feet.
"Walter!"
Wally looked over at his sister, pointing behind him. He didn't need to turn around to know what was happening. He spun around and took aim with his scepter. "Not so fast, you royal brat!"
Sonic stopped trying to get Naugus' attention as soon as he saw his wand brandished like a firearm. His heart skipped a beat and the instinctive side of his brain flew into action. "Sal, get down!"
He tackled her, and felt his quills stand on end as a blast of magic shot past his head. He tumbled and rolled over a couple times with Sally clutched tightly in his arms. They landed, and as Sally looked up, her heart stopped cold. The portal had been covered in crystal.
Naugus, on the other hand, hadn't expected Sonic to get in his way so quickly, but then...this was the next best thing.
He sent a powerful beam of magic out of his wand, and when it met the crystal-covered portal, it shattered into a billion pieces. Nothing but thin air remained.
Sally's blood ran so cold she couldn't even scream.
Time seemed to stop for a moment, but Naugus quickly shifted his attention to Sally. This gave Amy, who had watched everything go down, more than enough time to get her hammer back out.
"Do us both a favor, my dear," Naugus said, approaching them. "Stand still and let me do my work. Your father's never coming back now, so-"
He was cut off after being struck in the back by what he could only equate to a boulder made of plastic and rubber. It knocked the wind out of him, and he was fairly certain he heard his spine crack as he fell to the floor. Infuriated, he tried to stand back up, but he felt his vision spiraling around and everything was shifting in and out of focus. Whatever had hit him had really done a number on his system, and this was no time to fight if he wasn't at peak performance. He looked over at Wendy before raising his staff and turning himself into another crystal statue which crumbled into fine dust.
Wendy glared at the Freedom Fighters, but quickly smirked and brushed some of her hair over her shoulder. "Well, dears, I guess Walter doesn't want to deal with you. Don't worry," she said as she held up her wand, "We'll see each other again, you nasty little vermin!" Just like that, she had run away too.
Amy slowly made her way over to her precious Piko-Piko Hammer, lying on the ground where it had struck Naugus, and picked it up. Sonic pushed himself up off the ground and walked over to her, placing his hand on her shoulder. It made her flinch and squeak quietly.
"Way to go, Amy. Really came through for us right there," he said, giving her a thumbs-up.
"Yeah," Trystan chimed in, still laying on the ground, "Nice work, kid." He pushed himself up to his knees, dusted himself off, and looked around the clearing for any other signs of life.
Sally, on the other hand, was curled up in a ball on the ground where Sonic had left her. She was visibly trembling, but there were no sounds to indicate she was crying. It was enough for Sonic and Tails to walk over, and Sonic put his arm around her shoulder. "Sal…? You...you doin' okay…?"
She didn't answer. Sonic picked his head up and looked around, then back to Tails. "Let's go home." Sally nodded and stood up, clutching her vest.
It took them roughly fifteen minutes to get well-enough acquainted with the land to know which way Knothole was, and then get there. When they arrived, everyone essentially split off, Amy and Trystan going to their respective homes, and Sonic walking Sally to hers. She said nothing on the way there, though they did run into Bunnie, and Sonic told her everything, since Sally was being uncharacteristically quiet. She walked up the steps to her home, with Sonic watching her closely.
"Hey...you're gonna be okay, right, Sal?" he asked.
She stopped, and didn't even turn to face him when she nodded. Sonic sighed and walked up the steps after her, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Hey, I know it hurts, Sal. Every time I see Unca' Chuck working his rear off in Robotropolis, my heart sinks, too. But I know he's alive, and now, you know you're dad's alive, too." He leaned slightly over her shoulder. "That's gotta be worth somethin', right?"
Sally remained quiet for minutes, or what felt like minutes, before she spun around and buried her face in Sonic's shoulder, crying her heart out.
A/N: Holy shit, I'm not dead! It's amazing! Sorry about the long hiatus, had to worry about school on top of the fact that I got burned out on writing this story. But I'm back in the swing of it and should be able to write a few more chapters before my hype runs low and I have to force myself to continue.
