Blue Star
Author's Note: Okay, so it's been a while since I've updated this story, again. If you're still reading, thank you for bearing with me on it, I've been having some difficulty in that mystical place known as Real Life, which takes precedence over fan-fiction. Anyway, onto the story related stuff.
I've done a lot of alterations to the Scrap Brain Zone, which you'll read about in due course, and the fan-fiction as a whole will only be covering Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 now. Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles will be covered in a later fic, which will be touched upon nearer the time.
Part 11: The Scrap Brain Zone
Sonic's feet dragged as he walked across the field, the cold night air chilling his fur and making him shiver. He was starting to feel the exhaustion from his cross-island trek build up, and his increasing tally of injuries was doing nothing to help ease it. He walked on, defying his mind as it told him to sleep already, and groaned at the dull pain as it returned to his limbs. The stars above had gradually vanished behind a cloud layer, and the closer Sonic got to the Scrap Brain, the more he found himself wanting to go back.
He scolded himself, and looked down, a hand clasped tightly around the strap of his bag, and concentrated on where his feet were stepping in the dark. The grass was growing sparse, turning to bare patches of hard dirt, and the occasional tuft caught him out, tripping him a little and jarring his tired body. Sonic sighed miserably after each little stumble, slogging onward until he reached a towering fence that marked the outer perimeter of the factory zone. The cross wire barrier drew a little pout from the hedgehog, as he stopped to look around to find the gate.
"Why couldn't he have told me the way in too?"
He sighed as he found a sign pointing the direction to the 'main entrance', and started walking along the fence in the direction that was indicated. Security cameras followed his movement, as he was observed by the scientist from wherever he was inside the power plant, so the hedgehog grinned at them, slightly cautiously, as he walked along, continuing to grasp the strap of his bag tightly. The fence was lit up occasionally with lamps that were positioned at regular intervals, so he wasn't walking in complete darkness, but the shadows were made deeper by the amber lighting, turning the simple act of setting out from them into an unnerving prospect. Sonic focused on the signs again, continuing to follow them, until the gate slowly came into view a few lights away. He sped up a little, ignoring the protesting from his limbs, and soon drew level with it. As he turned, his feet stepping onto concrete, his face dropped.
"Robotnik! Open this flipping gate!"
Sonic glared at the cameras stop the fence either side of the gate, folding his arms and tapping a foot impatiently. He didn't want to get held up. The more he waited the more he was getting wary of the scientist's invitation. He was about to turn and head back, as Robotnik's voice crackled out of the air nearby, making the hedgehog jump, quills bristling.
"Oh, my mistake. I must have opened a different gate. One moment, my boy."
"Still not your boy, Eggman!" Sonic shouted at the speaker as he spotted it, quills still on end.
"Yes yes, we'll discuss that later." the scientist sounded slightly bored as the gate swing open, crashing into its stops with a clang. "Come in, Sonic, my office is clearly marked on the walls inside the first building. This is really a privilege, you know, only myself and my staff are normally allowed in here."
"Oh shut up. I'm only here so you'll tell me what happened. Properly. And you better not set any more robots on me or I will not talk nicely!"
"Manners, Sonic."
There was a moment of static, and the speakers dropped silent again. Sonic frowned at the open gate cautiously, waiting a moment to see if any robots would attack, before stepping slowly inside. The gate crashed shut behind him, and he whirled around, quills on end. The want to turn away from the power plant zone just grew stronger, and it took him some effort to turn back to face it.
The buildings towered over him, yet it seemed so small in relation to the island it was supposed to be providing the power for. Maybe there were other plants elsewhere on South Island? He walked, slowly, towards the doorway; a great rolling shutter that opened as he approached it. The interior was dark, until he got close enough, when the lights lit up what was clearly a goods entrance of sorts. He loitered outside for a moment, then leaned against the exterior wall, shifting the rucksack from his shoulders to fish the computer from it. The device didn't have much information on the Scrap Brain however, aside from saying it continued underground, and provided the energy for the Green Hill, Spring Yard, and the Star Light zones. Well, that explained why it seemed so small, he guessed, putting the computer back into the bag amongst the singing Chaos Emeralds once again.
He tugged the backpack onto his shoulders, and pushed off from the wall, cringing at the slight protest from his injured leg. Sonic waited a moment for it to stop throbbing, before starting to walk into the entrance. A short distance in, the shutter rolled down behind him, and the young hedgehog felt all his quills stick up on end. This building smelt too metallic. He flicked his ears fully upright as he continued walking across the cargo dock to a large door on the opposing wall to the entrance. A great window alongside, covered in a protective wire, allowed him a view inside the factory zone as he got to the door.
His jaw dropped at the sights inside the single room he could see.
Great conveyor belts and electrical orbs were scattered at varying levels above the floor, and pistons pounded down onto the belts at regular intervals, some of them leaving heaps of metal in their place, whilst others pounded it flat. These conveyors moved through a door that opened and shut between each pile of scrap, and Sonic couldn't see through them easily. But one thing he could tell, was that the bit he could see didn't look much like a power plant to him. He snorted a small cloud of condensation at the window, before looking across at the door warily. If Robotnik ran this place, then no doubt he'd have robots around, and the little hedgehog didn't trust him to keep his word about not attacking him. But the hedgehog stepped sideways to the door, twitching his ears at all angles to listen carefully as he frowned at the keypad lock.
"Oh come on! You said you'd let me in, Robotnik!" Sonic glared at the keypad, and the flashing led next to the locked icon, waiting for it to change.
Before getting bored after a minute and flexing his fingers. There came a rapid succession of error beeps as his hands blurred with the speed of the button bashing, until the led switched from red to green, and there was the sound of the door lock disengaging. One triumphant grin later, the door swung open inwards, and Sonic stepped inside, looking around cautiously, albeit keeping a smug smirk on his face. He scanned the room for doors that would lead further into the factory, or signs to Robotnik's office, or, at the very least, a clue as to what this room was for, as he wandered around it, between the conveyors and electrical coils.
Sonic finally spotted a sign on one of the walls, past a conveyor, and made his way carefully between the machinery over to it. It looked like a hastily written; by hand, not typed, which drew suspicion from the hedgehog; list of workplace targets. He folded his arms as he scanned through the shorthand list, but quickly got distracted by a whirr from behind him. Sonic spun on the spot, braced to be attacked by another of the scientist's robots, but relaxed when he noticed the whirr was merely caused by a loose piece of scrap that had fallen from the conveyors and into a gear below, jamming the belt. He had no intention of fixing it, so he turned back to the sign. Below the hand written note was a proper directory sign, pointing towards the only other door in the room.
Sonic scanned the list, muttering to himself as he read out the locations, "generators, energy room, cafeteria, blah blah blah you are at the factory floor blah blah... ahah, office of Doctor Ivo Robotnik... Two floors down? Cool, not too bad... 'Ivo?' What the heck kind of a name is 'Ivo'?"
The young hedgehog shrugged and walked towards the door indicated on the sign, giving the jammed conveyor a cursory kick as he walked past the stuck gears, which knocked the piece of scrap loose and sent the conveyor belt snapping back into place with a loud crack. Sonic hissed at it, flattening his ears from the noise for a moment, then pushed the door open and stepped through. The door led into a corridor, not wherever the conveyors led to, which the hedgehog was kind of disappointed about, but he followed the one route along casually, looking out for more directories now that he knew what they looked like; a hideous grey sign with red and black, rigid fonts over it. Sonic sighed and kicked a wayward chunk of metal along the corridor ahead of him, watching it roll down the slanted path for a short way each time. He was heading below ground level now, it seemed.
The piece of scrap rolled down towards a door at the other end of the corridor, which was, inevitably, shut. There was another directory next to it, recounting the information that Sonic had already read on the previous one, only this one had a map of the next room. The next corridor looked like it was more of a hub, a large, circular room with doors leading off to different parts of the factory floor, all indicated with small notes next to them, and some elevators to the floors below. Sonic made a note of the position of the elevator in relation to the corridor he was standing in, then turned to the door. There was another keypad lock, but, with the same rapid fire button bashing technique he'd used before, that was quickly surpassed. This door was electrical, and slid open with a whoosh noise as the code broke. Sonic went to step through it, but stopped as his ears flicked forwards, picking up a buzzing noise. He lowered his foot again, and frowned at the door frame. There was a strip of metal lining the frame, and as he stepped sideways to inspect it closer, he could hear the buzzing coming directly from it. Sonic picked up the lump of metal, and stood backwards, throwing the scrap in the air and catching it twice, before tossing it through the frame.
The blinding flash as the scrap passed through the electrical barrier told Sonic that he was indeed not welcome.
"... Nice try, Eggman... You can bet that once I'm done with you here the police are gonna hear about you trying to fry me too..."
Sonic looked around the frame again as he muttered, ears flicking as he searched for any sign of a weak point in it that he could exploit. Confident that Robotnik wasn't listening to him now, he muttered various insults as he ran gloved fingers along the plastic-like walls instead, judging the inside of them by how much electricity he could hear. If he could find the right spot, he could probably break through the wall and bypass the door altogether. As he moved his hand over the wall, one spot at his waist height made his fur bristle and his spikes stand on end. He traced it along the wall, to figure that it was about half a foot tall and ran parallel to the floor from the door frame to the wall. Memorising its location, he moved to the wall on the other side to try there. That wall didn't seem to have any at first, until he brought his hand down towards ground level, and found a similar strip running along the lowest part of the wall. Stepping back again, he pouted, trying to decide the best method for getting through. Until another thought hit him.
He turned to his right, facing the direction he'd started facing when he'd first stepped into the corridor, and examined the wall carefully. There wasn't room for a run up, so he walked back up the slanting corridor, turned, and looked down towards the electrical door. This was going to be risky, but Sonic was determined to get through. He backed up as far as he could, then started running on the spot, much like in the Starlight Zone. Only this time, he used the wall to launch himself forward once he judged that he would have enough speed, and charged down the slope, angling himself towards the wall on the right as he accelerated towards that door. In a split second, he pulled his bag from his back and curled into a ball, spinning in a whirl of razor sharp quills that shredded through the tough material of the wall.
At least, until he hit something harder. The increased resistance slowed his spinning, and he ended up dropping to the floor in a shower of sparks. Uncurling on his back, still in the corridor he'd started in, he panted, cringing at the protesting from his pained limbs as it screamed louder at him. Sonic let go of the bag, letting it balance on his chest, as he puffed to regain his breath. Once he'd got it back, after a few minutes, he sat up and looked accusingly at the resilient wall to see what had happened. The softer wall had a layer of metal through it, not charged with electricity like the bright strip in the door frame, but a darker, almost black grey, with a tinge of blue through it. It was no metal he'd seen before, and it didn't have more than a scratch on it from the spinning blade-quills of a speeding cobalt hedgehog.
"... What the hell is this stuff?" Sonic rapped it hard with his knuckles, and was rewarded with a sore hand. Clasping it with his other hand, he hissed an insult at the wall. "Ngh, right. Plan b."
Sonic rubbed his hand as he walked back up the top of the corridor, with his bag hooked over his arm again, and looked at the electrical door again. This time he was going to go through that wall, since a short cut wasn't the smartest option with a strong alloy in the other wall. He flexed his fingers to ensure they worked, before starting to run on the spot once more. Aiming directly at the barrier, he repeated the forward charge, but as the slope started, he jumped into the air, curling into a speeding ball again, and hoping that he had the angle right, or he'd end up as one crispy hedgehog.
One dust flying, spikes squealing, shrapnel splitting spin later, and Sonic found himself face down on the floor in the next room. The young hedgehog pushed himself up to his feet shakily and looked around. He'd managed to force his way through the wall above the door. Looking up to it he noted another, thin layer of that strange metal, which had bent before snapping under his attack. There wasn't much of it broken on the floor around him, and judging by the curve of the hole, he'd pushed through rather than broken through it. Sonic turned his attention back to the floor, and picked up his bag and a piece of the metal shrapnel from amongst the plaster pieces and dust. As he swung the bag back onto his back, he put the shard into it, and looked towards the door. Spying a control panel for the electricity on this side, he scooped up another piece of shrapnel and walked over to it. The hedgehog flicked the shard in the air, before catching it and stabbing the control box swiftly with it. The makeshift dagger ripped through the plastic of the box, and a lowering pitch faded out of existence as the electrical field shut down.
Sonic stepped through the now safe frame, then back again, satisfied that he wasn't going to be barbecued by a door now. He started walking towards the elevator, and tossed the shard at the control box. Leaving the metal quivering in the smoking controls, he stepped into the elevator and glared up at the camera in it as the doors shut behind him.
"No funny business, 'doctor', I've had enough of these games, you're going to talk to me and you're going to stop trying to get rid of me." Sonic bared his teeth at the camera, and jumped as a response crackled from it.
"My boy, I am doing nothing of the sort, there are some complex security features about the place, and I can hardly be expected to remember them all."
"The door was still electrified!"
"And that is one I forgot to shut down. Now please refrain from destroying anything on the following floors, there's a lot of very expensive, very important equipment down here."
Sonic tugged a loose quill free from his spikes, and examined the sharp bladed edge casually, pretending to ignore the camera as Robotnik rattled on about his various security equipment. The little hedgehog pressed the button to set the elevator going to the next floor, and walked back to lean against the corner of it, below the camera. In his office, Robotnik would only be able to see Sonic's red and white sneakers, and that suited him just fine. The scientist requested that Sonic stand where he could see him, and was ignored.
"Sonic, my boy, I see you still have your rucksack with you. If you would like, you may leave it there and it will be there when you return."
"Nuh-uh Eggman, d'ya think I'm stupid?" As Sonic grumbled his irritated reply, he scored a line in the side of the elevator with the quill in his hand. "After you dumped me off a bridge, into an underwater maze, and tried to crush me with see-saws and balls, I am not letting these out of my sight."
There was a long pause for a moment as Robotnik contemplated an answer, which Sonic took the opportunity to cut more lines in the wall, until a thin layer of it came away. He caught it as it fell free, so that it couldn't be seen by the camera or heard if it hit the floor. When Robotnik spoke again, he managed to maintain his calm façade.
"Mister Spiritpaw, you have absolutely no idea how dangerous those stones are. If you do not relinquish your hold on them, you may get very hurt."
"By these? I don't think so. By you more likely, I bet." the hedgehog scored another line along the piece of metal he held, and bent it into a longer, thinner strip. "But you wanted to talk in your office, so let's leave the talk until then, m'kay?"
"Sonic."
"Yesssssss, Eggmaaaaan?" Sonic stretched the words back at him, to maximise the irritation he was causing.
"Do not toy with me, boy, you are in no condition to."
"Blah blah, I'll be seeing you in a few minutes, Doctor."
Sonic reached up with the strip of metal, and cut the cables leading to the camera. The lights on it shut off, but the speakers, which apparently weren't connected to it, belted out a repeat of the scientist's 'don't break anything' command. Sonic ignored it, and tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator slowed to a stop. There was no floor indicator, and he was half expecting to come out into some sort of trap, but as the doors slid open and he stepped out, the signs on the neatly plastered corridors were similar to the ones on the ground floor, only this time the map on the wall showed he was on floor B2. This corridor was the smallest one yet, not much bigger than the elevator he'd just left. There was only one door, emblazoned with signs that said 'no unauthorized access' and 'restricted area'.
So Sonic pounded the security locks until they opened the door and he could step through. And what he saw on the other side made his jaw drop.
The room was enormous, and littered with sloped walls and giant conveyor belts. As the hedgehog walked forward, the pathway segments beneath his feet spun round rapidly, throwing him below them as he lost his footing. He hit a slanted floor below with a soft thump, and rolled down it to land on another belt at the bottom. Sonic stood up, rubbing his behind, and stared along the conveyor to see where it was taking him. The belt led through a smallish doorway, and as he passed through it, he tightened his grip on the strap of his backpack, staring at the walls that towered above and below him. They were covered in pounding pistons and spinning saws, each set above several conveyors with piles of metal rolling along them. Purple lights showed where the edges of the various machines, as well as where the edges of the conveyor that he was standing on, were.
As for where the moving walkway was taking him, well... Sonic looked ahead, and started back-pedalling to keep himself from being pulled underneath the pistons slamming down on the conveyor in front of him. His injured leg protested at the sudden change in direction, and he slipped back onto his rear as it gave way beneath him. He glanced over the edge of the belt, but was unable to see anything. He looked back at the rapidly approaching piece of pounding metal, and sighed.
"Oh what the hell." He rolled to the side, to drop off the belt. "Please be a floor down here!"
His request was quickly responded to, as he landed haphazardly on a flat, and thankfully not moving, floor with a thump. Wincing, he scrambled back to his feet and looked around, before starting to walk in the direction that the conveyor had been leading. It made sense to him, considering it was the only clue for a direction that he had. And besides, he couldn't get back the way he'd come any more. So he grabbed the strap of his bag with one hand, anxious not to lose his hard earned Emeralds in this strange place, while he walked. Looking over the walls as he walked into a low roofed, wide corridor, he jumped as a piston slammed into the floor where he'd been standing moments before. His eyes widened as he whirled around to stare at it, then trailed his gaze up over the arms of it to where they disappeared into the roof of the corridor. The piston raised back up slowly, slotting into a perfectly shaped slot for it, and didn't move again. Sonic bristled at it, and carefully put a foot out below it; only to pull it back rapidly as the large slab of metal slammed down again.
"Okay then... add those to the list to things to avoid, Sonic..."
The hedgehog turned away from it, and started to walk again, pressing forwards, only this time watching the roof and floor for signs of the oversized pistons. Thankfully, as he walked, he couldn't see any more of the pistons, not to mention that the floor changed to a grating further ahead. Curious to see what the mechanics of the factory Zone were like below his feet, he darted forwards, stopping on top of the grating to look downwards. Below it was hard to see, but the smell of rust and scoured metal wafted up through it, and the sounds of the machinery both below and around him mixed together. Sonic's affinity for mechanics encouraged him to stay there for a moment longer, before he decided to continue moving along. His sneakers hit the floor with a repetitive thunk thunk thunk, and his ears were straining to keep a wary listen for dangerous sounds through the cacophony around him. His fingers tightened around the bag straps, and he sped up his pace a little, turning his head more often to keep looking around.
Until a big, pink, pig shaped robot appeared ahead of him. Sonic slowed to a stop, there wasn't enough room to jump at the robot this time, so he waited to see what it would do. A large black orb rolled from its chest, and it caught it in its trotters. Sonic's ears flicked forwards, and he crouched slightly, ready to move at the first necessity. The pig robot threw the ball directly at him, so he stepped aside, only to be taken by surprise when the ball exploded atop the grating by his foot. He yelped and slid further away, to be forced back again as another ball exploded by his head, denting the roof of the corridor. The hedgehog stepped on the patch where the first bomb had hit, and the grating creaked unnervingly for a moment, giving him enough time to cast a startled glare towards the ball-hog, before it shattered under his weight and he dropped down through it, passing rapidly flashing lights and whirring pistons.
And landed in something extremely cold and extremely wet, knocking his breath away from him.
Sonic splashed to the surface in a hurry, and gasped for air only a split second after breaking it. He scrambled towards the walls, gripping hold of crumbling stonework to let him catch his breath. After giving himself a moment to recover, he looked around. And his ears dropped back in horror.
"Not here again!"
But as many times as Sonic closed and opened his eyes, he remained floating in an underground lake in what appeared to be the Labyrinth Zone. Only this part didn't look so healthy, the walls were devoid of green plant-life, and no giant insects flew around. The moss on the masonry was a sickly grey-purple in colour, and the water was an unhealthy purple tinted colour; not to mention a lot more difficult to stay afloat in. Sonic splashed a bit for good measure, before taking a large breath and diving down into the water. There was a strong current pulling him along, it seemed to be part of the large network of underground rivers that ran beneath the island; Sonic reckoned that this must be where Robotnik sourced the power for the Zones above him. The water in this part of the Labyrinth was tainted with something less than pleasant, and it stung his eyes and felt like it was seeping into his skin, and he decided that it would definitely be a good idea to get out of this Zone as fast as possible.
Sonic swam with the current, letting it lead him through the underwater passages, before he broke away from it to kick his way to the surface for some more air. There was a pathway alongside the river here, so the hedgehog; who wasn't going to turn down the easier option; climbed up onto it. He shook most of the putrid water from his body, then slid the bag from his shoulders to shake the water from that too. After a cursory check that the five Emeralds; grey, yellow, green, red, and blue; were still within it, and the hand held computer, he did the bag up securely and pulled it back onto his back. His feet tapped impatiently as he looked around, taking in the cables and floats suspended at the edges of the river, and the way they led over the walls between the bricks. Sonic snorted, unable to see the generator and reckoning that it had been built into the stonework below the water line, before he started to walk downstream, looking for a way back up. If there were mechanics down here, there had to be a way out too. Slowly increasing his pace, to reduce the sudden pressure on his injuries, he jogged along the slippery corridor, keeping a watchful eye on the crumbling edges of the pathway and a wary one on the river next to it. The pathway seemed calm enough though, which figured, if it was part of the Labyrinth Zone it was a natural death trap so Robotnik wouldn't have needed to put robots down there. But he didn't reckon upon some other defences.
The hedgehog sat up and rubbed his chest, gasping for breath through shocks of pain. He cracked an eye open and hissed at the large iron mace that hung from the ceiling, swinging in a perpetual loop through a specially crafted channel in the stone. It had swung down just as he was passing beneath it, having not noticed it there at his jog, and crunched into his front, sending him flying backwards to slide along the floor on his rear and end up laying across the bag of sharp pointed stones and with a few nasty gouges in his skin. Luckily for him, he'd managed a step back just before he got caught, which had lessened the damage, and he was small enough to fit between most of the wickedly pointed spikes that adorned the ball, so most of the major damage had been done by the sheer weight of the sphere crashing into him. Sonic was safely out of its range now, but man that had hurt! He watched it swing as he rubbed his chest, slowly and cautiously catching his breath.
"Agh... Sonic... how did you not see that?"
Once the pain in his lungs had started to subside, Sonic carefully started to work his way back to his feet, wincing at the renewed burning through his beaten and battered body. He wobbled uncertainly as he tried to regain his balance on the slippery surface, but managed to stay upright, shifting his feet to support him with minimal cost to his legs. Waiting a moment with his arms slightly raised to keep the balance, he gave a small sigh of relief at not falling straight back down. It didn't stop him wishing he still had his pipe though. Turning his attention back to the mace, he watched it spin, looking at where it cleared the floor, and judging how much room either side of it on the walkway there was. Especially as he didn't particularly wish to try going back into that less than savoury river. A minute watching the ball let him see that it swung directly down the middle of the narrow path, leaving little room to manoeuvre on either side. He wouldn't be able to fit through the gap between it and the wall, but he didn't particularly want to risk walking around so near to that river. So underneath the ball it was.
Sonic sighed wearily and turned around, walking back a short distance, before facing the swinging sphere again to time the spins. He needed to get this right first time, that blow hadn't been the softest ever, and he doubted that running straight into another one would be any easier on his body at all. Counting how long it stayed in the ceiling channel, he backed up another few steps, pulled the bag straps tight, and sprinted towards the ball as it started to swing back up into the groove. It started to swing down as he was passing below it, looking a lot faster than it had before he started running at it, so Sonic let his feet slip out forwards of him, and dropped below the rapidly spinning ball to slide past it on the slippery floor. The friction from his quills dragging on the ground helped him slow, but he still had to grab hold of a nearby gargoyle before he was thrown back into the river by the momentum. Once he stopped, he sat up again, and puffed a sigh of relief.
"Well. That wasn't so bad. Another point for me. Maybe I should go into football, with a sliding tackle like that." Sonic was too weary to make much of his own joke, giving a half hearted chuckle as he pulled himself back to his feet with the aid of the gargoyle. "At least I know to look out for those now..."
He started to take a step, but his ears twitched round, back towards the gargoyle. So intent he'd been on avoiding that mace and the water, that he hadn't noticed it, but there was a singing from inside the crumbling statue. Sonic put his foot down and crouched down to peer inside the knee high idol's mouth, and sure enough, in there was a glowing purple Chaos Emerald. The hedgehog gave a tired smile at it, and reached into the statue's mouth to grab it. But when he started to pull the shining stone out, his hand got jammed against the back of the gargoyle's teeth in a manner much like a monkey trap. Sonic tugged it again, and growled at the jaws, before placing his other hand on its nose and bracing his feet against its base. Using this added support, he pulled hard against the jewel; with its brothers singing out to it in his bag; trying to pull it between the jaws of the statue's mouth. The ancient stone started to crack, before it broke suddenly without warning, sending Sonic skidding back onto the floor on his rear again, only this time he held the Emerald in his hand. He made short work of sitting up to look at it this time, admiring the way it reflected the water to add to its own violet shine, but a tickling on his arm distracted him. A quick scratch from his other hand solved it for a moment, but it moved elsewhere. And looking to see it, he shrieked and leapt back to his feet, flailing his arm wildly to throw the rather large, black, hairy spider off of it. The hapless creature skittered off into the shadows at the edge of the walkway, while Sonic brushed all trace of the spider off his arm. The creatures made his skin crawl, with their multitude of limbs and great big jaws. He wasn't scared of them if he knew where they were, but when they snuck up on him like that...
Sonic stuck his tongue out in disgust as he slid the bag from his shoulders and put the purple Emerald into it. The six gemstones shone brightly as they sang together, and Sonic watched the light within them dance along to the music. He wondered if anyone else had heard them before as he pulled the bag back on. And for that reason, why no one had seen the grey one in the Green Hill Zone either. They weren't really subtle. But he shrugged the bag into position between his back spikes, deciding that it was their loss, as he looked back along the path. There were several routes further along, most of which headed downwards, though one continued straight on, but was fenced off. The simple wire fence and padlock barring access to this route were a relief after everything else Sonic had encountered in the Zone already, and, threading a hand through a hole in the mesh, he picked the lock easily with a quill.
Following the pathway, and noting how this tunnel was lit by artificial lights and there were increasing numbers of cables following it from deep within the Zone, he decided that it looked more the right way than the rest of the tunnels did. Sonic took the path cautiously, watching out for more rivers or swinging spike balls or psychotic pig robots, but didn't run into any more as the path started to head upwards. The floor grew drier as it went away from the subterranean rivers, and the wall carvings became hard to see past the sheer amount of converging cables. Ahead, a steel door lay ajar, with a strip of that strange, blueish metal that had stopped him when he entered the zone running across it diagonally. He slowed as he approached it, watching the gap in it cautiously. The cables veered through a hole in the roof, leaving nothing for him to follow, so he edged up to the toughened door, surveying the alloy edging to it and the reinforced frame and hinges, and frowned suspiciously. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to pass this door. Though then again maybe it was strengthened against potential surges in the rivers below. Sonic stood, flipping a mental coin for a moment, until he heard a chuckling from the other side of the door. His ears flattened at the growing familiar sound of Doctor Robotnik's laugh, before he hissed and bolted through the door.
"Robotnik you are a madman!" he shrieked as he faced the scientist in the neat, sparsely furnished office.
"Ah! Sonic my boy, so good of you to join me!" Robotnik sat behind a desk in the centre of the large room, and motioned towards a chair in front of it. "Take a seat!"
"I'll stand, thanks." Sonic still took a glance towards that chair, it was looking quite tempting, even if it was probably a trap. "Time to explain, Eggman."
Robotnik's bushy ginger moustache twitched slightly, hinting at an irritation at the child giving him orders. But he nodded, and reached down behind the desk towards a drawer. The weary hedgehog was slightly crouched through a combination of exhaustion and caution, and the scientist mused as to how he'd managed to cross an island full of traps and his robots in just a couple of days. Robotnik wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was impressed. Sonic was watching every motion he was making, and those wild green eyes were quite unnerving, they gave the hedgehog a look of danger and would, for any lesser man, probably stop them from trying to cross him. But the doctor wasn't going to be outdone by an abnormality. He pulled his hand out of the drawer, and Sonic's ears and spikes pricked up as he saw the papers in the scientist's hand. Robotnik laid them neatly on the table and slid them forwards, before swinging a hand above them, inviting the hedgehog to read them. For making it this far, Sonic at least deserved to know what the deal as far as Robotnik was concerned was. The human laughed as the boy didn't move.
"Ho ho ho hoo, come here my boy, I'll explain quite happily for you."
"I don't trust you."
"Really now, I'm hardly going to hurt you am I?"
"You DROPPED me down a HOLE into the LABYRINTH ZONE. You've tried to SET ME ON FIRE. You've tried to CRUSH me and STAB me, set robots on me, and your stupid factory is a DEATH TRAP! I think that ALLOWS for some caution, don't you?" Sonic bristled, very clearly not in the mood to tolerate any more of the cheerful attitude Robotnik was displaying.
"All accidents, I assure you."
"Funny. Now stop lying to me and tell me what the hell you did to my Zone!"
"As I keep trying to tell you, if you would just listen, I had no part in its destruction. That was purely Genocide City."
"Yeah? And what was with the robot army then? Which you STILL stole the designs from me for."
Robotnik sighed with irritation. Sonic was a lot smarter than he had reckoned upon, but, being the self proclaimed genius that he was, he had prepared for this. "My boy, you're still in denial. You saw a terrible thing happen to your Zone, and are looking for an outlet for the blame. I meant absolutely no harm, I was bringing my robots to promote a new business venture of mine, for security purposes."
"Yeah, and if that's true what's your security doing trying to kill me?"
"You're an intruder in my Zones."
"Your Zones?" Sonic was visibly shaking now, and all his stance had changed to a much more aggressive one. Robotnik's hand hovered under his desk as he kept a close eye on the hedgehog. "Your Zones? You can't own a Zone! You attacked my Zone, no matter what you say, and the rest of the east side is not yours either!"
"Really? Come here and look at these documents."
"No."
"Do you want proof or not? I'm a busy man after all, and I don't have all day."
Sonic glared sceptically at Robotnik, who peered back at him through his tinted glasses. The pieces of paper on the desk looked complicated, and Sonic wasn't sure if he should read them. If Robotnik's paperwork proved him wrong he'd look silly, and he wasn't willing to back down on his own side. Besides, he wanted to get back at the scientist for everything that had happened in the Green Hill Zone. When it didn't look like Sonic was going to come to the desk, Robotnik gave an annoyed 'hmph' and pressed a button on the intercom on the desk. Sonic's ears perked up to listen as he spoke into it. When Robotnik released the intercom, he put his hands together on top of his desk and watched the hedgehog's reaction as one of the doors Sonic hadn't entered from opened and a tall grey rabbit strolled in, followed by a slightly shorter pig in a shirt and tie. The pig carried a clipboard and looked worried, while the rabbit was carrying a small crate and simply looked fed up with it. Sonic was staring at the newcomers, as if he hadn't expected to see any other animals in the factory. As they noticed him, the pig's face dropped and the rabbit's eyebrow rose.
"Hey, do I know you?" the rabbit asked, placing the crate on Robotnik's desk.
"Um..." Sonic's ears flattened nervously.
"Jonathan, Porker, this is Sonic. He's a visitor, and new to this end of the island, could you reassure the boy that I mean no harm, please?" Robotnik waved a hand towards Sonic, who hissed at him and bristled.
"Sonic? Is that even a real name?"
"Who asked for your approval huh?" Sonic turned his glare on Johnny instead, and Robotnik took the chance to tap the crate's lock and make sure it was secure. "My mother gave me this name so back off!"
"Hey, I didn't mean anything by that, sorry." The rabbit flicked his ears forwards as he watched Sonic choke back a sob. "Are you okay?"
"I-I'm fine! Leave me alone!"
"Johnny? L-look at him, he really n-needs to get to a doctor... Or something..." Porker was hiding behind his clipboard, looking at Sonic's injuries with horror. "H-how long have you been w-walking around like that?"
Sonic bristled again, looking over himself in the bright light of the office, and realising that he looked like he'd just crawled out of a grave. He glared at Robotnik, who appeared to be ignoring the little conversation. "Since this guy destroyed the Green Hill Village. If you must know."
"Doctor Robotnik? Naa, you're mistaken, he wouldn't have done that." Johnny folded his arms, looking thoughtful none the less. Porker, however, looked less certain.
"The Green Hill Village was d-d-destroyed? How?"
"Eggman there came along with a robot army and set it on fire!" Sonic was not showing any sign of calming down, in fact he looked more irritated than before. "And he called Genocide City on it somehow!"
"Sonic, Genocide goes where it wants. You can't call it." Johnny sighed. "And besides, the Green Hill Zone is where it used to be, so it was bound to come back one day..."
"But my family was there! I- I- I..." Sonic looked away from them all, turning his back on the topic, trying to ignore it. His bristling stopped and he slouched slightly instead.
Johnny looked at Porker, who looked at Robotnik. The scientist waved a hand dismissively, indicating that this was how Sonic had been acting the whole time. Sonic dropped to sit on the floor, with his hands over the top of his head. He couldn't outright attack Robotnik while there were other people around, and Robotnik wasn't going to attack him in the same situation either. This left Sonic to think about what had happened at Green Hill properly for the first time. The robot troops charging at the village, the memory of the tangible fog and the smell of death, and the screams of people he knew...
Johnny and Porker flinched as the little hedgehog belted out a scream at the top of his lungs, and even Robotnik peered over the top of his glasses at him.
"Oh dear..." Porker hid behind the clipboard again, stepping backwards.
"Sonic? Are you alright?" Johnny rushed over to him and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, ears flattened back, "It'll be okay..."
Robotnik got to his feet and gathered up his papers from the desk, before starting to walk around in front of it at the questioning look from Porker. "This young lad was the only survivor of that event, and promptly started to accuse me even though I had only arrived after it."
"Why... W-why didn't you bring him with you?"
"Well I had called the Emerald Hill Zone for assistance, but Sonic had vanished before they could find him. I didn't realise that he had been following me."
"LIAR!" Sonic jumped to his feet without warning and charged at the exposed scientist, leaping into the air and planting his feet in his chest, knocking Robotnik to the floor. Sonic stood on top of the downed human, baring his teeth and raising his fists. "You're a LIAR! The whole wa- hey! Let me go! Put me down right now! I have a bone to pick with this evil jerk!"
Johnny kept a tight grip around the waist of the struggling hedgehog, while Robotnik out a hand on his desk and used it to get back to his feet. The rabbit yelped as he was rewarded with a powerful kick for his efforts, but managed to hiss a calm response, "Please calm down, I'm sure this is all a misunderstanding, right?"
"Misunderstanding my tail! He's been trying to kill me the entire way here!" Sonic writhed, trying to get free, but Johnny maintained his grip. "Put me down or I'll kick you again!"
"Not until you calm down."
"No way!"
"Then I'm not putting you down. So stop wriggling, your spikes hurt."
Robotnik adjusted his glasses, pushing them back up his nose, and dusted the shoe prints from the front of his red shirt. He looked quite irritated as he took the clipboard from Porker and attached the paperwork to it. He walked up towards Johnny and the wriggling hedgehog, but stopped out of range of Sonic's kicks. Not for want of him trying. Robotnik waited quite calmly until Sonic wore out, and flopped in Johnny's arms, puffing and glaring at him, before waving a hand to indicate that Johnny should put him down. The rabbit slowly lowered Sonic to sit on the floor, and rubbed his chest where the blue quills had ground against it. Porker kept his distance, loitering near the door as Robotnik passed Sonic the clipboard.
"Read this. It will explain what I have been doing on the east side, why I was in the Green Hill with my robots, and I do hope it will clear things up between us."
"Not bloody likely. You've still been trying to kill me and that ain't gonna be patched over with a bit of paper. You're just lucky I'm patient or I'd rip your face off right now."
"Hmm. By all means, if you don't like what you read, you're welcome to try." Robotnik turned his head to the third door, where two; much larger than the rest that Sonic had seen; Buzz Bombers were patrolling, and a pair of large rabbit-shaped robots that had springs instead of feet stood either side of it like sentries at a palace.
Sonic just hissed at them, glared at Robotnik, then snatched the clipboard and started reading the paperwork on it. Robotnik stood up straight again, his rotund body looking odd on skinny legs, and even more strange when he was the same height as the tall rabbit nearby. Sonic decided he looked like someone had drawn a stick figure with a gut and made it real. The scientist called Johnny to follow him as he walked towards Porker, and the rabbit cast a cursory glance at Sonic before following. The hedgehog was quite content sitting on the floor as he read the sheets, though he was starting to bristle again. Johnny jogged over to catch up with the scientist and the pig, and the three started talking just out of Sonic's earshot. The Emeralds in his backpack were humming again, their warning song, so Sonic looked up from the plans and permissions for a hotel in Green Hill, a security company, Labyrinth renovations, and oversized amusement parks to watch them. Porker seemed quite willing to leave, edging ever further towards the door as Robotnik spoke to them, while Johnny was still rubbing his chest. Sonic felt a little bit guilty about that now, he'd just been doing his job, but if they wanted to side with Robotnik they weren't getting his nice side either. As Porker left when Robotnik nodded at him, the scientist and Johnny started walking back within earshot.
"...are you sure?"
"Of course, Jonathan. What else can I do?"
"Well, I could-"
"Oh no, I wouldn't think it. Now you can go back to your duties, I think Sonic will be a little more manageable now?"
"This clipboard is a load of rubbish!" Sonic yelled at them, and Johnny rolled his eyes.
"Well, we'll be in our office if you need us again Doctor."
"Of course." Robotnik smiled at the rabbit, and Sonic scowled. He couldn't see behind Robotnik's glasses, but he was certain that smile would be proven to be fake if he could see his eyes. "Well Sonic, what do you think of my designs there?"
"You own Spring Yard and Starlight?"
"Indeed I do. Though of course, they're not finished yet." Robotnik walked back around his desk and reached into the drawer again as he spoke. Sonic glanced over to the doorway, where Johnny was still loitering, obviously listening in. "Jonathan, I assure you, nothing will happen in here. After all, I have my security, remember?"
"Those Splats things are quite creepy, Doctor."
"Well I like them. Don't you have work to do?"
"Yeah... Well... 'Bye then." With that, Johnny left, shutting the door behind him. Sonic felt uncomfortable with just himself and Robotnik again. "Well now Sonic, if you've calmed down a bit, maybe we can talk like civilised Mobians?"
"Nope. This is all rubbish! I didn't hear anything about hotel planning for my Zone, and you turned up before Genocide did! Or your robots did anyway, which still counts! You were attacking my Zone for no reason!"
"I most certainly was not."
"Then why were your rip offs armed?"
"The weapons are for defensive purposes only. When Genocide destroyed a good number of them, the safety was deactivated."
"Yeah right. And what about the poor little animals you put in them?"
"They are kept fed and watered, and sheltered, in exchange for powering them. Nothing inhumane happens to them."
"Some of them are just cubs!" Sonic cringed as he slowly got back to his feet, and Robotnik took note of the sluggish movement. "That's completely out of order!"
"Oh? And you speak Terra do you?" Robotnik chuckled.
"Well... No... But I can tell!"
"Nonsense. I take good care of them. Now stop being silly." Robotnik pulled a box from the drawer and held it up. "Do you know what this is?"
"It's a box. What's the big deal? And stop trying to change the topic! You said that you designed those robots to be unsettling to other Mobians!"
"You were hearing things." Robotnik sighed dramatically, placing his hands on his desk and shaking his head. "I had no idea that the trauma you received affected you that much. Genocide must have poisoned you, you ran right through it."
"Stop blaming it on Ge-Genocide!" Sonic sniffed, but maintained his angry expression. "You. Were there. First! ... Huh?"
Robotnik was ignoring Sonic's ranting, and instead had cracked the lid of the box open slightly. Sonic was proving a difficult child to get rid of, but Robotnik had one last idea. The hedgehog's ears were perked up, as if he were listening to something, though no sound came from the box that he was staring at. The scientist chuckled, and drew a pale, frosted surfaced aqua coloured gemstone from the box. He watched as Sonic took a single step towards him, but cleared his throat to warn the boy not to take any more. The Buzz Bombers and Splats robots turned to face them, and Sonic halted. Robotnik at least knew how Sonic had managed to gather the ones he had already.
"You sure you don't know what this is?"
"It's a Chaos Emerald... But what's wrong with it?"
"I assure you that nothing is wrong with the stone. I have had it stored in cold storage to keep its unstable energy in check."
"Unstable?"
"Yes. It's why I've been trying to get them from you, they're far too dangerous for a child to be carrying around. In the wrong conditions they can cause devastating damage to the people and environment around them."
"Why?"
"Well, they radiate a dangerous energy known as Chaos." Robotnik rested the stone on the desk as he reached back into the drawer to being out a book. He kept his eyes on Sonic, he didn't know what would happen if the hedgehog gathered the rest of the Emeralds, but he also didn't wish to find out. "Here, this book explains a little. The problem with Chaos is that it is excruciatingly difficult to study, but what knowledge has been gleaned was mostly discovered by a scientist known as Gerald Kintobor. He was quite mad, but quite the genius."
"Really."
"Indeed. A lot of his work was lost through some accident or other at his research station. This book is one of the few pieces left. Come and have a look, if you will."
"No." Sonic bristled. "Whatever crap this guy came up with, I don't care. Gimme that Emerald!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that, Sonic." Robotnik tucked the jewel back into the box, and shut it. He watched as Sonic's ears bent backwards, and the hedgehog hissed at him. "Kindly hand over the backpack and every Chaos Emerald you've collected."
"If these are as dangerous as you say they are, then I'm not gonna give them to you! You'll just use them for evil!"
"'Evil'?" Robotnik laughed "Oh Sonic my boy, this isn't some comic book, I'm not a super-villain or anything of the sort!"
Sonic growled. "I can grab it from you in a split second, Eggman. So hand it over."
"And I can call my guards on you just as fast. Stop acting stupid. You're just a child."
"I'm not stupid!"
"You have no comprehension of what you are contending with, my boy." Robotnik put the book back into the drawer. "And you-"
He was interrupted by an alarm sounding out, and the lights around the walls swapped from pale blue to a flashing red. Sonic jumped backwards as a large piston slammed upwards from the floor below him, crashing flush against the ceiling. Robotnik grabbed the box containing the Chaos Emerald and jumped inside an open side of the piston as it dropped back below ground level. The large sentry robots moved to guard the open Labyrinth exit as Sonic started to run towards it, blocking his path. The Buzz Bombers fired warning shots at him, and he stepped back.
"Robotnik! What's going on?" Sonic yelled, forced to flip away from another piston as it crashed upwards. "And what maniac builds his office with moving and crushing parts?"
"Something has set off the emergency generator. Which happens to incorporate part of my office. There must be a malfunction over at the Metropolis Zone." Robotnik was sitting in a different piston, one that had come from the ceiling instead.
"Metropolis?" Sonic charged at him, but he retreated back into the roof of the room. Sonic looked at the floor, and noticed there were four large circles on it; the tops of four pistons. They circled the desk, and were in turn circled by four identical pistons that were in the roof. He jumped forwards as the circle he stood on shook, and got off of it before it slammed into the roof again. "Whoa!"
"Metropolis is the power station that powers the west side, Sonic." Robotnik yawned.
"Why the heck is your office a back up generator?"
"Space is limited."
Sonic bristled. The whole thing smelt like a set up to him, no matter what Robotnik said. How convenient that Johnny and Porker had left before this 'malfunction'. How useful that the reinforced door just happened to have been open in this room full of smashing pistons. And how coincidental that the pistons happened to have a hollowed out space in them that Robotnik could stand in. Sonic wasn't sure if the factory really did power the east side, but right now, he didn't care. The singing Emeralds on his back had changed their song, and Sonic felt as if they were angry at Robotnik keeping the seventh one. It felt to him like they were asking him to get it back, and Sonic was sure it would be a good idea. The aqua Emerald hadn't sung so loudly, it had sounded... sick. Sonic didn't know whether jewels could catch colds or not, but either way, that frozen container needed to go. So the little hedgehog watched the piston circles, and as one of the roof ones, and one of the floor ones nearby, shook, he crouched down, ready to spring.
Robotnik gave a startled cry as an angry ball of spinning blue spikes crashed into the side of the piston he stood in.
"Sonic! What do you think you are doing?" He yelled as the extended arms retracted.
"Give me the Chaos Emerald." Sonic's sadness and curiosity had both disappeared from his voice, leaving just a cold command. "I'm not playing any more."
"You are being a fool! Do you have any idea of how much this place is worth to South Island?" Robotnik caught a momentary glare from glowing emerald eyes as he dropped down in a different piston, cursing how they only linked to one another above and below his office, before the hedgehog spun into a ball and crashed into the one he stood in.
"I don't care! You've already taken everything from me, it's my turn!"
"I didn't want to do this, my boy, but you've left me no choice."
Robotnik slammed a hand onto a console inside the piston as it retreated, and Sonic scowled at the roof after him, expecting him to come back down. Instead, there was a pink glow coming from the corners of the room, which Sonic watched as it intensified. The light formed into plasma balls, which fired at him, converging on his position surprisingly fast. They only hit metal, however, fizzling away, while Sonic stood on Robotnik's desk, tapping a foot. As the scientist came down in a different piston, Sonic jumped at him, uncurling from the ball to snatch the Emerald in the case from him. He flipped away from Robotnik as the piston retreated again, and stood in one spot as the plasma energy fired again. He took a step sideways, letting them vanish against the metal again, while he opened the case.
It was extremely cold, even with his gloves on, and he almost withdrew his hand from the surprise, but he grasped the gemstone and pulled it free, tossing the case on top of the nearest piston as it slammed towards the roof. Robotnik watched from the one that had dropped down as Sonic appeared lost in thought, staring at the frozen gemstone. There was no reason that the hedgehog would need the jewels, and he couldn't comprehend the power they held. Sonic had no idea that Robotnik had already drained it of most of its power, and had the energy stored in special containers elsewhere. The scientist pressed the console to stop the energy weapons from firing as he jumped out of the piston, and stood behind Sonic. He reached towards the hedgehog, intending to simply remove the Emeralds from his backpack, but the bag started shining, and Robotnik found himself unable to press any closer. He watched as an invisible up-draft caught Sonic's spikes, blowing the rigid quills like regular fur. Then he realised; Sonic hadn't only had three Emeralds in that bag. He had six. And he'd just grabbed hold of the seventh one. The legendary seven Chaos Emeralds. Robotnik had only ever managed to catch traces of a trail of six of them; which always vanished before he could follow them; but if the legends were true...
The human decided that now would be a good time to depart.
Porker huffed and puffed as he ran after Johnny and the rest of the staff from the Scrap Brain. An alarm had sounded just a few minutes after the emergency back up for the Metropolis Zone had started, indicating a critical failure and that all staff were to leave the premises. Of course, Porker was one of the first to oblige, but the rest of the staff had caught up quick enough, and most were overtaking towards the edges of the fields surrounding the Scrap Brain. The pig tried his hardest, but nothing ever seemed to go his way, and at that moment it seemed as if even Johnny was going to leave him behind. The rabbit slowed however, giving Porker a chance to catch up.
"I don't know why you're panicking, Porker, the Scrap Brain's not going to explode or anything. The alarms are just a precaution."
"Yeah, b-but how can you be c-certain?"
"Aren't the walls super reinforced or something? No explosion would get very far." Johnny stayed cool and collected in almost any situation, Porker envied that.
"I-I guess so..."
Porker took a moment to catch a breath while Johnny waited for him. The rabbit chuckled. "Come on, we've got to get to the meeting place anyway before Robotnik decides we're fired."
"O-okay, you're r-right Johnny... But c-could you slow down a bit? I can't walk as quickly a-as you can, and-"
Porker was interrupted by a loud, and growing louder by the second, rumbling. The ground beneath them shook, and the pig tripped mid-step as he walked towards Johnny. The rabbit looked back towards the Scrap Brain Zone, past Porker as he ran towards him, and noted Robotnik floating out of it in a hurry in his little hovering craft, followed in the air by his creepy guard wasps and even creepier sprung rabbits on the ground. Johnny called up to him as he flew overhead.
"Hey, Doctor? What's going on?"
"I sincerely advise that you evacuate the area!"
"But the plant-"
"Factory or your lives, fuzz-ball, it's your choice!" Robotnik didn't stop, instead shouting the comment back at them.
"But what-"
The loud rumbling changed abruptly to a far louder 'ka-boom', and Johnny found himself having to duck a flying piece of wall as the Scrap Brain exploded. Or, more precisely, something punched through the wall, rocketing upwards towards the sky, followed by the explosions within the building, that were taking the easy way out. Porker hid behind Johnny, as they both watched the ball of golden light shine in the sky amongst the stars. The pig wasn't able to look at the suspended glow for long, but Johnny squinted, trying to get a better view.
"J-Johnny, it's a s-star!"
"Don't be silly, a star doesn't come out of a building."
"It's... it's like that b-b-blue one! It's bad l-luck! W-we should go!"
"That's a load of superstitious nonsense. What is it...?"
"J-Johnny, wh-where's that S-Sonic kid?"
"Sonic? The little blue guy? …. Oh man, Robotnik didn't leave the kid in there did he? Porker, we have to go get him!"
"B-But-"
"Come on!"
"W-wait! That s-star, it's m-m-m-"
"Moving?"
Johnny finished Porker's sentence as he noticed it too; the golden object was drifting slowly through the clouds that were starting to form, vaporising them as it passed through them, and trailing shining flecks of vapour in its wake. It was coming lower, passing through the smoke of the burning within the factory, and as it cleared it, the rabbit gasped. Leaving Porker aside, he stepped forwards, watching the form.
"Porker! It's a person!"
"W-What?"
"Whoa!"
Without warning, the shining shape dropped like a stone, plummeting towards the ground in their direction and turning as it fell. Johnny sprang into a sprint, charging towards where it was heading. Porker flinched as the figure crashed into the rabbit, knocking him off his feet and to the ground in a cloud of sparkles and dust. The glow within the cloud faded rapidly, but Porker slowly edged towards it.
"... Johnny?" He didn't want to risk getting too close, in case that fallen star was dangerous, but he wanted to make sure that Johnny was okay. A cough within the rapidly dissipating dust cloud and the tips of two ears peaking up through the top of it answered him. "Johnny! Are you okay? W-what was it?"
Another small cough, and a groan, as Johnny stood up, lifting something. "Porker... You're the smart one..."
Johnny stepped out of the cloud, carrying the little blue spiked body of Sonic in his arms. He was battered, burnt and bruised, but breathing, and the motion of Johnny's walk shook a last few small, glitter-like particles of glow from the tips of his quills. He hung limply in the rabbit's hold, and his sleeping face showed a peacefulness that he hadn't displayed when he'd been in Robotnik's office. Johnny looked at Porker, who recoiled at the sudden attention.
"... So how is this kid still alive?"
"I-I-I-I-I don't know..."
Sonic twitched, and the pig flinched, as if expecting the hedgehog to jump at him like he had at Robotnik. But instead, Sonic wrapped his arms around Johnny's chest, and pressed his face into his fur, starting to cry in his sleep. The rabbit looked down at him, and Porker shook his head. The young hedgehog muttered, half opening one eye to look at them.
"... thanks..." he croaked hoarsely.
"You're welcome..." Johnny replied quietly.
"I-is he okay?"
"... He's gone back to sleep... Come on. We need to get him to a doctor, and find Robotnik."
"B-but..."
"I'm sure it'll all be cleared up. Let's go."
Johnny started jogging across the fields, carrying Sonic carefully, the only usable light coming from the stars and the moon above. Porker rubbed his shoulders, looking back at the power plant as it burned behind them, before running to catch up with Johnny, not wanting to be left behind. He didn't much want to be around that Sonic boy either, the kid had just been blasted out of a wall reinforced to withstand high pressure by an explosion, and had still been alive to say thanks to Johnny for catching him.
Porker hoped that this was all one very crazy dream.
-TBC-