Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Sally, Rotor, Tails, Bunnie, Antoine, Robotnik and all the rest. No, not even Knothole…
The 'Sonic the Hedgehog: In Castle Robotnik' book is a Sega owned copyright, published by Virgin Books and written by Martin Adams.
---Cue Special Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: Sonic CD – Sonic BOOM---
CHAPTER 12: Into The Black Tower!
Underground / Castle Robotnik / South Island / 06: 15 AM
Sonic was in unfamiliar territory. The dismal, smelly passages below the castle really did seem to go on forever. He didn't know where he was, and he had no way of getting his bearings. Even if he knew how to operate a compass, he doubted it'd work down here somehow. Comforting himself with some soggy crisps he found in the corner of one of his pockets, he plodded along, hoping that Tails was at least safe somewhere. At least Robotnik didn't seem to have any of his camera's filming him as he walked along – or at least he didn't see any. Then he heard the padding of paws heading towards him, and coupled with the flickering torches and the scarce light, it prompted a few tense moments for the blue hog.
"Hey sugah, is this the set for the Castle Robotnik movie," came a familiar-sounding voice.
"Bunnie?" the hedgehog said uncertainly. even It really did sound just like the southern belle.
"Erm, nay... Call me Jasebelle," the rabbit said as it turned the corner ahead of Sonic and loomed into view. Sonic didn't like the look of her [this time] at all. She was wearing something which looked like the kind of face-mask ice hockey players wear to stop their teeth being smashed in and she had something in a large leather bag she was carrying. Other than that, she just looked like a scruffier version of the Bunnie he knew.
Sonic wasn't sure whether her maddening appearance or the fact that he knew he'd fried this hideous, warped creation of his friend to a crisp just a few hours back unnerved him more.
Just what the hell were these things?
"I have a really good part in this movie," the rabbit sound rather unpleasantly. Sonic realised that if Tail's theory about the castle and its denizens was right [and though he hated to admit it, he usually did end up being right!], this thing was going to be yet another monster. Probably a duplicate of the one he'd deep fried not too long ago. And having narrowly escaped some impromptu spine-trimming at the hands of the walrus butler, he just wanted to get away, kick some Robotnik ass and rescue the others before the worse happened. But the rabbit dominatrix blocked the way ahead and Sonic certainly didn't want to go back to the madness of the film crew and rats behind him.
"Well, that's truly bodacious," the hedgehog lied, somewhat alarmed by the manner in which the rabbit was pulling something out of that large bag of hers. It was though she was tugging at something that was alive and vicious by the way she carefully tugged at it, and cursing to herself every so often. Whatever was in there, Sonic didn't wanna see it so he decided to try and confuse her. "But, like, do you have a good agent, miss?"
The rabbit looked pleasantly confused for a moment and stopped what she was doing. "What do you mean?" it enquired, a hint of curiosity in her seductive toned voice.
"Well, let's put it this way. This Robotnik dude, he doesn't pay the kind of fees top actors should get. A really good agent could make sure you get oodles of megabucks!" He hoped this would confuse the female long enough to make a break for it. It didn't work.
"I'm not getting paid," the rabbit snarled, stroking her right hand through her long, grubby hair, before pulling at whatever was in that bag again. Sonic thought he heard a whirring noise, which then stalled as quickly as it'd started.
"That's outrageous! Let me, like, act as your agent and I can make sure you get paid serious carrots," the hedgehog said hurriedly.
The rabbit paused, closing her eyes, revealing a subtle smile on her luscious lips. After opening them again she spoke in a plain, matter of fact-like voice.
"I'm not doing it for the money. Or the carrots. I don't eat carrots anyway."
"Really?"
"Yah. I'm doing it for the artistic integrity and the creative product values," the rabbit lied. "But most of all I'm doing it because I'm a total homicidal maniac – and because of this!"
The whirring thing inside the bag, pulled into life by the rabbit's paws, shredded it into pieces. Holding the red splattered chainsaw aloft, the mad-eyed rabbit lunged at Sonic. Or rather where Sonic had just been.
Sonic wasn't going to stay and fight Jasebelle. He knew he could defeat her, but the really awful thought was that those whirring saw-teeth might just shear his spines off and that would be too heinous to even think about. Leaping over the chainsaw as the rabbit brought it down towards him; he shot off into the unknown.
Before long, the torches had disappeared from the walls and there was no light. Sonic was running in pitch darkness. The whir of the chainsaw buzzed angrily, getting louder and louder behind him. He couldn't see anything of where he was going, which really explains why he suddenly ran full pelt into something soft which crumpled when he hit it. The hedgehog went flying head over heels and the relentless whir-whir-whir got horribly, inevitably closer.
"Yikes, my head!" snivelled whatever it was that Sonic had collided with. By a stroke of genius, Sonic realised he'd bumped into Tails.
Tails! Buddy! Are you all right, little dude?" The hedgehog asked nervously. Jasebelle and her chainsaw were getting very close now. "Look, I'd like to say that I'm most radically sorry but unless you want to be fox steaks, we have to keep running. There's a deranged Bunnie rip-off with a chainsaw after me!"
Tails could hear the noise and he needed no second invitation to zip along on the heels of the fleeing hedgehog. By some miracle, they managed not to fall over in the darkness, and everything seemed to be going all right until Sonic ran straight into a door, almost knocking himself out. The chainsaw, once getting fainter behind them, was starting to become louder again.
"Why doesn't it just fall over and turn itself into bunny chunks?" Sonic groaned, sure he was seeing little gold rings spinning around his head. Feeling around with his paws, he realised he was in a dead end. With a homicidal, chainsaw-armed bunny rabbit closing in for the kill, things were not looking good at all.
Jasebelle was virtually on top of them when Sonic crouched low, leapt over her, and luckily managed to give her a good old spin kick [in reality he'd just been kicking out randomly]. The rabbit snarled in pain as she flew forwards, the chainsaw roaring in protest as it hit the wooden door. Within no time the whirring metal teeth of the saw carved a large hole in it and the rabbit fell on through. There was a long, long scream and the sound of a demented killer rabbit hitting something very hard a long, long way down, and finally a rather graphic-inducing sound from the chainsaw which heavily suggested that this rabbit had scoffed her last carrot [or whatever it actually ate, I guess].
Sonic peered through the hole in the doorway, he and Tails both realising near around the same time that it was an elevator shift, though sadly there didn't look to be one available. A faint, pale light came from inside, but a cloud of dust was still settling. A very deep pit lay just inside the door, but further across they could both make out a set of stone steps leading to another door just a bit above their current horizon. He knew that he and Tails could make it across easily. They had to, as there wasn't any other place to go.
Unknown Lab / Castle Robotnik / South Island / 06: 25 AM
"They're in the Black Tower then," Eggor said in a matter-of-fact voice.
Spielbot had his visual sensors stuffed into a very large book, an didn't say anything. Eggor was itching to know what was in the book, but he didn't want Spielbot to think he was that keenly interested. But Snively being Snively, his curiosity got the better of him in the end.
"So what's that then?" he asked laconically.
"What's what?" Spielbot replied innocently.
"That book," Eggor replied testily. "What is in it? Why is it so fascinating?"
"Well, it gave me the idea for part of the Master's design for the Grey Tower. The monster in the basement."
"Oh, yes, that," Eggor said dismissively. Actually, he couldn't remember what the monster was offhand.
"It's an old script for a movie which unfortunately never got finished. One of mine actually," Spielbot continued. "It was a film about huge prehistoric pigs on the loose in a theme park. Unfortunately, we couldn't get enough wood to build the actors."
"Oh really?" Eggor said dubiously. Then he caught sight of the book's title: Jurassic Pork.
Good lord, no wonder it never happened with something as shi–
At that moment Robotnik wobbled into the laboratory, looking very much in a bad mood compared to hours before, which Eggor put down to the fact that Sonic and Tails had been lost in his castle for hours undetected now, looking for their stolen comrades…
This foul mood of the eggy-loving scientist was also down to a slight head cold that had developed during the night and those always made him more short-tempered than usual. And having lost his sense of taste, he'd put too much tabasco in his fatty assorted breakfast and his tongue was burning too.
"Well, Eggor. Have you found the little pests? Things had better be going especially well," the madman snarled. "I feel like melting some robots down for scrap today."
"They are just entering the Black Tower," Eggor said hurriedly. "They've crossed the pit and are now trying to figure out how to bypass the next door."
"Well, then, open it by remote control! Let us – ha ha! – let us see how they deal with the traps in there," Robotnik gloated. He was feeling better already.
The Black Tower / Castle Robotnik / South Island / 06: 25 AM
Tails and Sonic couldn't figure out the weird chamber they'd gotten into at all. All over the dusty yellow walls, and on the door before them, were very odd and stylised paintings and symbols. They showed various heavily suntanned animals standing around giant stone pyramids, apparently dancing in very weird zigzag postures.
One such depiction Sonic noted was of a group of five familiar animals being whipped and beaten before the might of the Pharaoh's henchman, namely a lion, goat and snake. It send a shudder down his spine seeing depicts of him and his other FF comrades in such a way, he was thus very glad that Tails didn't appear to have noticed it, for the mental scar it'd induce didn't bear thinking about. It confirmed something in the hedgehog's mind however; Robotnik was pure evil, the very worse of humanity in mortal form.
One thing that was noticed by both parties was that the females seemed to be dressed in very little but wearing their own weight in black and purple mascara, if the shadows around their eyes were anything to by. It all looked very strange, and barbaric.
"Oh look! There's a little doorbell here," Tails said brightly. "There's something written here beside it as well. I can't quite… Oh yes: Toot 'n' come in. Gosh, isn't that friendly?" His tails wagged ever so slightly, for he was easily pleased sometimes.
"Don't be ridiculous," Sonic snapped. "This is somewhere below Castle Robotnik and you think we're gonna be given a gala welcome?" Then he was sorry, for Tails' tails drooped and he looked very miserable all of a sudden, and anything which lightened their spirits would have been welcome, no matter how silly. They were tired now, having been kept awake all night by homicidal maniacs and poetry readers.
"Anyway, I'm not ringing any doorbell," Sonic growled. "You never know when some sort of massive electrical shock is going to go right up one's spines." So saying, he took a flying spinning leap and smashed that door down.
The room beyond was completely bare, except for a pair of very odd-looking metal statues, just about double the duo's height. They had the heads of jackals, not one of Sonic's favourite animals, and the bodies of crocodiles, another of Sonic's unfavoured animals, but they were standing upright. Sonic didn't like the look of them at all, but if he and Tails were going to get to the door opposite them, they were going to have to walk right between them.
"What are they?" Tails whispered.
"Search me, dude, Jackodiles, I guess," Sonic said tartly.
"I've never heard of those," Tails replied, sounding highly dubious.
"Well, then, maybe they're Crockals. I don't know. Who cares? More of Robotnik's creations so I think we should-" He turned to whisper in Tail's ears just as Eggor flipped the activation switch and the statues lumbered into life.
"-make haste, little buddy!" Sonic shouted, expecting this to happen sooner or later, and thus he and Tails were raring to go.
They leapt into the fray, stomping the robots with ease. Sonic's Super Spin was more than enough for one of them, which fall apart rather lamely, and Tails ducked, dodged and finally stomped the other.
"Ha! Child's play! You hear that, you egg lunatic?" Sonic yelled, hoping Robotnik could hear what he was saying. Unfortunately, Eggor had programmed a malfunction into the sound relay circuits. He didn't want Robotnik to go berserk and have him melted down for scrap and ending his encased mortal existence, and so as a result Robotnik never heard a word.
Sonic charged for the next oak door, smashing it into flying strips of wood, before racing down the stone steps beyond. And followed by Tails, he ran straight into Robotnik's next dastardly trap. Above him, he heard a swishing sound and he looked up just in time to see doors swing open in the ceiling and a huge stone ball drop into the stairway. It made a deafening noise as it crunched onto the stone steps, and then began to roll towards them, slowly at first but then definitely gathering speed.
"Yikes! We're going to be squashed!" Tails yelped. As the stone ball got closer, they could see just how huge it was. It virtually pilled the stairway, so there was no chance of jumping over it. There wasn't any side passages along the stairs either so simply stepping to the side, unlike most people tend to do in such situations, wasn't gonna be possible either. There was only one thing they could do: the friends took to their heels and ran like crazy!
"Uh-oh, look out! Time for a pit stop!" yelled Sonic as they came to a screeching halt before another great hole in the ground. It was far too wide even for them to jump across, and they couldn't even see the bottom of it, which considering the earthly looking walls, didn't come as much a surprise to the duo. Safety was an unbridgeable gap away on the other side, why all the while Robotnik's gloating laughter mocked them from unseen speakers.
"Now – ha ha ha! – now we will play my favourite game!" he sneered. "It's not football or racing. It's… Squash!"
"We're doomed! Doomed, I tell you!" Tails panicked as the ball rolled rumbled ever closer.
"Not yet," Sonic growled. He whipped out a length of rope he had secreted about his person. "Those rats tied me up awfully well; I didn't expect to have to thank them for it." He made a noose out of the end of the rope and whirled it across the chasm. It caught something at the other end, and when he tugged it, it held safely.
"Get across, buddy," the hedgehog ordered. "I'll hold this end so you can get on over."
"But what about you? How will you get over?" Tails asked anxiously.
"Dude, this is no time to worry over details. When you get across, just hold your end very tight," Sonic gasped. There was no time to waste so without further ado, Tails gripped the rope with all four paws and scrabbled across the pit to the safety of the other side.
He saw Sonic take the other end of the rope and launch himself just as the stone ball rolled over and down. Oddly enough, there wasn't the tremendous crash Tails had been expecting as the ball hit the bottom of the pit, which he thought must mean that it probably went all the way through to the other side of Mobius. He had a sudden image of a small fox, just like him but wearing a hat decorated with corks and holding a bent stick, peering down a huge hole just like this one, only to be very surprised by a blooming oversized marble which shot up out of the ground at him.
Shaking such a stupid idea out of his head, Tails anchored the rope to safely to the door handle around which Sonic had managed to loop the noose when he threw it. Slowly, he advanced to the edge of the pit to see what had become of his friend. When he got to the very edge, he could see the rope had frayed into a few very thin strands against the ragged rock. If he tugged on it to try and bring Sonic up, the rope would snap. Peering down, he could see only dust and darkness.
"Sonic? Sonic? Where are you?" he called out timidly, a rising edge of panic laced in his voice.
He didn't get a reply.
END CHAPTER
For simple illustrations and some information (which I prepared earlier), click on this link:
Psycho Bunnie - .com/art/Psycho-Bunnie-27331641
I hope you like this little adaptation [with a few twists and stuff of my own thrown in] so far [especially those who had read the original book!].
I'll see ya sometime, somewhere next time folks. *smiley face*
