Semi-Important Authoress' Note: HOLD IT! Before reading this chapter, I advise you to read this note first. Otherwise, you will get confused.
The other day, I innocently checked Sonic the Hedgehog's article on Wikipedia and (you're not going to believe this) apparently, SEGA Sonic's favourite food, according to the Japanese instruction manual for Sonic Advance 3, is…chili dogs too.
And because one of the three things I value in a good fic are consistency, I slightly altered parts of some of the previous chapters so SEGA Sonic would be a chili-dog-loving hedgehog as he should be. Thank you for reading this and have a nice day.
Chapter 12: Cracking Contraptions
He was in a foul mood again.
And she waited patiently for him to calm down, face showing no emotions yet feeling a bit of his rage as well.
She had come, bringing news about the eight Sonic Primes being captured, only to find him livid to the point where he couldn't coherently converse with her. But she had already known that. Their curse made them connected in some way so they felt each others' emotions to an extent.
At last, she felt him begin to calm down, felt him fatigued from all the thrashing. She wouldn't have known otherwise; after all, he was trapped in a large greyish-black egg.
"What is it?" he asked, his voice penetrating the shell of his ovoid prison and reverberating around the sombre, metallic room.
She got down on one knee and bowed, purple cape flowing behind her. "Your highness, the eight hedgehogs have been imprisoned but there is a glitch in our plans."
"And that would be…?"
"Two of them revealed that they don't like chili dogs and the other six mistrusted them immediately. To make matters worse, our making Evil Sonic show up at that particular moment has only deepened their suspicions and Evil Sonic took advantage of this, claiming that the two had been spies that he no longer has a use for."
"Hmmm… That is problematic. We can, after all, only manipulate their actions to a degree."
"I have faith in them though. I know they'll trust again. Now if you please excuse me, your majesty, I must go before my absence is noted." She turned to leave.
It was only when she exited the room that she heard and felt his scream of rage and frustration.
Anime Sonic and Sonic X were not being spoken to. The other Sonics were turned frostily away from them, staring at the grey walls surrounding their egg-shaped prison of electricity in stony silence.
After an hour, the Slow-Mo ray's effects had worn off and they had tried to bust out of their cell, only to be shocked by the yellowish-green barrier. So, for once, they had either taken to thinking of a way out or brooding on the two Sonics' double-crossing.
"Hello, goodie two-shoes!"
They all looked up to see Evil Sonic walk in, lugging behind him a trolley loaded with various gadgets.
"Uh-oh. I know what those things all are!" stated AoStH Sonic, looking warily at the inventions.
"You must be from this world," deducted Evil Sonic. "Yes, these are all gizmos this universe's Robotnik invented. Robo-Robotnik found the blueprints for them and recreated them! What do you think?"
"I think Robo-Egg-Breath is pretty unoriginal," quipped Fleetway Sonic sarcastically.
"Speaking of unoriginal, how did you get the Slow-Mo Ray to work?" asked AoStH Sonic. "I remember throwing the crystal that powered it into a river."
"Easy," answered Evil Sonic. "Robo-Robotnik used his world's technology to improve the Slow-Mo Ray so that it only needed ordinary batteries to work! But enough talk."
Evil Sonic started picking up (or, in the case of the heavier objects, dragging) the weapons off the trolley and placing them near the force field. "You are now officially guinea pigs instead of hedgehogs. And you better hope these things actually work! Otherwise," here, he grinned evilly, "the effects might be irreversible."
"In case you haven't noticed by now, creep," insulted SatAM Sonic with a glare, "we're not slow-moes anymore so we'll be able to dodge anything you throw at us…if you can get them through here!" He pointed at the electric blockade.
"You're forgetting, dummy, that I can move as fast as you. Heck, faster even! And there's not much room to run in that cramped space either. Not to mention, I can open up little holes in the Egg Prison's shell to shoot through!"
He looked over the devices, trying to decide which one to test first. After about a minute, he finally settled on a large, blue, rectangular machine that had a humongous ray gun sticking out on top.
He then walked over to a nearby control panel, adjusted a few dials and a hole big enough to put a fist through appeared in the Egg Prison's energy field.
He sauntered back to the machine and grinned mischievously at the good Sonics. "One of you guys is in for a little surprise," joked Evil Sonic as he activated the blue contraption.
A yellow beam of light shot out and struck SatAM Sonic dead-on, making him emit a yelp of surprise. The other Sonics shielded their eyes from the brightness of the ray until it faded away.
When they uncovered their peepers, they found that SatAM Sonic had seemingly vanished.
"Hey!" yelled Sonic X, turning angrily towards Evil Sonic. "What did you do to him! Where did he go?"
"Relax, he's still around; just a tiny bit altered…not that you'd care, spy! There he is now." He pointed towards where SatAM Sonic had been standing.
The imprisoned hedgehogs looked at the exact spot, yet saw nothing…nothing but a big speck of dust, that is. They leaned a little closer and saw, to their horror, that the 'speck' in question was blue, had spikes and was waving frantically.
SatAM Sonic was now scarcely bigger than a insect.
"Behold, the effects of the Super Shrink Ray! ("Honey, I shrunk the Hedgehog")" announced Evil Sonic dramatically. "Virtually guaranteed to make any do-gooder small enough to squash like the bug he is! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
From his jacket pocket, Evil Sonic took out a comic book. The cerulean villain then looked at the thingamajigs again, picked out and heaved, with some difficulty, a gigantic, aqua-coloured, hairdryer-like gun onto his shoulder.
"Prepare to enter your own little world – literally!"
He tossed the comic book up into the air between him and the other Sonics. At the exact moment that it was between the evil hedgehog and the good hedgehogs, he fired.
The white ray hit the comic book then Archie Sonic. The comic book landed in the Egg Prison, open, and a small tornado formed above it, holding a yelling heroic hedgehog in its grip. The tornado subsequently withdrew into the comic book, taking Archie Sonic with it!
After a few seconds of silence, the lingering good Sonics dared to come closer to the comic book to take a look and saw, much to their astonishment, Archie Sonic in all the panels, running away from a slobbering monster!
"Say hello to the Portable Portal Transporter! ("Sonically Ever After") How many times can you say that fast?"
He set the heavy machine down with a sigh of relief and picked up another ray gun. He looked at it thoughtfully for a moment then abruptly turned and fired it at AoStH Sonic.
A pink bright light enveloped AoStH Sonic for a few seconds then dissipated. For a moment, all he did was blink. Then his face dissolved into a lopsidedly silly grin, his eyes became unfocused and he reached a hand out to touch the Egg Prison's shell. "Ooooh… Pretty."
Needless to say, AoStH Sonic received a big shock as punishment. Nevertheless, as soon as his hand was forced away from the barrier, he touched it again and again, giggling childishly all the while. The other Sonics were too amazed at his behaviour to stop him.
"And that would be the Stupidity Ray! ("Attack on the Pinball Fortress")" proclaimed Evil Sonic. "Capable of making anyone, even you, dumber than they already are!"
Evil Sonic next picked up what appeared to be a yellow wristwatch, minus the hands and numbers. He swaggered right over to the Egg Prison, stuck his hand through the hole, grabbed SU Sonic's hand, dragged it back out and slapped the 'wristwatch' on SU Sonic's wrist.
Immediately, SU Sonic's pupils dilated and he said, monotonously, "Please command me, O most glorious master." The other Sonics gasped.
"That's the Servitude Patch, although it looks more like a watch than a patch, wouldn't you say? ("Sno Problem") Heh heh heh heh. Well, as long as he'll do anything I say, I might as well have a little fun. Hey, you! Touch the Egg Prison's force field!"
Without hesitation, SU Sonic obeyed, not even crying out in pain as the electricity coursed through his body. After a few seconds, like AoStH Sonic, his hand was pushed away and he stood stock still once more, awaiting further instructions.
"If you think he's obedient now, wait 'til he – and the rest of you – becomes a robot! Ha ha!"
Evil Sonic now held up what seemed like a brass horn with a loop in the middle and two buttons on its side. He looked at the buttons in slight puzzlement and placed his chin in his palm.
"Now let's see, was it the blue button or the red button? Hmmm… Aw, what the heck, I'll use both!" He pointed it at SEGA Sonic, pushed one of the buttons and opened fire.
The beam hit SEGA Sonic, releasing from within him a yelp of pain and surprise. He seemed to be getting smaller and smaller…
Then the beam disappeared and the other Sonics gasped. Where SEGA Sonic once was, there sat an adorable baby blue hedgehog, complete with diaper and pacifier. After a few seconds of sucking his soother, he took it out and began to wail horrendously, causing the remaining Sonics, including Evil Sonic, to cover their ears and screw up their faces in pain.
"Grrrr…" growled Evil Sonic. "Shut up, brat!"
SEGA Sonic abruptly stopped crying, startled by the loud noise.
"Good. Now that my hands are free again…" Evil Sonic aimed the gizmo at Sonic X and pushed the other button.
A beam of light later, Sonic X had been aged prematurely, with a grey beard and moustache adorning his wrinkled facial features. Wobbling with uncertainty on a cane, he looked around and stated, "This looks pretty familiar… Didn't I go through something like this here situation sixty-four years ago?"
Evil Sonic was guffawing. "Oh this is just rich! Ha ha ha! (ahem) …Meet the Decrepitizing Ray! ("Must have been a Beautiful Baby") As you can plainly see, it can either rewind or fast-forward time for you!"
Evil Sonic now sat in a seat behind a small cannon that resembled an anti-aircraft gun. He adjusted the angle of the barrel and fired, yelling, "Freeze!"
A sky-blue light hit Anime Sonic and disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. The shrunken SatAM Sonic and Fleetway Sonic could just gape; Anime Sonic had been frozen solid.
"The Insto-Freeze Cannon's pretty cool, wouldn't you say? ("Too Tall Tails")"
"Well, your puns are pretty stupid," retorted Fleetway Sonic.
"Sheesh, how stiff can you get?" asked Evil Sonic as he now swivelled the handle on a grey round contraption with a ray gun attached to the top. He then looked at Fleetway Sonic evilly. "Let's find out!"
The ray gun fired and struck Fleetway Sonic.
SatAM Sonic stared. Fleetway Sonic had been completely transfigured into stone, his features frozen in a look of surprise.
"Last but not least, this is the Stopper Zapper! ("Tails in Charge")"
Evil Sonic looked around at his handiwork; the shrunken SatAM Sonic, the comic-book-trapped Archie Sonic, the unintelligent AoStH Sonic, the obedient SU Sonic, the baby SEGA Sonic, the old Sonic X, the ice-covered Anime Sonic and the petrified Fleetway Sonic.
"What an improvement. (sigh) As much as I like seeing you goodie-two-shoes like this, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to change you all back. After all, it'll be more fun ordering you around and making you do whatever I want when you're robots!"
A few minutes later, Evil Sonic had used the exact same machines to reverse their own effects (except in the case of the Insto-Freeze Cannon; he defrosted Anime Sonic by using a flamethrower).
"Well, guys, it was fun and all. But now I've got to do what I captured you for in the first place!"
He picked the Robo-Transmogrifier up and gazed at it as if it was the neatest toy he had received for his birthday. "When you're robots, I think I'll have you…beat up your pals. Maybe if I'm lucky, you'll still be aware of everything that's going on around you! The more painful, the better!"
The good Sonics looked at him in rage, at least one part of their bodies clenched in anger. Nobody noticed that the tips of Fleetway Sonic's spines were beginning to glow a yellow colour.
"And after your friends are Robo-Transmogrified too, I'll have you tear them apart, put them back together and tear them apart again!"
Fleetway Sonic's spines were starting to curve upwards.
Evil Sonic aimed the device at the good Sonics. "Say sayonara to your free will, losers!"
With the exception of Fleetway Sonic, whose eyes were becoming red, the other Sonics closed their eyes, now knowing very well that there was no way they could dodge the ray. They waited for the sound of the Robo-Transmogrifer firing.
Bonk!
"Oof!"
Clang!
Thump!
Mystified by the unexpected sounds, they opened their eyes and beheld quite a sight.
Evil Sonic was out cold on the floor, a large bruise on his head courtesy of the grate that was covering him. And standing on top of the grate, was another Sonic who was dressed in yellow, orange, black and white skin-tight clothing.
The eight Sonic Primes gawked in silence for a second before Fleetway Sonic pointed and shouted, "Hey! I know you!"
"Hmmm…" she mumbled. "So close and yet so far. No matter. He will become Super Sonic sooner or later. I'll make sure of that as much as I can."