Sonic Haven Ssn. 1 – Ep. 14

She continued wandering further into the digital space she was now a part of, looking all around her and trying to remain alert for trouble. Nicole took a deep breath, trying to remind herself not to become complacent. No, she hadn't come across any problems yet in Robotnik's computer, but that didn't mean anything really. After all, she was in a rarely used and fairly unsecured part of his system, which explained the seemingly nonexistent security.

The space around her on all sides was just a lot of blankness; grayish and featureless ground with the occasional storage area spiking up from it in a swirling green mass. She always thought that it was interesting how the mind interpreted the digital space from within, especially since she would probably never be able to share this experience with anyone.

As she again started to let her mind drift, and also slowly lowered her guard, she heard something that made her snap back to reality.

"Strange, isn't it?" a voice called from behind her. She spun around as fast as possible, her breath catching in her throat as she tried to identify the source.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing: a young hedgehog was standing not five feet from her. He was green, wore a gray shirt and red pants, and had a pair of red and white shoes to complete the look. He also had a big pair of headphones hung around his neck.

"Who are you?" She asked, trying to understand what she was seeing.

"Hey, how are ya? My name's Tyler, but most people call me Pixel." The hedgehog replied with a smirk.

"Pixel?" She asked nervously.

"Yeah, Pixel. 'Cause, ya know... I'm digital and stuff." He replied.

"Right... Hi. My name's Nicole." She asked, only now starting to wrap her mind around what was happening.

She hesitated a bit before saying: "How did you get here?"

"The same way you did I would guess. Some kind of weird disease where the only cure was to throw me into the computer head first and hope I survived." He stated rather bluntly.

Nicole giggled. "That's a rather straightforward way to put it. Yeah, that's what happened to me too. I had heard that there was another successful test, which was obviously you. But, if you were digitized like me, in the hospital, then how did you end up in Robotnik's system?" She asked, trying to piece together the last of this puzzle.

"Oh, that's an easy one! When I was 'assimilated', my father took me out of the hospital and transferred me into the server at his business where he taught me some things about it so that I could help him out. The rest of my family would come and visit from time to time while I was there, and, eventually I got used to it. But, when the Big Guy took over, he set up shop in my father's old building and reused his servers for his own purposes. I hid for a while before I finally learned how to get around in here without being detected." Tyler explained in a more serious tone.

"I'm sorry, that must've been hard for you." Nicole sympathized. "Do you know what happened to your family?"

"Well, if what happened to everyone else is anything to go by, then I'd say they're probably Robo-zombies by now." He replied.

"I'm truly sorry, I know it was hard for me when Robotnik took over. I can imagine how you probably felt." She said in a somber and empathetic tone.

"Welp, at least it's not boring!" He said back, his chipper tone returned in full.

"Yeah, I'm sure it isn't." She replied with a smile.

"That having been said, how did you get here madam?" He asked her in an overly polite tone, taking a slight bow as he did so.

"Ok, first; never do that again." She said, trying to keep herself from laughing.

"Duly noted, you may continue." He stated quickly, nodding his head.

"I never left the hospital after I was digitized. I stayed there until Robotnik invaded. When I realized what was happening, and that I couldn't stay, I jumped from terminal to terminal until I found a computer in an abandoned subway station. Once I got there, I disconnected the subway computers from the rest of the network, allowing me to stay down there where it was safe. Eventually, a group of individuals stumbled into the subway, and I guided them to the abandoned station where I had located myself. A few weeks later I helped them to take down one of Robotnik's factories, but, in the process, we got separated, and so I had to hide myself in here." She explained.

"And so... here you are!" He said in finality.

"Yep, here I am." She replied with a shrug.

She thought for a moment, then spoke just as the silence started to stale. "Well, since you've been here for a while, could you show me around? This IS Robotnik's network after all, I'm sure there's a lot of juicy stuff to find in here."

"Yeah, sure. Follow me." He replied, gesturing for Her to follow.

She followed Him for a long while before they finally came to a stop in front of a set of screens. Various images were displayed on each of them... Images of the real world.

"Are these security camera feeds?" She asked.

"Yep, straight from the middle of Robotnik's base." He replied with a smile.

"Oh, you shouldn't have!" She said jokingly as she started moving her eyes from screen to screen.

She looked at screen after screen, studying them as best she could and trying to see what secrets Robotnik might be hiding. What she saw on the second screen stole her attention for a couple of moments as she tried to process what was displayed. It was Bunnie, unconscious, and being hauled into a room with those Roboticizing packs hanging ominously on the walls just waiting for someone to be converted.

"Oh no! Bunnie!" Nicole exclaimed. She moved toward the screen, thinking hard about what she could do for her friend.

Pixel looked over at Nicole, watching the horrified look on her face turn into determination. He turned back to the screen to see that the two Robians who'd brought Bunnie into the room had left to get something.

"Alright," Nicole said, "I should be able to shut and lock the doors to that room from here. That should buy Her some time."

"If you do that," Pixel reminded Her, "then Robotnik's antivirus program will know where we're at, it'll be on us in seconds." He wasn't harsh to her, but this was not something to take lightly!

"I have to," She replied somberly, "I can't let Her be turned into one of those... things."

"Alright, I understand." He replied, "But get ready to run! And make it snappy!"

Nicole concentrated, trying to find the controls for the doors in that room. She searched for a moment, then found them! She grabbed hold of a lever, pulling it down and thus shutting the doors in the room. Then she locked them by pressing a button nearby and turned to face Pixel.

"Ok, let's go!" She said quickly as she turned to run away. And not a moment too soon! A large, hulking figure appeared not far away and started running towards them with incredible speed!

"Is that the antivirus?" She asked, her gaze drifting over her shoulder to look at the imposing figure moving ever closer toward them.

"Yep; the last time I had a run-in with it, I barely escaped!" He replied.

"Where do we hide?" She asked, the stress of the situation showing in her voice.

"We don't! Look around, there's nothing to hide behind! We're in an empty space!" He was nearly shouting now, as the lumbering footsteps of the antivirus continued to get closer and louder.

"Then what do we do?" She asked, her eyes becoming wide in fear.

"We jump to another system on the network, follow me!" He shouted over the thunderous footsteps. Then he turned and ran for a glowing sphere not far away. He jumped in without any hesitation, his body stretching and warping before shooting off into the distance as he was transferred to another system on the network.

Nicole did not hesitate either, she likewise jumped in and flashed across a great distance and into another system.