The asterisk (*) symbol used once signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.
*Dear Chairman,
Please come get me. I want to come home.
Sincerely,
Amy
That's all the letter said, but it clearly sent the message to Sonic as to what Amy wanted. This hedgehog was already homesick. Sonic looked at the handwritten date on the letter, revealing that she had written it just one day after she was sent to the military camp. Little did she know that the letter didn't get here until three days after she had sent it. She was probably falling apart by now.
"Sonic? Is that for me?" The Chairman asked from behind him. Sonic nodded and handed the letter to him. The Chairman squinted at the letter as he read it, and it didn't take long for his eyes to well up with tears.
"That poor, precious child," he whispered. Sonic nodded again, looking down at the ground. It had been a week since the victory at Ivo-Land, and it hadn't taken very long for things to start falling apart again. W.L always seemed unreadable, but W was acting strange. Somehow, he had miraculously recovered, stating that he had seemed to feel so much better one day, and that he didn't feel sick at all. As for Luigi, he looked to be scared of W and W.L every time they passed by him. Ivo also seemed to be holding back from ambushing them. There were only a couple different villages with a military G.U.N. presence there, and the Heroes were doing everything they could to chase them out.
"You better go talk to Amy personally," the Chairman finally said. Sonic's eyes darted up at him.
"I don't think I'm the best…guy to go talk to her," he admitted. The Chairman smiled and put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You're her friend, you were the only one that was really there for her," he pointed out.
"She betrayed us," Sonic said. Neeko sadly shook his head.
"We have already been over this Sonic, it wasn't exactly as much a betrayal as it was just the fact that she was working for Robotnik from the beginning and that was all she knew. She has started over." Around the Chairman's neck, he now wore the necklace with the chipped piece of meteorite. When Sonic and Amy had asked him a couple days ago, shortly before Amy had left, why he did that, he only said that he was "just carrying Amy's burden" and that he would continue to do that to the end of his days.
"Sonic," the Chairman snapped Sonic out of his thoughts again. Finally, Sonic sighed.
"Fine, I'll go see Amy," he decided.**
*Onboard The Shunned Dealer, the Commander reluctantly slid his ID card into the slot, allowing him to enter Ivo's lab. The room felt gloomy, with the roboticizers lined up against the left side. He could see the control panel at the center of the room where that hedgehog Sonic had almost roboticized Ivo. On the right side, sitting on a tool bench was a shivering, loathsome Ivo Robotnik. He wore a red lab suit now with a black suit underneath that extended down his legs. His only skin arm clutched his roboticized arm, and curiously, like the flesh arm, it shivered as if it was human flesh.
"It is so cold. I cannot feel any heat in this arm, and the aching pain inside is only getting worse," Ivo moaned. The Commander, not sure what to do, cautiously approached him.
"Perhaps we could fix it, we're still trying to find a way to reverse the effects," he informed.
"Very well, Commander," Ivo said, his voice thin, and it trembled terribly, "the pieces…the pieces of the meteorite all fit perfectly. We only need the one now, the one that that traitor Amy has."
"How do you propose we take it, sir?" The Commander asked. Ivo winced, obviously from pain.
"We will invade what used to be my empire, I will take back what's rightfully mine, even if it hurts Amy. I will take her and reprogram her so that things like this do not happen again. Commander, ready your troops, when I give the word, you will attack the land that is rightfully mine…" Ivo ordered, but was cut short by a fit of weeping and chuckling. When he chuckled, it didn't sound like him at all. Not wanting to point that out though, the Commander straightened up and nodded.
"Yes, sir, just give me the word when you're ready, and my men will already be set," he assured, and he walked out of there as quickly as possible. At the door, he turned back to see Ivo muttering to himself.
"I hate him…I hate…hate…hate, hate him!"**
*"Robotnik has gone mad," the Commander said to Koopa in a corridor onboard the same cruiser. Koopa did not answer right away, however.
"For the last week, Robotnik has talked to himself, raged for no particular reason, and his latest projects…" The Commander persisted, but Koopa held up a hand.
"The sooner Project 60 is taken and the Heroes are wiped out, the better," he replied. The Commander clenched his hands into fists.
"You don't understand, there is not a lot of that man left! He breathes like a cyborg, his heart is part robot, and his voice, it's changing, like a mad genius!" He shouted. Koopa, however, did not budge or change his expression.
"Precisely. He will not last long, and then I will take over in his place," he vowed.
"I don't have plans for that reptile man! My allegiance is not with you. I want to go back to earth. It was a mistake coming here," the Commander said. Koopa smiled.
"You will get what you want, after Dark Gaia splits this world apart and we leave before we're caught in the destruction," he assured. The Commander grunted.
"I hope you're right," he said.**
*Sonic ran, his feet sending him soaring faster than the speed of light across the green field. He wore a red robe that he had worn in the past five years, which were the only years of his life he could remember. For the past five years, he had been alone in a small hut, being taken care of by a reptilian anteater, whose name he had never actually learned. Then, once Chairman Neeko found him while he was running through the woods, the anteater had, without hesitation, allowed Sonic to join the Heroes. He had treated the Chairman like he was a very close friend, and the Chairman had acted the same towards the anteater.
Shaking himself out of thoughts of his past, Sonic saw the military camp ahead of him, which was the small village of Liberty. The Heroes had found the village completely deserted, and so had decided to use it as a military camp for trainees and new recruits. What was special about Sonic however was that his abilities were so great, the Chairman believed that there was no reason to send him there. The security patrol outside the village saluted Sonic without demanding who he was, or show an ID. Everybody within the Heroes knew who he was.
"Welcome Sonic, why have you come?" One of the guards asked.
"It's Amy, is she here?" Sonic asked. The guard frowned and looked at the others standing with him.
"Yes, but she doesn't want anyone to see her, she's…"
"She'll want to see me," Sonic insisted, and walked past them. Nobody tried to stop him.**
*Sonic finally found Amy's private quarters in the recruits' lodge. Slowly approaching the door, he buzzed the bell. Before he could take a deep breath, the door was flung open from the other side, and he found himself facing a red-faced Amy.
"I told you to leave me alone!" She screamed. Sonic backed away, putting his hands up in surrender, but Amy, seeing him, immediately calmed down.
"Oh Sonic, I'm so sorry, please, come in," she begged. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sonic followed her into her quarters. It was only one room with a bed and table with a few papers and pens. Sitting on the edge of the bed was a rabbit wearing a light red suit, and Sonic then finally realized that Amy was wearing a similar thing, except it was a darker red. In the rabbit's arms, she cuddled a small, blue creature with small arms, and small wings on its back. It made a squeaky purring sound as it slept.
"I read the letter that you sent," Sonic said. Amy looked down at the floor, her foot moving across it nervously.
"Yes, I want to go home," Amy confessed. But Sonic shook his head.
"That may be so, but while you're here, you might as well finish what you started, then, the return home will be better, because you get to go back to the Chairman knowing that you've accomplished what he desires from you," he said.
"If I stay, will you stay with me?" Amy asked. Sonic smiled.
"Well, there's not much adventure to find here, but if it will make you feel better, then yes," he said. Amy grinned and ran over to Sonic and hugged him. Sonic reluctantly returned the embrace. Once they finally detached, Amy turned to the rabbit.
"This is Cream and her Chao, Cheese," she introduced.**
*"Make sure all the security codes are accounted for, we'll need to be able to fight through the guards and get in without extra security pounding us down," W demanded as he stood over a nervous Luigi. Luigi worked on hacking into the Chairman's computer SEGA-64.
"Did the Chairman give you permission to gain access to these codes?" The computer asked.
"You don't have to worry about a thing, we just need to take these codes and get out of here," W insisted. Finally, the last code was downloaded into W's datapad.
"Good. Now erase the computer's memory that we downloaded the codes," W said to W.L, who stood next to him. Without hesitation, W's brother injected a chip into the computer's system, and Luigi programmed it to forget everything that had happened in the last ten minutes.
"Now, program the last thing we discussed," W ordered. Luigi shot up from his seat.
"I'm not doing it!" He shouted. W stood back in mild alarm, but recovered quickly.
"Why, Luigi, you can't seriously think that there is another way of doing this? W.L, you do it then," he demanded. W.L nodded, and after the work was done, the computer beeped in approval.
"Self destruct in 13:00 hours."**
NOTES: With the start of a new 'season', other characters from Sonic games are introduced (though, it's more of a nod rather than introducing characters for big parts). As the story series takes a large step towards the ending, it's important to set important pieces to set up the events at the end.
Nick's development in the story reveals a slow transition into madness, similar to Eggman's behavior. This was fun to do, to show a steady transition into that position.