S.O.N.I.C GO!
S.O.N.I.C GO!
GO, GO, GO, GO; LET'S GO!
Sonic Riders; The Fenrir Chapter
Episode 13: Weather the Storm
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With traffic around planet Fenrir being so bad, it was hours before the Blue Typhoon was allowed to dock with one of the service space stations in orbit. Even then it was going to be a while before their number came up to allow them to break orbit and venture down to the planet's surface. The incoming amount of ships was simply overwhelming the planet's ability to handle them and it was getting so bad it was they were almost moving in single file.
Word of the successful defence of Chimera from Confederation forces was welcome news. Apparently, the new weapons deployed would have overwhelmed the defenders had the Diablon not been fighting on their behalf.
"I can't believe the major and the captain would leave of all people." Hare remarked as he, Chris, Helen, Bean and Lieutenant Milford sat in the Blue Typhoon's kitchen area. It was almost continuously busy with the new bustling crew of over sixty. "I mean, Chaotix going their own way I understand; but those two…"
"I guess they've got their own path to follow." Helen sighed, playing with the soup in the bowl in front of her with her spoon. She didn't seem practically interested in eating. The sudden and unexpected jump from Chimera to Fenrir had left a lot of people with lost appetites but still she forced herself to eat enough to stave of hunger.
Bean on the other hand was having no problems whatsoever in downing bowl after bowl of the soup. After being stuck with rations from Com-Fed for so long, this was a divine relief for him.
"Oh this stuff is good." He murmured in delight half dripping the soup out from his beak. "Seems like an eternity since I've tasted anything with real flavour instead of the stale crap." Milford smiled in response.
"I put together a duty roster for everyone and those troublemakers onboard got kitchen duty. Half of them ain't half bad chefs." He explained. "It keeps them too busy to cause any trouble."
"Good call." Chris replied. "Oh but what about Fang?"
"Yeah, I doubt the little scumbags good for anything else besides crime." Hare remarked with a near sadistic grin.
"Guys only got talents for being a low life." Bean added, lifting another bowl to his beak. Milford's own smile only widened.
"Oh I don't know. He did cook the soup you're drinking." The bowl was dropped back to the table and soup came flying across the table striking Hare in the face as the duck spat it out.
"Attention all crew members." Chuck's voice announced loudly over the intercom system. "We have been given Orbit drop clearance and are now attempting to enter the atmosphere." Even as he spoke they all left the ship shift slightly as it uncoupled itself from the space station and began drifting, pulled down towards the world below them by its gravity. "All nonessential personnel please remain seated until further notice; thank you."
Fenrir was so much like Earth just looking at it was heart breaking. It was blue from space, with a thick covering of pristine white clouds across the northern hemisphere. The rings around the planet were larger than those on Earth and as they passed over them, some of the crew looked out the windows to millions of shimmering almost metal like rocks slide underneath. They almost cast a reflection of the Typhoon as it soured over.
The ship gained an orange glow as it met the atmosphere, the friction causing an increased in temperatures around the hull. Chuck, now acting captain, angled the boosters to correct their trajectory and without too much trouble they slid through the atmosphere and began flying at a high altitude.
"That was a sweet ride Chuck, you really know how to handle the old girl well." Sam Speed told him, giving the old man a thumbs up. Chuck smiled grimly.
"I had a lot of experienced flying this crate." He replied. "Ok, we're heading for the capital city at the moment. Once we get there we need Sonic to get himself over to the tournament for his next race." To Chuck's surprise, Sam did not flinch or shudder at the word 'race'. "You're a bit quiet Sam. I thought you'd still be angry with Sonic for competing in tournaments you couldn't hope to." The racer just shrugged as if it wasn't important.
"Nah, I used to but I guess I just sorta grew up. Trying to race Sonic's a good enough pass time, but I'm not doing it to prove a point anymore.
I'm big enough to admit there are something's in the universe even faster than me." Chuck stared at him in disbelief. "What?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Ok, who are you and what have you do with Sam?"
"Ha de ha ha." Was the flat reply.
"Ok, our job is to keep and eye on Eggman and these Babylon Rogues of his." Chuck continued. "That'll be so and Rouge's job. We need to find out what the Doctor's up to with this tournament." Sam saluted. "Meanwhile, I've got to see if I can get a wide range Chaos radar working to see if I can find out if there's a Chaos Emerald on this planet."
Once the Blue Typhoon reached a low enough altitude, Sonic ventured out on deck and defying the harsh winds made his way to the tip of the bow.
Fenrir was not that different from Earth. It had the same blue sky, the same white clouds and even the colour water. As the Blue Typhoon began to descend the hedgehog could make out the ocean below it. A long stretch of dark blue that met with the horizon in the far distance.
Thankfully Fenrir was also have a cooler average temperature than Chimera. Sonic had thought himself melting on that planet. Here he could enjoy a refreshing cool breeze blowing through his quills.
While he stood there admiring the view, his thoughts went back to the others and their reaction to the icon he had shown them. There was no doubt in his mind now that in someway Tails was involved in Dark Oak's elaborate little Emerald scavenger hunt.
It made little sense. Tails had been sent away along with Cosmo through a dimensional warp to some other dimension, or at leas that was what Void had claimed. What was he doing here?
Sonic cast that question aside as not important. The mere fact he was alive, nearby and well was enough to put Sonic in the best mood he had ever been in his life. Now he was told everyone his own depressions seemed to melt away and a smile refused to leave his lips.
A loud roaring reached his ears and glancing up he watched another ship come down hurtling towards him. As it past by a door on its underside opened and an object hurled itself out. Sonic watched it as it plummeted towards him.
"Hedgehog!" A shrill voice declared as Hyper plunged down at him, arms extended and an expression of intense loathing on her face.
"Awww crap!" Sonic had time to shout before the reptilian half-breed tackled him off the edge of the Typhoon.
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"I'm telling you people that girl is after my blood!" Sonic remarked sourly, drying the salt water out of his quills with a towel. "If we hadn't been going over the sea she'd have killed me!"
Finally The Blue Typhoon was docked at the city of Soleanna. It wasn't called the city of water for nothing. It was built on the western coastline of the main continent and the streets were built to allow the sea water to flow in forming canals through the streets. It appeared from the outside like Venice, a sprawling city of red brick buildings and canals. There were even gondolas going back and forth underneath stone bridges that connected the districts.
This was only the downtown district of the city. Quite a good deal of it was as advanced in technology as Metal city on Chimera had been. The only visible difference was that Metal City was completely metallic while Soleanna tried to retain its rustic charm.
The Typhoon itself was at the sea docks. The space port on the other side of the city was full of traffic from the incoming ships and so their vessel had been forced to anchor itself like a normal sea going ship at the pier.
It was early summer here and it was hot. While not as baking as Chimera the loose clothing they had already attained came in handy.
"Maybe it's just your magnetic personality." Amy jested sourly not looking back at him. She still wasn't speaking to him after catching Wave trying to warm up to him. Nor had the loving gazes that Sera would send him occasionally gone unnoticed.
"So Chuck what's that Com-Fed data base have to say about Fenrir?" Hare asked, leaning over Prof. Thorndyke's shoulder as the old man accessed the information about various planets and factions given to them by Darion.
"It's a planet only recently admitted to join the Kingdom of Merchants." Chuck replied. "Its government system is run by a royal family and has numerous trading deals with the Federation."
"What about tourist destinations?" Rouge asked, leaning on his other shoulder.
"Tourist destinations?" Knuckles repeated with a raised eyebrow.
"While I'm here I might as well make the best of it." She retorted with a toss of her head.
"You'll be pleased to know that this planet is a shopper's paradise." Chuck told her. "Traders and merchants from all over the galaxy come here to move their wares. The market here is one of the largest…" He trailed off, noticing that he was now surrounded by girls. Amy, Rouge, Cream, Sera, Helen and Francis were all watching the screen in front of him with a strange anticipating look on their faces.
"You said the magic word 'shopping' Chuck." Sam told him from across the bridge with a grim smile.
"You girls might as well go enjoy yourselves." Sonic told them scooping his Extreme Gear under his arm. "I've got a race to get to anyway."
The ship belonging to the Babylon Rogues was already docked at the space port and had been there for some time before the Typhoon had arrived. Their ship was shaped like a bird like all ships belonging to the Falcon race where. Theirs had a few adaptations from various other vessels Wave had strip-mined over the years.
Jet had monitored the Typhoon's arrival carefully before he grew bored of it and switched his attention to other things.
The documents showing the layout of the various tracks being constructed through Soleanna were laid out across his desk and for the past hour he had been studying each one in detail.
His Extreme Gear laid on a purpose built display harness in the corner, recently polished so it gleamed in the overhead lights.
So far they only had one Chaos Emerald and that was going to get them absolutely nowhere. Eggman needed them desperately and so did Jet. While perhaps the Doctor's and his own agenda's did not meet exactly eye to eye, their common goal was almost the same so that made their alliance bearable.
Jet's eyes wandered away from the papers and over to the object placed on the far end of his desk. It was a dark stone cube about the size of his fist and engraved with rectangular markings that glowed a soft blue. He smiled briefly before turning back to his work.
Without warning the doors to his office flew open and Storm blustered in, slamming the double doors against the wall as he did so. The shockwave knocked a portrait overhanging Jet's chair off the wall. It fell and smashed the Hawk directly on the head, forcing him out of his chair and onto the floor.
"Err, Jet, where'd you go?" Storm asked, looking around. He was sure he'd seen their leader here somewhere.
Jet pushed himself up with one hand, holding the portrait in the other; a clearly extremely angry expression plastered across his face. "Oh there you are."
Jet pressed his beak together to prevent himself from calling his team-mate a series of insulting names.
"Watch what you're doing you dunderhead!" He snapped at him. "This painting the only one of my father. You break it, you bought it!" The painting in his hand showed a Falcon in full admiralty uniform dress standing heroically in front of a galleon class space ship with a cutlass drawn.
"At least learn to knock before entering a room Storm." Wave remarked coming into the room after him as she cast the albatross a sideways glance.
Storm wasn't listening. His gaze was fixed on the cube on Jet's desk.
"Hey it's that key you never let us play with!" He started picking it up and studying it in more detail. "Sure is pretty."
"That's my Father's keepsake." Jet replied, hanging the portrait back up. "Watch it, you break that and I'll break you."
"The key to the Babylon Garden." Wave breathed, looking at it in quiet awe. A central theme in Falcon mythology was the fabled garden hidden within their capital city on their home world of Roc.
Within this garden were reputed to be wonders that could challenge the authorities of god. Naturally it had been pursued by thieves and other assortments of organisations over the years but none of them had ever been able to find it, never mind open the door.
Jet's father had been the first to find the fabled key, reputed to be both the map to the garden and the door that unlocked it. Unfortunately it was still incomplete and at the moment was worse than useless.
Wave reached out for it.
"Uh uh, if you get your greasy little hands on this you'll probably use it in some crazy engineering experiment of yours." Storm remarked, lifting it higher beyond her reach.
"Oh come on, I only want to look at it." She persisted trying to reach it anyway.
"You always say you ONLY want this or that." The albatross stated keeping it out of her reach even when she jumped. "Remember the teaching of the prophet Poola the wise." He raised a finger on his free hand as Jet leaned back in his chair. "Be careful what you wise for. Ultimately, only three true desires will be fulfilled."
"Enough!" Jet snapped now quite bored of their bickering. "Why'd you burst in here anyway?" Storm blinked remembering exactly why he was here.
"Er… the egg head… the egg Salad guy…. no…" He stumbled trying to work with the difficult words.
"The Doctor's here to see you Jet." Wave told him. Storm nodded now remembering Eggman's name.
"Ah yeah, he said it was urgent." He added, shoving Wave aside.
"Stop interrupting. I'm the one telling him." The swallow said angrily.
Someone coughed at the door and the three Babylon Rogues looked up. Doctor Eggman stepped into the room with a bemused expression on his face.
"Am I interrupting anything?" He asked, crossing his arms behind his back.
"Ok Doc, this had best be good." Jet stated coldly. "I'm really not in the mood to banter right now."
"Oh that's a shame." Eggman replied with a widening smile. "Because I've just confirmed the location of another Chaos Emerald." Every Rogue stared directly at him.
"About damn time." Jet managed. "Where is it?"
"As luck would have it, Dark Oak hid the thing on the course being used in the races today." The Doctor said, pressing a button on his wrist watch. A holographic image of the course through Soleanna.
"Ah, good." The hawk said a smile. "The place is crawling with security so we can't fetch it the ordinary way. Storm, you're up next to race. You'll fetch the Emerald during the competition." The Albatross saluted. "Regardless of the Resistance's plans, I don't want that hedgehog in the way." Jet snapped.
"Couldn't agree more." Eggman added with a wide grin.
"Storm, when you go up against him I want that hedgehog stopped in his tracks. Grind him into the dust." The albatross smacked his large hands together, a sadistic expression passing over his face.
"Not a problem boss."
"Once you get that Chaos Emerald make sure blue boy doesn't realize what you're up to. We can't afford for Sonic to get wise to the plan. So no slips ups!"
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No one in Soleanna knew yet just what Sonic looked like, so for now he could afford to relax without fans appearing out of the woodwork to surround him. Flipping down his glasses, Sonic made his way up the central street with his Gear tucked under one arm. Like Metal City, Soleanna was a haven for many different species from many different planets.
There were Reptilians, Falcons, humans and dozens of other species Sonic had yet to learn the name of. As diverse as the crowd was his physical appearance did not attract much attention and he went through the masses unnoticed.
Mingling in with the crowds Sonic managed to learn a lot out the planets history and culture. Chuck had been right in that it had only recently joined the intergalactic community. The king had signed the treaty making them part of the Kingdom of Merchants only five years ago. Since then trade had flooded in, making the royal family insanely popular and incredible rich at the same time.
Culturally Fenrir was a very still in the 1800's and was separated into two religious dispositions. The southerners worshipped of Olympian gods while those in the northern highlands were devote servants of Odin.
Aristocrats ran most of the major business and had estates in and around the capital. They owned mostly everything, including the people who were entitled 'sherf' and included in the deal whenever land was bought or sold. Despite this the ruling class weren't reviled and people actually liked them.
Occasionally he would overhear pieces of gossip being passed around. The main topic seemed to be the tournament and whether or not the listener had tickets yet. However, another piece of information being passed around was that king and queen of Fenrir were going to be attending the tournament in person, despite the queen being extremely great with child.
"She's due any day now." A clerk at a food stall told Sonic when he bought a piece of fruit. "But from what I heard, the queen won't be dragged away from the tournament for anything. She wants to see it more than anything in the world."
"Oh?" Sonic asked, munching down on the apple like thing in his hand. "And why's that?"
"Haven't you heard?" The clerk asked looking taken aback. "Her hero, Sonic the Hedgehog; the Destroyer of the Destroyer himself will be competing." The hedgehog paused in mid bite. "They say he's here on Fenrir already, but no one here really knows what he looks like so where he is right now is anyone's guess." The human smiled grimly. "I couldn't have served him this morning and wouldn't know it."
"Yeah you might have." Sonic replied with a short smile, turning away trying hard not to laugh.
Carrying on through the streets, Sonic made his way to a restaurant overlooking the bay. The sun was shining high in the sky as Sonic sat himself down to admire the view. From here he could see the lagoon on which the city nearly sat and the expanse of ocean stretching off for as far as he could see. While swimming in water was more than Sonic could stand, seeing it from a distance was fine.
"Ah Sonic it is an honour to see you again." The hedgehog nearly panicked and dragged Talos down, placing a hand over his mouth.
"Watch it buddy I'm trying to keep a low profile here." He whispered to the reptilian.
"Sorry." Talos remarked sitting himself down in the seat on the opposite side of the table.
"Nah don't sweat it man." Sonic sighed. "What I'd like you to do is keep a tighter leash on your sister." Talos' eyes grew troubled.
"What did she do this time?" Sonic explained to him in detail how she had leapt from her ship to tackle him off his and into the ocean. "Is that all?" The Reptilian asked.
"What'ya mean, is that all?" Sonic demanded looking a little take aback.
"Hyper can do worse when she really gets going." Talos explained. "The last man who upset her was found locked in a metal container about to be cemented up in the foundations of a building." Sonic shuddered. If the girl was capable of that then she must have been holding back.
"What are you doing here anyway?" He asked. "No offence meant but I weren't you eliminated from the tournament?" Talos spread his scaly lips into a large grin.
"I was. But my sister hadn't. I'm here to see how she does all the way."
"And if she wins the tournament?"
"Actually I hope she doesn't. She's got an inflated ego as it is."
"Head's up all you fair denizens of Fenrir, this is your local intergalactic DJ Piranha giving you a heads up." Both Talos and Sonic glanced over at the radio sitting on the edge of the bar. "Sonic the Hedgehog is in town. His ship, the famous Blue Typhoon can be seen in sitting in the Soleanna bay right now." All the other customers in the restaurant as well as the owner huddled over to the edge to look towards the dock for any sign of the legendary vessel. "For those of you looking for the man himself, be on the look out for a blue dude in a spiky hair style and red shoes."
"Talos, I'll be seeing you later." Sonic remarking making a beeline for the exit before he was quickly pursued by over a dozen people with autograph books waving high in the air.
Passing through the streets with his description being broadcast on radio Sonic was recognised anywhere he went.
Suddenly, the fans were back.
Ducking into an alleyway and slid into the shadows as dozens of people poured out into the streets all declaring; 'he's here, he's here! Sonic's here!'
"As if I didn't have enough problems with fandom on Earth…" He muttered to himself. Fame was sometimes more cumbersome than its worth.
"Well what have we here?" A voice asked. Sonic glanced up and slammed himself back into the wall at the sight. Hyper was standing there before him with her hands on her hips; her long scaly tail swishing back and forth.
"No…" Sonic begged her but the sadistic smile on her face simply grew larger and her eyes more cruel. "Please no…" She whistled loudly attracting the crowd's attention.
"He's over here people, get your Destroyer of the Destroyer merchandise right here!"
As Sonic raced for his life, Hyper watched the pursuing crowds with a smirk of intense satisfaction.