Sonic and Collin were trying their more creative sides out in the woods one sunny day. Sonic was using his spin attack to carve his friend Antoine out of wood, while Collin used a simple carving knife. The two statues were almost done, Sonic's being the larger one and more statuesque, while Collin's was more like a model or action figure one kept on a shelf. The details on both figures was almost perfectly accurate, as the heads only needed to be finished.
"Hold still while I carve your blockhead…" Sonic smirked before correcting himself as his cousin glared at him ruefully. "I mean, your head from this block, Antoine."
"How ezz zis, Sonic?" Antoine asked as he posed. Both Sonic and Collin were doing quite accurately on their respective carvings, despite the size difference, and Sonic's supposed dislike for their French comrade.
Tails noticed Bunnie and pointed out what the older boys were doing. "Sonic has found a way to combine his Sonic Spin with his artistic skills, Bunnie!" He then pointed out Collin. "And Uncle Collin is making a miniature version of him!" Collin merely gave a small nod and wave before continuing his work. "Sonic can shape a block of wood, a boulder, or even a piece of clay into a statue in seconds!" Since Tails and Collin were usually the artists of the group, Tails was pretty impressed with their work.
"SONIC, STOP!" came a shout. Sally and Rotor came running up to them in a tizzy.
"What the…?" Sonic was startled so much that he accidently buzzed off the head block. "Sally! Rotor! You made me ruin Antoine's statue…" Sonic scowled before putting up his façade that he didn't really care. "Even if it is an improvement…"
Collin, having been used to getting sudden interruptions, merely looked up at his cousin with a curious look, noticing the pre-teen's hesitation. 'He's growing up… huh…' He then continued, unconcerned with the princess and inventor's worry, at least not physically. Mentally, he was already trying to figure out what they could be concerned about.
Rotor felt a bit bad that he had screwed up Sonic's cool statue of Antoine. "Sorry, Sonic." Tails was chuckling a little while Antoine was looking at the traumatizing image of himself without his head that was displayed right in front of him.
"Never mind that, Sonic! Rotor and I just came back from a reconnaissance mission outside Robotropolis!" Collin stopped carving and looked up at the younger Freedom Fighters now. He didn't like it when they went off near that city without him, but he knew better than to think he could truly stop them. This was a war, and peace as they had this morning was just something to take while they could. "That mad tyrant Robotnik has built an orbiting space weapon called Robostorm! It can fire a series of powerful rays at our planet," She was panicking at this point while Collin came over to the group, pocketing his tools. "And Roboticize any living being within a hundred mile radius!"
"It can also cause your TV set to only tune to infomercials!" Rotor adds in.
Collin rolls his eyes. Antoine is confused at this. "How do you know all zis, Princess?"
"We saw the space weapon and overheard Robotnik bragging about how he invented it!"
Tails growls. "He probably stole the idea from a comic book!"
Collin furrows his brow as he puts on his cloak that he had been sitting on. 'Or from the defense systems that the king had been trying to bring online before we convinced him it was a bad idea.'
Sonic growled as well. "We've got to stop this Robostorm from being launched or we're all history, dudes!"
"I have a plan…" Sally points out, "But we'll have to get past a team of Swatbots!"
"Hey, no Swat…" Sonic chuckles. "I mean, no sweat, man!"
Later, just outside Robotropolis…
Collin had managed to take a quick run to his room in Knothole and grabbed his green armor, which had once been his simple sports gear. He used the rocket skates to catch up to the team just outside the city as they spied on a large space machine that looked like the head of Robotnik. "Well that's going to give me nightmares…" He grumbled.
"Robotnik really loves himself! Everything he builds looks like him!" Bunnie pointed out.
Sally looked to the two cousins. "How can we get rid of all those Swatbots, Sonic?" Collin rolled his eyes which were barely hidden by the visor of his hedgehog shaped helmet.
"By moving so fast that only one bot at a time will see me! Watch…" Sonic zoomed off while Collin merely smirked and watched his cousin at work. He had learned early on that it was best to see what Sonic could do before jumping in and ruining anything by getting in his way. It didn't take too long for Sonic to have the bots chasing him. Sally lead the team in while Sonic was distracting them.
Inside Robostorm…
"Start sabotaging the main circuits, guys!" Sally called out as the team started messing around with the equipment in the ship. Collin and Rotor causing the most trouble right away.
"The Circuits?" Tails asked. "Oh, boy! Where are the clowns?"
Antoine rolled his eyes. "You are the only clown around here, Tails!"
Collin chuckled. "I'd be Lion if I didn't think this was an interesting learning experience." He kept moving quickly through the computers, attempting to gather data as well.
"Speaking of clowns…" Sonic pointed out as he spotted Robotnik and Junior coming towards them. "Here comes a real Bozo!"
Collin looked up for a second while the others went over to check. "Scrap Metal!" He started to change where his attention was and started to check flight capabilities since they had mostly been focusing on destroying the Robotosizing process.
"…Yes, Junior, this is truly the nastiest, most evil, vile and beastly device I've ever invented!"
"Congrats, Pops!" Junior smirked.
"Thank you, son! Just think how the Freedom Fighters and that pest, Snively, will feel when they're suddenly Roboticized by a blast from Above!" Robotnik chuckled darkly. "That is, if they're still able to Feel anything, hahahahahahohohohoho!"
Junior noticed something as his overlander father was busy laughing. "Pops! The Swatbots who were guarding Robostorm are gone…" Robotnik snapped out of it and looked. "And the door is Open!"
"Someone is INSIDE!" Robotnik growled as he started to move. "I'll Crush them! I'll Annihilate them! I'll…" the Robostorm suddenly blasted off, covering him in soot. "I'll get a new space suit... smokey black just isn't my color!"
Junior looks at him with a small bit of amusement before reverting back to normal. "May I suggest that we pursue them, your Sootiness?"
Soon…
"It's cool that we escaped in Robostorm, Collin, but how can we Sabotage it while we're in it?" Sonic asked while the team were looking around. Collin and Antoine were looking at the monitors with him, being two of the better pilots. Rotor was checking through to see what they could repair that wouldn't allow the Robotosizer effects to still work. Tails and Bunnie were looking outside at the starry space outside of their ship. Sonic and Sally were standing next to Collin as he quickly learned the controls and steered the ship.
"We can't, Sonic." Collin growled. "That's why I'm trying to take us back to another part of Mobius so that we can land, take this thing apart, and then get home."
Bunnie was looking at the starry sky with wonder. "Just Look out there, Sugar! Isn't out space Awesome?"
Tails gulped as he looked around the planets. "It's kind of scary, Bunnie… I feel like we're trapped inside a giant gumball machine!"
Collin merely explained what he knew, which was part of what was keeping him calm. "Those gumballs are actually the one hundred moons and planets that orbit our planet and the sun, Tails! In the days before the days of fire, there was only one moon and a set of planets. The planets used to follow around the sun. The days of fire caused a universal problem with lack of regard towards anyone in general. I don't quite know what caused it, but I'm very familiar with the results, and ten to one says that one of my ancestors from before the days of Fire is probably to blame…" He grumbled.
Suddenly, the entire crew of the ship were tossed all over the place as they were blasted by something.
Sally and Collin were the first to recover and get up. "What happened?" Sally asked as she clutched her head. "Is everyone all right?"
"I'm okay, but this scene is upside down!" Tails groans as he is upside down.
Collin races quickly to the monitor with Robotnik's overlarge face on the screen. He ignores the crack in his helmet's visor as he looks into the black and red eyes that glare at him.
"I just drained all the power from your ship!" Robotnik gloated. "Now I'll either tow you back to Mobius and roboticize you…" He grinned deviously. "Or I'll leave you to drift in space forever!" He started to cackle as Collin's eyes widened and tried to think of a way out. He had them!
Part 2"Sonic the Hedgehog…" Robotnik started out loudly and then addressed the others as though they barely mattered, "And the rest of you, my future slaves…" Collin growled. "Prepare for your Last Ride!"
Sonic pointed something out to Collin. "Look, Collin! The control panel says that there's still some auxiliary power left…"
Sally was already cutting him off. "Sonic, it's only enough for a short distance, we're thousands of miles from Mobius!"
Collin had already gotten an idea. "True, but if I can get us to one of those moons, we might be able to figure something out!" Collin hit some buttons and started moving fast enough that he seemed almost as fast as Sonic for a moment! "Hang on, children!"
Robotnik noticed the ship flying off towards a moon and shouted. "JUNIOR! Get after them! The Freedom Fighters are escaping! Catch them!"
Sally pointed out the planet they were heading straight towards. "That moon is straight ahead and nearest, boys!"
Tails was nervous. "I suppose it's too late to mention that I prefer striped moons to polka-dots ones!"
Collin's eyes widened in fright as he noticed something. "Scrap metal!"
The group turned to him, as that was his phrase for when something went wrong. "What is it, Uncle Collin?" Tails asked worriedly.
"Brace yourselves, children, we don't have enough power for a soft landing!" The group instantly grabbed onto anything they could. "Hold tight! We're going to crash!"
That was what had been thought. Imagine the surprise on all the Freedom Fighters when they went Splatt! Instead!
They had all been shaken up, but they were fine, nonetheless. Collin immediately started to use some of his supplies from his bag to patch up the cracks in his helmet. Sally was the first to speak up. "Whatever happened to crash?"
"We didn't crash, we sunk!" Tails exclaimed.
"Sank!" Sonic added.
"Sinked!" Antoine joined in.
"We're almost totally submerged in mud!" Bunnie gasped.
"You mean muck!" Rotor put in.
Collin quickly finished adding bandages along his armor to keep what oxygen he could in, as well as pressure. "This is the legendary moon known as Muckury! It's entirely covered with muck!" He then placed the helmet onto Tails. "You're going to need this, Tails. The air is to thin to breathe for any length of time!"
"Guess we'll have to stay together through thick and thin then, huh?"
Antoine shook his head. "No, Tails! We will have to stay here until I can think of somezing clever!"
Collin was too busy running around the ship looking for anything useful at this point before Sonic interrupted him. "Sorry, Twan…" The blue hedgehog pointed out something in the window. "I don't think Robotnik will wait that many years!"
"Worse than that, Sonic. My research on space leads me to believe that without pressurized suits, we'll only last a few minutes…" He then bit his lip with a grimace. "Some of us will perspire faster than others…" Sonic looked at the overlander with great concern as he realized that once again, the Mobian Species had a one up on his cousin. "Sonic, relax, we just have to think of a way out of this…" The ship that Robotnik and Junior followed them in just transformed into a mechanical robot with no arms. "And we should evacuate before we become a football…" He frowned and pursed his lips. He had no idea how to get out of here fast enough.
Sonic took a gamble though. He grabbed Collin's helmet and set it back on the overlander's head, making sure it was sealed before opening the door. "Hold your breath everyone!" The group had only just managed to get out and away as the transformed ship of Robotnik kicked the Robostorm.
They didn't get far before Robotnik and Junior followed them out, the two of them having oxygen tanks and pressurized suits, though only Robotnik needed it out of the two. "GET THEM!"
With the Freedom Fighters…
The group was doing their best to make it away from the ships through the muck. Collin was having the most trouble, despite being the only one to have a suit of any sort on. He was feeling light headed as he trudged through, ignoring his own problems though to focus on getting the Freedom Fighters back to Mobius.
The others were having trouble as well. Sally was already gasping for breath as Rotor helped her along. "We can't last very long in this thin air, Sonic!"
Rotor agreed as he pulled her out of some muck. "And we won't get far in this muck!"
Antoine even knew the correct expression! "We are in zee deep trouble!"
Tails agreed on that. "You can say that again." He groaned as he lifted his sneakers out of the muck.
Sonic was the first to spot Robotnik coming towards them in some sort of tank. "Here he comes, dudes! There must be a way to stop this guy! He's got to have a weakness!"
"Ego…" The group looked towards Collin, seeing he was barely able to stand at this point, but somehow was still going. "H…his biggest…weakness… has… has always… been… his ego…" the short overlander then collapsed, Hedgehog Armor and all, into the muck. They were running out of time!
Sonic growled in despair before he understood what he had to do. "Help Collin. I've got this." He started spinning as fast as he could, molding the muck into a shape. "I have just enough energy left for one last super sonic spin!"
The plan worked as Robotnik was soon hypnotized by what he thought to be the most magnificent thing he had ever seen; a giant version of him made out of mush! The fat man was stupid and had foolishly come closer to it just as the muck started to give way, landing on him in a large mound!
The group quickly made their way to Robotnik's ship that he had arrived in; Sonic clearing the path while Rotor carried Collin, and the rest following close behind. Junior meanwhile had to start digging his creator out of the muck. Rotor found the oxygen tanks and quickly hooked Collin up to one as Sally and the others started the take off process. Rotor had taken off Collin's helmet in order to attach the oxygen mask and was surprised to find a green light emanating from the overlander's chest. Rotor cautiously took off the rest of Collin's armor, hoping to help him with his breathing, but could find no trace of the green light that had disappeared after the Oxygen Mask was attached. Rotor decided he'd ask about that at a later date, simply happy to see their friend was breathing alright again.
Collin regained consciousness just as the group landed the strange ship, but was still quite weak. Sonic and the others brought him back to his cave and made sure he took his medicine before setting him in his bed of leaves, as the young overlander didn't really make himself a better bed.
The next morning, Collin made his way to the dining room that the Freedom Fighters ate in and grimaced as Rotor asked why no one was eating the breakfast that he had made. Sonic was the first to explain. "No offense, Rotor, but couldn't you make us something besides Mobian Mush?"
Sally agreed as she still felt queasy from yesterday's adventure. "Even Robotnik got mushy when we made him flat as a pancake!" Collin snickered quietly as he pulled out some ingredients to make biscuits.
Tails was dreaming about pancakes when Collin got their attention. "Why not we hold off on the Mobian Mush for a few days… maybe weeks? I can make us some biscuits and jam for breakfast instead."
The Freedom Fighters looked at him with relief, in more ways than one and all agreed. They even helped him to cook and clean up afterwards.