Chapter Ten – Matrix

Sonic had never flown so fast in his life, or as high. He knew with a single battleship, it was a prime target for this number one weapon. The high-speed dive-bomb. He race through the sky as if his life depended on it. Well, not his life, but the lives of everyone on those floating cities. Quite simply, he could not fail. It was a clear day, but Sonic was having trouble seeing as the winds rushed into his face. But he could just make out the floating cities just ahead of him, moving fast towards him. He could see something large, grey and extremely ugly in amongst them. The battleship. Sonic didn't even think and automatically and instinctively ascended virtually upwards. As the air began to dangerously thin, it was his cue to dive.

For the brief second, he looked down, and singled out his target. Then pointed his nose and head straight down, and dived, folding his wings back. The resulting Sonic Boom, announced his arrival but it was to late for the battleship. Faster and faster, Sonic dived. Mach One, Mach Two, Mach Three. He curled up into a ball. The roof of the battleship was getting closer and closer. At the speeds he was travelling, he'd punch straight through it. Destroying it outright. Closer and Closer, faster and faster. Mach Four.

Crunch! He broke through the roof of the battleship and sliced straight through it like butter. The metallic armour and the internal structure of the battleship twisted and cracked with the force of the impact, and the resulting enormous explosion told Sonic that he'd been successful. He'd bust out of the bottom of the battleship, with every intension of pulling out of the dive and away.

But something was wrong. He couldn't pull out of the dive. His body was completely paralysed. He couldn't move. He was falling fast, and feared he might not survive the landing, especially at these speeds. But he did feel very strange. Something sticking into his Direct-Neuro Interface in the back of his head. A long spike with some kind of small circular device on the end. He tried to remove it but failed. Then he saw flashes of light then darkness appear in front of eyes. He immediately recognised it. Someone trying to forcibly yank him to the R.I.N. He panicked. But how? Every time he'd connected to the network, it was always via a wire. This was Wireless Technology. Sonic was stunned. Uncle Chuck had been working on the idea of connecting to the R.I.N. wirelessly but had failed to make it reliable.

But this connection felt extremely solid, like a wire, and then realised with absolute horror that there was only one person in the whole planet who had the technological knowhow to pull this off.

Robotnik!

It was a trap!

The revolting human had been waiting for him. It had all been a division. The battle over Mobotropolis, the battleship here, it had been all a trap to absolutely exhaust Sonic and then lure him here, then to the R.I.N. where Robotnik had the advantage. It was ingenious, and there was nothing Sonic could so to stop it. The flashes of light then darkness became stronger and stronger, until Sonic found himself being finally yanked to the R.I.N., the body falling limp and lifeless.

He landed on his feet in a world, where the ground was made of interconnecting wires like on a circuit board and high speed lights, and a sky of pitch black darkness. This was the Robotnik Intelligence Network.

"So predicable!" A icy voice sneered. Sonic turned around. His digital avatar was exactly of his sixteen year old self, before any final showdowns or mutations. His long, royal blue quills flowing down his back, his large emerald green eyes glistening in the digital lights that surrounded him. His long legs, stood strong and steady with his cherry red shoes with the famous red stripe, gripped to the floor, ready for anything, despite being severely exhausted. His white gloved hands clenched into fisted in reaction to who was speaking.

Robotnik voice sounded exactly as it did, eight years ago. His voice full of malice and utter detest for the Hedgehog, and as Sonic turned to face him, he was looking the exact digital avatar of the old Robotnik. A tall human man of imposing girth with a light complexion. He possessed a bald, conical head, a dark orange and long mustache under his nose and black eyes with red irises. Robotnik is also partially roboticised, resulting in his left arm from the shoulder and down to be completely robotic. Also, in the place of his ears, he has small metallic stubs. He was still wearing the jumpsuit that was red above the waist and black below, with yellow lines spanning up, down and around his body, grey leggings, black-and-red boots. He had wide, red shoulder pas, a black sleeve on his human arm and a yellow cape, and grey gloves. It was almost as though the last eight year hadn't happened, because here on the R.I.N., time stands still.

Sonic couldn't escape. His path out of the R.I.N. and back to his body had been complete blocked. He was trapped. Now facing down an enemy literally on his own turf, with no hope of winning. Robotnik build the R.I.N. (the Robotnik Intelligence Network), he arguably knew it better then anyone. But did Sonic know it better? He had spent years using his super-speed, which did work here, to travel the entire length and breadth of it. Would it be enough? He couldn't just use his super-speed recklessly here, to attack Robotnik, the human would just run rings around him, using the super-light speeds of the R.I.N. itself against him. He had to outsmart Robotnik.

But superior intelligence was not one of Sonic's fortes. To be honest, he was all brawn and not much brain. Robotnik, on the other hand, was a brilliant scientist and a very intelligent strategist. He was going to take some beating. Maybe Sonic could think of something if he could keep the human talking. Face to face with Robotnik, Sonic scowled at him.

"Predicable, am I?" He spat. Maybe he was, but that wasn't for Robotnik to judge. The human leered in return. Then he laughed a cold, hard laugh in return but said nothing. There was a good reason for this. Sonic had been so concentrated on Robotnik ahead of him that he had completely failed to look down. Slowly creeping up his feet and now to his legs, was a black and red sludge that was flashing every so often with white sparks. Sonic absolutely panicked.

A virus.

Robotnik has completely outsmarted him on every level and now he was really trapped, desperately trying to pull himself free from the mass. Viruses were absolutely deadly on the R.I.N. If you were caught in one, you were dead. Fortunately, they were relatively few and far between, mainly due to Robotnik's own antivirus, and tended to meander slowly across the ground, as a large black sludge. For someone of Sonic's speed and reflexes they were relatively easy to avoid. But this virus was different. Sonic had never seen one with red streaks in before and saw how it seemed to move to Robotnik's will.

This was the human's handy-work. A virus written by Robotnik himself, for this one and only purpose. To kill Sonic, and it was winning. The Hedgehog battled against the virus, trying to pull himself free as more of the sludge move up his legs to his hips and torso. He was completely rooted to the spot, he couldn't move and utterly helpless to stop the virus. The human didn't taunt him. He just laughed at Sonic's impending doom, as the sludge moved up is torso towards his neck and arms. If it completely engulfed him, he was dead. His mind and soul would cease to exist and his body would became limp and lifeless. A shell without a Ghost. This wasn't a fight he was going to win. Not alone, anyway. But who would help him? He was completely alone, there was no one here on the R.I.N. apart from himself and Robotnik.

Or so Sonic thought. As the sludge traveled down his arms towards his neck, he saw them. Faces behind Robotnik. A lot of faces, appearing from out of the darkness, moving silently towards them. Then they attacked. Just ordinary people, finally having the confidence to show themselves, armed with nothing more then digital sticks attacked Robotnik. It completely surprised them both. But Sonic was completely stunned. Who were these people and where did they come from? There were thousands of them. Robotnik was completely overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. Sonic himself was sure that not many people had access to the R.I.N. like he could, coming and going as he pleased. Then it hit him hard. Very hard. These ordinary people were trapped here, on the R.I.N., their robotised bodies having perished in the real world.

Sonic was horrified, but now was not the time to stand on ceremony. He needed help and they desperately tried to free him. But the virus was just too strong. It was now travelling up his neck and face, and Sonic was having severe trouble breathing. There was nothing anyone could do and Sonic had all but given up until he saw it. The flashes. The flashes of light then darkness appear in front of eyes again. His heart immediately lifted Someone trying to forcibly yank him back to the real world. Sonic panicked again. Whom ever it was, they didn't have long before the virus consumed him. A matter of minutes.

For the first time in his life, Sonic preyed for a miracle. Preyed that the signal from the real world to get through in time to take him home. The virus now covered all of him apart from his eyes, nose and mouth. Sonic was excruciating pain, but he could feel the signal from the outside becoming stronger and stronger, the flashing getting more and more intense. Within seconds, they would have him out.

But Robotnik knew. He screamed in anger at Sonic's impending rescue, while still fending off the enormous crowd that surrounded him.

"NO!" He spat. "I will not LOOSE!" He shouted and with that he sent a signal to the virus to completely engulf him just at the moment when Sonic was yanked from the R.I.N. The Blue Blur was completely surrounded in darkness, completely disorientated, and then out of nowhere, there was an excruciating pain in his chest. Sonic screamed. It was a though someone had just stabbed him, right through the heart. His back arches backwards with the pain, and unable to take anymore, he passes out. Down into the darkness.

Sonic wakes with a start and immediately bolts upright. Ahead of him was the walls of a room made entirely of metal, it was bare except for a large amount of wiring across the ceiling and an extremely large console in the centre of the room. It rose from the floor to ceiling and was several metres wide. He recognised it. It was the Mutant Movement's Mainframe Computer in Tower City and Sonic was lying on a metal table, back in his old body again.

But all was not well. He may have been back in the real world, having successful been yanked back here by Uncle Chuck, but the excruciating pain in his chest still remained and was getting worse. He doubled over and screamed. His mind was clouding over, he was loosing control, powerless to stop it. He was immediately examined. Uncle Chuck swore.

"It's the Power Rock. It completely corrupting. I can't stop it. Robotnik must have triggered it before I yanked him out of the R.I.N." He panicked. Sonic heard all this and rolled onto his eyes and knees. He knew what it meant. The Power Stone in his chest was turning from emerald green to scarlet blood red, forcing him to loose control. Turning him into the bad guy, absolute evil. As evil as Robotnik himself.

Sonic had to fight. If he turned, Robotnik would win. If he couldn't destroy Sonic, then he'd turn him. Now the whole of Mobius was at stake. If he turned evil, he would destroy everything. He was just too powerful to be stopped.

He had to find a way. Then he felt it. Robotnik's presence on the R.I.N., properly enjoying every moment of this. It seems that his Direct Neuro-Interface hadn't been disconnected from the network. Then he saw a chance. The absolute tiniest of chances.

One chance to save the world.