Chapter 5: If it Polices You
Some time after the Tornado-1 had crashed, Sonic, Tails and Chip had arrived in a small country town named Fernstone situated on a remote Northern island.
They had no real memories of how exactly they had managed to find the town or how long it had taken them. Without Tails handheld computer, the Miles-electric, they'd had no access to a map or GPS and thick clouds blocked out the stars at night, ruining any chance of astronavigation so the three of them were incredibly relieved to stumble across not only civilisation, but the exact place they were aiming to get to. The whole ordeal, strangely, had pretty much been forgotten by them all, as soon as they reached Fernstone. It was just a murky puddle in their memories if they thought hard and tried to recall any of it. Sonic had put his memory loss down to tiredness from his regular physical transformations so didn't mention it. Tails had assumed his memory loss was down to his experience with Dark Gaia, and had also said nothing about it. (He had also considered the possibility of concussion but that was dismissed after he ran a few tests on all three of them.) Chip, already suffering with the loss of his memories beyond meeting Sonic was not surprised at a few more memories disappearing. He had felt exhausted with hunger after their food had ran out and kept his complaints to himself since the mood between them all was pretty grim for a while.
It had been early that morning when they had arrived in the town and booked themselves into a small bed and breakfast. Sonic had fallen asleep, so Tails and Chip had gone out looking for someone who could help repair the Tornado-1. Unsurprisingly, there were no aircraft repair workshops around but a local mechanic had pointed them in the direction of a farmer on the outskirts of the town who used to own a small plane. The farmer was able to order the parts they required to fix the Tornado-1 but they'd take nearly two weeks to be delivered. Two weeks of the heroes being stranded in this remote corner of the world would give Eggman a seriously good chance at succeeding with his insane schemes. There was no way they could remain here for that long. Once they'd got what they needed here, they'd probably have to find a ferry to take them to the nearest mainland so they could hop on the next airline back to Spagonia. Tails decided he would come back to fix his plane once Sonic, Chip and himself had finished saving the world. Tails had left a message for Professor Pickle to call him back as soon as possible, hoping he could help get the parts shipped quicker.
Right now the three friends were sitting at a wooden table outside a quiet tavern.
"It's quarter to four. He's nearly two hours late," Tails stated. His head sunk down onto his folded arms as he stared through the rows of empty glasses in front of him.
"I'm getting hungry," groaned Chip, "Can we get some food before I waste away?"
Tails raised an eyebrow at his small friend, who had splayed himself dramatically across the table. He could have sworn Chip polished off an entire king size bar of chocolate with nuts and caramel only half an hour ago.
"May as well, " he said, "Wanna order here or go for pizza or something? Sonic...?"
The hedgehog's response was a loud snort.
"I think he's sleeping," said Chip, poking at Sonic's legs which were resting on the table.
Tails lifted up the polaroid sunglasses on Sonic's face to reveal the hedgehog's closed eyes.
"Yep," he said,"May as well order something to eat here. The smell of food should wake him up anyway."
"I hope Dr Lantroe shows up soon. What if something's happened to him?" Chip fretted.
Tails took a piece of paper from his bag and unfolded it. For the eighth time that day he read aloud the neatly scripted hand writing:
"Dear Mr Sonic the Hedgehog,
My name is Dr Lantroe. I work at the National Museum of Ancient History in the town of Fernstone. (Full address is supplied overleaf.)
I understand you are working with your friends to solve the world wide crisis regarding Dark Gaia. I have done much research into the matter and believe I have valuable information to help you defeat Dark Gaia and resolve your transformation problem quickly. A verified copy of my credentials are enclosed.
I will meet you in the garden of the Frog and Whistle public house. I will be there every afternoon from 12:30pm til 2pm.
Please come without haste. I fear Dr Eggman may catch wind of my research and attempt to steal it from me. I only want to help the world.
Regards,
Your friend and ally, Dr Lantroe"
"We're definitely waiting in the right place...but he was worried about Eggman," said Tails, "I think the doc may have got to him after all."
"Did someone say Eggman?" Sonic yawned loudly and peered over his shades at his two friends' anxious faces.
"Yeah. Do you think Eggman could have kidnapped Dr Lantroe. He's still a no show," said Tails.
"Another kidnapped science dude? That egghead's gonna get his face scrambled."
The hero stood up to stretch and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He was itching for some action after a quiet day in the country town. After Tails and Chip had returned from their trip out that morning they had taken a leisurely tour of the town. So far they'd had fun running through the narrow cobbled side streets and hidden underpasses and admiring the quaint old cottages, rose gardens and gift shops. They'd stopped to sample locally brewed drinks, home baked pies, pasties and puddings at almost every tavern, bar and cafe. The people here were friendly enough but, annoyingly, almost everyone they'd met had said something about how unusually pleasant the weather was for this time of year. At around 12:30 in the afternoon, they'd found the designated place to meet up with Dr Lantroe.
With the warm sun shining low in the sky and the quiet calm atmosphere of the tavern garden, it hadn't taken long for Sonic to drift into a light sleep. At some point during his nap, his dreams had evolved into some strange adventure in which he kept grabbing at Shadow the Hedgehog with his stretchy werehog arms but somehow Shadow kept moving further away and wouldn't stop staring at him with those glowing purple eyes. Weird. Very weird. Thank goodness he'd eventually been roused by Tails' and Chip's conversation.
"Let's head to the museum. Maybe there will be some clues as to what happened." Tails popped the letter back into his satchel and stood up ready to leave. "Or maybe these police have got something to say about it."
Sonic and Chip turned heads to follow Tails' gaze. Two police officers in uniform were approaching them from across the road.
"Sonic the Hedgehog? one of them called out.
"The one and only," Sonic answered with a grin, which then fell into a frown as soon as they were in front of him.
The officer that had spoken was a tall anthropomorphic dog. Her dark brown eyes glared at him and one of her gloved hands hovered above a pair of gleaming silver cuffs hanging on her belt. She exuded authority while her partner, a young human, held his hands behind his back and smiled firmly.
"I'm Sergeant Berry and this is Sergeant Quint. Would you please accompany us down to the police station?" the canine officer asked, indicating a white and blue patrol car parked nearby.
"Did I do something I shouldn't have?" Sonic was feeling just a tiny bit nervous now but that was silly. He was a hero, not a criiminal. But he could sense a quiet fury underneath Sergent Berry's strict and serious manner and it made Sonic feel like she wanted to slap the cuffs on him there and then and drag him to the nearest prison cell. He'd felt the cruel wrath of the authorities before and he wasn't eager to repeat the experience.
This time the human spoke up, "We um.. need to question you about something important."
Sonic wasn't convinced. He suddenly wanted to run fast and run far.
"Is this about Dr Lantroe?" asked Tails.
Quint glanced at his partner but said nothing.
"Are you going to comply?" Berry asked almost threateningly, ignoring the fox boy.
Sonic looked questioningly at his friends, unsure if he should go along with whatever was happening right now or bolt.
"Maybe we can all go?" Tails said.
"Just the hedgehog. For now." Berry didn't even look at Tails, her glare fixed on Sonic.
The hero frowned at Berry for a few seconds, then shrugged and held up his wrists, "Ok, Sarge, I'll go where ever you want.
"Very wise of you." Berry made a move to pull out her handcuffs but Quint stepped in between and motioned for Sonic to move his arms back down.
"Ah…" he flustered, "You're not under arrest!"
"Go to the museum and find out what happened to that Lantroe dude," Sonic said to his friends as he followed the two police officers. "And don't worry about me I'll be fine!" He shot them a quick smile before disappearing into the patrol car with Quint.
Sergeant Berry stayed behind and watched the car until it was out of sight. She then returned to the table where Sonic's companions were waiting with troubled expressions.
"Mind if I ask you two lads a few questions?" she smiled, her intimidating demeanour pushed away by a somewhat friendly manner. "It could help out your friend."
Tails and Chip merely exchanged worried glances as the Sergeant took out a notepad and sat down at the wooden table.