Chapter 6 - CPUs and Chickens?
Author's note: Hi readers, I am back after a somewhat lengthy absence. My whole family caught COVID-19 last week. Thankfully our cases were very mild, and with the exception of a ticklish throat and some shallow coughing here and there, I'm pretty much back to my normal self! Now, response time...
Avimo, I wouldn't say that any of them are "cancelled", per se, but if you want updates, please check my bio. That's where I post information regarding the status of each story.
XXCandyLoverXX, I'm so glad you enjoyed the previous chapter! Thanks for the comments. :) Now, on with the story!
The hallway that led to the Main Chamber was very sterile; more sterile than an operating room in a hospital. Before long, we arrived at another set of futuristic-looking doors, and they opened automatically, revealing the Main Chamber.
Inside the Main Chamber was a giant mess of machinery, hard drives, and wires. As we crossed the threshold, an alarm went off, and the lights in the room began to flash from white to red. In front of us were a trio of giant floating spheres, the middle one much larger than the other two. They were all painted black with bolts drilled around the diameter of each sphere, and they were so shiny that we could see our reflections in them. Tails' jaw dropped in amazement.
"I'm sure the big one is the CPU," Tails hypothesized. "Then what are the other two units for?"
Sonic and Knuckles just went to town with attacking each unit. One of the smaller spheres was relentlessly attacking Knuckles with white laser beams, so he punched it over and over until it was destroyed. Tails then realized that the other sphere was serving to defend the CPU. The CPU was only casting Protect spells on itself and did nothing else.
Soon the defending sphere was taken out thanks to Sonic, and we began to concentrate on the CPU. However, little did we know that Knuckles made a BIG mistake by destroying the attacking sphere.
The CPU went into overdrive since both of its supporting spheres had been destroyed, and a robotic voice simply said, "Object 199".
"What's that?" I wondered, but I quickly got my answer as the CPU unleashed a devastating attack that instantly knocked Knuckles unconscious. To make things worse, both of the smaller spheres came back to life!
"Now we have to do this all over again!" I groaned with frustration as I quickly performed CPR on Knuckles. Thankfully, it worked, and Knuckles was back in the fight.
"Take out the Defender and NOT the Attacker!" Tails commanded. "If you kill both of them, that's when the CPU will use Object 199!"
"Got it, Tails!" Sonic grinned. "You'd better follow ME this time, Knux! I took out the Defender while you laid yourself to waste thanks to your stupid idea of fighting the Attacker."
Without another word, the hedgehog and the echidna fought the Defender together, taking it out in seconds. Next, Tails used an attack called Thunder Shoot, where he would create an electrical field around Sonic and Knuckles before flinging them towards the CPU. With Sonic and Knuckles dealing their blows while electrically charged, the CPU was eventually shorted out, and it crashed to the floor before dying with a series of blips and bleeps.
The Attacker became relentless. It spun around the room, zooming so fast that only Sonic could possibly keep up with it, firing lasers at us from far away. Sonic's Homing Attack quickly took care of it as he pummeled the Attacker again and again, and eventually the Attacker died in the same way as the CPU. Everything became quiet.
A key shimmered in front of me, and as I took it, a voice said, "This is the Chicken Key. The door has been unlocked."
Sonic burst out laughing. "The Chicken Key? Well, I'm not chickening out on this one!"
Tails replied, "I have a feeling it might involve actual chickens."
"Really now..." I murmured, stroking my chin with a finger. "Well then, let's boogie!"
Upon entering the next room, I realized that the floor was made of a very different material, and a downwards gaze confirmed that it was actually made out of straw. The clucking noises of chickens filled my ears, and a wooden sign in front of me read "GIANT CHICKEN COOP" in crudely drawn red letters. I noticed a wooden walkway to my left, and it turned out to be a kind of ramp that curved 270 degrees clockwise.
After several seconds of climbing up the curving ramp (except for Sonic who reached the top in the blink of an eye, and Tails who flew up to the next floor), we entered a large wooden building, where roosters and hens of all sorts of colors and sizes were either roaming around, or in the hens' case, laying their eggs in nests. Before I could blink, however, my worst nightmare came true when all the chickens started to attack me!
Sonic used his Homing Attack again to knock all the chickens out in mere seconds...but then the ground started to shake rhythmically, as if there were footsteps.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
A low, rumbling voice spoke, "Beware the Giant Chicken! Mwahahahaaaa! Here's an AK-47, by the way. You'll need it."
Something fell into my hands, and sure enough, it was an AK-47. Several magazines appeared on the ground as well, and I assumed they were there for extra ammo in the event the current magazine ran empty.
Suddenly, an enormous chicken crashed through the ceiling and nearly crushed Tails as it landed on the ground. The white bird was so tall that it even put the T. Rex to shame. (Chickens are modern dinosaurs after all, so the comparison is valid.) The Giant Chicken cocked its head from side to side out of curiosity, loudly clucked a few times, and then it brandished a pair of Gatling guns under its wings!
As the Giant Chicken sent a barrage of deadly bullets our way, I aimed my AK-47 towards my foe, and held the trigger down. The gun was thumping against me as it fired several rounds per second. I was definitely draining the chicken of its health, but it never stopped with its deadly attacks. The bird then turned around, pointed its cloaca upwards, and began launching giant white eggs into the air! The eggs rained down like meteorites, but we dodged them effortlessly. The Giant Chicken took a few thunderous steps towards us, and resumed firing at us with its Gatling guns.
I reloaded my AK-47 and continued to fire back with my own ammo, while Sonic and Knuckles helped with taking down the giant bird. Eventually, the Giant Chicken fell onto its side in a pile of feathers, dead.
"We did it!" I congratulated everyone. "Winner winner chicken dinner!" I put down the gun, and we happily ran towards the other end of the Giant Chicken Coop and opened a white wooden door. Upon doing so, hundreds of cute, fluffy chicks escaped from the next room and ran straight into the Giant Chicken Coop, where they made themselves at home.
With that room now empty of chicks, we entered and found the next key half-buried beneath a pile of straw.
"This is the Laser Key," a voice said as I took it. "The door has been unlocked."
"Oooh, sounds interesting," Tails commented. We walked towards the next door and I used the key to unlock it.
"Wow, this reminds me of Prison Island!" Tails said as we entered the next area, which was called Laser World. The area consisted of a very long corridor, which would have been a quick walk to the other side if it weren't for the dozens of red laser beams crisscrossing the path in every direction. I noticed a tiny red button beside the door at the far end.
"Maybe that button is what shuts down the lasers," I said to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. "Sonic, since you're so nimble and agile, why don't you help us through?"
"Certainly!" the blue hedgehog said, winking at me. He managed to jump over, duck under, and sidestep every single laser beam with perfect accuracy, and he jammed his thumb into the button, causing the lasers to instantly power down.
"That was too easy," Knuckles said as we made our way down the now-clear passage, and the door at the end automatically opened, revealing...an elevator. The next key suddenly appeared in front of us, and I held it in my hands.
"This is the Sky Key," the same voice as always told us. "Use it to control the elevator."
Inside the elevator, instead of all the buttons that you'd expect, there was only a keyhole. Upon inserting the key and turning it to the left, the doors closed and the elevator blasted off like a rocket! Up and up and up we went, and the sound of air whooshing past the elevator filled our ears.
The elevator eventually came to a stop and the doors opened up to a small platform thousands of feet above the ground, like the kind you would use for bungee jumping. Instead of a bungee system, however, there was a cannon, like the one back at Stinky Fart World. A helicopter whirred overhead, pulling a blue banner that read "Welcome to Sky High!" in orange letters. White, puffy clouds were lazily floating beneath us. That's how high up we were!
"We're no strangers to cannons!" Sonic boasted as he curled up into a spiky ball and jumped inside. Seconds later, he was launched far, far out of sight in a cloud of gunpowder and smoke. Tails and Knuckles were launched into the air as well, one after the other, and then it was my turn.
I crawled in and curled myself into a ball, and without warning I was launched even higher into the sky. A Boeing 747 flew below me, and before long, gravity took over and I was falling down...down...down...dooooooowwwwwwwnnnnn...
Faaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrt!
It turned out that I had landed on an even bigger whoopee cushion than the one before! Not only did it safely break my fall, but it also gave me, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles the chance to bust our guts out laughing!
"Let's do it again!" Tails giggled.
Unfortunately, there wasn't any way we could teleport back up to the platform to experience it a second time, so we had no choice but to continue forward...and into a sandstorm!
Author's note: I hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it was a little on the short side. You may have seen some video game references throughout this chapter. The CPU boss fight was from Final Fantasy IV (one of my all-time favorite games!), and the Giant Chicken battle was inspired by a similar boss in Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood. As always, feel free to review, and stay tuned for more! :)