Disclaimer: Sonic and all related characters and settings are copyright Sega Corporation. None of it belongs to me, but all property is theft, man. Whatever that means.
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Chapter Five - Terror in the Dark
Night had fallen over the twin islands. The two residents of the former escape capsule were sleeping, and Eggor had put his systems on standby to reserve the limited energy available on the bridge. Tails was the only one of the four who was alert and awake.
He sat on the edge of the bridge's trapdoor with his legs dangling over the edge, staring down at the forest floor. At the moment he was thinking about Eggor. Originally he thought that the right thing to do would be to smash the robot and release the squirrel, Kevin, who had been encased within the shell. However, Tails soon realised that food on the island was extremely scarce, and it wasn't worth risking him and Kevin starving just to quickly give the squirrel back his freedom. It would be more sensible to wait until it was safe to release Kevin, when there was enough food for both the animals to survive. Tails had also thought of flying over to the other island, but he knew there was no way he could make such a long flight without having to stop. The fox's thoughts then turned to Sonic and Dr Robotnik, and how much food they had between them. Eggor had already assured him that Robotnik had packed a good deal of food into the capsule before the accident, but Miles knew how much Sonic ate and worried the pair might run out of food for themselves rather quickly. Then again, he was worried enough that the escape pod might not have actually reached the island in the first place, since he lost sight of it as it approached the beach. On the other hand, it wasn't like Sonic to give up so easily. Especially not with Robotnik there, Tails reminded himself with a grin.
A sudden cold breeze swept through the forest, and Tails wrapped his arms around his small furry body. The trees, Tails thought, looked much more beautiful by night than during the day. He now appreciated the nature surrounding him, closing his eyes and listening to the calming sound of the wind brushing through the trees.
Then, a loud crash broke through the tranquillity. It sounded like a very large object had been hurled at a collection of trees, and smashed them over purely because of its weight.
Tails's eyes shot open and peered down the hole in the floor. There was nothing down there, just the same trees swaying harmlessly in the wind. Getting up on his knees, he scanned as much of the forest as he could, but still saw nothing unusual. Eventually the sound occurred again, only Tails could pinpoint the direction the sound was coming from a little better this time.
"Is anyone down there?" he shouted desperately, "Sonic? Is that you?"
There was no reply, but the wind had died down and Tails could make out a crunching sound.
"Please, if that's you Dr Robotnik… I won't hurt you. Eggor's here as well. Please answer me." he whined softly. He wanted a reply, or just to see whatever it was. Receiving absolutely no response whatsoever might have showed that the sounds weren't being made by any creature at all, but that wouldn't stop Tails being paranoid about the clamour. He remembered hearing somewhere that 'the horror you imagine is always far worse than the horror you can see'. When fear is all in the mind, it doesn't matter whether the terror is actually founded or not. There was another sound, this time quieter and coming from a slightly different direction. Tails glanced at Eggor in the corner of the room, sitting lifelessly against a wall with but a single flashing red LED showing any activity whatsoever. He was alone. He had heard the last of the ominous sound, but he was alone and hadn't worked out what it was that was frightening him.
Swallowing hard, Tails plodded over to Robotnik's chair and curled up on the soft upholstery, trying to sleep.
* * *
The following morning, Sonic looked out over the sea and stretched his arms groggily. He had not had a good night's sleep by any stretch of the imagination. There was only one bed in the capsule, so Sonic had been forced to sleep on the chilly metal floor below Robotnik's bed. Thankfully Robotnik didn't snore, but he did talk and turn a lot in his sleep. Sonic found himself stuffing the corners of his pillow in his ears to try and block out the sound of mindless incoherent babble and the creaking of the capsule's small fold-out bed as Robotnik shifted his enormous body. When he had finally dozed off, he had had a series of unpleasant nightmares, although looking back Sonic didn't suppose they were as bad as the horrible situation fate had bestowed upon him at the moment.
"Oh, good morning Sonic. Have a good sleep? I didn't- I kept dreaming I was stuck on a horrible desert island with a stupid rodent who, for no particular reason, decided to kick a football at my head!" Ah, the real nightmare had awoken!
"You aren't going to let that go, are you? Look, if it means so very much to you, if you can't bear to go on without hearing it… I apologise." Sonic chose his words carefully. He deliberately didn't say 'I'm sorry' because, well, he wasn't sorry in the slightest. He thought the great colossal walrus deserved all the Tragic Sporting Injuries he could get.
"I don't want to hear it!" Robotnik said in a shrill voice, "I should go and speak to that ball, I could -hahaha- probably get more intelligent conversation out of it than I would from you!"
"Hey, I never asked you to talk to me at all! In fact, I'd be a lot happier if you'd just shut up!" Sonic yelled, turning around to meet Robotnik. The scientist already looked pretty rough; his moustache was crooked and messy and his clothes were somewhat dirty. Sonic frowned; it's not like Robotnik had even left the capsule!
Eggman was about to speak, but Sonic rudely brushed past him and walked over to their container. He fumbled through the rubbish to locate the crayons, but it was the parcel that he had found yesterday that fell into view, the bizarre logo appearing to him once again. This simple sign had occupied his mind last night as he was trying to get to sleep, and something about it gave him an odd feeling. He couldn't understand why Dr Robotnik had chosen to modify his old EG logo into this design, and hadn't been able to come up with an explanation behind it. Delicately, he picked the large package up and placed it in a secure space in the corner of the metal box. Below where it had been, he found the crayons.
"What are you doing?" Robotnik called out angrily, "if you're after the food, you're wasting your time. I've hidden it! Hahaha!" The madman laughed icily, until he realised that Sonic wasn't looking for the food after all. The hedgehog had taken a crayon out of the box and had drawn a silly smiley face on the ball.
"Here's your new friend, Robotnik!" Sonic shouted, placing the ball on the ground. He crouched and took a few steps back. "Get ready!"
"No, hand me the ball Sonic… no, don't do that again…" Robotnik replied, covering his face with his hands and cowering pathetically.
"And it's Sonic approaching the goal area, he's building up for a hard kick… he shoots-" The hedgehog swung his foot back sharply--
Tails was still asleep when Eggor came back online. The robot flexed his arms, trying to loosen his stiff joints. He hadn't ever been on standby mode before-- he had never had any reason to-- and it was quite difficult to move after being still for so long. It suddenly came to him that this stretching of the arms was a trait he'd picked up from Dr. Robotnik, after seeing him do the exact same thing after a good, long sleep. Just this small thing made Eggor feel more human, and this worried him. He thought his Master would be shocked and upset to find out that Eggor occasionally felt that way.
Eggor shook his arms one last time and began clanking down the bridge towards the trap door. As he descended the ladder leading to the forest, he noticed some of the trees had had chunks torn out of them. Had Tails been gathering more firewood in the night? It didn't look like the trees had been cut by any tools Tails had access to at the moment. Eggor stood up straight and clanked toward the collection of machines he had built yesterday from various components salvaged from the Eggs-Box's bridge, to see if the computer had picked up any radio signals. He wanted to see if search teams had been sent out looking for Dr Robotnik yet.
To his right, he heard a crashing sound, and he spun around to meet it. Typically, he saw nothing, and began to cautiously approach the bushes. The plants looked terribly torn and ruffled, with the tops of some large flowers actually severed. With a low mechanical grating sound, Eggor knelt down to take a close look in the bushes. As his steady metal hand reached forward, a shrill sound rang out from behind him.
"Eggor! What are you looking for? Is something there?" Tails called, causing the robot to jump very slightly.
"Not now, but I think there might have been," he paused, trying to think of another reason for the damaged plant life, "was there a storm last night?"
"A storm? No, but," he lowered his voice, as if something was listening, "I heard some strange noises. Like something very large was moving through the forest!"
"Something large?"
"Large. I called to it, but there was no response, so it wasn't Sonic or Robotn-" Tails stopped as he noticed Eggor indicating a point somewhere behind him. Upon turning around, Tails didn't initially spot anything unusual, but his sharp eyes soon picked up on the destroyed tree in the distance.
"You don't suppose, Eggor, that there's… something else here with us…?"
Dr Robotnik sat on the grass with a box of tissues on his lap, feeling very sorry for himself. His eyes were red and streaming from hayfever, and he had to tape his glasses back together after Sonic had booted the ball at him for a second time. But at least, he thought, I've got rid of that hedgehog for a while.
Sonic had, in fact, gone out to find food in the dense forest next to the beach. To be honest, Robotnik had brought enough food to last them both a while yet, but Sonic wasn't happy about practically eating out of Eggman's hand. He just wanted to stretch his legs as well; Sonic never liked staying still for so long.
Robotnik sniffed noisily and reached into his tissue box. He wanted to be at home, where there were no flowers, no forests, a nice warm bed and a complete and total absence of hedgehogs. His normally etiolated skin had already tanned slightly from exposure to this intense sunlight. His eyes stung, his nose was running, and his head ached.
"I hate nature," Robotnik mumbled.
As he reached into his tissue box to retrieve another sheet, his ears picked up a screeching sound in the distance.
Oh please, please don't let that be what I think it is…
The sound died out.
Oh, it's fine… it's gone… what a relief.
The noise occurred again, only from above Robotnik this time. His head snapped back and he stared upwards at the trees, breathing heavily in between sniffs. After a few seconds of watching the trees waving slightly in the wind, he looked forward again. Whatever had been there, it must have gone now.
THUD.
"HEY, EGGMAN!" Sonic yelled after falling down in front of the startled scientist. "Man, do I feel better after that run!"
"Wonderful! I'm so happy for you!" Robotnik mumbled miserably, throwing the tissue box to the ground. It seemed like he really wasn't happy about Sonic seeing him this ill, as if it was a sign of weakness.
"You look terrible, dude," Sonic said, with the very slightest, tiny, minute hint of sympathy in his voice, "But anyway, I came here because I found something interesting at the other side of the island. I think you should check it out." During his run, Sonic had been doing some thinking, and he'd decided to try being nicer to Robotnik whilst they were in this predicament. It wasn't as though Eggman was any threat to him without his robots.
"Why should I?"
"I reckon you might have a clue as to what it is." He paused. "You've never been on this island before, have you?" Sonic asked, in a lower voice.
This question seemed to surprise Robotnik, "of course I haven't! Why, have you?"
"Huh? No, not at all. Come on, follow me."
The pair stood up and headed towards the lush, dense forest.