Sonic: Antoine the Brave
Antoine ran as fast as he could to his friend's base. The coyote was late for a Freedom Fighters meeting.
"I can't believe I forgot to set up my alarm last night." He said to himself. "Sonic and his friends are going to be so mad at me. When he was at the base, he ran into the building. He took the elevator down to the meeting room.
"Sonic!" He said when he was down and the elevator's door opened. "Forgive me for being late. I didn't mean to. You see, I overslept because I…" He then realized that he was the only one there. "Uh, Sonic? Tails? Princess Sally? Where are you guys? You better not be planning to jump out to scare me again." He walked and looked all around "Guys? This isn't funny. Guys? Sil vous plait, come out!"
He then saw a note on an end table and picked it up. He read it to himself and panicked. Sacre Bleu! He couldn't believe it!
Dr. Robotnik and his minions have come and kidnapped all of his friends! And if he wanted to ever see them ever again, he had to go to his lair and defeat his robots himself. He shivered to himself. He never single handedly defeated Robotnik's robots by himself before. He was truly terrified. What if he failed?
He then was determined. Non! He had to win in order to save his friends. He wasn't going to be a coward any longer! Failure wasn't an option! With that, he dropped the note to the floor and ran off.
He went into the plane hanger and was about to jump in his jet, when he stopped and gasped. Blocking his path to the jet was a huge spider web! Where did that come from?!
He then saw it. A huge hairy spider was crawling on the web. He screamed and ran away as fast as he could. The spider shot out a silk string from its behind. It struck Antoine wrapping around his torso. Antoine screamed as he fell to the floor. The spider shot one more string to pull him towards the web,
"Non, non, non!" He cried out in fright. "What do you want with me?!" But, surprisingly, the spider didn't do anything. It just looked at Antoine. The coyote looked at the spider with a confused look. Huh? Why isn't this creepy, hairy crawly doing anything to me?
He then didn't care. He had to get out of here and fly his jet to save his friends. But how was he going to get out of this sticky situation? He then saw a fly flying from outside the window. He suddenly had an idea. He didn't know if it'll work, but he had to try. Any idea he had about getting out of here was worth a try.
"Hey, spider!" He spoke to it. The spider looked at the coyote and Antoine gestured with his head to the window. The spider just looked at him, obviously not getting it. "Look..at…the…window! There's a tasty fly out there with your name on it!" The spider just blinked its eyes, still not getting what the Freedom Fighter wanted.
Antoine sighed in defeat, giving up. This was stupid to think that this spider had the intelligence to understand him. He must have looked foolish. Suddenly, the spider looked outside of the window and saw the fly. It walked to the window with its eight legs, realized that the window was locked and looked back at Antoine who nodded.
"I can open the window for you and let you have that disg…uh, tasty snack if you simply untie me." The spider looked at the fly outside, at Antoine, then back at the fly again. Antoine silently prayed to himself. Si´l vous plait, si´l vous plait, si´l vous plait! Understand what I'm saying to you. Then the spider scurried back to him and untied him. Antoine felt relieved and a bit shocked that his plan actually worked. He jumped off the web to the safe floor again. He was about to just run off to his jet, when he thought about something.
He went to the window instead, and unlocked it just enough to let the fly fly in. He shut it immediately when it was in. The fly saw the spider and was about to fly away when the spider shot a sticky web at it, pulling it to its web. Not wanting to see the spider devour its meal, he ran off. But not before speaking one last time to the spider. "Au revoir!" He waved to it. "And bon appetit! I really hope you enjoy your meal." And with that, he ran off to the jet letting the spider enjoy its snack.
Antoine ran inside of his jet and started the engines. The hanger opened up as the jet wheeled outside. He pulled on the lever and the jet flew off, the hanger closing on its own just as it had opened on its own by sensor.
He sighed in relief as he was flying high in the sky, glad that the nightmare with the spider was over. He just hoped now that the worst was over and he could just relax and the flight would be smooth until he got to Robotnik's lair.
He was almost to his lair when suddenly one of the engines exploded. Huh? What the…? The other engine exploded and he tried to fly the jet back up as it hurled to the ground. Non, non, non, what is happening?! Why did the two engines just explode suddenly? It didn't make any sense unless…was someone shooting at the jet? He didn't have much time to think about it any longer as he braced for impact.
The jet flew into some trees, the branches wrecking the sides as it crashed onto the ground.
The coyote opened his eyes and exited the aircraft. He struggled opening the door for it was a bit hard due to foliage being in the way, but he finally did it. He jumped to the ground and looked behind him at the jet, looking for any damages that the crash landing surely caused.
He cursed to himself. The damage was far greater than he expected. However, he didn't have time to repair it now. He had to do it later with his friends' help to fix it back at the hanger. He now had no choice but to walk the rest of the way to Robotnik's lair.
He gulped as he looked at the path ahead. It looked safe, but he knew at any moment some animal or someone might jump out and attack him. Still, he had to be brave. With an inhale and exhale and a brave face on, he walked onwards.
Bats then flew and attacked Antoine suddenly. Antoine screamed and tried to swat the bats away. How did these bats get here? He didn't know of any nearby caves.
"Go away!" He yelled. "Shoo! I don't have time to deal with all of you right now!" He was so distracted by the bats blinding him that he fell off a little ledge. He screamed as he landed on the ground. He got up and the bats resumed attacking him. "Not again!"
What should I do? I got to get to Sonic and my other friends. I can't let them attack me forever or I'll never get there. I have to distract them somehow, but how?
While Antoine was thinking of what to do, he saw a mango tree from the corner of his eye. He then saw another one next to it and another one and another one. Despite the pain that he was getting, he managed a grin. Mangos were one of the favorite foods of bats. Now, how to get the bats to notice?
Fortunately, he knew how almost immediately. He purposely ran into the tree, hoping to knock down a few mangos off of the tree. He didn't bump into the tree hard enough, so he did it over and over again. He hated this, but wanted to get rid of the bats, so it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. Plus, if this didn't work, they would surely smell the fruit.
It was the latter. One of the bats smelled the fruit. It immediately looked at the fruit, and flew up to it. A moment afterwards, another bat saw and flew up. Pretty soon, more and more bats followed suit. Eventually, the last one flew off from Antoine to fly up to a mango tree. Antroine sighed with relief. He was now free from the attacking bats and now can focus on resuming his journey. But one thing was on his mind. Did he just hear someone in the bushes cursing?
He decided it didn't matter. As long as the bats weren't preventing him from going anywhere, he didn't care and was just glad that they were distracted enough, so he can now go on and continue onto Robotnik's lair to save his friends. And so, that is what he did.
It seemed to take forever, but he finally made it! Right in front of him stood Robotnik's lair. This was the first time he was here by himself. It was a little strange to him. He took a deep inhale and let out one long exhale. When he was ready, he walked inside.
He had to be sneaky and quiet in order to pass the robot guards without a single one noticing that he was there. Fortunately, not a single guard saw him. He didn't know how this was possible, but yet again, he didn't care. All he cared about was getting to his friends and saving them from whatever evil schemes that Robotnik was planning to do with them.
Tails was the first one to spot their coyote friend from the cage that he and his other friends were all trapped in. He was about to call out to him when he thought better of it when he saw the robot minion nearby. So he nudged all his friends instead. They all didn't like this sudden touch by the fox kit.
"Tails!" Sonic scolded him. "What did I say about unwanted touching? It's no good!"
"No, Sonic!" He said. "Look!" Sonic and the others looked and saw the coyote. Tails walked over to the front of the cage and pointed above. Antoine stopped and looked up. There he saw the keys on the hook above.
He went underneath the hook, careful not to get the robot's attention. He then tried to reach for the keys, but wasn't tall enough to grab them. He stood on his tippy toes, and still wasn't tall enough. Unknowingly, the robot was watching from behind him,
"Antoine!" Tails called to him. Antoine looked and gasped as he saw the robot.
"What are you doing?" The robot asked. Antoine smiled weakly at him.
"Nothing." He said lamely.
"Don't lie to me! You were trying to grab the keys to unlock all of your friends from the cell, weren't you?" Antoine sighed in defeat.
"You're right. I was."
"You know, you're bad at lying." Antoine sighed again.
"Oui, I know." Antoine grew determined, and got ready to fight. "But I am ready to fight for it."
"Oh, really?!" The robot then fired a laser. Antoine screamed. "Are you sure?" Antoine frowned.
"Non."
"Too bad!" The robot kept firing lasers as he chased after a screaming Antoine.
"Be strong, Ant!" Sonic yelled at him.
"Please, Antoine!" Sally begged him. "I know you're scared, but you can't save us if you're panicking. You're our only hope!"
"Sally." Antoine spoke. He grew serious. "You're right. I can't save you guys when I'm in panic mode. For you Sally, I will be brave and fight…um, oh, and for everyone of my friends too of course." He ran towards the robot, dodging all of the lasers. When he was closer, he lunged towards the robot. The robot screamed as the coyote attacked him. His friends all cheered from the cell.
Once the robot was unconscious, Antoine got an idea and pulled the body over to the hook. He stood on the body and grabbed the key off of the hook.
"Antoine, look out!" Sally called.
"Huh?" A confused Antoine wanted to know. He lost his balance as the robot grabbed his ankle.
"Ant, the keys!" Sonic shouted. "Throw me the keys!" As Antoine was being pulled down. he managed to throw the keys over to the cell. The blue hedgehog grabbed the keys, and put it into the lock of the cell. "Don't worry Ant; we're coming. Just hold on!" Antoine screamed as the robot was attacking him. He got up and ran again as the robot started shooting lasers at him.
"SONIC!" He screamed.
"Any moment, buddy!" Sonic said back to him. "I have to finish unlocking the lock. You can't rush it. I wish you could, but you can't."
"SONIC!" The cell door opened and Sonic, Tails and Sally were free. They all walked out of the cage.
"Okay, Antoine." Sonic told him. "Here I come!" He sped towards the robot. Before the robot knew what was happening, he attacked him, picked him up, and sped back towards the cage to place the robot inside. He locked the cage. The robot glared at Sonic as he twirled the keys in his hand.
"That's what you get for attacking our friend." Sonic said to him. He looked at his friends. "Now, let's go home." They all agreed and headed for the door. Suddenly, the gang saw Dr. Robotnik and Snively walk in.
"Where do you think all of you guys are going?" Dr. Robotnik asked. "And how did you all get out?" He glared at the robot guard, who gave him a nervous smile from inside of the cage. Dr. Robotnik looked at the gang. "And I never thought the French coyote would make it here. I thought he'd be too much of a coward."
"Oui, I was beyond scared while coming here." Antoine admitted. "But I had to put my fear behind me for my friends. They come first."
"That's right, Robotnik." Sonic said to him, hand over Antoine. "Antoine overcame his fears for us. Talk about a true friend."
"I see." Robotnik said. He glared at Snively. Snively looked at his boss.
"What?" His nephew asked. "I'm sorry that the coyote escaped all of my obstacles that you had me set up for him. I tried my best."
"Obstacles?" Antoine wanted to know. "So, the large spider in the hanger, me crash landing the jet plane and all of the bats, was your doing?"
"Yup!" Snively confessed. "I got a spider and enlarged it and its web with Robotnik's enlarging machine, Even though I'm afraid of spiders, I overcame my fear for the sake of this plan. I shot your plane with my bazooka, and I released the bats on you. I never thought you'd be smart."
"Well, unfortunately for you," Sonic began. "He was and we're thankful for that."
"Yay, for Antoine's smarts!" Tails cheered.
"You may have gotten this far." Dr. Robotnik said. "But it all ends here, Sonic. You and all of your friends, including the newcomer, are going back in that cage." Sonic was determined now, ready to fight.
"I don't think so, egghead!" He challenged. Dr. Robotnik called his robots. Seconds later, several robots came marching in and got beside the two bad guys. Robotnik pointed a finger at The Freedom Fighters.
"Robots, ATTACK!" He ordered. The robots ran up to the animals. They all ran to fight as well, including Antoine.
They all landed their punches and kicks. Everyone did their best, but Sonic and friends proved victorious in the end. Robotnik was shocked.
"How?!" He wanted to know. "I had more robots than all of you guys"
"That may be." Sonic spoke to him. "But we all won the fight because we were all stronger. It's quality over quantity here." The robots all got up to their feet and were all ready to fight again until they saw Sonic and friends put up their fists again. They all ran away scared.
"COWARDS!" Robotnik yelled after them. He turned back to Sonic and the others. "Well, Sonic, apparently all of my robots are all cowards, but Snively and I aren't. We will fight you guys and we will win!"
"Guess again, Robotnik!" Sonic said. He looked at Antoine, who was by the cage. "Antoine, open the cage!" Antoine was confused.
"Open the cage?" The coyote questioned. "But…why? The robot in here will escape!"
"Just do it!"
"But…but…" Sally looked at the coyote.
"Sonic has a plan." She told him. "I trust him. Do you?" Antoine hesitated for a moment and nodded with determination."
"I do, Sally." And with that, he unlocked the cage and opened it. The robot prisoner was confused.
"Did…did he just open it for me?" He asked. He then did his robotic laugh. "Ha! That fool! I can escape now, thanks to him!" Before he could escape, Sonic sped into Robotnik and Snively and closed the door and locked it. The robot frowned in defeat. "Should have figured that it was too good to be true." Robotnik glared at Sonic.
"You know I can just get my robots to unlock us, right?" He stated,
"Which is why we have to jet before that happens and I hide the key." Sonic stated. "See? I'm not dumb." And with that, he and his friends took off with Sonic having the key in hand.
"Adieu, monsieur Dr. Robotnik!" Antoine waved goodbye to him before he left. "Adieu, Snively! Adieu, robot I don't know the name of!"
"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" Robotnik screamed to the ceiling.
"We know, sir." Snively said to him. "You said that hundreds of times before. I hate him too and all of his friends."
Outside, before going home, Sonic threw the keys in the distance.
"Ok, now, let's go home." Sonic told his friends.
"Uh, Sonic?" Antoine asked as they all walked onwards. "Since we're by the castle, they could find the key. Robotnik could get out and hunt us all down again."
"That's probably true." Sonic said to his friend. "But we'll be ready to fight him and his goons just like we always do." Antoine smiled.
"I guess you're right, but can I sit out when that happens?"
"As long as he doesn't kidnap all of us, you can do whatever you want, Antoine."
"But we prefer you help us fight with your mad skills." Sally said, making Antoine blush.
"I'll try my best." He said to her.
"That's all we ask, Antoine." Tails added. Antoine remembered something.
"Oh, and guys, before we are home, we have to go find the jet. It kind of broke when it crash-landed." Sonic pretended to be mad at Antoine.
"You crash-landed the jet plane?!" He wanted to know. "Oh, Antoine! You got some explaining to do." Antoine defended himself.
"I'm sorry, Sonic! It's not my fault. It's Snively. He…" Sonic put his arm around Antoine.
"I'm just kidding Antoine. I know it's not your fault. I heard it from Snively himself." Antoine sighed with relief and laughed nervously.
"Oh, right." Sonic looked at Tails.
"Tails, fly up ahead to see if you can find the jet." Tails nodded and started to fly up, giving him the thumbs up.
"Roger, Sonic!" And with that, the fox took off. Sonic smiled at Antoine."
"Don't worry, Ant." He assured his friend. "We'll find the jet, fix it up at the hanger, and then return home safe and sound!" It was Antoine's turn to smile.
"I know, Sonic. As long as I have you and all of my friends here beside me, I am not the least bit worried."