***
Sonic lay motionless at the foot of the cliff. The sun beat down on the rocks and scrubby brush around him and the air hung thick and still. After a while a few flies appeared and investigated the blood that trickled from the gashes on his body. Finding him motionless, the flies settled on his wounds, paying special attention to a wide graze on the side of his head where the fur had been scraped away.
Still the sun burned down, and Sonic did not move. A bird flew to a clump of brush, twittered, and flew off down the canyon. Presently another bird flew over, this one a buzzard, circling high over the canyon and sniffing for death. After a while another joined it. They settled lower and lower, looking for danger and seeing none.
The flies rose up in a buzzing cloud as the buzzards swooped down and landed beside the lump of blue on the rocks. One walked up and investigated the creature, while the other bird stood guard, peering up and down the canyon.
The guard buzzard gave a hoarse croak, and the two black birds fluttered away from their meal. Another hedgehog was creeping down the canyon, eyes wide and alert, as if hunting. He was brown and wore only a pair of soft leather shoes.
In a moment he reached the spot where the buzzards had been, and stood looking down at the body of a blue hedgehog. The brown hedgehog stared at it in shock for several seconds, then peered up at the cliff and the broken guardrail.
The brown hedgehog pressed two fingers into Sonic's neck, seeking a pulse. There was none. He turned Sonic over and looked into his face with sorrow. Whoever this blue stranger was, he deserved a decent burial among civilized Mobians. He picked up the limp body and strode away down the canyon with it.
Several miles south, the canyon opened out in what had once been a wide lake. Carved into the canyon walls were several caves, where a tattered village of Mobitropolis refugees lived in hiding. As he stepped into sight, his daughter dashed out to him--a dirty pink hedgehog--and asked, "What's that, Daddy?"
"A dead hedgehog I found near the road," he told her. "Go back in the house, Amy. I don't want you to see this."
But Amy was staring at the dead hedgehog, eyes wide. "What happened to him?"
"Go in the house, Amy."
"What are you going to do with him?"
"Amy--"
She knew she could not push her father any further, and turned to go back to the cave. "Daddy, I think he's still alive," she threw over her shoulder.
The brown hedgehog looked down at the blue hedgehog doubtfully. He could feel no pulse, but his daughter had an uncanny way of reaching minds. He often wondered if she had sympath abilities that were beginning to show. Well, if Amy said the hedgehog was alive, maybe there was a chance they could save him.
He carried the stranger into a cave and laid him down on a stone shelf that served as a hospital bed whenever someone had an injury. Then he walked to a tunnel that ran parallel to the cliff and called, "Ranith, I've got a problem here."
A tall, thin ground squirrel emerged from the tunnel. He had the pinched, nerdy look of someone who has been in school too long, and his hands twitched as he strode over to look at Sonic. He pulled a dusty pair of glasses out of a vest pocket, pinched them on his nose, and examined Sonic. "Where did you find him, Kaysar?"
"Down by the old ridge road," said the brown hedgehog, whose name was Kaysar. "I thought he was dead. There were flies and vultures all over him."
"Hmm." Ranith began to poke and prod his motionless patient, once in a while sniffing and adding, "Hmm." After a while he said cryptically, "He should be dead." He stalked out of the cave, leaving Kaysar standing beside the stone shelf. A few minutes later he returned with a badger in tow. The badger was old by Mobian standards, and her gray muzzle was turning white.
Ranith pointed to Sonic. "Broken spine. Broken arms. Broken ribs. Fractured skull. Concussion. Possible internal hemorrhaging."
With each new aliment, the badger nodded, her smile growing wider. As the doctor finished his list, she clapped her paws and said, "Give me ten minutes. I have all the materials in my cave."
Ranith had never seen the doctor consult Skratcher before. As she left, he whispered, "What do you want with that old witch?"
"Witch nothing," said Ranith, staring down at the motionless Sonic. "She knows every herb in the forest. I've seen her take on cases as bad as this and pull them out of it, too. Do you know how he fell into the canyon?"
"The guardrail was broken," said Kaysar. "I think he broke through somehow."
"I suppose a fall like that could smash him up," said the ground squirrel with a sigh. "But it looks like he was hit by a moving vehicle."
Kaysar shot a puzzled look at the blue hedgehog. "You think someone tried to murder him?"
"There was no one around, was there?"
"No. I made certain of that."
The squirrel and hedgehog looked at their patient, who had suddenly taken on additional mystique. As they stood there, Skratcher returned, carrying three baskets full of grasses, dried plants, and packages of powders. Ranith shooed out Kaysar. "Leave this to us. We'll try to save him."
Kaysar stood outside the cave for a moment, then shrugged and trotted back down the canyon. His foraging had been interrupted, and it was time to return to work.
***
Sally ran along the ridge road, panting in the noon heat, scanning the curving road for any sign of Sonic. Around each bend she expected to see blood and blue quills, but so far she had seen nothing odd. Bunnie slogged along behind her, carrying a medical kit and pausing now and then to look down into the canyon.
"Sonic!" Sally cried, rounding yet another bend. "Where could he be?"
Something clinked underfoot, and she noticed the road was strewn with tacks. She picked one up. The head was attached magnetically, and she wondered if they could be removed on command. Her heart sinking with dread, she hurried on up the road.
Two turns later, she saw the broken guardrail. She dashed to it and looked over the edge of the cliff. She couldn't see Sonic, but she knew he must be down there. "Bunnie!" she yelled. "He went through, he went through here..." Her voice cracked. Recklessly she swung around and began to clamber down the canyon wall, not caring if she fell or not.
A moment later Bunnie appeared at the top of the cliff. "Sally, what the hoo-ha are you doing?"
"Sonic's down here," Sally said, looking up with a maniac glint in her eyes. "They must have knocked him off, and I'm going down to him." She continued descending, slipping and half-falling, fearless in her haste.
To her vague surprise, she reached the bottom unhurt. Sally peered up and down the canyon, but there was no Sonic. Maybe he was hidden behind a rock. She began to search, calling his name and holding back the hysterical sobs jamming her throat. "Can you see him?" she called to Bunnie.
"No," Bunnie called down. She was walking along the edge of the cliff, peering down. "Nowhere."
"But where could he have gone?" Sally panted. She remembered Tails's scream and her certainty that something horrible had happened to Sonic. But what if Tails had only seen Sonic break through the guardrail? What if Sonic had landed on his feet and was on his way home right now?
Part of her wanted to believe this, but deep down she knew Sonic would have come up fighting. He would not have retreated in secrecy to the Great Forest, even if he had been hurt. But where had he gone?
"Maybe he went home," said Bunnie from above.
"I'm going to walk that way," said Sally. "You walk along up there and see if you can spot him. He's probably hurt and can't run. That's all."
Sally and Bunnie began to work their way north, in the opposite direction from the way Kaysar had come.
***
Tails had aged. Between the time he had seen Sonic plunge over the cliff, and the time when Robotnik had traveled back to Robotropolis, the fox had aged ten years. He had cried at first in the shock of seeing Sonic fall, but when Robotnik laughed at him, Tails fell silent.
By the time he was wheeled into the control room by a robot, the fox's grief had turned into a raging, reckless hatred. He wanted to kill Robotnik with his bare hands. Better yet, his teeth. But a quiet corner of his mind reminded him that this was imprudent, and there would come a time for revenge later. Right now it was most important to find out what Robotnik was going to do now.
Sonic was gone ... at the very thought Tails wanted to collapse and die. He had seen the video feed from the robot as Sonic tumbled down the cliff. No one could survive that, not even Sonic. He kept did not make a sound, but tears trickled down his muzzle.
For a few hours Robotnik and Snively ignored him. The two were busy at the computer terminals and spoke only in grunts. This was fine with Tails, whose grief was an all-consuming monster that had swallowed him, leaving only one small, calm corner that had surfaced on the way back to Robotropolis. This bit of sanity assured him that he wanted to keep as quiet as possible. He sat in a corner of his cage and cried in silence.
He did not move when Snively walked up and peered at him. "Sir, what are we going to do with this thing?"
Tails stared at him, and noticed Snively dropped his eyes after a moment.
"It's a hostage," said Robotnik without turning from his computers. "Perhaps I could swap it for Princess Sally."
"Why not just robotize it?"
Robotnik turned around, arms folded. "Did I say that we should robotize it?"
"No sir..."
"You've grown some spine lately, Snively, and I don't like it. I am the one who gives the orders. You are the one who obeys them. Don't forget that, or you could be the one in the robotizer."
Tails watched this with faint interest. He didn't know that Snively was threatened with robotization, too. He watched as Snively groveled and apologized.
Robotnik walked up to the cage and peered in at the fox. "What do you say, fox? Should I robotize you or keep you alive?"
"Robotize me," Tails whispered.
Robotnik threw back his head and laughed. "Oh ho, so the fox was attached to Sonic, was he? I heard the way you screamed. And now life's not worth living and all that rot, right?"
Tails refused to answer. In a detached sort of way, he noticed how ugly Robotnik was, and wondered if all humans looked the same.
"I don't think we'll robotize this one yet," said Robotnik, turning to Snively. "For one thing, it has two tails. I would like to run some tests and figure out the cause of the mutation."
"Toxic waste," muttered Tails.
Robotnik's laugh was like the roar of some carnivorous animal. Even Snively cracked a smile, but Tails gazed at the two of them as if they were the curiosities in a cage, instead of the other way around. His grief was so great that the world had lost its reality. At that moment he would have killed them both if he could have, and still remained detached.
One thing he was certain of, though. Life without Sonic would be short.
Sonic lay motionless at the foot of the cliff. The sun beat down on the rocks and scrubby brush around him and the air hung thick and still. After a while a few flies appeared and investigated the blood that trickled from the gashes on his body. Finding him motionless, the flies settled on his wounds, paying special attention to a wide graze on the side of his head where the fur had been scraped away.
Still the sun burned down, and Sonic did not move. A bird flew to a clump of brush, twittered, and flew off down the canyon. Presently another bird flew over, this one a buzzard, circling high over the canyon and sniffing for death. After a while another joined it. They settled lower and lower, looking for danger and seeing none.
The flies rose up in a buzzing cloud as the buzzards swooped down and landed beside the lump of blue on the rocks. One walked up and investigated the creature, while the other bird stood guard, peering up and down the canyon.
The guard buzzard gave a hoarse croak, and the two black birds fluttered away from their meal. Another hedgehog was creeping down the canyon, eyes wide and alert, as if hunting. He was brown and wore only a pair of soft leather shoes.
In a moment he reached the spot where the buzzards had been, and stood looking down at the body of a blue hedgehog. The brown hedgehog stared at it in shock for several seconds, then peered up at the cliff and the broken guardrail.
The brown hedgehog pressed two fingers into Sonic's neck, seeking a pulse. There was none. He turned Sonic over and looked into his face with sorrow. Whoever this blue stranger was, he deserved a decent burial among civilized Mobians. He picked up the limp body and strode away down the canyon with it.
Several miles south, the canyon opened out in what had once been a wide lake. Carved into the canyon walls were several caves, where a tattered village of Mobitropolis refugees lived in hiding. As he stepped into sight, his daughter dashed out to him--a dirty pink hedgehog--and asked, "What's that, Daddy?"
"A dead hedgehog I found near the road," he told her. "Go back in the house, Amy. I don't want you to see this."
But Amy was staring at the dead hedgehog, eyes wide. "What happened to him?"
"Go in the house, Amy."
"What are you going to do with him?"
"Amy--"
She knew she could not push her father any further, and turned to go back to the cave. "Daddy, I think he's still alive," she threw over her shoulder.
The brown hedgehog looked down at the blue hedgehog doubtfully. He could feel no pulse, but his daughter had an uncanny way of reaching minds. He often wondered if she had sympath abilities that were beginning to show. Well, if Amy said the hedgehog was alive, maybe there was a chance they could save him.
He carried the stranger into a cave and laid him down on a stone shelf that served as a hospital bed whenever someone had an injury. Then he walked to a tunnel that ran parallel to the cliff and called, "Ranith, I've got a problem here."
A tall, thin ground squirrel emerged from the tunnel. He had the pinched, nerdy look of someone who has been in school too long, and his hands twitched as he strode over to look at Sonic. He pulled a dusty pair of glasses out of a vest pocket, pinched them on his nose, and examined Sonic. "Where did you find him, Kaysar?"
"Down by the old ridge road," said the brown hedgehog, whose name was Kaysar. "I thought he was dead. There were flies and vultures all over him."
"Hmm." Ranith began to poke and prod his motionless patient, once in a while sniffing and adding, "Hmm." After a while he said cryptically, "He should be dead." He stalked out of the cave, leaving Kaysar standing beside the stone shelf. A few minutes later he returned with a badger in tow. The badger was old by Mobian standards, and her gray muzzle was turning white.
Ranith pointed to Sonic. "Broken spine. Broken arms. Broken ribs. Fractured skull. Concussion. Possible internal hemorrhaging."
With each new aliment, the badger nodded, her smile growing wider. As the doctor finished his list, she clapped her paws and said, "Give me ten minutes. I have all the materials in my cave."
Ranith had never seen the doctor consult Skratcher before. As she left, he whispered, "What do you want with that old witch?"
"Witch nothing," said Ranith, staring down at the motionless Sonic. "She knows every herb in the forest. I've seen her take on cases as bad as this and pull them out of it, too. Do you know how he fell into the canyon?"
"The guardrail was broken," said Kaysar. "I think he broke through somehow."
"I suppose a fall like that could smash him up," said the ground squirrel with a sigh. "But it looks like he was hit by a moving vehicle."
Kaysar shot a puzzled look at the blue hedgehog. "You think someone tried to murder him?"
"There was no one around, was there?"
"No. I made certain of that."
The squirrel and hedgehog looked at their patient, who had suddenly taken on additional mystique. As they stood there, Skratcher returned, carrying three baskets full of grasses, dried plants, and packages of powders. Ranith shooed out Kaysar. "Leave this to us. We'll try to save him."
Kaysar stood outside the cave for a moment, then shrugged and trotted back down the canyon. His foraging had been interrupted, and it was time to return to work.
***
Sally ran along the ridge road, panting in the noon heat, scanning the curving road for any sign of Sonic. Around each bend she expected to see blood and blue quills, but so far she had seen nothing odd. Bunnie slogged along behind her, carrying a medical kit and pausing now and then to look down into the canyon.
"Sonic!" Sally cried, rounding yet another bend. "Where could he be?"
Something clinked underfoot, and she noticed the road was strewn with tacks. She picked one up. The head was attached magnetically, and she wondered if they could be removed on command. Her heart sinking with dread, she hurried on up the road.
Two turns later, she saw the broken guardrail. She dashed to it and looked over the edge of the cliff. She couldn't see Sonic, but she knew he must be down there. "Bunnie!" she yelled. "He went through, he went through here..." Her voice cracked. Recklessly she swung around and began to clamber down the canyon wall, not caring if she fell or not.
A moment later Bunnie appeared at the top of the cliff. "Sally, what the hoo-ha are you doing?"
"Sonic's down here," Sally said, looking up with a maniac glint in her eyes. "They must have knocked him off, and I'm going down to him." She continued descending, slipping and half-falling, fearless in her haste.
To her vague surprise, she reached the bottom unhurt. Sally peered up and down the canyon, but there was no Sonic. Maybe he was hidden behind a rock. She began to search, calling his name and holding back the hysterical sobs jamming her throat. "Can you see him?" she called to Bunnie.
"No," Bunnie called down. She was walking along the edge of the cliff, peering down. "Nowhere."
"But where could he have gone?" Sally panted. She remembered Tails's scream and her certainty that something horrible had happened to Sonic. But what if Tails had only seen Sonic break through the guardrail? What if Sonic had landed on his feet and was on his way home right now?
Part of her wanted to believe this, but deep down she knew Sonic would have come up fighting. He would not have retreated in secrecy to the Great Forest, even if he had been hurt. But where had he gone?
"Maybe he went home," said Bunnie from above.
"I'm going to walk that way," said Sally. "You walk along up there and see if you can spot him. He's probably hurt and can't run. That's all."
Sally and Bunnie began to work their way north, in the opposite direction from the way Kaysar had come.
***
Tails had aged. Between the time he had seen Sonic plunge over the cliff, and the time when Robotnik had traveled back to Robotropolis, the fox had aged ten years. He had cried at first in the shock of seeing Sonic fall, but when Robotnik laughed at him, Tails fell silent.
By the time he was wheeled into the control room by a robot, the fox's grief had turned into a raging, reckless hatred. He wanted to kill Robotnik with his bare hands. Better yet, his teeth. But a quiet corner of his mind reminded him that this was imprudent, and there would come a time for revenge later. Right now it was most important to find out what Robotnik was going to do now.
Sonic was gone ... at the very thought Tails wanted to collapse and die. He had seen the video feed from the robot as Sonic tumbled down the cliff. No one could survive that, not even Sonic. He kept did not make a sound, but tears trickled down his muzzle.
For a few hours Robotnik and Snively ignored him. The two were busy at the computer terminals and spoke only in grunts. This was fine with Tails, whose grief was an all-consuming monster that had swallowed him, leaving only one small, calm corner that had surfaced on the way back to Robotropolis. This bit of sanity assured him that he wanted to keep as quiet as possible. He sat in a corner of his cage and cried in silence.
He did not move when Snively walked up and peered at him. "Sir, what are we going to do with this thing?"
Tails stared at him, and noticed Snively dropped his eyes after a moment.
"It's a hostage," said Robotnik without turning from his computers. "Perhaps I could swap it for Princess Sally."
"Why not just robotize it?"
Robotnik turned around, arms folded. "Did I say that we should robotize it?"
"No sir..."
"You've grown some spine lately, Snively, and I don't like it. I am the one who gives the orders. You are the one who obeys them. Don't forget that, or you could be the one in the robotizer."
Tails watched this with faint interest. He didn't know that Snively was threatened with robotization, too. He watched as Snively groveled and apologized.
Robotnik walked up to the cage and peered in at the fox. "What do you say, fox? Should I robotize you or keep you alive?"
"Robotize me," Tails whispered.
Robotnik threw back his head and laughed. "Oh ho, so the fox was attached to Sonic, was he? I heard the way you screamed. And now life's not worth living and all that rot, right?"
Tails refused to answer. In a detached sort of way, he noticed how ugly Robotnik was, and wondered if all humans looked the same.
"I don't think we'll robotize this one yet," said Robotnik, turning to Snively. "For one thing, it has two tails. I would like to run some tests and figure out the cause of the mutation."
"Toxic waste," muttered Tails.
Robotnik's laugh was like the roar of some carnivorous animal. Even Snively cracked a smile, but Tails gazed at the two of them as if they were the curiosities in a cage, instead of the other way around. His grief was so great that the world had lost its reality. At that moment he would have killed them both if he could have, and still remained detached.
One thing he was certain of, though. Life without Sonic would be short.