Chapter Two: Rendion
Sonic woke up, dizzy and confused. He was still at Angel Island. He remembered everything that happened the day before.
"That guy's going to get it..." Sonic muttered to himself as he stood up. Sonic looked around - the Tornado 2 was gone. "Tails is going to hate me for this..." Sonic thought. Just as he thought of the fox, Tails and Amy in the Typhoon landed a couple hundred feet from Sonic.
"Sonic! Are you okay?" Tails asked as he ran out from the plane.
"I'm okay... but the guy I met here won't be," Sonic said.
"Have you found anything out? About the attack?" Tails asked. Sonic looked at Tails for a moment.
"I'm glad you're feeling better, buddy," Sonic stated as Amy walked over.
"I'm... I'm sorry Sonic... I didn't want to let you down," Tails said.
"It's okay, Tails. I'm just glad you're yourself again. We need to get to Eggman. I have a feeling that the guy I met is working with him," Sonic said.
"But where would Eggman be, Sonic?" Amy questioned. Sonic then remembered where he needed to go.
"I got to get to Rendion, and I need to get there quick, Tails. I might be too late already. How fast can your plane go?" Sonic quickly said.
"Faster than you think," Tails smiled, and Sonic and Tails ran over to the plane.
"Wait up! You two aren't leaving me here!" Amy said, following them. Sonic stood on the back of the plane as Tails and Amy took their seats.
"I'll explain everything that happened on the way," Sonic said. And with that, the plane took off. The speed of the plane surprised Sonic - the Tornado 2 couldn't go half as fast, at least it seemed.
"So who is it you met?" Tails asked back to Sonic.
"He never showed himself to me, and I could never find him. I could only hear him. He killed an armadillo to mock me..." Sonic began.
"No!" Amy gasped.
"I tried to get him to a hospital, but he had already died. I came back here later to find the guy who killed him. I talked with him and he didn't keep his word when he promised he'd show himself if I answered his questions," Sonic explained.
"What questions?" Tails asked.
"Just personal questions. He used my answers to make fun of me. He thinks he could kill me if he wanted to, but he says he wants me to see everyone else in the world die first," Sonic continued.
"Sounds crazy to me," Tails commented.
"Yeah, but he's confident. He wasn't ridiculous like Eggman. He was much more relaxed. Much more serious. He used some kind of strange power to make me not be able to walk after he left - he like broke my leg in some weird way. It's better now, but he said I should get to Rendion. I think he plans to attack that town," Sonic said.
"Well we'll be there in just a few minutes," Tails stated.
"Thank you so much Shadow, for saving this town," the mayor said, shaking Shadow's hand.
"You're welcome, and thank you for getting me to a doctor. I hope to come by again some time, but I must continue my travels," Shadow replied.
"You're welcome anytime, Shadow," the mayor said as Shadow walked on down the road, heading for his next destination.
"The time is now for Rendion to fall, Doctor," the voice that spoke to Sonic the day before told Eggman through the message-sending device.
"Which robot should it be this time?" Eggman asked.
"Pick three, and pick them now," the voice stated.
"Oh, don't rush me... uh..." Eggman hurried as he looked from screen to screen. "Which ones... which ones..."
"I'll separate Sonic from his friends. The robots need to be there by then," the voice instructed.
"Okay, okay," Eggman said as the device turned off. Eggman pressed a button labeled "Three" on his main console. Onscreen, three different robots appeared, and Eggman gave the order for them to quickly fly to the town of Rendion.
Knuckles got up. He was covered in a liquid that slowly dripped off of him and into the liquid he sat in. He stood up, and looked about himself. The green liquid went about half way up to his knees. From the liquid came small emeralds with sparks of electricity that connected to them. Balls of light flew all about, and Knuckles began to worry about where he was. In a blinding flash of light, the environment changed, and Knuckles was at the ancient temple that once housed the Master and Chaos Emeralds.
"This is just like the visions Tikal had given me..." Knuckles realized. "Am I having another?"
Rouge had made her way to Angel Island's tunnels. Once out of them, she could see the old wooden bridge that bridged the gap to the shrine of the Master Emerald. One of the flying fortresses that had attacked a couple days ago was stationed near it, and Rouge knew there'd likely be hundreds of guard robots there. She turned on her portable transmitter.
"Rouge reporting. I'm near the shrine of the Master Emerald, but what appears to be one of the vehicles that attacked about two days ago is docked nearby. Signs show that the massive vehicle docked here was created by Doctor Ivo Robotnik," Rouge began, noting the logo of Eggman's face imprinted on the side of the fortress. "I'll have more details shortly," Rouge ended as she quickly made her way to the other side of the shrine undetected.
Rendion was a somewhat large town, composed mainly of humans and hedgehogs. Today seemed to be just another normal day.
"Good morning, Rendion. Today is Saturday the 14th, and it's a nice sunny day - a great morning to go outside, relax, and forget your troubles," one radio announcer started his newscast. The Typhoon landed just outside the town, and Sonic quickly jumped out to assess the situation. Everything looked just fine - he didn't see any robots or any kind of flying fortress attacking.
"This is Rendion, right?" Sonic asked.
"The coordinates are correct. Unless my plane's computer system isn't working, this place is Rendion. Though that might be the case - I couldn't fully test everything," Tails explained.
"Maybe that guy wanted you to come here instead of somewhere else," Amy said. Sonic fumed at the idea.
"Sonic, don't worry. You can't be everywhere at once. Maybe he wants you to think that he wanted you to come here instead of somewhere else so that you'd leave and then the place would be destroyed and then you'd feel bad because you overthought the situation and could've defended the town since you were just there," Tails said without taking a breath. Sonic and Amy stared at Tails for a few moments.
"Um... sure," Sonic finally broke the silence. The three continued to look around for a few minutes. Something caught Amy's eye.
"What's that over there?" Amy asked, pointing to a large figure in the sky.
"One of Eggman's new robots!" Sonic said.
"There's another over there!" Tails pointed out in the other direction.
"Tails, you take that one in the air - I've got the one farther away," Sonic instructed as he ran down the roadway towards the attacking robot. Tails got into his plane and quickly started it up. Amy got in the back just before he took off and headed to the other robot attacking.
Sonic quickly reached his robot - it was a robot that was essentially a large silver cylinder that hovered slightly above the ground, bashing cars in the roadway with its two arms made up of several smaller silver cylinders, connected together as if with invisible string - the small cylinders just floating near each other.
"You're so going to get it," Sonic said as he spin dashed straight for the robot's center. Upon impact, a large explosion erupted and Sonic broke away free.
"Too easy..." Sonic let out. The smoke cleared, but the robot appeared to not even be scratched from the attack. Sonic snapped his finger and ran back up to the robot. Humans and hedgehogs were running from the area as the slow-moving machine bashed down a building with its arms. Meanwhile, Tails was flying his plane towards the robot that was firing upon a taller building. The robot appeared to be a large red spike loaded with jet propellers and tens of different guns. Tails flew in and began firing his plane's new weapons upon the robot. His machine gun bullets missed the speedy machine as it launched a missile towards a building, destroying it. The robot passed by Tails and Amy and headed towards another building.
"Time for the boosters," Tails said, flipping a switch on his dashboard. The plane then took off and quickly caught up to the robot. Tails was finally able to hit it with a couple of dropped explosives. The robot swooped around and began firing on Tails' plane, then sending a homing missile at it. Tails began to maneuver speedily around the town's buildings to avoid the approaching missile. Unable to avoid it for long, Tails swung around as quickly as possible and fired upon the missile from behind, destroying it. Tails quickly flew back to the robot to confront it once again. At this time, Sonic was making his move on the cylindrical robot. He had tried spin dashing through it several times, but after the machine would blow up each time it would seem to re-create itself.
"Every robot has a weak spot," Sonic thought. "I just have to find this robot's weakness." It wasn't long before Sonic tried a new way to defeat the machine. Sonic ran up the robot and onto its left arm, and with all his might grabbed and ran off with the end cylinder of the robot. Sonic guessed correctly - the robot's cylinders had a special kind of magnetic attraction to each other to keep it stable yet not magnetize to any other substance. The robot was pulled along by Sonic, running at top speed. Out of the city, Sonic traveled across the grassy landscape for several minutes before arriving upon a large cliff. Sonic threw the cylinder as hard as he could, and ducked under the huge speeding robot as it connected to the thrown cylinder too late, falling off the cliff and down hundreds of feet to its destruction.
As Sonic was running, Tails was still flying after the airborne robot destroying another building. Tails locked-on to the robot for a moment, and instantly fired a special energy-based weapon of his. In that split-second maneuver the shot missed. Fortunately Tails had double-tapped the trigger and the robot flew straight into the second shot, blowing it into hundreds of minute metallic pieces that tumbled to the roadway below. Amy congratulated Tails on his plane-maneuvering skills as he landed the plane smoothly. Meanwhile, Sonic was taking a breather by the side of the cliff, relaxing from all his running. The town was far in the distance now, but he knew Tails may need his help. Just before he left though, the voice that had spoken to him earlier was heard.
"Hold on a moment, Sonic," it stated calmly and casually. "Both robots were destroyed."
"I knew you're a part of this! You're working with Eggman!" Sonic let out, looking around for the holder of the voice. There were no trees or bushes to hide behind here, yet there was nobody to be found.
"I just wanted to warn you, before you return to town," the voice said.
"Hurry it up then," Sonic replied impatiently.
"I wanted to warn you... that you are going to fail again. Everyone's back in town now that the robots are gone, and everyone thinks the attack is over. In a few minutes, they are all going to die," the voice explained plainly.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Sonic yelled.
"There are twenty miniature and highly-explosive bombs scattered across the town. They will all detonate in a few minutes. You will be unable to even reach the town in time to warn anyone, including your friends," the voice revealed. Sonic clenched his fists and ran off to the town at an even faster speed then he left it.
"No way that guy's going to get away with the senseless killing again... no way," Sonic thought as he sped across the hills at a speed that hurt him to breathe. Sonic sped into the town, and slowed down to warn as many people as he could.
"EVERYBODY RUN!! THIS TOWN'S GONNA BLOW!!" Sonic screamed as he ran down the road. A couple people watched him go by, confused. A few others took the advice, remembering the robots that just attacked. Sonic continued yelling for everyone to run as he sped down another roadway. A hedgehog yelled at Sonic, asking him what he said, but Sonic was already gone. Sonic went down another main roadway, yelling that the town was going to explode. Some people began to run, and some others stayed put. Sonic was covered in sweat, trying to keep running and yelling. Sonic ran down another roadway - he tried to yell but couldn't anymore. There still hadn't been any explosions, and he couldn't find Tails or Amy anywhere.
"Maybe the guy was bluffing," Sonic considered. Suddenly, a gigantic 100-foot black centipede-like robot appeared from the ground in the center of town.
"He just wanted to tire me out," Sonic realized as he fell to the ground, panting madly. The robot rammed straight through a series of small buildings, destroying them all on impact. Sonic quickly got up, shocked, and fell back to the ground, yelling in pain. He saw Tails and Amy in the plane up above, heading for the enormous robot which was now jumping through the air and plunging back underground. A few moments later, it plunged back out down the street and lunged for Tails and Amy. As it was directly behind the plane, Amy swung her large hammer at the machine, re-directing it slightly and forcing it back underground. A few moments later though, the centipede-like machine flew out of ground in front of the plane, opened its mouth, and swiftly enveloped the plane along with Tails and Amy before returning underground. Sonic forced himself back up at the sight of this despite the intense pain that surged through his body. He began running towards the area the robot was at. The roadways were destroyed by the maddening machine, and half the town was nothing but rubble as the robot continued its motion of lunging out from the ground, ramming through a building, then plunging back into the ground. Sonic reached the wild machine, which jumped out directly in front of Sonic, pushing him away and tossing piles of rubble atop of him. Sonic managed to push some rubble away so he could see once again, and to his surprise he saw none other than Shadow the Hedgehog, now in combat with the centipede-like robot. Shadow spin dashed through several of its many metallic black legs and managed to keep it from destroying the town's largest building. From his control room, Eggman fumed.
"I will NOT let that town survive!" he yelled as he called his co-conspirator.
"What is it Doctor?" the voice asked.
"I'm sending some more robots to help," Eggman explained.
"Don't, you fool - no need to waste your robots. You don't have an endless supply. I'm telling you the situation is being handled. Everything is going perfectly according to my master's plans," the voice finished before hanging up. Eggman plopped back into his chair disappointed. Meanwhile, Shadow continued to take on the gigantic robot.
"You have destroyed much of this town. How will you like it when most of you is destroyed as well?" Shadow plainly asked as he continued spin dashing through more of its legs. The robot began to have trouble escaping underground now, making smaller leaps and less-devastating jumps. The robot went straight for Shadow when he was in mid-air. Shadow was able to avoid its mouth, but got pushed along the rough top-side of the machine as it plunged into the ground. Shadow spinned in place as the centipede-like robot dug into the ground. Shadow was then swiftly knocked back hundreds of feet as the robot jumped back out right for Shadow. Shadow was rammed straight into a building the robot then destroyed, tossing tons of rubble on top of the hedgehog. Just then, Sonic was back up and spin dashing through more of the robot's legs. Tens of legs flew off into pieces as Sonic spin dashed back and forth across the enormous machine.
"My baby's not going to make it!" Eggman yelled from his control room. "I don't care what he will say - I'm going to save my machine!" he yelled to himself as he began pressing several buttons on his control panel. Sonic fell to the ground, nearly passing out from the pain he was going through, physically and emotionally. His friends were gone, the town practically destroyed, and he now couldn't move at all as he moaned in pain, unable to scream in agony. The robot lunged for the helpless Sonic, but just before it could make contact with the hedgehog, it vanished.
"I'm glad all my robots have a teleporter system connected to them," Eggman said as he viewed on his control screen that the badly-damaged robot was now in a large storage room within the flying fortress. Eggman smiled, glad that he saved one of his favorite robots. Meanwhile, the owner of the voice that spoke to Sonic smiled. Eggman had done just as he had hoped.
"Now Sonic's friends are being held captive by Robotnik. We can use them later... but now, it's time to meet with Sonic face-to-face," the voice stated as the holder of the voice approached Sonic, who lying down atop of a pile of rubble, only barely conscious. The holder of the voice stood behind Sonic, who was unable to move his head to see who was behind him.
"Hello, Sonic the Hedgehog, the mighty world-renowned hero. You now lie helpless in a town you were unable to save. I can kill you right now. Your friends are no longer here. They can't help you anymore. Shadow the Hedgehog now lies dead but a few hundred feet away from you," the voice began. Sonic's eyes shut, unable to keep them open as he let out a soft, low moan.
"Ironic that I am the only one that can save you. Everyone that's still alive in this town has fled or is terribly injured. I wonder how long the list of casualties is. I wonder how much longer it will be in a moment. Well, you won't be on that list, because I'm going to save you now. You see, like I said, the town will explode in a few minutes. Only this time I mean it," the voice finished. The holder of the voice picked up Sonic and walked out of the town with him. The holder of the voice continued to walk straight and tall. The holder of the voice did not look back when the series of bombs went off, creating tens of explosions and taking out everything that was left of the town. The holder of the voice continued to walk carrying Sonic, knowing that his master's plans were at this point faultless.