-------------------------------CHAPTER 2------------------------------------



The year: 2025 The place: San Francisco The Time: 11:55

Damn.....guys keep this up and Shelby's going to get totaled. Coming around a sharp corner he just managed to keep from plowing into a 2015 Jeep Cliffhanger. He'd been chasing the large 2020 Chevy Pounder for an hour now and it was starting to get on his nerves. Ah ha. Luck has turned in my favor he said speeding up. The Chevy truck was doing 110 on a long stretch on highway that didn't have an exit for the next 10 miles giving the pursuing vehicle plenty of time and room to catch up. The back opened on the Chevy revealing several men in hoods. Pulling out there weapons they started firing at the vehicle behind them.
"OH sh..." he started to say as he veered the car out of the way. Several rounds bounced of the hood and windshield but left small black marks. Grabbing the .44 magnum beside him he tried to get closer enough to fire through the passenger side window.
"Explosive tips should do the trick." he said as he aimed for the left rear tire. "Got ya." he said pulling the hammer back.
Just as he was about to fire when the driver of the Chevy slowed suddenly and made the back end smash into the side of the car.
"AAAAAAAAA! NOT MY BEAUTIFUL CAR!!!! THAT DOES IT! WHERE THE...." he said reaching for the grenade launcher in the back seat.
As he was reaching for it the Chevy drove in front of him. Having no way to miss the hood men in the back opened fire. Seeing the sparks flying off the front of the car were the bullets were bouncing off he grabbed a grenade from the floor and loaded it not bothering to even see which one it was. Sticking the launcher out the driver window made the other vehicle stop firing.
"SUCK ON THIS!" he yelled pulling the trigger. He immediately realized how stupid it was to do this when he noticed it was a plasma grenade he fired. The grenade blew the Chevy into a large fireball that sent other vehicles around it off into the guard rails from the force of the explosion. Seeing that he was heading straight for the rolling fireball he dropped the launcher, which ended up on the highway rolling away as he tried to steer out of the way.
"THIS ISN'T HAPPENING.....AW WAIT!" he said grabbing his watch and turning the dial as the car impacted. A bright flash of light engulfed the area of the explosion just as the car collided with the Chevy.

Out in a clearing in the Great Forest far from Robotropolis but close to Knothole. Several bright flashes of light appeared in the forest near where Tails was close to flying.
Wonder what that was? Tails thought heading back home.
"I'll tell Sonic and then we can go look."

At first the clearing was quite and several small animals were just eating and resting when something suddenly didn't feel right. The first flash of bright light got there attention quickly. The second flash made them scatter. The third flash threw a large blue object onto the ground which slid into a nearby tree. It made a loud crunching noise like metal being crushed slightly as it hit the tree.
"Great Scott! I thinkkkkkkkk.........."he said as he slumped over onto the horn causing it to make a loud beep for several seconds before he slid off into his gear shift.

Over in Knothole things were going about business as usual except for Sally and Bunnie who were scheming against Sonic. Luckily he hadn't noticed them talking quietly since Tails was busy with him.
"Yeah Sonic I was practicing those new moves Dulcy showed me when a strange light showed up in the forest north of here."
"Did you see what it was bro?"
"No, I came to you first to see what you wanted to do."
"Let's get Sally and then we can......" Sonic was saying before he stopped and looked around. Several others were looking around and then started talking.
"Did you hear that?, What was that?" and other comments were heard as they started directing there questions at Sally.
"Calm down everyone. I heard it as well but its probably nothing but one of Rotor's experiments. Go back to what you were doing." Walking over Bunnie and Sally approached Sonic and Tails.
"I assume you heard that Sonic?" Sally said pulling Nichole out.
"Duh. I wasn't the only one." he said giving her dumb look.
"What was that Aunt Sally?" Tails said.
Sally was going to say something to Sonic for being rude but she decided not to do it in front of Tails. "I'm not sure yet. Lets see what Nichole says first. Nichole what was that noise?"
"Unknown Sally."
"Why?"
"I wasn't on when you heard it."
"Great work Nichole, can you at least see if there's anything funny around?" Sonic said looking at Nichole.
"Sonic you know leaving her on to long kills the batteries but I should have turned her on as soon as I heard it. Is there anything unusual around Nichole?"
"Still checking.......a faint energy signature of unknown origin is detected north of here but the signal is too low to pin point it."
"That sounds like it could be were I saw those strange lights Sonic?" Tails said looking at Sonic.
"When did you see strange lights hun?" Bunnie said looking at Tails.
"A few minutes ago before the weird sound we heard. I was practicing some flying man-u-vers when I saw the lights in the forest. I came back to tell Sonic to see what he would want to do." Tails said having trouble with pronouncing maneuvers.
"Alright lets get a small search party to go out and look around. Tails and Dulcy can look in the air while the rest of us can search the ground." Sally said putting Nichole away.
"I'll go get my pack and a power ring just in case." Sonic said taking off.
"Bunnie you get Antoine while I get Rotor. Hopefully its nothing bad and we can find it soon." Sally said heading off in Rotors direction.

Several minutes later they were together formulating a plan. "Alright Rotor and Uncle Chuck can check this section of the forest here, me and Sonic will check here while Antoine and Bunnie look around here. Tails and Dulcy will be flying overhead so they'll be able to be lookouts and can tell the rest of us were to go if one of us finds anything. Got it?" She said looking at them all. They all nodded and then headed off.
After several hours of searching they turned up nothing and Nichole never was able to find even a hint of a trace on the original or any strange signals of energy. Tails showed Dulcy several clearings were he thought he saw the lights but they never came across anything. Sally eventually called it a night and as everyone was heading home Tails thought he saw something strange about the ground in a clearing.
"Hey Dulcy does that ground look funny to you?" he said from atop of her back. Tails got tired of flying some time ago and was riding Dulcy.
"It does look like the ground is turned up a bit, lets do a fly over and see if anything's in it."
"Cool."
Passing over several times they only noticed the ground looked like one of Dulcy's bad landing and a large tree branch was hanging off a tall tree but other than that things looked fine so they went home. Back at Knothole they all reported what they saw. After hearing about what Dulcy and Tails saw Sonic said he'd check it out in the morning. With that they all went to bed.

Later that night he awoke in his car with a aching head and a hurting cheek.
"Who'd I get in a fight with?" he said rubbing his cheek. "Oh the gear shift...." he said sarcastically. Opening the door he tried to get out only to be hit with a large branch that snapped off the tree above him when the door was forced open. "Ouch!" Spitting out pine needles and other parts of the branch he tossed it aside and looked around. Grabbing the med kit box he applied what was needed to get rid of the pain and swelling.
"Glad I bought these baby's." he said opening the trunk and removing a set of binoculars. "Hmmm. Let's see what I can find." Looking around he noticed lots of trees. "Now how in the hell did I get in a forest?" Doing a 360 with binoculars in heat and night vision mode he noticed a village not to far away. "Maybe they can tell me where I am and who's playing a cruel joke on me. Hmmm....that village looks familiar for some reason." Turning off the binoculars he shook his head slightly as he held it with one hand. A wave of dizziness hit him. "Oh man does this headache hurt." Closing the trunk he started the car and slowly headed for the village. When he got a little over halfway there the car died.
"You've got to be kidding me. I just fixed you." He started thinking about what could be wrong when he remembered chasing the Chevy. Getting out of the car he grabbed his flashlight and looked at the passenger side of the car. "Rrrrrrrrr..." he growled as he inspected the damaged. From the front left side to just behind the passenger door the metal was crunched in. "Ah Shelby.....maybe I should have listen to the guys and just left you at home and used a company car." Opening the hood he check out the engine. "Damn. One of the turbines is out of alignment. Must have been when I hit that tree." Tossing the flashlight into the car he put it in neutral and pushed in into the village. No one noticed as he stopped it in middle of the village. Placing it back in park he got out. He started heading toward one of the huts when he was overcome with extreme fatigue and a wave of dizziness. Leaning against the driver door he tired to shake it off but it only made it worse. He slowly felt his consciousness leaving as he slid to the ground. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a bottle of aspirin to get rid of the pain. After swallowing two he placed the bottle next to him.
"My head....must havvv........" he was saying as his eyes rolled up into his head. Falling over he landed on the pill bottle scattering it's contents.
Antoine who was the lookout that night never noticed the human or the large vehicle enter the village because he was sound asleep.