Folks, a quick word to my fans-I'm getting serious about this story, and that means I need artists. Preferrably those who can draw anime pretty damn good. If you're interested in illustrating this story, e-mail or IM me, and I'll give you character descriptions. I'll be holding something of an illustrator "tryout," so just because I'm desperate doesn't mean I'll take you. Just give me an example of your work or something.
Chapter 35
Chaotix Race
She looked down at the body, robotic eyes zeroing in on it. Then, she figured, why not tap into this robot's abilities? She decided to check his vital signs…
"Nothing," she beeped. God, for every cool thing this scrap heap could do, it always did something really annoying, like that whole beeping thing.
The deed was done.
Of course, any idiot could have guessed that, she just wanted to double check. Dried blood stained his already crimson jacket.
The massacre wasn't too pretty, either. One of the robots held the poor doctor up as each robot took their turn pumping bullets into him. Those who had no gun found some other, "creative" means of mortally wounding him.
Omega had come last. His evil red eyes looked even more wicked as he launched every rocket and bullet he had towards the doctor. He was probably already dead anyway, but it must have felt good anyway, she thought.
She casually moved one robotic arm to the other and wiped off an imaginary spot. Blinked twice, then turned to another robot of considerably less size.
"Get that disgusting thing out of there," she whirred.
"I know," the other robot answered. "Not nice to have a dead body around our new base of operations."
"Did he have to be dead?" she laughed. "He was sick before that, it's just easier to get rid of him when he isn't moving."
Why was Knuckles green again?
Sonic still wasn't sure of the answer, but he didn't exactly look safe. Then again, he was never safe. But he looked particularly not safe now.
"What happened, Knux, you fall in a vat of gelatin or something?" he called back to his rival, who was still flying higher above.
"You will die!" he retorted angrily.
"I knew you had a one track mind Red, but this is ridiculous."
"DIE!"
"Okay, I understand you're pissed off, but can't you make it a little more fun and at least respond in a sentence that doesn't include the word "die" or any of its other forms?"
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!"
"There's no talking to him when he's like this," Sonic grumbled. So instead, he decided to actually pay attention to where he was going, which was right towards that base…city…thing.
For such a protected place, it should have sent out a robot team by now. With all that screaming and banging and rumbling, not to mention a flying green echidna, Sonic expected something on Eggman's security system would have picked him up. It almost wasn't fun to break into this place anymore.
He was approaching an intersection of numerous roads. He still wasn't sure what purpose they served, but it made it easier to run, rather than trampling along the rock canyon floor.
Not that Knuckles had anything to worry about.
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!!!!!"
"It would help if you could actually catch up to me," yelled Sonic without actually looking at him. Even when he's green and insane, he was a complete-
Oh God.
He finally realized why he was green. He only remembered one other time Knuckles was green.
That was when he was in Chaotix form.
But how? Without the Master Emerald..???
"Damn!" he cried, and he accelerated to the intersection. The Master Emerald didn't have unlimited energy like the Chaos Emeralds did, but they had more than Sonic did right now.
Which meant, if this kept up, Sonic would be down and out way before Knuckles broke a sweat.
He needed to get inside that base!
Of course, Sonic wasn't sure how getting inside would help him in this situation, but it might buy him a few seconds. Vital seconds he needed to talk to RaGiff. He was too close to death to try communicating with him now. He was now at the intersection, and, unsure of where to go and without much time to do it, he simply went to the nearest connection to the other side. Lightning flashed thousands of miles away, but it seemed like a few feet. Faster, faster, that stupid echidna is gaining!
"DIE!!!"
"Oh, shut up!" Sonic shouted, trying to sound half as confident as he was in this situation. There had to be something he had to do. Anything to buy him a few seconds.
Wait, there might be a shot. A long shot, a risky shot, but it'd have to do.
"RAGIFF!" he screamed into the communicator after nearly punching out the green button. No answer for a few seconds. Just muffled sounds with piano in the background. "RAGIFF!" Something now. A…sniff?
"…what…" whispered the voice.
"What does the red button do?"
"Shut up, man, this ain't the time for-"
"LISTEN UP!" Sonic screamed at the top of his lungs. "KNUCKLES IS GOING TO KICK MY ASS IN A SECOND AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL THAT BUTTON DOES! QUIT WHINING AND SPILL IT!"
"It's a stun gun," he groaned. "I don't believe in mindless killin' so it stuns people. Listen, man, this whole thing is over-"
"Thanks, talk to ya later!" "Wait, Son-"
Beep. The link was broken.
Oh yes.
Sonic ripped off the communicator and jammed the red button. The microphone steadily glowed a bright yellow. "Faster," he hissed, "faster!"
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Knuckles. The echidna looked bewildered, but only for a second. He then swooped in, fists bared and teeth gritted, hell-bent on drilling Sonic twenty miles below ground.
"DIE!"
Shot!
A single, circular pulse of yellow energy slowly made its way to Knuckles. The echidna saw it, but figured he could pass through the center of the increasingly large hole. Sonic feared the same thing. If Knuckles got too close…Sonic wasn't sure how much longer he could outrun him.
They were both wrong. Dead wrong.
Knuckles stopped dead halfway through the ring of gold. His eyes grew to the size of basketballs as he struggled to break free of his electric bonds, but to no avail. Sonic figured, if RaGiff was the genius he had proved himself to be, it would hold a normal person for a good few minutes.
Which meant, with Knuckles, he had less than one minute to get out of there.
He sped down the path he had been running on and continued until the dozen roads from before combined to form one. The homestretch. One hard corner, then just a straight runaway to wherever the entrance was.
Shatter!
From behind him.
Sonic turned his head as he ran. Sparks of electricity flew from Knuckles, who now hovered freely in the air. The green echidna slowly turned his head to Sonic and mouthed the word "Die."
In a flash, he was gone. In another flash, Knuckles was just above him.
"Die," he said quickly.
Sonic was even quicker to run. But he knew this was hopeless. Could he really keep this up for much longer?
Crackle!
Gasping from behind again! Sonic whirled around. Knuckles began to grip his chest. The green around him grew darker, then began to disappear. His emerald body began to fade into pure white.
"What…what??" he panted. "Why? Not now!"
"Haha!" Sonic laughed. "It's about time!"
The echidna slowly descended against his own will. Down, down, until foot touched ground again. As soon as he had returned to Earth, he collapsed onto the ground, breathless. Soon, the white began to disappear as well, revealing an oddly dark crimson color on his skin. He closed his eyes, as if trying to regain strength. His skin finally returned to its original red. The moment the reverse transformation seemed complete, Knuckles fainted and fell onto his chest. Sonic slowly walked over to Knuckles and stood over him.
"Can't just suck up energy like that, my man," he explained to the lifeless body. "Otherwise, things like this happen. Love to help ya, but I've got a date with an old friend of mine, and I'd hate to be late."
With that, Sonic raced down the road to the closest available metal doorway.
From inside, alarms blared incessantly. She went to one of the many screens and looked at the camera's view. On one of the roads lay a red echidna all too familiar to her. Running away from him at a ridiculous speed was what appeared to be a blue hedgehog.
"Sonic the Hedgehog…"
"Mistress…" bleeped a fellow robot host. "What should we do of the intruders?"
If she could, she would smile.
"Let them in," she whispered. "I'm going to have a little fun before we complete our final step. How much time?" "About two minutes…"
"Curse this rule…Fine, it looks as if we'll all have to find new saps. No matter. At least there's a little variety."
Chapter 35
Chaotix Race
She looked down at the body, robotic eyes zeroing in on it. Then, she figured, why not tap into this robot's abilities? She decided to check his vital signs…
"Nothing," she beeped. God, for every cool thing this scrap heap could do, it always did something really annoying, like that whole beeping thing.
The deed was done.
Of course, any idiot could have guessed that, she just wanted to double check. Dried blood stained his already crimson jacket.
The massacre wasn't too pretty, either. One of the robots held the poor doctor up as each robot took their turn pumping bullets into him. Those who had no gun found some other, "creative" means of mortally wounding him.
Omega had come last. His evil red eyes looked even more wicked as he launched every rocket and bullet he had towards the doctor. He was probably already dead anyway, but it must have felt good anyway, she thought.
She casually moved one robotic arm to the other and wiped off an imaginary spot. Blinked twice, then turned to another robot of considerably less size.
"Get that disgusting thing out of there," she whirred.
"I know," the other robot answered. "Not nice to have a dead body around our new base of operations."
"Did he have to be dead?" she laughed. "He was sick before that, it's just easier to get rid of him when he isn't moving."
Why was Knuckles green again?
Sonic still wasn't sure of the answer, but he didn't exactly look safe. Then again, he was never safe. But he looked particularly not safe now.
"What happened, Knux, you fall in a vat of gelatin or something?" he called back to his rival, who was still flying higher above.
"You will die!" he retorted angrily.
"I knew you had a one track mind Red, but this is ridiculous."
"DIE!"
"Okay, I understand you're pissed off, but can't you make it a little more fun and at least respond in a sentence that doesn't include the word "die" or any of its other forms?"
"DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!"
"There's no talking to him when he's like this," Sonic grumbled. So instead, he decided to actually pay attention to where he was going, which was right towards that base…city…thing.
For such a protected place, it should have sent out a robot team by now. With all that screaming and banging and rumbling, not to mention a flying green echidna, Sonic expected something on Eggman's security system would have picked him up. It almost wasn't fun to break into this place anymore.
He was approaching an intersection of numerous roads. He still wasn't sure what purpose they served, but it made it easier to run, rather than trampling along the rock canyon floor.
Not that Knuckles had anything to worry about.
"WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!!!!!"
"It would help if you could actually catch up to me," yelled Sonic without actually looking at him. Even when he's green and insane, he was a complete-
Oh God.
He finally realized why he was green. He only remembered one other time Knuckles was green.
That was when he was in Chaotix form.
But how? Without the Master Emerald..???
"Damn!" he cried, and he accelerated to the intersection. The Master Emerald didn't have unlimited energy like the Chaos Emeralds did, but they had more than Sonic did right now.
Which meant, if this kept up, Sonic would be down and out way before Knuckles broke a sweat.
He needed to get inside that base!
Of course, Sonic wasn't sure how getting inside would help him in this situation, but it might buy him a few seconds. Vital seconds he needed to talk to RaGiff. He was too close to death to try communicating with him now. He was now at the intersection, and, unsure of where to go and without much time to do it, he simply went to the nearest connection to the other side. Lightning flashed thousands of miles away, but it seemed like a few feet. Faster, faster, that stupid echidna is gaining!
"DIE!!!"
"Oh, shut up!" Sonic shouted, trying to sound half as confident as he was in this situation. There had to be something he had to do. Anything to buy him a few seconds.
Wait, there might be a shot. A long shot, a risky shot, but it'd have to do.
"RAGIFF!" he screamed into the communicator after nearly punching out the green button. No answer for a few seconds. Just muffled sounds with piano in the background. "RAGIFF!" Something now. A…sniff?
"…what…" whispered the voice.
"What does the red button do?"
"Shut up, man, this ain't the time for-"
"LISTEN UP!" Sonic screamed at the top of his lungs. "KNUCKLES IS GOING TO KICK MY ASS IN A SECOND AND I NEED TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL THAT BUTTON DOES! QUIT WHINING AND SPILL IT!"
"It's a stun gun," he groaned. "I don't believe in mindless killin' so it stuns people. Listen, man, this whole thing is over-"
"Thanks, talk to ya later!" "Wait, Son-"
Beep. The link was broken.
Oh yes.
Sonic ripped off the communicator and jammed the red button. The microphone steadily glowed a bright yellow. "Faster," he hissed, "faster!"
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Knuckles. The echidna looked bewildered, but only for a second. He then swooped in, fists bared and teeth gritted, hell-bent on drilling Sonic twenty miles below ground.
"DIE!"
Shot!
A single, circular pulse of yellow energy slowly made its way to Knuckles. The echidna saw it, but figured he could pass through the center of the increasingly large hole. Sonic feared the same thing. If Knuckles got too close…Sonic wasn't sure how much longer he could outrun him.
They were both wrong. Dead wrong.
Knuckles stopped dead halfway through the ring of gold. His eyes grew to the size of basketballs as he struggled to break free of his electric bonds, but to no avail. Sonic figured, if RaGiff was the genius he had proved himself to be, it would hold a normal person for a good few minutes.
Which meant, with Knuckles, he had less than one minute to get out of there.
He sped down the path he had been running on and continued until the dozen roads from before combined to form one. The homestretch. One hard corner, then just a straight runaway to wherever the entrance was.
Shatter!
From behind him.
Sonic turned his head as he ran. Sparks of electricity flew from Knuckles, who now hovered freely in the air. The green echidna slowly turned his head to Sonic and mouthed the word "Die."
In a flash, he was gone. In another flash, Knuckles was just above him.
"Die," he said quickly.
Sonic was even quicker to run. But he knew this was hopeless. Could he really keep this up for much longer?
Crackle!
Gasping from behind again! Sonic whirled around. Knuckles began to grip his chest. The green around him grew darker, then began to disappear. His emerald body began to fade into pure white.
"What…what??" he panted. "Why? Not now!"
"Haha!" Sonic laughed. "It's about time!"
The echidna slowly descended against his own will. Down, down, until foot touched ground again. As soon as he had returned to Earth, he collapsed onto the ground, breathless. Soon, the white began to disappear as well, revealing an oddly dark crimson color on his skin. He closed his eyes, as if trying to regain strength. His skin finally returned to its original red. The moment the reverse transformation seemed complete, Knuckles fainted and fell onto his chest. Sonic slowly walked over to Knuckles and stood over him.
"Can't just suck up energy like that, my man," he explained to the lifeless body. "Otherwise, things like this happen. Love to help ya, but I've got a date with an old friend of mine, and I'd hate to be late."
With that, Sonic raced down the road to the closest available metal doorway.
From inside, alarms blared incessantly. She went to one of the many screens and looked at the camera's view. On one of the roads lay a red echidna all too familiar to her. Running away from him at a ridiculous speed was what appeared to be a blue hedgehog.
"Sonic the Hedgehog…"
"Mistress…" bleeped a fellow robot host. "What should we do of the intruders?"
If she could, she would smile.
"Let them in," she whispered. "I'm going to have a little fun before we complete our final step. How much time?" "About two minutes…"
"Curse this rule…Fine, it looks as if we'll all have to find new saps. No matter. At least there's a little variety."