Chapter Six: Panic! Even Heroes Get Afraid!

'Sonic! Come on! Hurry up!'
Sonic was running blissfully along the overgrown grass of a tropical paradise zone, the type of grass which not even the plushest carpets in the world could compare to. To his side are palm trees, a large lake gently rippling, splashing the reflection of the sun as far as the eye could see, great mountains in the distance, it was the type of scene which would only appear on the most talented artist's canvas.
Sonic smiled broadly as he continued to dash along, trying to catch up with silhouette ahead of him, the voice it called out with sounded much like that girl he had rescued (or had rescued him) earlier that day, he desperately ran on pushing himself a little bit more as she called again.
'Hurry up Sonic!'
Then a shiver, starting from the tip of his nose and running down through his body, as it finished another, then another. The air suddenly changed, the once bright sky clouded into shadow and the pleasant scene was turning to darkness. Ahead of him the silhouette of a hedgehog stopped. Around him the world was in darkness, the palm trees hung dead and loose, the mountains began to crumble, raising huge dust clouds which just added to blot out the sun.
Cautiously, and afraid, Sonic tapped the hedgehog on the shoulder. Another cold shiver, slid down from his nose. The hedgehog turned, it wasn't Amy. It was something else! A steel shadow, a dark mirror image, the evil impostor who stole her away!
Instantly it grabbed Sonic by the neck and drove forward, through a palm tree and straight into the water. Sonic flailed with a sense of urgent desperation, he tried to call out through the thick and polluted water that he was afraid, he wanted to scream for help, but the robot's hand was choked tightly around his neck, all he could do was stare into the heartless LED eyes of the impostor as reality gave way and another cold shiver rushed into his nose

Sonic's eyes snapped open suddenly, he let out a scream and started flailing wildly. After a few moments he managed to control himself, realising it only a dream. His screams echoed through the empty caverns of the Tidal Tempest zone until only his unsettled breathing and the occasional drip of water seeping through the sandstone could be heard. By chance, one such drip had managed to localise itself over Sonic's head while he was sleeping.
'Just a dream...' he reassured himself, still feeling shaken up and unsure what had scared him more, his fear of water or that heartless monster bearing his image.
Shrugging it off, he returned to his feet and cautiously made his way through the deserted tomb of the ancient past. The silence was deafening and only added to increase Sonic's rushing adrenaline, he was clearly terrified, checking each suspicious stone before he would dare attempt to cross.
'No need to rush' he said to himself, if only to attack the silence around him for a moment, 'I'm in the ancient past, I have time to spare' he paused again, letting the echo of his own voice fade through the endless passages.
Eventually he came across a dead-end. The wall ahead of him made of the same sandstone as almost everything else in this crazy place. He examined it carefully, noticing several markings, none of which he could make sense of, nor would they open any secret passages after being tapped.
He gave a low sigh and decided to spin through it full force, it wouldn't be the first, nor the last, time he had used this approach, even if it was pretty painful. With a long run up and a loud crash, which filled Sonic's ears with joy, the wall was rubble and he saw before him a cave, much like the Mystic Cave he had explored back on Westside Island.
'Looks like I'm making progress' he exclaimed, with a sense of satisfaction.

Elsewhere on The Little Planet, in the future, Metal Sonic stood starring up into the reflected sky. It was night-time and he was on the hemisphere of the globe which faced downwards, towards Neverlake. Its surface reflected the glow of the full moon and captured the specs of the stars. The robot saw this and his eyes interpreted it as reflected light, bouncing from the sun, to the moon, the water, to his eyes: A complex reaction which takes place over several hundred thousand miles across space, all to create such a scene. His thoughts were calmer than when he had left Amy Rose, abandoned in the Stardust Speedway, and currently he was trying to work out what was beautiful about this scene. His information database, which Eggman had pre-installed into his memory, recognised that people made great paintings themed on scenes half as inspiring as this.
Giving up, the robot hung his head and starred at his hands 'You would look at this and be moved!' he said, aloud, to himself, 'Eggman would see it could be improved' he starred up again 'I see nothing. I see molecules and reactions; I see equations and their solutions. Perhaps the girl was right: A motivation and a soul; these things are vital to be a living creature. I do not live, I just exist and I shall perform my function as a computer would load data or an alarm would sound at the appropriate time. I see no need to feel anything. I do not have a soul. I do not have a goal' at that he fell silent, for what could have been 10 seconds or 10 hours, then at length he spoke again 'I see the logic, I ordered myself to stop feeling, yet it is still here. I cannot switch it off' he looked up again 'Perhaps things aren't so clear. I can look up and see the sky, but I know it is reflected light, but I still recognise it as the sky. Emotions blur perception, or perhaps add to it. So much is unclear. Why was I programmed to feel?'

In the mine, Sonic was travelling along a conveyer belt, standing still and waiting impatiently to get to the other side. When he first arrived he had taken the freedom from the dreaded water to dash freely along the underground passages, but had felt that tingling sensation.
'Gotta keep slow, or I'll go back to the future' he reminded himself 'just got to find that generator!'
Without warning he was suddenly caught in an upwards belt which shot him into the air, again he felt that tingling rush across his entire body and panicked that he may get sent to the future before he had finished his job here, thinking quickly he grabbed a hold of a spiked rock on the ceiling, then waited for the sensation to drift off, before letting himself fall to the ground. After a minor bit of exploring he eventually found himself in a large room which seemed to be for storing all of the mined materials. At the top was a platform which was emitting sparks, it didn't take a genius (which Sonic clearly wasn't) to work out that the generator must be up there, as the ancient past didn't have many things which could spark in such a way. He quickly ran across the room and was happy to find a conveniently placed spring, perhaps Eggman was careless in his placing, but Sonic was still too shaken up by his earlier vision to take any chances, instead he made a mission out of scaling the walls manually, eventually he reached a higher platform and could see the generator plainly, with less urgency than his previous encounter he was able to study it. several steel discs loosely connected by metal threads in an oval shape pulsating with energy all splashing into the centre, forcing each disc back as far as it would go. Sonic could already see a robot being created in the heart of it, from a plant seed of all things! No wonder they sprouted plants when destroyed.
Quickly Sonic jumped over and attacked, the machine crumbled to pieces as before and he heard the shatter of several robots that were patrolling the above areas shattering simultaneously.
Sighing, in a relieved way, Sonic jumped down and ran on, but something had caught his eye, until now all of the jewels he had seen were quartz crystals, but this one was rather different. Drawn by curiosity Sonic picked up the polished stone and felt that tingling sensation rush all around him, light emitted from the stone and flooded the hedghog's vision and when he was able to see again the room, which was once only carrying a few spoils was now full of glittering crystals as far as the eye could see. It was clearly the distant future again, but unlike the last time he was here, it was beautiful, the place almost brought a tear to his eyes.
'Of course!' he exclaimed 'that machine is what caused the bad future, without that this place is set up for its true future' he whistled, impressed 'Then that means...' he starred at the stone in his hand, then a wide smile came to his face.
'Watch out Eggman! Here I come!'

-

(Dearest reader: Up until now you've been reading a fiction I started about a year ago and never finished. From here I'll decide if I should add to it or not. If I do, I'll probably skip ahead to the Stardust Speedway race, as I've lost the flow and momentum of this story and it'd serve as a nice way of picking it up.

Thanks for reading; I'll start writing more soon if you'd like)