Chapter 6 New in town
"Well, Sam. It looks like we'll be staying here for a while." Aaron said. Sam was worried and it showed.
"Can't we find an open field or a flat hill so we can go home?" Sam asked. Aaron did not like being away from his labs any more than Sam liked being away from home, but he did not see how they could make it off this mysterious planet.
"They may need our help! And, we don't have a level enough stretch of land to get up to speed on." Aaron explained. Aaron held her closer to him. Sam was softly crying.
On the western side of Knothole, Drago had just walked into Hershey's hut. Drago and Hershey had been going out for almost three months, but lately Hershey had a feeling that Drago was up to no good.
"Drago! What're you doing here?" Hershey asked, just as startled as grateful. Her hut was as welcoming inside as it was outside; high ceiling, delicately framed windows, small flowerbed outside the kitchen window.
"Well, I've got some bad news. The King is back!" He angrily shouted as he poured himself a drink. Hershey knew Drago had a mean streak that ran through him, but this was really the first time that she had seen it show itself.
"You call that bad news?" Hershey asked. She then thought to herself that she would never understand Drago.
"It deadens my chance at the throne!" He shouted. Then, he remembered. He remembered how much Hershey hated Snively. He thought to himself, "There's an optically-altered mask of Sonic in the closet. If I can have someone kill Sally, and hide the King, I'll get the throne! And, if Robo gets back soon, he might let me detonate the Ultimate Annihilator!" Drago was in line to assume the throne the moment Sally stepped down from her position as Princess. He had been one of the King's guards before the war with Robotnik began. He knew that if anything happened to the Princess, he would be the one to assume leadership.
He laughed to himself and then said, "I hear that Snively is planning on ambushing the Freedom Fighters!" Hershey had lost her parents to Snively's war machines when she was ten. She was still determined to get Snively back.
"What is he planning on doing to Knothole?" Hershey angrily asked. It was working as Drago had planned.
"He plans to carry Robotnik's Doomsday device into the village and detonate it in the middle of town." Drago explained. Hershey grabbed her binoculars and started out the door, but was stopped by Drago.
"But, Snively will recognize you! You need a mask so that Snively will not know who is attacking him!" Drago said as he grabbed the mask of Sonic. "He'll try to break into his bosses office to get the codes for the device. Do whatever you can to have him take a hard fall!" Drago informed Hershey. Hershey put the rest of the costume on. Once she got the costume on, she left for Robotropolis.
Back at the Knothole Infirmary, Doctor Quack had just finished hooking the King up to his medical computers.
"I hope the computers can figure out what is happening to His Majesty!" Quentin said. Unknown to even the good Doctor, a shadow that looked like it had been there all the time spoke up.
"Your computers can't help at all! Only the King's magical sword can cure the King of his ailments." The shadow, which had moved to the doorway, said. The shadow stepped forward and presented itself in the light of the OR.
"What the…? Oh, it's you Knuckles! Please help us out on this one!" Tails pleaded with Knuckles. Quentin unhooked his computers and shut them off. Knuckles walked into the room.
"As I said, the only way to cure the King of any ailments is with his sword." Knuckles explained.
"Well, where can we find this magical sword?" Rotor asked while checking his database.
"It should be in Robo's main office." Knuckles answered. The three of them looked from one to the other, finally deciding silently on a course of action.
Sonic, Aaron, Sally, and Sam were meanwhile trying to pick their way through an old over-grown trail that led to the old tree stump. The old tree stump led to the Underground Knothole Village, which had been abandoned since Robotnik had discovered its whereabouts. The Freedom Fighters still used the Oak slide to get to Knothole Village just so that it would maybe confuse Robotnik. Sonic reached up and grabbed a vine and pulled on it. Suddenly, there was a violent tremor originating from deep within the planet itself. Almost immediately, the tree stump crumbled and was buried under a fallen tree.
"What's happening?" Aaron yelled over the rumbling. Sally motioned for Sam to give her the computer.
"Princess, according to what data I could collect… it appears that Planet Earth and Planet Mobius are merging." Nicole, Sally's computer, said. The tremors were subsiding. After a few more seconds, the tremors had stopped all together.
"What were you saying, Nicole?" Sally asked. The small computers lights blinked, and then she repeated what she had said.
"How much longer until both planets are completely merged?" Aaron asked the computer.
"There is about fifty hours until the two planets are completely… incoming message." Nicole said, but was interrupted as she received a message.
"Princess, is that you?" A static-laden voice said through Nicole's speaker.
"Rotor! Where are you?" Sally exclaimed, happy to hear Rotor's voice.
"We are in my lab. We have a worse dilemma than you do, I'm sure!" Rotor explained.
"What's going on in the village, aside from the quake?" Sally asked.
"There are structures and oceans popping up all over the place! What's causing all this stuff?" Rotor's scratchy voice asked. Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a big lightening storm and a bunch of roads. Things started to completely change across all of Mobius; rivers appearing out of nowhere, polar ice caps and trees growing where none existed before including under the drivers side of Aaron's Lamborghini causing it to flip over onto the roof.
"Oh, shi…" Aaron started to say, but stopped when Sam shot him a warning glance. She hated hearing people swear for any reason. Aaron caught his tongue before the last part of the word managed to slip off it.
"Sorry, but our ride home just rolled onto its roof and it's almost impossible to flip it back over." Aaron explained, the tension showing through his voice.
"I'm not entirely sure what's causing it, but just to let you know, me and Sonic are bringing two humans back to the village. I'm sure we'll have time to explain this to you once we get back there. Over and out." Sally said into her little computer, which was doubling as a radio.
"Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you two back home, separate the two planets and defeat Robotnik yet!" Sonic enthusiastically told Aaron and Sam. Sally gave Sonic that look that seemed to quietly say, "I wish it were that simple." She closed Nicole, slipped the computer into her vest pocket, and led the others back to the village.
(End of Chapter 6)