Chapter 2: Toys!

March 12th, 2314 – 7:00 AM – Location Unknown

Sonic's eyes slowly drifted open as he slept in his cardboard box, the top flap of the box open to allow in some light. The hedgehog noticed that it was still dark, and began to close his eyes again to go back to sleep. It was then that he noticed the city had come to life since the last time Tails had woken him up. Sonic could hear the sound of horns honking, people calling out to each other, and distant echoes of music from blaring stereos. He poked his head out of the box, and looked down the alleyway towards the street. The pedestrians and passing cars could be seen moving back and forth, despite the fact it was still dark.

What's going on?

Sonic jumped out of his box, and opened Tails' box. The little orange fox was still curled up into a ball inside it, almost like a cat, and he was sound asleep despite the noise. Sonic decided not to wake him up yet. He walked out of the alley and onto the street. Even though it was still as dark as when Tails had woken him up over his nightmare, the street was very active. A turtle wearing an expensive-looking business suit was walking towards Sonic. The hedgehog's eyes moved from his bald green head and glasses, down to his left arm, which had a golden watch fastened to it.

"Umm..." Sonic started as the businessman was about to pass him. "Excuse me sir."

The turtle stopped to look at Sonic. "Yes? What is it my young man?"

"Could you tell me what time it is?"

The turtle flicked his arm up towards his face, and squinted at his watch through his glasses.

"Why...it's 7:10 AM my boy," the turtle simply said. "It's morning! Everyone's starting to get around."

"But it's still dark..."

"Are you stupid or--"

The turtle suddenly paused in mid sentence, and then he nodded as if he'd just remembered something. He spoke again.

"You've never been to the Land of Darkness before, have you?"

"The Land of Darkness?" Sonic shook his head. "No."

"Well, you're standing in it right now, I hope you know," the turtle told him, as he pointed to the ground beneath them. "We're in the city of Mor in Zeraw right now. Anyway, since you've never been here before, I'll explain it for you. See, this is the surface of Planet Freedom. Above our heads are the flying continents, which make up the Land of the Sky." The turtle pointed up at the black clouds. "Those continents up there suck a lot of the sunlight, and the cloud cover catches most of what's left. So, a lot of light isn't able to make it all the way down here. That's why it's dark down here all the time, even during the day."

"I wouldn't like to live here," Sonic said. "My dad told me that this place was really rotten and dark..."

"He's right, but this place is cheap to live in, that's for sure!" the turtle told him with a grin. "For the cost of a ratty two-bedroom apartment in some Land of the Sky city like Gerrant, Cictra, I could get a very well-appointed condo down here. Still, if I wasn't so stingy about saving my money, I'd get out of here as soon as possible. I think you'd do well to leave the area too, kid. Anyway, I'm in a bit of a hurry right now, so I have to go." The turtle started to walk away, and waved to Sonic as he left. "I'll see you later."

"Bye..." Sonic said, as he waved back.

So that's where we are, Zeraw in the Land of Darkness. Isn't Zeraw the country that makes all the computers and video games for the rest of the planet? Tails said he'd like to come visit here, back when we were still living with his parents. I bet telling him that will cheer him up.

Sonic dashed back into the alley, and gently kicked the box Tails was sleeping in. "Hey Tails, wake up."

Tails' eyes fluttered open, but he started to close them again a second later. "Aww Sonic, it's still dark. Let's sleep some more..."

"No Tails, we're just in the Land of Darkness, so it's always dark out here like this. I found out that it's 7:10 in the morning, so it is time to get up."

"Well, okay..." Tails muttered, as he rose up out of his box. The fox stretched and yawned, his tails fluffing out and then flattening back again.

"I found out something you might like. We're in Mor, Zeraw. You know...the country that makes all of the video games and computers for Planet Freedom?"

"Really?" Tails said, his eyes brightening. "Cool! I always wanted to come here and see all of the cool electronic stuff they make here!"

"So...I guess you want to stay in the city a little bit longer then?"

"You bet! I wanna go look around!"

Sonic smiled back at him, glad that Tails was finally cheering up again after leaving Carrie back in Tneicna.

Tails ran past him and sprinted towards the street, shouting "Come on! Let's go!"

Incredible how much happier Tails is, now that it's day, Sonic thought. Several hours ago, he was still whimpering in his cardboard box about having no blankets or food. Now it's like he's running around in the electronics section of the mall near our house all over again. It's great to have him be in a cheery mood again than have him moaning about stuff like he has for the past few days.

"All right Tails!" Sonic yelled as he ran to keep up with the fox. "I'm right behind you!"

Tails couldn't believe it! He was in a place he had been dreaming about visiting, ever since his mom had started telling him about it when he was three years old.

"It's like being in a giant candy store," she told me. "Every store is filled to the brim of things you'd never knew had been invented. They've got computers that you wear on yourself, toy robots that move so lifelike you'd think they were alive, and all sorts of other things. I'll definitely take you there one day, just so you can see it with your own eyes."

While his mom Natalie had never gotten to bring him here, Tails was very happy that he had finally gotten his chance to see it. All of the shops were filled with sorts of interesting technology to look at. It ranged from the very useful (wearable computers, with hard drives the size of postage stamps that could hold terabytes worth of data), to the just plain strange (a cell phone that had a built in toothbrush and floss dispenser), to the really cool (toy cars with neural nets of their own, so they could think and navigate through any environment on their own without needing user input).

Tails must have spent at least an hour at the display in the local Elec World with the neural net toy cars. The display allowed a customer to set up a maze of walls for the car to navigate, so that they could watch the brain of the car do its stuff firsthand. Tails had created at least a dozen mazes for the cars to navigate, and he was having the time of his life. The fox was there so long and was having so much fun that he didn't hear footsteps coming up from behind.

"Uh...kid..." a nasally voice said.

Tails turned around and looked up into the face of a shop clerk. He was a teenaged armadillo wearing thick glasses, he had pimples all over his face, and the name tag pinned to his red uniform read "Hi! I'm Milton! How may I help you?"

"I'm really sorry about spoiling your fun," Milton said. "But my boss says that if you want to play any more, you have to buy one of the cars."

"How much do they cost?" Tails asked.

"Uh...I think these Teleno Neuro Cars cost about two hundred demens each."

"Two hundred demens! I don't even think Sonic has two demens!"

"Well, sorry, but my manager says that if you don't have any money, you have to leave the store. You better get out of here fast, before he sees you again."

Tails felt really sad, since he wouldn't get to play with the cars anymore.

"Okay...I'll go..." the fox mumbled, as he walked out through the door.

Sonic was waiting for him outside of the shop, leaning against a telephone pole. He stood up straight as Tails came out.

"Well, it's about time!" Sonic said. "You were in there for an hour and a half!"

"They said I couldn't play any more if I didn't pay."

"Good, because I think it's about time for us to get out of here. We should try to find something to eat before we leave the city though, because I don't know when we'll come to the next town. Come on. Let's go see if we can talk some people into giving us a little money."

The two walked off towards a nearby crowd, where Tails hoped they'd find some people who'd be nice enough to give them some spare change.

After about two hours of begging everyone they could find, Sonic and Tails sat down on a bench and spilled out all of the money they had managed to get. After counting it all, they came up with four demens and thirty-nine crents.

"That went terrible..." Sonic moaned, looking up from the money. "This isn't even enough money to get two meals at burger places, and they're the cheapest places I've seen here..."

"Maybe we could get one meal and share?"

Sonic was hoping Tails wouldn't make that suggestion. He absolutely hated burgers. However, Sonic's stomach was grumbling quite a bit, which changed his mind. Hunger was the best spice, after all.

"Okay...we'll do that." Sonic grumbled, as he stood up. "I don't like their food, but I don't really care since I'm so hungry anyway."

Sonic scooped up all of the money in his hands, and the two sat up and walked away.

Just think... If it weren't for Robotnik, we would have never had to worry about food like we are now. We wouldn't have had to worry about anything.