Chapter 2: Forest Terror
Still at the beach, Sonic was surprised when a package with a parachute attached dropped into his lap. Picking it up and opening it, Sonic found a monitor. He pressed the power button and was greeted by Eggman's face, which threatened Sonic with a message of disaster.
"Hello, Sonic. I hope you've missed me; but I digress. As you may have expected, a simple partnership will not silence me. I am currently in the process of building a nuclear device powerful enough to destroy the world, and I sent this to you to warn you of your impending doom. Tell this to as many people as you can, so they can prepare pointlessly."
Sonic stared in shock at the monitor. He knew that Eggman was insane, but this was too psychotic. Not even Eggman would threaten the world's existence, even if it were only out of love for him. Eggman must be acting on some built-up emotions or something. Sonic looked up when he heard a distant scream.
"Sonic, it's Eggman!" Tails exclaimed.
Eggman flew toward Sonic in his traditional hovercraft with something pink in a claw beneath it. That something pink was Amy!
"Eggman, what do you think you're doing?" Sonic questioned.
"I found her looking for you, so I'm only ensuring my safety by taking something of yours. If you even try to attack me, I can assure you that she will die."
Sonic fought hard to control the rising urge to destroy Eggman. Normally he wouldn't take such a threat seriously, but after the way Eggman acted in the video, Sonic wasn't prepared to take any chances.
"Want me to take him down?" Knuckles asked.
"Knuckles, don't do anything. He's got Amy, and he's prepared to kill!"
"Come on, Sonic, he hasn't got it in him!"
"Knuckles, don't!"
"Damnit, Sonic, he's vulnerable, and you're telling me not to attack because he's captured your stalker?"
"Knuckles, you don't understand, he's—" Sonic tried to stop Knuckles, but it was too late. Knuckles was in the middle of an attack. As Knuckles drew nearer, the claws tightened around Amy, cutting off her breath, then opened, causing her to fall to the beach below. She hit ground with a sickening crack. Knuckles saw this and dropped safely to the ground. Sonic rushed toward Amy. She was unconscious.
"Eggman, you come back here!" Sonic yelled. But it was no use. Eggman fled toward the woods to the north. Sonic looked back to Amy. She was still unconscious. Knuckles and Tails ran toward Sonic. Knuckles was shocked. "I'm sorry, Sonic, but I don't know what the hell got into Eggman back there. He's never been like this before." Sonic was silent. Tails offered some help. "I can get the Tornado and fly Amy to the hospital."
"That would be good."
"Alright. Stay here until I come back."
Not long after, Tails came back in the Tornado. Sonic sat on the wing, holding Amy carefully in his arms to avoid hurting her more. Tails instructed Knuckles. "Knuckles, go to my house. Sonic and I will catch up with you." Tails converted the Tornado into car mode, not complete with a back seat. Sonic sat Amy carefully in the empty seat and told Tails that he could run to keep up. Tails drove and Sonic ran to the hospital. Sonic took Amy and ran into the emergency drop-off, where he was instructed to wait outside for a few minutes. After ten minutes, he was called in.
"Can you tell us exactly what happened to your friend?" A doctor asked.
Sonic didn't want to draw attention or cause panic, so he invented a story. "Amy was parasailing when a harness came loose and she fell to the ground. We got her here as quickly as possible. Do you think she'll be alright?"
"Well," the doctor answered, "she took a nasty fall and broke a couple bones, but she should be alright. Do you want to see her?"
"No thanks, I really have to get going. Someone else might be in an even worse situation. If she comes to, can you tell her I was here?"
"We'll tell her that. Now you get going."
Sonic left and returned to Tails. "So, what now?"
"We need to get back to my house. I have something that could be of assistance."
Tails converted the Tornado back into plane mode and Sonic hopped onto the wing. They took off for Tails' house, and arrived to see an impatient Knuckles waiting at the door.
"You guys are finally back. What took you?" Knuckles asked slyly.
"Eh, just shut up Knux, Tails said that there's something here to help us out."
"How many times do I have to tell you not to call me 'Knux'?"
Tails intervened. "Guys, stop! This is important!" Sonic and Knuckles gave Tails their attention. "I brought you here because I have to give you these belts." Tails took out three belts, one yellow, one blue, and one red. "If we wear these, every robot that we destroy will give us a bit of energy. That energy will help us strengthen our attacks. Plus, the belts are colored to be inconspicuous, so Eggman won't know we're using them."
"Is that it?" Sonic asked, putting on the blue belt.
"Yes. Now let's go! I saw Eggman escape in the direction of the Ancient Forest, and if you hop on the Tornado's wings, I can fly us there."
"Isn't that where that ancient civilization built all of those wooden machines?"
"Yeah, that's the place. Eggman probably engineered the machines to attack us, so be careful."
Sonic and Knuckles hopped on the Tornado's wings and took off for the forest, where Eggman waited to ambush them.
When Sonic and Tails got to the forest, they were greeted by a mass of conveyor belts, ramps, and tree-mounted teleporters. "Let's split up. If anyone finds Eggman, give a holler and we'll meet up with you," Tails suggested. Sonic hopped on the nearest conveyor belt, Tails flew to the treetops, and Knuckles entered the nearest teleporter.
Sonic was reminded of some adventure that never happened as he trudged through the forest floor, running across conveyor belts and dodging log traps. Somehow the forest reminded him of Eggman's metropolis base from which he launched the Death Egg for the first time. At the same time, Sonic looked to the tiny footholds above his head and was reminded of the scrap factory where Sonic first forced Eggman into hiding. The path, though, was relatively safe—or so Sonic thought until he practically collided into an Egg Prison. Sonic saw the animals inside and how they urged to be free, but his prison break was interrupted by Eggman's arrival. This time Eggman had a large axe swinging freely from his hovercraft. Sonic called for help.
Knuckles was taken by the transporter to a series of tiny platforms connected to trees. He could try running across, but there was too much chance of falling down to the forest below. The pathway was too long for Knuckles to simply glide across. Then Knuckles remembered his belt. Tails said that destroying enemies would power it, and as if on cue, a robotic bee flew just above Knuckles' head. He climbed the tree it was heading towards and ambushed it from the air. Knuckles felt the belt vibrate and tried to glide. He didn't lose any altitude at all for almost a minute, and by then he had crossed the entire set of platforms. Knuckles heard a yell from below him. He knew that Sonic found something.
Tails flew to the top of a tree, where he could see his way to the edge of the forest. He could also see that an army of robots would try to stop him from getting there. Tails destroyed them, one by one, then, feeling the power surging within his belt, pressed a concealed discharge button, destroying all of the enemies he could see. Tails then heard a yell from the forest and looked down through a clearing, seeing that Sonic and Knuckles were trying to fight off a mad, axe-swinging Eggman. Tails dropped through the leaves and caught up with them.
Eggman was attacking furiously, but he knew that it was no use. He was outnumbered, two to one. Out of nowhere, his windscreen cracked as Tails planted his foot into it. Eggman had not seen this coming. "You haven't seen the last of me!" Eggman shouted as he flew away. Sonic and Knuckles thanked Tails. "Good timing there, Tails. That was great!"
"Sonic," Tails replied, "there's no time! Eggman is escaping for the casino city!"
Join us next time as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles race for pinball panic in the casino city—some have bet their life away there, and one of our heroes might just lose theirs!