The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 2
A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Nicole, Bunnie Rabbot, Knuckles the Echidna, Nack the Weasel, or Mighty the Armadillo. Everyone in this list is copyrighted to SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.
Ebony Moon and Pepper are copyrighted June 22 2005 to me, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22 2005
Notes:
The name at the top of each paragraph is that of the person who is telling that part.
Year: 3235
Time of day: Early evening.
Location: Outskirts of Robotropolis.
Sonic
I had almost made it out of the city. The information run had been a complete success, and I had Nicole sitting in my backpack full of Robotnik's evil schemes to prove it. I felt the wind flying through my quills as I raced through the streets of Robotropolis, the SWAT-bots I'd run into earlier were still somewhere behind me choking on my dust. Everything was way past cool.
I'm sure they were still trying to figure out which way I'd gone when I saw the Great Forest up in front of me and it was only another few seconds before I was under the first tree branches. It turned even darker once I was in the woods because the sun was setting.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light to my left, along with a loud BANG! It sounded like blaster fire so I decided to go see what was going down. When I reached the place where the sound came from, I ducked down behind a rock and took a peek over it. It looked like a campsite. I quickly spotted the girl raccoon, near the campfire. The two SWAT-bots that were on the side of the fire closest to me seemed to have barged in on her while she had been making dinner, and were trying to convince her to return to Robotropolis with them.
She wasn't convinced. The smoking blaster pistol in her hand was proof of that.
"All right, who's next?" She said angrily.
It was then I noticed a third SWAT-bot lying in a pile of rubble where it had tried to rush her. I was really interested now. This kid looked like she could take care of herself. The two SWAT-bots looked at each other.
"Apprehend subject by order of Robotnik." They both rushed her. They were both gone before they had taken three steps. The raccoon rolled her eyes, blew the smoke off the barrel of her weapon and grinned to herself. "Stupid garbage cans! Honestly, won't they ever learn?" She chuckled as though this was funny, but then her expression drooped as she proceeded to put out the campfire and collect her things from where it looked like she had almost finished unpacking them. "It's too bad." She grumbled. "I was hoping to get some sleep tonight."
Huh? Did she know I was here, or was she just talking to herself? She had just picked up a faded yellow shoulder bag when a fourth SWAT-bot appeared out of the trees. The raccoon seemed to be rather preoccupied so now seemed like a good time to make an entrance.
"You are under arrest. You do not have the right to remain..."
I spin-dashed through it before it even knew what had happened. The raccoon turned around and saw the remains of the fourth SWAT-bot and of course, yours truly, leaning against it and quickly realized what had happened.
"Thanks stranger, I guess I owe you one." She returned to packing.
Huh? She didn't recognize me? I would have thought everyone around here knew who I was. "You don't know who I am?" I asked.
The raccoon gave me this funny look. "No, I'm afraid not, now if you'll excuse me, I'd better finish packing up. We'd better move on before they come back." She was now un-pitching the tent she had constructed near the edge of the clearing.
"You haven't even heard of me?" I asked.
"No. I doubt you've ever heard of me either." She didn't even bother looking at me when she said this, as though what she was doing was more important than this conversation.
"Um, no."
"I didn't think so. Sorry to run, but I'd better get out of here before Robotnik decides to chase me again." She had finished gathering her things, and, after shouldering the faded yellow bag that she'd packed everything in, she started walking out of the clearing in a westerly direction.
"Hey! Wait up!" I sped in front of her and stopped, turning to face her.
The raccoon seemed to be thinking about something but she noticed enough to know I hadn't left. "What? You lost or something? Thought I might find you someplace safe? If so, you can come with me. But try to keep up, I have a pretty long stride."
What? How dare she? And here I was about to offer something much better then what she thought she'd get. "Try to keep up? I could outrun you, no sweat! But that's not what I was going to say." I said.
"Really? Go ahead then." The raccoon stopped when she reached me and suddenly seemed to have finally noticed the speed at which I had reached this point.
"Hey! How did you get up here so fast?" She asked slowly.
"Nothing really. But what I was going to say was, I heard you talking to yourself."
The raccoon looked nonplussed. "If you're about to suggest I need help, that one stopped being funny a long time ago. I always talk to myself."
"No that was not what I was going to say." I said impatiently. "What I was going to say was that if you want, I can take you back to Knothole with me."
The raccoon's jaw dropped, and then she started laughing. "Knothole? Ha-ha! That was a good one! They tell that story in every single village outpost I've been to. There's no such thing!" It is a rare thing when Sonic the Hedgehog can't think of a snappy comeback, but this was one of those moments. I was completely at a loss for words. No such thing as Knothole? What do you say to something like that? That's like someone saying a chilidog is poisonous.
The raccoon continued to laugh for a few minutes and then slowly calmed down. She looked as though she was about to continue on her way when suddenly she paused as though something she had thought was funny didn't seem so funny after all. "Wait a second. If you said Knothole... how did you...? Then that makes you…. Gosh, now I got this figured out, you must be Sonic the Hedgehog!"
"Right." I said in a mock condescending voice. "And it took you how long to figure this out?"
The raccoon scuffed her shoe on the ground uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you. But I searched this area up and down for Knothole a couple of years ago when I first heard the rumor and I never found a thing."
By now, I had folded my arms and was tapping my foot. "Well? Are you coming or not?"
"Yes, I think I'll take you up on your offer. It beats trying to find one of my half forgotten campsites in the dark."
"Okay, grab on."
The coon's face went blank. "You mean, onto you?"
"Unless you'd rather walk." I said. The raccoon moved around behind me as though trying to figure out how to grab hold without getting stuck on my quills.
"You know something?" I remarked as she placed her hands on my shoulders, carefully so as to avoid my quills.
"What?"
"I don't even know your name."
"Oh, sorry. My name is Ebony Moon. But you can call me Ebony. What should I call you?"
"Just call me Sonic."
"Okay."
"Now grab onto my shoulders."
"If your sure." She grabbed on.
"Just don't let go." I said and then I took off. It took only a matter of minutes for me to make it to the tree stump. There, I stopped and Ebony let go.
She looked around curiously. "I'm not seeing anything." she said.
"Watch." I pulled on the vine and the top of the stump lifted off, revealing that it was hollowed out. Ebony's eyes widened, but she said nothing.
"You first." I said.
"What?"
"It's a slide. You go first."
"Oh. Okay." She climbed inside the stump, and when she was good and ready, she let go. I jumped in after her and let go of the vine. The stump slammed shut behind us as we slid down the endless hollow tree trunk. We both landed with a thump in the haystack.
Sally and Bunnie were waiting nearby. When they saw the hay fly into the air, they ran over. I crawled out first.
"I got the information you wanted Sally." I reached into my backpack, pulled out Nicole, and handed her to Sally.
"Thanks Sonic." Sally was about to walk back to the central hut when she noticed Ebony crawling out of the haystack. The raccoon stood up, looking around at the village as though evaluating it. As the light was a little better in here then it was out in the forest, I could now tell exactly what this girl looked like. She looked pretty ordinary for a raccoon. She was covered with gray fur from head to toe, with the usual black and white ringed tail for the species and a white chest. Her face was rather pretty, with the mask that all raccoons have over her eyes. I noticed to my surprise, that these were a shade of dark brown, almost dark enough to appear as black as the mask. She wore a pair of light blue high tops with laces of the same color, a pair of white socks, and a pair of regular gloves. Add the yellow shoulder bag, and that was my first good look at Ebony Moon.
"Who's this?" Sally asked.
"Her name's Ebony."
Ebony heard her name mentioned and turned back to the others.
"Hi." Sally said. "I'm Sally."
Bunnie took the cue from Sally and quickly added, "My name is Bunnie."
"Nice to meet you." Ebony turned to Sally.
"I've heard rumors up and down the Great Forest about this place. Tell me, are you Princess Sally by any chance?"
"Yes."
"Your highness. It is an honor to get to meet you." She looked around again. "Real nice setup you have here. From what I can see, you've done all right for yourselves."
Sally smiled. "We've done the best we could. So what can we do for you?"
"She needs somewhere to stay for a while. I found her being ambushed by SWAT-bots a little ways away from here." I said.
"Well, I don't know about a while, but at least for the night." Ebony added.
"We can handle that. Come on." With that, we left the area around the haystack, and started looking for a spot where Ebony could stay.
The Next Day, Early Morning
Knuckles
On the Floating Island, things had been fairly quiet. Nothing had happened for a while. I was sitting in a chair outside my hut, enjoying the quiet. Suddenly, I heard something. A sort of swishing noise. I opened one eye and saw a green rabbit standing in front of my seat.
"Pepper, where've you been all this time?" I opened the other eye and sat up.
"Working. I just stopped by to help out an old friend." The rabbit sat cross-legged in midair in front of me. Normally this would have been impossible, but as long as I've known Pepper she was always finding ways to defy just about any natural law you tried to throw at her.
"Wait a sec, you don't usually show up for no reason." I said, suddenly feeling suspicious.
"Actually, I saw Nack the Weasel carrying explosives toward the Chaos Chamber. I would have stopped him myself, but I'm really in a hurry."
"Then why are you sitting here, you could be stopping him!" I stood up angrily and started toward the Chaos Chamber.
"Because my boss says I'm not allowed to. I'd get over there now, if I were you, but I have other things I'm supposed to be doing. Be careful." And with that, she disappeared again. It had to be one of those days. I ran to the secret passage into the Chaos Chamber, threw it open and went inside. The chaos emeralds were almost in sight when suddenly, an explosion rocked the island.
"Aw man, when I get a hold of that weasel, he's gonna wish he'd never been born." I thought to myself. The island began to fall toward the ocean as I raced into the Chaos Chamber. I grabbed for the pieces that were still falling to the ground in a rain. I put what pieces I could see back into the vice and they solidified instantly upon reuniting. The island made another jarring change in direction, and started floating back up again. Phew, that was close.
Nothing had left the chamber, strangely enough, except for the spare emerald. I knew there was one that was supposed to be here, and I looked around for it but it wasn't here. I even checked outside. No, it definitely wasn't here. Then, suddenly, I felt it. It was off the island now, going at a high rate of speed over the ocean, toward Robotropolis.
"Robotnik again?" I thought to myself grumpily. I made my way to the cave where Mighty lived. When I got there, I called him outside.
"What's up?" Mighty asked.
"Someone's making off with one of the emeralds again, I need to go after it, and I need someone in charge while I'm gone." The armadillo nodded.
"You go on, I'll get the others and tell them what's going down."
"Thanks Mighty. Catch ya later." With that, I went out to the edge of the island and glided off toward the mesa in the distance.
Sally
I was in the mess hall, eating breakfast when Nicole suddenly glowed to life.
"Sally, the Floating Island is on a collision course with the ocean, if it hits, it will cause a tidal wave of immense... receiving new data, the Floating Island has stopped..."
"Nicole." I interrupted "Are you okay?"
"If you will let me finish, an explosion has been detected but the emerald is where it belongs. However, another emerald is currently traveling toward the edge of the island and will soon make landfall. If it continues at this rate, it will reach Robotropolis in three hours. Suggested course of action, intercept emerald and take it back to the Floating Island." Nicole had a map on display of the area in which the Floating Island had stopped.
It was just then, that Ebony happened to walk by, having finished her own breakfast. "G'morning princess, I guess I'll be going now and I just wanted to say..." She stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the map. "What's that?"
"It's the Floating Island." I said.
"What do you mean, Floating Island? I used to live in that area, and there are no islands near there, much less any that float." Ebony said.
"It isn't usually there." I pointed out.
"You don't mean. No. Now this is starting to sound crazy. I mean, a Floating Island? That defies all the laws of physics, not to mention gravity."
"Then how do you explain it being there?" I asked.
Ebony seemed genuinely dumbfounded. "I don't know."
"You said you used to live in that area?" I enquired curiously.
Ebony looked up at the ceiling of the mess hall reflectively. "Uh huh. Never went back to the village proper after the bodies were buried, didn't have the heart to, but it should be practically untouched."
Now she had my interest. Perhaps we could use this girl. Sonic certainly seemed to think she might be helpful. Sure it was already obvious that she was a bit unorthodox; most Mobians won't even touch a gun, but in this time of war, I could probably overlook that in the interest of gaining another Freedom Fighter. With Robotnik always vigilant and grabbing more and more territory as he went, we could never afford to turn away possible recruits. I decided to go after some more information. "Then can you tell me a little bit about the area?"
It was clear Ebony had warmed up to the subject by now. "Oh sure, what do you want to know?"
I stood up. "Well first, I'd like to go somewhere a little more private. Could you come with me?"
"Private? Why? And where?" Ebony asked curiously.
"Yes private, there is something happening to the Floating Island and it is important that it stays confidential. As to where we're going, nobody would be hanging around the meeting area right now."
"Okay your majesty." Ebony said, still slightly confused, but trying to be polite.
"Please, just Sally."
"I stand corrected. Okay Sally."
I grinned while the raccoon wasn't looking. Ebony, whoever she was, had quite a personality. If nothing else, she would be an interesting addition to Knothole even if she didn't become a Freedom Fighter. We both went outside.
Sonic left the mess hall right after we did. I discovered it was him when I heard the door close again right after we left and turned to see who it was. I waved and called to him. "Sonic! Could you come with us for a minute?" He followed us until we stopped at the stump where he would sometimes do a play by play of his latest adventures. The area was currently vacant except for us.
"Okay Sal, what is it?" Sonic asked.
"Someone is taking an emerald from Floating Island to Robotropolis."
"That's original." Sonic said sarcastically, "Robotnik's only tried that, what, about ten times already? It's not the Master Emerald is it?"
"No. Analyzed as common chaos emerald. Carrier identified as Nack T. Weasel." Nicole said.
Suddenly, Ebony scowled. "Most of this "Floating Island" stuff is Ancient Mobian to me, but now your speaking my language."
"You know him?" I asked.
"We've met." Ebony said in a voice that seemed to say her previous encounters with Nack held unpleasant overtones.
I gave her a look as though asking for an explanation.
Ebony sure gave me one. "Robotnik has put about five different prices on my head in the past three years. And it has always been the same bounty hunter. I wish he would just give it up."
"Why you?" Sonic asked before he thought about what effect the question might have.
Ebony grinned. "Can't tell you that." She hastily changed the subject. "So, what is this Master Emerald. The Chaos Emeralds I've heard about, but not the Master Emerald."
"No surprise there, if you've never heard of the Floating Island." I said.
I was about to go on when Sonic said "It's a really big jewel, with a lot of power."
"That's very descriptive. From what I've heard, that description could cater to any of the power stones they talk about in the other villages." Ebony said with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Well, could you do any better?" Sonic retorted.
"Well, I've never seen it before so I wouldn't know." Ebony said.
"All right then, seriously." I said. "The Master Emerald is what keeps the island afloat. It sits inside a power vice inside a special chamber, deep inside it. Even a tiny piece holds power equal to a nuclear warhead."
"I see. Though it probably wouldn't be as likely to blow up, would it?" Ebony said, leaning in now as though the conversation in which we were currently engaged was very interesting.
"No. But Robotnik could use it for other things besides warheads." I said.
"Like the roboticizer for instance?" Ebony observed. "Yeah, that's one thing I understand completely. It's like this in every village I go through. It's nothing new." Ebony sat down on the stump. "Sally, thank you for making this clear. You want my help finding an old chunk of rock before it falls into the good doctor's hands and he can find a use for it, is that correct?"
"Yes." I answered. Something about Ebony's tone, though not ominous or mean, seemed to hint that she was leading up to something.
"You do know of course that you are trying to see how I'll do in a mission, in anticipation of my getting recruited into the Knothole Freedom Fighters. Am I right?"
"That was what I was thinking." I admitted.
"While I appreciate the invitation," Ebony said, smiling. "I don't really plan on joining any Freedom Fighters at this time. I have other things to attend to at the moment." She paused as though contemplating my request. "But, I do understand that we all could use every scrap of help we can get in these hard times. This was in the general direction that I was going, only overshooting my destination by a few miles, give or take one or two. I'll help you, gladly. I'm always willing to do my part for our side. But after that, I'm gone."
"Agreed." I said.
"I guess you want me to go too. I'll see you later Sal." Sonic said. He already seemed excited.
"Sally, it's been a real pleasure meeting you." Ebony held out her hand and I shook it.
"It's been a pleasure meeting you too Ebony. Is there any chance you'll be coming this way again?"
"Oh, you never know, I might drop by occasionally. Don't try looking for me though; I'll come without warning. It drives my friends crazy." She grinned and followed Sonic toward the edge of Knothole.
To be continued…