The Doom Crystal: Part 1, A Little Chaos, Section 4
A Sonic the Hedgehog Fanfic by find-the-lion
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Rotor Walrus, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Robotnik, or Uncle Chuck. Everyone in this list is copyrighted by SEGA, DiC Productions, and Archie Comics.
Ebony Moon is copyrighted June 22, 2005 to myself, as is this story, which is also copyrighted June 22, 2005 to me.
Sonic
I screeched to a halt near the underbelly of Robotnik's fortress.
"So this is where Eggbelly spends most of his time." Knuckles observed as he stepped out from behind some garbage. "You think it's big enough?" He added, looking up toward where the top was supposed to be.
"It is pretty big, but you can gawk later, right now, we have a party to crash." I said, pulling a screwdriver out of my backpack.
"True." Knuckles said. I finished unscrewing the cover on the ventilation shaft and climbed in. Knuckles followed. We crept along the shaft for some minutes, when we reached Robotnik's secondary lab. It was completely deserted, except for two worker bots, one of whom, I recognized as Uncle Chuck. The other was a cardinal that I didn't know.
I lifted the cover of the shaft and dropped into the lab. Uncle Chuck quickly gave the worker bot some other orders and it left the room.
"Sonic, what are you doing here?"
Knuckles jumped in surprise, he hadn't met my uncle before, and previous experience had already given him the idea that a worker bot would sooner attack you then say something to you.
"Rescue mission Unc, I'd talk now but I'm in a hurry."
"Who are you trying to rescue this time?"
"A new girl. She's a tall raccoon with dark brown eyes and blue sneakers.
"Ebony Moon." Uncle Chuck said instantly.
"You know her?" I asked.
"Not personally, but she has quite a track record for causing Robotnik trouble. Robotnik's been after her for three years because she has information about, lets see here..." He paused, counting it out in his mind "...a few villages, some of the tribes up in the Great Plains, a little with underground members. This girl's been around."
"No way!" I exclaimed.
"It's the truth, I should know as I've been into Robotnik's observation cameras."
"No wonder she wouldn't tell anyone what he was after." I mused.
"He's trying to interrogate her right now, I'd suggest you boys go to the main lab and get busy. She's not likely to spill the beans but it's better not to take chances if you can help it."
"See you later Unc."
"Good luck sonny boy." Uncle Chuck went back to work. In the mean time, we left in search of the main laboratory. Suddenly Knuckles stopped me.
"Look." He whispered, pointing down an alcove to our left. Sitting in a vice, was the emerald that Nack had swiped.
"Grab it and let's get going." I whispered back impatiently. Knuckles turned into the alcove and set to work on the vice, while I went on to the main lab. As I drew nearer, I began to hear voices.
"I'm telling you I have no idea what you are talking about." Ebony's voice sounded calm, almost, well, bored.
"How can you not when my surveillance cameras have picked you out with countless Freedom Fighter groups, all over my official Kingdom?" Robotnik demanded.
"Isn't it only natural that a traveler would occasionally get together with friends to beat up on your SWAT-bots? I'm not a hermit you know."
"And I believe it is also natural that a traveler would know where these friends lived, so as to have places to gather supplies."
"Sorry, no dice." Ebony was beginning to sound a little annoyed now.
"Then you leave me no choice."
I had reached the entrance to the lab by now and I could see inside. Ebony was standing up, hands bound in front of her, with two SWAT-bots standing guard behind. Robotnik was sitting in a chair, specially made to support his bulk. One of the SWAT-bots brought up what looked like a cattle prod and gave Ebony a poke with it. She jumped as one who has just received a very strong electric shock. Having been caught unawares, she fell over, catching herself just in time to prevent her face from hitting the floor.
"Now that's not very nice." Ebony muttered.
"Now look here, Miss Moon, I want to know what you know, and I want it now." Robotnik was leaning over the front of his seat, bearing down on the raccoon with an evil glare.
Ebony looked up defiantly at him and scowled back. "It'll take more then that, to make me talk egghead." She tried to pick herself up again, but another shock forced her back down. She pulled herself back to a sitting position again, still scowling.
"I'm through playing word games with you coon, tell me where your friends are now, or perhaps we can arrange a more interesting environment in which to continue this interrogation." Robotnik licked his lips in anticipation of the prospect.
"And I am through talking with you overlander, there is no way I would betray them or anyone else, and that's my last word!" She tried to stand up again, the SWAT-bot raised the stick again, but that was enough for me. That SWAT-bot was a pile of scrap before it raised that pole two inches.
"Hedgehog, priority one, apprehend by order of Robot-squeek!" Half a second of way past cool spin-dashing and buzz-sawing later, the other robot fell to pieces.
"You know doc, you should learn to treat your house-guests a little better. I'd stick around to teach you manners, but I gotta run!" I grabbed Ebony around the waist and ran out of the lab before Robotnik could order his SWAT-bots to make chase. I ran until we were outside the entrance to the ventilation shaft at which we entered the fortress.
"Are you okay?" I asked as I reached into my backpack and pulled out a pair of pliers.
"I'm all right, just a bit rattled. No need for the pliers." Ebony said. She reached into her shoe and pulled out an old wire.
"You could have gotten out of these things any time?" I asked as Ebony moved the wire around in the lock with practiced ease.
"Yeah, but not there. The less Robotnik knows about my escape strategies, the better. Not that I'm not grateful for your concern of course. That shock stick was no picnic, it felt like someone had tried to hit me all over the place at once. I'm still feeling it." The handcuffs fell to the ground and Ebony rubbed the small of her back. "Nope, definitely not one of my favorite things."
"Does this happen to you often?" I asked.
"Occasionally. Mostly when I've been careless. You should have seen the time Robotnik caught me trying to crash his computer, he strung me up like..."
"Ahem." Knuckles was standing at the entrance to the vent, empty-handed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, there are SWAT-bots crawling up the vent behind me. I think it's time we moved our little party somewhere else."
"What about your emerald?" I asked.
"Don't worry, I got it." Knuckles tossed the gem in the air and caught it again. "Now lets move."
Ebony grabbed onto my shoulders and we were out of there in almost no time. A few minutes later, we were standing next to the tree stump.
"So how did you learn all that stuff Robotnik wanted?" I asked Ebony.
"Oh well, you know, when you travel, you learn a lot of things and some things in my case just weren't in the best interests of my health." She said. "Don't worry about it. I know how to take care of myself."
Knuckles made another throat clearing noise to get our attention. "Well, I'd love to hang around with you guys, but I have an island waiting for me back home."
"See ya Rad Red." I said.
"Likewise True Blue. And as for you," He turned to Ebony. "You stay out of trouble."
"Okay." Ebony said.
With one last wave, Knuckles disappeared into the woods.
Ebony
"What I'd like to know is why Metal Sonic was so interested in this thing." Sally gestured at the box in front of me.
"To tell the truth Sally, I don't have a clue. No one told me there was something buried under my house until Metal Sonic found it." That was true, neither my mother nor my father had ever told me about any such thing.
"Rotor checked it over with every sensor he had; there was nothing he could get. Are you sure no one told you anything, because Sonic said that Metal Sonic got a power reading off of this box." Sally said.
"Well, it could have been something else, right?" I mused aloud. "I mean, as far as you know, it's just an ordinary pair of gloves. Seeing as how it was under my house, is it all right if I take it back and get a closer look at it?"
"Okay." Sally relented. "We sure haven't found anything, so go ahead."
I picked up the old box and walked out of the meeting hut. I walked to the edge of the village, where my cabin was located. I was still a little sore from yesterday. Especially across my front, where Metal Sonic had slung me over his metallic shoulder, but I still planned to start the trip to Willow Grove, first thing after lunch.
I opened the door, went in, and set the box down on the table. As I did, something thumped inside it. It didn't sound like something natural, and out of curiosity, I opened the box. I should have known better, but it was like something was telling me that I must open the box. I lifted the lid and looked inside.
Sitting on the wood bottom of the box, was the old pair of gloves Sonic had told me about with the ornate crystalline design on them. There was something very compelling about these gloves. I picked one of them up and looked at it very carefully. There was nothing on the outside of these accessories that looked particularly unusual except perhaps the way the crystals had been molded onto the glove. Still, it was awfully pretty, I thought, as I moved to run my hands over the design. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, and with a cry of pain and surprise, I was knocked across the room.
Sonic happened to be walking by outside and heard me yell. He found me sitting across from the table half a second later.
"What happened?" He asked, walking over and pulling me to a standing position.
"I don't know." I said, rubbing the back of my head where I had banged it against the far wall. "Do you know if Rotor checked those things for booby traps while he was at it?"
"I never asked." Sonic said honestly.
I walked back over to the box, and noticed that the crystals seemed to be smoldering as though they were hot.
"Whoa." Sonic said. He was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder at the unusual behavior these crystals were exhibiting.
"Maybe they were booby trapped." I mused. More carefully now, I examined the box, looking for the mechanism that had set it off. I couldn't find one. "That's odd." I thought aloud.
"Listen, Sally needs me for something, are you sure your gonna be okay messing with this puppy alone or should I get Rotor for you?" Sonic asked.
"As far as I can see, I'm fine. I'll just have to be a bit more cautious about what I touch in this thing."
"If you're sure." Sonic said.
"I'm okay. You go on." I said.
After Sonic left, I started rummaging around in my bag for some better tools then my bare hands. Still, why would my parents have a booby-trapped box under the floorboards of our house? Using a pair of wires that I regularly used for lock picking, I carefully felt around the edges of the box for any further traps. There were none. But then I noticed something else. My hands were starting to hurt a little bit, almost as though I had been burned. Curious, I rolled back one of my gloves so I could see the origin of this discomfort. There was now a small star-shaped scar where previously none had been before. "Well." I thought to myself, as I wondered why it hadn't burned through the glove itself. "I guess that will just stay there to remind me not to mess with strange boxes without taking the proper precautions first."
It was then that I looked up and noticed that it was almost noon. Goodness, if I was going to get some lunch I'd better get moving. I decided to put my investigation of the mysterious spontaneously exploding crystals that didn't burn cloth on hiatus until a more opportune time. In the mean time, I decided, I would leave them with Sally with instructions not to let anyone disturb the box's contents until my return (if ever), in hopes that others could avoid my mistake.
Having made this decision, I proceeded rub some balm on the burns so they wouldn't hurt anymore, and then pack the rest of my belongings in preparation for the trip to Willow Grove. This didn't take me very long, as I travel light anyway. Once I was finished, I closed the box, so I could deliver it to Sally, and then I picked it up, and made my way toward the meeting hall, and some lunch. Hopefully, I could leave without too much excitement, and then be at my destination by sundown.
To be continued…