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The Journey of Gerald Robotnik - Chapter 2 - Journey
"So, how do you like the shuttle, Maria?"
Maria was speechless. This, was the single, greatest day of her life, in her opinion. She'd never dreamed that flying through space would be so, cool. And the destination made it all the better.
"Brace yourself, my dear, we're entering the atmosphere!"
Maria was too absorbed in the stars to hear Gerald's warning. The force from the re-entry threw her forward, luckily, she had a restraining harness on to prevent her from flying forward and smashing against the window.
The professor chuckled, "Are you all right, Maria?"
Maria had a look of complete shock on her face, "Yeah . . ." she wheezed, "I'm okay." She eventually adjusted to the gravitational force pressing against her. She stared out the window, waiting for the floating island to come into view.
The shuttle passed through a layer of clouds, and, without warning, the floating island came into view.
"Prepare your self!" He shouted over his shoulder, "We're about to land!"
The shuttle barreled toward the island at an increasing velocity. Gerald eased up on the thrust, to assure a smooth landing, he then pressed a button on the dashboard that lowered the wheels. Another button was pressed that released a parachute out of the shuttles rear, designed to decelerate the shuttle.
The shuttle touched ground, it was a perfectly smooth landing, thanks to Gerald's ingenious design of the shuttle. The door of the craft slowly slid open, allowing the passengers to exit. Maria, being the easily excitable girl that she was, charged out the door and began to run through the open field. As Gerald looked upon his granddaughter, so happy and carefree, a small smile found it's way onto his face. "Ah, the purity of youth . . ." he thought, "What I wouldn't give to relive those days . . ." He turned his head away from the grassy field they had landed on to survey his surroundings. A towering mountain loomed over the little field they had landed on, around it, ran a crystal clear river. To the west was a vast forest. All-in-all, a beautiful little place. But out of the corner of his eye, he found the most impressive sight of all . . .
A vast palace, which looked to have been abandoned for centuries, overlooked the field. Huge pillars towered up as far as the eye could see, the same could be said for the entryway.
Gerald didn't know what it was, but something compelled him to enter the palace, he called Maria, and together they entered the palace.
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Gerald looked upon his surroundings in awe. Thousands upon thousands of paintings decorated the walls, all seemingly painted onto the wall itself. Yet one stood out from the rest, at the end of the hallway it had a wall all to itself. Gerald slowly approached it, with Maria clinging tightly to his arm.
It seemed like an eternity before they reached the wall. But, when they did, it was all made worthwhile. The wall had been adorned with the most beautiful painting Gerald or Maria had ever seen. It seemed to depict a golden hedgehog with upturned quills, chasing after some kind of monster, or machine.
Suddenly, Gerald saw a bright flash of light, and, before he knew what had happened, he was standing in an infinite blackness.
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Gerald began to feel around for his granddaughter, "Maria?" he shouted in desperation, unable to locate her. Suddenly, small lights began to appear all around him. Then, a huge blue planet appeared behind him. Asteroids slowly floated into existence, and then, Gerald realized something, he was standing in space, but something puzzled him, shouldn't he be dying?
Two figures approached from the distance. As they slowly came into view, Gerald was startled to find, that he recognized the two figures! It was the golden hedgehog and the machine, they both were in the painting he had seen!
The machine turned to face the golden hedgehog, "Wh- What are you?", The machine stuttered, seemingly terrified of the hedgehog.
The hedgehog, did not respond, a look of determination etched on his features.
The machine howled in fury, as missiles began to fly from its body. The hedgehog, flying faster than anything Gerald had ever seen, scooped up the missiles and sent them back at the machine.
The missiles collied with the machine, creating a deafening explosion. It took the machine a few seconds to regain its bearings, but when it, did, it charged at the hedgehog, it's boosters flaring behind it. The machine reared back and launched a lightning-quick punch at the hedgehog. The hedgehog, ever calm, lifted up his knee and used it to block the punch. The machine's fist collided with the hedgehog's knee, and was crushed by the collision. The machine, down by one arm, seemed frozen in place, and was simply staring at the golden hedgehog. "Wha-What are you going to do to me . . . ?" the machine sputtered.
The hedgehog glowered at the machine, "You've brought this upon your self, Robotnik." He stated simply.
"Robotnik!" a wave of pain seemed to hit Gerald as soon as that name was mentioned. Gerald fell to his knees, grimacing in pain, "What do I have to do with all of this!" Gerald thought to himself. Another wave of pain, this one far more powerful that the last, crashed into Gerald. His vision started to blur, soon he could barely tell the hedgehog from the machine, which was referred to as 'Robotnik'.The pain became so great that Gerald could no longer stand to hold his head up. Flashing lights crowded his (limited) vision. It came as no surprise to Gerald when he blacked out.
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"Human!"
Maria quicky turned away from her un-conscience grandfather to see one of the strangest things she had ever seen.
An Echidna dressed in a black cloak, with the cloaks hood off. He had dreadlocks that stretched all the way down his backside and were tipped orange. His primary body color was orange, and his eyes were blood red. "What are you doing in the holy place, human?"
"H-h-holy p-place?" Maria stammered, "I-I don't know what you're talking abou-"
"Shut yer' mouth, wretch! Now, I'll ask again. Why, are you in the holy place!"
Maria reached into her grandfather's coat, searching for the old parchment. She found what she was looking for, and pulled it out.
"Th-this, sir." She stuttered as she held out the scroll.
The Echidna walked over to her and snatched the parchment out of her hands. His eyes widened as looked over the scroll. When he had finished a little bit, he pocketed it, and quickly walked up to Maria.
"You!" He shouted at her, "Where did you find this?" He fixed her with a hard gaze. It made Maria feel a bit un-comfortable.
"I-I didn't find it. My Grandpa did." She stated as she pointed at Gerald. The echidna looked down at Gerald a gave him a puzzled look.
"What happened to him?" He asked aloud.
"I, don't really know." Maria fearfully stated, "We were just looking at that weird painting and he fell over . . ." She pointed to the strange painting of the hedgehog and the machine.
"The prophecy?" He fixed Gerald with another puzzled look. "Why, have the gods chosen him?" The Echidna mumbled to himself. Without saying a word, he scooped up Gerald and Maria (much to the girls protest) and made for the exit.
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