Chapter #3: Of Sewers and Trash Compactors

9:40 AM

Downtown Station Square

Time Left: 55 minutes (time started at approximately 9:35)

Station Square was busy and full of activity and noise as usual—cars honking, people talking or shouting over the din, and music playing from inside shops. It seemed that everybody was in a hurry—including one supersonic hedgehog.

Sonic screeched to a halt at an intersection to catch his breath, drawing the attention of the humans around him. He ignored them and remained concentrated on the blue Emerald in his hands. The hero tried to recall how Tails had once explained how to find an Emerald using one just like it.

"The Chaos Emeralds act like magnets," he had said. "They're drawn to each other. The key is their brightness and their energy activity. The brighter and the warmer one Emerald is, the closer the other is located."

Returning his thoughts to the jewel, Sonic studied its behavior closely. It felt warm in his hands and glowed intensely. He had to be close to another gem and one of his friends. But where were they?

"If I were Egghead, where would I put somebody?" muttered the hedgehog. As if in answer to his thoughts, he spotted an open manhole. The sewers, of course! To the surprise of the crowd of humans, he leaped into the air and did a perfect dive into the hole, head first.

What he didn't know was that this section of the sewer ran downhill, creating a waterslide. He realized it too late.

SPLASH!

"Whoa!"

The current was cold and merciless; it slammed him into the walls on turns, swirled him round and round when other streams formed eddies, and sent him down deeper, darker paths into the center of the system. Just when he thought it would never end the tunnel abruptly sent him plunging down a waterfall into a pool. The hedgehog managed to grasp the rungs of an underwater ladder and climb out. He collapsed onto the cement floor, shivering and coughing up terrible-tasting sewer water.

Sonic lay there for a few moments to recuperate from his waterslide. Then he slowly stood up to continue his search.

That's when he realized he didn't have the Emerald in his hands.

"Oh no, where is it?" he groaned. Then, as if by magic, the gem fell down the waterfall in a well-soaked cardboard box. Sonic carefully leaned out and grabbed it. As he held it, a sort of warmth spread out from his hands across his body; soon he felt almost dry. Then he noticed that it was glowing much brighter now, bringing radiant light to the dark underworld of the sewer system. "I must be getting closer," he said aloud, his voice creating a loud echo. Seeing only one way out of the chamber, he trudged on.

Holding the Emerald aloft like a lantern, Sonic continued down into a maze of corridors. He tried to avoid any rooms with water tunnels or flooded passages unless the Emerald directed him that way. Without the jewel as his guide, he surely would have been lost in that dank underworld of grime and filthy water. But he didn't seem to be getting out of the maze; instead he was going further in. Where was the Emerald leading him? He could only trust it and trek onward into the darkness.

Suddenly the labyrinth came to a halt, and Sonic found himself on a balcony overlooking a huge machine. The left side began with a parking space for trash trucks, where the trucks parked and dumped their bags of garbage onto a conveyor belt. The belt ran into the main body of the machine. The outer covering was made of Plexiglas, so Sonic could see inside.

The inside of the machine was filled with a host of automated devices. At the entrance the belt ended, where three metal claws similar to the candy cranes found in arcades lay in wait. Each claw picked up a garbage bag and ripped open the top, then it dumped the bag's contents into a chute, where another belt started. Further on, a rolling contraption and two alternating pounding blocks crushed the waste flat. Cutting machines sliced down on the garbage before the belt ran through a device that compressed waste into cubes. The cubes rolled out of the machine into a truck that would take them to a plant for recycling or burning. (This machine is similar to the one seen in the movie Monsters Inc.)

Then it dawned on Sonic what the strange machine was. "Maybe this is one of those new automated trash compactors," he said to himself.

"Good guess."

The voice came from next to him, and the hero whirled around to face the speaker—Metal Sonic.

The red eyes stared at him and glowed with evil and cunning. "This machine runs by itself, and only needs to be checked once a week. It is very efficient in compacting waste for transport to the furnaces, which is why Master Eggman uses it."

Suddenly the trash truck pulled away, and another quickly took its place. But this one was different; a robot was driving it, and it had Eggman's logo for a license plate. The back opened, and bags of garbage, mostly useless robot parts, tumbled onto the conveyor belt.

And then Sonic caught sight of something orange.

"Cream! Cheese!"

The rabbit sat in the midst of the garbage bags, her arms tied to her sides and her feet and ears bound. Cheese sat in her lap with the same bonds, and both of them had duct tape over their mouths. They looked around for the voice that had spoken their names, but both hedgehogs, hero and robot, were out of sight.

Metal's eyes glowed brighter—his way of expressing glee. "If you want to save them, you'll need to move fast; they won't last thirty seconds in the compactor." He chuckled wickedly; if he had had a mouth, it would have been smiling with evil pleasure.

At that last comment, Sonic raced down the stairs and jumped onto the conveyor belt. Metal did not follow; he probably would be crushed trying to attack his rival inside the machine. He decided to wait and see if the hero would succeed in rescuing his friends.

Sonic had raced to the rescue a bit too late. By the time he had gotten within three yards of Cream and Cheese, they had gone into the entrance to the compactor. He followed them in and found them trapped in the grip of one of the metal claws. To his relief, the claw broke the ropes binding Cream. As Cheese began to fall off of her lap, she grabbed him and held him close to her with fright. The claw threw them into the garbage chute, and Sonic dove in after them. Much to his disgust, he landed in a pile of food scraps from the robot truck (well, Eggman has to eat, doesn't he?). He quickly brushed himself off and ran over to Cream.

"Cream! Are you two okay?" he said as he ripped the duct tape off their mouths.

"Mr. Sonic!" cried Cream in delight, and she hugged him as tightly as she could. "Thank you so much for helping us!"

"Chao chao!" said Cheese in agreement.

The hero smiled back, and then said, "Cream, do you have any idea where Eggman hid the others?"

Instead of answering, Cream shouted, "Mr. Sonic, look out!"

It was then that the trio noticed the rolling device, which was bearing down on them. Sonic grabbed Cream and ran back to the garbage chute to escape, but it was no use trying to climb back up the way they had come. Cream and Cheese began to cry, but then Sonic noticed the pile of garbage coming out of the chute, and an idea came into his head. Grabbing the rabbit with one hand, he jumped onto the waste pile and waited for the right time to leap. When he saw his chance, the hedgehog bent his legs and sprang up over the roller to the other side. Cream and Cheese cheered.

But they weren't out of it yet; up next were the pounding blocks. Sonic watched them thoughtfully as they crushed the garbage alternately—left, right, left, right, etc. Then, just as the left block came down, he grabbed Cream's arm and charged. When they got there it was rising upward, and they raced under it safely to the other side. The block came crashing down moments afterward.

And then there was the line of slicing devices. Each of them came down guillotine-style at different intervals, so Sonic and Cream had to carefully dash under them before they came down. They finally jumped over the compressing machine through the exit and landed in a heap by the end of the conveyor belt, both of them panting heavily from exhaustion.

Suddenly heavy footsteps pounded on the balcony, and Sonic instantly sprang up, remembering his enemy. "Let's go, Cream!" he said, and without waiting for an answer, he grabbed her hand and raced through the garage door leading out of the chamber.

But Metal Sonic did not follow. Instead he flipped open the wrist communicator and contacted his boss.

"Master, Sonic rescued the rabbit girl."

"Curses! I was hoping the trash compactor would kill him. But never mind that. Which one do you think he'll find next?"

"Perhaps the foxboy, Master; he is much closer than the rest. Should I head over to the warehouse?"

"No! Sonic might be smart enough to follow you! I'll go there myself."

"As you command, Master."

"By the way, how is the poison doing?"

"I did not see any symptoms, sir."

"Trust me, he will have a spasm very soon."

Time Left: 35 minutes


NOTE: Please don't attack me for the very fictional trash compactor! I didn't know what else to do with the sewer setting besides flooding, and I really want to mess with Sonic's dislike of water much later in this fanfic.