Chapter 6

The doors of the box popped open and Sonic was the first to step out. Both doors had to be opened to clear the entrance. The box was designed for a skinnier creature, something like a human to use. But for a Mobian to enter or exit the box both doors needed to be opened to allow their larger heads to clear it. Sonic didn't dwell on his fact. He just thought it funny that rotoned Robotnik, despite being human, would also need to open both doors just to enter and exit the machine.

The ground crunched under his feet as he walked and took in his surroundings with his hand up to his brow to shield his eyes from the glare of a double sun. He looked back to Tails and saw him gingerly pressing his foot down into the dirt and marvelled at imprint it left.

"You okay there, buddy?" Sonic asked.

"It's just that." Tails said, he looked a little giddy, "This is further than we've ever gone before." Sonic could understand the ceremony, no Mobian had stepped here before, -presumably, depending on if they were in the past or future relative to their time,- and Tails wanted to make the most of it. Sonic however, viewed the alien ground as any other place he'd place his feet to get somewhere. It was just a shame the ceremony was spoilt by the landscape of their very first, alien planet.

"Regular paradise, huh?" Sonic said as Tails stepped from the box and looked around at the new world of desolation around them. The sky was a burnt red, the dirt beneath their feet was a rust colour. The wisps of cloud in the sky did give the planet a strange beauty to it, but ultimately not to Sonics taste. There was plenty of open space to run and get up to top speed, but very few obstacle's that could make a run any fun.

Amy was just stepping from the box. She pressed one boot into the dirt before lifting it off. Then she looked up into the sky with concern. Sonic nor Tails noticed this as they looked around. Sonic with a pretty 'meh' look to him. Tails with an awed expression.

"Could do with a chilidog stand, a few pizza places and a pool." He said as he sniffed the dry air.

"The dry air is probably the result of the twin suns above us. Or maybe the magnetosphere isn't strong enough to hold onto moisture. But that wouldn't explain the breathable atmosphere." Tails rattled off.

"Do you think you can tell where we are?" Sonic asked.

"Maybe. But we'll need to wait for nightfall so we can see the surrounding stars."

"Neat, so we've got time to kill. I'm going to go explore." Sonic said, winking at Tails before he took off and vanished into the distance.

"No, Sonic wait, it might be... dangerous..." Who was Tails kidding, that would make Sonic want to go all the more. He turned to Amy. "We should scout the local area and see what we can find."

"Yeah, you do that." Amy said looking uneasy.

"What's wrong? It should be safe. There is nothing here." Tails said.

"That's not what worries me." Amy said, gripping the edges of the box as if she feared being suddenly forced from it. "This thing is our only ticket home, and don't forget Robotnik is still somewhere inside it."

"Amy." Tails tried to sound reassuring. "The TARDIS won't operate for him, it doesn't like him."

"Are you sure of that?" Amy asked, "The guy has a knack for bending machines to his will."

Tails' face dropped. Amy had a point.

"So, if you don't mind. I'll stay inside and guard this ship." She pulled out her new pipe weapon since she'd lost her Piko-Piko hammer to Robotniks goons. "And if that Eggman comes anywhere near it, I'll croquet his big butt into the nearest black hole."

"Yeah, okay." Tails agreed, "Keep the door locked, I shouldn't be long." Tails swished both his tails and they both began to spin and swirl around each other so fast that they kicked up dirt. The fox found himself being lifted up by his hindquarters, his feet left the ground and he began to hover in the air like a helicopter. Amy wasn't surprised by this feat, it was Tails' party piece. Then shot up into the air.

"How am I supposed to know its you when you come back?" Amy shouted up.

"Activate the Scanner!" Tails shouted back.

"Scanner?" Amy shouted

"Third panel, control that looks like a handle." Tails shouted back. "The screen on the console should activate."

"Tails! Wait! I..." But the fox was gone.

Amy blew into her cheeks, annoyed at being left behind to house-sit, or TARDIS-sit or whatever. She felt so useless at the moment and Sonic and Tails attitude didn't make her feel useful. She wasn't scared of what was outside, just scared of getting stuck here. Well, she was going to show how useful she could be. The TARDIS would still be here when they got back only because Amy had guarded it.

Closing the door Amy turned back and nearly fell over a hat stand that she was certain had not stood there before, and ended up getting tangled in a mile long, multicoloured scarf that was wrapped around it.

Pushing herself up and brushing herself down she did a double take at her surroundings. She was certain there wasn't so much white around the console before now. The place had walls!? She approached the console which now stood on a raised platform. It was like walls were growing from, well, out of nothing. Crystallising into existence like ice on a window. Some of the panels on the walls were starting to turn a bronze colour. In the wall next to the door a window was starting to form. The smooth sheen of a TV screen was starting to pop out also. It was then that she noticed that the screen on the console had vanished.

The console was starting to look healthier. Blown out panels were being replaced, wires were snaking back into their housings. Glass was starting to fall from the ceiling in a column around the crystals in the centre of the console. In the ceiling a bulb was growing and from it, again like ice, a ceiling was forming. Encasing the console, and hiding the void.

This was all happening very, very slowly but the TARDIS was rebuilding itself? Amy was a little disappointed at the layout. Shelves, like those in a warehouse were materialising around the walls housing spare, mechanical parts. There was a workbench with a vice, and an assortment of tools.

This décor was all very Tails themed as it reminded Amy of his workshop and lab back home.

Amy hefted the pipe, and stood guard at the console like Knuckles would guard the Master Emerald and just watched the room continue to reassemble itself. The console, she noticed had started to grow a more metallic shell and had adopted a yellow sheen to it. A microscope now jutted out of the assembling mass, it was the only familiar thing on it she recognised. The rest were a bunch of dials and switches. She hoped this thing came with an instruction manual because Amy couldn't make heads nor tails of any of the controls.

"Help me." Came a voice echoing down a forming corridor that branched off from the console room. "Help me, please." The voice pleaded. "I feel trapped."

"Hello!" Amy called out down the corridor. "Robotnik is that you?" Amy raised her pipe. It didn't sound like him, the voice was too high pitched. If it is, be aware I am armed and dangerous. She gripped the pipe tighter, not out of fear, but readiness. Gingerly she edged her way through the archway and into the corridor.

Something slammed down behind her, making her cry out. A solid slab of metal now prevented her from returning to the console room. The silent crying also stopped.

Amy acknowledged she could be a fool at times, but she was no dummy. She looked into the ceiling and addressed the TARDIS.

"You really don't like me, do you!"

Sonic stared at the formation in the sand. Straight lines were rare in nature and what he could see buried in these massive dunes in front of him were clearly made by an intelligence. But the fact it was buried in a dune indicated that it had been left abandoned for a great deal of time. A five story tower block, windows blown out, and sand pouring from every one. Only the top three stories were above the dune. The rest were beneath the sand.

Sonic kicked up speed and raced up the side of the dune. The sand was so soft that he very quickly found himself slowing down as a jet of soft sand erupted from behind him. He leapt and just managed to grab onto the edge of the roof before he lost momentum. He pulled himself up the last few meters with no sweat and he found relief when his feet touched solid ground. He really didn't like the fine, sinky sand that he'd been running through. The upside was it left a noticeable trail he could easily follow back to the TARDIS.

The hedgehog walked over to the edge of the roof and looked out beyond the sea of dunes. What he saw made his brow drop. He then crossed his arms over his chest and his eyes adopted a very Sonic-esk intensity to them.

There wasn't just one building, but a sea of abandoned buildings going off as far as the eye could see.

It was a city. A dead city. A dead and buried city.

Sonic leapt down and raced down the slopes of the dunes. The traction with his own feet was slow low that he just ended up kicking up sand behind him. This meant his forward speed was limited, but he still had power and energy to race from one building to another. Just not at the speed of sound. Still, it was better than being paralyzed. That had been a nightmare.

Racing up to the top of one of the tallest building that stood a least ten stories high he could now get a good sense of the world around him, and boy, what a view it was. It was nowhere near as pretty as Mobius, but it still had a... a 'bigness' to it. Though it was only down to the lack of 'stuff' around him.

Mountains to the east, flat desert to the west, rockiness to the North and South. He didn't know which way was North or South on this planet, he just guessed and decided he might as well name the directions as something. At least until someone corrected him. Then North could become East, West or South, and everything else changed to accommodate, or it could remain North if it turns out that was North. For once, Sonic wished he had a compass.

He calmly leapt over the side of the building, landed in the sand and skidded into a trough between dunes.

He failed to notice as he sped off, the sand collapse behind him revealing a skull, its empty eye sockets watching him retreat.

With little place left to go Amy began wandering deeper into the still assembling bowels of the time machine. She hefted her pipe weapon just in case something jumped out at her.

This stupid thing was alive, and it didn't like her, and she got the feeling it wasn't going to play nice with her. Why didn't it like her? Okay, she whacked it's console with a loose pipe. Perhaps she should apologise to it, but only if it agreed to apologise for shocking her earlier. Her tail still felt sore.

The corridors were forming into an hexagonal shape. Long pipes of primary colours ran along the yellow walls and a grating formed to cover them. The pattern of the grating reminded Amy of the grating on the underside of breadboxes at the supermarket, that's not what they were, its just what it reminded Amy of. Amy both thought it cute that the machine had clearly imprinted on Tails, and yet she was disgusted at its choice of colour scheme. Mostly a warm yellow. Though reds and pinks might be a little garish for what the machine was going for. She wondered what it would build if it had imprinted on her?

A shrine to Sonic? Amy actually shuddered at that. Not because she wouldn't like it, but because if it displayed her love of Sonic so openly it might make her look creepy. As she got older, the more she looked at herself in the mirror and wondered how she looked to other people. She'd been taught not to care what other people thought of her, but the hardest lesson to learn as a young hedgehog was to look in the mirror and judge what she saw.

Maybe she did feel a little too attached to Sonic. No matter how much she tried to be her own woman she just couldn't let go of the blue hedgehog. Sure, he could annoy her sometimes and he could be manipulative but he had a good heart and...

She was doing it again, obsessing over Sonic, letting him occupy more time in her head than he needed to.

The machine gurgled, like it was laughing at her. Amy pouted, but said nothing to it as she walked on.

A door materialised in front of her. Cautiously she opened it. She didn't know what to expect, but she hadn't expected this.

It was a wardrobe room. Filled to the rafters with clothes of all shapes and sizes. All on hangers and rails, all on different levels. There were two or three levels of just clothes galore. Mostly human sizes, though she found it odd that some clothes were presented to her that were clearly meant for a Mobian.

She picked up a lovely white dress from the hanger. It was a little larger for her, but she could take it in a little, if she could find the right dress making tools and... Her thoughts stopped as the white dress began to shrink in her hands and reform until she was certain it was her size.

"Hey cool, one size fits all." She placed it over her chest and looked into a nearby mirror. Her soul shivered at the garish garment that covered over half the mirror. It was a coat of many, many clashing colours. Each section was a different colour or pattern, though red felt like it was the primary colour. She pulled it off and tossed it aside. No one here was wearing anything like that, she was certain. Except maybe Robotnik, old Eggman really didn't have any sense of style.

Amy discarded the white dress before properly looking at it when she saw a velvet looking dress on the wrack. Though it was more of a tunic, it had buttons with puffy shoulders and a petal like skirt and velvet trousers like something out of a fairy-tale.

A label in the neck said. 'Made on Traken'.

Whoever this machine belonged to he, or maybe it was a she, collected clothes of every kind.

There was a lovely burgundy, velvet frock coat; a cream coat with red piping; a bunch of clothes she was sure her grandma had worn back in the sixties. Some were positively medieval. There was even a full suit of armour like you'd have in a manor house. Did someone really intend on wearing this for real?

Next she found a black tuxedo she might try to get Sonic into, if it would shrink to fit him. The red sneakers that accompanied it were so very him. She decided to move them now so they were out of eyesight, just in case he agreed, but only on this certain condition.

She jumped back as a cream pipe nearly fell out of the pocket of a very over sized frock coat. No, it was not a pipe. It was a recorder with a swirling blue pattern on it.

Amy pulled the pipe from the coat and playfully tooted a few tunes on it as she looked around, all worry now forgotten.

She stopped as she looked into the ceiling.

"Why are you showing me all this?" Amy asked the machine. She was sure it was watching her. Studying her. Amy suddenly had a creepy feeling coming over her again. If she had to live in this thing for a while would it grant her any privacy at all, or would it keep watching her?

She found that garish, multicoloured coat at her feet. After some consideration she decided it looked untidy on the floor, and so she picked it up and smoothed out the creases. It was not to her taste, but someone had clearly gone to a lot of effort, -perhaps too much of an effort,- to make it.

The machine made a noise, one that sounded positive.

She moved to put it back on a hanger, and yelped when she parted some clothes and a limp hand fell from between the garments. A hand wearing a white glove and a red sleeve with yellow trim. Amy gripped the multicoloured coat tightly and reached for her pipe weapon. Using the hanger the multicoloured garment was in she pushed the clothes along its rail to get a better look at the dark silhouette of a rather round individual. He was laying prone on his back on the metal floor and was completely out for the count.

She'd found the doctor.

Doctor Robotnik that is.

Something had been woken up. It sensed a creature nearby. Like it had suddenly appeared in its world without warning. It began to move to investigate. It felt hungry.

Tails landed to inspect something interesting he'd seen. Among some rocks he'd found something that had once had six wheels. He was tempted to call it a car, but he didn't know if that would be the technical term for the vehicle. It looked like it once had caterpillar tracks, like a tank, but time had stripped them away.

As Tails examined the vehicle more closely he noticed that the wiring was exposed, with just blackened strips around the copper, like the protective plastic coating had been blasted away.

Tails searched for something, anything that resembled technology. Finding their exact position in the galaxy was going to be difficult when you didn't know where you were to start with. Maybe after a few hops he could feed data into a computer model and as he gained more information he could retro-actively fit places like this into it. He shook his head. Unless he stumbled upon a clue, this was going to take forever.

The sand crunched under his feet as he moved around, checking the vehicle.

It began to move. Close to the ground and very slowly. Between the small rocks and the remains of the vehicle's wheels as it hunted. It moved towards the new being while he still had his back to it, the creature unnoticed, and understandably so.

The fox slammed the vehicles door shut, satisfied and blew out a disappointed sigh. He stood in a wide stance and prepared his two tails to take off again.

It was right beneath the new creature and was ready to strike. The creature suddenly felt bigger, and wider, and heavier.

It reached up to grab its prey but it felt nothing, just the swirling sand and gusts of wind. It did brush up against something briefly, but it had been so light that the creature hadn't noticed it. Whatever it was had left its reachable territory. Whatever the creature was it had failed to notice the claw like appendage reaching up out of the ground for him like a zombie.

Unnoticed, and disappointed the claw sank back beneath the sands again. The creature had vanished from its world as mysteriously as it had appeared.

But there was something else. Something that made its presence strongly felt, it was not that far away. It moved to investigate this new, vibrating thing.

Something about it felt very... familiar.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: The reason this has been taking so long is because I couldn't think of what Sonic and Co's first adventure in the TARDIS should be. I wanted to both feed into the spirit of the Doctor Who-ness of this crossover without leaping into something too heavy. So I'm starting this journey off with something on a slow burn for now.