Chapter 7

Sonic stood at the edge of a cliff an watched the twin sunset. It was like that movie about space wizards. The clouds passed over the two of them making the setting suns look eerily beautiful. Sonic wasn't dwelling on if they could get home. There was no point in dwelling on it. They were here now and they had to make the most of it.

They already had shelter in the TARDIS, what they needed was food and water. There was none here, not in this desolate place.

Perhaps there was some food somewhere in the TARDIS, though it was doubtful it'd still be fresh after all this time. If there was nothing here then they could always takeoff and go to another planet. Hopefully one with water. Maybe a sunny beach with an ocean, not too deep though. Was it too hopeful to ask for a pizza place?

The Hedgehog was confident they'd get home eventually so might as well explore and have some fun.

More cloud swept over the setting suns. Much more cloud. Cloud coming from over the horizon. A cloud of yellow. It was far away and yet fast approaching.

Sonic had been around Mobius a few times to know what that was.

A sand storm. Not pleasant and not something even Sonic wanted to get caught in. He'd been in one once. He couldn't find his way and nearly got buried. He'd also spent weeks with his belly and face rubbed raw by the blasting sand. Hey, he may be robust, that didn't mean he had leather like skin.

That sandstorm didn't move like the ones on Mobius however. It was like someone had pressed the fast forward button on a cassette tape of a sandstorm. Unless it was an illusion then that sand could be moving very fast. Very, very fast. Too fast for Sonic's liking. Fast moving grains of sand were not good news at the best of times when it came to soft, squishy organic matter.

Sonic got unpleasant images of people who fell off their speeding motorbikes without the proper safety clothes on. Imagine that happening all over your body.

"I think that might be more than I can chew." He said as he turned his back to the storm and took off back to the safety of the TARDIS. Hopefully the trans-dimensional box could put up a fight. If the Police Box exterior was anything to go by it had clearly seen some punishment. But it might be best to take off and leave this place behind.

Amy gingerly approached Doctor Robotnik and gently prodded him with her pipe. He didn't move an inch. He looked out for the count and was just staring into space. Amy wasn't buying it. She'd known him long enough to always suspect if he was playing pretend.

"Hey Eggman." She decided to insult him with the name Sonic usually gave him. "Your moustache looks like it needs a trim." She picked up a pair of dress makers scissors from a nearby table. "How about I trim it for you?" She placed the blades across his left set of whiskers and prepared to chop off the entire left side of his moustache. He didn't move. She closed the scissors just enough so a few strands fell away. She heisted from closing the scissors and ruining his silly moustache.

He still didn't move.

That would usually get to him. Maybe he really was out for the count.

There was a nearby panel in the wall that he had clearly wrenched off and the presence of the screwdriver told Amy he'd tried some sabotage. But perhaps the TARDIS had fought back against him.

Checking the mans pulse confirmed that he was alive thankfully. Robotnik may be an old, mean, wannabe totalitarian dictator who deserved to be clobbered a few times, locked up and the key for said lock thrown into the belly of a very fast whale, but he didn't deserve to die. Nobody did.

Amy grabbed his foot and pulled him away from the panel. She was strong for her size, she had to be to heft her hammer around. She pulled him through the door of the wardrobe room and into the corridor. She scratched her head and muttered.

"There's got to be an infirmary around here."

Amy was always hopeful that there was good in anyone, even Robotnik. It would be so easy to kill him but that would end any hope that he could be redeemed. Could he be redeemed? Amy was doubtful. But acts of kindness where her thing and they could go a long, long way. So she continued to drag the doctor up some stairs, his head banged on the steps as she went, she couldn't do much about that but was careful to not cause him too much pain that'd permanently damage him. Though she did allow gravity to inflict a little pain that was owed to him.

As if the TARDIS had read her mind, Amy found the next door she opened to be some sort of medical station. There were beds and racks, medical devices, I.V. Drips and so on. The stretchers she found actually hovered rather than being on casters. After playing with the control panel on the side a little she got the stretcher to drop so she could roll Robotnik on top.

The stretcher struggled to rise under Robotnik's not inconsiderable bulk. From there and without any resistance from pesky casters she easily moved the stretcher around to a bed. If the stretcher had been on casters then this feat would've required ten times the effort.

With Robotnik lined up against the bed Amy tipped the stretcher up and Robotnik rolled into a heap on the bed.

Amy went looking through draws for something, anything she could use on Robotnik. Not to treat him, but to tie him down. She didn't want to leave him there to wake up and cause more mischief but at the same time she wanted him somewhere he could get proper medical treatment for whatever happened to him.

She found some straps and old belt like things. She wasn't sure if restraining people were what the straps were for, but it's what they were going to be used for. The draw was a jumble of odd objects, that even included a few weeping thorns of some fowl smelling juice, and an old knife that clearly wasn't intended for you to eat a stake with, nor was it used for medical reasons. It looked more like it was for ending someone before they could scream. She ignored the knife, but retrieved the straps to restrain the large doctor. The larger belt restrained him to the bed around his gut. Four smaller straps tied his arms to metal guards on the bed, and a couple more to tie his feet together.

Happy that he was finally restrained Amy turned to leave, but not before locking the door to the room after herself and dumping the key into her dress for safe keeping.

Now, she had to get back to the console room. She only just realised that Sonic and Tails might be back already, screaming at her to get back in. They should've taken the TARDIS key with them. She still felt it dangling around her neck.

The pink hedgehog hurried along the corridors, worried about her friends; and the scorn they may give her. If push came to shove she could always blame the TARDIS machine for kicking her out of the console room in the first place.

The floor of the machine suddenly tilted and lurched.

What was the TARDIS playing at now?

The Police Box stood alien against the landscape. Despite nothing acting on it the box began to shift and move. Jets of sand erupted from behind it as it started to tilt backwards, sinking into the sand. More jets blew out and the machine levelled as it began to sink from its front. It fell down again until the bottom row of panels were gone. Then it settled before gently swaying back and forth dropping again, and again, and again, until it gradually sunk into the sand. A black tentacle moved in the sand as it sank up to its roof. The only thing left was the light on top of the TARDIS.

As Tails appeared over the horizon looking for the box the lamp too was sucked down.

Tails set down to get his baring's. He was certain the TARDIS had been here. He could see the trail Sonic left as he took off and it started right here. So where was the TARDIS? Tails looked around anxiously as panic rose within him, but before he could speculate a blast of air and blue streak ended with Sonic standing before Tails. The Fox felt relief, some of which was short lived when Sonic asked.

"Hey buddy, where's box?" Tails' heart sank, and anxiety rose again.

"I don't know. I thought this was where we'd left the TARDIS."

"It was." Sonic said, "I followed my own trail back here."

"It's gone!" Tails said, looking around for any evidence that the box had been dragged away by some thing or someone.

"Did it takeoff?" Sonic said, actually showing concern. He cursed himself, but he cursed Eggman more.

"No. I don't think so. If it had it would've left a square imprint in the sand." Tails said. "But it was here, I'm sure of it."

"So it didn't takeoff, it wasn't lifted off and it wasn't dragged away or we'd see the marks." Sonic said, the concern was gone but Tails could tell it was still there. He was just so focused on the problem and not the predicament. "So where could it go?"

Tails looked straight down at his feet. There were peculiar patterns in the sand of spirals and swirls. They were subtle but it indicated the ground had been disturbed by vibration.

"Liquefaction?" Tails muttered.

"Huh?"

"I think something loosened up the soil, and the TARDIS dropped straight down."

"Well, in that case." Sonic took off, running around and around in circles so much so that the combination of his own feet and speed ripped straight down into the sand. Tails spun his tails and took off before the ground fell away beneath him. How far could Sonic go down? He had his answer pretty quickly when he hit the bedrock ten meters beneath them, and still there was no TARDIS.

Tails set himself back down on the sand.

"It's got to be here!" Tails said, panic rising in his voice as he looked to the sky. But Tails would've noticed if the TARDIS was lifted off and taken away. Could it really have taken off without them?

"Hey, buddy. Don't worry. We'll find it." Sonic reassured him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "But we've got a bigger problem." Sonic pointed at the horizon. The storm was fast approaching them, clouds were racing across the desert towards them. "We need shelter, and fast."

There was only one place Sonic had seen where they could shelter, and it was a long shot they'd even survive it, but it was their only shot.

Sonic grabbed Tails by the arm and pulled him along as fast as his legs could carry them on the soft sand.

The Hedghog and the Fox sped across the sand trying to outrun the sand storm. Tails could be fast, but Sonic was faster, that was why he was dragging his friend behind him while Tails angled his twin tails to keep himself off the ground and to make it as easy as possible for Sonic to drag him along.

Tails risked a glance back, and he wished he hadn't. No matter how fast Sonic was that sand storm was fast approaching. The Fox could see it. The winds that would blow over them like sand paper and peel them like an onion. Sonic's feat kicked up plumes of sand as he ran, but they were nothing compared to the visible weather system rolling over the landscape like a giant steamroller, or an upside down waterfall in reverse.

The sinky sand was so fine that Sonic was having trouble speeding up, and dragging Tails behind him only made things more difficult.

They flew past a large rock and Tails watched it to see how long it'd take to vanish into the wind. It wasn't long, and as a testament to the power of that storm the rock was visibly buffeted and pushed over.

"Hold on, buddy." Sonic said. Tails shut his eyes and turned away from the planets raw, natural power. "We're almost there." Tails opened his eyes. Blocky shadows on the horizon stood stark in the dusk light, and they were approaching them fast. Hope rose in the young foxes heart that they would at least survive the night.

The fox risked a look back at the weather system. There was something odd about the way it moved he couldn't quite put his finger on. He'd seen sand storms before, but that one looked weird. Tails just chalked it up to the alien planet, with an alien weather system, for now at least. He had more pressing concerns on his mind.

The pair pushed on, going faster and faster. Up the side of a dune amassing against a building and up through a shattered window. But they didn't stop there. They felt the storm slam into the building as they found some stairs off to the side and went straight down into the darkness and around a corner to keep out of the storms way.

They heard the howl of the wind as it raced through the building, they could feel whole structure was shaking as the tall building was battered by the intense gale. What little light there was vanished as the dusk light was blotted out by the storm.

Tails produced a small flashlight from his pocket so they could see in this darkness.

They just sat there for a second listening to nature try to rip the building to shreds to get at them. Sonic placed a hand on the young foxes shoulder. Sonic looked totally relaxed and so calm. How did he manage to do it?

After a little while of this onslaught they decided that their shelter would hold against the gale for the night and Tails' anxiety gave way to relief, which gave way to guilt.

"I'm sorry, Sonic."

"What about?"

"We're stranded. We shouldn't have left the TARDIS, we should've stayed put. Now the TARDIS is gone, and Amy with it."

"Hey, buddy." Sonic squeezed his friends shoulder. "Relax. We'll find a way home eventually."

"Will we?" Tails asked. Sonic must know the odds of getting home were low, so low a number had yet to be invented to express it. If home also meant the same time zone then they were near enough zero that they might as well be.

"There will be a way. There usually is." Sonic confidently winked at him. Looking at Sonics calm face, at how relaxed, yet determined he was somehow made Tails feel that maybe there was a way out of this. If there was a way out of this, the Sonic would find it, he usually did. Tails sighed and decided to let go of his anxiety for now.

"How can you remain so calm?" Tails asked, "we might die here."

"We might not, Tails." Sonic said back. "You know me. I don't dwell over what I have no control over."

"But the TARDIS..."

"Was someone else's fault. Either Eggman's or someone elses. It's not yours. Don't worry, we'll find it." Sonic was carful not to mention Amy, because she was also a candidate for blame if she'd angered the machine.

"What makes you so certain?" Tails said.

"You said yourself, it can't have taken off. For one, you'd have heard it with the racket it makes." Sonic said.

"It's not supposed to make that noise." Tails corrected, "The brakes are worn down."

"But it does. You didn't go far from the box and you didn't hear that wheezing, trumpeting, did you?" Sonic asked.

"No..."

"Then it didn't take off. And you didn't see anything descend from the sky and take it?" Tails shook his head. "So it's still on this planet. It's just been moved somewhere."

"How can you be so certain?"

"Because I know you sounded certain." Sonic said, trying to sound reassuring. In one way it did work, Tails felt a little better. But at the same time there was always doubt coming from his own scientific abilities. After all, the best scientists always doubt their own findings, not just the findings of others.

Sonic then winced and shuffled himself.

"Something wrong?" Tails asked.

"I think I got sand in my shoes." Sonic said as he undid the clasp on his red shoes and pulled them off. When he tipped them up a few grains fell out, followed by a long trail of gloopy stuff which pooled on the ground. "I swear, I did not put that in my shoe" He said, disgusted. He did the same with the other shoe, holding both of them upside down. From each one came a stream of gloopy, ooze like substance. It was like it was half liquid half solid as a skin began to form on the stuff that was already pooling. Sonic let go of his shoes, but they didn't fall to the ground. They were totally held aloft by the two trails of frozen goo.

"What in the...?" Tails asked puzzled by this mystery substance. "How did that get in your shoes?"

"I have no idea." Sonic said, and with some force he wrenched his shoes off of the top of the strands of goo. Some of the inner padding of the shoe remained stuck to the top of the goo strands. Sonic looked into the depths of his shoes and inspected the damage. He just shrugged, he'd ran in worse before.

Tails, now distracted from their hopeless situation, began prodding at the mounds with scientific curiosity.

"What is it, glass?" Sonic enquired.

"No." Tails said as he bent the strand back and it very slowly began to raise back up to its original position. "It's too flexible to be glass." Tails looked up at Sonic. "And despite the rate you run I doubt you'd generate enough friction to melt sand into glass." He said matter-of-factly.

"So what is it?" Sonic asked again.

Tails sniffed the air, only just noticing the aroma of the place. He couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. "Do you smell that, Sonic?"

"I know, my shoes smell awful." Sonic said as he put them back on. "I was gonna wash them this week, I swear."

"No, I mean the scent of the building. It doesn't smell of sillica, like a desert or a beach would." Tails said.

"I'll have to take your word on that, buddy." Sonic said. He couldn't smell anything, though Tails being a fox might've had a better noes than his.

"The place reeks of..." he smelt the air again. "I don't know. It's across between a garbage dump and burnt electronics. No, not burnt electronics. Burnt plastic. Fresh plasticisers."

Tails knelt down at the oozing mass, and pulled on the two strands until they snapped.

"I think this stuff is plastic." Tails announced.

"How did plastic get into my shoes?" Sonic asked. Tails looked around and listened to the howling winds above them, an idea was forming in his head but it didn't feel right to express it just now, only because it sounded so insane.

To Be Continued...