Chapter Twelve – Choices
Sonic felt extremely guilty as he left the clearing. He was leaving behind one hell of a mess. He ran through the woods with Manic by his side. They were near Capital City, not the other side of the planet to Robotropolis, but still several thousand miles away. To run there was doable but nowhere near fast enough. In order to catch that train, he had to seriously outpace it. It traveled in excess of Mach One, he needed to go three to four times faster.
Time to fly.
As he ran, he curved away from Capital City, onto open grassland. He slowed down until he was just behind Manic. He was ready.
'Perfect!' He thought, and took an almighty leap into the air. Concentrating hard, in mid-air, he allowed the Chaos build inside of him, which seemed to be a lot easier then normal. He pushed it to his hands and feet. He heard the now familiar ka-ching as the rocket boasters in his hands and feet engaged. He rocketed up into the sky. He immediately curved back round towards the ground, and allowed his brother to climb onboard. He too flinched. Sonic was now really confused. Him as well? What was up with that?
But Manic grabbed his shoulders and immediately steered him forwards to go even faster. Now was definitely not the time. Like Shadow had said, they had a train to catch.
Staying fast and low, Sonic flew straight for Robotropolis. He sense of direction was superb and knew exactly where to go. Manic lowered himself onto his back, to help increase the speed. He felt him shiver. Sonic frowned but couldn't loose concentration on the task in hand. Faster and faster.
Mach One. They broke the Sound Barrier. But it wasn't enough. They needed more speed.
Mach Two. Still not enough. Sonic curved round towards Robotropolis. He still needed more.
Mach Three. He could hear Manic groaning from behind him. He was struggling to hang on with the speed. Soon they found the railway track for the high-speed train. Sonic quickly turned and followed it towards Robotropolis. The train was almost certainly ahead of them. He didn't have much time. Sonic was beginning to struggle, but he needed more speed.
Mach Four. He began to feel the resistance for the Hyper-Blast but now Sonic was really struggling to maintain the speed. It seemed that creating the Chaos was easy, but maintaining it, however, wasn't. This was extremely strange. He never been held back like this before especially when flying.
He gritted his teeth, concentrating hard, ahead of him. Pushing with all he had, he finally saw the pearly white high-speed train ahead of him. He heard screams aboard as it sped forwards out of control. They didn't have much time. Robotropolis was less then ten minutes away. They had to stop the train.
He dived down even lower to fly along side the train. He made a tremendous roar was he moved along side the train, causing all the passengers to look. They cheered, though many were surprised that he could fly. Either way, their saviour was here. This boosted Sonic's confidence, giving him strength to keep going. But he still had the very difficult task of getting Manic onto the train. To do this, it would mean Sonic flying less that a foot away from it. At these enormous speeds, it was extremely dangerous. If they collided, especially side on, then the incredible force of the impact would instantly kill Sonic and potentially derail the train. Killing everyone on board.
Sonic had to try, he had no choice. To risk his life to save them. But he was running out of strength. Severely struggling, his concentration was waining. He felt Manic kick him in the hips, he was ready. It was now or never.
Sonic was extremely frightened. He rushed forwards and moved along side the train. He had to swallow his fear to do this. He took a deep breath, and gritted his teeth.
Six feet away. Not close enough. He felt Manic lean on his back, towards the train. Closer. Sonic steered, twisting his body ever so slightly towards the train.
Four feet. Still not enough. Manic put his hand towards the train but missed. Sonic was swearing. But he was struggling.
'Come on!' He thought. 'Hold it together.' He gulped. He turned even closer.
Two feet. Manic reached out again. He could almost reach the pearly white train. He was almost there, Sonic could feel almost the relief.
Then Manic's eyes widened.
"Sonic!" He screamed. "BRIDGE!" He bellowed. Sonic had been concentrating so much on lining up with the train, that he hadn't noticed the solid steel through arch bridge, race towards them. He swore. The train loudly thundered over it, and Sonic was forced to pull up into a steep climb, to avoid hitting it. This pushed the acceleration forces to the limit. He screamed, both Hedgehog's did. As he climbed, his twisted up and over the bridge and flew back down the other side of train. Sonic panting out of shear panic.
They were minutes away from Robotropolis. They had to stop this train.
Now!
Sonic sped up along side the train, again. The fear of colliding with it was now completely over-ruled by the urgency of getting the job done. He had to get Manic on that train. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed his enormous fear and swung in towards the train. Flying with a few inches of it, for a matter of seconds. Manic had been watching him the entire time, and from his back, was ready to make the jump. Timing was everything. Sonic wasn't sure if he had the energy to do it again.
Sonic got closer, and closer, and then Manic jumped. Having his brother leap from him, caused Sonic to temporarily loose control of his flying but quickly steered away from the train as soon as Manic was gone. Flying up and away, he saw his brother land on the train and immediately slide backwards from the incredible speeds.
Manic swore. If he slide off the train, the impact on the ground would kill him. He immediately spread out his hand and his fingertips stuck to the metal like glue. He looked up to find his bearings and proceeded to move down the train towards the drivers cab like a spider. He moved as quickly as he could. Within minutes, he was looking down into the driver cab through the windscreen. The driver was panicking. He pointed ahead of him. Manic looked up. Robotropolis was on the horizon and moving towards them fast.
Time to stop this train!
He slapped his hands down on the roof of the train. Senting shockwaves through the metal. He was using his Chi to feel for the wheels and the brakes. Within seconds, he'd found them, and immediately forced them on, all of them, on every wheel. The entire train was thrown backwards. Manic only barely holding on himself. The train was slowing and fast, but Robotropolis was still moving towards them down the line. Fast, too fast. Manic put every ounce of strength he had into the brakes. He gritted his teeth. Utterly determined, he proceed to lock solid every wheel on the entire train, in an attempt to slow it faster. He screamed as it pushed his Chi Metal Bending skills to the limit.
Sonic was flying overhead. He was running on fumes, he hadn't got much left in the tank. He was still extremely confused as to why he was struggling so much. He saw Manic give everything he had into stopping the train, but as Robotropolis appeared before them, he realised that wasn't to be enough.
They were going to hit the terminal station.
Sonic raced ahead of the train, and full speed. After he gained some distance, he did a complete u-turn. He flew at full power back towards the train. He dived towards the track, flying no higher them four feet above them. Sonic knew that if he collided with the train, head on, with enough speed, his momentum would be enough to slow or even stop the train. The direction of the collision was critical here. Manic had done his bit, time for his turn. If he timed it perfectly, He could do it without destroying or derailing the train, if he hit it in exactly the right place.
He heard he name being screamed as he rushed towards the train, its large white cylindrical nose coming right at him. He'd done the calculations. He knew by doing this the train would be safe, but as for himself, he just didn't care.
He had given everything he had. He had nothing to loose. The impact would kill him, instantly. Dead. Better to die here saving lives rather then to drop dead a nobody or be executed.
The train came closer. Sonic took his aim. He'd made his choice.
'Good luck, Manic!' He thought and closed his eyes.
Three, two, one!
BANG!
Manic screamed as the train violently shook but stayed true to it rails. The incredible impact to the front of the train, slowed it so successfully that it gently rolled to a halt just outside of Robotropolis Terminal Station.
They had done it.
Manic was completely exhausted, but his eyes were streaming with tears. Desperate to get off the train, but all of his energy had suddenly left him and he just lay there on the roof, crying.
There was a huge amount of commotion. Robotropolis Terminal Station and the surrounding area had been evacuated. But many people saw what Sonic did. Some of them passengers, other locals living near the outskirts of the city, some emergency services. Panic reigned as people gathered round the front of the train, desperately trying to dig through the wreckage for the famous Blue Blur. As they searched, they found him...gone!
Manic couldn't believe it.
"What!" He spat and immediately, with an unknown spark of energy, climbed down from train and looked for him. A search party was sent out. They looked back down the tracks from the impact point, under the train itself and the surrounding area. There was no way Sonic would have survived that collision.
But the Blue Blur had just...vanished. Into thin air.
How was that possible? Hedgehog's don't just vanish.
Manic was declared a hero for saving the train, but as he cried, he knew it wasn't just him. As the clean up process began, questioned were asked as to why the brakes failed. An engineer was looking into it. There were disk brakes on all wheel-sets of the train, and they were all connected to a brake pipe containing pressured air. Normally, if there is any damage to the brake pipe, the brakes are automatically applied. Immediately stopping the train. But this was sabotage. The engineer found a large amount well placed bullets which seemed to have shot from outside, which had completely reversed the whole system and several bullet holes into the brake pipe itself had ensured complete failure.
Only an highly experienced marksman could have pulled this off. Manic could only think of one. He'd very recently found out about his skill as a marksman and even though Manic didn't know him that well, he was definitely skilled and cunning enough to do it. He growled, the ground rumbled with his anger.
Shadow!
Sonic was swimming in darkness. It was deadly quiet. He couldn't breath, he couldn't move, but he didn't care. He was at complete peace. No more pain, no more exhaustion, no more anxiety. Nothing. But he was confused. This was not what he expected at the end. He wasn't expecting anything normal, after all, he was a powerful Chaos Sorcerer, but this was very different.
Through the darkness and the silence, he kept getting these feelings. A feeling that someone was with him. He felt their Chaos. It was only a small amount of Chaos so just someone normal. But Sonic kept getting the impression that they had been by his side ever since the beginning. Loyal to the very end. Sonic had fought with everything he had, he didn't want to let them down, whoever they were.
But he was sinking, further and further into darkness. His fighting did nothing.
He was dying.
Suddenly, he got a rush of Chaos. A feeling of extremely strong Chaos that could have only have come from a powerful Chaos-Sapient. A second person was there, but they didn't linger. Sonic's mind was very dizzy, extremely hazy. He knew that Chaos. Dam it, he knew it, but he just couldn't think. It was utterly unique to them, but as quickly as it arrived, it vanished.
He was alone.
As he drifted deeper and deeper into the darkness, his dizziness began to ease. Apparently suspended in mid-air, he felt himself beginning to break apart. Confused, he saw all of his Chaos powers leave his chest. Swirling all around him, they began separating out and split apart. Astonished, Sonic watched this happen, and yet there was no pain. It felt extremely strange as his powers formed two large balls of energy in front of him. One blue, the other silver.
Sonic knew exactly what they were. One was Super-Speed, the blue, the other Chaos Sorcery, the silver. He then remembered what Silver had said.
"Because one of your powers is Chaos Sorcery, you might, and it is an enormous might, have enough Magic within you, to choose, at the point of death, which one of the two powers you have to keep. You keep one, the other dies, hopefully, death dies with it and you survive!"
Sonic heaved. The grey Hedgehog was exactly right.
'Thank you, Silver.' He thought. His knowledge now had the power now to save his life.
Now he was at the point of death.
But it wasn't his own powers of Chaos Sorcery that was giving him this choice. It was the Powers-That-Be. They had decided that it was time for him to choose. Sonic frowned. But why?
Then his eyes widened.
The sacrifice.
He'd sacrificed his life to save that train, and now the Powers-That-Be were giving him an opportunity to save his own.
Sonic looked from one ball of Chaos powers to the other. Super-Speed or Chaos Sorcery. He bit his lip. Which way to choose? He loved them both in equal measure, despite the fact that they were so vastly different. But only one had the power to save him. He was sweating. He didn't have long, when a third option quickly became apparent to him. Death itself. If he couldn't choose, he would die. If he ran out of time, he would die.
He began to panic. Which way to go? He didn't know. What did he really want? He wanted to live but how? Did he want to save the world or change it?
Time to choose.
He sighed and relaxed. He closed his eyes. He was way overthinking this. This was choice for his heart, not his head. What did he truly want?
Still with his eyes closed, he held out his hand. He felt his heart, very specificity guide him to one of the balls of Chaos power. He didn't fight it.
He touched it. There an enormous explosion of extremely bright white light completely engulfed him.
Time's up!
Sonic opened his eyes and sat up incredibly quickly. Desperately gasping for air, panting heavily. Sweat was pouring down his face. Someone grabbed him. Their voice comforting him.
"Oh thank goodness, your awake!" It sounded relieved. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to make it!" It heaved.
Sonic frowned.
What?
His eyes were extremely blurry. But he looked around. He recognised that voice, he just couldn't remember at that very moment. Still very confused, he heard his name being called. The voice sounded concerned.
"Hey, it's me, Charlie. Your in my office. In Robotropolis. You've been here all week!"
He grinned. Charlie's office hadn't been evacuated because it was nowhere near the Terminal Station. So Charlie had stayed here with him. Sonic stared. So that was who he felt at the point of death. He looked around, they were alone. But who was the other person? He definitely felt the presence of someone else? His mind was spinning, trying to process it. When he realised something. Charlie had just said he'd been here all week!
What?
Sonic shook himself. That can't have been possible. As he eyes cleared, he saw the office for himself, and confirmed what Charlie had said when he both recognised him and it. But the Blue Blur was completely blown away, how could he have been here all week? He left here days ago? He asked Charlie. The chestnut Hedgehog hugged him.
"I don't know and I don't care, I just glad your safe. I saw you sacrifice yourself for that train on T.V. and yet you've been lying here the whole time. Somehow, you've managed to be in two places at once. When you vanished, your vitals here plummeted. I thought you were going to die on me." He sighed. Sonic gulped. He very nearly did die. Then he frowned. Wait! What did he mean by two places at once? Sonic was about to ask, but Charlie excitedly went on, cutting across him, completely distracting him.
"But you've just woke up, completely out of the blue, and you look perfectly fine." He grinned, looking at Sonic. He was stunned. Charlie giggled. "I take my hat off to you. You've got some serious power. I don't know of anyone else who could have survived that." He said, bowing to him. That impact should have been a guaranteed killer.
Sonic went white. He was still sweating heavily. Did he survive? Or was this a dream? Charlie hugged him again. He purred in absolute delight. Sonic hugged back. This certainly felt like he'd survived.
He closed his eyes.
He'd chosen wisely.
He sighed, finally happy.
All of sudden, Charlie jumped up.
"Hey!" He said. "I'd heard you'd called a truce, ended the stalemate?" He giggled. Sonic wasn't surprised he knew that. Charlie did work for the Authorities, after all. He nodded. The chestnut Hedgehog got to his feet and ran to his desk, from the row of chairs that Sonic had been lying on. He looked at Sonic.
"Stay there!" He panted, in absolute excitement. Confused, Sonic agreed and watched Charlie carefully.
He grabbed the phone and began making enquires. After several minutes and several dead ends, he finally found his quarry.
"Hello?" Charlie asked down the phone, and got incredibly excited, when someone answered, but Sonic couldn't hear the person at the other end. Charlie was jumping up and down. He continued talking down the phone.
"Hi, your are not going to believe this." He stammered. "It's Sonic, I've got him, he's here...He's alive!"