Chapter 5
Tails held on as the machine seemed to settle down and level out. The console glowed like a Christmas tree and the crystals in the centre rose and fell rhythmically producing a much quieter, and relaxed wheezy-groan.
Tails found himself sighing and collapsing onto the console for a second so his brain could process what had just happened.
It was as if the box had been rolled down a steep hill and tumbled from roof to floor, yet the buffeting he'd felt gave the illusion that they were at sea somehow.
Remembering his friends Tails went to check on them. First Sonic. He was still paralysed but his eyes still gave the fox a confident look as if to say, "I'm okay." He blinked, and his arm twitched. Good, it meant the anaesthetic was wearing off. Hopefully there would be no damage to his brain.
Tails then moved over to Amy and checked her. She was unconscious, and there was a lump forming on her head but otherwise she seemed to be okay. He laid her out on her front and made sure she could breathe. Tails didn't know much about first aid, so he hoped what he did would help her, but he was confident she would recover.
The Fox then looked out into the void, in the direction Robotnik had fallen.
"Robotnik?" Tails called out into the darkness, "Are you okay?" No response. He guessed he must be unconscious too, or pretending to be at least. Robotnik was a difficult man to trust. He was always scheming and planning and pretending.
Scratching his head, Tails turned back to the console and just watched it for a second. The crystal was moving up and down almost like a heartbeat.
Experimentally Tails flipped a switch with a 'click', but nothing seemed to happen, in fact the switch 'clicked' again as it flew back on its own. Was the machine operating itself?
Tails walked around the console and looked at the controls and wondered what the heck they could all be for. They didn't seem to have any defined function at all, and nothing was labelled.
What was this machine even for? Producing chronitons? If only he had his Chaos Detector still with him he could find out.
He placed his hands on the metal of the console. Weirdly, it felt like he was resting his hands on something that could feel his touch. Gently he moved his hands over its surface like he was stroking a dog. Tails felt a tingling at the back of his head, it was like the feeling you get when a you pet a puppy dog and the dog approved. He found himself gently petting the mushroom console.
The wheezing and groans became more prominent and harsher. Whereas the groans from before gave the impression of something going up, these groans sounded like something coming down.
The crystals in the centre of the console stopped with a 'Ka'chud!' noise.
The white doors had reappeared again. Tails looked to Sonic, then to the unconscious Amy, neither were going to be any help when the Badniks broke through. Tails readied himself to protect his friends.
The doors didn't budge. But Tails still waited. After nearly a minute Tails looked down at Sonic who shrugged with his eyes.
Cautiously Tails approached the doors and gently pulled on one of them until it clicked open. He slowly opened it a crack. An orange and golden light poured in and Tails looked out. His eyes went wide. He opened the door a little wider to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
He slammed the door shut.
"Sonic," Tails said. "We've lost Mobius."
The world flooded back into her mind. Amy Rose picked herself up and felt a lump on the back of her head. Tails was at the console scratching his head as if trying to figure something out.
Sonic was sprawled on the floor. Amy crawled up to him. His face looked peaceful and he reached up to scratch at his head. The poison Robotnik had injected into him was slowly wearing off.
"Oh Sonic! Are you okay?!" Amy said, gathering up her rag dolled hero.
"Amy!" Sonic said, she squeezed his chest as she hugged him. "Take it easy. I can't breathe!"
"Sorry." Amy said, releasing her hero. "I was just worried about you."
"We've moved." Tails suddenly announced. "But how?"
"Whoa, what do you mean Tails?" Sonic asked.
"We're not in Robotnik's laboratory anymore." Tails said. "We've moved somewhere else."
"Where?" Amy asked.
"I don't know. You better look outside. I think we've gone further than we ever have before."
Amy gently laid Sonic down, went up to the white doors and pulled them both open. From Sonics vantage point he could see what Amy was seeing.
They were in the middle of a desert.
Sonic got unsteadily to his feet and slowly walked towards the door.
They weren't just in a desert. The sky was a blu-ish green and the stars were unfamiliar. There were also three moons and the Sun was half its normal size and burning bright blue.
"Oh, its so pretty." Amy said.
"It's pretty barren." Sonic said.
"It;s not Mobius!" Tails exclaimed. "We've been transported.
"To another planet?" Sonic asked.
"Or another dimension." Tails said.
"Nah, I've been to other dimensions. The stars usually stay the same." Sonic said.
"This machine must've done it." Tails said, "when Amy hit it she must've engaged some mechanism and it took us across... whatever we transversed."
"Well, if this thing brought us here. It can take us back home." Amy raised her pipe weapon but Tails stood in front of her. Sonic also reached up and caught the pipe.
"Amy, maybe we shouldn't damage the controls of the thing that brought us here."
Amy eased herself and stood back.
"Do you think you can get it working and get us home, buddy?" Sonic asked Tails.
Tails looked under the console and all around it. Opening a hatch he peered at a loose circuit board. Then he got up and studied the console. He was hopelessly lost.
Sonic turned back to the open doors.
"Maybe someone out there can help us." Sonic said nodding at the doorway.
"And do you expect them to speak Mobian?" Amy asked.
"They usually do." Sonic shrugged. Walking towards the door. He stood on the threshold of the machine and gingerly put his foot into the sand and lifted it up again, leaving a footprint that rapidly filled itself in.
Taking a plunge, Sonic stepped out onto the alien world. He instantly felt a little heavier than usual. He guessed the planet had stronger gravity than usual. He looked at his surroundings with wide eyed excitement.
Amy came up to the threshold and gingerly stepped out. While Sonic admired the view, Amy was fascinated by the warped dimensions of the wooden box. She walked all around it, putting her hands up against its exterior, walking where there should be a solid wall, but there wasn't. Then she stepped back inside and saw the vastness of the boxes interior.
"Hey, where's Egg-man?" Sonic asked, re-entering the box and looking around.
"I think he just rolled away." Amy said.
"He's out there in the void, somewhere." Tails said nodding into the darkness. Sonic looked deep into the void, but decided against running in any direction. He might get lost in the blackness and not be able to find his way back.
Tails had dived under the console in an attempt to figure something out. But even his genius failed to understand how this machine worked. He didn't know what half the devices under the console did, not without reverse-engineering them, to do that he'd need a workshop and he was probably lightyears away from his.
As his fingers moved he treated the components with the utmost respect. He felt compelled to, like he was cutting the coat of a dog. Then Tails stuck his fingers where he wasn't supposed to. Something surged into him from under the telepathic circuits.
Telepathic circuits? How did Tails suddenly know what they were. Words flooded his brain. 'Time Vortex, Time Rotor, Time vector generator, gravitic anomiliser, Time And Relative Dimension In Space.' It stopped when Sonic and Amy pulled him free. He'd been screaming.
Suddenly, it was all gone again. All he was left with were meaningless words like. 'Time Vortex, Time Rotor, and TARDIS.'
Tails felt his head and rubbed his eyes.
"You okay, buddy?" Sonic asked, Amy checking his pulse.
Tails' fuzzy eyesight fell on the console again. Something clicked. He got up against Amy's instructions, went up to the console and flipped a particular switch. Something engaged and the console came to life. He looked at one panel and saw navigational controls, another he saw engine controls, another communications array.
He understood.
Tails dived under the console, pulled out a rats nest of wires and began tracing wires and plugging them back into the correct places. More of the console came to life.
"Whoa, I knew you'd figure it out eventually." Sonic said.
"Actually, I didn't." Tails said, "I think 'it' told me." He nodded at the console. "It's like it downloaded a lot of information into my brain about how to repair it." Looking at the navigational panel, the knowledge of how to pilot suddenly crystallised in his head. "I think I vaguely know how to fly the machine. I know how to get us home, and it's as easy as pressing one button."
He went over to a switch and pressed it.
Nothing happened. He pressed it again. He recognised this switch as the 'fast return switch' that would return the machine to its previous position. But if the matrix relay was damaged, it wouldn't be logging its flights, so the swith wouldn't work. He explained this to Sonic and Amy.
"So, we navigate our way back." Sonic shrugged like this was no big deal.
"I'm sure the knowledge will crystallise eventually." Tails said more hopeful than certain. He flipped a few more switches and he stood back satisfied. "I've engaged what I think is a self repair system." Tails said. "The machine will pull itself back together in a while."
"Then we can head home?" Amy asked.
"Presumably." Tails said, trying to temper their expectations, just in case. He didn't like to disappoint people.
"Well hey," Sonic said, "While we're here I think I'll explore the place. Be back soon." Without another word and before Tails or Amy could stop him Sonic shot forwards. He was out the doors and over the horizon in the blink of an eye.
"He's going to get lost out there!" Amy worried. Tails wasn't too concerned. Sonic could explore their whole world in a matter of seconds, he'll come across them again at some point.
Tails approached the door and took his first step onto this world with the same ceremony Sonic and Amy had.
"You okay, Tails?" Amy asked.
"It's just that." Tails said, he looked a little giddy, "This is further than we've ever gone before." The then stepped from the box and looked around at the new world.
"Regular paradise huh?" Amy said of the desolate landscape around them. The wisps of cloud in the sky did give the planet a strange beauty to it, but ultimately not to Amy's tastes. She wanted a beach at least.
"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. He looked up into the sky and observed the stars. "Maybe I could pinpoint our exact location. If I knew if any of these stars are the same as ours." 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."
"Yeah, point taken." Tails said. "The guy has a knack for bending machines to his will."
"So, if you don't mind. I'll stay inside and guard this ship." She pulled out her new pipe weapon and hefted it like her piko-piko hammer. "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 his tails and took off into the air.
"How am I supposed to know when you come back?" Amy asked.
"Activate the Scanner!" Tails shouted back.
"Scanner?" Amy shouted
"Third panel, control that looks like a handle." Tails shouted back. "The screen on the wall should activate."
"What do you mean Screen on the wall? There are no walls!" But Tails was out of earshot.
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 scarft 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.
Some of the panels on the walls were starting to turn a bronze colour and in the wall next to the door a window was starting to form and the smooth sheen of a TV screen was starting to pop out. The console was starting to look 'healthier' in Amy's eyes. 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, like crystallising ice, a ceiling was forming.
This was all happening very, very slowly as Amy watched. She 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.
Tails would love it in here.
Amy stood guard at the console in the same way Knuckles would the Master Emerald. She hoped this thing came with an instruction manual because Amy couldn't make heads nor tails of it.
"Help me." Came a voice down a forming corridor. "Help me, please." The voice pleaded. "I feel trapped."
"Hello!" Amy called out down the corridor. "Robotnik is that you?" Amy hefted her pipe like weapon. "If it is, be aware I am armed and dangerous." She gripped the pipe tighter, not out 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 machine.
"You really don't like me, do you."
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: Updated 18/Jan/23 - Heavily edited. Mostly re-wrote it so the TARDIS remains a bit more of a mystery instead of explaining it out right.
