SuperSonic Speed- Chapter 20: The Blue and the Grey
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Robotropolis
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Robotnik sat back in his chair monitoring the city. This was particularly hard work as he had to watch around 100 different monitors at the same time. He made a mental note to construct a law enforcement team, as this way, he could focus on other projects.
The evil doctor heard the clunking of robotic footsteps behind him. A SWATbot held a package in his hand for Robotnik to pick up. Using his gigantic feet to move his chair towards the robot, he picked the package out of the robot's hands and waved it away.
Robotnik scanned the reports without much interest. Nothing much was happening in Robotropolis today. There had been a short power outage at one of the smaller factories on the outside of town, but the problem had been quickly resolved. He leaned back in his chair and continued reading the reports with little interest... until he reached the final paper. On it, in large bold letters, it read: CRITICAL ERROR: Unauthorized Mental Activity detected in Mecha Bot 00 at 1320, voltage applied to subject.
Robotnik was a mixture of emotions, he was angry that the robot had been thinking illegal thoughts, but at the same time, marveled at the fact that his neuro chip had worked flawlessly. So, that's why the robot had been sparking and disabled this morning! This chip would serve him well, Robotnik knew it.
He turned back to his monitors, no doubt would he doze off, while Robotropolis was a busy city, it was a boring city at that. All that happened was the production of SWATbots and the operation of computer mainframes. Robotnik grew tired, there was no sunlight in his subterranean bunker to keep him awake. He slowly typed commands into his computer, pausing every few seconds to keep his eyes from instinctively closing. His head felt much bigger than his body (which, in itself was a feat). He let himself fall into infinity.
---
Flying Battery- 10 minutes later
---
The jump had been successful, as the foursome was now inside the Flying Battery. The entire room was a dull, depressing metallic grey. It was rather large, about 15 feet tall and 200 feet wide with boxes large and small scattered about. The room obviously served as a cargo storage, a large storage at that. Knuckles wondered what was in the boxes.
"Awfully strange to have as much cargo as this place has." Knuckles thought aloud.
"This ain't the only cargo hold on this baby either, I guarantee it. Robotnik wouldn't be so stupid as to place his cargo so tightly together where a single C4 could wipe 'er out," Juke commented dully.
"So what's in there?" Tails asked.
Sonic added, "Probably enough food supply for that guy for a single day," He gave a light chuckle.
"Pfft, I wish. Naw, what we're dealing with here is much, much bigger. We're talking not only spare parts and microchips for robots, we're talking weapons, tons and tons of 'em." Juke corrected.
"That's bad, real bad. Well, we SHOULD take some of them I suppose."
"No Sonic, absolutely not. Not only are we not trained in the use of these weapons, what better way to give ourselves up, say a SWATbot comes down here and finds his package has been tempered with, dead."
"But what was that gun you had? Wasn't it Robotnik's?" Tails asked.
"Heck yeah, kid," Juke started, "But what I mean by weapons, I don't mean tiny little pistols like that. I'm talking the much bigger weapons. I'm talking about your sub-machine guns, machine guns, and worst case scenario is bombs, really big bombs."
"And he could..." Knuckles started.
"He TOTALLY could, heck, he could wipe Metropolis so clean, it'd look like one of the moon's craters. And that's where your plan comes into play, Knuckles. It's crazy, it's dangerous, and it's definately gonna involve pain in one form or another, but it'll save any city he thinks he's gonna use it on."
Sonic looked at his bloodstained gloves and his bandaged side. "Pfft," He thought, "Like I'm not in enough pain already." The blue hedgehog looked around and saw a gigantic map on the wall. "Look guys!" He was staring at the largest map he had ever seen. They were on the very east end of the vessel, the only thing behind them were the engines. In the center of the map was a large, spherical room, much larger than the room they were in now, the name of it marked out, so that no one would see it. Directly above it was the control room.
"Okay guys, that's our target," Knuckles pointed to the map's control room.
"Now, here's the thing," The Lieutenant began, "We will be marching across this hallway 2b, be VERY careful to pick up your feet 1-2 1-2, any non-metallic footsteps WILL be reported to the top dog around here, so be wary of that. Now let's move out!"
But they were too late.
---
Flying Battery Control Room
---
"How entertaining," The Lieutenant thought aloud, "Our little scumbag friends thought they could get on board through the cargo hold."
Through the auto-pilot controls, Shady began to talk in a voice that would enter the bots mind as a command. "Mecha Bot 01, you are to immediately report to room 3D." The Lieutenant issued several other top-priority commands to the bot before turning off the comm system.
So, his friends wanted to play war, he'd play war... and make sure he won too. That traiterous scum and her friends wouldn't win on HIS ship in HIS room on HIS time, no way in heck.
---
Back with Sonic
---
They walked down a long hallway that served as the transitional hall between the cargo hold and the spherical room. Beyond the spherical room was the control room, and most likely the ship's controls. 1-2, 1-2 their feet softly tapped against the floor. Two by two they swept the room and neared the exit door.
"Well guys," Knuckles breathed deeply, "This is it." They stood outside the door, which was basically made up of black bars.
Sonic eyed the entrance suspiciously, "Wait Knuckles..."
"What?" The Lieutenant asked, drawing her pistol.
"Something's really wrong with this... I don't feel right... I'm going in first..."
"No you're not Sonic! Knuckles exclaimed, but it was too late, Sonic pulled out and put on his metal gloves and ran through the automatic doors too fast for the rest of the group too react.
But as soon as Sonic went through, the bars slammed down and Sonic skid too a halt.
"Crap!" Sonic yelled. He was stuck in a spherical room with no way out. Suddenly, a blue hedgehog with black streaks, that looked sort of like him came down from the top in a glass cage with a hole. Sonic recognized the hedgehog from the recon computer's screen.
"Do you know who I am, Sonic Hedgehog?" The voice jeered.
Sonic knew the voice at once, he had heard it only once before, but the voice, thick with evil he couldn't possibly have forgotten. He bitterly muttered "Uncle Shady."
"LIEUTENANT," Shady snapped.
And that was the last straw for Sonic, "You! I HATE YOU! YOU TORTURED MY FRIEND, YOU NO DOUBT HELPED KILL MY MOM!!! YOU'RE FRICKING EVIL! JUST LIKE MY MOM SAID! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" Sonic charged at the glass, but rebounded off of it and was slammed to the floor with a sickening thud.
"Ooh, touchy, touchy. Here, battle my friend instead."
The cage Shady was in began to rise. A dark metallic grey hedgehog stood in the distance, it's eyes glowing a murderous crimson. Sonic recognized this robot, as the robot that had beat him up mercilessly. He winced as he felt his bandaged side, danged claws, those could do some real damage if they were to be stuck anywhere else...
Sonic noticed a difference in the prototype this time though. This robot was working through itself, it was functioning as a real robot and not one of Shady's remote control toys.
It's claws bared, the robotic hedgehog charged towards Sonic. Sonic had little time to react as the robot flew toward him. It was fast, equally as fast as Sonic, Sonic had no choice, he turned tail and ran. He found himself running up the sphere, defying gravity as he forced himself to run as fast as he could, quickly realizing, however, that it was pointless, there was no exit door.
The prototype of Project S.I.L.V.E.R was furiously catching up. The two were neck-and-neck. Sonic's mind raced as fast as his legs; this was NOT good. He raced up and around the loop again, not feeling the usual sickness anyone else pulling this stunt would. And suddenly, as the organic hedgehog was coming down it happened... The Silver prototype kicked out with his right foot and kicked Sonic in his (more like WAS) uninjured side, causing Sonic to lose his balance and roll roughly to the sphere's floor, bouncing along the way.
Sonic grunted with each painful collision and gave a louder, final grunt as he hit the bottom of the sphere. Great, now BOTH of his sides ached terribly. However, he had no time to worry about his side because the prototype leaped from where he was and descended in a sharp dive, claws first. Sonic quickly rolled to the side as the robot's claws punctured the floor for what should have been a quick and fatal blow to Sonic's head. The miserable blue hedgehog quickly ascended to his feet and ran around the roceovering robot's backside, swiftly punching the prototype in its back. The robot was knocked slightly off balance. Sonic took this time advantage to get a good, solid hit into the robot's head. The prototype, however, got up and knocked Sonic in the stomach, throwing him back several feet.
---
Outside the spherical room
---
Knuckles helplessly watched inside as Sonic was pummeled by the robot, he was hit in his right side, and then in his stomach, he was then kicked in the thigh.
"Oh god, he's getting killed out there!" Knuckles softly commented.
"You know there ain't nothin' I can do, this blaster won't penetrate that super steel on those bars." Juke whispered. She had her back to Knuckles and was crouched in a catcher positionusing her pistols scope to it's full advantage. Any robots deciding to walk down the hallway had better have said it's prayers in the last hallway.
Tails had his eyes covered, he couldn't bother watching his friend lay there hurt.
---
Room 3D
---
Sonic lay there clutching his left side with an all too evident grimace on his face. Dang it, he had failed. Why the heck had he just ran into the room without thinking? Knuckles was right and dang it all, his impulsiveness was sooner or later going to get him killed.
The organic hedgehog shut his eyes, no use in witnessing his own death, just the feeling of his skin being punctured, the immense pain, and then... nothing, just nothing... But there came no pain, in fact, it felt as if he were being dragged by heavy arms. "I must be ascending to heaven..." His pained mind thought, and as the movement stopped, Sonic opened his eyes to see the prototype laying a couple feet away on the ground convulsing and sparking.
"The heck?" Sonic thought. He walked over and kicked the robot several times, careful not to hurt his feet. Satisfied by the prototype's dimly glowing eyes shutting off, he was surprised to look ahead and see an opening... was this a door? Upon closer inspection, the door revealed a lift, obviously made as the only way to the control room, The blue hedgehog stepped in and ascended.
---
Flying Battery Control Room
---
Shady ran for it. More illegal thoughts, shady wondered what the heck was going on with the bots subject, but as he bolted for the emergency escape ships, he remembered that he must take the robot with him. Darn. He descended on the lift to hallway 1C, the western entrance to room 3D, he would pick up the robot, head backward from there, and into an escape ship, the lift landed with a "ding!" and he ran from there, thank god for his inherited runnig speed.
---
2 minutes later, Flying Battery Control room
---
The first thing Sonic did was release the bars so Knuckles and the rest of the team could come in, then when the echidna reached the room, Sonic let him take over the controls.
"Okay, we are executing this plan, there is no turning back. Juke and Tails, go to the escape ship bay, Sonic, stay with me and you know what to do as a last ditch resort. Counting down... 3...2...1...GO! GO! GO!!!"
Juke and Tails ran off, the Lieutenant knew the general direction of the escape ships, and Sonic could locate it on the map. Knuckles checked and double-checked his current position: About 5 miles from the mobian ocean and 100 miles from the Floating Island.
Slowly, deliberately, Knuckles turned off the auto-pilot and lightly pushed in the flight yoke, starting a slow descent.
---
Escape Boat
---
"Commander, this is Lieutenant Shady, FLYING BATTERY HAS BEEN COMPRIMISED, I REPEAT, FLYING BATTERY HAS BEEN COMPRISED." Shady yelled into his microphone over the dull roar of the escape ship's engines.
"Lieutenant, what's your status? Where is your destination?"
"Robotropolis, sir."
"I don't like the incoming report I'm getting here Lieutenant. This prototype is thinking illegal thoughts and you had BEST stop it Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir, I understand, sir. Lieutenant Shady, over and out."
---
Sonic, ignoring the immense pain in both of his sides, grabbed Knuckles' arms and ran him to the escape ship bay where Juke was sitting with Tails in the biggest ship.
"Ready to deploy Knuckles." She said, making final checks on all the guages. Knuckles hopped over the edge and in with ease. Sonic wasn't so lucky. He painfully, put one leg over, and groaning with pain, pulled himself over and in.
"Sonic, are you alright?" Knuckles asked, concern on his face.
"No, not really..." Sonic replied, not bothering to try and mask the pain.
"Juke, put the dome up."
And suddenly, the outdoors became indoors. Sonic found his way to the single bed on the tiny escape ship and laid down on it carefully. He hurt terribly from his head down to his legs. He had taken one heck of a beating in the last few hours, and it was beginning to show. As the sun set in the sky of the Western Mobius continent, he heard a loud crash which he knew to be the Flying Battery crashing to its death. Sonic shut his eyes, he finally, well, for the moment anyways, would be safe. He let himself fall asleep, he deserved it, sweet victory was his.
[End of Part 1]
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Robotropolis
---
Robotnik sat back in his chair monitoring the city. This was particularly hard work as he had to watch around 100 different monitors at the same time. He made a mental note to construct a law enforcement team, as this way, he could focus on other projects.
The evil doctor heard the clunking of robotic footsteps behind him. A SWATbot held a package in his hand for Robotnik to pick up. Using his gigantic feet to move his chair towards the robot, he picked the package out of the robot's hands and waved it away.
Robotnik scanned the reports without much interest. Nothing much was happening in Robotropolis today. There had been a short power outage at one of the smaller factories on the outside of town, but the problem had been quickly resolved. He leaned back in his chair and continued reading the reports with little interest... until he reached the final paper. On it, in large bold letters, it read: CRITICAL ERROR: Unauthorized Mental Activity detected in Mecha Bot 00 at 1320, voltage applied to subject.
Robotnik was a mixture of emotions, he was angry that the robot had been thinking illegal thoughts, but at the same time, marveled at the fact that his neuro chip had worked flawlessly. So, that's why the robot had been sparking and disabled this morning! This chip would serve him well, Robotnik knew it.
He turned back to his monitors, no doubt would he doze off, while Robotropolis was a busy city, it was a boring city at that. All that happened was the production of SWATbots and the operation of computer mainframes. Robotnik grew tired, there was no sunlight in his subterranean bunker to keep him awake. He slowly typed commands into his computer, pausing every few seconds to keep his eyes from instinctively closing. His head felt much bigger than his body (which, in itself was a feat). He let himself fall into infinity.
---
Flying Battery- 10 minutes later
---
The jump had been successful, as the foursome was now inside the Flying Battery. The entire room was a dull, depressing metallic grey. It was rather large, about 15 feet tall and 200 feet wide with boxes large and small scattered about. The room obviously served as a cargo storage, a large storage at that. Knuckles wondered what was in the boxes.
"Awfully strange to have as much cargo as this place has." Knuckles thought aloud.
"This ain't the only cargo hold on this baby either, I guarantee it. Robotnik wouldn't be so stupid as to place his cargo so tightly together where a single C4 could wipe 'er out," Juke commented dully.
"So what's in there?" Tails asked.
Sonic added, "Probably enough food supply for that guy for a single day," He gave a light chuckle.
"Pfft, I wish. Naw, what we're dealing with here is much, much bigger. We're talking not only spare parts and microchips for robots, we're talking weapons, tons and tons of 'em." Juke corrected.
"That's bad, real bad. Well, we SHOULD take some of them I suppose."
"No Sonic, absolutely not. Not only are we not trained in the use of these weapons, what better way to give ourselves up, say a SWATbot comes down here and finds his package has been tempered with, dead."
"But what was that gun you had? Wasn't it Robotnik's?" Tails asked.
"Heck yeah, kid," Juke started, "But what I mean by weapons, I don't mean tiny little pistols like that. I'm talking the much bigger weapons. I'm talking about your sub-machine guns, machine guns, and worst case scenario is bombs, really big bombs."
"And he could..." Knuckles started.
"He TOTALLY could, heck, he could wipe Metropolis so clean, it'd look like one of the moon's craters. And that's where your plan comes into play, Knuckles. It's crazy, it's dangerous, and it's definately gonna involve pain in one form or another, but it'll save any city he thinks he's gonna use it on."
Sonic looked at his bloodstained gloves and his bandaged side. "Pfft," He thought, "Like I'm not in enough pain already." The blue hedgehog looked around and saw a gigantic map on the wall. "Look guys!" He was staring at the largest map he had ever seen. They were on the very east end of the vessel, the only thing behind them were the engines. In the center of the map was a large, spherical room, much larger than the room they were in now, the name of it marked out, so that no one would see it. Directly above it was the control room.
"Okay guys, that's our target," Knuckles pointed to the map's control room.
"Now, here's the thing," The Lieutenant began, "We will be marching across this hallway 2b, be VERY careful to pick up your feet 1-2 1-2, any non-metallic footsteps WILL be reported to the top dog around here, so be wary of that. Now let's move out!"
But they were too late.
---
Flying Battery Control Room
---
"How entertaining," The Lieutenant thought aloud, "Our little scumbag friends thought they could get on board through the cargo hold."
Through the auto-pilot controls, Shady began to talk in a voice that would enter the bots mind as a command. "Mecha Bot 01, you are to immediately report to room 3D." The Lieutenant issued several other top-priority commands to the bot before turning off the comm system.
So, his friends wanted to play war, he'd play war... and make sure he won too. That traiterous scum and her friends wouldn't win on HIS ship in HIS room on HIS time, no way in heck.
---
Back with Sonic
---
They walked down a long hallway that served as the transitional hall between the cargo hold and the spherical room. Beyond the spherical room was the control room, and most likely the ship's controls. 1-2, 1-2 their feet softly tapped against the floor. Two by two they swept the room and neared the exit door.
"Well guys," Knuckles breathed deeply, "This is it." They stood outside the door, which was basically made up of black bars.
Sonic eyed the entrance suspiciously, "Wait Knuckles..."
"What?" The Lieutenant asked, drawing her pistol.
"Something's really wrong with this... I don't feel right... I'm going in first..."
"No you're not Sonic! Knuckles exclaimed, but it was too late, Sonic pulled out and put on his metal gloves and ran through the automatic doors too fast for the rest of the group too react.
But as soon as Sonic went through, the bars slammed down and Sonic skid too a halt.
"Crap!" Sonic yelled. He was stuck in a spherical room with no way out. Suddenly, a blue hedgehog with black streaks, that looked sort of like him came down from the top in a glass cage with a hole. Sonic recognized the hedgehog from the recon computer's screen.
"Do you know who I am, Sonic Hedgehog?" The voice jeered.
Sonic knew the voice at once, he had heard it only once before, but the voice, thick with evil he couldn't possibly have forgotten. He bitterly muttered "Uncle Shady."
"LIEUTENANT," Shady snapped.
And that was the last straw for Sonic, "You! I HATE YOU! YOU TORTURED MY FRIEND, YOU NO DOUBT HELPED KILL MY MOM!!! YOU'RE FRICKING EVIL! JUST LIKE MY MOM SAID! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" Sonic charged at the glass, but rebounded off of it and was slammed to the floor with a sickening thud.
"Ooh, touchy, touchy. Here, battle my friend instead."
The cage Shady was in began to rise. A dark metallic grey hedgehog stood in the distance, it's eyes glowing a murderous crimson. Sonic recognized this robot, as the robot that had beat him up mercilessly. He winced as he felt his bandaged side, danged claws, those could do some real damage if they were to be stuck anywhere else...
Sonic noticed a difference in the prototype this time though. This robot was working through itself, it was functioning as a real robot and not one of Shady's remote control toys.
It's claws bared, the robotic hedgehog charged towards Sonic. Sonic had little time to react as the robot flew toward him. It was fast, equally as fast as Sonic, Sonic had no choice, he turned tail and ran. He found himself running up the sphere, defying gravity as he forced himself to run as fast as he could, quickly realizing, however, that it was pointless, there was no exit door.
The prototype of Project S.I.L.V.E.R was furiously catching up. The two were neck-and-neck. Sonic's mind raced as fast as his legs; this was NOT good. He raced up and around the loop again, not feeling the usual sickness anyone else pulling this stunt would. And suddenly, as the organic hedgehog was coming down it happened... The Silver prototype kicked out with his right foot and kicked Sonic in his (more like WAS) uninjured side, causing Sonic to lose his balance and roll roughly to the sphere's floor, bouncing along the way.
Sonic grunted with each painful collision and gave a louder, final grunt as he hit the bottom of the sphere. Great, now BOTH of his sides ached terribly. However, he had no time to worry about his side because the prototype leaped from where he was and descended in a sharp dive, claws first. Sonic quickly rolled to the side as the robot's claws punctured the floor for what should have been a quick and fatal blow to Sonic's head. The miserable blue hedgehog quickly ascended to his feet and ran around the roceovering robot's backside, swiftly punching the prototype in its back. The robot was knocked slightly off balance. Sonic took this time advantage to get a good, solid hit into the robot's head. The prototype, however, got up and knocked Sonic in the stomach, throwing him back several feet.
---
Outside the spherical room
---
Knuckles helplessly watched inside as Sonic was pummeled by the robot, he was hit in his right side, and then in his stomach, he was then kicked in the thigh.
"Oh god, he's getting killed out there!" Knuckles softly commented.
"You know there ain't nothin' I can do, this blaster won't penetrate that super steel on those bars." Juke whispered. She had her back to Knuckles and was crouched in a catcher positionusing her pistols scope to it's full advantage. Any robots deciding to walk down the hallway had better have said it's prayers in the last hallway.
Tails had his eyes covered, he couldn't bother watching his friend lay there hurt.
---
Room 3D
---
Sonic lay there clutching his left side with an all too evident grimace on his face. Dang it, he had failed. Why the heck had he just ran into the room without thinking? Knuckles was right and dang it all, his impulsiveness was sooner or later going to get him killed.
The organic hedgehog shut his eyes, no use in witnessing his own death, just the feeling of his skin being punctured, the immense pain, and then... nothing, just nothing... But there came no pain, in fact, it felt as if he were being dragged by heavy arms. "I must be ascending to heaven..." His pained mind thought, and as the movement stopped, Sonic opened his eyes to see the prototype laying a couple feet away on the ground convulsing and sparking.
"The heck?" Sonic thought. He walked over and kicked the robot several times, careful not to hurt his feet. Satisfied by the prototype's dimly glowing eyes shutting off, he was surprised to look ahead and see an opening... was this a door? Upon closer inspection, the door revealed a lift, obviously made as the only way to the control room, The blue hedgehog stepped in and ascended.
---
Flying Battery Control Room
---
Shady ran for it. More illegal thoughts, shady wondered what the heck was going on with the bots subject, but as he bolted for the emergency escape ships, he remembered that he must take the robot with him. Darn. He descended on the lift to hallway 1C, the western entrance to room 3D, he would pick up the robot, head backward from there, and into an escape ship, the lift landed with a "ding!" and he ran from there, thank god for his inherited runnig speed.
---
2 minutes later, Flying Battery Control room
---
The first thing Sonic did was release the bars so Knuckles and the rest of the team could come in, then when the echidna reached the room, Sonic let him take over the controls.
"Okay, we are executing this plan, there is no turning back. Juke and Tails, go to the escape ship bay, Sonic, stay with me and you know what to do as a last ditch resort. Counting down... 3...2...1...GO! GO! GO!!!"
Juke and Tails ran off, the Lieutenant knew the general direction of the escape ships, and Sonic could locate it on the map. Knuckles checked and double-checked his current position: About 5 miles from the mobian ocean and 100 miles from the Floating Island.
Slowly, deliberately, Knuckles turned off the auto-pilot and lightly pushed in the flight yoke, starting a slow descent.
---
Escape Boat
---
"Commander, this is Lieutenant Shady, FLYING BATTERY HAS BEEN COMPRIMISED, I REPEAT, FLYING BATTERY HAS BEEN COMPRISED." Shady yelled into his microphone over the dull roar of the escape ship's engines.
"Lieutenant, what's your status? Where is your destination?"
"Robotropolis, sir."
"I don't like the incoming report I'm getting here Lieutenant. This prototype is thinking illegal thoughts and you had BEST stop it Lieutenant."
"Yes, sir, I understand, sir. Lieutenant Shady, over and out."
---
Sonic, ignoring the immense pain in both of his sides, grabbed Knuckles' arms and ran him to the escape ship bay where Juke was sitting with Tails in the biggest ship.
"Ready to deploy Knuckles." She said, making final checks on all the guages. Knuckles hopped over the edge and in with ease. Sonic wasn't so lucky. He painfully, put one leg over, and groaning with pain, pulled himself over and in.
"Sonic, are you alright?" Knuckles asked, concern on his face.
"No, not really..." Sonic replied, not bothering to try and mask the pain.
"Juke, put the dome up."
And suddenly, the outdoors became indoors. Sonic found his way to the single bed on the tiny escape ship and laid down on it carefully. He hurt terribly from his head down to his legs. He had taken one heck of a beating in the last few hours, and it was beginning to show. As the sun set in the sky of the Western Mobius continent, he heard a loud crash which he knew to be the Flying Battery crashing to its death. Sonic shut his eyes, he finally, well, for the moment anyways, would be safe. He let himself fall asleep, he deserved it, sweet victory was his.
[End of Part 1]