Chris raised an eyebrow. "Sonic?" he questioned, "Just who in the world is 'Sonic'?"
Elise blushed. "He's only the greatest hero you'll ever meet."
Before she could say more, the two heard the sound of a sonic boom, followed by a round of explosions. They made their way to the window to see what the commotion was, but Elise seemed to already have an idea.
"See for yourself!"
The robots barely knew what hit them as a blue flash zipped past them, taking them out with one step. The front line was cleared out in an instant, which immediately set off the red alerts.
"Doctor Thorndyke!" Decoe cried, sitting at a front desk and studying the security panels closely, "The frontal security line has been completely wiped out! Sonic's here! And he's getting closer!"
"Well, don't just sit there whining!" Thorndyke shouted, "Secure lockdown! Initiate all counter hedgehog measurements! Stop him before he gets any further!"
"Right away!" Decoe hit a few buttons and pulled over a microphone. "Units Two and Three! Sector One! Stat!"
Hidden passageways seemed to open everywhere as armies and armies of Egg Pawns had come rushing out and towards the enemy object straight ahead of them.
This was nothing to the blue hedgehog that ran full speed towards them. He simply curled into a flying ball of spikes and plunged into the Badniks, knocking them aside. As he attempted to get further, more and more pawns surrounded him. The more he destroyed, the more came to slow him down, not to mention they kept growing in size as well as numbers. Eventually, there came a huge wall of pawns, with a massive, mace-wielding pawn right in the front, ready to take out the hedgehog with its spiked weapon of doom.
"Leave it to me, Sonic!"
From a rooftop jumped a pink hedgehog, holding high above her head a giant mallet. With one swing, she single-handedly knocked over the giant pawn. She looked over to the blue hedgehog, which was obviously Sonic, and grinned. "I'll handle the rest!"
Sonic winked. "Thanks, Amy!" He blasted off once more, taking out an Egg Pawn while on the way.
"Dr. Thorndyke, sir!" Bocoe cried from another console, "Sonic has broken through the first two units! He's in the center field!"
"Arggh!" the young man grabbed his hair and stomped his foot, "Dummies! Can't any of you rust buckets do anything right?" Charging over, Thorndyke grabbed a mic from the small robot's hands and screamed, "ALL AERIAL UNITS! Sector C! Destroy that hedgehog! MOVE IT!"
Just as Sonic thought he was getting closer, more and more robots seemed to come at him. The Egg Flappers were easy. Sonic only had to jump on their heads to take them down. What was more difficult were the small jet-bots that flew gracefully and attacked fiercely. They had the lasers, the missiles, and the maneuverability to keep Sonic on his toes, and though Sonic could jump high, he couldn't jump high enough, and the jet-bots could easily escape and attack again.
Fortunately for Sonic, he too had air support. From the sky flew a blue bi-plane. The jet-bots were too focused on the hedgehog to notice their new foe. The plane, piloted by a young fox, shot bullets at the bots and was able to take out half the field. The other half, however, peeled away and finally turned their attention to the fox.
"Tails, look out!" cried the second passenger, an even younger chipmunk with black fur. "They're coming after us!"
"Don't worry, Chopper," Tails smirked, targeting the jet-bot in front as they all got close and formed a line, heading straight for the two. "I've got this." He pressed a red switch on the top of the steering handle, and a missile shot from the bottom of the plane's fuselage, striking the front jet-bot head on. The bot's explosion caused damage to the two bots flying alongside, which in turn destroyed them, and so on until all the bots were taken out.
"All clear, Sonic!"
"Way to go, Tails!" Sonic flashed a thumbs-up before charging straight ahead to the main fortress. "Now how about getting me inside?"
"Got it!" Tails unstrapped himself from his seat, "Chopper, time to change places. Think you can handle the Tornado for a moment?"
"I can do it!" Chopper raised his little arms up. Tails carefully climbed to the back seat as Chopper hopped to the front and took over the controls.
"Keep her steady, Chopper," said Tails as he pressed a button on the back of the seat in front of him. The backing flipped over to reveal a console, and Tails typed away.
"Emergency lockdown alert," a mechanic voice droned over the speakers. "Infiltration detected."
"Don't let him inside!" Thorndyke screamed, "Shut down the whole place with every blast door and security lines possible!"
Both Bocoe and Decoe typed furiously away at the systems. Still…
"Level One Security Breech," spoke the voice, "Level Two…"
"What are you idiots doing?" Thorndyke cried, "I said lock the place up, not roll out the welcome mat!"
"We're trying sir!" cried Decoe, "But there's something jamming the system! Some sort of outside source!"
"That blasted fox..!" Thorndyke clenched his fist, "I should have destroyed him when I had the chance! No matter. Sonic's the bigger threat. Release E-5000 Destructo!"
Sonic easily got past all the fun game-like levels with little to no interference, thanks to Tails' hackings. Thorndyke's doors were just ahead. Time to put a spin on things! As he prepared to rev into a spin, the ceiling opened up, and down came yet another massive robot. There were jet packs under his feet, and his hands were in the shape of guns, and he towered over Sonic like Goliath over David. Not to mention he completely blocked the way of Thorndyke's bridge.
"Okay… Not good."
E-5000 Destructo raised its arm, pointing the gun on the end at Sonic, and immediately began firing. Sonic had to race up the walls to avoid getting shot, but even running upside down on the roof proved to be futile. Destructo, just barely as fast as Sonic, jetted into the air and blocked the hedgehog's way, firing even more. Sonic leaped back to the ground and attempted an air kick to the large robot's abdomen.
CLANG. "Oww!"
No good.
Destructo leaned forward and smashed a fist into the ground, attempting to squash Sonic, had he not jumped away in the nick of time. Sonic turned tail and darted the opposite direction, Destructo hot on his heels.
"Sonic, everything okay?"
"Not quite Tails," Sonic responded in the communicator, strapped to his wrist under his glove, "Got this big robot in my way. I'm just in front of Thorndyke's doors, but heading out the other way to try and lose it."
"I've got a visual!" Tails chimed, scanning his infrared sensors, and locking target position. "Okay! Ready Chopper?"
The little chipmunk placed his hand on a level on the side of his seat. "Ready!"
"FIRE!"
Chopper pushed the level forward, and another missile shot from the bottom of the plane, aimed straight for the fortress, specifically right where Sonic was.
It struck the wall, but rather than explode on impact, it merely stayed embedded in the wall, and its top hatch sprung open. Sonic yielded to a halt and snatched the small golden ring that flew out of the top. He then spun on his heels and grinned at the oncoming Destructo as he absorbed the ring's power. Before Destructo could get any closer, Sonic was in high-speed spinning mode and blasted his way at the robot, smashing through it effortlessly, and targeting the front doors straight ahead.
Not even the thick layers of blast doors could keep the souped-up Sonic from breaking through. Before Dr. Thorndyke could react, a blue blur was already in the room, zipping past him and his robotic henchmen, and homed onto the Dimensional Matter Displacer, smashing it to pieces.
"What?" was all Thorndyke was able to cry out by the sudden attack.
Where there was once a dimensional machine now stood a pile of junk, with Sonic in the middle, staring menacingly at the young doctor. "Looks like your plans are foiled, Thorndyke."
Thorndyke clenched his fists. "Sonic! Damn you! If only I had better security."
"Face it," Sonic grinned, "Your robots are no match for me and my friends, no matter how big and tough you make them. You know what they say. The bigger they are, the harder they fall."
"And your talk is rather big itself," sneered Thorndyke, "I still have the Chaos Emerald. With it, I've another chance to take over the world!"
Sonic smirked. "If Eggman couldn't do it, what makes you think you can?"
This boiled Thorndyke's blood. "Eggman chose me to be his successor, and I do NOT intend to let him down!" he growled. "The first thing I'll do is get back at you for destroying him!"
"Eggman destroyed himself, and you know it!" Sonic shouted, "You still have a chance to redeem yourself. You don't have to follow in his footsteps!"
"Heaven forbid someone follows Eggman and not you!" said Thorndyke, "I tried to befriend you, but you wanted nothing with me. Nobody did! Eggman was the only one who took me under his wing. It's only logical I follow the word of the one who cared for me."
"I seriously doubt he did."
"SHUT UP!" Thorndyke shouted, "It's your fault he's gone, and now I've taken his place! Where he fell, I shall pick up the pieces! I will avenge Master Eggman."
Sonic braced himself. "In that case," he said, "Give it your best shot!"
"Ah, tut, tut," Thorndyke smirked and waved a finger, "I will have my revenge, but to quote Shakespeare, it is a dish best served cold."
All around the floor, smoke bombs suddenly went off. Sonic coughed and waved away the smoke from his mouth. He glanced up to see a dome cover the area Thorndyke stood, as well as Bocoe and Decoe, who had set off the escape plan during the conversation, and the three were dropped under the floor. Sonic tried to give chase, but the floor closed up, and Thorndyke was long gone.
The water sprinklers went off from the ceiling, drenching everything, and clearing the smoke. Nothing left but sparking machinery and no chaos emerald. Thorndyke must have tucked it away.
Sonic sighed and jogged off. "Oh well. Better find our little hostage."
"What happened?" Chris peered out the window, "All those explosions stopped!"
"Sonic must have stopped him," Elise smiled, clasping her hands together.
Chris turned back to the princess. "Sonic sure must be some real hero, being able to do all that," he said, "I'd sure like to meet this guy."
BAM!
The cell doors slammed open. Chris and Elise whipped their attention to the threshold, where two hedgehogs stood, one blue, the other pink, holding a hammer.
Chris rubbed his eyes and took another look.
Hedgehogs…?
Wearing clothes?
Standing on two legs?
Multi-colored?
"Wh… what… who… what is THAT?"
"Sonic!" Elise cried, rushing over, falling to her knees, and wrapping her arms tightly around Sonic's neck. "I knew you'd come. I knew you'd save me…"
"GET OFF HIM!"
Elise found herself on the wrong end of a Piko-Piko Hammer slam and into the wall.
"Amy!" Sonic shouted, grabbing at her hammer, "What did I tell you about hitting people with that thing?"
"She was grabbing you inappropriately!"
"You're being ridiculous! You've got to control that jealousy of yours."
"I'm not jealous, I'm just protective of those I love."
Chris just continued staring. They were not only clothes-wearing multi-colored hedgehogs standing on two legs, but they could also talk…
…As well as squabble like children.
"Excuse me?"
Sonic and Amy ceased arguing and glanced over at the boy. Sonic didn't waste a second going into a defensive stance. "Thorndyke!" he sneered, "So I see you changed your mind and came for a second helping of whoop-ass stew!"
Chris stepped back. "What?"
"I'll get him, Sonic!" Amy shouted as she raced at Chris, her hammer held high. "Hiyyeee—"
"No, stop!"
Amy halted in mid-air, the hammer just inches from Chris' head. "Elise?" she said, "What is it? It better be good."
"That's not Thorndyke," said Elise, as she pulled herself from the wall.
Sonic stared at the princess as Amy dropped to the floor. Chris let out a sigh of relief.
"It's… kind of complicated," said Elise, "But it's not Thorndyke. Not the one we know at least."
"Then mind explaining who he is?"
"His name is Chris… He's from another planet, er, zone rather."
Sonic scratched his chin. "Hm, you're right. It is complicated."
"I'm just as confused as you are, Mr. Hedgehog," said Chris, "I just want to go back home."
Sonic eyed the boy suspiciously. "Okay," he said, "Let's meet up with the others first and figure out what to do from there.