Sonic 25
Authors note:
I am sure you may ask questions about this series but I assure you I will answer them in a Q and A bonus I plan to make.
I also have plans for character profiles which will appear after each "Level" almost like the ending score or the bonus levels from the games.
You can see right away what parts of the Sonic verse I am pulling from but I plan on keeping it that way.
And don't worry if your favorite characters ore Badniks has not appeared yet they will and I will go over that in the Q and A as well.
With that said lets start with Act 2:
Level 1: The Green Hill incident
Act 2: The story of the Mystics
Sonic was having a dream, a very bad dream.
Visions of what happened the previous day filled his nightmares.
He saw his uncle become a robot again and behind him the laughing face of Robotnik.
He then dreamed he was elsewhere and a female Hedgehogs face appeared before him one he had not seen in a while.
"Mom!" he cried in his dream
He saw her bring him to his Uncle on a small rowboat
"Please be a good boy for your Uncle Chuck Maurice!"
"Mom don't go!"
She faded as he saw something, a wave of water.
It came around him and he was carried away by it, he began dipping under the water and... he saw something else, a figure he did not know.
An orange female echidna dressed in some sort of old priestess garb.
She seemed to be sleeping here, whoever she was.
"So you are one of the blessed by the power of the Sol, we knew this day would come"
"Who are you?" asked Sonic wondering what this was about, the voice sounded familiar somehow but he could not place why.
"The question is who are you. Are you Maurice Hedgehog or is it Sonic now?"
"What do you mean, my real name is Maurice right?"
"Are you sure, or were you always destined to change your name and change your fate?"
"Is that the only thing you do is ask questions?" Sonic was a little annoyed by now "and what do you mean by all that?"
"Seems like I am not the only one asking questions" the echidna spoke "you are quite an interesting being"
"Just who are you anyway?" Sonic asked
"My name is Tikal, or at least it used to be… its hard to tell"
He then came out of the water as dream went blank...
Sonic woke from his sleep in shock
"What in the world was that?" Sonic asked, now awoken fully he put on his shoes and walked out of his room.
He went up the hallway and saw someone, it was Amy with a smile on here face.
"You are up early, daylight is only just a few minutes away."
"Oh great its you again" Sonic sighed
"Yes me again, by the way didn't you see your shoes recently?"
"Huh, what kind of question is that?"
"Because your shoes are falling apart"
Sonic looked down at his feet and he could not help but to see one of his blue toes peering out of a hole.
"Must have been from yesterday"
"The chaos power, it has odd effects. That's why I use my special hammer."
"I see" Sonic sighed
He looked down at his shoes once more in sadness, just the other day a still relatively new pair of bright red and white converse type shoes.
They were just fine for the slow walking Sonic did when he was still Maurice but they were not for running especially at the kinds of speeds he was now able to run.
"You seem sad now" said Amy "let me guess they were a gift from your uncle"
"Why do you care?" Sonic groaned
"Hey I am not that insensitive, besides these are my off hours. Look give them to me and I will fix them good as new."
"You can fix shoes?" Sonic inquired
"In a way yes, come there is something I want to show you."
Sonic nodded and followed her to the elevator
"We are not going underwater again are we?"
"Yes but don't worry its safe."
"If you say so" said Sonic with a sigh.
The two went down in the elevator and this time instead of the tunnel they went earlier they went the other direction which lead to a large cave.
"These are the mystic caves, at least one of the mystic caves."
"There are more like this?" Sonic asked
"All over the world, they were made by the ancient mystics."
"Never heard of them"
"You did badly in school didn't you?" Amy sighed "the mystics are an old race of Mobia, they had a vast empire spanning the planet creating what they thought was the era of eternal peace."
"Let me guess tit didn't last"
Amy nodded "war broke out as soon as the emeralds were discovered. Between the mystics, the Babylons and the humans."
"The Babylons?"
Amy sighed "a rival to the Mystics, anyhow together they had a huge war which nearly killed our world."
"Who first discovered the Emeralds?" Sonic asked
"We think it was the Mystics, they called the emeralds the Sol"
Sonic stared at Amy "that name it appeared in a dream of mine"
"The one with Tikal no doubt"
"You had the dream too didn't you?" Sonic inquired
Amy sighed "not a dream, a vision. Of a lost era and of a lost people. These caves are the only thing remaining of them really except for a ruin or two. Then there are the rings and the emeralds"
She then walked farther into the cave and below her a large body of water stood.
Sonic was taken aback as she seemed to walk right on it.
"This water is over a thousand feet deep" Amy stated "I tested it but I don't seem to be able to sink into it"
"But how"
"Because of Chaos energy, it once ran in here. And there is one other thing that comes from here"
The pool began to glow as something emerged from it, a small golden ring.
"Every day just around daybreak these rings appear, plus the pool seems to recharge old rings"
She dropped the rings she had into the pool, they were gray but as soon as they touched the water they became gold again.
"This is why we call the old ones the mystics, we have no idea how they do it but its here"
"This is amazing" said Sonic "but how does this relate to my shoes?"
"I was getting to that" said Amy "take off your shoes and socks"
Sonic didn't know why she was asking this but since he just saw a magic ring pop out of a thousand foot pool that somehow she was standing on Sonic figured this was worth a shot.
He gave them to her as she laughed "and I thought you had blob feet without toes because you wore your shoes so much" as she looked at his bare feet.
She then dropped the shoes and socks into the pool and they fell into it.
Soon the pool glowed once more than a fresh pair of socks and shoes came out of the pool.
Amy handed him the shoes and socks, Sonic stared at the shoes as they did not look anything like his old ones.
No they were now running shoes and well built ones with a gold buckle on them.
"You will find they are dry" said Amy "chaos energy at its finest"
"But if it can do this it can do anything right?"
"" the mystics had power but not without limitations, the era of great chaos proved that thus why we call the Sol these days the chaos emeralds."
"Funny something so wonderful can bring such sadness" Sonic remarked
"Very poetic, didn't know you had it in you"
"There isn't much I know of you either"
"Too true, anyhow come we have to go upstairs Sally is probably awake now and I like to be early for her"
Sonic nodded wondering why now this Amy Rose was being nice.
The two came to the command center, a large room in the center of Knothole base
There Sally stood with a tablet computer in her hand.
"Hello you two good morning" Sally said pleasantly "Its briefing time"
The two stood before as Sally said "Nicole please give me up the North island file"
"Yes Sally" said an electronic voice
"Who is Nicole?" Sonic asked
"A supercomputer" said Amy "don't worry its on our side"
Before them soon came the image of North Island with a date blow it reading "North Island 10 years ago"
Sally spoke "this is North Island, population nearly 20000 inhabitants, at headcount we would say there were 19906 people in total. Both humans and Mobia lived there in peaceful communities"
Another photo came up, this one said "North Island, day one of Robotnik"
Sonic immediately saw the difference between the photos, the one before looked very tropical with a few villages about but now there was a large factory consuming the east end of the island.
"That factory used to be a town called Summit reach" Sally said "he began his invasion there."
Another photo came up, about half the island was consumed by factories now and it said "North Island, day five of Robotnik."
"Only five days in and half of the Island is enslaved" Sally stated "within a week the island looked like this"
Another photo came up and the whole island was now a massive set of factories.
"Robotnik won't be that fast here as South island is bigger but it will fall within at least two weeks"
"We can't let that happen" said Sonic "we have to do something"
"Indeed but it may be too late for our island, it may be bigger but our population is smaller." Said Amy
"This is why the army isn't faring so good" Sally said with a sigh "but there is hope… the six emeralds we know where most of them are now"
Sonic was surprised "You do?"
"Well not exactly where but we have some last known locations"
A world map came up and there were at least five energy readings on it.
"We know two emeralds are here on this Island, three are on West Island makes five, only one of the six known emeralds is missing so far"
"When do we go to West Island?" Sonic asked
"In a few days, we have to help a few places on this island before we go, I want to save as many as we can on this island before we move on."
A Map pulled up showing six locations appeared
The town of Green Hill was highlighted in gray but the others were highlighted in blue.
"Green Hill has fallen that leaves Marble Town, Spring Yard and the largest town we have Starlight city. The other two Locations are the Labyrinth and the outer reaches and that is currently being turned into some sort of large factory for Robotnik."
"He is invading both ends of the Island at once" Said Amy
"The safest place to go is the Labyrinth, but it's a little tricky to get inside it." Sally stated "that labyrinth was built by the Mystics as a base for their war long ago so if they used it so can we"
"So what do we do now then?" Sonic asked
"Right now we must go to the outskirts of Green Hill" Said Sally "my sources say that some refugees are hiding near the outskirts of the town in the forests. We can't have them there so we must get them"
"How many people can this base take?"
Sally sighed "that's the problem, we have the other refugees in the barracks right now but we can't take everyone, there are other shelters nearby but we have to fight for them."
Another map of South island appeared showing locations around the former town of Green Hill
"There are two forests near Green Hill, Knothole forest which is above us"
"Thus, the name of this base" said Amy
"There is the leaf forest which we are going to" Said Sally "this time I am coming along as I want to see the enemy first hand."
"But your majesty I can't allow that" Said Amy "what if you are roboticized?"
"I don't care, if my people suffer I suffer. I may be of noble blood but its still the same as yours in the end." Sally then pulled out a small laser pistol from her jacket "besides I got this, its good against robots."
"But you don't have chaos power do you?" Sonic asked
"Wish I did but no" Sally chimed "but I can keep up trust me I am not as weak as I look, now come we got some work ahead of us."
The three headed to the elevator and soon outside, Amy and Sonic grabbed a few of the power rings and they put them in Sonics satchel.
"I will carry that" said Sally
Sonic nodded and soon the three made their way outside
Sonic looked around, this was not the same location they went out of the day before as he noticed that the area was different.
"Did we go through another tunnel?" Sonic asked
"No it's the same one" said Sally "that underwater tunnel is Mystic technology."
"" amazing, how many places it can go?"
"Almost anywhere on the island" said Amy
Sally pulled out a tablet computer from here vest and said "Nicole any information on the location of the refugees?"
"Yes Sally there are several ahead but they seem to be under attack, I detect Robotniks forces."
"Thanks Nicole" said Sally as she put the tablet back in her vest
"Well lets do this then" said Amy
The other two nodded as they all rushed ahead.
Sonic and Amy almost ran at the same speeds and even though Sally was a bit behind shew was pretty quick herself.
They saw in the distance at least 10 Mobia under attack, Sonic and Amy ran forward to help save them.
Sonic jumped up and smashed a Motobug and Amy smashed one with her hammer.
Sonic got a few more in performing some sort of spinning dash, he was of course improvising as he didn't have the sort of fighting ability Amy did.
"Look out above us!" said Sally as she fired her pistol at some roboticization pods "they are sending in air support!"
Several Buzzbombers came down and then from the sides several crablike robots came on.
"Crabmeats!" Amy cried "look out they can shoot fireballs from their claws!"
Sonic nodded as he dealt with them, the other two fought off the Buzzbombers as more robots came out.
There were now over two dozen robots around them ranging from Caterkillers to Buzzbombers to Motobugs and Crabmeats
"The party is all here" said Amy "how is that pistol holding out Sally?"
"I got some power packs in my jacket I will be fine, this pistol has enough shots left right now don't worry about me" Sally said
"Lets beat this lot and clear a path for the other refugees" Said Sonic
"Good idea, didn't know you had it in you" said Amy
"Hey can you stop that, I was beginning to start liking you" Sonic replied
"Sorry" said Amy "come on back to work!"
The three started to fight, taking down each robot one at a time. Even outnumbered they seemed to do quite well, as they cleared the path more refugees came out of hiding seeing the heroes do so well.
"How many refugees are out here?" Sally asked Nicole
"I detect at least twelve more near Green Hill."
"Very well" said Sally "Sonic get these refugees to the tunnel Amy and I will go find the others"
"But am I not better suited for that?" asked Amy
"Sonic is faster so he can meet up with us" said Sally "it's okay he will do fine on his own I am sure"
"I won't fail you" said Sonic
Sally nodded as Sonic waved his hand at the refugees "follow me everyone!"
The refugees all gathered, Sonic started to run but kept his speeds low so that the others could catch up.
Before him some robots appeared so Sonic did his spin attack.
As Sonic fought it was almost like he did this sort of thing before, he guessed that the emerald did something else to him so he could fight.
Sonic seemed like a natural at this, as he smashed apart the robots it felt so liberating.
Maurice could never do this, the emerald had given Maurice this new life.
But Maurice now Sonic did have the feeling of sadness for his Uncle, fighting like this seemed to make it go away.
After destroying a few more robots Sonic finally was able to get the refugees to the tunnel, he then felt something however…
A vision appeared of Tikal before him
"Your friends are in danger" she said
Sonic could feel it, he actually thought about Amy now and felt her fighting herself.
"I'm coming" he said as he tried to run back but all this running did drain him of chaos energy
"Oh drat" he cried, he also noticed some of his quills were going brown again
Amy and Sally were in quite a fix, a few roboticizer pods and loads of robots were around them.
"How is your ammo now Sally?" asked Amy
"Getting low" said Sally "is your power fading?"
"A little" said Amy, she threw her hammer at a nearby robot but it didn't come back.
"I will give you a ring" Sally said
"Thanks but without my hammer I am not any good, I may be super strong but these robots can seriously hurt me."
"I understand and I won't have much time to reload my pistol."
"For what its worth your Majesty I am proud of you, your abilities with a laser pistol are amazing"
"I just wonder what happened to Sonic"
"I'm right here!" cried Sonic, he was almost brown again but still willing to fight "sorry I began to lose my powers, give me a ring!"
"You got it!" Sally cried
Sonic caught it and his fur became blue one more
"Get your hammer Amy and we will send these bots to the scrapheap!" he shouted
Amy nodded, her fur was becoming gray again as she dashed to get her hammer as Sonic cleared a path for her.
The two fought off the robots as Sally put another power pack in her pistol and the three once more stood triumphant.
They quickly got the rest of the refugees back to the base but Sally turned around back after they reached the cave.
Sonic cried "where are you going?"
"I have to see it, the slave factory" she replied "I want to see it with my own eyes"
"Your majesty are you sure?" Amy asked
Sally nodded "Sonic come with me Amy you head back to base"
"As you wish your majesty, by the way blue boy you keep her safe. And yourself safe, I think I am starting to like you"
"Good to hear" said Sonic, then he and Sally walked off to Green Hill while keeping low.
The two reached the outskirts of the town on top of a hill, from her jacket Sally pulled out a pair of binoculars.
"You look first, it was your home village and I know its painful but I want to hear what you say." she said
Sonic nodded, he then peered through the binoculars and then gave out a large gasp.
"What is it?" Sally asked
"Its bigger, far bigger than yesterday. The factory has consumed all but the area of where I used to live." he said with a sad tone.
"What else?"
"I see them… the workers, they are making the factory bigger putting up panels and steel girders probably more additions to the factory. I also see some others marching off to the mines luckily they don't seem to be anywhere the other entrance to the base"
Sally took a deep breath and said "please give the binoculars to me"
Sonic put them down and asked "are you sure, its quite horrible"
Sally nodded "yes, please I wish to see it"
Sonic handed the binoculars to her and she looked at it.
Sally put them down and said "I have seen enough, lets get out of here to the tunnels we have done enough for now"
Sonic nodded and the two walked to the tunnel.
Once inside Sally spoke "so Amy has taken a liking to you, that's good to hear"
"Yeah but I am unsure if I like her yet she seems to be very standoffish"
Sally laughed "yeah she kind of is but she does it to see what you are made of, she's actually very kind once you know her"
"She doesn't seem like it" Sonic shrugged "well tell me about her since you know her so well, that is if you don't mind"
"Not at all, Amy came from North Island one of the many orphans from there."
Sonic stopped "but I am from North Island"
Sally turned to him and said "then you were there, weren't you? There the day Robotnik started conquering it"
Sonic shrugged again "I really don't remember much of that time, guess Robotniks conquest of it wiped my memory of it"
"Trauma does many strange things" Sally said with a sigh "for some it makes them block out memories for others it makes them even more driven. Amy is the second one, she remembers everything as she saw here parents become roboticized. Its why she keeps her distance as she doesn't want to be hurt again"
"But how did she escape?" Sonic asked
"My late father King Acorn sent a rescue party, I know your Uncle was there. I actually have records of it."
Sally pulled out her tablet and said "Nicole please give me North Island refugee data"
"Of course Sally" said Nicole
"Here look at this" she said pointing at Amy Rose "Parents were David and Maria hedgehog"
"My Uncle knew them" said Sonic
"Yeah anyhow my father took Amy in and raised her alongside of me until he died about a year ago."
"I am sorry for your loss" said Sonic "but why are you not queen?"
"I didn't take up my royal line plus I didn't want to do it until I came of age. Not like it matters as South island up until now was mostly a constitutional monarchy and is really governed by Parliament. I only have a small say in things really. And if Robotnik does wind up running things I might as well not be queen."
"But you seem so gentile I don't see why anyone would object to your rule if you were queened"
"Thank you Sonic, do you want to see your record?"
"Yes please"
Sally pulled it up as it read "Maurice Hedgehog refugee data:
Parents: Maurice Sr and Sonya Hedgehog
Birthplace: North Island
Status of parents: Unknown
Other relatives: Adopted by Sir Charles Hedgehog of Green hill, non biological relation to subject"
"So Uncle Chuck wasn't my real Uncle" Said Sonic "him treating me the way he did I don't care about that. But my parents are listed as unknown so they can still be alive somewhere as people not robots"
"Yes but it can go either way" Said Sally
"Still my Uncle was a knight huh, even if I am not related to him by blood that is still very cool"
"Yes he was the bravest of the Knights and the kindest, he retired from the army to raise you."
"He really loved me, really cool guy for him to do that even if he wasn't my real Uncle."
"Yes, he had a son you know but lost him. His son if he were alive would be around your age"
"Guess he missed his son so much he raised me as he did" Sonic cried a bit
"It's okay" Sally said "one day we may be able to free him"
"Well thanks for the chat Sally" said Sonic "but you and Amy were interesting to talk to"
"Thanks, lets move on I am sure Amy is worried about us by now"
Amy was in the command center pacing
"Where are they?" she asked "on a date or something?"
Sonic and Sally soon came in and Amy cried "hey you two I was worried the tunnel collapsed or you got roboticized!"
"Sorry Amy" Sally said calmly "you may relax now I have to plan for the next phase"
"Not likely I am going to the training center and blue boy you are coming with me"
Sonic tilted his head "but aren't you tired and hungry?"
"Of course I am but I really want to get some training in"
"Amy please relax, don't make me have to make that an order"
"okay fine" Amy said with a bit of a huff "before the next mission I do want some training with Maurice over there if you don't mind."
"If you wish" said Sonic with a shrug "but can you please call me Sonic now?"
"Not yet, after you held the princess up I am going to keep up the mouth for a bit"
Sonic sighed "have it your way"
"Lets go to the galley" said Sally "they got chilidogs"
Sonics mouth watered "did you say Chilidogs?"
"Yummy!" Amy cried
Sonic looked at her "you like chilidogs too?"
Amy nodded "only Sally doesn't really like them here I guess"
Sally laughed "yes but for you two I will eat anything."
"Pickled beats?" Sonic said
"Asparagus?" Amy chimed
Sally laughed "okay almost anything"
Amy and Sonic both laughed as they went off to the galley.
The three ate alongside the various refugees, there were so many here that the food ran out quickly.
"There is another problem about this base, we have plenty of rations for short term but for long term we don't know how long the food will last." said Sally
"I guess that is one of the few good things about being a robot" Amy chimed "robots don't need to eat."
"I wonder what it feels like to be like those Worker-bots… do you remember your old life, your family, your friends?" Asked Sally
"My uncle seemed to remember" said Sonic "but it was only for a moment"
Sally sighed "it could be that your mind is still in one of those things but you are unable to act against what your body does"
"Or the original personality dies after some time" Amy spoke
Sonic grew a little mad "How can you say something like that?"
"Sorry" said Amy with a sad sigh implying that she was sorry for saying that "but in a way would that be better than being a prisoner of your own body?"
"Perhaps it would" said Sally "I would like a mission sometime to capture one of these Worker-bots and study one. I know that sounds insensitive to the person who is used to be but we need to know how the thing works."
"I just wish we knew how the machine worked, the kind of power Robotnik has should be impossible" Sonic said
"Well maybe not" said Sally "the Mystics prove anything is possible"
"But how do the Worker-bots get power to function, is it in those factories?" Amy asked
"There is so little we know about this." Sally said "in any case tomorrow we head out to Marble town and prepare to defend it as best as we can."
"How many soldiers do you have?" Sonic asked
"There are a dozen in Marble town, my knight Antoine D'Coolette and his fellow guard Bunnie Rabbit are in charge" Sally replied "they are good soldiers but they are no match for Robotnik"
"But we are" said Amy "Sonic you and I are proving to be quite a team"
"Just don't cocky remember earlier you almost lost your powers entirely thus why before you go to bed I will hand you your emeralds to keep overnight"
"So the emeralds can recharge us?" asked Sonic
"That seems to be how it works, of course both of us have only been exposed to the emerald for short periods of time. I actually only held my emerald just a day before Robotnik came" said Amy "before we were studying it and its relation to the power rings"
"We only found the emerald about a month ago in the Mystic cave, we were actually digging more shelter areas there when we found it"
"Our top scientist took many sleepless nights looking at the emerald too, I had to put the poor guy on vacation on West island his home"
"Poor ol Rotor" Amy chimed "good fellow though."
Sonic yawned "well guess its time to lay back for a bit"
"We still have training you know you slacker" Amy peeped
"Oh drat" Sonic said with a sigh
"Yeah better not keep Amy waiting" said Sally "she doesn't have loads of patience"
"Darn right" Said Amy
The three laughed once more than they all left the Galley.
There was no time for laughing for one Sir Charles Hedgehog.
Deep in the cyberspace of his robotic brain the original personality of Uncle Chuck was buried deep into Robotniks programming.
But Uncle Chuck could do nothing here, he simply had no will of his own.
Sure his body moved and he did have some control over his actions but only the actions deemed to him by his master.
The personality was still here, but it was unable to act upon Uncle Chucks own desires.
No something else pulled the strings.
The original personality looked on as the new robotic personality did its duties.
Uncle Chuck would want to do anything but this slave labor, but wanting was a feeling and robots don't have feelings.
The original personality stared on, unable to act against anything.
Before him commands flooded the cyberspace, commands he could not help but obey.
"You are a robot" it commanded
"I am a robot" Uncle Chuck replied unable to respond otherwise
"You are Worker-bot 20007" it commanded
"I am Worker-bot 20007" he replied
"You will obey"
"I will obey"
The two personalities acted as one, the robot personality was as much of the master ass Robotnik was.
Outside cyberspace Worker-bot 20007 was working.
Around him were lots of conveyor belts and assembly lines.
Inside Uncle Chuck watched himself build various things such as the Badniks which would help invade the next town but outside Worker-bot 20007 was just another cog in the machine, he and many others would build many of Robotniks attack robots and Badniks here.
What was so impressive and yet so horrifying is that they all built this factory within a day.
There was no need for rest, no need for food or water.
Their shifts would last all day and night with only periodical breaks top retrieve energy rations and those breaks would only happen for only a few minutes.
With day 2 of his enslavement over Worker-bot 20007 was ready for his daily energy ration.
If Uncle Chuck could stop himself he would, to not keep going and fall over like scrap metal would be a blessing.
One by one they marched towards a central complex in the factory, this complex used to be where people used to commune, to sing and dance.
But now it was a hub, Worker-bot 20007 opened his chest unit and one of the other robots handed him something.
A small golden ring, Worker-bot 20007 handed the one he had in his chest originally back and the now gray ring was transferred up.
It was inserted into a generator and recharged.
Robotnik had come down once more to observe these operations, he looked around admiring the wonder of his achievements.
"Its beautiful" he said "life with order and purpose. The order to the chaos, the cure for all that which hurts our world."
He looked at all of his workers and came up to his command podium
"This factory is only the first step of cleansing this island of Chaos and the disease of freedom. You should thank me for curing you" he said
"We do master Robotnik" Worker-bot 20007 said with all the rest collectively "we are blessed by your gift."
Robotnik then pulled out a red emerald from his cloak and said "soon my beautiful friend you won't be alone and my dreams of an everlasting utopia will soon come true"
The red chaos emerald glowed as Robotnik began to walk out of the facility.
Deep inside his robotic prison Uncle Chuck briefly had a small spark of his former self as he briefly thought "I miss you Sonny, you may not have been my real nephew but I loved you"
"Irrelevant" said the robot personality giving him a small but strong shock to put Uncle Chuck back in line.
"Yes irrelevant" Uncle Chuck repeated
"You will obey"
"I will obey"
The inner cyberspace was now as one again and Uncle Chuck could no nothing about it.
End of level 1