Sonic Haven

Season 1 - Episode 10

"A-Life"

Sally walked out of the computer room with a stare. It was the kind of look that if someone was to step in front of you, you could almost see right through them. It didn't go unnoticed.

"Hey Sal, you okay?" Sonic asked as he jogged over to her. The others started collecting around her as well, noticing something was off.

She held up a hand as if to hold down their fears. "I'm fine. I just… met someone."

"Friendly?" Max asked in a short tone.

She replied with notable unsurety. "Yes. At least I think so."

Tails was the next to speak up. "What did they want?"

"She wants to help us." Sally replied. "At least that's what she told me."

Sonic pointed behind her. "I take it she's still in there?"

"Well," Sally rubbed her neck nervously. "She's on the computer."

Knuckles started walking to the room in question without a word.

Antoine spoke up from the back of the group. "Excusez moi but… what exactly are you doing?" He was curious, but timid in asking, which was typical.

"I'm going to see what she has to say." Knuckles replied.

Sonic followed him. "Sounds like a plan."

Eventually, the whole team had filed into the room one-by-one leaving little to no space left. Antoine personally felt like everyone was pressing in on him and trying to pop him like a pimple; though it was mostly in his head.

Sally walked up to the computer and gestured to the screen. "This is where she started talking to me."

As if to affirm her story, a small sentence was typed out onto the screen. It obviously wasn't Sally or anyone else in this room, so it must've been someone in a remote location.

Hello everyone, it's nice to meet you all.

Sally reached over to the keyboard and started to type. How did you access this computer?

The person on the other side responded quickly: I'd love to tell you, but it'd be a long read. If you plug in some speakers, I can just speak to you.

Sally turned around and pointed to Tails. "Can you hand me that box over there?" She motioned her head to his left, indicating a small, dusty box that had a set of old computer speakers and a cheap microphone in it. He picked it up and passed it to Rotor, who passed it to Sonic, who passed it to her.

She plugged the speakers and microphone in quickly, not wanting to waste any time as her curiosity continued eating away at the edges of her patience. Everyone in the room was quiet while she worked, and she could feel their eyes on the back of her neck. Should she really be feeling pressure for something so simple? Maybe she was just becoming paranoid.

Finally, the everlasting ten seconds passed and she once again collected herself to speak into the microphone. "Who are you?" She asked, over-enunciating into the microphone.

A soft female voice responded from the small speakers, a chuckle hidden behind her words. "You don't have to talk like that, I can hear you fine."

Sally smiled and dropped her head. "Okay then." She used her left hand to nervously fix the hair hanging down in front of her face. "Can you explain who you are and how you found us?" She glanced over her shoulder at the small crowd behind her. "We're all pretty curious."

The reply came back with a note of nervousness. "Sure. I'm Nicole the Lynx." She paused for a moment, then explained. "I rerouted myself to this computer during Robotnik's invasion. I've hacked into the subway security system and a few of the cities' systems as well. That's how I was able to spot you and lead you here."

"Nice to meet ya!" Sonic piped up from beside Sally. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." The rest of the group followed his lead, doing a roll call of sorts before finally letting the air rest again.

"Like I said, it's nice to m-meet you all." Nicole said, her voice sounding almost embarrassed. "It's a good thing you're all so friendly."

Antoine spoke up from the back. "You are not leading ze Robians here are you?" He sounded at the same time both skeptical and cautiously optimistic.

Nicole nearly freaked out at his question. "No-no-no-no-no-no-no… I wouldn't do that I swear." She sounded almost pleading.

Sally spoke low and calm, trying to ease her nerves. "Don't worry, nobody's accusing you of anything. We're just trying to be careful."

"Oh…" Now she was definitely embarrassed. "Sorry for freaking out then."

"Hey, don't worry about it." Sonic said in his own soothing way. "Why don't you just tell us how you ended up on this computer."

"And if you could tell us where your own computer is, that might be helpful too." Max added. "We need a way to get a message out of the city, and if you can do that it'd be a big help."

"I'd love to." Nicole said sadly. "But I'm afraid I'm trapped here with you."

"Then why not come down to the base?" Tails asked. "You should know how to get here; you're the one who led us here."

She hesitated for a second. "I'm already here."

A wave of shock hit the group. How could she be here? They'd been working all day and not one of them had seen her. So where was she hiding?

"What do you mean you're already here?" Tiara asked, vocalizing the question. "None of us have seen you."

"I'm in the computer." She responded, though she knew that they wouldn't all understand.

Knuckles clearly didn't understand. "I thought this was the only computer room in the station…"

Sonic finally realized what she meant. "You mean you're living inside the computer?" He couldn't believe it, but given the way she'd phrased her last statement, it only made sense.

Rotor was completely dumbfounded. "Is that even possible?" He asked.

"Yes." Nicole replied. "It's quite a long story." She hesitated for a second. "You probably don't want to hear it."

"You kidding?" Sonic asked, taking a seat on a tan colored office chair next to the desk. "I've gotta hear this!"

"Okay then," Nicole started, "It happened years ago, right here in Mobitropolis

"I suffer from a rare autoimmune disease called Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome (or N.I.D.S.). It attacks your nervous system by moving along your spine until it reaches your brain stem and shuts down your body piece by piece. Most people who have it die before they reach thirty. For years, nobody thought that there was a cure. Those who had it simply lived with the expectation that they would die young.

"I was diagnosed after I'd started having trouble walking and keeping my balance. Thankfully, there was a doctor here in town who thought he could help me. He'd apparently been working on another patient who had given him an idea. If he transferred whoever had the disease into a computer, the disease could be managed like damaged code. On top of that; once in the computer it could be studied and a potential treatment would most likely be found, which would then potentially allow the person to be brought back to the real world and cured.

"Several people signed up for the test, myself included. I was one of only two that survived. I don't know what happened to the other person, I've never met him.

"After the operation, I was kept in a computer in the basement of a hospital where my family would come and visit me on a regular basis. The doctor did regular checkups and tried various things to cure the disease, but could never quite get rid of it.

"When Robotnik attacked, I knew I was in danger. He was attacking the hospital with those metallic Mobians. Once they checked the basement I would be found, and I didn't even want to think about what Robotnik would do to me if he found me. So I uploaded myself to an isolated location, which was here.

"By this point you all should know the rest of the story." She finally concluded. She felt exposed, at least to a certain extent. Retelling her story had touched a nerve that was all too sensitive. She waited for them to process what she'd just said.

"Sounds like you've been through a lot." Tiara said in an empathetic tone.

"Well," Sonic cut in as he stood up from the chair, "since you're here, you wanna join the team?"

Nicole was obviously shocked. "But you barely know me."

Sally spoke up, echoing Sonic's sentiment. "Actually, it's not a bad idea. You have a unique skill set that will undoubtedly come in handy."

Bunnie also joined in. "And y'all're obviously not a threat. Otherwahse the Robians would be knockin' down our door."

"Anyone have any objections?" Sally asked as she looked at the small crowd behind her.

When no one raised any complaints, she turned to look at the screen. "The offer is open to you. What do you say?"

Nicole didn't even hesitate. "Of course! I - I really appreciate it you guys."

"Don't worry about it." Sonic said with a smile. "Every little bit of help is appreciated."

"Boy," Tails said with a smile, "our group sure is growing fast."

"You said it bud." Sonic agreed. "And we've gotten a lot of work done on this place too."

Tails nodded. "We should give it a name."

"You mean the old station?" Tiara asked.

He nodded again. "Why not?"

Sonic was the first to chime in. "How about HQ? It's classic."

"It's also a little cliche." Tiara pointed out.

Tails spoke up excitedly. "Ooh, how about 'The Inner Sanctum'?"

Rotor shook his head. "You read too many comic books."

"What about Haven?" Nicole asked. "A Haven from Robotnik. A Haven where a spirit of freedom fights a world of slavery and oppression. The only safe place left in the city."

"Not bad." Sonic smiled. "I like it."

Sally looked throughout the group noting their small nods of approval. "Alright. Haven it is then."