Sonic Haven Season 2 – Episode 1
"Close the portal Snively!" Robotnik commanded.
"Yes sir." Snively said as he moved over to a nearby console to turn off the dimensional tunnel. He pulled a lever and the machine began to power down, but not before something came through.
Robotnik looked down at the hedgehog laying at his feet. He was a light green color and wore a black jacket, black and green shoes that buckled around the ankles, and red sunglasses to complete that rebellious look.
The hedgehog turned to look at the portal he'd come through, only to see it close. He then turned toward Robotnik and opened his mouth to speak.
Robotnik cut him off before he began. "Who are you?" He demanded.
"Oh come on, I just got here and people are already bossing me around! I don't take orders from you, Chrome Dome!" The hedgehog barked at the man standing over him.
Just as Robotnik was about to reply, the room filled with S.W.A.T. Bots, all of them ready to obey any order given. Robotnik smiled before he spoke, then let the menace carry through his voice. "Would you like to rethink your previous statement?" He asked the hedgehog.
"Scourge, people call me Scourge the Hedgehog." He said in a more cautious tone.
"Good. Now come with me if you want to live to see tomorrow." Robotnik said as he turned to leave.
Scourge followed Robotnik out the door and down several halls, down what felt like a hundred flights of stairs, and into a small room with a metallic ring around the door. Once they were inside the small room, Robotnik pointed at a bed in the corner and Scourge sat down on it, waiting for whatever came next.
"You will stay here until I can rebuild the Roboticization room and turn you into a robot servant. Should you try to escape, you will be put through the procedure without the preparation that is normally given. If I understand correctly, it's extremely painful and even potentially fatal if the device doesn't tap into the spine correctly. Is that what you want?" Robotnik asked.
"No." Scourge said shortly.
"Good, then stay here like a good little hedgehog until I can get the room ready for you." Robotnik said as he left the room.
After he left, he hit a panel on the wall with his fist that caused a bluish energy field to cover the doorway, thus blocking any escape plan Scourge might have had.
"You know this thing won't hold me right?" Scourge said with a slight smirk.
"And if you try to escape and are caught? I don't think I need to repeat myself." Robotnik said in a low tone as he walked away.
"Thanks again for saving us." Sonic said to the purple cat from earlier.
Sonic, Tiara, and the cat were all sitting in a room that had a table in the middle and some stand-ins for chairs around it. The walls were a sickly green and cracked from floor to ceiling. Broken fluorescent lights hung overhead. There was a group of four candles set on the table, which had been lit by the cat's fingers. There was also carpet on most of the floor, save for the spot by the broken window on the wall to Sonic's left; that spot looked like it had been burned away and had left small holes in the metallic floor underneath. Acid rain was the only explanation for the odd burn pattern and corrosion in the floor.
"My name is Blaze the Cat." She said in a monotone voice.
"Pleasure to meet you." Tiara said politely.
"If you don't mind, can you tell me how you got here?" Blaze asked.
"A guy named Robotnik, not a good guy, created a device powered by a Chaos Emerald, a gem with nearly limitless power, that sent us here." Sonic explained not-so-thoroughly.
"Ok, I think I follow..." Blaze said, still wrapping her head around what Sonic was saying.
"Don't suppose you have a way to get us back?" Sonic asked.
"No, I'm afraid not. We honestly don't have the resources to build such a device even if we knew how." Blaze said sorrowfully.
"Yeah, I noticed." Sonic said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "It's obviously not been easy for you lately, what happened?" The lighthearted tone was completely gone from his voice.
Tiara took note of the way Sonic spoke, how he usually tried to make people not worry about things by making light of them. Yet, when something was very serious or bad, he was all business, making sure to express to others that he truly did understand the depth of the situation. This was evident in the way he'd just made light of his own problems, then gone completely straight when Blaze was obviously troubled by her own. She really liked that about him.
Tiara was brought back to reality when Blaze finally spoke. "It's been years now, longer than I've been alive." Blaze started to explain. "Years ago, a mad scientist was bent on taking over the world. He created a robot that would gradually improve in intelligence on its own. The problem is that the robots he created killed him in his sleep, and with him died the kill code for the robots that, as far as we know, would still shut them all down. And so, the robots have gone unchecked for decades. They've run the resources of this world almost completely dry as they've expanded to every corner of it. We fight, not for freedom, but to survive. Every day we scavenge for supplies that they haven't found."
When Blaze had finished, though it had only been a couple of minutes, she seemed thoroughly exhausted. "I'm sorry, my problems shouldn't be your problems. The worst of it is that we're nearly out of food here. When that happens..." She dropped her head to the table with a thunk.
"Hey," Sonic said in a chipper tone, "don't worry. I'm here to help."
Blaze llifted her head from the table and looked at his smiling face. "You know," She said, "You're very different from the other hedgehog I knew."
"Oh yeah," Sonic said with a smirk, "how so?"
"Ughhhh..." Blaze said as she rolled her eyes so hard they should've flown off her face, "Sometimes I think he only cares about himself."
"Alright then, I promise to try to care about everyone." Sonic said as he crossed his arms.
"No no, You've already gone through so much, I couldn't possibly ask you to..." Blaze started, but Sonic cut her off.
"Nope, I've already started." Sonic said with a frown. A frown that changed into a smirk.
"You're being funny again aren't you?" Blaze asked rhetorically.
Sonic answered anyways. "Yep." Then he dropped the goofy attitude and proceeded on a more median course of small talk. "Could you introduce me to the rest of your team?" Sonic asked.
"Ummm, sure. Why not?" Blaze said, giving up on trying to figure Sonic out.
She walked the two of them into another room where the rest of her team was sitting. A red armadillo sat to the left, practicing some kind of fighting technique against a wooden pole. Across from him sat a yellow squirrel that was wearing a light blue scarf and blue shoes. He was happily sleeping away the day. And in the middle of the room sat a purplish weasel with a big brown fedora. He was holding a rifle of some kind and polishing it with a red cloth.
"So, this the part where we talk to the newcomers eh Sheila?" The weasel asked.
"That's Knack, he's the sniper and recon leader of the group." Blaze said as she came to a stop.
Knack walked over to Sonic and held out his hand. "Pleasure to meet ya mate. It's been long time since we 'ad any new blood 'round 'ere." He said as he shook Sonic's hand. Then he turned toward the snoozing squirrel. "Ey Ray, come ove' 'ere and say 'ello to the newbies."
The young squirrel awoke from his nap and rushed over to Sonic to shake his hand. "Hi my name's Ray." he said enthusiastically.
"Ray is the flyer, he keeps an eye on us from the air to make sure we're not flanked." Blaze said.
"Nice to meet ya." Sonic said as he shook the squirrel's hand firmly.
While they were getting acquainted, the armadillo walked over without preamble and waited for them to finish. When Ray stepped away, he stepped up in front of Sonic and held out his hand. "Mighty, I'm the up-close-and-personal fighter of the group." He said.
"And I'm essentially the tactician of the group." Blaze said as Mighty stepped away.
"Did ya find out anythin' 'bout Scourge?" Fang asked Blaze.
"No, though I'm going to guess that he got pulled through the portal that Sonic came through. Knowing Scourge, if he wasn't pulled in by accident, he probably jumped in head first just to see what would happen." Blaze said as she shook her head.
"Yeah, you're probably roight." Fang admitted.
"Well, as long as I'm here I'll try to fill in for 'em." Sonic said with a smirk and a thumbs up.
"Righto then," Fang said, "If you're stayin', then you're gonna need to be brought up to speed. How 'bout it Sheila?"
"Fang's right, so let's tell you where we're at exactly." Blaze started before launching into a thirty-minute explanation of what they were planning on doing in the city, as well as detailing the patrols of the various robots around the city that they'd dubbed Guardians.
As she continued to explain more and more about their current predicament, Sonic could only wonder if he could possibly get all of these people out of here alive.