Sonic Haven Season 2 – Episode 6
"Guys," Sally shouted, "I think I have a plan."
"Alright Sally girl, whatcha thinkin'?" Bunnie asked.
Everyone else gathered around to hear what she had to say, hoping against hope that what she'd come up with would be something that could save them from death by starvation.
"It's simple really. What's our problem?" She asked, trying to explain by asking questions to help them understand.
"We have no food." Knuckles said plainly. "We ran out this morning."
"Right. And what's keeping us from getting more food?" She asked again.
"Robotnik took it all." Nicole called out over the crowd, as she was standing in the back.
"Yes, and..." Sally hinted at another obstacle. Everyone just scratched their heads at her question, not knowing what she was hinting at. "Guys, we can't get any more food because the barrier around the city keeps us from getting food in. If we take it down, we can not only get food in, we can get in reinforcements and supplies, or even get ourselves out!"
They all looked at each other in surprise. Was taking down the barrier any more probable than stealing food? Rotor was the one who voiced the question. "Is that any better than trying to steal food from Robotnik? I mean, the barrier should be heavily guarded."
"You're right." Sally said. "But, we know from what Max and Scourge told us that Robotnik has the majority of his units underground digging some kind of tunnel under the city. If that's the case, then he should be spread thin. If we can take the generator that keeps the cage closed, we can knock open the door and let ourselves out!" She said with a kick of her right leg for emphasis.
"Zis eez zounding beyond being dangerous my Princess!" Antoine exclaimed. "I am thinking maybe we should be looking for ze new food source. Maybe we could try farming non?"
"No Antoine." Sally said in a tone that left no room for questioning. "There's no way that would work. Besides, now is the perfect time to strike! We need to do something before Robotnik is finished with his project. We need to come up with a plan." She turned and looked at the green hedgehog leaning against the wall a few feet away. "Scourge, you told me you scouted the entire city, where is the generator?"
"On top of Hairy-Face's place of residence." He said simply. "It's up on the roof and guarded by at least ten S.W.A.T. Bots."
Everyone cringed at that. S.W.A.T. Bots were extremely difficult to handle one at a time! Ten at a time? It was nigh impossible!
Sally noticed the air of apprehension in the room and jumped on it before it could crush their hopes. "Guys, we can do this! We managed to break into Robotnik's base once before, and we made it back out with Bunnie, Nicole, and Pixel. Now we have Scourge to help us as well. Not only that, but Robotnik is distracted! If we were ever going to get in there and take out the generator, now is the time." She knew she was being a little bit overdramatic, but she didn't care.
"If we're going in there," Tails said from off to her left, "we need to go after Sonic and Tiara too! We can't leave them in another dimension!"
"Good luck with that one kid." Scourge said with a smirk. "You have any idea how to run a dimensional gate?"
"Well, no. But..." Tails let his voice trail off.
"Tails and I can figure it out." Rotor said as he walked up next to Tails.
"Besahdes," Bunnie chimed in, "we know thah S.W.A.T. Bot's weakness. All we have tah do is get in undah that shahny metal case and put 'em outta commision." She hit her fist into her palm for emphasis.
Sally decided to ride this newfound wave of positivity. "Right. Now let's go make a plan and get on this before it's too late!" She motioned for everyone to follow her into the conference room so that they could do just that.
"... and he really liked ice cream too, even if he only had it once." Mighty said, holding back a sob.
They were at what was essentially a funeral for Ray, the twelve-year-old kid that never really knew what it was like to have a regular life. Sonic barely knew him, yet he couldn't help but feel sad himself. Ray seemed like a great, fun loving, energetic person. It was times like this that reminded Sonic of the promise he'd once made to King Acorn shortly after his death. I'll keep your daughter safe, I promise. Sonic had almost forgotten that promise, even though it hadn't really been that long since he'd made it.
He looked around at the others, all of them even more downhearted than him. He had to find a way to get them out of here, somehow.
After they'd all broken up and gone to their own little corner of this rickety building that served as a makeshift home for them, Sonic walked over to Blaze to talk to her about their plans moving forward.
"Hey Blaze." He said as he walked up.
She turned to look at him out of the corner of her eye. She was obviously not having a good day, though, frankly, none of them were.
"What?" She asked in a short tone.
"I've been thinking." Sonic said, trying to get to the point as fast as possible. "When we find a way to get Tiara and I back home, you guys should come with us. It doesn't seem like there's anything left in this world for you."
Blaze closed her eyes in both contemplation and pain. "You are right, to some extent anyway." She turned to face Sonic. "I think I might know of a way to get you home."
Sonic's expression lifted slightly. "Really?" He asked.
"Yes." Blaze replied. "The same scientist that created the Guardians was doing experiments on the Anarchy Beryls, one of them being a way to channel the power of the Beryls into a device that would allow someone to teleport themselves. I'm no expert, but it seems like the two fields are close enough that he might have found a way to travel between dimensions. It's worth a look."
"Sounds promising." Sonic said with his trademark thumbs-up. He paused for a moment before speaking again. "You mentioned Anarchy Beryls; Fleetway is one of the Sons of Anarchy. Is there some kind of connection?"
She took a deep breath and collected her thoughts to explain. "Dr. Gerald Nikolas, the same scientist I mentioned earlier..."
Sonic cut her off. "Did you say Nikolas?"
"Yes, why?" She asked.
"The mad scientist that took over my world was named Julian Nikolas. He later changed his name to Robotnik. But still, it's odd that they have the same last name." He said.
"Yes, that is strange." She said as she tried to figure out how it was that two mad scientists in two different dimensions could share the same name. "It must be a coincidence." She wasn't sure, but she stated it as a fact anyway.
"Yeah." Sonic tried to change his mental gears to get back on track with what they'd been talking about a moment earlier. "Anyway, continue."
"Right." She said before restarting her explanation. "Dr. Gerald Nikolas, the same scientist I mentioned earlier, was the leading researcher of what were known as the Anarchy Beryls. They sounded similar to what you call the Chaos Emeralds on your world. However, the Anarchy Beryls were very unstable sources of energy, and tapping into them usually destroyed whatever was using their power."
"One day," She continued, "Dr. Nikolas was running experiments on the seven Anarchy Beryls, trying to find a way to control their power so that they could be used for his various devices. For months he'd been saying he was close. Now it seemed like he was finally going to get what he wanted. He built a device to extract the energy from the seven Anarchy Beryls and store it so that it could be transferred in pieces. In activating the machine, he destroyed the actual Anarchy Beryls, but the energy was too unstable to be contained. The machine he was using for the experiment broke open, releasing the energy and manifesting itself in different forms. Seven Anarchy Beryls, Seven creatures born from the accident that came to be known as the Sons of Anarchy."
Sonic let out a sigh. "Phew, that's a lot to process!"
"I know it is." Blaze continued. "But thankfully it seems as though we'll only have to deal with one of them for now. Fleetway. Though, when Scourge gets back we'll have to handle him too."
Sonic let his mouth drop open. "Scourge, your teammate, is one of the Sons of Anarchy?"
Blaze nodded. "Yes, born from the destruction of the green Anarchy Beryl. He was at the lab the day of the incident, and he just so happens to have the Chaos Gene. After the explosion, one of the Beryls tried to use him the way Fleetway used you, but Scourge was able to harness it and now he uses its power to give him his speed and strength."
"I see." Sonic said. "So Scourge and Fleetway makes two. Who are the other five?"
"I don't know." Blaze said with a shrug. "I've never met any of them. Though I would assume that none of them are nice."
"Well, let's hope we don't come across them then." Sonic said as he decided to change the subject again. "So where do we go to find this teleporter Dr. Nikolas was working on?"
"It's in town, in his old lab. There's still a road that runs from this building over to his." Blaze said.
"Yeah, I'll never get used to that," Sonic said with a shrug, "your roads being attached to the roof."
"You mean you don't have your roads attached to the tops of your buildings? Then where do you put them? On the ground?" She asked.
"Yeah, actually we do." He replied.
"That makes no sense." Blaze shook her head. "Don't things grow up in the roadway then? Don't they get cluttered and dirty?"
Sonic laughed. "Yeah. They do I guess. But they don't have to be supported or maintained as heavily as the roads you have here."
"Ok, you got me there." She said with a smile.
The two continued to talk for about half an hour, comparing lives in the two dimensions and, eventually, deciding what to do about going to Nikolas' lab. As the sun set, Sonic laid down on the roof and thought about the days to come. And how, for better or worse, his life likely depended on what happened during those days.