-Chapter XVII- Robotic Rampage

-Emerald Hills Clearing

-25 First Seed

-12:03 P.M.

-Nicholas

As Tails, Knuckles, and I walked about, looking out into the horizon for what I could only assume would be a giant metal building, or perhaps some sort of large fortress just as Razorbeard's was, under the sun, high in the sky, I could only think of what this deranged man looked like. Not many people I knew were bad, or evil in such a way, so all I could think of whenever I thought about a "bad" person, I pictured how I pictured many of the enemies Max described in his numerous tales of when he was still of the Shining Force. The picture I had taken to was that of Balbazak, a crazed general of Runefaust, Rune. Max depicted him with a face of pure hatred, teeth similar to that of a boar, a permanent snarl painted across his face, bald-headed, but with long hair running down the sides and back of his head. He was hulking, half human, half beast, just as the soldiers that he commanded, adorned in armour that was seemingly too heavy for any mortal man.

It was this base that I pictured Dr. Ivo Robotnik, though I couldn't imagine this was what he looked like, too. All I knew was something that Tails had mentioned before about being like the shape of an egg, which was the origin of Sonic's nickname for him "Eggman". I was so lost in thought about Eggman's appearance that I almost didn't notice a strange voice, laugh out in the distance. I snapped back to reality. "Who was that?" I asked.

"I don't know..." Knuckles said as he raised his fists.

"Oh no..." Tails said.

"What?" Knuckles and I asked simultaneously.

"Eheheheh!" I heard, looking in the direction of which it seemed the laughter came.

I unsheathed my sword, readying myself for anything. I looked to a small hill just big enough to hide the land beyond it. I say a silhouette against the sunlight. "What's going on?"

"Well, well, well! Look what we've got here!" came a second voice from a nearby woods to our right.

"Looks like Sonic's little friends!" came a third from the distant left.

"And maybe an outsider that just happen to have gotten lost in the wrong crowd, eh?" said the first voice.

"Who the hell are all of you?" I called out to them.

"You know, it's not very nice to say stuff like that!" the third voice said.

"Like I give two shits!" I said, just to spite them.

"Tails, what's going on? Who are they all?" Knuckles asked.

"It's them..." he replied.

"Who?"

I looked at them, then was struck by something behind me. "Hehehe! You're gonna have to pay attention!"

I saw something in the corner of my eye, and swung at it. "Whoops! You missed me!"

I grunted in irritation. "Aw, it looks like he's getting angry!" they said.

I heard a noise...from beneath me, like a drill. I jumped away from where I was, just in time to see the dirt come up from it. "At least Tails remembers us!" it said.

"Grounder!" Tails yelled. We backed away, and he was grabbed by a tall, lanky robotic chicken. "Scratch..." he said as he struggled to get out of his grasp. Knuckles jumped up to the chicken's head and punched it, causing him to drop Tails and his head to spin until he stopped it with his hands.

"And don't forget..." the first voice said, then jumped onto my back. "Coconuts!" I tried to reach around my back, but was unable to grab him before he climbed down to my waist, then swung around so that he was in front of me, and kicked me in the face. I fell back and dropped my sword, my mind still running through what was going on, and heavily landed on the ground. I quickly got up, holding up my fists, even though I didn't know the first thing about hand-to-hand combat. The monkey robot stood before me, smiling. "What wrong?" he asked, "you act like you've got a monkey on your back!" I swung my fist at him, which he simply ducked under, but when he stood back up and began to laugh, I simply punched him with as much force as I could with a second try. "Oh, you're gonna pay for that!"

There was a distant explosion. We all fell silent as we awaited its source. "Hehe, you're gonna get it now!" Scratch laughed.

A small cloud of dust could be seen from afar, coming from the forest in the southwestern edge of Emerald Hills. "What the..." I muttered.

Then, as the front began to become gradually clearer, a dot of blue could be seen at the source of the dust. "Sonic!" Tails exclaimed.

"Oh no..." Grounder said in fear.

"Come on, you two! We've still got work to do!" Coconuts said. He tried to jump on me, but was stopped in mid-air by a flash of blue, throwing him a distance away.

Sonic stopped, kicking up dirt in a spray behind him as he stared at the robots angrily. Grounder and Scratch backed away from Tails and Knuckles, but Coconuts slowly stood where he had landed. "What's wrong, Coconuts? Not had enough yet?" the blue hedgehog teased.

"It's been awhile, eh Sonic?"

"Yeah, but not long enough."

"Yah!" Scratch let out as he tried to jump Sonic, who only sidestepped away from the sneak attack, then jumped in the air before rocketing towards him, hitting him straight in the face. As Scratch was thrown across the meadow, Grounder began to use the treads that he used as transportation at full speed away from Sonic. However, he wasn't nearly fast enough for the speed demon, for he quickly subdued him, and rounded him up with Scratch and tangled them up in each other.

"Sonic!" Tails screamed.

"Hold on Tails, there's still one more!" Sonic told him, glaring at Coconuts who had a evil sneer across his face.

"Um, Sonic..." I said, unable to speak.

"Wha..." he trailed off, to much in shock to speak as he saw a strange man, who I could only assume was Eggman, in black pants and a red jacket, sitting in some sort of half egg-shaped hovercraft, with dark glasses and a cheeky grin beneath a large, red mustache.

"Ohohohoho!" he laughed.

"Sonic! Get us out of here!" Tails begged.

"Would you look at that, Sonic is finally beaten! Who would've thought?"

A little round-headed robot popped out of Eggman's control panel. "Approximately no one, doctor. Especially not anyone that know you from the actual games, as opposed to this fanfiction."

"Eh? Shut up, you!" Eggman forced the small robot's head back into the control panel.

"Eggman, let them go!" Sonic demanded.

"It's too late, Sonic! You've finally lost!" Coconuts said with a victorious tone in his voice and a triumphant smile.

"Hehe...you three can join him, too." Eggman said flatly.

Coconuts' eyes widened, "what, doctor?"

"I no longer have any use of any of you! Now that I finally have Tails and Knuckles, Sonic is sure to follow...ohohoho!"

"You can't just leave us!" Coconuts said aggressively.

"Watch me!" he said, flying off into the air.

"Eggman!" Sonic ran towards him, beginning to chase him down.

As Sonic ran off after Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman, I was left alone with Coconuts, Scratch, and Grounder. I quickly picked up my sword, and glared at the three of them. Scratch and Grounder were still tangled up in each other, and Coconuts was practically defenseless. The three of them gulped simultaneously as I raised my sword.

Sonic and I joined with where Saria, Stealth, and Rayman awaited, the three of them searching for where Tails and Knuckles were. "What..." Saria began to ask, unable to finish her question.

Sonic's head was low, his expression full of shame. "They're gone..."

Saria's face softened, and she looked at me. I nodded, confirming Sonic's words. "Please tell me something positive had come out of this in some way." she pleaded.

"We know where his fortress is." I told her.

"What? How?" Rayman asked.

"I uh...'spoke' with a trio of his robots. They told me exactly where it is."

"What? Where are they now?" asked Saria.

"In pieces." I told her.

"Underground." Sonic added.

"Deep,"

"Deep..."

"...underground." I finished with a smile.

She let out a small sigh of relief. "So...where's the fortress?"

Without a word, I pointed up, which she followed, and looked to what seemed like the near cloudless sky. "Up there?" Rayman asked.

"How do you know they weren't lying?"

"When I was chasing Eggman down," said Sonic, "he flew into the air, and disappeared."

"So how are we supposed to get up there?" Rayman asked.

"Sonic." I said simply.

"What?" the blue hedgehog's attention was taken after the mentioning of his name.

"Rayman asked how we're supposed to get up to Eggman's fortress." I explained.

"Oh. Dude you've got to find a way so that everyone can understand him, 'cause it seems that he's just speaking gibberish. But anyway, yeah, I'm gonna fly us to the fortress."

"How?" Saria asked.

"The biplane." I told her.

Saria gave me a look of confusion at first, but quickly realized what I meant. "Well...what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Rayman ran after her as she hurried back to where the biplane was, and Stealth flew from his typical perch on my shoulder after them. I began to go after them all but was stopped by Sonic. "Hold on, Nick."

"What is it?" I asked. He pulled something out from behind him. It glinted in the sunlight, blinding me for an instant before I realized what it was. It was Max's dagger. "Where did you find it?" I asked.

"When Eggman tried to stop me from coming back after him to help you guys out, I found this in the underbrush."

I looked at him, and bowed my head gratefully. A smile graced his lips, and I returned the smile back at him. "Ready to find your friends?"

Hope seemed to return to his eyes. "You bet!"