Cabin Fever

Chapter 1

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Shaunatheboss: Hi everyone! Here is the next chapter. After this, we hope to post a chapter monthly, but we make no promises. This is also pre-Sonic X era, in case you're wondering why things seem different going forward, plot-wise. I would also like to tell you that a fully detailed pic of the story cover is now on RAWN89's DA page.

I would also like to inform people that while I'm flattered to get RP requests from time to time, I'm currently not taking any more side projects on at the moment. I have a few pending projects with other RP buddies on other sites that'll keep me going for a while.
That's not to say, however, that I don't mind receiving the odd PM for a chat or two, and who knows, over time, we might get to know each other's strengths and weaknesses. That way, we will know what we'll be up against when we're ready for extra RPs.

RAWN89: Hello guys! We're finally getting started with the story for real now!
It's gonna be a fairly long one, but we're determined to see it through and we got the entire story scripted, so there's no way we'll run out of ideas. However, editing takes time, so please don't rush us, but feel very free to encourage us and let us know what you think of the story.

Oh, and since Shauna mentioned it; please don't give me RP requests. Flattering as it is, I really can't juggle any more projects.

Thank you for your attention. Now please enjoy the chapter.

XXX

On a frozen landscape, far away from civilization, the engine of a single red plane flying close to the ground disturbed the silent and vast tundra, creating a large trail of powdery snow whirled up by the share speed.

Tails managed to steer the biplane just above the evergreen tree line of the forest below whenever they almost came into contact. He knew that it was also too dangerous right now to ascend too quickly into the strong and colder winds above, or risk the wings and propeller freezing, and cause the Tornado to stall.

At the moment, they were just ahead of the storm, which had unfortunately turned inland. The sky was darkening by the mile.

The two tailed fox was starting to question if it would even be safe to press on any further. Due to the weather, he could no longer map out the area, nor get an accurate location on the Chaos Emerald that they were hunting for. There was no guarantee they would find any shelter out here without the help from technology.

The only thing he could rely on right now was Sonic's know-how with Chaos Emerald hunting, and his own instincts in these kinds of situations. They both knew how to fly the Tornado, but Sonic often left the piloting to him.

"It's no good, Sonic." The vulpine shouted out, unsure if the hedgehog, crouched above him on a wing, heard him through the wind and also the fact that he was still wearing all his clothes, including a hat, scarf and earmuffs. "We'll have to hunker down until the storm passes."

Nothing but the howling wind met his ears.

"If we turn around now, we can reach that cosy little town that we passed a couple of hours ago," he tried again when he didn't get an immediate reply.

Sonic moved from his spot on the wing of the plane, where he preferred to be, so he had a better view, down to the seat behind his little brother. "It's close. I can feel it."

"Sonic..." Tails protested, to which the hedgehog responded by putting his hands on his sibling's shoulders to calm the fox.

"I agree. The Tornado won't make it…" He stated.

Tails heaved out a heavy sigh of relief and proceeded to turn the plane around.

"But... I will," Sonic smiled confidently.

Before Tails had any time to protest again, the hedgehog had already removed most of his warm clothes, save for his red scarf wrapped snugly around his neck, stuffed them and some provisions into a backpack and jumped out of the plane with a quick 'see ya later' salute.

As the fox turned the plane, he saw Sonic land and then run off in the direction that they were previously heading to. With the wind blowing even more harshly now, the kit had no chance of following his brother. He guessed his only option right now was to try and head for the town.

Hopefully, he wouldn't have to wait too long before rendezvousing with the reckless hedgehog there.

XXX

As Sonic fought through the cold wind and snow, he realized that at least it was slightly warmer on the ground, instead of in the air, on the wing of the Tornado. He deliberately ran in one direction for what felt like a half an hour.

He could feel his Chaos Energy pulling him toward the Emerald like a magnet. He remembered how Knuckles was able to detect the Master Emerald shards after Eggman had shattered it in his last scheme. He guessed that he could now do the same, but with Chaos Emeralds, since he was often in close contact with them, compared to a normal Mobian.

Suddenly, he noticed a shadow covering him, breaking him out of his trance. For a moment, he thought that maybe Tails had chased after him, but the shape was completely wrong. He looked up and instantly recognised who and what it was.

"Eggman," he groaned. He silently hoped that the increasingly stronger winds prevented his enemy from seeing him from the gargantuan Egg Carrier.

XXX

After a few minutes of hiding beneath the Egg Carrier, Sonic realized that the giant flying fortress started to move a little faster than he was. But why?

The hedgehog's eye brows furrowed at the situation. As he looked around, he suddenly noticed something - the terrain that he was running on was clear of obstacles, with no tree line for about a kilometre to the sides of him. The blue blur then looked down, crouched, brushed some snow away and confirmed one of his worst fears:

He was literally treading on ice.

He thought about turning, but the Chaos Emerald was so close...
He couldn't just let Eggman have it either, so he pressed on. The aircraft had now passed him. Running faster to catch up would result in a sonic boom which would, without a doubt, shatter the ice and make his situation even worse, so he had to stay at the pace that he was going at. Without any warning, the Carrier took a sudden turn, so the side faced toward the hedgehog. Sonic stopped as fast as the icy ground would let him, almost losing his balance in the process.

"Surprise!" An intercom suddenly burst to life, revealing a familiar voice. "Didn't think I'd notice, did you, you pesky little rat? Well, your body heat out here sticks out like a sore thumb!"

"Wait a sec! You knew I was here the whole time and you've been deliberately ignoring me? How rude," Sonic teased, while standing up straight and folding his arms confidently, in order to conceal how concerned he actually was.

"Ignoring you?" The Mobian could practically hear the smug tone in the doctor's voice. "Look around, hedgehog. You fell right into my trap! I've been 'ignoring you', until you reached the centre of this frozen lake! Perhaps I should apologize if it'll make you feel any better?"

Whatever was left of the blue blur's false bravado was now gone. His quills were tense, strutting in every direction and he couldn't stop himself from taking a step backwards into a defensive position.

What should he do? Eggman had planned for this, probably even before the hedgehog had noticed that he was being followed. Sonic couldn't get a good grip on the ice now that he had gotten to a full stop, so making a run for it was impossible, since he would have to start slow, which would be insufficient to avoid bullets. The doctor was also out of range to attack directly.

After a few seconds of enjoying the moment and letting the hedgehog's dire situation sink in, Eggman finally spoke, knowing that he was holding all the cards. "I'll take that silence of yours as a 'yes' then. Please accept this as your 'apology'." He added, before pressing a button.

A barrage of bullets and missiles were all fired at once. Sonic jumped as high up in the air as he could to avoid the bullets which were aimed at the ground where he had just stood. The artillery tore up the ice, making it crack into thousands of pieces that would no doubt be impossible to land on without falling into the freezing water. He had noticed that the missiles had changed their direction and hurtled towards him a few seconds after being deployed. Heat-seeking missiles? Now that was something he could work with. He landed on the middle of the first one to reach him and jumped from it before it had time to explode. He rapidly repeated this procedure at blinding speed, while making his way toward the Carrier. He quickly reached it and landed on the deck of the airship. If he had counted correctly, there should be one missile left...

As he glanced up, he saw it speeding towards him. He ran along the deck and at the last second, he dodged out of the way, leading the missile towards the control deck, as he quickly made his way around to the stern to search for a safe escape route. He soon found one near enough to shore and then proceeded to clamber onto the top of the metal railing guard and prepared to leap.

The following explosion had been far greater than what Sonic had anticipated and he was hurled away by the blast before getting the chance to make a proper jump. He was lucky enough to be flung in the direction of land, but his landing was far less than graceful. As he tumbled in the snow, before skidding over the flurry, his left shin received a nasty cut from a sharp rock hidden under the snow. When his head stopped spinning from the dizziness, he tried to get up, but his leg wouldn't carry him and he dropped down. His vision growing blurry before blacking out.

XXX

He didn't know how long he'd been out of it, but once his eyesight focused once again, he noticed how dark the sky was.

"It's already night? How long was I out?" Sonic mumbled, while carefully moving his stiff, cold body into a sitting position.

As he rubbed his head, he looked down and noticed his leg was moderately bleeding. He moaned softly and winced with the pain when he clutched his leg to inspect it. Not too severe, but he would need to clean and bind it once he found shelter to avoid infection. The strong scent of blood hit his nose, along with another faint scent that got stronger over time. That was when he suddenly detected it to be smoke and realized that it wasn't night-time at all. A huge black cloud had obscured the light. Smoke that was now escaping from the Egg Carrier, which had collided into the base of a nearby mountain. The craft had crashed, partially onto its side, with a lot of parts completely snapped off, and with several large holes along the hull. It looked beyond repair and was still burning.

Sonic wondered if Eggman had gotten out, or if he was still trapped inside the wreckage.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to walk for a while, he decided to shuffle through the snow and debris, in order to see the extent of the damage and try to find some supplies. The hedgehog found that it was hard and painful dragging his mutilated leg through the snow, especially with the now heavy-feeling backpack on his back.

XXX

After a while, he made it to the wreck. With great effort, he grabbed onto a metal pole and hoisted himself up into a standing position. He hoped that his bad leg wouldn't give out beneath him as he moved forward, and decided to leave his backpack here in case it made noise, or got snagged on something unexpectantly and hurt himself even more. He used his red scarf to cover his mouth and nose to avoid breathing in any lingering smoke. While limping through the area of the wrecked Carrier, hoping to find something useful, he noticed movement a little further ahead. He couldn't quite make out what it was through the thick, black smoke. A robot, or could it be Eggman himself? Had he survived the missile explosion and crash landing?

As he hid behind some debris, he wondered who or what was up ahead. That was until he heard some muttering and cursing and deemed it to definitely be Eggman. He wasn't really that surprised to see his enemy alive. As he peeked around some metal, he noticed that the doctor was trying to use the communicator on his wrist, but it appeared to be damaged, along with everything else in the vicinity. Even the human hadn't come away completely unscathed. He had a few bandages here and there on his body, plus his red coat was partially singed or ripped in places. Sonic decided that it was definitely time to leave, and look somewhere else for supplies before Eggman found him.

He was just about to turn around to leave, when he noticed what appeared to be a green box with a white cross on it on the ground just a few steps closer to his enemy. Eggman wasn't looking in his direction and the smoke was thick enough to at least blur him out should the doctor look his way.

Sonic mentally face-palmed. He knew that he needed that first aid kit, otherwise he wasn't going to get very far, but he also knew he wasn't going to take any unnecessary risks. He grabbed a small object beside him and flung it at some metal nearby, so a loud clang resonated.

Said human glanced in the direction that the sound had originated from and moved toward it to inspect what it was. Sonic moved carefully toward the box as silently as he could. He reached it, but his leg was hurting badly and started to become quite shaky. He grabbed the kit and rolled out of the way. He sat down behind a table that was on its side, so he at least would be hidden if the doctor came back.

He placed the kit in front of him. While relying on his ears to hear if Eggman was close, he carefully and as quietly as he possibly could, opened the box by unlatching both locks on the lid. Once he opened the kit, he sighed in immense relief. It was still well stocked, so he proceeded to get to work on mending his injured leg.

The first thing he did was to fish out some disinfectant spray and gauze, before applying the spray first. He flinched as he felt the painful stinging sensation cover the wound. A soft whimper-like growl escaped him, but was luckily muffled by the scarf. He then reached for the gauze, wrapped it around his leg and secured it tightly. Then he took a few bandages and stuffed them into the sock on his good leg. Then he locked both latches on the lid of the first aid kit, not noticing that one wasn't locked in properly.

He only hoped that his leg would be good to go soon. There was no way that he could afford to be out here for too long and had to find some shelter from the freezing cold weather.

Before trying to get back up and leave, he listened for any sounds from Eggman, in an attempt to pinpoint exactly where he was. His scarf covered nose was currently out of the question, since the smoke hindered his sense of smell. He couldn't hear anything, but the howling wind and crackling fires. He peeked from behind his hiding place. The smoke had started to clear, making it easier to see, but there was no one there. Maybe the doctor had left the Carrier's wreckage?

Slowly, he got up and tested his bad leg. The bandage helped in stabilizing his wounded leg, but he was still reduced to a slow, limping walk and running was definitely out of the question. It would most likely need a couple of days to heal. With his leg now somewhat functional, he decided to return the first aid kit back to its original position just in case.

He quickly and quietly made his way to the outskirts of the wreck zone. He had just walked a few steps out in the snow-covered ground, when he noticed something that made him stop. His own blood-flecked shoeprints and backpack were still here as he made his journey in. Only this time they were joined by another set of tracks and these were not made by an animal or robot.

He froze as he suddenly felt a presence from behind.

The only thing that the hedgehog could do was attempt to curse from his slip up, before he was flung backwards into the snow.

"Ugh!" Sonic sat up with an annoyed expression, brushed of some snow from his head, and gave the human an unamused expression that said 'really?'

Eggman, however, didn't look very pleased either, with his hands on his hips. "Don't you dare give me that look, hedgehog! Not after you destroyed my beautiful and precious flying fortress!" He added as he pointed to his ruined structure nearby.

"Oh? I'm sorry that one of the missiles you shot at me backfired." The Mobian answered dryly.

The human growled at this response. Sonic knew exactly when he pushed one of Egghead's buttons, and this was one of those times. That was until the doctor stated something else in the exact same tone and also in a chillingly calm manner.

"Looks like that's not the only thing that has backfired…"

Sonic's ears slightly flattened and his quills rose in response. As he got up, he made sure to put all the weight on his good leg, to avoid showing how much pain using the other leg had caused him. He placed his injured leg lightly on the ground.

Eggman scoffed at the ridiculous display before he walked away, turning his back to the blue blur. It was as though he knew that the hedgehog couldn't hurt him. It was either that or the human was daring the Mobian to attack him.

"If your leg was fine, you'd be running circles around me right now...

...or better yet, you'd have already run far away from here." He then added.

"And what about you? If you had anything left up your sleeve, you would have used it by now." Sonic retorted in his defence.

Eggman laughed and turned back around to face the hedgehog. "Don't push your luck." He replied and showed Sonic a gun hidden under his jacket. "Shooting you now, would be like shooting fish in a barrel."

This made the hedgehog curious. The doctor had just passed up an opportunity to get rid of him. "What? Shooting me now is unsportsmanlike or something?" The blue one wondered.

The human frowned. "I prefer the term 'unchallenging'. Your speed probably matches that of a turtle right about now."

Sonic ignored the speed insult. Sure, he couldn't run, but he could still roll into a ball if he needed a quick getaway. The doctor had probably forgotten about that ability, since he rarely ever used it anymore (and he intended to keep it that way), mostly because he couldn't see and kept crashing or bumping into things that he didn't want to (which wouldn't really be much of a problem out on the tundra). "Then you're just leaving me here?" The blue one inquired.

Eggman smiled, slightly unnerving Sonic. "On the contrary... Since all my technology is down, I'm going to need a new Chaos Emerald radar."

"…and if I refuse?" The blue blur replied after interpreting the unexpected answer.

The doctor gave him a smug look that really spooked the hedgehog. He didn't even have time to blink as Eggman drew his plasma gun and fired, right beside his good leg, causing him to lift it involuntarily, and placing all his weight on the bad leg.

His bandaged leg couldn't take his weight like that and gave in, making Sonic fall yet again. "Ow." He softly winced at the pain. As he clutched his leg reflexively, he looked at Eggman with clenched teeth and a low growl in his throat. He didn't like it, but playing along seemed like the best option for now.

Said human stared at him callously. "Refuse... and the next shot won't be a warning one." He then started to walk away. "Or perhaps I'll simply leave you to the incoming blizzard." He added, while pointing to the dark clouds up ahead.

Sonic looked at the clouds, realizing that this storm could easily be lethal in his current state. He was starting to realize why Tails had decided to suspend the search and he should have listened. "Uhm, yeah, about that snowstorm, it'll be here pretty soon. And the Emerald? Hate to break it to you, but it's still a few miles away. Sooo, what's the plan, genius?" The hedgehog asked, his last line dripping with sarcasm.

As though unaffected by the Mobian's tone, the human explained. "Before my Egg Carrier crashed, I managed to print out a map of this entire area. There are a few log cabins scattered around these mountains. One's bound to be nearby. We're going to gather as much as we can salvage from this wreck and make our way over there. It'll take about two hours before the storm gets here."

Eggman then walked back to the destroyed air ship to see what he could gather. Before heading back into the wreck, he then stopped. "Oh, and you might need these..." He replied as he shook and then flung a small box at the hedgehog's feet, landing in between his legs.

"What's this?" Sonic asked, while picking up the box.

"Painkillers." Eggman stated, before heading inside.

"Gee, that's awfully nice of you." Sonic mumbled sarcastically to himself. He stored the small box between his head quills, since he didn't have anything to drink the pills down with. Then, he got up and limped to some cover nearby, sat down to rest his leg and waited for the scientist. While running, he hadn't really been bothered by the cold, but sitting still on the snow? He couldn't feel his tail anymore. He hoped that the human would hurry it up, so that they could find shelter somewhere nearby and fast.

The doctor eventually returned with a large duffle bag. But what Sonic noticed was that he was also wearing a larger and heavier coat, which was wine coloured instead of the usual crimson that he adjourned. It also had white tufts on the end of the sleeves and the hood. As usual, it also bore the doctor's insignia on the sleeves near the shoulder.

He got up. "So, where are we heading?" The blue blur asked.

"The closest cabin is just to the North of here." The human replied as he checked the map. "According to this, it should be near that mountain." He said as he pointed to said peak nearby.

Sonic could still see it, but those dark clouds were closing in quickly and would soon envelop the entire mountain.

'That's too far away.' The hedgehog thought worriedly. "Ehm, Eggman?" The blue one asked a little shyly. "I don't think I can walk that far before the storm reaches us."

Said doctor glared at him, but he knew that the Mobian was right. At the rate he now moved, even the doctor was faster than Sonic at walking.

"Give me a moment." The human stated, as he put down his items.

XXX

Soon enough, they were on their way to the cabin. Sonic was sitting on the duffle bag on the human's back, while the hedgehog held onto his own back pack. This left Eggman's hands free to use two trekking poles.

The blue blur didn't mind the awkward situation, especially since he was also warmer than before, because the doctor had also used his heavier jacket and tied the sleeves around his chest, to act as a rope, so that nothing could fall off his back as he trudged through the deep snow.

Only the Mobian's head was exposed to the cold air. But he could always duck under. It felt like a makeshift pouch.

The doctor didn't seem to be too chatty at the moment, but the blue one didn't mind the silence. The steady rhythmic movements from the human walking were slowly lulling the tired hedgehog to sleep. Sonic didn't fight it, since he needed the rest and knew that he'd wake up as soon as Eggman stopped.

XXX

To be continued…