Southside Island
"Chair? Check!"
"Shades? Check!"
"Peace? Check!"
In an instant, a blue hedgehog's lounging on a white beach chair, with sunglasses to save his eyes from frying up. His shoes are brown, and have some holes on the bottom. They need a replacement BAD, but he pays no mind."Ahh…"
This hedgehog doesn't have anything to his name. No bed, no kitchen, he just gets by on his own. He couldn't care less about all that. All he's focused on is the island drifting throughout the waters surrounding him. South Island's the only island to do that, separating itself from the rest.
A bird interrupts his session with its chirps. A squirrel comes running in too, an acorn in mouth. A rabbit, a chicken …this spots never been private. He slides his shades up with these new visitors. "You want in?"
He's gone in a flash, and back in a SECOND. He tosses seeds to the sand for the bird to catch.
Gone. Back with carrots for the rabbit. That little critter takes that whole carrot in ONE bite. "You're a hungry little guy aren't ya?" It just gives him a smile. "Aww..you can eat all the carrots you want."
Gone. Back with a few acorns. "Winter's gonna be rough." That squirrel's eyes dilate. This is the break that little guys been waiting for!
Gone..back with a little straw nest. That chicken steps into it after a long day of work.
More critters come around, but the hedgehog doesn't mind. He's reached a new state of nirvana. A sunny day? Good water? Some places could only dream of having this, but he was just grateful to take it in.
A dark spot swims through the water. That hedgehog lowers his shades. "Another shark attack? I feel for the fish." That shape moves up in his vision, and well…
"That's not a shark."
A flying, round cart, with grey paint and a eerie face covers the sun. A slim bald man, with a wide bushy mustache is the culprit. "Greetings, blue bumpkin."
"Huh? Oh, what's up?"
The man looks offended. JUST a "what's up?" The audacity of this clearly young animal. "I'm Doctor Robotnik. the greatest, and ONLY scientific genius in the world! Is that really how you greet overworlders, you petulant brat?"
"It's not 'petulant brat', it's Sonic. Is that really how you talk to people? You should study your social skills instead."
"Hasn't failed me before. I'm too cool for school." The man says, getting a snicker from the hedgehog. "What? What's so funny?"
"Hehehe.."
The Doctor clears his throat. His ego's in shambles, but he still has a job to do. "Say laughingstock..who runs this place?"
"Hehe, What?"
"Let me speak slower so you can understand: Whooos..yoooour..leeeader?"
"Have you BEEN here? We don't do elections." Sonic checks him. "We run wild and free. That's the life, and if you have a problem with that: you just hate fun."
"FUN?" The man grimaces. "Why focus on that when I can improve your meek little planet?" he asks, smashing a button. A gap opens up beneath him, sending out Motobugs and Crabmeats to start. The critters Sonic was hanging with have no choice but to run from these new predators.
Despite the threat, Sonic stands his ground. "You want some? Come get some."
His Badniks get tore through in seconds! In a matter of ten, Robotnik sends out his lizard-like Newtrons to block him, but Sonic dashes right through them! A Buzz Bomber gets in the way, but gets swatted down!
The Doctor's jaw is agape at the fight he's seeing. "The force.."
Sonic gets to his knees, blue lighting crackling around him..he shapes himself like a ball and uses two Buzz Bomber's as stepping stones! Robotnik gets a close view of this abnormality..before getting his cart rammed!
Sonic hits the ground with a smirk. "Had enough, Doctor?"
Robotnik's ride is turbulent, but the Doc grabs the control stick and gets it steady. He puts a hand on his heart. "Never again! You want to stop me so bad, hedgehog? Come get me!" He steers his cart away from the action. He's all the way at the other end, and Sonic wastes no time taking off!
His speed causes the palm trees to sway back and forth. The yellow and pink flowers lose some of their color. Sonic then crosses a bridge, with metal piranhas looking for a bite. His jaw almost drops, but he forces it back up.
"How deep has this guy gone?!"
He faces a slope, but rolls on down and gets a boost up from it. He leaps up three hills like the stairs they are, and lands on a rock. The Doctor has the gall to stroke his mustache! "So close, yet so far away.."
Sonic bolts past another rickety bridge, leaps over a rock, and pushes forward. He spots a yellow spring in the distance..
BOING!
The hedgehog lands on another hill, jumps off and bounces off more Bombers! He's gone airborne, forcing Robotnik to up his speed. "Subject..has a mutation. The origin is unknown." he whispers, hoping the hedgehog's run can come to a cruel end.
Sonic sees a circle end, starting at one end, with a new trail at the other. He zips upside down, round and round, hitting a new patch of land. Unfortunately for him, he's about to hit a wall too.
"Looks like you're speeding days are over!"
Sonic forces himself back into that ball, full throttle towards the wall. Then..he vanishes in the Doctor's eyes. After a few blinks, he's not speechless anymore. "Are you dead or alive? Hello? Rodent?"
Nothing.
"I guess I—"
Sonic bursts through the ground! Robotnik's eyes almost bulge out at this madness. "You break the laws of psychics!"
"I'm a repeat offender." Sonic quips. A sign comes up on his left, with a not-so-nice closeup of the Doctor, flashing all his teeth. Sonic just smacks it into a spin, leaving a smirking hedgehog instead.
Robotnik's face drops. "Oh it's like that?" Sonic doesn't respond, moving right past the doc. There's a few capsules, holding the creatures of this land prisoner. "Oh no you don't!"
"Oh yes. I. DO."
Sonic breaks the top of a capsule in half! That batch of animals scram, all white Robotnik's eyes are frozen watching his special capsule break. "..What ARE you?!"
"Ready for another round of turbulence?" Sonic goes for a spindash to end the fight once and for all..but a net shoots out and covers him! When he hits the ground, jolts of electricity shock him.
BZZZZZZ!
Sonic's got that burning sensation running all over, rings spilling out like crazy! More Badniks roll out and grab the poor animals. They're stuffed into dull containers, nowhere else for them to go. Their tiughest friend is trapped in a new weapon. That bird from earlier tries to fly away, but a Newtron catches it with his tongue. Sonic tries to rip the net, but still gets shocked!
"Awwww…" Robotnik flies over. "The Neanderthals didn't die off after all. HO-HO-HO!"
"That's..AGH! NOT FUNNY!" Sonic struggles.
"Don't worry. You'll pass soon enough." The Doctor says, leaving the hedgehog for now. Sonic digs into his quills and clutches a ring. He throws it beneath him..then a hole opens up with a gold border, Sonic falling right in!
It's starting to suck in the nature around it. Robotnik, noticing the outline, grabs ahold of the ring and makes a throw ontop the other! Two portals open, sucking the same pieces from world to world. He orders his Badniks to roll away, and they follow his orders.
The rings come together, and fade into golden dust…
Robotnik's panting like a madman. "I don't have an explanation for that..yet. You are the best in the world at what you do, Rob. That's nothing to you—"
His monologues interrupting by the glow of a quill, laying on the floor of his cart. He swipes it and gets a good look. "Hmm..we have a lead."
.
.
Sonic's falling from the sky, still getting shocked. Who knew one net could be so stubborn. He looks below and..
"Water. Water? No no no no.."
With no other option, electricity surges through him. He turns into a ball and slices through the net! The torture is over..for that phase. Water's not getting any further. Sonic tries running midair, but go figure, that won't do anything.
"Oh no—"
SPLASH!
Westside Island
A panting fox bolts from a bush, two brown foxes hot on his tails. "Get back here, freak!" The poor fox has to close his eyes just to stop the waterworks. He never asked for any of this, yet here he is. Same stuff, different day.
When will it end?
Tails finds himself cornered, and clutches his namesakes. His eyes water, he's completely defenseless..but they don't care. They're smiling at another day of teasing. "What did I do to you? I can f-fix it!"
"Bahaha! You hearin' this kid?"
"The same line everytime!" The other cracks his knuckles. "We oughta teach punks like you a good lesson."
They each take a tail and dangle him in the air. No protest he makes gets them to stop.
SPLASH!
The commotion gets their attention. "The heck was THAT?"
"I won't be around to find out.." the other brown one says, retreating.
"Wuss.." the last fox says, pointing the finger at Tails. "You got off lucky. Next time I'll tear one off." He walks away laughing, leaving the yellow fox as a dirty, frizzy mess. Unfortunately for him, it's a casual day. He has to scrounge for scraps, and stay on his feet because of his mutation.
The last brown left heads to the ocean, leaving his target behind. Tails crawls behind a tree, curious to see what's going to happen.
A new animal peaks his head out! "HELP! I CAN'T SWIM! I CAN—" He's on the shore. "Oh."
"What're you screaming for! Weirdo.."
Sonic just runs at him and screams in his face! "OOOOO! I'M GONNA TAKE YOU TO THE LABYRINTH! OOOOO!"
The bully jumps and runs away! "Don't hurt me!"
"I'm not." Sonic chuckles as he gets a look at his surroundings. "That'll show him weird…So, new place. Hope that maniac didn't get his grubby hands all over it."
The fox brushes some dirt off his tails, and turns around to leave…the hedgehog's RIGHT THERE. "AH!"
"Two for two." He jokes, standing with power.
Tails has to catch his breath, panting the most he's ever had. "You…you were just—"
"Hey, don't sweat it. I was born with super-speed. Totally normal."
Tails raises a brow. "You were born in the right place."
"Yep. Names Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog." he offers a hand to him. Tails digs into his fur, but only has a couple rings. "I don't have anything! Promise!"
"Easy kid, I'm not a criminal! I'm just a hedgehog with a need for speed." Sonic flashes a confident smirk. "You?"
"Oh.." the fox pauses. Nobody usually asks him about his day at all. Bullying and petty robbery is the norm, Kid just goes through the motions. "I'm Miles Prower..but my people call me Tails."
"Tails? Wait—" Sonic pops up behind him, getting a good view of them. "You've got two?"
Tails' lip quivers. "..yeah…" great. Another person to dig on him for it. Another person to treat him like common trash. Another—
"That's AWESOME!"
"Huh?!"
Sonic tilts his head. "Yeah! Speeds cool and all, but i bet you got cool tricks of your own."
Tails immediately freezes. Did he just..compliment those? What world is he living in?! This has to be a dream. "Pinch me." Sonic obliges. "Ow!"
"Hey you told me."
Tails forms a tiny smile. "I just wanted confirmation…" he glances at Sonic's bruises. "What happened to you?"
"Crazy guy's attacking South."
"Wait what?!"
"Yeah. He's got this weird thing for machines too. I tried to save my friends, but.." Sonic shakes his head. "He got me by surprise. One net made this whole thing worse."
"Wow..but you're fast! You can stop him!"
"I thought so too." Sonic admits. "Next time I see him, I'm dodging that thing, and tearing through those bots in no time."
"Robots?" Tails scratches his forehead.
Sonic's stomach grumbles. "We can chat over a bite. Ever tried a chili dog?"
"What's that?"
Sonic gasps. "You've never had one? That's insane."
"I'm poor."
"Right…be right back."
The dead of night…
That weasel of a Doctor parks his egg-mobile in the middle of the desert. After bending two fingers on his right hand, a clicks heard as a patch of sand sinks. Robotnik smiles as a hole takes the sands place.
"Look out below!"
He leaps down! One bad fall and it's all over before it begins. Lucky for him..a man dawning all black catches him.
"Stone.."
"Doctor. You look like a winner."
"Your appreciation is noticed, sycophant." The Doctor responds, walking to a room full of screens with a purpose. "Did you ever hear of the legend?"
"What kind?"
"Artifacts, Stone." The Doctor answers, swiping a holographic screen. Seven gems pop up, each with a different color. "It can make this scheme our absolute best. If we get our hands on the Chaos Emeralds, I'll be all powerful!"
"Hold on..start from the beginning. What do they even do?"
Robotnik sticks a finger up. "I'm glad you asked. It's hard for lifeforms like you to understand. These babies give you ultimate power! If I want to conquer the world, nobody would be able to get in my way. Especially that blue blur. He'll watch as I steamroll this land into the next technological REVOLUTION!"
Stone flashes a smile. "You would be a great king, sir."
"I'd be controversial..but who cares? When you get enough power, nobody can stop you. Besides..you'd be one of the running mates I've ever had."
"Controversial is an understatement. You'd be the most hated king in the galaxy."
"I'm already the most loathed scientist on Earth, so that equation adds up. They have gall telling me MY machines need locked up..yet their search history does more harm than anything I build." The Doctor vents. "It's no wonder I found my way down here before they could. I'm always ten steps ahead of those miserable douchebags."
A container rises up next to the screen. A birds meeping inside, pecking the glass. "Doctor..I didn't know you tested on animals."
"Just started. Besides, it's not abuse if it's for science."
Rays zap the bird! Despite all the pain, it's desperately pecking..but no matter how hard it picks, that glass is impenetrable. The poor creature is hopeless. Smoke fills the container, taking the bird with it…
A Buzz Bomber takes its place.
Stone's covering his mouth. "..that was hard to watch."
Robotnik wraps his arm around Stone's back. "It was for me too..but when an entire empire is on the line, it's easy to cut my emotions." One more pat on Stone's back, and he lets him go. "I believe I've found the key to these experiments..
The Doctor pulls that blue quill out..he tries tasting it, but gets zapped. "Ew.."
"Is that the hedgehog's?"
"Of course it is!" The Doctor shouts, raising the quill to Stone. "Want a taste?"
So, Robotnik's motives have been revealed, and surprise surprise: he wants to conquer the world. Average Eggman Activity. He hasn't been called Eggman YET for a few reasons. He's not fat enough, and I'd also like him to earn the name the longer Sonic knows him.
Speaking of Sonic, he's not digging this invasion. He's got a soft spot for the wildlife, and seems to enjoy nature in general. The Doctor's agenda doesn't line up with the hedgehog's ideals, which will be explore more later. For now, Sonic's going to get to know this new fox that showed up in his life.
Chapter 2 comes soon.