- Chapter 1 -

The First Fight

Metropolis City, Soumerca

Upon successfully escaping from the university, Robotnik retreated to his home in the Metropolis City Zone, another human settlement on Mobius and one of the largest cities on the planet. Said home was an old, abandoned warehouse that he, as Julian Kintobor, had converted into both a laboratory and living quarters. The centerpiece of the lab was a supercomputer, with which he had used to gather information on the Chaos Emeralds for the purpose of the ROCC project. Also strewn about the lab were various machines and robot parts, with which Robotnik intended to build up his world conquering army.

"Soon, a new era shall begin... The glorious era of the Robotnik Empire!"

A maniacal laugh burst forth from him as he began his work...

Station Square, Soumerca

Sonic and the remaining scientists were still shaken after everything they had just witnessed. Losing Julian, Robotnik's chilling declaration, and the destruction of the ROCC project was a bit much for all of them. Still, they pulled themselves together, preparing to head for the Kingdom of Acorn to inform the royal family. However, just as they were about to leave, a voice called out from the rubble.

"Hey..." The voice had a mechanical tinge to it, like it was coming from a phone. "Where am I?"

They all froze at that, because that voice was none other than the voice of Julian! Forgetting their mission for the time being, all four of them began looking around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Julian?!" Nate called out. "Julian, can you hear me?!"

"Yes, I can... what's going on here?"

"Just keep talking, Julian," Dillon insisted, pushing over some fallen machinery. "We'll find you."

In the end, it was Sonic who was finally able to locate the source of the voice. However, it wasn't a phone, or even a piece of machinery. Instead, it was one of the Power Rings. Sonic picked it up tentatively, looking at it in confusion.

"Julian?" he questioned.

"Sonic? Is that you?" The ring pulsated with each word spoken, vibrating ever so slightly.

"Yeah, it's me," Sonic replied, gesturing the others over as he held up the ring. "But how is this possible. How did you... How are you a Power Ring?"

"Somehow, the ROCC explosion must have burned Julian's brain patterns onto the ring," Nate surmised, looking at the ring in utter astonishment. "Fascinating. Chaos Energy truly is unpredictable."

"A Power Ring?" Julian's voice repeated. "Well, that explains why I can't see anything. It's completely dark, and I can't tell where anything is..."

Chuck grimaced at that, hating the idea of his friend trapped in such a horrible state. However, he quickly perked when he saw that one of the computer terminals was still functional. He quickly got an idea, walking over to it and prying open the casing. The other three in the room all watched him curiously as he pulled out a couple wires and made some quick changes.

"Sonic, the ring please?" Chuck held out his hand.

Confused, but intrigued, Sonic handed over the ring. Chuck took it and inserted it into the computer, attaching it to various wires before closing the terminal. He then booted up the monitor and typed away at it for several minutes. Everyone gathered around, watching and waiting until an image dominated the monitor: Dr. Julian Kintobor's head.

"Oh, that's much better," the image declared, smiling at the four before him. "Hello everyone. I'm glad to see none of you are seriously hurt."

"Uncle Chuck..." Sonic let out, confused. "What did you do?"

"I uploaded the brainwaves on the ring onto the computer system," Chuck explained. "This is all that's left of Julian, before he turned into... whoever that was."

"Dr. Ivo Robotnik," the Kintobor Computer replied, looking down in shame. "An evil facsimile of myself from what I can tell, one that has completely lost his mind."

"So we noticed," Sonic said flatly.

"Sonic," Chuck turned to his nephew, grasping his shoulders and looking him dead in the eye, "you must get to Mobotropolis and warn the King. We'll stay here pick up the pieces."

Sonic nodded and quickly dashed off to do so, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. The scientists all watched him go, praying that he would get there in time.

Green Hill Zone, South Island

In record time, Sonic had made it to South Island, home of Mobotropolis, the capital of the Kingdom of Acorn. South Island was a trove of gems and ancient ruins, and was rumored to possess a connection to the Chaos Emeralds. As a result, the island moved along the ocean surface. Nonetheless, it was still considered part of the Acorn Archipelago, the islands that made up the kingdom.

Sonic was currently in the Green Hill Zone, one of his favorite spots to relax. A natural mountain paradise of a Zone, Green Hill was filled with green fields and beautiful blue lakes. It featured large waterfall vistas, palm trees, rotating flowers, flora in various colors and totem poles of unknown origin. Perhaps most distinctively, the soil was checkered brown.

Sonic hadn't gotten far before he was stopped by a bizarre sight: two large, robotic blue bees that were swooping down on him.

"What the-?" he let out. "What are you guys?"

"We are the Badniks!" one of the bees declared. "Loyal servants of the great Dr. Robotnik."

"You will be taken back to the doctor's lair and become one of us!" shouted the other.

The bees aimed their stingers at Sonic, rapid-firing lasers out of them. Sonic casually jumped from side to side, dodging every laser before deciding to try out a new technique he'd been working on. Curling up into a concussive ball, Sonic revved up and sprang at the bees, hitting them with the force of a cannonball and destroying them. He landed expertly on the ground, smirking.

"Perfect! The Spin Attack works like a charm."

However, the smirk was wiped off of Sonic's face when he noticed what had emerged from the Badniks' bodies: a living Mobian pig and rabbit. Specifically, two of his friends, Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot. Porker was a pink-skinned pig with blue eyes dressed in a black jacket, white shirt, blue jeans, and black shoes. Johnny was a gray-furred rabbit with matching eyes and a white muzzle who was dressed in a red leather jacket, white tank top, and blue jeans. Porker was a technical genius while Johnny was a good gymnast and stick fighter.

"Porker? Johnny?!" Sonic exclaimed in shock. "What the hell is going on here?!"

"It's not what it looks like, Sonic!" Porker said quickly, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. "It was that crazy Dr. Robotnik guy!"

"These crazy robots captured us so he could stuff us in those things," Johnny hastily explained, performing a similar gesture. "They were using us as some kind of power source."

Sonic turned away, mulling it over. "Crap, it's already started." He turned back to Porker and Johnny, who both lowered their hands. "I don't have time to explain. You two get to Mobotropolis and warn King Max of this."

Johnny nodded at that. "But what are you gonna do?"

Sonic turned in the direction his two robo-incased friends had come from. "I'm gonna take care of Robotnik."

And with that, he dashed off.

-X-

It wasn't long before he found himself surrounded by the robots Porker and Johnny had mentioned. They were a metallic dark blue, with a single red optical visor. Spikes protruded from their joints and head while metal fins occupied their forearms.

"You are under arrest in the name of Dr. Robotnik," one declared as each of the bots raised their arms, which opened up to reveal laser blasters. "You will come with us Swatbots or be vaporized."

"Yeah, I'll get right on that," Sonic said flatly.

Immediately, the bots all began firing on Sonic, who dodged left and right with his Quick Step maneuver. Finding an opening, he dashed forward with the speed of a bullet, putting his fist right through the first Swatbot's chest. The robot sparked as it fell, a gaping hole through its torso.

"So these bots aren't powered by any Mobians," Sonic remarked, letting out a breath as his gaze hardened. "Good to know."

That meant he didn't have to hold back. Revving in place, he rocketed forward in spin-ball form, his quills outstretched as he shredded through each robot one at a time. Coming to a stop, Sonic looked over the remains of the Swatbots, clapping his hands together as if getting rid of dust.

"Well, that's just sad," he remarked. "I was hoping these would be more of a challenge."

"I'll give you one, rodent!" came a familiar voice.

Sonic looked up at the voice, and gasped to see Dr. Robotnik flying in on a gray egg-shaped hovercraft. It had black and yellow hazard stripes on the sides, a black circular hemispherical underside, rocket engines on the rear for propulsion and a small circular lamp on the front. Robotnik himself was dressed in a new outfit, wearing a pair of navy blue pince-nez sunglasses, gray, red-lensed goggles on his bald head, a red turtleneck jacket with white trim, yellow cuffs and gold rectangular buttons, and black one-piece pants/boots with silver accents and buttons.

"Dr. Robotnik!" Sonic shouted, pointing at him.

"Yes, how observant you are," Robotnik drawled. "My Badniks and Swatbots just went offline here, so I came to investigate. And who should I find but Sir Charles' nephew?"

"You have to stop this! This isn't you!"

"It is now. Julian Kintobor is dead. And with the power of my Egg Mobile, you're going to join him!"

A small opening appeared in the bottom of the Egg Mobile, and from it descended a checkerboard-patterned wrecking ball suspended by a chain. The wrecking ball spun in a circular pattern below the Egg Mobile, before Robotnik launched it at Sonic with startling speed. Sonic narrowly managed to dodge as the wrecking ball smashed the ground right below him, leaving an impact crater before retracting.

Jumping into the air, Sonic tucked into a ball, leaving a blue aura-trail in his wake as he slammed into the underside of the Egg Mobile, rocking it precariously. As Robotnik was rocked back and forth by the impact, Sonic, thinking quickly, spun through the chain with his quills extended, slicing through it before grabbing the chain.

Robotnik gasped in horror and began to back up the Egg Mobile, but Sonic, spinning the wrecking ball by the severed chain, hammer-threw the ball into the Egg Mobile, knocking it out of the air and sending it careening off a good distance before it hit the ground. Shaking the cobwebs out of his head, Robotnik gunned the thrusters of the Egg Mobile, getting it back up into the air.

"This isn't over, Sonic!" he declared. "You've won this battle, but the war has just begun!"

With that, he rocketed off, leaving Sonic standing there, his arms crossed.

"If that's the case," the heroic hedgehog called back, "I hope the next bot of his gives me a better challenge."

Mobotropolis, Royal Hills Zone

Elsewhere, Porker and Johnny had managed to make it to Mobotropolis, the capital city of the Kingdom of Acorn, located in the Royal Hills Zone, a lush, rolling green paradise adjacent to Green Hill Zone. Running as fast as they could, the two made it to Castle Acorn, where just outside relaxed the princess of the kingdom and Sonic's childhood friend, Sally Acorn.

Sally was a pretty Mobian chipmunk with brown fur and a tan muzzle, as well as dark auburn hair and blue eyes. She wore a blue vest over a dark blue short-sleeved shirt, black shorts, blue boots with white outlines, and blue bracelets on both wrists.

"Princess Sally!" Johnny shouted, running up to her.

Sally looked up, noticing their arrival.

"Porker? Johnny?" she said, realizing something was wrong. "What's going on?"

"Something bad," Porker replied. "Sonic sent us. We need to talk to King Max right away."

Author's Note:

As you can see, this first arc will be an adaptation of the very first game. Sorry if it's a bit... bleh, but I had to power through quite a bit of writer's block to get this chapter out as it is.

And to my reviewer Void Reader, PLEASE stop sending reviews pestering me about updating the next chapter and all that. It's getting on my nerves. The next chapter will be ready when it's ready, and not before; I do have other fics I'm working on, you know.

For those not in the know, Porker, Johnny, and the Kintobor Computer are all taken from the British Sonic the Comic.

Next chapter, Sonic finds himself in the Marble Zone, and things start to heat up for him.

Voice cast for this chapter:

* Johnny Lightfoot - Micah Solusod (Soul Eater Evans in Soul Eater, Toma Kamijo in A Certain Magical Index, Eriol Hiiragizawa in Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card)

* Porker Lewis - Greg Ayres (Frost in Dragon Ball Super, Tomoyo Sakurai in Heaven's Lost Property, Negi Springfield in Negima)

* Princess Sally - Amanda Winn-Lee (Yukiko Amagi in Persona 4, Heather Mason in Silent Hill 3 HD, Rei Ayanami in Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Please R&R. Until next time!