- Chapter 2 -

Mayhem in the Marble Zone

Scrap Brain Zone, South Island

After his battle with Sonic in the Green Hill Zone, Robotnik had retreated to the Scrap Brain Zone, an old industrial city that had been a home to humans prior to the Great War (1). After the Kingdom of Acorn had won the war, they were forced to evacuate the Scrap Brain Zone, which was quarantined as a result of its heavy pollution and remained abandoned for years. That is, until Robotnik came along and decided to make it a base of operations. He had taken up residence in an old robotics factory, which served him well for Badnik production.

"It seems Charles' nephew will prove quite a thorn in my side," he mused, stroking his mustache. "I'll have to rectify that posthaste."

He approached an old computer, through which he programmed his Badniks and Swatbots, and typed away for several minutes. On the screen appeared a picture of Sonic, along with the words "Priority One" flashing on-screen.

Marble Zone, South Island

After departing Green Hill, Sonic found himself in the Marble Zone, an ancient underground complex. The area was decorated with old marble ruins, along with columns and statues, all of which were overgrown with grass. He'd barely made it a few steps before another robot burst out of the ground, charging for him. He quickly ducked out of the way of the robot's gnashing metal jaws, and got a good look at it. The robot was a large purple caterpillar with a four-segmented body, covered in yellow spikes with two yellow antennae.

"Well, I'm on the right track, from the looks of it," he said aloud as the Caterkiller turned its glare on him.

"Hedgehog," it rasped. "Priority One."

"Priority One? Looks like I left an impression on Robuttnik."

The Caterkiller lunged at him again, but Sonic quickly darted out of the way as it slammed into the ground. Before it could get back up, Sonic charged forward and jumped straight ahead, outstretching both of his feet and slamming them full force into the Caterkiller's head, bashing a dent into it. The robot began sparking before it exploded, freeing its captive: a small, rotund blue bird with sky blue plumage, orange three-toed feet, and a matching beak. Sonic immediately recognized it as a Flicky. The Flicky flew over to Sonic, chirping frantically as he looked it over. While he didn't speak their language, Sonic had a good idea what it was saying.

"Don't worry," he assured the Flicky, patting the little bird's head. "I'll save the other animals Robotnik's trapped."

The Flicky let out a grateful chirp before flitting away. With that, Sonic jogged ahead to a ruin nearby, looking within. It was pitch-black inside, but suddenly, multiple eyes appeared from the darkness. "Whoa!" Sonic immediately recoiled as multiple robots flew out.

They were mechanical bats with blue bean-like bodies, metallic wings, small pointy ears, and rocket engines on their rears.

"Hedgehog, Priority One," the Bat Brains all chittered, flying at Sonic. "Hedgehog, Priority One."

"Wow," Sonic said flatly, getting to his feet. "I feel so popular right now."

As the Bat Brains flew around him, Sonic jumped into the air, tucking into a ball as he did and ramming into all of the Bat Brains one by one, destroying them and freeing the captive animals within, who all happily thanked Sonic before fleeing.

"Damn it..." Sonic muttered to himself as he continued on. "How many animals has he changed already?" He didn't get much farther before the ground began to shake. "That can't be good." Sonic thought to himself before the ground split open, revealing a magma deposit. "Definitely not good!"

He took off at breakneck speed, doing his best to stay ahead of the lava before diving into a nearby cave. Panting and wiping the sweat from his brow, he looked back, seeing the ground split open and lava flowing.

"Guess I'm not goin' back that way," he remarked, before turning back to the cave. "Might as well head deeper in."

Mobotropolis, Royal Hills Zone

Sally quickly led Porker and Johnny into the throne room, where her parents, King Maximillian "Max" Acorn and Queen Alicia Acorn.

Max was an older Mobian squirrel, sharing coloration with his daughter, along with a smooth, short auburn mustache. He wore a golden crown, along with a blue-colored uniform trimmed with red at the collar, sleeves, and bottom, with a red belt with an acorn-shaped buckle and gold epaulets, white gloves, and blue boots with buckles on the feet and red cuffs on top.

Alicia was a chipmunk like Sally, and basically resembled an older version of her daughter, except for longer red hair tied back with a gold hair tie. She wore an orange dress accented with gold jewelry, and a golden tiara.

"Sally?" Max demanded, looking at Porker and Johnny. "What is the meaning of this?"

Porker and Johnny bowed respectfully to the King before getting to business.

"Sir, there's big trouble going down on South Island," Porker began, speaking hurriedly. "Some crazy guy named Dr. Robotnik is going around attacking people with robots... and Sonic's trying to stop him."

"Sonic?" Alicia asked. "Sir Charles' nephew?"

"Yeah," Johnny replied, nodding eagerly. "It's a long story."

Marble Zone, South Island

Sonic slowly ventured down into the caves, eyes open and alert for any sign of danger. He didn't get much farther before he heard heavy metallic footsteps.

"Oh, great," he muttered, "now what?"

His answer came when three humanoid robots emerged from the shadows. While built similarly to Swatbots, they couldn't be any more different, with red armor, bucket-like helmets and grey, skeletal faces. Emblazoned on their chests was a stylized image of Dr. Robotnik's grinning face, clearly a logo.

"Wow," Sonic deadpanned at the sight of the logo. "Robuttnik sure is full of himself."

"Hedgehog, Priority One," the Troopers all intoned, pointing blasters at him.

"Yeah, yeah." Sonic rolled his eyes and charged.

They immediately began firing on him, but Sonic rapidly dodged, dashing forward in a Spin Attack and shredding clean through one. Another swung its fist at him, landing a glancing blow on his shoulder before Sonic jumped into the air, rebounding off his head before performing a somersault and coming down with a powerful axe kick, splitting the Trooper's head clean in half. It sparked for several seconds before collapsing.

"Oh, yeah! I am the best!"

As Sonic was gloating, the final Trooper aimed its blaster at him, preparing to shoot him in the back. Just before it pulled the trigger, Sonic's quills shuddered for a minute. Immediately, he turned and dashed forward, putting his fist clean through the Trooper's chest.

"H-how?" the Trooper demanded.

"Oh, just a little trick of mine." Sonic then pulled his fist out and allowing the sparking Trooper to fall back. As it did, it chuckled.

"You really think anything you do with matter? You only delay the inevitable. Long live... the Robotnik Empire..."

With one last evil laugh, the Trooper fell back, shutting down. Sonic looked over the fallen robots, noticing something.

"Just like the Swatbots... no Mobian or Mobini batteries."

At that, he made his way further down the caves, dodging various lava pits and spikes, before eventually finding himself outside, standing before a massive lava pit with a few rocky platforms scattered about.

"It's true what they say..." A familiar voice called out. Sonic turned toward the voice, seeing Robotnik flying in on the Egg Mobile, now equipped with what appeared to be a gun barrel on the underside. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

The barrel aimed at Sonic, and shot a fireball right at the blue hedgehog. Sonic quickly jumped back in time to avoid it, and leapt onto one of the platforms, looking up at his foe.

"Julian, stop!" he pleaded. "Think of the man you were! The warlord who helped the Kingdom of Acorn win the Great War! The man who wanted the best for Mobius!"

"How stupid are you, hedgehog?" Robotnik snapped. "The name 'Julian Kintobor' no longer has any meaning to me!" With that, he aimed at Sonic once more, firing another fireball which Sonic managed to dodge, jumping to another platform. "I am Ivo Robotnik! And Mobius will be mine!"

Sonic looked down, solemnly acknowledging Robotnik's words. "So that's how it is..." he muttered, before clenching his fists and looking up at him. "Fine! Then you're going down!"

Robotnik laughed at that and launched another fireball at him, but Sonic jumped over it and sprang at Robotnik, a blue-colored trail left in his wake, as he slammed into the bottom of the Egg Mobile. The vehicle rocked precariously for several seconds, but Robotnik kept his grip on the vehicle, steadying it.

"Miserable rodent!" he shouted. "I'll burn you to ash!"

An intense fight followed, Robotnik firing on Sonic, who alternated between attacking the vehicle and jumping to different platforms on the lava pit. Eventually, however, Sonic found himself cornered in the midst of the final unburned platform.

"Crap!" Sonic yelled, seeing he had nowhere else to go.

"'Crap' indeed," Robotnik said with a maniacal grin. "Game over, rodent."

The flamethrower aimed right at Sonic, who closed his eyes and knelt down as the fire engulfed him. Seeing his new nemesis seemingly burned alive, Robotnik let out an evil laugh, glancing at the remains of the platform-

-only for his jaw to drop at the sight of Sonic, perfectly alright, and surrounded by a blue energy field that protected him from the flames.

"What?!" Robotnik shouted. "How are you still-?!"

"Oh, just something I read about from some of my uncle's science lectures," Sonic said, standing up. "I vibrated the air molecules around my body at super speed to make a force field. I call it the Insta-Shield." He glared at the mad doctor. "And I call this... the Spin Dash!"

With that, he curled up into a ball, revving in place before slamming into the Egg Mobile, sending it careening away to slam into the ground on the other end of the lava pit, and Sonic landing next to it.

"Had enough, Doc?" Sonic asked.

Robotnik pressed several buttons on the damaged Egg Mobile, getting it back up as he glared at Sonic. "It's not over yet, hedgehog. Once my master plan is in effect, I'll have you begging for mercy!"

Having made that declaration, Robotnik flew away laughing.

"Master plan?" Sonic muttered. "Don't like the sound of that."

Mobotropolis, Royal Hills Zone

Max, Alicia, and Sally all sat and listened as Porker and Johnny told them of what happened to them at the Green Hill Zone, and Sonic's ongoing fight.

"This is... truly disconcerting," Max said aloud. "And Charles' nephew is going after him?"

"Yeah," Porker replied. "He's probably made it to the Spring Yard Zone by now."

"He seems to be doing pretty well so far," Johnny added. "I think he can handle it."

"Be that as it may, we better prepare a second front," Alicia insisted. "Sonic is just a child, and for all we know, Robotnik has an army at his beck and call."

Max stood up at that. "Indeed. Call General Armand, and rally the troops. We need to prepare for an army of our own."

Author's Note:

Again, sorry if this chapter's a bit short and the fight's a little... bleh, but I'm still powering through writer's block on this, and fight scenes aren't my specialty. That, and there aren't really any storylines/cutscenes in the first Sonic's levels to go on, and the first game is what I'm adapting for the initial arc.

King Max here uses his name from Archie's pre-Super Genesis Wave comics, but his personality design from his post-Super Genesis Wave self, Nigel. I just like Nigel Acorn better; he's more reasonable and not a grumpy, senile d-bag. As for who this General Armand is, Archie readers may recognize him as the father of Antoine D'Coolette.

The Trooper Badniks, the ones with the Swatbots that have the Eggman Empire logo on their chests, are from Fleetway's Sonic the Comic; they and the Swatbots serve as my Robotnik's primary enforcers/ground troops.

Voice cast for this chapter:

* Max - Robin Atkin Downes (Yasha from Asura's Wrath, Conrad Roth from Tomb Raider, Kazuhira Miller from Metal Gear)

* Alicia - Dorothy Elias-Fahn (Kyouko Yuuki from Sword Art Online, Kaoru Kamiya from Rurouni Kenshin, Meryl Strife from Trigun)

Next chapter: Sonic finds more trouble at the Spring Yard Zone.

Please R&R. Until next time!