- Chapter 52 -

A Crude Awakening

Oil Ocean Refinery

Bunnie's group arrived at the Oil Ocean Refinery, taking in the sights and seeing it had been abandoned for quite some time.

"Guess Robotnik decided to jump ship and leave this place as is after the Death Egg mess," Bunnie mused.

"What a mess…" Mina said.

She looked over the edge, only to recoil with a scream as a green scaly hand with webbed fingers emerged from the oily mess.

"Gyah!" she shrieked. "What is that?!"

Shorty blasted it with a laser. The hand recoiled, before bursting out to reveal a humanoid, green-skinned fish creature, nursing its burnt hand.

"What the hell is that?!" Shortfuse demanded.

Bunnie looked between the creature and the oil, putting two and two together.

"A mutant," she realized. "No doubt the result of toxins mixing with the environment."

"So, Robotnik pollutes the sea around here, people leave it alone, and now the local wildlife are becoming ravenous mutants?" Mina pondered.

"Such a horrible tragedy," Antoine lamented. "We'll need to see that this wrong is righted."

"What're we gonna do about him?" Mina pointed at the fish creature, which didn't seem to be making a move to attack.

"Leave him be," Shortfuse decided. "We won't bother the critters here unless they bother us first."

They began backing away and the fish creature retreated.

"Now I feel bad for you shooting it," Mina admitted.

"It was instinctive," Shortfuse defended.

"Just try not to be trigger happy in the future," Bunnie told him. "These are simply mutated Mobini, not threats."

As long as they don't try to attack us first, I won't." Shortfuse replied.

They began to look for the final Emerald, searching through the refinery. Before long, low, feral growls reached their ears.

"That did not sound very friendly," Antoine mused.

They were already on the edge as a pack of Mobini dogs emerged. The dogs resembled Muttski, except covered in bony protrusions and having borderline skeletal figures. Mina's hands went to her mouth in horror.

"Oh, God…" she let out.

"Mobini dogs…" Bunnie remarked. "Thank Aurora Sonic's not here."

"How do we handle this situation?" Antoine asked.

"They're just animals," Bunnie reminded them. "They're in pain, not knowing what they're doing. Incapacitate, don't kill."

"Look at these poor mutts," Shortfuse mused. "I almost feel putting them down would be a mercy."

That earned him multiple glares. "Almost, I said!"

"You heard Bunnie," Antoine pointed out. "Incapacitate. Do not kill!"

The skeleton dogs attacked. The foursome fought back, using the minimal amount of force and knocking them out.

"There might be a way to cure these mutations," Bunnie explained. "That's why I said not to kill them, Shorty. If there's a cure, Tails and the other brainiacs will find it."

"Fair point," Shortfuse conceded before sighing. "The sooner we find the Emerald and get outta this dump, the better. I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Mina, you can cover more ground than us," Bunnie decided. "You find the Emerald. We'll keep the mutants at bay."

"Okay," Mina nodded. "I'll do my best."

Mina zipped off, looking around. Eventually, she saw a small glow emitting from a pole above. Mina looked up, seeing what appeared to be a nest built into it.

"That's gotta be it," she mused before climbing the pole, seeing the gray Chaos Emerald inside the nest and surrounded by a group of Mobini squirrels.

"Rickies? Huh. I was expecting-" She nearly lost her grip when the Rickies turned to face her, revealing each had a third eye in their foreheads. "Ah! Three-eyed Rickies!"

They all chittered at the sight of her.

"Nice Rickies…" Mina tried to soothe. "Nice mutant Rickies… I just want the Chaos Emerald, then I'll leave you alone."

They hissed at her, then ran off with the Emerald.

"No, no no!" Mina cried. "Come back!"

She slid down the pole before running after them. It wasn't hard for Mina to catch up to the Ricky family. She snatched up the Emerald, looking at them with pity.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," she said softly before hurrying to rejoin the others.

-X-

They were still fighting off the skeleton dogs, weapons set to stun. Antoine kept apologizing with every hit he delivered. Mina ran in, holding up the Emerald as she came.

"Alright, I got it!" she screamed. "Let's get outta here!"

"Alrighty then!" Bunnie declared. "Little Planet, here we come!"

She pulled out a Warp Ring and threw it, opening up a portal which everyone ran through. It closed up before the skeleton dogs could follow.

Stardust Speedway

Multiple Warp Rings opened up in Stardust Speedway, the assembled groups arriving through them.

"Is everyone here?" Knuckles asked.

"Looks like," Sonic confirmed.

"Knuckles!" Kat ran over, hugging him. Knuckles hugged her back before parting.

"Do we have them all?" Sally asked.

Each group displayed their collected Chaos Emeralds.

"Sorry it took so long," Chris told them. "We had to stop the Flying Battery from carpet bombing Studiopolis."

"Eggman rebuilt it?" Tails asked.

"And Chris sent it on a crash-course with Mount Mobius." Keith replied.

"And Kat kicked robotic butt singlehandedly." Chris added.

"Well, you stopped the Heavy Gunner," Kat pointed out. "And Keith got us out of that trash compactor."

"We ran into Mighty and Ray at the Press Garden," Sally told them. "You will not believe how insulting the wanted posters they were churning out were."

"Even worse, I didn't even get one!" Sticks griped. "Apparently, I'm that far beneath Eggman's radar!"

Sonic just patted her on the head.

"We ran into a little trouble in Mirage Saloon," Bunnie began. "Fun fact, Cybernik versus train. Cybernik wins."

Shortfuse cut in at their confused looks. "The Heavy Magician hired a band of mercenaries to get us. They kidnapped Mina and tied her to the railroad."

"That old trick?" Amy questioned. "Really?"

"Really," Mina confirmed. "Also, did you know she's a girl?"

"That's surprising," Tails noted.

"From there, we hit Oil Ocean," Shortfuse said, shaking his head. "No one's bothered to manage the refinery or clean up the crude since Robotnik left. The local Mobini have mutated from it."

"Oh, Aurora…" Sally gasped before steeling. "Once this is over, I'll hire a clean-up crew."

"How about you, Sonic?" Bunnie asked. "How was Angel Island?"

"The Master Emerald was still good, right?" Kat added.

"Yeah." Sonic assured her. "We ran into the Heavy King at Lava Reef. Imagine our surprise to find the Super Emeralds are still at the Hidden Palace."

"Well, duh," Kat said. "They returned where they belong. What were you expecting?"

"That after he used their power, they'd go back to being normal Chaos Emeralds and disperse," Tails answered.

"I know, I know," Sonic interjected as Kat opened her mouth. "That's not how Chaos energy works."

"Yeah, duh," Kat declared. "When it's absorbed, it doesn't disperse again, especially when it's absorbed by emeralds. That's like Chaos Energy 101."

"Glad you've been studying Chaos Theory," Knuckles remarked.

"It's an interesting read," Kat replied.

"Anyway!" Sonic exclaimed. "The King planned to use them to usurp Robotnik."

"He did?" Porker asked.

"The Phantom Ruby's changes weren't just physical," Sonic explained. "The Heavies got free will from the power surge. They can think and all that. Robotnik kept them in line using a self-destruct chip."

"If that's true, then Heavy King's probably scrap metal," Sally said.

"Metal Sonic showed up after the fight to drag him back to Eggman," Tails informed them. "So yeah, most likely."

"We ended up tangling with one of Robotnik's other associates," Rotor cut in. "A little green man named Grimer."

"Grimer?" Sonic asked. "As in Grimer Wormtongue?"

"You know him?" Johnny questioned.

"One of Doc Kintobor's on-again, off-again partners with his other projects," Sonic explained. "Creepy as hell, but I'll admit he was charming and charismatic."

"That was our impression," Porker admitted. "He was surprisingly cordial throughout our entire encounter."

"He was on the Death Egg too," Kat recalled. "He was always much nicer to us."

"Well, we certainly went through some crazy adventures," Sonic mused. "Now for the real challenge."

They turned toward the speedway; even from this distance, they could see the Titanic Monarch, their final target, clearly.

"Doesn't look so big from where I'm standing." Sonic said aloud as he raised a hand to compare, then clenched his fist.

"We got this," Sally insisted.

"We better," Knuckles added.

"Because if we fail…" Rotor included.

"All of Mobius will suffer," Chris concluded.

"Yeah, no pressure or anything," Mina deadpanned.

They hurried down the speedway toward the Monarch, unaware of Metal Sonic laying in wait nearby…

Author's Note:

We're on the home stretch. Even with all seven Chaos Emeralds, can Sonic and the gang stand against the Phantom Ruby's power?

The idea of the Oil Ocean's pollution mutating the wildlife was an idea that randomly came to me. The skeleton dogs and fish creatures were based on the Half Fish and Skeleton Dog animals you could get to power up your Chao in Sonic Adventure 2.

Please R&R. Until next time!