Sonic the Hedgehog 2.5: the short stories
Chapter one: The Trio in the Tower
"Oh yeah! When the family's away, the hedgehog will play!" The blue blur exclaimed. "Time to par-taaay!"
It was a typical day for Sonic the hedgehog; Running around the village of Green Hills, Montana at the speed of sound, and annoying every neighbor near Sheriff Tom Wachowski and his wife Maddie Wachowski's home, and generally making a nuisance of himself. It had been a few months since the Town had been nearly destroyed by the death egg robot, and most of the repairs from the damage that monstrosity had caused were complete. The people of Green Hills, although they had every right to be mad at the so-called Blue devil, Tails the two-tailed fox, and Knuckles the echidna, were grateful that these strange aliens now lived among them, had saved their town from complete annihilation. As a result, the doors around town were quietly left open for any one of the trio to step in, and help themselves to whatever food or supplies they needed. It was almost an unspoken rule and that the people of the town would quietly ignore the new strangers in their midst.
That attitude served Sonic the hedgehog well this day, as he grabbed a few pastries and a cast cola from the local coffee shop, formerly named The mean Bean, but now under Japanese ownership called the Puyo Puyo. Zipping past the drugstore, he snagged a few comic books from the reading rack, as well as if you candy bars. Rushing back to the house, he zipped up to the Attic, and lounged in his hammock. The house was so quiet today; Tom was out on one of his patrol, while Maddie had taken Ozzy, had gone to visit her loudmouth sister and their family. Knuckles had apparently broken his grounding, and taken off with Wade to go to the bowling tournament - something that Maddie, as knuckles was technically the only one among the trio who was an adult - grudgingly accepted. Last he had heard from Tails, he was going out to look at something scientific; something about a plant and a girl, or was it a plant girl? He couldn't remember. Anyway that left him the run of the house, and he was determined to just kick back and read some comic books.
"Oh yeah, run for your life Flash! You got to stop the Trickster's bomb before it blows up Central City! " Sonic yelled allowed speeding through the comic. "Oh man, over already? I hate how these things end on cliffhangers!"
Quickly slurping down his cola and pastries, he realized he was bored again, and zipped back downstairs to grab one of the chili dogs Maddie had left him out of the fridge he sat there staring at a watch he didn't have for seconds, waiting is the thing slowly heat it up in the microwave.
"Come on come on, I haven't got all day!" He muttered, tapping his foot impatiently. "I'm waaaaiting!"
Finally, the microwave dinged. And the chili dog was gone faster than the time it took to actually heat up. Sonic then zipped back out the door, planning to go see crazy Carl and maybe have some fun bothering him. But it was at that moment the blue blur felt the ground beneath him began to shake.
"Huh what's going on?" He asked, startled. "This an earthquake or something?*
Sonic came out on a woodland trail, it was at that moment he saw a large vehicle - looking almost like a massive cement mixer with a roller, but had a cartoon mustache and set of glasses above it - came barreling towards him. Without even stopping to think, Sonic rushed away from the giant monstrosity as it seemed to come closer and closer.
"Holy crud, what is that thing?" Sonic asked in a panic as it seemed to be able to keep pace with him. "Somehow, I don't think that's crazy Carl's new landscaping machine!"
The big monstrous steamroller with the eggman-like face caught up with the spiky blue alien. Sonic ran and disbelief, unable to comprehend how this thing was just as fast as he was. But his shock distracted him, and Sonic failed to notice a root sticking out of the ground tripped him. Before he could react, the huge steamrolling monstrosity was upon him, and letting out a cry, and the Blue blur saw only darkness.
When he started to come too, Sonic noticed he was in some kind of cage, surrounded by mostly darkness. As he regained notice of his surroundings, the Blue blur felt the vehicle was still moving, but it almost felt like it had changed from traveling on land, to racing through the air.
"Where am I? What's going on?" Sonic asked in a panic. "I've got to get out of here!"
The blue hedgehog curled up and tried buzz saw him through the bars, but it seemed to have little effect on his cage. As Sonic was trying to escape, he heard a voice call out from the darkness.
"It's no use dude, I've tried breaking those bars for hours." A voice, speaking in a slightly tough midwestern accent, told him. I think they must be proved against our chaos energy attacks somehow; you're super speed and my super strength can't put a dent in it."
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Sonic looked out and saw a red black and peach colored armadillo sitting in the cage next to him, farther down was a scared looking golden flying squirrel trying to zip out of the third cage he was trapped in. Sonic could only stare in surprise; two other mobians from his, Knuckles, and Tails' home world? here on Earth? It seemed almost impossible... yet he and his friends would have been considered impossible by the people of the Earth nearly a year and a half ago.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Sonic asked, trying to shake the bars of the cage. "And what are we doing in these cages?"
"Name's Mighty the armadillo, famous strong man known throughout the galaxy! I tour with galactic circuses and sideshows, displaying my feats of strength!" The armadillo gestured to the smaller and meeker looking squirrel. "This is Ray the flying squirrel, my sidekick and adopted little bro."
The shy little squirrel looked up at sonic, waving a nervous hand. "H-hello..."
Mighty continued. "The two of us had come to earth, so I could do some strength training in some of your wilderness areas. But this strange machine with the weird face on it suddenly rolled along and scooped us up, just as I'm assuming it did to you."
"Judging by the look on its face, I have a pretty good idea who might have done this, except that I'm pretty sure he's dead." Sonic sighed, giving up on trying to shake the bars. "It's kind of cool to see some people from back home, I'm -"
"Sonic the hedgehog, Galaxy wide famous hero who fights the mechanical forces of the evil Dr Eggman." Mighty smirked, surprising the blue blur. "Everyone in the Galaxy knows who you are, thanks to the hero-worshiping blog your friend Miles Prower keeps on the stellar net."
"Wow, glad to know I'm as famous as The Rock." Sonic looked around in the empty darkness surrounding them. "I wonder how this thing was able to out speed me and out strength you?'
"Well, before it grabbed us, I felt some chaos energy flowing through it." Mighty replied. "I think it might be drawing on the chaos force, the same way we mobians do naturally. Though I'm not sure how it accomplishes this."
But even as the machine lumbered forward, Sonic could since the power of a blue quill deep within the machines inner workings. However, he was unable to draw on that power, as the cage somehow blocked him. So with nothing else to do, Sonic sat down and decided to talk with his two fellow prisoners.
Mighty explained who they were, and where they had come from. The armadillo was from a village on West side island, the sun of an armadillo adventurer named blockhead bill, and brother to a young goth sister named Matilda. Mighty told him how his freakish super strength had scared the people of his village, and so he decided to leave when he came of age. Mighty began traveling the world, from the Acorn Kingdom to the hedgehog principality of Christmas Island, and showed off his amazing feats of strength all over the planet mobius. Using Warp rings, he had traveled other worlds, displaying his super strength across the worlds from the planet lost hex of the Zeti, to the Metarex of the planet Seedaria. While traveling in the casino night zone, he had seen a young orphan flying squirrel that had been captured by Babylon bird scavengers. After winning a large number of rings in the zones battle arena, he managed to buy the little orphan squirrels freedom, and the grateful Ray had been his constant companion ever since.
In return, Sonic told the armadillo his story; about how he had been raised by the owl warrior long claw and his uncle Chuck on South Island. How the echidna tribe of Angel Island had attacked, and how the echidna and the last owl had managed to wipe each other out, while Sonic fled through a ring portal to Earth. He told the armadillo of his battles with Robotnik, as well as making friends with his parental figures Tom and Maddie Wachowski. Mighty and Ray seemed impressed by the blue blur's tale, the mostly silent little squirrel commenting;
"W-wow, it sounds like you had a really amazing life." Ray stuttered out. "I - I wish I could be as brave as you and Mighty -"
Sonic was about to reply to that, when the vehicle they were imprisoned in, came to a sudden halt. The bottom and the cages opened up beneath it, and suddenly dropped the trio down onto a small island. Then, just as suddenly as it had dropped them there, but now flying steamroller like machine began to speed away through the air.
"Oh no you don't!" Mighty growled running over and picking up a large Boulder on the shore with ease. "You're not getting away, not after kidnapping us like that!"
"No, Mighty, wait!" Sonic called out but it was too late. The angry armadillo flung me oversized Boulder at the transport that was slowly moving away. The huge Rock smashed into the vehicle causing it to explode into a million tiny pieces in a giant flash of chaos energy. Mighty felt rather pleased with himself, until Sonic pointed out;
"You big rock head! That vehicle was our one way out of here, if we could have caught it or brought it down!" Sonic yelled in anger."Now how are we going to get off this island?"
"Oh that's easy! We'll just use a ring portal!" Mighty reached into his bag, and flung a ring into the air. To his shock, it landed on the ground with a tiny plink. "What the heck?!"
"Whoever brought us here, probably has the place shielded against portaling out with rings." Ray added quietly.
"Sorry..." Mighty replied sheepishly. "Guess I kind of stranded us here."
The trio looked around and saw they were on a small island filled with palm trees and shrub growth. Easily visible from the center of the island, the three of them spotted a large Tower sticking out of the ground, with a pair of sunglasses and large mustache on it at the top of the tower.
"Well that tears it, looks like Eggman is still alive after all." Sonic growled, crackling with blue energy. "What do you say the three of us climb up that Tower and go crack an egg wide open?"
"Y-your enemy may not necessarily be still alive, Mr sonic." Ray interjected, speaking up more than either Sonic or mighty expected him to. "This whole system may have been sent to detect mobians, given Eggman's feud with you. And we could have just been grabbed and brought here by the automated systems."
"Good observation, little buddy!" Mighty replied, patting his little squirrel friend on the head. "Well, whatever brought us here, I'm betting we'll find answers inside that Tower over there."
With a nod, all three members of the trio began cautiously making their way towards the tower.
...
Far out to sea, away from the island, a giant mechanical crab meat was monitoring the situation. From a seat aboard the giant mechanical monstrosity, and observer witnessed the trio make their way up to the tower. Seeing the entrance on guarded, Sonic and the other two anthropomorphic pests attempted to go inside.
"Oh no no, my little fur balls, you're not getting in that easy." The figure in the chair whispered, pressing several buttons. "Time to test out what my new little toys can do."
Suddenly, a wave of circular ladybug-looking robots each on one wheel rolled out. They were joined by several bat like robots who swarmed down at the heroes. The trio on the screen took a fighting stance, as the robot zoomed toward them.
"Let's see how you handle my motobugs and bat brains." The figure in the chair chortled, munching down on a microwave heated burrito before callously tossing the wrapper on the floor. "My little precious badnik babies will make mince meat out of you animals!"
The reclining figure in the chair watch, as Sonic spin-dashed at the motobugs, destroying them while the armadillo newcomer easily smash them with his fists, even picking two of them up and smashing them together to destroy them. The flying squirrel zoomed about getting the mechanical bats to chase him and even swerving so that two of them collided together and destroyed one another the trio around and curled up smashing breaking and destroying the badniks, until all that was left of his robot creations was a pile of scrap on the floor.
"No! My precious babies!" The figure in the chair snarled, pressing more buttons. "I'll make those little hairballs pay for what they did!"
The figure watched as the room filled with lava causing the trio to run for the stairs. But racing up the stairs they found themselves in a room with raising and lowering spikes, the armadillo and the hated hedgehog had to Bob and weave around to avoid, while the flying squirrel simply zipped above it all. The next floor was filled with flamethrowers, gushing out heated death in timed intervals that the trio had to carefully maneuver around to avoid. It continued on this way for the next dozen floors; death trap after death trap, a floor flooding with water followed by a floor filled with cutting lasers. Sonic and his two new companions managed to duck, dodge, and move around the traps with ease. It was entertaining for the figure on the chair to watch as the three avoided an ice trap here and an acid trap there. Because as the trio moved through the tower avoiding the traps and smashing badniks, the sensors on each floor flooded data into the crabs computer system, data which the figure in the chair watched pour in with fiendish glee.
"That's it give me more and more of your precious data!" The person in the chair stroked his long bushy mustache. "I would have preferred to gotten data from the echidna and the fox, but these two have powers that are so similar, that they will suffice."
As the figure in the chair watched, the trio finally made it up to the very top of the tower. Several large walls made of steel slammed down in their path, which the angry armadillo managed to tear through each one with ease, as if they were each made of tissue.
"Hmmmm, it seems the red one is far stronger than the echidna was." The figure on the throne smirked, as Mighty tore through a final adamantine wall as if it were tissue paper. "Let's see how the three handle my latest masterpiece."
There, they faced a humanoid robot -one he called an egg robo- who swung at the trio with a spike ball and chain. Sonic dashed in and out, hitting the thing and ducking away before it could cause damage. Ray zipped around overhead distracting the mechanical monster and causing it to flail its weapon upwards towards him, leaving the body vulnerable. Mighty hammered away on the body with powerful blows smashing through its outer casing little by little, and tearing away its armor. Finally the trio managed to land one simultaneous blow, causing the egg robot to explode, and knocking all three of them back.
"Well, looks like this little party's over." The seated figure declared gleefully."I guess it's time to clean up my mess."
It was at that point the seated figure pressed a final big red button, and the tower began to shake and rumble as it set self destruct. With the anti-ring shield having crumbled, the armadillo managed to throw out a ring portal which the three escape through before the entire Island exploded in a giant flash of energy and light. At that exact moment, agent Stone walked in behind him, carrying shopping bags and Chinese takeout from his last outing.
"Hello sir, I hope you had a productive day while I was gone." Stone stated cheerfully, setting the groceries down. "Anything interesting happen?"
"Oh just played some video games, a kind of Sonic arcade if you will."leaning forward in his chair, Dr Ivo Robotnik went through the data, and brought up the the schematics of a blue robot labeled 'Metal Sonic' that resembled the annoying hedgehog who had just helped destroy his Tower of traps. "And gathering some data that will help me get rid of that annoying blue pest once and for all..."
...
It was late evening when the trio popped through a ring for portal back to the forests of Green hills, and most of the town was already asleep. Before turning to run back home, Sonic went to say goodbye to both Mighty and Ray.
"You two sure don't you don't want to stick around for a while?" Sonic asked, shaking the armadillo's hand. "Tom and Maddie wouldn't mind having another two guests."
"Nah, we better move on. Ray and I are due back on mobius for a show in the Wolfpack Nation." The armadillo replied with the laugh, scratching the back of his armored shell. "Still, if you ever get back home Sonic, look me and my little bro here up. We'll hang out sometime."
"You can count on it." Sonic replied, giving the two a thumbs up. He then looked over to ray. "See you later little guy, you try to get some more confidence in yourself, you hear?"
"Oh - okay."Ray gave him a thumbs up back. "See you later, Mr Sonic."
The two stepped into a new ring portal Mighty had thrown, as Sonic raced back towards the Wachowski house.
Next: Plight of a plant girl- Tail's first love