Back to Chapter 20

Two months passed. Porker put the time to good use, turning in hours at a time at the laboratory each day. The search for the Grey Emerald continued. Yet, as it transpired, nobody ever thought to ask where Doctor Kintobor was. Sonic’s young friends weren’t used to his presence, so it never occurred to them. Uncle Chuck was used to Kintobor disappearing into a world of his own for weeks at a time, so nothing seemed unusual to him. Porker, perhaps out of politeness, didn’t push the issue and ask the Kintobor Computer why he was so confident the real Kintobor wouldn’t be returning any time soon. And Sonic, of course, knew the truth, but was too wracked with guilt at his involvement in the ordeal toIt happened slowly at first.

One by one, inhabitants of the Green Hill Zone started to go missing. A villager here, a friend or family member there.

Sonic didn’t notice it to begin with. Slowly, he began to realise more of the people he’d met were absent. When his friends stopped showing up to their usual hang-out spots, Sonic began to grow concerned. Doctor Robotnik had to be behind it, he just knew it. But how? Where was Robotnik attacking from?

Sonic awoke to a very quiet house. Usually, Jules or Bernie woke him in time for breakfast. Sonic looked over at his clock. 9:20am. Even if the two of them were off out to work for the day, they wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye. Something was wrong.

Sonic jolted out of bed and ran downstairs. Nothing. No sign of life anywhere. Not a single plate or bowl out of place in the cupboard, no food missing from the fridge.

Jules and Bernie were gone. And Sonic was alone again.

Sonic opened the door and rushed outside. What could he do now? Yesterday he’d seen Bunnie and Flicky but nobody else out of his group of friends.

Porker! Porker had to be at the lab. He couldn’t go missing twice, could he? What would be the odds of that?

Sonic raced over to the lab, unusually mindful of his surroundings. If he was about to be attacked by a squadron of flying metal hornets, he’d at least like a heads up.

Sonic popped open the hatch to the laboratory and entered.

“Kintobor?”

“Good morning, Sonic,” came the computer’s voice in response.

“Kintobor, where is everyone?”

“I’m afraid I’m not sure. My sensors have picked up electrical disturbance nearby but, regrettably, I’m having difficulty connecting to the relay. No data has been entered into the system since someone in the Star Light Zone entered the message ‘Bill Woz ‘Ere’ three days ago”

“Great. Kintobor, I think Robotnik’s up to something and I can’t find anyone. It might be down to you and I- or rather, I- to do something about it. But I’ve got no idea where to start. Any ideas?”

“One moment, I’ll scan for unusual activity across South Island… oh, I say, that’s new”

“New?” Sonic was concerned, “From the way you said that, I’m gonna guess ‘new’ doesn’t mean ‘good’”

“I fear not. I’ve picked up some rather disturbing images. Let me triangulate them and put them into a sort of wide shot of the area”

After a few moments, a series of static photographs appeared on the nearest computer monitor to Sonic, flipping through one another as if animated. The images quite clearly depicted something that did not belong on the idyllic South Island. High atop South Island’s tallest mountain was what appeared to be some kind of factory or facility. It was absolutely gargantuan, Sonic estimated it had to be about the size of a city. And it was absolutely belching thick, black clouds of smoke.

Kintobor continued, “I’m afraid the damage to the environment could last for some time. Whatever that enormous building is, Sonic, I suspect it isn’t good”

“No,” Sonic frowned, “I have my own suspicions about it- namely, Doctor Robotnik”

Sonic rushed towards the hatch and Kintobor called out, “Sonic, wait! Where are you going?”

“Straight to the source,” Sonic declared, “Someone has to put a stop to that madman’s schemes before they get going”

Sonic raced outside and into the daylight. Rushing off up a hill in the direction of the horrendous factory, Sonic felt a knot in his stomach. Somewhere between determination, anger and fear of the unknown. He didn’t know what had happened to his missing friends but he did know that he’d get Robotnik back for it.

“Down there!” came a robotic voice, “The hedgehog!”

Sonic braked, swivelled on his heels and looked up. More of the robotic hornets, “You creeps again!”

“Address us by our correct title. We are Buzz Bombers- and we shall be your doom!”

This time there were more than three. Sonic looked around and saw the Buzz Bombers numbered in the dozens. The good news is they weren’t all facing him down- just a handful had their sights set on Sonic. The bad news is the remaining however-many-dozen were attacking the Green Hill Zone, firing out bursts of energy beams from their stingers. The beams burned a bright white and looked like miniature fireballs. They were scorching the landscape and buildings nearby and Sonic could only be thankful they weren’t real fireballs as putting out an inferno was the last thing he wanted to contend with at the moment.

Sonic’s attention was momentarily captured by a large hovercraft flying overhead at great speed. A laughter emanated from the cockpit, though Sonic couldn’t see the pilot. They didn’t seem to be Robotnik, however, the voice wasn’t deep enough. The hovercraft headed towards the Zone boundaries and out of view.

Sonic turned back to face the Buzz Bombers, only narrowly avoiding their laser fire. He cartwheeled away from a blast and, in the same fluid motion, picked up a rock about the size of his palm and threw it at the head of the first one, denting it and causing it to crash to the ground, where it split open like a dropped Easter egg.

The other Buzz Bombers were taken by surprise by this, allowing Sonic to rev up a charge towards them and leap into the air with a Spin Attack, rebounding off each of the robots to smash them open. The smoking husks of robot lay on the ground as confused animals clambered out.

“Who- who’s there?” one of the animals asked.

“Please! We didn’t mean to hurt you! We weren’t in control!” another pleaded.

“Relax,” Sonic comforted them, “I’m here to help. Do you know where Doctor Robotnik is?”

“He’s- he’s up in his Scrap Brain Zone hideout,” one of the now freed animals stammered, “Up atop the highest peak of the island”

“Scrap Brain Zone?” Sonic echoed.

“That’s what he called it. There are more like us up there. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. Please, if you can do anything to help—”

“I can,” Sonic cut the animal off mid-speech, “But I need you to help in your own way too by staying out of danger. You guys have to hide until it’s safe. I don’t know how long that’s going to take but we’re going to make things right”

“We’ll hole up somewhere until the robots go away,” one of the animals nodded.

“Good. I’m going to have to track down Doctor Robotnik and put a stop to him. And I think my first port of call is going to be a meeting with whoever was piloting that hovercraft…”

On to Chapter 22