Back to Chapter 22

Sonic blinked and a rush of air filled his lungs. With a slight cough from the hedgehog, everything returned to normal. He was back in the Green Hill Zone. Sonic scrunched up his eyes for a moment and looked around. It was definitely the real deal. As he set off walking, Sonic felt somehow more energised. Assuming he hadn’t just hallucinated everything he’d just experienced, Sonic had to assume he was getting some kind of a boost off the Chaos Emerald.

Suddenly, Sonic found himself dodging from a burst of laser fire. He turned swiftly to see the source- a chameleon-like Badnik clinging to a nearby rock wall. The Badnik began to fade from view using camouflage.

“Hey, now, bud, don’t go away, we’ve only just met!” Sonic quipped, “Don’t tell me, you’re Cowardbot 2000, specialist in shooting people then hiding?”

The lizard-esque robot reappeared on the ground ahead of Sonic, “Actually, my designation is Newtron. But you can call me your doom!”

“Ugh, Robotnik hasn’t programmed you with a wit circuit, has he?” Sonic shook his head.

The Newtron’s arms and legs retracted in on itself, giving it a missile-like appearance. Sonic realied wit wasn’t intended to be this Badnik’s strong point as it rocketed towards him at what felt like hundreds of miles per hour. Had Sonic been just a fraction slower, he’d have almost certainly been struck.

Sonic feigned a yawn, “Big deal, so you’re fast. You think your speed impresses me?”

The Newtron rankled at this, “Perhaps you would like another demonstration before I capture you and use you to power my circuits, hedgehog?”

The Badnik fired itself back towards Sonic, whose back was now against the rock wall the Newtron had first appeared on.

“Okay, I’ll admit, your speed isn’t that bad after all…” Sonic smirked, before leaping high above the Newtron, which crashed into the wall and exploded in a thousand pieces, “But your brakes are lousy!”

Sonic had to get back on the trail of the hovercraft soon, especially if Robotnik was intent on arriving in the Zone. Coming to a log bridge, Sonic began to cross when he was startled by a piranha robot leaping up at him from the waters below, gnashing its jaws menacingly.

“Tasty hedgehog meat fit for a Chopper!” the Badnik declared.

The Badnik leaped high into the air, unfortunately realising too late it had leapt too high, allowing Sonic to grab it by the tail and slam it down hard on the bridge, rupturing its shell and sending a mess of wires and circuit boards flying all over.

“Looks more like a fish out of water to me…” Sonic noted to himself.

Sonic suddenly became aware of a commotion taking place behind a nearby ridge.

“WHAT?! What do you mean you LOST it?!”

Sonic knew that voice: Robotnik!

“I’m s-sorry, sir,” responded the voice of the hovercraft pilot from before, “Perhaps someone took the Warp and made it disappear?”

“Impossible. Who could know about the Warps of Confusion?”

Sonic climbed the ridge and peered down at his foes. Robotnik was also in one of the Egg-O-Matic hovercrafts, though his did seem to have been given a little more loving attention than the first one. He could see the other pilot was a small, scrawny man with a huge, pointed nose and a brown goatee. This guy could have someone’s eye out if he turned around too quickly. Well, actually, given his lack of height, he’d be more likely to have their thigh out.

Robotnik grumped, “Have you at least found the hedgehog?”

“No, sir, but our patrols are currently active. As soon as I hear from any of them, I’ll be sure to inform you”

“Good, Snively,” Robotnik responded, “I don’t want him messing up my plans!”

Snively? Doctor Julian Snively? It had to be, Sonic reasoned, how common a name could Snively possibly be?

“Perhaps he could be lured out, sir? The Prison Egg Capsule is yet to be transported to the Scrap Brain Zone, we could use it as bait”

“A superlative suggestion, my good doctor,” Robotnik grinned widely.

Prison Egg Capsule? Whatever that was, Sonic didn’t like the sound of it. If there were any prisoners needing rescuing, he’d have to do what it took to save them.

“Here I am, ugly!” Sonic leapt down from the ridge and looked up at Robotnik, “Let the prisoners go and you and I can settle this one-to-one”

Robotnik roared with laughter, “You must think I’m a fool! Snively- head into the Marble Zone. Round up as many of this blue spikeball’s friends as you can! They will all make excellent Badniks!”

“Yes sir,” Snively replied before jetting off past the Zone’s border.

“And as for you,” Robotnik turned back to Sonic, “how about we play a game?”

“I’m not in the mood for games, Robotnik,” Sonic frowned, “Let the people you’ve kidnapped go”

“Fat chance!” Robotnik barked.

“Isn’t that the only kind of chance where you’re concerned?” Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Robotnik snarled and pressed a button on his dashboard. The bottom of his Egg-O-Matic slid open and what looked like an enormous wrecking ball lowered out of the base, attached by a chain.

“I’ll smash you into the ground!” Robotnik yelled at Sonic

“You’re going to have to catch me first!” Sonic retorted before dashing off.

“Come back here, you coward!” Robotnik gave chase, just as Sonic had planned.

Sonic was no coward, but he did know he couldn’t fly. There was little chance he’d be able to reach Robotnik from so low down on the ground. What he needed was to take advantage of the local geography and find somewhere he could leap from to attack his enemy.

The Green Hill Zone, like many on Mobius, was a place where “floating platforms” of land were not an uncommon sight. Scientists theorised that this could be down to Chaos Energy and that, furthermore, enough Chaos Energy could lift an entire landmass into the sky. Naturally, nobody had ever gone on record attempting this feat as Chaos Energy was surprisingly hard to come by- it’s not as though you could buy it from the shops. All the same, Sonic came across two floating platforms adjacent to one another and hoped they’d serve his purpose.

Sonic leapt onto the first platform just in time to avoid Robotnik’s wrecking ball. The evil doctor cursed Sonic, “Blast you, hold still!”

“Now who thinks someone’s a fool?” Sonic shot back, leaping to the other platform. Bending his knees as he landed, Sonic launched himself into the air and up towards the underside of Robotnik’s Egg-O-Matic, striking at it with a kick.

“You’ll have to do more than that to leave a dent on the Egg-O-Matic!” Robotnik sneered.

Sonic smiled, “I thought you’d never ask”

Sonic deftly ducked as the wrecking ball swung overhead, only missing out by a matter of millimetres on becoming the world’s flattest hedgehog. Leaping back up to the platform behind him, Sonic timed his movement to perfection, knowing Robotnik would be reliant on momentum, inertia and centrifuge to hit him- though in Sonic’s head the phrase used was “swinging back and forth”

Sonic leapt up once more, this time with a Spin Attack which grazed the Egg-O-Matic and made it wobble slightly before Robotnik used his controls to right it with automatic stabilisers.

“Give up, hedgehog!” Robotnik ordered Sonic.

Defiant, Sonic snapped back, “No way, I’m having too much fun!”

In truth, Sonic was only engaging in verbal sparring because his mind was going at a million miles a minute. He’d sincerely never been so panicked in his life. If he mistimed a single move, he’d be splattered all around. Worse, there was no telling what Robotnik would do if nobody stopped him. Sonic had to win this fight.

Sonic spotted a blinking light at the base of the Egg-O-Matic. There was some kind of gearbox connecting the chain to the craft itself, perhaps compensating for the weight distribution to ensure Robotnik didn’t tip over or pull himself off course.

Had to be worth a shot, right?

It was at this point Sonic noticed Robotnik’s attire, “Are you wearing a cape?!”

“A cape befitting the future ruler of this pitiful planet, you moronic mammal! If you bow down and swear loyalty to me now, I may see fit to let you live as a servant to me!”

“Give me a break! Listen, egg-breath, the only people I know that wear capes are superheroes- and you definitely don’t fit that mold. Or, for that matter, the rest of your ridiculous outfit”

Robotnik roared with anger and slammed his fist on his dashboard. The wrecking ball swung back towards Sonic. Sonic crouched low, waited for the right moment then- at the last second- forced himself into the air above the ball, where he collided with the gearbox.

The small box sparked and exploded. The explosion passed down the chain and dropped the ball to the floor where it split in two. Before the explosion could consume the Egg-O-Matic, Robotnik pressed a button to jettison the gearbox.

Robotnik screamed with red-faced anger at Sonic, “You repulsive rodent! If you think this is the last you’ve seen of me, you’re sorely mistaken!”

With a shout of anger, Robotnik whizzed off towards the Zone border. Sonic gave chase but his eye was caught by the sight of a strange metallic construct. The construct had a large button on its top and a window on the side. Through the window Sonic could see a familiar face- Flicky!

As much as he wanted to chase after Robotnik, Sonic knew he couldn’t leave his friend trapped in what he correctly assumed was the Prison Egg Capsule. Sonic leapt onto the top of the machine and stamped down on the button as he watched Robotnik speed out of sight.

The sides of the capsule exploded off, propelled by an airlock deactivating. Inside the capsule were dozens of Mobini that all scattered for freedom, Flicky, Porker Lewis and Bunnie Rabbot… a very badly hurt Bunnie Rabbot.

“Oh no- Bunnie, what happened to you?” Sonic rushed to his friend’s side and found her unable to stand.

“Heck, sugah-hog, t’ain’t nothin’,” Bunnie responded unconvincingly, “Y’all go on ahead, don’t worry about me”

“Her left arm and both legs were trapped under a falling tree when Robotnik’s Badniks blasted it over near to us,” Porker responded.

Flicky looked deeply upset for his friend, “She’s in a bad way, Sonic, we have to do something”

“Take her to Uncle Chuck’s lab,” Sonic replied, “I don’t know where Uncle Chuck is but I’m going to find him. Robotnik probably has him in a capsule like this one somewhere. There’s a machine Uncle Chuck made that’ll be able to fix up Bunnie in no time at all. I need you guys to hide there in the meantime. If any of our friends show up, let them in too but make sure you stay alert for Badniks. Got it?”

Porker nodded.

“Bunnie, trust me, you’ll be back to normal in no time,” Sonic comforted the rabbit, “Uncle Chuck’s Roboticizer will make everything right- you’ll be back to trimming hair in no time”

“Heck, cain’t I even have the weekend off?” Bunnie weakly smiled.

“You can take a month off as long as you stay hidden while I chase down Robotnik. I’ve got to go. I’ll be back soon. Take care, you three”

Sonic dashed off in the direction Robotnik and Snively had flown, towards the Marble Zone.

It wasn’t lost on Sonic’s friends that his usual upbeat demeanour had taken a turn for the serious. Porker and Flicky picked up the aching Bunnie and carried her towards Uncle Chuck’s lab. The three of them would have a long, nervous day ahead of them.

On to Chapter 24