Back to Chapter 26

The Star Light Zone at night time was one of the most beautiful sights on all of Mobius. True, in the bustling city, the natural beauty of the world was often easily overlooked by those who took it for granted. But for Sonic and his friends, the Zone was a real treat. It was exactly as Kintobor said- the stars shone so brightly it was like a second daytime. Suffice to say, blackout curtain salespeople made a killing in this Zone.

Unfortunately, the group had little time to ponder the wonder of the world around them. Instead, they pressed ahead, hoping they might find Robotnik or, better, a clue to the whereabouts of the rest of their missing friends.

“Okay, guys, this radar isn’t exactly what you might call advanced,” Rotor explained, tinkering with a gadget he’d pulled off his toolbelt, “Not really my speciality. But it should serve as a rudimentary Badnik detector”

“Great work, buddy,” Sonic commended Rotor, “For the time being, guys, we take the safest route. When Rotor says we go one way or the other, that’s what we do. Putting my faith in you, pal”

“Thanks, Sonic. Although I wish Porker were here- he’s much better with this sort of tech than I am”

“Yeah, I know. But he had to go—” Sonic cut himself off, “He had to help Bunnie”

“Madmoiselle Rabbot?” Antoine asked, “Is she okay?”

Sonic sighed, “Bunnie’s hurt, ‘twan. She’s really hurt. But it’s okay, don’t worry! Uncle Chuck’s got a machine that’ll make her alright. I’ve seen it in action myself. I don’t know if he was expecting a full-size test subject so soon but it looks like he’s got one”

Johnny found himself in the unfortunate position of letting the air out of the balloon, “The only problem for now is we have to find Uncle Chuck”

“I’m hoping he’s still somewhere in the Green Hill Zone,” Sonic replied, “Hoping against hope, I know. But we’ll find him. We have to find him. For Bunnie’s sake. For all our sakes”

The friends arrived at a residential area, coming across a road under construction leading into a tunnel. The site had evidently been abandoned in the wake of a Badnik attack as the work crew had abandoned their tools, not even stopping to switch off their portable fan.

“There’s Badnik activity dead ahead, Sonic,” Rotor noted, looking at his radar, “The only problem is, I’m not seeing any alternate path. I know Sally taught you how to climb but I think the sheer walls of the skyscrapers might prove tricky for you- and certainly for the rest of us”

“You’re right,” Sonic nodded, “Then I guess we have no choice- we head into the tunnel. How many Badniks are we up against?”

“According to this scanner, eight. One up front and seven more grouped together nearby”

Sonic paused to think, “Okay. Not the worst odds. But we should prepare for a fight. Johnny, I’d keep that pipe of yours at the ready. That goes for you and your sabre too, Antoine”

Sonic’s friends nodded.

“Rotor, I want you at the back monitoring for activity, okay?”

“Got it,” Rotor gave a thumbs up.

“Then let’s head in!” Sonic motioned towards the tunnel and the group marched in.

The tunnel was brick on the inside and reasonably well lit. The roadworks hadn’t yet been finished in the tunnel and there were a few cracks needing fixing in the road.

Sonic suddenly became aware of an extra pair of foosteps. Metallic footsteps. Sort of small feet. Sonic wracked his brains trying to think which of the Badniks he’d seen that might have small feet. So far they’d all seemed content to travel on wheels or wings or treads or even as a missile. A Crabmeat had feet, but that would have made the noise of more than one pair of shoes.

And then it appeared in front of everyone.

“Oh!” Sonic said, half-surprised.

The robot was actually quite cute. It was a sort of ball on legs with a radio antenna on its top.

“Be careful, guys,” Sonic advised his friends, “We don’t know what this can do. It looks cute but there’s no telling what weapon system it may have. And there’s a captive person inside”

“Ping!” the robot pinged, “No person!”

“Oh. Well, that’s a relief,” Sonic admitted.

“Ping!” the robot pinged again, “You are designated Sonic the Hedgehog”

“That’s right. What’s your designation, short stuff?” Sonic asked somewhat warily.

“Ping!” the robot pinged a third time, “Bomb!”

Sonic’s eyes widened, “Your… designation is… Bomb”

“Ping!” the Bomb pinged, “That is correct!”

And then Sonic realised something he should have probably pieced together a little sooner. That wasn’t an antenna atop the Badnik. It was a fuse.

“Everyone get back!” Sonic shouted. The rest of the group dashed for cover wherever they could find it behind abandoned vehicles.

Sonic hurled himself out of the way as, with a tremendous explosive bang, the kilo of explosive packed inside the robot in place of a prisoner detonated with shattering force. The crack of the peal echoed around the tunnel.

“Is everyone okay? Talk to me!” Sonic yelled to his friends.

“I’m fine,” Rotor stood up.

“Yeah, I’m here,” Johnny raised his hand.

“Gnyerk!” Antoine squeaked, evidently deeply unsettled by the experience.

Sonic got to his feet and brushed off the bits of stone and dust that had got stuck behind his ears.

“Maybe we should move slowly and carefully,” Rotor suggested.

“Good plan!” Sonic agreed.

Sonic and the others pushed on, though Antoine quivered to himself.

“You okay, Ant?” Sonic asked.

“Non,” Antoine admitted, “You all must sink I am a coward for zis whimpering!”

Sonic stopped in his tracks and turned to face Antoine, “Are you joking? Are you actually kidding me?”

Antoine seized up embarrassed, “W-well, I—”

“Antoine, a coward would run away at the first sign of danger and leave the rest of us to face it. A coward wouldn’t be here, offering their services to rescue the princess they’re loyally devoted to. A coward wouldn’t be risking life and limb for their friends. So you’re a nervous wreck! Big deal! Bravery isn’t about being fearless, Ant. It’s about being scared… and still doing the right thing, even though you’re terrified”

In that moment, Antoine understood Sonic so much better than before. Sonic would probably never admit it- but he was carrying his own fears too. Antoine realised Sonic put a brave face on to inspire the rest of the team. And it was working.

“The way I look at it,” Sonic gave Antoine a friendly slap on the arm, “you’re the bravest one of us all”

Antoine stopped quivering.

“Sonic,” Rotor interrupted the moment, “I hate to be a downer… but those other seven signals…”

“Right,” Sonic turned ahead once more, “Dead ahead, right?”

“No… it says here they’re right here”

“Well I don’t see— wait a minute! Newtron! That Badnik had camouflage tech! Maybe it’s a group of Newtron and we’ve just wandered into an ambush”

“Uh, guys?” Johnny piped up, “I don’t think it’s Newtron”

Johnny pointed to the ceiling. Hanging upside down were seven more Bomb Badniks. At once their fuses lit up.

“Just these seven in here, Rotor?” Sonic asked.

“Yes!” Rotor replied, somewhat panicked.

“Good. Everyone relax your bodies as best you can- I don’t want to break anything”

“What do y—” Rotor managed to get out before what appeared to be a blue gust of wind rushed him out of the tunnel.

Antoine watched as the gust came back towards Johnny and carried him out to safety. The gust doubled back and picked him up, causing him to yelp in surprise as he was carted out of the tunnel. Antoine looked back and saw a tremendous explosion as the roof of the tunnel collapsed.

Outside, the blue gust of wind stopped and set Antoine down, revealing itself to be Sonic.

“Sorry, Ant,” Sonic held his hands up, “I had to get Rotor out of their first ‘cause he’s the largest and then Johnny was stood furthest away. I had to know I had the energy to do that”

“How fast are you?!” Antoine managed to blurt out.

“Very,” Sonic smiled.

“But not fast enough!” came a tinny response.

The group turned to see the source of the new voice: an Orbinaut.

“Hey, this guy again. Love the colour scheme, pal,” Sonic teased the Badnik, “Red and blue is so last Zone. But green and yellow? Well, it’s very you, really it is”

The Orbinaut began to swing its spiked balls wildly.

“Okay, guys, be careful, these things throw those nasty balls but then they’re vulnerable”

“Fat chance I’m going to be that stupid, hedgehog!” the Orbinaut responded, “Let’s see you hit me while I have this protective shield!”

Sonic had to admit, there was no safe way to leap in on a foe with deadly spike circling its body. There was precious little hope Johnny or Antoine could get a strike in either, thanks to how quickly the balls were moving.

Sonic took a step back, “Don’t suppose we can talk about this like civilised people?”

“Tempting, hedgehog, but I’m not built for small talk. Now, be a good sport and stand still so I can beat you to death!”

Sonic glanced at Johnny and Antoine, still not entirely sure what to do, then looked back at the Orbinaut.

Pop!

The robot burst open and the spiked balls fell to the floor as its previously captive Mobini hopped away to freedom.

Sonic looked over at Rotor.

“Like I said,” said Rotor blowing smoke away from a laser blaster, “radars aren’t really my speciality”

Buoyed by their relative success and coming away from danger, the friends carried on until they came to a children’s playground.

“Kind of reminds you what’s at stake,” Johnny noted solemnly.

“Well playgrounds like this are going to stay empty if Robotnik has anything to do with it,” Sonic replied.

“And quite right too!” exclaimed a whining voice above. The boys looked up to see Snively in his Egg-O-Matic up above.

“I wondered if you’d show up again, you big-nosed slime!” Sonic fired.

“You were expecting someone else?” Snively smirked.

“As a matter of fact, yeah. Your fat friend told me he had business here before heading to his lab”

“Oh, I’ll just bet he did,” Snively held back a laugh, “And while you came here looking for him, no doubt the good Doctor headed straight for the lab to work on his latest death trap for you. But I’m here now- and since we’re on a playground, let’s play!”

Stupid! Sonic thought to himself, How could I have fallen for an obvious diversion like that?

Snively pressed a button on his control panel and out dropped a small spiked ball, not too different from those the Orbinauts had been using. The only difference was this one was black… and then red… and then black…

“Guys, I think those are explosives!” Rotor warned the group. Mere moments later he was proven right as the ball popped open with a bang, shooting bursts of flame. Fortunately, the explosion didn’t do any real damage to the surroundings, but Sonic and his friends didn’t much fancy having them dropped on their heads all the same as while the flames might not do much lasting damage to brick and metal, they’d probably have a more scarring effect on flesh and fur.

The gang rushed left and right as Snively dropped more of the explosives. Rotor found he couldn’t get a good shot from his blaster as Snively was moving too quickly and he didn’t want to risk an errant shot causing damage.

Sonic ran up a slide to try and leap up to reach Snively but couldn’t quite get the height he needed. Johnny and Antoine ducked around and over a roundabout ride as Rotor rolled under a climbing frame.

And then Sonic saw them. Three seesaws. Sonic had a wicked idea. Surely this would work.

“Hey, Sniv-nose- it’s me you want really, come and get me!”

Sonic positioned himself on the end of one of the seesaws and hoped to get lucky.

Snively swooped overhead and dropped an explosive. The explosive fell right where Sonic wanted it to- on the other end of the seesaw, flinging him into the air, level with Snively.

“Hey, ugly!” Sonic waved with a grin before tweaking Snively’s nose to disorientate him, causing him to moan in irritation.

Sonic hurtled back down and landed on the seesaw- which launched the explosive upwards with such force it wedged in the base of the Egg-O-Matic.

“Oh no…” Snively moaned.

“’fraid so” Sonic grinned.

The explosion detonated and tore a hole in the bottom of the Egg-O-Matic.

“You! You! You horrible brat!” Snively screeched.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Sonic shrugged, “You should see the state of my room!”

As warning lights flashed on the hovercraft- which had taken quite the beating throughout the day- Snively growled and cursed Sonic’s name, “Just you wait, hedgehog! Doctor Robotnik’s waiting for you in the Scrap Brain Zone! And he’s going to put an end to you once and for all!”

“Looking forward to seeing him try,” Sonic looked Snively in the eye with determination.

Snively decided to beat a retreat and shot off out of sight. When the smoke from the exhaust fumes cleared, Sonic spotted a familiar sight: a Prison Egg Capsule.

Sonic rushed over to the capsule and peered through the window. There was only one captive inside. She peered back at him, pressing her hand against the window. Sonic pressed his on the other side.

Sally.

Sonic scrambled onto the roof of the capsule and leapt onto the release catch. Duly, the capsule collapsed open and Sally stepped out.

“Thank you,” she said, “All of you. I knew I could count on you”

“It’s very much appreciated,” N.I.C.O.L.E. added.

“You’re very welcome, N.I.C.O.L.E.,” Sonic smiled.

Antoine dashed to Sally, “Ma princesse, are you unharmed?”

“I’m fine, Antoine. I think Robotnik left me here as a way of slowing you all down. He had to know you’d stop to rescue me”

“Well, he was right,” Johnny shrugged.

“Wouldn’t be much good as friends if we didn’t help, would we?” Rotor chuckled.

Sonic, however, was unusually quiet.

“Sonic?” Sally looked at him, “Are you alright?”

“Sally, you’re a princess,” Sonic stated.

“Thanks, I had noticed”

“But if Robotnik is using you as bait to stall us before we even get to his lab… who else is he using as bait to get me to go inside and face him?”

The group fell quiet as they pondered just what kind of danger they might be walking into ahead.

On to Chapter 28