Back to Chapter 44

Five minutes previously…

The teleport hadn’t actually sent Sonic direct to the Green Hill Zone.

Instead, when the colour had flooded back to his vision, he found himself standing on a pink and dark blue planetoid. Somehow he’d ended up in the Special Zone, presumably a result of the chaos energy from the Chaos Emeralds interfering with the teleport.

A familiar impossibly loud booming voice rang out, “WELCOME BACK, TINY ONE. HOW GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN”

Sonic turned and there loomed Feist, his many hundreds of feet in height towering over Sonic.

Sonic gave a little wave, “Hey, Feisty- you look good, have you lost weight?”

“MOST AMUSING, HEDGEHOG! FEIST DOES NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND HOW YOU CAME TO THE SPECIAL ZONE WITHOUT THE AID OF A WARP OF ILLUSION, BUT FEIST IS SO DELIGHTED TO SEE HIS FAVOURITE JESTER”

Sonic put his hands on his hips, indignant, “Now, jest a minute, pal, who do you think you’re calling a jester?”

Feist roared with laughter, “IT WOULD APPEAR YOU HAVE SIX CHAOS EMERALDS ALREADY. NATURALLY, I CANNOT PRESENTLY OFFER YOU ANY MORE”

“Yeah, about that,” Sonic replied, “how come the Chaos Emeralds were on Mobius instead of here?”

Feist nodded, “WHILE FEIST IS THE KEEPER OF THE CHAOS EMERALDS, ABLE TO GRANT THEM TO THOSE WHO AMUSE ME, FEIST CONTROLS ONLY THEIR DEPARTURE FROM THE SPECIAL ZONE- FEIST CANNOT SUMMON THEM HERE. THE EMERALDS HAVE A WILL OF THEIR OWN. THEY CHOOSE WHEN TO RETURN HERE TO THE SPECIAL ZONE”

“Makes about as much sense as anything else on Mobius, I suppose,” Sonic shrugged, “So answer me this- how come the emeralds have lost their colours?”

“THE EMERALDS DID NOT ALWAYS BEAR THE MULTI-HUED PROPERTIES OF WHICH YOU SPEAK. OR DID YOU FORGET EMERALD IS A SHADE OF GREEN? NOT ALL OF THE EMERALDS WERE GREEN WHEN I GRANTED THEM TO YOUR FRIENDS, WERE THEY?”

“Yeah, but they’re completely see-through!”

“IT IS POSSIBLE THE EMERALDS WISHED TO BE FOUND BY ONE WHO COULD SENSE THE ENERGY WITHIN THEM. YOU HAVE THAT POWER, BEING A FORMER HOLDER OF THE EMERALDS. IN STAYING IN YOUR DOMAIN OF MOBIUS, THE EMERALDS MAY HAVE DEIGNED TO BE SOUGHT OUT BY YOU, KNOWING YOUR WISHES TO USE THEM ARE PURE. IN SHEDDING THEIR COLOURS, THEY REMAINED HIDDEN FROM OTHERS WHO COULD NOT FEEL THEIR ENERGY”

Sonic pondered this for a moment, “I guess Robotnik’s Badniks would have a hard time finding the emeralds if they couldn’t see them. If they aren’t designed to pick up chaos energy signatures, maybe the Badniks could look right through the emeralds in this state”

“THE EMERALDS’ WILL IS THEIR OWN, BUT YOUR THEORY MAKES SENSE TO FEIST. TELL ME, TINY ONE, SINCE FEIST CANNOT GRANT YOU AN EMERALD, SINCE THE SEVENTH IS LONG LOST, HOW MAY FEIST ASSIST YOU?”

“I need to find Doctor Robotnik and stop him. He’s got a back-up plan, I just know it. Please, Feist, I’ll do whatever challenge you want, I just have to stop Robotnik”

“VERY WELL, TINY ONE. FIND THE EXIT OF THIS GAUNTLET AND FEIST SHALL AID YOU”

The planetoid morphed into a strange and gaudy landscape. Crescent moons and stars hung in the sky and the whole thing seemed very artificial. Large yellow and green coils intertwined into a bumper that reminded Sonic of those pear-flavoured ice lollies. The floor was lined with springs- dozens upon dozens of springs.

Hurling himself onto one of the springs, Sonic was startled by the sheer force of its launching power. These springs didn’t seem to follow the rules of physics as Sonic was used to, bouncing him about as if he’d been shot from a cannon. Sonic pinged off of bumpers and bounced over the top of the coils. Pink paddles floated in the air and Sonic found himself being batted about in mid-air above a tremendous, cavernous drop. Yet Sonic somehow sensed this drop was where his goal lay. Shifting his weight in mid-air, Sonic dove downwards where yet more bumpers pinged him around like an increasingly dizzy pinball.

Sonic was beginning to think this was less of a gauntlet than it was a scenario designed to pummel him when he spotted an opening on a ledge. Half curious, half sure it was his goal, Sonic kicked off a wall towards a bumper and bounced up to the ledge. Woozily getting to his feet and allowing the blurriness of his vision to fade, Sonic spotted what looked like a Zone marker up ahead. Striding up to it, Sonic saw the sign simply had an exclamation mark on it. He gave the sign a spin and once it stopped it had changed to reflect an image of Sonic’s own face, looking triumphant.

The world began to melt away.

“MARVELLOUS, TINY ONE- FEIST IS MOST AMUSED! FEIST KNOWS NOT YOUR DOCTOR ROBOTNIK BUT FEIST KNOWS MUCH OF TELEPORTATION. SIMPLY THINK OF THE ONE YOU SEEK WITH ALL THE FOCUS OF YOUR MIND’S EYE AND FEIST WILL DO THE REST”

Sonic scrunched his eyes shut and concentrated. He thought of the hateful face of Doctor Robotnik, his leering eyes and snarling grin. Sonic had to stop him. At all costs, to save Mobius. Sonic focused all of his mind on that insidious face that once belonged to his friend. And everything went rather fuzzy as the Special Zone slipped away.

When Sonic opened his eyes, he found he was in mid-air and falling- right above Doctor Robotnik’s Egg-O-Matic.

Sonic grinned and curled into a ball.

Feist wasn’t such a bad panda.

***

Sonic watched as Robotnik floated out to sea. He couldn’t afford to believe that was the last he’d see of the moustachioed madman. But while he was out of the way, he could do something about the mess Robotnik had made.

Concentrating all his will, Sonic felt the Chaos Emeralds unmerge with his consciousness as they floated into the air above him. Sonic focused on his thoughts once more, making a wish. The emeralds had done their job before when he’d really, really wished for something- it had to work again…

The emeralds flashed away. Sonic turned to look far into the distance at the speck that was the Scrap Brain Zone and the huge black cloud in the air above it, polluting the skies. Before Sonic’s eyes, the cloud began to fade away as, though he was too far away to see it, the Scrap Brain Zone shut down. All of Robotnik’s pollution began to fade away. The horrible water beneath the Labyrinth Zone was purified at once. The traps Robotnik and his Badniks had laid were wiped away. And the very air and water around Sonic seemed to become cleaner- the grass beneath his feet even seemed a little greener and brighter. Even the remains of that horrible bulldozer seemed to dissolve into nothingness.

Sonic had wished for Robotnik’s polluting influence over South Island to disappear- and the Chaos Emeralds had granted that wish.

“Sonic!”

Sonic turned to see his friends and the remaining members of his band, led by Sally rushing up towards him. He smiled a contented smile of someone who’d had a rough day and could finally rest.

Suddenly, Sonic found himself being picked off his feet from behind.

“My hero!” Madonna exclaimed before planting a big kiss on Sonic’s cheek.

Sally stifled a laugh, “Wow, check out Mr. Romantic here”

“Very funny, Sal,” Sonic replied as Madonna put him down, “Madonna, I appreciate it but now isn’t the time”

“It isn’t?” Madonna tilted her head.

“Nah,” Sonic smiled, “We’ve got a concert to put on- right guys?”

“Yeah,” Sharps responded, not looking over his sunglasses.

Chapter 46 coming soon