Embedded Files
Chapter 106 - Sonic the
Tails ran, panicked. This had gone entirely wrong. Not just wrong, but catastrophically wrong. Obviously incensed to have lost out on whatever oil he thought was in the Aquatic Ruin Zone, Robotnik had instead, out of spite, decided to up the number of Badnik patrols in the Zone. Today was supposed to be a routine bit of Badnik busting for Sonic and Tails, no sweat. But Snively had to show up, didn’t he?
Not only that, he’d brought a whacking great Roboticizer with him. It was allegedly portable, though you could have fooled Tails with that description, given it was the size of a particularly large 18-wheeler. Snively had evidently been sent to force the Roaming Romans into the machine to make them willing mechanical servants of Robotnik. Sonic may not have understood what exactly the Roaming Romans’ deal was, but he couldn’t sit by and allow them to be turned into Badniks. Not like what had happened to his dad. Sonic wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Of course, Snively had gotten careless, hadn’t he? He’d left his Egg-O-Matic hovercraft unattended and Sonic, true to form, put his plan into action before really thinking through the logic of it. Steal an Egg-O-Matic, pilot it at speed into the Roboticizer, destroy both- two for the price of one. Except, of course, Sonic had no idea how to pilot an Egg-O-Matic, not properly. As he got distracted by the controls, before he knew it the Roboticizer was upon him- or, rather, he was upon it. The collision was tremendous and suffice to say the Roboticizer was thoroughly out of commission. Amazingly, the Egg-O-Matic had suffered only superficial damage. It was study enough to withstand at least one big whallop, it seemed. Sonic had been jostled about and whacked his head. Tails had seen Sonic slumping down, unconscious but hopefully still breathing, as the Egg-O-Matic careened away over the distance.
Ordinarily, of course, keeping up with the Egg-O-Matic wouldn’t be too tricky an ask for Tails. But an explosion of that size had caused a tremendous amount of chaos and confusion. Roaming Romans had come out to defend their home, Badniks swarmed all around and Snively generally screeched and yelled but, coward that he was, stayed out of any actual physicality. In the fracas, Tails had completely lost track of Sonic. As much as he hated to admit it, Tails would have to leave Snively for another time. Right now, he had to try and evade the Badniks that were in hot pursuit of him and try to figure out which way Sonic went- which, without N.I.C.O.L.E. to hand to help him pick up the signal from Sonic’s Kintobor watch, wouldn’t be easy.
***
“Mm… mrff… muh… my head…”
“He’s waking up! Get Steve Owl- quickly! The hedgehog’s waking up!”
“Hedgehog?” Asked the blue hedgehog. What room was this? Fully opening his eyes, he sat up then winced. Evidently he’d moved a little too quickly- his head was throbbing. Or was there another reason for that? He reached up and touched his forehead, finding a large plaster had been applied to a two-inch long cut, which was surrounded by a rather unpleasant bump. He quickly recoiled in pain from prodding the injury.
“I wouldn’t poke that if I were you. Probably a bit sore.” The hedgehog looked up to see an owl greeting him. His pupils were huge, which couldn’t have been pleasant for an owl in the daytime to begin with. There was something oddly familiar about the pendant he was wearing, but the blue hedgehog couldn’t place it.
“H-hello,” the hedgehog stammered, “Who are you?”
“My name is Steve Owl,” the owl replied, a friendly tone in his voice, “I’m the leader of the people of this Zone.” He smiled, “Don’t read too much into it, it’s not really an official title. It just means I end up with more admin.”
“Where am I exactly?” the hedgehog asked, still in somewhat of a daze, now realising he was in a hospital bed.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Steve continued, “You’re in the Hidden Zone, friend. And, to tell you the truth, that shouldn’t be possible.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Hidden Zone isn’t found on any map. It’s a safe haven set up to give a home to any who wish to escape the evil rule of Doctor Robotnik. The entire Zone is hidden by a cloaking device. Realistically, there’s no way you should have been able to find us. Though, given you were found unconscious in the woods nearby, one supposes you may not exactly have realised you’d come here.”
“You can say that again,” the hedgehog said, dangling his red-and-white sneakers over the edge of the bed, “I don’t think I realise much of anything right now. It’s like there’s a fog in my brain that’s stopping me from remembering.”
“Oh dear,” Steve tutted, “Sounds like amnesia to me. Well, there’s no accounting for how long that might take to right itself. What you need is to jog your memory. Amnesia isn’t necessarily permanent, you know, maybe if we can give your brain a little push in the right direction, that fog will lift. Now, let’s start with an easy one- what’s your name?”
“Easy one? Guess again, pal. You’re asking the wrong hedgehog. I guess this bump in the head is worse than it looks- I can’t even remember who I am.”
***
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, this is just getting silly now,” Tails groaned, exasperated. What had started with three Badniks pursuing him had now grown to an alarming twenty-seven. Tails was just glad none of them were built with projectile weaponry, but that didn’t make this moment any less tense for him.
Suddenly, Tails saw an opening of sorts. He was coming to a coast line- he could fly out over the water but most of the Badniks pursuing him didn’t have any kind of flight capabilities. He was pretty confident he could take care of a few Whisps but he didn’t fancy his chances quite so much if the entire horde following him managed to reach him.
Approaching the water’s edge, Tails hurled himself into the air with a mighty leap, spinning his twin appendages and breaking into flight. So far so regular. But then things got a little bit odd. For half a second, the world shimmered around Tails- and then he found he wasn’t over the water at all. He was over the land, as it turned out. A whole area of land he hadn’t been able to see before. How was this possible? How could an entire city just blink into view around him?
Tails’ gaze was momentarily attracted by the sight of a downed Egg-O-Matic, laying dormant but not destroyed nearby. No sign of Sonic. Perhaps he’d fallen out? Hopefully he’d gotten out of his own volition. Either way, Tails reckoned his friend had to be somewhere nearby.
Tails glanced over his shoulder.
Twenty-eight.
“Just fantastic.”
***
Steve Owl and the confused blue hedgehog had decided to go for a walk outside, in the hope that something they saw might awaken a memory in the poor amnesiac.
“So you really can’t remember anything at all? Not even your name? Dear me, this is quite unfortunate,” Steve shook his head.
“Nope. I have fuzzy visions of… I don’t know, this might sound silly…”
“No, go on,” the leader of the Hidden Zone encouraged the youngster.
“Well, it’s like… I dunno, like I used to be some cool dude kinda guy. Is that big-headed of me?”
“Maybe,” the owl chuckled, “but maybe you were some cool dude kinda guy! I wish I could help you, friend, truly I do. We don’t have much in the way of technology here, other than the cloaking device, and we’re entirely cut off from the rest of Mobius, so it’s a little difficult for us to keep up to date with—”
“Steve Owl! Steve Owl!” a panting bunny ran up to the pair, frantic.
“What is it, Benny?” Steve Owl asked, “Calm down, what’s the matter?”
“They’ve found us!”
“Who’ve found us, Benny?”
Benny the Bunny got his breath back, “Badniks!”
The animals turned in the direction of Benny’s pointing finger, only to see dozens of Badniks chasing a small, orange fox who seemed to be flying, impossible though that clearly was. Most Badniks weren’t equipped with the ability to smile, but these ones seemed to be revelling in the moment.
“Rise and shine, you furry scum!” a Moto Bug called out, “Your Zone is now the property of Doctor Robotnik!”
The Badniks began to launch an attack on the Hidden Zone, laughing and whooping and cheering as they did so, delighting in the Zone’s inhabitants running away in fright.
The blue hedgehog was panicked, “What’s happening, Steve? Wh-what’s going on? What do we do?!”
“Do?” Steve was nervous now, “We’re under attack, my friend- we can’t fight back against enemies like this! The people here are all peaceful! There’s nothing we can do!”
“That’s right!” the Moto Bug barked, “So just lay down and accept your fate! Come on, we’ll go easy on you- we just want to convert you into Badniks like us! It only take a minute and it doesn’t hurt… well, not much anyway!” The Badnik laughed uproariously.
Steve hung his head, “It’s too late for us. We’re done for…”
The hedgehog shuddered, “I… I can’t… why…”
“Oh, that is pathetic,” the Moto Bug sneered, “I mean, a bunch of peace-loving wimps is one thing. But I have to say, I would have expected more of a fight from Sonic the Hedgehog!”
Sonic’s head snapped into focus. The fog had lifted, “Buddy… you just said the magic words.”
Before the Moto Bug could offer up a response, Sonic had already run through him with a punch that sent parts of metal casing flying. In turn, he leapt from one metal foe to another, smashing each of them in turn and freeing captive Mobians trapped inside, an angry look on his face, “You brought war to a peace-loving Zone that wanted nothing to do with Robotnik. Well unlucky for you lot, it turns out this place is protected.”
Steve watched on in amazement, “Sonic the Hedgehog… I’ve heard stories of him… I thought he was just a myth. An urban legend! A folk hero! I never thought he was real.”
“I’m plenty real, pal,” Sonic smiled, “though I bet these tin-plated creeps wish I wasn’t.”
A Caterkiller Badnik’s eyes practically went out on stalks as Sonic advanced on him, “Run for it!”
“Who are you kidding?” Sonic slammed into the Caterkiller and freed its captive before finishing off the rest of the robotic foes. Coming to a skidding halt in front of Steve, Sonic took a bow, “Ta-da! Back to my usual, handsome, super-cool self.”
One of Steve’s fellow Hidden Zone members surreptitiously whispered to their leader, “Reckon I might prefer the confused version, he was a bit more polite…”
Steve chuckled, “Now, now, we have to be grateful. Sonic saved us all.”
One of the Hidden Zoners called out, “Sonic, look out!”
A Slicer was bearing down on Sonic- he’d missed one! The Badnik menacingly reared its claws back, “Time to say goodbye, you creep!”
“Goodbye, you creep!” Tails called out, delivering the somewhat obvious punchline. Slightly less obvious, however, was Tails’ chosen mode of transport- the previously abandoned Egg-O-Matic!
The Slicer’s eyes widened as it watched Tails leap to safety and the Egg-O-Matic zoomed towards the rotten Badnik. Searching for the right words to say, all the Badnik could offer was, “Oh dear.”
With a mighty explosion, the Slicer popped open, freeing a grateful hippo Mobian in the process. The Egg-O-Matic wedged into the ground and sputtered a few times before its exhaust pipe fell off and its windscreen shattered. A mighty cheer rose up for Sonic and Tails. The two friends high-fived.
“Good to have you back, Sonic,” Tails smiled at his friend.
“Good to be back,” Sonic nodded.
“What should we do now, Sonic?” Steve asked, “We can’t stay here any longer. The Hidden Zone is no longer hidden- those Badniks must have relayed our location to Robotnik by now.”
“Don’t sweat it, Stevie. I’m way ahead of you. You lot all wanted a safe haven away from Robotnik, right? Somewhere you could live in peace? Well, if you’d be so kind as to lead me to your Zone’s Star Post, I’ll take you somewhere you’ll be able to do just that. And I’m sure Princess Sally would be all too happy for the assistance of someone who has leadership skills like you, Steve.”
“The princess? She lives? Then there is hope after all!”
“That’s right, buddy. And she wants to bring hope to everyone. Join our cause and help us spread peace across our world- free Mobius from Robotnik!”
A green bird called out, “Free Mobius!”
The rest of the Hidden Zoners began chanting “Free Mobius”. Steve chuckled and nodded at Sonic, “Free Mobius.”
Despite losing his memory, Sonic had found plenty of new Mobians to bring to Knothole Village. Amnesia aside, this had been a day Sonic would never forget.
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