Back to Chapter 55

The further Sonic got from the volcano, the better he felt. His temperature lowered to a manageable degree and, aside from anything else, he wasn’t sweating so much. That alone made it worthwhile. The air in the mountain range was a little thicker too. As a matter of fact, as Sonic entered the area known as the Sky High Zone, he thought it was distinctly windy.

The mountains were a blue-purple colour, not so unusual but certainly a nice, vibrant change from the dull grey-brown of the Under Ground Zone. Beautiful green grass grew on footholds on the mountains. There were definitely less appealing Zones than this, Sonic thought.

Sonic eyed a wooden bridge that would take him from one mountain to the next. He put his foot on the first plank- and the whole thing collapsed, falling into the great expanse below. Fortunately, Sonic was close enough to the end of the bridge that he was able to leap to safety. No bridges, then. He’d just have to take the hard route.

Not that traversing a mountain range was Sonic’s idea of a fun time, of course. Even with his climbing training, this wasn’t going to be easy. The Emerald Radar indicated the next Chaos Emerald was high up above. Robotnik had seemingly veered right past it, confirming for Sonic that he definitely didn’t have a radar- but, as Sonic watched the emerald currently in Robotnik’s position continue to move further away, he realised Robotnik wouldn’t be stopping for their usual end-of-Zone fight. All that told Sonic was Robotnik evidently had confidence in whatever Master Robot he’d readied.

Sonic decided there was no point in wasting time, he’d simply have to traverse the mountain. He had emeralds to collect and a friend to rescue and pondering wasn’t going to get the job doing any sooner.

Fortunately, the footholds were wide- frankly, they were more like platforms. Sonic was glad to be able to traverse a mountain range without fear of putting a foot wrong and slipping off. That said, despite the fact there wasn’t any lava down below, the fact he couldn’t see the ground through the clouds told Sonic plenty- specifically that he didn’t want to take the quick route to the bottom.

About half way up a particular peak, Sonic became aware of a whistling sound. Not a musical whistling, rather the noise of the wind whistling past something. He turned and was slightly confused by the sight of an orange rock that seemed to be spinning in place. Weirder still, the rock sprouted four legs! After a moment, the rock paused in mid-air, as if looking at Sonic before all became clear. A head popped out of the rock, revealing it to be a turtle. Or, rather, a turtle-like Badnik.

“Oh, hey!” Sonic registered surprise, “You’re a new one. What’s he call you?”

“Designation: Game-game!” the Badnik replied with a voice that didn’t quite match its mouth movements.

“Yeah, well, I’m not in the mood for games, thanks”

“It’s pronounced ‘gah-MEH’!” the turtle insisted.

“Not in the mood for those either. Why don’t you save us both the trouble and release your prisoner now?”

“This unit currently has no organic battery installed- you shall be my prisoner, hedgehog!”

“Oh, like that, is it?” Sonic grinned.

The Game-game retracted its head and limbs and began spinning again. Suddenly, it hurtled itself at Sonic. Unluckily for the robot, Sonic managed to catch it.

“See, I’m probably the wrong person to play catch with anyway,” Sonic noted, “I’m ever so clumsy”

Spinning around with tremendous force, Sonic threw the Badnik into a nearby rockface, where it exploded into countless metal pieces.

“Looks like it’s ‘gah-MEH’ over for you,” Sonic quipped.

It only took Sonic a few minutes to climb to the top of the peak he was stood on. From there he could get a better look at his surroundings. But it was what Sonic found atop the mountain that surprised him the most.

There, right in front of him, was a hang glider. Perfectly untouched, pristine even. But with no owner in sight. Strange.

Sonic raised his wrist and spoke into his watch, “Kintobor?”

“Yes, Sonic,” came the Kintobor computer’s response.

“I don’t suppose people tend to leave hang gliders lying around the Sky High Zone for no reason?”

“Actually, Sonic, you’ll like this one. According to my databanks, the people of the Sky High Zone do precisely that as it allows them to ride the winds and traverse the peaks of the Zone with relative ease. So much simpler for carrying heavy shopping. Or so I should imagine, I don’t have need to carry things”

Sonic took in this information for a moment. What a weird system. Still, the Sky High Zone had a small population and if this worked for them then why not? It certainly made him feel better about what he was about to do as he didn’t like to think he might be stealing the hang glider- but if it was for public use then use it he would.

Sonic noted the skies were starting to get dark. If nothing else, the glider would provide him a brief moment’s shelter from the incoming rain. The wind was picking up too. He hoped he’d be able to get a good ride from the glider.

Sonic lifted the glider off the ground. Surprisingly lightweight, he noted. Holding onto the crossbar, he took a step back, then a running leap off the peak- in an instant, the wind currents rising from below carried him up and forwards.

Sonic felt quite exhilarated. This was fun! He could definitely see the appeal of flight, though this hardly matched up to Tails’ particular skills.

Suddenly, the heavens opened up and a huge downpour began. The rain battered hard and noisily off the glider, though Sonic ignored this as best he could. With a little careful manoeuvring and leaning his body back, Sonic was able to catch the currents and climb higher.

Sonic managed to use the gliders to clear one, then two, then three mountains. He’d make it through the Zone in no time at this rate.

KABAM! A loud peal of thunder cracked as lightning struck around Sonic. It occurred to him that riding through a thunderstorm on a glider largely constructed of metal probably wasn’t actually very safe, though he reasoned there probably wasn’t very much he could do about that right now. He’d just have to hope for the best.

“Hello again!” a robotic voice buzzed.

Sonic’s eyes almost popped out of his head with surprise as, right before his eyes, a Newtron Badnik hovering in the air in front of him revealed itself.

Wait- ‘again’? Was this the same Newtron Badnik that got him in the Under Ground Zone?!

Sonic didn’t have much chance to ask questions as the Newtron shot an energy beam which ripped through the glider.

His mode of transport compromised, Sonic began to lose altitude at an alarming rate. Suddenly, the canvas on the glider tore apart and the metal bars began to judder, eventually working themselves loose and falling apart. Sonic was falling at an unbelievable speed hundreds of feet in the air.

The storm began to let up, but that did little to calm Sonic’s fears. He was going to break his personal best for top speed- unfortunately he was going to do that vertically before coming to a rather immediate and definitive stop. Sonic hurtled towards some white, fluffy clouds…

…and bounced upwards.

Defying conventional science- as places on Mobius so often did- clouds in the Sky High Zone were often known to be soft, springy and solid enough to stand on. As Sonic landed in a comfortable heap on one such cloud, he thanked his lucky stars and took a moment to catch his breath.

As Sonic lay on his back, he couldn’t help but notice how after that flash storm the sun seemed bright, glowing in his eyeline. What was even more unusual, of course, was the fact it was doing that while also being slightly to the left of his vision.

Sonic sat up with a jolt. Two suns?! More likely than not, a second glowing source. Bending his knees, Sonic forced himself up in a jump and began to bounce from cloud to cloud like they were fluffy bouncy castles. As he bounced higher, Sonic found himself drawing nearer to the glowing and discovered, to his delight, a Chaos Emerald sat happily on a cloud. Naturally, Sonic retrieved the gemstone.

Two down, four to go- and one of them in Robotnik’s greasy mitts. Not bad for an afternoon’s work.

Sonic began a reasonably careful descent back down through the clouds, eventually coming to land on a long and wide cloud that seemed solid enough to walk on. As he moved his feet, Sonic realised this was no cloud but, in fact, a metal platform disguised to look like one.

At the sound of a sort of high-pitched sort of “peep-peep-peep!” noise, Sonic turned to see four baby chicks hopping towards him. Cute.

Or not, as these chicks had murder written on their faces.

As they drew closer, Sonic realised the chicks were, in fact, Badniks. In a flash, Sonic bounced from the tiny robots until all four were destroyed.

To his surprise, another four popped up, as if from nowhere. Sonic smashed these too and the process repeated again.

This was getting irritating now. As he and the robot chicks moved about, the wispy smoke-like substance creating the illusion of the fake cloud was disturbed and Sonic saw the source of the problem- the chicks were being fired out of four tiny egg-shaped cannons. Ducking and diving and rolling between the chicks, Sonic smashed into the eggs and shattered them, before finishing off the last of the chicks. He’d been right- without the cannons, the chicks stopped appearing.

With a screeching honking noise, one last mechanical bird popped its head out of the clouds.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Mama bird, I presume?”

The goose-like Master Robot opened its beak and with a honk fired a laser burst at Sonic. Sonic deftly leapt over the projectile and watched as the bird drew closer. It was strange, actually- Sonic was waiting for the robot to show its body, but it never did. Sonic realised that the robot’s position and movement meant it was all neck and head. Either Robotnik had been too lazy to design a body to go with it or he was counting on Sonic not noticing among the cloud cover.

Sonic continued to dodge the fire from the Master Robot and landed a shot of his own on the machine’s head which managed to knock it for a loop. The bird spun round on Sonic and charged him. Sonic, however, was one step ahead and, waiting until the robot came close enough, bounded over the mechanical threat and kicked it in the back of the head with enough force that it shot forward and got its beak stuck in the platform.

From here it was a simple enough matter for Sonic to land repeated blows on the machine until it sparked and blew apart.

“Looks like your goose is cooked,” Sonic remarked, before adding, “I’ve got to remember to say the quips before I blow them up…”

Sonic walked to the edge of the platform and found another Robotnik-face prison capsule. Bursting it open as he did the last, Sonic watched with delight as a procession of Mobini birds flew free.

“What a lovely sight,” Sonic smiled to himself.

He didn’t have long to celebrate. A panel slid away on the platform and created a hole beneath Sonic’s feet, dropping him down into the Zone below as he let out a surprised yelp.

On to Chapter 57