Back to Chapter 57

“Welcome to Green Hills Zone,” Sonic read the sign, a furrowed brow taking up much of his face.

The sky was blue, the grass was green, the mountains were brown… just a slightly wrong shade of all three.

This was the Green Hill Zone, surely? Just… slightly wrong?

Sonic padded through the Zone with some confusion. Had that “s” always been in the Zone name? Had he and his friends been saying it wrong the whole time? Or, worse, was he the only one who’d been saying it wrong and he’d just been mishearing everyone else? That would be mortifying!

Sonic spotted a nearby Mobian walking by, a badger to be precise. He called over, “Hey, excuse me”

The badger turned, “Yes?”

“Am I…” Sonic almost felt daft for asking, “Am I… in the Green Hill Zone?”

The badger let out an exasperated grunt, “Not another one! No, you are not in the Green Hill Zone. You’re in the Green Hills Zone! Tch… tourists…”

“There’s a Zone with a name almost identical to ours?”

“No, there’s a Zone with a name almost identical to ours! Our Zones were founded on the same day. As a matter of fact, we’re all a little sick of being confused with your Zone!”

“…why don’t you change the name?”

“Why don’t you change yours?!”

Sonic could see this was getting nowhere fast, “Alright, fine, sorry, I can see how this might get annoying. Hey, you’re a badger, you’ll appreciate this- I live in part of Green Hill Zone called Hedgehog Village, but the village was founded by a badger! How funny is that?”

“Not that funny. I live in a part of Green Hills Zone called Badgerton, it was founded by a hedgehog”

“…this stupid island…” Sonic grumbled to himself.

“Well, anyway, I’m sorry if I seemed a little snippy. It’s just us Green Hills-ers have to have this conversation every day with people delivering to the wrong address, it’s really quite exasperating”

“Fair enough. I don’t suppose you’ve seen a mad scientist come through here? Specifically, Doctor Robotnik?”

“Never heard of him”

“Of course not,” Sonic ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth, “Well, thanks anyway”

“No problem”

The badger carried on on their way. Sonic quietly simmered to himself. This was going to be one of those days, he could just tell.

The Green Hills Zone really did remind Sonic of home. There were giant flowers- just a slightly different breed- there were loop-de-loops- just a little less perfect in design- there were springs… rather a lot of springs, in fact.

The springs in the Green Hill Zone- as in many of South Island’s Zones- had really been placed there by Robotnik’s Badniks during their invasion attempts. They were meant to confuse, confound and irritate those who stood on them. The thing was, they actually allowed the Zone’s inhabitants to traverse the Zone’s terrain much more easily. Robotnik had inadvertently helped the Green Hill Zone’s people. So they just left the springs where they were!

But whoever placed these springs in the Green Hills Zone lacked the artistry of Robotnik. Not that Sonic could believe he was praising Robotnik, but there really were a lot of them here. Big and green, they seemed to be placed willy-nilly on every flat surface in the Zone.

The Emerald Radar gave off a beep. Sonic consulted its screen and saw there was a Chaos Emerald near to his present location- just very high up. Could it really be that easy? Sonic decided it had to be worth a try and, pretending he was visiting the Spring Yard Zone, flipped through the air towards a spring on the ground.

In mere moments, Sonic was being flung high into the air. He had to admit it was pretty fun. He hoped Robotnik never created a Badnik that looked like a spring or he really would be for it.

Bouncing from surface to surface, off each green spring that stuck out from walls and rock faces, Sonic rose higher and higher into the air. Eventually he came to a stop atop a high peak which spread out for around fifty feet. There, right in front of him, was the Chaos Emerald the Emerald Radar had detected.

Had it really been so simple?!

Sonic collected the emerald and decided that sometimes the universe must just felt like it owed him one.

Walking to the edge of the peak, Sonic peered down.

“Ah, right, forgot about that…”

Getting down would be the challenging part.

After ten minutes of scrambling awkwardly down an exceptionally steep peak, trying to avoid the springs that seemed to beset him from all sides, Sonic finally reached the bottom. He looked thoroughly miffed.

The badger from before walked past, shaking his head, “Tourists…”

Sonic sighed and kicked the dirt off his shoes. No sense in letting it bother him. He’d managed to find four Chaos Emeralds, that meant he had a 50-50 chance of the next blip on the radar taking him to Robotnik and, more importantly, Tails.

A loud stomping noise broke Sonic’s concentration, “What the--?”

Just ahead of him was what had to be the next Master Robot. A large mechanical pig with an angry expression on its face and wearing a mawashi.

“Please tell me Robotnik didn’t make a sumo pig,” Sonic requested of the robot, somewhat flatly.

The pig let out a strange war cry and curled into a ball before flinging itself at Sonic.

“Hey!” Sonic shouted, leaping over the robot, “I’m pretty sure that’s not in the rules of sumo!”

The porcine threat changed the rotation of its spin as it landed, rolling along the ground at Sonic. Clearly this pig wasn’t interested in playing by the rules.

Sonic barely managed to dodge an assault from the Master Robot once more, “Buddy, I get it, you like my Spin Attack. I know imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but come on”

Sonic stood with his back to a tree. He had to time this right. The piggy sumo decided to attempt a high-bouncing attack. Sonic waited until the last possible moment… then dodged to the side with a split-second leap. The Master Robot collided with the tree, snapping it in two and bringing a log down on its head. For good measure, Sonic laid the boots in with a Spin Attack until the robot sparked, deactivated.

As if on command, a Robotnik-face Prison Capsule floated down. Sonic walked towards it.

“Not so fast, hedgehog!”

“Ugh, now what?!” Sonic groaned, exasperated.

“We meet again, for the third and final time!”

Sonic spun round to see his foe- the Newtron Badnik that had blasted him twice before. It switched into missile mode and shot itself forward at tremendous speed right at Sonic…

…who side-stepped and snatched it by the tail.

The Newtron realised its mistake, “Ooh-erk! I think I might have misjudged this”

Sonic swung the Badnik around like a bola and smashed it into the underside of the Prison Capsule, where it exploded into what seemed like a million pieces. He probably should have been more careful in case there was a captive prisoner inside but he had to admit it felt good to get one over on the Badnik. The Prison Capsule cracked open and released all manner of wildlife, as well as a few Mobian badgers, no doubt from Badgerton.

Sonic consulted the Emerald Radar to see what his next move would be. One emerald was a little closer than the other and appeared to be inside a nearby mountain. Sonic looked over the horizon. He couldn’t help but notice the mountain in question appeared to be made of metal. That had Robotnik’s signature all over it. He made his choice and rushed off towards his next destination.

On to Chapter 59