Chapter 4: Green, but not yellow

(by the way, guys- if you read this fic when I first did it, I cannot apologise enough for leaving you waiting about two and a half years for a new chapter)

(If you’ve just joined us, sit tight as it’s time for a quick recap. And, hey, if you’ve been reading since the start, you may want to read this as well because, oh boy, have things ever gotten confusing? But here’s the deal, Boomers:

Former dictator of Mobius and thoroughly nasty person Dr Ivo Robotnik has decided that, following the amazing mishap that was the Chaos beast it’s about time he gave world domination another shot. The Doctor had seemingly been going insane after being defeated in an incredible battle by Sonic the Hedgehog, his heroic arch-nemesis. But Robotnik had since managed to snap out of his insanity.

Indeed, Ivo had realised something was amiss and decided to run some tests on himself. It turned out that he really never was going insane (well, no more so than usual, at any rate). In reality, he had suffered from a psychological problem that occurred when his God-like powers, bestowed on him by the Plax (an ancient race of plastic-esque aliens who mistook Robotnik for their God) were removed, combined with the stress of his constant failure to beat Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles Prower (better known to his friends as Tails, and winner of World’s Corniest Name Award 2002) have heard of Robotnik’s evil plan to get all seven emeralds and the Master Emerald to power up an indestructible Death Egg and are in the Aquatic Ruins Zone. They’re in the Zone under the pretence of looking for Robotnik’s secret base, though Sonic knows for fact Robotnik is not there, he’s not letting on to his little buddy as he has a plan and he wants Robotnik in the Zone.

Meanwhile, there is anarchy under Robotnik’s own bulbous red nose and he doesn’t even realise it. EggRobo, leader of Robotnik’s Badnik minions, has no wish for his position to be usurped by snobbish robot Terrayn (the Badnik that can go everywhere, yet has no weapons for some insane reason) and, as a result, shot it to bits. Add to this Robotnik’s temporary head scientist, a Splats Badnik named only Q23D4, almost as if his creator simply smacked the keyboard to get some random serial code, and his wish to usurp some power himself. Q23D4 has a plan to take the Chaos Emeralds and unlock their power, wielding them himself for his own gain- nobody will be able to stop him.

But, hey, lengthy exposition over, let’s get back to the story, shall we?)

“And, today on the show, we’re going to be teaching you how to cook an omelette with a side order of cheese and some surprisingly low calorie ch-- ”

“Bleh” A bony finger stuck up and pressed a button on the remote. The channel flipped over.

“PILEDRIVER! CLOTHESLINE! JACKHAMMER! OTHER PIECES OF KIT!!!”

“Gah, not wrestling...” Once again the button was pressed and, once again, the channel flipped over.

“It’s time to vote off...The Weakest Mobian!”

“Oh, that’s enough!”

Grimer stood up and turned the TV off. “Why do you tease me, God?”

Grimer would hardly have called himself a religious man but, frankly, he’d probably get more response talking to God right now than anyone else, given that he was alone. He sighed. “Seriously. What’s the deal? All my life, I wanted to be a scientist. Then I get offered a job by Dr Robotnik. I had no idea who he was at the time, but I took the job because it offered good pay. So then it turns out he’s the most evil man in the history of Mobius. Great. I’m still under contract. So, I run with things a little, and I grow close to the guy. I’m the only one he ever truly trusted. Dare I say, I even felt...compassion for him. I felt sorry for the guy because, evil or not, he had dreams and they kept evading him. Time runs by and my contract expires. But I choose not to leave. I stay with this evil man and...I become a little evil myself.”

Grimer pondered on things for a moment before continuing his soliloquy, “But evil though I may have been, I wasn’t irrational. And Ivo was going mad. I had no choice but to leave, even though I freed the Chaos beast and nearly killed us all. Praise be that Sonic the Hedgehog came along and...” He caught himself praising his long time foe, before giving in and continuing, “...and saved us all again. And, now, here I stand, bored out of my skull, jobless, talking to a God I don’t believe in, in a run-down place I call home, rueing the fact I ever accepted the Doctor’s offer”.

Suddenly, Grimer was hit with an idea. And it wasn’t an idea that Dr Ivo Robotnik would have appreciated, either. But Sonic the Hedgehog would have loved it.

Speaking of Sonic the Hedgehog, the Aquatic Ruins Zone was about to be made a whole lot more dangerous for him. Robotnik had already re-activated all of the Zones traps that Sonic had previously de-activated and sent a fleet of Whisp Badniks to attack. Sonic, of course, sat completely unaware of all this, with a plan that would, he hoped attract Robotnik to the Zone.

“Sonic,” Tails said, “not to sound whiny or anything, but I’m bored. Where’s Robotnik’s base?”

Sonic hadn’t told Tails that Robotnik had no base in the Zone- something Sonic knew for sure; the Zone was of absolutely no use to the Doctor- but he knew that if he’d said to Tails “I’m luring out Robotnik for a one-on- one fight to get some answers” then the fox would have only picked fault and tried to discourage him. Sonic knew, as well, that he would have ignored Tails’ pleas for some sanity- sanity was simply something that got in the way of the mission objective, Sonic felt- and he didn’t like the idea of upsetting Tails.

But now, as Sonic realised that Tails was waiting on a reply, he knew that as things went on, he’d have a tougher time of convincing his furry friend that there was a hidden base to be found. Sonic reflected on Tails for a moment. For more than ten years Tails had followed Sonic through some of the worst situations of his life. Sonic was always the joker of the pack when it came to the Freedom Fighters, the group of anti-Robotnik outlaws who fought for justice. But Tails had always somehow managed to stick by Sonic even in some of the sillier moments when the fox really should have been at home in bed. Tails idolised Sonic, there was no doubt about that.

But looking at it from another angle, Sonic realised that he was more than Tails’ hero and best friend. He was his mentor. The Freedom Fighters had been dealt a tragic blow when the Chaos beast caused the death of Johnny Lightfoot, one of Sonic’s braver accomplices. The cause of Johnny’s death was unknown. Some feel that he took a massive punch from the beast a little too hard. Others believe that Johnny died as a result of a heart attack, brought on from the Chaos beast’s uncanny ability to strike fear into its opponents- fear which increased to an incredible degree as you got closer to it.

But in any eventuality, Johnny’s death had underlined one key fact for Sonic. All life is vulnerable. And there would come a time when even he, the great Sonic the Hedgehog, would die and pass on to the afterlife. And, at that point someone needed to step up and lead the fight against insane madmen like Robotnik. Sonic was training Tails to be that someone. But that was, hopefully, going to be a long way off and Sonic had plenty of fight left in him yet. He gazed up at his buddy and smiled, “Relax, Tails,” he said, “We’ll find Robotnik yet!” “I’m more worried that he’ll find us first, to be truthful, Sonic”

“Well...” and Sonic trailed off. There was a reasonably long pause before Tails decided to respond.

“Well...?”

“The thing is, Tails...he might just do that”

“What?!” Sonic saw Tails’ reaction. He was a combination of stunned and upset. Sonic realised he should probably have said something a bit more helpful to the situation.

“Um, well...what I mean is- you know what these evil dictators are like, right?” Sonic forced a chuckle in order that he may try to prevent Tails from thinking his best friend was a full on nutter. Sonic would never admit to anyone, but he gained great pleasure from ensuring he could keep his friends happy- perhaps because on Mobius there were so few chances of happiness.

Back at the Emerald Hill Base, Amy Rose sat, occasionally prodding away at a key on the Kintobor computer.

“Amy”

She didn’t seem to hear anything.

Kinotobor cleared his throat, as best a computer generated personality can “Amy”

“Huh? Oh, sorry, Kintobor”

“Not a problem, Amy. It’s just I feel that, given Sonic and Tails are both off on another of their trademark adventures, you might wish to monitor their activities, using the cameras Tekno and Porker Lewis recently installed around the Aquatic Ruin Zone”

“Hmm?”

“Oh, yes. Didn’t I tell you? They’ve managed to install lots of cameras, across about 30 Zones just in the last few days, all hooked up to my mainframe so that you can watch any goings on”

Amy took things the wrong way now. For years, she had been referred to as “Sonic’s girlfriend”. This had always annoyed Sonic, leading to temper tantrums on several occasions. But now it was starting to wear thin on Amy, too. She was a girl who could get any man she wanted, and just because she had a crush on him many years ago, that didn’t have to be Sonic! She had matured since then. She didn’t have to go with Sonic if she didn’t choose. Did she? Either way, she mistook Kintobor’s suggestion as if he had said “Why not check up on how your boyfriend is doing, you lonely individual?”

“Naw, that’s OK, Kintobor,” she responded, “I’m sure Sonic can handle himself. Especially with Tails there to help him out”

“Oh....that’s....it’s just that...” Kintobor’s voice grew quieter so that Amy didn’t hear his next comment, “I’d really rather you didn’t play Solitaire on me”

At that moment, a green head with hair flopping over one side of its face appeared from the stairwell. It was Amy’s best friend, Tekno the Canary. Tekno was an incredible asset to the Freedom Fighters and she also meant that Amy wasn’t the sole female of the crew. The two had visited many different worlds, dimensions and time periods through the use of the Ring of Eternity, now used as a gateway between Zones, and in all of the scenarios they faced, the girls had proven themselves just as tough as the boys and had always won out over evil.

“Amy,” Tekno half spoke, half squealed, “you are NOT going to believe this one”

Before Amy could enquire what Tekno was on about, the green Canary dashed back downstairs. Amy followed.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, Amy was greeted by one doozy of an unusual sight. There stood Grimer Wormtongue, wearing some ridiculous oufit, including a T-shirt with Sonic’s image and the words “Sonic is Cool!” emblazoned upon it. He was grinning from ear to ear.

Amy was stunned. She literally could not think of what to say. After roughly twenty-two-and-a-half seconds of nothing but stunned silence on Amy’s behalf, she finally found some words to use, “What the FLIP do you want?!”

“I was expecting something like that” Grimer smiled

“Amy,” Tekno piped in, “Grimer has something he wants to say”

Amy looked cautious, but prepared herself for the worst, “Go on...”

“I want to join you.”

A long silence. Suddenly Amy burst out laughing, shortly thereafter, she was joined by Tekno who managed to say, between laughs, “Yeah! I thought it was hilarious, too!” Grimer looked seriously miffed. “I’m SERIOUS!”

“We know!” Amy said, wiping away a tear of laughter, “That’s what makes it so funny!” “GAH! I KNEW you’d be childish like this!!” Grimer exclaimed.

Tekno and Amy suddenly stopped laughing. Amy eventually found herself, very calmly saying, “No offence, Grimer....but are you sure you’d fit in with us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re....it’s...well, I won’t say ‘coward’, but--”

“Oh, what a surprise! I knew that was coming!” The girls were quite shocked by this reaction and awaited Grimer to speak on, “For so long now I’ve been characterised as some slimy little so-and-so who would do anything to save his own hide and forget about the rest! Well, to heck with that! Doesn’t anyone realise? Don’t they see? I’m more than that! So much more! A year or so ago, there was NOTHING I wouldn’t have done for Dr Robotnik! NOTHING!!! I would have put my own feelings aside- and frequently did- just for what he wanted. And, at the end, we gained nothing, but we picked the pieces up and started again. So don’t tell me I’m not a team player, because I am!”

“Well...what can you offer us?”

“What can I offer you? Let me make you a deal you cannot possibly turn down”

“I don’t believe this. This is ridiculous”

Knuckles had been running around the Aquatic Ruins Zone for the best part of half an hour and had to, finally, admit that he was very lost indeed.

“I simply DO NOT believe this! Whilst I’m here, my island could have been attacked and pillaged, but because Sonic has to play adventurer and refuse to take any kind of contact device with him, I’m the one who has to go looking” Knuckles thought about what he’d just said and instantly felt bad.

He and Sonic had always had something of a rivalry, probably a fact which was inflamed a degree or two by his own personal gullibility and the fact he so readily walked straight into Robotnik’s ploy all those years ago, only realising in the nick of time that he’d picked the wrong side. But, rivalry or no rivalry, Knuckles knew that Sonic was an honourable hero and someone who he was glad to say he was a friend of.

The fact is, Knuckles friends didn’t extend any further outside those Sonic considered friends, with the exception of Ebony and Pyjamas, two cats who had mystical powers. Sonic only knew Ebony loosely, but Knuckles had met them once before and struck things off quite well. Indeed, Knuckles had lived a very secluded life and it was only recently he had been able to open up to other people. The fact the first person he made contact with tricked him also meant that, to begin with at least, he had trouble trusting anyone, particularly Sonic whose lifestyle was so radically different to his own- whilst Knuckles was laid-back and wary, Sonic had a take no prisoners, all-out attitude..

But he was warming to others now. Perhaps something that contributed to his secluded nature was the fact he spent years alone on the Floating Island. He has no idea of his true past. Knuckles- and a creep named Doctor Zachary- are, apparently, the last two remnants of the echidna race on Mobius. But they would be forgiven for mistakenly believing they were abandoned by the rest of their race.

Truth be told, Knuckles and Zachary were sent from thousands of years in the past. Many centuries ago, Knuckles was the head of the echidna army, as part of a tribe led by Pachaccamac, the last of the great echidna leaders. The echidna had engaged in a series of fierce battles with the great Drakon Empire, a group of half-fish-half-cyborg creatures who, at one point, ruled over Mobius. The Floating Island, home of the echidnae, was the only place the Drakon Empire had not yet gained control of on the planet- and the Drakon Empire do not appreciate having a job half completed.

In a final, brutal war, the Drakon Empire murdered countless echidnae, with the sole plan of gaining control of the Master Emerald. Though they succeeded, they soon realised that the emerald was of little use to them in the long run, and left Mobius entirely not long after, never showing any remorse for killing so many. During the course of the final battle Tikal, daughter of Pachaccamac, used her mysterious abilities of controlling the flow of the time stream to send Knuckles to the future, at the cost of any recollection of his past, aside from his name and a knowledge that he must protect the Master Emerald at all costs.

Unfortunately, Tikal could not plan for the fact Doctor Zachary- himself a thoroughly dislikeable individual- would accidentally be transported alongside Knuckles. Perhaps, luckily, though, Zachary also had no recollection of his past, but he managed to escape Knuckles until many years later when he would confront him over ownership of the island, under the pretence of being the first of a returning race of echidnae.

Zachary being sent to the present- our present- with Knuckles was perhaps in a way fortunate, as Knuckles was able to find many robot guardians as well as plenty of old scrolls about secrets of the island thanks to Zachary’s interference. Unwittingly, Zachary had allowed Knuckles to strengthen his island and, aside from one or two glitches, there had since been no problems with safety on the island.

But a fat lot of good that would do Knuckles, now, caught up in the undergrowth of the Aquatic Ruins Zone. As he tried to brush a branch out of his way, he inadvertently got himself tangled up in a knotted mess of vines.

The echidna sighed angrily “I don’t believe this...”

After struggling for a few moments, Knuckles managed to break himself free and continued onwards. Not long after, he caught a glimpse- at long last- of his targets. Sonic and Tails were sitting around, thinking about how best to make their next move. It was at this point Knuckles noticed a flash of light out of the corner of his eyes. It was only a small flash and many wouldn’t have noticed it. But Knuckles’ awareness was high as ever.

It didn’t take a genius to realise that the shine was coming from an arrow that was taking aim at Sonic- one of the Zone’s old defenses, set up by Robotnik to try and put a stop to Sonic. Without warning, the arrow shot off in the direction of Sonic.

Sonic, meanwhile was getting pretty sick of waiting for Robotnik. Surely he’d have heard something by now, right? Just then, Sonic heard a whooshing noise, and looked up to see an arrow roughly half a centimetre from his face. Attached to the arrow was a gloved hand with strong, pointed hinges on the top of it. Attached to the hand was the individual who’d just saved Sonic’s bacon.

“Lucky I was around, right, Sonic?” Knuckles grinned.

Sonic disliked being seen in a bad light and did not want to allow Knuckles to gain an upper hand due to their competitive nature. He simply shrugged and smiled, “As if, Red. I’m so fast, that arrow was moving in slow motion”

“Yeah, and if my guess is correct, you’d not have been doing very much moving at all right now!”

Sonic laughed a little under his breath, “Thanks, Knuckles. What are you doing here?”

“The Floating Island stands being attacked at any minute for Chaos Emeralds. We’ve already lost at least one as we speak”

“What?!”

“I don’t know why Robotnik wants all the emeralds at this moment, but I do know for fact that it isn’t good”

Sonic instantly seemed a lot more tense “If Robotnik already has an emerald then there’s no time to lose. We have to go to the Floating Island straight away. He’s got to come back for the rest if he wants them”

“Right” Tails concurred, deciding it was time for him to speak up, mainly because he’d not said a word for the last 3 minutes. “I’m sick of waiting and, if truth be told, Knuckles, I don’t think Sonic knows that Robotnik would have no use for this Zone. In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d just imagine that Sonic was simply luring Robotnik out in order to get some an--” Tails trailed off and paused for a moment or two, “...oh”.

Suddenly, though, there was a loud buzzing sound. Sonic’s ears pricked up and so did Tails’. The blue hero turned around, “Any of you guys hear th--”

Sonic didn’t need to finish his sentence, and neither Tails nor Knuckles needed to answer it, because all three could see, plain as day, roughly 120 Whisp Badniks zipping towards them at top speed. Instantly all three mammals prepared themselves for battle, Tails flying up to smash a few of the killer robots straight in the face, freeing a few small creatures as he did so.

Sonic and Knuckles looked at each other. “You know what this means, don’t you?” Sonic asked

“What?” Knuckles responded

“That it’s time for you to have a lie-down as I take care of business, as usual!”

“And miss this party? You must be kidding!” The two long-time fighting partners grinned and, as Badniks came close, each one either Spin Attacked or punched the vile machinations to tiny pieces, releasing the animals held captive within- animals that are used to provide Badniks with a sick “organic battery” as Robotnik calls them.

A Whisp zoomed towards the back of Knuckles’ head, only to be smashed by a Spin Attack from Sonic, “That’s thanks for earlier!” the hedgehog quipped, only just avoiding being smacked by another Whisp, which was destroyed by Knuckles before it could cause any harm.

“Well, I don’t know what that was thanks for, then!” Knuckles smiled

The two were getting into quite a heated battle, even if it was a little one sided. At one point, though, they both got overpowered and the Whisps were preparing to finish them both off. Luckily, Tails sprang into action at the last moment and together the trio managed to eliminate the problem.

“Whew...nice fight!” Sonic commented

“Nah, just a workout for me. I barely broke sweat” said Knuckles, wiping his brow when the others weren’t looking

“You guys do know that this means Robotnik knows we’re coming for him, right?” Tails added, “I mean, when was the last time you saw any Badniks?”

“Tails makes a good point, Sonic,” Knuckles said, thoughtfully, “I think we’d better get back to the Floating Island right away- I need to protect the emeralds”

“Not right away. We’re making a stop-off first at a certain secret location...I have a feeling we’re going to need what we’ll find there”