One a day. Don't worry, there's less than 365 parts. ^_-
---cut on this line---
Chaos Race
Part 2: Blue
Written by: Adrian Tymes and Alessandro Sanasi
[Legal disclaimer:
This story is based on characters created by SEGA and Archie Comic Publications,
Inc., and Commander Packbell by David Pistone. Permission is granted to freely
distribute this story, so long as:
a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person who
distributes the story, and
b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally authored.
In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it.
Copyright (c) 1996, all rights reserved, et cetera.]
******
As Sonic raced towards the blue Chaos Emerald's location, his mind pondered the
recent turn of events. He distinctly remembered the last time Amy had been to
Knothole...
******
It all started on a routine mission. Sally had intercepted broadcasts about
SWATbot activities near the far side of the Great Unknown, several days away
from Knothole, and Sonic had volunteered to check things out. Nothing important
had happened for weeks, so this was a welcome change of pace for the hedgehog.
When he reached the end of the rocky, barren Great Unknown, Sonic decided to
stop for a chili dog break. He had just settled down in a clearing in a nearby
forest, when he heard someone crying. Following the sound, he found a pink
hedgehog girl, sitting on a log. As he walked up to her, she lifted her head
and looked at him with tear filled eyes.
"Um, hi there." Sonic said for a start. "What are you doing here all alone
in the woods?"
"Our...our village got attacked by SWATbots," the little girl replied between
sobs. "I ran away...I just ran, and then I hid in the trees. I'm too scared to
go back alone."
Sonic sat beside the girl and gave her a hug. "No problemo. I'll get you back
home safely, or my name isn't Sonic the Hedgehog!"
The girl's face brightened. "You're Sonic the Hedgehog? Oh boy, I've heard so
much about you. You're my hero!"
"Who hasn't?" Sonic smirked as he picked up the hedgehog, who cradled in his
arms and smiled back at him with gleaming eyes.
******
The hedgehog's name was Amy Rose. Sonic asked her a few questions about the
village she came from, then raced off, letting Amy point the way from the safety
of his embrace.
It was worse than he had expected. Setting Amy down, Sonic surveyed the damage.
Most of the houses were destroyed or burning, and there were no living beings
anywhere.
"Don't worry, Amy." he said, trying to comfort her as best as he could. "You
can come with me to Knothole. There's lots of nice people there, you'll like
it."
Amy glared at him. "You mean I can come with you?"
"Sure. If you want."
"Of course I want! I always dreamt of being with you." Amy sighed happily,
clasping her hands together.
******
Sonic decided to search the village alone, to keep Amy from seeing more of the
destruction. He had told her to wait for him in one of the houses that was
still intact.
"Oh, man. I hate it when this happens," Sonic lamented, while walking through
the empty streets and abandoned homes. "Looks like this round goes to Robotnik.
When I get my quills on that lard bucket..."
"HEDGEHOG! PRIORITY ONE!"
Sonic twirled around, to find himself standing face to face with a SWATbot,
lasers aimed directly at him. This one had probably been left behind to make
sure that none of the villagers had escaped. Sonic prepared to dash away, but
wasn't sure if he could outrun a laser blast at this distance.
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!" the robot droned, waving its laser. "YOU WILL COME WITH
ME TO THE TRANSPORT SHIP FOR ROBOTIZICATION!"
"Leave him alone," a familiar voice suddenly screamed. Amy had jumped up at
the SWATbot from behind, and was now banging on its head with her fists. The
robot reached upwards to pull her off...
...and was almost instantly cut in half by a well-placed Sonic Spin. The short
moment of distraction was all Sonic had needed.
He looked at Amy. "Way past! Amy, I could kiss you."
Amy's face lit up in delight. Before Sonic knew what was happening, she had
already planted her lips on his.
After a few seconds, Sonic pulled her off him. "What was that for?"
Amy blushed. "Well, you said..."
"Oh, right."
She threw her arms around him and held him tightly. Not knowing what else to
do, he hugged her back.
******
In the following days, as the pair made their way back to Knothole, Amy more
than proved her adoration for Sonic. Wherever Sonic went, Amy followed as best
she could, and tried to snuggle up to him whenever she got an opportunity to do
so.
Finally, they reached their destination, and jumped into the hidden entrance
together. Sonic let go of Amy as they entered the haystack, only to run into
Sally as he left it.
Had Sonic known what the result of Sally's kiss would be, he would have
covered Amy's eyes.
As it was, Sonic was in for weeks of bitter rivalry. Every time he tried to
have a good time with Sally, Amy interrupted. Every time he tried to talk with
Amy, Sally interfered. Just when he was about to break up one particularly loud
shouting match, Amy stormed away. At first, he thought Amy had just gone
somewhere to cool off, but when she did not return, Sonic realized that Amy had
left Knothole forever.
******
Sonic's mind snapped back to the present as he saw a blue glow straight ahead:
the blue Chaos Emerald. He leapt towards it, hands outstretched, only to see it
dissapear into the bush it rested on.
Startled, Sonic turned around, ran back to the plant, and dove into it.
"Shiny!"
He poked his head out of the bush, to see a small packrat holding the emerald.
The packrat was very young, about one headspan shorter than Tails, and poorly
kempt. Sonic knew that there were some packrat families living in the Great
Forest on their own, hiding from Robotnik. "Maybe this kid got lost," he
thought, "or his family's been roboticized."
Sonic remembered a more pressing duty when he saw the packrat carrying the
emerald away. He jumped out of the bush. "Hey, that's my emerald," he yelled.
"Hand it over!"
The packrat leapt back in surprise as he noticed the hedgehog, and protectively
shielded the gem. "No! I found it! It's mine!"
"I don't have time for this." Sonic zipped up to the rodent, grabbed the
emerald, and tried to pry it from the child's grasp. "Nng...let go!"
The packrat clung to the gem as if his life depended on it. "No! Go away!
It's mine!"
Sonic pulled harder. "I...said...let..."
The emerald popped free. Sonic climbed on the packrat to grab the gem, but
slipped off. Before he could get back up, the packrat lunged for the emerald
and grabbed it with both paws.
Suddenly, the rat was engulfed in blue energy, which poured out of the emerald
like nothing Sonic had ever seen before. Even a power ring held less energy
than this gem. The energy stream lasted only a few seconds, but by that time,
the packrat was already glowing in a pure blue, frowning at the hedgehog.
Sonic stepped away from the packrat. "Whoa...cool off, kid. I didn't mean it
bad. Just give me the emerald and I'll leave." He reached for the stone.
The next thing he remembered was a collision with one of the nearby trees, which
the packrat had thrown him into.
"GRRR...YOU! TRIED TO TAKE MY GEM," the packrat growled.
Sonic rubbed his aching head. "Uh-oh. Way uncool...how on Mobius can I defeat
a packrat with Chaos powers?" He got up again, and pulled his backpack free
from some of the lower tree branches. It opened as he did so, revealing a Power
Ring inside. "Wait a sec, maybe this could work..." He turned to the packrat.
"Hey, blue boy!"
The packrat advanced on Sonic.
Sonic stepped backwards, slowly gaining speed. "Yeah, you. Just 'cause you're
blue don't mean you're cool. Bet you can't catch me!" He quickly built up a
fast pace. Before long, he was halfway to earning his name again. Looking over
his shoulder, he saw a blue silhouete as it accelerated to match his speed.
"What, you wanna race? Ha! Nothing beats the blue blur, not even another blue
blur." Sonic ran faster.
The azure packrat kept up, slowly closing in on Sonic.
"This calls for some serious action." He pulled the power ring out of his pack,
held it up, and quickly absorbed its energy. "Juice time!"
Twin sonic booms echoed throughout the Great Forest as Sonic lead the packrat
on a supersonic chase. Sonic had almost made it back to Knothole when he
noticed that his pursuer was starting to slow down.
Just as they reached the entrance to Knothole, the packrat collapsed from
exhaustion. The blue glow faded away, with no more chaos energy remaining to
power it. Sonic, on the other hand, had only extended his power ring's life
with his own energy, and still felt ready to run.
He walked back to the packrat and smirked. "See? I told you I'm the Fastest
Thing Alive."
"Sh...shiny," the packrat whispered, still holding on to the gem with both paws,
but with no strength left. It would be easy to take it now. Sonic put his hand
on the gem, but as he looked into the kid's big, tear-filled eyes, he just could
not bring himself to pull.
"Look, I really need this emerald. Our home and a whole island is at stake..."
The packrat just sobbed.
Sonic could not bear to push the kid away. "Boy, this looks like a mondo big
problem here," he said to himself. "What am I gonna do?" He sat down next to
the packrat to think of a solution.
Something dragged on his quills. Looking at his back, he saw that it was
covered with leaves and tiny branches, which had been stuck there during his
fight. "Eww! What else could go wrong," Sonic lamented. He pulled a small
mirror from his backpack, and started combing his spikes back to their former
glory. As he stroked them back into place, he noticed the packrat looking at
him with wide eyes.
"Ultra shiny!"
"Huh?" Sonic looked around, wondering what the kid could have meant, then his
gaze fell on the mirror. "The mirror? But that's nothing special, it's
just..." An idea formed in Sonic's head. "Hey, you wanna trade? Shiny for
shiny?"
The kid released the gem and grabbed for the mirror faster than Sonic could
blink, and admired his reflection. "Yay! Ultra shiny!"
Sonic picked up the emerald from the ground, relieved. Then he smiled. "You
wanna have more shinies?"
The packrat gazed into his mirror, then looked up. "More shinies?"
Sonic pointed to the stump that lead to Knothole, only a short distance away.
"All the shinies you could want. And I'm sure they can help you find your
parents, too."
"Hooray! Shinies!" With a look of pure awe on his face, the kid leapt into the
stump.
Sonic looked at the emerald, and admired his reflection in the blue crystal as
it smirked back at him. "Now, am I cool, or what," he said to himself,
grinning. He knew that, unlike Amy, this kid would not run away. As he
prepared to speed away, he heard the packrat's arrival in Knothole.
"Shiny!"
"Who are you," Bunnie's voice replied, "and what d'yuh think you're doing on mah
arm? We are busy with an evacuation here."
"Shiny! Shiny!"
Sonic laughed out loud as he ran towards the grey Chaos Emerald's crash site.
******
Packbell laughed out loud as he held the grey Chaos Emerald in his hands. "What
fools those Freedom Fighters are. The other emeralds hold incredible power, but
the grey one is the Master Emerald. With it, I can control all the others.
Those idiots might beat my robots, but I have already won. It doesn't matter
how many of the other emeralds they find; when they bring the emeralds back to
the Floating Island, I shall be there, and this emerald shall take the others
right out of their hands. All I have to do is wait..."
A brief surge in his speakers' power levels made Packbell's laughter sound like
thunder as he walked away.