Imagine yourself in a dark lab. Black, metallic, equipment lined walls. A glass tube in the center, and a table with some sort of hanging machine above it. And then, well... this is what you would have seen if you had been in this room.
The room was sterile, for obvious reasons if you knew what it used to be for, but it was not necessary for what was to take place. A door opened on the side of the room not lined in equipment, and the owner of the room, and the whole building, entered, closely followed by a black and gold hedgehog, a few SWAT-bots, and his lackey.
Robotnik turned to Snivley and the SWATS. "The Roboticiser mach 3 has been... tested?" he said, gesturing for the robots to place the struggling female hedgehog in the glass tube.
"Y...yes...sir." Said Snivley, blinking back his fear. He swallowed nervously.6
"Aaaaahhhhhh." Robotnik stroked the machine with his non-robotic hand. "We shall...begin." Abruptly, he flipped a switch.
The hedgehog screamed, a long, hate and anger filled cry of rage, a primal reaction from the very base of feeling. The scream shot straight to the back of Robotnik’s mind, and sent a chill down his spine that made his hair stand on end. He blinked, trying to keep his composure as Snivley yelped and hid under the table. Finally, the sound ended, and the hedgehog’s head slumped, robotic eyes glowing red.
At a signal from Robotnik, the SWAT-bots lifted the glass and led the hedgehog to the table. One robot lifted the hedgehog onto the table while the other got an object from a safe on the wall.
Robotnik took the object from the second SWAT-bot’s hands and placed it into the dormant hedgehog’s robot chest. He then backed up as the hanging piece of equipment swung into place. The machine lowered a short cylinder to hang over the object in the hedgehog’s chest, glowing a faint red.
Suddenly, the cylinder glowed a brighter red, causing Robotnik to blink back an afterimage, and a beam of red light shot down into the hedgehog’s chest, illuminating it in an unearthly red light.
It was a solid black Chaos Emerald.
The Chaos emerald fed off of the beam, glowing slightly, but it seemed only to eat up a larger area of light. Finally, when the beam shut off, it seemed to eat up all the light in the room.
The hedgehog stood up, closing it’s chest panels. It then plugged into a terminal and downloaded everything that it needed to know about Sonic the Hedgehog.
The band of Freedom Fighters, Deroboticised Mobians, and Aris traveled into the Great Forest. Aris had shrunk down to Sonic’s size, partly because of the need for cover, and partly because they didn’t want to scare Daniel & Co. They traveled nearly invisible paths to the middle of the forest, until finally Sonic, who was leading the group, stopped and gestured for the others to gather around. Aris looked around with her Dragon-sight.
"No ‘bots." She said.
Sonic smiled and pulled back a curtain of vines. "Okay, everyone, dive in!" He gestured to the tunnel that he had revealed. Daniel was the first to comply, followed by Sally, Sonic, and Aris. The others followed soon after. They hit the bottom of the chute rolling, and as one they tumbled into a pile of hay. Most of them just lay there for a few seconds, getting their breath back. The ones that didn’t were Sonic, who never lay down for long unless he was unconscious, asleep, or forced, and Sally, who needed to be on her feet to do other administrative things. She was already coming up with a plan for new hut spacing when a furry flying bundle of 11-year-old fox kit jumped into her arms.
"Hi, Aunt Sally! Buch said that Mark said that Greg7 said that Sonic captured this really big dragon and that it was coming to eat us all and I didn’t believe him not about the part that Sonic captured it of course but the part where he said that it was gonna eat us all up-" Sally silenced the kit with a kiss on the nose.
"I’m glad to see you too, Tails." She said, hugging the kit and then setting him down, "but you shouldn’t listen to rumors. Aris is very nice and I’m sure you’ll hit it off well."
Tails jumped up and down. "Aris is the dragon’s name?"
"Mmm-hmm. And be nice to her. She can Deroboticize people."
"SHE CAN?!!" Yelled Tails, his mouth hanging open.
"Yup." Said Sonic, coming up from behind the kit and hugging him, "All the people here besides Aris and Knuckles are Derobotcized."
"What’ll Aunt Bunnie think?"
Sonic grinned. "She’ll be happy as a julybug, if I know her."
Tails scrunched up his forehead in confusion. "What’s a julybug?" he asked his idol.
If anything, Sonic’s grin broadened. "Don’t you worry, big guy. I’ll catch you plenty of julybugs as soon as we tell Bunnie the good news!"
"Um, could you get me someplace to rest, first?" asked Daniel, slowly walking up,"I don’t feel so good. Maybe it’s the shock, but-"
"But we need to get you a bunk as soon as possible." Said Sally. "Let’s see. You can bunk with Rotor, Knuckles, while he’s here, can take a bed in Sonic’s hut, and we can fix something up for anyone else." By now, most of the other deroboticised people were showing signs of shock, nausea, and pain. Quickly she called over some of the other residents of Knothole and directed them to help the sick people to beds. That done, she confronted the little group. "Tails, you come with Aris and me to tell Bunnie about the deroboticisation." *Though we’ll wait until we get some answers about this sickness,* she thought. "Sonic, you and Knuckles go and get some materials for new huts."
Sonic recovered his grin. "Be there and back in a sonic second. Let’s Juice!" this time, Knuckles resisted Sonic’s grab. "No Mon." he said. "I’ll get there on my OWN power" he grinned at Sonic’s hurt face. "Let’s go!"
The metal Sonic was ready now. It saluted its creators and went to search the Great forest for its prey. Behind it, Robotnik chuckled maniacally.
Author's notes:
6. The reason that Snivley's so nervous is that he was probably there when it was tested.<
7. I don't remember who first came up with Greg Opposum, but they have ownership of him. I'm only using him for this one part, so I don't think it'll be a problem (I hope!)<