Lost in Sandopolis By: Asa Castle __________________________________________________ Chapter 1 __________________________________________________ Sonic raised his hand to catch the sand that was blowing in his face, then he ducked downward and grabbed his legs to shoot forward at mach 1. Tails then pulled up beside Sonic in a spindash, Sonic spun his legs around faster to form an eight shape. Then he pulled ahead of Tails and blew some dust into Tails' eyes. "Tails c'mon, if ya wanna beat me you gotta stop spinning. It'll slow you down after a while," Sonic yelled into the sand- filled air to Tails. At that Tails curled his tails and pulled up beside Sonic again, struggling to keep up. Tails brushed the sand out of his irritated eyes. "Sonic, I'm goin' as fast as I can! Sandopolis sure is a good place for you to teach me, it's got lots of open area," Tails told Sonic. Sonic skidded to a stop, bringing up a cloud of scolding hot sand into his eyes. Tails turned around and slowed to a stop beside Sonic, trying not to stir up any of the irritating sand. "Sonic, did you bring any water?" Tails asked, panting from the heat. "Sure little buddy, I even brought ice," Sonic said quickly. "Really!?" Tails said. "No, just water," Sonic snapped back as he handed a jug to Tails. After Sonic and Tails had finished drinking, they got back to their practice. Sonic was teaching Tails how to run faster. Sonic and Tails lined up. Sonic gripped his feet and braced the ground with his left foot. Tails was standing up with his tails wound and ready to unwind on the start marker. "1 ... 2 ... 3 ... GO!!!" Sonic yelled aloud. Sonic spin-dashed ahead of Tails, leaving a huge cloud of sand in Tails' face. Tails spun his tails around and ran forward, getting stuck in the sand cloud. Getting very irritated, Tails flew up above the sand, spotted Sonic and landed by him. "What took you so long!?" Sonic asked Tails sarcastically. Tails, even though he was Sonic's friend, was getting pretty peeved at Sonic for always winning the races. He flicked some sand into Sonic's eye. Sonic just rubbed his eye and spun his legs like an eight, which kicked up a lot of sand around them both. Then he released all of his speed and shot forward at mach 2, his fastest speed without extra powers. Sonic jumped up into the air and pulled his arms across his belt, changed into Hyper Sonic, then reached down and ran his arms across them twice in a row. Sonic changed into Ultra Sonic. The explosion of the change knocked Tails backwards about 200 feet. It also kicked up literally a ton of sand that started drifting around everywhere. Sonic zipped across the sand, going faster than the eye can see, but this left a large wake of sand behind him. He decided it wasn't worth it, so Sonic ran his wrists down the belt to remove his super abilities. "Sonic, I don't think Serena would have liked all this sand," Tails said, brushing at his hair. "Naw! Thats why I didn't bring her!" Sonic said sarcastically. ****** Now Sonic and Tails were at or around the real Sandopolis, the one that they had encountered while finding Knuckles and destroying the Death Egg. Sonic decided to camp out under a large stone cliff that had a smash in the side. Sonic guessed he'd been there before. Sonic grabbed his little sleeping bag out of a sand-encrusted backpack he'd been carrying around. Tails grabbed his out of the same pack and flung it onto the sand, trying to bring up some of the sand that was even hot at night, to annoy Sonic. "C'mon Tails, what'd I do!?" Sonic asked Tails, very annoyed at his prank. Tails just snickered, laid down in his blanket and dozed off. ****** At around the middle of the night Sonic heard a soft humming that was growing louder. He decided to have a look around. Hopping out of his sand filled blanket, Sonic pulled on his shoes and shot through the night, humming the Super Sonic Racing song from his racing adventures with Tails and Knuckles (Sonic R). "... try to keep your feet right on th ... everybody Super Sonic Racing try to ... keep your ... HUH!?" Sonic gasped after some humming of the song. He was looking upward into the cold night sky watching what he thought was a star, but had suddenly shot southward. Sonic kept watching it as it streaked through the night sky, leaving a bright trail of smoke behind it. At first Sonic thought it was a SWAT-bot hovercraft, but then he decided it would only be about the size of himself. Sonic ran back to get Tails but couldn't find him. It looked like where they last were, but where was Tails? After a closer look, Sonic noticed that the rock cliff didn't have a dent in the side. He had no idea where in Sandopolis he was! ___________________________________________________________________ Chapter 2 ___________________________________________________________________ Sonic reached to his neck for the whistle from Slasher but found it to be missing. He remembered he had left it in his backpack with Tails! Sonic grabbed his belt and pulled his wrists across the emerald studded surface to become Hyper Sonic. The flash and the continuous glow lit up all of Sandopolis at that hour of the night. Sonic saw that the moving starlike object had veered off course and was now heading straight toward him! Then, realizing whatever it was it must of seen the light from his transformation, he dehyperized himself, only to be in complete darkness. Sonic saw a streak of light fall down about a mile ahead of him. He headed that way, racing through the dark as fast as he could, continuously getting more nervous as the night went on. Seeing a bright glow, Sonic slowed to a stop, stirring up some sand and blowing it through the air. Once it had settled Sonic stared in amazement at what was before him. Sonic's eyes were wide open and reflecting a bright light from what he was staring at; the Chaos Rings! "I might need these sometime," Sonic said as he grabbed up the seven Chaos Rings and attached them to his belt. Then he streaked forward through the night, trying to find the sleeping Tails. As he ran, he didn't notice himself begin to glow a very dull white. Sonic looked up into the night sky, expecting to only see stars, but again he saw that moving light up in the sky. Sonic moved over under an old pyramid, thinking the light might be a robot, but apparently it had seen his light glow, which Sonic hadn't noticed yet. Suddenly Sonic heard a scream that sounded like it was just above him! He tried to climb up the small pyramid's ledge, but fell down as the rocks started to crumble. The last thing Sonic saw was Tails falling into a pile of sand. . . . When Sonic woke up he didn't see Tails anywhere. He seemed to be under the pile of rocks from the pyramid in some kind of ancient underground temple. He moved around a bit, then wondered why the room was so light. He looked down to see a faint glow coming from himself. "What the hay!?" Sonic whispered. Then Sonic heard a small rumble and looked up, only to catch a pile of cold sand in his eyes. He yelled as he flipped backwards, trying to knock the sand away. When he finally got it all out, he saw that where he was standing the ceiling had caved in. There was a set of footprints around a small lever attached to a wire that led into the caved-in ceiling. "Hmmmm ... I wonder if that wasn't an accident..." Sonic thought. ****** "Sonic, Sonic? Sonic, where are you? What happened?" Tails was saying into the dark all around him. He was lying on his back, buried about a half foot in the sand, with a bunch of pebbles laying all around him. He got up and shook the sand off, then looked around into the dark night. He saw nothing but darkness and stars. "Hmm ... there's Sonic's pack and his water and ... a ... flying saucer!?" Tails said, looking around. What he had seen was what Sonic had been hiding from, the flying star. ****** Rocks started to crumble as Sonic leaped backwards to avoid the falling ceiling and the crumbling floor. "Oh SHI ... CRAP MONKEYS!!!" Sonic yelled as the floor started to crumble under his feet. Sonic leaped onto one rock, then to another, and then backwards onto part of the stable floor, which started to give way under his weight. Sonic began to spindash in place. Just as the floor crumbled away from under him he shot through the air, blasting through the wall in front of him. Expecting to find a floor, Sonic stopped, only to fall down about fifty feet into a pool of quicksand! Sonic pushed his feet downward, only to sink deeper. He grabbed a wall, but his hands slipped down into the sand. Twenty seconds later he was almost completely submerged. Just as he started to go under, a mysterious hand grabbed him and flung him over the wall in his way, up to a floor of hard sand. Sonic started to run blindly from the mysterious hand, thinking it could be Mecha from his darkest NiGHTMARES. Then the room lit up brightly as a laser broke through the ceiling. Sonic stepped backwards, only to be knocked over by Tails and some falling sand. "SONIC!!! GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" Tails screamed with terror in his voice. He began to fly up into the night sky through the hole in the ceiling. Sonic just laid there, bewildered at what had just happened. He stood up and tried to get out, but couldn't jump high enough. Sonic reached down to his belt to become Hyper, but found one of his Supers missing from his belt. "DANG!!! It must of fallin' off in the sand," Sonic mumbled to himself. He turned around, only to be pinned against a wall, staring into bright red eyes with metallic green centers. "Wh ... Who are you!?" Sonic stammered, a little shaken from being pinned so fast. "I'm the stuff nightmares are made of," the dark figure, hidden in the shadows of the temple, said. "Well that tells me a lot," Sonic whispered as he tensed his muscles for a getaway. Sonic kicked the creature in the shin, only to be shaken by a large metallic bang and a throbbing foot-ache. Sonic saw a glimmer of green down beside him. He looked closer ... it was his missing Super! Sonic flipped his foot around very carefully, flipping the gem up into his hand. As it landed in his hand, it began to glow a bright green. It reflected off the metal creature holding Sonic, revealing what it really was. "DARK MECHA!?" Sonic screamed as he saw the robot's face. "No, hedgehog. I am Mega Spark Sonic, Reala's creation, the second Dark Mecha. I have been created to kill you." The robot's voice was cold and echoed through the cave, sending chills down Sonic's back. "You!? You're the one who scared Tails and made him afraid of me!" Sonic snapped out loud. Mega just nodded his metal head, reflecting the light into Sonic's eyes. "Well then, if you're the one messin' with my buddy, then I'll just have to teach you a lesson!" Sonic said calmly. He ripped his hands across his now fixed belt. A flash of bright light shot through the cave and blew Mega backwards onto the floor. "Meet Hyper Sonic!" Sonic said as he hovered above Mega in a fancy fashion. Mega murmured something into his chest and his boosters shot on, all eight of them. Mega shot up above Sonic, whirled around and launched four missiles at Sonic. It blew him into the sand, temporarily stunned. Mega flew down to Sonic, grabbed his wrist and ripped him from the sand, then flung him backwards into a sand pillar that crumbled under the force of the blow. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter 3 __________________________________________________________________ At Robotropolis, Robotnik, Reala and Packbell were listening to the audio transmission from the fight. Reala was snickering and Packbell was just standing with his arms, crossed glaring at Reala. "Good job Reala," Robotnik bellowed as he listened to the screams from Sonic over the transmissions. "Thank you my lord," Reala said in a kind of phony style as he glared at Packbell, happily grinning away. ****** "The ceilings caving in!!!" Sonic yelled after getting up from his last blow to the head. Pieces of rock were crumbling in all around Sonic and Mega. Mega turned on his jet engines and activated a force field to protect his upper body for a few minutes. "MEGA!!!" Sonic yelled as Mega flew through a crack in the wall to a safer area. Sonic gripped his legs and spun through a falling pillar to smash through a wall behind it and fell into another dark room. Sonic decided it was time for some power, so he ripped his hands across his belt; once on top, once on the bottom, to become Ultra Sonic. A loud boom rang through Sonic's head as raw energy began to flow through his body, light swelled out from him and lit up the room like a floodlight. Sonic's whole body turned black, then changed to white and back again, continuing this process over and over. Ultra Sonic smashed through a wall and flew up, after a faint light far above him. Soon he had caught up and was about to shove him below himself, when something spun into his back! Sonic yelped in surprise and began to spin out of control in the air. Mega saw him below and shot him eight times with his missiles, all of them hitting. When Sonic awoke he was pinned against a wall with chains all over him. Sonic looked around and saw his belt laying on the floor beside him and two dark figures in the shadows before him. One was sure to be Mega. "So, BRO, how do you feel now, after killing OUR parents?" one of the creatures hissed. "Wha!? Whadd'ya talkin' about!?" Sonic said, bewildered. "Tell me, Sonic, do you not even recognize your own brother?" a voice that was sure to be Mega's said with a metallic chuckle behind it. Suddenly a wall of sparks flew from the darkness and hit Sonic's face, leaving dark burn marks on his blue and flesh colored face. Sonic winced in pain. He tried to break free from his chains, but was hit by more sparks. "Ya know, Sonic, I could keep doin' this all day, if I wasn't gonna hunt you down like the dog you are," the other voice said. At that, Sonic pushed his arms out of the chains and grabbed the belt beside him, then attached it to the chains and pulled his wrists across it. As the belt activated, the chains began to glow and melt off. Sonic screamed as the metal began to touch his skin, while the startled creatures in the shadows just watched in amazement. Sonic quickly pulled the belt off of the chains and hooked it onto himself. He began to glow all the colors of the rainbow as Hyper Sonic, until he pulled his wrists over the belt again to become Ultra Sonic. Sonic shot through the molten chains and uppercut Mega in his jaw, then spun around 360 degrees and kicked the new person over on his face. The new creature flipped up again and spun out into the light projected from Ultra Sonic. Sonic gasped and said, "Claude!?" "No, not Claude ... but Spark. I was found and raised by my friend Robotnik after you killed our parents and left me to die. Now I'm gonna kill you," Spark (the new person) growled. "Claude, Robotnik isn't good, he tricked you! He killed our parents," Sonic said with a tear in his eye. "You lie!" Spark said. At that he spun into Sonic, catching him unaware and knocking him backwards onto the sandy floor. Ultra Sonic spun around and shot into the air, knocking a chunk of the ceiling down onto Spark. He flew back into the darkness and found Mega tampering with some circuits in his chest. Sonic flung his fist at Mega, only to be blown backwards into a pillar by an electric field around the robot. Sonic got up again and shook his head, trying to regain his sense of direction, but it was too late. Spark had gotten loose and taken Mega somewhere else in the temple. Sonic picked up one of his dirty shoes that had fallen off in the fight and dehyperized himself. Then he heard a faint humming coming from the sand wall behind him. He turned around and walked over to it. Instead of being cold sand against his hands, there was nothing there! It appeared to be a holograph like the ones separating the giant gold rings from the clearly visible world in his Death Egg saga (Sonic 3 and S&K). Sure enough, through the wall there was a giant gold ring. Sonic walked over to it but tripped on a rock and fell into the ring. The world spun around him as it started to get very cold. Sonic thought about poor Nights who had been trapped in the Interweb due to a fake giant gold ring (in 'Dark Mecha'). Sonic's feet were on solid ground, but his head was still spinning. When he regained control, Sonic looked around to find himself in the Hidden Palace! Sonic looked down to see billions of Chaos Emeralds just scattered all around him. Sonic decided to keep seven of them, all the correct colors, just for the memory of having them all in his first adventure (Sonic 1). Sonic attached them all to his belt and walked over to a wall with a ladder leading up to a floor above him. After Sonic climbed the cold, wet ladder he looked around to see the Master Emerald, pulsating with power! Then Sonic's feet started moving towards it. Sonic tried to stop but couldn't; it seemed like he was supposed to be here, doing this, right now, so he just kept walking towards it. Once Sonic got to it he rubbed his hand across it's surface, leaving his hand glowing with energy. Sonic noticed all his power items attached to his belt glow strangely right after touching the Master Emerald. Sonic was suddenly flung into the air and slammed into a nearby crystal wall, leaving many gouges in his soft flesh. Sonic stumbled up and turned around to see Mega Spark Sonic standing before him with a rocket pointed at his head. Spark stepped out from behind Mega, holding a power cord which was attached to Mega's back. He walked over to the Master Emerald and stuck a spike from the end of the power cord into the it. Wild green electricity surged through the cable, making Mega glow like a bug zapper. Sonic used this short time to hyperize himself, but he slipped while activating it and his hands rubbed up and down instead of across the emeralds. An electric beam shot from the Master Emerald and focused itself on Sonic. Soon the whole room was lit from the glowing Mega Spark Sonic and the lighted beam on Sonic. Spark stepped into a teleporter across the room, feeling something bad was going to happen, and teleported away, leaving the two alone. Sonic tried to hyperize again and got it right this time, but just as he became hyper, another beam shot from the Master Emerald and focused on Sonic. Sonic flew backwards, steaming with raw energy, as the beams burned at him like a hot bath in winter. Mega ripped the power cable from his back and pressed a button on his chest. Suddenly the room exploded into a ball of energy. Mega was still standing over Sonic, but now Mega was glowing pure black. He just stared in a sort of amazement at Sonic, who was still being shined on from the bright beams of light from the emerald. Sonic screamed as his spiked hair lit up like fire and became a pure burning white color, then his body lit up like his hair and hovered up above Mega. Sonic flipped over in the air as sparks began to flow around his body like little moons around a planet. Then Sonic dropped flat onto the ground still burning a blinding white. ___________________________________________________________________ Chapter 4 ___________________________________________________________________ Mega Spark Sonic lifted Sonic into the air while he was still knocked out cold, and flung him against a wall of crystals. Instead of hurting him, the crystals seemed to waken Sonic! Sonic got up and began to hover in the air, leaving burning white sparks wherever he moved. "What the--!?" Sonic said to himself, now fully recovered and looking at his blinding white body. "Oh well, as long as I can kick some Mega butt!" he said to Mega. Mega pressed a button on his side and began to grow darker until he was so black that if there was any darkness at all he'd be invisible! Sonic began to run at Mega with his fists outward to punch him, but Sonic began to blur while he was running and then he vanished from sight! Sonic appeared behind Mega and a split second later glowing white hot with energy, before Sonic could turn around, Mega collapsed on the floor of the cave with one of his arms completely blown off! Sonic looked down at his feet and saw the arm beside him, but now it hardly looked like an arm, more like a crumpled piece of aluminum foil "Sssonic ..." Mega hissed as he shot up into the air, pointing his miniature PPC at Sonic's head. The room exploded in a flash of light as the PPC shot hit the floor of the cave. When the light and smoke cleared, Sonic was on the other side of Mega, just standing there, snickering to himself. The cave began to crumble under Sonic's feet, and all of the ceiling was caving in, too. Mega raised his rocket launcher at Sonic, but was knocked down by a huge chunk of ceiling that was falling down. Sonic shot up into the air, only to be blown down to the floor by a falling rock slab. Sonic shattered the rock with a mere flick of his arm and flew over the teleporter that Spark had used before. Right before Sonic's vision went temporarily out he saw Mega explode as another rock fell on top of him! ****** "Yes, Robotnik, I'll kill Sonic before the day's over. Now leave before he gets here!" Spark told Robotnik, who was standing by another portable teleporter. "I suppose you're right, just get it done!" Robotnik bellowed. "And tell Reala his robot stank!" Spark hissed to Robotnik just before he vanished in the teleporter. A loud boom filled Spark's ears. He turned around to see a flash of teleporter light and a streak of white shoot from it. "Sonic, now I'll kill you ... WHA--!!! What the--!? Are you Sonic!?" Spark gasped. "Yes, I'm Sonic Claude. Now give up and help me get 'botnik," Sonic told Spark, trying to sound friendly to his foe. "FORGET IT!!!" Spark yelled at Sonic. "Well thats too bad," Sonic said sarcastically as he began to streak through the air at over Mach 8! Spark was blown aside about 200 feet, straight into a giant mushroom. (they were on Mushroom Hill). Sonic stopped in a flash, panting as his colors began to fade out a little. He looked around to tried and remember the familiar surroundings. Then he revved up and shot through the mushroom stalk that Spark was against. It split in half and fell on top of Spark, pinning him to the soft moldy ground. "Wha...What's happening!?" Sonic said as his colors began to flash out of control. Suddenly a beam of energy shot from the direction of the Hidden Palace and blew Sonic backwards into a cliff side, then it flung him up into the air about 100 feet, leaving him to fall down onto his back! When Sonic got up he saw that there were many small animals watching him in fear. After seeing this he flew over to Spark and pulled him up, then flew with Spark away to Sandopolis again so it would be safer, and in hopes he could find Tails. "WHAT ARE YA DOIN'!?" Spark yelled as he awoke from being knocked out after hitting the mushroom. "Just making it a little better for fighting," Sonic whispered. Spark got up and ran at Sonic with his fists tight for a punch at Sonic's head, but Sonic moved to the side, leaving a flash behind him that blinded Spark for a second, causing him to fall face first into the sand. Then another beam shot from the Hidden Palace and knocked Sonic backwards into a temple's side, causing it to crumble down onto the scalding-hot sand. Then the beam threw Sonic up into the air, then dropped him leaving him even brighter than before. Sonic was now beginning to feel weak from all this going on but he kept his fight with Spark going. After getting up he revved up and shot through the sand at Spark, blowing him under the broken rock slabs from the crumbled temple. As Sonic tried to stop, he began to create huge sparks behind him. He began to grow black until he looked like a piece of ash! As Spark got up he was again blown away by a huge power surge coming from Sonic! Sonic was flipped backwards, leaving his powers behind him; they appeared to stay in the power surge that had started. Sonic gripped his belt and ripped his wrists across it to become Hyper Sonic, then streaked away from Sandopolis and completely off the Floating Island. As Sonic landed he heard a huge explosion. He turned to see a flash of light, followed by the air being filled with falling sand and fire! _________________________________________________________________ Chapter 5 _________________________________________________________________ Then Sonic saw Tails falling down from the island, covered with sand and dirt, so he shot over, grabbed him and set him gently onto the ground. "Sonic ... SONIC!!!" Tails screamed. "TAILS! I didn't do anything! I lost you in the middle of the night, so who you saw wasn't me!" Sonic snapped back fast enough so that Tails would hear. "WHA--!? It ... it wasn't you?" Tails said. "No, it wasn't, now, what happened up there?" Sonic said as he dehyperized himself. Tails explained that he was sitting on a stone slab when he heard a loud boom when he turned around he saw all of Sandopolis go up in flames! After about an hour of telling each others stories, Sonic and Tails headed back to Knothole to update the maps, tell them what Robotnik was up to, and tell them of Sonic's evil brother. The End...For now.