Buh?
Ahh, Sonic Unleashed is being released on XBox 360, Wii, PS3...and PS2?! Damn...now I don't have a reason not to buy it.
I swear if this game sucks it is the last Sonic title I am ever spending money on. Seriously. I mean it this time. Really.
In the meantime, MORE FANFIC! This is copied almost exactly from handwritten notes so it's going to be a little choppy. I'll buffer that out in later stages if it's necessary.
Sonic stirred to consciousness with muffled voices drifting through his head. He opened his eyes and stretched before sitting up, sensing no danger.
“You’re awake.”
He glanced to the speaker, recognizing the voice from last night. A purple walrus smiled at him, fleshy lips folding back over two moderately-sized tusks.
“Not even a scratch,” he lied. His ribs hurt with every word. A window soon caught his attention and he pushed himself off a simple feather mat to have a look outside. The sun was just climbing to its height in the sky; it was mid-afternoon, at best. A dozen yards away the crumbled ruins of an ancient gray building struggled to stand against the elements. Several structures alongside it crowded together in similar states of decay. Short and windowless, they reminded him of bomb shelters, except they were above ground.
“This isn’t Angel Island, is it?” he asked, turning back towards the room. He noted the mold on the ceiling, the spots of light where the cement had fallen away. Knuckles’ home was the only connection he could make to structures such as these.
“Uh...I don’t think so. I don’t think ‘angel’-anything would ever be associated with this place. Unless it’s meant to be ironic.”
Sonic didn’t ask what the walrus meant. After several moments of silence he became unsettled in the manner the other was staring at him.
“It’s good to have you back.”
“Right. Not to be rude or anything, but do you have any food around here? I haven’t eaten in a day...I don’t think.”
“Oh sure! Sorry. Uncle Chuck just left to get something, he said you’d be waking up soon. Give him a minute, okay?”
Sonic could have hit the closest drive-thru in less than a minute but didn’t say anything. He could hear someone coming up a set of steps from outside.
“Rotor? You doing okay?”
The doorway to the small room was nothing more than a plank of wood leaned against the opening. He guessed from the hinges the original door had been metal; it was missing. The plank was picked up and set to the side, and through walked the most beautiful creature Sonic had ever seen. She looked to be a squirrel though he couldn’t catch a glimpse of her tail to confirm. Her eyes were a crystal blue, matching the boots and short vest she wore over her chestnut fur coat. When she looked at him her face lit up-“Sonic!”-and before he could move she was pressed against him, face buried in his shoulder, arms around his waist in a warm hug. He returned the embrace awkwardly, unsure of where to put his hands on a strange lady. She pulled back from him, looking up into his face. “What’s wrong?”
She knew him, he realized with a growing sense of dread. Not just his name, but knew him. Quickly he ran through a list of all the women, his mental black book. Which one? Which one!
“Nothing, babe,” he answered when he knew he’d stretched the time to its limit.
She withdrew further. “Babe?”
Her eyes weren’t so pretty anymore.
“Sonic...who am I?”
Fortunately he was saved from having to answer the question. No sooner had the words left her mouth when someone else entered the room-or, rather, something.
Sonic lunged at the robot before it could step completely through the doorway, shouting a warning and pushing the girl aside. He body slammed the machine backwards off the steps; a metal tray it had been carrying flung into the air. Its eyes focused on him, red pupils glowing in a hedgehog face-Sonic ducked into a spin to slice its chest straight through. The machine crossed its arms to block and pushed against him. He skid backwards in the dirt, repelled, one hand dragging.
“Sonic! Stop!”
“What?!”
A cold metal hand clamped around his wrist. He whirled to the side and punched, noticing too late that the face he struck belonged to a rabbit. Everyone rushed to her as she stumbled backwards, one hand to her nose. A steady stream of blood was truckling down her neck against cream-colored fur.
“What’s wrong with you?!” the squirrel screamed.
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?! You just let ‘bots walk around free! What is it, your pet?!” He motioned to the tray he’d knocked from the machine’s claws-it was full of food.
“Here, Bunnie, tilt your head back like this.” The squirrel took a tissue out of her right vest pocket and placed it over the rabbit’s nose. When Bunnie raised a hand to keep it in place Sonic realized in horror she had a mechanical arm.
“That’s quite a hook ya got there, sugah” the rabbit beamed at him around metal fingers. “Think ya mighta broken somethin’.”
“I’m sorry!” he stammered, “I didn’t-I just felt-”
The squirrel stood straight, fists at her sides. “With me! Now!”
Usually not one to submit to authority, Sonic found himself obeying before he realized it. He followed her back inside and, as a lame attempt at making amends, put the door in place behind them. When she turned to face him he braced himself for a lecture but there was no anger in her eyes. Only sadness.
“Sonic. Who am I?”
His chest constricted. Why was it so hard to look her in the eye? Tell this woman he’d never seen before that she was a stranger?
“You don’t know, do you?”
Defeated, he broke down with the truth. “No.”
“Follow me. I want to try something.”
Once again, Sonic fell into step behind her. When they walked outside everyone had left. The only evidence of the excitement from earlier was a stain of blood on the stone and a pile of spilled fruits and vegetables. The birds were already circling for them.
“This way.”
Sonic walked behind her through countless ruins similar to those he’d seen earlier. Here and there he caught glimpses of movement amidst the buildings-eyes peering from behind walls and rocks before disappearing again.
“They’re looking at you,” the squirrel said. “You look a lot different since the last time we all saw you.”
“Who’s we?” Sonic asked.
“The Freedom Fighters. My name’s Sally. Princess Sally.”
“You’re royalty? You don’t look it.”
“Thanks. I’m more of the leader if you can think of it that way. Though I’m hoping what we’re about to do will help you remember all this on your own.” For the first time, she glanced over her shoulder. “I...don’t suppose you could tell me what happened, or how?”
“Depends. If you told me what I was supposed to tell you about I could fake it.”
“Nevermind. It’s not much further. Through here.” She hiked over a low wall and came to a stop before a curtain of trees at the edge of a dark forest. “Can you run in the directions I tell you without crashing?”
“Are you kidding? You know me and don’t know the answer to that?”
She smiled. “That way’s west. We’ll be heading north. The forest is thick so you won’t be able to use the sun as a guide. Let me know if you lose your bearings and I’ll guide you.”
“’Kay.” He scooped the princess up easily into his arms. “Where are we going?”
“To the place we found you last night. Let’s go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was something familiar about weaving through the trees, the princess in his arms. Sonic bent his head against the wind, ears flat, running as fast as he dared. Around them the forest was alive in the warm light of the afternoon. Birds sang, lizards scurried in the underbrush, and Sonic’s heart soared with every hurried step.
“Slow down,” Sally said into his neck, the vibrations of her voice reaching across the wind whistling in his ears. “We’re almost there.”
He complied, dropping to half-speed and finally a slow jog before she bade him to stop.
“We have to be quiet from here on in, no talking. The SWATbots in the area can pick up on sound easier than they can pick up on thermal readings with all the creatures moving in the woods.”
“If there are ‘bots around why don’t we just-”
A finger on his lips killed the question in his throat.
“Because they’re interconnected with hive-mind programming. You pick off one and they all know. We’d be outnumbered in a second.” She turned and started off through the trees. “This area is very important to Snively.”
Though Sonic was sure he would have easily gotten lost in the dense forest the princess knew exactly where to step, exactly which turns to take. Periodically she would reach back and put a hand to his chest, signaling him to stop. They would stand motionless for several seconds before picking forward through the brush. After approximately twenty minutes they stepped into a small clearing where a small pool glistened against the afternoon light. Sonic approached the edge cautiously, not wanting to get too close to the water. Sally glanced into the depths which, at least to the naked eye, remained too dark to penetrate.
Shielding her eyes against the sun she glanced skyward, then to Sonic and tapped her wrist. Sonic wasn’t sure what the gesture meant. He shrugged.
Time, the princess mouthed. She held up ten fingers. As she sat to the ground she seemed less concerned about being detected. She even slipped her boots off to dangle her bare feet in the water.
Sonic abstained.
When he first saw the bubbles forming beneath the surface of the pool his first reaction was to pull the princess away. He laid a hand on her arm but she shook her head, pointing to the water. Over the course of a few minutes the bubbles increased and a gold glow began to form beneath the surface. Brighter and brighter, it expanded until up from the depths a single gold ring floated to the top, hovering just a few inches above the pool’s surface. The princess pushed off the shore into the water and grabbed her prize. She held it up in the air for Sonic to see before wading back. Sonic was confused at all the excitement over a simple ring but kept his thoughts off his face as he extended a hand to help Sally ashore. She replaced her shoes quickly and held the ring before him. She tapped his temple once with her finger, then pointed towards the ring.
Take it, she said.
Sonic shrugged. The moment he touched the ring it began to grow warm, then hot, then too hot! He tried to release it but it was fused to his hand! He couldn’t shake it off! A shrill hum sounded from the metal as it vibrated violently in his palm then exploded in a cloud of dust with a loud CRASH! A siren quickly wailed among the trees and robotic voices chattered excitedly in the distance.
“Let’s go!” Sally shouted. She leapt onto Sonic’s back, arms locked around his throat. “No point in being subtle anymore! Lead the robots away from this place! We can’t let them find it!”
“Loud and clear, princess!”
Sonic burst into the brush opposite the way they’d entered, making sure he’d looped and zigzagged several times before shouting out: “Over here, metal-heads! See if you can catch me!”
A machine appeared faster than expected-directly in front of the gun raised and ready. Unable to spin with a passenger on his back, Sonic cut to the left and disappeared behind a shrub before a rain of laser fire turned it into tossed salad.
Two more machines erupted into view and he banked away from them, offering only a quick “Hold on!” before he leapt into the nearest tree and began jumping from trunk to trunk.
It was an easy stunt to pull with only himself to contend with but with Sally’s extra weight pulling him towards the ground each jump quickly took its toll. He wasn’t able to build enough momentum to render them weightless enough. Forced back to the ground, he concentrated on running the fastest, straightest path through the thicket, though he’d completely lost the direction Sally’s home was in.
“Which way?!” he shouted to her.
“Right!”
He leapt to follow, skidding for a moment on a bed of pine needles before regaining traction. By the time the sounds of pursuit died into the woods Sonic’s heart was thundering in his chest, and not just from the excitement. Sally directed him down into a valley where a small river wound through the woods.
“You can slow down here,” she called, “We’re quite a ways from the power ring pool. You did good, Sonic.”
“What was all that? Was that supposed to happen?”
Sally sounded concerned. “No. No it wasn’t.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You’re sure it was him?” Snively inquired for the second time, “There is no mistake?”
Affirmative, sir, the SWATbot replied, No mistake.
“Very well, corporal. Dismissed.”
Thank you, sir.
Snively smiled at the exchange of pleasantries between man and machine. His uncle had built effective hunter/destroyers, that was without doubt, but his designs had all been lacking in AI intelligence-personality. Julian had always relied on the roboticizor to inject that element into his fleets, but Snively felt it could be duplicated better, and more reliably, with hard computer code. It had taken him years to accomplish, admittedly building upon the data collected from the living-turned-machine that remained his uncle’s trademark and legacy. The project was far from perfected, but significant strides had been made, and he couldn’t say the additions weren’t an improvement.
He turned dark eyes to the screens behind him, each frozen with the best still shot he could gather from the robots’ memories of the blue hedgehog encountered last night. He’d thought this menace long-removed from his life, alongside his uncle and the backbone of the Freedom Fighters’ will. It was a threat he had, thankfully, spent at least a little time preparing for, but alongside the hedgehog’s presence came questions regarding the others that had disappeared with him so many years ago-questions Snively had to know the answers to.
“Sergeant” he called into the empty room. A faint electronic hum stirred to life behind him as the lead robot beeped in.
Sir.
“Reactivate Priority One programming, with one adjustment. I want it alive. Non-comatose.”
Command confirmed. Any additional parameters?
“No. You can bring it to me in pieces. As long as it can talk.”
I swear if this game sucks it is the last Sonic title I am ever spending money on. Seriously. I mean it this time. Really.
In the meantime, MORE FANFIC! This is copied almost exactly from handwritten notes so it's going to be a little choppy. I'll buffer that out in later stages if it's necessary.
Sonic stirred to consciousness with muffled voices drifting through his head. He opened his eyes and stretched before sitting up, sensing no danger.
“You’re awake.”
He glanced to the speaker, recognizing the voice from last night. A purple walrus smiled at him, fleshy lips folding back over two moderately-sized tusks.
“Not even a scratch,” he lied. His ribs hurt with every word. A window soon caught his attention and he pushed himself off a simple feather mat to have a look outside. The sun was just climbing to its height in the sky; it was mid-afternoon, at best. A dozen yards away the crumbled ruins of an ancient gray building struggled to stand against the elements. Several structures alongside it crowded together in similar states of decay. Short and windowless, they reminded him of bomb shelters, except they were above ground.
“This isn’t Angel Island, is it?” he asked, turning back towards the room. He noted the mold on the ceiling, the spots of light where the cement had fallen away. Knuckles’ home was the only connection he could make to structures such as these.
“Uh...I don’t think so. I don’t think ‘angel’-anything would ever be associated with this place. Unless it’s meant to be ironic.”
Sonic didn’t ask what the walrus meant. After several moments of silence he became unsettled in the manner the other was staring at him.
“It’s good to have you back.”
“Right. Not to be rude or anything, but do you have any food around here? I haven’t eaten in a day...I don’t think.”
“Oh sure! Sorry. Uncle Chuck just left to get something, he said you’d be waking up soon. Give him a minute, okay?”
Sonic could have hit the closest drive-thru in less than a minute but didn’t say anything. He could hear someone coming up a set of steps from outside.
“Rotor? You doing okay?”
The doorway to the small room was nothing more than a plank of wood leaned against the opening. He guessed from the hinges the original door had been metal; it was missing. The plank was picked up and set to the side, and through walked the most beautiful creature Sonic had ever seen. She looked to be a squirrel though he couldn’t catch a glimpse of her tail to confirm. Her eyes were a crystal blue, matching the boots and short vest she wore over her chestnut fur coat. When she looked at him her face lit up-“Sonic!”-and before he could move she was pressed against him, face buried in his shoulder, arms around his waist in a warm hug. He returned the embrace awkwardly, unsure of where to put his hands on a strange lady. She pulled back from him, looking up into his face. “What’s wrong?”
She knew him, he realized with a growing sense of dread. Not just his name, but knew him. Quickly he ran through a list of all the women, his mental black book. Which one? Which one!
“Nothing, babe,” he answered when he knew he’d stretched the time to its limit.
She withdrew further. “Babe?”
Her eyes weren’t so pretty anymore.
“Sonic...who am I?”
Fortunately he was saved from having to answer the question. No sooner had the words left her mouth when someone else entered the room-or, rather, something.
Sonic lunged at the robot before it could step completely through the doorway, shouting a warning and pushing the girl aside. He body slammed the machine backwards off the steps; a metal tray it had been carrying flung into the air. Its eyes focused on him, red pupils glowing in a hedgehog face-Sonic ducked into a spin to slice its chest straight through. The machine crossed its arms to block and pushed against him. He skid backwards in the dirt, repelled, one hand dragging.
“Sonic! Stop!”
“What?!”
A cold metal hand clamped around his wrist. He whirled to the side and punched, noticing too late that the face he struck belonged to a rabbit. Everyone rushed to her as she stumbled backwards, one hand to her nose. A steady stream of blood was truckling down her neck against cream-colored fur.
“What’s wrong with you?!” the squirrel screamed.
“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you?! You just let ‘bots walk around free! What is it, your pet?!” He motioned to the tray he’d knocked from the machine’s claws-it was full of food.
“Here, Bunnie, tilt your head back like this.” The squirrel took a tissue out of her right vest pocket and placed it over the rabbit’s nose. When Bunnie raised a hand to keep it in place Sonic realized in horror she had a mechanical arm.
“That’s quite a hook ya got there, sugah” the rabbit beamed at him around metal fingers. “Think ya mighta broken somethin’.”
“I’m sorry!” he stammered, “I didn’t-I just felt-”
The squirrel stood straight, fists at her sides. “With me! Now!”
Usually not one to submit to authority, Sonic found himself obeying before he realized it. He followed her back inside and, as a lame attempt at making amends, put the door in place behind them. When she turned to face him he braced himself for a lecture but there was no anger in her eyes. Only sadness.
“Sonic. Who am I?”
His chest constricted. Why was it so hard to look her in the eye? Tell this woman he’d never seen before that she was a stranger?
“You don’t know, do you?”
Defeated, he broke down with the truth. “No.”
“Follow me. I want to try something.”
Once again, Sonic fell into step behind her. When they walked outside everyone had left. The only evidence of the excitement from earlier was a stain of blood on the stone and a pile of spilled fruits and vegetables. The birds were already circling for them.
“This way.”
Sonic walked behind her through countless ruins similar to those he’d seen earlier. Here and there he caught glimpses of movement amidst the buildings-eyes peering from behind walls and rocks before disappearing again.
“They’re looking at you,” the squirrel said. “You look a lot different since the last time we all saw you.”
“Who’s we?” Sonic asked.
“The Freedom Fighters. My name’s Sally. Princess Sally.”
“You’re royalty? You don’t look it.”
“Thanks. I’m more of the leader if you can think of it that way. Though I’m hoping what we’re about to do will help you remember all this on your own.” For the first time, she glanced over her shoulder. “I...don’t suppose you could tell me what happened, or how?”
“Depends. If you told me what I was supposed to tell you about I could fake it.”
“Nevermind. It’s not much further. Through here.” She hiked over a low wall and came to a stop before a curtain of trees at the edge of a dark forest. “Can you run in the directions I tell you without crashing?”
“Are you kidding? You know me and don’t know the answer to that?”
She smiled. “That way’s west. We’ll be heading north. The forest is thick so you won’t be able to use the sun as a guide. Let me know if you lose your bearings and I’ll guide you.”
“’Kay.” He scooped the princess up easily into his arms. “Where are we going?”
“To the place we found you last night. Let’s go.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was something familiar about weaving through the trees, the princess in his arms. Sonic bent his head against the wind, ears flat, running as fast as he dared. Around them the forest was alive in the warm light of the afternoon. Birds sang, lizards scurried in the underbrush, and Sonic’s heart soared with every hurried step.
“Slow down,” Sally said into his neck, the vibrations of her voice reaching across the wind whistling in his ears. “We’re almost there.”
He complied, dropping to half-speed and finally a slow jog before she bade him to stop.
“We have to be quiet from here on in, no talking. The SWATbots in the area can pick up on sound easier than they can pick up on thermal readings with all the creatures moving in the woods.”
“If there are ‘bots around why don’t we just-”
A finger on his lips killed the question in his throat.
“Because they’re interconnected with hive-mind programming. You pick off one and they all know. We’d be outnumbered in a second.” She turned and started off through the trees. “This area is very important to Snively.”
Though Sonic was sure he would have easily gotten lost in the dense forest the princess knew exactly where to step, exactly which turns to take. Periodically she would reach back and put a hand to his chest, signaling him to stop. They would stand motionless for several seconds before picking forward through the brush. After approximately twenty minutes they stepped into a small clearing where a small pool glistened against the afternoon light. Sonic approached the edge cautiously, not wanting to get too close to the water. Sally glanced into the depths which, at least to the naked eye, remained too dark to penetrate.
Shielding her eyes against the sun she glanced skyward, then to Sonic and tapped her wrist. Sonic wasn’t sure what the gesture meant. He shrugged.
Time, the princess mouthed. She held up ten fingers. As she sat to the ground she seemed less concerned about being detected. She even slipped her boots off to dangle her bare feet in the water.
Sonic abstained.
When he first saw the bubbles forming beneath the surface of the pool his first reaction was to pull the princess away. He laid a hand on her arm but she shook her head, pointing to the water. Over the course of a few minutes the bubbles increased and a gold glow began to form beneath the surface. Brighter and brighter, it expanded until up from the depths a single gold ring floated to the top, hovering just a few inches above the pool’s surface. The princess pushed off the shore into the water and grabbed her prize. She held it up in the air for Sonic to see before wading back. Sonic was confused at all the excitement over a simple ring but kept his thoughts off his face as he extended a hand to help Sally ashore. She replaced her shoes quickly and held the ring before him. She tapped his temple once with her finger, then pointed towards the ring.
Take it, she said.
Sonic shrugged. The moment he touched the ring it began to grow warm, then hot, then too hot! He tried to release it but it was fused to his hand! He couldn’t shake it off! A shrill hum sounded from the metal as it vibrated violently in his palm then exploded in a cloud of dust with a loud CRASH! A siren quickly wailed among the trees and robotic voices chattered excitedly in the distance.
“Let’s go!” Sally shouted. She leapt onto Sonic’s back, arms locked around his throat. “No point in being subtle anymore! Lead the robots away from this place! We can’t let them find it!”
“Loud and clear, princess!”
Sonic burst into the brush opposite the way they’d entered, making sure he’d looped and zigzagged several times before shouting out: “Over here, metal-heads! See if you can catch me!”
A machine appeared faster than expected-directly in front of the gun raised and ready. Unable to spin with a passenger on his back, Sonic cut to the left and disappeared behind a shrub before a rain of laser fire turned it into tossed salad.
Two more machines erupted into view and he banked away from them, offering only a quick “Hold on!” before he leapt into the nearest tree and began jumping from trunk to trunk.
It was an easy stunt to pull with only himself to contend with but with Sally’s extra weight pulling him towards the ground each jump quickly took its toll. He wasn’t able to build enough momentum to render them weightless enough. Forced back to the ground, he concentrated on running the fastest, straightest path through the thicket, though he’d completely lost the direction Sally’s home was in.
“Which way?!” he shouted to her.
“Right!”
He leapt to follow, skidding for a moment on a bed of pine needles before regaining traction. By the time the sounds of pursuit died into the woods Sonic’s heart was thundering in his chest, and not just from the excitement. Sally directed him down into a valley where a small river wound through the woods.
“You can slow down here,” she called, “We’re quite a ways from the power ring pool. You did good, Sonic.”
“What was all that? Was that supposed to happen?”
Sally sounded concerned. “No. No it wasn’t.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
“You’re sure it was him?” Snively inquired for the second time, “There is no mistake?”
Affirmative, sir, the SWATbot replied, No mistake.
“Very well, corporal. Dismissed.”
Thank you, sir.
Snively smiled at the exchange of pleasantries between man and machine. His uncle had built effective hunter/destroyers, that was without doubt, but his designs had all been lacking in AI intelligence-personality. Julian had always relied on the roboticizor to inject that element into his fleets, but Snively felt it could be duplicated better, and more reliably, with hard computer code. It had taken him years to accomplish, admittedly building upon the data collected from the living-turned-machine that remained his uncle’s trademark and legacy. The project was far from perfected, but significant strides had been made, and he couldn’t say the additions weren’t an improvement.
He turned dark eyes to the screens behind him, each frozen with the best still shot he could gather from the robots’ memories of the blue hedgehog encountered last night. He’d thought this menace long-removed from his life, alongside his uncle and the backbone of the Freedom Fighters’ will. It was a threat he had, thankfully, spent at least a little time preparing for, but alongside the hedgehog’s presence came questions regarding the others that had disappeared with him so many years ago-questions Snively had to know the answers to.
“Sergeant” he called into the empty room. A faint electronic hum stirred to life behind him as the lead robot beeped in.
Sir.
“Reactivate Priority One programming, with one adjustment. I want it alive. Non-comatose.”
Command confirmed. Any additional parameters?
“No. You can bring it to me in pieces. As long as it can talk.”