Disclaimer: We do not own Sonic, Mighty, Bean, Bark, or Eggman. They are
owned by Sonic Team.
Rotor the Walrus is owned by Archie Comics & DiC.
_________________________
Deserted. Completely deserted. Even the furniture had up and vanished,
the house was completely empty. And with the heating system off, it was bone
chilling cold. Robert Kanard could see his breath in front of him and saw frost on
both sides of the windows. The place's electric bill didn't come due until tomorrow
so at least the light's still worked. It would have reminded the RCMP officer way too
much of a dungeon in some dark castle in the middle of a lifeless wasteland if that
had been the case. And this building and this case was creepy enough as it was.
Bobby shook his head of such thoughts, there was work to be done and he and
Alex were the ones who had to do it.
The house had been bought by a family of four called the ‘Bootons.’ The movers
had a receipt of placing all their belongings into the well sized home almost a month before.
And neighbors had no recollection of seeing anything large enough to move away all the
furniture of the family's away at the house since. So what did that leave? Alien abduction?
Government cover up? Rift in the space-time continuum? Oh for God’s sake Bobby,
be freakin serious. The police offer thought to himself. Other officers had already gone
through the house top to bottom trying to find anything that might point to where the family
had gone. But there was nothing. Alex of course had insisted they try again. Most likely
because the albino knew they had no other leads and at this at least made it seem
like they were going somewhere. Of course this search turned up exactly what the last
five after the initial one had. Nothing.
Zero. Zip. Bobby felt another headache coming on. Alex of course was sure they had
missed something, scratches in the floor, maybe some dust in the basement, all of which
they had looked for and had turned up nothing. Bobby wondered why he didn't protest
more about Alex's investigation strategy . . . easy, because they DID have no leads.
Nothing. Nothing at all! It really was like that family had just up and vanished into thin-
"I found something!" Came Alex's bellowing voice from the opposite end of the house.
Bobby wondered what Alex thought he had found. The guy was a good officer, but he
just had a habit of jumping to conclusions.
Bobby ran down the hallways to the other end of the house where Alex was squatting
while looking at something on the floor. "What did you find?" he asked.
"It's a DVD by the looks of it," Alex said.
Indeed there was a DVD in the corner, still in the case. Both Alex and Bobby donned
their rubber gloves and Alex picked it up. They discovered that it was a Sonic SatAM
DVD. Alex showed it to Bobby.
How did the other teams miss this? Bobby wondered. Despite knowing it could be
nothing, he elected to take it back to the station, as it could have prints on it.
"All right, pack it up and we'll let the forensics boys take a stab at it. Maybe there’s
prints on it or something."
"What if there's a message on it? Maybe a ransom demand for their release if their
hostages?" Alex asked. "Why would someone go to that trouble and why that series in
particular? Well, it's worth a shot, I'll get the technical people to look over the contents.
Given some of the things they have to look at, seeing some cartoons will be a nice change
of pace."
Alex nodded and carefully placed the CD into an evidence bag. The duo finished going over
the house and found nothing else. With little in the way of options they headed back to the station.
Bobby reported their findings to Alex and his superior before handing the CD over to the
forensic artists to dust it for prints and anything else that might indicate if anyone else had
touched it. After a few hours, the results were in and the labs discovered a set of prints that
they were running through the database. After cleaning off the DVD, they handed it over
to the electronic people to scan just in case there was a message ... something that might indicate
what happened. They, found that it was just normal Saturday morning cartoons, the only anomaly
being they all featured a purple walrus as a central character in them, which in itself was strange
but hardly a crime.
Just as they were finished viewing it and about to turn it off, they found a static filled segment of
10 seconds before the DVD stopped. Alex and Bobby happened to be watching at the time and
wondered what this could be.
"A message?" Alex wondered aloud.
"Maybe just something that was damaged," Bobby added.
"Maybe," Alex said, rubbing his chin, "but I think we should check it out. You never know."
The lead electronic person nodded and took the DVD out to analyze the last seconds
to see if there was anything in it. The rest of the day went without incident and Alex and
Bobby went home. That night, Alex dreamed of Polar Bears and Walruses, not unusual in
itself, except for the fact he was the bear but instead of eating the walruses he was talking
to them ... in English! The dream came to an abrupt end when his telephone ran, waking him
from his slumber. Picking it up, he found it was someone from the station.
"Officer White, we've discovered a watching set of prints and found something ... interesting
in that video. You’d better come down here."
A while later, RCMP officers White and Kanard were at Forensics’, viewing the extra stuff on
the DVD...
"It’s a list of names...", said one of the other officers.
Scanning the names, they noticed that all of them were missing people.
Except for possibly "Benjamin Barns" as he wasn’t reported missing yet,
but people had their suspicions about it, since he hasn’t been seen for quite
a while. Thing is, with the exception of the Booton family, these were all in
the United States..
"...So this is a serial kidnapping or something?", Bobby asked.
"It would seem so, sir. And our forensic team has lifted the fingerprints of
who left it there, and it wasn’t a member of the family."
"Okay, what’s this guy’s name?"
"Zhane Jones, wanted for abduction, theft, and many other crimes. Including
Arson."
"Oh, you’d know about Arson, wouldn’t you Bobby?", Alex said sarcastically.
"Zip it, White."
Bobby sometimes wondered if it was a good idea giving Alexander White a badge.
Alex’s big mouth often got him in trouble, ever since they partnered up. His weird
theories and ideals left much to be desired. He also tended to mock Kanard about
his past - as a young boy, Kanard was a bit of a pyromaniac, even accidentally burning
down his house at age 8.
"Both of, that's enough. You'll behave like professionals or I'll assign Agent Denton
to this case!" their superior, Detective Riles piped.
"Sorry sir," White and Kanard said in unison.
"Do we have an address for this individual?", Kanard asked.
"Multiple addresses sir but his most recent one was at a house a hundred kilometers
from here."
"I don't like it, it sounds too easy. We need to arrange an assault taskforce," Riles said.
"Sir, with all due respect, given what this person has shown so far, we can only assume
he knows we’re looking for him," White said.
Riles nodded, "Makes sense. What do you suggest?"
"Kanard and I should go alone in an unmarked car. Perhaps we can take him by surprise."
"That's an awfully risky suggestion, officer. This man may be dangerous and heavily armed."
"If he has those people prisoner, seeing a taskforce approaching may create a hostage situation.
Discretion may be in order here," White said.
"I agree sir. If we go under cover, we might be able to surprise him." Kanard said.
Riles seemed to think about it for a few seconds before nodding his head. "All right
gentlemen. White, I want you to submit a proposal for how you'll go about this. Have it
on my desk within the hour. Dismissed!"
Kanard and White left the room and made their way to White's office.
I'm sure he has a great plan, Kanard thought.
An hour ... good. That gives me plenty of time to come up with a plan, White thought.
The two looked at each other and both nodded.
A while later, the duo came out with a well written plan.
As according to their plan, Kanard and White locate Zhane’s most recent address.
"I... Don’t think anyone’s here, White."
"That’s why we’ve got to investigate. There could be some evidence about what
happened to the missing people, or possibly the people themselves," he said, pulling
out his gun. After all, better safe than sorry, right?
Bobby nodded, and pulled out his own gun. For some reason, he felt that this case
was the case that he was born to solve. The case that would make history.
Strangely, their search seemed to come up empty.
"The only thing here is that large vault," sighed Bobby.
"Hmm... Have you tried opening it?", Alex asked.
"...What kind of criminal leaves their vault..."
Alex turned the handle to the right and pulled, causing the large vault to open up,
revealing another room.
"...I hate you, you know that, White?"
"I’m fully aware of that Pyro. Now let’s check, shall we?", Alex suggested.
Grumbling about the use of his most hated nickname, Bobby followed Alex into the very
suspicious room.
"Wow... This building didn’t look THIS big from the outside...", Alex commented.
The room certainly had a... unique decor. It looked like something out of one of the
cartoons that was on the DVD.
"I’ll say..."
"You know," said Alex as he and his partner took another step in, "If I didn’t know
any better, I’d say we were walking right into a..."
Just then, the vault door slammed shut, and they could hear it lock.
"...Trap..."
"...Oh crap.. The Door!", shouted Bobby as he ran towards it. There was no way to
open it from the inside. The only handle to the door was from the outside. There was
a ventilation system in here, but it was far too small for either him or Alex to crawl
through.
"Umm... say, partner... what’s this?", Alex asked, from the center of the room.
Bobby walked to the device, "Huh... I dunno... That..."
Suddenly, as if information was being put into his mind by an unknown force,
it clicked, "A nitrogen bomb! That maniac’s gonna kill us with an explosion of
freezing temperatures!"
"...What can we do?"
Suddenly, without warning, the machine explodes.
After the explosion, the entire room was covered in a thick layer of snow, not
the kind of thing you'd expect from a bomb meant to turn everything and everyone
into the equivalent of peanut brittle.
A lad, 17 or so, in a purple jack and red pants (both with brass trim), walked up to
the pair of officers, frozen in their track. Where he had been when the explosion
happened was anyone's guess. One going TO the bomb in hopes of disarming it.
The other away in hopes of somehow using his friends as a human shield. The man
pulled down on his near transparent purple shades and looked at the men with a pair
of brown eyes and smirked.
"So this is what it feels like. Sorry we didn't have time to discuss this guys, but I'm
kinda in a hurry and you're now drafted." He apologized. He took off a pair of green
gloves and cracked his knuckles. "Well, let's get started."
The man started by smoothing over the details of the uniforms and equipment on the two
cop snow men, and bothered to put in little details like the space between their toes with
what used to be their shoes.
Humming to himself, he grabbed a large pack of snow off the ground added to Alex White’s
body mass, smoothing it in, and repeating the process on the rest of his body several times.
The snowman’s trunk was now decided rounded, but not blubbery so. The arms and legs
were huge.
Satisfied, Zhane went on to the next part. He squashed White’s fingers, making them
look more like paws than hands, and repeated the process on his feet.
He made a small snowball and attached it to the man’s rear. He stood right in front of
White, and put a large batch of snow on his face, lengthening it into what had to be a
muzzle complete with a nose (don't ask where he got the charcoal).
He smoothed over the man's ears and took a couple bits of snow and flattered them into stubby
shapes and placed them on the top of White’s head. He fluffed some tiny bits of snow into what
could be... Head fur? Wondering if he forgot anything, Zhane snapped his fingers and added a
bear's snarl to the sides of the snow bear.
Satisfied, Zhane walked over to the man Bobby Kanard. "Okay pal, your turn."
Kneeling down, Zhane thinned out Bobby's legs, yet the mass above didn't fall
apart on top of him. Zhane flatted out Bobby's feet, leaving him with three bumps on a
flat pattern of what could be toes on each foot.
As Zhane skimmed down snow off of the second snowman, the figure got smaller,
and smaller, losing well a head in height and more. Taking even more snow and
making it into a semi-square pan cake, before connecting it to the much smaller
snowman’s face, nose and mouth. Adding some mass on the head to the sides, the skull
soon had a side ways squashed appearance. He carved out some cavities that were
clearly meant to be eyes. Big ones.
He repeated the ‘head fur’ trick on the almost-duck as he did on the bear in front of him.
He took the man’s rear and with total professionalism added more snow to it, making a
tip on the end that fanned out ever so slightly.
His hands like they were clapping, the arms came next, flattened out but not breaking
apart as they should have. The fingers were flattened, seeming to be more like part of
the hand than connected to it.
"Okay boys. Good luck to you, you should be coming to your new selves in a while,
just don't go panicky in the mean time." Zhane said cheerfully. The teen walked over
a few feet away from the two snow-walking animals putting a few items under the snow.
Zhane spoke to the two before vanishing into thin air. "There. That takes care of everything
on my end, up to you boys now."
A few seconds later the two snow mounds shuddered and the snow fell away to reveal
a yellow and white two leg walking polar bear and a humanoid green duck who couldn't
believe how cold they were as they frantically pushed the snow off them.
The Duck looked over at the bear beside him, his eyes going wide.
"Put some pants on!" he gasped.
"Pants on? What are you talking about?" the bear asked. He looked down at himself
and gasped, desperately trying to cover himself. "Where did my clothes go?" he looked
over at his partner, gasping, "What happened to you? To... us?"
"I don't know!" The duck yelled before looking perplexed. "That's odd"
"Odd, are you joking? This isn't just odd, this is insane! What kind of thing
could do this to us? How the heck are we supposed to report this?" the bear
yelled.
"No, I don't have dynamite or my bombs, I feel naked without them!", the duck
responded.
The bear's eyes went wide and he clomped around the snow, nearly tripping
over something. "What's this?" he asked.
He knelt down and pushed aside the snow, ignoring his partners comments
about not appreciating the view. He was hoping it was his bottom or at
least something to cover himself but instead he found a stick of dynamite!
Very cute Bean, very cute. Did I just call him Bean? Is that right?
Wait, of course it is, what else would I call him?
Bean clomped up beside him and his eyes glowed with delight at the
sight before him.
"All right! You found some!"
Yeah, but no pants for me, err why was I looking for them
anyway? It's not like I need them.
He found a few more sticks of it and then looked at the wall before them.
"Are you think...," he didn't finish the question before he saw Bean lighting
one of the sticks and throwing it at the wall.
Both jumped for cover at the corner of the room a second before it went off.
The explosion not only blew a large hole in the wall but also melted some of
the snow, revealing several pieces of the duo’s clothing. Bean picked up his
bandanna and shoes and Bark his scarf, gloves cap and shoes.
"At least that thing only blew these off, I'd hate to have lost em," Bean said.
Bark was about to respond when he saw something shimmering in the debris
of the wall. He walked over to it and found it was a crystal with a black cord
around it.
"I found something shiny, I wonder what it is," he said.
"Shiny? Who do you think you are, Rings?" Bean said.
"Very funny, I think it's a crystal of some sort. Maybe someone was hiding it
in this little cage of theirs."
"That thing looks familiar, I think it belongs to," Bean started.
Both heard something approaching in the distance, it was a blue blur.
The form stopped just ahead of them, it was Sonic.
"Shall we get down to business gentlemen?" he asked with a cocky grin
and wink.
"...We would, but first we need to know where we are and how we got
here," Bean stated.
Sonic sighed. Definitely another one of THEM. The ones who lost memories
of their past lives. No way to get any info on what they know, "Your in a vault
in one of Eggman’s not-so-secret bases."
"Figures Eggbutt would be behind this," Bark said, pounding his fist into his hand.
"Isn’t he always? Come on, let’s put that raw egg in the microwave!"
"Wow, Sonic actually said something intelligent," Bean said with a smirk.
He actually liked that joke. He has always liked bombs and explosions of all kinds -
something his father, Bin, of the Dynamite Dux, really wouldn’t be too proud of.
"Oh hush, Birdbrain, let’s just go and beat the--", Bark started
"I think we get the point, Bark," Sonic cut him off.
As usual, they ended up in a part of the building that had a capsule
full of cute critters, such as Flickies, trapped inside.
What’s it with Eggman and capturing little defenseless Animals anyway?", Bean
pondered aloud.
"No clue."
"I’ve got a plan," Sonic started to say.
"I must mark today on my calendar... oh wait, no, that’d be if it was
Bark," Bean quipped.
"Shut up, Bill-boy," the Bear Growled.
"Anyway, you guys stay back here in the dark until Eggman does whatever.
When the time is right, you surprise him by coming out to assist. He probably
expects Tails and Mighty, or Tails and Knuckles to be with me."
"Good Plan."
Sonic ran forward alone... Eggman came out with a machine that looked like he
combined a few of his old failures together.
"What’s wrong, Eggman? Run out of original ideas so you had to go slap together
parts from a junk heap?", Sonic taunted.
*Bling!* Sonic blinked stupidly at the spring bouncer that had just deflected his attack
from Eggman.
"Wha?" Sonic was able to avoid a grab from the Egg machine but was still too stunned
to counter attack.
"Ha ah ah!" Eggman cackled. The mad scientist continued. "Remember that dear
Gravity Blimp that bread those lovely little spike bots in my first Death Egg? And the
defense barrier around it to protect it from those pesky attacks of yours? . .. Well, I
said to myself, why let a good invention go to waste?!"
"With you, Eggman, NOTHING is a good invention", Sonic shouted.
"Of course..." Eggman responded. "I correct myself . . why let an EVIL
invention go to waste?! Bwa ho ho ho ho!"
"Now where was I? Oh yes . . . DIE!""The two arms, which Sonic saw had
spikes for fingers, disconnected from the main body and magnetically
launched themselves at the heroes.
Sonic was of course the main target, and the spikes impaled his after images, but
Sonic knew that they were going to have to retreat if they couldn't get at the lunatic.
The idea of retreating made Sonic's heart twist along with his stomach
‘Retreat?’ Sonic The Hedgehog did NOT retreat! He wouldn't give this maniac the
satisfaction!
There had to be a way to beat this newest monstrosity, there always way! Eggman
was too pig headed to look for flaws in his designs!
Sonic charged again, and got he same little jingle from the defensive barrier. Eggman
just laughed, not even bothering to counter attack this time.
‘He's TOYING with me! Okay, recheck, that's MY job!’ Ben thought steam coming
out of his ears.
Eggman just continued to laugh. It was starting to get on Sonic's nerves. It was making
Sonic make mistakes.
In an angry fit, Sonic ran at various point of the machine, each time the bouncer
springing him back.
"Get you could say I put the spring in your step eh?" Eggman chortled.
Sonic's face was red with anger by this point. Bark and Bean looked at him in worry,
Bark was worried the lad would give himself a nervous breakdown or worse. He
grabbed Sonic's left shoulder and pulled him back into the shadows
"Do hurry, I have a planet to conquer. No sense delaying the inevitable children!" Eggman cackled.
"Does that guy ever shut up? Let me at him; I'll kill him, I'll tear him a new bu--," Bark covered the
hedgehog’s mouth.
"Please young friend calm yourself. We need to work as a team to get this guy." he let go of Sonic,
who proceeded to glare at him.
"No smart bear boy!"
"Look, do you want to defeat this maniac or do you want to keep charging at him until you run out of
energy and he destroys us all?" Bean asked.
Sonic sighed, this was never this hard in the games. When Sonic got hit in them, it never hurt him and if
Eggman won, he could always just hit reset or if he was feeling like a bad boy, use a cheat device to win.
I can’t believe I’m thinking this, but I’m starting to miss Omochao right now.
"What do you have in mind?"
"I'm waiting gentlemen. Don't make me come over there!" Eggman yelled.
"Man, just let me blow him up, with enough explosives I can turn the proverbial cloud he’s perched
himself on into a real mushroom cloud!" Bean proclaimed.
"Bean, ixne on the eaponswa of assma estructionda," Bark moaned in pig latin.
"Sorry kids," Bean said to his precious bombs, stroking them. "Don't worry, you'll get your chance."
"Anyway. Here's what we do. That bouncer only blocks one person right? So, if we all attack at once,
two of us will get through. Egghead over there will get pissed off and," he head to stop when they heard
Eggman's mech like robot stepping closer, the ground shaking.
"Times up brats!"
"I get the picture. Whichever two of us gets through, pound the lunatic!" Sonic said.
The trio stepped out and charged at the massive Robot. Much to Ben's expectations
the bouncer stopped him. He just kept on charging, just waiting for the inevitable sound of
explosions and smashing parts.
"You just don't learn, don't you hedge ... oh ... rats," Eggman said as an explosion rocked his bot.
Pieces of debris flew down among the trio as an explosion from one of Bean’s bombs
lit the area up. Bark jumped and smashed the source of the bouncer, sending it to the ground
in a hail of smashed metal and plastic.
Sonic looked into Eggman's eyes, as he beamed in joy, "Payback time lardo!"
"Momma." Robotnik paled behind his glasses. That hadn't happened before.
Sonic jumped in the air and perform a homing attack directly on the central body,
the attacks coming repeatedly and mercilessly. No! Robotnik was in the motion
of swatting the pest away when he was thrown off balance... by Bark lifting the
heavy machine a few inches off the ground, and tilting it this way and that.
.
The mad scientist went this way and that at his super simplistic controls, hitting
his bald head on the bulkheads. His fat body protecting him from serious
injury, but the same could not be said of his precious death toy.
Bark roared as he threw his back into and lifted the tons heavy machine and
tipped it over backwards, barely managing to let go as it fell with an Earth
shuddering thud into the concrete floor leaving an impression. This was not
the coop de grace however. That came in form of the few explosives Bean
had giddily placed around the spot where the egg machine's ‘head’ would fall.
And the impact sensitive bombs went off in a ball of fire, destroying the protective
shell of steel and iron that shielded Robotnik. Finding himself vulnerable, and his
machine now just dead weight (he never thought to make it capable of getting off
the floor if on it's back because he thought he'd have killed Sonic by then), he
set in motion his trademark escape. Discarding the metal husk and lifting off in the
Egg-o-matic hovercraft that doubled as the control seat. The device this extrusion was
devoid of weapons (again due to Robotnik's poor foresight). It's only saving grace was
that his opponents were all Earth bound this skirmish. All things considered, he knew it
was time to retreat. He made a mental note to include more than one bouncer in the
next model and made his normal swearing at the anthro animals.
"You come back here!" Sonic snarled! "Where's my mother you crack pot!"
Robotnik cackled. "Ha! Still as empty headed as Knucklehead is gullible!
Figure out the reality for yourself, you idiot!" He lifted up further into the air,
going through a convenient hole in the ceiling. Sonic make a futile jump attack
while Bean threw a grenade that missed and went off on the floor. Bark threw
one of the machine's arms but to the same result. Still cursing Ben was going to
radio Kyle to tell him to cut the maniac off in the [now repaired] Tornado III
only to remember he hadn't brought a radio-com! All he could do was watch
as the lunatic lifted off out of sight and out of earshot, laughing all the way, as if
he was the winner today.
Sonic sat down on his rear. Not believing what had just happened. He had taken
down one of Egg-butt's machines again, so why didn't he feel the normal thrill?
On the other side of the screen. Ben thought.
"Hey hedgehog, you okay?" Asked Bark recognizing the hedgehog as being
Sonic, one of the people who had a gem like Bark used to have until losing it
in the Sonic Fighters Tournament.
"No, man I'm not." Sonic said dejected. "I so sure I'd find her here, heck,
Rings got a member of his family back. Why can't I get the same break?"
"What do you mean?", inquired Bean recognizing the hedgehog from the
same tournament.
"I got a letter from my mom saying she would be here... It’s been so long,
I left without a word to anyone, not even Mighty or Tails. I just wanted to
see her again! And I walked right into one of Ro'butt'nik's traps just like
Knucklehead!"
Bean folded his arms, "Hardcore."
"You have my sympathy." Said Bark solemnly.
Ben raised an eyebrow at them from his sitting position hugging his knees.
"So, eh, where have you two been?"
"Just . . . away." Bean said feeling slightly confused. "I, we, got a job to
come here. It was from some anonymous guy, never gave his name."
"Oh." Ben's quills wilted. Another two with no idea they weren't always who
they used to be. Why just him, Tim and Kyle? Why no one else?
What was so special about then? And who else would considered that
special? If anyone? Sonic stood up, oh, Kyle and Amy were going to give him
the talking to of the century when he got back. Maybe he could just lie
and say nothing happened. Yea right, like Kyle would buy that excuse,
and plus, it just didn't feel right. "Guess I won't be seeing anything of mom
anytime soon after all."
He got up, feeling dejected. And figured he might as well ask where the two
were staying ‘right now’. When the unlikely pair of polar bear and mallard looked at
each other.
"Oh right, the letter and the shiny thing we found in the wall," Bean said.
"Shiny thing?" Sonics ears (and spines) perked up, "That sounds like
something Rings would say," Sonic said.
"When I blew up the wall holding us captive, we found this shiny thing inside
of it," Bean said.
Bark handed Sonic the pendant, it shimmered in the sunlight that beamed into
the building from the hold Eggman has escaped through.
It can't be, Sonic turned it around, feeling a sense of reunification. He rubbed
it a bit and it an explosion of light an energy is shifted into a guitar.
"Wow!" Bark yelled.
"Cool, what is it?" Bean asked.
"It's ... a long story," he said, looking up at the duo after examining his guitar.
"How did you find out about these orders?" he asked.
Bark produced a large envelope, accidentally turning it upside down, a smaller one
fell out. Never noticed that, he thought.
"That wasn’t there a minute ago... Was it?"
Sonic knelt down and picked it up. Opening it, he found out it was a letter.
Man, someone out there must be listening to me. It was a letter from
his mother, back on Earth, or moreso the Earth he was indigenous to.
"It's a letter from my mother." he said.
"Sorry, I guess we should've seen it. I'm not sure how I missed it," Bark said.
"It's okay guys," Sonic said in a hushed tone, holding his quills down against his body.
"Come on Bean, let's go free those animals. I'm sure their cages are getting
uncomfortable," Bark said. The two left the room as Sonic started to read.
Dearest Ben,
I know it's hard for us to separated in these difficult
times. I wish I had time to say more to you, I wish I
could visit you as I am now and see you in action. Don't
worry though, your father, brother, sister and I aren’t
far behind and I know you'll take good care of Kyle and
the others. So, when you're out there fighting all those
monsters and robots, remember that we're proud of
you and we love you.
We'll see you soon.
Wiping a tear from his eyes, Ben folded the letter and sighed. It was as
though as huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. At least he did
have his other friends, and he did have Rings to help with Kyle, even
if he didn't show is appreciation, he really did feel happy he wasn’t alone
to protect Kyle was getting in over his head. Folding the letter in the guitar,
then reshrinking it back to the pendant, he walked back into the room where
Eggman had been holding the animals. Bark and Bean had freed most of them
and they chirped, chittered and squeaked in gratitude - the ones that could make
sounds, anyway.
"Do you guys have somewhere to stay?"
"Yeah, don't worry about us, we got someone to go!" The other two said. "What about you?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sonic said, his quills standing out and a smile crossing his face, "I'm
great. I've got lots of great friends and a place to call home. Although, maybe you two
would like the meet some of them before going home. In fact, Bark, your strength just
might be an interesting test for Mighty," he said.
"Who's that?" Bark asked.
"Mighty’s a friend of mine. Longtime friend. Known him since we
were both kids."
"And he says he’s tough, does he?"
"Stronger than me, and I kicked your butt."
"...."
"What?"
"You were lucky, you know."
"Sure, you keep telling yourself that, Bark. We both know he beat us
fair and square," Bean remarked.
"Shut up, duck, or I’ll make you eat your dynamite!"
Ben rolled his eyes. This was exactly how he expected Bark and Bean
to act. No wonder Sonic... err... He was able to beat them... Boy this was confusing.
"Oookay, I think you two should break it up before someone gets hurt," Sonic said,
speaking up.
"...Your right... But I’ll fight your friend Mighty later..."
Sonic sighed, "You know, as fun as this is, catching up and all, I really hate waiting."
"Bah, your an impatient little twerp, aren’t you?", Bark said with a smile.
"And you’re an impatient big one, what’s your point?", Bean grinned. Bark chose to ignore that insult.
"Anyway, I gotta juice. See ya!", Sonic said as he ran off into the distance via his trademark
Figure 8 Dash.
"You know... Something tells me we forgot to do something...", Bean said after a short period of
silence.
"I just had the same feeling," Bark added.
"That's nothing new with you." Bark retorted.
"Yea, yea, but I'm serious here..." Bean said, his face uncharacteristically in
concentration. "It's like there's something just out of my reach or something,
something major."
"Now that you mention it." Replied Bark. "I kinda remember something
earlier today . .. before we got here... Something important..."
The two were silent for a good deal longer before lighting struck their
brains and the barriers all came crashing down. They looked at each
other and spoke at the same time. "The Walrus!"
Earlier that day, the two of them had agreed to be the carriers for a CD disk
from a hedgehog in Purple and Red armor, to one Rotor Walrus!
"How could you forget that!" Bark burst.
"Me? You're the one who wanted to do it, you said something about
owing the Walrus something."
"He fixed up my place when the chaos emerald smashed through the
roof of my home! I'm not the kind who carries money so I promised
I'd do him a favor next time he needed something!"
"Well let's get out of here, I still don't get why you dragged ME into this."
"Because we're partners."
"Don't remind me."
"You're the one said that it would be fun to hang out together after you saw
me fight in the tournament."
"Yea . . I did, and I gotta admit, I was right!"
-Ninety Degrees from Everywhere-
"And you say I break the rules." The orange echidna girl said.
"I don't rat on you, you won't rat on me, and besides we both want the same thing.
Besides, best that Rotor get those blue prints now and remember having them
later than getting them at the last minute at the cost of the lives of his friends like
before."
"And here I was thinking you didn't have a heart."
"Julan, you have no idea how much I wish I didn't."
~Fin