Sonic Runaways

The bubble rolled down a very large, very steep mountain. Everybody was bouncing off the walls of the bubble and rolling around uncontrollably. Sonic and Amy found it a little fun. They were hedgehogs, after all. Rolling around in a ball wasn't scary at all for them. Tails and Robotnik, however… weren't so used to it.

The fun and terror simultaneously came to an end as the bubble slammed onto the ground. It finally gave in and popped. Everybody landed on the grass. Sonic and Amy laughed as Tails and Robotnik shook. Sonic suddenly stopped laughing, but Amy continued. "Hey, Tails! You okay?" Sonic asked, remembering how easily Tails had bruised before just by falling onto the ground.

"I'm fine thanks to Amy's spell," Tails replied, getting up. He smiled and nodded towards Amy, who smiled back. "Thank you for your service, Bubble Shield." Tails took in his surroundings as they walked along the new Zone. They were in a countryside dale of seemingly endless greenery and marble structures. No matter where Tails looked, the ground always seemed to go deeper and deeper. In the vast distance were crumbling Romanesque buildings. "Even aside from obviously being older, those structures look way different from those in Echidnaopolis. Almost like they were built by a whole other culture than the Knuckles Clan." Tails stated, after a while of walking.

"But then… why is there nobody here?" Amy asked, confused.

"Maybe we'd find out if we weren't moving at the speed of snail. Let me scout ahead," Sonic replied. He rushed off.

"Sonic, wait!" Tails cried, flying after him. But he had already lost sight of Sonic in the maze of marble. He stopped in place. "Maybe we're better off NOT running into anyone!" Sonic did not return. Tails and the others looked past a few layers of temple separated by thick shrubbery as Sonic spiraled down a pillar and into a hole.

"Sonikku! Don't go too far!" Amy promptly cried, running forward. She equipped an electric shield of some kind from a tarot card, and used a small burst of lightning to propel herself forward where she would have otherwise fallen. She dove down into the same cave Sonic went into.

"Looks like it's just the two of us. We should follow them," Robotnik stated. He activated his built-in jetpack, but all that came out was a sorry puff of smoke. "Tails, if I may ask for assistance?"

"Sure thing, 'doc'," Tails replied lightheartedly. He lifted Robotnik into the air and flew after Sonic and Amy. "I'm going to be honest, it feels a little weird helping you. I can only imagine how it feels for you to be doing the same for us." Tails and Robotnik flew in silence, the only sound being Tails' tails spinning. Tails felt words coming up his throat. He hesitated to say them, but eventually spat them out. "... How DOES it feel...?"

"... I don't know," Robotnik replied. Tails suddenly felt cold. That was an answer he wasn't expecting. "I can't feel it. I can only comprehend and compute a hollow reflection of thoughts and feelings." Tails looked to him weirdly. He was about to say something, but Robotnik continued only a moment after. "Can anybody hear me? Help me, please." Tails looked down at Robotnik fearfully. His voice sounded strained. As if it was immensely painful for him to analyze his own thoughts. "I don't want to be doing this. I--- I can't control my body, or my thoughts. It's as if my entire CORE is fighting itself."

"Robotnik? Are you alr---?" Tails asked, as sweat beaded up on his forehead.

"HELP ME!" Robotnik suddenly cried out. Tails could hear the effort and the stress in his voice, but the volume sounded like it was lowering itself. Someone standing a few feet away from them would hardly even hear it. Robotnik gripped harder onto Tails' hands, his poky metal appendages grasping at Tails' and squeezing them one by one. "I don't know where I am…" Robotnik sputtered and gasped. It sounded like he was trying to swallow food lodged hazardously in his throat. "What is this place?"

"Angel Island!" Tails replied. "We're in a valley on Angel Island!"

"I can't see anything. But the walls… it feels like they're getting closer together!" Robotnik whined with a level of fear that Tails had never heard from him. Not even when Tails had cut his arm off. "Oh God, there's something in here. It's coming this way...!"

"What are you talking about?!" Tails asked.

"Kill! Hedge! That! Hate! Hog!" Robotnik shouted, his voice a fluctuating garbled mess as the volume decreased. The green bars in his eyes that represented the volume ticked below three percent slowly. As if something was threatening to silence him. Tails' heartbeat grew quicker. "Break! Free! Break… break…"

The volume reached zero.

Then, Robotnik bluescreened. "Foreign input detected," the computer assistant stated lifelessly. "Purging threat and restarting." A high-pitched electronic audio sample played. Robotnik then powered off and began to reboot. Tails descended into the cave.

"Foreign input?" Tails asked, glancing at Robotnik. He continued onwards through the Marble Garden. He could figure out what exactly happened to Robotnik if he had the time, but first he needed to catch up with Sonic and Amy. Although… he couldn't deny that something was horribly wrong. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.