11 Chapter Ten- Modern Universe
The eleven foxes entered the Village and immediately froze. All looked at Modern.
Around the village were statues, but not ordinary statues. These statues were all of Modern's friends, frozen in positions of fighting defiance or arms raised in defense.
Cream was protecting Cheese, and Vanilla was protecting her daughter. Amy was in front of the three of them with her hammer raised, ready to smash the opponent into jelly.
Knuckles and Sonic were back-to-back, like they were surrounded by enemies.
Silver and Charmy were face down on the ground; probably frozen in mid-air. Vector was to Charmy's left, and Espio to Vector's left. Both were in fighting stances.
Shadow was in the position he was always in before a Chaos Blast; crouched, head down, arms bent and hands clenched in fists. Rouge, also on the ground but face up, was most likely frozen while doing the drill, and was to Shadow's right, forward a couple feet. Omega was to Shadow's left, arm outstretched, a stone missile 10 feet in front of him.
Multiple Wisps were scattered around the Village, next to or heading towards the individual friends.
"The Stopper-zapper," AoStH said softly.
The foxes turned to him. Seeing their confusion, he explained.
"One time Scratch and Grounder came at me and Sonic with a Stopper-zapper. It freezes your molecules in place so you can't move or think or run. The only way to reverse the effects is to zap them again," AoStH finished.
"Did either of you get zapped?" Sat AM wanted to know.
"Sonic," AoStH replied sadly, "it was my fault."
He perked up, "I got him back though."
Modern wasn't paying attention to the conversation. He was looking at the petrified Sonic, frozen fighting. A gentle smile was on his face.
"There was no other way he would have wanted to be frozen," he murmured, talking to himself, "not that he wanted to be."
Modern turned back to the others just as Boom asked,
"What'll we do with them until they're unfrozen?"
The question was directed at Modern.
"First pick up Silver, Charmy and Rouge," Modern directed, "They'd hate to be left on the ground longer than necessary. We'll move them..."
Modern looked around. Most of the houses were in bad shape.
"We'll prop them up on the secure walls," he changed his mind, "then fix the houses to be safe. Then we'll move them indoors."
"Should we make a roof to cover them?" X asked.
Modern nodded.
"Yes, that would be good. You and Movie can do that. The rest of us can start fixing houses," he pointed at the nearest wooden shamble, Vanilla's.
X and Movie nodded and set off to get the things they needed. Modern continued to the others,
"We'll start with the house we'll use as the Headquarters of sorts. I think mine would be the best choice, partially because it has the workshop in it. But move the three lazy ones first," Modern said the last sentence with a joking glint in his eye and the others laughed.
They headed off, but AoStH and Sat AM held Modern back.
"We don't know how to build," AoStH said worriedly.
"Don't worry," Modern smiled, "we can teach you on the job."
The 4- and 10-year-olds were excited.
"Yes!" AoStH said.
"The others will be surprised when I get back and can build and do what Sally can!" Sat AM exclaimed, mainly pleased that he was allowed to help.
"Calm down," Modern said, laughing, "it'll take some time..."
"I'm a fast learner," Sat AM said.
"Me too!" AoStH said.
"I know," Modern said, smiling at the excited cubs, "now come on. We have work to do."
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AoStH and Sat AM were right: they were fast learners. Within a few hours, they'd figured out how to fix the problems that were in the houses.
After a week, most of the houses were fixed. The construction was going smoothly, and Modern was pleased.
However, he was cautious, as he knew the Eggmans weren't done. The others had chosen him to be the leader, which he wasn't so sure about, but decided to give it a try. His suspicions were confirmed in a week and a half when the Eggmans drew their first card.
"Badniks!" Came the call.
It was AoStH, who was pointing to the east, towards the mountains. A swarm of crabmeats, buzz-bombers, moto-bugs, and Egg-robos, came up and into the village. Metal Sonic, Scratch, and Grounder followed.
"Sonic got robotised?" Sat AM asked, confused and scared.
"No," Boom replied, taking aim and shooting a Motobug.
"Eggman made a metal duplicate of Sonic. This," Modern explained, gesturing to Metal, "is not Sonic."
"Phew," Sat AM said, relieved.
The village was in chaos, robots and foxes flying and fighting all over.
Zooey confused the robots by switching between multiple of their friends.
Sat AM, led by and along with AoStH, took to name calling, and led Scratch and Grounder different places.
"Over here, tin head!" AoStH yelled at Grounder.
"No, over here!" Sat AM insisted.
"Hey! I want the Robotnik's favorite robot here!" AoStH called.
Grounder started going to AoStH.
"Hey, wait!" Scratch yelled, grabbing Grounder and dragging him back, "I'm Robotnik's favorite!"
"No, I am!" Grounder insisted.
While the two argued, the cubs broke the one thing keeping Amy's house standing.
"Timber!" AoStH called.
Lego and Movie, who were in the range of the wall, quickly moved, while Scratch and Grounder looked up, screamed, and got crushed.
Lego and Movie weren't having much luck. Movie's tail-tips were singed from a barely dodged attack from a fire-bot. Lego was swarmed by buzz-bombers.
Ten buzz-bombers were destroyed by Boom's energy beam. He dodged a bullet shot by an Egg-robo.
Boom and X were pounding a flurry of robots with missiles and other gadgets. Mania and Classic fought with spin dashes.
The real fight, however, was between Modern and Metal Sonic.
Modern's fighting style was a blended mix of all the others, and plus some.
Metal kept trying to fight like he fought with Sonic: running in a straight line while trying to hit each other.
Modern was having none of it. He kept Metal in the village perimeter, attacking indirectly, rarely coming near enough for Metal to take a swipe.
The two were moving so fast the others couldn't tell where either was at any given time. Modern slowed down enough once for Sat AM to notice a few scratches on his sides and arms. Injuries didn't seem to bother Modern, and most definitely didn't slow him down.
Other than Sat AM, the foxes were completely wrapped up in their own battles. So it was startling how fast they all fell silent, stopping what they were doing and turning to the center of the village square. There, Modern was on his knees, trying to get up.
He had come in for a spin attack, but Metal was expecting it, so he blasted Modern with his lazer blaster. Metal, glowing with energy, grabbed Modern by the neck and picked him up.
The response was immediate.
"PUT HIM DOWN," Classic yelled.
The others yelled and charged.
Zooey brushed her hair behind her ear and was a dragon, rearing up and flying into the air.
The Tails from worlds with Robotniks, the ones accustomed to hand-to-hand combat, each smacked Metal in turn.
Boom and X loosed all they had at Metal. Sat AM, who had no combat experience whatsoever, still went up to Metal and smacked him on the back of the head.
That startled Metal, and he dropped Modern.
Modern dropped to his knees, trying to catch his breath. Classic and AoStH helped him up and away from Metal. Sat AM followed them.
The others, still furious, attacked so violently Metal was done within seconds. They blew him up with bombs anyways.
Then they went over to Modern, who had pretty much recovered from the ordeal.
"You okay?" Boom asked.
"Yeah," Modern said, voice still shaky, "thanks for that."
"No problem," X said.
"The others okay?" Modern asked as Zooey landed and turned back to a vixen.
Lego and Movie want to check on the statues of Modern and Chloe's friends.
"No one's broken," Movie reported.
"Good," Modern said, "we want them in one piece when we zap them back to normal."
AoStH was fiddling with one of his tail-tips.
"I miss my Sonic," he said sadly, head down.
Sat AM put his arm around AoStH.
"We all do," he said, "but we'll find him. We'll get back home."
"I know," AoStH said, looking up with a smile.
