Chapter 82

Sonic, faced with no way out, screamed and cried for help as the monsters closed in. He wouldn't know, but somewhere in the darkest corners of the room, a small vault of some kind, red with black stripes and a yellow eye shape in the middle, was shaking and rumbling.

And then, it burst open. Sonic could feel it now. Wisps! They were here to save him. He could feel their Hyper-Go-On-Energy near, something he could now do after a White Wisp merged with him in Tropical Resort from Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park. The monsters slithered away from Sonic and towards the Wisps, but the Wisps were too fast and too large in numbers. Sonic could see so many. White, Orange, Red, Magenta... the list goes on.

This must have been why the Wisps were near the mansion in the first place. Others were trapped here, too. And Sonic would save them. All of them.

The Wisps flew all around the room, distracting the monsters from Sonic. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief, and ran for the door, which had now made itself clear. But he looked back, feeling the Hyper-Go-On Energy fading from his senses. He saw Wisps being taken by the monsters, and merging into them.

"Wisps!" Sonic cried. The Wisps weren't merging with their own will, but instead being sucked unnaturally into the monsters' mass. Sonic ran forward, but felt a few stray Wisps pick him up and throw him through the door. He landed on his feet, and skidded backwards a little. But then ran forward, only for a White Wisp that looked too much like Yacker for Sonic to handle to shut the door as it too was sucked into a monster.

The monsters banged on the door. But couldn't break it down. Sonic fell to his knees. All those Wisps... it had happened so fast, he couldn't save them. But then, Sonic got up from the ground. He clenched his fists. Those Wisps had sacrificed themselves for him, and they wouldn't want him to give up now.

Sonic felt his eyes grow tired, and his eyelids grow heavy. He felt like he needed to sleep. But it wasn't time to sleep. It was time to run.

So he ran. Fast. As fast as he could alone down the corridor. He wasn't only going to save his friends, but any other poor soul who had been left here to rot. This place was a living Hell, and he wasn't going to stand for it.

He ran past test tubes full of a strange green, bubbling liquid. He could only see the mannequin-like, featureless bodies of Mobians on the right, and man on the left blend together as he sped by. He nearly stopped running, before he realized they were lifeless. They stood with their hands clenched to their sides, but with no face or hair, or anything really. They really were comparable to mannequins. Just cheap, plastic imitations of people.

Until they started to slowly move, in unison. Sonic saw them go through the same motion as he ran past. Due to his speed, it all blended together like a flipbook. They tore away the glass. Sonic heard it all around and behind him. They started to break free of their cages, the liquid spilling onto the floor and making it slippery.

Sonic slipped to a stop, the liquid kicking up from underneath his shoes. It smelled like, again, Chemical Plant Zone. Sharp, chemically, horribly artificial.

The Mobians and humans reached out for Sonic, but Sonic slid under them. He swiped a few off the floor with his hand and feet as his slide came to a stop. He grabbed one and headbutted it, before kneeing it in the groin, making it fall to the ground.

The hoard didn't end there. More stumbled towards Sonic from the front. But Sonic knew something that they didn't. Strength doesn't come in scattered numbers, it comes in the bonds you share with the ones you love, working together to create a power bigger and better than its separate parts.

Sonic bounced on them in a row, leaving deep and large slits in their heads through which the same green ooze puddling on the floor slid out from. He stomped down with his foot out, slightly diagonally, in his Diagonal Stomp, leaving a few blown back from both the force of the kick and the shockwave beaming out from the ground as it sunk in a little, cracked.

Sonic put his fists to the floor, bending his left leg a little, and looked up at the slow hoard before him. He felt an empowering feeling surge through him, like he could do anything in that moment. He just had to keep his head up and run.

He then dashed forward, arms to his sides and pointing forwards so none of these blank slates would grab onto one of his arms, by chance. He tore down everything in his way just by running through it. He wasn't powered by Ring Energy or Hyper-Go-On Energy, but instead, the bare unbreakable will to save his friends.

Soon, a large metal door that was supposed to stop him instead quickly slid shut between him and the mannequin monsters. Sonic skidded to a stop, and looked behind him as metallic bangs sounded from the other side of the door.

The door wouldn't be falling anytime soon, Sonic thought. So, he looked back forward, and ran forward through the hallway.

The hallway quickly turned into a room that looked like it was part of a lab of some kind, and in the room were more monsters, which Sonic defeated swiftly. These were the same monsters from before, the ones that looked like Sonic's animal friends. Between battles, Sonic caught sight of many different machines throughout the lab.

Ones of note were a strange two-headed test tube of some kind that was stained green on one side and purple on the other. Then, there were... broken Past and Future signs from Little Planet? But... how? Why? Why would someone wait for Little Planet to appear over Never Lake, take time travel signs from there, and then break them?

Sonic continued. There seemed to be a model of a jaw of some kind of wolf. An old-fashioned tipping scale. Then... hourglasses all bunched up in a cardboard box. Some were decorated, and some even resembled the one Sonic had. Odd.

The further Sonic continued, the more he heard a mechanical whir of some kind. It sounded like it was coming from the other room. He slowly walked over to the door, his hand trembling. He reached for the door knob.

He opened the door, and there... attached to the wall by familiar shackles that looked like Eggman's inhibitor rings... were his friends!

"Sonic!" They wailed, except Pico, who trumpeted weakly and sadly multiple times.

"Guys!" Sonic exclaimed, the biggest and dumbest smile on his face. He ran over and Focused Homing Attacked the shackles, completely breaking them into little bits and holographic polygons, which disappeared.

Everyone fell to the ground. Sonic swept beneath Pico and grabbed him, making sure he didn't hit the ground. He could have gotten hurt considering the ratio between his height and the drop. Sonic let Pico climb up onto his shoulder, and made sure to support his bottom to make him feel secure. He turned to the others, though Buck was behind him.

"Guys! I'm so happy you're okay!" Sonic exclaimed, hugging everyone close to him.

"Thanks for the help, not that I needed it!" Knuckles replied, faux mockingly. Everyone laughed.

Buck watched as Sonic reunited with his friends. They were so great, they went together like a herd. Like his herd.

This brought up an emotion that had been all too familiar to him throughout this journey. They weren't including him. Typical. He desperately wanted to be part of this, but he was too anxious as always to speak up.

He felt tears come to his eyes, watching as everyone turned to him. "Hey, Buck! Is something the matter?" Sonic asked.

If you have collected 3 or more friendship points with Buck, continue to Chapter 84

If you have collected any less, go to Chapter 83