It was nearing 4Pm, when Sonic finished off with a Moto-Bug.
It blew open like a metal egg, and a little Rabbit jumped out of it’s metal shell, alleviated from being released from an electric prison. Into a nearby rabbithole it hopped.
“That should be the last of them.” Sonic thought as he dusted off his hands “Atleast I’m sure that was the last here. I already trashed most of them, but the other ones followed Robotnik.”
In this brief moment of peace, the Chao of Green Hill finally came out of their hiding spots. They had been mostly vacant during this whole ordeal, but now that there was no danger in the air, they crept out of all kinds of bushes and holes and returned to their day to day lives, flying and jumping with glee on the green grass.
Finally, Green Hill was filled with a bit of life again. Sonic fealt pleased about this, yet 30 rescued animals was not as good as a 100. Now knowing how the animals were being used as batteries, being electrocuted (No doubt out of their wills) Sonic fealt even more determined to save his closest friends from peril, so he said “Welp! Gotta go! Next stop, Marble Hill.” and then he riled up speed and shot out over the fields and forests, in the direction of Marble Hill, to deal with the Badniks there and release all the animals trapped inside them. The sky was still very blue, but there was a light mass of clouds in the distance, that was getting closer and closer.
It was while sprinting for Marble Hill, that a Buzz Bomber flew into sight, spotted Sonic and fired at him. The missile had no chance of hitting him at his current momentum, so the Buzz Bomber hastily flew back in the direction of Marble Hill, while Sonic quickly chased after it, while making mocking screams at it. He followed the Buzz Bomber to a forest road leading to the bridge from Green Hill to Marble Hill. It was a big stone bridge, that stood over a large river. The river was gurgling with all it’s might as the water currents Splashed and Splushed out towards Aqua Lake, where it would tumble down a waterfall and then seap between The Bridge Islands, and out towards the gleaming sea. Sonic crossed over the bridge and into Marble Hill, where he followed the flying Buzz Bomber into a big, evergreen forest. Strangely, Sonic noticed that the water at Aqua Lake seemed to be a bit higher than before, swallowing some of the rocks and islands.
Upon crossing the bridge to Marble Hill, there were less exotic Palmtrees, and instead the forests started consisting more of Pinetrees that gave the place a more woody and tangy scent that made Sonic feel much at ease. “I do wonder why Robotnik flew over to Marble Hill.” Sonic thought as he went through the dark pineforest “Why didn’t he just fly over to his Scrap Brain, unless he’s planning on tearing down Marble Hill, but why?” As Sonic followed the Robotic Wasp through the big shadowy forest, while absorbing rings that were scattered around and inbetween, the air became a bit hotter, as the Buzz Bomber floated in the direction of Marmorisa, while stopping to occasionally Fire at Sonic.
Marmorisa was a little village, located near Marble Hill. It was a mostly small, peaceful town on the far left side of the Pineforest, that slanted up the side of a mountain, with small square houses made out of Stone and Marble, apparently made back in ancient times, being used as homes. As Sonic was nearing this place, he could see the buildings of the town start to appear through the pinetrees, when suddenly, Sonic jumped back when a Moto-Bug rolled in before him, with a slash. Sonic quickly kicked the Moto-Bugs face loose, breaking a little rabbit out of it. After dealing with the Moto-Bug, Sonic looked at the village. Presently it seemed that Marmorisa was also bristeling with Badniks. There were Badniks all over the place, strolling and flying about.
There was not a single Mobian nor Human to be seen in the town. Usually there would be people sitting on their front lawns, or maybe a salesman selling food or other such things, but now, the food carts were laid empty, valuable things on the porches were either vacant or destroyed, and many of the windows and doors of the town had been completely boarded up, like they had been abandoned.
Now, aside from the Badniks, the whole place was empty and lifeless. Sonic didn’t like watching the Badniks parade this town like they owned it, so he charged towards the Badniks at full speed.
He fought the Badniks one by one. Moto-Bugs would charge at him, and he would dash and destroy them. Buzz-Bombers would fire and he would dodge and wreck them up, all while releasing all small critters trapped inside, and bringing them back to freedom. It was after Sonic dealt with a rather weak Moto-Bug, when he heard a male scream coming from the top part of the village, and so quickly ran up the soil path zig-zagging up the town.
Sonic quickly sped up to the top part of the village, where he found where the scream came from.
It was a Mobian who Sonic recognized as Tony, a Meerkat at the age of 13, who lived somewhere in Marmorisa with his stern mother in a house on the top of the town. He was running panickedly through the street, with a frightened expression on his face. Trailing behind him were a whole gang of Badniks scurrying about. Tony seemed so panic driven that he didn’t see where he was going. He got his foot stuck in a hole and fell over on the ground with a painful sounding Whack.
It was then that Sonic saw a Badnik that he hadn’t seen that day, slowly closing in on poor Tony. This Badnik was very grotesque, looking like a long metallic caterpillar made out of metal balls, with a devilish smirking face at it’s front, and two dangling antenae on it’s head. (PRODUCTION NAME: Caterkiller. PURPOSE OF USE: Killing Weeds and Bugs.)
It slowly slithered towards Tony, and then Chink! out of both sides of the robot came two sharp piercing spikes, ready to pierce it’s pray. Sonic saw how the Caterkiller crawled towards The Meerkat. Tony cowered in fear with his hands over his head almost crying, until Sonic quickly dashed in and kicked the Caterkiller straight in the face. It’s head came clean off, and landed in a bush. The rest of it’s pearl necklace shaped body still slithered around, but in a random and speratic way. In a weak motion, the Caterkiller swung it’s body all around. It hit something, but that was just a Moto-Bug which got sent rolling down the town and went Kapoof on the back of a house. Sonic quickly told Tony to hide somewhere safe, before running on and fighting the Caterpillar Robot. Sonic was cauciously stepping back and forth before the Caterkiller, trying not to get stabbed. Some Buzz Bombers tried to fire at Sonic. He quickly dodged them, and then jumped towards the Caterkiller, breaking the second ball that the body was made out of. Out hopped a little Squirrel, shaking with pain. The rest of the Caterkillers body fell apart, motionless.
The other Badniks saw this and attacked. Sonic rambunktiously jumped into the action and fought. Tony sat behind a house and watched as gears, sparks and metal parts flew everywhere, before in little time all that was leaft was Sonic, who stood with his foot rested on the broken Caterkiller remains, while some animals scurried about the town.
“How many was that now?” Sonic asked himself, trying to keep track of all the Badniks he had Iced “Uhh... Eight? Ten? Combine that with how many I destroyed on Green Hill and we get… Eh I dunno.”
“Th-Thank you! Oh Thank You!” Tony said, quickly running out of the cover and crouched before his blue savior, before suddenly squinting his eyes in a strange way.
“Eh… You’re welcome.” Sonic said to this “So, Tones. Would you mind telling me what’s going on here? Where is everybody, and why is there wood boards on all the Windows and Doors?”
“We’re hiding!”
“Hiding? Hiding from What?”
“But, aren’t you-“ Tony was about to say something, but got interrupted by a female voice shouting “Tony! Get in here! Are you crazy?”
It was another citizen of Marmorisa. Tamara The Mouse, a School friend of Tony. Her head was peering out from the window of a house with a boarded up door.
“T-Tamara!” Tony stammered.
“Just get inside! It’s not safe out- Holy Moly!” She suddenly noticed the huge pile of broken Badniks outside her house, with Sonic standing right there in the middle.
“How did this happen? D-did you do this?” Tamara asked Sonic.
Sonic said “Yeah! It was no big deal.”
Tony climbed in through Tamaras window, because the door was currently boarded up, making it impossible to open it.
“Hey Tamara…” Tony said “I went to check on the well, it was very full today and I-.” but Tamara said “Not now, Tony.” To which Tony dejectively said “Okay…”
Tony was a somewhat awkward person at times.
Nothing wrong with that.
Sonic went over to Tamara, who stared at him wide eyed. “So anyway” Sonic asked “Tony here told me you were hiding.”
Tamara nodded.
“Why?” Sonic asked “From what?”
“Don’t you know? You just destroyed a whole ton of them.” Tamara said. “We’re hiding from the Robots. They have gone violent, and have started attacking everyone.”
“Really?” Sonic said in disbelief. To Sonic it was normal for Robotniks Badniks to attack him, since they were mutual enemies and all, but now they were attacking normal people? What helped make things more confusing was Tamara’s next response.
“Apparently someone managed to Hack all of Dr. Robotniks Robots, and made them go rogue.”
“Hack?” Sonic asked before suddenly looking at the broken Badniks behind him. “They looked pretty fine to me.” He said in a state of confusion.
(The reason he said this was because he actually thought she meant ‘Hacking’ as in ‘Cutting something’. In all of Sonics life, though there were many things he had learned, either from his mothers Kindergarten lessons, his fathers PoliceTalk, his many adventures around the World, his battles with Dr. Robotnik and even the very few years he had spent in School, he had never heard the word ‘Hack’ in any other context before.
Sometimes the lack of a “full education” could be a bit lacking.)
“Well, they’ve gone violent, and they attacked this town a few hours ago.” Tamara said, audibly shaking in her voice.
“Okay.” Sonic said, still confused and yet still understanding the direness of the situation. “And so you’re hiding because the Badniks are attacking you?”
“Yes.”
Sonic quietly thought about this. “Why would Dr. Robotnik try to attack them. Did they do anything wrong?”
It was then that a burly voice came from behind Sonic and said “Tamara! Do you have any idea who you’re talking to?”
It was Hermiz The Iguana who was a neighbor to Tamara. He was the tour guide to some weird tour around Marble Hill. Sonic would often see him do his tours while exploring Marble Hill, where Hermiz upon seeing Sonic, would often go into a sort of fit. Sometimes Sonic couldn’t be sure if Hermiz liked him or hated him, but right now his voice seemed to be very angry. Sonic quickly said “Uh, hi! It’s me, Sonic.” as he didn’t know why Hermiz would be pointing that out.
Tamara said “Listen, he destroyed all the Robots.”
“Because he just wants attention!” Hermiz said in an estute manner.
Sonic stared at him with wide thunkling eyes. Though Sonic acted like he didn’t care, deep down inside Sonic was a bit hurt. He didn’t know what to say.
“And Why does that matter!?” Tamara said angrily.
“Well, Haven’t you seen or read the news lately?”
“As a matter of fact I haven’t, and I don’t care!”
“Well, maybe you should have, and you wouldn’t be spending your time with criminals like him!” Hermiz said pointing at Sonic.
Sonic quickly charged at him, like he was going to ram into him. Hermiz frightenedly fell on his back, but Sonic simply stopped a few steps away from him.
“I’m Sorry Sonic!!” Hermiz said quickly.
“Dr. Robotnik is the criminal here!” Sonic shouted with a piercing voice “He’s been capturing my animal friends and has been putting them in his robots!”
“So you say.” Hermiz said both sarcastically and frightenedly.
Sonic stepped back, but Hermiz rised up and said “See? Is that what a good, kind person would do!?”
Sonic was quickly getting tired and annoyed of all this back and forth chatter.
He was about to run out of Marmorisa, Away from them all, when another voice chimed in next to Hermiz. It was Cedric The Zebra, who was a “Friend” of Hermiz, who also lived in the same house as him.
“Hermiz.” He said disapprovingly “I know you dislike him, but Didn’t you see or hear that he single handedly destroyed all those robots?”
“Yeah But-”
“Even if he is doing it as some attention stunt, atleast he’s dealing with the problem.”
“Yeah, but Robotnik had announced that he would be working on a way to fix the problem. All the kid is doing is destroying the Badniks, which is not very Nice.”
“Robotnik? Last time I saw him, he was on Green Hill, and attacked me with a wrecking ball, Like usual.” Sonic said “He flew over to Marble Hill, which is why I ran over here.”
“Yeah, sorry kid. As if we’d actually believe that.” Hermiz said sarcastically.
“I’m Telling The Truth!” Sonic Screamed.
Suddenly Tony quietly said from Tamara’s Window “I did see him fly overhead actually, while running away from the Robots. I Think he was being followed by his own robots.”
“He wasn’t being followed by The Badniks, The Badniks were following him!” Sonic said.
“Hermiz” Cedric said quietly “Just as a suggestion, What if he is telling the truth, What then?” but Hermiz Shushed him, which made him say “Don’t Shush me!”
“Look, He Charged towards me!” Hermiz said.
“For the hundredth time!” Cedric responded “You should really be getting used to that by now.”
Cedric wasn’t kidding, as many times when Sonic had enough of Hermiz insulting him, he would just charge towards him and frighten him, without hurting him.
Thinking of Robotnik and feeling his patience run out, Sonic quickly said “Well. I gotta go. I’m wasting time just talking to you-”
Boom! It was then that a Buzz Bomber fired at Sonic, which made him jump and dodge with shock. Everyone at the scene screamed and then closed their windows and shut the blinds. Sonic quickly said “Well, See ya! And keep Safe!” And then he quickly started running downtown after the Buzz Bomber, but not before he could hear Cedric peep out the words “Yeah, Keep on going kid.”
This encouraged Sonic tenfold.
Sonic ran through the path, and into the forest, chasing after the Buzz Bomber “Apparently the Badniks aren’t just out to hurt me, or the animals, but normal people too.” Sonic thought as he ran “This ain’t good. I oughta figure out What Tamara meant about that Hack thing.”
To Sonic, all of this leaft a mystery to be solved, so he went on, following the Buzz Bomber back into the Pineforest, Eastward to the Hills of Marble Hill.
He ran through the dark bushy pillars of Pinetrees, following the Buzzing Buzz Bomber through the forest. The forest fealt lifeless, just as lifeless as Green Hill was earlier that day “Robotnik must have nabbed all the animals here too” Sonic thought as he chased the Buzz Bomber through the forest, until he came to a stone wall that seperated Marmorisa from the rest of Marble Hill. He saw the Buzz Bomber hovering over the wall, and almost out of sight. Sonic quickly scaled up the cracks, and vaulted over the stone wall into the daylight, straight down onto the flying robot, which plumeted down and broke under Sonics weight. Sonic got up from the Buzz Bomber that had been thoroughly flattened. A bird fluttered out of the metal remains.
Looking out over the fields, the clouds that had been getting closer in the distance were now fully overhead, though the blue sky could still be seen on the horizon, like the clouds were a lid placed on top of a jar. The clouds were thin and blue, and looked stretched, like when you put paint on your fingers and smear it over a blue canvas.
Already stepping a few 18 steps into Marble Hill, Sonic could see that Dr. Robotnik had made his mark, as there were Badniks all around the place. Buzz Bombers were flying and buzzing in a daunting way, while the newly introduced Caterkillers were slithering on the grassy ground like huge disgusting slugs. “It’s like they’ve infested the place.” Sonic said seriously. More Badniks meant more animals to save from a lifetime of electric pain, so Sonic ran without hesitation, right into the fields, ready to tear these Badniks to bits.
Marble Hill was a place most known for two big things. The first of them was it’s namesake, why it was called “Marble Hill” which was because of it’s many ancient temples and ruins, made out of marble. These old marble structures were littered all around the place. Huge and small temples were spread here and there, made fragile by old age. Pillars were sticking out of the ground, with some of them leaning down, almost like they were about to fall over at any moment.
Sonic ran by an old, open, delapitated temple that had definitely seen better days. The walls of the temple were made out of bricks, though they could barely be considered walls anymore as many of the bricks had fallen out, leaving huge holes where the sunlight would peak in. The temple was in some places coloured a shade of green, because of the moss and vines that had been growing on it. Despite it’s ruined state, the grand temple was still kept standing thanks to some splendid pillars, that kept the roof intact. On the front of the roof were some strange symbolic carvings, ingrained on the marble. They were old and hard to make out.
Whenever Sonic looked at some of these carvings, his mind could never decide on whether they resembled a big nosed man with a mustache, or two lions facing eachother on a candlelit dinner table. That was up for him to decide.
Sonic sprinted through the thin grass, collecting three or four rings on his path, and then he ran through the fields to find any Badniks he could desimate. “I wonder why Hermiz was so angry at me. Usually he’s only a bit angry but today he seemed more angrier than usual.” There was a Caterkiller slithering on the grass before him. Sonic darted towards it to smash it’s little face in, when suddenly a Buzz Bomber flew down over the Caterkiller, with it’s stinger ready to shoot. Sonic hopped left as the canon fired and then, with much agility, he quickly ran up a leaning pillar, and then bounced from it towards the Buzz Bomber, punching it clean across the face, sending it flipping through the air and exploding on the ground. Out of the remains hopped a little squirrel, tipsily bustling. Sonic landed down to the ground, but when he did the Caterkiller wriggled over and bit him in the leg with it’s sharp teeth. The rings bounced off him. Sonic quickly shook his leg, to kick the Caterkiller off. He managed to detach the head from the body, leading to the ball shaped body parts falling away like pearls on a necklace. The Caterkillers teeth were still sunken into Sonics leg, so he grabbed it by the jaw, opened it, removed the head and threw it at a Buzz Bomber that was flying over a big hill overhead. The Buzz Bomber exploded and out came a little bird that quickly started plumeting down to the ground.
Sonic quickly ran up the big hill before him to catch the bird, crushing the headless Caterkillers body on his way. Making it to the top of the hill, he narrowly caught the bird in his hands, though it gave him a slight electric shock (Sonic had gotten used to that by now). The bird was alive safe and sound, though unconscious, so Sonic carefully put the bird down which slowly came to it’s senses and fluttered around. “Poor little guys.” Sonic said to himself “The Doctor doesn’t care what harm he’s causing.” He quickly stood up on the hill. The ground beneath his feet seemed to rumble. On Marble Hill the ground was sometimes very shakey, like there were tiny earthquakes happening. Usually this rumbling was harmless, but this day there was something off. It seemed almost like the ground was cracking at the seems.
Sonic saw this and said “There’s something brewing today.” A phrase one says when there is “trouble on Marble Hill”.
Up on top of the hill, he could see the landscape before him under the cloudy lid sky.
He could see the huge grassy hills, that were dotted by stone structures, that came in colours such as white, green, purple or blue, as well as dark pinetrees surrounding it all, and even a few ‘rocky mountains’ sticking out here and there, including the fabled Red Volcano, which was a huge purple volcano located in the area.
The grass was less greener then the grass on Green Hill, with little to no colourful flowers to be seen.
The air was very hot without much breeze, and through the air was a somewhat smokey smell that seemed to dominate the more natural scent of pinewood.
Suddenly, a Buzz Bomber flew up into view, and aimed it’s stinger at Sonic. Sonic quickly dodged the missile, which went *Blam!* on the ground in a burst of Flames. The Buzz Bomber quickly flew away, back over the fields.
“Get Back Here!” Sonic quickly shouted, before chasing after the Buzz Bomber downhill, getting faster and faster as he went down. He chased after the Badnik on the warm grass, while bouncing through pillars and old collapsed stone structures, destroying Badniks and picking up rings along The way.
The field was decorated with old peculiar marble ornaments, that gave the place an almost dreamlike quality. The ancient Marble Ruins of Marble Hill had something to them that made them exciting to explore. It sometimes almost fealt like he was going back in time, to the ancient days, where people lived in marble houses, with marble hats and marble shoes. It was in all honesty an intriguing place, although a place with a slightly sinister sense in the air sometimes.
While running, Sonic thought “I’ll it, These Wasp Badniks are getting me running All over the place, But it’s ‘cause they always fly somewhere instead of fighting me Head On. Hopefully this one will lead me to something good.”
Sonic sped across the ground, trying to follow the Buzz Bomber, when his chase was interrupted when he stepped on an open crack and hot flames bursted out at him, which made Sonic jump back, almost letting the Badnik get further than him.
“There is definitely something brewing today.” Sonic said seriously as he continued running. As he ran he could see the Buzz Bomber buzz across the grasslands, before suddenly turning left and flying down an entrance to an old, purple shaded temple, half-buried in the ground. Sonic quickly followed after it, jumping down through the opening and into a big old room, made out of marble. The room was large and round with three dark entrances on every side that each lead to a dark hallway. The round room was dimly lit by big cracks in the roof, that shone down in sparkling rays of light. In the middle of the room was a small wooden table. The walls of the room were painted with ancient pictures, almost hidden by vines. They were hard to make out or read, not that that mattered to Sonic though. Sonic wasn’t really the type to stop and focus on what historical value a place he went had, he just cared more about the rush of adrenaline he would gain from traversing these dangerous places, as well as the interesting and lovely scenery.
When he entered the ruin, Sonic had narrowly seen the Buzz Bomber buzz through the entrance to the right, and so he thought “Well, how much can a little trip through the ruins hurt?” and then he ran through the right entrance, finding himself in a dark hallway, made out of purple coloured tiles and bricks.
As Sonic went through the room, he could hear his footsteps echoing throughout the hall. The hallway slowly sloped downwards, getting further away from the dim light of the first room, and deeper into The Marble Ruins.
There was a distinct dusty and earthly smell throughout the hall, and through the hallways walls could be seen small dark rooms that were barred up with metal bars, like prison cells. This ruin was one of the places that Hermiz toured.
“I’m sure this should be easy.” Sonic thought as he traversed the dark hall, when suddenly, he heard a rattling of chains, and quickly dashed out of the way as the ceiling that was over him scraped down and went thump on the floor, and then slowly rose up again. “Oh.” Sonic said as he looked through the hall to see the whole hallway was opening and closing, Up and down like teeth “Sick!” Despite their age some of the Marble Ruins could still be extremely dangerous places. That was mainly their appeal to Sonic. Usually the ruins would have been made safer, so that folks like Hermiz could do his tours around the place, however, Sonic knew there was a switch in one of the rooms that once pressed would activate all the traps. “Someone or something must have flicked it since now the whole place is serious.” In this very room where Sonic was standing, there were huge metal pillars that would fall from the roof, and If one was unfortunate enough, they could get crushed and flattened under their weight. Upon looking at the last few pillars, Sonic could see a Buzz Bomber lying on the ground with it’s bottom half crushed off. Sonic maneuvered through this room with care. A pillar would go up, and Sonic would run under it and then wait in one of the safe spots for the next one to thump down, which would then raise up again, letting Sonic under. As Sonic neared the last of the crushers, Sonic quickly rolled under the last one just as it was going down, and so made it out of the crushing zone. While Rolling around, Sonic fealt the ground and found that it was actually rather warm, almost like touching a radiator.
Sonic got up from the ground, in a part of the hallway that, in a flash, became dimly lit by torches when he stood up. He quickly pulled out the broken Buzz Bomber and destroyed it, releasing a little flicky from inside. Sonic recognized the flicky by the red area on it’s head. It was Redtop, one of Sonics dear flicky friends. She was a very decisive little flicky, with a big red spot on top of her head. Feeling safe, he was going to push on through the hallway, when suddenly, some bats swooped down from the shadows towards Sonic, with claws bare. Sonic quickly hopped aside, rolling on the hot ground once more. He crouched up to see that in the torchlight, it became clear to see that they weren’t real bats, but robots that were made to look like bats, no doubt made by Dr. Robotnik, as could be seen by his brand logo on their chests, which all Badniks had. They were flapping about with metal wings, and their legs were sharp hooks, used to cling on to surfaces and to harm it’s enemies (PRODUCTION NAME: Batbrains. PURPOSE OF USE: Spying and Recording.) There were three of these Batbrains flapping about. One of them flew towards Sonic, hooks first, in an attempt to claw at him. It’s attempts were feeble, as Sonic quickly dodged. He then reached forth and grabbed the Batbrain by it’s little hook legs. Holding it tight as the Batbrain flapped with it’s wings hysterically, another one flew towards him, and Sonic swung the one in his hands and batted the other one across the face. Both of the Batbrains shattered with a Crash, with the opposing one sailing down on the stone floor in cogs and gears.
The last one flew towards Sonic. Sonic quickly ripped open the broken Badnik in his hand, and out hopped a squirrel dazily shaking it’s head. The Batbrain was getting closer, so Sonic jumped backwards to the other side of the room. Sonic stopped for a moment to get ready, when suddenly he noticed that there were small holes in the floor under him. The floor started sinking down, and Sonic quickly jumped aside as a set of sharp spikes came out of the hole, that could easily have spiked him if he hadn’t noticed it in time. Sonic now stood before the Batbrain which flew towards him, claws ready. It was just about to get to him when Sonic quickly punched it, which sent it flying up into the roof, smashing into metal pieces on the ceiling. An echoing Crash could be heard throughout the hall as the broken Batbrain fell down on the ground.
Wiping sweat off his forehead, Sonic decided to bow like he was standing before a live cheering stadium of people, when all there was was a bird, a somewhat distressed Squirrel and some fataly damaged robot bats. Out of the broken Batbrains crawled two different critters, who Sonic quickly recognized. Of course, first there was the squirrel, named “Lenny III” the third offspring of the Lenny family, a family of squirrels that had spanned centuries (or atleast as long as Sonic had been keeping count), Then there was Fluff the Greenfinch who was called Fluff for her very fluffy feathers and cute demeanor, and lastly there was Rocky, the Lava Seal. (Lava Seals were a species of seal found on Mobius, often found in places like Marble Hill. They had the unique ability to swim in and survive in lava, which they liked to swim in a lot. Most of them were very small and adorable creatures, yet who lived in places where there could be found lava.) Rocky was a very young, excitable little Lava Seal. The moment he would lay eyes on Sonic, he would start clapping his fins with excitement while barking like a dog. Sonic saw all these friends and said “Ay there little guys, how are you doin’?”
The animals cheeped with distraught, except for Rocky who seemed very happy to see Sonic.
Now there was an issue, Sonic had to find a way to get the animals out of the Ruins. Sonic was a bit fearful of the animals escaping back through the hallway, as they could get smushed by the crushers, aspecially Rocky who wasn’t very fast. He had heavily decided on going further through the ruins, since there could be a lot of Badniks hiding in them, so he picked up the little seal, and whistled to the other animals saying “Well, I’d say it’s a good idea to follow me, if you wanna get out of here.”
Lenny understood and followed, Redtop waited a bit in clear concentration before also flying with Sonic, while Fluff was about to fly back through the hallway but then got frightened and flew back to Sonic after a crusher thumped down. Sonic sped further with the Squirrel, Flicky and Greenfinch trying to keep up, and the little Seal lying peacefully in his hands. The hallway went down to some stairs.
As Sonic went down these stairs, some torches on the wall lighted up, one by one.
In little time Sonic came to the end of the hallway, where there was a chain attached to a part of the floor, coming from the ceiling that stretched high. Aside from that, the place seemed to be a dead end, however one of the tiles on the purple marble floor was grey and seemed to be a bit loose. In front of the chain was an old stone block, covered in dust and old markings. Sonic knew the secret trick to this room “Push the square rock to the grey button, and it will open the secret ageway.” so he put little Rocky down on the ground, and then went behind the block and started pushing it across the floor. Dust puffed up which made Sonic sneeze a bit. He pushed the stone over to the tile, and placed it there, and immediately the tile sunk down into the ground, which activated a rattling sound, as the chain slowly straightened out, and the part of the floor that it was attached to slowly rose up from the ground. Sonic and his little animal buddies looked on as the floorpart hovered up, revealing sharp spikes underneath it. Under the floorpart was a dark opening leading to another room. Lenny III, Redtop and Fluff quickly went down the opening as Sonic grabbed Rocky and slid down into the opening, finding himself in a dark marble corridor, that was dimly lit by torches. “And that’s how you do it.” Sonic said with a snicker.
Before Sonic was a room with stairs going downwards in a square spiral into darkness. Sonic quickly went downstairs getting ready for an attack from the Badniks at any moment, while the animals were struggling to keep up behind him. He could hear Fluff and Redtop fighting behind him, as usual. Strangely though, as Sonic went down, he could feel the place getting hotter and hotter. “I wonder if Robotnik could have something to do with all of this.” Sonic thought as he proceeded, when suddenly he jumped over straight over three of the stairs, when he noticed some holes in one of the stone steps. Sharp piercing spikes came up, that almost pierced Lenny III if it weren’t for Sonic quickly getting his attention. “(Woof!) Can’t be too careful” Sonic huffed as he quickly picked Lenny up and went downstairs, but then almost tripped and fell over when he found that some of the stairs had been destroyed. “Clearly the Badniks don’t value this ancient architecture.” Sonic said as he jumped down the broken gap in the stairs, with the animals following him. This did atleast mean there were Badniks in this ruin, though Sonic could not find them.
The stairs went down to a musky, old room with many lovely pillars.
Throughout the old purple room were the glowing orange lights from many flaming torches, dimly lighting the place up, making the surrounding purple walls more pink as a result. Sonic went through this dark, dusty antechamber, with striped pillars marking the entrance to a long dark hallway. There was a LampPost strangely located in the room, feeling most out of place. Suddenly he noticed a hole in the ceiling where there was sunlight coming through, “The perfect exit for a bird to fly through, and the perfect entrance for a Buzz Bomber to slide through.” and so he whistled, getting the attention of Fluff who then flew up through the hole, with little RedTop quickly following after, leaving Sonic and the others behind. “Stay safe!” Sonic said as he waved goodbye to the two birds. “Now I have to get you other guys outta here.” Sonic said to Lenny III and Rocky, as he ran through the dark hallway, which suddenly became lit up by torches. Sonic took great care to notice any small holes in the floor. As he (Almost) carefully went, he suddenly heard a scraping sound behind him, and the entrance to the hallway suddenly became closed off by a big stone, locking Sonic inside the corridor. “Oh, That’s just great!” Sonic said as now he had to get through this dangerous hallway, so with the Squirrel and the Seal in hand, Sonic ran through the hallway. As Sonic ran forward, There were many holes in the ground, and when Sonic quickly dashed over them, *Chink!* out of the holes came sharp metal spikes. It seemed to frighten little Rocky, who flailed in Sonics arms. Sonic went on however, quickly dodging over any spiketraps he could find. He bravely dashed and flipped through this room, as none of the spikes were quick enough to get him. As Sonic got to the end of this spiketrapped hallway, he could hear a rhythmic metal clinging sound.
Eventually Sonic made it out of the long corridor and into a large hot room, with two big round metal chandeliers with spikes at the bottom that constantly went up to the ceiling. There was a constant loud metal clanging sound that could be heard throughout the room, and every now and then, one of the chandeliers would fall down on the marble ground, only to start going up again, and repeat. The room was full of barred up windows, and on the ceiling was a big mural that looked like it was depicting some kind of big house or Temple with a big stairway. Lenny III seemed to be shivering at the loud metal sound but Sonic rubbed him with his cheek and then quickly hopped on top of the first chandelier, which went upwards taking Sonic with it. The next chandelier fell down with a loud Fwush and Smash, which gave Sonic the chance to jump down from the one he was standing on and onto the other one. In the top of the room was an entrance. The chandelier took him up to that entrance and he hopped through it just as the chandelier fell down.
In the corridor, Lenny III suddenly squeaked and hopped out of Sonics arms and climbed through a big crack in the wall, that was big enough for him to fit through (Hopefully leading to an exit.) Now with only one of his hands full, he went through the corridor that went down to some stairs “I’ll it, I Haven’t seen many Badniks down here.” Sonic thought irritatedly as he sped down the stairs “Where could they be-Holy Moly!”
Sonic stopped when he found at the end of the hallway, at an embankment that would usually have been looking over a big spike pit, was now a huge pool of glowing, hot, bubbling lava. “So that’s why it was so hot down here.” Sonic realised as he looked out over this red hot, shifting flood.
Earlier I had mentioned that Marble Hill was most known for Two things. The First was it’s ancient marble ruins and temples of course, but the Second, in case you couldn’t tell was it’s Lava. Marble Hill was a place with volcanic activity. In some places in the area, if one were to dig down in the ground, if not careful enough, they could likely create a spring of lava. It was one of the most dangerous aspects of Marble Hill, as it could at times be a bit unpredictable where lava would be. There had been built moats for the lava to through, so that it wouldn’t spread all around the place, but apparently some of the lava must have had found it’s way inside the Marble Ruins, and had flooded the room. Lava came leaking down from cracks in the ceiling of this grand room, into the huge hot bubbling pool. Rocky, (being a lava seal after all) was not bothered by this, and so jumped down into the boiling magma and began swimming through it.
Sonic suddenly heard metallic Buzzing hidden through the lava’s gargling, and looking to the other side of the room, he saw a Buzz Bomber fly over to him. “Finally!” Sonic said, as he had been feeling like he had been wasting his time in the underground ruins, not having seen a single Badnik throughout. The Buzz Bomber tried to fire, and Sonic dodged, jumping aside. The Buzz Bomber quickly flew back over the Lava Pool to the other side of the room.
“Oh you little-!” Sonic said annoyed as now he had little way of beating up the Badnik. Through the room there were some Marble Scaffoldings, and usually there would be some logbridges inbetween them, but the bridges were broken in half and were hanging down to the lava (Likely due to the Badnik) and the scaffoldings were too far away to jump to. Sonic thought for a moment while dodging the Buzz Bomber who was continuously firing at him. “So how am I gonna get over there?” He thought. It was a bit of a trappy situation as now Sonic had no way out, as the way back had been blocked by the stone, and now there was a lava pool in his way. But then suddenly, he found a big tile of the floor he was standing on that was loose, he picked it up and laughed cunningly as he threw it down into the lava. It floated on the bubbling surface, so Sonic tore one of the logs out from the fallen bridge, and jumped down on the floating tile and used the log to push himself and the tile forward. And so Sonic carefully surfed on the molten lava, a technique he had trained in. The lava bubbled and spluttered as it’s gurgling sound echoed throughout the hall. While balancing on the piece, the Buzz Bomber tried to fire at him, so Sonic quickly ducked and dodged like he was breakdancing. Rocky was also helping him by pushing Sonic along.
Sonic noticed a place where the lava was bubbling intensely, and looked like it was getting ready to blow up. Sonic told Rocky to take him to that area, which Rocky did. Sonic made it to the bubbling area and in a KaPloosh!! the lava bursted up, sending Sonic flying several meters in the air. With a “WOO-HOO!” He landed on the first scaffolding, right on his feet. The Buzz Bomber tried to fire, but Sonic quickly started dodging towards it across the scaffoldings.
Sonic got to the other side of the big room in a second, and so the Buzz Bomber quickly flew through the entrance to a downgoing stairway behind it. Sonic followed behind it’s barrel stinger. Over the entrance was a huge mural with some lovely symbols made out of leafs and flowers. Sonic looked back and saw Rocky dive into the lava, hopefully to find an exit out of there. Sonic waved goodbye while running down the stairs, But then suddenly, out of some holes in the walls, came hot burning flames. Sonic ducked as to not be flambéed to death. He quickly rolled down the stairway, dodging spewing flames, eventually stopping when he found himself before a small pit. The Buzz Bomber was floating over this pit, and tried to fire at Sonic once more, but Sonic went back up the stairs, and with a running start, jumped towards the Buzz Bomber and grabbed onto it. They both fell down into the pit, with Sonic holding the Buzz Bomber under him.
It went Slam on the ground of this pit, breaking bendt and listless. Another Lava Seal hopped out of it, shaking with pain. Down in this marble pit with rusted, Metal, Chained Rings hanging from the walls, Sonic found that it was really hot, to the point where he was sweating like a fountain. Thankfully Sonic knew a special way to get out of this pit. Sticking through one of the walls of this pit was a big stone block. Pushing that block would reveal a secret ageway underneath. Sonic quickly did that very thing. He pushed the stone block with all his strength and speed, but as the block got pushed further in through the wall, a few drops of lava leaked out from the cracks and trickled down the block. Sonic quickly pulled his hands away from the block as to not burn his hands, while the Lava Seal leaned itself up against the rock, to feel a sense of normality once again. Despite this, Sonic continued pushing the block until a small ageway could be seen, just big enough to climb through.
Taking care not to get sinched by the lava, Sonic slid down through the opening and found himself in yet another long corridor. The Seal followed afterwards, not worrying about getting sinched.
Suddenly, That Metallic Buzzing Noise could be heard getting closer and closer until, a Buzz Bomber came into sight.
“Oh Hi there. Are you also here for a thrashing?” Sonic said as he got ready to dodge.
The Buzz Bomber aimed it’s stinger and fired in the direction of Sonic. Sonic quickly jumped aside, leaning up against one of the walls as the missile flew by him.
He quickly hopped back and said “Hah! Is that the best you can do?-“ but then suddenly, he heard the immense sound of breaking rubble and then he looked back to see the wall at the beginning of the corridor was blown apart and out of the hole oozed a flood of Red Hot Burning Lava.
“Crap!” Sonic said as the Lava started flooding it’s way towards him.
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SCOTLAND FOREVER!!