Sonic the Hedgehog in
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                                   TIME AND SPACE
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                                  By Shax the Raptor


  Part One - The Desert

  CHAPTER ONE: SIX HEROES

  Sleepily, Sonic opened his eyes. He instantly knew that he wasn't in 
  his own bed, so he tried to remember exactly what had happened.

  It was a normal spring day, and Sonic was running laps around Knothole. 
  Every day he did this, to make sure his super speed remained super. He 
  left the safety of Knothole, and started to make his way through the 
  forest. Suddenly, he heard a strange whirring sound. He stopped running 
  and tried to work out what it was. The whirring grew louder, and suddenly, 
  Sonic was engulfed in a blinding red light. He tried to run, but found 
  he was powerless to move. And he felt so sleepy. He struggled to keep 
  his eyelids open, but they were heavier than lead. He closed his eyes, 
  and everything went black.

   As this memory came back to him, Sonic shot up out of bed. He noticed 
  he was in a strange chamber, lying on a high, metal bed, covered with a 
  thin layer of foam on top. Looking around, he found that he was not 
  alone in the strange room. There were six beds, all identical to his, 
  set out in a circle, and on each one lay another person, and all were 
  still unconcious. To the left of his bed, Sonic saw his little fox-
  friend Tails. Going clockwise around the circle of beds, he then saw 
  his old ally, Knuckles the Echidna. Then he saw two others that he 
  had never met. One was an oddly-coloured cat. He was a shade of 
  purple, and one strange feature was his tail - all stiffened out 
  with a kink in it, like a lightning bolt. To the left of him, was 
  a yellow female porcupine, wearing some sort of lipstick. Next to 
  her, Sonic saw a face he knew all too well. It was his old girlfriend, 
  Amy. The pink hedgehog lay on the bed, asleep, like all the others. 
  Memories came flooding back to Sonic, all at once, about the good 
  times they used to share. He couldn't remember exactly why they 
  split up, they just sort of went their own ways.

  Sonic stood there for about three minutes, when all of a sudden he 
  snapped out of it and his attention returned to the strange place he 
  was in, surrounded by friends and strangers. "I don't think we're 
  in Kansas anymore." said Sonic to himself. It seemed to be a dome 
  shaped room, with no doors, windows, or exits of any kind. Sonic 
  couldn't work out how they could possibly have entered the strange 
  building. "Sonic" he heard a voice say. He turned around and saw 
  his friend Tails, looking at him sleepily. "Where are we?" 
  Sonic could only reply by shrugging his shoulders. About five minutes 
  later, Knuckles started to moan, as if he was having a nightmare. He 
  opened his eyes a crack, then apparently realised he didn't know 
  where he was, and instantly jumped ten feet into the air, landed on 
  his feet beside the bed, brandishing the sharp, pointed knuckles on 
  his fist, as if about to beat the crud out of the first one to move. 
  When he saw Sonic and Tails, he relaxed his fist and walked over to 
  them. "Sonic!" he said. "I haven't seen you in ages! Where the heck 
  are we, anyway." Once again, Sonic answered with a shrug. "I don't 
  know" he said. "I was just walking along, minding my 
  buisness, when this red light came and..." 
  That's what happened to me!" said Knuckles, butting in. "And me" 
  added Tails. At that time, the two strangers woke up, almost 
  simultaniously, and sat on the side of the bed. 
  "Whe..where am I?" asked the yellow porcupine, dazed. The cat simply 
  looked around, confused. "Who are you guys?" asked Sonic. The purple 
  cat was the first to speak. "Um...I'm Streak." he said, continuing to 
  examine the bizarre room. "If you must know, I'm Petals" said the 
  other stranger, as she yawned, then spat onto the ground. At that 
  moment, Amy shot up and let out a squeal, as if just waking from a 
  nightmare. "Huh?" she said, staring at Sonic. "Sonic! What on 
  Earth...?" she was interrupted by a booming voice that echoed through 
  the room. "I AM DOMINATREK" it said. The room fell silent again, then 
  the voice started again. "NOW THAT YOU ARE ALL AWAKE, YOU WOULD BE 
  WONDERING WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE I SHALL EXPLAIN..." Yes, that 
  would be nice" said Sonic. "YOU ARE ALL HEROES IN YOUR OWN LAND" 
  began the voice again. "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG AND MILES PROWER, TWO 
  MEMBERS OF THE FAMOUS FREEDOM FIGHTER MOVEMENT. KNUCKLES THE 
  ECHIDNA, GUARDIAN AND CHAMPION OF THE FLOATING ISLAND. STREAK 
  THE CAT, HEROIC MASTER OF ELECTRICITY. PETALS THE PORCUPINE, 
  HEROINE OF THE ISLAND OF BIGAIL, AND AMY ROSE, LEADER OF ANOTHER, 
  MORE NORTHERN CLAN OF FREEDOM FIGHTERS. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY 
  ME PERSONALLY AND TAKEN TO THIS PLANET AS THE BEST OF THE BEST ON 
  THE PLANET OF MOBIUS, AND YOU WILL PERFORM A TEST TO CONFIRM 
  THAT..." "Wait a minute" interrupted Sonic. "So you're saying we're 
  gonna be lab rats?" "And why?" asked Knuckles. "ENOUGH TALKING" boomed 
  the voice, louder than before, as if irritated. "ONWARD, YOU SHALL 
  ENTER THE FIRST TEST" "Wait a minute, Mr. What's-his-name" began 
  Streak. "You mean there is more than one test?" "SILENCE" said the 
  voice. "How long is this going to take, anyway? asked Knux. 
  "SILENCE!!!" screamed the voice, in anger. The room then filled 
  with light, and Knux was thrown backwards, as if hit by a ball of 
  force. Moaning, Knuckles got up and said "I don't think I like 
  this guy."

  The room was then lit up once again, and when the light faded, 
  there was a massive arched door on the side of the room. "ENTER" 
  said the voice. The six were hesitant for a while, but finally 
  walked obediantly out the door.

  CHAPTER TWO: THE TEST

  Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Streak, Petals and Amy walked along an 
  unfamiliar landscape. After they had stumbled outside the strange 
  building, it had disappeared, and now they were alone in a hot, 
  dry desert. "What the heck is this!?!" cried Knux, starting to 
  totally lose it. "It seems to be some kind of survival test" replied 
  their new ally, Streak. "Well" said Sonic. "We'll probably be here 
  a long, long time, so we might as well get aquainted. I'm Sonic." 
  Streak smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Sonic!" 
  Sonic thought Streak to 
  be quite a polite individual, but the other stranger, the yellow 
  porcupine called Petals, was not as polite. "What the &*%&^$% heck 
  are we doing here, anyway?!?" she yelled, before spitting in the 
  sand. Sonic decided to continue speaking to Streak, instead. "When we 
  were back in that building, before," he began, "That creepy voice 
  mentioned something about 'Master of Electricity' or something." 
  Streak grinned. "Oh yeah, I have super-powers!" Sonic looked at him 
  funny. "It's true!" Streak insisted. "Watch!" he searched for 
  anything that he could find that wasn't sand. Finally, he saw a 
  small cactus-like plant. He held out his finger and seemed to be 
  concentrating on something. Finally, his finger started to glow, and 
  some kind of laser beam, or something, shot out of his fingertip, 
  and completely scorched the plant in a shower of light and sparks. 
  "WOW! Exclaimed Tails, looking on. "WAY PAST COOL!" Sonic, Knux and 
  Amy simply stared, mouths wide open. "H--H--HO" said Sonic, trying 
  to spit out the word "how". "I don't exactly know" replied Streak. 
  "Just one day I was ordinary, the next, I was a super-powered super 
  hero! I started using my new powers to help people, but I'd hardly 
  consider myself a hero, like that voice said back in the building. 
  I'm sure some of you guys have had a lot better adventures than I 
  have." Petals snorted and spat again. "Big woop" she said, her head 
  down studying the ground.

  Sonic decided, for some reason, to try and talk to the foul-mouthed 
  porcupine. "So...." he began. Petals snorted. "What heroic deeds 
  have you done?" "Petals looked at him coldly. "If you really wanna 
  know, hedgehog, I'm an accidental hero, and I wish people would 
  stop calling me one. I don't belong here, that 'Dominatrek' creep 
  stuffed it up." "An accidental hero?" asked Sonic, confused. "I'm 
  an expert at martial arts" explained Petals. "Once my island town was 
  attacked by an army of Swatting Bots, or whatever the &*%&^$% you 
  call them. 
  They started to chase after me, so I blew up the whole 
  flipping lot of them with my two bare hands. The whole town cheered 
  me as their savior, when I was just trying to save my own skin, and 
  nobody has let me forget it since, and they are all becoming a real 
  pain in the backside, and so are you." "Well so-orry!" replied Sonic. 
  It was at this time, that he noticed that his old friend Amy hadn't 
  spoken to him, or even approached him since they re-met. It was as 
  if she was avoiding him or something. "Oh, well, I can't talk" he 
  thought to himself. "I haven't talked to her, either." So he went 
  over to her in the hope of re-lighting the deep friendship they 
  once shared. "Hey, Amy! I......" He didn't get any further before 
  Amy turned quickly to Streak and said. "Umm...so...Streak! Can you 
  show me those powers again?" Heartbroken and shocked, Sonic realised 
  that, for some reason or another, Amy really was ignoring him on 
  purpose. He sadly slowed his pace a little.

  It was at that moment that Knuckles' senses kicked in. In years of 
  being the lone inhabitant and guardian of the Floating Island, Knux 
  had taught himself many survival skills, and his senses were more 
  sensitive than usual. And he knew they weren't alone. They were being 
  stalked. "Stop!" He yelled to the team. They all stopped obediantly, 
  and looked at the suspicious Knuckles. "Hear that?" he asked, quietly. 
  "No" replied Sonic and Tails at the same time. Knux continued his 
  suspicions. "We aren't alone in this desert" he said. "We're being 
  stalked by something." Sonic also began to have the feeling of 
  being watched. "But how is it possible?" he asked. "Look around! 
  There is nothing but perfectly flat terrain for miles around! There 
  isn't as much as a sand dune, but still, I can't see anything alive 
  anywhere!" Knux noticed this, too, and became confused. "Well, let's 
  move on - but with great caution" said Knux at last. Another half 
  hour went by, and the team was starting to get tired. "How long are 
  we gonna be walkin' Sonic?" asked Tails. "Just until we find our 
  way out of this desert" Sonic replied. Petals became agitated, and 
  snapped back at him. 
  "NEWS FLASH, Hedgie-boy! That moron back at the 
  building said we were on another planet! For all we know, this could 
  be a desert planet, therefore, we're never gonna get out of it!" As 
  rude as she was, Sonic realised that she had one heck of a point. "We 
  were sent here to perform a test" he said, sitting on a leaned-over 
  spikeless cactus. "I just wish Dominatrek had told us exactly what 
  we were supposed to do." he looked depressed. "Great" said Petals, 
  sarcastically, sitting on another spike-free cactus. "I've always 
  wanted to die of thirst and starvation in a desert on another planet 
  surrounded by a bunch of geeks and goody-two-shoes heroes.
   I feel blessed." She also looked depressed. "Wait!" said Knux, survival 
  instincts flaring up again. "We're not going to starve! Look around! 
  We're surrounded by food!" "Sonic looked up in anticipation, only to 
  notice the usual miles and miles of sand, blocked by a few straggly 
  cactus-things. "Knux, that's called a mirage. Get used to it." he 
  said, head down again. "NO!" argued Knuckles. "Look harder! What do 
  you see?" Petals replied to that. "Look, you stupid pink thing, get 
  it through your thick head. We are in an empty desert, surrounded by 
  some stupid plants. No food, we are as good as dead." She went back 
  to sulking. Knuckles, surprised at everybody's ignorance started 
  talking a little louder. "That's just it!" he said. "Look at those 
  plants! They are together so densly, and they are so green, just 
  like a mini rainforest! That means there's a lot of water nearby, 
  and not only that, but those thick, fleshy plants are bound to be 
  edible! And the dead plant limbs on the desert floor, they're so 
  dry and old, they'll be perfect for firewood!" Knux was right. 
  The others hadn't noticed it, but this desert wasn't nearly as 
  death-defying as it seemed. You just had to know where to look. 
  They made camp amongst the strange plants, and that night, they ate 
  well. Knuckles' suspicions were right, and there was water nearby. 
  A large lake, actually. And the cactus-things were edible, and quite 
  tasty. They slept beneath the stars, before a roaring campfire, fed 
  by the dead plants. "Knux" said Sonic, just before he dozed off. 
  "yeah?" replied Knuckles, sleepily. "How do you do it?" said Sonic. 
  Knux answered by grinning ear to ear, and drifted to sleep.

  CHAPTER THREE: BEASTIES

  The next morning, everybody ate a breakfast of the strange plants 
  that, when roasted on the fire, taste a bit like boiled cabbage. 
  They left the oasis refreshed, and ready to go on. The only problem 
  was that they didn't know where they were to go, or what they were to 
  do.

  Sonic began to worry about why Amy was trying to avoid him. They 
  had been in the strange desert for a day, and Amy hadn't spoken to 
  him. Actually, she didn't speak to anyone, really, she just tagged 
  along. Sonic also noticed something strange about this planet, the 
  days were a lot longer. They had been abducted by the strange 
  "Dominatrek" character at late afternoon, and they had walked for 
  about four hours, made camp at the oasis, then stayed there about 
  another four hours before it got dark. And the desert didn't seem 
  to be thinning out at all, either. Petals might have been right. 
  This whole planet might be the desert.

  Just then, Knuckles had the sensations he had felt the previous 
  day. Suspicious feelings, like they were being watched. Watched 
  and followed. Knux stopped and looked around, sniffed the air, and 
  slowly resumed walking. "What's wrong?" asked Sonic. Knuckles opened 
  his mouth to answer, but a shadow fell over the group. They instantly 
  knew they were in trouble.

  Well, that was for sure. The thing that caused the shadow was a giant 
  grotesque creature, like nothing they had ever seen before. It was a 
  faceless figure with numerous appendages, and was covered in a very 
  thick layer of sand. It let out a groaning/wailing kind of sound, 
  and leaped at Sonic. Luckily, he was not caught off-guard. He jumped 
  up, landed in a spin dash, and sliced off one of the creature's 
  "arms". It was then that they saw the weird thing about the beast. 
  The appendage came straight off with no trouble, and it fell cleanly 
  to the ground, no blood or anything like blood came out, in fact, 
  nothing did. And when it hit the ground with a muffled thump, it 
  shattered into literally millions of grains of sand. Sonic gasped. 
  The beast wasn't covered in a layer of sand, after all. It WAS sand. 
  The creature simply grew another sandy tentacle in it's place, and 
  continued walking.

  What could they do except run for it? They ran as fast as their legs 
  could take them, which was luckily faster than the monster. When 
  the monster had gone out of sight, the group was way too tired to 
  run further, so they stopped to take a breather, and then continued 
  walking. "This is just like Sandopolis, on Floating Island, Sonic!" 
  said Tails, catching his breath. "Yeah" replied Sonic, "But the 
  bad guys there could be killed." This brought back memories to 
  Knuckles of the Floating Island, and how he was supposed to be 
  it's guardian. He knew that if their life enemy, the maniacal Dr. 
  Ivo Robotnik, found out he was gone, he could have the Master 
  Emerald, the Super Emeralds, AND the island without any trouble. 
  He wished he hadn't been abducted so quickly, so he could have had 
  the chance to ask the Chaotix, or anyone, for that matter, to 
  look after it while he was away. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails were 
  thinking about how their friends in Knothole would be looking for 
  them, especially Slasher. Everyone was miserable, homesick and 
  bored, and everyone wanted to get their hands on the guy who sent 
  them here so suddenly and against their will. The guy who called 
  himself "Dominatrek".

  It didn't take long for the group to be attacked once again by 
  sand monsters. But this time, it was an army. They emerged from 
  the very sand itself, which explains how they can watch and 
  follow the group without being seen. Sonic repeditively spin 
  dashed the things, which seemed to have a small effect, and 
  Streak was using his power of elecricity to zap them, which also 
  had a small effect, but there were so many of them, and it had 
  such a small effect, that they were almost certainly done for. 
  The monsters closed in on them, and they closed their eyes, exausted 
  from running, walking and fighting non stop all day. But then they 
  heard a terrifying squeel, and a "HIIIIYA!" Sound. Sonic opened 
  his eyes, and saw something he didn't believe. The small yellow 
  porcupine, Petals, was using her martial arts skills against the 
  beasts. And it was working. With each kick, the target monster 
  would explode into a ton of sand, and wouldn't get up again. 

  Eventually, Petals had kicked her way through every single monster. 
  When she finished, she spat onto the sand, and muttered "creeps." 
  Everyone stood there, speechless. Then Tails spoke up. "You saved 
  us!" Petals looked really angry all of a sudden. "I didn't save 
  you jerks! I was protecting myself! This is just like that time 
  with me and the SWAT bots! I didn't have a single one of you in mind 
  when I was kicking the stuffing out of those things, and I never 
  will!" She looked away suddenly, as if upset. Sonic had the feeling 
  once again of being watched. He jerked his head around, expecting to 
  see a sand monster, but he saw Amy. She had been staring at him, but 
  when she saw him turn towards her, she swung her head back around to 
  face the front. Was she ignoring him, or was she afraid to approach 
  him?

  CHAPTER FOUR: WILL IT NEVER END?

  Night fell again. This time the group wasn't lucky enough to find 
  an oasis. They found a few straggly pieces of bark-like stuff, and 
  made a crappy little campfire that went out after an hour. The next 
  morning, everyone's muscles ached something chronic. Nobody could 
  walk without limping, and Streak and Tails had migrane headaches. 
  Nobody thought they could go any further. They were completely beat. 
  Most of all, everyone wanted to go home. NOW. They stayed in the one 
  spot for a while, to give their muscles more rest. They hadn't eaten 
  or had a drink since breakfast the previous day. Suddenly a voice 
  spoke up. It was the booming voice of the guy that got them into this 
  mess in the first place. "YOU HAVE DONE WELL, YOU HAVE ALMOST 
  COMPLETED YOUR TEST" Sonic looked agitated. "Listen, you jerk! Get 
  us out of here now, or you will regret it for the rest of your 
  life!" Dominatrek seemed to take this very humourously, and said 
  "AND JUST WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?" Sonic started to 
  reply, but stopped. The voice was right. It wasn't as if Sonic could 
  just walk up to him and beat him up. After all, it was just a 
  voice. The voice laughed a little, and then spoke again. "YOU ARE 
  CLOSER THAN YOU THINK TO GOING HOME. JUST GO DUE NORTH UNTIL YOU 
  COME TO THE RUINS. I SHALL BE WAITING." So they went north until 
  they were attacked by another sand creature. Petals refused to 
  help, so they were forced to kill it on their own.

  No-one was injured, except Knux, who took a nasty gash down his 
  arm. Bones and muscles aching, they found their way to a place 
  that looked like Stonehenge. Entering, they found a strange 
  doorway filled with swirling colours. "That must be the way home!" 
  said Streak, excited. They sat around, discussing the stupidity 
  of this whole excercise, and how great it would be to get back. 
  Suddenly, a ghostly figure appeared. It looked a bit like a man, 
  but they couldn't really tell. "I AM DOMINATREK" it said. So now 
  they knew what he looked like. But they didn't really feel too 
  angry at him, for they were just too excited that they were going 
  home. "CONGRATULATIONS!" said Dominatrek. "YOU HAVE SURVIVED TWO 
  WHOLE DAYS ON THE PLANET OF THE SCORCHING SUN. YOU HAVE USED YOUR 
  OUTDOOR SURVIVAL SKILLS AND ATTACK TACTICS WELL. THAT MEANS THAT 
  THIS TEST IS OFFICIALLY OVER." "Ok, Domino" said Knuckles. "We're 
  ready to go home now! Lead the way!" It was then that Dominatrek 
  cracked up laughing. "DO YOU THINK THAT YOUR HOME IS ON THE OTHER 
  SIDE OF THIS PORTAL? HA! IT MERELY TAKES YOU TO TEST TWO!" Knuckles' 
  smile faded rapidly. "Wait a minute!" said Sonic. "You said we 
  were going home!" "I MERELY SAID 'YOU ARE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK TO 
  GOING HOME'! THAT DIDN'T MEAN THAT YOU GO BACK NOW!" The group 
  started to complain, and Dominatrek's smile turned into a scowl. 
  "YOU SHALL BE GOING BACK TO MOBIUS NOW" "Really?" asked Sonic, 
  confused. "But you said...." "SILENCE!" Shouted Dominatrek. He 
  held out his hand and shot a ball of force at Sonic, throwing him 
  back. "YOU DIDN'T LET ME FINISH! I SAID YOU SHALL BE GOING BACK, 
  BUT IT WON'T BE THE MOBIUS YOU KNOW. YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE 
  ANTI-VERSE." Before anyone could ask what that meant, they all 
  began to leviate above the sand, and were thrown into the portal. 
  Little did the group know that the "Planet of the Scorching Sun" 
  would be like falling off a log compared to the Anti-verse, and 
  the horrors it had in store.





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