Sonic the Hedgehog in _______________________ TIME AND SPACE _______________________ By Shax the Raptor Part Four: Galactic War CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ODD COMMANDOS Sonic shot up yelling, as if just woken from a nightmare. He looked around. He was out in the open, at night, on the stone hard ground. It looked creepy, like something out of a horror movie. There were old, twisted, leafless trees, and nothing made a single sound. Sonic half expected to be attacked by Dracula any moment now. He remembered the weird Dominatrek character, and how he had said the tests were all over, and that this was war. He looked around for his friends. Sure enough, squinting in the moonlight, he made out the shapes of Tails, Knuckles, Streak, Petals and Amy, just waking up. "Where are we now?" asked Knux. "Dunno" replied Sonic. "Have you got your knuckles back?" Knux looked down at his hands. "Sure do!" he replied happily, staring at the two sharp knuckles on each hand. Suddenly, they saw what looked like a laser beam shoot right at them. They saw an army of strange, creepy humanoid life forms dressed heavily in armor come towards them. Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but the "leader" of the creatures held out a gun and shot him square in the head. He fell over backwards. Then the others quickly backed off, but they were also shot. The six heroes one by one fell limply to the ground. Sonic woke up, moaning. He had a headache the size of Mobius. He looked around and saw he was in a large jail cell with all the others. He moaned. "Must have been a stun-gun" he said to himself. The others looked at him. "He's awake" said Tails, holding his head. He must have had a headache, too. They heard footsteps coming their way. One of the strange creatures appeared in front of their cell. "Sorry about that stun-gun thing" he said. "Can't be too careful, y'know." Sonic just stared, holding his head as if to make sure the creature knew he had a splitting migraine. "Your record shows that you have no criminal record" said the creature "In fact you don't seem to have any record at all. Just give me your names and I'll write some out." "Um, excuse me" began Knux "but we will be gone very soon and you'll never see us again, so we won't be needing any records." The creature looked up from his notepad. "I'm sorry" he said "Every intelligent creature on Nobex 8 must have a permanent record." "Nobex 8?" asked Sonic. "Is that where we are?" "Indeed" replied the creature. "Now, names please!" The group didn't know what else to do, so they gave their names. "Sonic the Hedgehog" said Sonic. "Tails Prower" said Tails. (Even though his real name was Miles, but he liked "Tails" a whole lot better.) "Knuckles the Echidna" "Streak the Cat" "Petals the Porcupine" "Amy Rose" said the others. "Excellent!" said the creature. "Oh, and one more thing. Your brain scans failed to reveal if you are allied to the Force or to the Domination. Since you weren't carrying weapons, we'll take it that you are with the Force." Everyone stared at the creature. "What are you talking about?" asked Sonic, his headache finally fading. "You know!" replied the creature. "Or are you Neutral?" Everyone just stared into space, not sure of what to say. "You must be Neutrals" the creature said at last. "You don't resemble Domination troops, and you certainly don't resemble Force troops. Are you creatures native to this planet?" The odd being seemed undeniably friendly, so Sonic decided to tell the truth. "We aren't from this planet" he said. "We're from the planet Mobius. We were teleported here by some guy named Dominatrek." The creature stumbled back. "You mean, you're with the Domination?" Sonic frowned. "We're not 'with' anybody! We were teleported here against our will!" The being seemed relieved. "That's good." he said. "For what reason were you brought here?" Sonic yawned. His headache was gone. "We really don't know" he said. "He didn't tell us." The creature's attention suddenly turned to Streak who was firing tiny zaps and sparks from his finger. "That's AMAZING!" said the being. "Can you all do that?" Sonic shook his head. "We can't do that, but we do all have some kind of power." The creature looked interested. "Such as?" he asked. "Well.." began Sonic. "I can run real fast and spin-dash, Tails can fly, Knux can dig and fight well, Streak shoots lightning bolts, Petals is an athletic martial arts champ, and Amy...well...she's the best at using her brain." Amy smiled at him. The being seemed excited. "We've been looking for someone like you!" he shouted. "How'd you like to help the Force by doing a little spying?" The group didn't know what to say, so they finally agreed. Next thing they knew, they were back in the creepy place they started off in, except it was now daylight. They had been told that they were to sneak into the "Domination's" base and find out information. So they were dropped off here and pointed in the direction of the place they were supposed to enter. "Now, how'd we get ourselves into this mess?" asked Knux. Sonic just sighed. Eventually, they approached a giant building in the middle of nowhere. It was really high-tech and had satellite dishes and everything. It looked like NASA. The group sneaked through a small side door. There was surprisingly hardly any security cameras. They got around without being seen, and found a corridor with literally hundreds of doors down the sides. The first door had a sign that said, "WORKER HQ". "Wanna check it out?" asked Sonic. "I guess" replied Knux. Sonic opened the door, and saw something that gave him an enormous shock. CHAPTER FOURTEEN: RAPTORS The door lead to a huge, round room full of computers and scientific apparatus. What was really shocking, though, was that wandering around the room was at least twenty velociraptor, maybe more. One of the dinos saw him and shouted "IT'S THEM! IT'S THEM! SOMEBODY GET SHAX!" Sonic was so startled that he nearly fell over backwards. "WOW!" said Tails at the sight of the dinosaurs. One raptor came out of the shadows and smiled at them. "Welcome!" he said. "I am Shax! I'm so glad you got here! I was waiting." Sonic recognized him, somehow. Of course! When they were trapped in the Anti-Verse, this raptor had helped them escape from a prison cell, and when they were in the Impossible Temple, he had prevented them from being crushed by the moving walls. This beast was obviously a good guy, and had a great determination to make sure they survived. "Who are you, exactly?" asked Sonic. "I am Shax, leader of the dinosaur troops." he answered. "I can tell you exactly what is going on!" Sonic was excited to hear this, as he had not had the slightest idea about what was going on since all this started. "Do tell!" he said. "Very well" said Shax. "It all started about a year ago. Dominatrek lived on an open orbited planet (That's a planet that does not orbit a star) and his race was highly advanced. He decided for some reason to take over the universe, I dunno why, and he got the technology to give him great powers, or something. I really don't know much about it until he met me, but I do know that he stole some kind of teleportation device and a huge spaceship from his government, and flew out into space. This teleportation device was the ultimate in technology. Not only could it teleport things back and forth from anywhere in this universe, but it could also send things through time, to the future or the past, and through to any alternate reality. He used it to go back practically to the dawn of time, and then to my planet, Earth, and found that it was swarming with dinosaurs. So then he discovered that the most intelligent and able- to-work dinos were the raptors, so he brought a whole lot of us back to his spaceship and used us as slaves. Then he went on to conquer the universe. But he met up with a race of kind hearted aliens who called themselves 'The Force' and lived on this planet, Nobex 8. They were just as technologically advanced as he was, but they were for the protection of the universe. So war broke out. When Dominatrek realized he was losing, he came up with the bright idea that he would go to the nearest planet with intelligent life, which was Mobius, and hack into the computers to see which are the best fighters and heroes. The computers had detailed information on all of you, which is how he knows so much about you, and so he teleported you up and quickly thought of three quick tests he could put you through to see if you were fit for the job. You have passed these tests, and now he expects you to win this war for him." Sonic was fascinated by this story. "And why were you so anxious to meet me?" he asked. "'cos we want you to help us escape!" answered Shax. "You see, we are trapped in this room by invisible bars in the doorway. You guys can move back and forth through them, and so can Dominatrek, but nothing reptilian can pass through them. One of us was able to hack into the computer that maintains the bars, and he made it weak enough for one raptor only to get through. To turn them off completely, you have to get to the main switch. I was able to pass through for a couple of seconds occasionally and jump in the teleporter to help you out of trouble, but I couldn't find the main switch in time. What we want you to do is find the main switch, turn off the bars and let us out so we can use the teleporter to go back to Prehistoric Earth. If you do that for us, I'll show you how to use the teleporter and go back to your home." "You talk too much" said Petals, complaining. "Don't mind her" said Sonic. "We'll do it." CHAPTER FIFTEEN: DOMINATREK The group wandered down the corridor, searching for anything that looked like the main switch for the raptors' power bars. They searched through the entire building, which took a long, long time. Eventually, they came to a huge door. Opening it, they found what seemed to be an office of some kind. There was a giant machine that looked like the main computer, and there, on a small chair, sat none other than Dominatrek himself. He turned around to face them. "Excellent!" he said. "It's about time you got here! Look, the reason you are here is because this planet has been attacked by space pirates, and I need help defeating them." Sonic noticed the wide range of weaponry he had, and decided to play along. "Uh...yeah, ok" he said. "Where do we begin?" Dominatrek started talking about where the location of the Force's base was, even though they already knew, from being picked up by them and taken there a couple of hours ago. Dominatrek was going on and on and on, when something caught Sonic's eye. A big, red button on Dominatrek's computer that was labeled "Raptor release button. Not to be pressed except in emergency." Unfortunately, Dominatrek was standing right in front of it, and he was shoving them out the door. When they were outside his office, he went back inside and slammed the door. "We'll have to wait until he comes outside" said Knuckles. They waited just outside the door, hiding behind a huge block of metal. The thing was that he didn't come out. He was there all the time. They had waited the rest of the day, then night fell and they waited another couple of hours until Sonic walked up and put his ear to the door. He could hear snoring from inside. "He's asleep" he whispered to the others. "Now's our chance!" Sonic and Knuckles came up to the door and slowly opened it. Sure enough, Dominatrek was asleep. The two crept up and slowly pressed the button on the computer. There was a soft whirring sound. They crept out of the office, closed the door, and went down the corridor to see if it had worked. Eventually, they came to the raptor room. Sonic opened the door. All the lizards were asleep except for Shax, who was still waiting patiently. "Did you do it?" he asked. "Yep" answered Sonic, grinning. Shax went through and woke up all the raptors. Then he got them to follow him. They walked out the doorway, smiling. "Ok, guys, follow me!" he said to the group. They walked to a small room that was lit up with a fluorescent light. There, in the center of the room was a small, red platform attached to a computer. "That's the teleporter!" he said. He turned it on. There was a buzzing, whirring sound as the teleporter lit up. Then there was another sound. An alarm ripped through the building. Shax looked frightened. "He must have hooked up an alarm to this thing!" he yelled. He frantically punched in co-ordinates for the teleporter, then he sent the other raptors through it. They disappeared as they were warped home. Then Shax started to type in something else. The teleporter whirred to life once again. "GO!" he shouted. The six obediently jumped through the teleporter. Then, Dominatrek appeared in the doorway. "YOU!" he shouted when he saw Shax. "Yeah, me" replied Shax. Dominatrek held up a gun at his head. "YOU BETRAY ME FOR THE LAST TIME!" He pulled the trigger. CHAPTER SIXTEEN: GRAND FINALE Sonic suddenly burst through the teleporter again into the small room. He grabbed Shax's tail and yanked him through the teleporter again onto Mobius. The beam from Dominatrek's gun hit the control for the teleporter, blowing it to a million pieces. He let out a wail of terror as his teleporter blew up in his face. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Streak, Petals, Amy and Shax sat in the grass back on Mobius. They knew they would be safe from Dominatrek because the teleporter was gone, so it was a good thing, but they also knew that Shax was now stranded on Mobius for the same reason, so it was also a bad thing. "Well" said Shax, "It's for the greater good. And it's not all bad, at least this planet has a lot of forests." Sonic looked at him. "Well, you can stay with us and join the Freedom Fighters!" he offered. Shax thought about it, but then declined. "No, that's not me. I'm a wild creature. I think I'll take off into the forest. Maybe we'll meet again someday!" Sonic began to protest, but then decided that he wouldn't argue if that's what he wanted. Shax thanked him, and jogged off into the trees, out of sight. "Well" began Knux "Let's go home!" Amy looked off to the horizon. "I...I can't stay either." she said. "Why not?" asked Sonic. "I'm the leader of quite a large group of Freedom Fighters up north. They need me, I can't just leave them. I hope you understand." Sonic looked very disappointed. Amy walked up and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks for everything." she said, and she also walked into the bush. Sonic turned to Streak and Petals. "Well, I guess you're gonna leave, too, huh?" he asked. Streak shook his head. "I'd rather stay here, actually." he said. "Joining the Freedom Fighters might be a nice change" Sonic smiled. "How about you, Petals?" Petals stood there with her arms folded, and then she actually smiled for the first time since Sonic met her. "I guess I might as well." she said. So That's the story of how I first met Sonic. I was taken from my home and ended up millions of years in the future on the lonely planet Mobius. But enough about me, Streak and Petals joined the Freedom Fighters, Knuckles returned to the Floating Island, and everyone enjoyed listening to Sonic and Tails tell this story, which has now come to... THE END