Sonic the Hedgehog: "Temporal Trouble" By Aaron Lye Send E-mail to this address: vicl@pacific.net.sg NOTE: I may have got some time references mixed up, but this is due to the fact that this is the first time I'm writing a story, so bear with me... Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower and related characters used in this story are based on creations by SEGA, Archie Comic Publications, and the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series aired on Saturday mornings, by DIC and Sega of America. Other characters used here are original creations of individual authors listed below: Special Thanks to Shawn Wolski for the character of David Prower, without whom this story would not be possible. David Pistone: Bookshire Driftwood Several references in this work are based on the original story "Evolution of a Predator" by Shawn Wolski. This work is original ( as far as I know ) and is owned fully by the author. Permission is granted for free distribution of this story under the condition that the work remain in its original, unedited form. Distribution for commercial or monetary purposes is strictly prohibited. 1996 Aaron Lye Time Reference: The story begins three weeks after David Prower's transformation. Chapter 1: The Vortex Miles Tails Prower loved the Great Forest. Most of his life was spent in it, and even during the Robotnik wars, the furry two tailed fox would risk life and limb to be around his favorite place. Now, with the danger from Robotnik gone and Snively licking his wounds, Tails could wander around the forest to his heart's content. Tails was once again in the Great Forest when something black and gray streaked up to him and stopped right in front. At first mistaking it to be Sonic, Tails quickly corrected himself when he saw his mechanical "brother", David. "Hey, Tails! Wanna go fishing? The lake's teeming with trout!" David was wearing a jovial expression and was clearly in a good mood. Tails thought for a moment then replied, "Not today, David. All I really want to do right now is walk. But... it's nice to see you're getting the hang of speaking like us!" David was clearly pleased that Tails had noticed his new speech pattern. "I've had a lot of exposure." was David's response. "Well, since you're not interested in fishing, I guess I'll go tune up the ol' FTL drive. See ya, bro!" Tails stood back while David charged up , the blue strips on his tails growing brighter and brighter, when suddenly, a swirling vortex materialized beneath David and sucked the hapless robot in. "DAVID!!" yelled his doppelganger in alarm. But David was nowhere to be seen, and the vortex disappeared as mysteriously as it had come..... Chapter 2: Puzzles David had no idea what hit him. Every single one of his sensors had not detected the vortex till it was too late. He still had not come up with an explanation on why things had happened the way they had, even though he had delegated almost 50% of his processing capability to the task. One minute, he was following standard procedure in initializing the FTL drive. Next minute, the vortex appears and his pressure sensors detected a massive increase. Then followed the sensation of falling, and before he knew it, he collided with the soft grass on the forest floor. He shook his head, trying to clear his now fuzzy sensors and receptors from the impact. Looking around, he saw that he was in exactly the same spot and Tails was about a hundred meters away, in the Forest. "Must have been a fluctuation in the energy stream. Better run a diagnostic." He thought to himself. Relying on his conventional propulsion, the one that Rotor and Bookshire originally created for him, David picked up speed to catch up with the other Prower. In no time, David was alongside the orange-brown two tailed fox. "Tails," he began. "Why the hurr-". He was greeted with a yelp of surprise, mixed with fear, and saw his brother staring at him with large fearful eyes. "Calm down, bro! It's only me." David tried to tell him. For an instant, Tails was rooted to the spot. Survival instinct kicking in, Tails started racing back in the general direction of Knothole, screaming "BERSERKER 'BOT!!" at the top of his voice. David was puzzled about these recent occurrences and decided to followed Tails..... at a respectable distance. **************** "*sob* One minute he was just hovering there, about to *sob* go.....go innnnto *sob* FTL mode....the next, this... this swirling thing EATS him up!" A sobbing grief-stricken Tails was literally soaking Sally. Sally and Bunnie were both futilely trying to console the heartbroken fox. "Don'tcha worry, Tails - honey. Rotor'll find him ... won't you Rotor?" This came from Bunnie. Rotor looked as if he'd rather eat a plate of nails than answer the cyber rabbit truthfully. "Uh...yeah?" was all he managed. "Ya see, honey? Everything'll be all right." Bunnie hadn't quite given up on consoling Tails. "Calm down, little bro! Rotor and Bookshire'll know what to do!" Sonic joined in. Inwardly, he thought: "If you asked me, it serves David right! He never should have fiddled with FTL drives! Bots were never meant to go faster than light..... hedgehogs maybe... but NEVER robots!" Although he would never admit it, Sonic was not happy that he was no longer the fastest thing on the planet, and would have been overjoyed if David Prower had suffered a mishap... if not for Tails. Knowing how important David had become to his best friend, Sonic had beared with the robotic Tails imitator. It had been fun when Rotor and Bookshire had first built him, but when the cyberfox had made his modifications a few weeks ago, Sonic had suffered a MAJOR case of jealousy. If the others ever found out, he would never hear the end of it. Sonic continued without thinking, still incensed by his own thoughts, "Besides, it's not much. If he's lost, Rotor and Bookshire'll build you another brother." At this, Tails burst into tears ( He was only sobbing just now. ) and flew out of the room as fast as his fluffy tails would carry him. Sonic, knowing he had put his foot into his mouth, braced himself for the worst. "SONIC HEDGEHOG! Could you POSSIBLY have chosen a WORSE time to be SO obnoxious!" came Sally's sharp reprimand. The blue hedgehog sighed. His best friend in tears over a hunk of metal. His girlfriend mad at him. It was going to be a LONG day...... Chapter 3: Revelations David implemented all the stealth skills he had learnt to track his brother . Tails seemed frantic, and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Soon after, Tails reached the secret entrance to Knothole and quickly jumped into the safe haven. David followed him to see what would transpire of these events. Tails' frantic yelling had drawn the attention of everyone in Knothole. David could see many familiar faces, and yet, something seemed wrong. The general mood of this Knothole seemed much more somber, even to the extent of being militaristic. Like in a war.... "I saw it! A robot fox that looked like me! It called me it's brother! A berserker! It...It'll kill us... all of us.!" With that, a shaken Tails collapsed in a heap. Bunnie picked up the fox and brought him to his room. Sally started talking to the remaining group about scouting around for this "berserker". David thought that it would be a better idea for him to approach them directly, rather than them find him lurking around. That would not make a good impression. Putting his plan into action, David walked up to the group in question, much to their surprise. Some took up defensive positions, to which David made a gesture of peaceful intent. An uncomfortable moment of silence ensued. Sally was the first to speak & she asked the obvious. "Who are you?" Unwilling to expose too much before knowing more about the situation, the cyberfox simply replied "David.". Sally came back with, "Were you roboticized and became self-aware?" "No, I am not roboticized nor does Robotnik have anything to do with me being cybernetic. I am on your side. I was created to fight with the Freedom Fighters against those who oppose. However, my internal circuits are somewhat faulty. May I know the current date?" Sally replied, "34th day of spring, 11 AC." David quickly accessed his database on this style of dating. 11 AC refers to the 10th year after the coup that dethroned Princess Sally's father and the start of the Robotnik regime.... Amazing. He had been thrown BACK in time....... ***** After an hour of listening to Sally and Bunnie drone on about his lack of tactfulness, Sonic managed to give them the slip. He quickly went to find Tails. "Tails? Bro? Are you there?" Sonic knocked on the door to Tails' room. "Go away." came the sullen reply. "Aw, c'mon Tails. Chill out a bit. I'm sorry 'bout what I said. I didn't mean it......" Sonic tried to get back into Tails' good books. Tails simply turned away. Sonic made his decision that he would confide in Tails. Perhaps Tails would understand then. "There's something I've never wanted to say, but I will, if it'll help you understand why I behaved like that just now...." Tails gave no indication that he was listening, but Sonic carried on anyway. "You see... I'm....um....I'm.....man, this is hard to say....I'm jealousofyourbrother." Sonic managed to rush it out in the shortest possible time. He was already blushing at having admitted such a thing. That caught Tails' attention. "Jealous? You?" Seeing that Tails' was willing to talk renewed Sonic's resolve. "Yeah. Look at him. He's smarter, faster AND stronger! Compared to him, I'm nothin'! I guess I was just used to being the center of attention...." Sonic trailed off. Tails got up and sat next to Sonic. "Don't worry, Sonic. David may be all that, but, you've always been there for me. You cared for me and looked after me when I was young. You've been a father and a brother to me. And THAT makes you very special to me. Not your speed or your intellect, but the fact that you've always been there for me when I most needed you. And for that, thank you." Sonic looked at his best friend and returned the smile. "Anytime, bro." ***** David was just about to ask Sally another question, when she was called away. He turned to follow her, only to find his path blocked by two freedom fighters. He called out to Sally. She looked back at him and seemed to be considering her options, then told the two to allow him through.Clearly, she was satisfied that David was not a Robotnik spy, since she ordered the two to let him pass. She made her way to the War Room, closely followed by David. Sonic, Antoine and Rotor were there waiting for her. The three were surprised to see the newcomer and Antoine put their sceptism into words. "What ees de robotical fox doing here? This ess a unpublic meeting!" Sally once again stood up for him. The scientific side of Sally Acorn was screaming inside, "DON'T TRUST IT! IT's A ROBOTNIK MONSTER! ". However, the squirrel princess had a strange gut feeling about David, that he was to be of great value. Seeing that their leader felt that David's presence was not a threat, Rotor began, "I've managed to search Robotnik's database and I've found the location of the prison." A diagram was projected onto the far wall of the room and David immediately recognized the maximum security prison known as the Death Camp. He watched as they laid out their plans. Impossible, the freedom fighters were outnumbered almost 50 to 1. He accessed as much info as he could on this particular mission. To his surprise, his archives stated that all the prisoners were freed, with Robotnik suffering the loss of hundreds of SWATbots, while the freedom fighters had not lost a single member. Impossible, he thought, unless..... they had help. Apparently, he was part of the natural course of history. If he did not intervene, who knows what would happen? Rotor could become a casualty... and David would never have been built. The thought was frightening. He spoke suddenly, "I would be willing to aid you in this endeavor." It took a bit of persuasion but all finally agreed to let him help, though all but Sally were reluctant about it. "Wow." That was all Sally, Sonic & Rotor could say. David had just given them a demonstration of his capabilities in an attempt to show them why he was neccessary to the success of their mission. "He's right, he'd be a real asset. Wonder who could have built such a robot..... Robotnik's machines don't even come close to this level of sophistication." Rotor was marvelling at the cyberfox. David smiled inwardly. If only Rotor knew who built him....., he thought. Sally and Rotor quickly briefed the Freedom Fighters on their role in the upcoming mission. The Death Camp was a formidable fortress, with enough resources to make any form of diversion futile. Only a direct assault would have any chance of success. If the circumstances were normal, Sally would never have ordered such a mission. However, the situation was critical. Some of the Freedom Fighter's top scientists were held prisoner in the Camp, and it was imperative to the war effort that they be released to continue their work. The scientists were scheduled for roboticization in less than 24 hours. It appeared that Robotnik placed a high value on the scientists, since the entire Death Camp was dedicated to the confinement of those five individuals..... ***** "Tails? Oh.... Sonic, you're here too." Rotor appeared at the entrance to Tails' house. "Bookshire and I have just come up with a hypothesis on David's dissapearance. You see, during Robotnik's regime, he had some of his scientists working on temporal gateways." Tails gave a quizzical stare. "WHAT gateways?" "Temporal. In essence, gateways through time. The experiment failed, or so they thought. Apparently, thanks to botnik himself, random spots across the globe are covered with these temporal vortexes. They are activated by a low level graviton pulse, which just so happens to be what David's FTL drive emits when it is initialized. He must have been above one of those gateways when he activated the portal unknowingly and got sucked in. Assuming he doesn't know this, we need to send someone back to get him." Sonic answered without hesitation, "I'll do it.", eager to show to Tails that there was no longer any hard feelings between him & David. "OK, Sonic." Rotor fished around his pocket and took out two items. "This," indicating one of the items, "is the transmitter. It will send the pulse that activates the vortex. And this is a beacon, activate it when you get to the other side and you won't lose its position. Good luck." "Will do, Rote. OK Tails, show me the place your bro disappeared." ***** The group of freedom fighters approached Death Camp cautiously, their weapons at the ready. At Sally's signal, they advanced, with David in the lead. The SWATbot guards were caught unaware as David brought to bear all ten of his phased energy emitters. The freedom fighters didn't even need to fire a shot as the guards were vaporized by the directed energy beams. An alert sounded and waves of SWATbots came pouring out, almost all of which were vaporized or damaged with pinpoint precision. Three SWATbots had somehow evaded the shots from David and the Freedom Fighters and were advancing. They took aim and fired at David, who took the full impact of the three beams. Fortunately, thanks to Rotor's and Bookshire's work, his armor absorbed the energy without it causing any damage. David had depleted all his weapons energy, as had most of the rest. Bunnie moved with the speed her mechanical legs endowed her with and kicked one SWATbot back the way it came, before being knocked to the ground by the other two. David quickly came to her aid, lifting the two bots clean off her and smashing the two together... hard. The impact shorted out the internal circuitry of the two. Taking advantage of the current situation, the freedom fighters stormed Death Camp and located the two cells the scientists were held prisoner. The cell doors were yanked off their hinges, courtesy of Bunnie & David, and the prisoners released. As they walked out, David emitted a gasp of surprise. One of the scientists he had rescued was Bookshire Driftwood. ***** Sonic landed hard on the ground, courtesy of the time vortex. His first words were, "Man, that hurt...". He quickly activated the beacon, and sped off to Knothole. Upon his arrival, he cornered Antoine. "Yo, Ant! You seen the weird fox robot?" Sonic asked nonchalantly, feigning in a way he thought his past self would. "Indeed I have not. He ees still with the Princess, who has radioed that the mission at Death Camp ees a success and they is returning home. This is good, no?" Sonic grinned, "Great, Ant. Really great." The future Sonic found a secluded spot to wait for David's return. He did not have to wait long. The minute David walked in, he rushed toward him and yelled, "David! Follow me, no time to explain!" David immediately sped after the hedgehog. Bunnie wondered out loud, "Now what in tarnation was all that about?" At that moment, the present Sonic ambled up. "What's going on?" The freedom fighters who witnessed the earlier incident looked around in confusion, unable to comprehend what had just transpired. An enthusiastic Rotor sat in his workshop, daydreaming. The appearance of David had given him much to think about. The possibility that an robot like David existed intrigued him, and anything that intrigued Rotor was worth a shot, at least from Rotor's point of view. With that vision still fresh in his mind, the walrus inventor of Knothole started the schematics of a cybernetic entity..... ***** "DAVID!" An overjoyed Tails greeted his twin with a bear hug. "I thought I'd never see you again!" David simply returned the hug, knowing that words were simply not necessary to express his feelings at that moment. Everything was all right. He was home. THE END