Sonic United - Prologue

Sonic United

By N. Harmonik

Disclaimer: Sonic, Dr. Robotnik and related characters are copyrighted to SEGA, Sonic Team, Archie Comics, Egmont Fleetway Editions Ltd, DiC, Taki Corporation, ADV Films, TMS Entertainment and 4Kids Entertainment.
SEGA Timeline: Between "Sonic Advance 3" and "Sonic Rush"
Archie Timeline: Between "The Original Freedom Fighters Part 2" Sonic the Hedgehog #143 and "Love and Loss" Sonic the Hedgehog #144
Fleetway Timeline: Between "Return to the Death Egg" "Horror in the Haunted Hill Zone Part 2" Sonic the Comic #231 and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" "Return of the Cybernik!" Sonic the Comic #232
AoStH Timeline: Way after "Sonic Christmas Blast"
SatAM Timeline: Way after "Doomsday"
SU Timeline: Way after "Virtual Danger"
OVA Timeline: Way after "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie"
Sonic X Timeline: Between "Eggman for President" and "A Date to Forget"

Prologue

Evil Sonic the Hedgehog lay back on the cold, uncomfortable, metal cot with his hands underneath his head, being careful not to crease his leather jacket, scuff his leather boots as he swung one leg over the other or hurt his gloved hands with his own spines.

Looking out of his jail cell past the quadruple-layer laser beams, the only objects between him and freedom, the blue hedgehog saw, through the dark tint of his sunglasses, a disheartening, familiar and slightly disorienting sight: a Zone Cop, sitting at a table, enjoying a lunch consisting of a dozen chili dogs.

What made the scene slightly disorienting was the fact that it was tilted at a ninety degree angle. Such was the nature of the No Zone, a perpendicular universe that ran through every parallel Zone in existence. Some inhabitants of this world chose to make a living as a Zone Cop, a job requiring them to watch over every other dimension in existence and wear armoured, hi-tech and, in Evil Sonic's opinion, ridiculously brightly coloured suits. Much to Evil Sonic's disgust and bad luck, the Sonic of this world, who was named Zonic, was a Zone Cop and had been given the task of keeping the malevolent hedgehog under lock and key, so to speak.

In fact, Evil Sonic had been arrested by Zonic twice: the first time was because he had tricked every Sonic that had participated in the Great Battle into handing their pieces of Giant Borg over so he himself could give them to Robo-Robotnik*. Sometime later, he had managed to escape while beating up Zonic in the process, only to be thwarted by, of all people, the Antoine of his good twin's world**. After that last one, security had been upped quite a bit.

Bored out of his skull, Evil Sonic propped himself up and turned his attention to the hundreds of monitors that were all over the walls (or from his perspective, the floor and ceiling) of the room outside his cell. Each one showed a different Sonic. Each Sonic was revelling in their freedom to run around, get some girls and be an all-around goodie-two-shoes while he was stuck in a compartment that had only a toilet, sink and cot for furniture. Evil Sonic would have dearly loved to wipe off their smirks; it somehow felt like they were taunting him.

Just then, to his slight surprise, the translucent head of an unknown overlander babe (a species identical to humans except for having four fingers instead of five on each hand) with short, brown hair and dark glasses appeared on several screens. A millisecond later, Evil Sonic realized it was actually a reflection. Interested in this hot arrival, he turned his head...

…Just in time to see the overlander grab Zonic's head with one silvery gloved hand and smash it onto the now empty plate and table. Since he didn't have his helmet on, the poor hedgehog was knocked unconscious immediately.

Much to the prisoner's amazement, without seemingly any effort, she then hoisted Zonic over her head and threw him into some computer equipment.

Evil Sonic winced as the sound of smashing metal and tinkling glass reached his ears. He whistled loudly; a girl that didn't have any qualms about getting her hands dirty and was a cutie as well? Now that was his idea of the perfect babe! He just hoped he wouldn't be next.

The evil hedgehog stood up to get a better look. The overlander brunette was wearing a silver, metallic, long-sleeved shirt and boots over a black bodysuit. A pair of crystal earrings adorned her earlobes. She brought her hand up to her sunspecs and took them off. Evil Sonic gasped; her eyes were glowing with a pale blue colour. She was an android.

The optics fired, destroying several monitors. She turned her around and fired again, this time annihilating some more computer equipment. This process continued for a minute before everything electronic was eradicated, including the device that kept the laser beams on Evil Sonic's cell online.

She then turned her eyes towards the freed Evil Sonic, who gulped and backed away a bit, heart thumping against his rib cage. It looked like he was going to be fried after all.

Instead of shooting, however, the overlander put her shades back on. Evil Sonic breathed a sigh of relief and wiped a dozen glistening beads of sweat off his forehead.

"Hello. My name is Mecha," she said solemnly, not a hint of emotion in her voice to be found. "Father wanted me to come retrieve you."

One of the hedgehog's eyebrows cocked. "'Father'? How the heck can anybody have a robot for a kid!?"

"Simple," answered a voice. "You build one in the image of your imagined daughter and program her to call you, 'father'!"

Both the surprised hedgehog and the overlander turned their gaze to the doorway.

An obese overlander stood there wearing a red coat with black pants and boots. On his face were an orange moustache and a pair of round sunglasses.

"Hey, aren't you some kind of Robotnik?" Evil Sonic demanded. "And what did she mean by 'retrieve'? We've never met before!"

Robotnik sneered. "It's understandable you wouldn't recognize me as I look quite different from when we last met. But perhaps this will ring a bell: Remember when you fought hundreds of Sonics?"

Evil Sonic's jaw dropped; not many people knew of that. "You! Robo-Robotnik!"

The fat man laughed. "Yes, it's me! Now we must hurry. We have worlds to conquer and people to enslave."

Glaring, Evil Sonic folded his arms and turned away disdainfully with a huff. "No way, José! If you think I'm gonna work for you again after you had me thrown into the clink in that other stupid universe, you've got another thing coming!"

"It was not I who had you locked up, you blue buffoon, it was another version of me."

"Really," snorted the still incredulous hedgehog.

"It's true," replied Robo-Robotnik. "Although since you seem to like being imprisoned so much, I suppose I'll leave you here to rot for a long time instead of coming with me to cause mayhem and destruction out in the open air while devouring as many chili dogs as you desire." He grinned haughtily. "Well? Which shall it be?"

Three seconds was how long it took for the hedgehog to decide.

For the first time in weeks, a malignant smile lit up Evil Sonic's face. "Alright… Count me in!"

*"Zone Wars: A Tale of Two Hedgehogs" Sonic Super Special #10
**"Mistaken Identity Crisis!" Sonic the Hedgehog #112