Chaotastrophy

Disclaimer: All characters herein are © SEGA/Sonic Team.

Author's Note: Hey everyone~! Now, very few of you will remember, or even know, of the original to this story. I scrapped it due to disliking it, and there's not much to say other than it was badly paced, badly set up, and badly thought out. But I'm re-writing it after... a lot of years.... as a gift for my friend, who keeps demanding to see it return. This is a short chapter to get you started (approx 1000 words) but later chapters should hopefully be at least double the length.

Happy Birthday, Forgotten-Muse :3

-1-

Sand swirled around ankles as what would normally be a light breeze had been replaced by a series of vicious miniature whirlwinds, originating at the fans on the underside of the towering robotic lizard. A gleaming machination, built with a sleek design for swift movement, and a coiled, barbed tail as its main weapon, its target; a small, blue hedgehog, had underestimated it at first. And was now paying the price.

Sonic the hedgehog was struggling to keep himself from being smothered by sand, which was proving to be difficult as the robot's foot pressed down on his chest slowly, pushing him further into the dune. His friends were working to distract the robot, attacking its head and drawing its attention away. It wasn't much, but it gave Sonic a little bit of respite as the machine eased the pressure slightly, which the hedgehog took full advantage of by twisting around and digging his way through the dune, emerging from the other side in a cloud of sand.

He whirled around, turning to look up at the robot. The lizard currently had a twin-tailed fox perched on its head, fiddling with a panel that Sonic couldn't see from where he was standing. Sparks flew from the machine's neck as it was hit by a rapid succession of crossbow bolts from the pink hedgehog standing some distance to Sonic's right, partially hidden by another sand dune. And the foot that had been pressing Sonic down was now attempting to crush the echidna beneath it instead.

Knuckles braced himself against the weight of the metal, glancing over his shoulder at Sonic, before pushing upwards in an almighty heave, throwing the limb vertically and the robot off balance. As it reared imposingly, the fans blasted sand forwards, and Sonic and Knuckles were forced to shield their eyes as they were pushed backwards and away from the robot. A cloud of dust burst into the air as the machine crashed down to all fours again.

“Alright, enough games!” Sonic cried, shaking the sand from his fur. Oh how he despised the desert. Nothing but sand. Just why the robot had led them out here, he'd never guess, unless it was so that it could distract them long enough that they'd die of boredom. “Tails! How you doin' up there?”

“Five seconds Sonic!” the fox cried down from the top of the robot, tugging at something within its head.

“Gotcha!” Sonic eyed the tail that was uncoiling, ready for an attack. “Amy! Step back and distract it! Knuckles, grab that tail, don't let it attack!”

The echidna nodded and ran forwards in a flash of red, moving around the outside of the robot, before rapidly climbing up one of the rear legs. He took a moment to adjust his balance on the lizard's back, and reached down to grab hold of the tail at the base. Muscles flexed, and he pulled upwards, to the sound of tearing metal as he slowly started to pull the tail off.

“Uh... didn't... quite mean it like that, but it works....” Sonic muttered to himself, turning and running away from the robot for a few seconds, before turning back again as Tails flew down from its head and tugged Amy further away. He started to charge forwards, legs moving fast enough to blur together, running up towards the head of the robot, and leaped into the air as Knuckles bounded away from the robot, tail in tow. A slight shift in position, and Sonic powered downwards, using gravity as his ally.

His trio of friends turned their heads from the blinding light of the resulting explosion, which sent more sand out in all directions, and a great cloud of smoke into the air, followed shortly by falling pieces of shrapnel. The tail Knuckles had brought with him served as a sufficient shelter from the cutting rain, and the three waited for the dust to clear.

Sonic stood, adjusting his gloves, in the centre of the cloud of debris, and scooped up the chunk of metal he'd taken from inside the machine's head, before strolling through the sandcloud and heading over to where his allies waited. He juggled the lump casually in one hand, and grinned at them.

“Y'know, I could totally have handled that guy by myself, right?” he said, cheekilly.

“Sure Sonic. Whatever you say. Next time I won't bother to distract it from crushing you.” Amy replied, idly looking over her crossbow before attaching it back to the strap over her shoulder.

“Whatcha got there, Sonic?” Tails peered around Amy, eyeing the metal curiously.

“Oh this? Souvenir, of course!”

“You really shouldn't gather so much junk.” Knuckles shook his head and frowned at the blue hedgehog.

“Why not? I have to have some sort of memorabillia!”

“And your endless boasting isn't enough?”

“Tcha, no! I need proof!” Sonic laughed playfully, tossing the block into the air and catching it again.

“One piece of metal looks the same as the other. You can just use the same one and stop carrying a new lump around every time.”

“Nu-uh. They'd know.”

“Well it all looks the same to me.”

“Yeah, that's 'cause you're a little-”

“Oh come on boys, will you stop acting like a pair of bickering children?” Amy sighed, folding her arms as she frowned at Sonic and Knuckles. “Point is, robot's defeated, Sonic likes collecting junk, and Knuckles is a blockhead. Let's all go back to civilisation and get out of all this sand!”

“Tch!” Sonic bristled slightly, but soon smirked again at noticing Knuckles fuming at the 'blockhead' comment. “Hey, she gotcha there, Knux!”

“Sonic. My name is Knuckles. Not Knux. Use it properly.”

“Hey! What's that thing doing?!”

“What thing?” Sonic looked down at the metal block as Tails pointed at it, blinking at thin glowing lines as they appeared in the metal. “What the-”

A wave of energy passed through him, something that made his fur stick on end, and he felt dizzy, far too dizzy, and sick. The world spun, with only the briefest moment of him hearing concerned voices from his friends, then went black.

-TBC-