— Tᕼᗴ - ᑎᗴ᙭T - ᗰOᖇᑎIᑎᘜ —
Sonica was back in the camp. Yes.
She had returned with one goal: To make them hate her.
Recalling her thoughts from last night: she had considered staying cooped up in her shack, long enough so that Amy and the rest would stop calling for her. But the probability of them leaving her be was really low; they would probably come knocking at her door again like stubborn kids demanding Halloween candy.
So, Sonica had made the decision to be present with them, temporarily. With the hope that her plan wouldn't backfire, of course.
---
Sonic, just awake, stepped out of his tent with a yawn, scratching his back when the scene in front of him made him pause.
Amy was seated on a log beside Sonica, both holding ceramic coffee mugs. Amy was telling her about her hobbies while Sonica didn't even pretend to be listening, just sipped her coffee.
Sonic crossed his arms and tilted his head slightly to the side, "Whoa, what is 𝘴𝘩𝘦 doing here? I thought someone had 𝘭𝘦𝘧𝘵 and didn't want to come back"
"I 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 don't," Sonica said flatly, sipping her coffee with a loud slurp, making Sonic's eye twitch in exasperation.
Amy cleared her throat as she got up, dusting off her clothes, "I had a friendly little chat with her last night, she wanted to give the camp another chance. Right, Sonica?" She batted her lashes at the edgy blue hedgehog who simply sighed.
"Great. Now my morning's gonna be ruined by unwanted drama." Sonic muttered under his breath and walked over to Tails who was tinkering.
Sticks was talking to the bugs and Knuckles was doing his usual work out session but with a big rock.
"I wonder what Eggman must be doing? I hope everything's fine." said Tails while scratching his head with the wrench.
"Oh, don't worry. I am sure everyone's '𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰' Tommy Thunder," Sonic air quoted with his fingers, "will save the day."
[ NOTE: Dr. Eggman did not attack the village. Currently Tommy Thunder was miming heroic poses in Meh-Burger while others clapped, snapped pictures and awed. ]
"Well, we can just hope for now," said Amy, as she lowered her mug onto the makeshift table (rock).
Just then— the mug started to shake, soon followed by the strong, un-ignorable vibration of the earth's crust!
"AN EARTHQUAKE?!"
Then they heard heavy footsteps- stomping towards them.
" *ɢᴀsᴘ* IT'S THE STARTING OF THE GIANTS APOCALYPSE!! EVERYONE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
"STICKS!"
"What?!"
"It's not a Giants Apocalypse! It's Eggman!" Sonic said in his usual fed-up voice. Then—
"S U R P R I S E ! !" Dr. Eggman popped up from a bush, holding a controller in his gloved hands. Then he paused.
"No, wait— You weren't supposed to guess it was me! Ugh, ruined the surprise." He muttered and slammed his fist on the central button of the controller.
"Behold! The HEXA-TITANBOT! Hehehahahahah!"
A second later, a big metal bot jumped into their field of vision. It had six metal claws, missiles on its shoulders and a massive armored body.
Orbot and Cubot revealed themselves from behind Hexa-TitanBot's legs.
"Ta-da!" Cubot announced proudly.
"You're not impressing anybody." Dr. Eggman muttered sharply and turned to Sonic, "Now, behold as my magnificent creation finally crushes those meddlesome hedgehogs! It has an extra claws because I want to get rid of that new blue pest too! Mm-hahahahah!"
Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, Tails and Sticks held their iconic stance, ready to fight.
Dr. Eggman pressed a button.
The Hexa-TitanBot's six claws suddenly twitched.
Its head jerked to one side.
Then the other.
A series of mechanical beeps came from inside its body.
Dr. Eggman's smile slowly faded, "...That's new."
"Uh, Dr. Robotnik?" Orbot asked.
"I know."
Cubot tilted his head, "Is it supposed to do that?"
"Of course it is!" Dr. Eggman frantically pressed another button on the controller.
A series of distorted beeps came from its speakers.
He quickly shook it off and pointed the controller toward Sonic.
"Never mind! Hexa-TitanBot, target Sonic!"
The robot's eyes flashed red.
Its six arms suddenly snapped upward.
"Yes!" Dr. Eggman shouted, "Now, crush that hedgehog!"
A missile launched from one shoulder.
ᗯᕼOOՏᕼ—!
Sonic's eyes widened, "Everyone, take cover!"
He sprang aside as the missile exploded behind him.
KᗩᗷOOᗰ—!
"Again!" Dr. Eggman furiously pressed the controller.
The robot's targeting system beeped.
Then six glowing targeting markers appeared.
One over Sonic.
One over Tails.
One over Amy.
One over Knuckles.
One over Sticks.
And one over—
Dr. Eggman.
Dr. Eggman's smile disappeared.
"...Why am I targeted?! Blow up that blue pest!" He shouted, gesturing with both hands towards Sonica.
Sonica, who was leaning against a tree. In her right hand, she held the ceramic mug, still steaming with hot coffee. Her second refill.
The Hexa-TitanBot suddenly lunged.
"WAIT!"
Its six enormous claws shot forward.
Sonic dodged one.
Tails ducked another.
Amy leapt aside.
Knuckles tried to block one with his arms.
Sticks screamed and dove behind a bush.
Dr. Eggman ran, "NO, NO, NO! I'M YOUR CREATOR!"
ᑕᒪᗩᑎK—!
One claw caught Sonic around the torso.
"Whoa!"
Another grabbed Tails.
"Hey!"
A third claw was about to grab Amy, but she swung her hammer.
"Don't touch me!"
But before she could land a hit, the robo-claw grabbed her hammer and lifted her up along with it.
The fourth claw clamped around her torso, yanking her away from her hammer. And the third claw, now holding the hammer, flung it into a distance, far far away in the sky.
"MY HAMMER—!"
Then it scooped Amy up.
"Ah!"
Knuckles was caught next, his arms pinned against his sides.
"Put me down!"
Sticks barely had time to look up before another claw snatched her off the ground.
"AAAAAH! I KNEW IT! THE ROBOT CAN SEE THROUGH BUSHES! THE ROBO-APOCALYPSE HAS COME!"
Now left was one claw.
Intially created and programmed to target the new hedgehog of Bygone Island aka Sonica, the sixth claw slowly turned towards Dr. Eggman.
"...No."
It lunged.
"NO!"
ᑕᒪᗩᑎK—!
Dr. Eggman was grabbed too.
All six of them were now suspended in the Hexa-TitanBot's enormous metal claws, struggling helplessly.
Sonic grunted in struggle, unable to move his limbs, he then looked across at the others, "Anyone else getting flashbacks from Buster?"
"Not now, Sonic!" Amy and Tails yelled in unison.
Then Tails sighed, "This is bad."
Amy tugged uselessly against the metal fingers, "Really bad."
Knuckles flexed his arms.
"I can't move!"
Sticks thrashed wildly.
"LET ME GO, YOU SIX-ARMED DEMON!"
Dr. Eggman, meanwhile, was furiously pressing every button on his controller.
"Release me! Release! RELEASE!"
The robot beeped.
Nothing happened.
His face twitched in anger, "Why isn't it listening?!"
Orbot looked at the six dangling captives.
"It seems to have interpreted your command rather literally."
Dr. Eggman stared at him, deadpanned, "Oh, yeah? I thought it had some personal grudge against me." Then snapped— "Quit spitting nonsense and do something!"
Orbot and Cubot looked at eachother, then they picked a nearby pebble and threw it at Hexa-TitanBot with some effort.
The two little stones hit on the side of the robot's head.
TIᑎK— ×2
Hexa-TitanBot stared at the two little robots and turned its body towards them. It locked the targets and launched two missiles.
Panicked, Orbot and Cubot quickly ran away, hiding behind the tree where Sonica was leaning on.
Everyone's attention was now on Sonica.
"SONICAAA!!" Everyone called collectively while Eggman winced from the loud sound.
"HELP US!!"
"STOP STANDING THERE, DO SOMETHING!!!"
"YES, BLUE HEDGEHOG! SAVE YOUR PESKY FRIENDS!... and me!"
Sonica didn't say anything, just took another sip of her coffee.
"Forget it, if she helps us, the universe will explode!" Sonic muttered, writhing his body in an useless attempt to escape, only for the robot to tighten its grip.
"You really need my help?" Sonica tsked and looked at her almost finished coffee.
// What in the—?! That attitude!! // Sonic thought to himself, gritting his teeth.
"I knew we couldn't trust her!" Sticks screamed.
"Sonica, this isn't funny!" Amy shouted.
Tails struggled against his claw, "At least do something!"
Sonica merely shrugged.
Sonic's teeth clenched further, "Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot everything has to revolve around Ms. Edgy!"
"I am not in the mood to help," She said flatly and set the empty mug down.
"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, SONICA?!" They all yelled in unison.
She rubbed her ears, eyes narrowing, "Quiet down."
"QUIET DOWN?!" Amy screamed, furiously struggling against the metal claw, "SONICA, QUIT your melo-drama right now! You aren't being cool! You look like a selfish, wanna-be-cool, careless hedgehog!"
"And not cool!" Knuckles added, grunting with the effort to keep the metal claw from crushing him entirely.
Sonica just nodded, internally counting this as a victory for herself.
Then Hexa-TitanBot started to tighten the grip, making them groan and cry in pain.
Sonica's ears flattened against her skull.
// "No." //
// "This wasn't supposed to happen." //
// "They are already hurt." //
"SONICA! ARE YOU SCARED OR SOMETHING?!"
"DON'T STAND THERE, LOOKING USELESS—"
The Hexa-TitanBot's claws tightened again.
"AGH!" Everyone groaned as the metal grip crushed tighter around them.
Her fists clenched.
// "My distance will only let the robot hurt them more." //
// "They are getting hurt whether they hate me or not!" //
She sprang forward—!
She dashed towards the Hexa-TitanBot, leapt onto its arm and raced along the metal plating until she reached the robot's control panel.
She then drew her fist back.
For the briefest instant, like 0.0000001 second, tiny blue sparks crackled between her fingers and knuckles.
Then—
ᗷᗩᑎᘜ—!
Her fist slammed directly into the control panel.
A flash of electricity surged through the metal.
𝘡𝘡𝘡𝘛— 𝘒𝘙𝘙𝘡𝘡𝘛—!
The Hexa-TitanBot jolted violently.
Its eyes flickered, then slowly went dim.
Its six claws suddenly went limp and everyone dropped to the ground.
"WHOA!"
"OW!"
"Ugh!"
[ NOTE: No one noticed the sparks during the punch. It was the element: Lightning ]
Sonica quickly curled her hand into a fist and slipped it behind her back.
Dr. Eggman, on his knees, stared at his malfunctioning creation in horror.
"NO! NO, NO, NO! My beautiful Hexa-TitanBot!"
The machine gave one final pathetic —bzzt— before collapsing forward.
"Er, Dr. Robotnik, I must remind you that your beautiful Hexa-TitanBot just attempted to harm you," said Orbot, hands clasped in front of him.
"Shut up!" Dr. Eggman snapped, then muttered, "Though you have a point. Anyways,"
He straightened himself up, dusted off his coat and pointed dramatically at Sonic and the others, "This isn't over, you meddlesome pests! I will return with a machine so powerful, so magnificent, so—"
"Just go, Eggman," Sonic interrupted.
Dr. Eggman's eye twitched, "Fine!"
He turned sharply and marched away. Orbot and Cubot hurried after him, "Wait for us!"
Sonica exhaled a sigh of relief.
"Tsk, was that so hard?" spat Sonic, dusting off the fur on his arms.
"Thank you, Sonica. But please try to help a little sooner next time." said Tails, adjusting the goggles on his head.
Sonica glanced away, without a word.
// "Thank god I could control it somehow." //
But someone was enraged.
Fists clenched at their sides, they looked as if they were about to explode.
And no, it wasn't Eggman this time.