Sonic: REMgaged

Chapter 9

Author's Note: Saw I had some recent activity on this book. Seeing as new reads were popping up, I figured I'd toss out another chapter. So here we are! Enjoy!
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Alex walked along a long, winding road over hills of green, purple, blue, and even pink. She felt as though she were in a Salvador Dali painting... if it was done in the style of a Dr. Seuss illustration. It felt as though she'd been walking for an eternity. Her head was pounding, so she stopped beneath a tree to rest. She took a seat on the ground and closed her eyes.

"Ugh, my head hurts," she said.

"You think YOOUUR head hurts?" said a loud, crowing voice.

"Yeah," said another, this one slower, dumber, and of a lower register. "Look what happened to us!"

Alex looked down and saw two disembodied heads on the ground, one shaped like a chicken, and the other a green head with a drill nose. The rest of their body parts were scattered haphazardly across the road. Alex blinked and shook her head. It was Scratch and Grounder, Robotnik's robot stooges from the AOSTH cartoon. Alex was at a loss for words. But when she finally opened her mouth to speak, it was instead an angry voice from above which shouted at them.

"You nincombots!"

A glance upward revealed the absurdly proportioned Dr. Robotnik in his flying eggmobile.

"And Alexandrrra..." he purred.

Alex staggered to her feet. "M-Me?" she said, gaping and pointing unnecessarily at herself.

"Yes... All thrrree of you are such disappointments. It's back to the scrrraap heap with you!"

A hatch opened beneath the hovercraft and a giant vacuum hose extended towards them. Alex struggled uselessly as she and Scratch and Grounder were sucked up into the vacuum.

"AHHH!" She threw her arms up over her face to protect it from flying robot parts. But when she lowered them, she found herself encased inside a glass tube in a dimly-lit room which appeared to be filled with nothing but black and gray machinery. Alex pressed against the glass, but it was too strong.

Where am I? she wondered.

Then, she saw Edgar Roman. He was wearing, of all things, a green button-up turtleneck and a pair of green pants tucked, absurdly, into a pair of cloddish brown boots. Alex banged on the glass.

"Mr. Roman!" she shouted. "Mr. Roman, can you get me out of here! Please, help!"

"No one can help you now, my dear," came a quiet, strangely echoey voice that was no less sinister for its softness.

Alex's gaze shifted to the person who had just entered the chamber. His girth impossible given his height, his yellow cape billowing dramatically behind his pointed red shoulder pauldrons, SATAM Robotnik approached the tube to glare at her with his crimson eyes. In one hand, he held his pet chicken-robot, Cluck, who, despite its small stature, was far more frightening than Scratch could ever hope to be, particularly with its razor-sharp beak and the horrendous screech which issued forth from its artificial voice box.

Robotnik peered in at her through the glass and his fleshy jowls shook as he laughed maniacally. Suddenly Alex knew what it was she was inside of.

"N-No! Please! I haven't done anything!" she cried uselessly.

"You've been housing, aiding, and abetting fugitive Freedom Fighters. And that, my dear, is against the law. But perhaps a quick zap with the robotisizer will make you more... obedient." Stroking Cluck with a large gloved hand, Robotink turned towards Mr. Roman.