Sonic The Hedgehog CD (1993)

Sonic The Hedgehog CD Chapter Five

Sonic was very happy to be out in the open again. It seemed this elation was to be short-lived, because the trail was leading underground.

"As long as there's no more water."

It was an expansive cave. Beautiful, shiny crystals adorned the floor and ceiling.

"What kind of crystals are these?"

He took a closer look.

"Unless I miss my guess, this stuff is quartz. Like the stuff watches use."

As he went on, he saw dozens of conveyor belts.

"This must a mining operation. Let me think of a clever name...Quartz Quadrant, yeah that works."

As he was admiring the floating platforms and numerous conveyor belts, a Badnik approached. It looked very similar to Caterkiller, but was called Kemusi. It also went down as easily as Caterkiller. A snail Badnik called Noro-Noro slowly made its way towards Sonic.

"Oh no, a snail. I'm in trouble now."

As Sonic was about to jump on it, spikes emerged from its shell. Sonic decided a roll attack would work better. Next, he saw an interesting clear, spiral pipe. He jumped in, and it sent him zooming off onto a different path. This path seemed to lead to a more open area, as he could see the blue sky and lush, green forest. Just then, another Badnik leapt in front of him. It was a large, spider Badnik called Kumo-Kumo. Strangely, it only had six legs, but the legs did have springs on them. Sonic smashed it and kept going, until a missile exploded near him. He looked around to see where it came from. Now came another shot, and still another. He dodged the shots as he ascended the floating platforms. He saw that it was a pair of blue-colored Badniks that resembled scorpions. It was called Sasori. In place of a stinger, its tail ended in a blaster. Sonic taunted the Badniks.

"Hey, you pathetic arachnids, how about some target practice?"

They took aim and fired. As the shots drew near, Sonic simply ducked. The shots whizzed past each other and ended up destroying both Badniks.

"I guess the intelligence level on these things is pretty low. Now to take a little trip."

Past

The most noticeable difference, apart from there oddly still being conveyor belts, was that everything was made of wood. Moss and vines were strewn throughout the cave. Speaking of which, the cave was still enormous, but there was a lot more quartz. When he got to a more outside area, instead of a forest, this place was a swamp.

"This is kinda cool and all, but caves are too cramped for my taste. Time for the giant ring, special stage thing."

Special

This background had an ancient city atop a large island with waterfalls all around.

"No time to gawk at scenery, history to be made...so to speak."

The blue Time Stone brought the total to four.

"Now let's turn the bad future into a good one."

Bad Future

The entire cave was filled with dirty machinery. In fact, everything was made of machinery. In the distance was a vast assembly line. Even outside the cave, nothing but metal dominated the land. The sky looked as though it was on fire. There was no trace of quartz left in the cave. Correction, there was a river of molten quartz. That was all that was left. To top it all off, in some spots there were TV monitors that bore a distorted, but unmistakable image of Dr. Robotnik. Thankfully, the changes began to take place.

"Goodbye, bad."

Good Future

"Hello, good."

There was still plenty of quartz in the cave now. There was even a beautiful city built inside the cave. It sparkled as much as the quartz. The blue and gold machinery was still functioning, so perhaps they still mined, just more carefully. And outside, another large building dominated the landscape. It was surrounded by trees, and the mountains were visible in the distance.

"So picturesque and placid, but I'm sure Eggman is here already to ruin the moment."

Sonic ran on. He was about to give up looking when a spike plate lowered from the wall to block his way. He was standing on a treadmill. Well it was a conveyor belt, but since he was sure to do some running, he thought of it as a treadmill. On the other end of said treadmill was a large piston. It lowered to block the other way out. The piston was hollow, and inside was Robotnik, standing at a control panel.

"You'll like this, Hedgehog. You like running so much? Well you better run now, because your life depends on it!"

The treadmill started up, going faster and faster. Sonic ran, the speed of the treadmill, however, made it impossible for him to get a hit on the piston Robotnik stood in. The doctor also starting dropping bombs to try and slow Sonic down.

"So much for the speed of sound, eh? Oh ho ho ho ho ho!"

Just then, Robotnik felt the piston jolt. He had brought the piston down to the treadmill to make sure Sonic couldn't escape, but the friction of how fast it was going was starting to deteriorate the bottom.

"No matter, I'll just finish you off."

He kept dropping bombs, but it was a rather slow process.

"Gah, what a design flaw. It's like the opposite of those stupid crane games."

Even as he said this, the piston's bottom was heating up and slowly disintegrating.

"Looks like your machine can't take the heat, Eggman."

The bottom was almost completely burned through. Robotnik started to feel the heat.

"I don't know – OW, what you mean – Ooh, that's hot!"

At last it was too much.

"Time for a quick getaway! Not to mention some cold water."

Robotnik leapt from the piston and ran as fast as possible. Sonic had to destroy the piston machine before he could give chase. That was more than enough time for someone like Robotnik to make an escape.

"The jerk got away again. Well, at least I got a good workout. And here I thought there was no room in a cave for running. Now let's see what kind of crazy place lies ahead."

The base

"This is why I hate exercise! That should have worked!"

"How you ever manage to run so quickly despite being so fat is beyond me," Amy snarked.

"This is NOT all fat...maybe."

Metal Sonic remained silent.

"That mine was too easy. The next zone is much more difficult. Sonic can't run if his feet can't even touch solid ground."