Chaos Corrupts Absolutely

Chapter 3

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[Time - 1:15 P.M.)

[Date - June 29th, 23XX)

(Location - Station Square Dock)

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"Ooh-ooh-ahh-ahh!" The Kiki robot to the E-52 chattered in a mechanical voice while maintaining the engine to the speedboat.

It didn't take him all that long to make it back to Station Square. Eggman's boat was surprisingly fast. Thankfully, the water was smooth and not choppy, assisting in the hastened trip. Seeing as how it was a beautiful day, being out in the sea like this had been his only period of peaceful solitude since that horrid day that led up to him being ambushed. Although he didn't know how to swim and water made his heart throb, he was so stressed out, he actually took off his glove and put his hand in the sea several times, feeling the cool water flow through his fingers.

"I agree." Sonic facetiously talked back to the robotic monkey. "I'd be pissed too if my lower body was permanently fused to a boat." He hung his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes wearily. Regardless of wanting to be home, he was also afraid to go back. In a way, he didn't want to know what had happened since he'd been away. With what he'd been through recently, his empathy for humanity was beginning to wane. Looking up, he saw the dock to the city coming closer, within a few hundred yards.

Automatically, the kiki started to slow the E-52 down so it wouldn't cause any wake in the marina. "Eee-Eee!" It squealed.

"Yep." The blue hedgehog acknowledged as he put his glove back on his hand, aware that he was going to get off the boat soon. By the time they made it into the marina, he was ready, he forced himself to be ready for whatever he would come across. He just prayed it wasn't an angry mob that wanted to lynch him for a single failure. Nonetheless, his lip quivered as he thought about all his friends. Tails, Amy, Vanilla and Knuckles, none of them were going to be there when he arrived and it saddened him. "I'm going to be so alone."

Wiping a tear from his eye, he sniffled, sucked it up and waited until they came up to the dock. Once the boat arrived alongside the dock, the blue blur hopped off, not even so much as waiting to moor or until it turned off its engine. He was genuinely glad to be back on solid ground; or in this case, a dock attached to solid ground. "Thanks for the ride." He found himself saying to the robotic kiki. "I'd give you a banana, but I don't know if you can eat it... what with the mechanical mouth and all."

"Ook!" The Kiki clapped prior to restarting the engine to the E-52. Sonic didn't know what that meant and it didn't appear to matter as the boat started its journey back to the Egg Carrier.

With that business concluded, Sonic began ambling down the wooden dock. Looking around, there weren't too many people out. Most of them were either on their boats chatting or busy working. A few folks that were there fishing noticed his presence, yet chose to stay quiet; a good sign so far. The wood creaked beneath his feet as he kept walking down the dock. By the time he got to the end, it seemed like he'd been walking forever. To make matters worse, he knew he had to make it to the Residential district, where his apartment was. With several more blocks to go, he groaned in agony.

Although he wanted to run, he was too fatigued. Watching the cars on the road whiz past him, moving so slowly, he grew jealous of their speed. A rare moment in his life to have vehicles outmatching him. To the contrary of his desires, he kept walking at the pace of a snail while holding onto his side. There were a couple of times he stopped to rest. At first, the sunlight was welcomed after being stuck inside the Egg Carrier for a week. Now, however, it was beginning to give him a headache, so he pushed on, keeping himself moving in order to get to his apartment.