Everything Changes (A Sonic Boom Fanfic)

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The village was so small that getting from one end of it to the other at a sprinting pace took no time at all – Kay wasn't even winded when she got to the scene of the battle. Just as she'd predicted, this road led to an open area where the town hall sat, as well as other administrative buildings, from what she could tell. Eggman was hovering on the front lawn of the town hall, facing Sonic and his three friends, while an army of robot minions surrounded them all.

From where she was standing Kay couldn't make out what banter was going back and forth between Eggman and Sonic, but she recognized the iconic finger-pointing Eggman did to call his minions to attack, and that's exactly what happened. Amy whipped out her piko hammer while the others got to work fist-fighting the oncoming horde.

Kay was too intrigued by the format of the battle to care about that urge she felt inside to rush in and help the others. The motorbugs went up to their opponents one at a time, firing a laser every now and again, but mostly it just looked as if they were patiently waiting to be smashed to bits. Eggman watched the scene unfold with mild interest; he seemed a bit irked that he was (obviously) losing, but not nearly as furious as the Emperor Eggman would have been on Mobius Prime. Meanwhile, Sonic and the others fought off the baddies as though they were doing office work. It was routine, it was dull, and there was no excitement in it. Just another day on the job.

What has happened to this world? Kay wondered incredulously.

She quickly lost interest in the battle itself – clearly the two parties had long since agreed on a winner here – but that's when she noticed the swarm of buzzbombers heading toward town hall and its defenders from the sky beyond Eggman. Reinforcements.

Maybe he's not as simple as I thought.

It didn't take long for her to put the pieces together. The gang hadn't seen any enemies in the sky when they began fighting and thus weren't expecting any to come from that direction. They were so focused on the ground battle, surely at least one of them would get seriously hurt if they didn't look up soon. And despite how quickly they were going through motorbugs, Kay knew they wouldn't have enough time to react.

This had just gotten exciting again.

Her first instinct was to form a Chaos Spear – her weapon of choice on Prime – but then remembered that she no longer had any Chaos Power and thus would have to use her hand-to-hand training to help her. But how was she supposed to use hand-to-hand when the enemies were in the sky? She began to look around for ideas. Her eyes fell on a push broom that was leaning against the outside wall of one of the nearby shops. The handle – if removed from the brush – would serve as a decent substitute for the bo staff she'd been learning to use prior to arriving on this messed-up version of Mobius.

Kay ran to the push broom and snatched it up, putting one foot on the brush to hold it down as she yanked with all her might on the handle. Much to her surprise it came off rather easily, and she tumbled the short distance from the patio to the ground in a heap. Recovering quickly, Kay scrambled back to her feet and looked to the sky again. The buzzbombers were closing in fast, and their first target appeared to be Amy, who was preoccupied with a horde of six or seven motorbugs coming at her from all sides. She had no idea what was behind her.

She suddenly felt like she was back in the streets of NYC, fighting off the Purple Dragons gang outside of Second Time Around in the middle of the night. Holding the handle of the push broom in her hands in the same way she would hold a bo, Kay sprinted right into the fray and swatted at the first buzzbomber like she was swinging a baseball bat. The mechanical bee froze in midair for a moment, sputtered, then fell to the ground, unmoving.

Kay raised a brow. That was too easy. But she didn't have time to dwell on it. For the next several moments she swatted at incoming buzzbombers. By now the others had noticed her presence and thus realized the second danger from above, and Eggman's plans – whatever they had been – were ruined. The last of his army fell against Sonic and the others, and he pounded his fists on his hovercraft.

"Curse you, Sonic! You got lucky this time!" he bellowed.

"Yeah, yeah. Keep telling yourself that, Egghead," the Blue Blur replied.

Eggman scowled, gathered up Orbot and Cubot on either side of him, and fled the scene with whatever robot minions were able to follow.

Sonic strolled up to Kay with a grin. "Nice moves."

"Thanks," she replied. She didn't think she'd seen him smile yet since arriving here. It made her feel suddenly lighter.

Amy said, "You hold that broom like a ninja staff."

Ninja staff? Kay glanced down at it. "It's just a makeshift bo. It was the first thing I could find to use as a weapon."

"That was quick thinking," Sonic said.

"Yeah...but I kind of borrowed it from one of the shops back there. I'd better return it."

Amy grabbed onto the broom handle to keep her from walking away. "It looks like you've handled a ninja staff before. Like you were trained in how to use one."

Kay couldn't help the dubious glance she gave the pink hedgehog in response. "I was essentially swinging it like a baseball bat. Doesn't take much training to do that."

"You know, only the ninja clans of the far east know how to properly handle a staff like that. Maybe that's where you came from!"

Kay stared at Amy. She couldn't be serious. She had picked up a stick and swung it around like she was whacking a piñata, and now suddenly she was part of a ninja clan? Of course she'd had some training with a bo back in NYC, but what she'd done just now certainly didn't prove that. How did the logistics of this world work? She asked, "Do I look like a ninja to you? And how do you know about ninja clans in the far east but you don't know the name of the nearest continent? It's Chun-Nan, by the way."

Amy shrugged, not at all put out by the accusatory questions. "If it's not happening here, we don't care all that much. But I'm telling you, that might be a good place to look if it doesn't seem like you came from any part of the island. I've never seen anyone handle a staff so professionally."

Kay glanced at the group of heroes around her. They all seemed to agree with what Amy was saying. Knuckles even looked impressed. She sighed. This is ridiculous. I picked up a stick and swung it around. How on Mobius am I now being considered a ninja? The guys would totally laugh at this if they were here. "Well..." she said at last, "Thanks, I guess."

Getting used to this new world was going to be harder than she thought.