Chaos Born

Two Men and a Hedgehog

The cold hard ground underneath him felt as though it were churning back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...

Sonic briefly wondered if he were on a boat out on a rough sea. But he didn't remember being on a boat.

Then he realised that it wasn't the ground that was moving at all - it was only his spinning head, trying to get its bearings. The only thing he could hear, for the moment, was the sound of his own breathing and the pulsing of his blood in his ears, rhythmically beating along with the pounding of his head. He could feel the cold start to seep through his fur and he involuntarily shivvered, trying to establish a rough idea of where his hands and feet were in relation to the rest of his body as he fought back the nausea. 

Feeling as though he were composed entirely of stone, Sonic dragged one of his splayed arms towards him, limply manouvering it underneath his chest to gain some stability as he pushed up, grunting with exertion.

New sounds were able to be picked out though they sounded muffled and faraway; bleeps and whirrs and hums.

Laboratory noises.

Now with both hands, the blue hedgehog was able to lean on his forearms and hang his aching head down over his clasped gloved paws, evening his breaths and trying to coax his headache away as he felt each of his senses start to return.

When his sense of taste returned, it didn't take long for Sonic to register the bitter tang of blood in his mouth which, upon exploring with his tongue, was discovered to also coat the corners of his lips.

Half anticipating that he was going to meet with bright light, Sonic opened his eyes slowly, peering through the opening of his lids with anticipation.

To his surprise, and relief, the light was dim and wasn't too glaring on his eyes when he opened them fully to discover his whereabouts.

The floor was metal, that much Sonic had already suspected, but the cage he had found himself in was encased in, what appeared to be, glass.

Through the glass he could see flashing red and blue lights and growling computers but his attention, to begin with, was fixated entirely on the man stood at one of the desks, quietly watching him.

Sonic didn't even have to say anything.

"Morning," Eggman greeted, not looking as pleased or as gloating as the hedgehog had thought he would be.

"And there he is," Sonic murmured, shifting his knees up so that he could sit in a more dignified position, "Where have you been then?" he asked, "GUN's been getting their pants in a pinch wondering about you."

"And you weren't?"

"You know me, Egghead," Sonic chuckled, "I don't wear pants. I also consider you a big enough boy to take care of yourself." The laughter on Sonic's voice died away as Eggman stood, leant against the desk, staring at him with an unreadble expression. "So..." Sonic tried prompting, "How...have you been?"

Eggman shrugged his broad shoulders.

 "Well, I've been doing great," he replied, "I've delivered my perfected mad scientist cackle so many times I've lost count, I've moped and sulked and cursed your name long into the night and, uh... Oh! I'd even started hallucinating you around the lair, taunting me and laughing which, of course, has made me even more insane. So, to summarise, I'm long overdue a booking in at that asylum that seems to have reservations for my entire family."

There wasn't a lot you could say to that so Sonic crossed his legs, put his hands in his lap and said the first thing that came to his head.

"That's nice."