NOTE: The following is based loosely on characters created by Yuji Naka (Nack, Robotnik, Mecha Sonic, Egg

Bot) of SEGA and are copyrighted and all that legal stuff . Any and all other characters are my own creations.

E-mail ~Bloocheez3@aol.com

GROUNDZERO

MOBIUS

Part 1

Prologue:

PLANET ROBOTROPOLIS: A massive ball of twisted metal and toxic

fumes. Not a single inch of the planet's surface is visible. Life is outlawed,

happiness is a sin. It’s ruler, Lord Robotnik, holds the entire planet in his cold,

iron claws.

Once a beautiful world, Robotropolis was known to its inhabitance as

Mobius. The anthropomorphic Mobians lived in peace with one another for

centuries, until Dr. Robotnik took over. Lead by Sonic the hedgehog, a small

band of freedom fighters clashed with Robotnik time and time again. These

conflicts almost always ended in stalemate.

Finally, one night, Sonic and company had Robotnik cornered. Knowing

that the end was near, the sinister scientist made a last ditch effort to win the

war. The explosion that destroyed the city of Robotropolis shook the ground for

miles around. When the smoke cleared, only Robotnik was left standing. His

plan had worked, his personal force field held and he was alive.

Now he and his henchmen rule with total impunity. Those that were left

alive can not fight. They must hide in the shadows, and hope that one day a

hero will emerge. Like Sonic twenty years before, someone must rise up and

fight. But until someone does, the people of Robotropolis can only wait…and

pray.

Chapter 1

“What do your scanners show Nack?” Robotnik sat in his throne high in

the Robotropolis Tower, overlooking the metallic landscape.

“Nothing yet sir,” came in a static muffled voice over the Vid-Com “Wait,

We’ve got something!” Four red dots bleeped on the tiny scanner’s screen. “Ok

fellas, we’ve got them now! Mecha, you go around the right flank. Egg-Bot, you

take the left. I’ll take the center. Ready, go.”

Mecha, the metal Sonic look-alike, zoomed around the pile of discarded

robot junk and armed his palm blasters. “In place.”

“Egg-Bot in position as well.” Egg-Bot resembled Robotnik as he looked

during the Rebellion, but was less disciplined. “Can’t wait to fry these rodents!”

“Yes, they won’t even know what hit them!” Cackled Mecha.

“Cut the banter! Pay attention to the plan.” Snapped Nack. “Here they

come.”

A family of opossums came crawling out from the rubbish, right in front of

Mecha’s line of fire.

“Boo!” piped Mecha as his weapons began a high pitched humming.

Suddenly a shot fired as Mecha’s right arm was sent flying into the air. “What!?”

“That’s enough out of you.” The voice came from a figure standing on top

of one of the low metal buildings. Three sharp spikes of closely paked quills jutted from the back of the silhouette’s head. A tiny round nose in the front.

“It can’t be!” Shouted Nack. “Shoot him!”

The dim shape jumped down just as a storm of laser fire rained down on

his previous position. He fell down under a direction light, revealing himself. The

brown hedgehog’s dingy trench coat bore the marks of many battles and his hydraulic boots added a few extra inches to his hight. A metal clamped belt complete with blaster holster rested against his side. And he had his striped down blaster pointed at

Egg-Bot. “It can’t be what?” He said as he bombarded Egg-Bot with electron-

bullets.

“AAGH!” Egg-Bot wailed as he exploded into smoldering shrapnel.

Nack jumped high into the air and activated his rocket-boots. “He’s just

one hedgehog! We can take him!” Nack and Mecha charged at their assailant.

Just then another figure zipped through the air and landed a solid punch to

Nack’s jaw.

“Good job Radar! He’ll be eating through a straw for a while!” Laughed the

hedgehog.

“Thanks.” Radar fluttered down and landed next to his friend. “So now

what about Mecha, Salvos?”

Salvos scratched his chin. “Hmm, that’s a good question.”

Mecha gained more speed as he approached, but Salvos and Radar stood their ground.

“Oh now I’ve got it!” announced Salvo. “We…JUMP!” As Radar soared into the hazy sky, a hydraulic snap\hiss rang out and Salvos followed, just as

Mecha smashed into the ground under them.

Nack staggered to his feet. “Feisty bat!” Nack had Radar in his sights and

was about to fire when a device on his wrist began to beep. “This isn’t over!”

The rocket jets on his boots ignited and Nack took off towards the Tower.

“Come on Radar,” Shouted Salvos. “Follow him!” The two took after Nack.

A wrought iron gate opened just in time for Nack to enter, and slammed

shut a split second behind him. Nack pulled out his Vid-Com. “Sir, I have two

rebels on my tail! And they took out Mecha and Egg-Bot!”

Robotnik’s synthetic skin stretched as he grinned while he watched the

large screen in front of him. “I see them Nack. Enter bay 12-B. I have a

BuzzBomber squad after them now.” Robotnik swiveled in his chair to face

another monitor. “Bomber-one, what is your status?”

The face of an A-class BuzzBomber came on screen. “This is Bomber-

one. We have the targets in sight.”

“Good, attack with the usual, merciless fashion.”

“We...” The image of the BuzzBomber was replaced by static.

Robotnik growled. “Bomber-one are you there. Bomber-one, answer me!

ARGH!” Robotnik turned around again to face a surveillance monitor. “Lets see

who our guests are. Ah, a bat and a… Hedgehog?” Robotnik’s eyes beamed

red. “Not another one!”

Salvos landed with a thud, his boots crushing some singed BuzzBomber

parts. “That was easy.” He said looking around.

Radar hovered next to him. “I know, I can’t help but think that was just to

soften us up though.” Said the bat as he brushed the dust from his shoulders. “I

guess we have to get in there.” He mumbled, pointing at the four-foot-thick iron

walls of the gate. Salvos walked up and kicked it.

“Right, but I just don’t know how to…” Salvos squinted and leaned close to

the door. “Hmmm.”

“What is it?” Asked Radar.

“Look, see this?” Salvos tapped a finger on a particularly corroded section

of the metal barrier. “This is acid oxidation. Only a strong acid could do this.”

“So? Where are we going to find enough of, what ever that stuff was, to

eat all the way through that much galvanized iron?”

Salvos turned and grinned. “Look behind you.”

Radar turned and saw a huge round receptacle. “DANGER: Highly Corrosive

Chemical. Store Only In Special Container.” Radar said as he read the lable aloud. “Well, if this is anything to go by, I’d say this stuff is highly corrosive chemicals.”

They gave each other a smile.

“We’ll go up there,” Salvos said, motioning towards a near by rooftop.

“From there I can get a good shot and stay a good distance away.”

Radar nodded. “Right, better let me check it out first.” In a blink Radar

was above the roof. “All clear.” He said into his transceiver headset. “But there

are some shadows here that look like they could hold some surprises.”

Just as soon as soon as the words had left his mouth, spears of light

lanced out at Radar. He was quick enough to dodge the beams but he didn’t

know how long he could keep it up. “Salvos! You’d better get up here!”

Once again Salvos’ boots let out a snap/hiss and he took to the air. He

landed on the roof just beside the shadows. With the light given off by the lasers,

He could see the cannon turrets that were doing the firing. “Time to…Yikes!”

One of the turrets spun around to face him, and fired. Salvos was sent

sprawling by an explosion at his feet. He had barley enough time to spring back

up when another blast shook him.

“This has gone on for too long!” With but a split second spent on aiming,

he fired his blaster into the turret’s nozzle. The explosion caused a chain

reaction, and the other three cannons were taken out as well.

“Man! You need to get me a weapon,” gasped Radar. ”I’m just a sitting

duck!” He touched down next to Salvos. “Now we better hurry before Robotnik

sends in the cavalry.”

Salvos walked to the edge of the roof and shot down at the massive

container of acid. The hole blasted in the side shot acid straight out, and onto

the barricade. When the supply ran out the two jumped down. The smell was

painful. It wrenched at their eyes, stomach, and throat.

“Man this stuff is acrid!” Coughed Radar. “Hope it did the job.”

They walked up to the spot where most of the caustic fluid had struck. A

gapping whole had been melted clean through, and the chemicals had made

their mark on some of the objects on the other side as well.

“Now that worked out better than I hoped!” Salvos said cheerfully. They

ran through the new door and proceeded after Nack.

A hatch slid open and Nack tromped through. “Sir,” he managed through

catching his breath. “Are they still on their way?” He walked up, stood next to

Robotnik and stared at the monitor with him.

Robotnik’s face tightened. “I don’t understand how they are doing this.

Look, they got through the outer gate.” He spun around to face Nack. “Go get

your Swat-Suit. If you fail this time, you’d better hope they kill you…or I’ll do

worse!”

Nack could take a hint. “Yes sir.” He ran through another hatch and down

a hall. At the end was a machine. A thick glass tube with electrical conduits and

other odd looking devices attached. “Time to gear up!” Nack said, climbing into the cylinder. With the push of a button, the tube lit up with white fire and a high pitched zap. When the light died down, Nack was gone and a tall, metallic killing machine stood in his place. “Heh heh heh…”

The metal floor clanged as Salvos ran. Radar fluttering right behind him. “You

know what Radar?” Salvos said as they rounded a corner.

“What?”

“I really wish I knew where we were going.” They rounded other corner. Salvos smacked into a hard alloy wall, and Radar smacked into Salvos.

“Well, well.” Said the wall. “Look what we have here!”

Salvos looked up to find the wall was actually Nack. “Um, hi. You

the tour guide?”

Nack wasted no words. He reached down, plucked Salvos up, and tossed

him hard into a real wall on the other side of the room. “I hope you’ve enjoyed

your selves,” he uttered in an electronically altered voice. “play time’s over.”

Salvos’ blaster rang out, and the deadly bolts bounced off Nack’s armor

plated chest. “You coward!” Salvos shouted. “You have to hide behind that?

Too afraid to face me without all the hardware?” He got to his feet and ran at

Nack.

“Oh please! “ Nack swung an armored foot and caught Salvos right in the

chest. “You’re really going to have to do better than that! Why not get your little

bat buddy to help?”

Salvos looked around. Where was Radar? He was nowhere to be found.

“What have you done with him?” Said Salvos, wiping a little bit of blood from his

nose.

Nack laughed. “I didn’t do anything with him!” He said. “Maybe he

was smart and got out while he could.” Nack laughed again.

Then the room was ablaze with electrical flare.

“AARGH!” Nack screamed and dropped to the floor.

Radar hovered with a large live wire in hand leading from a console

behind him, sparks spewing from it. “Hope I’m not too late.” He said.

“HA! No, you’re just in time.” Salvos and Radar continued down the

corridor.

“Not so fast!” Yelled a scorched Nack. Chunks of his armor fell off as he stumbled to his feet. “Catch!” Salvos turned around in time to see a razor sharp disc flying at him.

Time seemed to slow down. The disc sailed at Salvos’ neck. All he could

do was to turn and duck. But it was too late. The blade struck him on the side of

his face and gashed into his left eye. Salvos dropped to the floor, bleeding.

Nack stood up. “Man, incomplete pass! HA HA HA!”

Radar grabbed Salvos and pulled him to his feet. “Come on, we’ve got to

get you back home and fix you up.” He turned and went out the way they came

in. Out into the dark city and through a maze of allies. Radar came to a dead

end. “Open up Wedge.”

The wall shifted and slid open to reveal a hidden base. The room blinked

and buzzed. One wall was covered with weapons another was monitors, floor to

ceiling. Furniture was scattered here and there. The room spoke.

“So was the mission a success?” It asked.

Radar lowered Salvos down on a mattress and sat next to him. “It would

have been, if Salvos hadn’t got injured.”

A small robotic arm extended from the floor and shined a beam on Salvos.

“Yes, he’s got a cut on the left side of his face!” Wedge said.

“What? A ‘cut’?” Radar asked sarcastically. “Naw, Nack only tried to give Salv a quick lobotomy! A ‘cut’, sheesh.” He took off Salvos’ boots and

set them at the end of the bed. “Stupid computer.” He mumbled

“We’ll have to patch him up than, won’t we?” More robotic arms with

various medical instruments appeared and began to repair Salvos’ wound.

Radar stood up. “Don’t worry pal, Wedge’ll fix you up.” He walked over to

one of the security screens. “Any more Probe-bots visit while we were gone,

Wedge?”

“No,” answered Wedge “just a SwatBot. But I took care of him.” A

hatchway on the ceiling opened and a pile of SwatBot parts fell to the floor. Radar digging through it in a flash. “It was just walking by, but better safe than sorry…well all done.”

Radar jumped up from the pile of Swat-parts and ran over to Salvos. “His eye still looks bad.” He said.

“Yeah, he’ll never see out of it again. How you feel’n?”

Salvos sat up. “My head is killing me. I’ll never see out of this eye

again?” He ran his fingers along the stitches on his face and eye. “How am I

going to fight with only half a face?”

“Well,” Radar looked at the random spare part in his hand “We could make a

robotic eye piece. But there’s really no guarantee that it’ll work.”

Salvos reclined back down. “Anything that’ll let me fight again! Do it.” With

that Radar and Wedge began work.

Light cut a horizontal line through a wall of black as Salvos opened his eyes and sat up. “Hey it worked! I can see. How’d you do it?”

Radar motioned for Salvos to walk to a mirror. “That’s a SwatBot visual

sensor installed. Not very pretty, but does the job.” Radar walked up and stood

next to Salvos. “Wedge connected it to some kind of nerves. He says you can

do all sorts of things with that eye just by thinking about it. Night vision and all sorts of stuff.”

Salvos smiled. “Wedge is right! I’m seeing with infrared vision through

this eye! Now ultra-violet, now contour, now X-ray!” Salvos began walking

around the room with his real eye shut. “Wow! I can analyze the computer

systems’ schematics and stuff! This is great!”

Radar chuckled. “Looks like Nack’s plan back fired!”

“Hate to interrupt,” Wedge cut in “but you better cover that up. It’s really

not the most durable piece of a SwatBot you know.”

“Right.” Radar ran into his quarters and came out with a shinny, black

metal eye-patch. “This was part of my pirate costume. It’ll protect the eye real

good. And sense it’s visor-metal, you can see out but no one can see in. It won’t interfere with your sight.”

Salvos took the eye-patch and put it on. “Perfect! Alright lets go.”

“Go?” Radar and Wedge asked in unison.

“Yeah,” declared Salvos “They’ll never expect us to return so soon. Now

is the perfect time to strike!”

Radar frowned. “You’re insane! What if one of us gets hurt beyond

repair?”

“We’ll just have to take that chance.”

“Good job Nack.” Robotnik said as Nack entered the room. “I watched

the entire battle. Since you were successful, I’ll forgive the destruction of your

Swat-suit.”

Nack fell to one knee in front of Robotnik’s throne. “Thank you sir.” He

stood, “Have Mecha and Egg-Bot been reassembled yet?”

A door squeaked open and the two Badniks entered the room. “As you

can see they have been repaired…with a few modifications.” Robotnik seemed to

be ‘happier’ than usual. “Men,” He began “the events of earlier today have

shown to me that we have been lax in keeping the populous in check…” He

paused for effect, something he did often. “Therefore, we need to tighten our

grip. Show the good people who’s boss.” Robotnik got up and stomped over to a

large window. “Before we only kept the Mobians from tampering with my

projects. Now I’m declaring this Mobian Hunting Season! Find each and every

one of them…and destroy them. All of them!”

Nack cleared his throat. “Sir, if we destroy all of your subjects…who will

you rule over?”

Robotnik’s massive body began to shake. He was laughing. “Ah, Nack. I

can always depend on you if I want to explain the obvious.” He lifted his fist and

smashed the huge window. The shards erupted outward and down to the streets

below. “Don’t you see? I am no longer happy with just one planet. It’s time I

expanded my vision and shared it with others.”

“Sir, how are you going to do that?” Nack was obviously enjoying the

notion of interplanetary conquest.

“With this!” Robotnik pushed a button on his arm and the planet shook.

On the horizon, an enormous egg-shaped building rose from the ground. With

Robotnik’s countenance on it.

Egg-Bot gasped. “Is that…”

“The DeathEgg!” Exclaimed Mecha.

“Men,” Robotnik roared “you are witnessing the dawn of a new era!”

Nack grinned, showing his fangs. “And when will we be undertaking this

new endeavor?” He asked.

Robotnik pushed another button. The floor opened up and an odd craft

rose up on a platform. Then a skylight opened. “This is the Egg Shuttle.”

Robotnik said proudly. “This will take us to the DeathEgg. As soon as we get

there, we will begin the process of taking off. If all goes well we should be off

Robotropolis in one hour.” He got into the shuttle. “Get in all.” The three lackies clambered into the shuttle. With a jolt the shuttle blasted off through the opening in the ceiling.

Salvos and Radar got off the ground and brushed themselves off. “That

was weird.” Said Salvos.

“Yeah. Never had an earthquake on Robotropolis before.” Radar

squinted. “Wait,” he whispered “something isn’t right.”

“What is…” Salvos’ words were drowned out by the roaring of hyper

engines. They watched as an egg shaped craft soared by over head. “Now that

can’t be good.”

End Part 1