This is an early draft of the very first scene from Sonic Slice! My WIP Sonic the Hedgehog AU series. I thought it'd be fun to share this to show off my writing chops to my followers who haven't read my previous original stories. This might not be the final version of this scene and might look different when the first chapter eventually drops. Let me know what you think and if you have any questions I'd love to answer them!
Scene:
In Central Forest, flickies sang friendly bird songs, and a calm breeze crackled the tree branches and fluttered the leaves. But those peaceful sounds were lost to Eidola the Frog as she urgently hopped through the forest. Nearly a dozen red eyes shone from the shade, and irritated robotic beeps came from her pursuers as they gained on her. Their artificial energy showed greater capacity than her own as her lungs burned, head pounded, and she slowed. Each impact on her joints became rougher as she hopped across the forest floor. But Eidola continued to flee.
A ray of light broke through the dense trees close ahead. Eidola bounded toward the light and found herself in the open air. Five round red eggniks burst from the trees, stopping just at the edge, reaching desperately for her. When Eidola looked at their metallic feet, she realized they were standing on the edge of a cliff. The ground was far below, beneath more forest.
Everything had moved so slowly, as if time itself had slowed. Then, everything moved faster than ever before, as she fell toward the trees.
Next, branches would smash into her face one after another, before everything went black as soon as she hit the ground. But that didn't happen. She came to a stop, upon her leg being grabbed. She curled toward her stomach, looking up to see Franklin, a human boy, already pulling her up. Eidola took his hand as he helped her stand. He was only a few feet tall, small for an eight year old, but still almost twice as tall as she was.
“Thank…thank you…” Eidola said with labored breaths.
Franklin’s own breathing was heavy as he faintly smiled. He looked past Eidola to see the eggniks rushing after them, then grabbed her hand and ran back to the forest.
“W-wait!” Eidola said. “Isn’t it over now? They might be—”
“It isn’t over until they catch us or we get back home!” Franklin said without looking back, squeezing her hand.
Eidola furrowed her brows with determination and slipped her slick hand loose of his and hopped alongside him.
“Who’s left?” she asked, as they weaved around trees.
“Just us!” Franklin said. “We’re getting further though. Even you’re doing pretty good!”
“What do you mean by that?!” Now her brows furrowed in anger.
“Just keep running, Eidola!” The glint in his eyes and surprising reverberance in his high pitched voice told her he wasn’t the least bit discouraged by their pursuers.
She had always been envious of his confidence, though she tried to look at it as sheer stupidity. Sure, he was a couple years older than her, but she wanted to keep up with him physically and mentally regardless of his advantage in age.
“I’ve always been faster than you, Franklin!”
“That’s because you’re a frog! You couldn’t keep up with me if you ran like a human.”
“It’s not about how we get away from them, it's just about not getting caught!”
“Soon, that'll be no problem for the fastest guy in town!” Franklin said about himself, grinning wide. “I’m gonna be just as fast as him one day! Maybe faster!”
They came out of the forest to see their small mountainside town, overlooking the massive skyscrapers and shorter buildings in the residential zones of the distant Central City.
“We made it!” Eidola said. “We finally beat them!”
Franklin looked over his shoulder. “Don’t get ahead of yourself!”
The eggniks burst from the trees, shouting scrambled, robotic gibberish. Eidola almost welled with tears, losing hope, trying to hop faster.
“Woah!” Franklin said, still looking behind.
“What?” Before Eidola could turn around, the shadow of an eggnik passed over them and it crashed legs first a few feet ahead. Eidola and Franklin stopped right in their tracks and looked behind to see one of the eggniks rolling the shoulder of the arm it had used to throw its friend. Eidola had no hope of hopping over the one ahead of them, nor did Franklin of running around it, not with its extendable arms. The children looked at each other and resigned to their defeat with frowns.
The eggnik ahead of them raised its arms to grab them. A blue gust flashed past the eggnik, toppling it over, slapping the kids with wind. The other eggniks were hit by the same phenomenon, falling to their backs like turtles. Eidola could hardly keep her eyes open amidst the heavy gust, then the blue streak slowed in front of her as she opened them.
“Oh…oh my…” Franklin stuttered.
A blue, spiky-quilled hedgehog—a little taller than Franklin—bent forward. His long quills flapped from the aftermath of his speed as he began to straighten his back.
“You’re…you’re—!” Franklin said with almost a yelp.
The hedgehog’s green eyes and confident grin shone bright. Eidola clenched her hands over her beating chest.
The hedgehog threw them a thumbs up. “Sonic the Hedgehog!” he said.
Eidola had nearly forgotten to breathe, and Franklin was stiff as a board. She wetted her dry lips to say: “Umm, it-it’s an honor sir, but, uh, are they okay?”
She looked at the eggniks who were getting off their backs, shaking their heads dizzily.
“Oh, they’ll be fine,” Sonic said with a laugh. “Sorry guys! Force of habit!”
The eggniks groaned.
Sonic smirked. “Yeah, they’ll be okay. Besides, I took it easy on ‘em compared to how we used to go at it. Looks like you guys have been having fun.”
Franklin tried to speak, but his jaw was stuck open.
“Ugh, I guess, but they keep catching us!” Eidola said with a stomp of her foot.
Sonic squinted at the eggniks, then looked at the village as he said: “They may be programmed to be good now, but they’re not any stronger than they used to be, either. Canon fodder is what these guys are…” Sonic tilted his hip as he turned to the eggniks. “No hard feelings, fellas.”
The eggniks shrugged off his comment and returned to the forest.
“Point being…” Sonic knelt down and set one hand each on the children’s shoulders. “Just keep at it, and you’ll grow into your potential.”
Eidola nodded, feeling empowered by her hero.
“So, how’ve things been around here?” Sonic asked, standing back up.
“Uh…uh…good,” Franklin finally said.
“Have you come back to Central City to visit your friends, Mr. Sonic?” Eidola asked.
“Yeah, but also I’m…” Sonic’s voice fell like an autumn leaf as he stared at the city. “Checking up on things.”
“Can I…uh, can I get your autograph, sir?” Franklin asked.
“Sure thing, just don’t tell the rest of the kids I’m-” Before Sonic could finish, ear piercing shrieks erupted from the forest as the eggniks were joined by the rest of Eidola’s friends. “...Here.” Sonic sighed. “Welp, gotta get going! Play nice with the bad-uhh--- I mean, eggniks!”
The other children, human and mobian alike, almost crowded Sonic, but he zipped away, leaving a brief blue flash in his wake. They watched the blue streak approach Central City.
“Wow, the stories were true...” one of the other kids said.
“Yeah,” Eidola said, “He doesn’t stay in one place for very long.”