San Canyon Strikers

Episode 1: Deal the ‘Bot

The Sun burned down brightly upon the village of San Canyon while its residents hurried about their daily tasks. Surrounded by a huge expanse of desert in the eastern part of Mobius, the ancient gorge of San Canyon had been worn away over the years by the Sistra River. During that time, numerous small settlements had popped up along the crest of the canyon, dipping into the lush forest growing along the river at the bottom of the canyon for food and water. Eventually the various settlements formed together into a single village stringing along San Canyon’s edge for a couple miles. A great deal of activity can be found in San Canyon Village on a daily basis, as today, where we find a young hedgehog dashing at high speed towards the canyon’s edge…

His heart racing, the young hedgehog dashed towards San Canyon’s edge moving faster and faster. As he came up to the edge, he suddenly dug his feet into the ground, screeching to a halt at the canyon’s edge, the toes of his shoes hanging over the edge.

"I did it!" laughed the hedgehog as he stared down from the edge of the cliff, "I can stop on a dime and I’m getting faster every day! Soon they’ll be cheering for me, J.G, the fastest hedgehog alive!"

"Still playing Sonic the Hedgehog?" giggled a voice behind J.G. as he was flicked in the ear.

"Owww." muttered J.G. as he mournfully rubbed his ear and turned to confront his tormentor, "That hurt! And I wasn’t playing, Mik, I was practicing!"

"Act your age," laughed Mik as she brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, "You’re 15, J.G, Sonic was already saving the world at that age, you’re still trying to be like him!"

"You’re one to talk," chuckled J.G. as he pointed to the sword at her side, "You wear that sword like you’re a warrior or something."

"I got this from my uncle!" sniffed Mik as the young fox brushed her tail in front of the sword’s scabbard, "It was his during the war!"

"Forget the Great War," grinned J.G. as he jumped back from the canyon edge, "the war against Robotnik is the only one I like to learn about!"

"We haven’t had any travelers for a while now," said Mik sadly, "we have no idea how the war is going."

"Don’t worry," laughed J.G. as he threw a few punches in the air, "I bet Sonic’s messing up Robuttnik’s plans, like he always is!"

As the two friends laughed, a dark cloud appeared on the horizon and headed swiftly for the canyon. Faster than anything they had ever seen, it shot directly for the main village across the canyon from J.G. and Mik.

"What is it?" asked Mik as she shaded her big violet eyes from the sun’s glare, "it sure doesn’t look like a cloud."

"It’s coming this way!" cried J.G. as the ground reverberated underneath their feet as the huge craft approached. Huddled together, they watched in shock as the huge craft passed overhead and came to a stop above the village’s main square. The huge ship hovered there gently as a small egg-shaped pod launched from beneath it and dropped into the main square, scattering villagers left and right.

"That, that was a ship!" cried J.G. as he continued to clutch on Mik’s arm, "could it be the Freedom Fighters? I heard they had technology almost rivaling Robotnik’s, could they build something like that?"

"I don’t know!" cried Mik irritably as she shoved J.G. away from herself, "but we’ll find out for sure when we get over there!"

Mik sprinted away over the sands, running parallel to the canyon with J.G. following hot on her heels. They headed along the canyon until they came to a rope bridge spanning its entire width.

"Remind me again why you practice so far from any of the settlements," huffed Mik as she leaned against a pole of the bridge.

"My grandfather doesn’t exactly approve of my methods of practice," gasped out J.G. as he headed out over the bridge, "But we’re halfway there, we can’t stop now!" With that, he and Mik continued across the bridge and began heading back to their settlement and that odd, egg-shaped pod.

* * *

The eggish-looking vessel came to rest in the center of the village’s main square, sending the villagers fleeing in terror. All but one, Bison, the leader of San Canyon Village, quickly gathered together the few creatures on San Canyon’s disaster force and headed boldly up to the strange pod. Experts at dealing with all sorts of unpredictable dangers and occurrences, the disaster force was made up of the 6 toughest creatures in all of San Canyon. Now, armed with only a variety of tools, and Bison with his huge war-mallet from ages ago, they confronted this strange new opponent.

With a hiss of escaping pressure, the door on the pod opened and a large egg-shaped fellow stepped out, flanked by a group of jet black figures with glowing red visors. Gazing at the shocked expressions of the villagers he casually stepped off the landing ramp and faced the crowd. "I am Doctor Robotnik," he said with a smile, "I am so glad to have found such a grand welcome from your village."

The villagers shifted uneasily, more than a few looking timidly at the shadow-bots standing at attention just behind Robotnik, or for that matter, the huge ship still floating over the village.

"Robotnik!" spat Bison finally, "if you’ve come to enslave our village, you’re going to have to get through us!" He strode towards Robotnik purposefully.

Robotnik held up his hands, "You have mistaken our intentions completely, friend, as you can see, we are unarmed."

Bison stopped. "I am Bison, the leader of the Village of San Canyon. We know all about you, Robotnik, why else would you be here but to attack us?"

"Well, I am not exactly the Robotnik you once knew," smiled Robotnik as he gestured to himself, "Indeed, I look very little like my predecessor, Julian Kintobar. I am…" he rapped his hand against the pod’s hull with a satisfying clang, "…a complete robot."

"You DO look different from what I can remember of you," muttered Bison, "But then what happened to the original Robotnik?"

"Well he was defeated some time ago by a certain blue hedgehog…" began Robotnik.

"Sonic the Hedgehog!" finished J.G. as he dashed out into the village square, leaving Mik still clutching for his headspines as he dashed from their vantagepoint.

"Well if it isn’t a little brown hedgehog," mumbled Robotnik. Quickly turning to Bison he put his arm around the buffalo’s shoulders, "Actually, we have come here to make a deal with your village. We’re willing to offer the finest in technology for one simple thing: oil."

"Oil, we don’t have much use for that," said Bison.

"Then it works out!" cried Robotnik, "If you would be so kind to lead us to any taps of oil you know of, we would make it worth your while." Pulling a small device out of his pocket he flipped it on and a holographic image of Mobotropolis appeared in the air before Robotnik and Bison. "Behold, the city of Mobotropolis! If you help us find a few sources of oil, we’ll make sure your small village evolves into as amazing a city as Mobotropolis itself!"

"Amazing," gasped Bison as he stared at the hologram, almost touching it, but fearing what might happen to the beautiful image if he did, "It looks almost the same as it did all those years ago when I saw it. I thought Robotnik…the first one, that is…had despoiled it completely!"

"It, er, took MANY years to restore it to its former glory," stammered Robotnik as he hastily put the hologram away, "but we could make this village into an even greater city than Mobotropolis, if you help us!"

"Of course!" gushed Bison, the shimmer of technology beyond anything they had ever known glimmering in his eyes, "I’ll send the disaster team with you, they’ve found more wells of oil while going on reconnaissance than anyone else!"

"Excellent," smiled Robotnik, "They can take my eggship, accompanied by some of my shadow-bots of course, while we discuss the plans for your new city."

* * *

B.G. rubbed his hand over the sleek hull of the pod ship as he admired its amazing design. "How fast does it go?" he asked one of the shadow-bots standing nearby. "Ah, whatever," he laughed as the shadow-bot refused to respond.

"What part of ‘don’t go yet’ don’t you understand?!" cried Mik as she spun J.G. around and jammed her face into his. "You just ran up to Robotnik!"

"You’re right," said J.G, slamming his fist into his palm, "I don’t think we can trust Robotnik, even if isn’t the real…Robotnik, or whatever!"

"Try telling that to Bison and the others," said a wizened old hedgehog as he came over to the youngsters, "Bison and the others all already planning to hold a meeting for the whole village tomorrow with Robotnik."

"Grandfather!" cried B.G, his grin widening, "What’cha doing over here? Shouldn’t you be with the other grown-ups talking to Robotnik?"

"I’m here looking for you two scamps," laughed J.G.’s Grandfather as he tweaked J.G. and Mik’s ears, "Your parents were worried too, Mik."

"Sorry, sir," they replied sheepishly.

"Nevermind," said the old hedgehog as he led them away from the egg-pod, "I found you two, and that’s the important thing. With all our fellow villagers coming in tomorrow for the meeting, I don’t want you to get lost!"

"Don’t worry, we won’t!" called Mik as she ran for her family’s hut, "See ya later, J.G!"

"Yeah, but not too much later," thought J.G.

"What’re you thinking about?" asked his grandfather as they lazily strolled back to their hut, a short distance from Mik’s.

"Just wondering," said J.G. as he kicked a rock out of their path, "what if this "new" Robotnik is no better than the old one?"

"Bison and the others are smart enough," said J.G.’s Grandfather, nodding his head in understanding, "but they seem to be too caught up in Robotnik’s idea of making San Canyon into a huge city! I hope they don’t overdo it."

"It’s just a feeling, I guess," said J.G. He reached to open the door to their hut, "there’s just something about Robotnik, robot or not, that’s wrong."

His Grandfather put a comforting hand on J.G.’s shoulder, "Don’t be afraid to trust your instincts, my instincts got me through many a tough spot." With another squeeze of J.G.’s shoulder, he slipped into their hut.

J.G. turned back to look at the Village Square. The egg-pod ship had just lifted off with the San Canyon’s disaster force and joined up with the mothership overhead. With a roar of its engines, the huge ship lumbered off over the desert, the fading sunlight reflecting off its black hull. Gazing at one of the remaining shadow-bots that continued to stand guard in the village’s main plaza, J.G. had the beginnings of a brilliant plan…or at least he hoped so.

* * *

The sun had risen on another beautiful day in San Canyon Village. Its citizens bustled about, making preparations and food as well as cleaning the meeting hall of all the junk that had been stored there while it was out of use. Among the only two NOT working in the village, were Mik and J.G, who were currently hiding in Mik’s family hut.

"This is stupid," muttered Mik as she continued to rub blue coloring onto J.G, "there’s no way they’re going to mistake you for Sonic."

"Of course they will," said J.G. confidently as he rubbed some more of the coloring onto his spines, turning them blue, "then I can lure one of the shadow-bots away from the main square!"

"For whatever good it’ll do us," complained Mik as she smacked another handful of blue dye onto J.G, "this is all of my mom’s clothing dye, if she finds out we used it all…"

"When she finds out, she and all the other villagers will be too happy celebrating us saving them from Robotnik to be mad!" laughed J.G. "Once I have the shadow-bot’s shell, I can act it like a puppet and spy on Robotnik! Then we’ll find out his evil plan."

"We have no idea if he really IS evil," moaned Mik as she wrung her tail in her hands, leaving quite a splotch of blue in her fur, "We better not rush into anything!"

"Just be ready around the corner," said J.G. as he stood up, "I’m ready, let’s…ARGH, YOU COMPLETELY COVERED ME WITH BLUE!!!!!!!" he began jumping up and down with rage, "Sonic’s fur is blue, not his skin too!!!"

"Hey, YOU were putting the dye on too!" shot back Mik, "it’s not like those stupid robots would know anyway!"

"Okay," growled J.G. as they left the hut, "but if they vaporize me ‘cuz they don’t think I’m Sonic, I’m taking you with me."

"Quiet!" hissed Mik as they took up a spot behind her hut, looking out at the main square of the village, "it’s a little past noon, everyone’s at the meeting right now with Robotnik, it’s now or never!"

J.G. spied the lone shadow-bot on guard beside the egg-pod. After the pod returned, along with the mothership above, Robotnik had stationed one shadow-bot to guard the pod, while the rest accompanied him to the meeting. "I’m working on it," muttered J.G, "we have to do this carefully."

"No, just do it!" cried Mik. Shoving him in the back with the toe of her sneaker, J.G. tumbled out from behind the hut and landed with a thud in the village square, right in front of the shadow-bot.

The shadow-bot gazed down at J.G, sprawled upon the ground. "Capture hedgehog, priority one!" it recited as it lunged towards J.G.

Scrambling away from the shadow-bot as it struck at him, J.G. dashed back behind the hut, followed closely by the shadow-bot.

"Now!" cried J.G, skidding to a halt. As the shadow-bot reached for him, Mik leapt from behind the ‘bot and latched onto it’s head, yelling at the top of her lungs. Ignoring the fox clinging to its head, the shadow-bot closed its hand around J.G.’s body and lifted him from the ground.

"Ugh," gasped J.G. as he tried to pry the shadow-bot’s fingers loose, "it’s c-crushing m-mm-me!"

"You will be robotocized by the great, powerful, and handsome Robotnik! (this is a recording)" deadpanned the shadow-bot. Shaking its head a bit, it flung Mik to the ground. Ignoring her completely, it turned to return to the egg-pod with its captive.

"Hey, where’re you going?" called Mik as she dazedly staggered to her feet, "I’m not through with you!" Pulling her sword from its sheath, Mik lunged at the shadow-bot, sweeping at its head with her blade.

J.G. fell to the ground with a thud, followed by the shadow-bot’s head. Mik stared at it in shock for a second, then to her blade. She shrugged and slid the sword back in its sheath.

"I take back everything I said bad about that sword of yours," said J.G. as he and Mik dragged the shadow-bot’s remains out of the village. Coming to a stop at one of the numerous elevators that ran up and down the canyon’s walls, the shoved the shadow-bot onboard and hopped on afterward.

"Next stop, the forest floor," said J.G. Yanking on the pulley system that controlled the elevator, he quickly lowered them down into the forested area of San Canyon.

* * *

"And so," concluded Bison as he wrapped up his speech at the village meeting, much to the relief of the audience, "with Dr. Robotnik’s help, we shall make San Canyon village more prosperous and grander than ever before thought possible!" Amid the clapping from the crowd, Bison marched over to his seat and sat down.

"True, true," said Dr. Robotnik as he rose to take the stage floor. "I must admit, my hopes of this area have been completely surpassed! My ships found more oil in this region than we could have ever imagined! Such a huge surplus would definitely be a great asset to my city." He looked out over the crowd, "And when my city benefits, so too does your village, no, CITY of San Canyon!"

As cheering erupted from the crowd, Bison rose to speak, "And allow me to say so, Robotnik, that if you need help in transporting or loading the oil, we will be quite happy to oblige!"

Robotnik grinned from ear to ear, "Oh, I don’t think you have a choice in the matter!" he cackled. On cue, the dozen or so shadow-bots scattered about the meeting room powered up their wrist blasters and trained them on the crowd.

"Wh-what are you doing?" asked Bison in disbelief as the shadow-bots advanced on the crowd.

"It’s quite simple, really," said Robotnik, "I am taking control of this ENTIRE region. You and your citizens will be forced to serve ME as the main workforce in my new base, right here!"

"You won’t beat us so easily!" cried Bison. Hurling himself at Robotnik, he rammed his fist straight into the doctor’s gut with a resounding clang.

"Tsk, tsk," scolded Robotnik as he grabbed onto the collar of Bison’s shirt and lifted the buffalo off the ground, "Did you forget I was a robot? It will take a lot more than you to defeat me!" Smiling evilly, he gestured to the crowd, "And you don’t want anything to happen to any of your poor little furry citizens, do you?"

Bison gulped as the shadow-bots made the point by pressing their blasters up against many of the hostages in the crowd, "N-no-no…"

"Good," laughed Robotnik. Flipping open a communicator, he barked out orders, "This is Robotnik to the eggship, send down the second egg-pod!"

"Affirmative, sir," came the reply as Robotnik shut off the communicator.

Marching the entire group of hostages out of the meeting house, Robotnik lead the group back to the village’s main square, just as a second, much larger egg-pod landed alongside the first.

"I thought I left a shadow-bot on guard duty," grumbled Robotnik as more shadow-bots emerged from the new egg-pod to secure the prisoners. Stepping up to the ship, he pressed a button and a hatch opened in the side.

"You treacherous monster!" growled Bison as Robotnik thrust him into the hatch, closing the glass pane down after him.

"On the contrary, I’ve kept my part of the bargain," said Robotnik as he flipped the switch on the Robotocizer, "allow me to technologize your entire city…starting with you!"

The crowd gazed with fascinated horror as they saw their leader change from a creature of flesh and blood into a mechanical monster before their very eyes. Laughing at their awestruck reaction to the robotocization process, Robotnik inserted a chip into the robotocization device, downloading the required data files into his new underboss’ memory banks. With a hiss of escaping steam, the glass panel slid open, allowing Bison to exit, his shining metal plating practically glowing in the sunlight.

"How do you feel, my underboss?" asked Robotnik as he patted Bison on his tin-plated shoulder.

"Just fine, Dr. R," laughed the robot in an eerily exact match of Bison’s actual voice, "Are we ready to construct the base yet?"

"Not yet," said Robotnik, "We still have all these furries to Robotocize first!"

"Right you are," nodded Bison as he thrust the next person in line, an older male rabbit, into the robotocization chamber, "we’ll need a workforce first!"

"As you can see," said Robotnik as he addressed the crowd, "Bison retained much of his personality and attributes because of his underboss programming. The rest of you on the other hand…" He cackled and opened the robotocization chamber’s door.

"How may I serve you, Master?" said the robot as it stepped out of the pod, it’s red eyes staring blankly across the desert.

"Next!" cried Bison.

* * *

As the grisly procession of mechanization proceeded on the edge of San Canyon, those at the bottom of the canyon strived ahead in their efforts to thwart Robotnik’s plan…even if they have no idea what it is. Sitting in the cool shade of the trees, J.G. and Mik were carefully, or perhaps just randomly, pulling the wires out of the shadow-bot’s hull.

"Hey, what’s the pile for, moron?" cried Mik as J.G. tossed another bunch of wires away into the forest.

"Who cares?" shot back J.G, tossing another bunch into the forest, "we’ll never use this stuff again!"

"It pays to be careful," said Mik as she leaned over her stack and jammed the shadow-bot’s forearm piece into J.G.’s lap, "for example, I think I kept the ‘bot’s forearm blaster in working order."

"You think!?" cried J.G, "I better check." He reached his gloved hand into the piece and fumbled around for a switch."

"Maybe it’s…EEK!" screamed Mik as J.G. blasted a sizable chunk out of a nearby tree trunk.

"Guess it works, huh?" grinned J.G. as he slapped the shadow-bot helmet onto his head, "I better suit up, it’s almost sundown."

A few minutes later, the two figures were slipping back through the trees towards the shadow of the canyon wall. J.G. stumbled and fell in a heap onto the wooden lift while Mik nimbly leapt over him and began pulling on the rope to haul them up.

"Get used to walking, fast," said Mik as she strained on the pulley rope, "it’s almost suppertime, the meeting’s probably been over for awhile now!"

"Hey, what’s that?" asked J.G. as they reached the top of the canyon wall. Faintly Bison’s booming voice could be heard from the village plaza. "It sounds like Bison, I think."

The two friends hurried towards the Village Square. Stopping behind one of the huts to peer around its edge, they took in the amazing sight with a gasp.

"That’s the last of them," cackled Bison as the final San Canyon citizen was robotocized. The impressive army of mechanized Mobians stood motionless in the rays of the dying sun, awaiting the orders of their master.

"Everything you need to set up the oil-drilling complex is here in the second egg-pod," said Robotnik, "I’ll leave it to you, my underboss!"

"W-wha-what happened to them?" said J.G, tossing off the shadow-bot helmet as he gazed at the expressionless features of the robotocized citizens, "They’re r-robots!"

"Mom, dad…" whispered Mik as she saw the robotocized faces of her parents through her wet eyes.

"We’ve gotta save them!" cried J.G. as he leapt to his feet, suddenly sure of his movements in the shadow-bot shell. With a yell he charged into the village square with Mik on his heels, sword at the ready.

"Robuttnik!" cried J.G. as they skidded to a halt in front of the assembly, "what did you do to our town?"

"You better change them back, right now!" cried Mik as she jabbed her sword at Bison’s chest.

"What are these, children, doing here?" gasped Bison as he caught Mik’s sword point.

"They seem to have not been at the meeting," mused Robotnik, "and wearing one of my shadow-bots as armor as well!" He waved his hand to the shadow-bots assembled, "take care of them!"

"Hold on," said Bison, thrusting Mik’s sword away from himself, "I have a better idea." Grinning maliciously he barked out, "Attention all units, capture the hedgehog and the fox!"

With one fluid motion, all the assembled robians marched forward, intent on capturing J.G. and Mik, chanting their orders, "Capture the hedgehog, capture the fox…"

"What do we do!" moaned Mik as she and J.G. were backed out of the village by the mob of robots, pushing them relentlessly towards the edge of San Canyon, "We can’t hurt our friends!"

"I wouldn’t mind hurting THAT guy," mumbled J.G. as he pointed out one of the younger robians, "He owes me a ton of money!"

"We’ve reached the edge!" cried Mik as she leapt upon J.G.’s shadow-bot shoulders and clung to his headspines, "they have us surrounded, we’re doomed!"

"Not yet we aren’t!" cried J.G as he backed up against the edge of the canyon, "does this shadow-bot have working jet flying thingies?"

"You ripped ‘em out and tossed ‘em into the forest!"

"Hm, well how about…?"

"No, we weren’t smart enough to run anywhere near one of the elevators."

"Dang, I suppose we really ARE doomed then."

"Now or never!" cried Mik, "What do we do?"

"JUMP!!!" cried J.G. as he flung the shadow-bot shell out into the open air, dragging Mik and himself along with it. Spiraling downwards toward the forest below, the shadow-bot’s parts started to fall apart, releasing J.G. from inside.

Clinging together, the two friends disappeared into the forest canopy below, followed shortly after by a small explosion as the robot body smashed into the ground. A thin trail of smoke crept upwards to the canyon’s edge as the robians stopped and gazed down at the forest below.

"What’s two less workers?" sneered Bison as he ordered the robians back into the village square.

"They worked efficiently," nodded Robotnik, "the perfect workforce!" Leading his shadow-bots onto the first egg-pod, he called back to Bison as the hatch closed, "You better have the base up and running soon, my underboss."

"We’ll work around the sun to finish it, Doctor!" said Bison.

The egg-pod docked with the larger mothership above and slowly lumbered off over the canyon while Bison began the unloading of the second egg-pod. Working quickly, the robians made fast progress as the sun sank below the horizon, just as it had only two days earlier on a vastly different San Canyon.

To…Be…Continued…Soon…

Sonic the Hedgehog, Robotnik, Robotropolis, Mobotropolis are Copyrights of SEGA, and/or Archie comics. Nice little stuff like J.G. and Mik, as well as San Canyon itself were made up by me, Chexov. Bla Network Contains other Sonic stuff, (and other stuff besides) Check us out.