The Story Behind Soleanna

Chapter 3: A Long Night

10:30 p.m.

As Sonic enters his room to the Soleanna Hotel, Steve Prower the Fox turns away from his laptop and sees the hedgehog. 

"Sonic, what took you so long?" he asks. "You had us worried sick. Amy even went out to look for you." 

Us? Want to know why Sonic and friends are here? 

Sometime last month, Princess Elise had invited some famous people to the Sun Festival and to hopefully meet her. And of course, Sonic and Amy, along with their two other friends, Tails and Knuckles, were some of them. Since they were all minors, they needed to have an adult chaperone, and here we have Steve, Tails' dad. All their other parents were either busy or just didn't want to go. 

"Eggman showed up and kidnapped the princess," answers Sonic as he grabs his pajamas from his suitcase. 

"Dr. Eggman is here?!" Steve raises his voice, shocked at that unfortunate news. He looks around the hotel and sighs, relieved that he didn't wake up Tails and Knuckles. They were super tired when they came back from the festival earlier. "Did you at least do anything?" 

"Well, I did save her," Sonic explains. "but then Eggman's stupid robots came to attack. And of course, being my best self, I defeated them, and when I turned around, Eggman kidnaps her right on the spot!" 

"That sounds fun," says Steve as he turns off his laptop. 

"Not really," Sonic comments as he walks into the bathroom. 

"I know," the yellow fox responds. "I was being sarcastic." 

After Sonic changes into his pajamas, he plops onto the bed he and Knuckles are sharing. Steve and his son are sharing the other bed, while Amy (whenever she comes back) has the pull-out couch since she's the only girl in the group. 

"I'm too tired to save her," Sonic complains. "I want to wait 'til morning, but I don't even know where Eggman took her." 

"Just get a good night sleep," Steve assures him. "and after we get ready, we'll get started on finding the princess." 

He then turns off the light, signaling him and Sonic going to sleep. 

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Meanwhile, in White Acropolis...

The alarm from Eggman's base is heard, as the Egg Gunners march forward, ready for battle. A black hedgehog comes skating out of the snowy forest and towards the base. The Egg Gunners shoot at the hedgehog, but he runs through them, destroying them as he passes by. He then jumps into the base perimeter as an explosion is heard in the background. 

Wearing a black leather jacket over a gray t-shirt, black jeans, and white hover shoes, the black hedgehog hides from the searchlights. He then gets a call from G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations) Headquarters and answers his watch. 

"Transition from HQ," Commander Tower begins to explain through the watch. "There's an S.O.S. coming from Dr. Eggman's base. Our last communication from our agent was 26 hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue, Shadow Rodriguez." 

"Understood. Initiating the mission now," Shadow responds as he turns off his watch and teleports away using Chaos Control. 

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Ten minutes later, in Eggman's base...

"You can't lock me in here, Robot!" a female white bat, locked in a small prison cell, yells. 

"I know," says Robot. "but the doctor says you have to stay in here." 

The bat rolls her aquamarine blue eyes as Robot then tells her, "And now will you excuse me, I need to go polish his guard dog." 

He exits the room as the bat asks herself, "Polish his guard dog...? What is he talking about?" 

Just then, Shadow comes in the room and notices the 14-year-old bat in the prison cell. "Rouge!" he cries as he runs over to her. "What happened?" 

"I was sent on a mission to grab something," Rouge explains. "and when I came here, Eggman's robot caught me and put me in this stupid cell!" 

"I see..." Shadow responds as he karate chops the cell combination lock. The lock breaks (since Shadow has a knack for breaking locks in one go), making the cell open. 

Rouge flies out of the cell as Shadow asks her, "Now what did you need to get?" 

"This weird thing," the bat answers as she shows him a gray miniature staff with some purple ash surrounding it. 

"Wow," says an emotionless Shadow. "That's it?" 

"Apparently," answers Rouge. "Let's just get out of here before Robot catches us." 

But just as the two agents are about to leave the room, Robot comes by and spots them. "AHA!" he shouts out. "I knew you'd try to escape! And I see that Shadow's here, too!" 

Shadow sighs. "Fine," he responds. "Just lock us back up." 

"Shadow!" Rouge shouts, surprised at what her partner just said. 

Shadow turns to her. "What?" he comments. "It's almost midnight. I'm tired!" 

Robot says to them, "Fine, stay the night. But be sure that I won't be around next morning!" He leaves the room, as Shadow and Rouge walk back into the open cell. 

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That was Chapter 3! Remember to comment and vote!