Bygone Adventures: Episode 1 "Wild Side"

Rumors

      It was another lazy morning on the west side of Bygone. Sonic and his friends had decided to meet at Meh Burger for brunch, something that had always confused him. He held his head in his hands with a bored expression, idly playing with the "brunch special" that he was certain was a soggy newspaper pretending to be a burrito.

    "What's the point of brunch anyway? It's not breakfast, and it's not lunch! It's completely pointless!"

    "It's not that bad, Sonic," his little brother, Tails, tried to reason. The blue hedgehog sighed loudly, inwardly wishing that something exciting would happen just so he could skip the unnecessary meal. And it was long before his wish came true.

    "Everyone! Assemble the army! Call the military! We gotta do something!" an unfamiliar voice yelled in the center of the village. The gang looked up to see a mole dressed like a farmer running around in a panic. Sonic strode up to him and tried to call him down.

    "Hey, man, what's wrong?" he asked and placed his hand on his shoulder. The terrified mobian grabbed Sonic by his bandana and pulled down to his level. 

    "We have a very serious problem," he whispered, looking around to see if anyone was listening. 

   "Hey, Sonic! What's wrong?" Tails called, as he and the others caught up with the two. The farmer motioned for them to huddle around him. 

     "On the far side of the island," he panted, "I saw predators that are on the hunt for mobian!"

     "Predators!?" Dave the intern exclaimed, putting down his "evil listening device" in honest horror. At that point, the entire town fell into utter chaos, as everyone panicked and ran around screaming. The team tried to diffuse the situation but was failing miserably. Sonic quickly grew fed up with the unnecessary yelling and stood on top of a table and cupped his hands around his mouth. 

      "EVERYBODY, QUIET!" he shouted, and instantly the civilians froze, "Now," he continued, "I'm not sure if there are predators or not, but me and the gang will go check it out. And if there is a threat, we'll handle it, so don't panic. You're safe with us on the job," he reassured them, and the village residents began to calm down. 

     While the band of heroes returned to their brunch, much to Sonic's displeasure, a hooded figure leaned out to watch them. Deadly eyes narrowed into a dark glare and a single fang reflected a ray of sunlight from the observer's snarl. 

     "Of course that idiot and his friends would promise to check it out. I should have known," he said to himself. 

     Sonic glanced back at the darkened corner of a store across the street, unaware of the form shuffling deeper into the shadows.

     "So, Tails addressed the mole they had invited to eat with them in an attempt to settle his nerves, "how did you come across these 'apex predators'?"

     The farmer went in to recount how he saw Dr. Eggman's entire robot army vanquished by one of the monsters in the blink of an eye. He told them about how he saw the first form being approached by a second, much larger member of their species and how they spoke in clear mobian about how they were going for a hunt tomorrow night. 

     "Tomorrow, huh?" Sonic mused, "Guess we'll have to start packing tonight."

     "You're serious?!" Amy nearly shrieked, "Sonic, we're talking about Class A, expert killers here!"

     "Yeah, they could really hurt us!" Knuckles chimed in. Sticks placed both of her hands on the table to draw their attention. 

     "Predators are not to be messed with," she said in dark tone, "They're driven by pure instinct to hunt, kill, and devour! If we're gonna do this, you'll need the best tracker in the field."