The Heat Is On

 

Synopsis:  Fall season has come to Mobius and Indian summer hasn’t yet occurred.   Out of nowhere, an unusual bot by the name of Flare suddenly appears, making the climate unbearable.   No one can seem to stand up to this bizarre bot and she doesn’t even know who made her or why.   All she knows is that her prime directive is to ‘boil Sonic and his friends alive to purify Mobius’.  

 

 

Chapter 1—A Peaceful Autumn Picnic, Interrupted

                The oncoming marriage of Dashiel to Iridina was getting closer and Dashiel was beginning to feel his nerves starting to get the better of him.

                ‘I know we’ve been together for what seems like forever, but I feel so uneasy about this, dad.  Did you feel the same way when you were getting married to mom ?’, he asked, watching Iridina across the way playing Frisbee with some other friends of hers.     She moved in such a fluid motion; it was poetry to Dashiel’s eyes, and he couldn’t break his gaze from her.   

                ‘That’s perfectly normal.   I think all royals felt that way at some time or other.   I do realize it’s monumental pressure that we’re forced to face, but you’ve remembered what mom and I taught you.’, Sonic said, placing his hand upon his eldest son’s shoulder.    Dashiel nodded in agreement.   Over the years, he had learned how to overcome negative thinking with facts, figures and being present.   Breathing helped, and the simple mantra ‘cool, calm, collected’ always made him more level-headed and far less reactionary.   

                Savoring a look at the glorious leaves and the smile on his fiancé’s face, Dashiel went to join Iridina to play with her friends.   The atmosphere went from crisp to almost unbearable.   There was a blazing metallic red robot that appeared from an infernal portal out of thin air, and immediately came after Sonic, knocking Amy into a tree as she plowed into him.   

                Flame’s talons were fully extended as she tried to burn Sonic’s face, but he flipped Flame around, turning the tables on her and held her down.

                ‘Who are you ?!  What do you want ?!   Why are you even here, and who made you ?!’, he asked, feeling the sweat pour from his body due to how much heat she was emitting.   All others around her began to feel a little fatigued, but not faint.   So long as they could rehydrate quickly, there was no reason to panic, but she began evaporating the water around her.

                ‘I don’t know why I’m here.   I don’t know who fabricated me, but I do know I am called Flame.  My prime directive is annihilating you and your family.   It’s for the purity of Mobius.  I must comply or else I die !’, Flame said.   Sonic chuckled for a moment. 

                ‘Woah, woah, woah.  Slow down there, hot shot.   First of all, you come in here all infernal and ruin what would be an otherwise heartfelt moment between a father and son and an outstanding picnic. Second of all, could you dial it down a notch with the heat ?’, Sonic quipped.    It was his rote to revert to levity when the situation seemed a bit dicey, as this one obviously was.    Flame was down, but she most certainly was not out, and it was obvious she would stop at nothing to burn him and Mobius to the ground if it met her means.    He had no other choice but to retaliate, and it was about to become ugly.  

 

Chapter 2—Hedgehog Family Goes Full Quills Out

                'Daddy, who is she?', Princess Mehira asked.   Flame stirred from having been knocked down and punched Mehira through a tree.   The rest of the family saw Mehira’s collision and made certain that she was fine.   Mehira wasn’t even phased and glared at Flame.

            ‘Hey, robot bully. That wasn’t nice.’, she said, once she was back on her feet and stable, her tone menacing.   Flame scoffed and adjusted herself, extending her talons again.  

            ‘Red Fang will reign supreme…’, Flame said in a murmur, almost in a daze.   It wasn’t certain whether Red Fang was the creator or some sort of organization that Flame followed, but whatever it was, obviously it was evil incarnate.  

            Sonic and his family only had mere seconds to recuperate as Flame blasted them all with a flamethrower from her mouth.   Her eyes worked as lasers to add more danger to an already unbelievable skirmish, and the flames were incredibly destructive.   Those who could use water were dosing the blazes as they broke out.   Tsunami was the most helpful and Ridge added extra earth to cover what had been singed.    Surge was getting annoyed with this Flame being and thought the name she had said was familiar.  

            ‘Why do I know that name so well ?’, she thought.

            ‘Don’t you remember, sis ?  Fang created all of us and instilled us with elemental abilities.  He used chaos control, not knowing that the payment would be brutal…’, Tsunami said, dosing more blazes in the process as the fight continued.    The strife between Flame and the hedgehog family seemed like it was unending until Mehira caught her by surprise and found her kill switch. 

            ‘Do not touch that, tiny hedgehog…’, Flame warned before trying to fling her from her smooth, shiny body much like a dog would do to annoying fleas in its coat.    It was too late though; her initial protocol had been overridden.   At least for now, the incendiary weather had returned to normal, and Tsunami brought in rain with the help of Surge to reconcile for the water loss the park had suffered during the bout. 

 

Chapter 3—Further Study Required

            It had been obvious that Flame was doing her best to keep the name Red Fang quiet, but during the heat of the battle between herself and the hedgehogs, it slipped out.   She had become overly confident, and her pride easily proceeded with her downfall.   However, she wasn’t ‘out’ entirely.  She was still a menace and a threat that everyone had to watch intently. 

            ‘So, who is Red Fang ?’, Sonia queried. 

            ‘We know, actually.’, Ridge began, uneasily.   After all these years, all those repressed memories were beginning to surface, and it was as if they were reliving those horrific incidences all over again.  

            ‘He isn’t human.   He’s something…other.’, Tsunami began.   Red Fang was a Synthroid, self-made, totally contaminated by experimenting with chaos emeralds.   Red Fang had longed for the secret of eternal youth since losing his parents back on Jovi, his home planet, which was dying thanks to overuse of mining for fossil fuels.   He had created the siblings due to his desire for pure devotion and amassed a droid army the likes of which no one had ever witnessed.   He had been able to find a pocket dimension on another planet that was much like Mobius, which was called Tildarian but wanted more out of the Universe once he had conquered its pacificist people.    In his quest for more territory and power creating Flame, he had heard Mobius’ broadcasts and seen holovids from lightyears away and programmed Flame to kill with extreme prejudice, hoping that in time, he would have the ability to create a craft to arrive in Mobius and face off against Sonic and his family himself.   During the creation of Flame, the triplets had been blasted off Tildarian from a mining exhibition he sent them to which went wrong.   They were still a bit mixed up, picked up by Robotnik and the rest is history.    The three were going to be noble and true to whomever saved them, but like Knuckles, they learned whom they could and couldn’t trust.

            ‘So, another whack job to worry about ?’, Sonic summed up.

            ‘Oui, Red Fang is one fry short of a Mobian meal.’, Antoine chimed in, getting a much-needed laugh from everyone to break the tension momentarily.

 

Chapter 4—Sonic Must Die !

            It was no time before the residual power unit in Flame resumed activity and she was back, raging, ranting, and flaming at anything that moved.    She was held in the highest security cell the Castle had to offer just for scenarios such as this one, and all the scientists and robotics experts were trying to discover if she could be overridden, if at all.  

            When it was too late to try overriding her, Flame hit a button on her right wrist and lamented. 

            ‘It seems you were all too intelligent for me to foil.   At least now my Master can come and find me and handle you himself…’, she said.    Before she could self-destruct, Tails had found the algorithm to ‘revert’ her to her factory settings.   She had goodness within her, she simply had to be taught, and her elemental abilities could certainly prove useful… 

            'I think I found it.', he said.

            The others leaned in intently, waiting to hear positive news.   Fortunately, Tails found the original code that Flame had been installed with and reverted her to her ‘factory setting’.   Luckily Red Fang hadn’t been proactive enough to have a system that would overlap any reboot or cold start to his star assassin.    She had been programmed to hara kiri if something had gone wrong, but Tails and the gang thought this was highly unethical and wrong even if she had come with purely evil intentions to kill them all and ‘reset their world’ as she had so eloquently put it numerous times.   

 

Chapter 5—We Must Prepare  

                Flame decided she wanted to be helpful in her new format, but she did carry one message that Red Fang had encoded despite all other workarounds to her system.  Out of the blue, she started broadcasting it, playing a hologram that revealed just how corrupt and sinister Fang was.

                ‘If you are seeing this, it means Flame has failed me.  I was forthright enough and proactive to install her with a tracking device, and no, if you’re wondering, it cannot be disabled.   I do not know what Universe you reside in, but I will find you and once I do, you and your friends will be annihilated.    Flame will be the first to fall since she failed me so miserably.    I can still use her against you, but I have to be within range.   Let’s just say that you won’t want her as an ally on the battlefield because the results will be, hmm, explosive, yes ?’, Red Fang stated in a thick accent.    It was a wonder that he was able to keep himself together with the rot of the emerald overtaking him, but he was bound and determined to set forth his drones and fight Sonic face to face to finish the mission that Flame failed. 

 

Epilogue

                There had been a mystic prophecy foretold years ago by the Indigo Oracle, who had been the parent to the current Oracle.    She had said that a ‘blazing one’ would come and aid them greatly, and she would even defy her own programming once she understood the power of friendship.   So far, only part of the prophecy had been completed, but Flame had proved she was exquisitely useful with her elemental abilities.    She didn’t really understand how important she was, but her technology would prove useful in Mobius’ advancement in the coming years. 

                Since everything had calmed down exponentially, storms had been predicted for the latter part of the day and the family wanted to enjoy it watching the lightning crackle through the clouds in a late September storm.    There was an uneasiness although Flame had been reset.   Her video had sparked Sonic to train a bit more with his family and make certain everyone had their self-defense tightly honed and perfected.   There was only so much they could prepare for, though, because Fang himself was a dastardly, stealthy, corrupt force and there was no telling what he was capable of.   He simply had to put aside any sort of creeping fear and rely in the power of the medallion, Timely, Flame’s abilities and the strength of his family put together.    They would come through this tighter than before, but not without Fang messing with death, resurrection and space and time before all was said and done. 

 

To Be Continued…