Author's Note:

Hi, welcome to Ultimate Sonic. This is my retelling of Sonic, beginning with a cross between the original game and SegaSonic Arcade, and going... well I'll leave that blank for now. Anyway, it's primarily inspired by the game canon, but with heavy influences from other Sonic canons as well. Beyond that, there will naturally be a lot of characters of my own creation, primarily antagonists and background characters added for flavor, but I can't promise the spotlight will be on the usual heroes 100 of the time. Also, I'd like to thank Thrippa for graciously allowing me to use the term dokan for Sonic and the others of his kind, since anthropomorph really is an unwieldy term.

Sonic the Hedgehog reclined on his temporary bed in Dr. Robotnik's medical lab, one sneakered foot tapping against the wall in rapid time to the music blaring from the headphones perched on his ears. His brilliant blue fur ruffled in the breeze produced by the air conditioning unit. He opened one eye as a loud booming made itself heard over the music.

"One sec!" he called, vaulting out of bed and stepping over to the door of his room in less time than it took most people to blink.

"Geez, Mighty," He continued, as the door slid open with a slight hiss to reveal the red and black armadillo on the other side "You don't have to beat the door down to get my attention. Hey Ray, what's up?" Sonic asked, addressing the golden furred flying squirrel standing close behind Mighty, as if to hide in his shadow.

"Sonic," Mighty said slowly, "We want to talk to you."

"Okay, what about?" Sonic asked, cocking his head to one side and scratching his ear.

"About leaving. Don't you think it's time to go home?"

"Are you kidding?" Sonic grinned, "How can you not like it here? The digs are nice, the fridge is stocked. We get to play on the obstacle courses the Doc builds, and when we're not working with him we get to do whatever we want. He even made me new shoes. Did you see these things? Awesome, right?"

"Yeah," said Mighty quietly, "We get to do whatever we want, except leave the island to go see our friends."

Sonic's smile faltered slightly. "You really mean it, huh?"

"Maybe it's different for you," Mighty said, "You don't have a family to go back too, and you actually enjoy your speed. I don't like being a freak."

"You're not a freak," Ray said in a voice just above a whisper, "You're… special."

"Two different ways of saying the same thing, Ray," Mighty replied, "I'm different, and people notice. I hate being the center of attention."

"Well alright then," Sonic said, grinning again, "let's call up the boss man and ask for a boat. We can use my phone."

"Sonic, wait!" Mighty said as Sonic skipped over to the video phone console and started punching buttons.

"Why?" Sonic asked, looking over his shoulder, a finger hovering over the last button.

"I don't think it's that easy…" Mighty said, glancing around nervously, "That's why we came to talk to you. We were planning on… sneaking out. Escaping."

"What are you talking about? He gives me whatever I ask for."

Mighty shook his head, "I don't think he'll just let us go."

"Sure he will, I'm like his favorite." Sonic said, punching the final button.

The screen flickered on. Dr. Robotnik sat facing away from the camera, watching another screen on the other side of the room intently, only the very edge of which was visible around the bulk of his body. An odd high pitched shrieking sounded intermittently in the background. Then Robotnik shifted, and over his shoulder Sonic could see a line of angular figures marching on a crowd of dokan shaped shadows. There was a flash of light, and Sonic recognized one of the figures as it was briefly illuminated. Amadeus Prower, the retired general, leading a charge against a group of robots. Robotnik shifted back to his original position and the view was lost again.

"Uh, hey Doc, whatcha watching?" Sonic asked, keeping his voice even but not quite managing to sound nonchalant.

"Ah, er, Sonic! Robotnik said, spinning around and positioning himself even more firmly in front of the other screen. "Nothing much, just…" He seemed to grope for words for a moment, and then his face fell into an easy, practiced smile that did not quite reach his eyes, white teeth gleaming under the bristling mustache. "Some old war documentaries. That's all." He reached behind him a pressed a button. The other screen went dark and silent.

"I see…" Sonic said, glancing over his shoulder at Mighty and Ray.

"Was there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Ah, yeah, actually. My buddies Ray and Mighty are really homesick. Can you get us a boat so they can go see their families?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible at this time, Sonic."

"What about tomorrow then?" The smile faltered ever so slightly.

"I don't think so. It might be, but I make no promises."

"Sometime this week?"

"I certainly hope so, but I can't be sure."

"We're kinda in a hurry. What's the holdup, Doc?"

"All my boats are…" there was the pause again, and then the smile, "Out on oceanographic survey duty."

"Okay then," Sonic said, yawning loudly and stretching his arms, "In that case, I'm gonna go to bed. I'll talk to you in the morning, I guess."

"Goodnight Sonic. Could you ask Mighty and Ray to return to their respective rooms please?"

"Sure thing. 'night, Doc." He turned off videophone and turned around to face Mighty and Ray. "You guys catch all of that?"

"Yeah…" Mighty said.

"Good. Follow me." Sonic replied, stepping out into the hall.

"What?" Where are you going?" Mighty asked.

"We're going for a walk." Sonic replied with a grin, emphasizing the plural.

Sonic had just keyed open the first door at the end of the hall when Robotnik's disembodied voice rang out over the loudspeakers.

"Sonic, Mighty, Ray! Where are you three going?"

"Oh," Sonic replied, grinning cheekily, "I changed my mind about going to bed. Thought we'd go for a walk instead."

"This really isn't the best time for that. I'm afraid I must insist you return to your rooms. You can go out tomorrow."

"Sorry Doc, but we need to get out of here, now." Sonic stepped through the door; Mighty and Ray close on his heels. The viewscreen in this small hub room flickered on, and an enraged Robotnik stared down at them from his place on the wall.

"Return to your rooms immediately! That is an imperative!" Robotnik shouted, his easy-going façade shattering. There was an edge of something else in that voice, beyond the anger. It sounded almost like… panic?

"No." Sonic's voice was cold and hard as he in turn dropped his playful attitude to match Robotnik's glare with one of his own.

Robotnik spluttered in incoherent rage for a moment before regaining his composure. "Very well, if you're determined to ignore my reasonable requests, I suppose I have no choice." The doors on each of the room's four walls slammed shut, clicking as the electronic locks engaged. "Just sit tight," Robotnik chuckled, "An escort will arrive momentarily to return you to your rooms. We'll talk about this in the morning, when you've had time to cool your heels and reflect on your insubordinate actions." The viewscreen went blank. Sonic tried to open the door they had just come through, but the lock refused to accept his override code.

"W-W-What're we gonna do?" Ray asked in a hysterical, stuttering wail.

"Chill, Ray," Sonic replied, grinning thoughtfully, "Mighty, you think you can handle that door?" He asked, jerking a thumb in the direction of the door opposite the one they had entered from.

"Y-yeah." Mighty nodded determinedly and strode over to the heavy metal door, some four inches of steel alloy, and let loose with a punch that shook the room. The door groaned and buckled under the blow. Two more devastating punches bent door and doorframe enough for Mighty to get his fingers in the gaps where the door had curled back and the frame had pulled loose from the wall. He heaved, and the entire conglomeration pulled free on one side, leaving a hole large enough to squeeze through. He gave the door another brutal yank, wrenching it free of the wall on the other side with a hideous metallic screech. He hefted the massive, warped hunk of metal and threw it at the viewscreen, which shattered and crashed to the floor in a shower of sparks.

"Nice!" Sonic whistled appreciatively, stepping through the doorframe. A set of golden rings glittered on the far side, spinning in place. Sonic picked one up and twirled it between his fingers before it disappeared into his hand.

"Is it just me, or are there way more of these things lately?" he asked as they ran down the hallway, feet clanging on the polished metal floors.

"I think there are more of them. It seems like they started showing up after Robotnik did that thing with the emerald," Mighty said, pacing himself so that Ray could keep up. Sonic did likewise as they dashed through the branching corridors and the rooms that they connected. The base was huge in comparison to the buildings they were used to, but only a few rooms and around a thousand yards of hallway separated them from the big hangar that marked the last barrier between themselves and the outside world. Mighty dealt with each locked door in similar fashion, ignoring the increasing pitch and decibel of Robotnik's outraged commands to stop.

Surprisingly, the final door was unlocked, hissing open before Mighty had a chance to pound on it, which was just as well, seeing as he was suffering from a bad case of bruised knuckles already. Sonic eyed the dark beyond the door warily, looked at Mighty and Ray, then shrugged his shoulders and stepped through. It was difficult to see in the hangar, since only the blue green emergency lighting strips were active, a sharp contrast to the brightly, if harshly, lit halls.

"Uh…" Sonic said, as his eyes adjusted, and he noticed a myriad of other, smaller lights, lights that blinked from the faces and torsos of angular, unfeeling figures. "Uh-oh." He said, hearing the click of weapons being leveled in his direction. From experience Sonic knew that the stun weapons Robotnik had him practice against in the training room could be quite painful. And these might not be meant to stun.

"Ray! Get down!" Mighty yelled, shoving his friend behind a stack of crates in the corner of the room. It was quite a shove, as the crates were fifteen feet away. Ray bounced on the floor before rolling into the sheltered position. He whimpered, more in fear than pain. Mighty bellowed with rage as a shot struck his shoulder, and charged. Sonic was already in fluid motion, and in the process of smashing his third robot, having bounced off the crushed heads of the previous two. Mighty ran straight into the middle of the fray, destroying one robot with a thunderous punch, and ripping the arm off a second. He used the arm as a club to down the same robot he'd torn it from and hurled it at a third.

"Mighty!" Sonic shouted, dodging the hail of fire that trained on him, "Forget the 'bots! Get the door open so we can get out of here!" Mighty nodded. "I'll distract them," Sonic added.

Mighty slammed his way through the rows of robots between him and the small auxiliary door at the far side of the room. The massive steel shutter that served as the main door was beyond even his strength to open quickly. He reached the smaller door and began hammering on it with incredible force, ignoring the shots that pounded his shell from behind. Though smaller than the main door, as it was meant to admit only a few human sized figures at any one time, the auxiliary entrance was considerably more durable than the doors in the inner sanctum and capable of sustaining quite a beating. Sonic did his best to distract or destroy the robots that were firing on Mighty while staying one step ahead of the ones that were targeting him, bouncing his way around the huge room with unparalleled speed. Finally, the door gave way with a tremendous groan, and Mighty shoved it outward.

"Sonic! Get Ray!" he shouted, and stepped through the hole he had made in the wall.

"On it!" Sonic called, dodging another fusillade of shots and scrapping two more bots in his counter attack. He dodged around the remainder, moving erratically and so fast that he was always several feet ahead of the following fire, vaulted over the crates, and slid toward where Ray crouched, scooping him up and regaining his feet in one fluid motion.

"Hold tight." Sonic said grimly, "I've never tried this with somebody in my arms before."

There were too many robots between Sonic and the exit, so he ran up the wall and then perpendicular to the ground at a height of about eight feet, passing scant feet above them while they fired futilely. It proved awkward but not impossible to do while encumbered. Ray's weight was not a problem in and of itself so much. Like all Dokan, Sonic was strong enough to carry an adult human without difficulty, even for an extended period of time, but it did mess with his sense of balance. Once he was clear of the robots, Sonic jumped off the wall and sped out the door. A hail of laser fire followed him into the cool night air, and some of it crackled as it impacted the warped doorframe.

Mighty was waiting for them just outside. He breathed a sigh of relief as Sonic skidded to a halt beside him and put Ray down.

"C'mon guys," Sonic said, "Something tells me we shouldn't stick around. I don't think the welcoming committee is quite done with us."

"Yeah," Mighty said, pausing in his attempts to comfort the sniffling Ray, "Here they come now."

A horde of robots had begun arriving, some pouring out the door, but far more circling around the building, adding greatly to the ranks. If it had just been the remainder from the hangar Sonic and Mighty could conceivably simply have scrapped them, but that had only been a fraction of Robotnik's forces and it looked like he was calling in the rest, maybe even emptying the entire base. Furthermore, sleek, insectoid shapes began flitting across the moon with increasing frequency. Sonic had only fought them once or twice before, but he recognized Robotnik's buzzbomber drones. There were already a lot of things pointing lasers in their direction, some of which were firing, and more were coming every second. The three turned and ran into the moonlit jungle.

Although the moon was high in the sky and nearly full and the stars shown clearly in the cloudless sky, navigating the jungle at night was difficult. Mighty and Ray found themselves tripping over roots far too frequently. Sonic's uncanny agility kept him consistently upright, but even he found the going slow and arduous. The humanoid robots didn't pursue them, as they weren't advanced enough to navigate the difficult terrain. However, the buzzbombers were not thusly hindered, and promptly gave chase. Sonic circled back to wreck the first several pairs that got too close before rejoining Mighty and Ray. He repeated the pattern until the buzzbombers pulled back, too high to reach, even with the boost that launching of the trunk of a palm tree afforded. The benefit to their being out of reach was that the bombers could only attack when there was a break in the canopy, which meant that they were only under fire at intervals, and predictable intervals at that. Golden rings appeared in quantity along the jungle paths. For some reasons they never seemed to show up one at a time, but always in some sort of group formation. The three wasted little time pondering this mystery though, and gratefully scooped up every ring they found, enjoying the slight energy boost that came with each one.

As they skirted a particularly large clearing, Mighty picked up a good sized stone from the jungle floor. After a second's pause to judge the angle, he whipped his arm around with incredible force, hurling the stone faster than the unaided human eye could follow. One of the bombers simply dropped out of the sky. Without any more stones to hand, Mighty snapped a good sized limb off the tree above him and threw it like a makeshift javelin. The limb wasn't perfectly straight, and because of this it went wide of the intended target, but it still clipped another buzzbomber, which began listing crazily as the damaged engine provided power in erratic spurts.

A storm of laser fire forced them to retreat from the tree line before Mighty could throw anything else. Sonic began leading them towards the dock they had arrived at two weeks earlier. At first they had just been getting away from the base, but now he wanted to get off the island entirely. Robotnik had said there were no boats, but he seemed to be lying the entire time, which was what had made Sonic so determined to leave in the first place. The doctor had seemed nice enough at first, if a little odd, but after Sonic had seen the view in the screen over his shoulder some of his quirky behavior had taken a much more sinister cast, particularly his insistence that they stay in or near the base all the time. Sonic did not care for being lied to, and he detested being ordered around. He wondered what else the doctor had lied about. Everything? What if he had even been responsible for the fever that brought everyone in to see him in the first place? Sonic didn't see how he could be, but it did seem awfully convenient when he thought about it.

"Hey Mighty," he said, initiating some banter to cover his distraction, "Why do you think he makes those stupid buzzbombers look like bees?"

"I don't know," Mighty said, "To make them look natural, maybe? And I think they're supposed to be wasps anyway."

"Pssh, I don't know who he thinks he's fooling if that's it. They're way too big to pass for real bees."

"I t-t-think they're supposed to be s-scary," Ray said, "I'd be scared of a wasp that big."

"I'd swat it for you," Mighty said quietly, comfortingly.

"T-thanks."

By that point they had nearly reached the tree line. Mighty grabbed Sonic by the shoulder and spun him around, putting a finger to his lips for quiet.

"What?" Sonic asked in an annoyed whisper.

"We're almost to the beach," Mighty responded.

"So?"

"So that's a big open place with no trees. We can't just go rushing out there. There are too many buzzbombers above, can't you hear them?"

"They can't hit me, I'm too fast."

"You may be, but Ray and I aren't. They don't knock me out like they're supposed to, but that doesn't mean they don't hurt, and Ray doesn't have my kind of endurance. Secondly," he said, stifling whatever objections Sonic might have been about to raise with a hand gesture, "what about the boats? If we find one, how long is it going to take to learn to drive it? How fast do they go? Fast enough to out run these things?"

"Okay, I see your point, but what do you want me to do about it?"

"We've got to get rid of the bombers. Any ideas?"

"Let me think… yeah. See if you can find some more rocks, for starters."

"That's the plan?" Mighty asked skeptically.

"I'm working on it!" Sonic said angrily, "Look, I'll try to lead them off, distract as many as I can. I'll run down the beach, I'm not worried about them tagging me. Just tell me how long you think you need to get a boat started, and I'll meet you there. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can see at least one. If I'm wrong, we can meet back here and think of another plan."

"Okay," Mighty said, "That sounds as good as anything I can come up with. I'd like to break as many of those things as I can before we start, though, but I'm afraid if I draw attention to myself they won't follow you."

"I have an idea," Sonic said, grinning wickedly, "Can you pull this down?" He asked, leading Mighty to a small palm tree wrapped with vines covered in bright flowers of pink and yellow and purple. Mighty grabbed it by the trunk as high as he could reach. The thin tree groaned in protest, but Mighty walked it down hand over hand until the leaves were nearly touching the ground. The tree strained as though it were about to snap, which it probably was. Sonic jumped on, positioning himself just below where the leaves began.

"Sonic?" Mighty asked, puzzled and a little worried that his friend had snapped, "What are you doing?"

"Trust me, this will work, I think. Just let go when I tell you. I'll meet you back here in ten."

"Better make it fifteen," Mighty said.

"Sure," Sonic replied, watching the sky with probing eyes until a sleek black silhouette passed in front of him.

"Now!" he shouted. Mighty released the tree, which sprang back to its original position, launching Sonic upward as it did so. He curled into a protective ball just before impact with the buzzbomber, which never had a prayer of coming out the victor in a collision like that. By lucky chance one of the fusillade of coconuts that was also launched took down a second buzzbomber, and Sonic twisted in midair to strike another on his way back to earth. He bounced down from the second bomber and landed lightly in the sand, and was off again immediately.

"Come and get me, buzzbrains!" he yelled, racing down the beach fast enough to outdistance them but not so fast as to lose them completely, kicking up sand as he went. He hoped whatever primitive intelligence they had would be duped by his name-calling and obvious target. They were programmed smart enough to recognize and avoid certain attack patterns if the attacks were repeated enough, and to avoid firing if the shot was obstructed, so he wasn't expecting it to work too well, but the vast majority abandoned the circling pattern they had been in to follow him.

Mighty waited until the angry sound of the buzzbomber's pursuit had disappeared down the beach, gathering as many rocks as he could find. There were more of them this close to the beach, and he grabbed about a dozen of them, then broke cover and sprinted for the docks. Their metallic moonlit gleam seemed entirely too far away over the sandy stretch, but he and Ray made it without incident, although the buzzbombers that had remained had opened fire. Mighty took the two of them out with rocks he had picked up before making the dash. Luck was with them, there was a small -at least by Robotnik's standards- ship, maybe thirty five feet long, with a small, protected cabin for the captain to steer the ship from. Mighty set down the rest of the rocks he had picked up, shoved the door open and stepped into the cramped space. It was meant for a human, so the controls were rather too high for him. He found a coil of rope on the deck and used it as a stepping stool. There were a lot of fancy instruments whose meaning he didn't begin to understand, but the steering wheel looked simple enough. He searched around for the ignition. After hesitantly flipping a few switches, including, thankfully, the one that controlled the lights, he found the main power switch. The console lit up, green status lights winking all over. After another minute of fumbling he found the switch that controlled the engines. He pressed it.

"ID key please," said a pleasant female voice. Mighty jumped in surprise before realizing it was just the standard computer voice, and that he was alone, except for Ray, who had crept into the cabin with him. Mighty looked around, trying to guess what this ID key thing could be.

"Uh, sorry," he mumbled to the computer, "I, uh, forgot mine. Could you please start the motors?"

"Please insert your ID key card into the slot to start the engines," the voice said. Red lights highlighted the slot in question.

"I don't have one!" Mighty said, the stress causing his voice to crack just a bit, "I don't even know what that is!" To have made it so far, to be stopped by a stupid computer voice. It was just awful. He fought back tears of frustration.

"Do you think it's something like this?" Ray asked, holding up a thin slip of plastic between his fingers. He slipped it into the slot. Nothing happened for a moment, then the voice said, "Greetings, Dr. Robotnik. Engines ignited." There was a rumble beneath their feet as the boat came to life.

"Ray, how did you, when did you…?" Mighty began.

Ray grinned weakly, "I took it from Robotnik the other day. He just left it lying around while he was talking to me. I don't think he ever even realized it was gone. Must have had more than one, I guess."

"Good job," Mighty said, still a bit flabbergasted. He began attempting to figure out how the motors worked. The throttle wasn't too hard, hold down the trigger, push forward to go faster, pull back to slow down. He put the boat through a few jerky start and stop motions, trying not to speed away from the dock and leave Sonic while also trying to learn to control the ship's motions.

"I unhooked the cable that was keeping it tied to the dock," Ray said quietly, as though unsure he had done what he was supposed to.

"Good job," Mighty said again, surprised by this display of initiative. By now the boat had drifted some several feet from the dock, though not further than Sonic could clear with a running leap. Sonic could leap an amazing distance with a running start. He must be on his way back soon, Mighty thought, although it was difficult to accurately mark time without any sort of device and while trying to steal a boat. He watched the shoreline intently. For several long moments there was nothing, then there was a huge plume of dust, which turned to spray at the water's edge, then Sonic was in the boat with them, shouting something garbled that Mighty couldn't understand. It sounded like he was talking double voiced, one offset from the other and quieter. Then the effect faded and he realized Sonic was yelling "Go! Go! Get this thing moving!"

Behind Sonic Mighty could see the dark shadows of Buzzbombers flitting across the intervening distance. He turned the boat away from the island and pushed the throttle forward. It leapt through the small choppy waves with only a slight bouncing for protest. He turned to Sonic and said, "Did you…?"

Sonic grinned back, "Did I run on water? Outrun my own voice? Circle the island and grab like eighty rings? Yes, Yes and Yes. Fastest thing alive here. Actually, I wasn't sure I could do that until just now. It was pretty awesome."

Mighty turned back to the buzzbombers, shaking his head in amazement. The boat was moving at a pretty good clip, but they were gaining. He picked up a rock and threw it, taking out the lead one. Beside him, Sonic picked up another rock from the pile. He twisted his body into an odd, strained looking posture, then whipped out of it all in one motion, spinning like a discus thrower and propelling his rock with every bit of the speed and force Mighty's had had, taking out the second closest. They took out four more between them, and then suddenly the rest peeled off and headed back toward the island, which was fast becoming just a small dark blur on the horizon.

"Huh," said Sonic, "We must have gotten too far away."

"Great," said Mighty, meaning it, but also wondering what the next step was, "Now where do we go from here?"

"That way," said Ray, pointing in the direction from whence the rising sun would illuminate the water in a few hours, "Home is that way."