It was another fine day in Hedgehog Village, the kind of peaceful day that the villagers enjoyed if they happened to be out and about instead of glued to their TVs. The island had seen quite a couple of days like this lately, actually; aside from the regular attacks from Dr. Eggman’s robots and his occasional attempts to con the villagers with schemes that weren’t quite as clever as usual, things had been relatively quiet. It was like they were going through an off-season so to speak, and while the villagers weren’t really bothered by it due to their simple nature, things had gotten a bit stale for Team Sonic and most of the team was wishing for something interesting to happen. Their own antics were only amusing for so long, after all.
Despite this, Amy Rose was her usual optimistic self as she made her way through the village to the Meh Burger to meet up with her friends. As she got closer to the restaurant, she spotted them sitting at their usual table, though none of them had any food in front of them. “Hey guys!” she called as she approached.
Sonic raised his left hand in a half-hearted wave, his right hand currently supporting the side of his head, as he grunted, “Hey Amy.” Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks waved to her as well, their greetings not much heartier than Sonic’s.
Amy slid into her seat, a concerned look on her face as she asked, “What’s wrong, guys? Is Dave giving lousy service again?”
Sonic replied, “Don’t know. He hasn’t come out yet. We’re still waiting on our order.”
Knuckles nodded, “Yeah… Maybe now that we’re all here, the food and the service will be better.”
Amy spoke, “Oh, come on, guys! What are you all moping about?” She held out her arms, “It’s a beautiful day, there isn’t a cloud in the sky, the village is quiet…”
Sonic interjected, “Yeah, just like yesterday, and the day before yesterday. Eggman hasn’t done anything in days, and even when he does attack, there’s nothing special about it. It’s gotten so boring around here lately.”
Sticks spoke up, “It sure has… and that means something REALLY big is going to happen soon!”
Tails sighed, “You’ve said that pretty much every day lately, Sticks. You couldn’t possibly know that for sure.”
Sticks glared at him, “Oh yeah? Do you know how the luck balance of the universe is shifted?”
Tails shook his head, “No!”
Sticks said, “I’m sure there’s been another shift… and I KNOW there’s someone new here who plans to fix it. He’d better if he knows what’s good for him.” She pointed her left index finger at her head while she was talking. Sonic and the others didn’t question her, assuming it was just Sticks being Sticks.
Dave soon came out from behind the counter with their food on a large tray. He walked over to their table and served them each their own tray, simply saying, “Hope you can enjoy your food” before he went back to his post.
Sonic watched him for a moment before he lifted the top bun of his burger to check it. “Oh, for- He gave me extra pickles on purpose! Again!” he complained.
Amy looked down at her tray and saw that she had been given the completely wrong item. “Well, I guess Dave is in a bad mood today,” she sighed, resting her arms on the table.
“I miss Ador-O-Bot 2000,” Sticks said suddenly as she looked down at her food.
Everyone looked at her in surprise. “Well, that just came out of nowhere,” Tails remarked.
Amy said, “Sticks, he’s not gone. He’s just protecting the Valley of the Cubots. He wanted a new purpose and he found it. Even if… that means he’s not entirely friendly with us now.”
Sticks replied, “And I can’t believe you guys didn’t tell me until the day after! I’m the one who wanted to take him home! He lived with me and I wanted to be there when he went out into the world on his own, just like with Buster! Why didn’t anyone tell me?!”
Sonic shrugged, “Well, you were doing… whatever that day, Sticks. What were you doing, anyway? Uncovering a new conspiracy? On some dangerous adventure? Tuning your banjo?”
Sticks stared at him hard for a moment before she glanced off to the side and nonchalantly said, “I don’t remember. I’d have to ask someone else to remind me.” Sonic exhaled, letting out a cross between a sigh and a groan at the badger’s mindset.
Knuckles held a finger to his chin and looked up for a few seconds before he started, “You know what I was just wondering?”
Tails unremarkably asked, “What, if he’s still on our side or not?”
Knuckles looked down and finished, “Whatever happened to that place where we got him?”
Amy asked, “What, you mean Ragna Rock?”
Knuckles replied, “Yeah, whatever. What happened to it?”
Tails spoke, “You don’t remember? Eggman’s Ragnium mining operation was ruined. He said he had to go check his insurance policy afterwards to see what it covered.”
Knuckles asked, “Okay, but… wasn’t it ready to explode?”
Everyone thought about the echidna’s words. “Hey, that’s right. He did say that, didn’t he?” Sonic remarked after a moment.
“Yeah. The pressure was building up because we were closing all the fissures that Eggman’s mining was creating,” Amy nodded.
“Yeah, but that was when all the machinery and everything was still intact. It was all destroyed, so there’s nothing there that could cause the pressure to build up. There’s no way that an explosion happened after that,” Tails explained.
Sticks gave the fox a suspicious look. “Are you sure about that?” she questioned.
Tails gave her an irritated look, “Of course I’m sure! The only way that Eggman’s Ragnium mine could explode now is if the volcano on the island erupted, and I can safely say we stopped any chance of that happening.” Feeling he had no further need to explain, he turned back to his meal, grabbed a fry, and started eating.
He was certain what he’d said was true, but he was going off of how Ragna Rock had looked when they’d set out for home. Tails had not been back there since, nor had he been keeping an eye on the island to see what it was doing. And even if he had, he would have to have an eye on the island at that exact moment to see the long-term effects of the events that had taken place on Ragna Rock.
It hadn’t been that long ago that Team Sonic had battled D-Fekt to save Eggman and shut down his mining operation, but now the island’s volcano, which had been relatively quiet at the time, was now becoming active. It was strange that it had changed so suddenly, but perhaps due to the battle with D-Fekt and the work Eggman had done when he was mining, perhaps it was a delayed reaction-
“Sounds a lot like that terrible dinosaur movie that’s out now.”
“Hey, hey. Don’t go there.”
“Well, it does! It was convenient there and it’s convenient here, ain’t it?”
“Look, I’m trying to move away from doing this sort of thing. I would really appreciate it if you didn’t-”
“NOT ONE OF THOSE MOVIES WAS ANY GOOD!”
“…”
-that was now starting to rear its ugly head. And naturally, with the island being so far away from Bygone Island, the erupting could not be seen by anyone there. Even the plume of smoke rising up into the sky could not be readily seen.
Lava bombs came shooting out of the caldera, landing in the waters around the island while lava flowed out of the crater. With the island being so small, it naturally flowed everywhere it could reach, including into the remains of the Ragnium mine. And while the damage done to the mine might have slowed its crawl somewhat, the eruption was showing no signs of stopping anytime soon, so it wasn’t going to take long for the pressure to start building up…
Eventually, another explosion rocked the island that originated from the mine, causing another eruption of sorts. It wasn’t as powerful as the first, but it could be considered worse since it sent mostly unprocessed Ragnium into the air that, unlike the smoke, came back down. Normally, this might not turn out to be a big deal, but this was far from a normal world. Things were always skewed here; while it involved things that others might find hilarious, it was hard to find anyone who would disagree that things in this world happened without reason or without humorous effect involved.
“HEY! No editorials!”
“You started it.”
And so, it happened that some of the Ragnium ended up landing in a specific spot on the surface of the water and sinking below. For a while, nothing seemed to be off; even the fish seemed to be undisturbed by the green cloud that drifted downwards. Then, all of a sudden, the schools of fishes darted away in a panic. Something was coming up.
A large figure burst through the surface of the water, droplets being sprayed around as it held up its mechanical arms and let out a loud yell that could be heard through the glass dome around its head. The figure slumped forward slightly afterwards, though it kept hovering above the surface of the water. It seemed like that it hadn’t moved in quite a while. The armor on the upper part of its long body was more than a little rusted, likely due to being exposed to the saltwater for so long, but there was no doubt about it; it was Lyric, the last of the Ancients.
After regaining his strength, Lyric opened his eyes and raised his head, looking at a message that was being displayed on the glass in front of him. “HEALING PROCESS COMPLETE. SUSPENDED ANIMATION TERMINATED,” it read. Lyric dismissed the message after a few moments and glanced down at his right arm, which had suddenly come loose from its socket on its own. He used his left arm to pop it back in and, after a moment, he looked forward as a smile spread across his face. He began to laugh; it was a long, deep laugh that made it clear he was back and that (surely) the world was going to feel his wrath.