Ashes to Ashes, Chapter 1

	A terrible electrical storm has been lingering over Knothole for three days now.  Tails, having trouble sleeping, was starring outside the window from his room.  It was in a storm like this that he received his second tail.  The lighting seems to become more and more intense with each flash.

	"What the...Aunt Sally, Aunt Bunny," Tails screamed
	Bunny was the first to enter his room.
	"What's wrong sugah?"
	"Did you see that?"
	"See what?"
	Tails looked back out the window, another flash, and what appears to a silhouette of some kind.
	"That!  Something's out there!"  Tails pointed.
	"What?!  I don't see anythin' sugah;  It mus' be your imagination."
	Another flash, Bunny and Tails look out the window again.  Bunny thinks she sees something, but shakes her head, thinking that no one would be crazy enough to be out in that storm.
	"You get some rest now, 'kay?"
	Tails sighed, and tried to go back to sleep.  Bunny tucks him in.

	Outside his room, Sally comes.
	"What's wrong with Tails?"
	"Nothing honey, he probably had a nightmare or sumthin'"

	The storm dies down.

	And what Tails and Bunny do not yet realize is that they did see something.  His name is Ashe.

	"What the .... happened?" Ashe said to himself, scratching his head.
	"What the ....?"  
	Ashe caught a glimpse of his arm.  Ashe jumped jumps out of his skin, or at least tried to.
	"What the .... am I?"  
	Ashe brushes his arm with his other hand and sticks himself.  	
	"I'm some sort of ....ing porcupine!?"  
	Ashe passes out in shock.
	
	(Ashe is actually a hedgehog, but he doesn't now that, yet.)

	Hours later Ashe wakes up.
	"It's all a dream, it's all a dream."  
	Ashe looks at his hand and arms again.
	"OK, maybe it's not a dream." Ashe said to himself.
	Suddenly, Ashe here footsteps approaching.  Quickly, he hides in a nearby bush, watching.
	"A fox?  With two tails?"  Ashes said to himself.
	It was Tails, looking around.
	
	"Maybe it was my imagination" thought Tails.
	"Tails!  Where are you!?" Sally was called.
	"Coming Aunt Sally!"

	Ashe walked away, falling back on a tree, thinking, "What a trip!  A talking fox with two tails, and me, a ....ing porcupine!"

	Ashe let out a chaotic laugh.

	"OK, get a grip Ashe"  He said to himself, slapping himself in the face.
	"AH!  Forgot about the spikes.  OK, let's see, have to make the best of this, for now, need some shelter, and food."
	Ashe went to work.   He crafted a very crude ax from a sharp-edged rock and a broken tree limb and began to chop down a couple small trees, something to build a modest home out of.  

	It's been about five hours since his arrival to this world, and he was getting hungry.
	
	"Must be some food around here somewhere" he thought, wandering out of his camp.
	
	Ashe seemed to have been walking forever, marking his trail in the dirt with his ax so that he could find his way back, then, something caught his sense of smell.
	
	"Smells like--chili dogs?"

	Ashe followed the sent and something caught his eye.

	"Another porcupine?"  Ashe wondered, "A blue porcupine?  And he's cooking chili dogs?"  Sarcastically Ashe remarks to himself, "Now this is getting weird."

	What Ashe saw was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog, Freedom Fighter 
extraordinare, cooking his famous Chili Dogs a la Sonic.

	Ashe's stomach growled.

	"OK, now to grab some grub," Ashe thought.

	Ashe waited for the perfect opportunity to grab the chili dogs.

	"Sonic!"  Tails called out.
	"What is it big guy?"
	"Are the chili dogs ready yet, I'm starving."
	"Give it a sonic second or three, Tails, they're almost, what the ....?!"

	The chili dogs where gone.

	Ashe hurried back to his camp, covering his tracks as best as he could.
	When he arrived, he sat down a newly cut tree stump, exhausted.

	"Mmm, not bad," Ashe said as he scarfed down the chili dogs.  "Not bad at all, have to get the recipe sometime.  Now, where was I?"

	Ashe went back to his work.  With the small trees he has cut down, he set up a crude tent of sorts, along with some defenses, a snare there, a pit there, just to make him feel at ease.

	"Now to get some rest"

	Ashe slept the whole next day.

	"Good morning--," Ashe said as he looked around.  It was dark. 
	"I mean, good evening.  Well, time to get to know my neighbors."
	Ashe set to into the forest, carrying with the ax he crafted, dragging it into the dirt to mark his way back.  He came to a clearing and saw large buildings in the distance.
	"Kind of looks like Chicago." Ashe though, as the ventured into the city.
	
	(Ashe didn't find Chicago, he found Robotropolis)

	"OK, this is NOT Chicago" Ashe said to himself  No Sears Tower, no North Pier, definitely not Chicago."
	Ashe crept around this strange city.  "Maybe it's New York City?"  Ashe shock his head, taking a glimpse of a huge statue in the middle of the city 
	"Couldn't be, the Statue of Liberty is not dumb-looking fat guy."
	
	(Unknowing to Ashe, this is a statue of Dr. Robotnick)

	Is was getting light, Ashe thought it was best if he head back to camp.  As he turns around, he stands face to face with a huge robot.
	"Halt!  Identify yourself!"
	"Identify this!"  Ashe swung his ax the robot.  The ax broke.
	"Oh ...."
	The robot made a grab for Ashe, Ashe quickly ducked out of the way and was running as fast as he could.
	"Halt!"
	The robot fired a couple shots at Ashe.  One of them landed.
	"Mother....er!"  Ashe is now quite angry.
	Ashe turned back and ran toward the robot, dodging he shots it fired.  Ashe threw a punch at the robot.  He broke his right hand.
	"....!"
	The robot made another grab for Ashe, Ashe narrowly avoided the robot.
	"Think Ashe, think, use that brain of yours for once."
	The robot fire a couple more shots.  One of the shots bounced off a nearby window a hit Ashe again.
	"AH!"  
	Ashe was about to run up to the robot and punch it again, but remembering what just happened, he hesitated.  
	"Use your brain idiot!  Mmm, lasers, lasers, if only I had a mirror or something."  	Ashe took a quick look around.
	"Got it!"  
	Ashe jumped through the window the laser bounced off.  The window breaks into pieces.  Ashe picks up a large piece of the broken window and taunts the robot., “Come get some."
	
	The robot fires a couple more shots, Ashe takes his shard of glass a reflects the laser back at the robot.  The robot appears to short circuit and falls to the ground.  Ashe laughs, walks up to the robot, and kicks it's side.  
	
	"Mmm, spare parts" Ashe thought.

	Back in Robotnick's throne room
	"Sir?"
	"What is it Snively"
	"There has been another anomaly detected."
	"I'm well aware of that Snively;  A team of SWATbots have already been sent"
	"Very good sir.  Sir?"
	"What now, Snively?!"
	"SWATbot 2D2R is missing sir."
	"Missing?"
	"Yes, sir."  Snively pushes a couple button on a remote control he's holding.  The screen comes down, and the last minutes of SWATbot 2D2R optical data are displayed.
	"Mmm, interesting, who's is that Snivley?"
	"It would appear to be a hedgehog sir."
	"Yes it would, but it's not Sonic the Hedgehog."
	"No, sir, it's not."
	"Interesting."  Robotnick turned his throne around and thought
	"Sir?"
	"Snively, leave, and send another batch of SWATbots to scout the area where the anomaly has occurred."
	"Yes sir."

	Robotnick sat in his throne deep in thought.  These anomalies--violent electrical storms, random teleportations, unexplainable mutations--are his doing.  They have been occurring for quite some time now as the repairs of his teleportation device, the device that brought him from Earth to Mobius years ago, have hastened.

	It's almost noon as Ashe enters the camp, dragging the robot behind him.
	"Son of a .....!  Someone, or something has ....ed with my ...."
	In Ashe’s own colorful language, someone, or something, has destroyed his camp.  A SWATbot is lingering overhead, inactive, and caught in a snare.  Another is caught in one of his pits, also inactive.
	
	"Cool.  More spare parts. First I need a new place to hide."
	As he said this, he hears footsteps in the distance.
	"...."
	Ashe jumps behind a bush, peering out.
	"A pink porcupine?"
	
	"Actually I'm a hedgehog, Ashe."  The pink, hedgehog, replied

	To be continued

Sonic, Tails, Bunny, Sally, Robotnick, Snively, and Amy are copyrighted by Sega/DiC/Archie/Fleetway
Ashe will be copyrighted (:P) by Thomas

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