Sonic Steam: Chapter 2: The Birth of Speed

*Disclaimer: Do not read unless you have previously read Chapter 1*

You are too shocked by the news Sonic just gave you to speak. You just stand there staring at the poster. The picture of you is nigh on perfect that it almost looks like a photograph. The caption reads, “Wanted: Dead, Gender: Male, Name: Unknown, Species: (A stain of blood & oil has rendered this info to be illegible, must have been made this way from the scuffle.) Reward $400,000. Crime: Theft & Murder, Special conditions: Leave the right hand intact. Poster: SteamTek Inc. Claim instructions: Turn in the right hand of the offender as well as any and all strange looking pistols the offender might own to the nearest SteamTek representative or robot.”
Sonic: “Amy & Tails need to see this.”
You: “Y… ye… yes…”
Sonic: (Kneels down and tells you to your face with a look of concern) “I know this is a lot to take in, but we’re not safe here. Not for long we need to get back to the others.”
You: “And then what? Go where? I… I gotta get out of this city.”
Sonic: “One thing at a time pal.”
You: “I can’t believe I left the pistol behind at the workshop.”
Sonic:  “Wait… what?!” (He looks alarmed then grabs your shoulders.) “What if they find out about Amy?! And Me?! And Tails?!”
At that the 2 of you decide to stop talking and worry about and go back to them as fast as you both can, which is not very, or in Sonic’s case… at least not yet.  You hide in various alleyways to hide from any bandit gang patrols you encounter on the way, but something seems odd as you reach the neighborhood where Tails’s workshop can be found.
You: “Something’s not right here. This neighborhood is not a slum area, why are so many bandit clan members here? Where are the police? I haven’t seen any since the morning of yesterday.”
Sonic: “I… agree… very odd. But we’ll worry about that later. First we gotta find Amy and Tails.”
Unable to argue with that logic you follow Sonic to the workshop, fortunately it seems to still be intact; you decide to take the back door in case you find some uninvited guests inside.  Fortunately Amy and Tails are inside and they both seem to be fine.
Amy: (she seems a bit annoyed with sonic) “Where have you 2 been? We came back here about 2 hours ago.”
Sonic: (holds up his hands in a pose of ‘hold on now’) “Listen, we’ve got a problem.” (Sonic shows them the wanted poster) “A big one.”
Amy: (eyes widen in shock) “Is that... what I think it is?”
Tails: “Oh no… this can’t be good…”
You: (sit down and put your hands on your face) “I’m never gonna have a normal life again. They already destroyed my house.”
Tails: “With what?”
You: “A bomb? Fire? Sledgehammers? I don’t know! I didn’t see it happen.”
Amy: “They did all that and there were no police there to see what happened or hold them back?”
You: *sniff* “Yeah, no idea why.” (You remove your hands from your face as your eyes widen in surprise stand up and begin searching the room.)
Sonic: “What are you looking for the pistol?”
You: “NOPE! Tails! Do you have a Wire Printer around here?”
Tails: “I think so, I get news reports from it all the time. Mostly weather forecasts, why?”
You manage to find it hidden under a pile of scrap paper. You put a piece of paper inside and flip a knife switch to activate it.
Suddenly, the Wire Printer begins receiving and printing the latest info from the Moreau Times.
"CHAOS IN MOREAU; Following a bandit attack in the south western slum near the freight yards yesterday, full scale rioting appears to have erupted all over the western slums earlier this morning. What appears to have started as a simple turf war between rival bandit clans has now escalated into an outright rebellion across the city. Lower class citizens and even the homeless have joined in this rebellion, with middle class threatening to follow suit."
You: (after reading it silently you show the paper and its contents to Sonic, Amy and Tails.) “I think Eggman has started his takeover anyway.”
Amy: “We gotta get out the city, with Eggman in charge…” (She falls silent and clasps her hands on her face in sorrow. Sonic places his hands on her shoulders to comfort her.)
Tails: “I think we should take the train uh… no better yet a locomotive” (he looks at you) “the passenger ones would be too crowded with bounty hunters, and the cargo ships (he looks back at Sonic and Amy) “would be too slow to leave.”
You: “But where once we escape the city, then what? Where will we go?”
This causes a moment of tense silence before tails finally breaks the Ice.
Tails: “Perhaps my merchant contacts in the eastern lands would be willing to give us shelter, even if only for a little while it’s as good a place to start as any.”
The 4 of you agree to this course of action, luckily it’s already past midday, the group decides to wait until dusk to make a run for it.  Plus you all need the time to pack up essential supplies, and get a bite to eat before evacuating.  Your house being gone and all, you have the least to pack. You pack the pistol that is the cause of your life being completely rewritten, ammo for it, a weeks’ worth of canned food, a canteen, a first aid kit, a bowie knife, a map, a compass,  your favorite pocket watch, and the wanted poster for you. You stare at it for about 5 minutes before packing it up as well. Your Briefcase would have sentimental value if it had any photos in it alas there are none. The wanted poster is the next best thing.
The others pack more or less of the same things in addition to spare clothes for themselves as they have none that would fit you, and photo albums for memories.  All you have in the way of clothes is the blue-gray jumpsuit that used to be your uniform on the job. All of the casual clothes you had were probably destroyed with your house either way going back to find out is just too risky.
You decide to have your last meal in the city of Moreau for… you know not how long, on the roof watching the sunset sky go dark. The others stay inside for fear of bandit snipers; you go thinking that if there were any they would’ve shot through all the windows by now. The sky is very beautiful shades of orange, red and an encroaching navy blue. Your last meal in Moreau consists of an 8 ounce beef steak cooked to medium well, a small bowl of chicken noodle soup for the side, 5 small squares of baklava for dessert and a glass of Apple juice for the beverage, you spend 10 minutes eating it and watching the sunset, the beauty is enough to almost make you forget for a while. You eventually rejoin the others downstairs and put their fears of snipers to rest.
2 hours later, the time has now come to leave the shop. It took so long as tails had to signal his landlord that he is closing down shop and make the appropriate “For Lease” signs. The 4 of you manage to evade several bandit patrols via stealth or distractions such as throwing a random rock or fallen rivet head to another part of a street.
After about an hour on the street the 4 of you finally make it to the train yard, as Tails expected, the scene wasn’t pretty. It seems not everyone was eager to take sides in the conflict, The Trains are overcrowded and various police officers are struggling to hold them back they keep shouting, “If there are too many people on the train the train won’t be able to move with all the weight!” but it’s no use. Logic is the very first thing someone in panic abandons. You can see a male skunk and a black & white cat woman apparently an EYE Implant user try their best to peacefully hold them back and appear to be losing.
Tails: “We’re in luck almost nobody else had the same idea to hide in the locomotives.”
You turn to see that besides your group of 4 only about 12 people so far have had the same idea. They appear to be a mix of humans, birds, rodents, and Dogs. Amy and Tails are able to get on the train no problem Sonic motions you to go next but as soon as you set foot on the train you hear a deep distorted voice yell, “IT’S HIM!!!” none of the people on the car appear to be the caller, you turn around and see 3 bandit men standing on the bridge above the train. 1 is a human armed with a double barrel shotgun, 1 blue weasel armed with a Quad Pistol and… this cannot be good, the guy in the middle who yelled is a white wolf berserker.
You quickly jump off and draw your pistol intending to aid Sonic you are able to dispatch the weasel with no problem, you then move on to the human Sonic is wrestling with him over the shotgun but at that moment you forgot about the berserker, he jumps down in front of you with a very loud thud, roars, and proceeds to try and pummel you with his fists but you’re able to dodge them. Remembering what happened to the berserker you killed, you aim your pistol at his head but the aim takes too long and he knocks it out of your hand and it lands inside the locomotive at the feet of Amy. The white berserker wolf growls in your face with huge intensity enough to paralyze you with fear, but then Sonic jumps onto his back and begins to choke him. The berserker riles with anger trying to pull him off but his muscles are too big to reach that far, you think “Never thought that being so buff would have a weakness”.  You quickly recover to stand up Tails then yells your name and throws you the pistol. You catch it but something goes wrong.
The memory of what happens next will haunt you for the rest of your life. It all seems like it happened in slow motion, you see Sonic holding on with dear life to the back of the berserker, you aim for the berserkers’ head again but then you notice the human bandit aims his shot gun at Sonic, so instead you aim for him, but when you pull the trigger nothing happens, you later learn that Amy wanting to save sonic attempted to use the pistol, but in her panic she forgot it wouldn’t work for anyone else; she took out the mag to see what was wrong but Tails reminded her of the problem and didn’t realize the mag was forgotten when he threw it. But at the time you panicked and went into tackle the shotgunner since he wasn’t aiming at you. Your efforts met with mixed results he fired a shot before you got to him and he fired another when he fell to the ground at your tackle. You hear someone scream at the top of their lungs but at the time you didn’t know who it was you struggle with the guy over the gun then at some point he gets shot in the head, you look up and see the Black & White cat police woman from before.  There was no way he’d be getting up from a headshot so you pick up the guns and turn to see the berserker, to your horror you find Sonic lying on the ground bleeding large amounts of blood from his legs. The berserker is about to finish him off when he sees you and  is about to charge at you when he gets shot in the chest by sniper fire but it doesn’t take him down instead he becomes enraged and goes after the cat police woman instead. You throw the shotgun and your pistol into the locomotive; Tails comes out and assists you in carrying Sonic into the train. He is not screaming anymore but he’s still breathing just very raggedly Amy appears to be too busy crying and screaming to be of help at the moment, who can blame her? Fortunately for the group the locomotive immediately begins departing the city at top speed as soon as you Tails and Sonic get on board, apparently the engineer driver found out about the bandit attack at just the right moment.
You and Improvise tourniquets out of Sonic’s torn clothes to try and stop the bleeding.  Your efforts produce mixed results Tails appears to be crying a bit, everyone else on the compartment looks extremely worried, whether for Sonic’s life or because they might know your face from the wanted posters you can’t tell. But then a human with glasses brown skin and a goatee steps forward. He asks, “Let me see him, I’m a doctor.”
You: “Ok… if you think you can save him do it.”
Amy: “PL… PLEASE SAVE HIM!!!”
The good doctor takes out an elite first aid kit, much better than the one you packed, you realize that you forgot to unpack it when you got back in, but luckily there appears to be no need, the doctor works flawlessly and the other refugees layout some makeshift bedding for Sonic, 45 minutes pass as he works on him removing shot pellets it is lucky for sonic the bandit used the small birdshot pellets. You look out the still open door to see that you are now outside the city and in the open reaches of the dessert. Amy spent the time crying over Sonics head and Tails has been moping silently. The doctor then stands up and takes off his gloves, “I’ve done all I can. Your friend possesses a strong will to live I have no doubt he will.” Amy then repeats the words “thank you” so many times so fast it doesn’t even sound like she’s speaking the local language anymore. An hour or so later after having one of your canned food meals you see the doctor sitting with legs dangling off the side of the open compartment door.  You decide to have a talk with him and sit down next to him.
You: “Thanks for saving Sonic; we owe you his life Doctor uh…”
Doctor: “Nathaniel Morgan, Chief of Surgery of Moreau General Hospital but you can just call me Nate.”
You: “Chief of… wait shouldn’t you be…”
Nate:  “Tending to the wounded from the conflict in the city? I…” (he turns his head down apparently in shame) “I… I was too much of a coward to stay.”
You: “Isn’t that the case for everyone here?”
Nate: “More so with me I’m afraid. I couldn’t have been a worse doctor if I tried.”
You: “What are you talking about? Sonic’s going to live after getting a shotgun blast to both legs because of you.”
Nate: “You ever wonder why the start of Moreau General Hospital was so bad at caring for patients?”
You: “Uh… no?” You awkwardly smile.
Nate: “Well it was at least partially, because of me. I didn’t give a damn about any of my patients all I cared about moving up the ladder faster than the next guy. And that was the norm long before the 2 of us were even born mind you. Seeing your friend Sonic there about to die made me realize what it takes to be a real doctor.”
You:  “I… I’m sorry...”
There is only a long period of awkward silence it seems like he agrees but it’s hard to tell.
You: “Is Sonic going to come through okay? He's not going to die...right?”
Nate: “Your friend Sonic will live alright, I saved his legs from infection too but that was all. The muscles nerves and tendons were too badly damaged to save; he’ll never be able to walk again.”
You: “What?!”
Nate: (sighs solemnly) “And now comes the hardest part... breaking the news to the patient.”
You:” No!”  (Holding arms out, making a STOP! Motion) “No...I'll do it...” (you stand up and turn around)  “This is all my fault anyway.” (You thought you mumbled the latter part of that sentence under your breath but Nate was able to hear it.)
Nate: “You’re that guy from the wanted posters aren’t you?”
You: (Stand there speechless for about 30 seconds then you turn back around and ask) “What?”
Nate: “Wanted dead for theft and murder such a high bounty too.”
All you can do is stand there and stare at him speechless.
Nate: “But everything I just saw you do today disproves that statement. People who murder and steal like the bandits can only care for themselves, you risked your life to save Sonic, and you’re no bandit. I can tell because if you were, you would’ve let him die and fled without him. (There is a long awkward silence.) What exactly did you do to earn such a hefty price tag?” (He eyes the implant on your right hand) “Does it have something to do with this?”
You: “Y… yes…” (You hold out your palm and allow him to examine the implant.)
Nate: “Bloodstone implants were never my field of expertise, but I can tell this is nothing like the ones I’ve seen on the market.”
You: “That’s because… it’s not on the market, special prototype.”
Nate: (Looks over your body up and down, he seems confused) “Where’s your Sievetrie apparatus?”
You: “There… isn’t one…” (You give off a nervous smile.)
Nate: (He looks alarmed and points to your implant) “How long have you had that thing?”
You: (stare at the sky and notice that it’s now dawn) “About 3 days.”
Nate: (Looks even more alarmed) “That’s not possible. You should’ve died from bloodstone poisoning about 12 hours ago.”
You: [Well... I guess I might as well tell him the whole story, otherwise the other people on this train might side against me.] “It all started when that pink hedgehog girl over there Amy asked me to retrieve a package from a rather sketchy part of town…”
Nate spends the whole time listening with great interest. It takes you roughly 3 and a half hours to explain the whole thing, stopping only to drink some water due to excessive talking making you thirsty.
You: “… and so that’s when and why we made a break for the trains.”
Nate: “I can see you blame yourself for the destruction of Moreau, you should not think that way. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is no way you could have possibly seen this coming.” (Dr. Morgan’s words give you some comfort.)
Tails: (walks up and taps you on the shoulder you look at him) “Sonic’s awake now.”
You:  “I think I should go tell them the bad news now.” (Dr. Morgan merely nods, tails looks confused.)
As you walk over to Sonic and Amy, Tails pesters you asking with a whisper, “What bad news?” Sonic is still too weak to stand up lie down although standing up might not be a thing anymore for him… Sonic and Amy note your expression of concern.
You: “Since Sonic is still alive the good news is all too obvious, so I guess I better skip to the bad news.” (You kneel down to tell him the news, Amy and Tails look fearful but Sonic merely looks confused.) “Sonic… your leg tendons and muscles were too badly damaged… you’ll never be able to walk again…” (The words come out a lot faster than you thought they would.)
Sonic: (looks down at his legs Clenches fists and begins shedding silent angry tears)
Amy & Tails are appear to be frozen like statues the shock is too much for them to bear… but about 3 minutes later…
Tails: (His face seems to light up with an idea he doesn’t look happy about it though) “What if… there was a way for Sonic to be able to walk again?”
Everyone in your group then gives Tails a look of confusion.
Tails: “I’ve heard rumors of a Bloodstone Implant, they call it the Hermes Class, very rare very expensive.”
Sonic: “Tails… will it allow me to run again?” (From tail’s perspective it seems as though Sonic is angry with him but from yours it looks more like desperation)
Tails: “Well yes, but… it will require…” (He gulps nervously) “…amputation of both legs, and extensive modification of the hip joints; as well as from what I’ve heard about the speeds the users run at, an emitter for an anti-debris shield.”
Sonic: “Ok, so… how long would it take you to make one?”
Tails: (He severely flinches he looks extremely alarmed) “W-what?”
Sonic: “You’re the best mechanic I know.”
Tails: “But I’ve never worked with Bloodstone Implants besides…” (His ears bend down as does his head) “Mine.”
There is a long moment of silence.
You: [Tails seems too scared to move on he doesn’t have enough confidence in himself to proceed with this idea. Sonic's loved to run all his life... he takes pride in his running speed, it really helped him out as a courier, there is no way he going to be able to cope with not being able to use his legs.] (You swiftly decide to change the subject; you look out the open door to the desert sands) “Never been this far outside the city before, where does this train even go?”
Nate: “The 1st stop is a little oasis village in the east, Arroyo, population is only about 800 people, mostly dessert foxes. We should be there in about 7 hours.”
Amy: (Holding Sonic’s hand and touching his leg with the other) “Are there any Bloodstone engineers out there?”
Nate: “The Town’s primary source of income is the Bloodstone mine, I imagine so, I also know a lion named Li Yuen he left the city about oh maybe 20 years ago seeking a simpler life. I like to keep in touch with him from time to time on the telegraph. Normally I'd leave him in peace, but given the circumstances, I guess we have no other choice... he's the only person I know of who we can turn to.”
Everyone then falls into an awkward silence that would last for the next 7 hours. Amy never left Sonic’s side.  Sonic just spent the entire time lying on his side looking at the wall he didn’t seem to be sleeping. But he silently refused to eat any food Amy silently offered him. As for you, Doctor Morgan and Tails the 3 of you take turns watching the land go by the approaching rocky red and brown mountains in the distance are beautiful especially in the face of the pink streaks in the sky at dawn. Your breakfast consists of canned food namely chicken noodle soup mixed with corned beef hash. By the time the sun touches the horizon the train slows down to a gentle stop in Arroyo. You can tell Amy is still reluctant to leave Sonic’s side as the 3 of you leave the train you tap Tails on the shoulder and point to Amy, Tails looks at her and nods to you.
Tails: “Amy…” (Amy looks at Tails) “You should stay behind in the train with Sonic; the 3 of us” (referring to you and Dr. Morgan) “will look for a wheelchair and the engineer.”
Amy merely nods in silent agreement with teary eyes yet she seems more resolved than before. The trio spends the next 15 minutes walking through the streets of town; the market place is bustling with goods and people of every sort. Nate leads you and Tails to the doorstep of Li Yuen's house and workshop it’s pretty hard to find sandwiched between much larger shops on all sides good thing he’s been here before.
Nate: Here's hoping he's home. (Knocking on the door; footsteps can be heard coming from the other end, before the door opens...and an elderly looking lion emerges.)
Nate: Hello, Yuen! It's been a long time, hasn't it?
Li Yuen: (Reaches out and hugs Nate) “Ah! Nate! Welcome back, my old friend!”
Nate (briefly embraces the hug after ending it from being in slight pain) “Ah Yuen, it’s good to see you again.”
Li Yuen: “Wow! How many years has it been since we last met face to face?”
Nate: “Enough to turn my hair grey.”(Nate points to his head and the 2 of them loudly laugh.)
Li Yuen: “Come in! Come in! You must be exhausted from your long journey.” (The 3 of you do so, the place inside looks like a mixture between a blacksmith’s forge, a garage and an architect’s abode. The scent of the air inside contains a slight hint of motor oil.) “I heard about what happened in Moreau, terrible, just terrible.  In fact my telegraph and the wire printers around town have been going crazy all morning about.”
You: (whisper to Tails) “I thought his name was Li, why are you calling him Yuen?”
Tails: “The eastern people like to put their surnames 1st and their given names 2nd it’s just part of their culture.”
You: “oh.”
Li Yuen: (Looks at you and Tails) “So Nate, are these 2 friends of yours?”
Nate: “Yes… actually they helped me escape Moreau. In fact they could use your help”
Li Yuen “Well any friend of Nate’s is a friend of mine. What seems to be the problem?” (He seems to eye Tails) “Does it have something to do with this little guy?”
Tails: Hmm? (He gives a confused look to Li Yuen)
Li Yuen: “His bloodstone implant has a very unique craftsmanship to it. But...”
Nate: “Actually the problem is a patient of mine waiting on the train. He’s in… rough shape.”
Li Yuen: (Stands back up and to face Nate) “How rough are we talking?”
Nate: “You uh… wouldn’t happen to have any wheelchairs lying around would you?”
Approximately 15 minutes later, everyone is inside Li Yuen's laboratory, gathered around Sonic who is lying on an operating table as Li Yuen is examining his injuries.
Li Yuen: “Nate you’ve already patched him up and given the state of these legs… there’s no way you would bring him to me unless you wanted me to make a Hermes implant.”
Sonic: “That’s exactly what I want sir. I NEED to be able to run again.”
Li Yuen: “Oh you’ll do more than just run son. The Hermes implant amplifies the user running ability to the point where they can break the limits of speed for… well… pretty much almost anyone or anything else.”
Sonic: (eyes lightening up, and a large smile coming across his face.) “Seriously!?” (Sonic is clearly obsessed with of the possibilities of him with the Hermes implant)
After a brief overview of the semantics Sonic is put under anesthesia for the operation. Nate, Li Yuen, Tails and Amy all watch over Sonic. Everyone has a job to do except for you cleaning and disinfecting the metal, clearing a space for an operating table etc. But everyone seems to ignore to as if you don’t even exist. Given what has happened to you over the past 3 days being the center of so much negative attention… it feels nice to be ignored again. You decide to wait upstairs search for any books to read, and eventually food to eat and water to drink.  The implanting the Hermes appears to be one of the most difficult Bloodstone procedures. You can only hear a few sentences of them talking beneath you,
Nate: “Both legs are amputated, beginning chest cavity for filter apparatus… Li where’s that spinal reinforcement and the debris deflector?”
Not wanting to hear anymore grisly details you decide to go into the nearest room and lock the door behind you. Unfortunately you fail to notice that there’s a young pudgy fox girl about Tails’ age sleeping inside. You awkwardly stumble out while making as little noise as possible, your turn around to the door to see a sign written in the handwriting of a little girl, “Li Moon’”.
You: [Must be his daughter or something like that… fox, lion… adoption? Ugh I’ll have time to ask later.]
You go into the next room apparently the study, plenty of books to read. According to your pocket watch when Tails summons you, you spent over 6 hours reading. You leave the study, starting to head back to the garage surprised at how much time has passed.
You: "I'll be right there, Tails!"
Tails: “Well hurry! I think you're going to want to see this!”
You arrive downstairs only to be redirected towards the street outside; there you find sonic standing upright with metal legs, a Sievetrite filter apparatus in his chest, and what appears to be a brass spine. Sonic merely looks at you and everyone else with a smirk, eyes the hill housing the Bloodstone mine, lifts up one leg as if prepping to run, and then faster than you can blink he’s gone with a bang kicking up a huge smoke trail behind him. Within 20 seconds he returns with a hand full of Bloodstone vials. This causes Amy & Tails to cheer as Sonic proceeds to laugh at his good fortune. He hands the vials to Li Yuen and Tails. Sonic stands up tall as he prepares to run.
Sonic: "Okay guys... I'm gonna see if this Hermes implant lives up to its name."
He starts running in place, his feet going about in a blur, before he takes off at the speed of a bullet from a gun, rushing off...only for a loud crash to sound out 1 second later, as he ran straight into a wall.
Sonic: “Ugh! Uh… this might take some getting used to.”