𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜: 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬

      There is a cutscene on one of the oil rigs built in the open sea without an island nearby. Then there is a title card with Scourge the Hedgehog in his fighting poses and his introduction at the end. In the personnel voice of a certain person at this moment he says: — SHOW PAINFUL WOUNDS! And your presenter... Anti-hero for money... Undercover personality... Your hated under-clone of the famous original... SCOURGE THE HEDGEHO-O-OG!!! — Hello, mom. Welcome to Painful Wounds. — Scourge himself continued to host his show. — The only program where two participants, working as partners, fight for their own lives! And remember, dear viewers — I can be hired for secret operations, murder, activities with... In general, “this” and holiday congratulations! Sonic the werewolf himself watched this very show on TV through the store window and was indignant at what he saw: — I don’t know what surprises me more... The fact that he infuriates me with his appearance, or the fact that someone let him on TV, or the fact that he easily bypasses censorship for children? Scourge, meanwhile, continued his speech on TV under explosive special effects: — Attention, today we have a special episode — two invited guests will pass all our tests! They will have to work as a team, as partners. Otherwise they won’t get through so easily. — And who is it? — the werehedgehog asked rudely. — Are you wondering who it is? Now our wheel of fate will tell you about this. — said the green hedgehog and began to spin it with multi-colored balls and numbers. After he finished spinning, the first blue ball rolled out first. Scourge took out a piece of paper from it. — So! First participant... Knuckles the Echidna! — Fi! And why am I not surprised? Sonic snorted as Scourge continued to spin his wheel on the TV. The next ball rolled out, a yellow one, from which he also took out a piece of paper with a name. — And the second participant who will work as a partner with Knuckles is... Sonic the Hedgehog! — What? — the werewolf's eyes bulged. — Yes, Sonic the wolf! You! — Scourge answered with a grin right on the TV, as if he knew that he was watching him on TV. — You and Knuckles will be our participants today. And you will fight for it! — at these words, the frame changed and the camera showed the magic fragment of the tablet that Scourge kept. Sonic immediately became eager to get this fragment. If he takes part and passes it, and then wins, then there will be no need to select him. The keeper himself did not say anything to him on this topic and did not contradict him, which means he can easily take part in the stupid show of this disgusting green hedgehog and go there. — Television is a cruel thing, but I have no other choice.

***

      Holding onto the helicopter with outstretched long arms, Sonic the Werewolf flew to the very oil rig where Scourge is filming his stupid show. Following him, Knuckles himself also arrives there on a motor boat. He grabs the iron beam with his knuckles and climbs along it onto the iron platform, where Sonic himself lands, unhooking from the helicopter. — You both can ride inside. — Yeah. This is the size. What is it called, “Overcompensation”? — Knuckles asked jokingly. Sonic the werewolf himself extended his hand to him and helped him up. — Thank you, Sonic. — he just saw Sonic and was a little horrified. — What's wrong with you? — It's a long story, Knuckles. I'll explain everything to you later! — Sonia and Knax! Can I call you Sonia and Knax? — Scourge mockingly greeted them from the roof. It was filmed by a couple of video cameras on flying drones, and the rest of the drones were holding TV screens, where Scourge's show itself was broadcast. — Thank you for agreeing to take part in our general social networking episode. By the way, should I bring you anything? Water or soda? — How about the fragment of the tablet that you nominated as a prize? — Sonic asked through gritted teeth. Scourge just laughed in response and said: — Funny! Okay, let's start with the splash screen! And three... Two... And... — after the cutscene from the countdown timer, Scourge himself greets the audience with a microphone in his hands under the effects of lava geysers: — Welcome to “Painful Wounds”!!! Is there any way to turn them off? — he asked jokingly and turned off the TV with the effect of turning off the TV. After a couple of seconds of black screen, he turns the show back on. — It's a joke! From the author: Continue reading to the song “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Soundtrack/Music/OST – Welcome to Pain Factor! (Intense)" — How he infuriates me! - Sonic snapped. — Me too. That's why I came here not for the sake of a reward, but to simply punch this proud egoist in his face. — Knuckles replied. — Yes? — asked the hedgehog and the echidna nodded. — Let's do it this way. I'll leave Scourge to you, but I need a reward. It is this very fragment. I only came here for him. — Whatever you say, Sonic. With these words they walked forward, and Scourge, watching their confident movement together, continued his speech: — And now our two participants go straight into the testing arena. Sonic and Knuckles! — How he infuriates me. — Sonic hissed through his teeth. — Me too. Knuckles added. The werehedgehog and the echidna pass through the iron doors and end up in some room without corners. There were only monitors around, as well as another iron door ahead. In the center on the floor there was some kind of grating. Scourge displays his image on the screens and addresses the guests of his show directly: — Not a bad solution [although, of course, I can do better,] but is it possible to make it more effective? — suddenly the grate in the floor opens and a video camera on one leg emerges from under the floor, which filmed Sonic and Knuckles themselves. — Work for the camera! Millions of viewers will see this. — I'll show you what I think about your cameras. — the echidna said sternly, screaming and running at the camera itself, hitting it with his fist, right into the lens. The camera crashed. This didn't make Scourge angry, but on the contrary made him happy. — Wow! That was the blow. Just what we needed. — he said and opened the next door, allowing them to enter. They went to the other end of the platform, where one of the drones with a screen showed Scourge himself, who continued his chatter: — I’ll be honest. I really wouldn't tolerate you just walking around here with your stupid pumped up bazooka arms. But still, for the sake of ratings, I’m ready to endure it. Since the audience watches me and increases with your appearance, then perhaps I will arrange it. First I will face off against my army of loyal fans and my ARMY of production assistants. In fact, these are interns who work for free, but it doesn’t matter. — The dumbest fake double of myself from another dimension. — Sonic snapped about Scourge. — We say that this will be an act of mercy. If, of course, they themselves saw your program through the eyes of the audience, then they would be more likely to understand us and would be against you. — Knuckles snapped towards the green hedgehog. — Oh! Just let's not swear! Children can still watch our show. Scourge added jokingly and the TV turned off. Sonic took Knuckles with his right hand and extended his left, grabbing onto a container crane and flying from this tower to another. There, a large iron door opened and Scourge's fans themselves came out to meet the guests of the show, dressed in leather jackets, green masks with Scourge's face and armed with batons. They walked over and got into fighting stances, preparing to beat the two with their bats. One of them ran up sharply and tried to hit him with a bat from above. Knuckles dodged and the fan only hit the floor. Knuckles then attacks next, pushing him towards Sonic. The werewolf grabs him, spins him around and throws him at the rest of the fans, knocking them to the floor. — Wow! This was a team fight. One person can't do it against everyone, but two people are quite possible. Let's see if you can find eight of my video cameras on this tower and break them in the same way? Look carefully, I hid them securely, and some were even able to protect them so that it would be difficult for you to get close to them. Sonic folds his arms downwards, allowing Knuckles to stand on them and throws him up. Then he himself jumps after him on his own two feet. There, on their way, they meet about fourteen more of these fans, who looked at them menacingly and also wanted to kick their asses. The two ran at Knuckles, and the echidna stood on his hands, stretched his legs into a split and, spinning like a tornado, pushed the two away. The others ran towards Sonic, trying to attack him. The werewolf decided to swing his outstretched arms and threw them away, except for the last one. The only fanatic made a block with his fists and defended himself from the blow despite the physical strong blow of the werewolf. Sonic hits him and tries to hit him, and Scourge's admirer deftly blocks and defends himself from the blow. At one point, he removes the block of fists from his sides and teases Sonic by sticking out his tongue and making a foolish face. Taking advantage of this, Sonic hits him in the face and thereby knocks him to the floor. On the way there was another video camera on one leg, which filmed their fight. Sonic reached out, grabbed the camera lens and broke it, knocking out the camera itself. — This was an unexpected surprise for the viewer. My special could at least be shown in 3D in cinemas for the effect of realism. — Oh, shut up! — Sonic hissed. Here Sonic and Knuckles split up. The werewolf with elongated arms grabbed the bars on the ceiling and crawled forward, and Knuckles crawled on his knuckles to the top. The werewolf, having reached the next platform, immediately ran into a Scourge fan armed with a machine gun. He didn’t have time to open fire before the werewolf hedgehog managed to stretch out his hand, grab him and was pulled towards him. In one fell swoop he hit him in the face and knocked him to the floor. Looking around, Sonic used the vision gifted by the guardian and discovered the remaining seven video cameras, which were slightly illuminated in this vision with a golden glow. Knuckles himself had almost reached one of them, when six Scourge fans armed with machine guns immediately stood in his way. — Now you'll get it! — one of them threatened the echidna and opened fire. Knuckles jumped to the side, not getting hit by the bullets, and knocked the gun out of the hand of Scourge's admirer. Then he began to fight with his bare hands. He grabbed him by the shoulders and threw him at another of the same kind, who pushed the third. Then the echidna took a barrel of oil and threw it at the fourth. The fifth and sixth ran at Knuckles, forgetting that they needed to shoot, and the echidna grabbed them by the neck and smashed their foreheads against each other. Having reached the camera, he grabs it and tears it off the iron stick, leaving it sticking out and sparkling, and breaks the camera itself into pieces, squeezing it in his hands. Looking around, he saw another cell behind bars on the floor below. However, he could not get there, because he had to break the bars, and the cell itself was armed with flamethrowers and poured fire when someone tried to get to it. — You won’t be able to get close to her that easily. — Scourge himself mocked on TV on a flying drone. — Try to think with your brain or look for another way to it. Without hesitation, the echidna noticed a ventilation nearby. The same ventilation grille is located behind the same chamber. You need to get to it through the ventilation at the back and break it unexpectedly. So he did. At this time, Sonic grabbed one of the drones in the air with his hands and flew onto it to another platform on a column, where there was also a camera. It was guarded by twelve Scourge fans, whom the werewolf easily threw from the platform into the water. One of Scourge's fans even managed to let out a Wilhelm scream when he hit and fell. Afterwards, the werewolf broke this camera, but she did nothing to him. Although she was armed with two built-in machine guns, they couldn’t even wound the werewolf. The bullets only bounced off him when they hit him. Next, the werewolf-hedgehog jumped from the platform back to the previous one and ran to the fifth chamber, and six fans stood on the way, four of whom came out to fight with their bare hands, and two were armed with clubs. They ran at Sonic and swung their arms, trying to hit him. — I’ll tear off your thorns now, prickly wolf. — Now I’ll hit you! — Catch the blow! — Well get over here! — I'll tear you apart now! It was in vain that they were just showing off like that, because the werewolf was much stronger than them and, having knocked everyone to the floor, ran on. — That was an epic fight, Sonic! — Scourge clapped his hands, admiring Sonic's werewolf fight. At this time, Sonic found the fifth chamber, also armed with machine guns, and broke it at the same time. — Excellent durability in battle! At this time, Knuckles climbed onto the roof and noticed two more cameras on the empty helicopter pad. They were also armed with two built-in machine guns, but were not guarded by anyone. The video cameras pointed their lenses at Knuckles and opened fire on him. Knuckles, dodging somersaults and making his way between the shelters of barrels and boxes, makes his way to the left camera, breaking it, and then throws it into the next cell, breaking it too. It remains to find the last camera. Sonic himself found her, simply by finding her in an ordinary place, where no one was guarding her and where she herself was not armed with anything. When the werewolf broke it too, Scourge spoke through the TV screen: — Not bad, Sonia and Knux! But this is just the beginning, because this is a live broadcast and the show cannot stop. — On the TV screen, Scourge shows more places where five more cameras have appeared, and continues to say: — Did you really think that I didn’t have a backup plan for this? I suggest you also find and destroy five more video cameras in more secret places. One of the cameras, armed with a stun gun, did not allow anyone to approach it and immediately gave an electric shock if someone got close to it. She was in an empty room behind the door. Sonic figured out to pick up an iron barrel and throw it into that very chamber to break it. He noticed the second camera on one of the flying drones, which flew past one of the cranes. He simply grabbed it with his right hand, stretched it out like Mister Fantastic, reached out to it and smashed it with his other hand, clenched into a fist. True, this caused the droid itself to break, and Sonic almost fell into the water. It’s good that he figured out to stretch his arms up, grab onto the iron railings of the oil rig and pull himself back. At this time, Knuckles found some passage with a door into a large and empty room. When he entered there, he was met there by some healthy four-meter jock, armed with a sledgehammer. He was also a Scourge fan. Scourge himself speaks at this time on the large TV on the wall: — Knaxie! You are the next participant in the “Fantastic Battle”! Look who you got! Your opponent is an incredible giant! — And this is my prize? — Knuckles asked, pointing his fist at him, and he looked menacingly at the echidna and let out a roar like a beast. And then he slowly and intimidatingly approached Knuckles. — Wow! Knuckles, they're about to crush him! And we will find out about this after a short advertisement. — Scourge added, to which the giant widened his eyes and asked: — But how?... — Don't worry, we'll get back to where we left off. — added the green hedgehog and the big man, who lowered his head, began to walk away. Sixteen regular Scourge fans immediately appeared in the room and came out to fight with their bare hands. At this time, the camera hid inside the floor so that Knuckles would not break it ahead of time. - Hey, brothers! Hurry here, help our hero warm up. Knuckles was not confused and easily killed them all. By that time, coincidentally, the commercials on the TV had ended and Scourge turned on the live broadcast again. The camera appeared from under the floor again. The giant returned to the battlefield again, and ordinary fans, whom Knuckles had previously managed to beat behind the scenes of TV, were removed as if nothing had happened. — And again we welcome you to the show “Painful Wounds.” And now, Knuckles, it seems to me, will be crushed. — said the green hedgehog. — Now you’ll dance with me, red dog. — the giant said threateningly, raised the sledgehammer up and prepared to hit him. The echidna rolled, walked between the legs, stood behind the giant, jumped on his back and began to hit him on the back of the head. The giant gets up, spins in place and even runs back to hit the wall with his back and knock the echidna off of him, but he held on tightly, and at the moment of collision with the wall, he stood on his shoulders and back behind him. — I’m a TV star, you can’t overwhelm me. — he added and tried to hit Knuckles from behind with his sledgehammer. However, the latter let him go and the big man accidentally hit himself with a sledgehammer, after which he fell and lost consciousness. — What a pity. Where can I now find such a huge and angry fan? — Don't know. Do you know Shrek? — Knuckles asked, speaking to the camera itself and breaking it with one blow. At this time, the werewolf made his way into the cabin of the director of the oil rig and found a camera there. However, there was no way to break it. It seemed that she was not armed or protected by anything, but every time she hides inside the floor when someone comes close to her and sticks out back when they move away. Only then did Sonic realize that he took an iron chair and threw it, which broke this camera. When that camera was broken, Scourge appeared on the screens inside that room and spoke: — Welcome to the Scourge the Hedgehog Show. Our guest today is a wolf hedgehog. Greetings, please take a seat. Let's talk about what's on everyone's lips... Who do you think is Amy Rose? In my opinion, no worse than that red squirrel that you save all the time. What is this, a love triangle. — Oh, shut up! — the werewolf cursed and hit the screens with his fists, knocking them all out. At the same time, although the image disappeared, the sound was still coming: — Well, don’t be so rude! One more question! Is it true that you were already a perfect life form and Shadow was actually your prototype? Sonic rolled his eyes and accidentally noticed another similar camera, but on the ceiling. He sharply extended his hand, grabbed the lens and clenched his fingers into a fist, breaking the last camera and at the same time answered menacingly: — I don’t have to answer all these stupid questions, clown! — Congratulations, Sonia and Knax! You pretty coolly and hilariously ruined my show. Well, or almost ruined it. For this you deserve your prize... — Splinter. — the same Scourge added sharply, finding himself behind Sonic. The werewolf turned back, saw Scourge himself, armed with a club, and did not have time to do anything before he abruptly knocked him out with one blow. Sonic lost consciousness from such a blow, and Scourge on TV at that time said: — This will not work! BAD HEDGEHOG!!! BAD!!!

***

      Sonic and Knuckles both woke up on the edge of the platform and grabbed their heads. Scourge knocked them both out and while they were passed out, Scourge himself was still riding a motorboat on the water, waving his hand and shouting: — Yo-ho! Look, mom! Look! — then he jumps. The motorboat crashes into a column and explodes, and Scourge himself lands next to the werewolf and the echidna. — TA-dah! In person — the unique Sco... — the hedgehog fell silent for a second, looking at his participants. — Oh, look at you! — What is it? — Knuckles didn’t understand. — I thought you both would be shorter. My size though. Okay, let's avoid general plans. — he added and continued to praise himself. — SCORGE!!! Thank you, thank you. No flowers needed, better increase my ratings. — Don’t be offended, but who even loves and supports you? Who loves and supports a selfish moron like you? — Sonic snapped. — Envy silently! — the green hedgehog answered mockingly and took out two of his blades from his back.— Fight me if you are not afraid of me!