Shooting Star (A Sonic Movie Fanfic: Book One of the Real World Chronicles)

Ch. 9: Enter the Doctor

The sun hadn't even risen the next morning, yet the baseball field was already littered with tents, military trucks, and soldiers. Researchers in full-on quarantine suits were taking soil samples from the beatdown, trodden trench that was made the previous night; those samples were taken directly to a setup lab-tent built over home base and the bleachers.

A pitch black truck the size of an extra large RV had pulled in through the tents and parked in the middle of the field. There was something very unsettling about it, considering there was a glowing red focus lens right above the windshield.

Sending his last soldier out for his assignment, the head of the troop's investigation, turned around but was caught off guard by this mystery vehicle.

"What the..."

A high-tech foldout staircase opened out on the side of the truck and set up the steps, where a tall lanky man quickly marched down from He had dark short hair, professionally gelled back to one side, with an equally thick chevron/handlebar mustache to match. He wore all black, including a very futuristic black lab coat with trimmed strips and red trims on the inside.

The strange man made his way over to the head major, with his assistant close behind, who had just hopped out of one of two government cars carrying other agents that have also arrived. The lead major kept his hand by his gun holster strapped on his side, sensing untrustworthiness.

The dark agent pluck off his thin shades and looked the major in the eye.

"Are you in charge here?" He asked directly.

The major nodded, "Yes, I am —"

"Nope!" The strange man interrupted.

The major went on unfazed. "My —"

"Wrong!"

"Name —"

"I'm in charge!"

"Is Major —"

"Me! "

"Ben —"

"I'm in charge," the doctor whispered. He had his assistant hold up an electronic badge to certify. "You've never seen anything like this before. It says that I'm the top banana in a world of hungry little monkeys."

He pointed out, "Allow me to clarify." The scientist zipped his finger away and cocked his head at it, mouthing robotic movement for emphasis. "In a sequentially ranked hierarchy based on a level of critical importance, the disparity between us is too vast to quantify. Agent Stone?" He immediately stepped aside.

"The doctor thinks you're basic," his assistant explained to the major.

"I'm initiating a sweep sequence," the strange man let them know, as he pressed some buttons on a control panel he had on his glove. "Ten miles in every direction should suffice."

The top of the truck unfolded and dispatched some white flying drones the size of footballs.

The doctor barely even looked behind himself, feeling disturbed.

"Is he still looking at me funny?"

"Yes, he is," Agent Stone replied.

"Tell him to stop or I'll pull up his search history." He made the call sign with his hand.

The assistant turned and explained, "If you don't stop looking at the doctor, he'll take a closer look —"

"I'm not deaf," clarified Major Bennington, sternly.

"And tell him his men report to me now. Blah blah blah... blah blah blah.. blah blah blah," the scientist spewed out his hands, as if it were total nonsense, etc., etc.

"Excuse me?" The major snapped. "Listen, pal, I din't know if you realize who —"

"I'm sorry, Major," the doctor interrupted. "What was your name?"

"Benning —"

"Nobody cares!" He made a 'pitiful' face. "Nobody cares."

Keeping up his act, he walked to the major to clarify. "Listen, Major Nobody-Cares. You why nobody cares who you are? Because nobody cares about your feeble accomplishments." He walked around him. "And nobody cares how proud your mommy is that you're now reading at a third-grade level. Have you finished Charlotte's Web? Spoiler alert: she dies in the end. And she leaves a big creepy egg sac."

The two looked up and watched the drones fly around their master.

"Ah, my babies!" Glorified Robotnik as he showed off his revolutionary tech. "Ooh! Look what came out of my egg sac! You know what I love about machines?" He turned to face them.

"They do what they're told, they follow their programming!"

He immediately turned back to Major Bennington. "They don't have time to get DRUUUNK and put the boat in the water." Robotnik slacked his back in a mocking way, like a drunk man.

Standing back up straight, he pointed at the major. "Now you do what you're told," he directed. "Stand over there on the edge of your personal abyss..." He pointed to the lab-tents before opening his arms wide open again. "And watch my machines do your job."

Disgruntled, Major Bennington walked off to check up on the rest of his troops. Agent Stone watched as his boss pressed the buttons on his gloves to initiate the robo-investigation.

"Can you feel it, Stone?"

"I can feel it, Doctor."

"It's evolution, Stone." Robotnik clenched his fists in the air. "It's evolution!!! "

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The drones spread out as they surveyed deep in the forest. One of them scanned a dirty, yet mossy, rock with a shoe print on it. Its camera was labeled, "ANOMALY DETECTED ".

Back at the truck, Dr. Robotnik watched and controlled the operation on a giant laser-red holographic screen. Just as Agent Stone stepped into the lab, a photo pulled up onscreen.

"Agent Stone?"

"Doctor," his assistant called present.

"Do you see anything useful in this image?" The doctor pulled up the image of the shoe print. The image rang no bells in the average human's mind.

"Not at all, Doctor."

"Of course you don't," he chuckled, before randomly stating, "Your eyes weren't trained to spot tracks by the Native American shadow wolves."

Agent Stone just stood there, completely confused, as Robotnik pressed some buttons on his control panel before scooting back a little on his chair. The computer enhanced the image to reveal a beautiful 3D model of an unusual footprint.

Stone was gobsmacked, though he kept a straight face. "That's extraordinary."

"No. What's extraordinary is I've determined the exact height, weight, and spinal curvature of this creature, and my computer can't find a single match for it anywhere in Earth's animal kingdom."

The doctor continued, inferring, "This blackout wasn't a terrorist attack," — he pointed to the image — "and that's no baby bigfoot." He chuckled, "This guy is something else... entirely."

"Divert all search units to the sight of this footprint," Robotnik quickly ordered, while still gazing at the 3D footprint.

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for me."