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“Never Lake, an unspoiled beauty spot on Planet Mobius. Unspoiled, that is, until now. Awakening early, Amy had checked in with the Kintobor Computer and learned of reports of Badnik activity in the area. Keen to impress Sonic, she’d made her way to the lake just in time for sunrise. There certainly didn’t seem to be any Badniks about, but Amy thought it unlikely that Kintobor had been mistaken- a supercomputer that powerful didn’t just make errors willy-nilly, especially not when hooked into the most sophisticated surveillance and security system on the planet.
Sitting down on a rock, Amy was joined by a Mobini Flicky bird.
“Oh, hello!” She smiled at the cute creature, “Don’t suppose you’ve seen any Badniks around here?” She paused as the bird tilted its head to look at her. “Crikey,” she continued, “there’s no wonder my friend’s parents named him Flicky, he really does look like one of you…”
Amy kicked her feet about a bit, bored. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a deck of cards, “Hey, I don’t suppose you want your fortune reading? I’m a bit new to it myself, but it’s fun! Here, I’ll show you, let’s do mine…”
She crossed over to a nearby tree stump and drew a card from the deck. It bore the image of a strange wheel. “Hm,” Amy announced almost to herself, “The Wheel of Fortune. Change of fortune coming my way, it seems! Lucky me, huh? Okay, next is…” She drew the next card. A couple were holding up two large drinking cups, “Ooh, the Two of Cups- could mean love!” She giggled to herself. The next card she drew depicted a large tower in turmoil, not unlike Robotnik’s Trap Tower, “The Tower… imminent danger… I wonder what—”
The Flicky bird cried out in fright. Amy looked up to see what had startled the creature and dropped her cards before she ran for her life.
One card fluttered onto the stump- the Knight of Swords.
***
Back in Knothole, the rest of the Freedom Fighters were waking up and making their way into their base of operations. Sonic wandered over to the games console they’d swiped from a Robotnik supply crate last week, about ready to switch it on for another round of gaming. He was determined to get past the level that had been challenging him for some time. He was too embarrassed to admit to his friends he was stuck on the first stage of the game, but he was determined to get past that particular roadblock today.
As Sonic hopped up onto his favourite chair and reached for the game controller, a beeping noise sounded. Johnny Lightfoot walked over to the computer console, “Sounds like an alert on the vid-phone.” He did a quick head count, “Is Amy not here? Where could she have gotten to?”
Sonic sighed, “Probably got herself kidnapped again. Another brilliant plan, no doubt.”
Johnny pressed the answer button on the vid-phone and Amy’s panicked face filled the screen as she tried her best to keep an eye on her communicator while running, short of breath, “Sonic! Johnny! IF you guys can hear me, you’ve got to come quickly!”
“What did I tell you?” Sonic rolled his eyes.
Amy’s wide-eyed face filled the vid-phone monitor, “I’m at Never Lake and—”
A metallic hand with sharp claws for fingers swung towards the camera. It’s owner ordered, “No more!” in a staccato, robotic voice as the hand smashed into the camera screen cutting the feed.
Johnny spun around, “Sonic, I don’t think this is something Amy set up! We’ve got to—”
Sonic was nowhere to be seen. A single sheet of notepad paper floated to the ground as a pencil clattered to the floor. Johnny snatched the note out of the air, realising Sonic had clearly written it at speed and dashed off.
Johnny read the note aloud, “No Star Posts at Never Lake. Got to leg it. See you there.”
***
Sonic wore a look of grim determination on his face. He couldn’t pretend Amy didn’t get on his nerves but he’d never forgive himself if he allowed anything bad to happen to her. Whoever or whatever that hand belonged to, it didn’t sound friendly.
As he kicked up dust and dirt in his wake, Sonic took in the view at Never Lake, baffled. He knew he’d been gone a while but he definitely knew Never Lake had a forest- he’d seen it in postcards before. In fact, he’d seen it in plenty of places. Never Lake was where the Miracle Planet appeared over Mobius for just one day every month, making it a frequent subject of conversation in books and magazines. Nobody had any idea where the Miracle Planet came from and no expedition to its surface had ever been mounted. Rumours swirled of a mysterious force which allowed it to blink through space and time, though these rumours remained unconfirmed.
At any rate, Sonic could certainly confirm one thing: the forest was gone.
“That’s not right…” Sonic muttered to himself.
He screeched to a halt in a rocky area by the edge of the lake itself and furrowed his brow in anger, “That’s not right either!”
Robotnik’s cruel visage had been carved into a nearby mountain, making a mockery of the natural beauty of the area. Sonic couldn’t help but notice an enormous metal chain was attached to the mountain, as if being held in Robotnik’s teeth. He followed the chain with his eyes and what he saw horrified him.
“And that is definitely not right!”
The Miracle Planet hung in the air above Never Lake, but it didn’t look like its appearance in any postcard or book Sonic had ever seen. The surface of the planet appeared to be covered in grey metal, with rings of fire belching disgustingly. Sonic blinked and, for a split second, the planet looked normal. Then it returned to its metallic appearance. Sonic had to wonder if he was going completely mad. He closed his eyes tightly then opened them. The Miracle Planet was still metal.
“Sonic!” Amy’s voice called out from above and Sonic looked up to its source. Amy had been placed precariously atop a pillar of rock, “I’m trapped up here- I don’t have any way to get down safely!”
“I might have known,” Sonic grumbled. He rushed towards the pillar and, using his super speed and his feet, cut footholds into it in a spiral formation, allowing him to climb up and, more importantly, allowing Amy to climb down.
“That’s a bit clever,” Amy noted.
“Would you ever give it a rest?” He reached the top of the pillar and found there was just enough room for a second hedgehog next to Amy, “Mind telling me what’s going on with the Miracle Planet? What’s with the chain and the steampunk look?”
“Robotnik’s covered it in his machinery. He’s going to turned the Miracle Planet into a base of operations. If he isn’t here twenty-nine days out of the month, he’ll be unimpeded by us Freedom Fighters and there’s no telling what he’ll be able to cook up.”
“Super interesting, thanks for the update,” Sonic noted with a touch of sarcasm, “Next question, how were you dumb enough to get stuck up here?”
The staccato voice pierced the air, “The subject was placed there by me.”
“Who--?” Sonic turned, only to be met with a metallic doppelganger standing on an opposing cliff face. Sleek blue metal formed the basis of the terrible Badnik created in Sonic’s image, with plates of red as a mockery of Sonic’s Power Sneakers. Instead of a torso, the Badnik had a repurposed turbo engine. The now familiar clawed hands only served to make the machine look all the more sinister- and the red LED lights blinking against a black background formed an approximation of a pair of eyes. The Badnik had no mouth but reflections of the light seemed to make it look like it was frowning at Sonic.
“I am Metal Sonic. I serve the great Robotnik. And I am your destruction!”
“Another robotic version of me? Isn’t it about time he gave up? I always manage to—” before Sonic could get another word out, Metal Sonic had wrenched at the surface of the cliff and pulled a boulder to hurl at Sonic. Completely caught off guard by the speed of the Badnik, Sonic could do nothing as the boulder sailed towards him.
“Termination of Sonic ninety-eight percent positive and rising,” Metal Sonic announced.
A dull drilling sound seemed to emanate from the boulder as Metal Sonic was caught off guard by Sonic drilling through it like a buzzsaw, “Buddy, that two percent is all I need. How do you like my Triple Spin?”
Metal Sonic’s voice grew high-pitched, as if panicked “Error- recalibrating!”
Sonic collided with his robotic foe and staggered him briefly, “Oh recalibrate that, you walking tin can!”
Metal Sonic didn’t flinch and fired off a laser burst from his jet engine torso. Sonic dodged deftly, but only just, almost losing a spike in the process.
The two hedgehogs- real and robotic- began throwing punches at one another, slamming each other into cliff faces, hurling each other around. As she made her way down the steps Sonic had cut into the pillar, Amy tried her best to keep her eye on the real Sonic but both fighters were moving too quickly for her to focus properly, with the level of dust and rubble they were kicking up not helping her.
As Amy made her way to the base of the pillar, the dust cloud that had been kicked up had become huge. Amy saw a figure emerging from the dust and wished for the best, “Sonic, I really hope that’s you…”
No such luck.
Metal Sonic stalked towards Amy, “Proceeding with termination.”
“I was worried you might say something like that…” Amy admitted.
Metal Sonic reached for Amy but seemed to be slowing, “Termina—Error. Total sy-sy-sy-system… ffailuuuuuuuure.”
Without warning, Metal Sonic fell forward and hit the ground face first. The real Sonic emerged from the now settling dust. Amy breathed with great relief, “Sonic, it’s you!”
“Is it really?” Sonic replied, “I hadn’t noticed. Who else might it have been?” Amy walked over to Sonic and checked him over, noticing he’d taken a few hits but didn’t seem to have any cuts or major injuries. Sonic grumbled, “Did I ever tell you pink is my least favourite colour?”
“You do say the cutest things,” Amy smiled. Suddenly, she let out an ear-piercing shriek of surprise.
“For goodness’ sake!” Sonic yelled, “Calm down, it’s all—”
A clawed, metallic hand collided with the back of Sonic’s head, knocking him down in a daze. Metal Sonic gripped Amy’s arm tightly, “Analysis: Operating on thirty percent of full power only. Conclusion: Tactical retreat and further use of live bait.”
Amy was almost too annoyed to be frightened, “Well, I’ve been called some things in my time but—ow!”
Metal Sonic began rocketing up the chain towards the Miracle Planet. Sonic slowly picked himself up and eyed the scene, “I swear that girl should rent herself out as a professional hostage!”
Sonic put on a burst of speed as Metal Sonic and Amy disappeared out of sight, the weird dilation of time and space around the Miracle Planet distorting his perception somewhat. He raced up the chain after the new deadly foe, ready for a fight.
“I suppose someone has to rescue her…” Sonic admitted, “But why does it always have to be me?!”
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