Embedded Files
What awaited Sonic when he arrived on the surface of the Miracle Planet was something he could scarcely comprehend. Specifically, a beautiful paradise with blooming flowers and lush greenery. It looked not unlike the Green Hill Zone.
Now, obviously, Sonic could comprehend what that looked like, but what he couldn’t comprehend so easily was why. Mere moments before, he’d been staring at a planet totally covered in metal and machinery. So why now was he surrounded by bouncy grass, rushing water and palm trees taller than a lot of houses? None of this made sense.
Sonic consulted his watch, “Kintobor? Any ideas?”
The voice of the Kintobor computer responded, “Records on the Miracle Planet are limited, I’m afraid, Sonic. I would have to assume based on the local geography and topography, you’re standing in the Palmtree Panic Zone.”
“It doesn’t look too panic-inducing to me,” Sonic mused.
“Theories abound that ‘panic’ meant something different to the ancient race that once lived here. They’re all gone now, of course. But signs of their existence in a past age still linger in some parts of the planet.”
“Well, that’s all well and good,” Sonic replied, somewhat impatient, “but it doesn’t help me understand why the planet was covered in metal one moment and now it seems to be natural beauty.”
“Sonic, may I posit a theory to you?” Kintobor enquired.
“Only if that means tell me, sure.”
“The most long-standing rumour- more of a myth, really- about the Miracle Planet is that it is home to a legendary artefact known as the Time Stone.”
“I’m guessing that’s not just a fancy sundial.”
“Hardly.” Kintobor continued, “Historical records suggest the Time Stone would allow its wielder to travel through time, through different ages. Of course, such a tool would be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands and it’s theorised that wars over the Time Stone were what drove the Miracle Planet’s native inhabitants to either destruction, escape or perhaps even erasure from the timeline. It could even be that this was the ‘panic’ for which the Zone got its name. If Robotnik has gotten his hands on the Time Stone, it would be disastrous. He could set up some awful machinery in the past, which would alter the course of the present and lead to a horrendous dark future where the Miracle Planet is totally under his control.”
“So,” Sonic tried to piece all of this together in his head, “what you’re saying is, what I saw before was a vision of what might be, what I’m seeing now is what is and I have to change what was to keep things on course?”
“More accurately, Sonic, you have to change what wasn’t as Robotnik has already changed what was and it’s up to you to put it right.”
“Good, not complicated at all then. At least we know why I saw the Miracle Planet sort of blink into normality earlier for a moment, before turning back.”
“Yes, it would appear time is in flux.”
“You’re gonna have to explain that one to me in simpler terms, Kintobor.”
Kintobor pondered for a moment, as if his circuits were searching for a way to explain the situation to Sonic without making it seem like he was insulting Sonic’s intelligence, “As things currently stand, time on the Miracle Planet exists in multiple states. What is, what is not, what was, what should not be and what is yet to come. You’re experiencing them all at once.”
Sonic scrunched up his brow, “How can that be possible?”
“Well, quite simply, Sonic, it can’t. But you yourself have enjoyed an adventure across time before, have you not?”
Sonic rubbed his chin, “My jaunt to the Fourth Dimension with Tails. How could I forget?”
“You could forget easily, because it never happened. The two of you undid what happened in that dreadful alternate timeline, didn’t you?”
“Well, sure, hence why Mobius itself wasn’t ruined with machinery.”
“But you still remember that undone world because you yourself were part of events. I postulate, Sonic, that you and possibly even young Tails are more attuned to time-altering events because of your activities in multiple timelines that no longer exist. Put simply, you can see things which others simply cannot perceive.”
“So which version of the Miracle Planet am I standing on currently?” Sonic asked.
“All of them. And, not to lay things on too heavily, but it’s up to you to ensure only the best one becomes reality, or else—”
Reality shifted around Sonic, reshaping the Palmtree Panic Zone. The general topography of the Zone remained the same, but the grass became a sludgy brown, the flowers simply ceased to exist, unable to survive in a soil so polluted, the palm trees had become mechanical mockeries and the blue water that had flowed so freely before was now an upsetting grey, tainted and polluted by what must have been years of oil and waste being dumped into it.
“…or else this.” Sonic finished Kintobor’s sentence.
“Indeed. I’m afraid, Sonic, the future of the Miracle Planet quite literally depends on you.”
“Just another day at the office. No sign of Amy or Metal Sonic either.”
“I’m afraid due to time dilation they’ll be well away by now.”
“Time dilation?”
“Yes. Time can only progress at one pace, but how you experience that pace can be rendered altered. And on a planet where reality is shifting thanks to time-altering events, time dilation is almost a certainty. You may have been mere seconds behind Metal Sonic before but by the time he hit the surface of the planet, those seconds could have been minutes from his perspective.”
“And a couple of minutes is all he’d need to make good his escape.”
“Quite possibly. Are you fearful for Amy?”
Sonic tried not to sound too dismissive, “Hardly.” He realised he’d failed in his aim, instead sounding incredibly dismissive. In truth, he was concerned for Amy’s safety and rescuing her had to be his top priority right now, but he had reason to believe she was still alive and relatively unharmed, “Metal Sonic is using Amy as bait to draw me towards him. For that to work, he needs to keep her alive. If I’ve understood you right, there’s no telling thanks to this time dilation thingy how much of a headstart he has on me, but it’s pretty obvious he won’t harm her. At least, not until he’s completed his mission, which I can only assume is my destruction.”
“Better not let that happen then, eh?”
“Better not!”
The world blinked around Sonic once more. This time, the grass was natural once more but seemed more muted, less vibrant. The ground also seemed a little more faded. Fortunately, there was no sign of a robotic influence.
“I’m going to guess this is the past…” Sonic mused, “…though I don’t think you belong here, do you?”
What Sonic had seen was undeniably a Badnik leaping out a nearby waterfall. It resembled a sort of water bug. Sonic watched as the Badnik leapt, having not spotted the hedgehog. Sonic almost felt insulted, he was used to Badniks making him their number one target and this one couldn’t have cared less. Well, that simply wouldn’t do, would it?
Leaping across the width of the waterfall, Sonic timed a Spin Attack perfectly and smashed the Badnik to pieces on the ground. It was empty. Clearly Robotnik couldn’t find any prisoners on a deserted planet like this so any Badniks here were bound to be empty drones.
Sonic suddenly felt a twinge of guilt. Usually, he wasn’t too worried about leaving parts of Badnik casing around as someone would be able to clean them up, or he could use the Chaos Emeralds to clear up Robotnik’s mess. But here on the Miracle Planet, the Chaos Emeralds weren’t an option as they were back on Mobius in the North Cave and there was nobody around, even this far back in the past, to do clean-up work. How was Sonic meant to tidy up the mess? He could hardly carry smashed Badnik bits with him.
Suddenly, Sonic watched as something quite remarkable happened. The smashed Badnik transformed into a gorgeous pink sunflower. It made almost no sense to Sonic whatsoever, yet in a way it sort of did. Time was in flux, Kintobor had said. The Badnik was clearly not supposed to be here in the past. But flowers? They had a place here. It was as if time itself was correcting the error, removing something that shouldn’t have been and replacing it with something that belonged.
Of course, the question now was where had it come from? One of Robotnik’s facilities, naturally, but it didn’t make sense to Sonic that Robotnik would go to the effort of setting up a Badnik construction plant on an empty planet; he’d need something to help him construct that in the first place. No, the Badniks had to be the first thing that came here. Which meant they had to come from Mobius. But not up the chain holding the Miracle Planet to Mobius, that didn’t make any sense either. A lot of Badniks would be simply incapable of making that kind of crossing.
The sound of metallic wings flapping snapped Sonic out of his thought. A butterfly Badnik floated through the air. It, like the water bug, had no interest in Sonic. Ordinarily the Badniks were at least quite chatty, if nothing else Sonic liked to learn the name of the robot he was about to smash. No such luck here. Inconsiderate, really. At any rate, he leapt at the butterfly with the force of a cannon ball and shattered it. This Badnik, too, transformed from broken parts to a beautiful flower upon touching the ground. How very curious. A Badnik that tidies itself away upon being destroyed, Sonic was impressed.
He looked upwards just in time to see a mosquito Badnik plunge towards him. This one had definitely seen him and it rocketed downwards, needle-nose first. Sonic hopped back mere inches before the Badnik collided with him, resulting in the mosquito rather pathetically getting itself wedged in the ground. He picked it up by its body, a wicked plan in mind. On a ledge up above, Sonic eyed a Badnik that looked like an ant, though with a large wheel instead of legs, rolling about aimlessly. With a cheeky smile, Sonic reared back, mosquito Badnik in hand, and threw the small robot like a dart at the ant Badnik. Bullseye! The head was knocked clean off the ant Badnik and both robots turned into beautiful plants.
Sonic’s eyes were drawn upward now. Curiosity got the best of him and he began to scale the waterfall. Pulling himself up to the ledge above the water’s peak, Sonic looked at… well, something. He wasn’t quite sure what. It was mechanical, that was for certain. It was obviously Robotnik’s doing, there was no question about it. Suddenly, yellow sparks crackled on the machine and a Badnik that looked like a stink bug sort of popped out of nowhere in the middle of the machine. Was this a Badnik generator?
No! Of course, it was obvious now! This was a Badnik transporter!
Badniks were being created in Robotnik’s labs- probably overseen by Snively or Grimer, Sonic figured- and then teleported here to the Miracle Planet. Thanks to the weird time travel stuff, they were ending up in the past, where they could wreak untold havoc and change the course of time to… well, the horrible grey and brown mess Sonic had seen before.
Without another moment’s hesitation, Sonic charged the new Badnik, leaping at it, onto it and off it as it popped in an explosion of smoke, before colliding with the transporter. This too exploded, though somewhat more spectacularly and loudly, before collapsing in a heap on the ground. In a moment, the metal bits and pieces were replaced once again with grass.
Sonic carefully climbed down the waterfall and returned to land, happy he’d made a difference in the Zone. He headed towards a forest area, hoping to catch a sign of Amy or Metal Sonic.
No such luck.
Instead, the world shifted around Sonic once more, returning to the horrible future he’d hoped to avert. Low, booming laughter filled the air.
Robotnik.
The demented dictator descended downwards, landing on the ground in front of Sonic in a huge walking contraption he’d fashioned around his Egg-O-Matic. At the ends of the machine’s arms appeared to be metallic pinball bumpers. At the ends of the legs were slightly less welcoming spikes feet.
“Welcome to the Miracle Planet, Sonic,” Robotnik mocked, “I do hope your final resting place is to your satisfaction.”
“What have you done, Robotnik, you maniac?!” Sonic demanded, suddenly incensed at the appearance of his foe.
“I decided I wanted a home away from home,” Robotnik grinned, “and the Miracle Planet will do nicely. You know I don’t like to reuse the same plan twice but, well, you know how it is- I couldn’t get the idea of time travel out of my head. A genius like me should be allowed to conquer that domain, shouldn’t he? And the rumours swirling around the Miracle Planet presented so many wonderful options! Time here is in flux, you see, which means history can be rewritten and crafted to my whim.”
Sonic was well armed for this conversation now, of course, “But for that to work, you’d have to be attuned to time travel. You’ve never travelled in time.”
“Hm,” Robotnik smirked, “I wonder. Perhaps, to posit a theory, I already created an alternate timeline but you did your usual trick of sabotaging me! Maybe we’ll never know. But it’s certainly nice to think I already mastered time travel. Because it means I’ll master it again. And once I find the Time Stone—”
“Do you ever stop talking?!” Sonic leapt at the Egg-O-Matic but found himself harmlessly deflected by the bumper arms.
“Uh-uh-uh!” Robotnik chided, “I got a little sick of you attacking my lovely hovercraft so I decided to fit some defensive accoutrements. I do hope you like them. I even put a lovely little star on the end of them, see? You know, like the Star Posts you so love?” He took some glee in Sonic’s surprised reaction, “Oh, you think I hadn’t figured that one out? Even as we speak, my forces are scouring Mobius for Star Posts and having them forcibly removed and destroyed. See what good it does you to have one at your disposal if the only destination you can come out is my furnace. Now!” Robotnik interrupted himself, “That’s probably the last thing you need to know before I squash you. Because while you can’t hit me, I can still stamp on you!”
The walker stomped menacingly towards Sonic. This wasn’t unlike the Platinum Badnik based on the Technobot that Robotnik had previously created, though smaller in scale.
Of course, the Technobot! Sonic suddenly got a wicked idea.
The hedgehog clenched his fists as Robotnik stamped towards him, cackling ever louder, “Giving up already, Sonic?! Probably for the best! Make things easy for yourself!”
Sonic ignored Robotnik. He watched as the machine raised its leg. Just a moment more… just a moment more… now!
Sonic rolled under the leg of the walker, putting him behind it and out of reach of the bumpers. In one fluid motion, he pushed himself off the ground and diagonally upwards in a sort of inverted Spin Attack, which connected with the rear underside of the Egg-O-Matic, looking for all the world as though Sonic had just hit a robotic man in the bum.
Now overbalanced, the walker creaked and groaned as it sailed towards the ground. Robotnik waved his arms, yelling and shrieking as his walker collapsed and broke around him falling to pieces. Pressing an emergency eject button, Robotnik freed the Egg-O-Matic from the walker and rocketed off, cursing Sonic loudly all the while.
“Now that was a panic!” Sonic cracked to nobody in particular. As the walker melted into nothingness, reshaping itself into flowers, Sonic eyed a large, almost spherical container. It looked rather like a Prison Egg Capsule. Deciding such a contraption had no place on the Miracle Planet, Sonic launched a Spin Attack at it, causing it to pop open. Sparks flew everywhere and wherever they landed, a flower sprung up.
Then, as if time had caught up with itself, the horrible future reshaped itself around Sonic. The grass was brighter and more vibrant than ever, the water was beautiful and completely clear, flowers sprung up everywhere and the palm trees radiated gorgeous life.
Sonic noticed this futuristic world was not entirely free of technology, but now the technology was working in perfect harmony with nature. Irrigation systems carried clean water from the waterfalls and rivers to plant beds and palm trees, watering them and giving them life.
Sonic paused for a moment as it hit him. Uncle Chuck had once told him that his dream was a world in which the natural world and technology could co-exist. In altering the past, Sonic had changed the course of the future for the better. The Palmtree Panic Zone now represented Uncle Chuck’s vision for the future. Sonic felt pride swell in his chest and tried not to get to emotional at the thought of his adoptive Uncle, who he missed so dearly.
Instead, he’d use the thought of Uncle Chuck to bring this vision to life across the rest of the Miracle Planet. And along the way, he’d find Amy and stop Robotnik and Metal Sonic. Spotting a clearly man-made structure not too far away, Sonic ran on towards his next stop.
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