Embedded Files
After a brisk run down a dirt path, with the world having reverted to the present day- at least for the time being- Sonic soon came to what appeared to be an industrial facility. This had to be Robotnik’s handiwork. But what kind of building had he set up for nefarious purposes?
Sonic pushed open the wooden door and peered inside. Almost immediately he shielded his eyes from the brightness inside. After a moment, his senses adjusted and he was able to see that the light had naturally reflected off countless precious gemstones filling the surrounding area.
“Kintobor, what is this place?” Sonic asked.
Kintobor processed for a moment then responded, “Based on available evidence, I’d be inclined to say it’s a gemstone mining facility. Hold on- let me scan that computer, would you?”
Sonic walked over to a nearby desktop computer. Lines of text scrolled so quickly up the screen they were illegible. It was one thing to have super-fast feet, it was another entirely to have super-fast eyes and Sonic wasn’t able to keep up. Not that he’d have understood a lot of the technical data anyway, mind you. He held his watch up to the screen and an almost invisible beam of light shot from it.
“Fascinating,” Kintobor remarked, “It seems the actual facility itself is a relic of the ancient times. Robotnik’s merely converted it to modern machinery, he didn’t actually design the building itself.”
“So,” Sonic replied, “I’m guessing there’s something about these shiny crystals he likes.”
“The ancient civilisation had a name for this place- the Quartz Quadrant Zone. Apparently it runs deep under the Miracle Planet’s surface, covering roughly a quarter of the subterranean layer. Hence the name.”
“I’m betting egg breath wouldn’t mind lining his pockets with a few gems. Imagine conquering the planet and still using money…”
“Well, you forget, Sonic, money may not be of much use to the planetary dictator, but it’s still perfectly enticing for everyone else on Mobius. As a matter of fact, according to our intelligence reports, a lot of the elite upper classes have paid good money to avoid Roboticization. Which, of course, keeps them in Robotnik’s pockets.”
“Lovely people,” Sonic rolled his eyes.
“But that’s all by the by- these quartz gems give off a special energy signature. I’m sure you can’t have failed to spot the light they give off.”
“Yeah, and me without my sunglasses.”
“Well, quite. But it’s my hypothesis- and I appreciate I’ve had a few since we arrived here, but so far they’ve all checked out—”
“Today, Kintobor, please,” Sonic began to tap his foot impatiently.
“Oh, right, yes, well- I believe these gems give off a special kind of energy that could be used to power machinery. For one thing, I downloaded a schematic of the factory when I scanned the computer, it seems to be self-sufficient. Specifically, one of the crystals is powering the equipment.”
“Which, we can probably assume, means they’d neatly power any Badniks or the like.”
“Most likely.”
“Terrific. So we have to stop him before—”
Another shimmer. The world blinked into horrible brown, rusted ugliness. The facility was in complete and total disarray. The machines were no longer in operation. A deathly silence hung in the air. It was beyond eerie. The bright light was also gone.
“It’s empty…” Sonic noted.
Every last gem had been stripped away. The facility was a husk now, a pointless black eye on the Miracle Planet. Sonic may not have been technically minded, but he was clever enough to know that in this grim future Robotnik had managed to take every gem on the planet and use it to power his Badniks and his awful machines.
Sonic’s voice cut through the silence, “We have to stop him.”
Just as suddenly as before, the world shimmered once again. This time, Sonic was back in the ancient past. He didn’t need Kintobor to explain that much as there were no signs of Robotnik’s machinery at all. The structures of the facility were all sturdy wood, rather than the metal Robotnik had covered them with in a micro example of his usual approach to the planet itself. Old fashioned mine carts trundled down wooden rails, seemingly powered by a gem themselves. It was rather quaint.
Sonic had a moment of uncertainty, “What do we do, Kintobor? You reckon I should tear this place down?”
“Not necessarily,” Kintobor responded, “Mining itself isn’t inherently an evil act, in fact it can be used for great benefits in developing areas. It’s knowing the limitations and when to stop mining finite resources that makes the difference.”
Sonic scratched his nose, “I guess. I’d probably be happier knowing Robotnik wasn’t going to profit from this place though.”
“Well, who says he has to? It seems to me Doctor Robotnik only converted this facility, he hasn’t weaponised it.”
“So we have to reprogram the Badniks that arrive here, right?”
“You just leave that to me, I’ll let you scope out the building to find the Badnik Transporter.”
Sonic took off at speed through the winding corridors of the facility. He had to admire the ingenuity of the ancient people. If nothing else, though, their version of the place was a lot prettier- instead of enclosed spaces, a lot of the facility was open to the elements, letting in sunlight and a fresh breeze.
Sonic suddenly found himself slowing down. His legs were moving every bit as fast, yet he was struggling to make progress. He looked down.
“Ah, right,” Sonic remarked. He was running on a conveyer belt which was moving against him and preventing him from gaining any real traction. The faster he tried to run, the more he moved the belt underneath him. Sonic glanced to the side, where he spotted what looked like a switch shaped like an arrow. Extending his arm, Sonic gave the switch a little slap and knocked it into the other direction. Sure enough, with a click the conveyer belt reversed direction. Of course, at this point, Sonic had built up quite the head of steam from running on the spot and shot forwards like a rocket. Up and down the belt moved in small inclines and declines, twisting and turning around corridors. Sonic guessed- correctly- that the belt must have been used to carry gems to other parts of the facility.
Eventually, the end of the belt drew nearer and Sonic did his best to slow his forward momentum, coming reasonably neatly to a stop at the end of the belt, where he hopped off. It was here that Sonic spotted a now familiar sight- a Badnik Transporter. A hologram projector lay on the ground.
“Get me up to the projector, Sonic, I’ve got an idea,” Kintobor announced. Sonic ran over to the projector and held his watch up to it for him to connect wirelessly to the device. After a few seconds, Kintobor announced, “That should do it!”
Sonic took cover as the Badnik Transporter kicked into life. One by one, more foul robots spewed through the transporter. In turn, each of them queued up to receive their orders from the hologram of Metal Sonic which the projector now displayed. Or, rather, more accurately, Metal Sonic’s image served as a beacon for them to queue by and the projector itself transmitted the instructions.
Sonic watched as each of the Badniks got to work. A spider-like Badnik hopped up and down as if stomping the land flat. Sonic was reminded of his old pal Fetcher and wondered what he was up to. Probably munching down on a few Badniks of his own, the weird little fella. A caterpillar-esque Badnik smoothed the land with its underside. It was hardly as intimidating as a Caterkiller but it was doing its job. A scorpion Badnik blasted at rocks with a laser gun in its tail while a snail Badnik lay wiring in its trail.
Sonic watched with some sense of intrigue as this all unfolded in front of him, “I hope you know what you’re doing, Kintobor.”
“Oh I think I’ve got this one wrapped up alright,” Kintobor responded with perhaps a little more smugness than an artificial intelligence ought.
With a lightning fast shimmer, Sonic was in the future once more. But this time, the facility positively gleamed. Surfaces were beautifully polished, the machines hummed quietly, but most importantly of all the quartz gems were still where they should be- untouched.
Sonic peered out of a nearby window. He could have sworn he could see a city in the near distance. He’d have liked to have seen who was living there, but he wasn’t likely to get chance any time soon. He could just about make out on the front of the nearest building, a small object reflecting the sun’s rays- a quartz crystal!
“Kintobor, what’s that crystal doing on that building?”
“Just what I wanted it to- following the specifications I uploaded, even the smallest crystals are able to power entire buildings!”
“Making good use of those finite resources, eh?”
“Well, someone might as well,” Kintobor responded, clearly enjoying his newfound smug circuits.
In a blink, the world shimmered and Sonic was back in the present day.
A door swung open behind Sonic and Robotnik’s voice boomed from within, “Come into my parlour, said the genius to the irritating nettle-muncher!”
“Alright, blubber guts, there’s no need for slurs…” Sonic trotted into the room but found himself skidding as he realised the floor beneath him was another conveyer belt. With a loud slam, a wall clanked into place behind Sonic where the door had been. This wall was most unlike any other, inasmuch as it had enormous spikes jutting out of it in a way that would most certainly put a damper on anyone’s day should they find themselves propelled into them by a conveyer belt.
Robotnik was suspended in a sort of metal cage at the other side of the room. Putting on a burst of speed, Sonic flew through the air and collided with the cage, proving to be almost completely ineffectual.
“Not even a dent,” Robotnik tutted, “You’re losing it, Sonic. Still, while you’re here, you might as well get some exercise!”
The cage slammed down into the ground, blocking Sonic’s exit through the other side of the room. Sonic now found himself in quite the predicament.
“You now find yourself in quite the predicament,” Robotnik announced, redundantly, “If you stop running, well, I don’t think your spikes will outdo those on the wall! But if you keep running, sooner or later you’ll have to tire, at which point- gosh, I suppose you’ll be impaled anyway!” Robotnik cackled cruelly, “I’m so glad to have a front row seat for this one.”
Sonic ran with all his might. He knew Robotnik was right, but right now Sonic needed a way out. He had to think of something, fast!
After a minute or so, Robotnik crossed his arms, “I’m afraid you’re boring me, Sonic. What say we make things more interesting, hm?”
The eggy dictator pressed a button and a claw arm slid along the ceiling. It was carrying something. Sonic peered at it, doing his best to keep running. The object was, Sonic determined, roughly the size and shape of a blaster bomb which would explode upon impact. There was, as one might expect, a very good reason for this.
The arm dropped the bomb and Sonic yelped as he was forced to leap over it, landing as it did mere inches from him before exploding into fragments on impact. Robotnik laughed mercilessly as he fired off bomb after bomb. This was bad. Sooner or later, Sonic would make an error in judgement and end up getting hurled back into those spikes. And the sparks shooting at his face weren’t helping him to stay calm, either.
Eh?
Sonic looked down momentarily. The base of the cage was on the ground alright- but Robotnik had made a serious error in judgement. Instead of planting the cage firmly on the floor, he’d positioned it on the conveyer belt. And with Sonic running at full tilt, the belt was now acting like a giant belt sander, rubbing against the underside of the cage.
Sonic looked at Robotnik, narrowing his eyes and grinning mischievously.
“What’s so funny, pincushion?” Robotnik demanded.
“Let’s just say you’re about to get a little hot underfoot,” Sonic remarked.
Suddenly putting on a huge burst of speed, Sonic forced the conveyer belt to rub at the underside of the cage all the more. Robotnik, feeling his feet warming, glanced down and saw the surface he was standing on was beginning to glow red with the heat. With a loud crack, bits of the cage’s floor came off in superheated chunks, one almost shooting directly at the demented doctor’s face. Panicking, Robotnik came to the only conclusion he could- he had to escape!
Pressing the emergency escape button, Robotnik leapt through a hatch on the back of the cage, just in time for the floor to completely collapse. If he’d been a second slower, it’d have been a pretty unpleasant experience for Robotnik, all things considered. Robotnik ran through an exit and out of site just as the cage wrenched itself from the ceiling and collapsed. Sonic deftly leapt over it and rolled to a stop as the cage sailed along the high-speed conveyer belt into the spikes, taking them out- only for the whole thing to explode into a display of flowers as the magic of the Miracle Planet took care of the timestream once more.
“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to that,” Sonic noted, “Mind you, it’s pretty.”
Kintobor managed to catch a glimpse of something via the tiny (yet incredibly high-tech) camera built into the watch, “Sonic, look- there’s another capsule next to the exit.”
Sure enough, another spherical capsule was right next to the door. Sonic knew perfectly well what to do here and hit it with a well-placed kick, causing even more flowers to burst forth.
“I gotta say, Kintobor,” Sonic commented, “It’s nice knowing for certain that we’re gonna win this time.”
“Don’t be too easily excited, Sonic,” Kintobor noted not quite grimly but with a tone of warning in his voice, “Time is in flux, remember. Things can still change. There’s chance yet for Robotnik to undo everything we’ve done since we arrived.”
“So we have to drive him out of the Miracle Planet once and for all.”
“Quite so.”
“Then let’s make a move! Onward and upward!”
Opening the exit door, Sonic rushed out of the Quartz Quadrant Zone and onward to the next locale.
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