Embedded Files
If there was one benefit from the Miracle Planet being so small, it was that it never took too long to reach each Zone. Not too far down the road from the Quartz Quadrant, Sonic came to a large, metallic building. Something about the design of the building was reminding him of something but he couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t unlike a factory, which was an immediate clue that something wasn’t quite right. Tentatively, he opened a door on what he assumed was the front of the building and entered, as if he was a worker turning up for his shift.
Inside, Sonic was met with the loudest, most obnoxious clanging, whirring, screeching machinery he’d ever known. And, all things considered, that was saying a lot.
Sonic looked at his watch, “Kintobor?”
Kintobor’s voice responded, “One of Robotnik’s. No doubt about it. This is a contemporary style, even advanced as they seemingly were, the ancient civilisation that used to live here couldn’t have made this.”
“I was afraid you might say that,” Sonic admitted, walking further into the building. “This place is huge. And I’m no expert but it looks- and sounds- like it’s up and running.”
“It certainly looks that way. And it looks like it has been for some time, I fear. I think we have to face the likelihood that this was the first place Doctor Robotnik decided to work on when he arrived on the Miracle Planet. Chances are this factory has been running for what must now amount to centuries, what with the time zone consideration.”
“Fantastic. If only I could AUGH!” Sonic found himself being catapulted towards the ceiling. As gravity caught up with him and he began to descend, he reached out and grabbed onto a railing on the end of a nearby walkway. He got up and waited for his heartbeat to return to normal from being surprised like that, “What on Mobius was that?”
Sonic peered over the edge of the walkway and Kintobor’s camera angled down at the ground. The computer mused, “It appears the part of the floor you stepped on is some variety of electromagnet. Apparently harmless to step on.”
“Yeah, seems it, if you don’t mind being flung thirty feet into the air!”
“I assume it’s designed to levitate various machine pieces around. This seems to be a sort of living factory, if you follow my metaphor.”
Sonic furrowed his brow, “A living factory? You mean, all the bits and pieces are sort of… self-operating?”
“In a fashion, yes. It’s a tremendously complex piece of machinery. The factory is the machine, if you get my drift.”
Sonic snapped his fingers, “I knew this place reminded me of something! It’s like the Scrap Brain Zone! Well, before the Chaos Emeralds sort of… vanished it, obviously. The entire Zone was a gigantic supercomputer. Factories, buildings, offices, all of it was part of the ‘brain’, designed to churn out whatever Robotnik wanted. Which must mean…”
Kintobor could barely contain his delight, “Goodness me, Sonic’s worked something out logically!”
“That this is where Robotnik is constructing all the machinery that will eventually cover the planet if we don’t stop him! And also, I heard that crack, know-it-all!”
“Sorry. But good job.”
“Thanks.”
A buzzing, synthetic voice cut through the air, “Hedgehog spotted! All units attack!”
Sonic whirled around to see a large bee-like Badnik zipping towards him. In an instant, it clicked its tail segment into place in attack position and fired a laser bolt at him. Sonic dodged to the side but, in doing so, slammed into the guardrail, “Yow! What is it with Robotnik and Badniks that look like bees?!”
Kintobor offered an explanation, “Well, the original Doctor Kintobor once got stung by a bee as a child, so perhaps it’s a latent fear that Robotnik kept post-transformation.”
“Fascinating, I’m sure!” Sonic snapped.
“Well, you did ask…”
Without warning, a spiked Badnik resembling a bagworm descending from the ceiling on a thread and bonked Sonic in the head. Sonic stumbled a little, surprised by the attack. The Badniks were joined by two others, one which looked like a cicada, a small spiked ball in its grasp, and another resembling a grasshopper with a repurposed spring instead of legs.
“Give it up, hedgehog,” the bee threatened, “you’re surrounded!”
“Maybe,” Sonic shrugged. “But let’s see if I can make one last ditch attempt to save myself!”
In a flash, Sonic grabbed hold of the bagworm Badnik and pulled it backwards before shooting it forward on its string like a pendulum. It crashed into the cicada and exploded, sending the cicada hurtling through the air and into a wall, where it too burst open. The cicada dropped its spiked ball onto the grasshopper, pushing it down into its own spring leg and causing it to bounce into the air at an angle- straight into the bee, causing both Badniks to shatter into countless pieces of machinery. As had become customary, the Badnik pieces turned into flowers as the Miracle Planet righted the temporal wrong.
Sonic grinned, “I hope you were recording that, Kintobor.”
“Lucky for you I was,” Kintobor replied.
Sonic’s smile broadened, “Oh, I’m gonna be rewatching that one for weeks…”
Sonic walked along the walkway and through a door. He came to a flight of stairs and headed downwards, deep into the factory’s heart. Eventually, the time jump shimmer enveloped the world him and revealed the factory’s past to him. Mercifully, it was much quieter here. In the past, the factory was under construction. Even this far back, he wasn’t early enough to prevent it from being built. But with no way to control when he was sent, there was nothing Sonic could do about that. He just had to find a way to prevent the factory’s creations from covering the planet.
Sonic noted a sign scrawled by a Badnik, proudly declaring, “Welcome to the Wacky Workbench Zone! You don’t have to be wacky to work here- but it helps if you run a full software diagnostic to eradicate all personality defects!”. Clearly humour wasn’t the strong point of the Badnik work force.
Sonic watched as Badniks similar to the ones he’d just smashed carried out work on the factory. Some even came right past him and didn’t pay him an iota of attention. “At the risk of sounding like my pride is hurting,” Sonic remarked, “but the fact these guys are ignoring me at least confirms what we saw is a fully operational factory. All these Badniks are ignoring me- when, not to be big-headed, I ought to be Robotnik’s top priority at all times. Presumably upon finishing their tasks in the past, the Badniks are given new orders. Specifically, attack me.”
“That’s a sound theory.” Kintobor agreed, “You’re really getting the hang of this now!”
“I’ll ignore that,” Sonic rolled his eyes, a wry smile on his face. “Hey, what’s that?”
A dim light shone from a small room off to the side. Sonic’s natural curiosity got the better of him and he went in for a closer look. What he saw inside was something he could never have expected.
“It’s… I mean… it’s beautiful,” Sonic was quite touched.
“Extraordinary,” Kintobor agreed.
The two found themselves looking at a statue of an angelic figure, her arm outstretched, as if reaching for Sonic. It was an exquisite work of art.
“Who is she, Kintobor?” Sonic asked.
“Difficult to say. The proportions aren’t quite right for her to be human, though she is what might be called humanoid. Though, I suppose Mobianoid would be equally apt to you. The head’s a little large, regardless, for her to be either. Her face doesn’t quite resemble any species listed in my databanks. I can only draw the conclusion that she’s a member of the ancient culture who lived here.”
“Maybe not, take a look at her back,” Sonic held up the camera on his watch so Kintobor could see the pair of feathery wings the statue was sporting.
“Ah! An angel,” Kintobor began to piece things together. “Now we’re getting somewhere.”
“Well, admittedly, maybe the folks who lived here had wings,” Sonic shrugged.
“Perhaps, but I’m inclined to hypothesise that this fair lady is intended to represent an angelic figure. Angels, or their counterparts, are a common theme in religions across Earth, and they’re similarly respected in faith systems throughout Mobius.”
“So maybe she’s a figurehead of the religion of… well, whoever lived here?”
“Entirely possible.”
Sonic stared at the statue, somewhat transfixed, “Where did your people go?”
The hedgehog almost jumped out of his skin as the status transformed into the ghastly figure of Doctor Robotnik. Looking around him, slightly panicked, Sonic saw that the time zone had jumped once more. There was no question that this was the future Sonic had to prevent. Every surface was a rusted brown. Whatever this factory had been at one point, Robotnik was no longer interested in maintaining it. It had clearly served its purpose. The machines had long fallen silent but the silence was an eerie, upsetting one, somehow worse than the noise.
But worst of all was that statue. Robotnik had torn down a piece of art and replaced it with a rendition of himself. And for what? To abandon it here, where it now stood as little more than a memento, as if declaring, “Doctor Robotnik was here, ruining everything”?
Sonic felt his fists clench. This was hardly the only bad thing Robotnik had done. And it almost certainly wasn’t the worst. But it was the most callous. The wanton destruction of a harmless statue, the only lingering tie to an old world which Robotnik had besmirched and brushed away. Sonic could scarcely contain how unbelievably angry this all made him.
Disgusted with the statue, Sonic stormed out of the room and onto an open factory floor. In a flash, the world shimmered again… but this time, instead of being returned to the present, Sonic found himself in a better future. Here, the factory still stood, but the machines hummed gently, all part of an efficient engine, as if running like clockwork. The surfaces of the building were all polished to an excellent shine and all the awkward machine parts were nowhere to be seen.
“My goodness…” Kintobor remarked, “It’s… a huge power plant.”
Sonic was confused, “A power plant? I don’t get it.”
“Well, it stands to reason that if the Miracle Planet needs Zone-sized facilities for the likes of water and air filtration, something has to power them. Clean energy, efficient… this is quite the marvel.”
Sonic found himself protesting, “But we didn’t do anything! How can the future be changed?”
“Not to get too confusing, Sonic, but perhaps more accurately, we didn’t do anything yet. It could be that whatever you do to change the fate of the Zone simply hasn’t been done yet, but you will do it at some point. Or perhaps you won’t- the timelines being in flux means either outcome is possible.”
“No.”
“No?”
“No, Kintobor. If this is the choice I’m faced with then only this future is acceptable. I won’t let Robotnik ruin this planet.”
“Well spoken, spikeball!” Sonic looked up to see Robotnik piloting a huge craft, “But I’m afraid you have no choice in the matter!”
Still incensed at the demolition of the statue, Sonic ran towards the evil doctor and launched a Spin Attack at the underside of the craft.
Robotnik raged, “Well, if you’re going to be like that, I’m sure I can afford to lose this factory floor- I’ll just have to rebuild it later!”
“What are you talking about, you maniac?!” Sonic demanded. It was then he noticed the spinning spike drills positioned atop the craft. Robotnik pulled a lever on his control panel and the craft shot upwards through the ceiling, revealing the upper level above. Bits of metal panelling rained down from above, with larger chunks of metal landing on the ground around Sonic. One errant piece smacked into a nearby control panel. An electronic crackling sounded and the floor lit up.
“Sonic, quickly, off the floor!” Kintobor exclaimed.
With nowhere else immediately presenting itself, Sonic leapt atop one of the larger pieces of debris. Instantly, he found himself bending his knees to compensate at the debris was shot into the air by the activated electromagnetic floor. Using the debris as a launching pad, Sonic kicked off it as he closed in on Robotnik, landing directly on the hull of his craft. Still furious, Sonic pounded on the protective glass window Robotnik had put in to keep himself safe. He hammered blows down but to seemingly no avail.
“You cursed pest!” Robotnik blazed, “I’ll bring this whole factory down on top of you!”
Pulling the lever once more, Robotnik launched the craft up and into the roof- and discovered the roof was significantly sturdier than the ceiling had been. The drills tried to twist and spin through the metal but merely crunched and wailed. Out of frustration, Robotnik punched at his control panel, which proved to be disastrous for him. The craft’s engine’s cut out and it slammed down, embedding itself in the upper level floor. Sonic hopped off and glared at Robotnik. The overheating drills began to smoke.
In a moment, the entire vehicle gave off steam as a cooling system activated, unable to keep up with the now superheated drills. Just another moment later, the whole room was filled with white steam. Sonic couldn’t see a thing. After around half a minute, the steam began to clear. The craft was sitting rather pathetically on the ground. Robotnik was not. He’d taken the opportunity to escape. Sonic sighed. It had felt good to get that out of his system. If he’d made Robotnik feel intimidated for even a second, perhaps it might give him pause before he did anything he shouldn’t in this Zone.
Not too far from where Robotnik had crashed a capsule was connected to a trail of wires. Sonic smashed this one as he had the others, releasing more lovely flowers. Finding a nearby stairwell, Sonic clambered back down to the ground floor. Out of curiosity, he went to inspect the room where the Robotnik statue had been. To his delight and relief, he found that in this future, the angel statue remained.
Suddenly, a light shot out from the statue and scanned Sonic. “Woah! That didn’t happen before!”
“This is a message for Sonic the Hedgehog,” the statue announced in a clear, unfamiliar, yet friendly sounding voice.
“Or that…”
“This message has been pre-recorded. Find the Time Stone and all will become clear. We cannot explain further at this moment. We thank you for all you have done.”
The light faded to nothingness.
“What was that about?” Sonic asked, somewhat rhetorically but truthfully hoping Kintobor had another handy hypothesis.
“I’m without ideas, I’m afraid, Sonic,” Kintobor replied.
“Well then I guess we keep moving from here. And try to find this Time Stone. Wherever that is.”
“Or whenever!” Kintobor added cheerfully.
“Yeah, time travel’s great isn’t it?” Sonic sighed, “Come on, there can’t be much of this planet left, it’s only little. Amy has to be around here somewhere.”
“I’m right with you, Sonic. No choice, being installed in wearable tech, but I’d choose to accompany you anyway!”
Sonic smirked and headed out through the exit of the quietly humming factory.
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