Back to Chapter 60

What Sonic found on the other side of the tunnel astonished him. He was almost forced to be impressed, save of course for the fact the sight he saw was the product of Doctor Robotnik’s work. If nothing else, he’d solved the mystery of what exactly the Crystal Egg Zone was. Sonic was stood inside an enormous, enclosed biome, encapsulated on all sides in shining, polished glass. The walkways and walls were all glass too, with Robotnik’s grimacing face etched into many of the panels.
Sonic walked up to one of the panels for a closer look. He leaned in close, peering with curiosity. Slowly, he raised a finger and touched it.
Accompanied by a loud cracking noise, Sonic jolted back in surprise. Static electricity! Obviously not something that was going to prove lethal to Sonic, but it sure smarted his finger. Sonic was careful to step back as he pondered something. If the glass was so highly polished, every surface could potentially give off a jolt of static electricity if he was unlucky enough to make contact with it. Contrary to every impulse in his body, he was going to have to be reasonably steady with his pace to play things safe.
That, of course, went out the window immediately as he turned and saw he was being pursued.
“Lunch time, boys!” exclaimed one of the dozens of Chopper Badniks following Sonic.
Sonic was momentarily confused. Chopper Badniks were supposed to be aquatic, weren’t they? What on Mobius were they doing flying?!
Deciding his slow-and-steady approach wasn’t going to work, Sonic came to the conclusion that legging it was his new best option. If he got a zap of static electricity, he’d just have to deal with it.
As he ran across the smooth surface of the glass flooring, Sonic thanked his lucky stars that the soles of his Power Sneakers were specially designed to be friction-reducing. Normally this just stopped him from starting a brushfire as he ran through grassy areas but today it was going to ensure he didn’t contribute to polishing the glass surfaces any further.
“We’ve got him now, lads!” the lead Chopper called to his friends, “There’s no escape from the dead-end tunnel he’s just gone through!”
Dead end? But Sonic couldn’t see—
As the spines on either side of his head began to stand on end, Sonic realised he’d run down a tunnel, alright- one with perfectly clear glass walls. He’d not even realised he’d done it- how could he when he couldn’t see his surroundings? The walls may as well have been invisible. As more and more of his spines stood on end, Sonic realised the walls were closing in. If he made contact with them, there’d probably be a couple of very loud bangs and a lot of metallic biting.
Sonic focused with all his attention dead ahead. Up and down, up and down he looked, carefully and as if his life depended on it- because it just might.
There!
Something had reflected light off the glass wall coming up in front of him. It had been subtle, but it was all Sonic needed to know when the dead end was approaching. He prepared himself- this might just hurt a bit, though probably not as much as being eaten alive by robot piranhas.
“Now!” Sonic shouted to himself as he curled into a ball and leapt forward as if propelled with rocket force. He shattered through the wall in front of him and the Choppers could only watch in wide-eyed shock as the wall panels cracked and splintered before exploding and cascading down on them with a rain of shards of glass. As Sonic watched the Choppers get sliced, smashed and crushed to pieces by the falling glass, he was thankful he’d learned in advance none of them had taken a hostage or else he'd have been unable to take the approach he just had- and things might have ended very differently for him.
Sonic walked onward, eventually coming to what appeared to be a metal handle on the ground. Sonic tilted his head, thought for a moment then nudged the handle with his foot, hoping the friction-reducing Power Sneakers might disperse any static electricity therein. He gave the handle a tug and lifted away what turned out to be a floor panel, revealing what looked what like a service hatch underneath. Curiously, Sonic found a Power Ring attached to the hatch’s underside, wired into some form of electrical system. Power Rings were able to- as their name suggested- power computer systems as well as giving an energising boost to living beings if they knew how to use them (as a rule, they didn’t). This one was only powering a small readout which gave the time and date and the message “ACCESS HATCH 01”, presumably to identify to Badnik worker robots which hatch was which. Sonic decided to yank the ring out for good measure. Power Rings, much like Chaos Emeralds, have a natty ability to blink away when not in use or until called for. Sonic didn’t think any more of it. Deciding he had no other particular idea where else to go, Sonic clambered into the hatch.
Almost immediately he regretted his decision as he felt himself being pulled downwards at rapid speed. He’d clambered into another tube like the one in the Scrambled Egg Zone.
Down, forwards, left and right, up, backwards- Sonic was hurled all around. Until eventually, with a pop…
He emerged in a darkened chamber.
Sonic stood up.
“Welcome, Sonic,” a familiar, cruel voice called out.
“Robotnik! Show yourself!”“Oh, don’t worry. I’m here alright! I wouldn’t miss your demise for the world! I hope you enjoy the fruits of Project Thunder!”
The lights switched on in the room and Sonic saw the room for what it was- a death trap. Robotnik sat up on a control tower, grinning down at the hedgehog.
“Where’s Tails, Robotnik?” Sonic demanded.
“You should be more concerned with yourself right now, spikeball!” Robotnik cackled, “Project Thunder is the culmination of the latest studies of my impeccable genius! Inspired by the weather conditions of the Sky High Zone, I intended to use mountainous peaks as gigantic lightning rods. Naturally, the Under Ground Zone proved ill-suited for my purposes- and I’ll admit I do regret not letting you sizzle in the lava. But now, with all the information I’ve garnered about predicting weather and how the environments of hilly and mountainous regions can affect the conditions- to say nothing of all the lovely data I’ve collected on conductive elements and surfaces- I’ve devised this, your final resting place”
Sonic was running out of patience, “What are you talking about, egg-breath?”
“You’re standing in a gigantic lighting chamber. Harnessing the weather itself, I can use the supercomputers I’ve built into the hollowed out mountains to power this incredible device and funnel the power of lightning itself in here, flooding the room with enough electricity that you’ll—oh, well, it sounds terribly messy when you say it out loud! How can I put it delicately… have you ever put a ready-meal in the microwave without perforating the plastic film first?” Robotnik grinned broadly and with a sinister gleam in his eyes.
Sonic knew he didn’t have much time to act. If Robotnik could flood the room with lightning, he’d be blown to smithereens in the time it usually took to blink. He hurled himself at the control tower with a Spin Attack and bounced off it.
“That won’t work, I’m afraid! The control tower is insulated not just against electricity but against Spin Attacks too!” Robotnik mocked, “Can you hear that rumbling sound, Sonic? My glorious machine is reaching full power- storm clouds are forming up above and soon lightning will be drawn to the gigantic lightning rod that this gorgeous crystal mountain provides. The lightning ought to combine with the static and give you quite the shock! Still, I don’t imagine you’ll have much to say on the matter!”
Robotnik flicked a switch on the control panel in front of him and laughed uproariously. Sonic guessed he probably had seconds left for one final last ditch effort. He threw himself at the control tower once more and, just as he had the last time, bounced off it.
Robotnik laughed, his belly wobbling like a plate of slapped jelly, “Your last futile efforts are all for nothing, Sonic!”
“Futile nothing, spud-nose,” Sonic raised an eyebrow, “All your studies into lightning rods should have told you how good a conductor polished metals are”
“What are you babbling on about?” Robotnik growled.
“Left you a present,” Sonic nodded at the front of the control tower.
Robotnik peered down and took a look.
There, wedged on the front of his machine…
…was a golden Power Ring.
“N—” Robotnik started.
He didn’t have time to say the othersdfdsdf
With the loudest peal Sonic had ever heard, lightning slammed into the chamber with terrifying force, all attracted to the Power Ring. In mere split seconds, the control tower was blown apart and Robotnik was hurled backwards and through the wall behind him.
The control tower destroyed, the lightning chamber powered down. Sonic clambered over the remains of the deactivated and defeated machine and followed his rotund foe.
Robotnik crawled through debris and pulled himself up using a nearby column standing on the floor that came to waist-height.
“Where is Tails?” Sonic asked, the authoritative tone in his voice frightening Robotnik for a moment.
“Y… your friend… you’ll…” Robotnik panted and gasped. Sonic took a step towards the mad doctor and Robotnik panicked. With surprising agility for a man of his girth, Robotnik pulled himself onto the column- and it was only then Sonic realised a matching column reached down from above.
“No, not again!” Sonic called.
But it was too late. Robotnik teleported away with a fizz of energy.
“NO!” Sonic shouted.
Robotnik was gone.
And so was Tails.
Sonic fell to the floor and hit it with his fists before holding his head in his hands. He had failed his friend. And now, he had no idea where in the entire world Tails could be.
Then, in the quiet, came another fizzing noise.
“Sonic?”
Sonic looked up. There, stood on the column, was a young, orange-furred fox cub. With two Tails.
“Tails? Tails!” Sonic was overjoyed. Robotnik must have decided to let his hostage go as a delaying tactic, hoping Sonic wouldn’t follow him if he gave the hedgehog what he wanted. To the doctor’s credit, it was going to work.
“What’s going on, Sonic?” Tails looked around the room, puzzled, “Where am I?”
Sonic chuckled to himself and shrugged, “Buddy, I’ll tell you all about it on the run home”

On to Chapter 62