Back to Chapter 90

Dear Uncle Merlin,

Okay, I know I said I was hoping the contents of my next letter would be less crazy- looks like I’ll have to disappoint you there!

I guess you guys back home still don’t know much about computers, right? I guess the Nameless Zone’s always been a bit… old fashioned? Is that the right word? Well you get my meaning.

Anyway, computers are totally important around here! There are computer monitors all over Mobius. I told you before about Doctor Kintobor’s relay system, right? The doc- before he became Robotnik- set up a computer relay all over Mobius so people could input information that might help him find the grey Chaos Emerald. Most folks don’t bother with the computers, to be honest. After the R.O.C.C. exploded, most of them contain items now, some weird side effect I guess.

Anyway, the point is, the internet stretches across Mobius, as you might expect. And Doctor Robotnik had the worst, most evil idea using his former self’s amazing system. He’d rigged the relay monitors so that anyone who used them was transported inside, into the digital world!

I got Sonic got trapped in the internet, so suffice to say yours truly- who didn’t fall for such an obvious ploy- had to save the day! I mean, it wasn’t all bad, anyone trapped inside the computer system could visit any video game world they liked! Although, I suppose, that also meant they were in danger of being hurt by the things from those video game worlds.

To make matters worse, Robotnik had infected the internet with computer virus versions of his Badniks. Sorry if “computer virus” doesn’t make much sense, I know you’re not very into technical stuff. It’s like a computer program designed to cause harm.

Luckily, I met this brilliant hacker- that’s someone who can get into a computer’s programming to make it do things it isn’t necessarily programmed to do. Her name’s Iggy. She’s only small- she’s a little white mouse, after all- but, wow, what a big brain!

Iggy reckons she could hack any system in the world given enough time. Time was something we needed too, as we couldn’t touch the computer relay until we’d made it safe, so we had to prod in lines of computer code using a stick. That was a pain, I can tell you!

We managed to get access to Doctor Kintobor’s computer system and there was all kinds of information on Sonic’s speed data in there. Iggy was able to put together the data to create a digital version of Sonic- we called him Sonic Two. He was able to help the real Sonic escape as we reversed the computer programming, thanks to Iggy’s skills, and freed everyone who had been trapped!

And now Sonic Two patrols the information highway, smashing digital Badniks just like we smash the ones in the real world!

It’s just occurred to me this letter probably makes almost no sense to someone who doesn’t know how computers work. Sorry! Hope everyone is doing well back home!

Miles

“Tails”

Merlin Prower put down the latest letter from his nephew Miles and furrowed his brow. Something about this missive just wasn’t making any sense, though not for the reasons the younger fox may have thought. Merlin had noticed a few weird inconsistencies in Miles’ recollections and this was just the latest in a long line.

Merlin knew Miles wasn’t a bad kid, but maybe his imagination had let him get away from himself. The wise older fox also suspected his nephew had been attempting to paint a picture that things were going more smoothly than he was letting on, probably hoping it wouldn’t result in him being called back to the Nameless Zone for his own safety.

Of course, Merlin knew of the foretelling. He was well aware that, one day, his nephew would be a great hero of the Nameless Zone. It didn’t take much to figure out Sonic had been the one responsible for saving the day in Miles’ letters thus far. What Miles needed was something to really test his mettle- something he had to face alone, without Sonic’s help.

Merlin consulted his crystal ball once more. The time was drawing close.

An early test of Miles’ courage was soon to come.

On to Chapter 92