I

Sonic sped over the peaceful plains of Green Hill. He had had bad memories of this place when he first came here, but all that was over now. There were no robot bees or ladybugs to bug him now. It was just him and nostalgia.

He had left that morning before anyone had wakened. He really just needed a vacation from all of his cohorts. Amy was being particularly annoying lately, Knuckles was…well, Knuckles was Knuckles. Tails was testing some new inventions, and Sonic didn't want to be anywhere near any chemical fumes. Cream and Cheese wouldn't stop watching the "Miss Mary Moo-Moo" marathon with the volume blasting through the house. In other words, the hedgehog just needed some peace and quiet for one day.

He paused when he came up to a nearby rock. He had skipped breakfast to slip out unnoticed, so he was really hungry. Luckily, due to some last minute thinking on his part, he had packed himself some food for the day. Sonic pulled out a picnic basket and settled down to a bagel and a glass of OJ.

As he ate, he thought about what he was going to do during the day. Maybe he would stroll down memory lane by visiting the old pond; or, maybe he would try to attack a Flicky sitting on top of a tree dropping some little specks of bird seed-just for the heck of it.

Sonic took the last sip of his juice and placed the picnic basket by a rock for safe-keeping; his lunch was in there too. He stretched his arms and readied for his run around Green Hill. He didn't want anything ruining this day.

The Blue Blur was dashing to the east, seeing if he could still remember any of the landmarks. He recalled seeing the giant, vertical plateau, and he couldn't figure out how he could forget the giant hill he rolled down in a ball. Sonic, out of habit, skidded to a halt in front of some palm trees; however, to his great surprise, a giant steel animal container was sitting there!

Sonic couldn't believe it. "What on Earth?" he wondered aloud. Shrugging, he did what his instinct told him to do: press the button on top.

The hedgehog reared up and leapt on top of the button. The case opened, but instead of animals, a note appeared. It had a watermark that looked like Eggman's face. Sonic read it out loud.

"Dear rodent,

You picked a bad time to take a vacation! The whole planet is in danger, and there's no way you can stop it! We'll just see what happens to your precious Station Square. I'll be waiting on you, you inferior beast!

Eggman"

The hedgehog gasped and looked at the note, dumbfounded. "I can't believe myself!" he fumed, tossing the note down. "Why did I have to take a day off TODAY?!"

He looked down the road. "I've already been through this entire place to beat Eggman the first time," he noted. "Maybe I can do it again!"

With a new-found confidence, Sonic revved up his feet and dashed down the winding road of Green Hill. "This'll be EASY! I've been through here…while defeating 'bots at the same time." He gazed ahead on the horizon, expecting to see the rocks of Marble Hill. Instead, he skidded to a stop just in time before he plummeted into the lava.

"What the…?" he wondered. His mind snapped back to the note Eggman had written to him. Had the mad scientist actually blasted away all of the rocks so it would stop Sonic?