EPISODE 1
THE DEMON IN SNEAKERS: HIS NAME IS SONIC!

The last rays of the day were falling on the badlands of Shamar. Yet in the failing light one could see a tower of chrome jutting out of a butte, like a spit through a mass of meat over a fire; the butte was also protected by a perimeter of electrified barbed wire and numerous machine gun turrets.

At the very top of this small fortress was a command room.

Dr. Eggman, much like his name suggested, looked like a cross between an egg and a man. Save for a bushy mustache, there wasn't a follicle of hair on him. He wore black and red and had a tiny yellow cape and blue-tinted shades. As silly as he looked, Eggman happened to be an evil genius bent on taking over the twin worlds of Mobius and Yu Earth.

Alongside him was a little pink Mobian Hedgehog in periwinkle sneakers, a green collar shirt, and yellow tutu. Amy Rose was not happy being there. The reason why she was and the fact that she was bound to a chair wasn't helping matters.

"Don't give me that look!" said Eggman, acknowledging Amy's sour attitude and mocking her pouting. "I know you've had dreams of Sonic coming to your rescue!"

"Well, I know whatever he's gonna do to you won't be pretty!" Amy shot back.

"Ho ho! I wouldn't bank on him reaching this room so soon," the doctor countered, with sick confidence, "we get to have a little fun first!"

Eggman had two robot assistants with him the majority of the time, SA-55 Orbot and ID-I07 Cubot, serving as direct subordinates; Cubot had the distinction of possessing a faulty voice processor which the doctor never bothered to replace, so he randomly flips through various accents. "Mein Doktor!" Cubot announced in a voice straight out of a Wolfenstein game "Ve have un intruder on die radar! Approaching from die southvest at 72.2 miles per hour!"

At his builder's command, Orbot used the base's instruments to ID the interloper. A blue Hedgehog similar to the doctor's captive, but a boy; one Eggman knew too well — Sonic the Hedgehog!

Eggman grinned upon seeing his old enemy on the screen. "How about some fireworks?" he said with malicious eagerness.

Outside the tower, missiles were fired into the desert from where the second Hedgehog was coming from, erupting into bright blossoms of flame in the darkening atmosphere. They didn't hit their mark—Sonic's bio-signature was still detected—but Eggman was far from discouraged. The game had just begun!

Sonic easily bounded over the protective electric fence and landed on an MG turret. Being directly on top, it couldn't aim for him. When the Hedgehog was on the ground, the turrets only did slightly better; even though Sonic was within firing range now, he was simply too fast for the myriad storm of bullets.

Even past the turrets Sonic wasn't out of the woods yet—a pair of wasp-like badniks called Buzzbombers emerged from a hatch and began flying after the boy as he progressed closer and closer to the butte, trying to zap him with their stinger-mounted lasers.

In a moment, the Hedgehog noticed an opening ahead of him. A way in, maybe? A leap of faith, perhaps, but it was better than being deep-fried.

Sonic took that leap, doing deeper and deeper into the shaft until some kind of vacuum pulled him into a tube in the wall. Soon, it felt like he was going every which way imaginable with no control over his destination. He felt himself flying forward, backward, sideways, and various other ways few could even imagine.

The wild ride came to an end. Sonic found himself in pitch blackness, accompanied by the clank of the tube's hatch closing.

Soon, light from a large screen in the distance. It displayed a grinning Dr. Eggman. "Well, well, well! It's nice to see you drop in on us Sonic!" Eggman sneered. "Not that it was an entirely unexpected visit!"

"Can't say I'm big on fat dudes who use little girls as bait so they can kill me," Sonic responded. "Let's make a deal… you let Amy go and I won't have to send you to the emergency room!"

Eggman had already made his decision, but pretended like it was something that required thought. "That's a tough one," he said. "How about we play a little game before I make my decision?"

The light from the jumbotron revealed to Sonic that he was trapped in some sort of clear shell. "Lemme guess: a killer pinball machine?"

A wall of blue rectangular columns appeared, followed by a wall of orange ones directly in front of that, then three more of that same color, and finally three green rows. A white rectangle appeared directly behind Sonic's ball as well. It wasn't killer pinball… it was killer Breakout!.

Eggman was controlling the paddle, Sonic was the ball, and the rows were electrified. With every rebound Sonic's ball moved faster and faster, jolt or no jolt. A play-until-you-run-out-of-lives game, only Eggman could play as long as he wanted, and the only dying was going to be on the part of the trapped Hedgehog.

Eventually Eggman missed and the ball came to a stop. Sonic, as you can imagine, was as disoriented (even more so than he was from his little journey down the tubes), but with a tiny amount of luck, the boy caught sight of something on the shell of the ball — a crack! Apparently that the glass imprisoning him couldn't take the punishment the way he could. If he could rake his spines against the crack and weaken it, he might have a chance of escaping!

It worked. Just two rebounds after the game resumed, Sonic was free.

"Mein Doktor, Sonic has escaped der Breakout! room!"

"Alright!" the hostage cheered. "I knew my Sonic would get out somehow!"

Eggman grinned, ready to throw a damper on the Hedgehog's sunny outlook. "Oh, yeah?" he told her. "I may be down, but I'm not out. Sonic's still got a fortress full of badniks between him and this command room" He changed the channel on the monitor, to reveal Sonic's current position in the complex: running down a hallway as a trio of Buzzbombers pursued, abdomen-mounted beam guns firing as they gave chase. The screen cut to another camera: from behind a trio of Crabmeats, staring down the oncoming Hedgehog, claws ready to fire. He jumped through the midst of the salvos unscathed, the Buzzbombers still on his tail. Another camera: Sonic turned sharply to the left, the pursuing badniks were unable to successfully clear the corner and smashed into the wall. Three tiny animals emerged from the wreckage.

"I hate to be the barer of bad news, Doctor," said Orbot, timidly, "but Sonic's getting closer to the main elevator."

"Close the blast doors immediately," he ordered Cubot, "but have Dragon Breath on standby!"

"Jawohl, mein Doktor!"

More of these guys. No sooner had Sonic got rid of the three Buzzbombers on his six a moment ago he run into two Orbinauts. It was getting annoying. However, the stakes were getting higher: at the end of the corridor stood an elevator terminal, one that was slowly and steadily vanishing behind a shrinking rectangle bordered by steel! Gotta time this just right…

WHAM! Suddenly, Sonic went flying backward. When he came to a moment later, not only did he discover that he'd made it, but Eggman had another robot waiting for him: one standing about three yards tall and could best be described as that you'd get if you threw a Scotsman, a punk rocker, and a horse into a blender and hit "Frappe".

"Lucky shot," Sonic scowled, nursing the blow he was delivered.

"You've come far, Sonic," the robot said, "but Dragon Breath with crush you here."

Sonic grinned. "How about 'no'?"

"Big mistake." The robot raised his arms, inhaled, and released a long stream of flame at the crouching Hedgehog. In only a few seconds, all that remained was an ugly, black smudge on the floor. "Vaya con Dios, Little Boy Blue."

"Here I am!" The robot didn't burn Sonic at all! The Hedgehog had dodged the fire and had now rammed into the titanium titan with a spin dash!

"Er, Doctor?" Orbot said with an air of concern. "Sonic is in the elevator."

"What!? Don't tell me he got past Dragon Breath!" Eggman did not want to hear that! He rushed over to Cubot's station (and past a smug Amy as well).

"Mein Doktor, I have used ein emergency shtop on die elevator!" the yellow robot lackey reported.

"Good! Start pumping poison gas into the car!" Eggman ordered.

"Nein! You did not install gas," Cubot responded.

"How about acid?"

"Nein!"

"Badniks at the nearest terminal?"

"Nein! Sonic is just below zis floor."

"WHAT!?"

Amy didn't say a word though all this. The fact that Eggman was starting to sweat was enough entertainment. Welcome still was the bulging dents in the elevator door that were accompanied by loud bangs. Sonic was on the other side.

"QUICK! SEVER THE CABLE!"

This frantic order came too little, too late. The doors loudly squeaked open and Sonic bounded into the command room with a cocky "Hi, Eggy! I'm home!"

Captor and captive screamed for different reasons.

Before you could say "Spin Dash", Sonic let one tear across the threshold and into the doctor's belly, sending him bouncing away like a beach ball The Hedgehog landed right next to Amy, confidently staring down the stricken Eggman.

Eggman was alright, but scooted backward, butt still on the floor with an arm extended, begging for mercy. "P-Please Sonic! Not again! I'm sorry about the Breakout! room!"

Sonic slowly began to walk forward, with a playful smirk on his face. "Sorry, Eggman, but I haven't made you stand in the corner yet."

Eggman kept walking back, trying to keep distance between him and the Hedgehog, playing up the I'm-so-sorry-please-forgive-me act… that is until a certain button was within the doctor's reach!

A hatch in the ceiling opened and an open net came down upon the surprised Sonic. Small, powerful magnets clacked when the trap reached the floor.

"Orbot, run self-destruct cycle NOW!" Eggman ordered, standing back up and opening an emergency escape chute by way of another button on the console. It didn't take long for a door to slide open in the floor. "Hope you kids like space," said the doctor, "you'll probably be there in a few minutes!" Eggman jumped through it, with Orbot just barely grabbing onto his tiny yellow cape at the last second and Cubot latching onto Orbot's lower body.

Sirens blared, all lights went red, and a computerized voice announced: "Warning! Time bomb set. Detonation in three minutes.

The net made it difficult to stand. Grabbing the hem of the net to pull it up didn't work; the magnets were too powerful. The only other way was to curl up into a Spin Dash. If it worked in the death trap down below, it should work here. Sure enough Sonic was able to tear through. The net was just an annoyance—a stalling tool, and it did its job.

"Sonic…!" Amy was about ready to fangirl out over her beloved coming to save her, but Sonic wasn't in the mood for any accolades at the moment.

"Lay off the mush stuff, Ames," said Sonic. "If we don't get out now, we're barbecue!"

The descent to the basement hangar was swift, like a steep waterslide. Eggman's two toadies didn't seem to care for this method of escape. "Dr. Eggman," asked a rattled Orbot, "did you have to make such a manner of an escape route?"

"If you don't like it, Orbot, go back upstairs and file a complaint!" said Eggman, not caring at all.

"But ve have no suggestion box!" Cubot said.

"Bingo."

A short walk away stood a docked Eggmobile, a modifiable hovercraft for Eggman's use, which he and his two cronies boarded. It wasn't that big of a vehicle, but it was fast enough for the threesome to escape from the base in.

They had little trouble getting out, just a little turbulence from when the base finally erupted in a pillar of fire that lit up the surrounding wastes. Eggman laughed; Sonic was probably still under that net when the place blew.

He wasn't. He could even hear the Hedgehog shouting at him from the ground. "Nice fireworks show! How many mobiums went into it?"

Sonic and Amy had escaped, and Eggman was not happy.

"You didn't think I was gonna die that easily, didja?" Sonic asked.

Eggman growled. "You may have escaped this time, Sonic, but don't get used to it! I will kill you, and when that happens, Mobius will become part of Eggmanland!"

Sonic paid no attention to his enemy's raving. The Eggmobile finally turned and flew away into the night. "Bye, Eggman!" Sonic said, waving. "If you ever want another spanking like the one tonight, you know what to do!"

Amy glomped her hero from the side and nuzzled him. "Oh, Sonic! That was amazing! I was worried when he was using you for a ball!"

"C'mon, kiddo," Sonic said a little awkwardly. "If he killed me, this would be a really short series."

The one-sided cuddling kept going and Sonic lost balance.

A rescue mission in the desert ended with a demolished fortress billowing smoke and the young hero pinned to a sand dune, kissed over and over again by the girl her rescued under the light of a full moon.

South Island is the largest island in the Acorn Archipelago, but the northeastern tip of the landmass is contains tiny Eggmanland. This is Dr. Eggman's little "empire" which he works tirelessly to expand, needless to say, Sonic foils his efforts every time they're undertaken.

Scrap Brain City is the capital of Eggmanland, home to various robots and the country's namesake (who also happens to be the only permanent organic inhabitant). A grimy, polluted city with towering factories and smokestacks and buildings straight out of a cyberpunk comic. The only industry was weapons and robots-building, all for Eggman's desire for expansionism.

Egg Castle was a large pyramid-like structure near the center of Scrap Brain, serving as a home for the would-be tyrant.

Though still disappointed at the loss of his Shamar outpost and his latest failure to kill Sonic, Eggman pressed on it his efforts for total domination, seated in his kitchen. In a spectacle of balancing everyday needs and supervillainy, he was eating cereal and drinking coffee, while jotting down notes and studying an old book. A book on the unexplained and mysterious—Earth's legendary yeti, the Holy Grail, Atlantis, and the Crystal Skulls; universal concepts like UFOs, telepathy, levitation, and crop circles; Mobian fables about the lost Echidna civilization, South Island's own Never Lake, and the Chaos Emeralds. Stuff like this would be right up the his recently-freed bait's alley, but even he could get a little use out of it, even if it was for enjoyment.

Defeated for now, perhaps, but the fight was far from over.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

You may be familiar with my Archie Sonic-UC Gundam crossover, yes? At times, working on that put me into a sour mood and at times I try to do something silly and light hearted to lift up my spirits, similar to old Kill 'em All Tomino himself. Furthermore, I took note that the 30th anniversary of the original game is coming next year, and I wanted to do something to commemorate it. With these two factors in mind, I went for something more upbeat than the gritty, somber tone of the UC and the latter portion of pre-reboot Archie... "AOSTH on the right medicine"!

In this series, set in a Classic-style universe, expect to see familiar faces, characters who weren't even in the Classic era to begin with, and we'll even make a few Japanese SEGA executives cry along the way!