ACT 1

Chapter 1: Green Chill Zone

"Uggggh, for cryin'- Tails, it's 6:00 AM, what?" Sonic muttered grumpily as Miles' voice crackled from the radio, startling him awake.

"Yeah, yeah, I know it's early, but you've got to come see this!"

"Can't it wait 'till morning?"

"Nope!" replied the young fox. Before Sonic could protest further, the radio switched off with a soft click. Sonic looked mournfully at his alarm clock, but zipped his way to the workshop anyway.

As he flew through Green Hill he couldn't help but notice that something seemed off. All of the animals that were normally out early, weren't there. Sonic was puzzled.

"Where is everybody? It's gone from Green Hill to Green Chill out here. Heh." With that last chuckle, Sonic sped off to Miles' workshop.

The fox was already sitting at a monitor, tapping away on a keyboard when Sonic got there.

"There you are!" exclaimed Miles. "I was starting to think you'd gone back to sleep."

"I still might. Seems Green Hill has too." Sonic remarked. "What is it that you wanted to show me?"

"To tell you the truth, I only uncovered it yesterday. I had to take my time to study it. My best guess is a cryogenic containment pod. That, or a really spec-d out fridge." Miles pulled the tarp off of a large metal object. At first glance, it appeared to be some sort of cold storage crate. It consisted of a large steel box with cylinders attached to three of the four sides. Pipes ran from cylinders to the box. On the fourth side was a heavy-duty bulkhead door with a small porthole and a slot in the middle.

Miles went to a back room to retrieve schematics he had drawn up earlier. Sonic took a look at the monitor on the desk. Displayed on the blue-lit screen were various blocks of code and analysis spreadsheets he didn't understand, part catalogues, and what looked like a grocery list. One thing that did catch his attention among the mess of code was a diagram of the machine. The diagram depicted a strange gray crystal-like material labelled '?'.

"I should also mention its power source is a complete mystery to me. It's been driving me mad for the past few hours." Miles began, emerging from the clutter of his workshop's back room.

"Well, I'm no scientific genius myself, but that gray crystal looks promising."

"Oh, that. I can't figure out what purpose that crystal is supposed to serve. It doesn't match any element known on Mobius." said Miles, resignedly. "I've taken to calling it Antelectrum, due to the fact it apparently nullifies electricity. As a power source, frankly it seems unusable."

"Do you actually have any of this stuff?"

"None that I've made myself, but I do know it's inside the machine's cylinders. Every time I bring anything electrically charged within a few metres of those cylinders, the charge vanishes. I can't explain how it does that. Actually, watch this." At that moment, Miles tossed a magnet, which was previously firmly stuck to a sheet of metal, at one of the cylinders. There was a loud crack. For an instant the magnet glowed a bright white, then finished its trajectory towards the workshop floor. Miles walked over toward the fallen magnet and picked it up. He then placed the magnet on top of the metal sheet once more, and then lifted the sheet. The magnet slid right off with no resistance.

"Whoa! It's been completely demagnetized?" Sonic exclaimed, astonished.

"Completely. This suggests one of a few things about these crystals. Now there are a few ways to depolarize a magnet. First, there's- Sonic! Sonic, are you awake?"

"Wha- huh? Oh yeah, I'm awake." Sonic started. Miles sighed and walked back over to the desk with the monitor,

"Anyway, the point is, I have a few leads on what this thing does. What I don't have is any information on how it works. It does appear that it is only a part of a larger creation though, and I'm worried that Robotnik has something to do with this." He continued. "That's where I need your help. I need you to explore around where I found it while I keep an eye on these readings and continue to experiment with it."

"Yeah, I can do that, but I'm getting the distinct feeling that I'm not gonna get a chance to sleep for a while." Sonic's tone changed suddenly, from joking to alert. "Wait, do you hear that?" At that moment, a low rumbling could be heard. The two turned to look at the window. Outside, they could see a large group of Motobugs speeding across Green Hill.

"Guess that's my queue. I'll take this comm unit with me and go follow them."

"Good luck, Sonic. Don't injure yourself out there." Miles replied.