I walked into the centre of the arena dressed in full penguin suit - y'know, white shirt, black jacket, black trousers and blue tie. I was holding a mic, and all the lights were on me. Luckily I don't get stagefright...
"Welcome to the Sonic Stone 2 tournament! Let's get ready to rumble! Here are the rules. Four teams of two will each send a competitor into two semi-finals, with the last two standing going through to the final. None of the competitors are allowed to take weapons in with them, they have to pick them up. There's a few other nice twists in the rules, and you'll find them out soon enough. Anyway, the first semi-final is between..."
The camera cut to Amy.
"Playing in red, the lean, mean, crying machine, Amy Rose!" Amy started dancing around, and the camera cut to Gamma, who was minus his rocket launcher.
"And playing in yellow, robots everywhere unite to welcome E-102!" Gamma stood motionless, as did the crowd. The humans weren't exactly going to cheer a robot, and everybody knows robots don't cheer. The camera cut to Sonic.
"Playing in blue, faster than anyone else here, Sega's spiky mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog!" Sonic struck a pose, and the camera cut to Eggman, who was on the ground.
"And finally, playing in green, the most fantastic scientist ever to fly over Mobius..." The crowd started booing. "Hey, he's my teammate - what did you expect me to say? Anyway, it's Doctor Robotnik!" The booing reached its height, and Eggman was cheesed off.
The camera cut to an overhead view of the cube-shaped arena, to show that the arena had stairs on one wall leading to a high platform, a huge pole in the centre, and what looks like a slot machine in another wall. Energy bars come up on screens around the arena and at the bottom of the TV broadcast.
"Everybody ready?" The four gave me the thumbs-up and I left through a hole in the wall which closed behind me.
"Three..." Sonic started charging his spin attack, aiming right at Eggman.
"Two..." Amy set off, making for the stairs. Gamma headed to the slot machine. Eggman still did nothing, he was too wrapped up in being angry at nobody in particular.
"One..." Amy found a rock on the platform and got ready to pick it up. Eggman finally noticed what Sonic was up to and started running. Sonic released, spinning straight for Eggman. He made contact with split-second timing as I said "Go!"
Eggman's energy bar was on about 70%, until Amy jumped off the high platform, hitting Eggman with the rock she picked up. Eggman was down to 40% and dazed.
By now, Gamma had spun the slot machine reels, and got three bombs. Gamma opened a little hatch by the last reel, and took his reward from it. No prizes for guessing that it's a bomb. Gamma said "Sonic" and threw the bomb to him. Sonic winked at Gamma and threw the bomb at Eggman, and it exploded. Eggman's energy bar was at zero, and he's sort-of-wobbling.
I told Eggman to lie down: he sort of fell down. I threw a timer next to him. It's a little black box with a single digit like you get on clocks and a red button with 'HELP' written on it. This is one of the twists in the rules - if anyone wants Eggman to get up again (yeah, that's likely) they have to get to him and press the button before the clock counts down to zero.
Eggman's clock started counting down. He was saying things like "Sonic, get over here or I'll kill you!" but nobody was taking any notice of him.
With Eggman on 5, Gamma punched Sonic who flies towards Eggman. If Sonic accidentally pressed Eggman's button, he could get up again! Fortunately, Amy shoved him off his flightpath for a safe(r) landing. Eggman got up and left. Even though he was my teammate, I can't say I was sorry!
So, with Sonic, Amy and Gamma left, who's next to go? Sonic was on about 50%, Gamma about 30% and Amy hadn't even been scratched yet - the coward.
Sonic and Amy talked about something, but Gamma went to pick up a flamethrower. He fired a brief spurt and Amy ran off screaming. Gamma pursued, but Sonic climbed up the pole, did a magnificant backflip off and landed on Gamma's head. Sonic pulled out a couple of wires from the back of Gamma's power pack and Gamma stopped dead: we have our winners.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for our winners: Amy from the red team, and Sonic from the blue team!"
Amy and Sonic left the arena, Amy hugged Knuckles and Sonic hi-fived Tails. Tails, Knuckles and Big entered the arena.
"Welcome to the Sonic Stone 2 tournament! Let's get ready to rumble! Here are the rules. Four teams of two will each send a competitor into two semi-finals, with the last two standing going through to the final. None of the competitors are allowed to take weapons in with them, they have to pick them up. There's a few other nice twists in the rules, and you'll find them out soon enough. Anyway, the first semi-final is between..."
The camera cut to Amy.
"Playing in red, the lean, mean, crying machine, Amy Rose!" Amy started dancing around, and the camera cut to Gamma, who was minus his rocket launcher.
"And playing in yellow, robots everywhere unite to welcome E-102!" Gamma stood motionless, as did the crowd. The humans weren't exactly going to cheer a robot, and everybody knows robots don't cheer. The camera cut to Sonic.
"Playing in blue, faster than anyone else here, Sega's spiky mascot, Sonic The Hedgehog!" Sonic struck a pose, and the camera cut to Eggman, who was on the ground.
"And finally, playing in green, the most fantastic scientist ever to fly over Mobius..." The crowd started booing. "Hey, he's my teammate - what did you expect me to say? Anyway, it's Doctor Robotnik!" The booing reached its height, and Eggman was cheesed off.
The camera cut to an overhead view of the cube-shaped arena, to show that the arena had stairs on one wall leading to a high platform, a huge pole in the centre, and what looks like a slot machine in another wall. Energy bars come up on screens around the arena and at the bottom of the TV broadcast.
"Everybody ready?" The four gave me the thumbs-up and I left through a hole in the wall which closed behind me.
"Three..." Sonic started charging his spin attack, aiming right at Eggman.
"Two..." Amy set off, making for the stairs. Gamma headed to the slot machine. Eggman still did nothing, he was too wrapped up in being angry at nobody in particular.
"One..." Amy found a rock on the platform and got ready to pick it up. Eggman finally noticed what Sonic was up to and started running. Sonic released, spinning straight for Eggman. He made contact with split-second timing as I said "Go!"
Eggman's energy bar was on about 70%, until Amy jumped off the high platform, hitting Eggman with the rock she picked up. Eggman was down to 40% and dazed.
By now, Gamma had spun the slot machine reels, and got three bombs. Gamma opened a little hatch by the last reel, and took his reward from it. No prizes for guessing that it's a bomb. Gamma said "Sonic" and threw the bomb to him. Sonic winked at Gamma and threw the bomb at Eggman, and it exploded. Eggman's energy bar was at zero, and he's sort-of-wobbling.
I told Eggman to lie down: he sort of fell down. I threw a timer next to him. It's a little black box with a single digit like you get on clocks and a red button with 'HELP' written on it. This is one of the twists in the rules - if anyone wants Eggman to get up again (yeah, that's likely) they have to get to him and press the button before the clock counts down to zero.
Eggman's clock started counting down. He was saying things like "Sonic, get over here or I'll kill you!" but nobody was taking any notice of him.
With Eggman on 5, Gamma punched Sonic who flies towards Eggman. If Sonic accidentally pressed Eggman's button, he could get up again! Fortunately, Amy shoved him off his flightpath for a safe(r) landing. Eggman got up and left. Even though he was my teammate, I can't say I was sorry!
So, with Sonic, Amy and Gamma left, who's next to go? Sonic was on about 50%, Gamma about 30% and Amy hadn't even been scratched yet - the coward.
Sonic and Amy talked about something, but Gamma went to pick up a flamethrower. He fired a brief spurt and Amy ran off screaming. Gamma pursued, but Sonic climbed up the pole, did a magnificant backflip off and landed on Gamma's head. Sonic pulled out a couple of wires from the back of Gamma's power pack and Gamma stopped dead: we have our winners.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for our winners: Amy from the red team, and Sonic from the blue team!"
Amy and Sonic left the arena, Amy hugged Knuckles and Sonic hi-fived Tails. Tails, Knuckles and Big entered the arena.