Sonic was in his garage in his house at Seaside Hill. He was sitting on a stool with bags under his eyes, he was injecting something into part of his arm "Ow!" "Forty-six, sir" Nicole said. He injected another above the previous one "Ah!" "Forty-seven. Sir, please may I request just a few hours to calibrate" "Nope. Forty-eight". He injected again and then wiped his arm with a cloth. Multiple spots on his arm were bleeding "Micro-repeater implanting sequence complete" "As you wish, sir. I've also prepared a safety briefing for you to entirely ignore" "Which I will. Alright, let's do this". He looks up and sees DUM-E brushing the floor and wearing a dunce hat "Dummy. Hi, Dummy. You earned that cap". Sonic stood up and walked past training equipment and then DUM-E "What're you doing out of the corner? You know what you did. Blood on my mat. Handle it". Sonic stood on a platform with another robot arm holding a camera "Sir, may I remind you that you've been awake for nearly 72 hours?". Sonic ignored her and turned to the robot arm "Focus up because I'm pleased to announce the imminent arrival of your bouncing, bad-ass baby brother. The new Mecha Sonic prototype. Testing power ring release system and new assembly sequence. Initialize".
Sonic moves his hands and different silver pieces of machinery power up on a table in front of him "Nicole, drop my needle". A record begins playing a Christmas song. Sonic dances to the music before he then makes a pose with his arms but nothing happens "Crap". He slaps his forearm and tries again. A piece from the table flies forward and lands in front of him forming a foot. More pieces fly forward and connected to the foot. Sonic laughed "Alright, I think it's working. Send them all". More pieces fly and assemble but one flies towards Sonic making him move out of the way "Okay, Nicole slow it down" another forced Sonic to duck "Okay send the rings". The robot in front of him still didn't have a head but its chest opened up and fired multiple mini power rings at Sonic just in time as a piece of the robot hit the back of his head but he was uninjured "Cool it, will you Nicole?". Sonic sees the head of the robot "Come on. I ain't scared of you". The head flies towards him, Sonic flips over the head, its eyes opened and fire three more power rings that Sonic absorbs turning him into his golden super form. Sonic catches the head and throws it to the body which it assembles to. The robot was a silver hedgehog with orange eyes and yellow feet. Sonic stared proudly at the creation "I'm the best". Another piece flew in from behind and hit him knocking him off the platform. Sonic groaned, "As always, sir, a great pleasure watching you work" Nicole said. Sonic stood up, Mecha stepped forward and grabbed Sonic's arm. It drained the energy out of Sonic who went back to normal, and the powering rings were paced back into Mecha's chest and head. "I guess 72 hours is a long time between siestas. I didn't think it could get any worse... Then I had to go and turn on the TV".
"That's when he happened" on a television screen a symbol was shown for the Dark Hands. A row of Mobians and humans were shown kneeling in front of a wall. A red echidna in red and gold armour walked past them "Some people call me a terrorist" a deep intimidating voice said. He walked away as a firing squad killed the row "I consider myself a teacher" the crowd cheered holding up their weapons. Stock footage was then shown "The United Federation. Ready for another lesson? In 1864, in Guardian Rock, the UF military waited until the friendly tribe in that area had all gone hunting. They waited to attack and slaughter the families left behind and claimed their land". The echidna was pacing in a dark room "39 hours ago, a UF Air base in Soleanna was attacked". The echidna casually shrugged "I… I did that". He smiled sadistically "A quaint military church filled with wives and children, of course. The soldiers were out on manoeuvres. Mr President". Footage of a scarecrow resembling a human man in a blue suit was being burnt "You continue to resist my attempts to educate you, sir. And now you've missed me again. You know who I am. You don't know where I am. And you'll never see me coming". The screen changed to different news reports "Any attempts to find this Enerjak have so far proved unsuccessful".
It changed to the president, a human man with a blue suit and brown hair "Central to my administration's response to this terrorist event is a newly minted resource. I know him as Colonel Mighty the Armadillo. The public will soon know him as the UF Guardian". Mighty walked out now wearing black and red boots, black fingerless gloves and large cuffs on his wrists with built in projectiles and rockets to make him fly faster. The channel changed showing different people reacting "So, our president responds by taking a super strong armadillo and giving him a new name". The TV was in a restaurant being watched by Sonic and Mighty who were sitting at a table. Sonic looked disgusted, Mighty sighed "It tested well with focus groups, alright?" "Can I still just call you Mighty?" "UF Guardian sends a good message". Sonic nods not really being convinced "So, what's really going on? With this Enerjak guy". Mighty stopped drinking, "Seriously, can we talk about this guy?" "It's classified information, Sonic. Okay, there have been nine bombings". Sonic uncharacteristically stared ahead of him surprised "Nine?" "The public only knows about three. But here's the thing, nobody can ID a device. There are no bomb casings" "You know I can help. Just ask. I got a ton of new tech". Mighty stared concerned at him "When's the last time you got a good night's sleep?" "Nate Morgan sleeps three hours a year. Look what he's doing" "People are concerned about you, Sonic. I'm concerned about you. You think I can't tell you're wearing your lenses right now. What'd you think's gonna happen".
Sonic rolled his eyes "You're going to come at me like that?" "No, look, I'm not trying to be a dick-" Mighty saw two frog kids appear next to Sonic "-tator". The girl held up a drawing "Could you please sign our drawing?" she asked Sonic. He gestured to Mighty "If Richard doesn't mind. Are you alright with this, Dick?" "Yeah. Fine with me". Sonic took the drawing which showed the Chaotix team with him carrying the rocket into the wormhole "What's your name?" "Erin". Sonic signed and then looked to the boy "I loved you in Starfox, by the way". Mighty leaned in and whispered to Sonic "Listen, Techno Base is scared. After Station Square, alien robots. They need to look strong. Stopping Enerjak is a priority, but it's not-" "It's not superhero business" "No, it's not, quite frankly". Sonic's eyes started to shift and the crayon he held broke. He exhaled sharply, Mighty put his hand on his shoulder "Hey, you okay?". Sonic covered his face "I broke the crayon" "Are you okay, Mr Sonic?" Erin asked. Everything around Sonic began to get muffled, he thinks he heard Mighty tell him to take it easy, but he could barley hear when "How did you get out of the wormhole?". Sonic gasped and got up from the table, "Wait, Sonic?". Mighty looked down at the drawing which Sonic had written "Help me!" on it. Sonic stumbled outside, took out a power ring and absorbed it hoping it could counteract whatever was happening. Everyone watches him as he falls to one knee and put his earpieces in "Nicole, check the heart. Or check the… Is it the brain?" "No sign of cardiac anomaly or unusual brain activity". Sonic could barely breath "Okay, so I was poisoned?" "My diagnosis is that you've experienced a sever anxiety attack" "Me?". Mighty came out and kneeled in front of him "Come on, man, this isn't a good look. Let's get you back inside" "I gotta split" Sonic flew away.
