Sonic walked through a hardware shop wearing a hat, he fills up his shopping trolly with different equipment eventually having to get a second trolly. Back at his hotel Sonic uses it to make different weapons like a homemade gun, chemical explosives and an electric glove.


Sonic arrive at the mansion in Emerald Coast. He climbs up a wall and through the mansion's garden. He goes up stone steps to a fountain where a guard was waiting. Sonic shoots him in the back with his nail gun and kicks him down. Another guard run at him, but Sonic puts his modified glove to his face shocking him. He sees two more guard at a fountain, and he throws a sphere bomb. One of the guards picks it up but it explodes in his face. Sonic shoots the other one into the fountain and then throws another bomb in with him. Sonic picks up the gun from the guard and cautiously enters the mansion. He finds himself in the studio where the broadcast was being made. He goes through into the next room where he sees a bed with something under the blanket. Sonic raises his gun and removes the blanket revealing two scared female echidnas. Sonic raises his hand calmly when he hears a toilet flush behind him. Sonic runs behind a headboard and hides when he hears the door open "Well, I wouldn't go in there for 20 minutes". Sonic stares confused and peaks out of the headboard seeing an older male echidna. One of the female echidna's points at him "Uh, there's a guy here". Sonic rolls his eyes and steps out holding his gun "Hey!". The echidna raises his hands confused "Bloody hell. You want something? Take it. Although the guns are all fake because those wankers wouldn't trust me with the real ones".

Sonic stared at him in confusion "What?" "Do you want one of them?" he glances at the two female echidnas in the bed. Sonic takes a step closer "You're not him. Enerjak, where is he? Where!?". The echidna stumbles back and falls into a chair, "WHERE IS HE!?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's here. He's here, but he's not here. He's here but he's not here" "What'd you mean?". He sat up annoyed "Hey, it's complicated" "Then uncomplicate it. Ladies, out!". The two echidnas get up and go into the bathroom. Sonic shoots near the fake Enerjak's feet making him jump "Okay, okay. My name is Dimitri" "What are you?" "I'm an echidna obviously". Sonic looked ready to kill him "You know what I mean. What are you, a decoy? A double?". Dimitri looked offended "What, you mean like an understudy? No, absolutely not". Sonic raised his gun making Dimitri jump "Don't hurt the face! I'm an actor" "You have a minute to live. Fill it with words" "It's just a role. Enerjak, see, it's not real". This just raised more questions "Then how did you get here, Dimitri?" "Uh, well, I, um, had a little problem with, um, substances. And I ended up doing things, no two ways about it…". He nervously chuckle "…in the street that a man shouldn't do. Then, they approached me about the role, and they knew about the drugs" "What did they say? They'd get you off them?".

Dimitri smiled and shook his head "They said they'd give me more. They gave me things. They gave me this palace. A cool helmet. They gave me plastic surgery". He leaned back in his chair "They gave me things" he closed his eyes and started to snore. Sonic sighed in frustration "Did you just nod off? Hey!". He kicked his leg waking Dimitri up "No, and a lovely speedboat. The thing was, he needed someone to take credit for some accidental explosions". Sonic turned away lost for words "He? Geoffrey?" "Yeah, the skunk" "Custom made terror threat". Dimitri nodded "Yes. Yes. His think tank thinked it up". He did his Enerjak voice "The pathology of a serial killer. The manipulation of Western Iconography. Ready for another lesson? Of course, it was my brilliant performance that brought Enerjak to life". Sonic stared at him disgusted "Your performance? Where people died?". Dimitri narrowed his eyes "What? No, they didn't. Look around you. The costumes, green screen. Honestly, I wasn't on location for half this stuff" "Yeah, well I have a best friend who's in a coma and he might not wake up. So, you're gonna have to answer for that". He saw Dimitri glance at something behind him. Sonic quickly turned around but is knocked unconscious by Mimic. He then looks to Dimitri "Okay, Dimitri, what did you tell him?" "I didn't tell him anything" "You should have pressed the panic button". Dimitri took a can of beer "Well, I panicked but then I handled it".


Sonic woke up strapped to a bed frame that was standing up straight in what looked to be a cellar. He looked forward and saw Daisy with her back to him working on a computer "Okay". Daisy turns to him smiling "Just like old times, huh?" "Oh, yeah. With zip ties. It's a ball". She shook her head "It wasn't my idea" "Okay. So, you took Geoffrey's card" "I took his money". Sonic mockingly nodded "And here you are 13 years later, in a dungeon" "No, you're in a dungeon. I'm free to go". She stood up walked towards him "A lot has happened, Sonic. But I'm close. The Metal Virus is practically stabilized" "I'm telling you it isn't. I'm on the street. People are going bang. They're painting the walls. Daisy, you're kidding yourself". Daisy held up the card Sonic signed years ago "Then help me fix it". She turned it around revealing an equation "Did I do that?". Daisy drops her hand in surprise "Yes" "I remember the night, not the morning. Is this what you've been chasing around?". Tears formed in her eyes "You don't remember?" "I can't help you" "You used to have a moral psychology. You used to have ideals. You wanted to help people. Now look at you. I get to wake up every morning with someone who still has their soul".

The two had a moment of silence "Get me out of here". Daisy gulps and walks away. Geoffrey entered "You know what my old man used to say to me? One of his favourites of many sayings. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese". Sonic rolled his eyes "Are you seriously still pissed off about Aldern?". Geoffrey stood right in front of Sonic "How can I be pissed at you, Sonic? I'm here to thank you. You gave me the greatest gift that anybody's ever given you. Desperation. If you think back to Aldern, you said you'd meet me on the rooftop, right? Well, for the first 20 minutes, I actually thought you'd show up. And the next hour… I considered taking that one-step shortcut to the lobby if you know what I mean" "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to the first mouse". Geoffrey grinned "But as I looked out over that city, nobody knew I was there, nobody could see me, no one was even looking. I had a thought that would guide me for years to come. Anonymity, Sonic. Thanks to you, it's been my mantra ever since. You simply rule from behind the scenes. Because the second you give evil a face, you hand the people a target". He walks over to a desk and pulls out a case "You have met him, I assume? I know he' a little over the top sometimes. He' a bit… You know a stage actors. He's very method. They say he's worked with Luke Periwinkle. Anyway, the point is, ever since that shark fell out of the sky with the sword, subtlety has kind of had its day" "What's next for you in your world?".

Geoffrey closed the case "Well, I wanted to repay you the self-same gift that you so graciously imparted to me". He threw a device on the ground "Desperation". The device projected a hologram of Amy strapped to a device with parts of her body turning into metal. Sonic stared at the hologram speechless. Geoffrey pointed to the hologram "Now, this is live. I'm not sure if you can tell, but at this moment the body is trying to decide whether to accept the Metal Virus or just give up. And if it gives up, then the metal parts of the body quickly deteriorate as energy is built up and in time it creates a quite spectacular explosion". Sonic desperately struggled against his restraints, "Until that point though, it's really quite painful". Daisy stared at the hologram looking disgusted. Geoffrey stood back up and got close to Sonic "We haven't even talked salary yet". He grabbed his throat "What kind of perk package are you thinking of?" "Let him go!" Daisy said. Geoffrey sighed looking irritated "Hold on, hold on". He turned "Daisy-" he saw her holding a syringe to her neck "I said let him go". Geoffrey just looked more confused than angry "What're you doing?" "1200 CCs. A dose half of this size, I'm dead". Geoffrey glances back at Sonic "It's times like this my temper is tested somewhat. Daisy, give me the injector" "If I die, Geoffrey, what happens to your soldiers? What happens to your product?". Geoffrey calmly walks towards her "We're not doing this, okay?" "What happens to you? What happens if you start to deteriorate?". Geoffrey stops and takes a deep breath before turning back to Sonic. Geoffrey takes out a gun and shoots Daisy in the stomach. Sonic again tries to pull against his restraints, but Geoffrey remains calm "Truth is a high-level position has just been vacated". Sonic watches Daisy as she slowly falls over dead. He looks down at the ground "You're a maniac" "No, I'm a visionary. But I do own a maniac. And he takes the stage tonight".