Chapter One

Our story opens with two problems. Two clumsy, stupid problems.

"So let me get this straight," Dr. Ivo Robotnik said, falling onto his tiny desk chair and wringing his hands. In front of him were Scratch and Grounder, the two biggest buckets of bolts on Mobius. "You had Sonic The Hedgehog locked away in the high security prison I just installed, waiting for me to come pick him up, and he SOMEHOW ESCAPED?!"

"Well, I wouldn't say that," Grounder replied, sweating oil.

"Oh, really?" Robotnik got right in his face and yelled, "Then what would you say?"

"Well, your evil plan worked like a charm. Sonic zoomed over to rescue his buddy Tails, and we trapped them both in the cage."

"And so," Scratch continued, "we decided to celebrate by making victory sandwiches; but there was this pickle jar we were trying to open, and the lid was on so tight…"

"Yeah. I have no idea how they get those things on anyway."

"And then, Sonic offered to open it for us with a Sonic Spin…"

"We thought that was a pretty good idea, so we let him out…"

"But, uh, then, he, umm… kind of went back on his word. And before you knew it, he was long gone." Both robots folded their arms together, beaming with pride at their honesty.

Obviously, this was not what Robotnik had wanted. His face turned a murderous red as he asked in a very restrained tone, "I see. Aren't you… forgetting one small detail? Anything you might have done wrong?"

"Hmm… anything we did wrong…" The two miserable androids put their heads together and thought about it with furrowed eyebrows for a long minute. Suddenly, Scratch slapped his head. "Of course! How could we forget? Robots don't eat pickles!"

"Yeah, you're right!" Grounder said. "Which means… um…"

"Keep going," Robotnik said, his glare boring through them like a powerful laser. "It means…"

"It means that we didn't need to try and open it, cause it wouldn't have mattered!" Scratch squawked. "Well then, I'm glad we threw away the Horseradish Sauce when we did."

"And if it didn't matter, then we couldn't have eaten our sandwiches either!" Grounder's expression turned to a sneer of disgust. "Can't believe we were so stupid."

"'Were'?" By this point, Robotnik found it almost impossible to keep his temper under control. "Continue. It wouldn't have mattered, so…"

"So it was a complete waste stealing money from you to buy ingredients from the store?" Scratch offered timidly.

"NO!" The evil genius could no longer pent up his anger. "THE PROBLEM OF THIS WHOLE SITUATION IS THAT YOU THOUGHT! AND BECAUSE OF THAT, THE HEDGEHOG WAS ALLOWED TO ESCAPE! CAN'T YOU TWO BLIBBERING BAT-BRAINS DO ANYTHING RIGHT?"

"Well, I don't know about Grounder, but yesterday- "

"ENOUGH!" the force of Ivo's yell sent both of the pitiable robots flying out of the room. "I've had enough! You two are driving me crazy!"

"Gee, boss." Coconuts, Robotnik's third slave, entered the room with a rag and bucket. "You look pretty tapped out. Hard day so far?"

"Very hard," his boss replied. "Between that hedgehog, his irritating fox friend, and them…" He gestured to Scratch, whose head was in the wall, and Grounder, who was trying to find his. "I haven't had a moment's evil peace!"

Coconuts began dabbing Robotnik's forehead with the rag. "Gee, uh, maybe you need to take a load off. You know, go to the beach, pull up a chair, sit down with a nice cold— "

Robotnik shot up, causing Coconuts to spawl on the floor. "That's it! I can't believe I hadn't thought of taking a vacation! For once, your primitive monkey brain has had a good idea!"

"Umm… thanks. I think."

Robotnik grabbed the intercom mic on his desk and shouted into it, "Get my private yacht ready! I'm going to take a trip!" He then exited his office with Coconuts right behind him and said, "And to reward you for thinking of that excellent plan, I'm putting you in charge of the entire factory while I'm gone."

"Oh." The monkey's robotic stomach turned at least seventeen times. "Umm… why can't I go with you?"

"Because you'd botch everything, obviously," Robotnik replied, stepping into a changing room. "Only robots can provide me with the delightful, flawless experience I desire."

"But I am a robot."

"Yes, but some robots would never think about deserting me for personal pleasure."

"But I… … …" Coconuts sighed, and walked away. He knew it was better not to argue with his master. No amount of persuading would change his mind, and if he pressed it too much, he could end up with extra everything duty for a month.

Just after Coconuts left, Ivo burst back into the hallway with a horrifically skimpy bathing suit on. "I'm ready! Ah, the thought of watching a sunset while thinking of evil plans to destroy Sonic makes my toes tingle! But I'll wait until they're in the sand to do it." He proceeded to walk to his yacht, forgetting to be rude to the robot holding a door for him as he was humming a little vacation ditty he had made up on the spot.

Meanwhile, Scratch and Grounder, severely bruised, watched the yacht a hundred yards away as it prepared for takeoff.

"It's no fair!" Scratch moped, furious. "So we mess up once. That doesn't give him the right to just snub us by sailing off and leaving us here!"

"Yeah!" Grounder agreed. "If he really wanted to snub us, he would've gone in his private jet."

"You're missing the point, Grounder. The point is, he's going away to relax, and we're left behind to take all the stress! Well if you ask me, I think it's high time we had a vacation of our own!"

"Yeah!" Grounder repeated. "That lousy fat ball's given us nothing but busted gaskets all our lives! He's been overdue for a taste of his own medicine!"

"And with Coconuts so busy, he won't notice we're gone and report us! It's perfect!" As the final horn sounded from the huge boat, the two brothers began walking towards it. "C'mon, Grounder! It's vacation time!"

Out in the middle of nowhere, Sonic The Hedgehog was subconsciously meddling with his guitar when something crashed through a clump of bushes twenty feet away from him. He instantly took a defensive stance, but relaxed when he saw that there, through all the clinging leaves, stood his way past cool pal Miles Prower; better known to the rest of Mobius as Tails.

"Nix the chords, Sonic!" he wheezed, out of breath from running. His two tails dragged in the grass as he continued, "Something's happened!"

"Let me guess: Butt-nik's up to another scheme involving those two pushovers, Scratch and Grounder?"

"No! In fact, exactly the opposite!" The wearied fox handed Sonic a note. "This was on Robotnik Inc.'s front door! Read it!"

Sonic elicited a gasp as he read this:

Sonic,

Do not disturb! I'm on vacation. No dastardly plans going on here. Don't bother trying to break in anyways; the door is Sonic Spin-proof. 'Till then!

Hate, Robotnik

"Vacation?" Sonic crumpled the letter and threw it in his smoldering campfire. "That's the poorest excuse for 'leave me alone; I'm building a new evil machine' I've ever heard! Let's juice Tails, I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Hold on, Sonic!" Tails grabbed his friend's fin just before he was about to zoom off. "We have another problem too!"

"Aw man, what is it now?" Sonic rubbed the bruised fin. "Rouge closed Chili Dog stand?"

"It's serious, okay? I've gotten reports from other freedom fighters that a plague has hit the coastal area! Somehow, Robotnik's polluting the rivers like crazy."

"That doesn't make any sense; Robotnik, Inc.'s building is nowhere near the coast." Sonic pounded his fist on his palm. "But I do know one thing for sure: we need some answers from that tubby pork rind, fast!" He turned to Tails. "Can we really juice now, or have you got anything else?"

"No, I'm good; we can juice."

And with that, the two bravest freedom fighters on Mobius began streaking headlong towards Robotropolis.