For Sandi, necessities became struggles, conveniences were luck. Meals were going to have to be scavenged. It took the rain to rinse her clean; luxuries became foreign. She had her unruly black hair tied up in two pigtails. She wore a pair of dirty high-ups with holes peaking through the ripped canvas and rubber soles, a frayed baggy black shirt and a ripped pair of fishnet tights. Sandi followed a little rock pathway which winded around the lush vegetation, finding herself in front of an abandoned warehouse. It looked like it had been vacant for quite some time. She leaned against the wall and scrubbed her shoes against the mud stained ground. As she rubbed her shoes in a patch of grass, she noticed a vent that she realised she could crawl through. With a bit of a push and squeeze, she slid her way inside.

The further she got, the more space she had to stand up, even though her head was still close to touching the roof. She sniffed the air around her, the stench that filled the air began to get stronger and stronger. She wasn't sure what the smell was, but it was not a pleasant one.

"I wish I hadn't been so curious, the smell in here is dreadful…" she thought to herself, holding her nose, trying to lock out the oder as much as possible.

She struggled to hold her breath. Even though the corridor was hard to see in because of the darkness, she winced as she could hear the constant crunch of eggshells and bones under her soles. In the distance, she could see a glimmer of light.

"Who or what was be gnawing on bones and cracking eggs in here? Maybe if I walk all the way to the end there will be a-" but without looking where she was going she suddenly fell down a hole which was beneath her. Landing with a large thud, she rubbed her head.

"Ouch," she whimpered, dusting herself off.

She coughed as dust particles danced all around her. Sandi had landed on what seemed to be an old mattress that was covered in various blankets, pillows and clothes. She squirmed awkwardly as a thunderous belch snapped her from her thoughts before she had time to realise where she was. She could not help but feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She shifted in the nest of blankets to see the largest man she had ever seen before. She watched him closely. His posture exuded an ambience of superiority and there seemed to be an undertone of something in the man's presence that set her alarm bells ringing. The man was shaped like an egg with a lengthy, ginger moustache growing from his pink nose. He was dressed in what looked like an extremely worn out white lab coat, covered in stains and crumbs with a barely buttoned up ruby red shirt that was much too small for him, bursting at the seams, buttons threatening to shoot off at any minute. He could hardly fit into his trousers either, he was wearing a pair of suspenders which tried with all their might to hold up his pants which were shabby and covered in dust and torn at the ankles. His belly was swollen beyond reason, hanging over him like an apron of flesh.

"What is the meaning of this?" the man spluttered, he sounded both indignant and outraged.

"I'm ever so sorry, sir!" she laughed nervously, rather started by his tone and glare.

Just as she was speaking she heard a large rumble. Her rosy-pink cheeks puffed up a little as she grabbed her own gut, but she realised it came from him. The man smirked down at his bloated belly that propped on the top of his knees. With a content sigh he placed a hand onto his gut and began to rub his bare tummy in satisfaction while staring back at her. His stomach gave a chorus of gurgles, almost as if in reply, to which the man merely chortled. He mused as his large nostrils doubled in size.

"Scratch! Grounder!" he commanded in a gruff voice, pulling out a cigar and a box of matches from the front pocket of his lab-coat. Two robots stuck their heads around another corner of the room, a corner Sandi never noticed before.

"Yes your maliciousness," they replied in unison.

A tall robot resembling a chicken and a stumpier, smaller tank like robot looked at Sandi who was caught up in the bundle of blankets in the corner. The doctor exhaled a large puff of smoke from his cigar, causing Sandi to cough frantically.

"It seems we have a guest joining us this evening…"

"I didn't mean to fall into your home, sir," she apologised again, this time beginning to tremble.

"Oh what has you so worried?" he asked in a terrifyingly soft tone.

Sandi felt this whole ordeal was all awfully peculiar, she found this man to be rather inscrutable.

He began to make his way closer to the rabbit, crawling on his knees, his belly rubbing across the dusty floor as he got nearer to her. She had nowhere to run and she backed into a corner and gulped. The pair of robots began clapping giddily. When he made it to the end of the mattress he took out some measuring tape from his back pocket and he wrapped it around her tummy.

"Short and stout, but there is some potential…"

"Potential for what?"

He coughed again to clear his throat.

"Tonight, I think I would enjoy a truly scrumptious roly-poly rabbit pie for my supper…"

She recoiled at the way he rolled his r's on every disgusting plan he had for her.

"But I don't want to be a pie!"

"Where you feeling like more of a stew? A quiche perhaps?"

"But she's nothing but skin and bones…" Grounder mumbled to himself, not knowing that the mad doctor could hear him.

"You two will be nothing but nuts and bolts if you don't help me prepare my supper!"

The pair of robots didn't argue and both quickly disappeared behind the rafters. Looking around the small room, hardly moving his body too far out of laziness, the man searched for some rope.

"Now, when or where did I last see it…"

Sandi tried once more to scamper back up the wall where she fell, but it was no use, she was too short to reach. He grabbed her by the tail and held her upside down to his face, she was breathing heavily and he could smell her fear.

"Where do you think you're going, m'dear?"

"You can't do this!" she continued to yelp, looking around wildly as the gross man began tied her up with the dusty rope.

"Of course I can, you meddlesome little trespasser. Finders keepers, losers weepers."

He circled rope around her hands and arms, pressing them across her stomach and finished binding her by circling the last of the rope around her thighs and ankles. He laid her face down and rubbed her all over with aromatic oils, disregarding her struggles and mumbled protests. He then flipped her over on her back and repeated the process on the front of her body. Grabbing salt and pepper he shook them both frantically on top of her, causing her to sneeze some more.

"Isn't this a little unhygienic, Doctor? I mean, who knows where she has been…" clucked Scratch, who had returned around the rafter with a handful of kitchen utensils and condiments.

"Nonsense!" he snapped, but began to grip the flabby corners of his tummy again, "although, I do think it is a good idea if you get some breadcrumbs, I do believe that the rope will be… very indigestible."

Grounder returned on the second run, rolling out some dough into a baking tin. The two robots then lifted the little rabbit inside and wrapped her up like a burrito with the dough, with only her head sticking out. Bound hand and foot, she was unable to untie herself and grew exhausted after a couple of attempts to wriggle free. Seeing the Doctor's enormous egg-shaped belly shadowing her only increased the trepidation over what was coming. She watched a spider inspecting a helpless bluebottle which was caught within a cobweb above her. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she knew she awaited the same fate.

"Oh dear, oh dear, I do wish you would stop crying, you're disarranging the dough and making everything soggy!" he sighed as he rested both his chubby hands on his hips.

Scratch and Grounder began to chop up a melee of vegetables from an old sack beside the stove. Like everything else in the cramped space, it looked like it had been there for sometime. Sandi gathered that Dr. Robotnik must have gone even more insane while in hiding. No one had seen him for months after his last defeat, and it was just her luck to fall into his hidden "lair" while he was going through this deranged episode.

"Sir," she sniffed, trying to fight back her tears, "I understand and acknowledge your desire to eat me but-but-but if I could make a simple suggestion… I could do some chores for you… I'll cook for you, I'll clean up this place for you, I'll-I'll…"

"When I have the intellect and technology to make numerous robots to do my duties for me? What kind of nit-wit do you think I am? Do you think I'm a lunatic? Do you think I am deranged? Oh what a splendid spread this will be, and you are our guest of honour!" he shrieked, pinching her cheek.

He then began to fill wood under the bottom half of his old stove. He mumbled to himself as he lit the sticks and a large pot began to gurgle and steam. She began to smell the waft of vegetables and gravy cooking which bubbled inside it. The doctor took a soup spoon and drank some straight from the pot, burping loudly after doing so. His tongue ran over his chin as gravy dripped from his lips.

"If you intend to feast upon me, sir, aren't you going to need more dough? My head is sticking out!" she chirped in distress, to try and stall some more time.

"Scratch, Grounder, to finish my delectable roly-poly rabbit pie, I will need more dough…" he gloated, smacking his lips, raising a finger.

"I do not think it will be a very appetising pie if I do not have the proper ingredients. Can I trust you both to keep an eye on things while I head upstairs and get more ingredients?"

"Of course, you can count on us!" they replied simultaneously.

The green robot poked his chicken sidekick on the leg.

"Just remember Scratch, Dr. Robotnik build me first, so I'm in charge."

"Oh no, the doctor built me first!"

"I'M IN CHARGE YOU DUMB-BOTS!" he snapped as he left to climb up where Sandi originally fell. It must have been a big hole as the doctor could just about fit, with a push of course.

"Sorry doctor!" they called out together, as they watched him leave.

The two robots looked down awkwardly at the rabbit in the baking dish. Scratch and Grounder mostly subsisted on motor oil, they couldn't really understand the hype of a rabbit pie.

"Think about how happy Dr. Robotnik is going to be once he finally has had a decent meal for the first time in weeks!" said Grounder with a smirk.

"Rabbit pie with carrots, onions, celery and gravy… just like his mother used to make it!"

"Oh I hope Dr. Robotnik doesn't get too sick after he's eaten me…" Sandi said looking back up at the pair of robots.

She decided it was worth one last shot to try and negotiate with them.

"Hey, why would he be sick?" asked Scratch, quite bewildered.

"Well, with all the dirty ropes and weeks old, gone off vegetables I don't think I'll be a nutritious meal…"

"Uh, well, Dr. Robotnik said we have to keep an eye on you until he get's back, so you're gonna have to stay put, bunny!"

"If Dr. Robotnik gets very ill and maybe worse… who is going to look after you both? Who is going to charge you up before you go to bed at night? Who is going to fix you if you get rusty, who is going to-" but before she could finish speaking they both let out a huge cry.

"Oh no! We couldn't live without him!"

"Then you cannot let him eat me! You'll be saving his life!"

"But won't he be mad, if we let you go?"

"No way, if anything, he'd be overjoyed if his two favourite robots saved his life! Think about how HAPPY you'll make him."

The two robots nodded at each other and suddenly without much more thought began to rip and tear off the dough and untie the ropes from Sandi's small frame. She tried standing up and stepped out of the tray.

"We did it, we did it, we did it!" the robots said, giving each other a high five.

"You did what?!" they heard as they heard Dr. Robotnik shuffling back down the corridor.

Sandi tried to catch her breath before he came back. When Scratch and Grounder were too busy relishing in their triumphs, she hid within the old sack they had previously been using for vegetables. She could still feel the adrenalin rush within her.

"We saved your life Doctor! That's what!" Scratch clucked.

"YOU NINCOMBOTS!" he wailed, "why is there dough and ropes scattered everywhere? How did you lose my supper! SPIT IT OUT!"

"We un-un-un-untied the ra-a-abbit b-b-b-because s-s-she said…"

"YOU UNTIED THEM? HOW CAN I MAKE A RABBIT PIE, IF I DON'T HAVE A RABBIT?"

"BUT SHE SAID YOU WOULD GET REALLY SICK IF YOU ATE HER AND WE DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE YOU DR. ROBOTNIK PLEASE FORGIVE US!" they both bent down and hugged his legs.

"Get off me you morons!"

He suddenly began to tear the small room apart looking for Sandi, his whole body jiggled grotesquely as he threw everything around the small, stuffy room. Sandi could hear the baking tray smack across the wall, along with the sounds of smashing glass and the chiming of kitchen utensils. His stomach let out another monstrous growl. He lay down on the mattress and traced a finger around his gut. Sandi tried to stay as still as possible within the sack, she swallowed hard, hoping he would drift off to sleep as he was running out of places to look, she knew his ravenous appetite was taking over his mind. She peeped her head slightly out of the top of the sack, his eyes were beginning to close. She watched his bloated belly going up and down and up and down as he began to snore, numb to the idea that she could have been inside that blubbery confinement if her plan didn't work. Scratch and Grounder were still lurking around the doctor, more interested in watching their inventor in his slumber.

She slid out of the sack as quietly as she could, tiptoeing to the other end of the room. There was a small crack in a corner she never noticed behind the stove, she could feel the fresh air. She didn't look back as she pushed her head and upper body through the hole. She struggled slightly trying to push her butt and legs through the cracked hole in the wall. She wagged her tail to help her squeeze some more. Robotnik woke up suddenly and saw the furry rainbow tail shaking from the wall. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head.

"THERE YOU ARE, MY DELICIOUS… LITTLE…" but by the time he had rolled over to catch her she had pushed her body through and fully escaped.

Robotnik was obviously too fat to fit through the hole himself, he bent down on his knees, shoving his arm as far as it could go and tried to grab her if he could, but he only could grip on to tuffs of grass as she had made it back outside. Sandi ran as fast as she could to get away from the building.

Once she had made it far enough, she slumped down the side of a tree stump and panted, her legs still wobbling from fear. Looking ahead of her she could see a blue blur in the distance. It wasn't long until she realised it was in fact Sonic.

"Hey kid," he asked patiently, "are you okay?"

She gripped him tight and began to sob uncontrollably.

"It's alright," he sat down beside her and took her hand.

"What's happened?"

"Dr. Robotnik is back, Sonic! He's hiding. He's even more batshit crazy than you warned me! He has lost his damn mind…"

Sonic sighed, but gripped her hand tighter. She noticed small gashes on her wrists and ankles from how tight the ropes were.

"Come back with me to Knothole, we'll get you cleaned up and you can have a rest… you can talk to me about ole Buttnik and-"

Her brows creased with worry on every word he spoke. She gripped his shoulder again, trying to hold herself up.

"Yeah, let's go back to Knothole, I'll tell you everything…"