Chapter 6

Sonic stared at the formation in the sand. Straight lines were rare in nature and what he could see buried in these massive dunes were clearly made by an intelligence. But the fact it was buried in a dune indicated that it had been left abandoned for a great deal of time. A five story tower block, windows blown out, and sand pouring from every one. Only the top three stores were above the dune that buried its base.

Sonic kicked up speed and raced up the side of the dune. The sand was so soft that he very quickly found himself slowing down as a jet of soft sand erupted from behind him. He leapt and just managed to grab onto the edge of the roof before he lost momentum. He pulled himself up the last few meters, walked over to the edge of the roof and looked out beyond the sea of dunes. What he saw made his brow drop.

There wasn't just one building, but a sea of abandoned buildings going off as far as the eye could see.

It was a city. A dead and buried city.

Sonic leapt down and raced down the slopes of the dunes. The traction with his own feet was slow low that he just ended up kicking up sand behind him. This meant his forward speed was limited, but he still had power and energy to race from one building to another.

Racing up to the top of one of the taller buildings that stood a least thirty feet so he could get a good sense of the world around him, and boy, what a view it was. It was nowhere near as pretty as Mobius, but it still had a... a 'bigness' to it.

Mountains to the east, flat desert to the west, rockiness to the North and South. He didn't know which way North or South were on this planet, he just guessed based on the direction the sun was travelling. Like the sun on Mobius always travelled to the West and away from the East. It might not be correct, but it was the best way he could navigate.

He calmly leapt over the side of the building, landed in the sand and skidded into a trough between dunes.

As he sped off, he failed to notice the sand collapse behind him and a skull watched him retreat.


Tails landed to inspect something interesting he'd seen. Among some rocks he'd found something that had once had six wheels. He was tempted to call it a car, but he didn't know if that would be the technical term for the vehicle. It looked like it once had caterpillar tracks, like a tank, but time had stripped them away.

As Tails examined the vehicle more closely he noticed that the wiring was exposed, with just blackened strips around the copper, like the protective plastic coating had been blasted away.

The sand crunched under his feet as he moved around, checking the vehicle.


Something had woken up, and it began to move. Close to the ground and very slowly. Between the small rocks and the remains of the vehicles' wheels as it hunted. It moved towards Tails while he still had his back to it, the creature unnoticed, and understandably so.

The fox slammed the vehicles door shut, satisfied and blew out a disappointed sigh. The creature was right beneath the fox.

Tails spun his tails and took off like a helicopter and failed to notice the claw like appendage reach up out of the ground like a zombie arm and missed the young fox by inches.

Unnoticed, and disappointed the claw sank back beneath the sands


With little place left to go Amy began wandering deeper into the still assembling bowels of the machine. She hefted her pipe weapon just in case something jumped out at her.

The corridors were hexagonal in shape and formed into long pipes of primary colours along the yellow walls. It was so 'Tails' in appearance Amy wondered if the machine had imprinted on Tails and was re-building itself based on how Tails would build it. She wondered what it would build if it had imprinted on her?

A shrine to Sonic? Amy shuddered at that. Not because she wouldn't like it, but because if it displayed her love of Sonic so openly it might make her look creepy.

Maybe she did feel a little too attached. No matter how much she tried to be her own women she just couldn't let go of the blue hedgehog. Sure, he could annoy her sometimes and he could be manipulative but he had a good heart and...

She was doing it again, obsessing over Sonic, letting him occupy more time in her head than he needed to.

The machine gurgled, like it was laughing at her. Amy pouted, but said nothing to it as she walked on.

Coming across a door Amy reached up and opened it. She didn't know what to expect, but she hadn't expected this.

It was a wardrobe room. Filled to the rafters with clothes of all shapes and sizes. Mostly human sizes, though she found it odd that some clothes were presented to her that were clearly her size.

She picked up a white dress, and was surprised to find it shrinking in her hands until it was her size.

"Hey cool, one size fits all." She placed it over her chest and looked in a mirror. Her soul shivered at the garish garment over the mirror. A coat of many, many colours. She pulled it off and tossed it aside. No one here was wearing anything like that, she was certain. Except maybe Robotnik, old Eggman really didn't have any sense of style.

Amy discarded the white dress before properly looking at it when she saw a velvet burgandy looking dress. It was a tunic, buttons with puffy shoulders and a petal like skirt and velvet trousers.

A label in the neck said. 'Made on Traken'.

Whoever this machine belonged to he, or maybe it was a she, collected clothes of every kind.

There was a lovely burgundy, velvet frock coat, a cream coat with red piping. A black tuxedo she might try to get Sonic into. The red sneakers that accompanied it were so him.

A pipe nearly fell out of the pocket of a very over sized frock coat. No, not a pipe. A recorder with a swirling pattern on it.

Amy pulled the pipe from the coat and playfully tooted a few tunes on it as she looked around, all worry forgotten.

She stopped as she looked into the ceiling. She got the feeling the machine was 'watching her'.

She found that garish, multicoloured coat and decided it looked untidy on the floor, so she picked it up, smoothed out the creases and put it back on the hanger.

The machine made a noise, one that sounded positive.

She yelped when she came across the dark silhouette of a rather round individual. He was completely out for the count and lay prone on the metal floor.

She'd found the Doctor.

Dr. Robotnik that is.


Sonic stood at the edge of a cliff an watched the twin sunset. Clouds passed over the suns. Sonic didn't dwell on if they could get home, he was confident they'd get back eventually. But they were here now and they had to make the most of it. So might as well explore.

They already had shelter, so what they needed as food and water. But there was none here, not in this desolate place.

Movement on the horizon caught his attention. It was like a low lying cloud, a cloud of yellow. It was far away and yet fast approaching.

Sonic had been around Mobius a few times to know what that was.

A sand storm. Not pleasant and not something even Sonic wanted to get caught in. He'd been in one once. He couldn't find his way and nearly got buried. He'd also spent weeks with his belly and face rubbed raw by the blasting sand. Hey, he may be robust, that didn't mean he liked his skin being sore.

That sandstorm didn't move like the ones on Mobius however. It was like someone had pressed the fast forward button on a cassette tape. Unless it was an illusion, that sand could be moving very fast. Very, very fast. Too fast for Sonic's liking.

"I think that might be more than I can chew." He said as he turned his back to the storm and took off back to the safety of the machine. Hopefully the trans-dimensional box could put up a fight. If the Police Box exterior was anything to go by it had clearly seen some punishment.


Amy gingerly approached Doctor Robotnik and gently prodded him. He didn't move. He looked out for the count and just stared into space. Amy wasn't buying it. She'd known him long enough to always suspect if he was playing pretend.

"Hey Eggman." She decided to insult him with the name Sonic gave him. "Your moustache looks like it needs a trim." She picked up a pair of dress makers scissors from a nearby table. "How about I trim it for you." She placed the blades across his left set of whiskers and prepared to chop off the entire left side of his moustache. He didn't move. She closed the scissors just enough so a few strands fell away. Still he didn't move.

That would usually get to him. Maybe he really was out for the count. She removed the scissors, leaving his moustache intact.

There was a nearby panel in the wall that Robotnik had clearly wrenched off and the presence of the screwdriver told Amy he'd tried some sabotage. But the machine had fought back against him.

Checking the man's pulse confirmed that he was alive thankfully. Robotnik may be an old, mean, a want-to-be totalitarian dictator who deserved to be clobbered a few times, be locked up, and the key thrown into the belly of a very fast whale, but he didn't deserve to die.

Amy grabbed his foot and pulled him away from the panel. She was strong for her size, she had to be to heft her hammer. Amy pulled him through the door of the wardrobe room and into the corridor.

Amy was always hopeful that there was good in anyone, even Robotnik. It would be so easy to kill him, but that would end any hope that he could be redeemed. Could he be? Amy was doubtful. But acts of kindness where her thing and they could go a long way. She continued to drag the doctor up some stairs, his head banged on the steps as she went, she couldn't do much about that but was careful to not cause him too much pain to permanently damage him while at the same time allowing gravity to inflict any pain that was owed to him.

The floor of the machine tilted and shifted.

What was the machine playing at now?


The Police Box stood alien against the landscape, and despite nothing acting on it, anything like the wind the box began to shift and move. Jets of sand erupted from behind it as it tilted backwards, sinking into the sand. More jets blew out and the machine levelled. It fell down again until the bottom row of panels were gone. Then it settled before dropping again, and again, and again.

A black tentacle moved in the sand as it sank up to its roof. Then up to the lamp.

As Tails appeared over the horizon the lamp was sucked down and vanished too.


Tails set down to get his baring's. He was certain the Police Box had been here. He could see the trail Sonic left as he took off and it started around here. So where was the Police Box?

A blast of air and blue streak ended with Sonic standing before Tails.

"Hey buddy, where's the box?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. I thought this is where we'd left the Police Box."

"It was." Sonic said, "I followed my own trail back here."

"It's gone!"

"Did it take off?" Sonic said, cursing himself, and Eggman.

"No. I don't think so. If it had it would've left a square imprint in the sand." Tails said. "It was here, I'm sure of it."

"So it didn't take off, it wasn't lifted off and it wasn't dragged away or we'd see marks." Sonic said. "So where is it?"

Tails looked straight down at his feet. There were familiar patterns in the sand.

"Liquifaction?" Tails muttered.

"Huh?"

"Something loosened up the soil. The Police Box dropped straight down."

"Well, in that case." Sonic took off, running around and around in circles so much that the combination of his own feet and speed ripped straight down into the sand. How far could he go down? He had his answer when he hit the bedrock, and still there was no Police Box.

"It's got to be here!" Tails said, panic rising in his voice.

"Hey, buddy. Don't worry. We'll find it." Sonic reassured him. "But we've got a bigger problem." Sonic pointed at the horizon. The storm was fast approaching them. "We need shelter, and fast."

Sonic grabbed Tails by the arm and pulled him along as fast as his legs could carry them on the soft sand.


To Be Continued...


Authors notes: Edited 18/Jan/2023 - Mostly just changed the word TARDIS to Police Box since they now haven't heard the name TARDIS just yet.