Chapter 1: Critical Pursuit

The orange cat chased the perpetrator across the rooftops of Central City. During such a cold night in mid-winter, you'd expect the girl to freeze her rear off in that thin two-piece red catsuit, but unlike her target, the cat's breath wasn't even visible in this unnatural cold for this part of the country. The next clue that there was more than met the eye about the girl was her hair. That thick overgrown red hair on her head should be thrown back and streaming out behind her from the wind and speed, but instead it lay normally around her shoulders like she was standing still in a closed-off room.

The perp was a hedgehog. Not a supernaturally gifted one like the legend himself, but certainly faster and more acrobatic than the average animaloid. He jumped twenty metres across the street to the next rooftop, and kept running after a graceful landing. The cat paused for a second at the roof's edge, then flung herself forward. As expected, she wouldn't make the jump, but somehow all she had to do was place her hands downwards, and she was propelled forward by a burst of flames against empty air.

Her name was Pia. Just Pia, she would tell you. Unlikely as it was that she'd give away her last name to a stranger, it was even less likely that she'd tell you what she did for a living. Maybe if you were enough of a sleuth to find out what she was saying as she flew through the air and landed on the next roof...

"Yes, this is Agent Pia. I'm chasing one of Dr. Pretorious's goons through the East side of the city. I think we just passed Rose Avenue. No, just stay there with the rest of the suspects. I'm hoping this lowlife will lead me to Pretorious's lair. What? Yeah. Thanks, Agent Shadow. I'll call you if I need backup."

The Guardian Units of Earth had expanded their operations since the days of Eggman Nega. Pia was an agent of the newest and perhaps most important branch of the global military. Special Agent Shadow the Hedgehog wasn't part of any specific group within GUE, but was frequently called in as an expert in cases that might require his unique skills. When Pretorious was involved, Shadow was usually called in right away. There were too many times when GUE forces had been caught unaware by the insane scientist's creations, and the current Commander was tired of making excuses to the media as to why the villain kept getting away.

Pia suddenly found she'd lost sight of her target. That would've been incredibly frustrating after chasing him for half an hour, but fortunately the trap set earlier this evening had been sprung. The sophisticated piece of hardware that Pretorious's underlings were trying to steal from Prower University had been coated with nanotech tracking bugs. Pia pressed an invisible button a few inches above her wrist, and looked at the miniature holographic map that appeared before her eyes. Ah, right there.

The cat ran to the left and deliberately let herself drop down the narrow gap between buildings. The hard concrete ground below came closer at killing speed...then passed overhead as she dropped through the remarkably life-like hologram. Halfway down the narrow tunnel, Pia answered a call from her gut and stuck her arms and legs out fast. Her hands only seemed to be covered in fur and little else, so by all reason the act should have seared her flesh off from intense friction burns, but instead Pia could slow her fall by pressing what increasingly becoming clear to be some kind of invisible outer layer of very resiliant clothing against the wall.

At the bottom, Pia swung around the edge of the hole in the ceiling she emerged from and landed away from the charged floor panel that would've electrocuted anyone that Pretorious's permiteter scanners identified as an intruder - provided they survived the deadly drop in the first place. Pia momentarily wondered how a legitimate minion got through this bit, then remembered the doctor's habit for thinking ten to twenty steps ahead in any game. One thing she could be sure of was that if she'd touched that panel, her Jumpsuit wouldn't be enough to protect her.

Pia pressed another invisible button on her wrist, which caused her whole body to turn as invisible as the suit she wore on top of her catsuit. The training period for use of a Jumpsuit was six months, and you weren't allowed within a mile of the amazing inventions unless you passed every test with the dummy model. All 150 functions, and way too many pages of precautions, had to be memorised. Those six months were as tormenting to Pia as any other potential recruit to the secret branch of GUE, because since the cat's memory could only be described as "uncanny", she had to spend the majority of the time sitting through endless lessons on things she'd already memorised the first time.

With the light-scope set to max, Pia passed the entrance to Dr Pretorious's secret lair. She had to avoid a ridiculous number of sensor beams and pressure pads to make any progress at all through the hallway carved out of the very rock that Central City was built upon. It wasn't that Pretorious was paranoid, he just really enjoyed making his enemies jump throug hoops. Cloaking device or not, he was probably watching and recording every move Pia made. Her main concern right now was just in taking the criminal hedgehog unaware.

No such luck...

The first room beyond the crude corridor was a beautifully-furnished hallway that eerily resembled something from a nineteenth-century mansion owned by a mogul who went for showing off in a big way. Pia couldn't take her eyes off the umbrella stand for a few seconds, before she got her bearings again. There hadn't been this many robberies over the last couple of years, so clearly Dr. Pretorious was rich enough to be eccentric, rather than just plain insane...Why was that carpet covered in blood?

Pia followed the blood trail into the kitchen area. She found the hedgehog she'd been chasing right away. Unfortunately, something else had found him first and literally butchered the poor guy. He was lying in a pool of his own blood and guts in front of the open fridge. Was that a sandwich in his hand? It must've taken him completely by surprise. The counter, the shelves, they all looked like antiques. Okay, so Pretorious would be mad at the guy for giving away the location of his base, but would he really mess up his home like this just for an example?

Unless...unless he wasn't expecting to come back. Pia felt a cold sweat. It was now more likely than ever that she'd walked into a trap. What was it going to be? Explosives rigged to the place? Flooding from the sewer lines? Or something far more diabolical that only a twisted brain like Pretorious's could've thought up.

"Hello!" a familiar voice suddenly sang out.

Pia looked up to see an old-fasioned speaker in the corner of the ceiling. The quality of the sound coming through it was terrible.

"Pia the Hedgehog," said Dr. Pretorious. "You should know first of all that this is a recording. Yes, you are that predictable, my dear nemesis. I've already taken my departure from this point in time. Yes, I'm afraid the fears of your father were accurate, I've built a time machine, and it works like a charm. How fortunate that you're a member of the Temporal Protectorate branch of the Guardian Units of Earth, with your very own self-contained time travel Jumpsuit. All you've got to do is look through my lovely home and discover the clues as to where in time I've gone. But be warned! Absent-minded as I am, I may have accidentally left a certain robot running around the place. I call it the Cleaver. It's a horrid machine - don't know why I built it, frankly. Not like it's got any productive functions. All it really does is hunt people and chop them up! Aheeheeheeheeee!! Well, time's a-wastin', Pia. See you later. Earlier, perhaps."

Pia narrowed her eyes. How in the hell did that dastard find out about her name? And...why were the hairs in the back of her neck standing up?

The Cleaver swung it's scythe-like blade at neck height...

In the next chapter:
- We leave this cliffhanger unresolved.
- A bit of catching up on how the main cast from Metal Mastermind are doing.
- Dr. Pretorious makes his first on-page appearance.