"Who is . . . err . . . Eggman?" Alexa asked curiously.
Sonic sighed and rested his eyes as he sat with his head against the bed. "The world's next Adolf Hitler . . ."
"Well . . ." Alexa tried to think of the right words to say, "maybe . . . I could help you."
Sonic opened his eyes and sat up, grabbing another pancake and tearing a piece off. "It's not a problem for me, but it's real dangerous for you, Alexa."
Alexa sighed, looked down, and closed her eyes in disappointment.
"Oh, all right," Sonic relented, putting a smile on Alexa's face.
"Oh, Sonic!" she laughed as she hugged his neck, a tear falling from her cheek.
Sonic smiled and patted her on the shoulder saying, "Don't worry. I'll get your world back to normal as fast as I can."
Alexa was never inclined to give up. Sonic had made her wishes come true, and she just didn't know how to thank him enough, but all he said was, "As long as you're happy."
In no time at all, Alexa had packed a few necessary essentials up in a small backpack, lightweight and easy to carry. Sonic opened the window and climbed out, and Alexa knew what do to. She opened her door and ran out of her room, down the stairs and through the kitchen, failing to notice her mother sitting at the kitchen table with a book in hand.
"Hello, dear," said her mother a little suspiciously. "Where are you going?"
"Um . . . just outside to play," said Alexa nervously but as casually as she could afford.
"With whom?"
Drops of sweat rolled down from Alexa's neck. She had to think of something to say, and fast. Then the paperboy passed down the sidewalk on his bicycle, and she came up with an idea.
"The . . . paperboy?" she replied as he walked up to their house. "I've decided to take my lunch along so we could, err, have a picnic."
"Well, all right then. But don't be late for dinner," her mother said obliviously, turning her eyes back to her book.
Alexa ran outside to find Sonic standing on the sidewalk, scratching his head and tapping his foot a bit impatiently.
"Can you at least move a little faster?" he asked.
"Sorry, you know how mothers can be sometimes," Alexa sighed, wiping her forehead.
The heat of the day was already a bit uncomfortable, and it was only midmorning. The paperboy was long gone, and Alexa hoped her mother didn't notice her standing outside, talking with a blue hedgehog in white gloves and red shoes.
"Don't worry about her," said Sonic, "we've got Eggman to worry about now."
Sonic and Alexa went all throughout town, visiting a few shops and exploring a bit before getting on with their destination. But it did get a little awkward as there were more and more queer looks all around. These people had never seen a blue hedgehog before, nor one that could talk either! Sonic was beginning to wonder what had happened to Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and the rest of his friends. He and Alexa were walking through the crowded city, when all of the sudden, there was a scream in the distance. Sonic looked both ways and then paused when a large shadow towered over him and Alexa. He looked up and there was a giant robot hovering in the air by its rockets.
"Eggman!" Sonic muttered to himself as Alexa stared up at the huge robot curiously. South City had only the basic sources of technology, none of which included robots, rockets, and other technologies as the large city of North Metropolis had.
"That's Dr. Eggman?" Alexa asked, but Sonic shook his head and stepped in front of her.
"Nope. That's one of his robots," Sonic said, preparing to fight against the giant metal beast.
Suddenly, its left metal arm pointed directly down at Sonic, and then a pack of five mini-rockets clicked into place. Sonic narrowed his eyes at them and chuckled to himself, a wide and mischievous grin covering his face. Alexa clung to Sonic's arm.
"Alexa!" Sonic yelled through the loud firing of rockets one by one. "Run! I'll catch up with you later!"
Alexa ran away from Sonic along with the rest of the crowds of fleeing people, but then something struck her.
"No, wait, Sonic!" she called as she ran back to Sonic right before he jumped up into air to avoid the rockets and turned into a spinning ball.
He sped all the way to the top of an office building in order to reach the metallic monster in the air. Sonic leaped up and with great force punched a hole through the robot's chest, sending it spinning away through the sky. It exploded in midair just a few seconds before Sonic did a backflip, landing feet down on the lower roof of a grocery store.
Down below, the whole downtown was cheering and clapping for Sonic, and Alexa clasped her hands together in amazement. You did it, Sonic. You did it.
Sonic then sped all the way down the tall building within two seconds and halted to a sudden stop right beside Alexa, who was quite startled to see Sonic there so fast.
"Wow, Sonic," she said in amazement, her eyes gazing into his.
"Ha ha, no worries, see? I've got everything under control," Sonic said with a wink, and the two friends continued on through the city.
Meanwhile, far away in South City District, two other friends were wandering the streets of South City as well. A few people crowded around to have a closer look, and eventually a small crowd had formed around them.
"Ugh, I can't stand amateurs," said a hedgehog named Shadow.
"Well ya gotta admit, I do love the extra attention," said a fancy white bat named Rouge. "Maybe they'll even have some jewels in store for me here."
"Let's just get out of here before these freaks come to their senses," sighed Shadow.
But before they were able to take another step, the ground began to rumble. Then the crowds of frightened and alarmed people began screaming for their lives as a giant heavy robot came pounding with every step toward the district.
"Now what?" Shadow sighed, turning around to see a stampede of fleeing humans coming towards him. He closed his eyes and shook his head with his arms crossed and foot tapping.
"Well well, if it isn't my old friend Shadow the hedgehog!" yelled a voice from the sky.
It was Dr. Ivan Robotnik, or just Dr. Eggman.
"This just can't get any better," Shadow muttered to himself before jumping onto a speeding car and then onto a garbage truck heading towards the giant robot. After a few more miles, Shadow leaped high into the air and was caught by Rouge, who flew him up to a very tall building nearest the robot.
"Ho ho ho ho!" cackled the evil doctor. "How do you like my new toy?"
Shadow sighed and closed his eyes impatiently.
"What? You don't like it? Well, not my problem."
"Well hello, Dr. Eggy," waved Rouge, who apparently had no fear of this tyrant.
"Hello Rouge, my darling. I have a special task for you," Eggman said in his friendly voice.
"Not today, fatso," Rouge said, turning her head the other way.
Eggman flew down to the building on which the two friends stood and in his Egg Mobile hovered before Rouge with a sad, pathetically pitiful face.
"Please? I just want to have a little fun, that's all. And I wasn't going to mention the reward . . ." Eggman trailed off.
"Hmm . . . And just what kind of reward?" Rouge was curious to know.
"Don't do it, Rouge," Shadow warned, and Rouge shook her head quickly.
"Oh no, you're not going to use that trick on me again," said Rouge, now flying away from Eggman's aircraft with Shadow following close below her, causing Eggman to scowl in bitterness toward Shadow.
"Hmph . . . I never needed HIM anyway," he mumbled frustratedly as he flew away in his aircraft to another part of the city.
Okay now, back with Sonic:
"Sonic," said Alexa after swallowing a bite of chili dog.
"Yeah?" asked Sonic, licking some sauce from his fingers.
There they were in Central South City Park, just sitting together and eating chili dogs, Sonic's favorite food.
"I would love to meet your friends," she said.
"That would be cool, wouldn't it," Sonic thought as he finished his last bite and stood up, although Alexa wasn't finished eating yet.
"Hey, I'm gonna take a quick run around the park, okay?"
"Sure thing, I'll wait here," said Alexa.
"Don't worry," Sonic winked, "it won't take but a second!"
And then he was off without another word. Alexa blinked and he was gone in a flash, literally, as his trail of dust began vanishing within an instance. There she sat, enjoying the peaceful afternoon with a few hungry pigeons to which she handed her last pieces of bread while she waited for her hero's return. Sonic was out speeding past trees and blazing through grasses. He stopped at a large pond in the middle of the park (sorta picture Central Park in NYC, just to give you a picture of what I'm talking about) and stretched with a yawn before he took off again, past the rustling trees, past the two fighting chipmunks, one Chip and the other Dale, and past the old man sitting on a bench who thought he was kissing a woman, which turned out to be a guy dressed in lady's clothing—undercover cop on duty I suppose—and boy, did he get the slapping of a lifetime.
But by the time Sonic had arrived back at the picnic table, Alexa was gone. Sonic looked down and saw Alexa's backpack along with her belongings, all scattered around on the grass. Sonic's face dropped, and he fell to his knees in complete horror. This wasn't how it was supposed to be. They were supposed to bring Eggman down together, not Sonic having to rescuing Alexa as he usually had to rescue ladies from Eggman for some reason. No no no, this was all wrong. Sonic looked up and there, on the table, stood a homing pigeon with a piece of red string tied around its middle.
"What's this?" he wondered when he noticed a piece of paper rolled up in it. He took the pigeon and carefully slipped the piece of paper out from under the bird's wing, and then it flew away just as soon as Sonic got a hold of the paper. It read:
MEET ME ON THE CLOCK TOWER AT MIDNIGHT TONIGHT OR SHE'S DEAD.
Sonic stood up and looked up at the sky, crumpling the ransom note up in his hand. A dark feeling came over him as a sense of grave seriousness covered his face.
"Hang on, Alexa. I'm coming for you," he said.
