In the skies above Desert Ruins, Tails' radio beeps. "Hey Nicole," he answers after accepting the incoming connection. "Got any updates about the Lost Hex or the Zeti?"

"Nothing significant, but that's not why I called," Nicole replies. "We detected a massive energy spike that showed all the signs of being the result of a machine that can extract energy from the planet itself."

"That must be Eggman's plan: drain Mobius of energy and hold it to ransom," Tails concludes. "How much energy has he drained already?"

"A negligible amount, which means it was either a brief test or the machine he's built quickly becomes unstable," Nicole answers. "We'll keep monitoring the situation from Sky Patrol."

"And we'll find Eggman as soon as possible," Tails replies before closing the connection and opening another. "Hey, Sonic?"


Just before he enters the temple, Sonic slides to a halt and answers the call. "Yo Tails, what's up?"

"Eggman's built a machine that can drain energy from Mobius itself," Tails answers. "Fortunately, he's not extracted a significant amount yet."

"Then we'd better find him and smash his machine before he extracts too much," Sonic decides.

"See you on the other side."

"Fly safe, bud." Sonic closes communications and dashes into the temple.


In their quarters on Sky Patrol, Sally is sat with Nicole looking over the gathered data. "If Eggman is able to keep his machine running without pause, how long would it take to drain Mobius completely dry?"

"I cannot be certain, but my best estimate is three days," Nicole answers. "I'll inform Sonic and Tails."

"No need: they'll already be working as fast as they can," Sally assures. "For now, we just continue monitoring and researching."

"I've started a background process to further analyse the data we just gathered, and a second to continue searching all available knowledge repositories for information on the Lost Hex and the Zeti, leaving my foreground processes with insufficient activities to justify their power usage," Nicole informs.

"In other words, you think you'll get bored while waiting for those background processes to finish," Sally guesses.

"That is a suitable equivalence," Nicole confirms. "Sorry about slipping into techno‑speak again."

"I don't mind," Sally dismisses kindly. "In fact, I think it's cute."

"…you do?" Nicole asks, not expecting the compliment.

"…did I say that out loud?" Sally asks, blushing a little in embarrassment.

"You did," Nicole confirms. "Being cute is good, right?"

"It is, yes," Sally assures.

"Good, because I think you're cute too," Nicole sighs in relief.

Now it's Sally's turn to be surprised. "…you do?"

"I uh… I should get back to work," Nicole answers, trying and failing to hide the fact she's blushing.

"And I'll finish my shower," Sally replies, pretending not to notice Nicole's blushing. "When I'm done, want to train in the sim room?"

"Sure," Nicole agrees. And maybe… No, that can wait for a more suitable time.


Inside the temple, Sonic immediately faces a new problem: how to climb to the top of the surprisingly tall and narrow temple when there's too few platforms to jump between. Looks like it's time to put my parkour skills to the test. A quick Peel‑Out later, Sonic scales the first wall with ease and lands neatly on a platform.

Suddenly, the ground begins to shake.

What was that‽ Curious, Sonic approaches the edge of the platform and peers over the edge‑

An enormous blue and purple striped sandworm erupts from the floor of the temple and lunges directly at Sonic.

"Woah!" Sonic exclaims, diving backwards just in time to avoid being swallowed whole.

Having missed its target, the sandworm drops back to the temple floor and disappears into the ground.

Sonic takes a moment to gather himself. Better keep moving. A quick leap to the opposite wall and a vertical run takes Sonic to another platform just in time to avoid another sandworm lunging at him (this time from behind a wall), a pattern that continues all the way to the top of the temple.


A few minutes later, Sonic emerges from the top of the temple back into the desert, relieved to have made it through. A few moments later, his communicator beeps. "Hey bud," Sonic greets, answering the call.

"Glad to see you made it through," Tails replies. "I wasn't able to reach you while you were in the temple. Run into any trouble?"

"Nah, just some giant worms wanting fast food," Sonic quips. "Any more updates from Nicole?"

"None yet," Tails answers. "See anything in the temples that helps explain anything about the Lost Hex or the Zeti?"

"Ah, sorry, I forgot to look," Sonic admits. "Was kinda busy trying not to be eaten."

"No matter, there's another larger temple up ahead," Tails informs. "Clara's going to join you for that one."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sonic asks. "If that temple's infested too, it may be too dangerous."

"Sparky's promised to keep her safe," Tails assures.

"Fair enough," Sonic accepts. "I'll see you at the entrance."


Ten minutes later, inside the first room in the temple, Sonic's struggling to remain patient while Clara takes photos and notes about everything she sees. "Can we up the pace just a little bit?" he asks.

"I told you when we entered that we need to go slow, I've told you three times since, and we're only in the first room," Clara reminds. "If you ask me again, I will set Sparky on you."

Sonic glances at Sparky to see the Ivory Wisp wearing an expression that conveys his disapproval of Sonic's impatience. "OK, OK, you've made your point," he relents. "Let me know when we can move on."

Clara jots down a few more notes and takes one last photo. "Let's head to the next section."

As they enter the next section, a Grabber suddenly drops from the ceiling and snatches Clara in its legs, lifting her high into the air.

"Hey, let me go you hunka junk!" Clara protests, quickly trying to work out how to free herself.

"Hold on Clara, I'll break you free!" Sonic assures.

"Wait, I can‑"

Sonic leaps high into the air and smashes the Grabber to pieces with a perfectly aimed Spin Attack. The sudden freedom takes Clara by surprise, but her instincts cause her to curl into a ball and bounce harmlessly off the floor to a graceful landing on her feet.

Sonic lands beside her a moment later. "You OK?"

"If you'd let me finish, I was going to free myself and drop down using its own thread," Clara answers, her tone making it clear she's not pleased with Sonic's actions. "And you're lucky I can Spin Attack, otherwise I could have been hurt."

"Yeah… Guess I wasn't thinking, huh?" Sonic admits, feeling a little embarrassed.

"No surprise there," Clara sighs. "Then again, I should have expected a Grabber, especially after all those that grabbed me in Chemical Plant Zone."

"The first few got me too," Sonic recalls.

Clara smiles slightly. "Really now?"

"…well, OK, only the first one got me," Sonic admits. "The rest I was too fast for."

"Of course," Clara replies, her smile gone. "Come on, let's keep moving. And let me handle myself, OK?"

"OK," Sonic agrees. "But if we run into any sandworms, let me handle them."

"Will do," Clara agrees.


Half an hour later aboard Sky Patrol, Nicole's searching has finally uncovered some information about the Lost Hex and the Zeti buried deep within GUN's databanks, and she's reviewing it with Sally in their quarters.

"I thought you said they didn't have any info on the Lost Hex or the Zeti?" Sally asks.

"Not in any of the databanks we have unrestricted access to," Nicole explains.

"…you hacked into their restricted files, didn't you?" Sally guesses.

"A little bit," Nicole admits. "I'll be surprised if they notice."

"Hopefully, they won't," Sally replies. "So, what did you find?"

"Not much, but enough to understand why Wendy Naugus was involved," Nicole explains. "The few records from the time include some details about the end of the Second Great Civilisation, long suspected to be the time when Pancardina fragmented into the Acorn Archipelago and when the trolls were driven to near‑extinction."

"I remember reading about that," Sally recalls. "There was nothing that explained why it happened though."

"Not in anything available to the public," Nicole corrects. "But GUN's archives have clues not just about what happened, but why the Lost Hex exists."

"The way you put it makes it sound like the two are connected," Sally guesses.

"That's because they appear to be," Nicole confirms. "The records that survive from that time provide a few indicators that the Lost Hex was created as a result of the fall of Pancardina, and that the catastrophe that fragmented the landmass and almost wiped out the trolls was triggered by a race of ogres that specialised in direct manipulation of the electromagnetic force."

"Do the records have a name?"

"Yes: Zeti."


Meanwhile, after passing through several rooms infested with badniks, Sonic, Clara, and Sparky enter the final and largest area of the temple to find themselves facing a horde of Motobugs, Spinners, and Gohlas numbering four times as many badniks as there were in the rest of the temple's rooms combined.

"Well, this is gonna be a challenge," Clara observes, a little intimidated by the size of the army blocking their progress.

"I've faced larger hordes and not even been scratched," Sonic boasts. "We'll send them to the scrap heap in no time!"

Before Clara can reply, Sonic revs up a Spin Dash and hurtles into the horde, smashing several badniks aside before leaping into the air and rebounding between several more, the wreckage dropping among their brethren. The attack draws the attention of most of the horde, but a third of it focusses on a different target.

Well, got no choice but to engage. "Find somewhere to hide," Clara instructs her new friend.

Sparky replies with a worried squeak.

"I'll be fine," Clara assures before leaping into the fight, bouncing between badniks with her own Spin Attack.

Initially, both Sonic and Clara perform well against the horde; however, it's not long before Clara's relative lack of experience begins to show. At first it manifests as near‑misses with the blades of several Spinners, but it quickly gets worse when Clara finds herself pinned down among a dozen Gohlas, the heat from their fireballs threatening to overwhelm the polecat.

From his hiding place behind a pillar, Sparky watches the Gohlas close in on their new friend.

Eventually, they can watch no more.

Throwing caution to the wind, Sparky boosts themself to top speed and flies directly at Clara, entering her body and sharing their Hyper Go‑On energy with her. An instant later, Clara transforms into a ball of lightning that immediately discharges into all the approaching Gohlas, catastrophically overloading their circuits and causing them to explode.

But it doesn't end there: once the Gohlas are out of the way, the Clara‑Sparky lightning ball ricochets between the remaining badniks at lightning speed, each hit destroying not just the badnik but the half‑dozen closest to it.

Five seconds is all it takes to obliterate the entire horde.

Unable to maintain their powered‑up form any longer, Sparky emerges from Clara and drifts down to the floor, exhausted. Unfortunately for Clara, she's left flying directly to a harsh landing, rolling about thirty feet before finally coming to rest on her front in a daze, her fur puffed up with static electricity.

It takes a moment for Sonic to figure out what just happened. "Clara!" he exclaims, sprinting to the polecat's aid. "Are you hurt?"

"I… I don't think so… but the room's spinning," Clara groans, her eyes struggling to focus. "Wh… Where's Sparky?"

A worried and apologetic squeak is the response as Sparky drifts to a gentle landing in front of Clara.

"That was a dumb thing you did," Clara sternly admonishes. "Thanks," she adds with a warm smile a moment later. "Just… give me a warning next time, OK?"

Sparky squeaks in relief, settling down to rest and recover.