In the Land of the Sky, there was a much larger floating island that made Sonic's Island look insignificant. This was far more advanced and developed with skyscrapers clustered around the middle and eventually gave way to the rolling meadows on the outskirts of the island and was connected to other smaller islands via bridges, some were equally developed, and others appeared to be farmland.
In the middle of this island one large marble white suite with perfectly mown lawns stood out in particular: The president of Planet Freedom headquarters.
After four hours after they first set out from their little island and leaving their airplane house at the mercy at the Old Man, Sonic and Tails landed outside of the house of the president's personal runway.
"Fancy here isn't Tails?" Sonic said as he jumped off the Tornado and waited for Tails to get ready.
"Well, he is the President." Tails replied as he took off his flight helmet.
Sonic and Tails made their way into the President's office and maniacal evil laughter greeted them, and in front of them behind a desk and a large green chair swiveled around to face Sonic.
Dr Robotnik leaned forward with his fingers intertwined and grinned at them "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Good to see you again, Sonic"
Tails glared at him "It's Dr Robotnik!"
"You don't say Tails? Please accept a small token of my gratitude for coming all this way to see me!"
Behind Tails, several heavily armored robots appeared in position and aimed their guns at Sonic and Tails ready to fire.
They never got a shot off.
Sonic moved so fast that it didn't register in their sensors and he dispatched two of them with ease while Tails destroyed the other one while it was trying to track Sonic, both then touched down on the desk Robotnik was behind glaring at him with the robots collapsing behind them.
"That's a funny way to thank us" Sonic remarked and jumped into a spin dash to end the Robotnik threat once and for all.
"Sonic! Stop!" a voice cried out.
Sonic looked around and saw a large bearded man with a presidential sash draped across him - with whom were more robots with guns aimed at him and a young girl wearing a bright yellow top and mini skirt with a pink jacket, who Sonic and Tails recognized as Sara – "Sonic, for the sake of my daughter and everyone else, listen to him!"
Sonic glared at Robotnik "That's a dirty trick Robotnik!"
Robotnik chuckled with a glint off his glasses.
Tails leapt off the desk backward and pointed at Robotnik as if he were passing judgement "No fair! You kidnapped the President and Sara so you could take over the entirety of the South Island, didn't you?!"
Dr. Robotnik laughed out loud and jumped over the desk. "Do you think I'm capable of something that underhanded, ME? DOCTOR ROBOTNIK?!"
"YES!" Everyone shouted back in unison.
"Oh!" He looked taken aback for a split second but regained himself. "Now, Sonic" he started in a silky tone. "I've got the upper hand here, this is about the entire planet of Freedom, so you better do what I say!"
Sonic looked away from him with nose high in the air "No way."
Dr Robotnik considered him for a second and grinned wickedly; he made his way over to Sara and held her chin up so she was facing Sonic. "Don't you care about pretty young Sara?" Her brown tail twitched and her blue eyes were wide with fear. "It would be awful if something were to, ah, happen."
Sara squeaked in fright, "Help me daddy!"
The president looked helpless seeing his daughter in such trouble. "Little Sara…Sonic, please listen to whatever Robotnik has to say"
Sonic sighed, he didn't really care for Sara too much, he found her more annoying than not.
But the President was the President, and he knew he would never hear the end of it from Tails.
Also, a victory for Robotnik would never fly for him.
Sonic sighed and propped his elbows on the desk "Ohhhhhhh alright then, give me the scoop Robotnik"
Robot gave sonic an insincere smile "Thank you Sonic, I will."
He frowned and became a lot more serious, he pressed a button and the lights of the room dimmed and he held up a hologram of the planet
"As you both know, Planet Freedom is made up of two dimensions; the outer world – the one which you live in and where we are currently – is known as Land of the Sky."
"Tell us something we don't know" Sonic called out lazily.
Robotnik growled. "SHUT UP! HEED ME!"
"Land of the sky always sounded weird to me; it doesn't even make sense" Tails said.
Robotnik ignored this and carried on.
"The inner dimension is known as the Land of Darkness. There, I lived peacefully in a utopian city called Robotropolis."
Sonic sniggered, Robotnik chose to ignore this too and he changed the hologram to show a vast city against the mountainside with lights everywhere that showed a pattern resembling his face.
"….Until metal Robotnik came out of nowhere and attacked my peaceful city with a massive battalion of demonic robots. Outnumbered, my soldiers were slaughtered but put up enough of a fight for me to retreat. They conquered us, and those who could escape fled from their homes."
He sighed.
"Metal Robotnik then sabotaged the robot generator which creates the high voltage electricity for the entire city and the surrounding area. It is running uncontrollably, and there is no place to store this excess energy"
He paused for a second, as if thinking what to say next.
"According to my calculations, if the robot generator isn't stopped by sunrise tomorrow, the excess energy will cause a giant explosion!"
He then looked around to the group and froze as he did so.
Everyone around him had fallen asleep, even his robot guards had fallen asleep too.
Robotnik let out a screech of rage.
"FINE! But don't blame me with THIS happens!" He pulled out a pop and somehow popped his hologram, making a huge bang.
While it did explode in Robotnik's face – to his evident surprise – it had startled everyone awake.
The President had not fully fallen asleep as he seemed to recall some of his monologuing.
"How can we stop this terrible thing from happening Robotnik?"
"There is only one thing TO do! Someone, or some people, must get through Metal Robotnik's traps, go into Robotropolis, and stop that generator before sunrise!"
He turned and looked at Sonic.
"And it should be the fastest one here."
"Forget about it!" Sonic said with disgust. "You created that stupid contraption in the first place why should *I* have to go around cleaning up your mess?"
The President reacted badly to Sonic's statement. "Oh no no!" and he ran over to sonic and fell to his knees.
"Sonic please do it! You're the only one who can save us and the entire planet freedom"
Sara dropped by her father's side and pleased with Sonic too.
"Sonic, I don't care what happens to Robotnik or Daddy…."
Both looked insulted at her words.
"But please…for the two of us…?"
Sonic remained unconvinced. He dropped off the desk and onto the floor.
"Someone tell me why I should trust Robotnik when 99 times out of 100 he's lying or trying to have me killed? Have we all forgotten ten minutes ago?"
Tails jumped off the desk as well.
"But Sonic, what if this that one other time?"
Sonic frowned at him, Tails hadn't gone through an extensive array of Robotnik's assassination attempts in his life and it was showing.
"Please Sonic?" Sara asked.
"Pleeeeeeeeeease Sonic!" the President begged again.
Sonic sighed, the whole thing reeked of a trap; there was no way Robotnik would be so blasé as to actually ask for his help and he also doubted if the wily old scientist didn't have a back up plan in case, and who the hell was Metal Robotnik anyway?
"Fine, fine. I'll do it."
The President took a breath of relief.
"But I have some questions" and he looked at Robotnik.
"First off Robotnik, who is Metal Robotnik?"
Robotnik grimaced.
"He is me. Well, he is me – made machine. He was designed to help me in my research and to oversee everything when I was not there. But he went rogue."
"How?" Sonic asked.
Robotnik shrugged.
"He went missing two months ago, this isn't unusual, since I can be out for the same time, but he never said where he was going and I couldn't track him. I don't know why or how he went rouge, and I suppose I won't find out unless he were defeated where I could look inside his head and determine the program he was running."
Sonic looked hard at Robotnik, but he didn't seem to be lying as far as he could tell.
"Okay, second question: What makes you say sunrise tomorrow this will blow us all up apparently? Where is that coming from?"
"it's an estimation yes, but the plant is aging, and the power being directed through that when we were being driven off. It might be tomorrow sunrise, it might be a day later, but it won't be more than 48 hours. I would not try and figure it out.
Sonic looked him again.
"Finally, can we expect any help while we are down there?"
Robotnik's face darkened.
"I don't expect you'll find any survivors by now."
Sonic was surprised at the honesty and bitterness in Robotnik's tone. He believed him.
Robotnik leant over Tails and attached some sort of watch to his left wrist.
"You need to take this with you Tails. It's a navigator, as long as you have this with you, it should lead you straight to Robotropolis. Using the shortest and fastest route so you won't get lost."
The device whirled a little bit, Tails looked up and smiled at him.
"Thank you Robotnik"
"Oh don't mention it" Robotnik said, and gave off a creepy smile which quite unnerved Tails.
Sonic had enough of this; it was time to get going.
"Come on, let's go"
'Mhmm!" Tails nodded.
Half an hour later, the duo were back on the Tornado. Sonic in his usual position of standing on top of the aircraft and Tails piloting them.
Sonic looked to his right and watched another day slip into the evening as the sun was going down, the pink sunset blinding him momentarily. He rubbed his eye and clasped his hands behind his head.
"Tails, do you actually trust that ridiculous little gadget Robotnik built for you? He's not exactly trustworthy, he could have put a bomb in there for us"
Tails hesitated before he answered.
"Well. . . yes he could have. But Dr Robotnik is also the only person who knows how to get to Robotropolis without causing too much notice, so we have to use it and hope it works."
'He still might try something, are you sure there is no bomb in there?" Sonic shouted as he tried to make himself heard in the wind.
"Who knows? But we'll find out soon enough, even if there was, he wouldn't kill us until AFTER we shut down the generator, unless he wants to go too"
"I guess so" Sonic replied.
A few minutes past in silence.
"And no, there is no bomb in there, I checked it before we left, there is a transmitter of sorts, but I guess that's to figure out where we are, looks like the one I have at home." Tails said.
"Ah, nice one Tails" sonic smiled with approval.
Tails sighed and looked back over his shoulder.
The Capitol of the land of the sky shone like a beacon, as if it were a star in the distance.
"Gee I hope the President and Sara are doing alright"
The President and sara were doing more than just alright. The President was sleeping at his desk while Sara and Robotnik were playing a video game.
When Sonic and Tails had left on the tornado, Robotnik had checked if the tracker was working, and once he found out it did, he had no need to constrain the President and Sara, they were not allowed to leave and he still had his guards to make sure of that, but they were free to do whatever they wanted.
And so, with nothing else to do, video games.
Sara was having a terrible time of it, her character would only make a little bit of headway in damaging Robotnik's character before Robotnik got the upper hand and defeated her character, it was very distressing for her, she had never known to not get her way.
The real Sara was screaming while kicking around on the floor.
"No no no no! its not fair! You always beat me every single time!"
She suddenly sat up straight.
"One more!"
Robotnik stood up with his hands on his hips. "Just give up! We've already played a hundred times!"
Sara smirked at him "I'll stop being your hostage" she said slyly.
Robotnik cringed and reluctantly picked up the controller. "Alright one more time."
It was for naught, and Robotnik successfully defeated Sara at another game of virtual wrestling, and also successfully sent her into a fit.
"NO, NO, you beat me again! I can't win at this stupid game. Fine1"
Robtonik looked puzzled "Fine what?"
"I quit"
She then crossed her arms.
"I wanna go for a drive."
"Absolutely NOT"
"No, no I want to" Sara whined. "Take me for a drive NOW"
As soon as she finished her sentence, a rather large explosion came from the wall, and from the settling dust, it was the stomach of a very large robot that was mostly obscured, and its doors opened to reveal a control panel.
The explosion had woken up the President from his slumber "Oh! What's this?"
Sara had gotten over her initial fright at the noise and sudden appearance, and unlike the President, was very eager to drive the thing.
"Yahoo!" she said as she leapt inside the robot. "Yeah, this is great Robotnik1 I get to drive first"
Dr Robotnik simply chuckled to himself.
"Oh wow…." Sara started poking at the buttons and levers.
Robotnik's smile disappeared and was replaced with a look mingled with fear and concern.
"No! Sara don't touch that! Wait! Stop! Don't play with it, stop it Sara" and in the struggle one of the buttons triggered, closing the door on them both as he struggled with her.
The President gasped.
"Sara! No, stop!" he reached towards the robot. Behind him, one of the robot guards held up a picket sign saying 'GOODBYE SARA'. Where he got it from or why he was doing it, nobody knew.
"COME BACK SARA!" the president screamed.