The sound of the hammer on a blaster clicking back in preparation for the shot focused Sonic's concentration in a way that only a lethal weapon pointed at the back of your head could do.

"Don't move!"

The voice, however, was in no way as sincere as the action the owner of the voice was undertaking.

Raising his hands in the air, Sonic slowly turned around.

"I said…I…said…don't move!" The voice was shaky now.

Facing his would-be attacker, Sonic found himself face-to-face with a ten-year old fox child, gingerly holding the shaking blaster. Seeing that Sonic was a furry and not metal, the young fox let down his guard a little.

"Who are you?"

"That's a pretty dangerous weapon…" Sonic smirked.

The fox blinked… and the hedgehog was gone. Also gone was the blaster, snatched out of the fox's hand with no warning whatsoever.

"…better let me hang on to it." The hedgehog's voice popped up from behind the fox. He quickly spun around to find the older hedgehog examining the weapon.

The fox was speechless. There was no way what had just occurred was physically possible.

"How did you do that?" Fear changed to ecstasy and wonder.

Sonic smirked, spinning the blaster in one hand.

"I call it the Peel-Out. You put all your energy into the start, wait for the right moment, and move so fast it looks like you disappeared. Can't hold it for very long, though…"

"Can you teach me?" asked the fox, sounding like a little brother asking his older sibling.

Sonic shook his head.

"Woah. Hold on. A few seconds ago, you were about to blow my brains out, and now you want me to teach you my skillz?"

"Sorry…" The fox looked away dejected, a sad look in his eyes. A pang of guilt hit True Blue.

"Hey, don't worry. It's cool." Sonic tapped the fox on his shoulder. "What's your name, kid?"

The fox cheered up and smiled.

"It's Tails. Tails the Fox."

The two punched knuckles. Sonic checked out Tails' clothes. Tails had on a racing jersey, Capri pants that cut off around the shins, mechanic's gloves, old aviator goggles on his head, and some worn-out sneaks on his feet. Sonic then noticed where Tails got his namesake from; out of the back of his pants, two tails popped out. Sonic made a note to ask the fox about this later.

"Cool digs, dude. What'cha doing down here, anyway? Planning on knocking over a few convenience stores?"

Tail's mood changed back to the tense nature he had when they had first met.

"My friend got caught by the badniks, and they're throwing him into the arena today!" Remembering what his new friend could do, Tails suddenly became elated."Hey, could you help me? I bet with your speed, you bust in and save him easy!"

Sonic's head started to hurt. Too much had changed.

"Slow down there, kiddo. Arena? Since when did Mobotropolis have an arena?"

Now it was Tails' turn to look confused.

"Mobo?"

"Before your time. Yeah, sure, I'll save your friend. On one condition: where'd you get this gun?"

Tails looked away quickly and spoke even faster.

"Found it. Why?"

Realizing he wasn't going to get anything more out of Tails, Sonic holstered the gun.

"Never mind."

---

In the Eastern district of Robotropolis lay an enormous cylinder almost eight stories high and a mile long. On the outside, it looked like a large container for cheese or a big box of chocolates. But there was nothing sweet about this building.

For inside it was hollowed-out, with almost a quarter-mile of seating stretching six stories high around a metal floor littered with traps such as buzz blades, flamethrowers, and other implements of death.

This wasn't a giant playground, or a place to watch athletes go at one another in games of sport. This was a battleground of death, a recreational war zone created to entertain the masses and stroke their bloodlust to the point where it would cloud their eyes to the true corruption of the city.

This was the Robotropolis Arena.

Rolling out into the center of the Arena was a robot that was nothing more than a unicycle with arms and a camera for a head. It was painted like a zebra, with white and black stripes in a downward pattern.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to another night of mayhem and carnage!"

The crowd cheered, not because they enjoyed the spectacle, but more because they were glad it wasn't them out there.

"In the red corner, the merciless master of destruction, the nine-foot tall, eight-armed, two-ton monstrosity known as Armagedroid!"

A monstrosity the droid was indeed. Clad head to toe in coal blue armor, each arm wielded an instrument of destruction, from chainsaws to lasers and even a kitchen sink. He had no legs; rather, he moved about by means of treads. He had no visible eyes. His face seemed to melt into the armor.

"Rrrrraaaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!" The monstrosity lifted all its arms in the air and screamed at the top of its lungs.

"And in the blue corner, weighing fifteen pounds, the mean-spirited, loudmouthed, and above all annoying, albatross named Flicky!"

For an organic creature to be sentenced to the arena, they had to have no purpose in life and no use as a robot. Flicky was a large albatross with a loud mouth that had a penchant for saying things no one wanted to hear. Right now, he busy was pecking at the ball and chain attached to his leg.

"For spreading lies about our great leader, the accused is sentenced to die in the most gruesome way possible!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Hey, c'mon guys," shouted the bird. "All I said was that our great leader could use a treadmill for his birthday!"

The entire audience gasped.

"Treason!" The announcer shouted. "You're only making it worse for yourself!"

"Making it worse? How could this possibly get any worse?" the bird shouted.

"Begin!"

The giant killing machine charged the miniscule bird with every intent of turning it into mash.

"Maybe we could settle this over a game of Parcheesi?"

"KILL BIRDIE!"

"BOGGLE THEN?"

Five of the eight arms slammed into the ground, sending an enormous amount of dust into the air and creating a crater where the bird once stood. The audience grew silent as they strained to see what happened to the accused.

"Hrr…Hrr…hrrr…huh?"

The monster lifted all of its arms out of the hole. Everyone remained silent. Not a word was said. Then, a rise of anger arose from the audience.

The bird was gone.

"What happened?"

Watching the replay, all anyone could make out was a blue blur popping up directly in front of the Armagedriod a millisecond before he struck the bird. The bird was there, and then he was gone in the blink of an eye.

---

Deep below the arena, about four stories below the main street, another street spiraled in and out of the massive pipes that served as the drainage and sewage relief for the massive city above. Along this street lay hundreds of shacks, cabins, and refuges created from the junk tossed down here by the surface-dwellers. This was the sub-basement of Robotropolis, a shantytown built and populated by the undesirables of the city who cared nothing for the great leader who ruled above. The sound of running water was ever present as a river of green water rushed nearby.

In between the many shoddily built homes and bungalows lay small restaurants and take-out joints where the merchants eked out a meager existence. At a chilidog stand, Sonic sat eating his first meal since coming into the city, joined now by his new friend Tails…and the loud-mouthed Flicky, who fluttered his wings almost as fast as he flapped his mouth.

"I can't thank you enough – what did you say your name was? Oh yeah, Mr. Sonic, sir. Although I say that for the robot's sake, not mine of course. I mean, I could have taken that big lug easy, but why get your hands dirty, I always say! That reminds me of the time…"

"I'm starting to think this was a mistake," Sonic muttered, taking another chomp of his red hot chili dog.

Tails chuckled. "He'll wear himself out eventually."

"Hey blabbermouth! If you're going to talk, why not do me a favor and tell me what where the heck we are? For that matter, what happened to Mobotropolis?'

"Simple questions, but with some pretty big answers. Where to start? Well, years ago the Kingdom of Acorn was a prosperous nation, an oasis in world of desert, ruled by the Acorn family and their brood. But, other nations became jealous of our prosperity, and attacked with their war machines. The armies of Mobotropolis fought back, but they received huge losses and the city fell on dark times. Then, a man came from across the desert, an outcast from one of the enemy nations. He came bearing a 'gift' – a device which he had stolen from nation that exiled him."

"Robotnik."

"Yep, old lard-butt himself. Robotnik gives the king this thing called a roboticizer. Pretty much you enter the machine a furry, you come out a butt-kicking war robot. Of course the king was impressed! Who wouldn't be? He signed up every single soldier the army had left. They whupped up on everybody from here to Downunda. What Buttnik failed to mention was that once they became robots, the 'Robians' became mindless killing machines. Plus, they answered only to one person; him."

Sonic put down his chili dog and started drinking his soda. "Okay, so wasn't everyone pissed off? Why wasn't everyone roboticized?"

"Oh heck yeah, people were up in arms! But then Robotnik came out with this new idea which caught everyone off guard."

"What was it?" Sonic took another sip.

"He promised everyone immortality."

Sonic spit out the soda."What? Immortality? Like, living forever, never having to die?"

"Uh-huh." Flicky nodded his head.

"How?"

"I don't know the details, but the gist of it is that you insert your brain into a computer before your body dies. You then live on the intranet which runs the city. As long as the central computer doesn't go down, your brain stays alive, thus by default you live forever. The nobles liked the idea, so all the nobles turned on the king and Robotnik became the leader of the city. The city itself went high-tech, with robots and cyborgs and all that crazy techie stuff. Add in a demagogue that rules by fear, and you get Robotropolis in a nutshell."

"Great. So what's the Intranet?" Sonic was absolutely lost.

"Ask Tails, he's the technophile."

Tails eyes lit up, and he started waving his arms around like a child talking about a favorite toy.

"It's pretty cool! It's a giant web that anyone in the city can log on to and play around in. You can check out sports, play online games,"

"Download pron…" added Flicky.

"Do not!"

Sonic laughed. "So what's up this underground city?"

Once again, it was Flicky's turn to spout out a mouthful.

"There are four levels to the city, the surface and the three in the underground. First you've got the surface, which is where everyone who accepts Robotnik lives and works. You stay out of trouble and put out some work, you don't get roboticized and have a chance at being made immortal. Then there's the sewer under the surface. Nobody lives there. Next, you've got this level. Everyone who rejects Robotnik lives down here. Since most of the people down here aren't cyber-enhanced, the surface guys don't bother with 'em. We're second-class citizens, but it's not so bad down here; there are entire cities down here filled with bars and clubs. Below us is the forbidden zone. Nobody knows what's down there, but some people say there are mutants and other weird stuff. Nobody goes down there either."

Sonic rubbed his head. All that info made his head hurt.

"Okay, so let me get this straight; everyone on the surface is plugged into this intranet, and takes whatever Ro-buttnik dishes out in exchange for getting to live forever online. Everyone down here doesn't, so they get left out. Am I right?"

Flicky thought for a second. "That's… yeah, that's pretty much all we know."

"Doesn't make sense to me." Sonic groaned.

"Nobody else gets it either." Flicky agreed.

Sonic licked off his fingers, having finished the delicious chili dog.

"Done?" asked Tails.

"Yep."

"Finally!" Flicky shouted. "Then let's go home!"

"Where's home?" asked Sonic. Tails and Flicky smiled.

"You're one of us now, which means you can stay at our home. Welcome to the Lost Boys!

Next Chapter: Down the Rabbit Hole