Inkopolis Square, Midday...

"Ya'll know what time it is?" A voice sounded throughout the square.

Everyone present looked towards the large TV on the tower as it displayed two figures on screen. To everyone who watched Inkopolis News, these two were all too familiar. They were the most popular Inklings around, having taken over for the last duo. These two were known as Off the Hook, which was made up of Pearl and Marina.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkopolis Square!" A second joined in, "Normally, we'd announce the current stages... but we have some breaking news!"

"So what's the deal, Marina? Tell the good folks the deets!" Pearl continued.

The second figure, revealed to be Marina, began to move a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable a couple times before an image appeared on the tv in the studio, showing what seemed to be a before and after image.

"The Great Zapfish has been missing for some time now. At this rate, Turf Wars will be postponed indefinitely." Marina explained.

"NOT THE TURF WARS!" Pearl shouted in shock.

"Calm down Pearl. We're still live!" Marina stated nervously.

Once again, Marina moved a vinyl record back and forth a couple times before showing a black and white shot of an Inkling striking a pose with a grin.

"Callie of the Squid Sisters has also been missing. So far, there are no leads as to her whereabouts." She added.

"She's probably just on a vacation. A celebrity's gotta get some peace and quiet!" Pearl commented in a cool manner, before the two began announcing the stages.

After the stages were announced, the screen went back to the duo.

"And that's all the time we've got!" Pearl said as she began to jump out of her chair, "Until next time..."

"Don't get cooked... Stay off the hook!" the two said as they posed.

Somewhere near Inkopolis Plaza...

The old skate park was empty, devoid of any activity. No one had come by this way for a couple years, especially since the square was the new hotspot in Inkopolis. The place had started succumbing to nature, evident by the grass that begun to creep through the gaps in the concrete. Back in the day, young Inklings would start their Turf War carrier in this very park, learning the basics of how to get by in a fight. Today, a new face arrived, but they weren't an Inkling...

A strange creature lay unconscious on the ground, sporting some strange gear. They wore a black jacket and grey jeans, along with a pair of black runners with a reddish orange strap slung across the top being held in place by an orange buckle and on their hands were orange gloves with red cuffs.

Remaining motionless, the strange creature was approached by a lone bird that decided to land on top of them. The avian began to prod the figure with it's beak, seemingly making an attempt to wake it. However, it's efforts were fruitless, as the creature was still out cold. Having thought of another solution, the bird flew over to it's eyes and lightly pecked them. It was a success, but the action caused the creature to jump up in pain, scaring the bird away.

"Ow! What the heck?" the creature shouted angrily, looking around for his assailant, "Okay, who did that?!"

Suddenly, he noticed where he was and instantly dropped his aggressive attitude.

"Wha... Where am I?" he wondered as he looked at the cityscape around him.

The creature saw that he was in unfamiliar territory, completely unsure of his whereabouts. He could see numerous skyscrapers in the distance, but what caught his attention was the somewhat linear path ahead. Looking behind him, he could not pinpoint anywhere he would have entered this area from.

"I don't recognise this place... Just how did I get here?" the creature wondered before turning to the path ahead, "Well... I guess there's only one way to find out."

As he walked down the concrete path, he noticed there were a lot of strange things plastered on the walls, most of them in an unfamiliar language. He also saw that most of them were depicting what appeared to be aquatic creatures, mainly squids.

"Just what is this place.? They certainly aren't using English here." He thought as he arrived at an area that looked like a skate park, "Well, you don't have to speak the language to make one of these."

Looking at the area, he could see it was pretty plain. The space was quite standard with the exception of a few elevated sections, which for whatever reason, had a tree in the middle of them. As he continued to look around, he noticed an old billboard off to the side that had silhouettes of two humanoid figures, along with more of the unknown language. From what he could tell, the two people on the billboard looked to be quite young, possibly around their teen years.

"Did I end up on another continent?" he wondered as he looked across the park.

At the opposite end, he could see a few quarter pipes; two at ground level and one a level higher. Just past the quarter pipes were a set of steps that stopped before the path ahead, leaving a gap between the two. Having seen enough of the skate park, the creature climbed up the ramps and jumped across the gap. As he went to continue onward, he saw a fence blocking the way.

"Okay... Why would someone put a fence here?" the creature said aloud, "Logic dictates that fences block access to areas, but this is the only way forward..."

The creature walked up to the obstruction and pushed up against it to test it's properties. From what he could tell, the material was like that of iron and whatever pressure he put on the fence wouldn't budge it. As he continued to try and move it, he could spot something on the other side. From what he could see, it looked to be disk shaped, or at least the parts he could see that is.

"Guess I've got no choice..." He admitted, before giving off a slightly cocky grin.

Having settled on the fact he couldn't move the fence, the creature took several steps back before running straight at it. Upon reaching the fence, he placed his front foot onto the wire and ran up it, grabbing a hold of the top and vaulting himself over to the other side, landing with no issues whatsoever.

"Phew. If the rest of this city is gonna be like this, I might as well start stretching." He said as he caught his breath.

Now that he was on the other side, he could see a large pit with the object in full view. It appeared to be a UFO, sporting it's signature shape and futuristic appearance. What was odd was the fact that it was lodged into the ground, most likely from a crash landing. Jumping down to get a closer look, he noticed it was made out of a mishmash of different metals, but what was stranger were the two air conditioner looking things stuck to it, with a couple pipes coming from them leading into the ship itself.

"Now that's something you don't see everyday..." the creature commented, "Or ever for that matter."

Walking around to the other side of the UFO, he came face to face with a wall that had a grate hanging over the top. Backing up from said wall, the creature could spot another wall higher up with it's own overhanging grate.

"Who the hell designed this place?" he questioned, "How's anyone supposed to climb up these walls when there are grates blocking the way?!"

Picking up a small stone off the ground, he tossed it into the air before catching, then throwing it at the lower grate out of frustration. Having no clue of what to do next, he sat down in defeat as he looked up at the sky.

"How did I end up in this place..." the creature wondered as he watched the clouds, "It's the only thing I don't remember."

Going over what he knew, his name, species and home world were the three most important things that came to mind. He was a hedgehog that went by the name of Hyper, who hailed from Mobius, a planet inhabited by many creatures like himself. Thinking about his home brought another name to mind, someone who was known far and wide as the hero of Mobius; Sonic the Hedgehog.

"I wonder how things are going back home..." He thought with a sigh, "I mean, Sonic can handle things, it's just... I don't know. Something just doesn't seem right."

As he stared aimlessly at the sky, his right ear began twitching, drawing his attention to the grate he threw the stone at. Looking closely, he noticed it appeared to be hanging loosely from the wall and was beginning to break off of it. Quickly getting to his feet, Hyper started backing up and within seconds, the grate broke off and crashed into the pavement below in a mess of metal.

"I suppose that's one way to solve this problem." He admitted as he looked to see if there were any witnesses, "I just hope no one needed that there..."

Now confident that he could procced, Hyper ran straight at the wall and climbed up it. Once he reached the top however, he kept running and propelled himself into the air, gaining more than enough height to get past the second grate. With the height he was at, he could see a decent amount of the surrounding area. The majority of buildings looked like he expected, but what stood out was a tall, green tower close by.

As he began to lose upward momentum, Hyper curled up into a ball and somehow, propelled himself towards the roof of the building he climbed, landing perfectly with no trouble regaining his senses.

"This city is definitely not like the ones back home. There's very little room to run around." He commented as he looked back at the previous area.

What he just went through was unlike any of the places he'd been through on Mobius. There were no loops, no corkscrews and most importantly, no robots, which were plentiful back home. While he was okay with the lack of bots to destroy, the plain landscape was quite boring. As Hyper turned back around to proceed, he was met with a dead end that had a puddle of a blue paint-like substance in the middle.

"What the heck? All this for a puddle of blue paint?" he complained as he approached the puddle, "Why is such a thing even here in the first place?"

Kneeling down, he took a closer look and decided to try and determine what it was by smell. Taking a quick sniff, he couldn't really describe what it was. It wasn't paint, that's for sure. Having no results from it's scent, Hyper dipped his finger into the puddle and upon feeling the substance against it, pulled it out and took a look at what covered his finger. It didn't seem to be harmful and it looked to be more reflective than paint.

"Whatever this stuff is, it's definitely not paint." He said as he tried to flick the substance off, "But I won't find a way home by staying here. That tower seems like a good place to start."

Having made up his mind, Hyper jumped towards the closest building and starting traversing the rooftops towards his destination.

Inkopolis Plaza...

Once Hyper got onto the roof of a nearby building, he could see the full size of the tower, being at least three times the height of the surrounding buildings. It had two observation decks along it's structure, with one halfway up and another at the top.

"Woah. Ya don't see buildings like these back home." He commented as he admired it's size, "Hmm? What going on down there?"

His attention drawn towards the lower area in the middle of the buildings, he spotted a few humanoid figures talking amongst themselves. Looking at them, he noticed their hair, being very unnatural colours that would only be remotely possible with hair dye. As he looked closer, he noticed that their hair was quite reflective, seeming like it was recently soaked in water. However, none of them seemed to be drenched, in fact, they looked as dry as he was.

It was then that he realised that he couldn't make out any of what they were saying to each other. It all seemed to be a mess of gibberish and garbled speech. He could see them moving their mouths like anyone would when talking, but nothing was understandable.

"Just what in the hell are they saying?" He wondered, "Is it even possible to make it out?"

As the three walked off, Hyper just looked on in confusion. Not only was he in an unfamiliar place, but no one seemed to speak in a language he could understand either. Sure, he knew a few popular words in Japanese, but he could never wrap his head around anything other than English. Looking around the area, he could see that those three were the only ones here before they left. Taking this as the perfect opportunity to explore, Hyper jumped down from the roof and looked around at the various things that made up the space.

Behind him he could see what he assumed were shops, although they looked to be closed despite it being broad daylight. Opposite the shops were what seemed to be a café, with a second floor room being full of boxes, which he could see through the large window that faced a catwalk adjacent to it and to the right of that building was a place that he couldn't quite figure out what it was for. Having seen everything, Hyper turned to face the green tower and slowly made his way to the entrance.

Nearby...

Looking at the once busy plaza, the inkling known as Marie just felt nothing but sadness as she took one last glance at the now empty place. As she made her way to the train station, she heard something from behind and turned to see what it was. In the middle of the plaza was a strange, black creature wearing odd clothing.

"What is that?" she wondered as she looked at the creature.

Wondering if it would be worth missing the next train to Inkopolis Square, Marie finally decided to investigate, making her way back to the plaza to check out this strange being. She hid behind one of the buildings and peeked out from behind, catching a better view of the individual. From what she could tell, it wasn't an Inkling, as what seemed to be it's ears were on top of it's head, nor did it look like any other sea creature.

"Could this be a new species?" Marie thought, keeping herself hidden.

Suddenly, she noticed the creature had it's sights set on Inkopolis tower, slowly approaching it with a determined look in it's eyes. Worried about it's intentions, the inkling quickly made her way to the next closest building and hid behind it, peeking back out to see if the creature noticed her. Luckily, she was in the clear, taking this chance to get closer, she dashed behind the next building and paused. Unfortunately, she had brushed one of her feet against an empty can, causing the creature to stop in it's tracks, it's right ear twitching out of instinct.

"Huh? What was that?" Hyper wondered as he tried to register the noise he just heard. Turning around he could see something ducking behind one of the buildings. Curious as to what was there, he carefully made his way behind the building. However, once he got there, he saw nothing but an empty alleyway.

"Okay... I could've sworn I heard someone back here." Hyper said as he scratched his head in confusion.

Almost immediately after his statement, he heard another noise from behind, this time it sounded like a splashing sound accompanied by what sounded like a manhole being moved. Looking back from behind the building, he noticed a grated manhole that looked to have been shaken from an outside force.

"Whatever was watching me, it looks like it went down there." He stated as he looked down the dark pit beneath, "Ugh. Well... Here goes nothing!"

Having mustered up the courage, Hyper lifted up the cover and climbed into the sewers, unaware of what awaited him.