Chapter 4

Well, things looked rather hopeless now. Amy thought looking at the glowing, red energy barrier that sealed them in. Amy pressed her hand to the surface and the barrier shimmered and pushed her back.

"Ha, Robotnik should've checked my dress." Amy said and pulled out her large Piko, Piko hammer. "Because I still got my hammer, and we're busting out of this joint!" and she attacked the barrier as hard as she could, but each strike was just forced back. She kept attacking until she was panting for breath and had to stop. "Okay. This wall is solid." Amy admitted finally. That was why he'd left her with her hammer, she couldn't exactly use it to escape.

Tails looked distressed with his hands in his face so she went to console him. "Hey, don't worry. Sonic will find us, eventually."

"Huh?" Tails said, snapping out of his thoughts, "What...? No, no, I'm not worried about that." He sighed, "It's just, the Tornado... We've been through a lot together."

"Oh yeah, you two were almost inseparable." Amy said, sitting down next to Tails and putting a supportive arm around him.

"She used to be Sonics' until I took over maintenance, she became mine." Tails said, clasping his hands together.

"You could always build another." Amy suggested patting him on the back.

"But it won't be the same one. I knew how that plane handled. I knew precisely how to kick it to get the engine to fire, I knew how to feed the throttle to get a good response. It was like she was an extension of myself." Tails said sadly.

"Hey, no sweat, when we get out of here we'll give Robotnik a good bashing for shooting her down." Amy said, winking. But revenge didn't seem to be on Tails' mind.

"No, it's my fault. She wasn't ready to fly, I knew that. I should've waited until I'd fixed everything." He sniffed. "It's my fault she's gone..."

Amy didn't really know how to console Tails. To her it was just a machine, what did it matter if it was destroyed, just build another one. But boys always grew attached to their toys. Especially Tails, she could understand why. He was an only child, bullied most of his life, he only ever found comfort in machines.

Amy hugged the young fox and he hugged her back. Part of her wanted to tell him to 'get over it' but she knew how much that plane meant to Tails.

Amy was more worried about when Sonic would show up. She hoped it'd be soon. She didn't want to spend an extra hour here more than she had to.

Subconsciously she began playing with the spade shaped medallion around her neck.

Finally the box had been transported into his factory, and Robotnik had countless machines analysing it trying to figure out what the heck it was. Lasers scanned over it and a print-out told him the following information.

Exterior vaguely resembles a 1950s, Police Telephone Box. Used by local law enforcers to communicate with HQ before the invention of the radio.

Robotnik disregarded this info, he wanted to know what was inside it. He found the internal scan. It said 'error'. What was that supposed to mean? He ran the scans again, and again another print out said 'error.' What was wrong with this thing?

Scratching his head he dived into the computer code to see what the pure code said and he found the values that were producing the 'error' message. The object seemed to have absolutely nothing inside it, so zero mass. Yet at the same time had infinite mass inside it?

That didn't make sense, hence why the computer produced an error message, it had nothing within its programming to describe what it had found, and neither could Robotnik, not just from the pure code. He'd have to find out the old fashioned way, by going inside.

Rubbing his temples Robotnik decided to try to inspect the key hole to see if he could produce a copy of it. He filled the hole with wax and waited for it to harden. He then pulled out an object that looked like a small spade of some kind. Quickly using that mould his computer had forged an exact replica of the spade in metal. Robotnik had inserted it into the lock and... it refused to turn. Robotnik tried sanding down the key so it was nice and smooth and tried again. But all he got for his troubles was a sharp electric shock and the replica key had melted.

In frustration he smashed his fist into the box, resulting in nothing more than some bruised knuckles and him screaming at the top of his lungs.

He'd need to track down the real key if he was going to gain entry to this box. Wait, the spade shape. He'd seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place where. He pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned backwards in his chair as he thought. A small spade, a small spade... where had he seen a small spade?

Robotnik nearly fell off his chair when he heard the alarms going off. Something was inside the compound and by a quick look at the monitors Robotnik could guess what, or rather 'who' it was.

It was currently night and all around the base flood lights engaged as something moved through the base very swift and very fast. The base was set into a large crater where no one without an aerial view could find it. Unfortunately something had found it.

Weaving in and out of top heavy, bipedal robots a blue something swished around them, under them and through them before they realised what the heck it was.

A small army of them gathered together into the path of this blue streak, but they were all blasted away before they could even register what it was. Finally the blue streaked stopped to take in its bearings.

"This is where the fun begins." Said Sonic the Hedgehog. A blue, anthropomorphic hedgehog, with long blue quills in a blow back kind of style with his quills sticking out behind him. Green eyes that betrayed his rebellious, teenage attitude, white gloves and a pair of red, buckled shoes that needed to be replaced as often as formula one tyres.

"What are you up to this time, Egg-man?" Sonic called into the base.

"Would you believe me if I told you 'nothing'?" Robotnik said over a loud speaker.

"No," Sonic said, checking out the tips of his fingers.

"Drat!" Came a dull voice from the loudspeaker. Sonic just rolled his eyes. Did he honestly think that would fool him? "This is harassment, I'll sue you!"

"What for, breaking into your super secret, and illegal, military, industrial chemical complex that breaks all kinds of pollution quotas, no safety parameters, and commits such cruelty to animals that it'd make PETA blush?"

"Don't get wise with me!" Robotnik shouted.

"I really have no choice." Sonic grinned. He loved winding Robotnik up like this. He had such a short fuse and in a fit of ego he'd reveal all his plans.

"Either you leave me alone or you can say goodbye to your twin tailed pal and that prissy pink girl of yours." and so his ego revealed all.

"Ah ha, so you 'are' up to something." Sonic said coolly as he stretched an arm across his chest to loosen it up.

"Wait, what? Oh crap!" he was fuming now, and before he could open his mouth to speak again Sonic had took off and was going through his army of Badniks like they were bowling pins.

Robotnik had to think fast. Sonic was tearing through his forces. Maybe he should just cut his losses. Take the blue box and run and abandon this base along with Tails and Amy. He moved over to the monitor and was about to give the order to abandon ship when he noticed something glinting on that pink hedgehogs stomach.

Robotniks eyes focused on it. The monitor had a poor picture but he could see it was a silver, polished spade. His eyes widened, the key! Amy has the key! He must have it!

Robotnik programmed all Badniks to converge on Sonic and keep him busy while he retrieved that key.

Inside the cell Amy and Tails felt the floor shake. Either Robotnik was testing something, or something was testing Robotnik.

"I'll bet that's Sonic!" Amy said, and her face looked dreamy, "I can sense him nearby."

If that was true then they'd be out of here in no time. And no sooner had he thought that then a bunch of Badniks came to the cell door and opened it.

"Bring the prisoners to me." Robotniks voice called, and the Badniks, that looked like large garbage cans, hovered in, forcing Amy and Tails to put their hands up. Amy's hammer was still in her dress and she thought it best not to pull it out in case the Badniks were quicker than she was.

The dozen or so Badniks marched them out of the cell, out of the laboratory which housed Robotniks gruesome experiments, and out towards the command centre.

"I wonder why Robotnik wants us to come to him?" Tails asked, Robotnik had never needed them as hostages before.

"Maybe as protection, against Sonic." Amy suggested.

"Maybe..." Tails wondered for a second. He looked at Amy to see if she was as scared as he was. They may be scared, but they must be prepared for whatever Robotnik intended for them. That's when he remembered about the spade around Amy's neck. The thing that had set them off on this whole adventure.

"Amy, hide that thing!" Tails said, nodding down to it.

"My medallion?" Amy asked.

"Yes, hide it, throw it away or something. I think Robotnik might know what it is." Tails whispered.

"How am I supposed to hide it, I can't lower my arms." Amy whispered.

"Follow my lead." Tails said, and he moved next to Amy and fell on top of her. Amy resisted at first until she saw the look in Tails eyes and fell to the floor with him. They had both pretended to slip on the polished floor. In the confusion Amy didn't have time to remove the chain from her neck, so settled for tucking it down the front of her dress and hiding the chain.

"Get up!" Said the Badnik in a robotic voice.

"It's not my fault the floor is so slick!" Amy said getting up. "You guys can't tell how slippy the floor is when you just hover over it." She said as she helped Tails get up.

Now with their hands up again they walked up into the command room, a large chamber of brightly coloured steal and metal. It was cold, mechanical and robotic. At a large table was Robotnik, watching a hologram screen of Sonic battling one of Robotniks mega-robots. In one corner of the room was a wooden, blue crate of some kind with glowing windows that were faded so you couldn't see through them.

"Ah, Tails, Amy. Welcome, we meet again at last." Robotnik said, trying to sound like a smooth Bond villain, but his manic grin made him look every bit the creep. He walked up to the box and patted it. "Recognise this?"

"Huh?" Tails said, looking at Amy, and Amy looked at him. A mental shrug passed between them.

"Don't play dumb with me! You have the key that opens it!" Robotnik accused. "I saw it on the monitor."

"Key?" Amy questioned, she looked at Tails, and Tails gave her a look which he hoped said 'play along with him'. "Oh, you mean my medallion?" Amy said, "Why it's right..." and she felt around her stomach area "... right here?" She looked down and faked some concern that it was gone. "Oh no, I've lost it!"

"Garbage!" Robotnik spat.

"No, wait!" Tails said, "We fell over outside, didn't we. It probably slipped off back there."

Robotnik stamped, pointed at a Badnik and ordered it to "Go back along the route, find that spade like key and bring it to me!"

Tails glanced at the holo-table as the Badnik went out to look for the key that was hiding under their noses. Sonic was battling a large, Squid type of robot, and by the look of it Sonic was slowly but surely winning against it as he leapt onto its tentacles and used them to make his way up to its head where it impacted himself into its head, slowly shaking it to pieces.

"What the heck is that thing?" Amy asked, nodding at the blue box.

"This?" Robotnik said, patting the box. "A relic of a bygone era, an object that contains such power, such a large amount of temporal energy just waiting to be tapped."

"A phone booth?" Amy questioned. They could see on a door the sign which said 'Police Telephone.'

"Merely a disguise," Robotnik said rubbing his fingers together, "A disguise I intend to strip away."

"What do you need a key for?" Tails asked trying to keep him talking, "Just break it down. It's only made of wood!"

"Ah, but you see, my dear Tails. It's not made of wood. It's made of an extremely tough material. I can't even break away an atom to analyse it. It's as if its entire structure is bound together. Not affected by the passage of time, weathering, nor entropy. The only thing I can scratch from it are flecks of the paint that covers it, but never the material underneath."

"That's ridicules" Tails said. Everything in the universe was affected by entropy, it was the second law of thermodynamics. Everything fell a part due to a rise of Chaos in the relative order of the universe. That's how time worked. Time followed the path of chaos.

"Ridicules, and yet this thing refuses to give up a mere atom of its secrets. Not without the key that is."

Tails looked at the holo-table again. Sonic had just taken down the squid monster and was heading this way by the look of it.

"But you haven't explained what it is." Tails said. Robotnik just stared at Tails a good long while before he said. "I don't have to explain anything to you!"

"You don't know do you!" Amy accused.

"Um... no." Robotnik admitted "But I'll soon find out, and when I do, nothing will be able to stop me!"

No sooner had those words left his mouth than the door to his control room was blasted down. Amy squealed as the smoke cleared and standing on its threshold was Sonic the Hedgehog!

"SONIC!" she screeched so loud it could shatter glass. "I knew you'd come." He winked at her and gave her a thumbs up. "Oh, he's such a person of few words."

"Agh!" Robotnik said, suddenly falling to his hands an knees. "No! I surrender! Please, don't hurt me!"

Tails raised an eyebrow. "Don't fall for it Sonic!"

"Nah, what do you take me for buddy?" Sonic said, casually strolling into the room. "Egg-man has pulled that trick one too many times for me to believe him." He stretched his arms and legs. "Okay, what do you want me to fight this time? Big, buzzer, bee robots? A heavily armoured, missile launcher? An upgraded Metal Sonic? Come on, throw something at me!"

"No tricks this time Sonic!" Robotnik said getting up and backing against the table. "None at all. You win. Take your friends and just leave."

Sonic stopped advancing and looked at the floor, then up at the ceiling, then left and right. Keeping a close eye out for a dirty trick.

His ears twitched as he sensed it, and moved out of the way just in time as some kind of dart sailed past his midsection and impacted into the far wall. In fact, several flew past, all fired from different directions.

"OW!" Sonic shouted, his eyes wide as he pulled another dart from his backside. Multiple darts had all been fired at once, and one caught Sonic right in his posterior. "You're gonna pay for that." Sonic said angrily.

He took a step forward, and suddenly fell face first into the floor. "Hey, what the...?" he mumbled into the floor. He tried to get up but it looked like Sonic was unsteady on his feet.

Robotnik roared with laughter. "I don't know why I never thought of this before." He grinned and giggled, "Darts, loaded with a powerful anaesthetic. It'll numb your entire body."

"Hey, no fair!" Sonic said, his speech starting to slur. His arms were starting to become wobbly like jelly.

"You give him the antidote, right now!" Amy said, as she produced her Piko, Piko hammer. But a quick swipe from the Badniks lifted her off the floor and plucked it from her grasp.

As she was being held up, something glittered as it fell from Amy's dress, her dangling feet kicked it by mistake and it clattered over towards Robotnik's feet.

The medallion! The key! The chain must've broke as Amy pulled out her hammer.

"Ah ha!" Robotnik said, stooping down to pick it up. "What have we got here?" he looked at his prize with glee. "You sneaky little rodent. You nearly had me fooled." He caressed the key as if it was his prized possession. "Watch them!" He ordered his Badniks as Robotnik went up to the box with glee in his face.

He slid the key into the lock and turned it. It sounded like a complex mechanism within opened up and Robotnik pulled on the doors. But they still refused to budge. In frustration he bashed on the doors and they both swung inwards instead. He looked rather sheepish as he stared into... nothing... just nothing... just a big, black void. The inside of the box didn't appear to have corners, just a shadow void of blackness.

Robotnik stepped into it and appeared to just vanish within, the darkness swallowing him up. With Robotnik gone Amy and Tails moved to help Sonic, the Badniks still guarding them. But they then saw Robotnik exit the box, a look of bewilderment on his face as if he'd just seen a ghost. He looked at the trio with a look which was asking someone to 'explain this'. But to explain 'what' exactly they didn't know.

Gingerly the large man lent over the side of the box, stuck his hand out and waved it up and down as if he should feel something. He then moved his large bulk around the exterior of the box, feeling it as if he expected some trick to be revealed. After he'd circled the box a broad grin appeared on his face.

"Fascinating, Relative Dimensions." Tails didn't understand what he meant. But he clapped his hands with glee and disappeared back into the box. He didn't come out again. What could he be doing in such a small box?

"Tails, I don't feel so good." Sonic said his voice slurred, bringing the attention back to him.

"It's just anaesthetic Sonic. It should just wear off. In time." Tails explained.

Amy hugged Sonic as he rag dolled on her. "Don't worry. I'll look after you, until you're better." Sonics face actually looked scared. What Sonic is going through must be similar to a night terror. Waking up with your body paralysed, unable to move within a nightmare, and perhaps to Sonic, having to live with Amy might be a nightmare.

"What is that thing?" Sonic asked, pragmatic as ever.

"We don't know." Amy said, "Whatever it is Robotnik wants it."

Tails got up and strolled towards the box. But his path was blocked by Badniks who forced him back towards Sonic. They were waiting for ages, but Robotnik didn't seem to come out of the box. What the heck was he doing in there? He can't still be inside it surely?

But Robotnik then emerged and rubbed his hands together gleefully. "Oh, it's more than I ever dreamed of. Hehe!" He giggled. He closed the door and tried to pull the key from the lock. But the box didn't seem to want to let it go.

"What?" He cried as he pulled with all his might, even putting his foot on the door and heaving his bulk behind it. But still the key refused to budge. It appeared to be jammed in. Eventually he gave up, and turned to a bunch of Badniks.

"Dispose of them!" He said, pointing at the trio, before turning on his heel towards his computer. He pulled out a tool kit and appeared to be rummaging around inside it for something. The Badniks approached the three friends, ready to 'dispose of them'.

"We've got one chance!" Tails said quickly, "If we can hold up inside that box-thingy then maybe we've got a chance."

"They're coming to kill us!" Amy screeched.

"Yes, but what if I distract them?" Tails said. "The one thing these Badniks are programmed to do is to obey Robotnik. But an overriding order is to protect him. If I attack Robotnik, the Badniks will see me as a threat and come after me. They'll ignore you, and you can sneak Sonic into the box."

"What about you?" Amy asked, her eyes wide at the realisation that Tails could die doing this heroic deed.

"I'll be okay. I'll just do what Sonic does."

"But Sonic just wings it." Amy complained.

"Exactly!" True, Sonic knew the limits of his speed and skills, Tails didn't. But it was their only plan, and those Badniks weren't going to hang around and wait for them to come up with something better.

So Tails immediately leapt into the air, using his tails to take off and he flew at Robotnik with all his speed and swiftly kicked the scientist in the head. Suddenly all the Badniks turned to Tails and took aim.

"Oh boy, now I've done it!" He said and using his Tails he began to fly around the room as fast as he could, avoiding their blasts and shots, and keeping their attention on him, and off Amy and Sonic as Amy heaved the dead weight of Sonic and dragged him towards the blue box. As Tails flew he tried hiding behind monitors that would then get shot up. He noticed that there appeared to be a delay when the Badniks lost him behind something and reacquired him as he emerged. Maybe he could use that flaw to his advantage.

An energy blast singed his leg and he flew faster. He needed to stay focused, and make sure Robotnik didn't notice what Amy and Sonic were doing.

"Hey!" Robotnik shouted, he'd noticed. "Don't mind that flying rodent. Get Sonic and the girl!"

Some Badnicks peeled away to go after Amy and Sonic. But Amy quickly reached up to the key and turned it in the lock. The door popped open and as she lowered herself down the key fell out of the lock and into her hands. Weird. She then picked up Sonic and began dragging him inside.

Tails took cover behind the blue box. According to Robotnik it was robust, so he banked on the energy blasts not scratching it. He was right, the box held up to the onslaught of fire.

"Oh... Em... Gee!" Came Amy's voice from inside the box. Her voice sounded kind of distant and echoy.

The Badniks stopped firing and Robotnik was coming. He stamped down the stairs and headed towards the box determined to eject Amy and the jelly like Sonic from it. Tails leaned his head out a little on the left hand side of the box, and the Badniks fired at him. Using that delay in their targeting system he swung himself around to the right and to the front of the box, he dived into the narrow door and slammed the door shut just as they opened fire.

His eyes closed he pressed his back against the doors of the box and felt the energy impacts behind him.

"Tails!" Shouted Amy, her voice came from much further away than it should have.

Tails slowly opened his eyes and what he saw made his jaw drop open. He took several paces forwards into a space that was far larger than any phone booth. It was the size of... he didn't know what it was the size of.

They were in a big black void that seemed to go on forever and ever in every direction, just on and on and on.

The only thing that was in here was a large, six sided, mushroom shaped console that looked like it had seen better days. It was burnt, scorched and covered in a thick film of dust. Where the dust had been disturbed was undoubtedly where Robotnik had touched the controls. Sticking out of the top of the console appeared to be a large crystal that rose up into the air.

"Where the heck are we?" Amy asked. "This can't be inside that box?"

"Relative Dimensions, Robotnik had said." Tails looked around in wonder. "And Robotnik had walked all around it." Tails wanted to say it, but he could barely believe it. "It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside!"

"Don't be ridicules." Amy said, "there must be some kind of trick to it."

Tails then noticed Sonics limp body on the floor where Amy had discarded him when she'd looked around the room in shock. Now, together they took Sonic in both arms and dragged him over to the console.

Tails looked back at the doors. They seemed to be holding up to the Badniks onslaught so they were safe in here at least.

Sonic was silent, but his eyes betrayed the amazement at what he could see, though he couldn't express it any other way. Amy began trying to rub Sonics face and mouth to see if she could get any feeling back into it.

Tails looked at the console. All of its lights were out and it was clearly dead. A few small pipes and shards of glass littered the place and Tails guessed at one time the crystal in the centre of the console was once housed in a glass cylinder or drum of some kind.

There was a squeak from the door!

"Hey, the door's still unlocked!" Said Robotnik, he was framed in the door and he was coming in! Grinning from ear to ear he advanced on the trio, menace in that crazed face of his.

Amy dropped Sonic and picked up a pipe from the floor and held it over the console.

"Get back Egg-man!" She commanded, "Or I'll smash this thing to pieces!" Amy warned raising the pipe above her head. "I'll smash it, I mean it!"

Robotnik wasn't stopping, and Badniks were now framed in the door and were about to come in after their master.

Amy screamed and brought the pipe down onto the console with as much force as she could muster. It impacted with a loud clang, which echoed around the void.

Suddenly light erupted from the console, from the stalk it sat on which the mushroom shaped console sprouted from the floor, to the crystals in its centre. Light suddenly flooded it. The place began to shake as if it had been hit by an earthquake, and all the consoles lights began winking on and off.

Tails heard a slam as the front door swung shut. He looked towards it, only the door wasn't there anymore, it was gone! What was going on?

Robotnik fell to the floor as the machine began to rock from side to side. The central crystal began to rise and fall, and it looked like it was struggling. Creaks and groans came from it as if it hadn't moved in centuries. Suddenly the entire room tilted at a sharp angle. Tails dived towards the console and grabbed onto the edge of it with one hand, and grabbed onto Sonics limp body with his other. Amy slid down and grabbed onto Sonic's legs to stop herself disappearing into the void. Robotnik wasn't so lucky as he fell and vanished into the blackness that swallowed him.

Suddenly the place flung itself upside down before righting itself again. Sonic landed in a heap on the floor, Amy whacked her head against the side of the console and fell limp. Tails fell across its controls.

Suddenly the crystal forced itself up much further than it had done before and fell again much further than it had before.

THUD! It made as it came to a stop. There was a rumbling noise as the machine continued to shake. The rumbling got louder and louder as if something was coming back to life. The crystal began to cycle through colours, red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple and back to red before cycling through them again.

Then the crystal suddenly shot upwards and produced a wheezy-groany noise, and produced the same noise again as it fell back into the console. Each time it rose up and fell back down it produced the same noise but of a different pitch. Tails got the sense that somehow this machine was moving and it was going somewhere.

The Badniks outside watched as the door had slammed shut. The light on top of the box had glowed red and began to sweep across them with a red light that erupted out of opposite sides of the lamp, the beams dancing around the central lantern as the box produced a pulsating, wheezy-groany noise that changed its pitch and got faster and faster.

If the Badniks could have felt astonishment, they would have expressed it. As they were they could only stare as the blue box appeared to just slowly fade out of existence and vanish entirely.

A Badnik approached and stood in the place the box had once occupied to confirm that it indeed had gone.

To Be Continued...

Authors notes: The design of the TARDIS I've left vague as its supposed to be a TARDIS console room we have not seen before. But suffice to say, the TARDIS is badly damaged. That's why the console room lacks things like doors and walls.