THE RIGHT REASONS

Chapter One

We haven't seen him in months.

It's kind of weird. First he comes at us, again and again and again for years on end, and now…nothing.

I don't like it.

It bothers me so much nowadays that I can't sleep. I have this strange feeling that if go to sleep, he's gonna reappear right over my head with an axe or something with a mad gleam in his eye and the day that happens, well, let's just say I'm gonna be in trouble. I might be fast, but I'm a lot faster at staying in bed than getting out of it.

I think I'm gonna ask Tails about it. Usually he can track the guy down without too much trouble.

I sit up in bed and yell, "TAILS!"

"WHAT?" Tails yells back from the other room.

"COME HERE, I WANNA ASK YOU SOMETHING!"

Tails walks reluctantly into the room. We've had that sort of discussion before, where we literally spent about two hours arguing over who was gonna go to who, and he lost anyway. So now he just comes to me.

"I was working on something important, I'll have you know," he says grumpily.

"Well, I've got something more important for you to work on," I tell him. "I need you to find Eggman."

"Why? He's not doing anything."

"Because he's never been this quiet before. It doesn't make sense. He must be up to something huge. We need to find him and stop him before he, before he, I don't know, blows up the planet or something!"

"He would never blow up the planet," says Tails in a practical sort of way. "Where would he build Eggmanland if he did that?"

"That was just an example!" I say exasperatedly. "That wasn't even the point of that sentence. The point is, we need to find Eggman, now!"

"Well, what do you want me to do?" asks Tails.

"Find him, duh!"

Tails sits on my bed and looks at me very seriously.

"Sonic, I don't think there's anything to worry about. If he's planning something, we'll deal with it when it happens. We don't need to concern ourselves with it right now."

"But—"

"Sonic, everyone's happy right now. Do we really need to shake up their lives in order to crack down on a threat we're not even sure exists?

"Look, I've already told you he must be working on something huge. If he's taking this long on it, it must be a threat. We need to gather everyone and catch him before it's too late!"

Tails sighs and rubs his eyes.

"Look, Sonic, I'll track him down for you, but only if you promise not to tell anyone else where he is."

"What?"

"We've been free of him for a long time now. Everyone is happy, and enjoying their lives. Can't we leave it that way for a while? Sometimes…sometimes things like this are on a need-to-know basis, Sonic, and right now, nobody needs to know."

I just stare at him. I think he's gone crazy. I know he's gone crazy, these things he's saying aren't making any sense.

"If he is doing something, and we do need to bring him down—"

"Let's not get into what-ifs right now," says Tails. "I'll go find him for you. But no one else is to know."

"Fine," I say defeatedly. I guess I can go with that. I can go head-to-head with Eggman and win any day.

Tails leaves for an hour or so. I spend this hour walking back and forth across my room.

"Sonic, you ruined the rug!" Tails says, looking at the deep furrow I've worn into it.

"That's not important. Did you find him?"

"Of course I did," says Tails, but he's obviously more concerned about the rug.

"Where is he?"

"He's at one of his old bases, near the Star Light Zone," says Tails.

"Thanks buddy," I say, and I pat him on the head and run off.

When I get near the Star Light Zone, I have to say, it doesn't look any different. There's no sun-blocking massive tower, no giant fortress dominating the horizon, there's not even a sign that says I'm heading into enemy territory. It's like he's not even here.

It takes me a while to find the entrance, since there's none of the usual stuff, but I trip over something while I'm looking and it turns out there's a control panel hidden underneath a rock. I'm not sure if I was lucky or not. I did find something but now my foot hurts.

I check out the control panel. It's got a whole bunch of sliders and levers and there's a big red button of course. There's a big red button on every control panel.

The button you're not supposed to press.

Well, I can't make heads or tails of the thing, to me it's just a grey box with a whole bunch of crazy stuff on it.

But you're not supposed to press it.

I circle the area, hoping maybe I'll trip over a secret doorway or something. Nope.

Back to the control panel I go.

Alright, that button is just asking me to press it now.

So what do I do?

I press it.