Underground X (*Straight Sonadow*)

Arrival and Metal Sonic

As the green light dispersed around them, they slowly blinked their eyes open to see the exact landscape they had seen through the Oracle's viewing pool.
"Warning might have been nice," complained Manic as he looked around at the new terrain. "I nearly had a heart attack."
Sonia was having similar reactions next to him. "Yeah, but we're here." She looked around. "Man, it's so beautiful here."
"Yeah. Our sis has incredible luck getting stuck here instead of some hole in the ground or something."
Sonia had started walking toward a large loop that clearly stood out from the rest of the terrain. "Wonder if this was man-made or some weird erosion." She was clearly off in her own little world.
Manic, seeing this, decided to do some exploring of his own. He strolled over to a group of palm trees that were growing a few feet away from their arrival point. He took out his drumsticks and, doing what he did best, banged them against the trunk of one of them. What he didn't expect was for a small computer monitor capsule to fall out of its leaves.
The drummer let a small yelp escape him and fell down, landing on his rump. His concerned sister, her attention now drawn away from the loop and the mystery of its creation, ran over to him. "Are you okay?"
The emerald hedgehog took the hand his sibling offered and stood up, stumbling slightly. "Yeah." He looked at the small capsule that had nearly given him a nasty head bump. "What's that?"
Sonia tapped it experimentally. "Don't know. How do we figure it out?"
Manic slowly circled it, then noticed something. "Hey! There's a picture on it!" He bent down for a better look at the image. "I think it's a golden ring."
She bent down next to him so that she could examine it herself. "You're right. That must be what's inside. Now, how are we supposed to open it?"
This was a problem. There were no locks or anything to pick into to open. An idea came to the thief. If you can't be quiet about something... "Stand back."
Before his sister could ask what he was doing, he kicked the capsule with as much force as he could. It gave easily under the pressure of his foot and soon there were about twenty rings pouring out of it.
Sonia blinked a couple times, surprised by the sudden action, but quickly regained her wits. "Well, that worked."
Her brother picked up one of the rings. "Yep. Wonder what they use these for."
The princess next to him gave him an exhausted look. "Its gold, Manic. It's probably the currency or something like that. It is a rare metal after all."
"Then why put it up in a tree in a safe that can easily be kicked open?"
That got her. That was a very strange way to store money. Really unsafe too. "I don't know. Maybe Sonica will know when we find her."
Manic perked up at the mention of their quest. "Right! Let's go find her! We need to spend our birthday together!"
Sonia had almost forgotten it was still their birthday. With all that had happened so far today, it had felt like they had passed it.
She looked up at the sun, shielding her eyes from its glare. From its position, she guessed it was around noon, maybe a little later. "We're comin', Sonica."

They spent the next half hour walking through the lush green fields. Sonia often ran ahead to look at some flowers that seemed new.
'Most flowers are new with our environment,' Manic thought, stopping to wait for his sister as she gazed at another patch of wild flowers.
"Come on, sis. Let's get movin'."
She nodded, rising to her feet. She opened her mouth only to close it again as they heard a strange maniacal laugh ring through the fields.
"HO HO HO!"
"What the- who is that?" Sonia finally said.
Manic started to follow the sound of the voice. "Let's find out."
When they reached the source of the laugh, they found the same man that had been on the monitors talking to Sleet. There was a large capsule in front of him with a weird, yellow, cube-shaped robot on top of what looked like a weight-sensitive trigger. The bot wasn't big enough to set it off though. A red, orb one was on top of the strange craft he was riding.
"What's he doing?" Sonia whispered to her brother, trying not to let the man hear them.
"Don't know. Probably nothing good. We should try and stop him," he replied.
"How? We don't even know what he's doing."
For some reason, that was when the doctor decided to turn in his seat. In doing so, he caught a glimpse of his observers. "Oh! It would appear we have guests!"
Manic winced. "Busted." He slowly stood, revealing himself completely. His sister did the same. "What are you doing here?"
Eggman ignored the question. "Prince Manic and Princess Sonia, yes?" He looked at their expressions. "Oh, don't look so surprised. I've been talking to Sleet and that idiot, Dingo, for a while now. I know much about you two. Including why you're here."
Sonia was quite taken aback by this. "You-you know- why we're...?"
"Oh, yes. You're looking for your sister, correct? Sonica?" Short and to the point.
Manic was suddenly filled with rage. This man definitely didn't seem like the most trustworthy person in the world. If he knew their sister...
"Yeah!" he yelled. "Where is she?!"
"Closer than you think."
"Huh?"
Suddenly, a large boom echoed through the area and a small palm fell over. Dust flew everywhere, blinding the two hedgehogs. They could hear Eggman's laughing through the sudden dust storm. When they opened their eyes though, they weren't prepared for what they saw.
Standing before them, was a robot that looked exactly like their sister.