The Decepticons and Eggacons were patrolling the deserts with the Eggacons and Combaticons being more gleeful. “Oh, this is just PERFECT!” cheered an Eggacon.
“Ain’t it, though?” agreed Onslaught.
“Yeah, peachy,” muttered Ravage.
“Come on, where’s your sense of adventure?” asked Onslaught. “Look at us all! Searching the Middle Eastern sands for priceless artefacts! Hey, maybe I should get myself a whip and hat! Harrison Ford, eat your heart out!” His foot then touched something. He knelt and saw that it was a blue ring, roughly the size of a standard gold ring, and was decorated in the usual Arabic art style of leaving no blank space. The Eggacon ran a scanner over it and grinned when he got the readings.
“Sky Eggacon 79462 to all forces! World Ring located! Repeat, World Ring located!” It tried to pick it up…only for its hand to pass through. “What the?!” Onslaught tried to pick it up but met with the same results.
“Okay, what?” He took over the call. “All forces, this is Onslaught. The World Ring…okay, I’m gonna say it as I see it, our hands are passing through it.”
“Same with you, huh?” asked Brawl as his own hand passed through a red version of Onslaught’s ring.
“Same here,” remarked Thundercracker once he and Shockwave found the Purple World Ring after giving Megatron the sitrep.
“You guys too?!” asked a tank based Eggacon as he stood by the Cyan World Ring.
“What’s going on here?!” demanded Laserbeak as he considered shooting the White World Ring.
“It sounds like Morgane missed some detail!” muttered Frenzy as he furiously tried to pick up the Green World Ring.
“Don’t blame me!” argued Morgane as she and Eggman stood by the Yellow World Ring.
“Who told you about the Rings?” asked Eggman, a guess forming in his mind. Morgane then growled.
“Erazor!” She pulled out a shining oil lamp and rubbed it. “Erazor Djinn, I have my first wish for you!” Purple smoke then spilled forth from the lamp’s spout and the Erazor Djinn stood before her.
“Command, Mistress Le Fay, and I will obey,” he intoned.
“Spare me the pious servant act! We’ve found the World Rings, but our hands are passing through them! I wish for you to explain why we can’t pick them up and if you knew anything about it!”
“That is a compound wish, Morgane. That usually means it’s two wishes. But, given our common goals, I will only count it as one. I DID know that none except a legendary hero would touch them. The World Rings are tied into the hero’s…genetic signature, I believe is the modern phrase. The hero once entered the world of the Arabian Nights, a blue rat you would know, Doctor.”
“SONIC?!” yelped Eggman.
“And his own genetics are copied over into a foe you would know, Mistress Le Fay.”
“Arthur!” growled Morgane. Her face then softened. “We can still salvage this! Let THEM do the work for us!” she realized. She rubbed the lamp again. “Erazor, my second wish! I wish for you to make this easy for our enemies to find while we lie in wait!”
“That will mean no obstacles, Mistress.”
“That is fine. We shall be obstacle enough.”
“Then your wish is granted. You have one more left…as per our arrangement.”
“You will be released when our goals are realized, not a second sooner!” The Erazor Djinn bowed as he returned to the lamp. “In the meantime, I will conceal us all until the Seven World Rings are gathered.” Morgane then started weaving a spell, opening well-stocked underground bunkers to help everyone wait out the Autobots’ search.
The hedgehog woman, Maria, was looking over something on the moon base. She was alone, so she had the run of the place. She decided to do some research. She went to the search engine, Egg Look Up, and typed “Eggman” into the search bar. She found various news results of Eggman’s schemes. What caught her eye, however, was an article about Eggman’s attempt to control the Space Colony ARK. There was a word that gave her pause. “…Robotnik?” she muttered. She changed what was in the search bar to “Robotnik” and got more results. She found a picture of an old man that looked like Eggman, but without his girth. The man was identified as Professor Gerald Robotnik. Maria then felt a flash of pain enter her head for two seconds. During that, more memories were unlocked. “…Grandfather?” she asked. She then pieced something together. “But…but I’m a…hedgehog…am I?” Maria then noticed something related to Professor Robotnik’s article, a file called Project: Shadow. More pain entered her head, and she remembered a dark figure that always stood by her. Maria then typed “Project: Shadow” into the search bar, only to see a message asking for a password. Maria started thinking and came up with “Glory”. It was an incorrect password, and it reduced her amount of tries by one. She had two left. She tried “Eggman Empire”, but it wasn’t right. She thought long and hard…until she thought about what she once said to the dark figure.
“I beg you! Give them a chance to be happy!” her past self pleaded to the dark figure as it vanished in some sort of tube. Present Maria then typed in “Maria’s Wish”.
“Access granted,” replied the computer. She then got a look at the file folders related to the project. There was a folder titled “Final Result”. She opened it and found the files and images relating to the results of Project: Shadow. One of the files mentioned that the project could be replicated. The scientists did so but added human DNA to the mix instead of only hedgehog DNA and the genetic material of a race called the Black Arms. Her mind then flashed onto a monstrous looking creature with no legs, talking to Professor Gerald outside an experimentation tube. She then saw an image of the resulting creature of hedgehog and Black Arms DNA, a black and red hedgehog with shoes, gloves, and rings on his ankles and wrists. The dark figure of her memories was then replaced with the hedgehog. She then remembered more. She had Neuro-Immune Deficiency Syndrome once, a terminal illness that rendered a person immuno-compromised and made the body cannibalize itself from the brain down. Professor Gerald promised her that Project: Shadow would help her visit Mobius and help her be cured. She then remembered a conversation with a younger, trimmer Eggman, though she called him Julian.
“Julian, you can’t do this!” she begged. “All people deserve a chance to be happy!”
“Maria, you and Grandfather are idealistic fools!” snarled the younger Eggman. It was then that she truly felt…anger.
“I thought you would carry on the Robotnik legacy of making people happy, but I see I was wrong. She turned from the man and saw her face…her old HUMAN face! Maria screamed in pain as her life was pieced back together, right up to the point where a bullet went through her. She then saw the hedgehog in an escape pod, pounding on the glass and screaming her name. The memories then stopped, and Maria woke up in the real world.
“…Julian!” she snarled. She spotted the Chaos Emeralds, then put them into a sack, bar the green one. “Now, let’s see if I can do this.” She raised the Emerald into the air. “Chaos Control!” She then vanished.
“Alert! Alert!” called the computer. “Base empty! Security compromised!”