“I outsmarted them all!” he cried in triumph. “Not to be supercilious, but by the transitive property I am now The Smartest Life-Form in The Universe!” Robotnik danced his way toward the still-wavering ring portal and toward freedom. “Farewell, land of funky fungi!”

But an opposing force unlike any other met him on the other side.

With the sound of thunder, a white fist with two bulbous knuckles jutting out flew through the portal, blasting Robotnik right in his solar plexus. He flew through the air and crashed on his back in a pile of mushrooms.

Above him now loomed a kind of creature he had never seen before. Its fur was as red as rage, and its eyes narrowed suspiciously as it reached down and picked up the blue quill that Robotnik had dropped in his fall.

-Chapter 2