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| - Being on the front line of the insurrection against Doctor Robotnik naturally endears Sonic to many amongst Mobius, and Bob Beaky's Travelling Circus is inundated with sacks of fan mail celebrating the Cool Blue Dude. Sonic is busy soaking up their adulation, but it inspires some degree of envy in Tails, who is never accorded any distinction himself as a mere peripheral sidekick, adjunct to the hero. Tails sets off on his own to win some renown for himself. He travels to the Casino Night Zone, hoping that some time smacking around Robotnik's goons in the area will get his face seen. He boldly kicks in the door to a warehouse - to be confronted by a squad of Trooper badniks defending Robotnik's latest creation - the "Spinball Murder Machine", literally a giant vertical pinball table. The device may be ridiculous but the troopers are not, and against such a formidable sight Tails' initial show of bravado immediately evaporates and he is quickly captured. Sonic is relaxing with a snack back at the circus, when a bystander arrives to inform him that Tails has been captured. Sonic, half-expecting Tails to have done something foolish after noticing his despondent mood earlier, dons a fresh pair of Power Sneakers and dashes off to rescue him. A company of troopers is massed against the rushing hedgehog, but let's be honest - it's pretty much just a token gesture (and the troopers know it themselves). Sonic easily brushes aside the troopers to enter the building where Tails is held, to be confronted by the Spinball Murder Machine - Tails is trussed up at the top of it. Sonic begins charging up the sheer slope of the table to rescue Tails, but he is caught out by the Murder Machine's switches, panels and flippers - completely surprised and flat-footed, Sonic's agility counts for naught as he is battered about the table and knocked unconscious for the big score multiplier. Stunned and insensible, Sonic is helpless as Robotnik launches a bonus ball - directly at the hedgehog... Tails knows that this huge spinball will crush Sonic to a pulp, and fortunately has worked his bonds loose at just that moment. Determined to save his friend, he leaps atop the spinball and by running on its surface (the gradient seems to have suddenly flattened out somehow) successfully redirects the spinball to smash into the Spinball Murder Machine's power generator, destroying it and the whole contraption in a tremendous fireball. Tails has, indeed, saved the day - and a personal letter from the postman duly arrives back at the travelling circus, addressed to none other than the young Master Miles Prower himself. Tails hopes that the rumour mill has been kind to him... only to find out that it's a fine for overdue library books. Sonic is entirely unsympathetic - in classic arrogant mode, he is the hero of Mobius and Tails' humbling experience here shows that there's no room for rivals.
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