I wake up on a white bed. My head is pounding like crazy, and I can hardly remember what happened. Then, the door opens, and a round man with a red coat, black pants, black shoes, white gloves, a bald head, a huge mustache, and dark glasses comes in.

"Ah, you're awake," he says, pressing his fingertips together.

I stare up at him. "Who...are you, exactly?" I ask.

"I am Dr. Eggman, and I've been keeping you here on the hope that you would wake up from your coma." Dr. Eggman gives a look of sorrow. "When you didn't wake up, I thought you died, but now I know you're not!"

I look around the room, and I see my duel disk leaning on the wall. I get up and float over to it. I grab the dark blue device and slip it on my arm, and the familiarity rushes into me.

"You kept this...?" I ask, stroking the duel disk.

"Yes," Dr. Eggman replies. "I had a feeling that it belonged to you."

Dr. Eggman saved this for me. He also kept me here until I woke up. He must be trustworthy. I look up at him, and he smiles.

"Don't worry, you can trust me," he says, holding out his hand.

"Eggman!" a voice says. A blue animal with peach arms and a belly the same color zips in. He has spikes on his head and red shoes with gold buckles and white stripes on his feet. "Now you're manipulating innocent ghosts? How low will you go?" The animal grins.

"Sonic!" Eggman, exclaims. He turns to me, a bit too hastily, making me a bit suspicious. "He's out to get you. Quickly, defeat him!"

I look up at the doctor, taking in what Sonic said. Manipulating me. This man has the audacity to manipulate me? I see no reason this animal would lie. I sneer.

"I am not an idiot!" I spit. "If you are indeed manipulating me, then we have a problem, now don't we?" I look to Sonic. "Sonic, was it?"

"Yep." He nods.

"Well, I will have to take care of the good doctor, now won't I?" I turn back to Eggman.

Eggman sneers. "If you want to defeat me, you'll have to get past my army!" He presses a button, and moving metal starts advancing toward us. The doctor escapes through a trap door.

Sonic sneers. "You think this is gonna stop me, Egghead?" He tucks into a small blue ball and rams into one of the moving metals only to be bounced back. "The heck?"

I brace myself, my hand resting on the top card in my deck. I recite the phrase Eliphas said, and my hand glows. "Shining Draw!" I exclaim, drawing out one card. There! An old monster that was once the Pharaoh's trusted magician, the Dark Magician. I summon him, and he appears in front of us.

"How can I be of service?" Dark Magician asks.

"Can you use your Dark Magic attack to get through this wall of enemies?" I ask respectfully. Sonic seems surprised at how I speak with my monster.

The Dark Magician nods. "Shield your eyes," he commands. Sonic and I do as we're told, and a brilliant flash of light showers the entire room. When we next look up, all of the metal is gone.

I look to Dark Magician and smile. "Thank you," I say. "And give my greetings to the Pharaoh."

Dark Magician smiles. "You're welcome, and I will make sure to do that." With that, the monster disappears back into the deck.

I turn back to Sonic. "I apologize. My name is Astral," I say. "There was not much time for greetings earlier." I dematerialize my duel disk.

"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic says with a smile and wink. He gets into a running position. "Come on. There's no telling if more will come." He grins. "Will you be able to keep up?"

"If you plan to run, then I suppose I can." I float next to him.

Sonic takes off, and I race after him. Catching up to the blue hedgehog is more of a challenge than I first thought. He is much faster than I anticipated. Maybe this will teach me not to underestimate anyone.

"Sonic, you made it!" a white hedgehog says. He has two spikes in the back of his head, five on his forehead, gloves with circle patterns on them, black rims on his eyes, futuristic boots, and fur all over his chest. "Did you get it?"

I finally catch up to Sonic. Sonic gestures to me. "Got him. Ol' Egghead thought he could use him."

"He'd better think again," a black hedgehog grunts. His spikes curve upward and have some red and so do his eyes. He has black shoes, rings on his gloves, and his eyes are red.

"Who are all of you?" I ask, very confused as to who they are.

"I'm Silver," the first one says.

"Shadow," the second mumbles. "Who are you?"

"Astral," I answer.

"'Astral'." Silver runs the word in his mouth. "What an interesting name. I heard it means something about the stars."

"Isn't 'Silver' a valuable metal?" I wonder. "That, too, is an interesting name."

"Guys, let's go before Eggman comes back," Shadow urges.

"I agree," Sonic says. "Come on, the others heard of you, and they can't wait to meet you."

Shadow grins at Sonic. "Last one there does the chores." He looks up at me. "That includes you."

Astral looked at them. "Okay..." I say, then I take off before they can react, laughing happily all the way.