They left the toilets and headed for the lift. The tone of the discussions increased in volume.

- But it's 10pm, so why is he leaving?

- What's all this about?

- Who is that hedgehog following him?

The President ignored all these questions and entered the lift, followed by Sonic. Sonic was rather embarrassed to find himself in a small space with him. To avoid any arguments, he leaned against a wall of the lift and stared at the floor. A few seconds later, they exited the lift, and found themselves directly in a room where two... masked people were talking seriously to each other.

- They're ninjas,' muttered Sonic. What a cliché...

- They're not like ninjas according to the powerless,' replied the President. They're closer to superheroes. They're the only ones, apart from you, who still have powers.

The ninjas were so concentrated that they hadn't even noticed them yet. The President stepped forward and cleared his throat.

- Mr. President!' exclaimed the golden ninja. Shouldn't you be talking to the public?

- Yes, but I really wanted to introduce you to someone first.

Sonic stepped forward, wanting to introduce himself.

- Hi, I'm Sonic.

- Okay, great, but why did you bring him?' asked the silver ninja, squinting at the hedgehog.

- He...

- I've still got my powers, so I could be useful to you,' anticipated Sonic, cutting the President off.

- Well, I'll leave you to it.

The President returned to the lift and disappeared.

- What do you mean you've still got your powers?' asked the Silver Ninja.

- Well, here's the thousandth demonstration.

He performed a spin dash for the 3rd time.

- I've also got super-speed.

- But how can a superhero as young and basic as you do anything useful?

Sonic opened his eyes and mouth wide to show that he was outraged and terribly offended.

- Basic?' he shouted.

He approached the ninja despite the fact that he was taller than he was and glared at him.

- Tell me, how could a basic person have kept his powers after what happened? So I'm obviously not basic.

He continued to look at the ninja defiantly and clenched his fists. He was so angry that his fists were lightning.

- I think our young friend has an irrepressible urge to hit you,' joked the Golden Ninja, looking at Sonic's fists.

The latter took a deep breath to try and calm himself down.

- You've got a lot of nerve taking on my brother like that,' he added warmly. You know (he turned to his brother), if the President sent for him, it's because he's not a simple person. If he's still got his powers, he must be pretty powerful.

The Silver Ninja growled.

- Do you know why you still have your powers?' asked the Golden Ninja to the hedgehog.

- I don't know,' replied the hedgehog, ignoring the other ninja. They must surely come from somewhere else.

- It'd be interesting to find out.

- Yeah, maybe, but now's not the time,' intervened the Silver Ninja.

- Basically, what I want is to go back home, to the world of the 'powerless', as you call it. I ended up here by accident after being drowned by my worst enemy. So I thought I'd find a way of reactivating your source of powers to create a portal and get home. Which brings me to my 1st question: where do superheroes get their powers from?

- Rrroh, we're going to waste time explaining everything to him!

- Hey, be patient,' replied his brother. He could be very useful to us.

- Besides, he's only doing it for himself, that egotist, not even for the world!

- Hey, I never said that! cried Sonic. I don't mind helping you save the world, but I have to admit that what I really want is to find my friends.

Just as the Silver Ninja was about to retort again, his brother silenced him.

- Well, Sonic, if you want to know where superheroes get their powers, come and look through the window.

As the window was a little too high for him, Sonic took a chair and moved it close to the window so that he could see through it.

- See that there?' asked the Golden Ninja, pointing at what he wanted to show.

- Er, that thing that looks like a radio aerial, but looks ten times bigger and fatter? asked Sonic.

- Yeah, well, that's where superheroes get their powers.

- Oh, and where do you two get your powers from?

- That's a secret.

- Ah, well... Now there's something else I'd like to know,' said Sonic, jumping up from the chair. Do you have any idea who did this?

- We don't know,' replied the Golden Ninja. The most important thing we should know is how it's possible and how to fix it. But there's a problem: the superhero world is weakened, so it would be easier for the supervillains to break in and kill us all to make sure it's the end of our era.

- So we need everyone to get their powers back before that happens,' concluded the hedgehog.

- Yes, but it's going to be hard.

- Especially if we stay here and talk,' concluded Sonic.

Without telling anyone, he took off running, slid down the stairs and left the building, without worrying about how people would react to him using his superpowers.