A twisted half-pipe that went for miles in either direction, littered with shiny golden rings, and spherical metal bombs. Sonic had seen these before, had done many times. If you could run fast enough, and grab enough of the rings, you could usually get to the grand prize at the end; one of the seven multi-coloured Chaos Emeralds.
That was assuming that this was the rules that these special areas were playing by today of course. Sometimes it was easier than that, and all you had to do was get to the end without falling into an exit. Other times it was not only rings you needed, but also brightly coloured ballon-ish orbs; or to avoid mines dropped by Chao's, or you had to get blue spheres. Really it was pot luck what you had to do.
Still, the hedgehog kept running, not entirely sure if he was actually going the right way. Sonic had only one strategy for dealing with this place, keep moving. Ninety nine times out of a hundred, he entered facing at least the direction he had to go, bar those rare occasions when the place was a giant rotating checkerboard planet.
Dodging bombs Sonic kept dashing down the half-pipe. This was only the second time today he'd been in a half pipe, and experience taught the hedgehog that it always got harder. The defences in these places always got stronger the more emeralds he took from this ... place.
Sonic actually had no idea what to call these areas. He'd never known anyone to talk about them, not even Knuckles knew what they were called, though he did once hear Eggman call them Warps of Confusion. That name seemed oddly appropriate for the special way the places kept getting re-arranged and all the bright colours that flickered about in them.
More bombs went past the hedgehog, nowhere near where he was, and with little to no effort in trying to hit him. At current speeds, Sonic couldn't even tell if the bombs were even moving, he just knew to avoid them. Another batch went by, this time closer, causing Sonic to sidestep right. He grabbed another handful of rings before slamming hard in to one of the bombs. It knocked a batch of the rings out his hand where they dissolved instantly into the ground.
The hedgehog yelped slightly as he took another hit. The bombs were barely hurting him, more just surprising. A third one slammed into him, and Sonic grinned to bear it. The bombs were very weak, less of a deterrent, more an obstacle. Sonic shook his head and carried on. He needed the emerald, or at the very least he wanted to make sure his arch nemesis didn't get his grubby mitts on it.
Yet more often than not the emeralds were actually the key to Robotnik's downfall. Sure, Sonic had never pursued them for his own sake, confident in his own abilities to defeat Robotnik, but time and time again he had needed to use their power. The amount of times Sonic had needed to draw on the super abilities the emeralds gifted him was now too numerous to count, far too often for it to be a mere coincidence that Sonic always got them.
A bell rang in the hedgehog's ear. It was a pleasant sound; one that Sonic instinctively knew was good news. He took a quick look at all the rings he held, just over two hundred or so, before running into another cluster. They gently clanged together colliding with the hedgehog's body, making a soft twinkling sound. Sonic had heard that sound so many times in his life it barely registered with him anymore.
The pathway got even twistier, looping over and under itself in a way that was starting to mess with Sonic's head. It was bad enough that everything in here seemed almost out to get him, what with the bright lights shining in his eyes, and the mines that always appeared silently, just after a very sharp bend, blindsiding him, but in addition to contending with that he had to constantly get his head around running up and down slopes and loops where gravity always pulled directly under his feet. Sonic always feared that one day, in one of these types of areas, he'd jump to high and sail of into an abyss of nothingness with no way of getting back.
Sonic was getting closer now. He could feel it. It was the pull of the Chaos Emerald. The orange one, Sonic would bet anything on this. This was a new development for Sonic, but not an unexpected one. Sonic had been learning lately that he was able to detect the presence of the emeralds, albeit only at close range, certainly not to the level Knuckles or Shadow were able to. But he could still feel it, calling him, acting as a beacon to its location.
This was just one of the abilities Sonic had been slowly developing through consistent and repeated exposure to the emeralds. Sonic hadn't told anyone this, not even Tails; he hadn't felt the need to; as they had all been beneficial abilities. Homing attack, boost running, double jumping, albeit only in weaker gravity, all of this had come in handy, and that was nothing compared to what he was capable of doing with all the Chaos Emeralds.
Another bell chime echoed in his ears. Sonic again hadn't detected the source of the bell, he had more important things to worry about. In his distraction, the hedgehog had only just managed to pass the ring barrier with just three rings to spare. Sonic needed to focus. He darted to his left, and grabbed a long trail of rings, jumping over a set of bombs in the middle. The road to the end twisted over itself again, the pipe tilting further and further to its left, yet it never stopped acting as a guide towards the prize at the end.
"Who designs these?" Sonic muttered, as he found himself having to dash left and right so quickly even he was pushing his limits. The pipe twisted again, looping underneath itself and then back around. Briefly, in the distance, Sonic saw the emerald, orange, just as he knew it to be. The pull was stronger, and it gave Sonic an extra spurt of speed he needed to dash through another tricky section of bombs.
The bombs had always puzzled Sonic. They looked so modern, but they were nothing like anything Eggman had ever made. Sonic had always said he'd ask Knuckles about them, but had always forgotten to do it by the time he next saw the Echidna.
Running through more rings, Sonic smirked to himself. He had now met the total needed. Again, there was nothing here to tell him this; it was just another one of those things he just knew, something that had always baffled Tails. Sonic would often find Tails looking confused whenever the hedgehog said something like "we just need fifteen more rings," making it clear to the hedgehog that it was another one of these things that only he experienced.
The blue hedgehog had never considered destiny. He didn't care to think his whole life had been plotted out and decided for him, and as such he had always been slightly bothered that he was the one to benefit most from the Chaos Emeralds. Yes, he accepted that it was a good thing, but Sonic didn't want to imagine his life tied into a predicted pattern.
But, considering how often he had ended up with the Chaos Emeralds, how often they had been useful, and how often the blue hedgehog had needed them, Sonic couldn't help but wonder. Even as he passed the last checkpoint, and could now contentedly take the orange emerald, the blue blur could only wonder, was he actually supposed to take it? Or was it mere coincidence that he always had them when he needed them most?
The emerald spun in the air as a bright light pierced outwards from it. It lit up the whole area, making it an impeccable wall of white. Sonic reached his hands forwards, and felt the emerald drop into his grip. His body felt it to, as it nestled next to the first emerald he'd collected, in anticipation of the other five that Sonic was sure would come to him. But as Sonic left he found himself wondering again, was his instinct based on past trends, or was he starting to know his own future?