Old piece that I'm posting now in honor of the Cassini-Huygen spacecraft's final mission.
Disclaimer: Inspired/based on a piece by CatbeeCache on DeviantART, 'BP Comission – Sonic Space', done as a commission for Impella. Pure awesome. Unfortunately, none of us owns Sonic – at least, I don't think they do… .
Saturn
Sometimes, he left Earth behind.
It happened when he was running; his feet took him far away, to places he couldn't even imagine, places he had never known. He'd start slowly, with a few steps close to home, like he'd be right back and wasn't going anywhere to begin with.
Then, he'd go faster.
Cities and trees would fly past, and he'd barely hear the exclamations and the greetings and the feelings and the cultures he touched as he raced through them. He was noticed, but didn't notice, because for everything he changed, nothing ever changed him.
Then, he'd speed up.
The world would become a blur, and things would vanish into colorful streaks. His mind would go blank, trusting his body to keep him alive. What was life otherwise? He wouldn't survive without this rush…
Then, he'd accelerate.
Earth is tiny. It is small, and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. For every hero that could tweak the cosmos, it produced on the order of billions that would never gaze farther than the sky, filling the lands with sound and color and culture, everything he loved so much.
Everything that he protected, because he loved it all so much.
Impacts create craters, and Earth was too small to hold every crater he made. Earth couldn't give him space, couldn't give him time, could only give him joy when his impacts crafted happiness. And when they couldn't? He'd run.
Sometimes, to protect Earth, he left Earth behind.
And then, he'd stop.
Last time, light blue had welcomed him. The time before, a darker shade. But right now, pale orange filled his vision, and he took a seat on the rings to enjoy it.
How did he get so far out? He'd tell you if he knew.
Science never really liked him. He didn't mind. He'd figure that out later, or leave it to Tails.
But right now, he didn't have an impact to make. He'd just wanted to run.
Besides, Saturn was beautiful tonight.
Omake
"I say it's space debris."
"Aliens! We've found aliens!"
"Maybe it's an isolated storm system in the rings? Like the Great White Spot. Only… blue."
"A great blue spot?"
"Like the one on Neptune?"
"The one on Neptune is called the Great Dark Spot."
"Why isn't it called the Great Blue Spot?"
"Because we've just discovered the Great Blue Spot, obviously."
"That's not a spot, guys."
"I'm telling you, it's an extraterrestrial!"
"Kind of big, isn't it?"
"Does the government have any secret installations on Saturn?"
"Dunno. They only ever tell us about the ones on the moon…"
"Hey! We're not supposed to talk about that!"
"Zoom in."
"Does Cassini have a zoom function?"
"Find out!"
"Somebody get SETI on the line."
"Are those spikes?"
The next day, Tails was ecstatic when he looked out the window to find the entirety of NASA's Mission Control staff crowding his front door. His excitement diminished substantially when they began demanding his brother without explanation, however.
He sympathized with Eggman. The scientific community never could understand true genius.
Owari