A/N

So apparently at least some of the Sonic movie will take part in a town called "Green Hill." Because Easter eggs (least I'm assuming it's an Easter egg) are meant to get us onboard.

Well, it did give me the slightest glimmer of hope (enough to drabble this up at least), so...good job Paramount?

The Grass is Always Greener

"Welcome to Green Hill. The little town with a big heart."

Sonic didn't know why that slogan popped into his head just now. He'd seen it about a week ago, when he'd come screeching into the town at a steady 316 miles per hour. That didn't give him much time to read the sign (or any signs for that matter), but it had stuck in his head. That in this upside down world, there was a town called Green Hill. Not looking anything like the Green Hill of South Island mind you, what with being bereft of sunflowers, floating blocks, and 360 loops that stood in testament to someone's weird taste in architecture, but here, he could take what frames of reference he could get. This world where all the other animals couldn't speak, let alone wear gloves or sneakers, and the people who looked like Eggman's kind were less homicidal. In this place, in this time, there was a small town called Green Hill, and he'd ended up here. If there was some kind of cosmic plan to the multiverse, then, well, job well done or something.

Key emphasis on the "or something" part of that sentiment. Because while there was a town called Green Hill in this place, how much longer it would be here was another matter. As he did a spin dash at the mech, got swatted aside, and ploughed through a wall of one of the houses that dotted the streets, how much longer there'd be a Green Hill remained to be seen.

Ow.

He stumbled out of the rubble. He span through robots as a hobby, ploughing through bricks wasn't too bad in comparison.

Gotta concentrate.

He zoomed towards the giant mech that was down the street. Had to get his head in the game. Less talk about green hills, about hearts, islands, and 360 loops that really, really, really made no sense when you actually thought about it. He-

Oh son of a-

The mech's hand swatted him again. This time he didn't plough through any buildings. Rather, he curled into a ball and used the road to slow his momentum. A road that now had a giant scar running through it, as if a giant knife had carved through it. If the road could feel pain, it would likely be screaming by now. Luckily for the road, it didn't feel pain, so that was a moot point. Unfortunately for Sonic, he did feel pain, and ploughing through tarmac didn't do his body any favours.

"What's the matter hedgehog? Off your game?"

But hearing Eggman's voice boom out over the mech's loudspeakers? That hurt more than anything right now.

"Game's good Egghead, just getting acquainted with the rules."

"Oh hedgehog, haven't you worked it out?" The doctor chuckled again, as only a madman like Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik could. "There are none!"

Worked that out ages ago you git.

He didn't say the words. His words were in his throat as the mech unleashed a barrage of missiles. He ran in a zig-zag pattern, getting close to the mech, but not too close. So when its hand came down to grab him, he was able to jump up into the air, unleash a spin attack, and plough into the construct. Enough to cause it to stagger, but to his dismay, do no visible damage.

Dang.

He'd faced worse, Sonic told himself. The mech was a giant robot in the shape of Eggman, no bigger than the one he'd faced on the Death Egg (the first time at least). Better armed, better armoured, and much faster, but apart from that, it was the same.

"Pitiful," Eggman sneered. "Absolutely pitiful."

But back then, he'd been fighting for his own world. He could see it through the Death Egg's portholes. He'd seen it after he'd escaped the space station and plummeted down through space and air, his super form providing him with protection long enough for Tails to catch him. Now? Tails wasn't here. This wasn't his world. The people here had done everything from chase after him to give him free food. He'd been here for a week. And in the midst of all that, he was back to fighting the mad scientist that had plagued his world. Like it was his fate or something.

"Green Hill," Robotnik said. Sonic couldn't tell if he was speaking to the town, his foe, or himself. "Takes us back, doesn't it?"

"Could say that," Sonic called out. He didn't feel like reminiscing with Eggman, but if he kept the doctor talking, it might give him time to find the mech's weakness. A job that he'd usually entrust to Tails, but…well, times had changed. Partly.

"We were so young," Eggman continued. "Me, thinking I could take you out with a simple wrecking ball. You, with a wisecrack with every other sentence."

"That was only a few years ago Egghead. What, you going senile on me?"

"And look at us now," Eggman declared, apparently not listening. "Me, in my greatest creation yet."

Isn't your most recent creation always your 'greatest creation yet?'

"You, fighting as if everything was the same. And this place, this world…" He laughed. "Green Hill. The site of our first battle. And our last."

"Yeah. Yours."

Eggman didn't say anything. For a moment, he just stood there. Or at least his mech stood there, the actual Doctor Eggman was probably seated down in the mech's cockpit, eating a ham and cheese sandwich. Just because the mech moved fast, that didn't mean that Eggman himself did.

But the mech did move fast. So when one hand extended forward, trying to crush the speedster before it, Sonic was able to dodge that. But when an actual wrecking ball extended from the other, swinging through the air…he couldn't dodge that.

Ow.

He let out an "oof" as he was sent through the air, crashing through another house and landing on the next street. He didn't say anything. Yelling wouldn't do anything to stop the pain, and words wouldn't heal his pride. Usually, by this stage in the fight, Eggman was at the "I'll get you, I'll get you!" stage. On a good day, he'd be flying off by now shouting "I hate that hedgehog!" Now?

"It's such a shame that it comes to this," Eggman said. Still lying on the ground, Sonic could hear the mech approach. "Our last battle, and you…" He sighed, actually sounding disappointed. "Where's your fire, hedgehog? Where's your spirit?"

He didn't answer. He just lay there, face down. Ready to let it end.

"Mister?" Someone poked him.

This wasn't his world. It wasn't Eggman's either, but he'd apparently taken a shine to it. And why wouldn't he? This world, their own world, he'd be happy conquering anything, and destroying whoever got in his way. South Island, Westside Island, Angel Island…there'd always been something or someone to fight for. Now? Who in this world could he call friend?

"Mister?" The poke came back, even harder than before.

"Go away," Sonic moaned. But the poking kept coming, and not in the way Tails poked him in a way that friends did. This was the kind of poke that said "get up you lazy git." So, turning to the poker, he saw a child. Or what he assumed was a child, in as much that their skin was pink, with a lack of any hair bar the head, and a stature even smaller than his.

"Mister, get up."

Sonic grunted. He sat up, but didn't get up. He watched the mech approach, towering above the destroyed houses. Smoke filled the air, but it was still above it all, like an angry god.

"Get going kid," Sonic said.

"Mister, fight him."

I have a name, he thought. But then, what did this kid know? If the kid had any good sense, he'd be with mummy and/or daddy, not with a pair of individuals that had no use for that sort of thing.

The mech came to a halt, just standing there. Briefly, Sonic's mind went back to when it had first turned up. The Green Hill Police Department (or GHPD, everyone loved acronyms here for some reason) had did what they could, and had lasted about ten seconds, as their bullets did nothing, and their cars went flying.

"End of the road, Sonic."

It occurred to him in retrospect that Eggman had never actually killed any of them. It was his one redeeming quality, he supposed. Put animals into badniks and enslave them? Sure. Commit murder? Apparently not.

"I'd say it's been a pleasure but…it really hasn't."

Attempted murder though? Eggman could do that. Sonic had no doubt that he'd meant it every time the doctor had said he'd destroy him. Just as he was trying to do now, as the mech's hand shot forward, ready to crush hedgehog and human like-

Huh?

The kid was still here. If he didn't move, he'd be crushed.

You're actually doing it.

Did Eggman know that he would take the lives of two people? Did he care?

Sonic didn't know. But he would never find out. Because in a split second, everything became clear. In a split second, he pushed the child aside, revved up into a spin, and shot through the air, hitting the hand, which in turn hit the mech's head, which in turn collapsed into the street.

Not happening. He looked to the kid. "Come on."

The child wasn't that heavy, barely weighing more than one of the animals Sonic sometimes carried back home after freeing them from a badnik. That was how the world had worked. Eggman would turn up, Sonic would beat his badniks, beat him, then spend a few weeks searching for stragglers. The people of this world looked a bit big to be used as organic batteries (though apparently they'd made a movie about it, one where everyone wore sunglasses), but he didn't want to find out. In a few seconds, he'd run ten blocks, back to where the GHPD was setting up a cordon. Whatever he could say about the people of this world (their absurd taste in clothing for starters), he could at least credit them for knowing to get away from the giant mech tearing up their town.

"Incoming!"

Was he the 'incoming?' He supposed so. He heard it microseconds before screeching to a halt. Luckily, the police didn't draw out their popguns as he held the child up towards them. They looked confused, but not angry.

"Here," Sonic said. "Mummy, daddy, kid…heck, I dunno. Do whatever you guys do."

The police just stood there.

"Oh for crying out-" Sonic put the child into the hands of one of the weirdos and zoomed off. He heard a woman screaming (something about "my baby"), and hoped that was a good sign. It was a sound that only filled his ears for mere seconds though. Before long, he was back in sight of the mech, which was getting to its feet. In microseconds, he'd revved up into a ball. A second later, there was a pair of booms. One that signalled the breaking of the sound barrier. The other from a super-sonic projectile that slammed into the mech, knocking it down again.

That felt good.

Sonic landed gracefully, which was more than he could say for the mech. He watched as he sat up. As it stared at him through glowing red eyes, behind which were a pair of spectacled eyes that he could imagine twitching.

"Very nice," Eggman whispered (though as it was coming out through a loudspeaker, it was still quite loud). "You've got your fire back."

"Spare me Egghead, I don't need compliments from you."

"Oh really? Then what did you need?"

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "The heck you on about?"

"What did it take to get you to actually start fighting again?" Eggman chuckled. "Please, do tell. I'd like to know what gave you your spine back before I reduce it, and you, to a pile of malignant ooze."

"That's…rather graphic."

"I'm an imaginative man." The mech got to its feet. "Go on, tell me. I might even make things less, ahem, 'graphic.'"

Sonic didn't say anything. The simple answer was that it had been the knowledge that if he hadn't fought, an innocent would have lost their life. Against Eggman, or any other villain, that would have been reason enough to fight. But he didn't say that. That wasn't the entirety of it. Instead, his mind was filled with the sign. A sign he'd seen here when he'd first arrived. A sign that had borne the name of a place long gone. A sign that had told him all he'd needed to know.

"Welcome to Green Hill. The little town with a big heart."

"Well?" Eggman boomed. "Have you anything to say?"

Sonic chuckled, and Eggman must have heard it, because he asked, "what?"

"No."

"No what?"

"No, I've got nothing to say," Sonic said, folding his arms. "You're here. I'm here. You're going to try and do what you always do, and I'm going to stop you, like I always do."

"Look around you hedgehog. Things aren't the same anymore."

He shrugged. "What can I say? The more things change, the more they stay the same."

It was perhaps a hope. A hope that there was a future for him beyond this moment. That he could win at all. That he could stand here, and if only for a second, look at grass, and not think of blades of a greener shade. But hope was hope. And hope, if applied correctly, could be a weapon more mighty than any of Eggman's creations.

With that, he unleashed another spin attack.

The battle wasn't over yet.