Equal Footing

Chapter 1: No Messing with Time

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic and co. are owned by Sega.

Any visitor to the Mystic Ruins would most likely go for a chance to escape the nearby metropolis, Station Square or maybe to see the ruins of the ancient echidna civilisation if they're that way inclined. Of course other would go to lay eyes upon the brown house with the several machinations on the hill, just off the cliff, near the train station. It's odd to have famous people live so far away from everything put then again the two celebrities didn't exactly see themselves that way, just an inseparable pair doing their part to keep the world safe. Of course their part of that task was stooping the mechanical mad man Dr. Eggman from taking over the world they are going to get some media coverage. Sure, they're various different people who also fight the good fight but these two have been doing it the longest. The names Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prower are often mentioned at least once in every household. With their fame they would be welcomed to live anywhere but instead they settles down here, out in the country in Tails' Workshop.

Unlike most days thought, the Mobian who the workshop is named after is absent and the blue blur is the one coup up inside the house. As the names suggest, Sonic is a Mobian hedgehog with blue fur but peach arms, belly and muzzle. Like most male Mobians he didn't wear much: just a pair of gloves, some socks and his famed red sneakers with a white strap and buckle. The hedgehog hit fame by using his ability to run and the speed of sound and curl up into a ball to thwart the egg shaped human's first takeover attempt. Of course he wasn't doing a lot of running right now.

Currently the hedgehog's green eyes were closed and covered by a book that he had been promising himself he would finish, a book called "Sonic and the Black Knight". He knew what happened, he lived it and changed the books contents and title from what it was originally, "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table". That was an odd adventure put he thought he had at least read it once as he did with another book he was sent into, "Sonic the Secret Rings". However while reading it on the couch he had fallen asleep, his quills hanging over the armrest while the two quills on his back and tail were poking into the couch. Thankfully his genius sidekick and best friend Tails had made ever piece of furniture they had hedgehog-proof. He didn't understand and didn't really need to.

The only reason he was reading instead of running was because Tails, an orange Mobian fox with two tails (hence his nickname), white fur on his belly and end of his tails, blue eyes, three long bangs of hair on his forehead, gloves, socks and his own half red and half white sneakers, said that he had picked up something odd on one of his devices and wanted to check it but wanted Sonic nearby just in case something happened. As it was for reassurance the hedgehog had agreed but ended up regretting it.

The door flew open and the fox burst in, excited about something. "Sonic! Sonic where are you?"

This woke up the once slumbering hedgehog, causing him to jump off the sofa and hit the floor. "Ow, right on the tail" he muttered to himself. The fox came dashing over to him, keeping his hand cupped together.

"Sorry Sonic, I didn't know you were sleeping" he apologised.

"No worries, the hedgehog said while getting up. "It's about time I woke up. That book really thick though."

"Why are still trying to read it then?" The fox had heard about Sonic's storybook adventures but was in two minds about whether or not they were some chilidog inspired dreams. But if his big brother said they were true with a straight face then he was also inclined to believe him.

"I feel like I should" he replied casually, putting the book back on the shelf. "What's gotten you so shouty?"

"These." The fox opened his hand to show some thick black and purple shards of something.

Sonic was still no nearer to knowing what the big fuss is. "Before I ask what these are you do know not to play with glass right?"

The kit half closed his eyes looking unimpressed; he wasn't taking him seriously again. "Yeah, since I was fine. Let me just put these down" he said heading into the kitchen before shouting. "Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you wash the dishes?"

"Because I cooked today, remember?" They had chilidogs, his favourite food and one of the fox's favourites as well. "It'll be unfair if I had to cook and clean."

Tails sighed. "Yeah yeah, I know. I'll do it after this" he moaned as he got a clean plate out of the cupboard and put the shards on a clean plate.

"Might as well do it now" Sonic said crossing his arms. "You're going to have to tell me what these are so it makes sense." He couldn't but smile at the fox's miffed look.

"Fine" he said begrudgingly as he took off his gloves. "It does make sense; you must be getting better at that."

"At what?"

"Making sense" he said with a smirk as he started the dishes.

"Ha ha" the older Mobian said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. He started examining his little brother's find. "So smart guy, what are these? You break something?"

"No, you did."

The confused the hedgehog. "What?"

It was Tails' turn to smile. "Those are shards of Time Eater's core."

Sonic's eyes widen. "Really? How'd they get here? Shouldn't they be stuck in the centre of time?"

Time Eater was a robot that was at the heart of Eggman's latest plan. That machine had the ability to erase time and space, leaving it white and lifeless, and it needed two people to pilot it. So the doctor recruited his past self to help him who agreed. The mad men unveiled their creation at Sonic's birthday party where they sent all of the party guest to that white world where they were frozen in time until he and his past self saved them. Everything went back to normal when the Sonics used the Chaos Emerald to turn into Super Sonic and defeat Time Eater in the centre of time by destroying its core, hence the confusion.

"That's what I thought" the fox replied, drying his hands (there are only two plates for two people after all) and putting his gloves back on. "I was surprised when my emerald detector picked up a sign in the jungle."

The hedgehog put his hand on his chin, his thinking face as the pair called it. "Question, why would your emerald detector detect the shards?"

The kit shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure but I can only guess it's the same reason Time Eater reacted badly to the Chaos Emeralds. I am intrigued as to how it worked so I hope to analyse these."

"Don't let me stop you but what would you do with that? Make a time machine of something?"

Tails put on his thinking face while putting the plates away. "Tempting but no. No good ever comes from travelling to the past, like what happened on your birthday and all those sci-fi films."

The hedgehog nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I get what you're saying. Although why does that make me think of that city on fire we came across?" Using Time Eater, Eggman and his past self brought several locations from his past into the white world but there was one nobody knew.

"Crisis City?" Tails asked, a little perplexed. Both of them felt like they had been there before and that there was something odd about those flames. Some of their friends felt a similar connection: his friendly rival Knuckles the Echidna, his less friendly rival Shadow the Hedgehog, the alluring spy Rouge the Bat and the time traveller Silver the Hedgehog who felt a stronger connection than the rest. Then there was Blaze the Cat, otherworldly princess and Guardian of the Sol Emeralds, she actually knew the name of that place and the only reason they knew the name. She knew something about that place but any attempt to get more information out her were futile, she's very good at hiding things.

Sonic clicked his fingers in front of his unresponsive face, causing him to jump a little. The kit had a habit of being lost in thought so the hedgehog graciously took the job of snapping him out of it especially if it was during a conversation with him, waiting for his next sentence was not his style. "You were saying?" he said.

"Sorry" the fox apologised, putting one hand behind his head. "I have no idea."

Sonic sighed. "All that waiting for him to think wasted" he thought. The fox was already holding the plate with the shards and heading towards his lab in the basement.

"Hey Tails, before you disappear into your lair for hours can ask you something?"

The fox stopped. "Anything in the past you'd want to see again?"

Tails thought about for a few seconds. "Maybe but some areas of the past are better left in the past. Now the future, that's what I'd like to see. You?"

Despite his little brother's answer reminding him of a certain ultimate life form, the hedgehog answered instantly. "A few things but I'm happy in the present."

He smiled which was met by one of the fox's own. "Well, you know where I am if you need me." As he closed the door and descended down the stairs Tails found himself lost in his thoughts once again.

"I know he did cook but I went out, so why couldn't he wash up. He uses them too. It's unfair but he is the older brother and I don't want that job again anytime soon. Can't live with him, can't live without him. Oh well, at least I have something to work on now, until he makes dinner. I doubt he'll need me before then, he never does." He smiled a little as he reached the worktop. "Okay, let's see what you're made of."

It had been several hours since Tails started his experiments and so far he hadn't deciphered much of the mystery. "This is going to be difficult. The only thing I've found id that whoever created this before Eggman found it can't be from this world. Or time even." While wondering his next move his ended up being drawn towards the cockpit of the Tornado 2, where the light blue Chaos Emerald was currently residing. Finding it had been a stroke of luck; Sonic had found it Apotos during one of his runs and given it to Tails as the Tornado 2 needs a Chaos Emerald to reach its full potential.

He remembered back in that white world, the red Chaos Emerald was also frozen in time and was suspended in the area that turned out to be Planet Wisp. Before Sonic and his past self could restore it to its glory, its power repelled Time Eater which caused four of them to agree to collect the Chaos Emeralds. "I wonder if I could get a reaction out of the shards with the emerald." Spinning his namesakes the fox took to the air and removed the gem from the console before returning to where he just was."If I put the emerald near the shards I should be able to get some kind of reaction which I can gauge. Perhaps this will give me the clue I need to continue". He set a few devices in order to see what kind of reaction he would get before he set the gem near the shards.

As the two factors started to glow, the fox decided to move them closer, making them glow brighter. After a couple of minutes of the Tails boldly decided to place them right next to each other. As he did they started to glow brighter until a surge of chaos and time energy ended flowing into him. He wasn't as in tune to chaos as people who regularly used the emeralds, like Sonic, Shadow and Silver. In fact he needed the Super Emeralds in order to go super. So there was nothing he could do as it pulsed in his body. In his scrambled thoughts, the only one he could really make out was "This wasn't my best idea".

Sonic's mental debate on what to have for dinner that wasn't chilidogs was interrupted as he sensed chaos energy, but something was wrong with it. Having used the emeralds so many times allowed him to sense large amounts of chaos energy, it wasn't on par with more chaos sensitive being like Knuckles and Shadow but saying that he wasn't born of alien blood or spends his life watching a giant rock it wasn't bad. "But the only source of chaos energy around here is that Chaos Emerald I found the other day and that's in the lab with..."

He then remembered that Eggman's time erasing monstrosity didn't mix well with the emeralds. His blood froze. "Tails" he said quickly and quietly before he dashed down the stairs into the fox's lair. "Tails!" he shouted only to find streams of energy everywhere. It looked like blue lightening and a large amount of it was following into his beloved brother!

"Tails!" he shouted using his famed speed to reach his side in an instant. He reached out to grab the fox and pull him out of harm's way only to receive a little zap for his efforts. "Ow" he moaned a little, shaking it off, he'd been though worse. With his brain now working as fast as his feet Sonic deduced that this was caused by having the emerald and the shards of Time Eater's core too close together and that the solution to the problem was to separate them. Quickly grabbing the powerful gem the hedgehog dashed up stairs and threw it in the closet before running back down the stairs to check on his friend.

Said friend was currently lying on his belly on the metallic floor of the lab, unconscious and not moving. "Tails!" he cried out again before he reached his side a split second later, flipping the younger Mobian on his back. Seeing that his stomach was breathing, the hedgehog breathed a deep sigh of relieve. "Don't scare me like that bro" he said quietly to himself.

Before he even could react the fox started to grow, shocking Sonic. Not just size but age as well. His little brother grew to a size that was similar to his own with his attire, tails and bangs of his hair growing as well. The kit's fur also became a tone darker, becoming somewhere between brown and orange. In fact if the speedster had to pick an age he would say something around his own.

"What the?" he gasped, his eyes wide and mouth wide open. "What just happened? How?" His gaze was averted to the shards of Time Eater's core. "Eggman" he hissed before deciding that the floor was no place for his best bud.

Hooking his arm around the once-kit's body he started to take Tails to his bed. "You've put on some weight since the last time I did this" he thought before saying, "You need to wake up soon and figure this out. That's your department, not mine."