Prologue: Adieu, Vacation

"…zzz…"

"Sonic."

"…zzz…zzz…"

"Sonic…"

"Zzz… zzz… zzz…"

"Hey. Sonic."

"Urgh… what?"

"We're nearly here."

"Oh! Great!"

Awakening from his deep slumber… on the wing of the Tornado… Sonic the Hedgehog slowly opened his eyes and wiped them, and when he could see more clearly, he was dazzled by what he saw.

The sea below their flight was just as faintly green as it was blue, making for a shimmering spectacle of colour. But what was up ahead was even greater: An island of truly impressive scope, far greater in size than South Island and Westside Island combined. Some would say it's even larger than the floating Angel Island. All sorts of sights and geography could be seen to the naked eye even from afar. And if you looked at it from above, you would notice its shape was perfectly circular, like a smooth gemstone.

This island, known to the world at large as Viridonia, was where Sonic and his best friend Tails were planning to take a well-needed vacation. Saving the world was hard work, and after all the trials these two have faced, you couldn't say they didn't deserve it. But is it possible that malicious intentions could come along to make a mess of their intended vacation time…?

Well… we'll get to that when we get to that.

"Looks stunning, doesn't it?" Sonic asked out loud, with a massive grin on his face.

"It sure does," answered Tails with a smile, as he took in the pleasant view. "I've heard great things about this place, but seeing it is another story. I can't even begin to think of where to start with somewhere so big!"

"We have all the time in the world for that, so what's the rush?" Sonic glanced at the island once again, this time with a more thoughtful expression. "I just hope there's no trouble from Eggman this time around. We never get a break from him, do we?"

"Actually," Tails pointed out with a raised finger. "You told me there was no Eggman in those books that were lent to you. Well, technically there was a guy who looked like Eggman in the first one, but…"

"Alright, don't get technical with me," Sonic poked his tongue out in light jest. He then motioned towards the ground. "Okay, we're getting real close, let's find a spot to land."

"Right away," the fox obeyed, before adding "And uh… don't worry, I made sure to install the landing gear this time."

"Oh. Nice."

They landed on an empty stretch of sand by the sea, having made sure they wouldn't land in a place that would cause too much interference. The little beach was peppered with turquoise rocks that looked and shined like real gems, and the sand itself was more white than it was yellow. Despite being by the sea, the town nearby had a very modern appearance, full of elegant buildings teeming with a glassy sheen. As Tails spent a little more time fiddling around with the Tornado, Sonic wasted no time in admiring the setting, glancing at the many species of citizens walking around, minding their own business.

"Heh heh… just look at all this," Sonic said to himself as he marveled at the shining buildings, hands on his hips. He was definitely liking the look of his vacation spot. "So much to see, so much to do. And it's just me and Tails."

"~Soniiiiiic!~"

"And… Amy?"

Sonic turned to his right to find none other than Amy Rose, who was currently sprinting over to him with a big grin. Her younger friend, Cream, was tagging along behind her.

"Fancy seeing you here!" Amy beamed. Her tail was unashamedly wagging away in excitement.

"Oh uh, hey Amy…" Sonic muttered out of surprise. "Didn't know you'd be here… Why ARE you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? We wanted to go on a vacation of our own! And we just HAD to come here when we read all about it." She looked over to Cream, who simply nodded. "We haven't seen much of the place yet, but there's no hurry, right?"

Sonic looked over at Cream, as if he was expecting something from her.

"She's telling the truth, Mr. Sonic," the rabbit assured.

"Okay, good."

"Huh? What do you mean?" The pink hedgehog frowned as she crossed her arms. "You didn't think I just followed you here like some creepy weirdo, did you?"

"No, of course not," Sonic chuckled. "I'm sure you wouldn't do that… probably."

"Good! We didn't know you would be here, but how lucky for us that you are! Maybe we can go to the little park in Cosmic City together… maybe find the perfect spot for the two of us, ~hmm~?" She winked playfully, complete with a little spin.

"…Maybe. Maybe. We'll see," Sonic said in a very neutral manner, although he couldn't help but smirk at his friend's ever present determination. As he walked off to see how Tails was doing, Amy turned and noticed that Cream looked uncomfortable, despite the lack of any apparent danger.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Amy asked out of concern. "You still feeling a little anxious?"

The rabbit just nodded silently. Her hands were mildly fidgeting.

"Well, that's okay, you know." She put her hand on Cream's shoulder. "But your mother wouldn't have let you come with me if she felt it would be a bad idea… Although then again… she didn't mind you taking on evil monsters… or evil robots… and going through all sorts of dangerous places…" She shook her head and hoped her friend didn't hear that part. "This is meant to be a good time for both of us, Cream. It's why I brought you along, after all."

"I know, and I appreciate that very much, Amy," the girl thanked her politely. "Maybe I could have a little look around… but I won't go too far away from you, okay?"

"I know you won't," Amy smiled.

Meanwhile, Sonic was busy conversing with Tails. "I guess it won't just be us two after all while we're over here…"

"Is that really a bad thing?" Tails asked, as he skimmed through the pages of his Viridonia guidebook. "I mean, it's just Amy and Cream. They're not likely to cause trouble."

"True," Sonic shrugged as he looked to the side. He followed it up with a smile. "It's been a while since I hanged out with them anyway, so maybe this is a good opportuni-"

"OH MY GOD, IT'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"

"Sonic the Hedgehog!? Wow, it really IS Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"Sonic? And Tails? SONIC AND TAILS!?"

Within seconds, a bunch of guys and gals had surrounded the two friends, rapidly shaking hands with them and asking for autographs. Sonic, clearly used to this routine, handled it all very smoothly. Tails was considerably more flustered about getting so much sudden attention. They both received their share of emotionally-charged questions from the crowd.

"What's it like being the fastest thing alive!?"

"How do you make all those cool machines!?"

"What's the toughest battle you've ever been in…?"

"How fluffy are those tails?"

"WHEN WILL YOU AND AMY KISS?"

"Wait, did Amy tell you to ask that one?" Sonic inquired accusingly.

"OH MY GOD, AMY'S HERE TOO?"

"Uh… sorry Amy!" Sonic called out in his friend's direction, with the knowledge that she would soon get overwhelmed with fans of her own.

In an effort to get herself acquainted with where she'll be staying for the next few days, Cream had wandered into a nearby forest, accompanied by her loyal pet, Cheese. She took her time looking around, making sure she didn't get too lost in the place. The leaves were of an autumnal flavor, and fireflies could be seen lighting the place up, even during the daytime. The young rabbit was impressed with the scene, an innocent smile having planted itself on her face the whole time.

"It's so pretty, isn't it Cheese?" Her Chao friend nodded. "Maybe it was a little silly of me to get so tense. It's just a new experience for us, you know? I wonder if Amy would like this… Maybe Mr. Sonic would like it too? …Cheese? What's the matter?"

Noticing her friend was distracted by something, Cream turned her head in the same direction to see what had caught his attention. To her surprise, in front of them was a massive castle, much like the ones she had seen in many a fairytale as read by her mother. Its structures, made of solid stone, were all impeccably smooth, as were its dark green rooftops. The scene was complimented with a magnificent view of the distant hills from behind, as well as a gorgeous view of the clouds above. There was a small waterfall and lake close by to the right, and directly in front of the castle was an impressive little garden, filled with a colorful variety of flowers and plants.

The young rabbit was amazed by this unexpected sight. Who did this castle belong to? A king? A queen? She couldn't know for sure, but the healthy status of the garden indicated that someone definitely lived there even in the present time.

"This is so cool! We've got to tell the others about this!" Cream bounced up and down giddily. With an approving nod from Cheese, she turned to the opposite direction as she prepared to make her way back to the beach… only to be greeted with a pair of glowing red eyes staring down at her.

"What the-" Cream gasped as she looked up at the rather ominous entity that was towering over her. It didn't appear to have a fully solid form, as its body was made up of a misty black substance that occasionally gave off a sickly dark green hue. And yet, the girl could recognise prominent reptilian features, most notably a long tongue and a wide row of sharp, saliva-dripped teeth that were currently preparing to take a bite out of her. The top of its vaguely-shaped head appeared to be armored.

Cream slowly stepped back in horror. Even someone her age knew right away that this thing wasn't going to be friendly. Without thinking, without saying anything, she grabbed Cheese for dear life and ran off into the forest. She didn't know where she was headed, as the only thing on her mind was to get away from that monster as soon as possible.

Unfortunately for her, the monster was faster than she anticipated, for it didn't take long for it to block her path with its sizable mass.

Shaken, but unwilling to give up, she made a sharp turn towards an alternate direction, but the monster blocked her path in seconds once again. The third time was no luckier. Neither was the fourth time. Or the fifth time. Or the time after that. No matter how tricky Cream tried to be in her attempts to escape from the beast, it successfully countered and tracked her down each and every time, until at last, an especially large tree blocked the girl's path. She turned to the beast out of panicked frustration, and her whole body was shaking. She didn't even bother trying to fly away, as she knew it was too fast for her to escape that way. Contrasting her own fear, she hid Cheese behind her back, defending her beloved friend from its clutches. The monster opened its jaws, ready to make a meal out of the poor girl…

When suddenly, it threw its head back in what could be interpreted as a mix of confusion and anger. It turned its head violently in every direction possible, as if it were looking for something… as if it were distracted by something. With a mighty roar, its misty form escaped to the skies above, leaving the forest as quickly as it appeared.

Cream took a few seconds to check her heartbeat as she attempted to calm herself down from what just happened. She didn't know what that thing was, but she was glad it was gone. After checking that Cheese was safe and sound, she noticed there was a single arrow on the ground near where the monster was. She crouched down to closely examine the arrow, and she couldn't help but feel intrigued by the elegant patterns that she found on it.

"You okay there?"

Cream jumped a little upon being startled by the voice that was in very close proximity. The voice was unmistakably feminine, yet its pitch was low. She turned her head left only to find nothing, but when she turned to the right, she was greeted with a pair of knee-high boots standing tall, which were completely flat at the heels. She slowly glanced upwards to analyze the rest of the female figure before her, observing such details as brown pants, a thick tail, a light tank top, and a pair of gloves that reached up to the elbows, one of which was holding onto a maroon bow. They were also wearing a backpack containing a number of arrows similar to the one that was currently in Cream's hand. The figure itself had a mature build, her fur a gentle mint green, and with the exception of her pants, all of her clothes were different shades of blue. Finally, the rabbit looked up at the head, but all she could see was a pair of cool brown eyes, for the rest of the woman's face was obscured by a bandana from the bottom, and a headscarf from the top. Two arched ears poked out of the headscarf, as did a ponytail as large as her head, its shape being strikingly similar to that of her actual tail.

The young girl wordlessly offered the arrow to the woman, not knowing what else to do. The woman in turn took a hold of it, and placed it back in with the rest of her arrows.

"Sorry you had to bear witness to that repulsive fiend," the woman said as she held her nose up high as a sign of contempt in reference to the beast, not that you could see it when her bandana was covering it. She then casually glanced at the surrounding trees with her hands on her hips. "I'm afraid we've been troubled by this thing for a short while now. Been causing all sorts of strife, so it has." She paused to flutter a gloved hand in front of her masked face in disgust. "Stinks quite offensively as well, for that matter… Are you alright?"

Though Cream could safely assume this person meant no harm - they just saved her life, after all - she was still a little bit intimidated and anxious. It didn't take long for the woman to sense this, as she walked closer to the girl and slowly kneeled down to match her height. Upon getting a closer look at the figure's eyes, Cream could see that there was a faint, light blue tint to her sclera. Yet, they didn't show any sign of malice. On the contrary in fact, they brought her own mother to mind.

"It's okay, sweetie," the older one assured in a comforting tone. She pulled down her bandana to reveal her soft muzzle, which was a rather pale shade of tan. The two slits that formed her nostrils confirmed that she was a horse.

"You're safe now," she added as she slowly rubbed Cream's hand. "You don't need to be afraid of me."

"I…" Cream took a moment to gather her thoughts. This little experience was all very sudden for her. "Thank you for saving me, but… I shouldn't be talking to strangers…"

"I suppose not." The woman couldn't help but chuckle a little at the rabbit's innocence. "But the least I could do is make sure you're safe around here. Where's your mother?"

"Oh, I didn't come here with my mother," Cream explained. "I came here with my friend, Amy. I told her that I wanted to get familiar with this place, because I'm not used to being this far away without my mother for so long, and…"

She stopped upon making the dreaded realisation that with all the directions she had went to escape the beast, she now had no idea whereabouts in the forest she was.

"Oh no…" she panicked, looking down at the ground worriedly. "I told Amy I wouldn't get lost here… She's going to wonder where I went…"

"I can take you back to her if you want," the horse offered with a soft smile. "I live around here, you know. I know this forest like the back of my hand."

Cream looked at Cheese, who in turn glanced at the horse, as if he were silently coming to his own conclusion on whether she could be trusted. He nodded, and the girl felt at ease. "Okay… If you're sure that would be alright, Miss… Miss…"

"Lutrudis," the woman answered for her. "The name's Lutrudis." Still holding her hand, she slowly stood up once more. Cream couldn't help but notice that she looked somewhat exhausted just by doing this simple motion, but she put it to the back of her mind, figuring it wasn't a big deal. As they began walking out of the forest together, Cream decided to continue their conversation.

"Miss Lutrudis, can I ask what your surname is?"

"My surname is Hadeer. Why do you ask?"

"It's so that I can call you Miss Hadeer. I don't like being rude."

"Oh, you're hardly being rude at all," the horse looked down at her with content amusement. "You don't need to be so formal with me, Cream. Just Lutrudis will do."

"Wait a minute… You know who I am?"

"I know who Amy is too," the horse shrugged. "Why wouldn't I know who you two are? You don't go on all those adventures without the rest of the world catching word of them. Especially not when they involve a certain friend of yours called…" She paused deliberately with a knowing smirk as she touched her cheek with her index finger in faux-thought. "…Sonic, I think his name is?"

"Well, Mr. Sonic is pretty famous," Cream giggled, which was quickly replaced with her excitedly coming up with an idea. "I can't wait for him to meet you!"

Lutrudis' smirk slowly faded, and in its place was a look of mild shock, as she gradually realised what she meant. "…He's here?"

"Yeah! He came here for a vacation! So did Tails!"

"Chao!" Cheese helpfully added.

"I see…" Lutrudis slowly muttered as she mentally processed the realisation. She never thought Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest thing alive, the saviour of the world a hundred times over, would ever show his face in Viridonia. And yet against all expectations, he apparently has. And now she's being offered to meet him? To meet Sonic the Hedgehog?

"Would you like to see him?" Cream asked politely.

Snapping out of the sudden rush in her mind, Lutrudis looked down at her new friend with an impressive amount of restraint, but with an obvious hint of excitement. "Well… if it would be no inconvenience to him…"

"Not at all! He loves meeting new people!… As long as they're not bad people, hee hee." She grabbed Lutrudis' hand tighter as she prepared to make a dash. "Let's go find them! I think they'll like you!"

"Slower, please," the horse gently requested. She had a look of strain on her face that appeared to be caused by the brief moment of running, but she quickly tried to disguise it so as to not alert her friend. "I know you guys are fast on your feet, but my endurance kind of stinks… It's not like we're in a hurry anyway, right?"

"Yes, you're right. Sorry, Miss Hadee-" The girl was quick to fix her verbal error. "…Sorry, Lutrudis." She giggled again.

Lutrudis could only smile to herself once again in return.

"There you are, Cream! I was starting to wonder where you went."

"Sorry for worrying you, Amy," Cream replied. "But I got lost in the forest when this big monster attacked me!"

"Monster…?" Amy inquired out of concern. Wasn't this supposed to be their vacation destination? Yet they only just arrived, and already there's a villain running around?

"Yes, it was really scary…" The young rabbit closed her eyes tightly at the memory of the beast. "I don't think it's anything that Mr. Sonic faced before either…"

"Well, well! What's this about me and a monster?" asked Sonic, having finally finished dealing with the crowd of enthusiastic fans along with Tails. He sounded more than just casually curious about the subject.

"The monster who was chasing me in the forest," Cream explained to him. "It was big, and it was fast, and it had really large teeth! And big red eyes too!"

"There's a lot of monsters who fit that description…" Sonic lightly snarked to himself, before rubbing the rabbit's head affectionately. "Don't worry about it, Cream. We'll send it packing in no time! Am I right, Tails?"

"Sure," Tails answered, sighing to himself. "But of course this had to happen when we were supposed to be taking a vacation. We're never gonna get a break, are we?"

"Aw, c'mon Tails," Sonic put his arm around the fox. "The sooner we get rid of them, the sooner we can get to that. Nothing we can't handle, eh?" He gently nudged his friend repeatedly. "Eh? Eh? Eh?"

"Yeah, yeah," Tails smiled as he rolled his eyes light-heartedly at his friend's eager attitude for adventure. "So uh… who's the lady with the bow and arrows?"

He gathered everyone's attention by pointing at Lutrudis, who had been standing there the whole time without saying a word. Her hands were clasped tightly behind her back, and her eyes were pointing to the ground. Her feet were mildly fidgeting.

"That's Lutrudis Hadeer!" Cream beamed excitedly. "She saved me from the monster!"

"Is that so?" Sonic smiled as he walked over to Lutrudis, stretching his arm out to offer a hand shake. "Pleased to meet ya! I'm Sonic!"

Lutrudis glanced at Sonic's hand, then looked up at Sonic's smiling face, then looked back down at his hand again. Her facial expression was calm, but her mind was busy. Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are here. Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends are here. And now they're talking to her. Her. What was she to say? What was she to do? How could she talk to Sonic the Hedgehog without making a fool of herself…?

"Hi…" Lutrudis muttered shyly, finally breaking her silence. She slowly shook Sonic's hand. "Please excuse me, I'm a… really big fan of you guys… truly honored to meet you all."

"You know who we are?" Amy asked.

"Well, you guys save the world all the time, do you not?" Lutrudis shrugged sheepishly, her hands once again clasped behind her back. "Yeah… I know a lot about you lot…"

"Really now…?" Sonic smirked as he rubbed his hands together fiendishly. "How about a little trivia quiz! Where does the Master Emerald dwell?"

"On Angel Island, of course." Lutrudis waved her right hand at nothing in particular. "Everyone knows that."

"Alright. And where do, say… the Sol Emeralds stay?"

"In the Sol Dimension, obviously."

"Not bad, not bad…"

"I've got one!" Amy giddily announced. "Where did I first meet my one true love?"

"At Never Lake, on the way to the Little Planet," Lutrudis answered, not bothering to acknowledge Sonic rolling his eyes at what Amy referred to him as.

"My turn," Tails grinned. "What colour of Chaos Emerald did I use to power up the Tornado?"

"The red one," the horse replied, without skipping a beat.

"Nice!" Tails complimented.

"She really knows her stuff!" Cream added.

"Okay, here's the big one!" Sonic dramatically waved his hands in the air for a few seconds before pointing directly at the mare. "…What's my weight?"

Lutrudis blinked in response to the unexpectedly personal nature of the question. The lack of an immediate response briefly convinced Sonic that he had her on the ropes, but it didn't take long for Lutrudis to casually cross her arms, with a smirk of her own. She slowly tilted her head back as she looked at Sonic, still smirking.

"35 kilograms."

Sonic paused. He stared at her for a few seconds before turning his head to his friends, who were similarly shocked. He turned it back to Lutrudis.

"…You're scary."

"Heh," the woman politely curtsied. "I guess I won that little questionnaire then?"

"You bet!" Sonic grinned. "Your know-how is awesome!…And slightly terrifying when you really think about it…But awesome!"

"See?" Cream laughed. "I told you they would like you!"

Lutrudis smiled nervously as she kept darting her eyes between Sonic, Tails, Amy and Cream. It was still very surreal and nerve-wracking for someone like her to be chatting away with such famous heroes, but if she hadn't screwed up her introduction just yet, then maybe she didn't have anything to worry about.

"Oh god, there it is again!" a random cheetah passerby commented out loud in a frightened tone. "Run for your lives!"

As if on cue, the majority of citizens started bolting out of the area in a panicked frenzy. Sonic could only watch in confusion as everyone left the scene, bar his own little group.

"That's it!" Cream cried with a pointed finger. "That was the monster that chased me!"

Sonic immediately turned his head to look behind himself, and sure enough, the shadowy beast was hovering right there in the plaza. Curiously, it didn't seem to be doing much damage in the area, nor did it bother going for any of the escaping citizens. But as far as Sonic was concerned, if it's a monster that needed to be dealt with, then it's a monster that needed to be dealt with… As long as Amy didn't get rid of it first.

"Hey, you think you can scare away my friend?" Amy asked angrily as she took out her trusty hammer. "Not on my watch, buddy!"

The demon could only respond by roaring aggressively in Amy's direction. The pink hedgehog actually had to focus on keeping her footing, lest she fall over from the sheer force of the roar. Frustrated, she opted to just throw her hammer right in the monster's face, scoring a direct hit. As the beast shook its head in a rage, Amy grabbed Cream and called out to the Blue Blur.

"Sonic! I'll get Cream out of here before it notices her again!"

"But Amy!" Sonic called out in return. "What about your hammer?"

"It's okay, I've got hundreds of those!" Amy ran off with her rabbit friend. "Give it a good socking for me!"

"I'd give it one regardless…" Sonic muttered to himself resignedly, before turning his attention to Tails. "Think you can handle this, buddy?"

Tails simply nodded as he continued glaring at the beast.

The blue hedgehog then turned to Lutrudis, who was taken aback by having to see the monster again so soon after the previous time. "Hey! Are you good with those arrows of yours?"

"I, uh…" Lutrudis darted her eyes between Sonic and the beast, quite obviously a little distracted by the situation she was suddenly thrown into. "I'm still learning with them, but I've landed a hit on it before…"

"Great," Sonic snapped his fingers. "Help us out if you can, will ya?"

"I'll… I'll try."

"That's the spirit." Sonic prepared himself as the monster roared once again in fury. "Alright Mr. Cloudy, show us what you've got!"

BOSS: ?

Yes, like Chaos Zero in Sonic Adventure, we start things off with a boss fight. The plaza near the beach makes up the arena. The ground is completely flat, but that won't be a problem here. This is basically just an early way of getting the player acquainted with the controls, without needing to bother with all that pesky "tutorial" nonsense.

Anyhow, Mr. Cloudy - presumably not his real name - only has a few attacks to subdue you with. Its favourite attack is spewing a pillar of dark mist from its mouth, as though it were breathing fire. Somewhat cunningly for such an early boss, it likes to aim at you when it does this, but it's nothing that can't be foiled with a spin dash if you're Sonic, or simply flying if you're Tails. It also likes to summon a shadowy tentacle with a clawed hand at its tip, to which it attempts to swipe you with. Just jump over this, it's no big deal.

While you're fighting it, Lutrudis is carefully walking around the perimeter of the arena. Always walking mind you, never running. Don't worry, she doesn't need to be protected. What you want to do is attack the monster's head three times. How you do it or how long it takes you to do it doesn't matter, hitting it thrice at all is the only required criteria. When this happens, Lutrudis will use the beast's extreme focus on your character as an opportunity to fire one of her arrows at it. This doesn't hurt the beast, but it will snarl and turn towards her direction in response. It's at this point that a peculiar spot on the back of its neck starts glowing wildly. Yes, this is the weakpoint, if you hadn't guessed before I even started this sentence. Give that a whack, and its health meter will at last go down just a bit.

It doesn't get any more complicated than this, though it does add one more attack to its arsenal after you've damaged it twice, and thus brought it down to half its health. It floats above the arena for a few seconds, before slamming the ground with a mighty crash, creating a dark shockwave in the process. The shockwave's speed might throw you off guard, but again, nothing to worry about. Just hit it where it counts two more times, and the job is done. Don't expect future boss encounters to be this easy, hero.

In response to the beating it just received, the beast roared violently yet again, before taking to the skies like it did before. Sonic dusted himself off as he checked to make sure Tails and Lutrudis were okay.

"Yep, that was a bad guy alright," Sonic commented, glancing up at the sky with a raised eyebrow. "Ran away like a bad guy too. We better track that thing down before it causes more trouble… What even IS that thing anyway? It doesn't scream 'local wildlife' to me…"

"I wish I knew," Lutrudis replied as she gathered her arrows. "The only thing I DO know is that it's been here for… about over a week, I believe. I think it's been getting stronger during that time, but I don't know for sure…"

"Well, whatever the deal is with it, we're gonna get it straight outta here," Sonic cracked his knuckles with confidence. "Right, Tails?"

"Right," the fox confirmed as he stretched his titular tails as well as his arms.

"I'm so sorry about this," Lutrudis rubbed the back of her head meekly. "Cream told me you guys came here for vacation's sake, and now this happens."

"Why apologise?" Sonic checked carefully for marks on his sneakers, going from one sneaker to the other, then back again. "It's not like you were the bad guy."

"Well, no, but…" She sighed. "You shouldn't need to get involved with this. You guys are always busy as it is…"

"Hey now! That's the way I like it!" The hedgehog winked with a toothy grin.

"…I'm not entirely opposed to it either," Tails shrugged half-jokingly.

"Well, if you're sure…" The horse pointed in the left direction of the plaza. "I think it was headed for that way. That's where the meadows are. Maybe it has a hideout there…?"

"Then what are we waiting for?" Sonic asked rhetorically as he hit the palm of his hand with his fist. "No use standing around here chatting idly! Let's go after 'em!"

"You guys go on ahead," Lutrudis muttered while she rubbed her arm. She looked notably dejected. "I'll only slow you two down… literally. I can't run that fast."

"Let me help with that," Tails gladly suggested as he used his twin tails to perform his signature form of flight, before clasping his hands with Lutrudis' own as he picked her gently off the ground. With Lutrudis in tow, Tails floated not too high above the land as Sonic started jogging below them.

"…You're not acrophobic, are you?" Tails suddenly asked in a sheepish tone.

"This height is fine," Lutrudis assured him. "But like I was saying, I can't run much because… …" She paused before going through with her explanation, and she tilted her head slightly to and fro as if she was mentally arguing with herself. She decided to to change course instead. "Well anyway, why bother taking me with you guys? What good will I do?"

Sonic could only chuckle to himself. "Maybe we just wanna hang out with a friend!"

"…F-Friend…?" Lutrudis seemed genuinely astonished by the hedgehog's simple statement.

"Yeah! You're our friend now, right?"

"But… you only just met me…?"

"Hasn't stopped him before," Tails smiled knowingly, clearly talking from experience.

"Besides," Sonic added. "We've never been here before! We could use a handy tour guide! AND you did pretty good back there too! So what makes you think you'll slow us down?"

Lutrudis had nothing to say to that, in part because she was still shocked by the revelation that Sonic the Hedgehog now considered her a friend. She looked down at him, then she glanced up at Tails. She slowly moved her eyes to the side as she let out a bashful smile, and her ears drooped ever so slightly.

As they moved closer and closer towards the meadows in Viridonia, the horse concluded that the next few days were most likely going to be very eventful for her.