3236, Day 147; Dead of Night

He lay in bed, barely moving but awake. Sleep had continued to elude him that night. He was perfectly comfortable, he was tired, and there was nothing to keep him awake. But still Sonic couldn't sleep.

It was near midnight when he almost felt himself drift off to sleep, but suddenly he jolted awake as an ear-piercing noise shook the house like a drum skin. It sounded rather like a crash. Sonic yelled and sat straight up, covering his ears with two ungloved hands.

'The hell was that?' he virtually shrieked as he slowly moved his hands to his sides and lifted himself up from the bed. He fumbled around in his room for the light and clumsily fiddled around a protrusion in the wall before finally managing to flick it. He scrunched his eyes up at the light until they started to adjust and then fetched his gloves from his nightstand. He tried to walk out of his room and put his shoes on at the same time, but after staggering and almost falling over, he left them behind and slid downstairs on the rail.

He swung open his front door to find a hole, about six feet in diameter in the middle of his front lawn with that trail of smoke rising from it. People had begun to come outside and were trying to talk over each other about the noise. Sonic looked up to the sky for a short while. The night was rather cold, but the wind was low. The moon was a waning crescent and strangely large. The stars were absent, like they were hiding from the hole.

Some people had started to see the smoke, so drew closer to the source. Sonic could hear the people were saying things like 'What do you suppose it is?' or 'What's going on?'. They all look concerned and, in some cases, rather annoyed at their sleep being disturbed. Sonic crouched down to peer into the crater for a while, before Tails came over to look.

'Woah, so that was what it was?' Tails looked up at Sonic, and he shrugged as if to say, 'I guess?'
Sonic then said 'Where do you suppose it came from?'. Tails then stared at Sonic, looking rather condescending.
'Uhhh...From space, maybe?'
'Well I know that, but where in space?'
'Let's have a look.' Tails reached into the crater and, after much struggle, eventually pulled out a meteorite about a foot long. It was half-black, half-red. Tails looked around it. The red part wasn't hot, and the black part wasn't ash-like in consistency. It was all very strange.

After a heavy exhale out of his nose, he finally said, 'Absolutely no idea.' He put his hand to his face, 'There is nowhere, in this solar system at least, that has rock like that.'
'So, this could be from, like, OUTER outer space?'
'Almost definitely. I could probably give you a good idea of where it IS from, if I were to take it home for the night.'
After an approving nod from Sonic, Tails walked home with it under his shoulder.

3236, Day 148; Mid-Morning

The meteor under his shoulder, Tails knocked on Sonic's front door before letting himself in. He noticed a shelf had collapsed to the floor, with a broken vase and a telephone off its receiver.

'Sonic‽' Tails yelled out as he started to turn a corner leading into the kitchen, 'Do you know your shelf has...' He trailed off when he saw the state of the room. Chests and cupboards had all tipped over, and the tap had broken off. In the sink, it lay covered in stains of red. Tails scrunched his face up and looked away. He went to go up the stairs. Some of the wallpaper had been ripped off and all the carpet on the stairs had been taken away.

'The hell?' Tails muttered to himself before yelling up again, 'I conducted some tests but I still haven't found anything.' He ran his fingers over a thick split before furrowing his brow and starting to walk upstairs. More of the carpet was torn off, and one of the doors was missing.
'Sonic?' he said, his voice starting to tremble, 'Where are you?'

'Ohh... I'm afraid your friend has had to go away for a while...'

Where did that voice come from? What was it?

A figure came from the door. It was Sonic, but his eyes were an inky black with red pupils. His teeth were jagged and his smile was wide. His fur was ragged and stained red. Tails made a voiced gasp and held out his hand slightly.

'But you can always play with me.'