Sonic's Story

It wasn't a little-known fact that Sonic enjoyed his sleep. Probably because, running all around the Earth and then some to thwart the Doctor's schemes and save the helpless, he didn't have too much time to sleep. So, Sonic often found himself sleeping very similar to how he ran: wherever the wind would take him. He found it comfortable that way, though Tails always questioned why he never slept in the workshop.

(The workshop wasn't always so—originally it was a house, back when Tails was a littler kit, a legit home where Sonic could raise him. Then Tails grew up to be as much of an egghead as the kingpin pinhead himself, and took up a lot more space with his tinkering, although the upstairs, which held the bedrooms and bath, was still intact. Sonic was sure that his old DJ advertising posters hung within his room to date, he barely went there.)

And, in his humble opinion, after defeating Perfect Chaos, the Biolizard, a whole freaking space station, some wacko aliens, and Metal Sonic (again!), he earned a little shut-eye. Besides, only in his dreams could he have endless chili dogs, and sorry, but that beat snowboarding down a busy city street any day.

In the end, he crashed on a grassy outlook between Emerald Coast and Tails' workshop, folded his legs, closed his eyes, and let the sweet chili-powered dreams ensue. He expected at least a few hours' worth of naptime before his ears twitched to the inevitable noise of the Egg Carrier roaring overhead, howling critter containers waiting to be popped open and an Eggman waiting to get poached, but instead, a high-pitched girlish squeal—an achingly familiar girlish squeal—jarred him back to a space woefully devoid of chili dogs.

"Sonic! So-nic! Look what I got!" Sonic snorted as he woke from his siesta to his most loyal fan holding blurred tickets right to his nose. He blinked the sleep from his eyes to focus and made out the words "Soleanna Festival" printed on them in fire decal. He yawned, pushing himself onto his elbows and scratching his spines.

"What're these about?" Amy pushed them closer to his eyes if such a thing was possible, a wide smile on her face.

"There's a thing called the Festival of the Sun in that city a couple of miles away, Soleanna! There's gonna be fireworks and dancing and food and it'll be the perfect mood for some ro-mance," she mused, a faraway look on her face. Sonic almost rolled his eyes, but he would've been lying if his interest wasn't piqued—at least, by everything except the romance. As much as he liked sleeping, he wasn't going to pass up a festival of fun.

"Sounds cool," he said, catching her by surprise.

"Really?" Her eyes sparkled with optimism as he stood up from the grass, brushing clingy blades from his fur.

"Yeah. When is it?" If she could get any more excited, she might have exploded on the spot. Her quills were already raised to resemble her hairstyle from a year back.

"It's tonight!"

"Tonight, eh?" He bent over to stretch his legs with a grin. "You're giving me too much time there."

"I wanted us to have enough time to do the ceremony, then we could go to the festival."

"Ceremony?"

"Wedding ceremony, of course!" He sighed and shook his head.

"Amy, how many times do I hafta tell you 'no'? Although," he said to her ensuing pout, a little nervous for a sudden chase scene or, worse, a game of Whack-A-Hedgehog with her Piko Piko Hammer, "the festival sounds like a blast otherwise."

"I guess." She puffed her cheeks out with a huff. "I'll just reschedule the ceremony, then." He tried to speed past that bit and hid his uncomfortable expression with a slightly off-kilter smile.

"Let's go call Tails to get the Tornado so him and that knucklehead can come around too."

"Humph, fine," she huffed, shoving a finger in his face, "but you will marry me someday, Sonic!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, waving her off. He took off as the usual blue blur, a trail of dust and a few blades of grass uprooting in his wake. Amy huffed again as her hands fisted at her sides.

"That Sonic! When will he realize how perfect we are for each other?"

Sonic whistled as the four of them soared over the city of water, Soleanna. "Wow, this place is really something to look at," he said, running his eyes over the cool blue water (he didn't like being in it—didn't mean he didn't like looking at it) and the tall skyscrapers making up the city itself.

"It's the capital city of the country," Tails said from the cockpit. "Ruled by the Duke of Soleanna. They have this festival every year to give thanks to their sun god, Solaris."

"Thanks? Isn't it kinda the god's job to protect the people? I mean, I don't ask for thanks every time I save someone, it's just what I do."

"Not necessarily. See, ten years ago, Solaris went on a rampage and almost burned out the city. The data on the attack is kind of blurred—it just said that something angered it and it took it out on the people. The Duke sealed the flames—the Flames of Destruction, which is the power part of Solaris—and its consciousness into two different relics, then he hid them away far enough that it couldn't come back again."

"So what're they giving thanks for? It sounds like a huge jerk to me."

"Heh. You'd know about being a jerk, wouldn't you, Sonic?" Knuckles said from the other side of the plane. Sonic smirked at him as he reclined on the Tornado's wing.

"Hey, Knucks, how's your girlfriend?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You know, the Master Emerald. Not that you've been payin' her much attention lately." Knuckles growled as he got to his feet.

"You—"

"Me," Sonic mused, grinning. Knuckles was just about ready to launch him off the Tornado when Amy interceded.

"Knuckles if you lay one hand on my Sonic I'll crash land you in the city!" Knuckles opened his mouth for a retort, fist clenched, and while his general morals as a man and prideful echidna most likely had a hand in his resignation, the sight of Amy's ready hammer probably helped a fair bit too.

Knuckles huffed and sat down. Sonic scratched his muzzle.

"Thanks for the, err, help."

The Tornado circled around the heart of the city, where five separate canals and rivers converged into a circular plaza. From up above, they could see that the plaza was designed with gold-colored blocks to form the mosaic of an eagle. "That's Soleanna's crest," Tails provided. "And out there, that's the castle for the Duke and Duchess." He then pointed out the silhouette of a great baroque building at the edge of the city.

"The city is so beautiful!" Amy praised with approving eyes. "And I bet it'll look better tonight!"

"Looks like every other ugly city to me," Knuckles remarked gruffly.

"I agree—with Amy, not the Grinch over there," Sonic said. "I'm surprised I never ran past this place before, it's pretty solid."

"And look—this is Kingdom Valley," Tails added as they passed the town and headed north of it. Far less distant was a collection of ruins, what were once grand castles of dark stone with expansive plazas and towers with stained glass windows that reflected beautifully in the sunlight. Below and around them were great lakes that sparkled like precious metals in the overhead sunlight, plus tall grassy cliffs and platforms which the wind whistled through audibly with an ominous note. Giant eagles soared about the area on the currents, although they made a consensus to avoid the Tornado.

"This was where the royals used to reside. After Solaris, the place was wrecked as you can see, and on the Duke's orders, they rebuilt their homes closer to Soleanna. He felt that the people would better appreciate their close presence after the tragedy. To the west of it is a great jungle where the canals and tributaries in the cities pour into, giving it a lot of life and growth," he said, pointing out a vast rainforest of all shades of green and more colors of the rainbow, visible from their height. Some flowers looked to be shining with an odd internal light.

"Jungle? It probably has a lot of icky bugs," Amy said with a shudder.

"Wow, good on the research there, little buddy!" Sonic praised, earning a bashful laugh from Tails as his ear flicked to the side.

"I just wanted to be well informed. Not that I ever pass up a good research opportunity."

Tails landed just outside of the city in a verdant field surrounded by lofty rocky cliffs. A few townspeople and soldiers were hanging around, but overall it was barren. Sonic hopped from the wing and onto the soft ground, humming appreciatively. "Wait," he said as the others started towards the city. "Lemme run a few circuits first, get a chance to drink in nature."

"Huh? That'll take too—" Knuckles started, but before he finished the sentence Sonic was standing beside him, clouds of dust and grass in his wake.

"Humph, I think I lost some speed on the fifth one." He grinned and rested his elbow on Knuckles' shoulder. "What do you think, Knucks?" Knuckles pulled from Sonic and grumbled crossly as he stalked towards the city. "So is that an agreement or what?" Sonic called after him.

"This place is nice though." Tails fluttered over to Sonic's side. "The city and the field. I wonder why we never heard of it before?"

"Hey, we're always learning new things, bud. Who knows what can happen tomorrow? The world might be broken into pieces and I'll turn into a wolf-man…-hog." Tails laughed.

"I think your imagination is running faster than you." Sonic slapped his back lightly.

"Hey, you never know. Well, we got a lot of time before the festival, so let's be tourists for the day! You don't get to see much of this up on Angel Island, Knuckles, you should check out something new!" he said to his still disgruntled echidna friend.

"I'd rather be checking out my Emerald before the Doctor catches wind of my not being there and decides to have a surprise visit," he complained, crossing his arms with spikes point-out. Sonic gave him an amicable pat on the back, or at least attempted to before the highly-trained echidna swerved to the side without batting a scowling eye.

"C'mon, Knuckles, Eggman's still lickin' his wounds from the whole Metal Sonic shebang. You know how hard it is for him to build robots when I'm always breakin' his factories." He snickered at the thought. "He usually gives two, three weeks of radio silence before peeking his mustache up for another round."

"Doctor Eggman is nothing if not unpredictable," he pointed out, making Amy hesitate. Sonic sighed and let his arms fall to his sides, a very familiar grin rising to his face. It was the grin that coaxed Knuckles from his island and Tails from his workshop in the first place.

"All the more reason to have fun while we can, right? You too, Tails. Mystic Ruins gets pretty boring after a while."

"Are you saying the largest area of echidna and Chaos history is boring?" Knuckles said with the indignation as if his mother's grave had been defiled.

"When you run through it two or three or…a couple dozen times, yeah, anywhere can get boring." He shrugged passively. "But that big hole where Angel Island fell back then makes for a good swimming pool after a rainstorm. Race you guys to that bridge over there?" He didn't wait for a response or the surefire knuckles to his scalp, instead speeding off ahead of them.

"Sonic! Wait for me!" Amy called, chasing after him. Tails started after them but stopped, turning to the sky. Knuckles followed his gaze and saw, a great distance from them, the shadow of Eggman's airship.

"Why is he here?" Tails asked. "There isn't a Chaos Emerald or anything, is there?"

"I can't sense any around," Knuckles replied, looking towards the city. "But it can't just be the Emeralds, can it? This city does have a lot of lore."

"I don't see Doctor Eggman grabbing the princess," Tails shrugged. "Other than that, there are the relics which seal the halves of Solaris, but one is heavily guarded and restrained deep in the catacombs of the old castles, and the other is completely unlabeled—I couldn't find anything on it no matter how much I looked, and that's saying something."

"Well, I don't believe he's here to see the festival," Knuckles muttered, crossing his arms over his chest. "Then again, he's pretty far away… He may just be passing the city." Which neither of them truly believed.

"Let's keep an eye out anyway. You never know what Eggman's up to. He can start trouble faster almost faster than Sonic can run." Knuckles nodded in agreement. Then Tails flashed him a smile characteristic of his older brother. "In the meantime, let's enjoy the peace and watch this festival. It wouldn't hurt to." Tails rose into the air and followed Sonic, who had already crossed the bridge and was waiting at the city gates. Knuckles stared at the airship for a few seconds longer, mitts clenching on his upper arms as his bent tail twitched impatiently.

If there is a Chaos Emerald, that means that she'll be here too. He scowled at the thought. Probably on G.U.N. business, but most likely to annoy me. Hopefully this time, she can be an asset, before trudging away.

Shadow's Story

"So this is the City of Water," Rouge said, her heels clicking against the stone-paved ground. "What do you think, partner?"

"I think that all focus should be on the mission, not the scenery," Shadow retorted, crossing his arms. Rouge pouted, using her wings to get a few feet ahead of him and forcing him to stop.

"Not all G.U.N. missions put us in a place as nice as this," she scolded with a smirk, hands on her hips. "And I'm sure you didn't get a good view of nature while you were frozen in time or falling through space, did you? Why not take the opportunity while it's in our faces? Hang around, try the local food, watch the festival?"

"Festival?" he asked, if for nothing else than to get her moving again. Rouge's smirk widened as she gestured forward. Ahead, the city square was alight with life as lanterns were set up and a boat resting in the center canal was being repaired and cleaned. On ground level near the center of the plaza, around the great eagle stamp in the center of the cobblestones, several dancers practiced their routine with an eager crowd bearing witness.

"The Soleanna Festival of the Sun. If you tried listening instead of brooding and grumbling about everything under the sun, you would've heard every single townsperson talking about it." Shadow rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms, but Rouge, having become highly accustomed to his moods, pressed on anyhow. "It's going to be a celebration. Food, games, performances, the works."

"Like a…carnival?" Rouge was as surprised as Shadow. Her heels hit the ground hard as she sidled up to him.

"You know about carnivals?" He shook off her intimacy with a fiercer scowl than usual, driving his gaze into the masonry path like a jackhammer.

"Maria told me about them," he said vaguely, his new tone of voice telling her to drop it. For a bat, however, Rouge was much like a dog with a bone.

"Is this a glimpse into your rock-hard exterior I'm seeing? Wow, hon, that's about as rare as Knuckles shunning the Emerald." An ear twitched as he grumbled under his breath and she tried to put on a more serious expression, only succeeding in a slightly less jocular one. "So, you've never been to one?"

"…No," he admitted after a long stretch of silence, folding his arms across his chest. His shoes clicked a steady beat in the background as he added, "This is my first time."

"Then have fun, it's simple as that," she said cheerfully. "—Hey," she said when she didn't receive a response, cutting in front of him. "You can allow yourself to enjoy life a little, you know. I'd expect you to be more open to the idea while knowing your memories can disappear in a snap," she frowned. He blinked at the statement, temporarily speechless, until Rouge relented with an easier expression. "Just let go for once, Shadow."

"There's no time for that." He easily waved off the affair. Rouge pouted.

"It's funny that the one who nearly died falling from the ARK and who's lost his memories more times than he can count is here talking about time." She didn't enjoy playing dirty—with Shadow; she loved playing dirty whenever possible otherwise—but he was being more than a stick in the mud.

"Bat," he said, a warning.

"I'm just saying, as you very well know, time can be taken from you in a second. Take me for instance: a gorgeous treasure hunter by day, dashing government spy by night." She smirked when he snorted. "Both are dangerous jobs that can take my life at any second. So, I enjoy it while I can." Shadow didn't reply right away, instead looking pensive. Rouge took that as an opportunity to press on. "And, like I was saying, the festival was created in honor of their god, Solaris."

"The same god that may be revived if we keep dawdling," Shadow interrupted.

"Just because the Scepter of Darkness went missing?" she replied, stepping back to allow him to proceed but keeping pace right behind him. "It's a valuable artifact anyone would kill to get their claws on if they knew the legend behind it. And speaking of that legend, very few know how to release Solaris in the first place, and less know where the Flames of Disaster are sealed." Those two were included in the majority as well. They were only permitted the bare minimum of information on the mission. "G.U.N. is making a big deal out of such low circumstances."

"Not taking any caution at all is foolhardy."

"Please," she scoffed softly. "I steal jewels from some high-class places, sweetheart. My whole job is being cautious."

"Then you should have no problem doing so now. Let's find the princess already, Rouge."

"Yeah, yeah," she said to the Ultimate Grouch. "Sheesh, would it kill you to loosen up a little? Knuckles is less wound-up all the time." Well, I doubt Dr. Gerald Robotnik went through the effort to program "fun" into him, but I'd assume he would've learned as much from all the time he spent with a little girl.

"The sooner we do, the sooner you can waste time in this festival."

"Aww, Shadow. I'll buy you a cotton candy if that'll make you feel better."

He took a few forward steps before coming to a rigid stop, quills raised slightly as his head snapped towards the northwestern sky. Rouge instantly went on-edge, ears pricked into the air to listen for danger. "What? What do you see?" His eyes narrowed to scarlet daggers.

"Dr. Eggman's airship." Rouge drifted a few feet into the air and, yes, there was the shadow of it several miles away. As eccentric as the man could be coming up with borderline juvenile schemes to take down a fifteen-year-old hedgehog, she doubted he was there to watch the festivities. She glanced back at Shadow, who was now tapping at his wrist communicator.

"You don't think…?"

"That he has the Scepter? I wouldn't put it past the good Doctor. Neither would I put it past him to unleash a highly malevolent entity to meet his own ends, damn the consequences to the innocents."

"He pretty much did when he released you," Rouge said, but it was halfhearted as she focused on his airship. "Omega's still waiting in the wings. If the Doctor does try anything, we just stop him. It's simple."

Shadow didn't agree or disagree, clenching his fists. If it involved Doctor Eggman, nothing was simple—that much was a given. Then again, wherever Eggman went… "Sonic follows," he finished in a mutter. Rouge looked at him in confusion.

"What was that?"

"If Dr. Eggman is here, so is Sonic." A coy look suddenly crossed her face as she hummed in contentment.

"And if Sonic is here, so is Knuckie," she murmured appreciatively. "This is turning out to be a real party." She went ahead of Shadow to the city plaza while he turned to examine an old building. The front of the roof was carved with what the citizens believed Solaris to look like.

"What kind of god turns on its own people?" he wondered aloud, staring hard at the carving as if it could answer. The fine details, however, were not his concern. He was with G.U.N., meant to protect the Earth as Maria wanted, and if he accomplished that, the "who" or "what" was irrelevant. Even if he had to ally himself with the people he despised most after their last stint not six months ago, it was a reluctantly trusting partnership that allowed both sides to reach their ends: protecting the nation. He sighed through his nose as he kept moving through the city to, as was required of him, protect Princess Elise until the Scepter of Darkness was recovered.

Silver's Story

Silver blinked away the grogginess as he sat up, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands. He was first aware of an odd salty scent, then the intense burning sensation of strong light ahead of him. He scrambled backwards, expecting to be three inches from a pool of lava, but instead he was staring at…the sky? It was directly above him, but he had never known the sky to be so…so…blue.

"What's…going on…?"

He looked around and felt a sharp pain in his head that forced him to lower his eyes. He looked up a little and realized the blinding light was coming from the sky too, a yellow ball of fire, and although it hurt when he looked directly at it, it didn't harm him otherwise. He stood and felt the ground under him give a bit. He jumped back, expecting lava-softened dirt, but instead the ground was all pale sediment, edging along a very, very, very large body of bright blue water. He stared at it in wonder as he slowly approached it, feeling his boots sink slightly into the sediments as he dipped one glove in the water. It wasn't hot like he was used to, but when he tasted it it was gross and salty. He coughed, spitting on the ground.

"Where am I? What happened? The last thing I remember is a bright light… Am I dead!?" He grasped his head as he shook it hard from side to side. "Nonono I can't be dead! I was too young, I didn't get to kiss a girl…!" He broke out of his self-loathing for a moment as a deathly sound resonated through his ears. He raised his head and saw a huge ship silhouetted against the sky heading north.

"Wait, I don't think ships can die… So, I'm not dead," he muttered, following it with his eyes as it headed towards a continent in the distance. "But surely I'm not in Crisis City anymore. I wonder if…" He held his hands out and felt a familiar cold chill run up his skin as aquamarine energy formed around his extremities. A blob of salty water rose from the ground, quivering a bit before he fully locked it in place.

"So that still works," he said, letting the water fall back to the rest. He looked around him and saw rocky cliffs in the distance surrounded by what he guessed was foliage—he hadn't seen much of that where he was from. Speaking of, wherever he was had to be another planet, because as far as he travelled across his home, he never saw anything like it before. The color palette was a complete one-eighty for one thing, and there were no—

"Oh!" he cried in surprise, jumping back and using his powers at the same time to hold himself several feet above ground. But no Iblis Worms jumped out from the ground, nor were there any other of Iblis' Minions lurking in the vicinity. No Iblis Worms? No fire? Abundant water (whether drinkable or not)? He was absolutely not home anymore. "Oh man… Ooh, man," he moaned, looking out to the horizon. "But…I don't understand what's going on. I don't see much out here…but there may be a city out there, over this…water…" He watched the airship continue forward. "Maybe the people on there can help me! Yeah, I'll go up there and ask…" He waited until the ship was parallel with the little slice of land before making himself rise into the air, and he focused his energy—

WHOOSH! Silver took off faster than he was used too, and a soundless scream escaped him as he crashed against the hangar of the airship, disorienting him for a moment. "That was… That was freaking amazing!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Why couldn't I ever do that before!" He wanted to try it again, but the impact left his body a little sore, so he focused on getting inside instead. He inched himself up to the top of the hangar door and, using his psychokinesis, grabbed hold of the top and pulled with all his (mental) might. Usually it took a lot of effort to manipulate steel, but again he was stronger than he anticipated and opened a hole wide enough for him to pass through in a second. As soon as he landed inside, however, a klaxon blared.

"Ow!" he cried, grabbing his ears as the shrill sound continued, now joined by a flashing red light. An invisible intercom buzzed with interference before a man's voice sounded.

"I knew you were going to foil my plans again one way or another, you insolent little hedgehog."

Silver blanched as the klaxon dialed back a bit, leaving his ears throbbing from the noise. "I don't know you… There's some mistaken identity happening here—"

"So I came with insurance," he continued, not hearing Silver. Silver heard a series of clicks around the room before the lights flicked on. The hangar was filled with large robots not unlike the Golems he knew, five wide and three rows deep, and they all advanced on him with far from good intentions.

They look kinda like that one 'bot Mammoth and I found that day… He shook the thought off as their eyes lit with red lights and they stood stiff. But that 'bot was wrecked, and these guys mean business. His fingers rolled as anticipation ran through his veins. He could feel the energy inside waiting to be released—he had little doubt that he could flatten them all in one move. Yeah, that clinches it: for one reason or another, I'm stronger here…wherever "here" is. The Chaos Emeralds must be—

One of the larger mechs suddenly took a step forward, and due to its size, that one step allowed it to swing at Silver in its next move with a bulky metal arm. Aided by his psychokinesis, Silver leapt over the attack and hovered in the air a moment before swiping his hand across his side, creating a razor blade of energy that severed the mechanical joint from its shoulder with a show of sparks. He raised his hand again to pull its central processor, then hesitated.

"I mean, I'm going to ask him for help, so I shouldn't destroy anything…" As he thought about it, the bots at the front of the line fired several missiles and bullets at him that he automatically caught and crunched into useless metal bits. Slowly, he descended to the ground at the far end of the hangar, a consistent stream of energy causing his quills to stand on end. "I'll disable them. I can…probably…do that."

He waited until the first wave of robots were close, then he slammed his hands against the ground, sending out crackling bolts of energy that shorted them out. They hit the ground to give room for the next half dozen to advance. He flew over their heads and landed behind him, and while they spent too much time turning around he sent out a more concentrated wave of energy that knocked them off their feet and onto their backs. He then toppled crates surrounding them to bury them under a few tons of weight to slow them down.

"S-Sonic? Where did you learn that trick?" the man said, reappearing over the intercom. Sonic?

"Um, you have the wrong guy," Silver said, looking around for the speakers. "My name is Silver and I came for some help. I have no idea where I am or what I'm doing here and I just want to go home." Even if this place is already looking a gazillion times better, I miss my home. There was silence for a moment, then a hatch near the ceiling opened, allowing an egg-shaped hovercraft through and into the hangar. The occupant of the hovercraft, a bespectacled man with an obnoxiously-wide mustache, gave Silver a once-over.

"Well, unless you got a total makeover, I guess you aren't Sonic," he said after a moment. Silver sighed as he rose into the air, piquing the man's interest as he came to eye-level.

"That's what I said. I'm Silver. I'm lost and I need help getting home. Uh, please."

He looked over Silver again with a derisive scoff. "Hmm? What's in it for me if I help you?"

"Well, uh…" He tapped his fingers together anxiously. He didn't exactly have the world to give at the moment, just his powers, but it seemed the man had some good lackeys in his robots already. And, well, aside from his psychokinesis, he was…borderline useless, as Mammoth and Edmund wouldn't cease to remind him. Silver mulled over his words for a few seconds before finding something he could use. "That Sonic guy you were raving about sounds like a pest."

"Ooh you don't know the half of it." He groaned, dragging a gloved hand down his face. Silver suppressed a smile as his mustache was pulled down and then bounced back into place.

"I'll deal with him for you, and in exchange, you can help me find my way home." He thought about it for a moment, stroking that paranormal mustache, then he grinned with a low laugh.

"Well, Silver, my name is Doctor Eggman, and I believe we have a deal."