A tiny blue speck, drifting in a sea of black.
A blue sphere, set against an abyss dotted with tiny pinpricks of light.
Seventy-one percent of the planet is covered in water. Ragged patches of terra firma are haphazardly strewn about its surface, streaked with brushstrokes of swirling cloud.
An idyllic paradise of lush fields and shimmering blue lakes walled off by jagged cliffs that give way to majestic, tumbling waterfalls.
Tall palm trees with drooping leaves and bright, cheerful flowers sprout from checkered brown soil that forms an irregular panorama of sweeping rock faces, rolling hills, and vertical loops that one would be forgiven for thinking were put there by some crazed architect.
For all its quirks, there's a kind of beauty to the landscape. Natural and unspoiled, the strange structures seem at first glance to have been carved out by some civilisation but on closer inspection reveal themselves to be natural formations, as chaotic as life itself. The place is a living, breathing metaphor for the unpredictability of nature.
The quiet is shattered by a thunderclap, but the sky is cloudless. The ground begins to rumble.
Birds shift in the trees, but do not alight; the small animals who dwell closer to the ground glance up with interest.
Something is coming.
It starts as a dot on the distant horizon, reaching them in seconds, moving so fast they only catch the briefest impression of it; a streak of brilliant blue that kicks up plumes of dust as it rockets through the corridors of the landscape, the afterimages of its passage lighting up the inside of the loop. Clouds of disturbed earth billow out of the sides seconds after its meteoric passing, but to something moving that fast, a second is an eternity. It's already miles away by the time the dust has settled.
Eventually, the figure at the center of the blur skids to a halt at the peak of a cliff, a pair of lightweight red sneakers gouging trenches into the dirt that stop just short of the edge. Emerald-green eyes scan his surroundings as if expecting applause, his mouth quirked into a cocky grin as if waiting to share an exceptionally funny joke with some unseen audience.
His blue quills and short tail end in sharp points that seem to quiver with latent energy, exuding an air of speed even when he's standing still. Everything about him seems designed to be aerodynamic, though such concepts are seldom found in nature. Given the peculiarities of the landscape, however, it makes just as much sense that a blue hedgehog who can run as fast as a bullet train should inhabit it.
His name is Sonic.
The residents of this Zone called it Green Hill, though for almost as long as he could remember, Sonic had called it home. He knew the placement of every rock, every tree, and every flower as well as he knew the back of his own white-gloved hand. He knew which outcrops to avoid stepping on lest the unstable ground collapse under his weight, and he knew the precise location of every cluster of spinning, floating gold rings that manifested seemingly at random. Whatever primordial force shaped this world, it must have had an appreciation for rings; the rolling hills that gave the Zone its namesake were interspersed with rock formations that curved into vertical loops.
Off in the distance, a cluster of man-made structures jutted over the horizon like the teeth of a jawbone in need of some serious dental work. A coastal settlement too small to be called a city, situated unobtrusively in the middle of the landscape and made up of buildings not much taller than the palm trees scattered about its verges. Since it had no church, by technical definition it should've been considered a hamlet; however, it was called Emerald Town by its inhabitants, and by the tourists who flocked to it during the holiday season.
Though its status as the adopted hometown of the planet's greatest hero made it a point of interest for many, some vacationers simply sought it out for the solitude and natural beauty of the beach fringing its southern coast. Unspoiled and secluded, the soft white sand and clear, sparkling blue water made the name Emerald Beach seem something of a non-sequitur considering there was no greenery to speak of beyond the crowns of the palm trees, but its picturesque setting was as attractive to sightseers as it was to sunbathers, for on a clear day it offered a spectacular view of another of this beautiful, bizarre world's most notable features.
Some four-thousand years ago, Angel Island was simply another part of the landscape, situated within a Zone that had simply come to be known as the Mystic Ruins after its true name had been lost to history. Its topography was as diverse as the environments of South Island and neighboring West Side Island, ranging from ice-capped mountain ranges to lush forests and vast deserts, the still-standing ruins of what were once majestic, thriving cities the only surviving testament to the long-lost civilization that had once inhabited it.
However, the thing that set Angel Island apart from its peers was the fact that it was floating hundreds of feet above them, suspended in the air by the pull of a mystical gemstone known as the Master Emerald.
From his perch atop the mountain, Sonic watched Angel Island drift ponderously above the skyline. At this range, it appeared small enough that he could hold it in the palm of his hand, the jagged slope of its underside and the uneven plane of its landscape resembling a crude approximation of the Master Emerald's diamond cut.
With one eye closed, he amused himself by pinching the island's distant outline between forefinger and thumb for a moment, then pretending to balance it on top of his index finger before its lazy flight path carried it to the corner of his peripheral vision.
From where Sonic was stood, Emerald Town was a little more than three miles away. He stepped off the edge of the cliff as casually as one might walk into their own kitchen, tucking in his knees and elbows and letting the slope of the mountain guide his descent, the curve of his spines cushioning him, forming a naturally spherical shape that gained momentum as it dropped until the ground rose up to meet him in a curve, launching him into the distance at almost the same speed with which he'd approached.
Now resembling nothing so much as a whirling blue cannonball, Sonic soared through the air in a wide arc, landing expertly on his feet without slowing- indeed, he continued to pick up speed within seconds of landing- and blasted off into the distance.
He'd reached Emerald Town in seconds.
"Sonic!"
He hadn't been there a couple of moments prior, so it took the speaker a moment to register his presence. The structure he'd stopped at appeared to be an aircraft hangar from the outside, and indeed, it partly was, but the simple corrugated iron construction belied the scientific marvels that lay within. Through the open door, a massive generator and an equally massive mainframe could be seen flanking a powerful supercomputer, a luminous screen presiding over a panel of instruments whose purpose would be as alien as the readouts on the screen to the untrained eye. A workbench sat off to one side, scattered with tools and half-finished technological oddments, and a table in the center of the room was blanketed with spreadsheets, charts and blueprints.
The occupant's appearance would be no less incongruous than Sonic's would be to one unfamiliar with this world. A cheerful young fox with bright, inquisitive blue eyes that seemed always to be scanning whoever or whatever he was looking at, as if hoping to glean yet more knowledge from his surroundings. His name was Miles Prower, but everyone called him Tails, since his most immediately notably feature was that he had two of them- an unusual trait, even in a world where a bright blue hedgehog would only merit a second glance due to his celebrity status.
To Sonic, Tails was the kid brother he'd never had, his oldest and closest friend. Their gloved knuckles touched in a fist bump, a casual gesture that was as warm as a hug and as meaningful as a handshake.
"Hey, dude. What's happening?"
Tails hesitated for a fractional moment as though mentally dissecting the question in search of a hidden meaning. "Do you mean generally, or…?"
"Sure. Generally. Let's go with that."
Tails blew out his cheeks. "To be honest, a whole lot of nothing."
"Nothing at all?"
"Not really. I've just been working on stuff."
"Figures."
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news."
"Bad news?"
"Uh-huh."
"What're you talking about?"
"You just seem a little disappointed."
Sonic made a dismissive gesture, inwardly unsure what was more surprising; that the kid could be so perceptive, or that he still had the capacity to surprise his best friend after all the years they'd known each other. "Nah, I'm fine. Just wanted to see how my little buddy was doing, that's all."
Tails canted his head slightly to one side. "It's okay. I get it. I know you get bored when the world doesn't need saving. I mean, it's not like you've got a day job, or-"
"Hey, I have hobbies," Sonic shot back, mock-defensively. "Matter of fact, I just went for a real nice run through Green Hill."
"And how long did that take you? Ten seconds?"
"Something like that. I must be getting out of shape."
"And now you're here," Tails observed, returning his attention to whatever he'd been tinkering with on his workbench before Sonic had shown up. Sonic had no idea what the thing was, and he knew better than to ask. At the tender age of eight- half Sonic's own age- Tails was a veritable genius. Not content with accumulating knowledge for its own sake, he'd put several of his inventions towards saving the world, both with and without Sonic's assistance. He could have made an entirely legitimate and guilt-free fortune off of the patents for his translation and satellite imaging software alone, but he'd dedicated his young life to entirely philanthropic pursuits without asking for so much as a word of thanks.
However, for all his virtues, even Sonic knew Tails wasn't perfect. He had an unfortunate tendency to ramble without much regard as to whether the person he was addressing could keep with his technobabble, and although Sonic would never stoop so low as to tease him about it, he had no idea how to talk to girls. Rather than speaking down to his intellectual inferiors, as one might expect, Tails seemed not to realize that everyone was as smart as him.
The kid's heart was as good as the head on his shoulders, but you could have too much of a good thing, and intelligence was no exception. Whoever had coined the phrase "too clever by half" must have had him in mind, he thought, permitting himself a small smile at his own private joke while the kid's gaze was focused on his workbench.
"Yeah, so...like I said, I wanted to check up on my little buddy, make sure you were staying out of trouble." He made a concerted effort to keep the smile out of his voice.
"More like hoping I was in trouble so you could save me," Tails replied, flashing Sonic a cheeky, sidelong smile of his own.
"Come off it," Sonic snorted. "I haven't needed to save you since...I don't even know. The first Death Egg? If anything, you're the one who's always saving me."
"So you just happened to stop by en route to something else?"
"What, am I not allowed to make social calls now?"
"I just feel like you were hoping for, like- oh, Sonic, thank goodness you're here, Eggman's built another doomsday device and we desperately need you to go smash it into pieces because you are this planet's designated savior, after all-"
"It's nice to feel wanted."
"...He says, when he's obviously just here because he's bored."
Sonic frowned. "Hey, now. Who's to say I didn't just drop by because I wanted to see you?"
"Vector," Tails answered, without missing a beat. "He called earlier and said you'd stopped by the office three times today already."
Sonic rolled his eyes. "Oh, the crocodile's got a big mouth. Shocker."
Tails set down the gizmo he'd been tinkering with, turning his attention to Sonic once more. "Hey, you know you can just admit you're bored, right? Honestly, it's okay. I'm not gonna be offended. It's good to see you anyway."
"I know, I know." He heaved the words out in a sigh. He knew Tails didn't mean those words as a guilt-trip, and somehow that had in the inverse effect of making him feel even guiltier. "To be honest, I kinda feel like a jerk for even wishing something was happening, you know? It's not often we get any peace and quiet, and I'm just- I'm so freaking bored, is all. Eggman's usually cooked up a new doomsday device or found some new pet monster that'll inevitably betray him before we've even had a chance to clean up the last mess he made."
"It has been super quiet lately," Tails conceded, with an almost sympathetic smile.
"You haven't heard anything, have you?"
Sonic's lips formed a grimace the not a second after his own voice had reached his ears. He hadn't meant to sound quite so hopeful, but Tails- sweet, good-hearted Tails, always wanting to make his big brother happy- rubbed thoughtfully at his chin, then smiled with the air of a parent about to unveil a surprise trip to an ice cream parlor in an attempt to cheer up a destitute child. "Well, I've been monitoring G.U.N. frequencies-"
"Naughty naughty," Sonic chided, wagging a finger at him in mock admonishment.
"With their permission!" Tails clarified sharply, sounding more embarrassed than defensive. "I always listen in on the BattleNet just to keep up-to-date on what's happening, but I can't get access to most of the covert stuff, so-"
Sonic's grin widened. "Can't? I didn't think that word was in your vocabulary, bud."
Tails mouth twisted into a curious, lopsided frown, as though he wasn't sure whether to be flattered or annoyed. "OK, to clarify, I could if I wanted to, but it's not worth having a bunch of special ops guys kicking down my door at 3am."
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to get woken up by Shadow and his team either. Maybe Rouge, but-" At that, Tails gave him a disapproving look, and he held up his palms in a placatory gesture. "Kidding! I'm kidding! Jeez. For real though, how's Shadow doing?"
"Apparently he's on maneuvers with the rest of Team Dark. Standard military training-type stuff."
"Figures," Sonic huffed, torn between amusement and derision. "That guy literally does not know how to relax and/or have fun."
"I think his definition of fun is probably just a little different to yours."
"Speaking of which, you heard from Amy lately?"
Tails grinned slyly. "Is this you admitting you miss her?"
"Almost," Sonic replied, choosing to double down rather than go on the defensive. Tails wasn't quite as prone to verbally sparring with him as some of the other company he kept, but the kid was as sharp as a tack, and when Sonic's teasing did get too much he could give as good as he got. "At least I'd have a reason to run when she's chasing me."
"She's probably hanging out with Cream," Tails theorized, apparently figuring that there was no sense pushing it.
"That'd be why I haven't seen her. Don't get me wrong, Cream's a sweet kid, but every time I go see her Vanilla keeps telling me I'm too skinny and I need to eat more."
Tails smiled knowingly. One of his old science projects was currently living (for want of a better word) with Cream and her mother, so he tended to see a lot more of them than Sonic did. "You too, huh?"
"I mean, her cookies are super good. I can eat maybe four or five no problem, but she just keeps putting them in front of me and I just can't say no."
"You're gonna get too fat to run if she keeps stuffing you full of baked goods," Tails warned him with a wry grin.
"Yeah, I'll probably explode."
Tails giggled. "Gross." He paused for a moment, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, you know who I haven't seen in a while? Big."
"Oh, yeah. He's in Mystic Ruins. Passed him on the way here."
"Really? How's he doing?"
"He's fine. Fishing. Same spot I saw him in yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. And the day before that, and..." His voice trailed off into nothing, indicating endless repetition.
Tails stared. "Seriously?"
"Yep. Every time I pass through he's always in the same place, just doing his thing. I dunno how he doesn't go nuts from boredom."
Tails shrugged. "Well, he's happy with his lot in life."
"Yeah, I guess so. I mean, personally, I can't think of anything less fun than sitting by a river holding a stick with a piece of string attached to it for hours on end, but if he's happy then more power to him."
"How about Knuckles?"
Now it was Sonic's turn to shrug. "Still up on Angel Island, I'm guessing. You haven't heard from him?"
"Haven't you?"
Sonic's shoulders quirked in a little half-shrugging gesture. "He's not exactly the type of guy to text or call, is he?" Sonic pointed out, scratching idly at his left ear. "Case in point. And you know how he is about people setting foot on his island without permission. He'd probably ask me to wipe my feet first."
"Well, so long as Angel Island's still-"
The keening wail of an alarm interrupted Tails' sentence. The young fox turned to Sonic, eyes wide and jaw hanging open with horrified astonishment; Sonic was about to ask what was happening when he realized that Tails wasn't looking at him, but rather at a point past his left ear.
Sonic turned on his heel, just in time to see the distant outline of Angel Island dropping from the sky like-
...well, like hundreds of thousands of tons of landmass that was, until a few moments prior, suspended hundreds of feet in the air by the power of a mystical gemstone.
Even from a distance, the sound of the impact was tremendous. A few thousand cubic miles of water was enough to cushion the impact somewhat, but the force of the island's conical base penetrating the surface of the sea was still enough to throw up sixty-foot tidal waves that were visible even from the shore. Had it been a few kilometres closer to them, the results would have been disastrous. The waves would die down before they reached the coast, but Sonic knew all too well the devastation a wave of that size could cause.
"Wow," he deadpanned, partly to cover his own relief that it hadn't been closer to the shoreline. "You didn't even finish the sentence and that was still enough to jinx it."
Tails didn't even bother dignifying the witticism with a response, turning his attention to the instrument panels. "Sonic, look at this! I'm picking up some seriously weird readings right now!"
Sonic squinted at the incomprehensible readouts, more to show willing than anything. "From the Master Emerald?"
Tails gave a short, sharp shake of his head, like a small insect had just flown into his ear. "No, no, it's not just Chaos Energy. I'm also reading seismic disturbances that go way beyond what should've been expected from Angel Island impacting the ocean that far from the coast!" His features contorted in frustration borne of an inability to understand what he was looking at; it was a sensation he was unused to, and he didn't care for it. "This doesn't make any sense. It could be that the energy itself is on a wavelength that's interfering with my equipment, but either way something is seriously wrong. I need to run some tests. You should-"
"Way ahead of you, buddy."
Tails glanced up, realizing that he was talking to empty air in the same instant that he noticed the prototype, wrist-mounted communicator he'd been working on had disappeared from his workbench. Sonic's voice, hollow and tinny, was addressing him over the receiver of the one in his hand.
"Show-off," Tails muttered, and smiled, safe in the knowledge that Sonic couldn't see or hear him.