-A/N- Hello, everyone! If you made it this far, hopefully you won't be deterred by what's to come. I could rant on for hours about the creavtive reasoning behind this story (and I have), but I'll throw it out here and see what you make of it. Enjoy!

Day 1

2:14 PM - Sonic the Hedgehog

"...And that, kids, is why you look both ways before crossing; you never know when a GUN truck'll show up. Any more questions?"

"I have one, Mr. Hedgehog!"

Gulp.

Flitting left and right, Sonic's eyes scanned the room, searching for the little dude eating into his running time. This whole thing was a waste: tiny kids asking him whether Shadow's faster than him or not, if Tails is a girl, that kind of stuff. Pointless, and not all that fun. Of course, the Blue Blur loved the attention, but these guys were getting on his nerves - most looked bored, faces in their hands as they watched Sonic recount his old adventures.

"Uh, sure little man. What'cha got?"

The small boy paused, mentally rehearsing his question before replying, "If you can run faster than the speed of sound, how come Robotnik ran faster than you at Scrap Brain Zone and the Death Egg? And when did you learn that boost thing?"

"Don't believe everything you play in the games, man," the speedster retorted, his voice raising in an instant, "that egghead could never beat the Sonic the Hedgehog himself on foot! SEGA just wanted a chase inbetween the Mecha Sonic and the Death Egg robot fights, okay!?"

Trembling at the sudden change in the hedgehog's voice, the boy questioned: "What about the boost?"
In a sonic second, the spiky speedster had settled himself, falling back into his famous cocky demeanour.
"...You don't really wanna know, kid. The boost taught me a great lesson, though: never eat take-out chilidogs."

Sonic winced at the admission, and his corniness. The teacher supervising the talk looked down at her watch, and after confirming the time, nodded to the cobalt hedgehog.

"Alright guys, I gotta go now." As Sonic began to stretch, the class of eight year-olds in front of him were now attentive, awaiting his signature speed explosion - as well as the inevitable collateral damage.
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Sonic chirped a final "See ya!" before taking off, tables and chairs blown to either side of the spot where he used to be.

"My life sucks. Why is nothing like the old days anymore?"

Fresh out of a classroom full of whiny kids, Sonic had taken a detour to a scenic overlook of the city. Sat cross-legged on the grass, the hedgehog took in the view. Central City looked spectacular in the early afternoon, and today was no exception; from the majestic high-rise towers to the rolling hills and coastal districts professing natural and man-made beauty, the boundless sky and delicate clouds passing overhead, everything looked to be where it should.

It was here where Sonic had come to his realisation. His life sucked - or at least, he thought it did. By normal standards, he was doing great; he had a stable job in an uncertain economy, he knew a lot of people and was moderately famous. But he was nothing compared to the old days.

Times had changed, and the world no longer needed a hero. Sonic, always the hero, decided to star in some video game adaptions of his old adventures to fund his early retirement and pass the time. At first, interest was huge. Then, as technology progressed - and more companies began pushing the limits of design and programming - the world moved into 3-D. The games got worse, the fans became less devoted, and now here he was. They were the game equivalent of B-movies, sure, but they kept him in good stead.

Now, he was bored. Of life. Of his terrible public image. Of his Wednesday afternoons being spent delivering PSAs to snot-nosed kids and cracking the same, years-old jokes. Of his Friday nights being spent waiting for a call from one of his friends instead of living it up with the guys.

So yeah, he thought it sucked.

With a grunt and a heave, Sonic lifted himself up and dusted off his legs. Absorbing the last of the Central city skyline, he walked over to th-

Wait. The guys.

Fumbling around in hammerspace for his phone, Sonic tried to list off who he'd call, and who'd care. After a few minutes, his hands grasped the cell phone he kept. Sonic scrolled through his contacts.

Amy
Blaze
Charmy
Cream
Doc
Espio
Knuckles
Pizza Hut
Silver
Tails
Vector

Tails.

"Aha! ...Alright, let's see here..." Lifting the phone to his ear, Sonic waited for Tails to pick up. After three rings, he heard the receiver tone as his best buddy answered his cell.

"Hello?"

"Hey Tails. It's me, Sonic."

A crackled sigh came over the speaker.

"I keep telling you: it's Miles. What do you want?"

"I had some free time, and I was wondering if you wanted to go get a drink. Maybe we could call up Mighty as well or something like that?"

"Have you just come out of a coma? You know Mighty's been on sabbatical for the last few years."

"Uh-"

"Listen man, I'm not in the mood for this right now. I'll see you at work."

And then he hung up.

"What the.." An exasperated expression formed on Sonic's face as his brow creased. "Fine, let's try Knux."

As the ringing tone played again, Sonic began to question where he stood with Tails. He'd just flat-out rejected him, like some clingy sidekick - a weirdo with no independence. The two used to be inseparable, and still saw a lot of each other; he and Tails worked together. They had their professional disagreements like anybody would, sure, but they were... buds, right?

"K.T.E Here."

"Knux! What's going on dude? Not fallen for any more Eggman's tricks have ya?"

"Sonic!" The Echidna's voice came through clearer, its tone energetic. "I was talking to Ivo earlier, actually. Now, what do you need?"

'Ivo'? That was a bad sign.

"You've been talking to Eggman!?"

"Yeah. Weekly workout, remember? We were doing some cardio at the gym - he broke his 5k record, as a matter of fact. Something up?"

"...No. Everything's fine Knux. Just... fine," grinding his teeth, Sonic managed to calmly finish, "I've gotta go. See you."

"Yeah! I'll talk to you la-"

A small poof of smoke erupted from the cell phone as it was hurled into the ground.

Knuckles? And Eggman? Working out!? Yeesh, he needed a break.

Turning away from the fizzling remains, the cobalt hedgehog wandered off, pondering his next move. Team Sonic was disbanded for now, it seemed, so maybe he had to reach out further. Vector was probably still working on Lost World; Espio had... opened a dojo? Who knows with that guy. Charmy was probably in school and Amy... well, Amy was a no-go.

Had the world moved on, or had he? The blue blur looked at his options. What could he do? Rounding everyone up wouldn't work - everyone except Sonic and Tails lived and worked apart. He never even got a chance to see a lot of the guys. He decided there was nothing he could do today, and kicked his walk into a supersonic jog.

Resolving to get out of his rut... tomorrow, he was over the hill in the blink of an eye, heading home for the night.

-A/N- That wasn't so bad, was it? Thanks to my Betas Eliza and turbo - you guys are awesome. Leave a review to tell me how bad I messed up.