Okay, I've been working on this one for a while now and I'm excited to share it with all of you. Not just because this is my first multi-chaptered work, but because Sonic was the first fandom I was really into and also how I found out about fanfiction, so it means a lot to me.

The Sandwich Thief takes place in the Sonic 06 universe, in a sort of AU where everyone who was there at Sonic's resurrection remembers everything. And I mean everything, even how Sonic was brought back to life. *Shudders*

06 isn't a great game, it has a lot of flaws *cough* Elise *cough*, but it did a lot of great things, like having Silver as a major playable character and introducing my favorite villain in Sonic, Mephiles the Dark.

Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't belong to me.

Chapter 1

Silver spun around, almost falling off the rooftop he was standing on as he tried to get his bearings. His first coherent thought was something along the lines of seriously, again!?

It was the second time the hedgehog found himself in a completely different place and time in a blink of an eye and it was just as confusing and disorientating as the first time. That had been after going back to the ruined future with a plan to seal Iblis within myself. It should've worked, but instead... The crackling explosions in the night sky really helped with distracting his mind. It probably wasn't dangerous if no one was running away screaming. Whatever those colorful sparkly things were called, Silver remembered seeing those the first time he briefly saw the festival. Which meant that he was back on the night of the Festival of the Sun in Soleanna.

Except for being the same night, it felt like tonight couldn't possibly be any more different than the first time he was here. For one, there was no Amy and her rib-cracking hug, nor was he not looking for the Iblis Trigger-Sonic-anymore. Wow. A lot had changed in... How many days had it been since this whole thing started? It was hard to keep track of time when traveling through it to the past and then briefly to the future with a plan to stop Iblis for good and hey! How about looking at all that interesting stuff over there?

From this spot, Silver could see everything. The regal floaty-thing, the six dancers aboard in their yellow clothes, even the Princess waving to the crowds. Silver felt a shiver suddenly run down his spine. What she did to revive Sonic, he didn't know what it was called, but must have been very offensive judging by Amy's screams of revenge and promises of agony and death.

Finally, after clearing up where and when he was, came the next issue. Where everybody else was.

"Guys? Sonic? Shadow? Amy? Anyone?" Silver looked around for anyone familiar. It should've been easy. They all stuck out in comparison to whatever species the people of Soleanna were.

There was no one else with him. It was just him, alone, in the past, in a place he barely knew with no idea what to do, now that the future was saved.

Wait. He blinked. It was right there, as Silver stood on the rooftop watching the festival down below after saving the world that it finally sunk in the fact the future was saved. Which means… which means I can go home!

"All I have to do is find a Chaos Emerald..." Silver didn't notice when he slipped into his old habit of voicing his thoughts aloud for the sake of the audience, "and use it to get back home."

By the time Silver had finally gotten through with the first part of his plan, the adrenaline, urgency, having the fate of the world hanging on the line, whatever you want to call his motivation to not collapse in exhaustion, was long gone. In the back of his mind was the vague realization that he didn't remember the last time he'd slept, but it was hard to think, so that thought didn't last long.

Silver shambled through the narrow cobblestone streets, golden eyes darting between looking to make sure he wasn't walking smack into a wall and the blue Chaos Emerald in his hand. It was his stupid fear that if he didn't frequently visually confirm he had the powerful gem in his grasp, it would suddenly disappear and force him to look for it all over again.

He could've gone home already, but it felt wrong to end what had to be the most significant time in his life this way. Using Chaos Control in a cramped street squished between two buildings, next to a large and very stinky metal box filled to the brim with enough trash to make anyone throw up. It was a good thing there was nothing left in his stomach to puke. The only problem was he hadn't eaten anything in who knows how long by now.

So Silver kept on walking past the stinky box, using the ethereal glow of the Chaos Emerald to guide him through the twisting paths. He kept going, leaving all the fancy buildings, finding more stinky boxes, and ended up halfway across a bridge. Here in the outskirts of the city, everything was still and empty. It seemed everyone was still at the Festival. His ears prickled, catching the faint sizzle of the explosions the people of Soleanna apparently liked throwing into the sky.

The full moon reflected off the stream under the bridge, water undisturbed to the point of almost looking like a mirror. Quite a sight, yet Silver still didn't feel this was the best way to wrap this all up. Maybe there was supposed to be a moving speech, surrounded by the people he'd gotten to know over what felt both like the shortest and longest time in his life, and they could celebrate the victory and say goodbye or some other significant words, like "Enjoy your future!" or "Stay out of trouble kid". It didn't matter anymore. None of that was going to happen. Even if it could, it still wouldn't feel right, not without...

Now was a good moment to end this for good. Silver took a deep breath and focused.

"Ok, take me to the future. CHAOS CONTROL!"

And everything went white.

Literally.

"My eyes!" Silver hissed as he squeezed them shut and blindly stuck his hands out to block the scalding light. The first thing the hedgehog could make out of the deafening noise was someone behind announce, "The future is here!"

The future? Silver cracked his eyes open a fraction hesitantly, starting the process of getting used to the sudden brightness. The blinding white faded as he could finally make sense of what he was seeing. No one from the crowd noticed the silvery hedgehog that had popped out of nowhere and was spinning around with a gob-smacked look on his face. Had he stayed where he was and looked behind him, he would have seen the commercial playing from the multiple TVs on the window display in a store ending with "Get the all-new dream car of the year!"

"Wow! So this is the future…it's beautiful!" His golden eyes were wide open, unable to get enough of the tall buildings that went on forever to the darkening orange-pink-blue starless sky and the sparkling lights in every imaginable color and the sheer amount of people - talking, laughing, living, not struggling to survive – everywhere.

Someone honked. "Move it weirdo!"

A monstrous metal thing barreled towards him. Silver regretted spinning. The ground wobbled under his boots. He barely managed to jump away as it whizzed by. His heart pounded. Silver didn't have time to calm down. People kept walking, unaware of the hedgehog below who was nearly trampled.

"Excuse me! I'm down here!" No one heard him. Silver managed to stand up. It was a short-lived victory. How he had room to spin around before was a mystery. Now all space was taken up by the massive crowd shifting around him, choking out the air and the buildings and the lights, New-York-rush-hour style. His lungs burned. Silver pushed through. People yelled what he was pretty sure were insults.

"I take it back! The future's horrible and everyone's so mean!"

The next morning, in a dingy apartment located in the more run-down part of Station Square, Espio was leaning against the wall quietly reading the newspaper when he heard it. The sound was repetitive for the most part, a cringing squish with some pops and snaps in between. Charmy was out for the time being getting the mail. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. The ninja lowered the newspaper and looked towards the only possible culprit.

Vector.

Lying back on his office chair with his eyes closed, the croc nodded off to the beat of the music that could be heard from across the room. But his horrible taste in music wasn't the problem. It was the bubblegum. Espio always knew Vector liked gum. But it was only today the chameleon actually noticed how loud he chewed.

Not like it bothered him. It did not. Definitely. Ninjas did not get annoyed. Especially not by insignificant things like gum. It took more than that to wear his patience thin. More than the appalling shade of pink. Definitely more than the fact Vector chewed with his mouth open. Was it getting louder? It seemed as he kept thinking about how the gum did not trouble him, the louder it got as all other sounds faded away until all he could hear was the chewing.

Chew.

Chew.

Smack!

Squish.

Espio had long stopped reading, instead staring at the gum. The chewing stopped. He sighed in relief, feeling strangely content as if successfully passing some sort of test. Not like he felt the gum had tested him. It had not.

When Vector started blowing a bubble, the ninja was absolutely powerless to stop it. All he could do was watch as the bubble swelled. No….

Like it was trying to avoid the inevitable, time itself seemed to slow down. Then Espio realized time was not on his side. It was not enough that he had to put up with all this, instead the moment was being stretched out like the gum itself to be as unbearable as possible. No.

Pop.

NO!

"Hey, ya mind if I borrow this?" Suddenly the top half of the paper was gone. Ripped out by none other than Vector himself. He spat the wad of gum onto the paper, wrapped it up, and chucked it to the trash can. Espio glared, wishing it to miss. It didn't.

"No. I do not." The ninja crushed the newspaper under his clenched fists. His left eye twitched.

"Thanks!" He reached for a new stick in the gum pack he always carried in his glove. Nothing. Frowning, Vector tried again. Still no gum. He took the pack out, flipped it upside-down and violently shook it. A measly paper wrapper drifted out. With something between a growl and a frustrated huff, Vector crushed the pack and tossed it to the trash. "Darn it! I'm out. Looks like I'll have to go buy more!"

"Vector." The chameleon neatly folded what was left of the newspaper. "Isn't there something else you could possibly use the money for?"

"Hmm…" He squinted, deep in thought. To Espio's dismay, he was so focused thinking that he was completely oblivious to the bills everywhere. On the floor. The beat up couch. Every inch of available space was covered by bills.

"Nope! Can't think of anything else."

Just as Espio was thinking the only way Vector might get his point was if the answer hit him in the face, there was a buzz coming from outside. It was the only warning they got before Charmy crashed through the front door and smacked right onto the croc's face, throwing the mail up in the air.

The hyperactive bee grinned. "We got a pizza coupon!"

"Great, cuz I'm starving, now get off my face!"

"We also have a few other things" The ninja picked up one envelope that stood out from the rest. Other than the coupon, it was the only thing that didn't have a big angry red OVERDUE slapped over the front. It was enough cause for suspicion. Espio sliced it open with a shuriken, pulled out the single page inside, and began to read.

"Charmy," He quietly said. "I think you dropped some mail outside. Go get it will you?"

The hyperactive bee chirped, "Okay!" and left. Knowing there wasn't much time before Charmy returned, he gestured at Vector to come over and passed him the paper.

His eyes widened. "Oh boy, that ain't good."

"We need to handle this with discretion." Vector simply nodded.

"I didn't find anything outside." Spotting his teammates standing together looking down at something, Charmy peered over their shoulders. "Hey, what'cha looking at?"

The ninja quickly closed the paper. "Well-"

"WE'RE GETTING KICKED OUT!"

So much for discretion…

"What!? No, it can't be true! Right?" The bee looked like he was expecting this to be some sort of joke.

"It is an eviction notice. We have until Monday to pay the rent." Not quite the assurance Charmy needed and Espio knew it. This is why you do not tell these type of things to 6 year olds…

"Don't worry, we just gotta figure out a way to get the dough and fast." Vector snapped his fingers. "Oh! Maybe we can try the band thing again."

Espio shuddered at that particular memory. When it came to Vector's get-rich-quick schemes, all were bad ideas, but this one had taken it to a whole new level of catastrophically bad.

"Or," Espio cut in. "Perhaps try something more...promising." Not to mention dignified, the ninja thought.

"Like what?" Charmy asked.

Vector scratched his head. "Yeah, whaddaya mean?"

"Well, for instance, today I read in the newspaper that the city is offering a big reward for anyone who can turn in Dr. Eggman to the authorities."

When Dr. Eggman attacked Station Square, the aftermath cost millions in public property damage, not to mention the citizens grumbling over the increased taxes to pay off reparations. Espio knew they were paying utmost attention when their pupils literally morphed into golden money signs as an inexplicable ka-ching rang throughout the apartment.

The detective flashed a toothy grin. "Boys, we've got ourselves a new case to crack! We're gonna catch Dr. Eggman, get filthy rich and-" He froze, falling abnormally silent for a long moment.

"My Miss Vanilla sense is tingling."

Espio blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

But by then the croc had jumped out the apartment on the 3rd floor, leaving his outline in what remained of the wall.

If it was up to Silver, he wouldn't leave this place. It was a relief to have found a peaceful place with things he was a little more familiar with. Trees, grass, clear blue skies and the space to move freely without bumping into everyone. In fact, there wasn't a lot of people here, another relief. But it wasn't a good idea to stay, not after what he'd done. The young hedgehog slowly chewed, staring at his boots and feeling the lump in his throat that was making it hard to swallow. Hunger wasn't new to him. It always toppled the sudden loss of appetite whenever he managed to get a meal.

At least I didn't take a lot, surely it won't affect them…right? It was too late to return the half-eaten food, all he could do was promise to make it up somehow.

Silver was at the very edge of the green place, facing the great big buildings and the people and the large metal things on wheels. He took a deep breath, counted to 10 in his head, and took the first step-only to bump into someone.

"Sorry, I-" Silver looked up and did a double-take. "Sonic!? You're in the future too?"

That's when he choked on his food.

Apparently, Soleanna was based off Venice, Italy. For this story, I've decided that while Soleanna isn't Venice, it is located where Venice is. Likewise, I'm basing Station Square's location off New York City. There's a 6 hour difference between real-life New York City and Venice.

A time in Soleanna (Venice), say 2 AM, is only 8 PM in Station Square (New York City) when the sun's almost completely set.