It was dark, that much he could easily tell and the ground beneath him was non-existent, leaving him floating in the vast darkness.
Empty green eyes surveyed the thick darkness surrounding them, questions of how he got there swam through his mind at rapid paces. Each and every time ended with no answer though and it roused his curiousity even more.
"Just what is this place?" He asked to only himself, fully aware that he was alone in this desolate space. Why was he though?
Suddenly, he felt ground beneath his feet and stood on the newly found ground. Turning around he was faced with a long hallway, almost seeming infinite with glass portraits lined upon the left and right walls. He began walking down the hallway stopping at the first portrait of a girl with pink streaks in her hair, he knew who she was but couldn't gather her name on his tongue.
"Do you know who she is?" The voice was nothing above a whisper, yet it sounded like it was whispered in his ear.
"Yeah, I think so." He turned around to see the adjacent portrait of an armored woman, her eyes glowing with energy and a glare filled with hatred.
"And her?" He nodded dumbly and frowned at the portrait.
"Uh-huh, I know I don't like her." The voice 'hmm'ed in response and asked another question.
"What about your history with her?"
"I...fought her...I think. To save..." He turned around to the portraits on the left and pointed at them all. "...them."
Suddenly, the ground beneath him was shattered and he fell to another platform, this one surrounded by mirrors. He walked up to one to see himself, taller, stronger, and with a powerful sword in hand.
"Do you know who that is?"
He stared wide-eyed at himself, "That's me?" He looked to the next mirror and was greeted with another look at himself, but with radiating golden hair and ruby red eyes.
"This one is...full of light..." He looked to the next mirror and almost recoiled at the sight. A version of himself with midnight black hair and soul-less eyes and his mouth set in a tight line, one that promised pain. "While this one is...full of darkness."
One by one, the mirrors suddenly cracked as the shards fell to the floor, the ground beneath him doing the same until it broke.
And he fell into the darkness.
Sonic awoke with a start, glancing around the room quickly before sitting up on the edge of the bed. He knew he had been dreaming, but about what? He couldn't remember a thing from that dream and it bothered him.
His eyes glanced over the clock and saw the time. "Four? Seems about that time then." He grabbed his blue hoodie and threw it on as well as his black jeans, alongside his trademark shoes. "Patrol time." His early morning patrol started about a week after he beat Chrysallis and learning of the existence of his friends, he set out every morning and searched around for about three hours just looking around for them.
True, he didn't know what any of them looked like but he figured he'd just know them when he saw them. "I wonder if I'll see any of them this time..." He murmered to himself as he opened his window of his room in the castle(one Celestia had snuck into many nights to cuddle him while he slept)and let the cold morning wind hit his face, a feeling he'd grown accustomed to as he grinned.
The hero of Emerald City hopped out of the open window and onto a nearby rooftop before leaping to another one and repeating the process. Rainbow Dash had expressed an interest in tagging along on his morning escapades but he told her it would be best if he could go it alone, surprisingly she didn't argue and simply agreed.
At first, Fluttershy had expressed concern over his early rising but he just reminded her of who he was and steadily convinced her that he'd be fine. Truthfully, he liked being up this early, no others crowding the streets and the usual hustle and bustle of Station Square was nonexistent at this hour, it was nice.
As the hero leaped onto a rooftop and ran to the edge, a carefree smile on his face as he leaped off, his arms and legs spread out as if he were a bird soaring through the air. His jacket, pants, and hair all flapped about wildly in the wind as he fell, he flipped forward on landed solidly on his feet before bursting off running again on a shorter building.
He stopped at the building's edge and overlooked the city he protects and smiled, this was cut short as the police blazed by on the the street below him. "The hell is going on?" He wondered as he followed them to their destination.
"Stop where you are! You're surrounded!" An officer shouted as he raised his gun and aimed at the...creature before him. "Surrender or we'll be forced to shoot!" The creature didn't even blink its large green eyes. Becoming fed up with the thing's behavior, he shouted back to his men, "Open fire!" The officers released round after round at the creature, some of the Mages present even trying to enhance their shots with magic.
However, their bullets simply being absorbed by the water entity before they harmlessly dropped to the ground. The officers gasped as it thrust its arm out and slammed its hand into the man in charge before smashing him into the far wall, knocking him out.
"Captain! No! What will we do!" They were beginning to panic as they realized just how powerles they were against this monster.
Suddenly, a thud was heard from the police car behind them as they all turned back to be greeted by the hero of Emerald City standing atop it! "What's going on here?" He asked as they all pointed to the creature.
"We can't shoot it! It's some kind of monster!" Sonic looked up and locked gazes with the creature, it was weird honestly, as he stared he almost thought he saw some regret or sadness deep within them. Sonic's glare lightnened slightly in confusion, was what he saw just now real? The hell...
"All of you go home to your families, I'll deal with this guy." One officer stepped up. "Sonic, we can't just leave! It's our duty to-" Sonic just shook his head.
"You already said you can't do anything against it. I'll see what I can do, now go!" The officers left with slight hesitation but were gone in not too long. Sonic turned his attention to the creature with a smirk.
"Alright, bub, just you and me now!"
"Wait a second! Hold on, kid!" Gramps suddenly yelled in his mind as he stopped his head on charge towards the creature.
"What's wrong, Gramps?" Gramps sounded like he was freaking out a bit. What was getting him so riled up?
"N-no way...how is this even possible...?" Gramps sounded shocked, a tone Sonic had never heard from him before and it unnerved the young hero. "HOW IS CHAOS HERE?!"
"Huh? You know what this thing is? Chaos?" Now he was definitely confused, Gramps knew this thing? How?
"Yeah and that's where the problem lies..." The hero's ancestor answered, Sonic raised a brow in confusion. "Chaos is supposed to be in the Master Emerald with Tikal...he shouldn't be here." Sonic blinked. "This shouldn't be possible but what shocks me even more is that this scene is...perfectly identical to all those years ago..."
"Perfectly identical? So, you had a run-in with this guy just like right now?" Sonic was confused for sure now, none of this was making sense...
"Yeah...we gotta investigate this soon kid. For now, kick his ass!" Sonic smirked at this and responded, "Alright!" While Gramps continued his fretting about. The
Sonic stared down Chaos and smirked as the watery being glared back. "Now let's get started!" Sonic dashed at Chaos, hopping above him as he brought himself down in a homing attack, only for Chaos to side-step and shoot out his watery claw at Sonic, the hero flipping over the attack.
Sonic turned to Chaos and was shocked at the sight of the being's glowing a dark purple rather than the green from before and it's blue, watery body taking a more murky and dirty appearance.
(Music Insert: An Obstacle in Our Path-Xenoblade Chronicles)
"The hell?!" Sonic exclaimed as Chaos then swung at Sonic with a much faster claw swipe, which Sonic rolled under and curled straight into a ball, before revving up a spin dash and smashing right into Chaos' head and sending him flying towards the far wall.
Chaos broke apart when he hit the wall and reformed quickly before leaping off the wall and slashing at Sonic, who brought an arm up to absorb the slash and causing blood to fly from the wound as Sonic skidded back from the blow.
"Was he this tough for you, Gramps?" Sonic asked as Gramps only seemed shocked at the turn of events.
"Not even close..." He simply whispered out as Sonic smashed a kick into Chaos' brain followed by a haymaker, Chaos broke apart from the power of the two hit combo and retreated into a sewage grate.
"Where Ya going? You big drip!" Sonic tried giving chase but he was too late and watched as Chaos got away. "Damn!"
"I still don't understand...how this happened...is this even...the only scenario? No, wait! When the kid went to stop Eggman in space just like I did...how is this happening?!" Gramps thought to himself as Sonic sighed.
"Ah, screw this. I'm going back to the castle, we'll deal with this tomorrow." With that, the hero jumped back to the rooftops, sporting one injury that wasn't meant to be there...
At the same time that Sonic finished up with Chaos, a young pink-haired girl awoke with a start as she held her chest. "My destined love is near, I can feel him."
However, alongside this, in a deserted back alley a large black portal opened up, only to spit out a small, unconscious boy of age 9 or so. The boy in question had green eyes and spiky blue hair...
Finally, after three months(from the epilogue)of time between, we are here at the sequel!
Now, here me out, I already said in the final bonus of Element of Courage that Amy is NOT the final girl just to remind you.
Now, I wanted this starting chapter to come out weeks ago but I've been a little depressed, my best friend and I haven't spoken in months. I know it seems really trivial but she's my BEST friend as in I feel like we share a real bond and I'm worried I did something wrong...I know she may or may not read this but if so...sorry if I did something Mocha-chan...
ANYWAY, sorry for throwing my personal biz at your faces(probably don't care, you are here for the story after all) anyway, allow me to welcome you to Courage Rides on the Wind!