It's a beautiful sunny day in the grass plains today but it's a very sad day indeed. Sonic was resting sitting himself upright on a tree that was nearby a large lake reflecting the bright sun. There were only a few small clouds rolling by that day moving pass the path of the sun's rays. And a gentle breeze gently swayed the leaves. Sonic was all by his lonesome and hasn't spoken to anybody for weeks. For right now his urge for adventure, running around, basically doing something has been put to a halt ever since his leg has been broken. He begins to stir and opens his eyes very slightly and to his dismay the first thing he sees is his cast covering his left leg. He closes his eyes once more, yawns, and begins to feel around for his crutches, which were lying down beside him. He grabs them and hoists himself up and limps his way towards the water.

When Sonic gets to the edge of the lake he sees his reflection he looks down and studies it for a minute. He hasn't really taken a good look at himself sine the whole incident occurred. His right eye was swollen, had a few scrapes on his arms and a bandage on his shoulder, to say the least he was quite roughed up. These were battle scars he was not proud of. Usually it would represent how he put everything on the line to make the world a better place and pulled through to become victorious in his efforts but in the water he sees unfinished business, fear, and resentment. He continues to stare at himself then he carefully crouches down and angrily smacks the water. He wants to push all these feelings out of his head but he usually runs when he wants to clear his head. Now he's stuck waiting to heal and time seems to be slowing down all around him. In addition to his guilt he seems to feel the weight of the world on his back. He grabs his crutches tightly and breathes stares out over the lake and then all of a sudden the trees rustle. He turns and yells "Back off!" The trees rustle again, "I'm warning you I'm really not in the mood for games!" A purple chameleon jumps down from the tree almost soundlessly, it was Espio.

"So this is where you been hiding." Espio says coolly. "Hey! I'm not hiding!" Sonic shouts at him "Do you see me? Here, out in the open?" Espio just stares back at Sonic "Well in your condition Sonic I didn't expect you to still be running around anywhere" He stares carefully at Sonic's cast "especially this far out the way." Sonic now a little pissed, but quite proud of his self, snaps back at that comment "Damn right I'm still running! Now what do you want?" Espio unaffected by Sonic's attitude responds "Everyone back home is worried about you wants you to come back," Sonic turns his back on Espio towards the Lake, "Well you can go back yourself and tell them I'm fine and will be returning shortly." Espio went on "Sonic you're scaring everyone You've been injured badly, you won't explain it, you just run away from it all and they had to hire me to track you down." Sonic turned away; he couldn't look at him, not when everything he said was absolutely true. "Espio… He said quietly "you have no idea what I'm going through." "So you broke your leg, get over it you'll heal in due time." "No it's not just that" "Well maybe if you talked to somebody about it your mind would clear up." Sonic sighed "No Espio just get outta here!" Sonic was really Upset, "You found me okay? So you can go back to your agency and collect your stupid pay!" Espio then let out a small chuckle "Getting paid? Do you know who our client was?" Sonic remained silent "It was Cream she came to us days ago just worried sick that 'Mr. Sonic' was gone, and to injured to go anywhere himself, poor girl thought you got taken away. And Vector, showing his concern, sent a search party for you but here you are just lounging by a damn lake" "Wow…" Sonic looked down at his shoe," I feel like such a jerk." Espio replied "Good she broke her piggy bank trying to pay us. So will you comeback now?" Sonic look towards the sun and said "Yea I guess it's about time, I don't want people to be so miserable without me." He chuckled to himself a bit laughing at how gloomy he was feeling. "Let's go," Said Espio "Righ—UUUUWAAAAAAAA!" As sonic turned around something like a tentacle grabbed Sonic and dragged him into the lake.