The city lay before them in ruins. Three of Dr Eggman's enormous, towering machines lumbered around, aimlessly causing damage sporadically and haphazardly. Most of the city had already fled from the devastation. But a young blue hedgehog stood on the outskirts of the city.
Accompanied, thanks in no small part to another time paradox, by his younger self.
"Okay," the older Sonic said, "There's three of those machines, plus probably hundreds of regular old badniks down there, are you ready to take them on?"
The younger Sonic stuck his thumb up to his older self and nodded.
"I really never said much when I was your age, did I?"
The younger Sonic shook his head.
"Fair enough, anyway, let's boost to our win!" the older hedgehog said as he darted directly for the carnage.
For a moment the younger Sonic stood there, one eyebrow raised at his older counterpart's choice of words before following.
The pair darted around and sometimes right through enemy machinery, freeing the small animals inside as they did. The younger Sonic watched as the older flew through like a laser, literally thanks to the Wisp powers. Why the Wisps were there neither hedgehog knew. That was in spite of the many years the older Sonic had to think about it. Not that he did.
The older Sonic stopped as they got close to the foot of one of Eggman's simply enormous machines. They had seemed much smaller in the distance, and not just because of depth perception issues caused by the hedgehogs' mono-pupil.
"We need to think of a way to attack these machines. Any ideas?"
The younger Sonic gave a sideways glance at his older counterpart.
"Right, no talking. Sorry."
The younger hedgehog rolled his eyes before pointing up at something near the robots. In the sky both Sonic's could see someone on some sort of wire getting closer. Swinging around the machines, this animal of indeterminate species landed in front of the pair of the hedgehogs.
"Hey Sonic," it said, "Err, Sonics. Long-time, no see."
"Err hi?"
The younger Sonic waved cautiously at the creature. In this light, it was hard to tell even what colour fur it had, much less what species it was.
"And you are?"
"Name's Ohsey," the ambiguous creature said, "Ohsey the Custom."
The younger Sonic took a step backwards. He had no idea what kind of species a custom was supposed to be and was now getting a vision of a bad future surrounded by them.
"Oh…kay…"
"No, Ohsey." Ohsey replied.
"Err, sure." The older Sonic said, "Are you here to help then? Cos you seem to possibly be covered in gadgets, or are they just fashion accessories?"
"Both!" Ohsey cheered, "Or neither. It's entirely up to you!"
"Well, you definitely have a pretty sweet grappling hook."
"This old thing? It was a gift from my dead father-slash my own invention-slash something I stole from Eggman-slash insert your own story here." Ohsey said, his or her face somehow both smiling and frowning depending on whether or not this was a happy or sad story for Sonic to hear.
The nearest of the three giant mechs stomped closer, sending a shockwave through the city. As another set of buildings collapsed into rubble, both Sonic's moved forwards.
"Well, it's good to meet you, but you should probably get to safety. We're off to smash those machines!"
"Oh I can help with that!" Ohsey replied, as the Custom pulled another gadget seemingly from behind its non-descriptively coloured back. "I call it the Wispon."
"That's great really," The older Sonic said, "But we really must go fight Eggman now, so bye!"
The younger Sonic was now lying on the ground yawning. He had been idle for too long. The older Sonic noticed this and gestured once again to the giant robots. As soon as the younger Sonic realised the intent to move he got up again and began sprinting. The older Sonic too burst into full sprint and ran for the robots, leaving Ohsey behind.
"Is it just me," the older Sonic said, "or was that weird?"
The younger Sonic was too busy focusing on bouncing from enemy to enemy to comment.
"Wait, you are me, so I guess even if you agree, it's still just me, right?" The older Sonic continued. Being older, and more experienced, and also equipped with his homing attack, the older Sonic had much less difficulty jumping from machine to machine than his younger double did.
"Still, I guess we should be thankful. I mean it's been ages since anyone else even helped us fight Eggman. Properly I mean."
The younger Sonic looked at his older counterpart confused as they ran. As far as the younger Sonic was concerned, all his friends always put in equal effort. Knuckles and Tails somehow even found a way to travel back in time to help on South Island that one time, at least, Sonic thought they did, though he couldn't really tell any more if that actually happened or not.
"And yet, and no offence to my friends, but I kind of enjoy it just being me. Well, us. We don't really need Knuckles or Tails, as much as we might want them. We definitely don't need some Ohsey helping us with a bunch of silly gadgets and…"
The older hedgehog noticed his younger counterpart pointing his thumb over his shoulder.
"Ohsey's right behind me?"
The younger Sonic gave a single nod.
"Well this is awkward. Hi again Ohsey. I had no idea you were as fast as me."
"Well why wouldn't I be? Everyone is as fast as you nowadays."
Both Sonic's weren't overly impressed to hear this. Of course the older Sonic had heard this before, and had in the past had to reluctantly surrender the fact that Shadow at least, in ideal conditions, and given a head start, and when Sonic had a full stomach and a leg cramp, was occasionally able to go faster than Sonic. But he wasn't willing to accept the idea that everyone was able to go that fast.
The reluctant trio made their way to the robots.
"Alright," Ohsey said, before either Sonic could say anything, "Here's the plan. I use my grappling gun to grapple my way up there, somehow keep these fifty story machines together with a twenty foot long rope, and then you two can jump and attack the three of them."
The younger Sonic slammed his hand against his face and dragged it down in exaggeration.
The older did the same, though with the opposite hand. "That's not really a good idea."
"Trust me," Ohsey replied, "It can't fail."
Before the older Sonic was able to prevent it, Ohsey had already fired off the grappling hook at the machine and was swinging his way upwards on it. It was almost a miracle that none of the machines had noticed, and Sonic could only assume that this was down to the fact that Ohsey was small enough to go unnoticed.
"Come on then," The older Sonic said reluctantly, "We should probably get involved."
The younger Sonic lowered his head and shoulders, before tapping his foot with impatience.
"I know" the older Sonic replied, "that Ohsey's probably going to be with us for the rest of the adventure. Let's just try not to let it bother us too much."
The younger Sonic frowned and crossed his arms.
"Well it's not like you've got any suggestions."
For a moment the younger Sonic considered saying 'I'm outta here'. Instead he settled on a single one finger gesture. Only, not with the index finger.
The older Sonic glared at his shorter, younger, and somehow lighter blue self, "It's not that bad. It could've been the guy with the scarf."
Both of them shuddered at the idea. Ohsey may have struck them as terrible, but that option was much, much worse.