Preface: Sonic 2 adaptation with (very probable) inconsistencies. It's been many years since I've played the game and, to be honest, a lot of the details came from the general wiki of the fandom, along with embellishments from the television shows that have come about. My focus was on relationship development, because that's really the meat and potatoes of stories I write.
Anyhow, I hesitated posting this due to many other creations of the whole Sonic-meets-Tails thing. But meh, I already wrote it, so it was either this or sit collecting dust for a while until I go back to read it myself. Where's the fun in that? And this really pushes me to finish it, since I don't think I've ever posted something incomplete before.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy. :)
South Island
The factory had fallen to pieces around him, much like a house of cards facing the inevitable wrath of a nearby breeze. The blue hedgehog quickly stowed the Chaos Emeralds in his quills, freeing his arms to assist in balancing and—occasionally—pushing off the crumbling debris raining down all around him.
The mad doctor had escaped, but his entire base was going under, and he could no longer utilize the power of these gemstones for his bidding.
Even if the hedgehog wasn't entirely sure how they were used in the first place.
There was an undeniable surge of something in his veins when he was near the jewels, though. He felt like a magnet to their pull, and it was honestly the only reason he was able to find them at all before the doctor had gotten his chance at them.
Regardless, that power was still limited. Maybe it made him run faster. Maybe it made him feel stronger.
Or maybe the adrenaline was simply doing its job.
Without the emeralds, he was still fast. Faster than any Mobian he'd ever met, and faster than most contraptions meant for travel. Given enough of a runway, energy, and circumstance, he could be faster than sound.
Right now he was not fast. Of anyone else he had the best chance of escaping this doomed factory, but with the world beneath his feet shifting and the things above him toppling, he was slow. Too slow.
A particularly large piece of manufacturing equipment—a conveyor belt?—began to tilt towards the blue hedgehog, and he grimaced at its proximity, instinctively speeding up and pushing through.
Just as he blew through the door he felt the contraption explode onto the ground where he had been milliseconds ago. Dwelling was not an option, however, and he quickly returned his attention to the obstacles in front of him. How the crazy doctor had gotten away was a wonder: maybe his own attempted escape spectacularly failed and he was now buried beneath his evil inventions, justice serving its own taste of karma.
Eyes scouting ahead, the blue hedgehog acted before words could even form in his head. He looked like he was somersaulting for a moment, and then rolled into himself so his pointy quills became erect, sharp, spinning blades. His velocity maintained, but now he was like a loose circular saw, tearing through the last of the wall blocking him from the outside world.
Wood splintered, metal cracked, and with only a few seconds of slowdown the blue hedgehog had spindashed his way through the last of the mad doctor's factory. He blasted through the building, uncurling himself and continuing to run out into the open world beyond, an inadvertent sigh escaping his mouth.
He traversed the robotisized city, briefly wondering if villages once stood in their place. No sentient beings remained, however; this entire island was only home to small feral creatures and, while the doctor had imprisoned them inside his machines, it wasn't very clear how he was using them, or if he had used sapients in the past...
It was a morose thought. The hedgehog wasn't exactly a history buff, but he did vaguely recall that South Island was uninhabitable for Mobians; something about the island constantly moving, making trade in and out virtually impossible.
He hoped that remained true, as what was left of the island seemed to be only the mad doctor's robotic creations, manufacturing plants, and factories making nothing but smog and pollution on the once tropical paradise.
Green Hill, on the other side of the island, seemed to be the only true part of the zones that withstood industrialization. Even so, it was obvious that the pollution had begun to wilt the world there, as well.
As the blue hedgehog exited the doctor's lone empire, as the muddy ground turned to rolling grass hills and the metal debris gave way to trees, he began to feel a quiver, almost like a low hum, inside his quills.
His run slowed to a stop. He pulled the six Chaos Emeralds out of his quills and into his hands, feeling them vibrate beneath his fingers.
They glowed; no, pulsated, and the blue hedgehog stood still, mesmerized by their beauty and power.
Power. He felt that same feeling in his veins intensify, and for one brief moment he channeled the emeralds. Their energy coursed outward and he had found the wavelength, was part of it, melded with it—
He gasped, and before he knew it the gemstones floated on their own accord. He wanted to reach out for them, to grab them and pull them back, but they told him not to.
They told him, and he was stupefied because obviously jewels don't talk. But these did, in his mind, not with words but with emotions, and he watched with dumbstruck awe as they circled above him. Their pulsations grew stronger and suddenly became beacons of light, turning everything white; so blindingly white.
A wash of energy as pure and good as what the hedgehog imagined some equivalent of heaven to be soothed his tired muscles, erasing the pain from cuts and bruises and wounds from the intense battle mere minutes ago.
It filled the blue speedster with a calmness he hadn't felt in ages.
And then it was gone.
His eyes blinked open and sunlight—real sunlight—filtered through the clouds above. The surrounding silence was replaced with trees rustling in the oceanside breeze. The Chaos Emeralds were gone, but so was the smog.
The dark smoke of pollutants had dissipated. The wilting trees and flowers were thriving and beautiful, and the smell of the air was salty and mossy, as it should be.
The hedgehog absently rubbed his arm and looked down. His fur was clean: no grime, no dirt, and no blood.
No cuts or gashes, no bruises. He was healed.
He looked back up and noticed feral animals out and about. They approached him bravely, fully aware of who he was, and what he had done.
A part of him knew what he had to do, as well. The mad doctor could never get his hands on the Chaos Emeralds. The power he had felt was teeming, and words could not describe how that energy could so easily mold into something much more fierce and menacing, if someone with ill will had possession of them.
A quieter part of his thoughts reminded him that the Chaos Emeralds spoke to him on that shared wavelength. They knew he could harness their power. They knew there were more encounters in store.
It was terrifying and amazing and subduing all at once.
But as the wind picked up and the waves crashed along the nearby shore; as the feral creatures flitted about happily and the stunned hedgehog continued to stand still, he could only find one apt word for everything that had transpired:
"Chaos," he breathed out.
One year later
The biplane hummed crankily.
Its pilot raised an eye ridge at it, but shook off the implications with ease. He had been flying for some time now, and the next island wasn't too far ahead, if he had managed to navigate himself successfully.
As someone who could run faster than the speed of sound, it was odd sitting in a relatively slow plane. But a quick look at the pristine blue below reminded him that, while he was a great runner, he horribly lacked in the swimming department.
The cool spring breeze was a nice change of pace from the long winter he had muddled through, and he hoped the island ahead provided the change of scenery he longed for.
The last year had been a roller coaster to his life, and while his mission was still the foundation of this journey, he wouldn't mind a little R&R mixed in. From his research West Side Island was relatively low in populace and, with any luck, the inhabitants would not be too aware of the famous blue hedgehog that had defeated Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
South Island seemed like an eon ago. While Mobians hadn't lived on the traveling island for some time, it was still exploited for fish, minerals, and produce. Robotnik's takeover of its rich resources had put him on many nations' radars well before the blue hedgehog came along.
So when news spread of the doctor's defeat by a lone warrior, the speedster was turned into an unwilling hero.
Granted, money seemed to come with ease with the new reputation, and because of it he never went without a full belly and soft place to sleep at night (if he so inclined). Of course, that also came with constant attention and adoration that became synonymous with accosting in his eyes, and in the end the blue hedgehog valued his freedom more than anything else.
A jolt of turbulence and sputtering lodged said hedgehog out of his daydreaming and he grabbed a hold of the yoke quickly when the plane decided to veer left on its own accord.
"What—"
The pilot couldn't even finish his exclamation of surprise before the plane hiccupped again, dark smoke leaking through the casing surrounding the engine. With another stomach-churning shudder, his sole mode of transportation divebombed downwards.