Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Chapter 1

In a room of the hospital at Knothole Village were reunited Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Hope, Omega and the commander of G.U.N., commander Tower.

For a few minutes they remained silent looking at Shadow's motionless body. Then Hope asked: "How did this happen?"

"Eggman." Sonic had his head between his hand, looking at the floor "We decided to split: he would have distracted the robots while I took the Chaos Emeralds." He paused, remembering his confusion when he entered the room and the feeling of being unable to help his rival: "When I arrived Shadow was chained to the ground and the doctor just shot him with a laser." Hope gasped but the hedgehog immediately reassured: "He's not dead. He's just in a coma."

There was silent again, broke by Rouge a few moments later: "There must be something we can do to help him! Why are we standing here doing nothing?" She was very worried, after all Shadow was her best friend and she often enjoyed his company.

"Actually, there is..." Tail reflected if what he was thinking could be possible: "We have to send someone else in that state so that he or she can help Shadow's mind to reunite with his body."

"Then let's go! I will be going!" obviously Sonic offered himself the same moment his young friend stopped talking, he really couldn't stand the thought of waiting.

"It's not so simple, Sonic." began Hope: "First, we have to find a way to connect the mind of the one who's going to save Shadow to his body, so that we can bring him back here if something goes wrong. Second, we have to be sure that the one to enter Limbo has full control of his mind so that he can move freely in that dimension without the risk of getting lost."

The girl's reasoning wasn't wrong at all. Now the only problem was: who was going to save Shadow?

For several minutes the only sound was the ticking of the clock, while all of them were thinking deeply until Omega stopped that heavy silent: "I confronted all the qualities of our allies and there is one person that would be perfect for this mission."

"Who?" asked all of them at once.

"Silver the hedgehog"

They thought of it for a moment and then Rouge expressed what everyone was thinking: "Well, Silver really is the most fitting person."

"Now the problem is how to contact him." The young fox noticed.

"Allow me to contradict you, Miles." commander Tower, who had been silent until then, attracted everyone's attention "At G.U.N. Base we have everything needed to create a portal to Silver's timeline."

Sonic and Tails' eyes grew wide: "Really?!" they asked at once; Hope giggled and nodded happily while Rouge gave the two a confident smile.

"Well then!" Sonic punched the air: "What are we waiting for? Shads isn't going to save himself! Let's begin with the operation 'Hero from the future!'" his friends looked at him confused "What? I love naming the missions!"

xxx

Sonic, Tails and Rouge had two hours to get ready and study their mission. Now they were walking in the hallways of G.U.N. Base, heading towards Hope's lab. There was a weird silent but they didn't really have anything to tell each other: their goal was clear in their heads, getting Silver to help them as soon as possible.

They arrived in the large room and found the girl holding three communicators: "This will make your work a lot easier. I wish I could help more, thought." she said a little sad; Sonic put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting smile, meaning that it was more than good and from then on they were gonna take care of everything.

The blue hedgehog walked to the immense metallic columns that were in the center of the room. "Sooo, we have to use this to travel in time?" he asked a little unsure. Hope nodded with a confident smile and the hedgehog relaxed. He then got on the platform with the other two Mobians and waved at the commander that just entered the room; the man replied with a military greeting.

The girl hopped on a seat in front of a big and modern computer; she tipped for a while then gave a thumbs up and announced: "Are you ready to go, guys?"

"You bet we are, honey." said Rouge, winking at her.

Hope then pressed a button and the columns began to glow, filling the room in a strong light, so that all of them had to cover their eyes.

In a few moments the glowing stopped and Sonic, Tails and Rouge had disappeared. "Now it's up to you, guys." whispered to herself Hope, looking at the spot where the Mobians were a few seconds ago.

Xxx

"Ugh." Shadow woke up and massaged his temple with a hand. He was confused: "What happened? Where the heck am I?" he asked loudly at himself. Then he remembered: Eggman shot him with his laser, but he wasn't hurt and mostly he wasn't in the scientist's base anymore!

He then looked around himself: he was in the middle of a large cemented road, delimited by tall and grey buildings, on which were placed enormous screens that represented himself and all the people he met, he just found those images very familiar...

Between the buildings there were myriads of small streets that connected with the main boulevard and that seemed to fade into darkness.

Shadow was the only one in that road which seemed to go on forever, fading in a faint white light. 'What should I do? I don't like this place at all... it's too uncovered and I'm an easy target here. It isn't safe moving, either, since I don't have any idea of what could be waiting for me.'

The hedgehog sighed and got closer to a building with a screen representing a strange green liquid and beyond that a spatial scenery. He ran to the top of the palace, thinking that for up there he could at least have a better view of what was around him.

He sat on the edge of reinforced concrete and tried to think of what he could do next.