Chapter 2: A Morning of Mild Embarrassment:

I'm Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! Welcome to the

alternate continuity, everyone! What are the odds that something

like this would occur after dealing with a time-controlling force of hell?

Anyway, at least I survived the ordeal, and so did all my friends! Even

the WORLD isn't all that different! ...Except for the fact that I now own

a house that others could only DREAM of! And boy is it great to be in - especially

after I fixed it up!

A year had passed since everyone had moved into the new house. It was 7:00am. Sonic was awakened from his slumber by the quiet beeps from the alarm clock next to his bunk-bed. He silently climbed down off his top bunk, making sure not to wake Tails who was sleeping on the bunk beneath him. He then proceeded sharpen his quills and don his famous red shoes. As he was grabbing a sweat-towel out of a drawer and a protein shake out of the mini-fridge, Knuckles happened to wake up. He sat up on his twin-bed across the room from Sonic and Tails' bunk-beds. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he said:

"Morning Sonic, where are you off to?"

Sonic whipped the towel over his shoulder and said, "Oh, nothing. Just going for a little morning workout. Wanna come?"

"Sure. Why not? I could use a little weight-lifting." Knuckles replied.

The two friends were about to leave the bedroom when they were interrupted by Tails. In an almost motherly tone, he said:

"Don't forget water, you two."

Sonic then got frustrated.

"For the last time, Tails, I don't need any fucking water! I'm the fastest damn thing alive!"

"Uh, sorry, sorry…" Tails shyly replied. Sonic and Knuckles then proceeded to head downstairs to the gym.

Meanwhile, Rouge was in her own personal bedroom sleeping on her side, a closed-eyed tense expression on her face as she tossed about.

{Rouge was having a dream that took place during her final fight against Knuckles in Sonic Adventure 2. After being knocked off the platform, she helplessly started to flap her wings in an attempt to save herself from the acid pit below, but to no avail. "Dammit! My wing must've broken during the fight!" Rouge cursed, looking back up, and seeing Knuckles standing on the ledge with his arms folded and looking away. "Um, help!?" She impatiently asked. "Sorry, bat girl! This is what you get for causing me all this trouble! At least you dropped my shards before you fell, so your services will no longer be required!" Knuckles replied, not making eye-contact as he tossed a Master Emerald shard into the air with one hand and caught it in the other. "Rgh! KNUCKLES!" Rouge yelled back up, only to realize that he had walked off. Just as she was giving up hope, a Tarzan-esque scream could be heard in the distance, growing louder as the person emitting it came closer. "Huh?" Rouge questioned as she looked in the direction of the yelling. To her shock, it was Shadow the Hedgehog, swinging in on a thick rope, his head aimed down towards the vat of green acid and one arm not touching the rope at all. Instantly, he looked up and shot a small grin in Rouge's direction as a twinkle flashed on his teeth. Without a word, the black hedgehog let both arms dangle free and made a grab for the helpless Rouge, both of his legs still tightly gripping the rope. He managed to catch her by the arm, and lightly tossed her into the air, before catching her arm with one hand (while using that same hand to re-grab the rope) and using the other hand to grab her by the rear in order to hold her in a relatively safe position as they continued to swing. As if they had been a couple for years, Rouge and Shadow sank into a deep kiss as the pair continued to swing around the circular fighting arena. Once the kiss ended, Rouge looked ahead. "Um, thanks for saving me and all, but how are we gonna land this thi-AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!" She said, before noticing that the duo was about to crash into the outer wall of the acid pit. "Oh, shit..." Shadow said, before they both crashed, followed by a blinding flash of light.}

It turned out that the dream came to an abrupt end due to the alarm on the nightstand clock, waking Rouge up instantly. She quickly sat up, panting with cold sweat on her forehead as she glanced at the clock: 8:00am. She peered through the skylight above her canopy bed and saw that it was broad daylight.

"Phew! Well? Time to start another day." She said, as she got out of bed, donning a pair of fuzzy pink slippers.

Rouge stepped out of her room, wearing a black spaghetti-strap nightgown covered in pink hearts, which went half-way down her thighs and showed most of her chest. She had bags under her eyes, as she slouched to the kitchen, where she saw Tails at the stove making pancakes. Knowing Tails never usually got up until later, she said:

"Hi. You're up bright and early." as she made her way to the coffee-maker.

Tails began using one of his tails to grab the spatula, while reaching for some blueberries with the other; all the while continuing to flip the pan with his hands.

"Well, Sonic and Knuckles woke me up when they left for a workout, and since I couldn't go back to sleep, I just decided to get up." He replied.

Rouge listened to this as she went to the cabinet and grabbed the last biscotti from the jar.

"Well then have a nice day!" she said as she prepared her breakfast. She added sugar, cream, honey, and a hint of bourbon to her cup of Sonic-Brand coffee, and sat down.

Down in the basement gym, Sonic, Knuckles and Blaze were working out. Sonic was using the treadmill at the maximum speed and incline, hardly breaking a sweat at all. Knuckles had finished doing reps with some dumbbells and had begun hitting the punching bag. Blaze was on the treadmill next to Sonic, though not going as fast or as uphill as he was. They had been doing this for about 50 minutes and decided to stop. The three headed back upstairs to get ready for the day.

I'm Silver the Hedgehog! The hero from the future today!

You may be wondering what I'm doing here instead of...y'know, protecting my

own time. Well let me sum it up for you: my world went to shit, I wandered into this era, I

found love, and made some good friends! PLUS, there can NEVER be too many

heroes, am I right?

Meanwhile, Silver had just woken up and was sitting in bed watching the news. He saw Blaze come in and go straight to the bathroom. He smiled. He was so happy to be living in a time where everything was positive, and that he had made some friends and even gotten a girlfriend. Blaze finally came out of the bathroom after her shower and gave Silver a kiss on the cheek. (They had become girlfriend and boyfriend since they were introduced to each other in Sonic Colors. In order to be able to stay with Silver, Blaze retired as princess and brought the Sol Emeralds with her to this world). Silver turned off the TV, and got up. He smiled at his new girlfriend and said:

"I'm going for breakfast now. Want anything?"

"No thanks, I had a protein shake after my workout. Those have lots of calories." Blaze replied.

"Okay then." Silver said as he left their room.

Silver entered the kitchen where Tails and Rouge were talking at the table. Tails had his last bite on his fork, and was trying to mop the remaining strawberry syrup off his plate. He looked up and asked:

"Hi Silver! Want some pancakes?"

Silver scratched his head for a moment, and said:

"Um, thanks for the offer, but I'm allergic to blueberries." He then proceeded to stand by the door and open the fridge with his mind.

He began to make an omelet with his telekinesis, as Tails and Rouge watched in curiosity. Once the omelet was done, Silver sat down.

"Do we have any prunes?" he asked.

"I'm sure we do, but you'd better ask Amy if you can have some." Rouge replied.

"Yeah, she loves prunes just as much as she loves Sonic." Tails added.

"Ah well, then do we have any coffee left?" Silver asked.

"Sure. There's more in the coffee maker. Just hope I don't finish it." Rouge joked. Everyone laughed.

Then a deep voice started to speak: "Morning all."

Everyone looked towards the kitchen door. It was Shadow, who appeared to be in a better mood than he used to be. He grabbed a few of Tails' leftover pancakes, poured himself some orange juice and sat down. He began silently eating while looking at a newspaper. Rouge couldn't help but stare at him. She had recently developed a crush on Shadow, and thought he was really handsome. However, she was also slightly embarrassed to be in her pajamas in front of him. She thought it would be too hard to make a move, despite having worked with him many times, and having been his only friend for so many years. Soon Shadow closed the newspaper and glanced in Rouge's direction.

"Um, why are you staring at me?" He asked.

Rouge snapped out of her trance, and was embarrassed. She said:

"Oh, heh. I'd better get ready for the day. Gotta go!" as she quickly walked from the kitchen.

Shit! You screwed up in front of him! C'mon, you bitch! Rouge thought as she entered her room and closed the door.