Ciel - Haha, we finally updated! Oh joyness! It's my fault it's late, in case you were wondering; I'm a lazy person. My bad. By the way, the new Edit/Preview Document thing is weird...I wish we had the old one back...oh well. By the way, Blue Mage Quartet has this to say: "Sorry about the wait! Oh, and that review button looks pretty lonely...mind giving it a click?" So yeah, that's what we have to say. Enjoy! Oh, and the disclaimer still applies, of course.

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"You really shouldn't worry so much about Sonic, Tails. I'm sure he's off somewhere, ignoring the rest of the world on one of his 'adventures,' like always."

This was said by the current guardian of Angel Island, Knuckles. He and the twin-tailed fox were wandering amongst the various leafy greens of one of the island's jungles, seemingly aimlessly. Tails didn't have much of an idea as to where they were going; he was too preoccupied with the matter at hand, his twin tails twirling and twisting around anxiously.

"Usually, I'd say you were right," Tails admitted. "But…it's the fact that no one's seen him."

"It's happened before. Remember, right before the Nocturne incident, he was gone for, oh, I dunno…two years?" Knuckles shrugged; he was probably wondering how long the kitsune was going to be here.

"But people saw him during those two years," Tails argued, absently stepping on what he would usually call 'a prime specimen of the unique flora on Angel Island,' at least when he was feeling overly scientific. "There was almost always some blue streak, or some sighting of him. Don't you remember the 'Sonic Watch' section on the news?"

"Don't you remember that I don't have a TV to watch the news in the first place?"

"I made you one awhile ago!"

"…Oh, yeah…that TV. Funny story about that…"

"No time; you're changing the subject." The fox shook his head and sighed. "Thing is, nobody's seen Sonic for over two weeks. That's almost unheard of. I'm worried that something happened to him…" Something like Eggman? No, Tails thought; Eggman had attacked a few zones recently, so he couldn't be up to anything sneaky. Aside from Sonic missing, as a matter of fact, there hadn't been anything out of the ordinary. Just…a world without Sonic, it seemed.

Knuckles raised an eyebrow. "Two weeks ago? That's the last time he was on my island." He rolled his eyes, presumably at the very memory of it. "Popped up, annoyed the hell out of me…and then didn't even say goodbye when he left."

"That's not like him." Tail's turned to Knuckles with concern shining clearly in his eyes, his tails gone from twirling to whipping at the air. "You don't think something could have happened to him, do you? Maybe something on the island-"

"I would have found a spiky blue body if something attacked him," The guardian muttered gruffly. "Nothing goes unnoticed while I'm around."

Of course, the fox knew better than that, but he also knew not to say so. Instead, he was wondering how Sonic got on the island. He must have taken the Tornado, stopped by, and then flew off. That might account for why nobody had seen him, if he stayed in the plane…but that wasn't like him either. Maybe he had used Chaos Control? No, that still wouldn't account for why he was missing…

"There's that weird lake again."

"Huh?" Snapping out of his thoughts, Tails looked in front of them. There was what appeared to be a small lake, but there was something off about it. At certain angles, it looked almost see through. Like there was a piece missing. Looking closer, it was if there was not just a hole in the lake, but the whole island; the holes led to nothing but clouds and skies, the ground out of sight.

"It appeared during the last Terra Quake," Knuckles explained calmly. "The island has a habit of sometimes rearranging everything, so some things show up, and some things disappear. This appeared last time; I've never seen anything like it."

Tails didn't reply right away. A hole in the middle of nowhere? That wasn't possible…then again, he remembered that once, Vector had raved for weeks on end about some hole that things disappeared into, never to return. Of course, no one had believed the detective, since there were many things Vector heard of that were results of a misunderstanding. Still, what if…

What if he had been telling the truth?

"…Do you think Sonic could have run into this on accident?" Tails asked.

"Wouldn't surprise me."

"I see." There was a pause as the both of them stared at the lake, clouds drifting lazily underneath. "I'm going in."

"What?!"

Tails turned to his echidna friend, looking more determined than ever before. "I have a feeling that Sonic may have gone through here on accident. That would explain why nobody's seen him, and why he didn't say goodbye to you. I have to go after him." And, Tails didn't want to admit it, but something far worse than falling may have happened to his hero.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Good luck on that."

"…You aren't coming?"

"I have more important things to do."

"But Sonic's life could be at stake!" Tails exclaimed, both tails writhing in annoyance. "Don't you care about him?"

"The Master Emerald could be at stake if I left," Knuckles explained in a surprisingly calm tone. He looked Tails in the eye, as if to make sure he was being heard. "Look, I care about Sonic. He's…a good person. However, he's only been on Mobius for eighteen years or so. The world's dealt without him. The Master Emerald, on the other hand, has been here since the beginning of time. Everything would go out of control if it was gone."

For a moment, it seemed like the kitsune would shout out a retort. Instead, his ears drooped, and his tails sunk as low as they could.

"I suppose you have a point," Tails said, knowing that he wouldn't be able to convince the echidna otherwise. That meant only one thing. "Then I guess I'll go alone. I'll be back in a little bit; I need to pack."

The fox turned around, heading for where his plane was parked, trying to keep worry and anxiety from his troubled mind. The guardian watched without a sound.

"This is not going to end well…"

----

Click. A new page opened on the computer screen, linking up to a search engine. Meaningless advertisements fought for dominance on the page with size and flashy colors.

Click. Tappity-tap. The words "New Sonic Game" showed up in perfect lines and curves.

Click. Press go.

Arthur Davidson sighed, going through his usual afternoon routine. His homework was finished, Dad was at work, Mom was folding clothes, and his annoying older sister had finally stopped hogging the computer long enough for him to check the rumors about Sega's newest creation. Hopefully, it'd be for a console he actually owned; he looked over at his poor PSP, which was collecting dust on the charger. It felt like he hadn't played a good Sonic game -or a good game in general- in forever. He didn't even have the time, what with school, and his parents pushing him for college. It was still two years away; couldn't they wait a bit?

Oh well. At least there was Sonic. Now, about that game…if only the computer would load faster…

Surprisingly, at least half of the top search results weren't even about the game.

"Sonic spotted in LA," Arthur read aloud, adjusting his glasses for a better view. "God, who wrote this? Did some fangirl get high or something?" Most likely. It sounded like an idea for a bad fanfiction, to be honest. Maybe it was; stupid, unreliable search engine.

Next headline. "Iconic Blue Hedgehog sighted in Los Angeles, April 15th…"

That was only a few weeks ago, right? And this one was from a credible news source; it was the one his parents watched every morning. Definitely not a fanfic. So then, what did this mean? He had to find out.

Click.

Reading with an almost unnatural speed, Arthur was surprised by the article's contents. Apparently, what appeared to be a blue, humanoid hedgehog was sighted in the middle of LA, causing an uproar until the police carted him off. There were all sorts of quotes, and claims from the police that it was just some lunatic in an outfit. Others raved that it had to be Sonic, it had to be real. There were pictures, too, from eye witnesses…

Now, where were those supposed pictures?

Click.

A new page loaded, with multitudes of photos taken by those on-site. Most of them weren't especially good, and either too crowded or quite blurry, but…wait, there was one, right near the bottom.

Oh.

No way.

Impossible. It had to be impossible.

Click. The picture was enlarged.

There, standing clear as day, was an extremely confused, blue-and-tan furred, undeniably realistic, anthropomorphic…hedgehog.

Sonic.

Could all his childish fantasies from the last five years be true? Could his favorite blue hero really, really be real?

It was time to look up more articles, before his parents came home or his sister decided to hog the computer again. There was no time to waste.

Click.

----

Tails stood upon the edge of the lake. This time, he was alone. He had already said his farewells to Knuckles, and had sent messages to the others that he might not be back for awhile. Tails couldn't help but think it would be a long while, unfortunately. He had all the gadgetry he thought necessary, provisions, and just in case, a good book. A book could come in handy for many, many things.

"I hope Sonic's alright," He thought to himself. "For that matter, I hope I'll be alright…"

He had to stop thinking like that. He'd chicken out if he wasn't careful, and he was trying quite hard not to already.

Taking a deep breath, the fox stepped into the lake.

It was at this moment he realized two things. First, it didn't feel like water, but instead, like walking straight off a cliff, which he of course had never done before. And second…it had been barely past noon when he left, but the sky was, for some reason, dimming, with brilliant pink and orange clouds…

He finally saw the ground, far, far away. His tails wouldn't allow him to fly, for he was falling fast. Way past fast.

"Is this how fast Sonic usually goes?"

"…Or at least, how fast he would go?"

It would be impossible to survive a fall like this. "No, don't think like that now," he told himself. It was time to think his final thoughts, the ones he had been saving for his deathbed years from now.

He waited to hit the ground.

And waited.

"I shouldn't have stapled Sonic to the tree before I left."

Perfect.

Game Over. Continue?

The sky was filled with white.