Speed. He was speed - literally. Sonic was more than a blue hedgehog; he was speed incarnate, a child of the rushing wind. The leaves and grass parted for his feet as they sped around and over the sacred marble columns and arches of Marble Garden. He had been here long ago, during the third war against Robotnik. After losing that war, the mad scientist disappeared for years - and it wasn't until nuclear flames wiped Xadra off the map that the Freedom Fighters knew where he'd been. He had lost that war, too, and returned to Robotropolis, but Lazer had followed...
...The rest was history. Mobius was rid of that fat madman once and for all, and would enjoy peace for as long as it could.
Sonic moved so fast that the wind pressed against him, but there was no element on Mobius that could stop him. Clouds, mountains, oceans, lava - he had conquered them all. They were his friends; they couldn't hurt him any more than the leaves could hurt the wind. He kept pushing against that invisible hand until it gave way, leaving the sound of thunder in his wake. He went up, down, around, over, under and through the ancient ruins. What civilisation had lived here? What had they learned? Where were they now? These questions didn't bother Sonic. Running made him feel good. That was all that mattered in this moment...
...until the voice of Tails touched his mind.
"Sonic!"
"GAH!" the blue wonder cried out, instinctively curling into a spiky ball and rolling to a halt. "Don't DO that, little buddy! Wait, HOW are you doing this? Get out of my head!"
"Sorry, I'm using Mr. Lazer."
Sonic took a breath and shot off again, looping through several stone arches. "Red taught you?"
"Not really. Chaos Emeralds are connected to all life, no matter how far away... Sonic, you gotta come home. We're planning an attack on..."
"That evil desert east of Mercia?"
"How did you...?"
"My morning jog around the world. It's how I read the daily newspaper."
"Well, we've already informed Knuckles, so he's ready to hide the Master Emerald if we fail."
"We won't lose," he said, then tapped Tails on the shoulder. The fox leaped into the air, crying out in surprise, breaking the fist-bump with Lazer. Rebecca laughed.
"Ugh... Sonic!" Tails yelled, his face uncertain whether he was surprised, awed or angry.
"Still showing off," Lazer said. He hadn't even seen Sonic arrive, but he had felt the wind. It followed the blue bolt wherever he went.
Sonic shrugged, the easy shrug of someone fully aware of his strength. "What d'you need us for, Red? That oversized sword can kill anything, even if it's already dead!"
"Yes, but I can't. Our enemy is immune to Chaos Energy, so that makes my five Emeralds only useful for Chaos Control. I'll need your speed and Tails' brains."
Tails blinked. "My what now?"
Lazer turned to the teenage fox with a grin. "You just tossed your thoughts across the planet and brought Sonic's thoughts back again. I can't do that, and our enemy may be anywhere at any time."
Tails nodded. "NICOLE said it has that ability."
"Let's go, then. Red?"
Lazer held up a finger. "Dropping Rebecca home first."
Just before the couple vanished in a flash of red light, Rebecca threw her arms around Lazer's neck and looked up into his eyes. Lazer reappeared moments later. Somehow he was blushing a deeper shade of red through his orange skin. He looked at Sonic, who winked because he understood perfectly. Tails looked between the two of them, not understanding in the least. Married people are weird.
"Nuh-uh, nope," Lazer said, avoiding the fist Tails held out. "I want to look as menacing as possible to our enemy, like in those Super Sentai shows I watched as a kid."
"So how are we gonna do this?" Sonic asked.
"Well..."
