Nack now felt nauseous. Or rather, more nauseous. The portal had been a rough ride, and he had been ejected from it about four feet above tree tops. It was a bumpy ride to the ground too, and the weasel was sure he'd have more than bruises from the experience.
Getting to his feet Nack picked his hat off the ground and put it back on. He surveyed his surroundings; it was a jungle, with tall trees stretching as far as the eye could see. The sky was overcast; giving no indication of any sense which way was north or south, leaving Nack to stumble aimlessly in a random direction in a vague hope of finding civilisation.
As Nack traipsed forwards, he began to wonder what might've happened had he not taken the portal. He knew he couldn't beat Sonic in a fist fight, the guy was way too fast to hit, but he wondered, would Sonic have captured him, or just left him beaten. The truth was, in all the years obsessing over getting him, Nack knew very little about the hedgehog, other than that he was still the target.
Eventually Nack stumbled onto a river. Common sense told him that the river would eventually lead to somewhere; it was very rare to find a river that didn't have some kind of settlement on or near it and at least then the weasel could get his bearings. He followed it downstream, hoping to either find some form of civilisation. It took nearly an hour, but he eventually stumbled across a village. Delighted to finally be somewhere he could get information he began to look around.
Usually, when entering an unknown area, Nack would be cautious, and be aware of any kind of police or government operatives, in case they recognised his face from the wanted posters they used to circulate of him. This time however, he was much too tired and thirsty to consider it and stumbled straight forwards, into the hustle and bustle of this village. It was a medium sized village, with several roads, and probably limited police presence. Nack would be able to rest here. He just needed to find some money.
He watched the people milling about in their day to day lives, innocently wandering around, looking at things in the village's shops, trying to decide the best way to spend their hard earned money. Nack watched them all carefully, waiting for someone to let their guard down.
He walked through the crowds, looking around left and right, clearly not too familiar with the place. As he did, a female raccoon, also a bit distracted walked into his path. Nack noticed it too and smirked.
He bumped into her "oh excuse me," he said, as his hand slipped into her bag.
"Oops, my bad," said the woman as she was thrown off guard.
"Sorry," Nack replied, as he palmed the purse and quickly moved away. The weasel watched the woman walk away unaware, before darting away. The woman wouldn't realise what had happened for a while, and wouldn't even make the connection between her purse going missing and the 'accident' Nack had arranged.
He found a quiet spot in an alleyway where he was able to empty the purse out. He had enough money in it to allow him to stay the night in the village's inn, with a bit left over, enough for some food. Yet he didn't recognise the currency. Nack simply shrugged it off, wherever this place was, it probably wasn't the same country he came from, and if he was lucky it wouldn't be under GUN protection. Nobody here at least had recognised his face, so that was a plus.
His stomach grumbled, reminding him he was hungry. He made his way to a small cafe, the kind of place where the spoons were a bit greasy, but the food was cheap and usually delicious if you scraped off the burnt bits. It promised all day breakfast, and that was good enough for Nack. It was there he spotted an old newspaper on one of the tables.
"That's yesterday's paper," one of the customers said with half a mouthful of mushroom. "Not that today's will be much different,"
"I've been out of town for a week," the weasel replied, "It won't hurt to get caught up,"
The customer simply shrugged, and went back, to his meal, leaving Nack to the paper. The paper was folded weirdly, with a half filled in crossword puzzle on the front, a section that should've been two thirds in. Nack shoved it back in order just as a plateful of fried food was placed on his table. Without hesitating, Nack started shovelling the food into his eager mouth. It was only on the fourth mouthful he finally looked at the front of the paper.
"Nega defeated," the headline read, with the subheading "Plans to compress reality stopped."
Nack looked confused at this and began to open the paper, looking for information on where he was. The second page contained a weather forecast, but Nack didn't recognise the geography of the country at all, and had almost no chance of finding the village he was in. He turned the paper over and looked at the back, perhaps something in the sports section would clue him in.
The back page had a headline about the Windmill Isle Koala's losing in the quarter finals of a rugby tournament. This didn't help Nack either, he'd never heard of Windmill Isle, and had no idea if they were a local team or a national one, or even if they were the nearest local or national team or not.
Nack leafed through the entire sports section, seeing unfamiliar names and teams from unfamiliar places. He flipped the paper back over, and looked at the front. He could at least assume any political scandal would at least be national news, but the front was more on this defeat. The weasel read on, confused. He hadn't heard of the Sol Emeralds, had no understanding of why someone would dress like Eggman and call himself Nega, and had never heard of a princess Blaze. Finishing his breakfast, he gave up with the paper and left the cafe.
Nack stumbled around the village for most of the day. He began listening to conversations, looking for clues as to where he was, and even began pretending he was a tourist asking for more information. He learnt almost nothing about where he was in the country, but he at least learnt a great deal about the history of the village he was in, far more than he needed to.
Finally Nack decided to bite the bullet. Walking into a random shop, he just flat out asked the cashier what country he was in. The cashier looked at him confused, but told him he was on Southside Island. Once again Nack had never heard of it.
"Really," the cashier responded, "Then how did you get here?"
Nack changed the subject, "Whose this princess Blaze everyone keeps going on about?"
The cashier looked at Nack in disbelief. "Really?" he said, almost mockingly, "You've never heard of her?"
"Humour me," Nack replied.
"Guardian of the Sol Emeralds."
Nack stared blankly.
"Has magical fire abilities."
Nack stood there cluelessly.
"Quickest thing alive."
Nack jolted at that one. "Surely that's Sonic."
"Sonic?" The cashier said, confused, "Sonic who?"
Nack looked at the cashier confused. "Sonic the Hedgehog?" he asked.
It was the cashiers turn to stare blankly.
"Forget it," Nack said, and walked out without hesitation, smiling. The weasel seemed to find the one place on the planet that had never heard of Sonic. Who knew, perhaps here he could find someone who'd take him on for another job. Of course the purple weasel never once assumed that he was one a different planet, in another dimension. After all, why would anyone assume that?