Props: Thanks this week go out to Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT, Hedgehogwriter07, and Tekina Fiction for the OCs and opinions. You all mean literally everything to this! Oh, and thanks to Wafflesbelike-NYANCAT for a few weeks' worth of topics! Makes the job that much easier!


A distraught Echo meticulously rushed up to the door, opened it, and rushed inside before closing it behind her.

Catching her breath, she spotted Rachel just as she was heading toward the stage. She realized how horrifyingly close she had made it when she saw Sarah and Thorn standing by the curtain.

"I-I'm sorry I almost didn't make it again!" Echo explained, having Rachel turn around. "I got caught up with hotel stuff and lost track of time."

"Hotel stuff?" Rachel asked. "Is anything wrong?"

"I'm going on vacation next week," Echo said. "I still have yet to figure out what hotel I'm staying at."

"Oh!" Rachel nodded. "Well, I hope you have lots of fun! And be safe!"

"We'll be thinkin' bout ya!" Thorn smiled, giving a thumbs-up.

"No dying, I know," Echo said. "I GET it."

At that, Rachel went onstage, and Echo joined Sarah and Thorn.

"Someday, we'll get out of this crack pit…" Rachel said, impersonating one of those survivalists on TV. "Let's start now! Welcome back to Thoughts of the Unknown!"

The audience's usual applause filled her with vigor.

"This week… ugh…" she sighed. "Two speedy blue things. Sonic and Metal Sonic, everyone. Nope. PUESC, or "Possible Under Extremely Specific Circumstances" is the best I can give it. Like, if Metal Sonic had fallen into the River Twigz and had his chips zapped in just the right spots to make him a good guy. But what's the chances of that? The River Twigz would either kill him or do nothing in reality. But… p-please, just… NO. NO! Ugh… Anyway, we've got three guests with us tonight. Please give a hearty welcome back to the stage… to Thorn, Sarah, and Echo!"

The three guests made their ways to their seats.

"Hello, guys!" Rachel waved, finding her own seat.

"I'll go first," Thorn sighed. "Save your breath. First off, has anyone seen the 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog movie?"

"Nope," Rachel said to herself. "But that 2018 one's gonna be a riot."

"If so," Thorn explained. "You know how Metal Sonic is destroyed, right?"

"He and Silver made their first Olympic debuts in 2010," Echo interrupted. "19 years later."

"Please," Sarah winced. "I don't need my brain to be twisted around tonight."

"…AND," Thorn huffed. "He says 'There can only be one Sonic' or some feels like that. Well… Back then, I'd say they could have a friendly-rival relationship, like how Sonic does with Shadow and Knuckles. But how he's acted since then, even Heaven and the Underworld hold no way that romance would work out here."

"Me next!" said Sarah. "I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but… who, in their right mind, would see anything between these two?! Seriously, I mean… Metal is Sonic's sworn enemy-"

"That's Eggman," Echo sighed.

"…BESIDES EGGMAN, of course," said Sarah. "Even if Metal were to turn good, it still wouldn't work. Nope."

"This is going to be wondrous," sighed Echo. "A, Metal is a faker. B, it kidnapped Sonic's girlfriend on Little Planet. C, Metal is a robot."

"I mean, love doesn't always discriminate," Rachel shrugged.

"It sure as heck does most of the time," said Echo. "It nearly killed all of the Sonic Heroes. When I was… Well… I was neglected thanks to it. That aside, I've done some active research. Metal could possibly be a robotized Sonic from an erased timeline."

This grabbed at least a minute chunk of everyone's attention.

"A relationship between these two would be the equivalent of Sonic making a metal statue of himself and marrying it," said Echo. "Narcissism jacked to eleven. By both logic and my personal bias, this is impossible."

"Glad we could all agree on that," said Rachel, standing up. "Welp, tune in next week… when we see how the two-tailed genius and the guardian of the huge jewel get along! Knuckles and Tails, everyone! See ya then!"

Rachel almost reflexively walked backstage after turning her mic off… but was caught by the sudden memory of the idea she had hiding in her car.

"You guys, wait," she snapped, calling toward the three guests.

They all stopped, looking back at her.

"I've got the Game of Life in my car," she explained. "Anyone up for a game?"

In truth, she was prepared for brutal rejection. She'd grown up with everyone seeming to have something better to-

"Yeah!" Thorn cheered.

"Sure, why not?" said Sarah.

"I could go for a game!" Echo smiled.

…Huh. Awesome.

"I've got it all out in my car!" Rachel beamed. "Just let me go get it."

But the walls must've been made of opaque iron or something. Because it wasn't until Rachel closed the back door that she noticed that it was raining. It was one of those deadpan rains that seemed like it was just trying to do one job and leave… but nevertheless, it was rain.

Nothing out of the hat, she supposed. In fact, it made Rachel smile.

She had just made it to her car, though, when a whale did an air dance above the sea behind her.

She looked behind her, seeing that who had actually tripped and fallen into that huge puddle in the middle of the parking lot was no whale… but Silver the Hedgehog. When Rachel saw him, he was face-down and slowly rose himself out of the water.

"Woah!" she reacted, dashing over to him. "Are you okay?!"

She then held a hand out to him.

Silver, meanwhile, tiredly caught sight of the hand, looked up at the one who offered it, and almost stumbled back in shock.

He so desperately tried to hold back the flow of blood that felt to be rushing to his face… but alas, he couldn't prevent himself from turning rose-red.

He took her hand and used it to stand, saying "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks."

In his flurry of nervousness, he didn't even notice until about three seconds later that he still had Rachel's hand.

"That was quite the fall," said Rachel.

"I-It happens, right?" asked Silver.

"Much stranger has happened," Rachel shrugged. "I'm the only one who saw this, so your reputation is saved."

At that, Silver chuckled a bit, and in turn, so did Rachel. Silver found his smile lingering a bit after he stopped laughing, though. Something made him feel a bit warm and tingly from within the pit of his chest, and Rachel's laugh replayed in his head a couple of times.

Was this really happening?

"Hey," Rachel smiled. "If you wanna stick around, the guests and I are gonna play the Game of Life."

"Can I play in place of the loser of the first game?" asked Silver. "Or would that take too long?"

"Dude, this isn't Monopoly," Rachel laughed. "I got time to kill."

At that, Rachel walked back to her car, unlocking it and opening the passenger door to withdraw a single plastic bag that held both the aforementioned game… and a sneaky yellow memo pad. With that pad came a pencil.

Things were about to get interesting.