One day later, in the late evening…

POV: Kyle "Red" Rubyen, 1st Person

I strode into the Resistance Headquarters' Command Center. As always, the various high-level members were bustling about. Preparations for missions, providing over-the-radio support to active units, coordinating logistics, et cetera.

After I'd gotten back from Park Avenue yesterday, I'd been personally congratulated by a number of people, not the least of which were Sonic and Commander Knuckles. I guess someone had done some serious math, and figured out that I'd almost single-handedly turned the tide of the battle as soon as I arrived.

When Sonic heard that, he just gave me a grin and a thumbs-up. "I knew you could do some great things." He had told me. "You believed in yourself at Park Avenue, and look at how badly you thrashed Egghead's army!"

I'd given him a sheepish "Thanks" and walked off, totally clueless on how to react to all the praise that was being heaped upon me not just from Sonic, but from everyone in the Command Center.

I'd spent the last three hours reading letters of thanks from the various squadrons I'd apparently saved during the battle. Dozens of soldiers writing ME thank-you notes. How did I get this far from the scared little hedgehog who couldn't even fire a shot in Sunset Heights?

I shook my head. No time to dwell on those thoughts. I told myself. The war is more important than personal feelings.

I glanced to my left. Rouge the Bat, the Resistance's resident stealth specialist and "information retrieval" expert, was standing in front of a row of computers, all displaying various types of information.

"Knuckles!" The renowned master spy called out.

The echidna came over. "What's going on, Rouge?" He asked.

"Our sensors in the Mystic Jungle are picking up some fast movement." She reported. "Really fast. They're in the same area Sonic fought Infinite."

I flinched at the monster's name.

"More of Eggman's robots." Silver the Hedgehog declared, striding up to the pair.

Rouge shook her head. "They're connected to Life signs, Silver." She told him. "Two of them. Definitely not robots."

I blinked. We don't have any patrols that deep into the Jungle.

"We don't have anyone that far in." Commander Knuckles stated, as if reading my mind. He glanced up, and noticed me. "Hey, Rookie!" He called out. "You want to go check it out?"

I shrugged. I've got nothing better to do. "Okay." I said.

And, just like that, I had another mission. I turned around and left the Command Center, heading for the hangar bay.

I burst out of the trees and onto the dirt path ahead of me, having successfully bypassed a massive group of remnant Eggbot patrol units. The Mystic Jungle was too thick to fly directly to the area we'd detected the life signs, and the many battles that had occurred throughout the Jungle for the past several days had left countless patrols of Eggbots scattered around the whole area. It wasn't worth it to sweep the entire Jungle and clear all of them out; we didn't have the manpower for such a wide search, nor did we have the time to dedicate that many resources into an operation that would ultimately provide little benefit.

I started running down the path as my communication device on my wrist lit up. "We've picked up the two life readings near the battlezone up ahead." Amy Rose reported. "The same one where Sonic and Infinite fought each other a few days ago. The sensors were hit by remnant Eggbots yesterday, so the readings they're picking up could be coming from anywhere in that region of the Jungle."

"Copy that." I spoke. "I'm not far from that clearing. Just a few more minutes." I reported.

"If they aren't robots," Commander Knuckles spoke, "who are they?"

"If they're enemies," Silver replied, "taking them both on might be a challenge for the Rookie."

"If I need help, I'll call for it." I stated. As long as Infinite doesn't show up, I can handle myself. I needed to believe in myself, like Sonic told me to.

I reached the end of the path at a full sprint, and leapt off the sudden ramp at the end. I soared through the night sky for a brief moment before coming down onto a waterslide, of all things.

I couldn't fathom why a waterslide wide enough to fit five of me side-by-side was in the middle of the Mystic Jungle, but I also couldn't lie and say I wasn't having fun sliding down it. The slippery, downward path went left and right, sloping a little bit up and occasionally dropping almost straight down once in a while.

The dark, brown floor of the waterslide sloped upward on either side of me to the light, green walls, just barely more than twice my height. The light green of the thin walls complemented the similar shade of the tree leaves that surrounded me. The intended aesthetic was obvious; imagine you're sliding down a tree's core.

But near the end, I realized I was still speeding up, a lot. This current's pretty strong! I thought to myself. Just as that crossed my mind, I saw the maze ahead of me. The waterway split into three paths, all of which wound this way and that in a confusing enough pattern that even my speed-oriented hedgehog mind couldn't figure out where they were going before I'd reach the splitting point.

This place is way too confusing. Better just go with the flow and see how far I can get to my objective with this wild ride.

Almost twenty seconds passed as I slid faster than I could ever run through the Mystic Jungle on the strange waterslide. I occasionally glimpsed a few casino-esque buildings as I zipped past them so fast that the first couple times I thought I was imagining them. Maybe this was going to be some kind of amusement park before the war broke out?

I didn't have time to ponder that thought any longer than it took me to think it in the first place. Up ahead, the waterslide had been somehow damaged in the past. The route just ended, leading to thin air.

And I had no other path but forward. I gulped and hoped for the best. I reached the end of the waterslide, which ramped upwards a bit, and right when I reached the end, kicked off the edge with both of my feet as hard as I could, launching myself into the air, propelled forwards by both my momentum and the strength my legs could muster.

As I kicked off, I spotted the other end of the waterslide, a fair distance below me and quite a ways ahead. I wasn't sure if my momentum was enough to reach it. I gritted my teeth and got ready for some desperate moves if I missed the edge of the gap.

I soared through the air for a solid five seconds before landing hard on the other section of the waterslide, helplessly rolling around in the rapidly-flowing water for a few moments as I tried desperately to regain balance, fighting against the rushing water that was taking me further still into the Jungle.

"Having fun in the water, Rookie?" An amused voice spoke over the radio. Commander Knuckles let out a small chuckle.

"What?" Amy replied as I flipped around and around in the stream. "Jealous you can't play on the slide, Knuckles?" She retorted.

"Yeah, I'm having a real blast!" I managed out between rolls. My face dipped into the stream as I somehow found myself going headfirst for a moment, and I spluttered out some choice words as I struggled to right myself.

"J-Just give it all you got, Rookie!" A laughing Knuckles replied, clearly amused at my misfortune.

Oh, just you wait until I get back. I'll show you all I've got! I thought angrily as I finally regained control of myself, pulling my head out of the water, and pushing down with my arms in order to get my upper body vertical again.

A forceful lean backwards, and I plopped down in a sitting position like I'd originally meant to be in. This slide went from fun to rage-inducing in a matter of seconds. I mentally muttered.

The end of the waterslide was coming up, and with a start I noticed that the pool it was supposed to drop riders into had sprung a leak sometime ago, and drained into the nearby river. The pool area was almost completely empty, with nowhere near enough water to provide a cushion from the big drop. Uh oh.

As the distance between me and the end of the slide went from yards to feet, I spotted a safe landing area on the opposite side of the pool area. A dirt hiking path that I could already tell lead directly into a rather specific clearing. The only challenge was getting there, as it was at almost exactly the same elevation as the end of the waterslide, but at least a couple hundred feet away, likely more.

A glance upwards revealed a few fortunate metal tubes, forming rounded tips of triangles at their connection points. With a plan forming in my head, I readied myself to spring to action the second I crossed the last little bit of the waterslide.

"You're really close, now!" Amy reported, unaware of the danger I was in. "We have reinforce-"

"Hold on a second!" I shouted, kicking off the waterslide's edge as hard as I could as soon as the last word left my lips. A loud grunt of exertion came out of me involuntarily.

I brought my left arm forward, aiming the Grappling Hook feature of my Wispon directly at the nearest triangle-tip of water pipes. I hoped the thick tubes were strong enough to take my weight.

Steady… Wait for the right moment… Now! I fired the line just as my fall was beginning to be more vertical than horizontal. The hook shot forward in the blink of an eye, latching onto the pipes and wrapping around them. The line went taut and I swung underneath it, sailing right between the two pipes.

As my swing started to bring me upwards, I released the line, letting my momentum carry me higher, and right within range of the next pipeline segment.

I shot my grappling line out at the next segment, and swung through the gap underneath the connection point, just like the first time. I repeated that maneuver with the third segment, and the fourth, and the fifth and final pipeline brought me within range of the hiking path.

Swinging upwards into the air, I performed a theatrical backflip before landing on my feet, absorbing the slight impact with ease.

"Rookie, are you okay?" Commander Knuckles asked.

"Huh?" I blinked. "Oh! Yeah, I'm alright, Commander." I reassured him. "I just needed to concentrate for a moment. What were you saying, Amy?"

"Just that we have a reinforcement team on standby." The pink hedgehog replied. "According to my readout, you're right next to the clearing where we're picking up the life signs."

I glanced back at the hectic path I'd taken to get here, and smirked. Score one for the waterslide route! I mentally celebrated. That was kinda fun!

I broke into a run, heading into the clearing. The hiking trail opened up into the wide-open area within moments. I glanced around, but saw nobody. However, just as I started to turn away to head elsewhere, a shiny glint caught my eye.

I walked over to where it had come from. A strange, polygonal jewel of some kind was just laying on the ground. It was ruby-red, with horizontal black stripes lining it all the way around from top to bottom.

Curious, I holstered my Wispon picked the pretty jewel up. Staring at it, I blinked, and swore it glowed for a moment. I did a double-take, but it was dark again. Did… Did I imagine that?

Before I could ponder that thought, I realized I could hear footsteps rapidly approaching me from behind. I whipped around, ready to draw my Wispon from its holster. A small, blue hedgehog ran up to me from a nearby path, a small smile on his face.

Reaching me, he glanced to my right, and waved an empty hand. I turned, and saw a yellow fox flying towards us. With a start, I realized the fox was flying through the air because he was rapidly twirling his two tails at a whirlwind speed.

The young fox came down to the forest floor, and stared at me for a moment. His face was awash with confusion and curiosity. "Have we met before?" He asked me.

I opened my mouth to reply in the negative, but then the dots connected. This is Tails! I realized. Last time I saw him was back in Sunset Heights!

"Wait, was that Tails?" Amy exclaimed over the radio.

I hurriedly activated the speaker function on my wrist device.

"Did you say Tails?" Knuckles asked Amy, unsure he'd heard correctly.

"Huh?" The fox stared at my communicator upon hearing the echidna's voice. "Knuckles?" He spoke, almost in disbelief.

"Tails!" Amy exclaimed.

"Amy!" Tails exclaimed. "You're okay!"

"What-Yeah, I'm okay!" Amy replied. "What about you?"

"I'm alright!" The fox answered her. "I've got Sonic, here." He told her, immediately causing me to stare in confusion. "Well, not Sonic, Sonic, but a different Sonic! The one who helped us with the Time Eater crisis?" He stated, as if that meant something.

I just stood there and blinked in confusion, glancing back and forth between the fox and the chipper little blue hedgehog standing wordlessly next to him. Sonic, but not Sonic. Time Eater. Whaaaa…?

I could already tell this mind-boggling turn of events wasn't something my poor brain was going to be able to understand easily.

And probably not without at least three or four attempted explanations.

Oh boy…

I'm assuming that Sonic and co. are the only ones that remember the events of Sonic Generations, so poor Kyle is understandably quite confused right now! Next up, we go back in time a little and see what's been happening on Tails and Classic Sonic's end.

It means a lot to me that you enjoy it enough to read 13 whole chapters. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for sticking with the story this far, and I hope it continues to be enjoyable for you!

- The author, Kablu