Luckily, Sonic's home was one of the few buildings spared from Eggman's rampage. So that was where the group ventured to lick their wounds.
The blue hedgehog flopped face-first onto the couch, the pink one summoning a hammer so she could lean on it. Knuckles settled for laying on the floor while Tails sat down in a dining room chair, and Mirage flopped down on top of her brother.
"Get off of me," Sonic grumbled.
"Nah, I'm comfy here," she retorted, pressing him further downwards.
"Mirage, get off of him," Tara scolded from the kitchen, as the mouse complied. "How is everyone feeling?"
A collection of grunts responded, Amy pulling a busted cellphone from her pocket. "I need to call Uncle Yu," she commented. "I have to make sure he's okay after Eggman's robot trashed our apartment."
"I think he's fine," answered Mirage, rubbing her forehead. "I saw him getting tended to. If Shadow hadn't run off, he could take you."
"Yeah, he seems to like you for some reason," added Sonic. "No idea where he's gone now, and I honestly don't care all that much."
"For once, we agree on something," put in Knuckles.
A lot of electrical lines had been downed by Eggman's attack, and with the group too tired to continue their conversation, they all just slipped into silence while the cats tended to each other's injuries. As the sun began setting, the others dispersed to begin heading home. Sonic walked back to his room, looking out the window. He could see the Tornado sitting outside, dirt covering its frame after the battle.
"I'm glad to be here," he told himself.
"I knew you'd come around eventually." He looked back as Mirage walked over. "All it took was some business man trying to encroach on our turf and some little fox showing you his airplane."
Sonic nodded, turning away from the window as all of his tiredness suddenly caught up with him and he stumbled to bed.
Breakfast was quiet the next morning, even though everyone at the table had something to talk about.
"I hear the Logans had a tree sent into their pool," remarked Tara, to nobody in particular. "They're lucky it didn't damage anything else."
The others hummed, not really wishing to have a conversation, and once breakfast was finished Sonic had already vanished. He went into town, looking around as rubble was cleared away. An elderly dog dressed in a hi-vis vest sat down close to where one of the damaged stores was being cleared away, taking a drink of water.
"Morning," called Sonic, walking up to the dog. "Anything I can do to help?"
"Just stand aside, kid," the dog told him. "You're a master at demolition, but we need to focus on rebuilding."
Sonic nodded and stepped away, making his way towards the park-thankfully, it was mostly undamaged. Kids were kicking around the wheel of a destroyed Motobug, as the larger metal pieces were loaded onto a truck. He had no idea where it would go, but he had to guess it was some governmental cleanup crew.
"Hey, I know you," a voice called, the blue hedgehog looking to see who it was. It was a white platypus, about his age, with a black beak and red jacket. "You're Sonic the hedgehog."
"Yeah, I am," responded Sonic, unsure of what this stranger wanted. "Do I know you?"
"No, but I know of you," the platypus replied. "You're the town's savior, everyone's hero. Give me a break, you're the only reason that army of robots came here in the first place."
"Hey, it was Eggman who brought the army here."
"Only because you opposed his plan to build a factory. He wasn't here for us, he was here for you. Do you have any idea how many jobs he brings to insignificant communities like this one? He could have been the greatest thing to ever happen to Coastal Village!" The platypus glared at Sonic, fists clenching and unclenching. "But no, you had to defy him, and now look at what's happened to our town."
"I hate to break it to you, duck brain, but I don't control Eggman," continued Sonic. "And do you not remember when his Swatbots fired on protestors in Ring City? Eggman isn't a good guy. I'm convinced he never was."
The stranger took in a breath, probably planning to say something else, but released it just as quickly. "I see now I can't convince you otherwise," he finished, pointing a finger in Sonic's muzzle. "But know this: one day, this town will realize too late they drove out an innocent man."
And he turned and walked off. Thoroughly confused by the encounter, Sonic just sat down on a bench. He'd never dealt with an encounter like that before. He hoped they wouldn't be common in the future.
When Sonic made it back home, they had managed to restore television service to the town, and his family was sitting on the couch looking at the news.
"…following the disappearance of Eggman, governments everywhere are launching investigations into all Eggman Industries holdings, alongside any of its subsidiaries such as Meteor Tech, Casino Jungle, Ramada Refineries, Wright Aeronautics, Zamaius Audiovisual, Onyx Developments…"
"Wow, looks like he owned a lot of stuff," remarked Mirage. "Probably had half the world in his pocket, I bet."
"If he transferred any of those funds before he vanished, he'd have plenty of time to fund a payback plan," commented Darren. "Maybe this place isn't safe."
Sonic scoffed from his spot. "You worry too much, Daaaaaarren," he stated, quickly correcting himself at the end. "Let the Egghead come, I'll send him running every time."
Far away from Coastal Village, there was a massive jungle. In recent times, it had been turned into a massive casino, with several of its palm trees replaced with flashing neon facsimiles and roulette tables and slot machines taking up several old ruins. An old stone temple in the center has been modernized to become hotels, with the very top being a penthouse suite.
This was the home of Dice, a white and black cat and CEO of Casino Jungle.
For the past day, she had been questioned by multiple officials regarding Eggman. "And how would you describe your working relationship with the doctor?" some feline in a dark suit asked her.
"He let me do whatever I want, so long as I brought in a profit," she responded, brushing a bang from her eyes. "Ask the multitude of other guys who came through here, I told them the same things I'm telling you. Could I get back to running my business, please?"
"Miss Dice, if you wish to keep your business, you will comply with our investigations. Am I clear?"
The white cat pressed her lips together with displeasure. "Crystal."
The interviews ended a few hours later, Dice pouring herself a glass of wine to try and calm her nerves. Her secretary came in at that time, gripping a tablet in her hands. "Excuse me, Miss Dice," she stated, setting the tablet down. "You have a video call from the CEO of Meteor Tech."
Dice looked over, curious. "Put him through."
The tablet was placed in front of her, showing a meerkat with bleached yellow fur and tacky sunglasses. "Dice, a pleasure to see you as always. The lights of your casino reflect beautifully off the white of your fur-"
"Cut the crap, Torque. I'm not in the mood to flirt."
"Don't worry, that's not what I'm here for. My day's been sucky as well. These folks don't know what it takes to run a business, sticking their snouts in my grill."
"On that, we can agree. Merging our corporations with Eggman has brought about nothing but trouble, and now the hairless ape scrambled away after losing a fight with some teenager from the sticks."
"Yeah, there's something about that kid. I think we could use him."
"Use him?"
"I'll come see you in person. Don't want any government spooks listening in on our convo. See you Wednesday, doll face."
"I'm not looking forward to it."
The call ended there, Dice thinking about what Torque had said. She looked across her desk, at the strange purple gemstone sitting in a glass cylinder.
"Yeah," she whispered to herself, smiling. "That'll work."
Sonic yawned as he sat up in bed, a textbook sat in his lap. With Eggman gone for the time being, his foster parents insisted that he study. So, rather than taking a nightly stroll, he was busy studying for a World Geography test.
As he looked at a map of the continent, he remembered his experience in Nocturne, as well as Amy telling him Shadow's story. "So other worlds are connected to ours, right?" he pondered aloud, moving the book aside. "Pretty wild to think about. Maybe that's where Eggman went, he went off to some other world. I've never seen a creature like him before, maybe he came from another-"
"Sonic," he heard Tara's voice call, "are you talking about your test?"
"Uh… yeah!" he fibbed, deciding to get to actually studying.
His theorizing would have to be left on the back burner for now.
While Eggman's away, Sonic's gonna be dealing with some new villains. This chapter is just gonna set that stuff up. Not a lot happens, but I promise next chapter won't be as slow.