Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA.


Tails was cold. Not as cold as he could've been, but even in the surprisingly temperate forest he'd found himself in, the nights were chilled. It most likely had to do with the small campfire, still burning happily while Blaze slept nearby, having scrounged a few leaves to use as a makeshift bed or blanket.

He'd offered her the tent, and even had offered her the leaves and grasses that he was using as a makeshift den, but she'd said no. And she wasn't the type to mean yes when she said no, so Tails took it at face value.

The stars were surprisingly bright, the moon starting its pathway across the sky. The stream continued undisturbed by anything. His mind was going far too fast to try and sleep, and so he lie there, breathing slowly and steadily. He hadn't wanted to say anything earlier, but his ribs were still hurting every time he took a deep breath.

Blaze's ankle, too, still had to be hurting her. But much like him, she was of the opinion that such things would only slow her down and proceeded to try and ignore it.

Tails wasn't sure what to do. He was too busy to sleep, but knew that he needed rest. He reached over for the bail-bag, grabbing the tablet that he'd made years ago. He'd made a special app for it that let him develop other applications on the very device it's being made for, and without thinking he started it up, staring at the four projects he'd still started but hadn't finished.

One was a connection array that led to the Tornado 2, allowing him to pilot the aircraft no matter where he was. That one was still on hold, for obvious reasons. One was a medical scanner, using the Miles Electric's surprisingly powerful scanner. The others hadn't been even close to being finished, closer to ideas more than anything. One was an update to the translator, and the other was a full on map scanner that connected to the satellites. He hadn't quite reached the 'how' yet on either of those. He quietly tapped the medical app, letting the familiar code make its way onto the screen.

He was lucky; he'd downloaded a copy of a sapients' entire bodily structure onto the device a few weeks before the accident. All he had to do was make the tablet read into the body using the scanner, and compare it to the healthy structure, and determine where things were. He glanced at the battery signal; less than a quarter battery left. He could probably rewire some of the components to reduce the drain, and he'd had the solar and chaos converter installed and hopefully fully functional. Could he do it, though?

With one last glance, he hit the compile button, and waited a few moments as it finished. It auto-started up, which was something he always liked when coding. Would it work, though? He turned it around, and used one of his tails to press where he knew the button to start scanning was.

It was always surprising just how powerful he'd made the thing. A green triangle shot out from the camera area, and he could feel the thing as it went through him. He should probably have turned down the power for this...but that's what testing was for. He wasn't immune to chaos in the same way Sonic was, but he wasn't worried about it affecting him much. It wasn't like he was shooting x-rays through his body, it was just chaos energy. They had more than the scanner used just flowing around them pretty much at all times!

Once it was done, Tails waited until it supposedly finished. It claimed him to be fine, his bone and muscular structure matching the example structure. But as the downloaded entity had been that of a one tailed fox, it should've flagged something. He'd work it out later. It would give him something to do, at least, later on. But he'd have to remember to charge it again. He put it away for now, struggling to relax enough to sleep.

His head shot up a moment later, his ears ruffling each way. He'd heard a small rustle in some bushes, not far. His stomach was starting to growl, and he hoped it was something small. Both Blaze and him had skipped meals that night, and neither could figure out ways to guarantee the water was safe to drink.

They'd come up with a variety of ways that wouldn't work; from Blaze boiling the stream and Tails catching it just down the stream, to putting it in a giant leaf and boiling it there, or putting it in the blanket and hoping that it works as a strainer...he'd come up with dozens of them. And each of them failed the most basic test; they wouldn't let them hold the water.

He made a mental note that if he ever had to make a bail-bag again he'd include a few plastic cups that he could use. It wouldn't even take that much room either. Either that or metal cups, but...those were heavier.

The blanket on the tent didn't even ruffle as he sneaked out, past the sleeping Blaze. She was curled up into a small ball, almost exactly as he was photographed of doing when he was a small kit, the blanket of leaves sticking to pieces of her tunic.

He tried to be as quiet as he could, gently making sure he didn't crash any sticks or cause any other loud sounds. There was a ruffle again in the same area. A small ruffle of bushes, the grasses starting to part and wave. His night-time vision wasn't the best, but he was certainly better than others.

He must've slipped up at some point as he inched closer, as suddenly it took into the woods. Without thinking he charged in after it, seeing a large rabbit darting to and from him. It was maybe half his size, which for a non-sapient rabbit was a lot larger than he'd seen before. He stopped after a moment. He had no weapons, no way to hurt it asides from physically grabbing it. Maybe he should've taken the time to make a spear or something, sharpen some rocks.

From programming to rocks. What a drop he had.

A purple blur past him quickly, wind following her trail. Small red sparks echoed from in front of Blaze as she chased the rabbit, using her flames to cut off its path of escape. Every turn it made it ran into more fire, but didn't burn. It stopped at one such turn, turning around to face the thing chasing it, who'd quickly reached down to grab it with surprising ease.

In less than ten seconds Blaze had it in her hands. "You forget, Tails. I'm a cat," she said as she walked past him holding the rabbit by the scruff of its neck. Tails wasn't sure if they actually had scruffs the way he or Blaze did...or now that he thought about it, if they still did or not.

"And you're very good at chasing things, apparently," Tails murmured as he sat down next to the campfire. It was still night, and the flames sat warm but not burning. The rabbit had stopped moving, seemingly in shock from the way Blaze had moved.

Or maybe she was burning it, somehow. Was it still breathing? Tails gave a quick check; it seemed be. He could see its chest moving up and down. "Now comes the uncomfortable part..." Tails said quietly.

Blaze nodded as she set it down. "I don't blame you. Can be rather tasteless at times, if you don't like it. I'd suggest you look away, then," she said. Tails dutifully did so, his eyes watching on the sides for any sign of anything coming for them. He tried to ignore the sounds, and Blaze wasn't trying to be loud as she coaxed the rabbit to relax a little. With a sudden strike, he'd heard a crack. "Done," he'd heard Blaze say.

It was definitely dead now. A small fracture in the back of its head; nearly painless. "How did you learn to do that?" he asked, hesitating just a bit. Was it because of what they had to do? Or was it something else? Was a primal part of him actually...glad to be taught this?

Sonic had never taught him how to hunt. That was something he'd had to teach himself, and the hedgehog had always preferred pre-made meals made by someone else to doing it himself. It had made West Island, when he'd first met him, to be...tough, at times.

"Experience, mostly. How old are you?" Blaze asked suddenly as she carefully grabbed one of her gloves and took it off. Her hand was surprisingly lithe and small, a dark lavender in comparison to her brighter fur, and he watched as her claws came out just enough to start skinning the poor thing.

"Fifteen. I think I'd heard you say you were Sonic's age when you came to our world the first time. Twenty three?" he asked.

Blaze smirked. "Not quite. I was fourteen. Twenty one," she said, as if she'd just figured something out that had bothered her for a while. Tails nodded. Twenty one would make sense; she'd had plenty of time living on her own.

She was careful, delicate. Within moments most of the skin was off, and she'd hold the rabbit over the fire. "Most important thing is not to make it too hot. That'll dry it out quickly, and rabbit's already pretty dry," she explained. She took off a small piece of its stomach, holding it out to him.

He grabbed it, and the scent of death and blood encased him. It was familiar in the way that he didn't want it to be, but unknown in that there was something else strange about it. It wasn't pure meat, like there was something synthetic about it but that couldn't have been it. Maybe the iron? There was the sharp scent of that, but he could usually ignore it enough...

"Hold it over the fire, about there. It won't catch. I won't let the fire hurt you," Blaze said. Her arms were practically fully in the fire, and the unmistakable scent of cooked meat started to fill their site. Against his better judgement, because it was really bad judgement to put his hand anywhere in a fire, he cautiously put his hand with the small bit of meat into the fire. His hand wasn't burning, but it was warm, but he knew that Blaze was controlling it near perfectly.

"How can you do that? I thought you were just a pyrokinetic," Tails asked without thinking. He blinked, and he realized how weird that sounded.

"The last part is the most important. Kinetic. As in, control. Fire control. I've gotten a lot better than when I was fourteen. It's not perfect, but as long as I have it under control, it won't hurt you. A small fire like this? Not an issue. A wildfire? Run."

Tails nodded. "How big can you go? What's the biggest that you've tried?"

"When I just cut loose? Don't know. It's been a long time. I think it was a few years ago, shortly after Marine and I became...acquaintances. We were hiding from a drunk mob who wanted the Sol Emeralds, and they just kept saying things. It got to me, eventually."

"And you burned them."

"I burned the entire city," Blaze retorted. "It's why I practiced. I'm never letting that happen again, if I can help it. Fortunately most everyone got out, and once Marine explained everything most people were on my side."

"Wait, Marine had to explain it? The aquakinetic boat builder who wasn't actually sure how to build boats?"

"That's the one. I was surprised too. She was a masterful negotiator when she wants to be," Blaze answered quietly.

-Side B-

Blaze bit into the cooked rabbit without a hint of surprise at its taste. Non-sapient rabbit was surprisingly gamey the way she cooked it, but it was rich and decadent for their current situation.

Tails was put off by the taste though, based on his face when he took a bite. He was a fox though, Blaze thought, that usually means he had to have hunted at some point.

But he was also surrounded by civilization at almost all turns. He'd probably have gotten used to living in a city, just being able to buy whatever food he needed. Blaze hadn't had that; she still liked to camp out, much like this, in the wild woods. Although she did prefer fish to rabbit if she had to be honest.

The stars twinkled merrily as Blaze watched the moon pass. Tails hadn't known it when he'd snuck past, but she hadn't been asleep. She was watching the tent, watching the glow from his device, and listening to the stream as it passed by. She'd heard the same rustle, and stood stock still, trying to see if he'd have the ability to grab it.

His posture was decent, but he had a lack of finesse that she wasn't expecting. He'd need a lot of training, and when it came time for the actual deed...he needed time. Blaze could understand; when her mother had taken her out to the woods to hunt for the first time when she was four or five, she too had hated what she could do.

Although it was probably harder for her mom than it had been for her. Her mom hadn't been as strong a pyrokinetic. Or if she had been, she hadn't shown it around the way Blaze did.

"Early start or try to sleep?" Blaze asked after a long moment. The rabbit was mostly gone, and whatever was left would work wonders for jerky the next day. But they needed actual water, and for that...she hoped Tails had a plan.

"I can't see in the dark," Tails answered quietly.

Blaze knew that was a lie. He was a fox, and foxes were nocturnal by nature. Although there was a difference between sapients and non-sapients, especially in terms of behavior, but that didn't mean most things didn't stay the same. Her own night eyes were bright and clear, despite the flames in front of her.

She waved her hand, dispersing them instantly, and setting the campsite nearly pitch-black, lit only by the light of the stars and moon. She grabbed the rabbit skin, rolling it up gently. She hadn't done the best job with cutting it off, but she didn't have any knives. And her claws weren't meant for that.

"Hey!" Tails protested. "I can't see anything now. Hold on," he said, trying to reach into the tent.

Blaze shook her head, despite that she knew he wouldn't be able to see her. At least, if his claims were true, which they weren't. "You can see fine. Just close your eyes and count to ten."

She saw him as he scowled, closing his eyes just as she'd instructed. She waited a few moments, before she nodded. "Alright, open them. Check your eyesight now."

"Not much better," Tails said instantly.

Blaze sighed. "There's nothing wrong...you can see fine, Tails," she tried. Something was strange. His eyes glowed a pale blue, reflecting the light from them. "Come on then, if you can't see you can at least follow," she said. She pushed herself up, nodding to herself as Tails grabbed his blanket and took down the tent. If they were heading out, they should at least attempt to make it look like no one was here.

Considering the previous day's spider events, there were sapients, or at least some languages, that had shown up in this world. She wondered if they'd find one that wasn't particularly hostile...ever.

"Blanket's not hot enough to shrink. Help?" Tails asked. Blaze blinked. She'd completely forgotten that there was a reason for the campfire asides from just warmth. With a snap she reignited it, hissing lightly as the light hit her night-attuned eyes. She heard Tails do much the same. He tossed some water on the blanket and just as quick he snuffed the campfire out using the blanket.

When she could see again, the blanket had shrunk down to its original size, a small fraction of what it had been before. The perfect size to fit back into his little bag. "Thought it needed only heat?" she asked.

"Originally it did, then Sonic had an adventure out in Shamar, so he asked me to modify it. Long as it doesn't get hot and wet, it'll stay stretched out for a while," Tails explained, waving it around as he folded it up.

Blaze waited only a few moments before she started walking slowly, each step was telling her she probably shouldn't be walking right now, downstream. The weeds and reeds batted at her legs and feet, and she was relieved to note that despite the wetness of the stream it wasn't actually muddy.

The stream kept going, sometimes underground but most of the time not, with only occasional spots where it would spill and create a small waterfall. It was near impossible to follow by sight alone in the dark, but they weren't going by sight alone.

They remained silent with each other, Blaze because she wasn't sure what Tails' attitude was all about. It was rather sudden, and jarring. She might've thought it was something in particular, but she knew it couldn't have been that. She'd have been able to smell that ages ago if it'd been the case.

No, there was something off about the fox. It wasn't just the bruised ribs or hard of breathing, but something else entirely. Maybe he just missed Sonic, or maybe it was something else that was stressing him out. She wasn't sure, and he wasn't talking.

But something had changed for them, and Blaze wasn't sure she liked it. She knew she'd changed a bit; already she was more short-tempered than before, but she blamed lack of pure, clean water for that. That kind of thing would make anyone change and become more emotional.

The trees started to clear a bit, and the moonlight shone down on a larger clearing. The stream was underground again at this point, and the dawn was just starting. The sky was a dark orange, slowly turning brighter, and it was bouncing all over the reeds and reflecting onto them. It came back out a few dozen feet ahead, according to her hearing.

Tails held out his hand for a moment. "Wait, something's wrong," he said. They had stopped in the middle of the clearing, and Blaze tried to listen as well. There were no sounds, and it was completely silent. She blinked as she realized what was wrong.

There were no sounds.

"Run!" Blaze shouted as the trees they had just left from started to move and tear the earth asunder. Tails didn't bother shouting anything, instead just weaving his tails together, flinching, and running alongside her.

Each of the trees landed with a thunderous crash and started to roll down the small hill they were on. Blaze had thought that as soon as they reached the next grove of trees, barely five seconds away, they were good.

They reached the trees and Blaze thought to slow down, only to have her hand grabbed by Tails as those trees, too, began to roll down the hill, joined by the ones originally. "It's a tree-valanche!" Tails shouted.

"Are you kidding me!?" Blaze retorted. She wanted to yell at him for breaking the language like that, but at the same time it fit. There was an avalanche of trees having been broken up, and if Blaze could see it right, the roots having been chewed up.

Something was trying to kill them.

She called upon her pyrokinesis, letting a small stream of flame out towards the rapidly speeding up trees. The fire did nothing to slow them down, and even as it lit them on fire, more and more of the other trees joined them.

Now a good chunk of the forest was on fire too, the flaming logs quickly having the other trees join them in their blazing inferno. "No more fire, just run! If we can make it to a river we'll be fine!" Tails said.

"And where's a local river!?" Blaze said. The roar of the trees as they fell and groaned, rolling behind them, disguised any sound that running water would make.

"Has to be somewhere in front of us! They can't be that uncommon!" Tails shouted. A branch from a nearby tree reached out and Blaze saw him wince as it scraped his side. She sped past, grabbing his hand and starting her supersonic gait.

This was probably going to be a bad idea, especially in a crowded forest, but Blaze didn't really see any other way to get out of the way asides from going to the side or out speeding the trees.

Branches and leaves fell as the fire got started, its own roar adding to the cacophony that was the treeslide. A small movement caught her eyes off to the side, and she stared at one of the spiders that they had seen yesterday, its eight eyes glaring at them. It was on the other side of the stream, in a relatively safe place. Whether it was the same one or not, Blaze couldn't tell.

Her eyes narrowed, and she glanced forward while taking a few steps closer. "I think this was a trap set by the spiders from yesterday," Blaze said quietly. Tails ears flicked, and she got the sense that he heard her.

"Just keep going straight, I think I have a plan," Tails answered. Blaze kept going, but kept making steps towards the spider who was doing its best to keep up with them.

"Is your plan to use a shot of fire to light that part of the forest on fire while we make a grand escape?" Blaze asked as she jumped over another tree. She paused for only a moment, Tails doing the same. The ground in front of them was doing the same as the one behind them, and now the trees in front of them were starting to fall towards them and around them.

"No, but that'll work!" Tails shouted as he jumped onto one of the trees, using his tails to keep up his speed as he sped up it, jumping off at the highest point he could reach. Blaze shook her head as she took the lower routes, diving and ducking underneath the trees as they came up around her. Her tunic got plenty of dirt and now mud on it but she wasn't worried about her clothes, even as she felt them rip and tear in places.

She thought she heard a small cackle from around her, and her smile turned a bit feral as she coated her hand with fire. As soon as she saw a shot, she took it, barely aiming towards the spider. It went from a cackle to a harrowed scream as she heard it fall to the ground, a loud crack echoing where its flaming carapace had landed.

"Nice shot!" Tails cheered from his place on the branches. He was surprisingly agile, darting from branch to branch and trunk to trunk with an ease that Blaze had sworn she'd seen only from her mother.

The crashing slowly went away as they ran, the trees in front of them starting to stop their falling. A good chunk of the forest was on fire, but Blaze wasn't too worried about that.

Within a few minutes the hills had evened out, and the trees stopped their unnatural rolling. Blaze stopped, breathing hard for a bit, as she stared at the destruction they had caused and were causing. A massive swath of jungle or forest had been flattened next to the stream, and a good chunk of that was on fire, the small red licks of flame eating away quite happily at the new fuel.

"That was...over, I guess. Now we just need to outrun a wildfire?" Tails guessed as he came up next to her. Almost as soon as he'd said that, as if fate itself was determined to screw them over, a loud roar echoed against their bodies and minds. They both had to cover their ears as the leviathan showed up, flying far above them, a small rainfall starting instantly.

"They can create rain. Of course they can," Blaze said quietly. It roared out again, causing an even harder rain. Within minutes the flames were out, leaving only flattened trees to show their wake.

"In good news, we don't need to outrun a wildfire now," Tails grinned. Blaze chuckled lightly. It was out of place, and it wasn't a good joke, but after all their adrenaline it was just what they needed. "Shall we just keep going, then?" he asked.

"Not a bad idea," Blaze said. They kept going, each of their eyes on the leviathan above them. It had blue marks all over itself, with some parts of them glowing an ominous blue as it created more rain.

For hours they trekked through mind-numbingly boring forest, each step looking like the dozens they'd lasted behind them. They had long since left the leviathan behind them when they both started hearing it. The sound of the stream...and the sound of faster water. The sound of more water.

They came into a clearing, and Tails grinned. "Told you we'd find a river eventually," he said, staring at the large fast-moving body of water next to them. The stream they'd been following did empty out straight into it, and the river was nearly seven or eight times the tributary in terms of size.

Blaze crashed down onto the ground. "So...stay here for a bit?" she said, pointing to the setting sun. They'd apparently traveled the entire day, and Tails' stomach let out a growl, promptly followed by her own.

"Yeah, I think we should," Tails said, reaching down and grabbing a fish with his hands. Blaze smiled. About time they had real food.

-Interlude-

Sonic heard the Tornado 2 go down. He was already racing towards the Blacksand islands as soon as his own personal radio had grabbed Tails' SOS. He was stronger, faster than he had been in his youth, right at the prime of his life.

Time had tempered him, or so he thought. He was no longer the brash individual that he'd been earlier. But he was still a champion of free-will, and of freedom. He was at heart still Sonic the Hedgehog.

He saw Tails, barely in his vision, get hit by the lasers. He saw the chaotic storm as it appeared, the lightning as it struck the remade or remodeled Egg Viper. He saw the moment that Tails' eyes flashed towards him, so fast he wasn't sure the fox knew he was there.

He also saw the instant that he vanished, the smoking hull of the Tornado 2 all that's left. "Haha! Take that you pesky little fox...what just happened?" he heard Eggman say. "The energy shouldn't have done that..."

"Eggman! What did you do to Tails!" he shouted as that original assessment of his being having tempered by time thrown out the window. He spindashed and boosted, breaking the sound barrier within seconds to get closer to the machine. Even running over water wasn't a problem. He ran up the machine, spiraling around as spikes arose from the segments in an attempt to stop him, only to jump towards the top and landing on the glass that separated Eggman from him.

"I don't know! It's not a vaporization laser! That shouldn't have happened, and I tried to stop it!" Eggman said. He was pushing buttons as fast as he could. "Wait, the chaotic lightning! That's it! When it overcharged the laser, something else changed with it!"

"Undo it! Now!" Sonic shouted. He wasn't in the mood to wait around for Eggman to fix it. The one time he was too damn slow...

"I'm trying to, hedgehog! Despite what you think I'm not trying to kill anyone! Just turn them into robots or get them out of my way," he finished. He stared into the screen in disbelief. "That's...not possible. That's not possible!"

"What now!?"

"The energy signature changed to that of the Special Zone. You remember that place, don't you, hedgehog? The place that no machine survives in, and even living things hesitate? No machine I've made can even begin to go there. And yet...here it is. Remarkable..."

"Undo it then! Open up the Special Zone, I'll get Tails out!"

"The machine is busted, hedgehog. Tails foiled my plan without even knowing he did it. Foolish fox," Eggman said, pushing another button. The entirety of the outside was electrified instantly, and Sonic felt himself lose a few rings as he was tossed to the ground. By the time he got back up Eggman was gone, his remodeled Egg Viper having gone back underneath the ocean.

Sonic looked back at the Tornado 2, the ruined remains of his friend's plane. He looked over the wreckage, seeing bits of salvage that he could take to repair the machine, if he wanted to. Despite Tails' thoughts, he was capable of flying his own airplane.

To open a path to the Special Zone, one needed a giant teleportal ring, or a star post. He hadn't seen a star post since West Island, but the rings...he'd seen a few recently. He reached down into the front, staring at the chaos emerald converter and where the emerald usually sat, now empty. "At least he got the emerald with him. Wish I'd been able to teach him Chaos Control first, but don't worry Tails. We'll get you back!" he said aloud, hoping his friend could hear him, even across dimensions though he was.

He sped off, hoping to find one of the giant rings that would take him into the Special Zone. There had to be at least a few around, although it'd been a while since he'd seen them.

As much as he could see of the Blacksand Isles, he couldn't find any, and the rest of the spots took nearly an hour. Many of the citizens were coming out to see what was the cause of so many of the loud sonic booms that came and rattled their windows, but Sonic wasn't paying any attention to them. He had to save Tails.

The jungles of Adabat were close by, and Sonic hopped across the ocean hoping for some there. He did a quick check with the civilians, hoping that they'd seen one. They hadn't, and he checked most of the locales or hidden areas that would normally house one.

His phone beeped angrily. "Tails!?" Sonic shouted as he picked it up, the wind blaring by. It wasn't his usual ring tone, but it was rare that Tails would call him. Most of the time they texted images to each other, a small guessing game of where they were now.

"Sorry, not him," Knuckles' deep voice responded. "Why? Something happen?"

"Yeah, Eggman fired a laser that caused Tails to go into the Special Zone. The Chaos Emerald went with him. He'd normally have gotten out by now, he knows all my escape tricks, and the Special Zone usually puts you right back out where you went in it. He hasn't come out yet. I'm looking for a giant ring," Sonic responded quickly. He gave a quick look to the temple that housed part of the spirit of Gaia, before he ran off. It was unlikely to be in a place of such chaos.

"You can't make a machine that goes into the Special Zone! Bastard...where are you? I know I've seen a few rings around Angel Island recently, but I didn't think anything of them. Most of the emerald locations are known."

"Adabat."

"Head west. Island's up in the air, but I'll set it down gently. By the time you get here it should be reachable," Knuckles said. Sonic nodded, even though he knew Knuckles couldn't see him. "He'll be fine, Sonic. He's older now than you were at South Island, and like you said he knows all the tricks."

"I know. Just worried. Heading out," Sonic said quietly, hanging up and putting the phone back in the special pouch that Tails had made specifically for him, so the phone wouldn't rip off as soon as he hit supersonic.

The jungles of Adabat were thick and covered with moss and vines. At one point he'd have been excited to run through it again, but with Tails missing most of the excitement just wasn't there, replaced with worry and anger.

As soon as he saw the beaches he knew where the Floating Island was, a small island hanging up in the air and slowly heading down. Sonic wasn't sure how Knuckles could control it like that, but suffice to say he could. Tails was always interested in it though...maybe he could find out for him?

Bursting with speed, Sonic made his way out to the ocean, keeping enough energy to make sure he'd probably be able to make it. It was a few miles out for certain, but Sonic had done that distance before. The island continued its downward path, and within a few minutes Sonic was within jumping distance, just as the last bits of his energy reserve dropped off.

Knuckles met him at the beach, the blue hedgehog standing around for a moment. "The first one's not too far from here," the red echidna said quickly. There was terseness, and tenseness, to the echidna that Sonic wasn't sure was echoed on his own face or if that was just Knuckles being Knuckles.

"You try talking to Shadow yet?" Knuckles asked as he punched through another tree. Sonic had always wondered why Knuckles would bust up his own island like that, but saw the different growths along the downed trees. Maybe it was just his way of sprucing up his island?

"Nah. I was wandering around Adabat to see if there were any giant rings over there. Next I was going to Shamar, and follow up with Chun-Nan and Holoska before I tried the eastern continents."

It said, to Sonic, how much Knuckles knew him. He just nodded as if he realized that Sonic would very much do exactly that. Without thinking, Sonic grabbed a few rings that lay off to the side, floating slightly and spinning. Knuckles could see them just as easily as Sonic could; perhaps the echidna was just letting Sonic recharge his energy?

There was a hum to the air now, Sonic realized as they stepped closer to a cliff and a boulder blocking it. Was there a pathway here? "I had this blocked off not long ago, in case anyone else came and thought it'd be a good idea to follow in a certain hedgehog's footsteps into the Special Zone," Knuckles explained.

"Makes sense. Open it up!" Sonic claimed. As much as they made light of it, being trapped in the Special Zone was nothing fun. When he was younger, he'd gone there several times, each time different than the last. Many times he would wander for what felt like hours, only to find minutes had passed. Others he'd been gone minutes, only to find days had passed.

Knuckles grabbed the rock and hurled it off to the side. The small hum became much larger now, and Sonic saw the giant spinning ring, a golden yellow, in the cave. They'd never figured out what caused them to appear. Tails had been working on figuring it out but he'd also been on the same project for years.

Without as much as a thank you, Sonic dove in, feeling the energy of the ring rush into his body, and the small web that would lead him to the Special Zone.

He was falling, or at least feeling like he was. The backgrounds shifted and changed through any form of shapes and sizes, some showing birds, others stars. The ground rotated, colors flashing everything, and Sonic broke out from his ball form to take a quick look around.

The Special Zone was an odd place. It had its own rules, its own laws, but even then it acted erratically and chaotically. Between the three of them, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles, they'd gone through the Special Zone enough to be able to say what any one form of it could take. It would just be mix and matched, but they'd had enough notes taken down to know what the rules were for each variation.

A small checkered ground lay in front of him, spheres of red and blue in front of him. The stars lay above him, impossibly bright when compared to the white ground in front of him. "Alright...Tails has been through these before. Come on, show me where Tails was," Sonic said aloud. He felt an invisible force push him forward, and he grabbed the blue spheres while ignoring the red ones.

At this point it was more habit than anything. His eyes were taking in everything around, wondering just where and how his friend had ended up, but his body was acting on automatic, turning and twisting and jumping to avoid the red spheres at all costs.

He did another race around the land checking for more blue spheres before he started to head to the middle. The force that had been pushing him onwards, slowly increasing his speed suddenly stopped.

Right in the middle, next to the last blue sphere he could see, lay a giant hole in reality. It was as if someone had just taken a picture, and meshed all of the colors around into a spiral, everything melding together into a realm of impossibility. There was a small hum, and Sonic felt himself become...uncomfortable. He'd never been uncomfortable while in the Zone. He'd been uncomfortable afterwards, definitely, but not while inside it.

A flash of pain warped at him, and the Zone pushed him forward to the last blue sphere. He tried to dodge, to head towards the rip, but the sphere came out of nowhere towards him, being absorbed quickly as he was forcefully stopped.

The spheres came together, meshing into the form of a Chaos Emerald; the green one. The one that Tails had had. But if Tails didn't have it anymore...Sonic froze as he was ejected out of the Zone, head over heels.

He slammed against the rock wall of the cliff, noting with a worry that Knuckles was still there. "Sonic? Where's Tails?" he asked.

"Don't know. But I think we need to find someone to tell me why there was a giant rip in the Special Zone," Sonic said. Knuckles blinked, before his face hardened, and he nodded.


The final act of the Excursion arc. Next time, the first act of the Expedition arc! Until Next Time!