Hello, guys. Here I am again.

As you can see, I specifically waited until today, the 30th anniversary of the first ever Sonic game's release, to release this fanfic - which I hope will be and feel epic.

As such, I decided to set it (at least the most part of it) in a completely unexpected place. What is this place? You'll see.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Hm, I don't know how to cleverly state this note, so I'll just do it directly. So, throughout this fanfic, every now and then, I will be making AN's with cues on real-life songs, looking like this: "(AN: cue Song Title by Artist Name)". Those will be for you to imagine those songs playing (or to play them yourselves, as you wish) while those scenes take place. Why am I doing that? To make those scenes look cooler. (Or sadder, or happier, or more epic, etc. Whatever the way the scene is supposed to feel.) I'm writing this note now so it won't feel weird later. I hope this AN looks normal.

But anyway, here is my story. Enjoy!

One day, you're going to die.

And the one thing on your mind will be: why you haven't done more.

Miles "Tails" Prower was, for the most part, a reasonable being.

If there was an obstacle in his way to get anything done, physically or metaphorically, he would be able to overcome it with more or less no issue. It was kind of his thing. It was something he was rather proficient at.

With a mind as intelligent as his own, matching that of his and his best friends' biggest nemesis-until-recently, it would've been nearly impossible to not get many seemingly tough tasks done. But unlike said subdued nemesis, Tails knew how to control his train of thoughts.

For the most part.

That day, Tails had decided to close his workshop, having taken a day off from work. He had arranged hanging out with Sonic a few days earlier, considering that the two had not seen each other in a while. The moment they saw each other then, it was relieving for both of them; for Tails because he knew that the closest thing he had to a big brother was still alive, and for Sonic because he now rested assured his best friend had not gone insane over the circumstances revolving around a certain seed that Tails kept back at home.

The thing is, around a year and a half prior to this day, an enormous tragedy occurred in Tails' life. The girl that was the love of his life gave her own life in a battle against a vile army, for the safety of Tails' home island, Cocoa Island. To deepen Tails' devastation, he was part of the reason she had to do that. So, Cosmo was gone, while Tails never confessed his feelings for her. All that was left of her was a small seed. As is natural, this caused Tails to fall into deep, deep depression, that lasted six months no less. But eventually, after going through his most painful months, he gained the ability to move on. But the idea of actually planting the seed that was left of her had not crossed his mind until Sonic advised him to do that - barely a day after they met.

So he did. Only after moving to Westside Island, though.

And in the previous year, the seed grew into a beautiful red rose. But Tails was, of course, fully careful as to keep it under the most immaculate conditions, keeping the pot that it grew in on the outside of the window that faced his backyard, so it gets sunlight whenever it was sunny and water whenever it was raining.

So the two finally took off for a relaxing day in their hometown that day.

As the day was reaching afternoon - the Sun had not yet begun to set, though - Sonic and Tails were heading back to their homes, both of them eating chili dogs.

"So," Sonic spoke, in a conversation that had already been going on for quite a while, "how is it going with that plane?"

"Oh, yes," Tails exclaimed, somewhat excited that this became the topic of the conversation. Shortly after recovering from his tragedy, the fox began constructing a plane, firstly to divert his own attention to something more useful for him and his environs, and secondly so he could say he built his own airplane. But after meeting Sonic, he decided it would be a better idea to redraw some of his sketches, making a two-seated plane instead of one-seated, so that if Sonic would ever ride on it with him, he wouldn't have to stand on its wings.

"I finished it a few days ago," the fox answered happily. "I tested it yesterday, and it's full on working!"

"I'm glad you made it," Sonic replied to that, after which he, after a little hesitation, sighed and spoke: "...Mine broke again."

He looked at Tails with an ounce of guilt, trying to non-verbally ask him to fix it - but Tails was unamused by the hedgehog's statement.

"Not today," he responded, as politely as possible, wanting to have this whole day for himself. "Maybe in a few days, but... not today."

Sonic understood him.

"Okay, then," he said, giving him a thumbs up. "I gotta exercise anyway," he added as he took one more bite of his chili dog.

"Um... good luck, I guess," was all Tails could say to that.

"Thanks."

And as the day was coming to a late afternoon, and the two had pretty much nothing left to do for the day:

"Well," Sonic began, clenching his fist for a fist-bump, "it was nice hanging out with you today, but I gotta go."

"Alright," Tails responded, fist-bumping him, "see you around, then."

"See ya," the hedgehog said, speeding away in a different direction.

With nothing left to do there, Tails headed back home, which was around a kilometre away from where he currently was. While he walked there, he observed the nature and the houses around him. It all spoke a certain sense of tranquility. Tails sighed in relief, knowing that the choice to leave his workshop for a day was an excellent choice.

Until he arrived in front of his house. Because somebody was already there.

"Amy?" he called out to her in confusion, to which she turned around.

"Oh, hi, Tails," she responded. It was clear she had been waiting there for some time, but she did not want to leave, in case Tails showed up soon. But she was holding something in her hand.

"Look, sorry if I'm bothering you," she began, "but could you fix this stopwatch for me?"

Tails sighed; not so much in relief this time. He was really wrought up about getting to spend one whole day just the way he wanted it - and this now moderately ruined that for him. But he didn't have the heart to lash out on a girl like Amy.

"I bought it for Sonic," she explained. "It's for him to measure his time while he's running. I hope he will like it."

For reasons same as a moment ago, Tails wasn't able to just tell her that the blue hedgehog just doesn't like her back.

All he could therefore do right then and there was really fix the stopwatch that Amy had brought him. So he took it in his hands and unlocked the door to his house, to examine it in normal conditions. He disassembled the stopwatch to see what exactly was wrong with it. After a few minutes of observing, during which he allowed Amy to take whatever she wanted to eat if she was hungry, he exclaimed: "Alright," in an easy tone of voice, obviously having found the malfunction. Immediately afterwards, he began searching inside his shelves for the right tools to fix the watch.

"You know," Amy spoke, fascinated by how quickly the fox found the solution, "sometimes I'm amazed by how your brain works."

"Thanks," Tails replied, and after a short pause, added, "sometimes I'm amazed by that too."

Amy found that realization a little strange.

"Actually," Tails continued, as he discovered something else was wrong with the stopwatch, "just the other day I was getting the last parts of my plane done, and," he carried on as he searched for a screwdriver that he needed, that he knew was on one of the shelves just next to the window of his backyard, "when I put on the engine, I took a few seconds of break... I was exhausted, you know... and I actually took a look at what I had just finished," it was at this moment that Tails found the very screwdriver he was looking for, and since it was next to the window, he accidentally glanced through it as well, "and even I myself was asto-" and then he stopped!

Because he realized what he had just seen through the window.

The pot was empty.

The pot in which he grew the seed. From which a rose came to be. His only physical memory of Cosmo.

It was empty!

The flower was gone!

"No... no, no, no..." he uttered, distraught at first, but increasingly panicking, as he ran outside to the backyard.

Amy was rightfully confused about the sudden change in the fox's attitude, because she did not have an idea of just how much importance that flower had for him. That was something only Tails himself and Sonic knew.

"What's wrong?" she asked him as she followed him to the backyard, but he wasn't paying attention to her.

"No... what... how did..." Tails was suddenly desperate, wondering how this could've possibly happened. "HOW?!" It must have disappeared while he was away. But how exactly? And why? Did someone break in and steal it? Why would someone do that? It couldn't have disappeared on its own... right?

It was all wrong.

This caused Tails to receive a nervous breakdown much heavier than he should have.

"Tails," Amy asked again, trying to somehow help him, "what happe-"

"No..." Tails cut her, visibly nervously, going back inside his house, walking around aimlessly inside it. "Don't... please, just... don't..." He was desperate to try and make some sense of this. He pulled some books on plants and gardening and everything similar to that, there must've been some explanation for this inexplicable occurrence, there just had to be!

As the confused and exasperated fox flipped pages of one book after another, he hoped that this mindless flipping would somehow result in him seeing that one word or picture that was just it! Just the one that would help him connect the dots and understand exactly what went on. But as he kept doing this, he was gradually losing hope that he would actually find something like that.

"No... there's gotta be something..." he whimpered.

Before one would know it, Tails was already halfway through the second book from the load he had grabbed. And there was no sign of answer.

"No, come on, don't do this to me..."

"Tails," Amy spoke once again, "is everything alri-"

And that's when Tails closed that book and, in a fit of rage, slammed it against the table he had put it on!

Right after which - he burst into tears.

Amy just watched the poor fox continuously wipe the tears away from his face, and couldn't do much more than hug him tight, even though she still had no clue what it was that caused Tails to just suddenly lose his mind.

Tails just laid his head on Amy's chest and kept crying.

About a minute later, the fox suddenly thought of something.

"I gotta tell Sonic about this," and he quickly ran back outside his house, in the direction where he and the blue speedster had parted ways, yelling: "Sonic! Sonic!" while Amy could only follow him in his intent.

The two were getting closer and closer to the location where Tails and Sonic had last said goodbye, and the fox even turned running in the direction where he last saw the hedgehog drift off, yet Sonic was nowhere to be seen.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled once more. "Where did he go...?" he wondered. Surely he should've found him very easily, if by nothing else, then at least by how loud he was currently shouting his name. He and Amy were going where they knew Sonic's house was, having concluded that that's the only place he could've been at.

Until:

"You're looking for Sonic?" some child hamster, that was walking on the same street, asked them.

Seeing him, Tails disturbingly answered:

"Yes."

"He disappeared," the hamster said, looking frightened.

Tails was a little distraught - actually, a lot - by what he had just heard.

"What do you mean, he disappeared?" he asked him, just in case.

"He was just walking here," the hamster explained, still looking terrified, "and somebody just came here and took him away." Now, Tails and Amy also looked terrified. "They fought first, but then, that person took Sonic by his arm very roughly, and then they just disappeared!"

Tails and Amy just listened to this bone-chilling explanation, it being impossible to tell which one of them was more shocked by this. This person that took Sonic away - it wasn't Eggman. It couldn't have been him; he was done for. They defeated him once and for all just recently. It must have been somebody else.

Somebody they don't know of.

Because no one they do know would do something like this to Sonic with pure ease!

At this point, Tails was trying to make up a plan in his head as to what to do next. How to find Sonic. Which was especially difficult since he had no idea where he had gone! And on top of that, he still hadn't solved the question of what had happened to his flower!

And suddenly, a thought formed inside his head.

More precisely, a contemplation. He himself wasn't fully sure which one of the two answers to the question of whether these two inexplicable events were related was the one he was hoping would be true.

That they weren't...

Or that they were.

"Come on, Amy," Tails exclaimed to Amy, starting to run back home.

"What?" Amy asked, still in sheer confusion, as she went after him. She saw that he was heading back to his own house.

Before she knew it, Tails was already in his workshop, turning his brilliant plane - which he had named the X Tornado - on.

Jumping right in the pilot seat, anxiously, he put the piloting glasses that he had on, and looked at Amy.

"Well? Hop in."

Even though Amy still had no clue why Tails was already upset when he saw that empty pot, way before they both found out about Sonic's disappearance, she was just as designated to find out where Sonic had gone as Tails was - if not slightly more.

And so she found herself in the backseat of the X Tornado.

"Off we go," Tails exclaimed, in tone more serious than anyone who personally knew him would have expected. Out of all things, he definitely didn't expect that the first time that he flew his own plane would happen not because he wanted to, but because he had to.

And after one moment of time, they ascended!

After a few seconds, the X Tornado was already very high up in the air, and Amy looked down at the land where they and their friends lived in, rightfully admiring the astonishing view; but for Tails, that was nowhere near his intention.

As he piloted the plane, they were flying towards Sonic's house, obviously at a straight path, not needing to make numerous turns.

Since there was no rain, nor any sign of it coming in their direction, the trip all the way up to the blue hedgehog's house was safe.

It was when they reached just a few meters away from the house - that something started happening.

A strange feeling surrounded the plane. A strange, horrifyingly so, feeling aroused inside Tails' and Amy's body, as they suddenly, inexplicably started to feel unusually nauseous. Tails felt weird, uncomfortable tingling, shivers inside his skull, as he felt obligated to close his eyes, thinking that if he were to open them, he would somehow feel insufferable pain; and Amy wasn't feeling any better.

"What's going on?!" Amy asked in a terrified tone of voice.

"I don't know!" Tails exclaimed, in the same manner.

There was something that they couldn't see, that was dragging Tails and Amy towards itself, while the fox desperately tried to navigate the X Tornado away from it, clearly in vain. The force that pulled them in that direction was getting stronger and stronger. Tails was on the edge of giving up in his intention. And after a few more seconds, the decision to stop resisting this force turned out to be only natural.

Because they got completely sucked in.

The very next moment, the X Tornado landed on the ground - but not so nicely.

Completely unexpectedly, the plane just hit whatever was below itself and then just stopped.

"Uh-oh..." Tails uttered, instantly jumping out of his pilot seat, genuinely more worried that some part of his plane might have gotten broken than about the more obvious fact.

Which was something that did catch Amy's attention.

"Um... Tails?" she asked the fox, just looking around in wonderment.

"Yeah?" he said, having finished his inspection of the plane and concluded that, luckily, everything was still functioning.

"...Where exactly are we?" Amy asked - which caused Tails to suddenly shiver.

He also looked around himself. The first thing he saw was a river, whose water was not too clean, floating in the direction opposite from where the plane was facing. Second, he noticed that he and Amy had ended up between the river and its embankment. Thirdly, and most notably - they were in the middle of a city!

The fox figured out quickly enough where they were. And the answer was one that made Amy feel like her soul had left her body.

"We're on Earth," Tails affirmed. "And not just anywhere on Earth."

And that completes chapter 1.

Before all, obviously, this is NOT in the same continuity as Sonic X. It wouldn't make sense if it were, especially given which fanfiction it is that this is a sequel to.

Speaking of which, what are your predictions for the things that happened? What happened to the flower that Tails had as a remainder of Cosmo, AND what happened to Sonic? Feel free to write your predictions in the comments.

Also, another thing I want to hear your predictions for is exactly just where on our planet Tails and Amy ended up.

Until chapter 2, leave reviews. See you.