"Hey guys. Long time no see"
It was Sonic the Hedgehog, the heroes just couldn't help but stare at the being they thought had died so long ago to save them all. Just then in a fit of uncharacteristic joy Knuckles lunged forward and grabbed his blue friend in a crushing hug.
"Sonic! It really is you! You're alive!"
"Whoa!" Knuckles' reaction surprised the blue hedgehog and would have probably surprised the rest if they weren't feeling like doing the same thing "Hey Knux, nice to see you too"
Knuckles still holding onto the super fast hedgehog waked over to the other heroes and planted his friend in front of them all. They all just stared at him, the emotions welling up inside all of them as they finally laid eyes on their greatest friend and the greatest hero of all time. Tails and Cream were practically crying with joy, Big and the other how ever just stared on dumbfounded. The only one not doing much was Metal who had turned to walk into Tails' Workshop at a rather slow calm pace.
The metal hedgehog stopped and glanced over his shoulder at the silent group with Sonic standing in the middle smiling as he always did and spoke.
"It's good to see you Sonic…"
"Likewise Metal…it great to see all you guys again"
Metal Sonic just humphed and entered the building to relay the news to the others. The rest however were now a tad confused as to how Sonic managed to survive the explosion. Miles was the one to word this:
"Sonic…how did you…"
"Escape?" Sonic smiled at the striped fox as he finished for him "well I'm not too sure either actually but here's what I know…"
OOO
Two blue hedgehogs stood alone on the space colony known as ARK, one floating slightly in the air as he glared at his twin. Streak was going to use the Chaos Implosion to destroy the Earth but his green eyed brother had prevented it.
"1 minute to go… you sentimental fool…" Streak hated everything about his brother as he glared at his fellow blue hedgehog.
"You're the fool… look down there…" Sonic turned to look out a window down at the blue planet known as Earth "Doesn't the earth look amazing from up here? Cool and blue… just like us…"
Streak was silent, he didn't want to end his own existence talking with his lowly brother.
"That's right…" Sonic turned and grinned slightly at his brother, pity for the red eyed hedgehog welling up in his gut "You can't appreciate it cause of all that stuff Gerald put in our heads when he created us… shame really… it didn't really have to end like this…"
"30 seconds…" Streak said as he felt their end drawing nearer, at least he would die knowing that his goody-two-shoes brother died with him.
"Is that all you can think about?"
"… 20 seconds…"
Sonic Sighed. Streak was no fun.
"Well bro… see you in the here after then…" he turned to take one last look at his home…knowing that he'd miss it all, his adventures, his friends…
"10 seconds" Streak smiled as he felt their personal Armageddon drawing nearer, he was glad that he was with his brother now, especially now that death was coming to claim them.
"Good bye earth… Shadow… Knuckles… Tails…… Amy…" there were tears in his eyes as he spoke their names.
"5 seconds… 3… 2…"
Sonic closed his eyes to fight his tears.
"One!" Streak yelled as his body surged with immense power and the implosion began but as Sonic prepared for his death something happened, he had heard the attack take place but as he opened his eyes he was floating in a bright white light an unknown voice speaking to him.
"Sonic the Hedgehog…for your noble sacrifice I will grant you your life…it is not your time to die here…"
"Who are you? Where am I?"
"You know who I am hero…"
As Sonic slowly began to drift to sleep he caught a glimpse of where the voice was coming from, it looked like:
"The…Master…Emerald…"
With that he passed out.
OOO
They all stood in amazement at Sonic's story, Knuckles now having finally let go of his friend at the mention of the Master Emerald. Sonic just smiled and shrugged.
"And that's all that happened…I'm guessing that because of all the times I've helped save the Master Emerald it decided to save me…that or I'm connected to it somehow not that it really matters now that I'm here you know"
"But Sonic…" Tails spoke up "why didn't you come and tell us you were alright?"
"Its simple little buddy, everyone that tries to destroy or conquer Earth usually does so just to get at me…so I was putting you all in trouble, besides seeing as Egg-head thought I was dead he gave himself up…but what does that matter, what matters now is that I'm back!" Sonic exclaimed in his usual confidently happy attitude. Everyone couldn't help but smile at the hedgehog's actions; even in his supposed death he was protecting the planet.
"SONIC!" they turned to see a familiar pink female hedgehog stepping out of Tails' Workshop, her voice and eyes filled with an emotion that they all shared only so much more intense as she was in love with their blue hero. Amy charged across the small distance between them and tackled her hero in a hug, crying in joy as she did so.
"Whoa..." Sonic smiled down at the pink hedgehog and hugged her back "…nice to see you too Amy…"
Spike stepped out of the building followed by Metal who had only just told them what was going on, the porcupine was smiling slightly but kept his calm and cool attitude. Sonic could see from the way that Nack was looking at his long time teammate that there was something up. The green porcupine walked up to the group, his arms folded over his chest.
"Trance has run into a problem while trying to help Nite…she cant wake him because of a powerful mental barrier…"
Nack was getting increasingly worried "Is there any way we can help him mate?"
"Yes…" Spike was staying calm, Sonic had to admit that he admired the porcupine's strength but could see it in his eyes, he was very troubled by what was happening to Nite "…well not us exactly but…" he turned to Sonic "Sonic…"
The group was quite confused and Mighty voiced it "okay that's just weird, but why just Sonic I mean he aint psychic"
"I know…but Trance needs someone with a similar mind to Nite, the one who he was a byproduct of…namely Sonic"
Sonic just smiled, he had only known Nite for a short time but he considered all of them his friends, after all the wolf had helped him defeat Streak, as did all of the other Hunters.
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Sonic let go of Amy and started his way towards the workshop still smiling his usual smile.
"Let's go help him out…" he looked over his shoulder at the others "aren't you coming?"
He continued to smile, form what he had seen while watching all of his friends from a distance something was up and that meant another adventure, life was too quiet lately and he felt like a good adventure to get the blood pumping after reuniting with his friends.
Life is good.
((As those who have read Arorn's fic will ahve noticed I used a tiny bit out of it for Sonic's flashback to give a better explanation of what happened to him. Hope you enjoy))