Chapter 1: Red Herring

August 24th, 2316 – 5:30 AM – Elona Wilderness

The quiet darkness of the night settled across the outskirts of Elona, an area of the country hailed as beautiful for being made up of a chain of floating islands floating in a sea of clouds. While the islands felt quite heavenly due to being in a big open sky above white fluffy clouds, the divine feeling was enhanced even further by the stars sparkling overhead in the skies tonight.

Soon though, the stars began to fade away, as the dark blue turned a shade lighter to the east. A short time later, the sun emerged from within the lightening sky, and the clouds went from being a pale blue in the moonlight to turning their usual cotton white. The sun then started on its daily journey across the sky, as its light touched everything that it could reach. Eventually, the light settled upon one certain island. After slinking across the mountaintops and the massive lake on the island, it came to rest on a house made out of a pile of scrap metal and abandoned vehicles, built into a cliff side at the lake's shore.

The sunlight filtered in through Sonic's bedroom window, and it began to flow across his face. He squinted his eyes shut, not wanting to be woken up yet, and pulled the sheet over his head to block out more of the light. Eventually though, the light got so intense that he just couldn't keep it back anymore, and so he started to climb out of bed. With a sigh, he flung the covers aside and brought his feet around.

Putting his feet on the floor, Sonic sat up and started to rub his eyes with his hands. Now that he thought about it though, he wasn't really that unhappy about waking up this early. He hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, what with all of his dreams about Metal Sonic tormenting him every night. He'd been having them every so often ever since the robot's destruction.

While Metal Sonic had done horrible things, like destroy several cities including his old hometown of Forest Town, he'd also been programmed based upon Sonic's life data. That meant he had been programmed with basically everything in Sonic's brain, including his knowledge, likes, dislikes, and personality.

The source material for his programming had actually been his downfall in their last battle. Tails made a device out of a navigator Robotnik had created, and used the new invention to bring out the positive side of Sonic's personality. Thus, Metal Sonic suddenly abandoned his goal of trying to destroy the Land of the Sky, and even went out of his way to save the President and his aide Oliver "Old Man" Owl.

After that though...

Three months ago…

"Sonic!" Tails cried out. "What are you doing? Stop!"

Sonic slid down a hill towards a lava pit, where the remains of Metal Sonic sat at the edge of the molten rock. He had fallen there after a power failure, after saving the President and his owl friend. Sonic brought himself to a halt almost within arms reach of the robot.

"Grab my hand!" he shouted, as he extended his arm.

However, someone grabbed him from behind and started pulling him back.

"Don't do it Sonic!" Knuckles shouted. He was the one trying to drag him away.

Metal slowly crawled up towards Sonic, due to his legs being ripped off. However, as soon as he could reach Sonic's hand, he slapped it aside. Sonic gasped in surprise.

"There is only one Sonic," Metal simply said. The molten lava began to melt his body.

"No!" Sonic screamed, struggling harder to reach for Metal.

"No Sonic! He'll drag you under with him!"

Despite his efforts, it was too late. The lava began to cover up Metal's body, melting it in the process. His burning red eyes winked out as it too slipped below the surface. Metal Sonic was gone...

In the present...

Sonic lost an ally, and now everyone thought he was crazy for being so upset about it. They all acted like Metal Sonic was the enemy even at his death, and he was already in his best place at the bottom of that cooled lava.

A yawn rose up from the other side of the room. Sonic looked to see Tails asleep in his own bed nearby. The fox's eyes softly opened too as the sunlight moved over his face, and finally they drifted open. He smiled when he saw Sonic.

"Morning Sonic," he said.

Putting aside his thoughts about Metal for the moment, Sonic smiled back.

"Good morning Tails," Sonic said. "What're we gonna do for breakfast today?"

"I dunno...what do you say we just go down and see what we've got?"

"All right then."

After slipping out of bed and putting on their shoes and gloves, the two walked out of the bedroom, past the bathroom and into the study. This was no ordinary house though, because their house was actually a scrapped 747. Their bedroom was the cockpit, and the first class area of the plane had been converted into a bathroom and a study, with a hallway going past the two of them. As they walked downstairs they entered the coach area of the plane, the front half of which had been converted into a kitchen.

The Freedomian military gave them this place two years ago. The reason was because that's whenSonic and Tailshad become a tiny, but nonetheless important, branch of the army, dedicated to defeating Robotnik and his empire. Their branch had simply been named the "Sonic Unit", and their unit was quite good at what it did, despite only being made up of Sonic and Tails (and occasionally their friend Knuckles). Because of them, Robotnik's schemes to take overPlanet Freedom had always been thwarted, since his last known headquarters was destroyed two years ago.

Metal Sonic was a pretty close call though, Sonic thought. It's the closest Robotnik's ever gotten to winning in years. While this job was really cool at first, now it's just getting boring. Apart from Metal Sonic, almost nothing really dangerous has happened. Sometimes Ithink the government is gonna stop funding us, since they don't need us that bad. I mean...Robotnik hasn't even attacked anywhere since Citnalta, and that was weeks ago.

With a sigh, Sonic opened up the refrigerator door. A variety of foods sat inside. In the end, Sonic decided he'd have eggs over easy, pancakes, and a side of bacon. While he pulled out the necessary ingredients, he noticed Tails over to the side pulling a box of cereal out of a cabinet. The brand was M's Munchies, as usual. Tails just adored that cereal, even though it wasn't much else besides marshmallow and grain Ms. Sonic wondered why Tails wasn't sick of even after all this time.

Tails grabbed a carton of milk, as Sonic cracked the eggs and dumped the yolks into the skillet. With little to do out here, Sonic had learned how to be a reasonably good cook. He'd actually learned how to prepare other things besides chilidogs too. Tails had learned some as well, although he still preferred cereal at breakfast.

As Tails poured the milk into his cereal, he decided he'd start up a conversation with Sonic.

"Hey Sonic," Tails said.

"What is it Tails?" Sonic said, busy with his eggs.

"How're you today?"

"Eh...I'm all right I guess. Not much has happened lately and I'm feeling kind of bored."

"Oh, I see. Already bored of your new rock and roll CD?"

"Yeah...I've been listening to it so much I hate the songs now. I need some new CDs. But, look at you! You've been eating that M's Munchies cereal for breakfast every day for years... Don't you ever get tired of it?"

"Nope!" Tails said with a laugh. "I'll never get bored of it!"

Suddenly, Tails began to sing out the commercial's song, without even realizing it. The fox even started dancing around a bit to imitate the blue fox that was the mascot for the cereal.

"'M, T...M, T, P! What's that spell? MTP! M's Munchies is the best cereal there will ever be!'"

"Tails!" Sonic growled. "Please don't sing that stupid song. I get enough of it on the TV all the time."

"Oh," Tails said, coming to a stop. "Sorry about that Sonic."

Sonic sighed. "Thank you..."

Tails moved back over to the table,sitting in front ofhis cereal. After he took his first spoonful of it, he turned to Sonic to ask a question.

"I heard you turning around in bed last night, and mumbling. I thought I heard you say 'Metal' too."

"Eh...it's nothing Tails."

"No it isn't Sonic," Tails said, a little firmer. "I know you're thinking about Metal again."

Sonic let out a sigh, and whirled around to face Tails.

"All right, I admit it."

"Are you ever gonna stop thinking about him? He's just a robot, and not really a person."

"I think different Tails. I think he could have been a great help since he went good."

"Well I just think that's nuts Sonic. I mean, yeah, he saved the President and that owl in the end when I brought out your personality. But what if Robotnik came up with a way to get Metal's programming going back to the way it was? He's a machine, and machines don't really have feelings. They just do what they're told to do, and they don't care who gets hurt."

Sonic let out a 'hmph', and returned to cooking his meal. Sonic spoke to Tails as he started cooking his bacon.

"You'll never understand Tails. You just won't. I know there's something more to Metal than what meets the eye."

Tails sighed, but then he reached inside the cabinet where he'd gotten his cereal, and pulled out three slips of paper.

"Tada!" Tails yelled, holding them in his hands triumphantly.

"Eh?" Sonic mumbled, eyeing the mysterious paper. "What are those?"

"These are tickets to the Grakoran Tournament!"

Sonic's eyes widened.

"The Grakoran Tournament? You mean that big athletics tournament that they have every ten years?"

"Yup...it's the one that the Tneicnans started thousands of years ago. What do you say? President Rudot gave these to us as a gift for all we've done. These are the premium passes for all of the events! He even gave us an extra ticket if we want to bring a friend along!"

"Really?" Sonic said with a smile. "That sounds great to me. I mean, it's not like we're doing much out here right now."

"Yeah..." Tails said. "I don't think Robotnik'll try anything while we're gone. He hasn't done anything since the start of August, at Citnalta."

"Uh huh...it's been all quiet around Robotropolis too. I don't think that'll change anytime soon..."

"Yeah...I guess you're right. So when does the Grakoran Tournament start?"

"It begins September the first, about a week from now."

"Oh really? Great!"

Sonic felt relieved. Staying around here was driving him crazy, since there was almost nothing to do without battles to fight. Maybe he just needed a little time away to clear his thoughts, and get straightened out again. It would surely do him a world of good in any case.