what the fuck is up
i actually had this done like, 12 hours ago, but then my laptop decided to fucking die, so you're getting it now
thanks to TheUwUverse and TwidereChan for commenting
Sonic wasn't sure where he was when he came to. His head pulsed. His thoughts were fuzzy and filled with static. He opened his eyes, only to be met with the harsh sunlight. He was in a jungle of some sort, the sky blue above him. What happened?
He whipped his head around as he heard the sound of dirt shifting to his right, only to be met with the sight of Tails waking up. He scrambled over to the younger boy. "Tails, are you alright?"
Tails put a hand to his head. "Yeah, I think so." But something was off. Rather than his usual vest and cargo shorts, Tails was wearing a silver jacket and a black and white bodysuit. Gold loops were on his wrists and ankles, a blue light emitting from them. It was an odd sight, an uncomfortable sight, but not necessarily an unfamiliar one.
It was odd because he knew that jacket, but not on Tails. It was Silver's. How did it get here?
But most alarming of all, the younger boy's two trademark tails were missing, almost as though they had never existed.
Tails looked around, bewildered. "What happened?"
"Sonic blew up Eggman's machine," a voice said from behind them. The two turned around to see Shadow, arms crossed. "That's what happened."
Sonic stood, pulling his brother up with him. "Shadow? Why do you look like... that?"
Shadow hardened his glare and pulled his arms closer. Much like the same wrongness from Tails being dressed as Silver, Shadow seemed to be dressed as Amy. His normal dark clothes were replaced with a bright, pinkish-red romper, white trim on the edges. The inhibitor rings that would ordinarily be around his wrists were instead gold bangles. A matching red headband was nestled in his dark hair.
"I assume," he drawled, annoyance apparent in his tone, "Breaking the machine caused it to malfunction, leading to this." He gestured down at himself.
"Are you saying all that bullshit Egghead was monologuing about was true? He actually managed to fuck with our powers?" Sonic looked down at himself, only to find Shadow's own wardrobe, inhibitor rings and all. "So, what? I'm you then?" He moved around a bit. "I don't really feel any different, maybe a little angstier," he quipped. Shadow continued his glare. "I'm kidding. What about you, Shads?"
"I don't feel any peppier or in love with you, if that's what you mean."
"It wasn't."
"That makes sense," Tails said suddenly, "The machine wasn't made to take our personalities, only our powers. That's why my tails are gone and why you don't feel any different, Sonic. Shadow basically has the same powers as you."
Shadow raised a hand. "Can we emphasize the 'basically?'"
"Wait, Shadow," Sonic said, "If you're Amy, then what're your powers?"
Shadow rolled his eyes and reached a hand behind him. With no warning, Amy's oversized pika-pika mallet materialized in his hands and he slammed it into the ground in front of them. Both Sonic and Tails jumped back with surprise. Shadow swung the mallet back, where it disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared. "Apparently," he said, "I now function on cartoon physics."
"Cool." Sonic turned to his brother. "Tails?"
Tails examined his tech-laden gloves. "I guess I have Silver's abilities," he put his hand out in a weak imitation of Silver, "But I'm not sure how to-" He let out a shrill scream as blue light shot out of his hand, flinging him into the sky, Shadow and Sonic on the ground watching.
Instantly, Sonic sped off in the direction of Tails. He caught Tails just as he came back to the ground. "Gotcha!"
Tails held onto Sonic tightly. "Thanks," he whimpered.
As Sonic set his brother down, a megaphone erupted from the ground next to them. Shadow, who had finally caught up with the two, stared at the megaphone along with them. With a quick burst of static, the megaphone began broadcasting its message.
"Sonic, you fucking child! Look what you've done! Not only did you ruin my plan, but now you've created an entirely different mess! Without the stability of my machine, each of your powers are just gonna switch for the rest of your fucking lives! I'll have to rebuild the fucking machine, but you assholes are going to have to go on a little errand for me. My machine was powered by three Chaos Emeralds, but because you've blown the shit up, the emeralds have scattered themselves throughout the island! You sons of bitches have four days to find the fucking emeralds, or I will personally hunt down and kill every single one of you! Now, get to stepping!"
"Well, he's in a good mood," Sonic quipped.
Shadow stepped forward. "Eggman said our powers are gonna switch again? How does he expect us to find the emeralds if we keep switching?"
"Maybe we don't," Sonic said slowly, "Tails, is there any way you could reverse the machine's effect without Eggman?"
Tails shook his head. "Sorry, Sonic, I don't think so. I don't know anything about the machine or how it worked." He looked down. "Maybe if I had access to it, I could reverse engineer it, but without it, I'm just as blind as you are." He paused. "I hate to say it, but we do need Eggman's help."
"My question still stands," Shadow said, "How do we find the emeralds?"
Sonic raised a hand. "Well, I still have speed. I can run ahead and search the island."
Tails grabbed Sonic's arm. "Sonic, wait! We don't know when our powers will switch again. You don't wanna be stranded because you lost your super speed. Besides, we still don't know where the others are. I think we should stick together."
"I agree with Tails," Shadow cut in. He looked over at Sonic. "We have four days. Let's use them."
"Sonic, you fucking child! Look what you've done! Not only did you ruin my plan, but now you've created an entirely different mess! Without the stability of my machine, each of your powers are just gonna switch for the rest of your fucking lives! I'll have to rebuild the fucking machine, but you assholes are going to have to go on a little errand for me. My machine was powered by three Chaos Emeralds, but because you've blown the shit up, the emeralds have scattered themselves throughout the island! You sons of bitches have four days to find the fucking emeralds, or I will personally hunt down and kill every single one of you! Now, get to stepping!"
Once the announcement had ended, Knuckles turned to Rouge and Amy. "Uh, fuck no."
None of them were quite sure what had happened, but something had clearly gone horribly wrong. Their impromptu prison had been opened after some sort of blast had shaken the base. The three had immediately fled from the base, but something was different. Knuckles had felt lightheaded, vision blurred.
Amy was the first to realize something was off. Well, somethings was more accurate. She had screamed when, with no warning, she was attached to two fluffy, pink tails, alerting the other two to the switch. They had been trying to figure out why Rouge was now dressed like Blaze and Knuckles was dressed like Sonic when they had heard Eggman's voice echo throughout the island.
From her place, sitting on the ground, Amy crossed her arms. "Eggman wants us to get Chaos Emeralds for him? He can't possibly expect us to fall for that, right?" She looked between the two for validation. "Guys?"
Knuckles looked over to the older girl. "Rouge?"
"I-" Rouge looked away, guilt written on her face, "I dunno, maybe-"
"You can't be serious!" he said indignantly.
"Just hear me out, okay?" Rouge said, hands up in surrender, "We may not have a choice. We don't know anything about Eggman's machine, or what happened, or anything. We don't even know where anyone else is!" She looked down at Blaze's gloves on her hands. "Unless you have a better way of figuring this out, I'm not sure there's anything we can do other than what Eggman says."
"She might have a point, Knuckles," Amy said, one of her new tails flicking behind her, "We have to fix this."
Rouge stood face to face with him. "We can get the emeralds back. We always do."
Knuckles hesitated but nodded. "Alright," he said softly, "Where do we start?"
Rouge gave a small smile. "We have to figure out where the emeralds are. You have a connection to them, right?"
"I did before Eggman fucked with me." He sighed. "I can't feel them anymore."
"How are we supposed to find the emeralds if we don't even know where to go?" Amy asked, standing.
Knuckles thought for a second. "Rouge, you have Blaze's power, right?"
She shrugged. "I think so." She looked down at herself. "I don't know how to use them, though. Why?"
Knuckles stepped forward. "Blaze is a lot like me. She has a connection to the Chaos Emeralds, although she calls them Sol Emeralds. You should be able to sense them."
"I don't know how."
He took her hands in his. "I'll help you. Close your eyes." With a brief moment of hesitation, she did. "Focus on the energy around you, in the ground, in the air, in Amy, in me, in you. That's Chaos." For a moment, he could almost feel the Chaos, just like he could before.
"I can feel it," Rouge breathed out.
"The Chaos should be flowing from somewhere. Can you tell where it is?"
Her grip on his hand tightened, her eyes still closed. "West," she whispered, "It's coming from the west." She opened her eyes and made contact with his. "I'm sorry. I can't sense anymore."
"You did perfect," he said softly, "West it is. Amy-" He turned to the other girl. "Do you think you can figure out how to fly?"
Amy shrugged and gave a confident grin. "How hard can it be?"
"Great." He scooped Rouge up into his arms. "Hold on," he said excitement evident in his voice. After checking his direction, Knuckles sped off into the jungle, Amy whirling her tails behind him.
"Can you still sense them?" Silver asked, nervousness apparent in his voice. He tugged on one of his long gloves as they walked, part of the Elise-esque ensemble he now donned. Behind him, Elise herself was wearing something similar to Rouge's outfit, complete with two bat-like wings on her back.
"Yes," Blaze answered, glancing down at the spiked glove on her hand, "Knuckles' power is a little different than mine, but it's close enough. We're going in the right direction."
Because Blaze had known how to sense the emeralds, the three had been able to find a heading soon after Eggman's announcement had echoed out. They now trekked through the dense jungle that most of the island was covered in.
A shuffling of leaves behind her stopped Elise. "Did you guys hear that?"
Blaze and Silver had stopped and were listening as well. "Yeah," Blaze said, "It sounded like-"
"Badniks!" Silver cried.
From the foliage around them, robots poured out and quickly surrounded the trio.
"Of course Eggman wouldn't tell his robots to stand down before sending us out," Blaze said, raising a fist.
"Blaze," Silver asked as the three went back to back with each other, "What do we do?"
Blaze turned her head to the other girl. "Elise, you said you had been learning magic. Did you know any offensive measures?"
"Some, but not much," Elise said hesitantly, "I had mostly been working on defense."
Blaze breathed out sharply. "Silver, protect you and Elise. If it goes south, Elise, fly the two of you out of here."
"What about you?" Silver asked.
Blaze took a defensive stance. "Might as well use Knuckles' strength while I've got it."
"Jesus, your pants are so tight, Shadow!" Sonic said as they walked, resulting in an eye-roll from Shadow. "Don't you ever get hot in all this black?" He tugged off Shadow's sweatshirt and tied it around his waist.
"No," Shadow said flatly.
"Okay."
Tails scoffed. "You're hot? Silver has a fleece-lined jacket!" He gestured down to his own waist, where he had already looped the jacket in question. "Didn't he say the future was like, on fire or something?"
Sonic shrugged. "I dunno."
"As interesting as this conversation is," Shadow said disinterestedly, "Can someone tell me where we're going?"
Sonic pointed up to where, through the trees, the imposing silhouette of a mountain was visible. "I figured we'd head to the top of that mountain, get a better vantage point. That way we could maybe get a hint where an emerald is, or the others." He looked back at Shadow. "It's not much, but it's better than wandering the island aimlessly."
Shadow seemed to think for a moment before answering. "It's not a bad idea."
Sonic felt a slight grin cross his face. "Thanks."
"Guys!" Tails shouted, gaining both boys' attention. A few badniks had emerged from the trees and were advancing on the trio.
"I'm starting to wonder if Eggman wants our help or not," Sonic said, a touch of annoyance in his voice.
Amy's mallet materialized in Shadow's hands. "Same here."
Sonic glanced over at Tails. "You two ready enough to fight?"
Tails grinned. "We're right behind you, Sonic." Shadow nodded in agreement.
With his friends behind him, Sonic sped towards the robots.
It only took a couple of hours of traveling before it became dark.
Despite the relatively short amount of time and the few breaks that Amy had required to catch up to Knuckles' excessive speed, they had been able to cover much more ground than he had expected. Once he had noticed the tell-tale orange of the sunset, he had come to a small clearing and set Rouge down.
Now, the three set around a roaring fire, courtesy of Rouge's experimentation with Blaze's powers. Both Rouge and Knuckles sat upright next to each other. Amy, on the other hand, was already laying down, but she had not yet managed to fall asleep.
Rouge elbowed Knuckles slightly. "You didn't have to carry me the whole way, you know. I could've walked some."
"I know, but it was faster that way." From across the way, he could see Amy run her hands over her face. "You doing okay, Amy?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said flatly. She yawned. "How the fuck does Tails do that all the time? I'm exhausted."
Rouge directed her attention to the younger girl. "Tails has been flying with Sonic since he was four. You've only been flying for a day. Even with my wings, I don't think I could've kept up for as long as you did."
"Thanks, Rouge," Amy said quietly.
The group went silent for a few moments until Knuckles spoke again. "I never realized just how much power is coursing through Sonic all the time. I feel-" He searched for the correct word. "-Electric."
"I know what you mean," Rouge said softly after a while, "Whatever this is inside of Blaze, it's a lot. More than I thought possible for a person to hold."
It became silent again, the effects of the day starting to take hold. Despite the energy that Sonic seemed to hold, Knuckles felt his exhaustion catching up with him. He wasn't sure how long it had been when he realized that Amy had finally dozed off. He glanced over at Rouge, whose eyes were droopy, but still alert. "Didn't take her long to get to sleep," he remarked.
Rouge gave a short chuckle. "She's tired." She glanced up at Knuckles. "We should probably get some rest too." She stood to find a place to lay down.
"Wait," Knuckles said, verbalizing a question he had since the beginning of the day, "Rouge?"
She stopped. "Yeah?"
He hesitated, the bluntness of his question becoming apparent. But whether it was his fatigue or his genuine curiosity to the answer, he continued. "You meant what you said earlier? You'll help us get the emeralds back?"
Rouge usually could hide her emotions, but Knuckles caught a flash of an unfamiliar one on her face before she could cover it up. Hurt. But just as soon as it appeared, it was gone, replaced with her confident smile. "Of course." She shrugged. "Jewels are nice, but I care a lot more about you guys."
Knuckles felt shocked. Not just at the ease at which she said it, but at the level of sincerity she said it with. He turned around, laying on his side.
"Get some sleep, Red," she said.
Her words echoed in his mind as he drifted off to sleep.
Sonic couldn't sleep.
None of them were quite sure how to start a fire, and they certainly were not alert enough to try, so they had settled for the night in a small clearing lit by the moonlight. Despite his previous complaints, Shadow's jacket was very helpful to fight off the cold.
Sonic was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of shuffling to his right. It had been a while since he had heard either of his friends shifting, so he had assumed they had both fallen asleep. As he listened to the slight noises, it was clear that he had been wrong.
Before he could identify who was awake, the small voice of his younger brother answered his question. "Sonic?" Tails asked, "Are you awake?"
"Yeah," Sonic said, still staring at the sky. "What's up, bud?"
It took a moment for Tails to answer. "Nothing. I just-" He stopped. "I can't stop thinking."
"Me neither," Sonic admitted, "It's been a weird day." At the lack of response from Tails, he finally looked over at him. He was laying on his side, facing Sonic's direction. "C'mere," Sonic said.
Tails hesitated, but after a moment, scrambled up from his place over to his brother, who held out his arms. Sonic couldn't remember the last time they had cuddled like this. It used to be more common when Tails was younger, but he had been growing more independent recently, even managing to tough out thunderstorms without Sonic's help.
It made Sonic just a little sad to realize that even though he was still a kid, Tails was growing up.
"Sonic?" Tails' voice was quiet.
"Yeah?"
"What happens if Eggman's lying?"
"What d'ya mean?" Sonic asked, looking down at his brother.
Tails played with his hands as he spoke. "I mean, what if he doesn't know how to fix this? What if we find the emeralds and bring 'em to Eggman, but he doesn't fix our powers? And sure, maybe we'll be able to stop his scheme and get the emeralds back, but what then? I wouldn't even know where to start."
In truth, Sonic wasn't sure what would happen if Eggman didn't fix their powers. But he could feel the anxiety dripping from the younger boy and he kept his tone steady and confident. "We'll figure something out. I promise." After a moment, he added, quieter than before, "I'm sorry I got us into this mess."
"It's okay," Tails said, "It's not your fault, anyway."
"No, it was my recklessness that destroyed the machine." He felt his face heat up with shame. "And now you and everyone else is paying the price for my stupidity. I should've listened to Shadow."
Tails was silent, and for a moment, Sonic thought he had fallen asleep. But then he asked, "Do you blame Knuckles for attacking us when we first met him on Angel Island?"
"No," Sonic said, furrowing his brow in confusion, "He was just protecting the Master Emerald. He didn't know any better."
"What about Silver? Or Shadow?"
Sonic's face loosened as he realized his brother's point. "Tails-"
"I mean, hell, if we're blaming people, why not blame me?" Tails said, "You wouldn't have destroyed the machine if I hadn't been stupid enough to get caught."
"But that's-"
"Different?" Tails cut in. Sonic shut his mouth and Tails sighed. "Everyone's made mistakes, Sonic, and you don't hold it against them. Don't hold it against yourself either."
Sonic gave a small smile. "Thanks, little buddy." He squeezed him a little tighter. "You're way too smart for a kid your age, you know that?"
Sonic could hear the smile on his brother's face. "I know."
"C'mon, you need to get some sleep. A lot of emerald searching to do in the morning, right?"
Tails snuggled back into his brother's side. "Yeah. G'night, Sonic."
"Night, Tails."
Within minutes, he could feel the younger boy's breathing even out. The guilt hadn't quite dissipated, but he took the younger's words to heart. Soon enough, he too drifted off to sleep.
well that was a thing that happened
also, I have actually drawn the characters as I see them, so lmk if that would be helpful for visualizing what the fuck is happening bc I know my writing can be Messy
but comment regardless because I need validation or I will wither up and die
