The sun peeked over the horizon, red light seeping over the ocean and up the beach, all the way to the white buildings. Bright rays poured over the sleeping hedgehog. The light fell over him, warmer and warmer until it burned.

Sonic lunged awake with a cry. The light rushed through his veins, into his mind and through his heart, just like before, but this time, something resisted. The light flared in protest, enraged at the obstruction, burning him. Stinging fires lit in every nerve. Sonic could do nothing but curl against the tree, waiting for the two forces to finish their fight over him.

Finally, as the golden sun rose over the city, the pain and burning subsided. The light had claimed all but his mind, where the resisting force refused to budge. Sonic rose unsteadily.

The first thing he noticed was that his fur was a much lighter, brighter shade of blue. He briefly considered the possibility that he had somehow de-aged, but he was still the same height, so that was unlikely. Newly grown claws poked out of the ends of his worn gloves. Through the scratches in his gloves, his hands gleamed an inexplicable yellow.

A voice brought his attention away from his hand, and he pricked his ears—those were bigger, and rounder, and altogether alien. On the plus side, he had sharper hearing now. A kid was saying something in… was that Spanish? No, wait, that was… Greek, right?

Sonic waved. The kid blinked at him, waved shyly, and ran off.

Sonic ambled off in the other direction. He started to break into a run and stumbled, tripping over… his tail? Wonderful. His tail had changed too. Did he even count as a hedgehog anymore? His eyes widened and his hands flew to his head. Sharp quills tore at his gloves, much to his relief. At least something hadn't changed. Though they were a bit more spread out than usual…

Fwip-fwip-fwip. The strange ears caught a faint fluttering sound, and he spun around. The much longer tail didn't quite follow, and he nearly tripped over it. Grimacing, Sonic looked for the source of the noise. Nothing. It had to be that creature again, but why would she be following him?

"Hey! Sonic!"

Sonic blinked. That was English, familiar English. He turned more slowly this time, carefully stepping around the ridiculous tail. Speaking of tails, an orange fox was running towards him, waving energetically.

"Hey, Tails! What are you doing out here?" Sonic stumbled back as Tails tackled him in a hug, which was… unusual.

"I don't know, come on, I gotta show you something!" He grabbed Sonic's arm and started pulling him down the street. Sonic dug in his heels, resisting the odd behavior.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"It's not important, I have to show you something!" Sonic relented and let the fox drag him down the street. Tails released him as they stepped into some sort of cafe. There was only one other person there, a sullen monkey glaring at them over his newspaper. No one behind the counter.

"Sonic, look at this!" His attention returned to Tails, who had picked the Miles Electric up off a table. The fact that Tails had left it unattended meant this was either more urgent than Sonic realized or Tails had been skipping sleep again.

The screen displayed a map of the world, with odd lines and blotches of bright yellow placed systematically across it. "What's this about?" Sonic tapped the screen curiously.

"It's Light Gaia energy!" Tails declared proudly. Sonic opened his mouth, but Tails was already moving on, apparently not thinking an explanation was needed. "I managed to calibrate the sensors using my knowledge of Chaos energy, they're actually very similar—"

"What is Light Gaia energy?" Sonic interrupted.

"It's like Chaos energy and it's not important," Tails waved his hand impatiently. "What is important is that I found out where it's coming from!" He pointed at a concentrated blotch in the neighborhood of Australia and Indonesia. The yellow lines sprayed out from it in every direction, turning into splats in a few spots, but all tracing back to the one spot.

"Hey, isn't that—" Sonic started to say, but Tails was talking again.

"Now that I know where it is, we can go there and stop it at the source!" Tails slammed his hand down victoriously on the table, making the salt and pepper shakers shudder.

Sonic stared at him, feeling like he'd stepped into a story at the climax instead of the beginning. "Why?"

"For science!" Tails said without a moment's thought. "We can take the Tornado—we'll have to make a few stops along the way—and..."

While the fox rambled on (Sonic was undecided on how normal this was), the hedgehog tapped at the screen, zooming in on the blotch. The device helpfully provided a targeting circle on the exact coordinates. "Huh. That's pretty close to…"

Something dark swept into the corner of his eye, and suddenly the device went flying off the table. It hit the wall with a crack and slid to the ground. The culprit slithered onto the table, eyeing them both warily.

"...why did you do that?"

The creature studied Sonic for a moment with reptilian eyes, and it briefly crossed his mind that he had imagined her speaking last night. Then she rose into a bipedal stance, glaring at him. "You can't go there."

"Why not?" Sonic asked.

Her frown deepened. "I don't know. You shouldn't."

Sonic glanced at Tails with a raised eyebrow, but his snarky comment died on his tongue as he saw the look on his friend's face. Ears twisted back, eyes narrowed, tails deadly still. The fox's sharp teeth were bared in a furious, unrecognizable snarl, and a low growl rumbled in his throat. For a moment all three were frozen. For a moment the air was hot and still. For a long, tense moment fire crackled at the edge of hearing, ready to leap out at any moment.

"Tails, you alright?" Sonic took a step towards him, and the tension snapped. The fox lunged at the creature, and she shot away, bat wings whisking through the air. Sonic jumped between them, raising his hands. "Tails, calm down—" The fox shoved him aside, jumping at the creature again, and Sonic grabbed him, pinning his arms down. "Tails, STOP!" The fox writhed in his arms, snarling. When that didn't work, he bit. Sonic yelped and released him, stumbling backwards.

The two friends stared at each other for a moment. Sonic wasn't sure if he hadn't noticed it before or if it was a recent development, but Tails' pupils were gone. His eyes were pure, bright blue, alien and merciless.

That wasn't Tails.

The fox moved forward again, ready to fight. Whatever was in his eyes, it wouldn't relent. Why would it? What would it matter to the light, if Tails died? It didn't care about one fox, no matter how unusual. It would make him fight, fight to the death if necessary. Anything to destroy the creature hovering in the air above them.

Sonic did what he did best. He ran.