Miles wasn't ready for this.

Grains of corrupted sand shifted under his feet, the familiar stench of decay thick in his nostrils despite the bandage he'd wrapped over his nose as he stared in open mouthed disbelief.

And that wasn't the only smell he identified as he stared out at the vast body of water that had flooded the one-time desert. Brine. The desert had become a beach. He could see the hole he'd blown into the sand below, the exposed entryway to the tomb and the depths submerged below. Large purple fish drifted in and out of the opening.

Well, presumably this was just more weird bizarro physics. Where did the water come from? Rain? Why did it smell like the ocean out here? Had it somehow filled the vast subterranean cave network he'd wandered through for a month?

A dry rasping moan sounded from behind him. Miles half turned, a cannon as big as his armoured torso flicking out of his hammerspace, already pointed at the shuffling mummy ambling towards him.

"Guess water doesn't mean much to you things, huh?" He twisted a dial on the cannon to a "1" crudely fashioned from silver metal, feeling the coils clunk into place within. "Makes sense."

He squeezed the trigger, a spray of green sparks erupted from the muzzle in a nearly unbroken stream, lancing through the mummy's body like tiny needles. A crossed pair of bones slammed into the creature a moment later, tearing their way through its shredded flesh. It collapsed, pieces bubbling into non-existence before they even separated, a bright orange and white cone thudding to the sand where it had stood.

Miles turned away, flicking a hand to send Yorick to fetch the item as he crouched down over the lake, tapping a bony finger against the side of his helmet as he mused. Apart from the hole itself, the rest of the lake looked like it was only a few feet deep, the sand underneath unaffected. In normal conditions the weight of this much water would have changed the terrain drastically. As it was, it was probably lucky that this "basin" was on the shallow side, but "shallow" was still going to leave him in neck deep water for a good few miles, with a hard time building up speed if he fell in.

"Thanks, Yorrick."

Miles held out his hand for the floating skull to deposit its prize. A brightly coloured megaphone, the kind that might be used by emergency services. Bandages and megaphones. Alright. Miles slipped it away with a sigh. Just one more thing not to think on too hard.

A plume of water sprayed up into the air from a spot towards the centre of the lake. Miles pulled himself straight, leaping forwards from a standing start to soar forwards, eyes locked on the spot as he coasted through the air at a near horizontal…

There, a glitter of gold. He'd probably walked right past it in the sandstorm before. Miles dropped into the water, the last droplets of the geyser ringing loud against the large "ears" of his helmet that would hopefully serve to keep his own ears intact in future. A single golden ring perched precariously atop a small dune, now almost entirely submerged by the rising lake. Salt water dripped from the crest of his helmet onto his nose, sending a shiver down his back. More magic? Looked familiar. He rubbed his nose with a glove, frowning as he stepped up the side of the dune, salt water flowing out of his breastplate. Good thing he didn't need to worry about rust. Not that he could say for sure that the meteoric metal even oxidised.

A slow rush of air sounded from the ring, sending a small amount of water spraying from the dark interior. Miles leaned closer, listening and watching as pink walls quivered wetly inside the opening, warm air slowly blowing from its interior in short bursts before sucking air back inside. Like the desert was breathing, at an impossibly slow rate…

Wait. Miles leaned closer still, sniffing at the metal orifice with a frown. Those were teeth, and that smell… He'd encountered that same morning breath many times.

"Sonic?"

The walls of the hole convulsed. A spray of liquid erupted straight into Miles' face, sending him sprawling backwards as water - definitely sea water - forced its way up his nose. He jolted up to the surface a moment later, coughing and spluttering, water and tears streaming down his face. A soft, deep sound was emanating from the ring, an elongated "A", an "L"... And an "S".

"Tails."

Slowed down to an unbelievable level, at a frequency almost too low to be heard as a result, but still his friend. Still his hero. Miles lurched forward, still coughing as he grabbed at the ring, feeling teeth bite down on his thumb as it slipped inside the opening.

"Ow! Sonic! It's-"

Wait. If Sonic was slowed down, he was sped up. Sonic probably understood him fine. With mobians the way they were, Miles would have preferred something sped up and high pitched himself. Their brains were designed for high speed processing and their ears for incoming sounds influenced by the doppler effect of their own, sometimes supersonic, movement. But communicating with him was going to be difficult, especially given the amount of water he was putting through the ring.

"Sonic, it's Tails, don't speak. Click your tongue if you can hear me." Miles leaned close. Talking into Sonic's jaw was kind of gross, but sound should be conducting through to his inner ear fine.

Success, Sonic's tongue flicked across his mouth. Only took a few seconds.

"Good. I'm going to ask you some questions, I need you to click your tongue if the answer is yes, okay?"

Click again. Miles took a shaky breath.

"Are you still on Earth?"

Click.

"Underwater?"

Click.

Great, fell in the ocean, probably off the Lost Hex while looking for him. Miles pinched the bridge of his nose. His selfish carelessness had put Sonic in danger.

"This… It's Shadow's inhibitor ring, right?"

Click.

Miles nodded, reaching down to touch the outside of the ring. Presumably Shadow had done something to set up a stable portal. He didn't need to know what right now, Sonic needed him first.
"Okay, Sonic. I'm going to move the ring on my end, it should help you breathe. If anything goes wrong I will put it back in a few seconds, alright?"

… Click.

That momentary hesitation hurt. He probably deserved it though. Miles gripped the ring firmly in place, eyes locked on its interior, water lapping at his hands. If its physical location in one dimension altered its location in the other then as soon as he moved it he was going to have to handle another geyser blast to the face, and he'd need to get it back to exactly the same spot as before to stop it.

Slowly, he lifted the ring, holding it before him.

"Move all done... You should floss more."

A puff of air that might have been a snort wafted from the portal. Miles cracked a half smile despite himself.

"Okay, all good?"

Click.

Miles looked down at the water, currently lapping at his waist even from his new perch atop the dune. For this much to have come through he'd have needed to break contact with the ring multiple times for some reason…

Ah.

"Is it dark down there?"

Click.

Penders. He'd been using it for light. He must have been down there for… hours, as a conservative estimate, given the time dilation.

"Alright, Sonic. I'm… I'm going to give you something to help, just- Agh!" Needlelike teeth clamped down on his leg, slipping above the thickly armoured boots that stretched up to his knees to slice deep into his thigh. Miles fell back screaming as the weight of the fish tipped him off balance. A second set of jaws scraped across the thick bone bracer protecting his arm.

Miles lashed his hand out, a skull and crossbones burst into the fish tearing into his leg, knocking it free with a chunk of flesh still gripped between its jaws. Salt water burning at his wound, Miles twisted around, tail wrapping around the second fish to yank it out of the water, slamming it repeatedly against the sand before launching it at the first.

He surfaced, coughing and spluttering for the second time in as many minutes as he flipped his pickaxe first into a hand and then into a charging fish, sinking it deep into the ground to pin it in place. It thrashed and then fell still.

Miles panted, blood from his wound seeping into tainted purple water as he scanned the surface for the second fish…

There. The cannon slipped into his hands, sparks of green pulverising it before the projectile of bone could even touch it. He twisted to and fro, searching for any fresh threat…

Nothing. Even the skies were safe. He could- oh no.

Miles threw himself into the water once more, feeling around in the blood-stained water until he felt the outline of the ring beneath his fingers. He pushed up off the bottom, ring first, breaking free of the surface to hear Sonic's glacial cry of "Tails!" coming to an end.

"I'm sorry!" Miles panted, limping in the direction of the giant tree as he moved, eyes straining for any further threats. "I dropped the ring. You okay?"

… Click.

Again that painful hesitation. Miles winced, pressing his free hand against his wound as he moved.

"Okay, Sonic. Can you get to shore with a light?"

… Silence.

He'd fallen into deep water, no idea which way was shore, and no way of finding out in the pitch darkness of the depths. It was a miracle he'd survived this long. Miles gritted his teeth, racking his brain as he made his own way to shore. He could feed a greenflame torch through, but with no way of knowing which way to run, Sonic would be in exactly the same situation when it burned out.

"… Right, Sonic. I need you listen. You're going to need to take the ring away from your mouth. When you do, I'll put my hand through the ring and you… You just need to grab my arm, alright? It's going to be okay."

… Silence. The slow rush of air inwards.
"Sonic-"

With that quick inhalation that lasted half a minute to Miles, the ring's interior erupted into water once again, slamming into Miles' chest. He gasped, fighting the current as he pushed his free hand inward, wound momentarily forgotten.

He thrust forward, as much pulling the ring onto his hand as pushing his hand against the current, spinning his tails in the water to keep him upright. His fingers slipped through the gap easily - it accommodated Shadow's much sturdier arm, after all - and his bracer slipped into hammerspace to accommodate the rest. The moment his arm passed through all feeling was replaced by a numb ache as his limb was subjected to a blood pressure, and heart rate, dozens of times more than normal, his body split along different dimensions, different times. The only mercy was the inability of his nerves to fully report the damage as blood vessels swelled and ruptured from the force.

Miles screamed, wedging his arm up to the shoulder, but he'd had worse. Deserved worse. Would he even be able to tell when Sonic grabbed him? Should he try and move so there was light for him to see? If he didn't grab him he was going to have to-

There, finally, the dull sensation of fingers tightening around bruised flesh, brushing through the unarmoured fur, wrapping tight around…

Wait, his glove was made of bones. Sonic would-

No, focus. Running out of time, couldn't afford not to. Miles squeezed his eyes shut, still walking, focusing on his hammerspace. On the things he'd collected, including one thing most important to a mobian dealing with water.

Wood.

He'd used a lot of it to make arrows, but not all, and what remained he drew, ever so slowly, out of hammerspace around his hand, feeling the painful tug as enough wood to more than compensate for Sonic's density dragged him into the ring, pulled him forward even though there was no momentum in the universe his feet were walking through.

If one set of physics held firm, he was being pulled "up" like a cork from a bottle. Worst case, this stunt was going to lose him an arm from the force.

No, with bizarro world he'd just grow it back, that was fine. But on the other hand, if this alien lumber didn't even float then it might be simple gravity pulling him, and Sonic, down ever deeper.

And he had no way of way of knowing which. No way with the two of them working blind to do anything better. No way of knowing if Sonic was even in water shallow enough to reach the surface in the thirty seconds that he could hold his breath. Was his arm still there? He still felt a tug on his shoulder. Was he imagining it? Was that a hand squeezing him? His arm's neurological last gasp against the pressures it faced?

No. He just needed to have faith. Sonic was a hero, he wasn't dumb. He knew his limits. If he needed to, he'd shove Miles back, at least enough for a bubble to breathe. He might have let him down before, he might not be needed, but he could still be of some use.

The minutes stretched on, and he kept walking. Slow and steady, keep the heart rate down, keep an eye out for enemies. Relax, without relaxing, hurry slowly, neck deep in water, focus on the shore, to the giant tree. Staying still was the best way to get attacked again. There was a hill, right? Didn't it used to be green? Purple now, keep walking towards it anyway. Eye monster? Hadn't seen him yet, keep walking. Don't stop, don't rush. Getting dizzy. Getting shallow, easier to keep his shoulder above the water, harder to keep from falling over. He kept walking, grey sand giving way to purple grass, black stone instead of rotten grains.

The strain on his shoulder stopped. No, inverted, his arm was being pushed.

Miles' heart skipped a beat. It had been so gradual he hadn't noticed it. How long had it been? He grabbed the ring once more, heaving to pull away, to let air through. Was he too late? Too slow? Had he not noticed Sonic trying to catch a breath?

Liquid poured through the ring, but red not clear. He felt nothing as he pulled his arm back, drenched and limp where muscle and skin had ruptured, cracking as he forced fingers free of the wooden cube he'd built around them.

Force from the other side of the ring pushed his arm the rest of the way, it flopped to his side. He didn't care, stomach fluttered as he pressed the bloodstained ring close to his face, peering through at a slowly panning ocean vista. White gloved fingertips at the edge of his view. Miles let out a shuddering sigh.

It floated. It reached the surface. Sonic was- The wrong colour?

Streaks of red criss-crossed his bare skin, purple spines jutted between blue. Even his lips were bruised and swollen, possibly from crossing the time boundary in the ring. Questions bubbled through his mind, but Sonic, with lightning speed that translated to painful slowness, thrust his own hand through the ring, laying for a few moments on Miles' armoured head before he pulled back through, shaking his hand with a wince even as his damaged lips broke into a grin, forming words Miles knew long before they reached him.

"I'm coming for you, little buddy. I promise."

"I know."

Miles' lips mirrored his hero's grin, pain and despair momentarily held at bay by faith.

And then he kept on walking.