Author's note: A big and happy shoutout to my currently two reviwers: Leodragon678 and CVGWJames :D - Thank you so much for your kind words it means a lot :) - I'm so happy that you're enjoying this and anybody else who isn't leaving reviews, but that's alright - we're all humans right? :)
Anyway, a bit of rambling in this but other than that I like how this one turned out - enjoy :D
Beyond the sonic boom
It had supposed to be a small thing. A tiny mission, a mere look around before lunch. But that thought had surely turned into something else entirely, as that little errand had taken a complete 180 and became something much bigger than first anticipated. It was still their nemesis, still a base that was located in Hill Top Zone, and still an everyday task that required the hero of Mobius' attention. But surely for this hero alone the unexpected seemed to happen, all the time, and a part of him thought that nothing in his life was ever going to be 'straightforward'.
Something always happened – if it wasn't the entire planet splitting apart, then it was aliens that needed his rescue and if that wasn't enough then meeting his younger self surely was a surprise in itself and of course then he had to battle six over worldly villains taking resident in the sky. His life wasn't ever straightforward, and this mission alone was a clear testament to that fact.
The mere look around wasn't supposed to give them any results, it had just been a thought, an occurrence as they hadn't visited the zone in quite a while. The reason being that he didn't much care for the zone as lava lakes were practically everywhere and earthquakes was quite common. But that was exactly why they had to run through it, to check out for any Eggman behavior, as the zone had seemed quiet. He hadn't expected the doctor to be around, as no villages were around to threaten, and the chaos emeralds weren't near this place. The only thing that would be beneficial for him was a geothermal harvest of the lava according to his little brother, but the villain had better sources of income for energy than using hot molten magma.
That's when they stumbled across a fully fletched metal base built into a cliffside and soon realized that they had to skip lunch. It looked rushed, as the metal outside had no other camouflage paint than the doctor's trademark red and black stamp across the entrance that didn't help with the blending in. It wasn't that particular big it was because of the large amount of badniks that the area had been difficult to push through. A large amount of those bucket of bolts meant that the doctor had something to hide, and something special judging from the amount of enemies they had attacked.
Pushing through using spin dashes, homing attacks, boosting, kicks and very uncommon punches from the hero and tail swipes, spin dashes, kicks, punches, dodges, and wire pulling from his sidekick had resulted in them reaching the heart of the metal building. Hours had surely ticked by, how many none of them knew, as over half of their time had been consumed by attacking and destroying robots and the mere leftovers was spend resting and checking each other for minor injuries. Luckily, nothing major had happened yet, though as time ticked by them the exhaustion was starting to creep in, a slight hunger from the lack of food and dry mouths from no fluids made their situation slightly more unfavorable.
Annoyance haven't settled in and surely wouldn't as the blue hedgehog who was famous for protecting the planet from everything – literally everything – was also well-known for keeping his cool. No matter the situation, no matter the danger and no matter the robot he always knew how to turn it around, make the scenarios amusing for himself and tick off a couple of levels at the danger-o-meter. If it were because of his high self-esteem to a point some would call narcissistic or mere trained nerves meeting danger upon danger practically every day nobody knew. A defense mechanic it undoubtedly was no matter where it originated from, even though worry was a rare trait seeing in the seemingly fearless hero. Despite these highly valued attributes, which in the perfect world would create a perfect hero, said hero was impulsive and reckless and more times than one that characteristic had sent him into danger.
And this situation had been no different, when they had reached the center of the building and quickly glancing over the generator looking machine in the middle, he had boosted through the badniks and curled together into his spin dash to hurl himself at it. It had been too late for him to hear his best friend's cry for him to stop, though the damage had been done the minute he had curled himself inwards, unable to stop as he was bound together by the laws of gravity as his spines hit the outer shell of the machine. Bouncing back and landing elegantly on his feet, a loud sound compared to a 'beep' had been engulfing them, and a large display in the middle had started to count down from 10:00. He had seen a lot of explosives in his life to know that the display alone, that he had failed to properly see through his hasty actions, told him that the generator wasn't a generator at all, but a bomb. A ticking timebomb.
It had been a trap. A lure, something along the lines of a cat hunting a piece of yarn across the floor and expecting to get the entire yarn ball in the end but instead meeting a bathtub. He had mistakenly avoided the signs, his entire instinct settling comfortably into the mindset of 'this will be taken care of quicker than you can say chili dogs', and now they were quiet in a pickle. The signs of a trap from none other than the doctor himself included: Eggman not being around, a large amount of badniks to make the place seem important and long and twisty hallways and vents to waste their time. More factors played rolls in this, but those three major ordeals had been present, and now he had completely screwed up.
He didn't blame the two-tailed fox who had been tagging along ever since he was four, though the blue hedgehog hadn't failed to notice that he had had a suspicion. A frown on the yellow face being plastered onto it whenever they weren't in battle, but the hero hadn't mentioned it or asked about it. Blaming his thought stating that this would be done in a flash again. Any protests or any mentioning of this being abnormal had been drowned out by the constant threats in their backs protecting themselves and subconsciously each other. And even if he were to blame for not speaking out loud his thoughts, he wasn't to blame for the spin dash that made their whole situation completely different.
As the timer ticked by hitting the 2-minute mark, he started to feel the pressure. Not because of the amount of badniks headed his way or because he needed to watch out for the fox's back currently using every single exhausted brain cell to figure out a way to stop the bomb. No, it was because they were running out of time.
He trusted his best friend, he was the smartest person he had ever encountered, building the most absurd gadgets, repairing, and improving vehicles like his own airplane within minutes and outsmarting the doctor himself. He calculated quickly, analyzed with trained eyes, and could fight just as well as the hero of Mobius despite being eight. He had no doubt in his mind that he could do this, but the timer ticked by, and he couldn't help but start to think of them abandoning it rather than trying to stop it.
The reason of them staying was because they were close to a lava lake, and the flow of the magma had a possibility of travelling down the cliffside and hitting the villages outside of the zone. And that possibility alone made the two of them stay. But now that it was only a possibility, he was reconsidering their situation.
He realized that he was panting. Sonic the hedgehog was the fastest thing alive – his speed reached past the fastest vehicle and robot on Mobius, past sound itself and past a sonic boom. That was one thing that was remarkable about it, the next thing was that he didn't suffer from the speed. He didn't suffer from the way that gravity pulled at him, his feet not burning up and bruising and he didn't disintegrate whenever running past the sound-barrier. His lungs didn't burn, he wasn't heaving for air and he didn't even drop a single drop of sweat from the pure friction and pressure he put his own body through.
But when fighting for hours without food and water his body was starting to get to their limits. When doing boosts, spin dashes and homing attacks alike you're using your body in more ways than one, pulling every muscle in your entire system to make sure that you land the attack perfectly while landing or rolling to safety whenever you landed again. When he simply ran, his mind was only concentrating on one thing: His feet. Adrenaline was their energy source over half the time, and even that they seemed to be running out, if the beating heart in his chest were any proof of that.
He took a glance back at his best friend, Tails the fox, to get a mental understanding of how far he had come. He didn't need to ask him as he could read it off of him alone, where his body language told him that he was far from calm. He was crouching down, his back facing him, full faith in the hedgehog that he shielded him from the robots to avoid distractions. His knees were slightly vibrating, siting in the same position 8-minutes, almost hitting the 9, straight was starting to get to his cramping muscles. Sitting down meant you had longer time to get up in case a robot snuck up on you without noticing.
His fingers were straining to not shake, the lack of time getting to him as well, and the sweat dripping down his forehead was a testament to the frustration and concentration in his system. Bruises and cuts were around parts of his body due to the amount of attacking both of them had endured, a particular dark blue bruise in his side and a semi-deep cut behind his left ear were the most worrisome injuries if they were a reason for worry at all.
His eyes quickly travelled down himself before kicking a badnik out of the way. Bruises and cuts were taking settlement on parts of his body as well, most noticeably on his spines and on his legs. A throbbing right wrist told him that he had hit a robot the wrong way at some point and his left knee was starting to become more purple than blue. It didn't bother him one bit, as he couldn't feel any pain in the moment, adrenaline and anticipation overshadowing that emotion alone. He wasn't an item for worry as of right now, as his eyes travelled over the time one more time, his eyes widening in surprise. 1:14.
"Tails, time's up, we're leaving," His voice was light and quick, speaking in between his pants to make his message as clear as possible. Bouncing off of a badnik, he curled inwards and spin dashed into another group of them, mentally groaning when he saw more of them incoming upon uncurling. Attacking them almost 10 minutes straight he hadn't stopped to wonder where the fluff they were coming from. A part of him then considered if he should rather had investigated that and destroy whatever device or supernatural portal, which he wouldn't even stop to consider not being a possibility, they were coming from.
But eventually he settled on the confident thought that even though he could have stopped the row of badniks he wouldn't have known how to help his sidekick and would most likely just had annoyed him more than anything. Therefore, in this situation, him getting attacked by badniks were more favorable rather than him not getting attacked.
"You sure?" He didn't flinch at the answer, but he heard the slight desperation and frustration within the two words escaping his younger friend's mouth. Both of them knew that if they left, that it would be harder to stop flaming hot lava than an exploding bomb, despite the abnormal correlation. Warning the villagers had been a lost cause, as the way down to them was blocked up by lava lakes and cliff sides and reaching their destination would have taken longer than disarming the bomb.
This they had figured out in seconds, past experience being in their favor. Upon landing from a homing attacked he looked back at the timer, his heart skipping a beat when it reached 0:51. He knew he could be out of here in 9 seconds.
"How much until absolutely last call?" Despite them not even having a minute left to escape not getting exploded by a bomb, Sonic's voice was calm.
"30 seconds," – "Deal," The hero answered back while boosting into a completely new row of badniks. He hadn't counted the minutes, but now slowly the numbers ticked down in his brain, preparing himself to grab the fox and then run out the minute his mind reached the 30-number mark. Counting and attacking was multitasking that he wasn't specialized in, his mind focusing on one thing at a time.
Not in the sense that he concentrated on the one badnik alone but in the sense that attacking was the only thing he thought about. Whenever curling to spin dash into an opponent he had already within seconds calculated if he could combo attack others, where to land and where the other badniks' positions would be whenever he was done attacking the first one. Thinking ahead was important in his line of work, being perceptive and mentally predict what the robots will do next was crucial for his attacks to even work. It was rarely that his thoughts travelled somewhere else in case it was only a single badnik or repetitive attacks, adrenaline and experience keeping his concentration where it belonged.
That's why multitasking by counting didn't work in his favor as he hastily kicked a badnik into the bomb. Already sensing his mistake if the fox's gasp was anything to go by, he whirled around towards the display. The 0:39 it had been previously showing was now reduced to 0:09.
He used one second to curse to himself, mentally scolding that he hadn't paid any attention to his surroundings and how the fluff the robot could make the timer go backwards.
The next second was merely spent looking at Tails, as the fox's face had turned around to face him.
Another second ticked by, as he took in the expression that was shooting through his eyes. Fright. His quick gears had already calculated that it was too late, his mind already accepting that they didn't have enough time to escape and therefore looked at the hedgehog for guidance.
Another second was then used by Sonic, mentally trying to recalculate, refusing to give up, mentally mapping the entire base, trying to find another way out having only 6 seconds at his disposable.
Yet another second made him realize that there weren't.
The next was facing Tails as he instinctively turned his back to the bomb and curled his arms around his head, pulling it into his chest in a fatal attempt to protect himself when he realized the hero of Mobius came up with naught.
Sonic's eyes widened at the next, and he felt his heartbeat in the next and his body stiffened in the last.
That's when time froze. That's when Sonic the hedgehog was stubborn, cocky and outright crazy. That's when he refused to give up, refused to give in to a bomb. He had survived Chaos, a water god consisting of the Master Emerald itself, he had survived Dark Gaia, a creature resonating and resting inside of the planet's core and he had survived time getting ripped apart. A simple, simple, timebomb was not going to be the end of him or his little brother.
Mere milliseconds were the only time he had at his disposal as his feet moved, even though he couldn't see them, he couldn't even feel them at this point when he ran towards the bomb. He both felt and saw the light, the fire, and the heat in his face, saw the shrapnel of the explosive sitting in the air as he scooped up the fox into his arms, and turned on his heel. He subconsciously pushed him into his chest, his head hovering over him.
The two milliseconds he spent during that time the fire had reached his back, the sound of the metal ripping apart crashing into his ears as he merely ran. Here, he sped up, going in a straight line, his feet disappearing and melting into the floor underneath him. His mind couldn't comprehend it, colors flashing before his eyes, as everything mixed together, the only thing in front of his vision suddenly only being a white light. He felt the heat in his back, heard the sounds around him, and did recognize his feet moving. Time itself seemed to stop, gravity not pulling at him and every kind of law of physics was not taking a toll on him.
He broke it. He broke every single rule that this world consisted off. He felt his heart beating, going as fast as sound itself, pumping adrenalin and blood through his veins, his lungs for once struggling to actually keep air in his system. He never struggled with that. Not while running normally. The air around him almost made him float, going through the atmosphere which he might as well have done, feeling like his body was as light as a feather.
There was no hindrance, and for a moment he wondered if this was what his body felt like whenever it couldn't take the pressure of the amount of acceleration he was producing. If this was the kinetic energy that his best friend kept rambling about whenever he did a sonic boom. He then felt his feet burning, felt the way that the palm of his feet was actually suffering, hitting one more new step made a fire almost start, and he was pretty sure that he had broken through his sole at this point.
I wasn't until later that he realized that the blurred gray colors and white light around him had turned green, indicating that he was somewhere else. The air was cooler as well, the deafening sound of a loud ring from the bomb was gone and he felt another sensation underneath his feet than the metal.
That's when he blinked and threw his heels into the ground, feeling for the first time his shoes disintegrating from the abrupt stop. The white light toned down as it shrunk into the shining star in the afternoon light, and the green colors narrowed down into straight lines. Feeling the heels of his feet burning he gritted his teeth to not scream, as familiar surroundings appeared around him. Trees, grass and cliffsides.
He felt himself slow down and had to stumble the last paces before he completely stopped. Immediately his lungs demanded air as he took deep breaths, in and out, while he whipped his head around. In the distance, he saw the base, completely exploded, the small building only having the foundation left. The magma lake to its right had opened, lava slowly dripping into where the base had previously been, which had exploded the cliffside as well. The little pocket that had been created in there was slowly starting to get filled up with the dripping magma, surely avoiding going down the mountain instead, saving the village beneath it.
Sonic couldn't hide the chuckle, looked at the completely disintegrating base until an almost manic laughter left his system, turning his body towards the previously existing Eggman plan and laughed at it, jumping partly in place.
"I – I ran! I ran out of there! Within milliseconds! That's gotta be – that's gotta be a new record! Wow, Tails did you see that?! Did you see it?!" His manic actions didn't fail to appear in his voice as well, complete disbelief but surely excitement littering every single word that escaped his lips. He had no idea how fast he had run, until images of what he had seen flashed through his mind, seeing the white light the movement where he had actually gone faster after fetching the fox.
It had been the light. He had run faster than light itself. His body had survived running past the speed of light, though minor uncomfortable side effects had taken place, mentally noting to check his feet, but he had done it. He had run. Faster. Than. Light. He had practically done the impossible. Remembering a past boasting from his best friend that there was no way that he could run faster than that. He would not be able to withhold the amount of pull from gravity, even though in his run he hadn't felt gravity at all, as if he had been able to outrun it, feeling completely weightless.
He glanced down at the fox when he had mentioned his name, only to make his whole frantic state come to a halt, his eyes widening in worry. He didn't worry often. When picking him up, he had literally picked him up the way he had sat meaning that he was holding on to his bottom, his legs still curled together, holding himself together, and the other arm holding on to his back. His arms were still around his head, and his eyes clutched shut.
He seemed frozen. Trying to shake his body awake he moved him into a bridal style position, hands under knees and back, the genius' arms falling down from his head to hit his body, deadweight. When his face slumped against the hedgehog's chest, this was the moment that Sonic realized that his best friend's chest wasn't rising and falling. As seconds ticked by, he tried to figure out what happened. If he had been too late and the explosion had hit his head or if he had suffered any internal damage that he hadn't told him about during their battle of if he was knocked out by pure exhaustion. Then his mind eventually settled onto going into panic, a state that he hadn't endured a lot of times before. He couldn't even remember how long ago it was since he had visited it last time.
He didn't get to be there long though, maybe only a couple of seconds until he was startled, actually jumped when the fox in his arms heaved in a giant gasp, pulling in as much air into his lungs as possible. He then immediately hyperventilated, his mind going into panic from the air that was missing in his entire body, his face turning slightly blue from the lack of oxygen. Sonic's own panic and frantic state then drifted away, as if they've never been there, relief for a brief moment settling in, but disappeared again, as he crouched down and placed his sidekick against a pine tree he had stopped beside.
"Tails, relax alright? Deep breaths buddy," He quickly advised, knew that the hyperventilating would only make it worse. He placed a secure hand on the panicking fox's shoulder, as he heard him and forced his breathing to take bigger intakes of oxygen. He fought with the strong urge to take the small gasps instead, large pockets of air going into his lungs, through his heart and into his bloodstream. It worked, as the blue faded from his face, and the panic state started to slowly fade out of his system again, but the deep breaths continued. Sonic was thoroughly looking at his face, saw the color return and let a worried sigh escape himself and disappear out of his system, a satisfied grin crossing his features instead.
"Great bud, nice going. Can you look at me?" Tails' eyes had been shut from panic and fright, but from the commission of looking at the hedgehog he opened them, exhausted blue eyes scanning over the green. Sonic then smiled, padded his shoulder to remind the fox to keep breathing, was satisfied to see his tail tips whip slightly in discomfort.
"There ya go. Thought the blue would disappear out of your eyes for a second. Had to made sure they were still there," He joked, a classical Sonic the hedgehog move, to lighten the mood, the entire situation of them almost blowing up into smithereens. His expression or eyes didn't react on his joke, like he hadn't heard his inquiry at all. He opted to swallow some saliva instead, making him cough as the air was still trying to return to his system.
The fit didn't last long, as the fox pushed himself more upright, sitting more comfortable against the trunk of the tree, looking back at the hedgehog his eyes changing. The fear had subsided a long time ago, was instead completely filled with utterly confusion. Not being able to keep in the curiosity he took in a deep breath and spoke between refilling his lungs.
"If I didn't know any better, I would think that we were dead," Sonic chuckled at that, taking his hand back down by his side, the fox continuing to fill his lungs.
"To be honest if I hadn't been conscious while that happened, I would have agreed with ya," He grinned, looking back at the once standing base out of curiosity. Tails followed his gaze, remembered to take the breath he was about to stop, seeing the destroyed metal cube in the distance.
"What-what happened? The time ticked down to zero, how did you-," It wasn't as much confusion as it was pure surprise that sprang through his voice this time around. Sonic's head then whipped back to fox, their gazes locking together, surprising eyes meeting excited eyes.
"Dude, you're not going to believe it! I ran! I ran faster than light!" Sonic thew his arms out for emphasize. Even though the fox was still heaving in air, he had it under control, his eyes running wildly over the hedgehog's face, analyzing every piece of excitement and bewilderment that radiated from his face alone.
"Any other day I would have called you a liar," He said, slowly shaking his head in pure disbelief. "You actually ran faster than the speed of light? You ran past the 18,628,211,246-mph count?! Your body doesn't even look like you took a beating against gravi-," He didn't get to say 'gravity', as another coughing fit hit him, his lungs not settling down yet. Yet again, Sonic put a hand on his shoulder, not knowing if it stabilized his back or chest or anything but then it would serve the purpose of comfort.
"Easy on the big numbers and tech talk bud, you're still wildly out of breath. And why is that anyway?" He had taken a pause between his first and second statement, his question coming into mind. The coughing had subsided, the deep breaths returning as he waved a lazy hand at him.
"Your body is built for supersonic speed – mine isn't," He simply answered, remembering his advice on not going into the technical talk, otherwise he would have explained how his lungs couldn't withstand the amount of acceleration he had been put through. Sonic puzzled over that explanation for a second, well-knowing that the fox ran at speeds almost as fast at himself, but for the moment kept quiet for his sake before glancing down at his shoes.
"I think my shoes couldn't handle it," He remarked, lifting his right foot into the air as he took off the footwear. The sole of the heel was noticeably gone, his previously white sock almost disintegrating as well at the heel, while the rest of his sole was noticeably thinner, almost broken through at his toe tips.
"I'm surprised actually," Tails remarked, watching as Sonic twisted the shoe around in his hands, expecting it himself. "I improved your shoes to withstand the heat of lava. Guess – the speed of light is hotter than that," He had taken a breath between his sentences, slowing down on the air pockets as he felt somewhat alright again.
"It felt amazing though. Something just 'clicked' in me, and suddenly I started running. Everything was blurry around me, but I felt the adrenaline, I felt my body alive! I'm pretty sure I was flying," A scuff from his best friend, made the hedgehog's ear twitch before sending a questioning expression towards him, putting his damaged shoe back on his foot.
"Unless you had sprouted two tails like mine in there, and somehow retracting them, then there's no way you levitated above ground," He grinned, his deep breaths calming down to normal breaths, his mouth still open to catch the last air pockets.
"You weren't even conscious, you wouldn't know. Stop ruining my dream," – "What dream? Sprouting two tails like mine?" Tails mocked, actually letting out a laugh from his throat. Sonic rolled his eyes and punched the fox on his shoulder.
"Sarcastic little brat," He mumbled, as the fox crossed his arms in amusement, a smirk crossing his features.
"No, I'm curious what dream? Floating through the sky on a pink cloud? Flying with the birds asking how's the weather?" – "Alright," Sonic cut of the sarcastic mocking by standing up and pulling the fox up to his feet with his outstretched hand that had insinuated his points.
"If you must know, it has always been a kind of a challenge to be able to run faster than light for me," – "Oh I know. Don't think I haven't spotted you running back and forth in the workshop turning off and on the light," His breath had returned, normal air going in and out of his nostrils which worked out in his favor from the mocking he was currently enjoying. Sonic's eyes widened slightly by realizing that Tails had actually known. He had been so careful to only do it when he was 100% sure that the fox was sound asleep in his bed.
"I have been wanting to tell you for a long time, that the technic wouldn't work as it takes time for the electrical current in the switch to reach- hey!" He had to abruptly stop in the middle of his explanation, when his head had been pulled into a headlock, the hedgehog currently giving him a noogie.
"If you promise to not tell Knux I'll let go!" – "Alright, alright stop!" The fox quickly gave in, had yet discovered how to get himself out of this headlock. He knew how to do it from robots, but Sonic had some kind of technic that made him stay in place. The knuckle that had been ravaging his scalp, stopped and the arm let the fox go. He stepped back and rubbed where the noogie had found place with his other hand, sending the hedgehog a discomforted but slightly amused smile.
"How about we head home and get some food? I'm starving!" – "You're always starving," Tails mumbled, as he started walking, tails wailing happily behind him, showing him the hidden emotion of them celebrating their victory over the madman himself yet another day. Sonic chuckled before taking a few quick steps towards him, throwing his arm over his shoulder, and pulling him into a side-hug.
"Don't tell me you're not hungry," – "Oh no I'm starving too," He laughed, leaning into his side. Sonic chuckled at that before turning his head back to glance at the base. Surely enough, the magma had dripped down into the pocket in the cliffside and wouldn't go down the mountain instead. He nodded for his own confirmation, feeling his heel hitting the soft grass underneath him, a snort going through his vocal chords. Running faster than the speed of light.
Who would have thought. He was pretty sure that this was the only and first time that he would ever do it, considering their predicament. But he didn't care. The pure fact that he had done it was enough satisfaction for him. Now people wouldn't call him the fastest thing alive for nothing – that title meant way more than all of the people on Mobius would ever know.