If Tails was going to get mad at him for flying out there, he had no idea. Clearly something was connected between him and the islands which most likely was also the reason why he was flying over the ocean, on his way.
He didn't like prying, snooping, and eavesdropping, getting to know people's deepest secrets for his own satisfaction. People had secrets, that's just who they are, Sonic has secrets and Tails has secrets, he doesn't care. That wasn't the main reason for going out there, he was plainly just curious about the whole ideal. If he didn't want to tell him whatever secret he had he didn't mind, it was his struggling thoughts that he cared about, because clearly, whatever he was thinking about was stopping normal mobians needs like sleep. And when that happens, then something else needs to happen. If this island somehow had anything to do with him, he had no idea.
But his goal wasn't to search for Tails' secret, if it was there, it was the excitement for exploring new territory. Something had happened there a while ago, and he was curious as to what.
The Tornado purred in the afternoon wind, the ocean sparkling underneath him while his thoughts had gone haywire. Sonic didn't think, he rarely used his brain for deep thoughts and conversations with himself, liked silence more than anything. He was a hedgehog of impulse, as quick in his brain as his feet, speaking before thinking and generally his mind worked like a rolodex flipping one thought through the next as quickly as the previous one had appeared. But said fastest thing alive enjoyed staying still once in a while.
One of his hobbies that he enjoyed alone was just stand still and look over a meadow, a mountain, a lake with wildflowers or the thickest of forests. Lights dancing in the night sky, stars sparkling and brightening, the sun dipping down into the horizon or just rising from it. Moments like these, was something he cherished, moments where his thoughts stood still and moments where he himself stood still. But as of right now, the circumstances made him think, which then tired him.
Shaking his head thinking that there was no use in considering that now, he put pressure on the speed paddle, almost making the engine cook. Tails would most likely have been mad and told him to slow down in the cold air, but in all honesty, he just wanted to get going. The plane somehow felt faster when he was on the wing rather than in the cockpit.
He let out a breath when the islands came into view, the thick forests, and the tall mountains as well as the lake in the middle. It looked like he had seen it yesterday – untouched, unexplored, and left behind. His interest peaked as he dove the nose downwards, tilting the wing to get the wind working with him as he descended downwards. The closer he got, the more he came to realize that the forest weren't as thick as expected.
It was actually kind of sparse, green and vegetation growing on the forest floor, but black and dead trees stood erect, reaching for the sun as if they were still alive. A forest fire no doubt, and a big one to be fair, as over half of the forest seemed to be breathing through the scorched ground plants reaching for water underground. A weird part of him knew that ash was a good fertilizer for plants, which made for the bushes and the greens that was currently creating a new forest floor, although the dead trees both standing, bending and laying on the ground was the soldiers that had been left behind.
Coming closer to the beach, he pressed a button and made the landing gear extend, a set of wheels appearing in the front and a single wheel in the back. Making the plane horizontal, he touched down on the sandy beach, bumped a couple of times on the small grains before he put a foot on the breaks, making the plane descend in acceleration. It rolled a couple of meters on the ground before it stopped, the propeller still rotating around when the hedgehog jumped out from the seat.
He stood on the sandy beach which seemed fine to him, putting his hands on his hips, and curiously let his eyes gaze over the burnt forest. Up close and personal the trees were tall and somehow still standing. The had grass growing and bushes that were burned had green knobs for new leaves. The forest had been thick in its prime time he could tell, as a lot of trees were standing, some way taller than others, burnt bushes all around him the hurt ground getting nutritional by the plants that grew.
He briefly thought if the island was inhabited, though he remembered the mom rabbit talking about some sort of war going on, meaning that someone had to live here in order for someone to attack it.
With that in mind he sped inside the forest, throwing dirt and fragile plants around, maneuvering around the dead trees. Normally giant tree crowns would hide the blue sky and the sun's hot rays, but everything was clear around him, seeing the lake and the mountains in the distance. He decided to go around the edge of the forest, curving around the islands outer edges were stone and rock made up the foundation of the whole island.
While his eyes curiously went around him, he suddenly saw something ahead of him, and decided to skid to a stop, throwing his heels into the ground. Ahead of him a small clearing had been made, old tree stumps that had been there before everything burned down, as a structure was ahead of him. It had burned down as well, the walls and the roof completely disintegrated, though the bottom of the walls were there, creating a sort of small railing indicating how big it once had been
It had been a very small house, most likely only housing one person. Curiosity getting the better of him made him walk ahead, towards where the 'railing' stopped indicating where there once had been a door. A 'clank' was under his foot when he was about to head inside, making him look down at the ground. A crumbled and old metal door was on the floor, dirtied and rusting, though it had looked sturdy
Lifting his head again, he walked inside the house, stood in the middle and looked around. The ground had been burnt, spoke of floorboards that most likely hadn't survived the forest fire, broken pieces of wood and different items was scattered around his feet. He bended down and moved some burned wood out of the way, picking up a book that crumbled in his hands once he picked it up, the words that once had been there completely gone from black sod.
Throwing the book back onto the floor he looked to his left where the only thing was left from the fire. A small blackened worktable, somehow fireproof as it was made of wood, though it looked like the edges had been scorched. Some metal parts were left there, some of them falling to the floor to the right side of it, rusting and most likely old
He walked over to it and led a hand run over the table, his white glove becoming gray from the sod.
"This feels familiar," He mumbled to himself, the table itself giving him Deja Vu although he had never been here before or seen it.
He took another look around the small hut, more completely burned items and books scattered on the floor beyond saving. He then walked past the table only to walk on another metal door, indicating that whoever had lived here had two ways of coming in and out.
Glancing back at the hut with a weird sadden feeling penetrating his stomach he zipped off again.
The forest looked the same no matter where his gaze went, burnet trees and juvenile plants thriving in the fertilized ground, he decided to head more inland, where the forest once had been thicker, more trees standing around him as well as bushes. He considering running towards the mountains, although they were so tall and slim that he most likely couldn't run up them like he thought about, though he could look for tunnels and such instead.
Smirking from the prospect of cave exploring he headed towards them, curving around the lake in the middle. Before he could get to the foot of the mountains however, something caught his eye yet again as he zipped by it. Skidding to a stop, he turned back around and stopped again, seeing something that he hadn't expected were here.
A village. With people inside.
It was quiet small, only a few houses were around, cluttered together in circles, an unlit bonfire in the middle of the village. The houses were made of wood, some of them looked older than others, while the ones in the outskirts looked completely unoccupied. He saw one or two people walking around the bonfire, towards other people. They were mobians, wolves and dogs he noted, and all of them looked elderly rather than young.
Yet again, the curious hedgehog put on his bet 'greeting' face as he walked inside, making himself visible in the middle of everything. A few face had turned to him, obviously surprised from the visitor they had gained, as Sonic was pretty sure that this village didn't thrive on tourism like Studiopolis or Casinopolis. Making a choice, he decided to walk over to an elderly female wolf sitting on a chair with a cane in her hand. He smiled in a greeting, luckily saw that the mobian smiled back rather than spit at him like he had half-expected.
"Hi ma'am. I'm Sonic, and I was passing by this island in my plane, it looked rather interesting, so I decided to make a landing," He half-greeted half-explained, stood in front of the wolf and reached out his hand.
The elderly woman smiled back at him, before taking his hand, wrinkled fur fingers having a firm grip as she shook it.
"I already know who you are. We all do," She said, in a shaking and slightly hoarse voice, looking up at the hedgehog. "You're the young fellow who fights Robotnik."
Sonic mentally noted that they must've been here in a long time, since the name Robotnik had been outdated a long time ago, calling himself Eggman these times around. Not one to correct an elderly lady he instead nods and smiles kindly.
"That's right ma'am. He's quite right now, why I'm spending my time exploring around. Do you mind telling me something about this place? The forest seemed like it burned a long time ago," He asked, glancing briefly back at the trees that was still around them before returning to the elderly lady.
She was adorned a dark blue dress and some sandals on her feet, old burn marks on different parts of her skin, her face wrinkled but still smiling. She took a moment to think, looking around his kind emerald eyes before a small sigh left her.
"I can't tell you much I'm afraid. You see, I don't remember a lot of things in my old days. This village is poor, and we hardly have food for everyone. We're not a lot of people luckily," She trailed off, her eyes scanning around the small area, hands shaking from old age.
"But if you want to explore the island you can have your fun. Though if you wanna know what happened to the forest you should seek out Joe, he lives around the next house, he should be outside," She said, pointed with her cane towards an unoccupied looking house, smiling back at the blue hedgehog.
"I would love to invite you on some tea and biscuits, but I'm afraid that we ran out a long time ago, and the food I have stocked I would like for dinner. I'm sorry young man."
Sonic quickly shook his head, smiled and padded her hand on the cane with his own.
"That's alright ma'am don't worry about me, you just make sure that you have food for tonight," He reassured with a smile. "Excuse me while I find Joe. Thank you for your time," He said, padded her once more before he turned on his heel towards the house.
"You're welcome sonny, and thank you," He smiled after her, before turning back around, the hero in him already trying to figure out how to help these people. If he somehow could either give them food of give them the ability to grow more, he had no idea, though he was curious how they lived and thrived here as everything seemed burned down.
Cutting around the corner the lady had directed him to his ears caught the sound of an axe ripping through wood. In one of the houses that was on the outskirt of the village, a bit away from the bonfire pit in the middle he saw another wolf, not young but not as old as the female wolf, with a red and black checkered shirt and dark blue pants on. A cap was adoring his head, swinging the axe over his shoulder when he picked up another log of wood to cut over. He had a whole stack of it to his right, used an old tree stump as his cutting board while the wood that was cut into smaller pieces were in a pile to his left.
As Sonic didn't want to startle someone who had an axe in their hand, he waited until the wolf had cut down the log, the edge of the tool sitting in the stump.
"Hey there," The wolf wasn't startled, as he turned around.
His face spoke of wisdom and old age, though he was most likely one of the youngest around. His eyes narrowed upon seeing Sonic, as he turned back around towards the wood, heaving the axe out of the stump, and picking up a new log. The hedgehog figured that he wasn't that lucky that everyone around was nice, as this after all still was Westside.
"I was looking for Joe?" He then asked, as the axe swung one more time at the log, ripping it apart.
"Found him," He said in a groggy and deep male voice. "What do you want?" He said, picking up another log without looking at Sonic.
The hedgehog crossed his arms over his chest, his grin not leaving his features even though he wasn't talking to the nicest of people.
"I'm just curious as to what happened around here. I'm a frequent traveler and-," –
"I know who you are, and I don't care," He answered, and with a bit more force chopped the log in half, almost ripping it rather than make a clean cut. "You have no business here, leave."
Sonic wasn't threatened in the slightest, and wasn't one to back out from a verbal challenge. He took one more look around the village, the houses small, no gardens or plants seemed to be growing other than the grass and the dirt his feet were under.
"I talked to an elderly lady. She said that you're poor and don't have a lot of food. If you're not living the greatest, then why are you still here?"
From that question, the wolf turned around towards him, the axe still in his hand, his eyes fierce with rage that wasn't pointed towards him.
"Because of two things. One: The cargo ships that went back and forth between here and Emerald Hill stopped coming years ago. And two: We are the last generation on this island. If you haven't noticed there ain't a lotta young people around, we're the last of the mobians who were born and lived here. We ain't much for leaving."
The hedgehog wasn't frightened in the least from his small outburst, had been talking with power and anger in his voice. He shrugged instead, which could have seen mocking when he answered him.
"I have some good connections with GUN. I can maybe pull some strings if you want," The wolf quirked and eyebrow at him from the mention, the anger disputing from his form.
"So, what happened here?" Sonic asked, couldn't hide the smirk that crossed over his face, knew a deal when he had heard one.
The male wolf stood for a second considering, before he turned back around and picked up a new log, letting a breath escape his nostrils.
"The forest burned down because of the war. Although the problems started before those damn birds came around."
Sonic was already lost from his explanation, but decided to let him speak, while he chopped wood, one log after the next.
"A couple of years ago this village was thriving. We had lots of food growing in the outskirts of the village, a lot of young people awaiting their future and living on this island with their parents. But there was this kid that lived somewhere in the forest, he was always stirrin' up trouble. The kids in this village said that he build machines that threatened us, sometimes even came here, and made more trouble. The older kids knew how to chase him off, so they did," He began, counted the logs he had chopped before swinging his axe again.
"Then one day the Battle Kukku Empire came and made hell on earth."
A deep and hurting sigh left him.
"It was horrible. I don't remember what I was during all I know was that suddenly an explosion happened in the forest and there was flames everywhere. A giant fortress was in the air, birds falling out of the sky invading us. It was a lost cause. We didn't have anything other than our garden tools. They ransacked our village, took our food, and hurt our children. A lot of people died that day," He had temporarily stopped in his chopping, the memories apparently flooding into his mind, ears and tail going limp.
Sonic felt sorry for the guy, never mind that he was rude, he had most likely lost friends and family back then. He saw his hands tighten around the axe, as he suddenly flung it into the log on the wood, making the two pieces fling two different directions, sudden anger radiating through his entire body.
"Then that kid from the forest antagonized them! He attacked them! It made them mad – the leader of the empire wanted the Chaos Emeralds, so we went looking for them so they could leave. But that dumb kid collected them before we could, making them angrier, attacking the entire island, attacking our children, our family!" Another bout of anger made his axe make a huge indent in the tree stump in front of him.
"I don't know what happened but after a couple of days the birds left. We don't know why, but that kid had something to do with it. He had toys that he used against them, machines, explosives, or something. Though he should have just minded his own business, would have made everythin' much easier for us. Some time after the birds left, he suddenly disappeared. I don't know if he went with one of the cargo ships or some adults in the village took care of him. Five years later and we're living off of this scorched ground, the only people left from back then," He said, as he let the axe sing one more time onto the log in front of him, the last of his explanation running out with the ripped wood.
A couple of things made Sonic think, made him wonder and consider a few things.
First of all, somehow the Chaos Emeralds were here, all six of them at the time. Second of all he had never heard of the Battle Kukku Empire before, as they apparently only had made their appearance here. And third of all there was something about this kid that was familiar.
A lot of rings and a lot of bells was going on in his head, but he couldn't be sure.
"This kid you talked about," He asked, out of curiosity. "How was he, how did he look like?"
A scuff escaped the wolf as he chopped another piece of wood.
"I never met him, never even saw him but everybody else had. He was possessed or something, had a freakish intelligent in order to build those machines he used. People said he had an extra limb or something, freakish and abnormal that's for sure. He was a nuisance, people said he asked for food and broken machines, letting the older kids chase him away. He's the whole reason that everything is like this now so don't feel sorry for him. I have no idea where he is, hopefully not making trouble for anybody else," He explained, chopping another piece of wood yet again.
Even though he had told him to not feel sorry the hedgehog couldn't.
He couldn't not help himself but feel sorry and feel a spout of anger erupt into his soul. There was no doubt. There was absolutely no doubt about it, he wasn't dumb, he could piece two puzzles together.
But he wasn't mad at him, he was mad at the village as he was well aware that, that kid must have been younger than four years old. And that kid had most likely endured a lot of things that a toddler, almost a baby, shouldn't have.
That kid was someone who had been traumatized and survived by himself. A kid who was younger than four.
He let a breath escape his mouth, not wanting to lash out as this particular wolf as there was more to it than just him.
"Thank you for your time," He said, turned on his heel and began to walk.
He didn't want to explore anymore, all he wanted to do was go back, and maybe check it out later. But for now, he needed to talk to somebody.
"You're gonna call GUN?" Joe then asked, glancing back at the blue hedgehog.
Sonic stopped dead in his track, hands fisted at his sides. They didn't deserve it.
Every big brother instincts in the hedgehog told him that they didn't need saving and they haven't earned anything.
But, the hero in him, the deep and kind and savior of Mobius refused to let those thoughts overrule him. He let another sigh go through him, as he kept walking.
"I'll see what I can do," He said, before he instead began to jog, zipped through the forest away from the man, away from the village. He needed to go back; he had some questions that he needed confirmed but most definitely not for his own sake.
Most definitely not.