"Huh, nice town." Was the first thing that popped into Sonic's head. It looked like an idyllic coastal getaway, with clean white buildings and a rustic aesthetic. Had it not been for the 'coastal' part, Sonic would've definitely visited it in the past.

Sadly, he wasn't here as a tourist.

He zip to the pay phone and fed it his rings before dialing a rarely used, yet faithfully remembered number. He tapped his foot impatiently, then perked up at the sound of Tails's voice-

"Hi, this is Tails. I'm currently busy at the moment. If you want to buy extreme gear, please visit my website. Otherwise, please send a text and I'll call you back later."

...mail. 'Should I call him back later? He might be in the middle of something.' Sonic's fingers hovered over the keypad. 'Then again he's probably looking for me, plus I gotta tell him I haven't beaten Eggman yet, sooo…' He tried again. Another voicemail. He tried again. Another voicemail. 'Are my calls just not getting through?' He tried one more time.

"WILL YOU QUIT CALLING ME FOR FU-"

"Woah, language!" Sonic quickly swapped the phone to his non-ringing ear.

"Sonic?"

"Yep. Wh-"

"Where are you?! Are you alright?!" Sonic frowned at Tails's frantic tone. 'Chaos, how long was I out for?'

"Don't worry I'm fine. Not too sure where I am tho." Sonic said in a placating manner. Not that it seemed to do much. Sounds of frenzied shuffling and muffled curses came from the other end.

"That's fine, that's fine," Considering that Tails's voice shot up five octaves Sonic knew that things were most definitely NOT fine. "Area code says your in Apotos. I'll head there right now. Wait for me at Windmill Isle." Luckily, given Sonic's line of work he knew his geography very well. 'Apotos, huh? That's somewhere in the Mediterranean. A little far from home but doable.'

"Cool, and you're at your workshop, right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then I'll meet you there!" 'If I push myself, I can get there in three hours. Then I can see what's gotten Tails so strung up.'

"You can't! The planet split apart!" Sonic blinked. '...what's that supposed to mean?'

"Wait...what? Is- Is there a war going on or something?"

"No, I mean the planet's literally in pieces right now and, ugh, trust me, you'll see. Just, stay where you are and I'll come pick you up." Sonic heard the muffled thumps of footsteps before the characteristic sound of a plane propeller.

"Wait what's-" a loud click signaled that Tails had hung up. "...going on?"

He distractedly hung up the phone and started jogging at a brisk pace of 300 miles per hour. Although unintentional, Tails left Sonic with a lot of questions and very few answers. 'And I haven't been able to tell him anything. Plus the emeralds look like they're completely dead, and I still don't know what happened in space. Not to mention that cryptic message he gave. Unless...I was out for so long that Eggman already conquered half the planet. Is that he meant when he said the planet split apart?'

He huffed, shaking his head. 'Thinking like that isn't gonna help me. Besides,' he thought with a smirk, 'I've been able to deal with everything Eggman's thrown at me so far, I'm sure I can deal with whatever's going on now.'

He sped through the town, falling into a comfortable rhythm of dodging buildings and smashing the occasional group of 'bots. He lightly hummed as the wind blew away his worries. He sped up as the towns faded away into mountains, rushing towards a...glowing canyon? 'That's new.'

He gradually slowed down as he approached, the rift seeming to grow as he got closer. Curiosity lead him to the edge and with little else to do he looked down.

He knew that without a doubt that this was the deepest canyon he had ever seen, stretching down impossibly far before hovering over viscous burning ball of red. Beyond that, the jagged edges of what was once a continent on the other side of the world, and further yet, the void of space. It looked as if Mobius itself had been shattered, the only thing keeping it from completely collapsing was the fragile will of the gods.

The planet's literally in pieces.

At that moment, his carefree attitude felt like it had been seared away into ash.

'The planet's literally in pieces. Oh Chaos- the planet's literally in pieces. How am I gonna fix this? Can this even be fixed? What am I gonna do?' "What am I gonna do?"

At that moment as he sank to his knees, all that Sonic could feel was utterly, terrifyingly small.

(Hours earlier)

Tails bit back a scream of frustration as he fought to get the generator to work. The earthquake had pretty much taken out every powerline and a good amount of the plumbing as well. So of COURSE that meant that the basement would flood and of COURSE the generator would end up getting wet. He flinched as the thing gave a sudden bright spark, before sticking on another piece of his quickly dwindling amount of electrical tape.

He stepped back from the generator. As much as he would've loved to buy a new one, the nearest city was in a state of emergency and with his biplane stuck in his garage he was effectively grounded. 'And of COURSE all my towels buried in the debris.' Tails thought bitterly, 'Why wouldn't they be?' So there wasn't much else he could do except lay on the ground and wait for the generator's components to air dry.

"krssshhhh-its completely unprecedented! Worldwide earthquakes have registered a 15.6 on the Richter scale! Government aid is-krsshhh"

Tails tiredly gazed at the Miles Electric as it struggled to connect to the local radio, his mind idly wandering about. '15.6. Huh. Didn't someone say that if there was a quake bigger than ten on the Richter scale the planet would literally fall apart?' He mentally paused as he closed his eyes, then suddenly sat up.

On a whim he switched the device from the radio to real time satellite images. And stared.

He gave a slightly hysterical laugh.

After all, who woulda known that rumor was actually right?

Gremlin: hewwo y'all. tis i, the creator of this train wreak of a story.

First of all, a genuine thanks to: WhatIsThisDefiance, Mitha Sentro, and aboqe. I have no idea what you see in this story but I really appreciate the support.

Second thing: as you guys can probably tell, i don't know how to do the grey line thingy as figuring it out is just too much for my single remaining brain cell. so if any of you are okay with teaching me how to do it, it'd be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading!