Disclaimer: Caylyn Tanner is the name of one of my human OCs, and you will be seeing her in Sonic Cross Worlds...or at least see her mentioned.

Hedgie is not mine. She belongs to ask-hopeforanewfuture, a Tumblr ask blog. The difference between her in and the one in the blog is that Hedgie is marked as a guinea cat here when the blog has her as an unknown species.

~chan is used when one is speaking to someone familiar in the Japanese language.

"Nii-san" is older brother in Japanese.


The night is long, but my sleep is short-lived. Morning in Glass City is bright and sunny as it would be in any other city when there is no sign of a storm coming around. The housewives open their windows to fan out dirt from rugs or just the smell into the outside. Since it's summer break, children are running out of their apartments to go play whatever their hearts desire. You can hear guinea cats and shepherd foxes meow and bark from the yards. None of these things can wake me up though.

As soon as my alarm clock rings, I smack it to shut up. Then, I turn my body to face the wall. "I can't stand Mondays," I moan. It's not just the fact that Monday gets everybody into a funk. My body is weak on Mondays, and it will always be like that. I'm not in control of it. It's like a weekly sickness that goes away after Tuesday comes.

"Onii-san!" buzzes like a fly into my ear.

I flail around in my bed until I slip right off, taking my bed sheets with me. The struggle remains that until I pop my head through a hole in the mess. Standing above me is my adopted one, Caylyn, and she's holding our little, black, white-tummied guinea cat, Hedgie, in her arms. She's still dressed in her pajamas, which possibly could mean that she's been up for a couple minutes. "Caylyn," I hiss, "how many times do I have to tell you not to disturb me when I'm sleeping?"

"I heard your alarm clock go off, onii-san, and you didn't get up," she replies, putting her arms at the side, which puts Hedgie under her right armpit. "You didn't forget, did you?"

"What? Silver the Hedgehog doesn't forget anything...but what are you talking about?"

She stomps her bare foot onto the floor. "You said you were going to take me and Hedgie to the beach today! Did you forget that when you came home late last night?"

My gold eyes widen, and I go straight to standing. "Oh, right! Summer break started for you, did it?"

Caylyn doesn't respond to me this time. She only raises a human eyebrow. Though Caylyn is only a few inches taller and two years younger than me, her glares are pretty intimidating. I shouldn't be like that, but my legs are turning into jello the more I stare into her brown eyes.

"Alright. Just pack your bag and put on your swimsuit, sweetie. I'm packing us breakfast and lunch as soon as I reach the kitchen. Don't forget the sunscreen, Caylyn."

"I'm twelve, Silver, not two."

"Just do what I tell you to do. Oh, and make sure Hedgie is fed before we go. Gummi Gobstoppers are not going to keep her full on the trip."

She scoffs. "Hedgie swallows those things like you do with chilidogs. Oh, and by the way, Silver, I don't want to eat those for lunch. I'm trying to eat healthy as you said."

I release a long, heavy sigh. "I know, Cay-chan, I know.


Though I'm more experienced in this world, Caylyn has more spirit than I do. I can't seem to understand it since it has been two years since her parents, Korra and Haruka, died during their third honeymoon. Though the reason for their deaths is unknown, what was made clear was what they've written in their wills. Korra and Haruka both agreed that guardianship to Caylyn was appointed to me if anything happened to them. Caylyn's and my families have been bonded together for years. Nine generations to be exact. Our families go back almost 200 years, but from what I recall, it's less than that because that's when our ancestors first met and promised a bond stronger than life. Because of this, not only is it my duty to make sure Caylyn grows up to be the beautiful human woman she will be, it's a promise to the heavens that I will never break.

Caylyn is twelve, but she acts like she's still ten. I can't blame her because she wants to remain the age she was when her parents left and never came back. It's not easy trying to tell an adolescent what to do, but as the older brother I have to be, I need to convince Caylyn that the world isn't always a nice place, so she can't be innocent all the time. Innocence is her precious trait. I don't want her to get rid of it, but it can't show either.

As soon as we get to the beach, Caylyn puts Hedgie in the sand, and our little guinea cat starts hopping around as if she were in snow. I was walking Caylyn home from school one day when we found little Hedgie in an alleyway, coated in dirt and scratches. The poor thing was probably a month old then. I still don't know how she survived the outdoors by herself, but I don't regret taking her in. Caylyn needed a friend, and she fell in love with Hedgie the moment we saw her. I did, too, but not as much as Cay. Hedgie loves to eat my Gummi Gobstoppers, which I don't appreciate, but what can I do when Caylyn steals them anyway? Because of Caylyn's sense of responsibility, Hedgie is happy, healthy, and adorable.

Caylyn removes her sundress, and all she has on left is her one piece suit that's bolded pink. "Silver, Hedgie and I are going near the water," she tells me.

"Don't go in it without telling me first and don't let Hedgie go in too far," is my reply.

"I won't." Then, Cay and Hedg go skipping towards the calm waves.

I'm not worried about those two. Caylyn may be naïve at times, but she's not stupid. I stick the umbrella in the sand, turn it, so the shadow is facing under my blanket, and decide to take my nap once again. The sun can be nice once in a while, but this summer is pretty brutal, so I don't want to burn. My sunglasses go on, and it's Snoozeville for me.

My nap doesn't seem so long the next time I hear Caylyn's voice. "Silver! Onii-san!"

I jerk my upper body up quickly. "What is it, Caylyn?" I respond in a call.

"There's something in the water! It looks like a person!"

I jump up, but my head goes on hitting the ceiling of the umbrella. "Oof! A person?"

My adopted sister is jumping and pointing out at the ocean. "I can't see if he or she is drowning, but there's someone floating out there!"


With Caylyn, holding Hedgie of course, on my back, I fly out and over the sea in search of this person she's speaking of. We don't get drowning cases in Glass City that often, hence why there's no lifeguards in the city anymore. Occurrences like these are my job, and I guess it's not as dull as catching thieves, but because of that creature yesterday, saving people from the ocean comes second in the interesting department. The sea is very blue and clean, which is why I let Caylyn play in it in the first place, but when the beach gets rough, that's when it becomes a danger.

"Do you see anything, Cay-chan?" I ask her since she's my second pair of eyes.

"I think he or she is further ahead, Nii." A moment later, "There! I see someone now!" she shouts, pointing almost directly below me. "It's a girl!"

I see it, too. The person is not human, but I can see that she has human qualities. I almost don't see her because the fur is white, but what makes me notice this girl is her purple ears and the fact that she's laying on a wooden raft that kinda looks like tree bark. "We need to get her to shore."

"Is she...dead?"

"That we know until I check. It's hard to say." Before I can lower, Hedgie escapes from Caylyn's grip and lands on the raft.

"Hedgie!" shrieks Caylyn. Her screams are so loud that they make my ears ring sometimes.

The guinea cat sniffs around the girl and goes to her face. Hedgie starts meowing and wagging her tail.

"Hedgie says she's alive," Caylyn informs me.

"Stay right there, girl!" I call to our pet, "I'm dragging you to shore." I strike a telekinetic rope at the raft, and once I start flying backwards, the raft comes along with me. Hedgie patiently sits with her claws holding onto the bark. What makes this job hard is that the current is counterattacking my powers. If all goes bad, this girl could drown. I'm not letting Caylyn swim her to the shore for the obvious reasons.

We manage to get back to the beach without any problems, and I pull the raft onto the shore to a spot where it won't float away again. Hedgie hops off the raft and goes leaping in the sand again. Caylyn climbs off my back, and I press my fingers against this girl's neck for a pulse. It's small, but it's a sign that she's alive. "Hedgie's right," I tell Cay-chan.

"Thank goodness!" she says with a sigh.

"Hey." I tap against her cheek twice. "Are you okay?" There's no response, so I flip her over, so she's laying on her back. There's a better view of her face now. Her eyes are still closed, and her cheek is coated in sand. Her satchel is left hanging from her shoulder. As I wipe the beach crumbs off, I ask again, "Are you okay?"

She begins to move, and when she tries to speak, only moaning sounds come out.

"Hey, pull yourself together, will you?"

After shaking her a bit, the girl finally comes around. Her red eyes flicker open at last, and my heart rests easily. They stay half open until she finally realizes that someone is standing over her...or kneeling over her in this case. Those red eyes clash with the rest of her fur, but I'm not the one to complain about that. The strange part about them is that they turn white the moment they meet my eyes. She lets out a squeal as she gets on her feet, not standing, and crawls away until hits one of the tall rocks. Now that I look at her more clearly, her outfit is a mess. Her torn shorts and crop top don't suit her at all.

"Hey, it's okay," I try to say, slowing getting on my knees and crawling towards her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just checking if you're injured anywhere. Nothing broken there, right?"

There's long silence in between the three of us, four if I count Hedgie. The white and purple hedgehog girl adjusts her ears and replies, "Oh…I I I'm just fine…I think." She looks down at herself and gasps. "My clothes. They weren't like this before!" With one snap of her fingers, her shirt and shorts were sown together, bright, and clean. With that change, she looks presentable. "There, that's better. Forgive me for that indecent exposure."

The only shocked one out of the four of us is Caylyn. "How did you do that?" she exclaims in question.

The magical girl shrugs. "I don't know. My parents used to say that I was born with powers. I can do a lot of things with them, but I only use them in emergencies."

"Well thought out," is my response to that. She sounds like a hero to me, but I can't be so sure about that. However, she doesn't sound too cocky about those powers of hers.

"Oh, what are your names?" she asks, "How can I thank you for aiding me directly when I don't know them?"

With a smirk, I answer, "I'm Silver. Silver the Hedgehog," holding a thumbs up to my chest.

"I'm Caylyn Tanner," Cay says, clutching Hedgie in her arms, "and this is our guinea cat, Hedgie."

"Well, thank you, Silver, Caylyn, and Hedgie. I'm Lucy Violet, but people just call me Lucy for short."

Chuckling, I respond, "Nice to meet you, Lucy." After the introductions are in place, I go ahead and mention the elephant sheep in the room…or on the beach in this case. "What were you doing in the middle of the ocean? You could've gotten killed if I didn't come out there and pull the raft to shore."

"What was I doing?" she repeats, changing one word in the question. "What I was doing was protecting my gem. There was a huge storm, and I almost lost it, but I held onto it, I did."

"Gem?" asks Caylyn, "What gem?"

Lucy goes into her satchel and pulls out a yellow, diamond shaped emerald. I know that shape and glow from anywhere. "This."

"It's a Chaos Emerald!" I blurt out, backing away a smidge.

"Yes," she replies. "I had this one in my possession for years, and something in me says that I need to find all seven emeralds immediately."

"Why's that?"

"I don't know. It all happened while I was sleeping a few nights ago. If I don't search for the emeralds, I fear something bad is going to happen."

Caylyn's eyes widen. "The world could be in trouble for all we know, nii-chan!" she shouts.

"Hush, Cay-chan," I scold her, "Do you want the whole city of Glass going into panic?" A deep breath later, I turn to Lucy and say, "If you need any help searching for the Emeralds, I'd be more than glad to help you find them."

Lucy Violet's eyes grow and are set aglow by that statement. "Would you?"

"Of course."

The smile that shines on her face slowly twists. "I don't know. You don't really know me. How would you know if I was looking for Chaos Emeralds for good?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Well…I'm sorry." She shakes her head. "I have very low self esteem, Silver, and everyone can see that about me."

I approach Lucy and pat her shoulder. "I can see that, but…" My lungs relieve themselves with a deep breath from my mouth. "I can help you fix that. Just let me find the Chaos Emeralds with you."

A small grin returns to her face. "Thank you, Silver. How will I repay you for this?"

"No need. Just tell me where you were heading while you were stuck in the ocean."

Lucy nods and points to the north direction. "As I was coming here, I saw some sea animals heading towards a cave on the other side of this beach. I don't know if it was my imagination or not, but I heard some strange whistling music coming from that direction."

"Nii, didn't that used to be the sea park before the mayor shut it down?" Caylyn questions me.

"I think you're right, Cay. If animals are going over there, something's not right." Ever since we elected our new mayor, the first thing he's done is to make ocean parks illegal in the town, so he closed down Glass City Sea Park, which used to sit on the north end of the beach. It has been abandoned since then. I don't think the mayor would mind if Lucy and I do some detective work since we are doing some mystery solving with animals heading towards the area. "I'd say we check it out."

Lucy throws her arm at the northern direction of the shoreline. "Lead the way, sir."