Forgotten Memories…
Chapter two
By: Soniclover28
Sonic slowly opened his eyes to a gloved hand shaking him awake.
"Wha…?" He slurred, and peeled his face from the sandy ground beneath him.
Wait…
Sandy…?
Sonic blinked his eyes open, grimacing when he tasted sand and spit it out hastily.
"Augh—pleh," Sonic continued to rid his mouth of the taste, and looked around to see that Tails had roused him. His ears pricked to voices—voices that weren't his friends'. He saw Knuckles and Amy standing just in the view of the source of the sound.
And then he smelled it…
…Crisp, cool, clean…and deadly.
Water.
The sand, the smell, the sounds of splashing not far off—they were definitely at a beach.
Sonic stood up, brushing the sand out of his pelt, and brushed past his friends to get a better look at the scene.
It was the little Sonic, his mother, and another Mobian that looked to be walrus-like.
"Is that…?" Sonic breathed, and he couldn't help but walk closer to the trio of playing Mobians. Even twenty feet away, he could recognize him perfectly.
The purple blubber, the turquoise eyes, and the two tusks hanging from his mouth—it was him!
"That's Rotor!" Sonic exclaimed, and did a little jump in the air. He turned to his friends, pointing to the water and its inhabitants. "You guys, that's Rotor! Tails, you—you would have loved him! He's like, crazy smart, and —and he's an awesome dude, he—"
"Whoa, whoa," Knuckles interrupted, and put up his hands. He couldn't help but smirk, however. "Slow down, there, 'hog. How do you know him?"
"He was my best friend, back in the day," Sonic chuckled. "Man, I can't believe it's him."
Tails and Amy couldn't help but smile—Sonic was absolutely beaming.
Miraculously, Sonic walked even closer to the water, much to his friends' surprise. Knuckles, Tails, and Amy were right behind him, and now they could hear the pups' conversation on the shore.
"C'mon, Rotor, one more time—please?" Little Sonic asked, clasping his gloveless hands together.
"Fine. But this is the last time, Sonic," Rotor said, and turned his back to the little hedgehog. Rotor, even for his obvious young age, towered over the little hedgehog that came up to his chest.
"Yes!" Sonic pumped his fist, and watched as Rotor crawled into the water on his belly, just deep enough for his head to poke above the surface. The little hedgehog blinked his big brown eyes and gingerly stepped on Rotor's back. He laid down on him, holding on tight to his shoulders.
"Ready?"
"Ready," Little Sonic chirped, and seemed to brace himself.
With that, Rotor's hind flippers dug at the ground and propelled him forwards. A deep intake of breath was heard, and Rotor dived underwater with Sonic in tow.
"Whoa—you just got in!" Knuckles pointed into the water, and looked to see a smirking Sonic. He merely shrugged with his arms crossed, and watched fondly as Little Sonic's quills poked out of the water as the two friends went farther from the shore. The little hedgehog lifted his head out of the water and took another breath, and then the walrus dived out of view.
The mother of the blue hedgehog was off of her beach towel now, lifting the sunglasses from her eyes as she watched the surface of the water. She looked about ready to jump in when something broke the surface, and joyous laughter was heard. Blue smiled and shook her head, and sat back down on her towel.
The little Sonic and Rotor came back to the shore, and the hedgehog hopped off of Rotor's back. He shook himself like a wet dog, smiling all the way.
"Haha, thanks, bro!" The wet rodent beamed his front-toothless smile.
"No problem," Rotor smirked back, and came out of the water as well. His thick, clawed flipper-like hand rose up to give Sonic a high-five, and the hedgehog happily obliged.
"Now, it's your turn," Rotor gestured to the open lake, and the hedgehog suddenly pinned his ears back.
"N-no—somethin's gonna come up and get me, I know it," The brown-eyed hedgehog shook his head.
"C'mon—Fearless, remember? It's just water. And, like, we were just at the bottom—there's nothing there," The walrus urged.
"I-I don't want to, Rotor," Sonic exclaimed, and his face started turning a shade of red.
"Honey, you promised. You don't break promises," Blue intervened. "And we're right here," The mother continued, adjusting her bikini, "We'll jump in if you fall, m'kay?"
"Okay…" The little hedgehog sighed, and paced a little ways from them.
"Haha, watch this," The bigger Sonic—the one who had been smiling from ear-to-to the whole time—laughed in excitement.
The pup of a hedgehog suddenly sprinted on the sand, kicking it up and making the whole group shield themselves. He ran faster and faster at the edge of the water, eventually becoming a blur. Rotor and Blue started cheering, urging the hedgehog to perform his stunt.
And the pup did it.
The little Sonic was on the other side of the lake when the storm of kicked up sand behind him was replaced with water. He lapped the lake, and when he came by the group again, everyone was appalled.
He was running on the surface of the water. When he passed, an exhilarated laugh filled the air, and the four time travelers couldn't help but cheer for the pup, now.
The older Sonic was watching with longing eyes, twitching in place—shifting on his feet as if he needed to move.
Tails smirked when he saw this. "Go ahead, Sonic; we'll be here when you get back."
"Whoo-hoooo!" Pierced the air as the Hero of Mobius bolted away from the water and into the lush forest hiding the lake. Snapping twigs and rustling leaves were all that was left of the hedgehog when his friends glanced behind him.
"What the heck?" Knuckles asked, throwing his hands up into the air. "Where's he going?"
"For a run," Tails answered simply, shrugging, and sitting down on the beach. "He needed it."
A loud boom was suddenly heard, and, across the lake, a cluster of trees were bending over due to what seemed like wind, and Amy couldn't help but smile.
"He sure did."
After an hour, Sonic came back, just like he always does.
"Feet, I love you so much," Sonic cooed as he trotted back onto the beach where his friends were.
"And I'm sure they love you, too," Knuckles said. He hadn't even looked to see who it was, just continued lying on the sand with his hands crossed behind his head.
Tails and Amy laughed and gave him a wave, and turned their gazes back to the younger Sonic and his friend and mother.
"So, what'd I miss?" Sonic and plopped down on the sand beside where the fox and hedgehog were.
"Not much," Tails shrugged. "Just watching them play, heh."
"It's so weird to think that that was you," Amy said, gesturing to the little hedgehog currently wrapped up in a beach towel that threatened to swallow him. "You were so tiny."
"Not to mention less annoying," Knuckles grunted.
Sonic rolled his eyes, but Amy continued on.
"And your little voice was so sweet," She said in an 'aww' type of tone.
"Yeah, I-I guess so," Sonic replied, rubbing the back of his head bashfully. This was worse than someone going through an old baby album.
"And your little ears twitch just like they still do!" Amy squealed, watching as the little hedgehog did so when a butterfly fluttered around his ear.
Said insect then landed on the pup's nose, and he sneezed, and Rotor and Blue laughed.
"Okay, well, as stupid as this is, we need to get back to business, here. How'd we wake up on the beach, anyways?" Knuckles cut in, unintentionally saving Sonic from blushing.
"I've been wondering that, too; and here's what I've come up with," Tails responded, crossing his arms in thought. "I think this, for some reason, is the next point in time Eggman wanted us to visit. Somehow he's controlling when he wants us to time travel whenever he feels the need to. Which doesn't make sense; because, how did he know that this particular day at this particular place would be a day your younger self would be so that we could…watch…"
Tails drifted off in his rant as he beheld the uncomprehending faces in front of him. The twin-tailed fox sighed.
"For some reason, Eggman knew Little Sonic would be at the lake today. So, he made us travel in time and placed us at the lake," Tails tried again.
"And that's weird because…?" Amy blinked.
Tails pinched the skin above his nose.
"The question is—how did Eggman know that Little Sonic would be at the lake today with Rotor and his mom?"
"Ooh."
"Yeah, that's a good question," Knuckles said, pointing to Tails and nodding his head.
Tails threw up his hands in defeat.
"So, anyways, what do we do, now?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know that, either—my guess is to just go along with whatever the memory is and try not to change anything," The fox answered, and the gang seemed to accept this.
So, as Blue, Little Sonic, and Rotor dried off and left the beach behind, the current Sonic and his team followed at a distance, careful not to alert them of the many sticks and leaves rustling when they walked.
Dr. Eggman cackled and, by now, was howling with laughter at the monitor. He watched as Sonic, Amy, Knuckles and Tails trudged through the forest hiding Knothole while they followed Sonic's past counterpart.
"How idiotic are they?!" He boomed in laughter. "All I need now is for one of them to screw up—trip on a root and make that rat of a mother look behind her, or something! At this point, any change would do! Oh, this is absolutely delicious, Cubot!" The mad scientist stroked his mustache, with a grin of a shark, and his glasses gleamed in the light of his laboratory.
"Well, sure, as shootin', doc! This here plan's fine as a fiddle!" The yellow square robot rooted, placing his fists on his hips.
Dr. Eggman's smile curled into a frown as he glared down to his lackey.
"It's 'fit as a fiddle' you blasted, broken robot," the egg-shaped doctor growled, "And when did your voice chip switch to western again?!"
Dr. Eggman shook his head and stood from his hover chair.
"Never mind that—I have a city to level," He said, and grinned again as he strode out of the room, his boots clicking with every high step he took.
"Where is that Faker when you need him?!" Shadow growled, as he dodged another shower of bullets sent from the new robot Eggman had sent into Mobotropolis. The ebony hedgehog knew the robot had been built by Dr. Eggman due to the purple logo stamped on the head of the serpent-like robot.
"I'm surprise you miss him, Shadow," Rouge commented, landing beside him and eyeing the robot.
"Normally I wouldn't," Shadow growled, hurling a chunk of concrete that had broken from a laser blast at the robot. "But desperate times call for desperate measures. Look."
Shadow pointed to the sky, where Dr. Eggman's Egg Carrier hovered above the city, hundreds of robots dropping from the bottom of the giant ship.
"Is there anyone else we could call? What about that fox or Knuckles?" Rouge suggested, leaping from where she was standing when a laser zoomed towards her.
"I've tried contacting them—they won't answer," Shadow admitted, and curled up to perform a spin-dash on the serpent robot in front of him. It finally tore to shreds, and Shadow dusted off his hands, turning back to Rouge. He could already hear the city's sirens going off and people screaming in the distance.
"We're on our own."