sonic picked up the piece of the sign, careful not to get splinter off the rough edges and thought back to when the they first reveal the sign, when tails and he first moved into the city. It was early in the morning, the sun was barely set, the ocean breeze blew cold wind that made sonic's quills stiffen. "Brr, this sucks," he grumbled as he wrapped himself arounds tails' tail, "i feel like a frozen chili dog." tails wrapped his spare tail around his neck like a scarf. "Well, you definitely look like one now" tails said through his own fur. Sonic sneezed and rubbed his nose into tails fur and tails shivered in disgust. "What does the mayor want, what was the point of him dragging us out here this time of the morning" sonic asked. "Oh ho, i'm glad you asked my boy" the mayor answered as he walked onto the pier, behind him were the citizens of emerald.
"Lovely day today, isn't it boys?" the mayor asked sonic and tails and then turned to the crowd-who were all wearing jackets and long sleeves-giggled. "Haha" sonic growl sarcastically under tails fur. "What's this all about, mayor bear" tails asked. Mayor bear huffed and straightened his jacket and tie. Sonic never really liked the guy; a typical politician in a terrible suit and even more terrible penchant for bad jokes. He wasn't a bad guy, but sonic never liked his coming in and out of him and tails' home as he pleases. "Don't you boys know what day it is?" mayor bear asked as two people behind him propped up a large…thing covered in an even larger cloth. Everyone crowd around it. "The day sonic the hedgehog dies of pneumonia?" sonic asked. Tails chuckled. The mayor let out a belly laugh and then stop almost immediately as he started. "No." mayor bear answered coldly. "No, today is a special day! Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of you coming to our humble little town!" mayor bear walked over the the large clothed object and pulled the cloth down to reveal a large sign with big, gaudy letters that read "welcome to emerald city, home of sonic the hedgehog!
The crowd around them applauded and tails gave him a big hug. Sonic blushed and rubbed the back of his head. The crowd applause grew louder, into calls for a speech. "Ah come on," sonic blurted out through tail fur, "what's the meaning of this, you guys?" mayor bear came behind sonic and tails and brought his massive arms around the two. "Nothing! Nothing at all, this is merely a show of our appreciation for everything you boys do, not just for Emerald but for the entire planet!" mayor bear wiped a fake tear from his eyes and sonic rolled his eyes. "Besides, who wouldn't want to know where the famous duo is living these days!" tails began rubbing his index and thumb together. Sonic giggled. "That was kinda the point of us picking this spot" sonic said as he wiggled his way out of mayor bear massive arm, "we want someplace where we could lay low" "well, sonic, you say that," tails interrupted, himself out of the bear hold, "but the first thing you did when we got here was turn the materials meant for building my lab into a halfpipe and skated with the local kids!" sonic blushed again, "well, the kids wanted to meet their hero; plus, there was no way in hell was i going near the water. Skating is more fun than surfing, right kids?" "right" the local kids within the crowd answered. The crowd laughed.
Suddenly, there was a rumble under sonic's feet. "What on mobius!" mayor bear asked as he fell over from the shock. "Sonic, the ocean!" tails yelled, pointing at the figure in the distance. A bright red light charged through the gray clouds and shot over the crowd and into the city. A big red explosion went off into the distance. The crowd dispurts and ran in every direction as more lasers fired from the ocean. "Everyone! Find cover! Tails, set up the defense shield!" sonic yelled over the crowd; tails nodded and flew to the lab.
Sonic turned around and faced where the laser came from. He readied himself into a runner's stance. Another laser fired and parted the ocean waters. That was sonic's chance. He ran through the part as fast as he could until he reached the giant robot - an egg sentinel - and climbed up before the ocean water came back in. maybe this wasn't such a good idea, he thought but shock it off and started to climb up the robot's leg.
An omochao suddenly appeared in front of sonic. "Sonic! There are you!" it was tails' communicating through the omochao, "I've got the defense shields up, but what are you doing?!" "what does it look like i'm doing?!" sonic answered in a rather insulted tone, "I'm gonna climb up and crack this bad egg!" "You do that and you'll pollute the whole ocean!" sonic looked down and realized the situation he was in. "Well, we have to do something!" he said. "Don't worry, we'll figure something out, just keep it distracted, i'll call for help!" "Help?! From who?" sonic asked. "The Sonic Forces, of course!" tails replied.
The egg sentinel began to move again, ready to fire. Sonic looked up, jumped into the air, and spin dashed the chin of the giant robot, knocking the head upwards and sending the laser fire into the sky. The laser ripped into the clouds and dispersed into space. Sonic landed on the robot's neck and rubbed his aching head. "We don't need those guys, we got this!" sonic finally answered. "But sonic," tails replied. The robot took another step. "No butts, this is nothing! We do this all the time!"
"Is that so" said a voice. A hand appeared on sonic's shoulder and then everything went gray. "Then tell me, hero," growled the voice, "where were you when they needed you the most?" sonic felt a cold, metallic breath on the back of his neck, making his fur stand on its ends. He jumped forward and turned around to face the voice but there was nothing there. Instead, he saw something more familiar. The buildings were all on fire and the screaming was deafening but it was definitely familiar. "Huh, where am i?" sonic asked, looking at his surroundings. "Sonic!" shouted tails in the distance, "we need help!" before he took another step, another sonic appeared in front of him and ran towards the burning buildings. Sonic stood there, wide eyed, confused. "This is where it all started," started the cold metallic voice again, "and this is where it all ended, for you and your little resistance!" a familiar scene played out. A sonic came to the rescue and then a dark figure came out of nowhere and overpowered him. And the next thing he knew, he was on a space ship, being tortured by eggman and watched as the world of mobius burned to ashes…sonic was on his knees and hands, fingers dug deep into the sand, tears dripping from his eyes and into the sand. Sonic grit his teeth and dug his head closer to the ground. He wanted nothing more than to bury his head in the sand, bury out the noise, the explosions, the screams, the torture. He wanted it all to stop.
"How does it feel to lose everything dear to you?" said the voice. "Why…do you keep asking me these things" sonic asked through his teeth, "what do you want from me?!" a pair of black fur hands reached out and grabbed sonic by the throat and squeezed tightly. "What i want…is to get out of here!" infinite said as he lifted sonic by his throat and then tossed him into the ground. He picked sonic back up and then tossed him again before picking him back up. Sonic regained his senses and kicked infinite in the stomach, causing the jackal to fall over. "W-what are you talking about?" sonic gasped as he tried to catch his breath. Infinite got up, clutching his stomach, and slowly approached the hedgehog. "This…is all your fault…you and that loathsome weakling!" "I had everything, I had power, I had a destiny to fulfill, but now…! Infinite disappeared and reappeared behind sonic and punched him in the back of the head. Sonic fell over. Infinite walked over and grabbed sonic by the quills and dragged him as he walked. "But now i'm stuck here in your head and i can't get out! I want out!" infinite screamed as he tossed sonic once more.
Sonic got back on his feet but infinite appeared out of nowhere and gut punched him and he fell over again. "Uh, listen, I want to help you…I think," Sonic said as he crawled on the floorless ground until infinite drag him back by the legs and dangled him upside down, "but I have no idea what's going on, where are we?" Infinite growled at the upside down hedgehog's face and flipped him right side up. "This is the null space" infinite hissed and forced Sonic's eyes open, showing him the dark, twisting sky with no end in sight, "...darker than oblivion