Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or any of the characters in this fanfic.

…What the heck…?

Earlier in the day, if someone had told me that a large transportation vessel would fly above Angel Island, I would've laughed and made a sarcastic remark. It just didn't seem like a natural thing to happen around here…

…Well, other than the times Sonic and Tails used to fly here in that plane of theirs…

But those times, it had been a small plane that was used to transport the two heroes faster so that they could stop Dr. Eggman from stealing all of the Chaos Emeralds and prevent the madman from taking the Master Emerald. And, this time, it definitely wasn't a small plane; instead, this vessel was huge and unfamiliar to me, and I found it unsettling.

…However, it didn't look like it could drop weapons onto this island – but I didn't want to assume that the captain or pilot of the vessel was a peaceful fellow or lady – yet I kept my gaze firmly on it. If worse came to worse, I'd report any problems to Knuckles.

…Wait a minute…

The airborne vessel's right side came apart in what appeared to be a decent-sized explosion. I stared, confused, but remained alert; was the vessel being attacked from the inside or was it being shot at by someone else?

…Hmm?

I wasn't sure, but it seemed like something – or someone – was falling from the new hole in the air vessel. The vessel started to speed up, flying away from Angel Island, but I didn't tear my gaze from the dot that seemed to be falling towards…

…The lake!

I took off in the direction of the lake; if this dot was an explosive, it could have a disastrous effect on the island!

…Wait, what if it's a person?

I blinked, realizing that, if that small dot was, indeed, a person, they were most likely injured – or possibly dead – from that explosion. None if these scenarios were pretty, and, while I was nowhere near as speedy as the Legendary Hedgehog, I found myself running faster than I ever had before. I improvised a bit – propelling myself off of rocks and curling up into a 'ball mode' to slide down slopes – and I surprisingly made it to the lake rather quickly.

By the time I dove into the water, the dot had gotten close enough for me to see what it was.

Oh, no…

It wasn't an explosive, but it still tugged at my heart to see what had been falling from that great height. It appeared to be a severely injured Mobian; some of their feathers were singed and the poor thing was almost completely covered in blood.

I swam faster towards where the poor thing was going to land; falling from this height, even into a deep body of liquid, would sting horribly. The little Mobian crashed into the water with a large splash and sank beneath the surface. While I wasn't as close to the injured person as I'd hoped to have been, I was still close enough to possibly save it from drowning.

I took in a deep breath and dove down under the surface of the lake, spotting the trail of blood in the water. I pushed myself to swim faster, soon reaching the unconscious person. When I got close enough, I gently wrapped my arms around it, pulling it close and keeping it against me with my left arm before using the rest of my limbs to swim back to the surface.

As I resurfaced, I made sure that the person's head was above the water as well before I swam back to land. I knew that I had to hurry; this Mobian's life was in my hands now, and I didn't want to let them down.

The knowledge that this person's life was depending on me seemed to be more than enough motivation; soon, we were on land again, and I set the person down on the ground. Now that I could look at it properly, I could see that it was a small duck with green feathers and a torn red bandana around its neck.

I quickly placed two fingers at the side of the duck's neck, beneath the bandana, trying to find a pulse.

…It's very weak… the poor little thing is still alive.

I realized that I'd have to perform CPR on…him? I couldn't quite tell the gender of this duck, but I hoped they wouldn't freak out. Breathing in deeply and pinching at the nostrils on the duck's beak, I opened its mouth…