Notes: Okay yeah, so it wasn't much of a cliffhanger, throwing a kid who can fly off the edge of a cliff. So sue me. It does lead to some rather interesting consequences though! Thanks so much to everyone who has been reviewing and following and favoriting this story, it really does mean a lot. Enjoy this chapter!

"SOOOONIIIIIC!"

The younger Sonic didn't hesitate to act. As soon as he heard his little brother's scream, he took off full speed to where the yell originated. The older hedgehog followed, close on his tail. When little Sonic reached the edge of the cliff where Tails fell, he did the first thing that came to his mind.

And that was to jump after him.

He leapt down into the clouds, curling up into a ball so that he could fall faster. He quickly caught up to Tails, and he uncurled himself to slow himself down. He grabbed a hold of the screaming child as a thought crossed his mind. 'What do I do now?'

Back up on the surface of the island, the older hedgehog reached the edge too late to stop his past self from jumping. "Sonic! Tails!" he shouted over the edge. What was he supposed to do? Throw himself over the edge and hope for a miracle? There was no way they could survive that fall, and even if Tails tried to fly the both of them back up, there was very little chance of them actually making it.

All of a sudden, he heard the familiar blingblingblingblingbling of someone grabbing rings at a breakneck pace. 'It can't be...' he thought, his eyes going wide. He looked over the edge of the cliff to see his past self, carrying Tiny Tails, and light-speed dashing up the trail of suspended rings. They rocketed up the cliffside, and even got a little bit of airtime as the trail of rings ran out. They landed safely on the ground, collapsing onto their backs and breathing heavily.

"Oh, Chaos, are you two okay?" the older Sonic breathed with relief.

"I... I think so," Lil' T said, still a little dazed from falling off a cliff and then soaring back up it.

"Just... frazzled, is all," the young hedgehog replied. His older self helped to two kids get to their feet. Little Sonic massaged his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "I have no idea how I even did that... that whole light-dash thing. I just sort of... did it."

"That's what I was just about to ask you about," the twenty-year-old ran his hand through his quills and shook his head. "Man, you shouldn't be able to do that yet. Especially not without any kind of help… Still, good job for your first try! That was pretty lucky, I have to say."

"Sorry about that, you guys," Tails said meekly. "I got really scared and I kinda forgot that I could fly for a second."

"It's okay, Tails. You're safe," the younger Sonic said. "Just… Please don't do that again!" he pleaded. Lil' T wrapped his arms around his brother's midsection.

"Promise!"

"No, you gotta pinky promise." the hedgehog said, completely serious. He held up his hand and extended his pinky finger.

"Okay, pinky promise," the young vulpine said, entwining his little finger with Sonic's. "It doesn't get much more official than that, does it?"

"No, it certainly doesn't," the older of the Sonics said, slapping both of the kids on the back. "Now, come on. What do you say we keep looking around this place, see what we can find?"

"Like what?" the younger inquired. "There's nothing here but frozen things and frozen people, and there's not much we can do about it."

"Maybe, maybe not. The older Tails said that he was picking up some weird energy readings around here. I don't know about you, but whenever I hear about weird energy readings coming from anywhere, I head straight towards them with reckless abandon."

"I swear, you must have a death wish," Little Sonic sighed, shaking his head. "But hey, we're here, we might as well, I suppose. Any idea as to what these energy readings look like?"

"Mmmmm none. But I figure it's either a Chaos Emerald or some sort of mysterious monster thing. Maybe both, if we get lucky!"

"Yup. Definite death wish."

"Hey, it'll be your death wish in eight years' time. Don't knock it!" the adult hedgehog laughed. "I'll radio Tails, see if he has any words of wisdom for us. Maybe he'll have an explanation as to why you can suddenly light speed dash, too."

"You really think so?"

"No, but we can hope, can't we?" The dark blue hedgehog winked as he rolled down the cuff of his glove to reveal the communicator watch on his wrist. He pressed a button on the side of it, causing the screen to blink to life. A small telephone symbol blinked until Tails picked up on the other line.

"Yo, Tails, you there?"

"Nope, sorry, no one here but us potatoes," the fox joked. "What's up?"

"We were wondering if you had any more leads for us? 'Cause, you know, no offense, but 'strange energy' isn't a heck of a lot to go off of."

"Um, all I can tell is that whatever it is should be on that island that you're on now. Is that the town?"

"Yep. It's like someone hit the pause button on this joint, even the people are frozen in place. It's pretty freaky."

"Yeah, that's what I suspected," Tails sighed. "Any idea how this happened? Is there any sort of clue lying around?"

"Negatory, good buddy," the older hedgehog answered. "I'll tell you something, though. Lil' me just light speed dashed."

"... What?"

"That's what I said."

"But- but he shouldn't be able to do that for another few years, at least!"

"That's what he said," exclaimed the smaller of the speedsters. "What's even going on? The stuff I'm doing now should be matching up with the stuff you've done in the past, right?" he asked, somewhat nervously. There was a pause.

"In theory, yes," Tails said. "I'll look into the matter. Hopefully I'll have an explanation when you guys get back, but I need some time to think about this."

"Okay, sounds good. Thanks, Tails," said the older Sonic. "Anything else you wanna add before we go?"

"Yeah. I would try not to spend too much time in WindyValley if I were you. If time there is frozen, I don't know what might happen to you guys. I don't want you guys to get frozen like that, too."

"Wait wait, that's a thing that can happen?! Why did no one tell me about this?" Mini-Sonic practically shouted.

"I never said that it's a thing that can happen! I'm just saying, you never know! It's not like any of us know what we're doing when it comes to time travel, anyway. Just be careful," said Tails.

"Yes mother," the elder Sonic said snarkily. "I'll let you know when we find that energy-whatsit."

"Good. Tails out," Tails said, hanging up. The older Sonic rolled the cuff on his glove back to the way he liked it.

"Well, where do we start looking?" he asked.

"Wouldn't it be faster if we all split up?" asked Tiny Tails innocently.

"Sorry kiddo, we're not about to let you run off on your own again. It's too risky. You go with lil' me, alright?"

"Yeah, but can we trust you on your own?" Little Sonic joked.

"Hey, you're making fun of yourself again. Don't you just love how that works?" the elder retorted.

"Don't forget, you used to make fun of yourself!"

"... Man, I'm good. Anyways, Lil' T does have a point. Let's split up. If we can't find anything in a half hour, we meet up back here, at the fountain. Sound good?" the older Sonic asked. The other two nodded in confirmation. "Cool. I'll head back this way. If you get into any kind of trouble, just holler!" he said. He turned on his heel and started jogging back towards the entrance of the town. He was going to do a careful sweep from the bridge they entered on back towards the fountain. And the best way to do that was via the rooftops.

"I guess we're going this way then!" Tiny Tails said, dragging his brother in the opposite direction.

"I wish we knew what we were looking for..." the preteen huffed. It was one thing to go on a scavenger hunt through an eerily quiet town filled with people who weren't moving. It was another thing entirely to be doing all that, and to have no idea what it is you're looking for.

"Well, older big brother said we should look for a Chaos Emerald or a monster, right? We can find the monster if we hear monster noises nearby, so that means we can focus harder on finding the Emerald, because Chaos Emeralds don't make monster noises," Lil' T reasoned.

"Nice theory there, lil' bro," Sonic said, a little bit of worry lacing itself into his voice. "But what if the monster is sneaky? What then?"

"Then... one of us keeps watch while the other one looks! It doesn't always work on TV, but Knuckles says you shouldn't always trust what you see on TV, so I think we'll be okay."

"I hope you're right, buddy. I hope you're right." The two walked into an alleyway, getting off the main streets. It was unlikely for a Chaos Emerald to be out in the big streets, in plain sight. Those things always had to be hidden in the most annoying-to-reach spots. Namely, at the ends of long obstacle courses set up by nature. The Emeralds also liked to make their home in the Special Zone, a tripped up dimension filled with wild colors, altered gravity, and just general craziness.

Mini-Sonic couldn't help but look up once they entered the alleyway. Tails had gotten him somewhat paranoid with all that monster talk. Now, he was convinced that something was going to drop down on him at any moment, and drag him away silently, leaving Tails all alone. 'Enjoy your future, Sonic, they said. It's gonna be great, they said! Time freezing a whole geographic area like this doesn't sound like my definition of great.'

Meanwhile, the older Sonic was perched high up on the bell tower of a church. The bells were still stuck in the air, about to swing, but no sound came from them. Sonic sighed. He never knew WindyValley could ever get this depressing.

"I guess that's what happens when time stops," he said, looking around at the village from above. "Things just stop happening, and everything just becomes sad." He jumped down from the bell tower, having spotted nothing of interest. He jumped across a few rooftops, taking care to be quiet. He didn't care that the people living inside the houses couldn't hear him. He felt inconsiderate just clomping across their rooftops considering their current condition.

'But besides that... Tails must have been right about what he said this morning. Little me and Lil' T are better at that video game than we were, and now mini-blue learns how to light speed dash? Things are happening too fast for them. Maybe something in the time stream got messed up with the whole Time Eater fiasco? That would certainly explain why Windy Valley had been paused. If things are happening too soon for the younger versions of Tails and I, are we going to start being affected by this, too? Will things start to slow down for us?' The hedgehog sighed. He was thinking too hard about this. He never used to think about things this much- he would just do. 'Ugh, don't tell me I'm over-thinking things and not acting like myself because of all this timey-wimey stuff. Because if I am, then I am through with time travel forever. We fix this mess, and BOOM. I am off time travel for the rest of my days.'

He ran up the side of a windmill and stood atop its roof. Maybe he could spot something out of the ordinary if he had a different vantage point? He peered out over the village, looking for anything that might cause a flux in energy that would set off Tails' sensors. Looking around, he didn't spot any weird god-monsters or anything. Good, he had had enough of beating up corrupt and evil god-monsters in his time. Eggman really needed to back away from that whole 'summoning powerful gods to do his dirty work' thing. It had gotten old after he did it the first time.

'Speaking of which, where is Eggman, anyway? I think we left him in that white limbo-world after we beat up the Time Eater... but that dude's persistent. He always manages to find a way to come back- wait a second, what is that?" Sonic thought as his eyes suddenly picked up on a faint, green glow. 'Well, I think that might qualify as out of the ordinary,' he thought satisfactorily. He hopped down from his perch and took off sprinting towards the light. He had no desire to remain in WindyValley any longer than he had to.

In the meantime, the time travelers' search was coming up dry. Little Sonic and Lil' T had found no signs of anything, except evidence that someone in Windy Valley had gotten very, very drunk the night before, as they made a mess of the side of the local bar by puking on the sidewalk next to it. For his little bro's well being, the hedgehog led him away from that area of town. Tails was still too young to learn about the horrors of drinking.

"Well, we've searched almost everywhere we can search," the preteen said, glancing around at his surroundings. "And there has been neither hide nor hair of a monster, and no evidence of a Chaos Emerald anywhere near here!"

Just as the words escaped his mouth, he could feel something tug at his heart. Some unseen force, foreign to most others, yet all too familiar to the hedgehog. That warm, pulsating, tugging feeling was the same way he felt whenever a Chaos Emerald was close by. Those were just the kind of feelings you get when you're adept at tapping into the Emerald's energies. They leave their mark on you.

"Tails, wait, hold up a sec," Sonic said, grabbing Tails by the shoulder so that he would stop. He closed his eyes and listened to his heartbeat, trying to feel where the gentle tug was pulling from. It was a Chaos Emerald close by, he was positive. "I can feel an Emerald near here, kiddo. I'm not sure where, exactly, but-"

"It wouldn't happen to be the source of all that bright, green light coming from over there, would it?" Tails asked, pointing a little ways down the street, wearing an all-knowing smile on his face.

"Bro, you are a life-saver. Come on!" the twelve-year-old hedgehog said excitedly. Maybe now they could get out of this creepy place.

The two raced up the street, turning down the side street that the mysterious glow was coming from. Sonic could feel the pulsating tug in his chest grow in power with each step he took. It didn't take much time for them to discover the gem, perched high atop an old windmill. All it took was a single nod from Sonic to have his young friend do his thing and fly up towards the top of the windmill. He carefully pried it out of its wedged-in location, and then flew it back down to Sonic.

The hedgehog accepted the Emerald from Tails, and held the green gem in his hands. He pressed it up to its chest to ensure it was the real deal. The Emerald itself seemed to thump in time with his heart, and he could feel the warmth and unbridled potential energy coursing through his veins. Oh yeah, this sucker was the real deal alright.

"Hey, Sonic? Do you hear something?" Tiny Tails asked, his ears pricking up as he listened for something in the distance. The hedgehog closed his eyes and concentrated, being able to faintly make out a noise coming from the other side of town.

"Do you think older-me ran into trouble?" he asked, tucking the Chaos Emerald into his spines. It would be safe there.

"The only way I know to find out is to check," Lil' T replied. The two friends instantly took off towards the other side of town, where the more grown-up incarnation of Sonic the Hedgehog was busy battling-you guessed it- a monster.

The beast was about five feet tall, a dark purple, and seemingly comprised of goo, scales, and smoke. There were little specks of gold dotting its flesh, and it had four arms which it swung about dangerously. These arms were large and powerful, and possessed sharp claws on the ends of their fingers. The legs of the creature were squat and not very powerful-looking, but it made up for this by having a strong tail which it could easily knock a person down with. Its mouth was huge, and took up most of its face. Its eyes were small and black, and it had a case of halitosis that you had to smell to believe.

Sonic jumped backwards, dodging a powerful swing of one of the monster's arms. "Man, why couldn't you have been a Chaos Emerald?!" he shouted in frustration. He had to draw this fight out into the open. Fighting in an alleyway wasn't his cup of tea, and the creature seemed to have the advantage. Even though it was large, it had plenty of walls to knock Sonic up against. And Sonic didn't enjoy getting slammed into the walls by mysterious beasts. The hedgehog turned, curled into a ball, and quickly spindashed out of the narrow side street and out to the main street. He stood up in the center of the street and motioned for the monster to 'come and get some.' The creature smiled a huge, toothy smile. It was more than happy to oblige. With a speed that Sonic didn't expect the monster to possess, the creature ran into Sonic and sent him careening into a building on the other end of the street. He impacted hard with the solid stone, creating a small dent in the wall. He groaned softly as he fell to his feet and had trouble standing up straight.

"I have to admit, I wasn't expecting you to be able to move like that. Congratulations, you hit me! It's not going to happen again, let me just tell you that now," the hedgehog said cockily. The monster seemed to take this as a personal challenge, and ran at Sonic at full speed again. The hedgehog simply jumped over him like he was playing a game of leapfrog. "You're too slow!" he taunted, sticking his tongue out at the beast and making a ridiculous face at it. The monster realized that his previous tactic of charging head-first towards his target wasn't working so well. He decided to switch up his attack pattern a little bit by punching the ground with its massive fists until the floor broke apart, and then picking up and throwing large chunks of rock and ground at Sonic. "Yipe!" the hedgehog yelped as a boulder flew right over his head. 'This is tricky... With his four arms, it's going to be hard to get up close to him without turning into hamburger meat. And now, he's throwing projectiles at me too, to make me keep even more distance. I need to end this fast before this fight gets out of hand,' he thought with a scowl. He ran circles around the beast at high speeds, searching for a possible weak spot. The only one he could maybe make work would be the back. He could sneak around and end the fight with a few good hits. He cracked his knuckles and stretched out his legs. This was going to be interesting.

Sonic spindashed into the ground, beginning to rapidly dig a tunnel. Now he just had to hope that the monster stayed in the same place so that he could land a hit without missing.

Unfortunately, the creature caught on to his plan pretty quickly, and moved aside. When Sonic burrowed next to him and leapt up out of the ground, the monster grabbed Sonic with its claws. The hedgehog suffered a gash across the chest from dealing with the beast, and began bleeding from his midsection.

The monster threw Sonic into a wall again- strange that most purple creatures with four arms seemed to be surprisingly lacking in the imagination department when it came to their attacks- and left another crack in the surface of the building. Sonic was starting to hurt now, and he was getting sick and tired of being thrown into things. He pried himself loose from the wall and shook the debris and pebbles from his quills.

'Okay, this fight has gone on long enough,' he thought, feeling rather annoyed at this point. He clutched his chest in an attempt to stop his bleeding. The cut was deeper than he would have liked. 'I need to finish this before I end up losing too much blood. What I need is some sort of strategy.' He scanned his environment, looking for something he could use against the creature. He grinned. 'That'll work just fine.' He hadn't just found something- he had found someone.

The other Sonic and Tails were running in to his left. Perfect. All the wounded hedgehog had to do was provide a distraction, and they could get a few hits against the enraged creature.

"Yo, ugly! Try this on for size!" he shouted, tucking into a ball and revving himself up. He spin-dashed straight towards the monster's feet, only to get swatted away by one of its massive arms. Sonic flew back and tumbled across the ground, earning himself a few more scratches and bruises. The monster stalked closer to the fallen speedster. It was only a few feet away from Sonic when something blue and spiny collided with the side of its head. It toppled to the ground, his skull likely having been bashed in by the force of the impact.

"And stay down," the younger Sonic said, smiling over the beast triumphantly. He turned to face his older self, still on the ground, as Lil' T landed a few feet away. Little Sonic frowned when he was the blood all over his older self's chest and hands. "I can't take you anywhere, can I?" he said, helping the injured hedgehog to his feet.

"Heh, what took you so long?" he asked, cringing. With the adrenaline of battle starting to fade, his wounds were starting to have more of an effect on him.

"Sorry. We were busy nabbing this bad boy." the younger Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out the bright green Chaos Emerald. "One down, six to go."

"Whoa. Nice work, you two!"

"Thanks. Are you gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I should be fine. Worst case scenario is that I need to get a few stitches to close this thing up," the darker blue hedgehog said, pointing to the gash in his chest. "I'm more concerned about what that thing was." He held a hand on his midriff to slow the bleeding as he glanced over at the defeated creature. Lil' T walked over to it cautiously, being careful not to get too close to it.

"It looks a little bit like the Time Eater, don't you think? The colors are the same, and it looks like it's made of the same stuff," the vulpine pointed out.

"Something tells me this isn't just a crazy coincidence. We need to get back to the workshop," the older Sonic said. He climbed to his feet with a bit of difficulty.

"And just how are we going to go back to the workshop? You can barely stand, forget about running through loops and corkscrews," his younger incarnation protested, tapping his foot. "You'll bleed out before we get there."

Macro-Sonic sighed. The kid was right- he was okay for now, but he was afraid to run too much in fear of opening his chest wound even wider. If only they could just teleport back home...

"Wait. Give me the Emerald, I have an idea," he said, his eyes lighting up with inspiration. Little Sonic handed the gem over, curious as to what his older self was up to. "Okay kids, hold on tight. Keep all hands, feet, and tails inside the ride at all times, 'cause we're going home."

The young sonic and Tails looked at each other, shrugged, and grabbed a hold of the older hedgehog. Sonic focused on the Emerald in his hands, tapping into its powerful energy.

"Chaos... Control!" he shouted, and everything turned white.

Notes: Wow Sonic, getting injured in the first big fight of the fic? How unprofessional. Maybe you'll do better next time. And Mini-Sonic, why can you light speed dash? Things are starting to get messed up around here, so tune in next week to see what goes wrong next!