Notes: And now, the chapter that a bunch of you have been waiting for! We finally get to see what's going on with the other main characters in the story! Hooray! *confetti falls from the ceiling* In other news, this story has reached 30 reviews! How rad is that? Thanks so much for your continued support, guys. It's been a team effort. Now, whaddaya say we get on to the main attraction?

Using Chaos Control several times a day was not something Sonic was used to. That, companied with the fact that he was still a bit frazzled from his dip in the pool, made him miss. Instead of teleporting into the workshop kitchen, like he wanted to, he and his past-self landed in the snow outside. After much surprised screaming and shouting, the older Tails ran outside to help the frustrated hedgehogs out of a snow drift. It took some doing (the older Sonic practically had to be carried all the way) but eventually they all got inside again. Soon, the two hedgehogs were curled up next to the fireplace, cocooned in blankets.

"So, explain something to me," Tails said, re-wrapping Sonic's chest. "How exactly did you miss? You're usually pretty good with Chaos Control, what happened?"

"I dunno! I just… I missed, okay? You try warping space-time four times in a day," the older hedgehog grunted. He shivered. Being submerged in water and then thrown into the snow certainly wasn't the best for his health. "Man, I had better not be getting sick… I tried saving the day once with a cold. I could barely run in a straight line, and jumping was just ridiculous. I don't like being sick, Tails!"

"I know you don't, you complain about it every time you do get sick."

"What am I supposed to do, just sit there and suffer in silence?"

"I would pay to see that. Good money, too." Tails finished tying the bandages, and made sure they were nice and tight. "If you're going to keep whining about it, I can check your temperature and give you some cold medicine."

"I don't know which sounds worse, medicine or your unusually high levels of sass."

"Okay, medicine it is then." Tails got up with a sly grin on his face and left to go get some from the medicine cabinet. Sonic's younger self couldn't help but giggle.

"I don't know dude, I don't feel sick at all. You sure it's not because you're just old?" he asked with a cheeky smile.

"Don't forget, I was dripping wet when we landed in that snow!" the older one said. He sneezed and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. He pouted. "It's got nothing to do with age."

Little Sonic simply shrugged and turned to face the fire. Just the fact that his older-self was on the defensive was enough of a victory for him. He didn't need to rub it in the guy's face. "Still… you're not exactly the most healthy guy around right now, you have to admit."

"I know, I know. This is harder than I thought it would be. If I had just paid closer attention when fighting that first monster…"

"Nothing you can do about it now. So unless someone randomly drops in and decides to handle the hero-ing, we've just got to keep trying to get the Emeralds by ourselves."

Tails came back into the room then, holding a thermometer and a bottle of medicine. He plopped down next to the older Sonic and stuck the thermometer in his mouth. "Just to make sure you're not REALLY sick," the fox reasoned, crossing his legs pretzel-style. After a minute, he pulled the thermometer out of Sonic's mouth and checked its reading. "Hmm... Your temperature is a little lower than it should be."

"Is that bad?" the hedgehog said, somewhat nervously.

"It means you have hypothermia."

"Hypothermia?!"

"Yep. Looks pretty mild though, you should be back to normal again once you warm up a bit. Maybe you should grab a hot water bottle or something, or else you might be shivering and confused for a few hours." The fox stood up and placed the bottle of medicine on the coffee table.

"What, you won't be a dear and grab a hot water-thingy for your sick older bro?" Sonic asked innocently. He shivered a little harder to really sell it.

"You'll be fine, you big baby," Tails smiled. He reached into Sonic's quills and pulled out the Chaos Emerald that he had obtained in Apotos.

"H-hey! Personal space there, buddy!" the hedgehog exclaimed. Tails merely tossed the Emerald in his hand nonchalantly.

"Sorry, I need it! My Emerald-tracking algorithms always work better when I have an actual Emerald to work with. Lil' T's helping me set up the program downstairs in the lab."

"So that's where he is," the younger Sonic interjected. "I was wondering what happened to him. Way too quiet around this place, so I figured he was tinkering with something somewhere."

Tails nodded. "Yup. He's getting the hang of all my tech really quick, which is great. I know it's still kind of early in the game to be saying this, but I'll need all the help I can get. If one of us can hang around here to track more Emeralds, the other one can go out and collect them. Anyways, I'd better get this downstairs pronto." He held up the red gem he held in his hand. He then turned on his heel and headed towards the basement stairs.

'Man, I never thought I'd be thinking this, but Tails has got a point with us needing help. As much as I enjoy going solo- or double, in this case- two Sonics might not be enough to get all the Emeralds in time. Especially not at the pace things are going right now.' He sighed. But what was he going to do? Knuckles couldn't land AngelIsland with the Mystic Ruins in a mess, Amy was helping out the situation in Station Square, and none of his other friends were available, either. Where in the world was he going to get help from?

Wait. That was it. Just because he wouldn't be able to find help in this world, didn't mean there weren't others he could call upon. Heck, he had just gotten a visit from a Zone Cop two days ago.

"You know what I think?" he said, snapping his past self out of a fire-staring trance. "I think I know someone who might be able to lend us a hand."

"Really?" the younger hedgehog's eyes widened. "Who?"

"An old friend of mine… Who is probably on his lunch break right now, if that clock is anything to go by," he said, glancing at the clock on the wall. It was about one in the afternoon. "Whatever, I'll see if I can call him up in a little bit. In the meantime, where the heck is that hot water bottle…? I'm freezing!" He quickly got to his feet, taking his blankets with him, and ran around the house looking for sweet warm relief.

ooo

A few hours had passed, and after spending some quality time with a hot water bottle and the radiator, Sonic was feeling much better. He sat alone in the kitchen, holding a single piece of paper. On it read the words, "Yo, Zonic, got a minute?" He tapped his foot impatiently, holding the paper up to seemingly no one. He had been waiting like that for nearly twenty minutes now, and he was getting bored. But, even though he didn't like admitting it, two Sonics probably wouldn't be enough to save the world. Not this time. None of his regular teammates were available at the moment, what with time falling apart and everything. So, he was left to gather help from a less than likely source.

The younger incarnation of Sonic wandered into the room from the living room. He walked over to the fridge, pulled it open, and grabbed a can of soda out of it. He closed the door with his foot and popped the top on his beverage, the can opening with a sharp hiss. He took a long gulp from the soda and wiped his mouth with the back of his glove. The small hedgehog glanced at his older self and the sheet of paper he was holding.

"Um, what are you doing?" he asked, swirling the carbonated drink around in his hand.

"Trying to contact that old friend of mine I was talking about," the taller, bluer one said, as if what he was doing was completely normal. His past self cleared his throat.

"You could try the phone, you know. Unless this friend of yours can be reached through pure willpower and a sheet of paper."

"Haha, no," the older Sonic laughed. "He's watching though, I know it. He's always watching. Sort of creepy, I know, but it's his job."

This response only served to confuse his young self. "What, like a guardian angel or something? Don't tell me you believe in that crud."

"Eh, kind of. It's hard to explain. He's not any sort of mystical, all-powerful being, I can tell you that."

Little-Sonic raised an eyeridge and took a sip of his soda. He placed the drink on the counter and looked at the poorly-made sign his future-self was holding. The writing was hastily scribbled with crayon, and it looked like it was done on the back of an old printout of a chili dog recipe. "Zonic?" he said incredulously. "Sounds like a silly character one of your fangirls came up with."

"I'll just pretend I didn't hear that." The two Sonics spun their heads around to see that a round, orange portal had just opened up in the kitchen. Inside said portal was someone around the height of the older Sonic, wearing high-tech armor and a frown on his face. The rest of his head was obscured by a helmet with an opaque visor. Most noticeable about him, however, was that he was standing sideways.

"Hey, Z! There you are. I've been waiting for you to show up," the elder Sonic said, standing up out of his chair and placing his sign down on the table.

"What the-!" his past self said, taking up a fighting stance. "Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?!"

The one in the portal crossed his arms over his chest. "You had quite the mouth on you when you were younger, Prime," he said, looking at the older hedgehog. Sonic smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, well! I learned to cool off on the language, Tails started picking up on it after a while." He slapped his younger self on the back a little harder than he normally would have, making sure his point got across. "Don't worry about him, Lil' Me, he's the friend I was telling you about."

"Your friend is a sideways guy in a goofy uniform?"

"Hey, be nice."

"Ahem," Zonic cleared his throat noisily. "I do have other things to do, you know, so if you could tell me why I'm here...?"

"Oh! Right," the elder Sonic said. "I had to talk to you about something."

"So, get over here and we'll talk. I'm not having a trans-dimensional conversation like this, it'll drain the power core in my belt." He tapped a finger on his belt buckle, which was the device that opened up the portal in the first place.

"What? Oh, fine, whatever," Sonic sighed. "You're so difficult sometimes... Lil' Me, keep an eye on the Tailses, alright? I'll be back soon."

"But- where are you even going? Sonic!" the twelve-year-old argued, glancing between his future-self and the mysterious sideways 'Zonic.'

"Calm down, I'll just be 90 degrees from here. See ya!" He offered his younger incarnation a quick wave goodbye before jumping through the portal. The gateway closed up after him, leaving the child all alone in the kitchen, dumbfounded.

"... What does 90 degrees from here even supposed to mean?!" he shouted. He knew he wouldn't be getting an answer to that question anytime soon, but he still had to ask it. He pouted and picked up his soda, taking a sip from it. Being stuck in the future was really starting to grate on his nerves; constantly being kept in the dark about everything was really annoying sometimes.

ooo

90 degrees away, the older version of this hedgehog was trying to get used to the No Zone's sideways gravity. It was oddly fascinating to him; how he stayed oriented to his own world's gravity and how this world seemed to be turned in its side. He was floating/standing sideways in mid-air, as Zonic did whenever he was in Sonic's world. While Sonic was taking all of this in, the No-Zoner flipped up the visor on his helmet, revealing his previously-hidden face. He sat down in the office chair of his monitoring station, a room filled with hundreds of television screens- each one with the live image of an alternate version of Sonic on it. He crossed his legs as he glanced up at his Prime Zone counterpart. "So, what did you want to talk to me about, Sonic?" he asked calmly.

"Well, we've got a teensey little problem, not really a huge deal, but I figured, 'hey, maybe I should let my old pal Zonic know what's going with all these time shenanigans.' That's all, nothing potentially catastrophic or anything," Sonic said with a shrug. Zonic sighed.

"The fabric of space-time is falling apart, isn't it?"

"It's crumbling faster than a cookie in the hands of a two-year-old. How'd you know?"

"Maybe you've forgotten," the Zone Cop said, lacing his fingers together, "but I see practically everything that goes on in the multiverse that concerns you and our other-selves. And let me tell you, the Prime Zone monitor has certainly been an interesting watch these past few days. Windy Valley and the capitol city of Apotos frozen in time, Station Square and the Mystic Ruins being blasted with a snowstorm, and that's only the stuff you've picked up on."

"You said it, my world is a mess. That's why I could use your help."

"And what exactly do you think I can do to help out?" Zonic asked, standing up now. "I told you before, time travel isn't exactly my thing, so there's nothing I can directly do to fix this. We've already put all other Zones in lockdown, so this whole situation stays contained. There's nothing else I can do."

"Not exactly!" Sonic said, wagging his finger. "Tails and I figure we can fix time if we gather all seven Chaos Emeralds. Normally, I could round them all up, no problem. But we're having a tricky time tracking the things down, and I'm... not really at a hundred percent right now." He wrapped an arm around his chest, drawing attention to the bandages that were covering his entire torso. "Of course, the guys are all either busy trying to help people out with time stopping everywhere, or I can't get a hold of them. Which is why I'm asking for some trans-dimensional assistance."

Zonic closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. "Okay, so I'm guessing you want to recruit a bunch of people from all different dimensions, and use my Zone Portals to get to the Emeralds quickly? Is that it?"

"A pretty good plan, right?" Sonic smiled, flashing his alternate-self a thumbs up. "So, what do you say, Z-man? Gonna lend a hand?"

"I'm going to have to say no."

"Alright, cool! Wel- wait, did you just say no?" Sonic said, doing a double take.

"I already told you, I can't just pull random Sonics out of their Zones willy-nilly, not without putting countless worlds in danger. The only reason No Zone is still connected to Mobius Prime is so that we can closely monitor the situation," the No-Zoner explained, as if it were first grade logic. Sonic sighed and ran his hand through his quills.

"Okay then, so recruiting from other Zones is a no-go. Can you still help us out with the portals, at least? I mean, I can use Chaos Control to get around the planet, but it's starting to take its toll on me."

Zonic thought about it for a moment, absentmindedly fingering the belt at his waist. "I'll... see what I can do. The Chaos Emeralds have a nasty habit of interfering with where Zone Portals open up, so I won't be able to land you too close to them. But I'll do what I can."

"Hey, that works just fine with me. Thanks a lot dude, I owe you one."

"Well, considering all the times you've helped out the Zone Cops, it's probably the least I can do, huh?"

"You said it," Sonic chuckled. He could feel an idea hatching in his brain. "Hey… Correct me if I'm wrong, but… You're a Sonic, technically, and your Zone isn't locked down like the others are."

"You want me to help out with your Emerald hunt, Prime? In case you haven't noticed, I kind of have a job to do."

"And that job's protecting the multiverse, right? Well, what better way to do that then to help put a stop to the problem yourself?"

"It's not that I don't want to help," Zonic said, giving him an incredulous look. "I'm better at hunting down lawbreakers than mystical gems."

"Pretty lame excuse for a guy who's supposed to be all business," Sonic said with a smirk.

Something in the Zone cop's head ticked. "Excuse?" he said, not making eye contact with his other self. "You want me to give you an excuse, Sonic?" His voiced raised. "Well, how's this for an excuse: I'm not fast. I can't run like you, or any other Sonic out there. Okay? I'm a regular old slowpoke. Why do you think I took this gig in the first place, huh? You can't do much to protect people from inter-dimensional creeps if you're a civilian with no special abilities whatsoever."

Sonic fell silent. This was not what he was expecting from this visit. He struggled to wrap his head around what he had just heard. "You mean, you really can't…" He licked his lips, his mouth dry. "Dude, I had no idea, honestly." He couldn't believe it. Zonic the Zone Cop, one of the best blue hedgehogs out there, couldn't run. 'Come to think of it, I've only seen the guy in action a handful of times, and he would usually stick to using his gadgets or going hand-to-hand… Well, I guess this explains why he was always calling me up to help protect other zones,' Sonic thought.

Zonic clenched his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead. He took a deep breath and sat down in his chair, elbows resting on his knees.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have snapped like that. Not really professional of me."

"Heh, you honestly think I care about that?" Sonic smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Professionalism, not being fast, whatever. You still have skills, man. Mad skills! I mean, aren't you supposed to be the Zone Cops' star officer or somethin'?"

The cop couldn't help but crack a grin at that. "I may have been called that once or twice, yeah." He shook his head and sighed. "I don't know, Sonic. This isn't exactly my usual gig. Even if I come with you- and that is still an if, by the way- I don't think I'll be enough to get the job done with room to spare. Especially considering how unstable your world is right now."

"Well then, what do you suggest we do, officer? No offense, but you're not exactly the first person I've asked for assistance. I'm running out of folks to get in touch with," Sonic asked, hands on his hips. The No-Zoner exhaled through pursed lips and sat back in his chair. He sat there quietly for a beat, thinking.

"My men aren't going to be much help. They're all scrambling just to enforce the lockdown and keep this mess contained. So unless we recruit the prisoners in the Zone Jail for help, I don't have a clue who to go to," he joked.

Sonic smirked and gave a short laugh. "The Zone Jail, eh? The one person I know in that joint… Probably one of the last people I'd like to work with, ever."

"It's not like you guys haven't worked together before."

"Yeah, I believe those were called 'quick truces to take down the robots that want us both dead so we can keep fighting uninterrupted.' Hardly an alliance, wouldn't you say?"

"I don't like him either. Don't forget, he tried to destroy what was left of ZoneCity. I'm just saying, he's an option."

"He's in prison, Z. And he should stay there, locked up where he can't hurt anybody." Sonic shook his head and looked at the monitors covering the wall. Each screen showed an alternate version of him- hey, he could see himself in Zonic's office on one of the monitors. Freaky. The screen directly underneath his own showed a familiar, green hedgehog with short quills and a suspicious orange outfit. He was sitting on the edge of a bed- well, what was left of the bed, anyway. It looked like he didn't have a mattress of his own, just a bunch of springs to sleep on. He looked pretty miserable.

Zonic got up out of his chair and stood next to Sonic. "Well, if you want help, you're going to have to be openminded about where it comes from," he said, also looking at the screen with the imprisoned hedgehog. "Even if it comes from Scourge."

Sonic didn't say anything, but narrowed his eyes and frowned. It was true, he shouldn't discriminate when it came to getting help, especially when potentially the whole multiverse was at stake. Not to mention, Scourge was incredibly powerful- as fast as Sonic himself was (although the blue hedgehog would never admit it) and packed an even harder punch. Having him on the team would make the mission a breeze.

But at the same time, Scourge was completely untrustworthy. He turned on every person he ever allied himself with, if his allies didn't mutiny against him first. He had conquered his planet, tried to do the same with Sonic's own, and when that didn't work, he went after the No Zone, trying to bring the perpendicular world down with him. It had taken some serious hard work to get the guy in jail and have him stay there. He'd been in there for a year already, and if it were up to Sonic, he'd stay there for the rest of his life.

"Are you seriously suggesting we let him out? Knowing him he'll just try and conquer my planet all over again, and I'm definitely not going to put up with that a second time," Sonic said. His No-Zone self shrugged noncommittally.

"It's up to you. You never know, he might cooperate."

"You're the one who can see what he's up to. You tell me if he'll cooperate."

"Well, take a look for yourself. Does he look like much of a bad guy in there?" Zonic said, turning around. He picked up a mug off of his desk and took a sip of hot coffee.

"Zonic, Eggman would look innocent rotting in a place like that."

"No, he'd be busy scheming an escape plan. I've been looking in on ol' Green every once in a while, and he hasn't been up to much. Just getting beaten up a lot."

"I'd love to see that," Sonic laughed. He looked up at the screen again. Scourge was being pulled from his cell and forced to walk down a long hallway with loads of other inmates. "Hey, what's going on?"

Zonic glanced up. "Hm? Oh, they must be taking them down to the rec yard. Can't keep them locked up all day, you know."

Sonic nodded and turned back to the screen. The fact that Scourge had to be removed from his cell by guards was curious, at least. It looked like the green hog didn't want to go anywhere, just wanted to stay in his cell and be all alone. Sulking in his room? That didn't seem like Scourge's style at all. Were things really that bad in the Zone Jail that he'd been changed that much?

"Maybe I'll consider asking him to help out," Sonic muttered quietly. "I'll have to talk to him first, though. I don't need him playing us like fools just so he can escape."

"I hear you. He's not stepping a foot out of that place unless we're positive he's not going to run off at the first opportunity," the Zone Cop said, taking another swig of coffee. "You want to go pay him a visit? You're already here, after all."

Sonic frowned. He was really against the idea of doing anything that would help his evil self, but if Scourge could really help...

"Meh, why not? The worst he can do is say no."

ooo

Ten minutes later, they were all ready to leave. Zonic had managed to convince Lieutenant Zector to handle monitor duty until he got back, and had also gotten a spatial stabilizer for Sonic. The device was silver and shaped like a bracelet, so it could easily slide onto the wrist. It kept whoever was wearing it oriented in the zone they were currently in; whether it be a Prime-Zoner in the No Zone or a No-Zoner in the Prime Zone.

"Alright Prime. Teleporting will be faster, since we're travelling within the same Zone. You ever teleported before?" Zonic asked, inspecting his belt to make sure its teleporting device was working. Sonic nodded with a cocky grin.

"Totally. I teleported, like, five times this morning using the Chaos Emeralds."

"Great, then you know the drill. I assume you won't throw up, so let's get this show on the road already."

Sonic's eyes widened as his counterpart grabbed his wrist. Zonic pressed the button on the center of his belt buckle just as Sonic sputtered, "Wait, throw up?!"

But it was too late. The Mobian felt like he as being pixilated, breaking apart into millions upon millions of tiny pieces and shooting off towards the direction of the prison of what must have been close to the speed of light. He shot through walls, through people, open air, cities, and mountains, traveling in a single straight line. He had never gone so fast in his entire life, not even as Super Sonic. The ride was over almost as soon as it began, though, and he could feel his molecules rearranging themselves and falling back into their rightful places. He rapidly rematerialized, Zonic standing at his side just like before they left. Once he was all back in one piece, he immediately doubled over and fell to his knees. He felt awful, like his stomach had reformed upside-down and his guts were all inside-out. He puked. He wasn't able to hold his lunch after that wild ride. Zonic took a step back, a little bit grossed out.

Once Sonic was done purging his insides, he wiped his mouth with the back of his glove and sat down, breathing hard. He spat a couple of times, trying to get the taste of bile out of his mouth. "The hell, man?" he coughed. "I thought that'd be like Chaos Control, not a freaking Tilt-a-Whirl. Urp…!" He lurched forward and vomited again.

"Hey, I never used Chaos Control before. How was I supposed to know it was different?" Zonic asked, throwing his hands up defensively. "Just be glad you're rightside-up. Throwing up sideways is NOT a pleasant experience."

"Oh, gross, TMI dude," Sonic moaned. He climbed to his feet. His legs were shaking, so he grabbed onto a railing next to him help himself stand up. "So where are we? Is this Zone Jail?"

They were standing outside the prison, several hundred feet up on a suspended metal platform. The whole prison complex seemed to be floating in mid-air, making it practically impossible to escape. The rec yard made up the surface of the jail- the whole surface. The place must've had its own artificial gravity, because the complex was shaped like an octagonal prism and had walkways facing in all directions.

"Yep. Welcome to the Zone Jail, home to some of the multiverse's worst criminals. The guys in Scourge's cellblock should be in the rec yard right now," Zonic said, looking at the main building.

"So all we have to do is find Scourge and get him to talk to us. And not get murdered by prisoners."

"And convince the Warden to let Scourge out of here if he agrees to help."

"And that, too." Sonic nodded and looked over the rec yard. There were people everywhere; some playing basketball, some lifting weights, some just walking around and talking. Zonic sighed and flipped down the visor of his helmet.

"Okay, you see if you can get a hold of Scourge, maybe ask a guard to go and grab him or something so you don't get creamed by all the bad guys in there. Even though you two hate each other, I think he'll be more receptive if you try and talk to him. I'm going to try and convince the Warden to release his prized prisoner a bit early."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Alright then. Oh, wait, you might want to take this." Zonic pulled a small card out of his pocket and handed it over. It was made out of red plastic, and looked almost like a credit card. "The guards are less likely to bug you if you show 'em that. In theory, me giving this to you gives you all the access to this place that I have, but since we'll be dealing with Scourge, you'll just have to play it by ear. Good luck, Sonic," Zonic said. He turned and jogged down the pathway, turning through a door and vanishing into the building.

'So that really is as fast as he can run...' Sonic thought, a tinge of sadness in his inner voice. 'Oh well, there's not much I can really do about it. I need to focus on finding Scourge... Man, I can't believe I'm actually doing this.' He took off, going in the opposite direction that his No Zone self went, trying to find some way to get down to the rec yard. Or at very least, a guard who could get Scourge out of there so Sonic could talk to him. What was he even going to say? He had tried to convince Scourge to switch sides in the past, and nothing had worked. It wasn't like the guy didn't have the potential to be a good guy- he and Sonic were incredibly similar, even though neither of them really liked to admit it. He had the capacity for kindness, but his ego usually got in the way of that. Hopefully his time in prison had given him a reality check.

"Hey, you!" shouted a voice from behind him. Sonic spun around to see a guard running towards him, laser pistol aimed at his chest. "You're not authorized to be up here! Put your hands up!"

"Yo, calm down! I'm cool to be here!" Sonic said, hands in the air. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, y'know, the Prime one? Zonic brought me here, I'm with him!"

"The Captain brought you?" the guard asked warily.

"Sure did. I can show you where I vomited because of the stupid teleporting belts you guys have."

"Err, that won't be necessary," the guard said, trying to hide his disgust. "So, if Captain Zonic brought you, where is he?"

"Ran off to go find the Warden, had to ask him about something. I tagged along because I need to have a chat with Scourge."

"Sorry Sir, but unless I see some ID or talk to the Captain myself, the only one you're going to have a chat with is the recipient of your one phone call."

"Hey, come on! I'm not causing any trouble, am I?" Sonic asked with a cocky smirk plastered on his face. He knew that he could easily show the guy the card that Zonic gave him, but messing with him was too much fun. The guard didn't seem to be having any of his sass, and his face grew more serious and he reached for the handcuffs hooked to the back of his belt. He was coming close to slapping them around the hedgehog's wrists when something else caught his eye.

"What the?" He looked over the side of the walkway into the rec yard. Because of how No Zone's gravity worked, all of the inmates were standing sideways in comparison to he other Zone Cops, even with the artificial gravity in place. No Zone physics were a difficult thing to grasp, and tended to make more sense the less you thought about them.

What had caught the guard's eye was the sight of a fight breaking out in the yard. At least five or six convicts were gathered around one other in the middle, beating him down into the ground. A small crowd of others was crowded around, laughing, cheering, and clamoring for a chance to get in on the action as well. The others in the yard weren't participating, but almost all of them were watching, and none of them were helping the guy in the middle of it all.

The guard fired warning shots into the air with his pistol before turning it towards the group of inmates. "Oi, knock it off down there!" He shouted loudly. "Or do I have to send you all to solitary?!" The threat of solitary confinement made a couple people in the crowd back off, but not the majority.

Sonic frowned. He could feel his protective instincts kick in. The exact same instincts that told him to protect his home of Green Hill, along with the rest of South Island, from Robotnik's first attack; the same instincts that told him to rescue Tails all those years ago from the bullies in Emerald Hill. Sonic put a foot on top of the railing on the side of the walkway and used it as a springboard to jump off of. He leapt into the air, removing his spatial stabilizer mid-jump. He fell towards the rec yard face-first, and quickly corrected his orientation. He landed softly on his feet about three yards away from the fight.

"Yo!" He called out, his arms crossed and his foot tapping wildly. "The dude with the gun said to cut it out. Maybe you ought to listen!"

Some of the fighters turned to look at the hedgehog that was intruding on their fun. "And what if we don't?" One of them, a huge brown bear, asked, cracking his knuckles as he started to walk over. A couple of the others followed his lead, smiling menacingly. Sonic's frown turned to a small smirk.

"Well then, you'll have to answer to me." Suddenly, in a flash of blue, he was gone. The prisoners were starting to think they should've just kept to their one target, instead of picking a fight with this newcomer. Sonic's feet came to a stop right behind the bear. He stood on his tiptoes and tapped the bear on his left shoulder, and then quickly sidestepped to the right. The bear turned around, confused when he couldn't find the one that poked him. He kept turning until he was looking right at Sonic, who smiled up at him as if he had done nothing wrong. The bear growled, leaning back to throw a punch right at the hero's head. The hedgehog quickly ducked under his legs as he let his fist fly. The prisoner now off-balance, Sonic gave him a swift kick in the back, sending him toppling forward onto his face.

With the bear taken down, the rest of the prisoners who were with him decided it was high time to attack. The group of about ten or so charged Sonic head-on, which was a poor plan of attack in retrospect. The green-eyed hedgehog jumped over the first few of them, and brought the heel of his sneaker down on the head of a dumbfounded skunk. The aggressor's face contacted the ground a split second later. Sonic used his momentum from his previous jump to frontflip off the skunk's noggin and land back on the floor- right in the middle of the inmates who wanted his head.

They stood that way for a heartbeat, letting the Mobian take in his current situation. It didn't last long, though. The first one to make their move was a tiger, a female, who ran at him from behind. Her claws were bared, her sharp teeth gleaming in the late afternoon sun. Sonic saw an attack from behind coming from a mile away. He ducked to the side and stuck his leg out right as the tigress was about to swipe a couple of quills right off his head. He swung his leg back in a sweeping motion, knocking her feet right out from under her. Thanks to her speed and forward momentum, she tripped and went flying into another inmate, a wolf, both of them crashing to the ground. Sonic grimaced. He wasn't a fan of hurting girls, but she asked for it. He didn't have much time to concern himself with his level of chivalry though, as a maddened Cobra was the next one to try something on him. This one seemed to be smarter than the others: rather than aiming for Sonic's head, this one went for the legs, something the hedgehog would be powerless without. Unfortunately for the snake, the hero wasn't about to let him get a lucky shot in and disable his legs. Sonic swung his legs out from under him and spun them around, supporting himself with his arms. His breakdance style of fighting proved effective, as the Cobra was blasted away, forcefully exiting the quickly shrinking circle of inmates.

The remaining prisoners were done taking Sonic on one at a time. Before he had even recovered from his totally sick dance move, three of them attacked him all at once. One of them, a rhino, grabbed his swinging leg mid-air as it started to slow down. The other two, a warthog and a large purple cat that looked remarkably like Big, grabbed Sonic's other leg and his arms, respectively. They held the hedgehog up in the air, looking like they were getting ready to rim him limb from limb all at once. Sonic gulped. This was going to be a tough pickle to get out of. Of course, he had a plan of action stored away incase anything like this ever happened, although he had hoped that when he tried it out for the first time, it would be on enemies that weren't as big as these lugs.

Focusing on all the strength in his legs and abdominals, Sonic swung his legs upward, taking the rhino and the warthog with them. The two sailed over his head and landed on Big's doppelganger, all three crashing to the ground and releasing their grips on the hedgehog's limbs. Sonic quickly got to his feet. He really should haves stretched before doing that, but oh well. It was a good thing his legs were powerful enough to carry him faster than the speed of sound, or else that never would have worked. He glanced around at the remaining inmates that weren't flat on their backs/faces. There were only four left, and they were starting to look like they were really regretting the decision to storm the one-hedgehog army. None of them were making a move, each waiting for another to attack first. Sonic shrugged with one shoulder. It looked like he would have to finish this up. He curled up into a ball and started spinning rapidly in place, revving up for a spindash. He shot at an angle towards one of the four, not even hitting him but the force of the wind that followed being enough to knock him onto his tail. Sonic was right on target with the last three, knocking each of their legs out from under them in quick succession.

In about two minutes, Sonic had taken down ten Zone Jail inmates, who were some of the worst scum in the universe. He barely even broke a sweat.

He looked up to see everyone in the rec yard staring at him, wide-eyed and open mouthed. Even some of he guards were staring at him in awe. He rolled his eyes and placed his hands on his hips. "Alright, there's nothing to see here, folks! Go on, go back to your regularly scheduled programs," he said loudly, dismissing all the stares with a wave of his hand. Everyone awkwardly and slowly turned their gazes elsewhere, having to settle for whispering about what had just happened amongst themselves. Sonic looked down at the trembling inmates at his feet, still lying on the ground. "BOO," he shouted, causing the bear in front of him to yelp and scamper off, tail between his legs. The others followed suit, grumbling and cursing off the blue one for ruining their fun. The hedgehog shoo'd away the few stragglers that were left over from the original beating, who had decided to continue beating on their original target rather than take Sonic on. Once the scene was clear, Sonic huffed.

"Well, that was a nice change of pace. Fighting monsters all the time gets pretty boring," he yawned. He looked down at the prisoner who was getting wailed on before, who was still lying face-down on the ground. "Hey dude, you alright?" he asked. The bullied inmate was green- the kind of green that looked like it was duller than it was supposed to be- and sported short, choppy quills swooping off the back of his head. His orange jumpsuit had patches all over it, and had two holes in the back where a pair of spines were jutting through. He appeared to be the same height as Sonic, and sported a pair of familiar-looking black and green boots on his feet. Sonic's eyes widened. There was no way.

"Wait... Scourge?"

Notes: Well, now we know what Scourge has been doing this whole time! Getting beat up. Swell. But will he agree to team up with Sonic (you can probably guess)? Will he actually become a sort of not-terrible person eventually (you can guess this too)? And what do you mean, Zonic's not fast (you might be able to guess this but you won't get all the details)? Most of these questions will be answered next time!

P.S. I just got Sonic Lost World for the Wii U and it is great. It's super fun, and even though I do have a problem with it here and there *coughcoughimissthegoodolddayswhenyoudidn'thavetol ockontoanythingtohomingattackcough* it's super fun and the characterization is beautiful. This feels like the first game where Sonic acts like Sonic and Tails acts like Tails (except for that one scene, if you've played it you know what I'm talkin' about) and they just goof off and make fun of Eggman together and... yeah I like it a lot. I'm going to post this, do my history homework, and then go play some more. Okay, mini-review over. See you next week, folks!

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