Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from the Sonic the hedgehog universe (except one or two OCs), they belong to SEGA and not me.
Silver's post adventures
The heat was unbearable.
The fires burned everywhere as far as the eye could see, the air heavy and thick with both the sight and the scent of smog and smoke that rose up in the air from burning cars and the like. Distant yet titanic roars rang in the air and each bellow sent violent shudders down the spine of anyone in listening range…not that there were many folk who could live in such a fiery and blazing-out-of-control-environment in the first place.
A young hedgehog with psychokinetic abilities named Silver was no exception to this.
The small hedgehog might have been young but he was most definitely a force to be reckoned with.
He was covered from head-to-toe with soot-covered gray/white fur. He had a (dirtied) tan muzzle. He peered out on to this harsh world with a striking pair of yellow/goldenrod irises with dark onyx pupils full of naivety and hope. He had two hanging quills behind his head and a pair of shark-like back quills protruding from his upper back. He had pure white chest fluff covering the front of his chest. Five long hair pieces poked out from the top of his head and acted simultaneously as his brows.
The little 5-year-old hedgehog kit was, sadly, born and raised in this fiery hell.
He kept running and dodging and ducking as heated flurries brushed right through him, the gale force almost was enough to knock him off his feet and send him hurtling through the air. But he persevered while he clung on to a piece of turned over concrete left over from a road for dear life and grit his fangs so tight that sparks of friction could have been flying out of his mouth as a result.
"Uuughhh…Nnnnnnnggggghhh….!" He cried out through gnashed fangs.
His eyes slammed shut both out of pain and out of need to keep any fire or tornado residue out of his ocular structures while he waited for the fiery hot winds to subside for a moment.
His ears and quills blew and whipped about in every direction as the winds hit him hard. It was so difficult to breathe in the face of so much force being blown in his face, even with the concrete road piece being used as a shield while he tried to duck down behind it to get some cover. In the process of trying to get down, he fell down on one knee, accidentally cutting it on the rubble and asphalt in the process of him trying to gain some footing before he lost the momentum he had gained for just a second.
Silver's lungs felt like they were on fire.
Each intake of breath filled his chest with this fiery heat that touched every single one of his ribs and filled his lungs to the fullest while each outtake was a relief as it cooled his cooking internal organs and the heat and fire and smog was momentarily expelled from his body.
He was used to traversing these lands and he had no other choice if he wanted to survive.
So, getting back to his feet tentatively, Silver made a mad dash of a scramble and took off in a sprint while he hurried to get to somewhere safe before-
ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHGGGRRRRRRH!
The youngling's ears drooped when he heard that shrieking bellow of a roar.
He knew that roar so well.
He'd grown up with that roar.
That was the roar of the monster that ravaged this world and it belonged to the "flames of disaster" known as Iblis.
"I…I gotta keep running! I gotta-!"
Wait.
That was the very instant when a new thought struck him, a thought so intense that it caused him to freeze in place for a second time. It was a thought that made his breath catch in his throat and he couldn't help but begin to worry while he looked all around him. He…He was looking for his mama and papa…but where were they? He…He remembered how they ventured out to search for food to scavenge on. Papa left first to go find food and, after two days of waiting without any sign of him whatsoever, Mama ventured out to go look for him and neither had returned.
Little Silver couldn't help but worry.
Where were his parents?
He had to go out and find them!
He wanted his mama and papa!
"Mama!" Silver cupped one side of his mouth using his hand and called out, his little voice echoing and reverberating and then carrying throughout the land around him. "Papa!"
Nothing.
There wasn't even a sound to answer him.
The little hedgehog sighed, downcast.
The thought of just going home and resuming the wait of his parents' return rang through his mind and he was ready to act on that thought…until a certain presence stopped him dead in his tracks. It was so strong and he couldn't help but be overcome by this sense of impending doom. He felt a huge tremor ride up his spine and his shark-fin-like back quills prickled in response. This presence…it scared him. It scared him even more when he heard massive panting and breathing coming from somewhere above him.
Scared beyond logical reason, the youngling disobeyed his instincts to not turn around and look up.
He instantly regretted it.
A ginormous creature loomed overhead, said creature's shadow was large enough that it stretched across over half of the land.
This beast's anatomy was entirely made out of lava and magma and molten rock slabs and boulders and it had glowing green eyes to match the glowing green gem embedded within its forehead. The creature didn't show a shred of emotion (it probably wouldn't even if it could) and it didn't smile, frown or anything and it simply just stared at him with this destructive intent and nothing more.
Little Silver whimpered as this was the first time he'd seen Iblis in such a form.
"P-Please! D-D-D-Don't eat me! I taste yucky!" He cried out in desperation.
He always knew that Iblis was a beast but he never seen him so close up before and Silver realised that he was practically the size of an ant compared to the fiery monster. He tried to think of a way so he could flee from this situation but there wasn't much he could do and he knew that all too well. He couldn't run and, even if he tried to run, he doubted he was fast enough to outrun the flaming monster. He couldn't fight the monster either since his powers weren't developed enough, he could barely muster the mental energy to levitate small objects and what hope did he have of trying to lift something so big with so little experience?
It would all just be a pointless endeavour!
There was nothing he could do!
So, out of fear, the five-year-old let his eyes shut tight while he braced himself for some type of pain or discomfort —he was expected to feel something as he was grabbed or eaten or something but, as the seconds passed, he came to the realisation that he wasn't feeling anything.
The pain he was expecting just wasn't coming.
He was now puzzled and befuddled.
Why…Why wasn't he…?
Reluctantly, before he could finish his thought, Silver cracked open one eye and then opened the other eye when he saw a pair of familiar figures stood defiantly in front of Iblis, their postures strong and standing and their eyes narrowed determinedly.
Silver's little ears darted upwards and his eyes widened in astonished shock.
One figure was an adult Mobian hedgehog with blue/lilac/gray fur with two quills hanging down the back of her head (much like Silver's back-of-the-head-quills) and she had a tuft of "hair" fluffed up in-between her ears which seemed considerably bigger than the average hedgehog. She had a pale peach muzzle with a triangular black nose. She had green/blue/turquoise eyes. She wore a dress shirt which had been reduced to a poorly stitched yet patchy article of clothing and a pair of shorts which used to be a pair of denim jeans but had been ripped and torn and repurposed into shorts instead.
The other figure was an adult Mobian mink with bronze/copper-coloured fur and particularly fluffy cheek fluff and some "hair" that stuck out at odd ends. He had a pale brown muzzle with a long black nose. He had a lot of pronounced chest fluff covering his chest that was more orange than white. He had a long and bushy tail. He wore a pair of fingerless gloves with square-shaped markings on his hands (like the circular rings on Silver's hands). He was a bit lanky compared to other stronger Mobians whom have fought Iblis but that didn't mean he wasn't strong in other ways. He held both hands out in front of him in an outstretched position and flexed the palms outwards, a blue shield made of some sort of psychic energy materialising out from said outstretched palms.
The two figures names were Sylvia and Venice.
Silver, however, knew them as his mother and father.
He couldn't stop a smile born of pure relief spreading across his little muzzle and his tiny tail began to wag due to the exuberant joy and relief that buzzed throughout his body like a hive full of agitated bees.
"Mama! Papa!" He cheered. "I found you!"
He had not only found them but they were here to protect him!
Everything would be okay now!
But then Silver's mother and father both turned around to look over at him, they must have heard his cries, and they suddenly appeared shocked and horrified if Silver read their facial features correctly. The little hedgehog's joy immediately turned into worried confusion and his smile vanished while his eyes became glossy with unshed tears, he could feel deep down in his gut that something was about to happen. The heat predicted yet another blisteringly hot wind going to blow over very soon but Silver didn't care about that, not anymore.
The five-year-old kit never removed his gaze from his parents, not even to blink.
"S-SILVER!?" Silver's mother, Sylvia, exclaimed in horror.
"Wh-What's he doing here? It's not safe!" Venice cried out in shock, dismay and fear.
Venice, meanwhile, just grunted painfully as he kept his palms raised but his body and resolve began to shatter like glass. He, too, looked mortified at his very little son's presence in this terrible battlefield; he never wanted his boy to witness a scene like this as he knew full well that if he kept exhausting his powers to keep these cursed flames of disaster at bay…then he…he wouldn't…
He couldn't even finish the thought.
He didn't want his son to bare witness to such horror but there was nothing left for it now.
Then he, with a flash of new resolve, nodded to his wife with a grim yet solemn look glinting like knives inside his eyes. No matter what, he had to keep his shield up and effective and protect his family…to protect his wife and son. He could feel droplets of sweat trickle down his face, muzzle and forehead due to the effort he was exerting within his shield.
"Ggggrrrnghhh…!" Venice groaned painfully, trying not to buckle under the power he was fighting against while he grit his fanged teeth and narrowed his eyes into a glare as he endured the strain of his psychic powers. "Go on, Sylvia! Go say goodbye to him! I'll hold Iblis back for as long as I can!"
"V-Venice…!" Sylvia pled, the crack in her voice betraying the desperation she felt weighing down on her.
But Venice wasn't having any of it.
"Please! Hurry! I don't know how much longer I can hold him!"
Reluctantly, Sylvia nodded and turned back to refocus on her worried yet inquisitive little son.
"Mama?" Silver asked, confused and a bit scared. "What's goin' on? Why're you an' Daddy fighting that big ol' monster? I thought you were out looking for food?"
Sylvia flinched visibly, the pain in her heart making this task even more difficult than it was already but she put on a smile that was as soft as silk and she tried her best to sound as soothing and as encouraging as she could to avoid scaring her baby boy anymore then he already was. Nevertheless, she knew she had no choice but to try and keep a smile on her muzzle to assure Silver that everything was going to be ok.
"Y-Yes, baby. We were looking for food. B-But you see that monster Daddy and I are fighting right now? It…Its taken us some time but we are going to make sure that monster leaves and doesn't come back for a very long time, we don't want it coming back for awhile, not until you are a big strong boy."
Silver's eyes grew bigger and bigger and his young yet innocent mind was quickly becoming a mess of confusion.
What was going on?
Why was his mummy talking like this?
Before Silver could even open his mouth to ask what was happening, Sylvia proceeded to fall to her knees and was quick to envelope the little hedgehog in her embrace and she pulled Silver into her nice and warm arms and cradled him as though he were a tiny baby. Silver, meanwhile, felt comforted by the gentle and familiar warmth of being in his mother's loving arms. He couldn't help but enjoy the sensation of being cuddled in her embrace and it made him wish he could remain in said embrace forever more.
Ever since he had been born, he knew he'd never grow tired of being held in his mother's arms and the familiarity never failed to soothe any pain that happened to be present in his heart.
It was nice.
Silver was reminded of the scary times during which he sought out his parents warmth and protection, how the scary things turned out to be not nearly as terrifying when he was with them. He remembered the times he'd bury his muzzle into his father's chest fluff as he recalled the fun times where his dad would not only carry him on his shoulders but he also recalled the lessons they took together to not only forage for food but he also remembered when they would learn how to control one another's powers.
He even remembered his dad's carefree chuckle and his mother's giggle of delight.
Sure, they lived in a burning apocalyptic wasteland but they somehow made it a happy home full of love.
However, Sylvia could sense the urgency in the air rising higher and higher by the minute and this was making her eyes water as she knew that it was soon going to be time to let her boy go and she couldn't help but start to sob as a tear or two oozed from her eye. Looking at Silver's sweet little face now felt like a dagger was being stuffed right through her heart. It was getting harder and harder to reign in her emotions.
"We love you, Silver…I know I'm asking you to grow up so fast and I'm so sorry for that. You will always be loved no matter what." She whispered while pouring every ounce of love and affection she could muster into her voice.
Silver was beginning to get scared.
What was going on?
What was this?
His small mind was finding this all too much to process!
"M-Mama…?" Was all little Silver could say,
That was when the huge monster made of lava and fire reared back and let loose an earth-shatteringly concussive roar that blasted through the air with such ferocious intensity. Sylvia was quick to hold her baby even closer and tighter in hopes of protecting him from being whisked away by the sheer force of the roar it let out. The roar of fury was also just enough to shatter the shield that Venice was struggling more and more to maintain until now.
There was no more time!
"S-Sylvia!" Venice cried out in fear. "This is our only chance! We've got to do this now!"
Before little Silver could react any further, Sylvia pulled him close to herself for one last cuddle as she planted a quick but tender kiss on her son's forehead. The 5-year-old didn't know what to make of any of this as his ears drooped and his mind continued to race as he tried to comprehend what was happening, all he knew that that big mean monster had everything to do with all of this.
Urgently, Sylvia looked over at her husband and then back at Silver as she started to lift him high into the air, her expression now unreadable.
"We love you, Silver."
Those words were her last as a wave of heat blasted through the air once again.
Thankfully, it wasn't as scorching hot as that previous one that caused the little hedgehog to hide away from it but the force was way more intense. Sylvia quickly rearranged Silver's positioning in her arms and just grabbed him by the underarms and, without hesitation, she raised her scared young son up high into the air. The heated-up gale force winds were so strong that it didn't take much effort for it to suck Silver up and into the fiery hot air and he was quickly sent flying backwards and away from that big monster…away from his parents…away from his mother and father…
He could see the tears streaming down his mother's muzzle as he was sent hurtling backwards and he tumbled and spun around helplessly through the air. The last thing he saw was his mother crying and trying to run back to his father and the shield his father put up smash and shatter like glass. It was only a matter of seconds before he no longer had his parents in his sights.
The hedgie's eyes widened with terror and horror when he watched the area light up and explode, the monster becoming smaller and smaller the further his tiny body flew away from the scene.
He reached out for his parents but they were long gone by the time he was whisked to safety.
After what felt like an eternity of hurtling through the air, the little kit eventually landed on what used to be a part of a big building and the rubble broke his fall with practical ease. The debris consisted in little bits of sandstone, regular stone, bits of clay, pebbles, twisted scraps of metal and even bits of barely-pieced-together-glass.
None if that really mattered to the small child, however, as he could feel himself screaming and crying for his mum and dad but he couldn't hear a thing except for the faintest of high-pitched ringing inside his tiny ears.
Silver strained his little ears to listen in spite of the ringing as the monster let out a weakened roar and watched as it sunk down into the flames which sparsely covered the ground and burned away at anything it touched. As the beast collapsed hard to the ground below, it suddenly began to combust and explode violently! Strange teal and violet explosions lit up the area and the impacts discharged from where they were to the point where Silver could feel the enormity of their impacts even where he stood.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Each far away explosion was huge and left behind lilac clouds and glowing smoke vapours…and with each blast, the chances of Silver's parents coming out of it safe and sound diminished greatly. Each explosion had devastating effects as the nearby buildings crumbled and toppled over where the monster lay down after it was vanquished.
A horrible gnawing ache curled inside Silver's gut and his heart felt heavy.
He collapsed on to his hands and knees and hung his head low. His mouth gaped open and quivered while his eyes began to well up with humongous tears and a lump formed in his throat and he stifled a whimper. The traumatised kit could vaguely hear soft murmurs as people cautiously emerge from their respective homes to see what the explosions and far off waves of destruction were about.
They didn't know.
They didn't know that Silver had just lost his family.
They didn't know that now he was all alone.
Silver, meanwhile, just kept statue still as he couldn't bring himself to move.
He couldn't even scream.
He wished he could but he couldn't.
Silver just wanted to curl into a ball and then for the ground to swallow him up as huge tears slid down his muzzle and dripped down on to the cracked and broken asphalt below. His little heart was broken, his young mind was in turmoil with fragmented thoughts and disorganised emotions, his entire body throbbed while sobs caused his little body to convulse and wrack itself with pain and anguish. He couldn't hear anything anymore except for the ringing that seemed to drone on and on forevermore.
That was all he could hear until he heard a sound.
It sounded distant yet close at the same time, he couldn't remember when he heard it but…it was a sound he recognised.
He couldn't pinpoint it.
It was loud and bustling and it was growing louder by the second.
He knew that noise and it didn't belong here!
He tried to focus on the familiar noises as they became clearer and clearer with every passing second. The volume of said cacophony became louder and clearer with each passing second and, it felt like his whole world right now was being snatched away. It took a couple more seconds but Silver began to realise that he was being sucked right out of this scenario.
It took a few moments more for the little kit to arrive at the realisation that this was no more than a dream.
This was more like a memory.
Silver's eyes snapped wide open and he immediately hit his head on something hard.
SLAAAAM!
CLANG!
"SNRK!?" Silver awoke abruptly as the a pain shot through his head, a snort of surprise blasting from his long black nose as he clumsily jolted in a half-awakened state. His bleary eyes hurriedly glanced around the room since it took the now 14-year-old a second to not only regain his bearings while also remembering that he wasn't five years old anymore but he had done so much more since he was a tiny orphaned kit.
"Whazzit? Wha? Who?"
It took a couple of moments for Silver to regain his sense of self and he calmed down, taking a moment to fully come around and fully bring his senses around to the land of the waking.
He was awake now.
He was not in the future anymore.
He sat upright and he looked around while he raised a hand to rub at his sore head as it turned out that he had hit hit hard against the metallic lid of his "bed" (which was a no more than a simple rubbish pail) when he startled awake and it resulted in quite the throbbing ache in his skull as a result.
He soon realised that he had fallen asleep upright in his bin bed.
He had taken to sleeping in a random alleyway in Station square with a bin (and sometimes a cardboard box) as his bed and a thick bundle of newspaper as his blanket.
The alleyway which Silver had called "home" was dark, dank and dingy that had a soaking damp ground continuously and the only way that anyone could tell that Silver lived there was the fact that he had a couple of Sonic posters stuck to the wall, a broken mirror also stuck to the wall and some small and humble belongings such as a dirty old stuffed teddy bear. It was a small square-shaped space with old and tattered cardboard boxes and bins and pails stuffed into the very back of it with a large chain-link fence behind said boxes and bins. The bins that were stuffed towards the back were almost overflowing with rubbish and a random assortment of random items that had been tossed away and wound up on the concrete to waste and rot away. Silver's "bed" was near the front of the alley and his personal affects were stacked or stuck to a wall on the right side of the area.
There was a certain dampness that seemed to permeate the air to the point where, even when bone-dry, it was always hanging in the air like a wet blanket.
Silver's "home" was quite humble as far as alleys go but he tried to make it as comfortable as possible.
He sighed heavily and frustratedly.
"That's right…things are different now." He muttered while raising a hand to rub the ache away from his head.
It had been a year since Silver had arrived to the past from his former time period thanks to a lot of circumstances that the hedgehog couldn't really recall except for a few vague recollections. It was as if his memories from that time were disjointed and disorganised and had become puzzle pieces that just didn't fit together at all.
He exhaled through his nostrils.
What he could remember was his world was a fiery wreck and, in a bid to rescue their world, both himself and Blaze the cat (his companion) had travelled into the past to prevent said calamity. Anyways, Silver had ultimately decided to stay in the past as he enjoyed it way more than his terrible timeline while Blaze had to go back to her home dimension and rule over there while also fulfilling her role in guarding the Sol emeralds. He could sense that there were gaps in his memories, however, since he couldn't help but question "What brought him and Blaze to the past in the first place?" And "Did they truly avert the oncoming crisis and defeated Iblis?"
Anyways, those gaps in his memories wasn't something that Silver questioned all that much as he had simply decided to focus on the here and now.
He and Blaze were still great friends and got along swimmingly.
Silver sort of wished they could be more, though.
Anyways, his eyes widened and his ears twitched when they picked up a familiar sound that aroused his appetite.
The sound of sizzling carried from nearby to his ears and a rich, mouth-watering scent wafted around the alleyway. Said sounds and smells didn't help his starvation as he swore he could feel the salvia in his mouth beginning to thicken and increase when his nostrils inhaled the familiar scent of sweet pastries and other breakfast scents and he felt his stomach curl inside his gut.
He placed a hand over his rumbly tummy to silence the loud "gurgle" noises emanating from it to remind him that he hadn't much eaten since the night before.
The futuristic hedgehog sighed as he mentally prepared himself to get out of bed and, clumsily, Silver squirmed around and wildly until he unwittingly tumbled right out of his "bin" bed and quickly wound up plummeting to the ground below and his face smacked right into the asphalt, he was very quickly swarmed and surrounded by rubbish.
He struggled but he eventually managed to pick himself up off of the ground.
He used his hands to dust himself off.
The young hedgehog, with eyes struggling to open, placed both hands firmly on the ground so he wouldn't topple to the floor the instant he stood up. He didn't want to make himself dizzy from standing up suddenly. As he sat on the damp asphalt, he reached and groped blindly towards somewhere to his left towards where his four golden bands of metal with glowing streaks of turquoise just sat on the ground idly.
Once he had grabbed his anklets and bracelets, the gray-furred hedgie proceeded to set all four items down on his lap for a sec before he got to work on sliding and fastening the cuffs on to his wrists and ankles over his bare hands and his sock-covered feet.
"Tsk…That's just great. Just one more thing to fix." He grumbled, voice interlaced with sleepy fatigue.
The pale gray hedgehog stared over at the broken mirror attached to the side wall and peered into the broken shards intently at his own reflection. Through the shards of glass, Silver glanced upwards to gaze at his own hair pieces and grabbed the two side pieces (which also simultaneously acted as eyebrows) into his own fists and then strung them through his fists smoothly, smoothing down the odd strands down into said hair pieces to make them much neater and tidier than before.
Silver smiled with smug self-satisfaction when the odd strands were gone and then did the same thing with the remaining three hair pieces. He pulled them through his tightened fists before he finally teased them into their correct positions and took three steps back in order to study his own appearance once more in the mirror. He smiled at his reflection in his broken mirror as he saw that there was no longer any fur or quills out of place. Even his chest fur was bushy and neat as usual.
Given how fastidious he was about his own grooming and appearance, one would assume that he had a great job and a great reason to be proud of his preening routine…they would be wrong.
The unfortunate truth was that poor Silver had no job and no real purpose.
Sometimes he wondered whether anyone would notice if he slipped back to his own original time period…would anyone miss him?
What good was his staying here doing?
Was he truly contributing?
Was he really being a part of everything this world had to offer?
He was living in an alley, practically homeless despite his insistence on living in the alley but that was more out of desperation to live somewhere more familiar and not in a strange house since he found that relocating time periods entirely was enough to swallow at once. He made a mental note to go grab his boots and gloves after he had eaten his breakfast and, once he was wearing his teal-streaked golden metal bands.
Besides, there was also the fact that he knew he needed to be paid soon or else he'd have much more difficulty finding food he could afford.
He rose and clambered to his feet as he took a moment to steady himself and then, only when he was steady on his own two feet, he proceeded to squeeze both of his eyes shut and stretched his back hard enough that he was almost afraid of snapping his own spine in half because of the force while stifling a yawn as he done so. Then, while he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, he sleepily staggered towards the exit point of the alley.
He stumbled out into the not-so-busy-street to make his way to the one place that wouldn't turn him away for being "homeless".
He knew exactly where to go.
"Hnnnnghhhh…" He yawned and stretched once more, trying to stifle the former by raising a hand to cover his mouth. "…Need food…Hungry…Amy's bakery…"
Silver made his way through the lazy and currently-empty streets but he stopped dead in his tracks to let the warmth of the morning suns beams fall over him. He couldn't help but bask in the rays of sunlight that touched his back and it somehow made him feel all the more rejuvenated.
He huffed to himself and he proceeded onwards to where his potential breakfast awaited him.
The gentle sound of sizzling continued to drizzle through the air from a distance and carried all the way up to his keen ears whilst he inhaled a rich and mouth-watering scent so deep that the aroma seeped into his tastebuds. His heart skipped a beat and his hunger and eagerness to hunt down the source of this delectable smell increased exponentially to the point of becoming ravenous. He almost resembled a wild animal referring to their most primal instincts at the mere thought of devouring the pastries that awaited him.
It hadn't been long since Amy Rose, a friend of Sonic's, had opened up shop in Station square.
She found an abandoned tavern and decided to renovate it into a bakery where she and her friend Cream could make and sell a bunch of sweet buns they make.
The building was slated, unlike the other flats and semi-detached flats in the area, and was made entirely out of mahogany wood with some intricate designs etched into the wood. There were some spiral pillars (which were stuck to the landing) holding the roof up and it somehow added some majesty to the place. Design wise, it was the same shape as one of those stone-made Olympic temples but it had a roof that jutted out a bit from the building itself (in other words, it created a rectangular bit of shade underneath) and it was the reason the pillars were necessary.
Silver was a frequent customer.
He went there every morning to get himself some breakfast.
As he approached the familiar building made of wood, he could even feel his mouth water to the point of looking more like a huge raging river than a waterfall of dribble. His nose picked up the delicious scent of pastry and it made his stomach curl tighter and tighter and let loose a "growl" loud enough that it could have shaken the planet with ease.
Pure hunger practically attacked him with the force equal to that of a ton of bricks as he was greeted with a sight that awaited him made waterfalls of saliva run from his mouth.
Amy Rose the hedgehog (the unofficial girlfriend of the legendary hero known as Sonic the hedgehog) was stood behind a counter and she was laying a tray carrying a bunch of delectable goods down on the countertop, whatever she had just finished baking was wafting a beautiful scent so strong that anyone would probably come running just to eat it no matter where in the world they were.
Each edible item looked divine!
The pink hedgehog was wearing her regular red dress but with the exception of an apron with a word embroidered into the fabric which said "Rose's rascally bakery" and she also wore a pair of red chequered oven mitts. She hummed a merry little melody under her breath as she started to remove her oven mittens and place them aside but stopped mid-him when she spotted the hedgehog looking at the tray with a starving knife-like glint in his eyes.
She recognised him immediately.
"Hey! Silver!"
Silver wasted no time at all in hurrying in to the main room and pulled up a stool and sat in front of her expectantly, his chin wet beyond belief due to the spittle that had been dribbling down his chin/muzzle until now. His tail was even wagging a mile a minute and he bounced up and down in his seat —he couldn't keep still he was so excited!
Amy rolled her eyes yet she couldn't keep a smile off her muzzle.
"Lemme guess." The pink hedgehog sighed as she leaned over the counter, avoiding the tray filled with pastry-based delights, and looked at Silver with a raised brow. "You want some breakfast a'la Amy again?"
Silver's tongue popped and then hung out of his mouth and he breathed heavily and hungrily, salvia dripping all over the place as he imitated a hungry dog for a couple of seconds. He avoided grabbing a plate and holding it in front of himself in a begging motion as he knew that doing so would just be overdoing it when it came to begging her for food.
Amy sighed once again and then slid a plate of syrup-slathered pancakes over to the future-born-hedgehog.
Silver didn't hesitate in devouring his meal.
Amy glared silently and her mind drifted to when Silver first tried some of her culinary delights and… let's just say that it took no time at all for the entire bakery to become a sticky mess and it took three weeks to scrub all the golden syrup and pancake batter off the walls and ceiling.
The two hedgehogs had a sibling/best friend type of relationship; their (platonic) relationship started back the previous year where Silver collapsed outside due to hunger and he had been eating there since. Of course, he didn't forget about the previous time where Amy mistook him for Sonic and she dragged him all over the place so she could find him. Silver then remembered trying to kill Sonic and Amy disowning him as a friend as a result. However, thanks to certain creatures having their memories wiped off that time back in Soleanna, Mephiles and Iblis, Amy had forgotten that interaction. Amy had been trying to look out for Silver ever since he had decided to stick around and stayed in the area and made sure he ate well and she tried to give him advice when she felt he needed some.
After Silver took a few fork-fulls of pancakes and shovelled them into his own mouth.
In the meantime, the two started to talk.
"Soooo…" Amy started. "…What's life been like for you this far? Are you enjoying living in the past?"
Silver bit down on his fork and sucked in the mush of pancakes and syrup and swallowed it with ease.
Then he nodded.
Then he spoke.
"Y-Yeah! This is way better than living in that fiery apocalypse! I…e-erm…I don't even have trouble sleeping in cardboard boxes! I found sleeping in the bin pail is far easier and it's a little better for my back!"
"…Don't tell me you're still living in the alleyway!" Amy gasped, mortified.
Silver tried to play it off as if it wasn't a big deal, because it wasn't to him.
"Psssh! C'mon! I'm used to it!"
Amy furrowed a stern brow at the 14-year-old.
"That's what worries me!"
Silver tried not to grin nervously and just raised his shoulders in a slight shrug before dropping them again.
Amy then noticed something about the hedgehog that she noticed only after peering a bit closer at his appearance, her eyes narrowed and hardened into a glare of suspicion. She raised a hand and cradled the bottom of her muzzle with a single thoughtful finger. She frowned hard and her little black nose wrinkled up.
"Hmmm…You look exhausted. It doesn't look like you've been getting enough sleep for awhile. Have you been having nightmares?"
Silver immediately grew stiff and uncomfortable as his posture sunk and his head ducked inbetween his shoulders, a tiny bead of sweat dripped down the side of his face. A very nervous and exaggerated smile spread wide across his muzzle. His ears dropped and flattened against his head and his eyes zipped around the room as if to look for a way out of this conversation. The wide smile became a nervous squiggly line while he tried to change the subject and quick.
"U-Ummm…you made g-g-great and scrumptious-looking pastries this morning, Amy! You're pretty good at it!"
The pink hedgehog huffed while she fixed her futuristic friend with a glare that could curdle a herd of cattle.
Amy Rose's words become coated with frost. "Don't try changing the subject, bub!"
Silver's smile dropped but he didn't say anything.
He just looked away despite the chill he could feel riding up his back which made him realise how much he wanted to worm out of this very conversation yet he also had a feeling that there was no escaping this chat now, no matter how crawly and tingly his spine got. He tried to uphold a semi-confident facade, however…or some remnants of one.
"Silver. I've noticed you've been a little bit off ever since the resistance disbanded awhile ago, I know there's something bothering you! You've been sleeping in an alleyway living off of either freshly baked food by me or food from the bins outside and that tells me that, whatever it is that's bothering you, you aren't coping with it in a healthy way."
The pink hedgehog just looked at the gray-furred hedgehog and gestured to him with one hand in a candid motion.
"Please tell me what's wrong."
Silver felt a pang hit him right in the heart as her words hit a bullseye and even then he couldn't deny it. He just sighed and glanced off to the side with a longing glimmer in his eyes while he put his fork down. He…He couldn't deny these feelings anymore and, besides, there was nobody else here and he knew he could speak to his friend. His heart felt so heavy and he needed to unload that baggage of emotions before they burst.
He inhaled heavily, preparing and steeling himself for an outpouring of emotions and, while exhaling, he finally confessed.
"It's like I have this need to be needed."
He couldn't bring himself to look Amy in the eye but he kept talking.
"…I-It feels like I'm not doing anything productive with my time and then I tend to consider myself useless or a burden to others and it's because of that I guess I try and take on other peoples problems and burden the responsibility of said problems all by myself so others don't have to."
Silver poured his heart and soul to Amy but he still couldn't look her in the eye. His heart was growing heavier and heavier with every word that rolled off of his tongue and each sentence uttered felt like a cut slicing its way into his mouth and making hurt that much more to speak at all. His eyes grew misty and he couldn't help but subconsciously grip his chest fluff as if to seize hold of his aching heart.
Make no mistake, he was so happy that this worlds future was secure for now and he didn't have to take on the burden of solely being responsible of fixing the potential world-ruining mistake of other individuals! But it was also a very foreign feeling for him to have, he had been depended on for so long to take down foes that threaten his timeline but now that said foes have been neutralised, he didn't know what to do with himself.
He didn't wish to sound like he was complaining or was being ungrateful, however.
"P-Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm thrilled beyond belief that the world is back to normal after almost a year full of chaos, loss and uncertainty. I'm so happy that the world is at peace! W-Well, it's more or less at peace but still! B-But it's just that I kinda feel like my existence doesn't matter anymore. I mean, what can I do now? I came here to stop the future becoming awful and now I've gotta find a new purpose…I just don't know what it is!"
Both Silver and Amy brewed in an uncomfortable silence and, thankfully, it was just the two of them occupying the shop right now so they didn't have to worry about customers seeing their emotional wounds tearing themselves wide open just yet.
Amy decided to end said silence and move the topic away from this as she didn't wish to have her friend feel uncomfortable.
"What about Blaze?" She inquired.
Silver was very confused when Amy asked that.
"Huh? What about Blaze?" he asked her back.
Amy's gaze drifted off to the side and she folded both arms behind her back and scuffed her foot on the floor.
"….You know. You and her have gotten pretty close…maybe you should ask her out?"
That was when Silver's entire face grew really hot for some reason and his heart almost trembled and stopped. Unbeknownst to him, his entire head turned a bashful scarlet hue (nevermind his muzzle, which had turned so red that it put tomatoes to absolute shame) and smoke blew from his ears with the illusion of the sound of a locomotive steaming from its spout.
He tried to deny Amy's "romantically-deluded" assumption and waved his hands all around, even though that wouldn't do anything to stop her talking.
"Wh-Wh-Wh-What? M-M-Me?! No, no, no, no, no, no! I can't!" He sputtered and stammered.
"Why not?" Amy pressed.
Silver was astounded and, the more he spoke, the more that redness in his face dissipated.
"What do you mean 'why not'? Blaze is a princess from an entirely different dimension! She's also the guardian of those Sol emerald thingys and I'm sure she's pretty busy and doesn't have time to date!" Silver glanced down at his own lap doubtfully, his muzzle as red as a tomato while he fumbled anxiously with his own fingers. "B-B-B-B-Besides…Besides…she might not even notice me. I'd be shocked if she did."
Silver's frown became heavier and heavier with each word spoken and his heart quivered as if threatening to shatter into a thousand pieces.
Amy wanted to facepalm at Silver's flimsy excuse.
It was a well-known fact that Silver and Blaze had huge crushes on one another and everyone around them silently wondered when the time would come for one of them to just confess to one another. It was almost as obvious as the connection going on between Sonic and Amy…speaking of which…
"Well if we're talking about our love-lives then why haven't you gone for Sonic yet?
Amy glared at Silver and folded her arms across her chest.
"Hmph!" She harrumphed, "I figured out long ago that chasing him is pretty pointless because of his super speed and it would take ages for me to catch up to him. Besides, I've thought of a new approach where I wait for him to come around."
Silver was mildly impressed as he had to admit that Amy's new "method" was way more mature than before.
But then Amy's glare darkened as she stormed up to Silver and poked his chest fluff accusingly and Silver's eyes widened as he felt stern anger radiate from her very pores and her ears flicked backwards and he couldn't help but feel quite intimidated by her threatening stance.
"But let's get back to the subject at hand! I'm not letting you avoid this topic anymore, mister!"
Silver, still intimidated but not being able to run away due to the immobilising fear the pink hedgehog had put into him with her sneer alone, swallowed and shrugged lamely as he put on a very weak smile with his muzzle now a lot less red but still retaining a tint of a blush.
"…C-C-Can't blame me for trying."
Amy sighed and closed her eyes for a sec, her anger cooling, and she reopened her eyes.
She suddenly had a sincere yet weary look on her face.
"Listen. You have seemed mopey ever since the resistance had been disbanded. I think you need to find a hobby or get a job so you can have a distraction…"
Amy's eyes lit up like lights illuminating the nighttime sky when she said the phrase "Earning yourself more money" and then her deep green/blue eyes flickered back and forth from a specific stack of boxes which just sat there on the counter.
"…And besides, I think you've gotta start earning yourself some money and get yourself a proper house! I don't care if you're more comfortable sleeping amongst rubbish but you aren't gonna be coming in to my bakery smelling like a wet dog rolling in filth anymore!"
Silver was about to open his mouth to voice his objection to being referred to as smelling like a wet dog but was prevented from doing so when he saw a peculiar look etched upon Amy's face. The pink hedgehog's eyes narrowed into slits and her mouth formed a straight line with just a hint of a downward curve towards the right side of said line. Her ears were erect and forwards. She even had her hand outstretched with her hand appearing as if to grip something stick-like…like the handle of the giant Pika-Piko hammer which she could wield and summon at will.
Silver gulped nervously, trying to swallow the marble of anxiety that had formed in his throat.
Amy remained silent until a very sudden look of realisation dawned upon her facial features, her eyes widened into the size of dinner plates, her pupils shrank into pinpricks of surprise and her mouth both dropped and then fell open.
A thought just struck her like a bolt of lightning.
She spoke her mind aloud.
"I just remembered that I could use your help with something."
Silver couldn't help but feel wary as he decided to ask her what she had in mind.
"Erm…alright, what's up?"
Amy shrugged reluctantly and tilted her own head towards the boxes that she had put on the back countertop earlier on, gesturing to said boxes herself while she proceeded to explain herself to her fellow hedgehog.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm having a little trouble. I have a huge delivery of these goodies for the town citizens of Soleanna but I didn't realise I'd also have to make a huge cake for a friend of mine's birthday party. I can't just leave this cake to deliver these myself and everyone else is too busy with their own thing. Would it be alright if you delivered them for me?"
Silver pondered on the proposal for a minute, his gaze drifting towards the ceiling and his hand raising up to cradle the bottom of his muzzle where his chin would be. There shouldn't be any difficulty with the objective proposed to him, especially with his psychokinetic onboard and on standby to give him a helping hand and a lift in quite a literal sense.
All he needed to do was hand out parcels to the citizens and that would be that.
Why not?
"I think I can do that…I guess. Can I use my psychokinesis?"
"Well okay but be careful with those cakes and pastries!"
"Soooo…can you help me? Please? Pretty please?"
"I piled in some Sausage rolls, one or two Cornish pasties, warm croissants, doughnuts, muffins, pretzels, piping hot Pain au chocolat, some breakfast muffins and some delicious yet nutritious biscuits."
Amy listed as she took a series of delivery boxes from the counter behind herself into her clasp and turned around with the intention of handing them off to Silver. The stack of boxes in her hands was a bit tricky to hold on to considering they were so tall together that she could just peer over the top of them with her eyes.
Silver couldn't lie and say that the sound of those foods made his saliva thicken and gather inside his mouth to the point where his own tongue started to drown in it, and he had to swallow the large amount of spit before it flowed ceaselessly out of his mouth. He had no idea what half of those foods were but he couldn't try and deny that they smelt heavenly as a mixture of warm and delicious scents wafted from the boxes he held. He even had the very brief idea of gobbling them all up before Amy noticed but then the just-as-brief thought of a familiar giant hammer breaking and destroying every bone in his body brought him back to his senses.
Despite the anxiety, he had smirked confidently.
"C'mon, Amy, it's me! Of course I'll be careful!" He declared.
Amy Rose fought the urge to roll her eyes and just smiled a warm smile at Silver as she passed the huge collection of boxes over to him.
"I'll cover your breakfast today if you do this successfully and who knows? It'll get you off your lazy backside for this morning."
"Hey! I'm many things, miss Rose, but 'lazy' isn't one of them!" Silver scoffed.
Amy raised her hand to her mouth and giggled behind it in response to the hedgehog's miniature sulk.
She couldn't help but laugh at the look on Silver's face that started off as a glare consisting of narrowed eyes and a pouting sticking-out lower lip. Then his expression softened and shifted into a more mischievous one as he raised one brow and furrowed the other even deeper as a playful smirk spread across his tan muzzle. He raised a hand and clapped it down atop Amy's head and gave the three spikes of "hair" that jutted out from her forehead a playful tussle.
Then Amy's not-very-we'll-hidden giggle turned into a single burst of hysterical tickling laughter as she tried in vain to get the gray/white hedgehog's hand off of her head. She reached up as she tried to use her own fingers to unhook Silver's from her scalp but it was no use as he kept on messing up her "hair" in a playfully boisterous manner. She begged for him to stop in between giggling fits and she was beginning to wheeze due to the breathlessness that began to deflate her lungs.
"Hahahahahaha! H-Hey! Silver! Knock it off! C-C'mon now! Hahaha! Please! No! I'm working!"
"Nah-ah-aaahh!" Silver's evil smirk deepened and his eyes narrowed mischievously. "Apologise for calling my backside lazy and maybe I'll relent!"
Amy giggled once more as she relented.
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry for calling you lazy! Now will you stop messing up my fringe?"
Silver lifted his hand off of Amy's head, still wearing a coy smile on his muzzle as he then took to patting the top of her head and he then it was decided that it was time for a change in regards of topic. He rolled his hands into fists and placed them on his own hips while he stared gently at the hedgehog behind the counter. His heart was light and swelled with the purest form of joy when he saw a smile upon Amy's pale peach muzzle that told him that Amy was feeling a similar way that he was right in this very moment.
"You've been fighting for our future long enough. It's your turn to live for yourself."
Silver froze statue still when he heard those quiet words leave Amy's words which were coated in a mutter, but he wasn't sure if he heard her correctly. He frowned and blinked at her in pure and dumbfounded confusion as he tried to sort out what she had said in his own mind…only for Amy to apparently try and brush it off and give him a rough shove out towards the door.
"Just get going! It won't be too much longer before those goodies lose their nice hot steamy goodness!"
Silver was about to point out how he didn't even get to finish his breakfast yet but didn't get the chance too over Amy's loud haying and hawing, her loud insistences that he had to leave and get those items delivered to their respective recipients before time had run out and the delectable delights that were ordered had gone cold.
He just wordlessly relented as he was shoved right out the door.
Then he set out to do the deliveries after being momentarily exiled from the bakery/cafe.
He could feel the warmth of the morning sun beam down upon him and it felt quite nice and comforting; it was as if Mother Nature was giving him a big and encouraging pat on the back and, thus, making his determination to see his task through increase and soar to exponentially new heights.
The young time traveller inhaled the fresh morning air and breathed it out through his mouth, his chest heaving inwards and outwards during the process.
There was no smog, no smoke, no fumes, no chemicals!
None of that!
The air was clean!
He couldn't believe that this worlds past was so great compared to that wrecked and fiery world he came from —even after all this time!
The lands were so fertile and fresh and full and lush and the skies above were as blue as a sapphire twinkling and glinting in the sun like stars twinkling in the starry in a similar way that diamonds do and there wasn't a single puff of cumulus to disturb the blue hues array.
However, most importantly, everyone was happy and living their lives to the fullest!
Children were laughing and people hung out with their friends and chatted amongst themselves while also going about their lives!
It filled his heart with joy at the notion…so much so that he realised that he hadn't really moved ever since he was pushed out of the bakery, much to his great embarrassment. His muzzle had a reddish tint as he wondered if he looked like a weirdo breathing in deep while standing in the streets while carrying a huge stack of boxes which contained baked goods.
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes, snapping himself from his reverie.
He had to get to "work" now.
He handled the box stack he carried carefully and he kept his footsteps light and slow so as to make absolutely sure he wouldn't trip over his own feet or something like that. He didn't want to infuriate Amy, her temper was so horrifying that one would be so lucky to be alive after facing said wrath and fury at least once.
The mere thought of Amy's rage face caused his spine to crawl and his tail to tingle.
He'd have nightmares for the rest of his life, surely…
Thankfully, Amy was courteous enough to pin a note full of addresses on one of the top boxes so he knew who ordered who and where to find them however he had to oh-so-carefully transition the boxes from both hands to one hand in order to procure the note from the top of the tall stack.
Silver felt a small strain or pressure in the front of his own brain while he used his abilities to let the box glow a bright turquoise and levitated the box from that one hand and have it hover in the air alongside him while he gingerly lowered said stack of boxes towards the ground (but not touching the ground). He wasted no time in snatching the note from the top box before he let his Psychokinesis raise the boxes up into the air beside him once more.
He gripped the note in both hands and read it somewhat aloud, muttering the grumbling the names, orders and addresses of each recipient of each box order. It didn't take long to finish listing off the names aloud, thankfully.
He moved to lower the boxes back into both hands but stopped mid-movement when he hit upon an idea.
Maybe he didn't have to "hand" out the boxes individually…
Silver stood still for a couple of lengthy seconds and let his idea take form and shape itself repeatedly inside his mind before he closed his eyes. He froze for ten more seconds before his eyes flashed open and, with a speed that could almost rival Sonic's, he took off and ran like the wind.
He focused as he ran with the boxes in hand, letting said boxes begin to glow a bright and vibrant turquoise hue as they levitated in the air and practically swooped through the air with no obstructions and with much ease. He didn't fancy the idea running through the town while using his psychokinesis like that but, just this once, he could feel the adrenaline rush through his veins and this certain freedom flood his heart.
He couldn't explain it but he felt free for the first time in…in his life!
There was no constraints, no worries about whether his actions could destroy a bunch of lives, no having that burden to shoulder…
He couldn't deny the liberation he felt.
As Silver ran by, he caught sight of one of the people on Amy's list; an adolescent Mobian cow stood outside a humble little flat.
She had white fur and brown splotches covering her body and wore a pink nightgown that had an hem that barely reached her ankles (if she had any) and clasped her hooves together as she looked from left to right periodically to check for the delivery "person" to bring her her breakfast. Before she could even blink, however, the cow was immediately greeted by none other than Silver who suddenly stood right in front of her panting and breathless with pools of sweat dripping freely off of his body.
"Here…huff, huff, huff…ya go…huff…puff…Koff, Koff, Koff…m-ma'am!"
Silver handed off the box with the croissant to the anthropomorphic bovine.
"Thank you!" The female cow thanked with a smile and a singular bow of her head.
Silver gave a wink and a thumbs up as the cow happily handed him a few rings and happily sent the 14-year-old hedgie from the future on his way to resume his route and to continue his task which he already seemed to take on very dutifully.
Silver, still panting, took off sprinting once again.
He felt like his lungs were going to explode and he was practically sweating waterfalls which dripped freely from his fur and chest fluff. His legs were starting to feel as though they were turning into lead as they got heavier and heavier with each running step he took; he was never much of a runner, he had to rely heavily on his psychokinetic abilities to get him where he needed to go with such a rugged terrain but now he was more relying on his own muscles while he tried to use his powers a bit less than before.
He was certain that all fours of his limbs were going to ache the next day, not to mention the horrific headache.
He'd get headaches often due to the overexertion of his psychokinesis.
But he knew he'd have to push through them.
Anyways, he kept running and hopping until he came across a construction site where a bunch of very muscular and strong-looking mobian dogs wearing yellow hard hats and orange High visibility jackets. They were working hard and dutifully as they went about their jobs at trying to get their jobs done as they handled organising and putting a new building together —probably a skyscraper or something like that.
Silver practically skidded to a halt with one of the boxes in hand and outstretched towards the leader, a strong lemon beagle with very strong and bulbous biceps and forearms, one of the lone females of the group of workers but also the big boss.
"Did anyone order some muffins?" Silver announced joyfully.
The big boss dog smiled and nodded as she took the box from the hedgehog.
"Sure did!" She boofed. "Thanks, mate!"
Then the big boss dog turned to the other dogs working hard at whatever jobs they were delegated to do; there was a bulldog mobian pouring fresh and wet concrete into one of those giant mixers, there was a German shepherd mobian looking over a blueprint for the building and listing off what materials they'd need and how many to build the skyscraper they were working on, there was a boxer/dachshund mix mobian with floppy ears and strong muscles carrying support beams under each arm and there was a little chihuahua mobian barking orders as she appeared to be the big dog bosses's second-in-command.
After receiving the box of breakfast muffins, the big boss dog turned to face the rest of her crew and hollered over to them.
"Hey! Get over and get your tummies ready fer' a treat! Foods 'ere!"
As Silver went to go and rush off again, the big boss dog stopped him.
"Ah-ah-ah-ah! Ya fer'got ya payment, son!" She tilted her own head over to the German shepherd, gesturing for him to go pay the hedgehog, and he did so and walked over to Silver and gave him some more rings.
Silver smiled.
"Thank you."
"So I see that miss Rose's putting ya through yer paces, eh? I guess yer her new delivery boy?"
Silver's eyes widened, his mouth formed a tiny frown, nervous beads of sweat dramatically dribbled down his body and he shook his hands about in midair to the point that they appeared to be pale grey and white blurs with a gold and turquoise tinge. His body turned as stiff as stone and his back quills shot up and arched.
Him?
A delivery boy?
Why would anyone think that?
"Oh no, no, no, no! I'm just doing this as a favour!" He denied a touch too frantically.
The beagle wearing the yellow hard hat belted out a booming laugh and she clapped a hand to her knee as if to put an action to the phrase "knee-slapping" in reference to a good laugh. Apparently her laughter was contagious since all the other canine construction workers started to laugh as well, the big bosses eyes squeezed shut for about three seconds until they flickered open again and her laughter came to an end, as well as the other dogs.
"Well yer doin' a spiffin' good job so far! Ya should think 'bout making this a permanent thing!" She suggested.
"W-Well…I don't know about that."
Silver tapped two fingers together anxiously and looked down.
He hadn't really thought about getting a job, he didn't even know what a job was on account of people rarely even having occupations in the fiery wasteland of a future where he came from! The people were too busy just trying to make it to the next day and live in the barren land they were forced to call "home". Besides, he was too busy trying to save this worlds future from certain ruin in the aftermath of one catastrophe or another. There was the role he played part in building the resistance against the Eggman empire when he slipped into the part as leader like a banana slipping into its peel.
But that was more a position, not a job.
He couldn't afford to spare a thought about much else but he didn't have to worry about any of that now. He had a home, albeit not a great home but still, and he could get food if he needed to! And now that the topic had been brought up….m-maybe he should consider it…just maybe.
The big boss beagle shook her head and quirked a brow in Silver's direction.
Silver was ripped from his thoughtful state by the distant sound of a bell chiming (possibly the clock tower of the towns 10 o'clock alarm) and it was decided that he really should resume his deliveries. He shook his head to snap himself out of his momentary daze, packed himself up, flung the golden rings into his pocket and took off down the road.
His head pounded and throbbed as his powers fizzled for just a moment, making it so the turquoise glow keeping the boxes hovering alongside him adrift midair vanished for a sec and almost dropping the remaining boxes to the ground below, only for Silver to snatch them out of the air and catch them. Then he closed his eyes tight, focusing, and the boxes glowed once more and lifted up and out of his arms to float alongside him.
Satisfied, the hedgehog resumed his trek to get to his next target.
The anthropomorphic hedgehog breathed in and out in a steady rhythm while he started to canter before once again breaking into a sprint, the sounds of bustling life and chatter rushing by him in a whirl of activity caught in a bubble of time that happened to engulf the 14-year-old. His eyes narrowed and he kept his mind sharp, the stack of pastry boxes continuing to levitate by his side while he ran with joints that threatened to ache like crazy tomorrow.
The straight pathway ahead seemed to stretch on and on with no end in sight with each step he took until Silver eventually found himself skidding to a sharp halt once more when he finally arrived at the bridge.
It was a simple little bridge that was small and rather diminutive in comparison to grander bridges (one could even call it humble). The stones that made up the bridge were soft and sanded-down and the water underneath flowed with complete ease and no trouble whatsoever. On the other side of the cobblestone bridge across from the 14-year-old hedgehog saw a certain well-rounded feline sat with fishing pole in hand and dopey yellow eyes fixed on the shimmering, silvery stream that run beneath.
Big was hunched over while he sat on the bridge, clutching on tight to a small fishing rod that was made from a single tree branch and some fishing line, watching the little stream of the creek rush by, the fishing lure bobbing up and down in the water in a gentle but intriguing repetitive motion.
Fsssssssssshhhhhhhh…
The sound of the rushing water sounded soft and calming while Silver watched the huge cat fish with wide eyes and quiet surprise.
One would think that the big purple cat with the really long triangular ears was fishing by the siene he was so focused!
The futuristic hedgehog almost felt bad for having to break such intense concentration. He hesitated for a long couple of seconds until he raised a clenched fist up to cover his mouth and cleared his throat loudly to gain Big's attention. Big jerked in surprise, almost dropping his fishing rod, and turned to look at the gray-furred hedgie with eyes wide. He wasn't able to say anything to express said surprise or anything like that before Silver spoke first, presenting the box of goodies to him.
"Hey, Big! I think Amy made you some snacks for you to nibble on while you fish!"
Big, his his companion, Froggy, perched upon his shoulder (for once) whirled around to glance at Silver and his eyes instantly locked on to the box Silver carried. The cat reeled in the lure, without disturbing the possible fish still lurking in the silvery stream below, and proceeded to put his fishing rod aside and down on the path next to him before finally and properly acknowledging that the hedgehog was there.
"Gee, thanks, Gray!" He grinned a huge dopey smile as he expressed his gratitude.
"….It's Silver, Big." Silver deadpanned while he pointed at himself for emphasis. "My name is Silver."
Big's smile didn't falter.
"Okay!"
Silver rolled his eyes but decided not to get too offended; It took Big a long time to get names right, according to Amy, so he decided to be patient instead of begrudging about it. He'd like to be referred to by his actual name but he appreciated the effort that Big was making to call him by name anyway despite getting it wrong.
Anyways, Big opened up the box and made an even bigger smile when he saw the delectable treats held within.
Those sweet treats and buns looked stunning!
"Froggy! Have a taste of this, it's good!"
The huge purple feline produced a small croissant from the box and the frog perched upon his shoulder, without wasting a second, gave a loud croak before he opened his mouth wide open and his tongue practically lashed out of his mouth and attached itself to one end of the croissant before retreating, French pastry and all, all the way back into his mouth all within the timespan of a millisecond.
Silver could have sworn he heard the sound of a whip lashing when he saw Froggy's elastic tongue connect with the food.
Big nommed away happily on his crossaint happily.
"Froggy likes it too! Thanks, Platinum! I can't wait to see you again!"
Silver sighed.
"It's Silver!"
But then he decided to just carry on and leave the topic for another day and, after he looked to the floating stack levitating by his side, he noticed that he still had a few boxes left over and he needed to deliver them as soon as possible. They were already beginning to lose their appetisingly juicy wafting warmth and that was bad because that smell and heat made them taste even better! He started to make an even greater hurry and ran as fast as his legs could carry him, despite his own joints squeezing painfully in protest with every movement his own leg joints made.
In spite of that pain, he kept running while his head began to pound hard throughout his entire skull due to the excess use of his abilities.
Something clearly went wrong this time.
His haste apparently caught up with him.
"Yeaaah-woah-! Wah-wah-wah-wah-waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The hedgehog's joyful whoop-turned-screams carried all through the streets as he slid off on one-foot as his right foot wound up landing right on top of a randomly-discarded banana peel. His eyes shrunk into pinpricks of terror while, as a result of stepping on the banana peel, poor Silver skidded forwards without any control.
His heart leapt high into his throat and practically galloped in regards to the beats. Needless to say, his focus shut off in that instant and the boxes wound up not only tumbling out of his arms, out of the air and down on to the pavement below which also smooshed some of the cakes and buns inside as a result of them going "splat" when they hit the ground below.
One of them even landed right on top of the hedgehog's head and he wound up getting his head covered in clotted cream.
Silver hit the ground hard and his head spun like the propeller on an aeroplane.
He had to cradle his whirling head in the palm of his hand (which got it covered in cream, unbeknownst to him) while he regained his momentum and sat on the ground to wait for the nausea he felt to pass. His eyes spun in their sockets, his stomach churned sickened, his throat felt constricted and he felt bile build up in his throat like he wanted to vomit right there and then. His stomach felt like it was doing backflips in his gut and he could feel acidic bile rise up from his stomach and gather at the back of his throat as though trying to force vomit out of his mouth. His cheeks filled with bile but he managed to swallow it all down again and he gave a shudder of both disgust and discomfort.
"Uuuuugggghhh…that was gross." He muttered to himself.
Thankfully, he didn't feel concussed but, alas, when his head and vision cleared, he looked around himself and was dismayed when he saw Amy's pastries, buns and biscuits all over the place and none of them were edible anymore; when he saw the clotted cream on his hand, he gave a sheepish grimace while he wiped his hand against his own chest fluff and this only covered his own chest fur with clotted cream and worsened his current condition.
He was fairly sure he was also covered in bruises, patches of dirt and scrapes due to the abrupt fall he had suffered.
He sighed in frustration, angry with himself.
He supposed he just got carried away in the moment.
He groaned to himself while he continued to clutch at his spinning head to steady it. It felt like an entire century had passed by until he was ready to finally stand on his own two feet once more and, gingerly, he clambered up off the floor and staggered about a tad unsteadily at first until he finally found his footing and ceased struggling and flopping like a newborn calf.
Now that he was more situated on his own two feet, Silver took a look at his surroundings.
He had apparently fallen right outside of the post office.
It wasn't much to look at. The building appeared to be more like a cottage —a poorly kept cottage but still a cottage. There wasn't much care put into the building and there were cobwebs all over the place. He found this strange as postal service was supposed to be way more lucrative than this! Why was this occupation being so neglected to the point where the postal building itself looked awful and full of mites and cobwebs and possible rodent flickies chewing the place apart?
The door was merely a rectangular piece of wood that hung on the door by the hinges, it could come off with so much ease that it looked as though it could come off with a mere featherlight touch. The windows were covered in dust but still somehow showed the inside was dark and dreary, was there even anyone inside?The building looked somewhat dreary and not very inviting at all!
Perhaps this was why the buildings condition looked bleak?
Silver started to shrug and walk away to get back to the bakery in defeat, there was no point in hanging about here and he couldn't do the deliveries anymore because they were all crushed and mangled and some had fallen to the ground which rendered a few of them inedible. Alas he froze mid-step when he happened to glance at a poster taped to a window and, curiosity getting the better of him, he decided to have a cursory read of said poster to see what the deal was.
He stopped and turned and took the poster off of the window and held the piece of parchment in his hands with great care and read it.
There was a humble drawing/sketch of a postbox with the words "WANTED FOR HIRE" stamped on the top, written in huge and bold letters. A much smaller bunch of writing was scribbled near the bottom that detailed the qualifications and why there was a need for such a position to begin with.
He hummed thoughtfully and was about to return the poster to its original spot taped to the wall when that big boss dog's words from earlier echoed in his mind:
"Well yer doin' a spiffin' good job so far! Ya should think 'bout making this a permanent thing!"
Once again, the thought crossed him while he dwelled on the idea. He wasn't sure if being a baking delivery job was for him and he wanted to get a job of his own merits, if he asked Amy, he'd be hired in a millisecond but he felt like that would be cheating and he'd be hired out of pity. If he got an occupation, he wished to be hired by his own merits and not for friendly sympathy. Besides, he was sure someone else could do better at that job like Cream or someone.
But a post delivery job…?
Him?
As he started to think hard about the prospect, the words Amy had spoken earlier had echoed in his head as well but this had more of a ring to it for some reason:
"You've been fighting for our future long enough. It's your turn to live for yourself."
Silver's frown blossomed into a soft smile, a spark of hope and confidence igniting a fire within his yellow/goldenrod eyes as he looked at the paper and then the building and then back to the paper and back to the building a final time. Maybe Amy was right, maybe it was time for him to start living for himself rather than focus on the lives of everyone around him? And besides, he needed a way to distract him from those nightmares.
He just wanted to be useful again.
He wanted to be needed.
Maybe…Maybe it was time to do something selfish just this once.
A/N: Hi! Heres a new story about my fave hedgehog —Silver!
I had the inspiration to write this after seeing a picture of Silver doing what looked like cookie deliveries for a celebration. That also got me thinking as to how the Sonic characters live when their lives aren't being threatened by Dr Eggman and then this idea came to me.
I don't think the other chapters will be as long as this one, though.
I'll try and update as soon as I can!
-Chloemcg