The Void

For some reason, he was falling. He didn't know since when. He didn't know where he was, or where he'd been before. For all Sonic knew, he could have always been falling.

It was dark. No matter how much he strained his eyes, he couldn't see his nose, or his hands when he held them in front of his face. Wherever here was, it was the darkest place he had ever been in.

It was silent, too. No sound at all reached his ears. You should hear the air going past you when you were falling like that, shouldn't you?

The fall was long, dragging through eternity in a way that Sonic forgot he was falling in the first place. The feeling of air rushing past him and this light, distinct feeling of falling free faded from his awareness after a while. He could as well have been floating freely through space.

The difference between floating and falling became uncomfortably aware to him again when the pitch black around him was penetrated by a soft gloom from somewhere in the distance beneath him, and suddenly the hedgehog noticed it was closing in on him.

Closing in very fast.

Uh oh, he thought. I'm gonna be hedgehog pancake… He looked around hasitly, but there was just the black velvet all around him… and the light of the, well, he supposed it would be ground below. In a last resort and finding nothing better to do, Sonic tucked into a tight ball. In some distant corner he knew it would be useless to save him from a fall so far down it felt infinite, but for some reason, he found himself not scared of dying. Mildly worried, but in an oddly detached way, he felt safe.

It made no sense.

He was cut off contemplating the oddities of the situation and his seemingly inappropriate reactions to it when he hit what he had assumed was ground at the tips of his feet, rolled over his knees and head, then the spikes on his head and backside, then his feet again. He bounced off the ground slightly as he went. Apparently it wasn't a very hard floor. Lucky me, he thought in relief. He remained balled up nonetheless until he stopped moving and ended up lying on his side.

For a moment he just stayed like that, glad to be still alive and in one piece in spite of having not really thought he would die. There had been times in his life where he'd not expected to come out alive, but strangely, this one was not among them.

Nevertheless, he mentally checked himself over for injuries before he dared to move, but nothing hurt at all and something about that fact wasn't as reassuring as you'd think it would be. Something about it made no sense. Something from the back of his mind told him he should hurt… somewhere, and not from falling from who knows where. A ghosting brush of memory, but it stayed unintelligible.

Uncurling and sitting up, the hedgehog looked around a first time. The ground he'd landed on was a sort of mint green and it was glowing faintly. Sonic ran his fingers over it, trying to ascertain it was real. The strange floor was rather soft to the touch, like some kind of foamed plastic. Glowing foamed plastic.

Weird, Sonic thought, turning his attention from the ground to what else was there. Just that there was nothing aside of himself. The strange floor lost itself in the distance where it was swallowed up by the same pitch black that was everywhere above him. Where he'd apparently come from. But…how'd he come to be in an all dark place?

Sonic unconsciously rubbed his head as he tried to remember. What had he done before he'd fallen through this endless black space to land here? He couldn't keep from thinking he'd forgotten something. Something important. A picture flashed in his head. Knuckles. In a base of some sort. Eggman's? He didn't know. The Master Emerald! They'd been searching for the Master Emerald! And there had been – an explosion? And he'd… crashed against a wall? He wasn't sure anymore. Did I pass out or something? He didn't know and it didn't make sense. Nothing made sense, and the repetitive notion of it was starting to already get on his nerves.

Wait. Explosion. I don't hear anything at all!

Sonic had been in explosions before. Quite a lot even. He knew a good blast could impair your hearing, at least temporarily. All you'd hear would be a terribly annoying ringing in the ears. But he didn't even hear that and for a moment he was afraid that he'd maybe ruptured his eardrums. Am I deaf?

"Uh, hello?", he asked into the silence around him. His voice sounded dull and weird when he spoke the words, as if the darkness around was swallowing them up. But not deaf. Good.

Sonic crawled to his feet. He hesitated a moment, then put his hands around his mouth. "HELLO-OH?! SOMEONE HERE?!"

"HERE? HERE? Here? Here? Here? Here?..."

"Whoa, echo!" Sonic stood in surprise.

"Echo, echo, echo…", it sounded back out of the blackness.

Sonic chuckled. "That's kinda cool," he said, though not as loud as before and apparently too quiet to cause another echo.

But where did the echo come from in the first place? For all Sonic knew, echoes were caused by the sound being reflected by a wall or something. Like the light in a mirror. Tails would surely be able to explain it to him better… Tails. Where's Tails? And Knuckles? Had they landed in this weird place too?

"TAAAAIIIIIIILS? KNUUUUUUUUUUUX? ARE YOU THERE?"

"-OU THERE? –OU THERE? –ou there? –ou there? –ou there? …" Only the echo replied.

"Shut up," Sonic mumbled. He had to find his friends, and quickly. He didn't know why, but it was important he got out of here and found them. Really important.


Angel Island's forests were a sight to behold, especially if seen from above. All the way from where they started to where they ended in the high mountains of the island's center, the leaves shimmered in thousands of colors, ranging from the stubborn bright greens of summer of the few trees that still managed to ignore the change of seasons over light greens and golden orange hues to the occasional deep red. The wind was brushing through them, turning the treetops of the forests into waving, colorful oceans all over the hills.

Knuckles smiled a little. It wasn't often he saw his home from this perspective. The first time, he'd been almost speechless. It was one thing looking over the island from the highest of its own summits. Flying over it in a plane was something different, and although he'd by now seen the island from this perspective a few times already, it still stuck Knuckles how small it looked. Almost fragile. And yet, no matter how often he saw it, he couldn't get enough of the sight. It was beautiful. Right now it lay in the sea like a colorful gem. The light of a slowly but steadily setting sun behind it only added to the impression. The red-tinted beams combined with a light haze over the island and sea around it made it look as if it was glowing a warm shine.

The ever prominent sound of the propeller reduced a little in pitch and loudness and the biplane slowly began a gentle descent towards Angel Island's ground. "Where do you want us to put you down?", Tails asked from behind Knuckles.

Still crouched on the wing, one hand keeping the Master Emerald steady, Knuckles turned over his shoulder. "If it's not too much trouble I'd prefer somewhere close to the temple."

Tails smiled. "No trouble at all. The meadow in front of it is easily long enough, especially since it's not so warm today."

Knuckles frowned, for a moment tempted to ask what the temperature had to do with that, but then he realized he would likely not understand the answer and settle for a short "Good" instead.

When unlike expected the third passenger of the biplane didn't ask about it either, nor made a wise-crack comment about Knuckles being too lazy to walk or something like that, the echidna looked over at the hedgehog. Sonic sat still in the rear seat, currently staring at the island ahead. Or maybe he wasn't staring at the island but more like through it. He hardly even blinked. Knuckles shrugged to himself. Probably had something on his mind. He should be glad Sonic wasn't annoying him with silly attempts at conversation for once, shouldn't he? Instead, the unfamiliar silence made him feel weird.

The treetops closed in rapidly and after crossing a forest at low altitude, Tails brought the Tornado down on the grass. The wheels gave out a soft thump when they touched down and the biplane bounced slightly on the uneven ground, but quickly slowed down and to a stop almost directly in front of the Temple of Chaos.

Knuckles smiled at Tails, standing up on the wing. "Right on spot," he allowed. "Thanks for the lift, Tails."

"Hehe, anytime again." The two-tailed fox giggled lightly.

Knuckles gave him another nod and picked up the Master Emerald, climbing off the twin wings. Once down, he rested the large gem carefully onto the grass and turned back to the plane. "Uh, before you leave… I just wanted to say thanks. Not only for the ride, but… you know. I wouldn't have asked for your help."

Tails winked. "We know that. You never ask. You're Knuckles. And we'd be lousy friends if we wouldn't be with you anyway."

The echidna felt an awkward smile tug on his lips. "Perhaps."

Tails pointed at the Master Emerald. "You'll be alright?"

"Yeah, I can take it from here." Knuckles nodded.

"Sure you can." Sonic finally looked down to him, but the smart remarks he usually spouted in situations like this didn't come and Knuckles surprisingly found himself missing them. A tired Sonic wasn't as fun to be around…

The guardian smiled up at the hedgehog anyway. "Thanks for your help, too. I… am somewhat aware that base wasn't one of your favorite places."

Sonic shrugged a little. "It's fine."

Knuckles nodded and turned back to Tails. "It's just stupid we didn't manage to catch the thief."

"We'll have a lookout," the fox said. "Maybe Rouge found out something while we were gone. Maybe I'll call her tomorrow. You just be careful."

Knuckles firmly inclined his head. "You bet I will. I'll raise the island and move it out as far as I can over the sea. It'll be harder for anyone to reach it that way. I have to keep the Emerald safe... although I'd love to give that thief a proper rematch."

"Yeah. In either case, look out. I'll call you in case I find out something, or we catch the thief, or something." Tails started turning the plane around.

Stepping a few steps away from the Tornado, Knuckles watched the procedure. "Good. You know where to find me."

Tails laughed. "Sure we do." He waved. "See you around, Knuckles!"

Sonic waved as well. "Bye!"

The guardian returned the gesture as the plane gathered speed and lifted off the grass. It cleared the first trees easily and after gaining some more altitude, Tails circled once over the clearing, waving goodbye. Knuckles stood and watched until his friends disappeared from sight, then he picked up the Master Emerald and slowly began to climb up the long stairway to the top of the altar.

As usually the Emerald sank smoothly into the dent in the rock of the shrine, soundless and light. The Master's glow gave out one strong, bright pulse as it touched down and a wave of energy rolled over the guardian's senses. He couldn't help but smile.

Knuckles stood at the Emerald's side for minutes, one hand on its surface, feeling its energy field spread into the island's ground. He waited patiently until the outlet reduced to its normal value before beginning to tap into the power and initiating a slow ascent. The speed increased after the whole socket of Angel Island came free of the water and its drag, and half an hour later it had achieved a stable altitude and was slowly drifting away from the land.

Finally pulling his hand away from the green jewel, Knuckles smelled the air. There was no place with a smell like the floating island. For a moment he stood, taking it in, then he turned his attention back on the gemstone. The field's frequency was still a little off, most likely courtesy of being misplaced and its energy being abused, but it wasn't off enough to be worried for the island's safety. As far as Knuckles knew from former experiences, it would settle after a while.

After a last look at the Master Emerald, the guardian slowly walked down the stairs. There was a lot on the island he needed to check up on.


The ground was spinning beneath him. It was the only thing Sonic could tell for sure about what was going on. It had started so slowly and gradually he had not even noticed it at first. It was only when the turning of the floor he stood on became so fast and changed direction so suddenly that he started to tumble that he realized what was happening. Or rather, that something was happening.

Sonic yelped as the ground shifted a rapid ninety degrees, arms spreading out for balance. He almost fell to the side nonetheless, stumbled forwards in attempts to keep from tripping and staggered into a kind of big, blue orb. It looked a little like a water balloon and just like one it popped when Sonic's weight half dropped over it.

Instead of the bang he would have expected, the popping was soundless in itself, but it released a good dozen of shiny, golden rings that scattered on the greenish floor around the hedgehog.

Feet slightly apart and fighting for balance, Sonic stared around. The blue ball or orb or balloon he'd destroyed on accident wasn't the only one of its kind. They seemed to be everywhere around. There were red ones, too.

Just where did those things come from so suddenly? Is this… a special zone?

Sonic smirked at the idea. It fit. The special zones where weird places. Tails claimed they were a kind of subspace, a dimension between dimensions, a space between the normal universe and the hyperspace it existed within… or something like that. Sonic wasn't too sure on the exact wording his young friend had used. All Sonic knew was that Special Zones were places with high residual chaos energy, or strong chaos fields as Knuckles would probably explain it. As that, they attracted the Chaos Emeralds, especially after they had been used and their powers were weakened. Like magnets of sorts. Sonic remembered Knuckles having once spoken of his ancestors having believed the special zones were the source of the golden rings and used to stabilize the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic wasn't too sure if he believed that.

Anyway, he had been to special stages before. They were weird, surreal places, full of oddities and devoid of what laws of nature you could usually rely on. And with that, the place he was in now perfectly fit the picture.

Sonic grinned. At least now he knew where he was. And while he didn't know how he'd landed here, if he wasn't mistaken, he knew how to get out. It was something he had discovered by chance after landing in the first special zone he'd been too. If you collected a certain amount of rings or, if rings weren't there, colorful glowy ball things, you were flung out of the special zone back to the place you came from. Sometimes a Chaos Emerald would appear right before that happened and you had to be fast enough to snatch it.

While Sonic had been pondering his situation, the rings he'd knocked out of the blue ball had disappeared from sight, but that hardly mattered. Trying his best to maneuver in a straight line, Sonic set off for the next blue orbs in reach. If he collected enough rings, he should get out of here again.

Doing so was easier said than done. The floor was going crazy and Sonic was tumbling around like drunk. He fell over at a particularly sudden shifting of the ground and scrambled on on his hands and knees to pick up the rings the last orb he'd smashed had dropped.

Why can't the damn floor just hold still for once? The hedgehog grimaced as he picked himself up, on by now wobbly knees stumbling in a direction he thought would bring him to the next blue ball full of rings.

Again the floor shifted, and instead of walking into the blue ball he'd aimed for, Sonic was flung to the side into a red one. It exploded with a soundless bang that in spite of the silence made his ears ring and blasted him a couple meters through the air.

Painfully Sonic crawled back to his feet, holding his head. Around him, the rings he'd dropped bounced softly up and down a few times before turning more and more transparent and disappearing from sight, but the hedgehog missed the chance to recollect them. He was dizzy, and noticed a second too late that the shifting, spinning floor was carrying him into yet another red ball. He dodged with a jump forwards and grazed by the ball with just the tip of a headquill.

In spite of quills being dead tissue actually, the involuntary contact hurt more than the first time. There were no rings to scatter anywhere to take the hit and Sonic dropped to the floor again, feeling like he'd just been electrocuted. He hunkered and watched through squinting, disbelieving eyes how the balls, red and blue alike, disappeared suddenly – and then the floor disappeared. In the same second, Sonic lost contact to it and felt like he was accelerated towards the non-existent ceiling. It totally felt like falling free again… Just that he was falling upwards.

The hedgehog decided that this was a great moment to start screaming.