The same night Silver and Blaze had their own private reunion, Amy was just confused.

"...I was going to ask about you," she said. The two were perched on a large rock, just outside of the forest. An orange sun dropped in a pink sky, right behind them, but the forest didn't get any brighter. It was unusually dark, in fact, like a gun in a toy box.

"About me?" Sonic asked, looking surprised.

Someone-no, something-else was here. It could smell her. Neither of them knew it.

"You were a lot of fun on our date, but…"

It moved closer. The taller blades of grass were threatening to give it away, and it was making an uncharacteristic amount of noise. Their conversation continued anyway.

"I was just glad to see my friends safe," Sonic explained. "It wasn't anything you did." He laughed lightly.

Thump. It had focused too much on its targets, and bumped nose-first into a rock. Panicked, it knew it was now or never-it could tell the one in blue knew of its presence now.

"Ames, you're going to want to start running as fast as you can," he said shakily, stepping protectively in front of her and pushing her.

It struck. The something reared its ugly head and leapt straight at Sonic.

"It" was a shaggy, black beast. It looked like a dog, but about twice as big as the biggest Doberman. The fur around its snout hung in a crimson mane. Yellowed ivory fangs stretched wide open to take Sonic to his death.

Adrenaline coursed through Sonic. He intuitively knew that if he died here, he wouldn't wake up. This wasn't a regular dream.

He turned and ran. There was a crack. The beast howled, but Sonic was so far away he couldn't even see it.

As a matter of fact, Sonic didn't recognize where he was. "How'd I get here so fast…?" He thought back to earlier, before he'd been jumped….

That's right! I said, "Personally, I wouldn't mind being faster than the speed of sound," and now I'm here! Does this forest grant wishes?

"Well, in that case," Sonic thought out loud, "I could really use a million dollars...to go," he said. "I gotta find Amy."

He began to run in what he thought was the direction he'd come. There was another crack. "Holy eggheads," he muttered, "I'm breaking the sound barrier!" There was not, however, any money. Then how long have I been able to do this? And where the heck is Ames?


It was sometime before 8:15, sometime before Silver would wake up and forget that this ever happened. He was, quite honestly, having the time of his life.

"I just wish we could be like this in real life…" Silver enthused.

"Who's to say this isn't real life?" Blaze countered. "I mean, who's to say we're not stuck here, together, forever?"

"I wouldn't like that very much," he said, but smiled at the thought anyway.

"It's better than living light-years across from each other."

Silver had to agree.

Blaze wasn't without her doubts. Silver was definitely out of his element; he looked a little scared, and so was she. But a world without her father was a pretty good one so far.

There was a pause. Silver couldn't think of anything to say. Blaze was content to look around.

Silver's breathing quickened. Blaze looked up at the sky.

Silver's eyes began to glow a nice green color. Blaze continued to look up at the sky. A moon hung at exactly midnight. It hadn't moved since they'd gotten there.

Silver began breathing quickly and loudly. Blaze began to turn around.

Then, of course, the visions started.

"Silver? What's wrong?" Blaze asked, panicky. Silver went pale.

Blaze swore inwardly. I'm just a med student! Is he having a seizure? I'm not qualified to help him if that's what's happening!

Then, she kicked herself inwardly. Blaze, green glowing eyes are not symptoms of a seizure! Something else is happening here!

Before she could do anything, Silver's eyes stopped glowing. His breathing didn't slow, but he looked around and seemed more himself.

"Blaze!" he said in recognition, grabbing her shoulders. "Where am I?"

"Silver, you haven't moved. What's going on?"

"I...I don't know! It was like I was Amy for a second, but I wasn't, and then there was the thing-the monster-"

"Okay, okay, slow down. Stay with me," Blaze said, doing a carefully learned, hopefully relaxing voice. "Exactly what happened? What did you see?"

"You know Amy? My manager?" Silver said, practically gasping for breath. Blaze nodded, and he continued. "She and Sonic - her boyfriend - they're being attacked!"

"Where? At her house?"

"No! Here! We're not the only ones here, and there's something stalking them! Who knows what's after us!"

"Alright," Blaze said protectively. "Alright, okay. Nothing has attacked us yet. Can you describe where they were?"

"They were outside of this forest."

"So it follows that to stay away from this...monster, we'll have to go deeper into the forest, right?"

Silver gulped. "Yeah…"

Something tickled Blaze's leg. She yanked it upwards, turning to look at it. It was just a fern.

Instantly, like the fern was sentient, it stretched toward Silver, wrapping itself around his leg, as more ferns gathered around. They entangled both Blaze and Silver before they had time to make a sound.

Blaze panicked, trying to squirm out of the grip of the vegetation. Almost instantly, there was the smell of something burning. The plant life shrunk away from her like a kicked puppy.

Something crackled. She looked down. Blackened plants now littered her feet.

Also, her paw was on fire.

It was time to make a kale salad. Or, at least, that's what Sonic would have said.


Blaze burnt the plants off of Silver without harming him. Aside from his left foot. But he was right-footed anyway.

They ran for a long time. The plants rarely stopped chasing them. Both of them were out of their minds with exhaustion. Both considered sleeping as soon as they got to safety, except they were already dreaming.

Finally, Blaze spotted a bright spot in the forest. They were almost out and to safety. With any luck, the only threat outside of it was whatever was chasing Sonic and Amy. The only thing in their way was a crop of rocks with a stream through it. Without looking back, Blaze ran and vaulted it, clearing the other side. Silver had been a second behind her. Where was he?

Silver had been caught just before making the jump. Crap.

With a masterful flick of the wrist, a ball of flame shot right at the plants and scorched the ground right behind Silver, burning the plants at the root. With a grateful expression, Silver clambered over the rocks and out of the forest.

Blaze woke up, saying "Thank you," to her ceiling and instantly forgetting why. Halfway across the States, Sonic and Amy did the same, having narrowly escaped whatever beast was chasing them.

It was 8:15. Silver was going to be late for work.