Chapter 114: Mirror

Following in the direction Sonic supposedly went, Sonny Miles and Amelia soon found themselves in an area covered in ancient ruins with the Death Egg floating in the background.

"I remember this place," Sonny said looking over the area. "It was on Angel Island when Eggman launched the Death Egg into space."

"Yeah, but I can't remember its name," Miles said scratching his head.

"Well, let's look around and see what we can find." Sonny was about to take off when Amelia grabbed his hand.

"Not without me," Amelia said.

"I think you'd be safer with Miles," Sonny said shaking his head.

But to the boys' surprise, Amelia manage to summon the Piko Hammer out of thin air and lean it in Sonny's direction.

"On second thought, maybe it would be better if you came with me," Sonny responded nervously.

"Fine," Amelia said and made the Piko Hammer vanish.

While Miles went one way on his artificial tails, Amelia and Sonny went another.

###

"Does it seem strange that we can still use our special abilities, even tough they were given to us by Sonic and his friends?" Amelia asked after she and Sonny plowed through several insect robots.

"Yeah, even though I think we're in the part of my mind that's possessed by Sonic," Sonny said watching the unusual birds fly away.

"You're still going with that theory? Maybe there's another explanation for what's going on."

"Do you have one?"

"Not at the moment," Amelia said sheepishly then she noticed a blue blur zip by them. "Hey! That was Sonic!"

"Let's follow him!" Sonny said and ran at top speed to catch up but he was still far behind Sonic.

At the end of the stone bridge, Sonny found a statue that resembled Chuck. Like at the chemical factory and Green Hill, the statue turned from white to colorful and moved on its own.

"I didn't ask to be saved, you know," Chuck said as his purple eyes blinked while holding his bandaged hands against the sides of his head where long red dreadlocks spilled out from. "But thanks, anyway."

"No problem," Sonny said folding his arms.

Once Chuck shook himself awake, he looked around and gasped. "Hey, this is Sky Sanctuary! Am I on Angel Island right now?"

"No, far from it," Amelia said as a discomforting odor wafted off of Chuck's red sports top and shorts. "Have you stopped bathing again?"

"What does my personal hygiene have to do with where we are?" Chuck asked irritably.

"Nothing, Chuck, it's just that…you kind of smell," Sonny said reluctantly.

"Well, if you can't stand my odor, then I'm leaving," Chuck said and prepared to take off the edge of the stone bridge. "Let's go, Knuckles."

Before Sonny and Amelia could stop him, Chuck leaped off the bridge and gave out a sudden cry as he fell straight down. Then just before he hit the ground below, Miles grabbed Chuck and lifted him back onto the bridge. A spark suddenly erupted from the artificial tails, causing Miles to land abruptly onto the bridge's edge but Sonny and Amelia caught him before he fell over.

"Whew, that was a close one," Miles said as he steadied himself.

"What happened?" Sonny asked.

"Because Chuck was so heavy, my artificial tails had to work overtime," Miles answered and looked down at the tails as a trail of smoke came from them. "I guess a fuse must've blown."

"Um, why is Miles using fake tails to fly?" Chuck said pointing.

"I don't feel Tails's presence inside me anymore, so I had to compensate," Miles replied.

"That's weird," Chuck said scratching his head. "Cuz I don't feel Knuckles in me either."

"And you would've fallen to your death if Miles hadn't caught you in time," Amelia said irritably.

"Hey, how was I supposed to know that would happen?" Chuck responded angrily.

"Guys, fighting about this isn't going to get us anywhere," Sonny said coming between Amelia and Chuck. "Now what was the last thing you remember, Chuck?"

"Getting sucked into that shadow-thing, and then I felt…helpless until you guys snapped me out of it," replied Chuck.

"Kind of sounds similar to our stories," Miles said. "So if we're here, that means—

"Everyone else who was at the birthday party is somewhere in this place too," Sonny interjected. "Now I'm starting to have second thoughts about my original theory."

"What theory?" Chuck wondered.

"He thinks we're in Sonic's mind," Amelia said.

"Though technically the part of Sonny's mind that's being controlled by Sonic," Miles added.

"Oh, but why is a part of Angel Island here? This is what I see when I visit Knuckles in my head, kind of."

"Maybe this place is related to something that happened between him and Knuckles," Sonny said thoughtfully.

"That's it!" Miles exclaimed. "If we really are in Sonic's mind, then all the places we've been visiting up till now are physical manifestations of memories Sonic had of when he was alive."

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain why we're here if this is supposed to be part of Sonny's mind," Amelia said.

"I haven't figured that part out yet," Miles replied. "But maybe the further we go, the more clues we'll find."

"Sounds good to me," Sonny said and led the way across the stone bridge.

"Ugh, I'm so confused," Chuck murmured.

###

While traversing Sky Sanctuary, Sonny came into a large hallway full of mirrors on both sides. The others were off exploring different areas including the places they had been to already, so Sonny was all alone at the moment. But when he glanced at one of the mirrors, he saw a small creature standing there in the exact same position as him. Upon closer inspection, Sonny saw that it was a hedgehog with blue spikes, small ears, a pointy black nose, narrow black eyes, and it wore white gloves on its hands and red sneakers on its feet standing upright like a human.

"What the heck is that?" Sonny wondered as he leaned closer while the hedgehog did the same.

"Like what you see, Sonny?" Eggman's voice cried from a mirror that stood above a stone mantle at the end of the hallway. "Of course, this may be the last time you get a good look at yourself before I eliminate you for good!"

At that instant, the blue hedgehog took off toward the mirror at the end of the hallway until he was nothing more than a blur.

"Whoa, that thing is fast!" Sonny said and tried to catch up as the hedgehog disappeared into the mirror at the end of the hallway.

But by the time Sonny reached it, the mirror vanished and he hit a stone wall. Fortunately, he managed to knock himself back before slamming into the wall completely, but was baffled by the mirror's absence. So he went and looked for Miles who stood outside Sky Sanctuary where a purple and black-colored portal had suddenly opened.

"Where did that come from?" Sonny asked.

"I'm not sure, but it appeared here not too long ago," Miles said.

Then just after Miles spoke, the blue hedgehog emerged from the portal.

"Sonic!" cried a small child-like voice.

Sonny and Miles turned around and saw a small yellow fox with two tails that stood upright with white-and-red sneakers on its feet. It ran toward the blue hedgehog with a happy grin on its face and the two creatures embraced.

"Sonic?" Miles and Sonny said out loud with perplexed faces.

The yellow fox then broke from the embrace and noticed Sonny and Miles standing nearby. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you there. I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

To be continued…