Chapter 1: The Far Future
It was hot.
Really, really hot.
The heat burned Silver's face as he floated slowly across the destroyed cityscape, watching the lava flow and metal melt. Aside from the occasional rumble of thunder and flash of lightning from the storm clouds covering the sky, there was no light. Just like always.
He'd been born into the broken world. "It had always been like this," his parents had said, before he was born, before they were born, and before their parents were born.
A flaming tornado flared up, distracting Silver, and sending heat into his face. He focused, drew his hand back, and used a psychokinetic blast to clear the flames in front of him, watching them die away.
"How did this happen?" he had always asked. But no one answered him directly. They always pointed to the flames.
The same flames that had killed his parents. The same flames that had injured him repeatedly while he fought.
These flames. They burned away at his world destroying everything in their path. They came from an eternal life form they couldn't truly defeat. The Flames of Disaster known as Iblis.
"Silver!" a familiar voice called to him, derailing his train of thought. He turned and saw Blaze, a purple cat who he had stumbled upon almost a year ago.
They instantly clicked, and became best friends. He remembered meeting her like it was yesterday…
Sol Dimension, One Year Ago
All around the ginormous island base, explosions were heard as Blaze chased Eggman Nega. They blew through level after level at high speed, leaving destruction as they fought.
"NEGA!" Blaze shouted, shooting a fireball at the rotund scientist. She jumped from robot to robot, destroying each as she spun in a fiery tornado.
"Catch me if you can, princess!" Eggman Nega taunted her, shooting missiles from his mech, watching them fly at her.
Blaze braced and jumped, hopping from missile to missile, and dodging in mid-air. She landed, hearing the missiles explode behind her.
"I don't have time for your games, Nega. Where are the Sol Emeralds?"
"I see no reason to tell you. But I will say I'm using them for a project," Nega said, laughing.
"You know those emeralds keep the balance of this world afloat. I need them for my people to survive."
"And I could give a damn about your people. They mean nothing to me; they are but an obstacle to me and my goal," Nega spat.
"Nega, you better hand me those emeralds, or so help me…" Blaze threatened.
"Well, if you insist," Nega said, taking off.
"Get BACK HERE!" Blaze shouted, running after him surrounded by an orange fiery glow.
As they both raced down the halls, Nega tried closing each heavy blast door, but Blaze burst through, spinning like a flaming tornado.
By this time, she had had enough, and jumped into the air, roundhouse kicking the back of Nega's EggMobile and sending it crashing into his command bay room. Nega was ejected from his seat and hit the wall, groaning painfully.
Blaze stepped toward him, and he pulled a large red and black gun from behind his back.
"Stay back!" he frantically said, slapping his command console as if he were looking for something while aiming the gun at Blaze.
"Where did you even keep that- you know what, nevermind. Where are the Sol Emeralds, Nega?" Blaze asked.
"Right here!" Nega found the button he was looking for, and the seven circles on the floor around the room began rising, revealing large glass cylinders with one Sol Emerald each. All of them were suspended on beams of light, floating in mid air.
"If you like your mustache, you'd give those to me," Blaze threatened, setting her index finger ablaze.
"Oh, princess, I'd think you like to learn about this project visually," Nega said, pressing the button again.
Each cylinder began glowing one color each, and a strong breeze began blowing sucking air past her. Blaze struggled to keep her balance. As she hunkered down, she saw a blue portal being made under an arc behind Nega. She looked toward the center of the room and saw an electronic display that read:
PORTAL ONE DESTINATION: CHAOS DIMENSION
TIME: PRESENT
"You see, I've learned from our last little encounter, cat. I now know you can use Sol Emeralds like Chaos Emeralds and jump between dimensions. And I also know you care about that blue hedgehog that defeated me and my counterpart, who I quite frankly miss. So I decided to join him again, and eliminate that blue pest, but first," Nega aimed the gun again, "You."
"Last warning, Nega," Blaze warned, looking for a way to shut the contraption off. As she looked around, she saw some technology guarded by a glass panel, and an idea came to her.
"Let me get on my ship, and- hey!" Nega shouted, seeing Blaze run to the glass guarded panel. He fired the gun, and Blaze jumped out of the way, causing it to hit the tech under the glass instead.
He saw Blaze boost into the glass cylinder of one of the emeralds, leaving a crack.
"Time to go!" he thought, running toward the portal.
As Blaze bounced off the glass, she saw the scientist running toward the portal.
"You're not getting away!" she shouted, tackling him into the center of the room.
The two wrestled for the gun, causing it to fire past Blaze's face, and into the tech under the glass again.
An even stronger breeze entered the room, and the two stopped fighting.
Another portal, turquoise in color had formed behind Blaze, sucking air from behind her. The readings on the display were now randomly flashing and fluctuating.
"What have you done?!" Nega screamed at her, gripping a pole as he flew toward the blue portal.
"What did YOU do?!" Blaze screamed back over the wind.
"You've caused me to break the power limiter. Now the Sol Emeralds are causing the extra portal to form, plus the one I had opened already to use unchecked, unlimited power!"
"THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T STEAL!" Blaze shouted, holding on to the command console.
Nega grunted before his grip slipped, yelling as he was sucked across the room.
Blaze grabbed his hand, trying to pull him back from the blue portal. She made some progress, before Nega kicked her hand, causing himself to fly through his portal.
Blaze lost her grip, screaming as she was sucked back into the turquoise portal.
As she flew, she saw the display on Nega's portal read:
PORTAL ONE DESTINATION: CHAOS DIMENSION
TIME: 10 YEARS AGO
Her portal read:
PORTAL TWO DESTINATION: CHAOS DIMENSION
TIME: 200 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE
That was the last thing she saw before blacking out as debris from the room hit her.
"Hello? Helloooo? Are you awake yet?" she faintly heard a high, but male voice ask.
She groaned, slowly opening her eyes as her vision focused.
She saw the upside down view of a hedgehog staring down at her, obviously concerned. He had silver fur on his body, white chest fur around his neck, and black and white boots with turquoise toes. He also wore white gloves with cyan circles with lines sticking out of the bottom, leading to his golden bracelets accented in cyan as well.
"You had a nasty fall there. Are you alright?" he asked, helping her up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, looking around.
Nothing looked familiar. The city around her was destroyed and broken, and the sky was orange, with smoke blocking the sun. She looked over the edge, and saw lava flowing, glowing orange.
"This isn't Sonic's world, is it?" she thought.
"Enjoy the view, it's all you'll see for hundreds of miles," the silver hedgehog's voice pierced her thoughts.
"How long has it been like this?" Blaze asked him.
"Since before I was born, before my grandparents were even born. No one knows how or why, but it's been like this. Those flames and lava are known as Iblis, The Flames of Disaster. A giant monster even shows up sometimes," he explained.
Blaze nodded, before speaking.
"How did you find me?" Blaze asked, looking at him.
The hedgehog thought, before speaking.
"As I was flying, I saw something turquoise open up in mid-air, and it spat you out here on this building. You were knocked out, so I decided to check on you. You don't look like anyone I've seen before, though," he said, thinking.
Everything suddenly clicked in Blaze's mind, and she gasped.
"I'm sorry, I haven't asked your name. What is it?" she asked him.
"Oh. My name is Silver the Hedgehog. What's yours?" Silver answered.
"Blaze the Cat, princess of the Sol Dimension," Blaze introduced herself.
Silver looked at her, confused.
"The…what-now?" he asked.
"I guard the Sol Emeralds, which are the Sol Dimension's equivalent to The Chaos Emeralds. The Sol Emeralds must have sent me forward in time, but I forgot how far forward," Blaze explained, looking toward Silver, who looked even more confused somehow.
"None of that makes sense, did it?" Blaze sighed.
"So you're from a different time period, and a different dimension?" Silver asked.
"That's correct," Blaze said.
"Whoa," he whispered, before thinking of something.
"I haven't heard of any 'Sol Emeralds', but I have heard some stories about these Chaos Emeralds that you're describing," he said, "I heard that they were used to fight the greatest evils the world has faced, but no one has proof that they were even real."
"Well, believe me, they're real, and everything you just mentioned is true as well. They were used against evil," Blaze said, "I saw it first hand."
Silver smiled at her.
"I'll take your word on it."
Blaze smiled back, before another thought popped up.
"What city is this, by the way?" she asked Silver.
"Oh, we don't know the official name; we just call it Crisis City," Silver casually explained.
"Huh," Blaze answered, before hearing a roar as heat blasted up from beneath.
She and Silver stepped back to see two giant flaming tornadoes flare up.
In the corner of her eye, she saw Silver begin to float. He drew his hand back, and used a psychokinetic blast to clear the flames in front of him.
She slowly moved each finger on her right hand toward her as she stuck her hands into the tornado. She then moved her left hand in the opposite direction of her right, circling them around each other.
"What are you doing?" Silver called to her.
Blaze didn't hear him, focusing on her task. Finally, she held two flaming palms out and closed her fists, snuffing out the entire tornado. She looked back at Silver with a smile.
"Whoa," Silver thought, staring at her, "You're good with fire."
"They don't call me 'Blaze' for nothing," Blaze remarked.
Silver laughed, before floating to her.
"Come on, I'll show you around," he offered, extending his hand to her.
"You can, if you can keep up," Blaze teased, running at high speed and jumping from building to building.
Silver smiled, before blasting off after her.
