In those days, the ancient times, there was a growing sense that the natural world would soon come to an end. The Echidnas didn't fear the end, no, they embraced it. The marble pillars at the heart of their city— the pyramids that made even mountains blush— rushing, flowing aqueducts that brought the Echidna people indoor plumbing, bathhouses, and even heated floors— for those living under the reign of Chief Pachacamac, this was paradise. So if the natural world was dying, the Echidnas' world would surely be there to replace it. What was there to fear?

But if you could put your ear to the ground, you would hear a whisper. Distress pulled at the spirit of Echidna City; Strange forces— chaotic forces— were calling out to those who were listening.

One such Echidna, a girl who had been listening ever since she was a little pup, heard the call as clear as glass. Her name was Tikal, first and only daughter of Chief Pachacamac, and when the tides of war erupted there on Angel Island, only she would stand in its way. But on that day, when the armies raised their spears in the air, when the Echidnas claimed those sacred Emeralds, on that day, on that day…

What is this? he thought, I don't know any of these people. With that, it all collapsed. The pillars dissolved into vapor, the Echidnas disappeared, one by one, and the dream was over. Knuckles awoke, dazed, nearly forgetting his own name.

"Tikal… Pachacamac… Chaos…" said Knuckles, trying to piece together his reality. "That dream, I was there. I was somebody else."

As the memories of his life came flooding back to him, Knuckles scanned the desolated architecture of his homeland. He'd never seen another Echidna, not in his entire life. Hell, sometimes Knuckles wondered if Echidnas were even real. If that was just a dream, he thought, than that beautiful city… all those people who looked just like me… none of that was real. And yet, as he replayed the dream in his mind over and over, those paved streets lined up perfectly with the ruins in front of him. Full control of his body was coming back to him, slowly. He stared down at his hands, trying to keep them from shaking. Knuckles put his right hand over his left, and began to press down, hard.

"Ow," he shouted, as his spiked knuckles stabbed into his palm, "Shit." Guess I'm not dreaming, he thought.

Suddenly, from behind him, there came a shrill sound, like gravel on glass. Knuckles was always quick to react. Spinning on his toes to face the sound, he held his instinctive offensive stance. He knew very little about his place in the world, but Knuckles always knew how a hit something where it hurt the most. Before him was the Master Emerald, the living heart of the lost Echidna tribes. Just basking in its green light was usually cathartic for him, but as his gaze began to focus, he became aware of a strange red phosphorescence— building, growing in the center the jewel. Have my ears finally given up on me? he thought, What was that scraping sound?

Leaning closer toward the Emerald's brilliant light, the source of the sound became clearer. Threading the fine edges of the Master Emerald was a spiderweb crack— no bigger than Knuckles' hand— but as the red glow grew brighter, he realized the crack would spread alongside it.

"No… No!" Knuckles huffed to himself, flinging his arms around the sacred stone, hoping— deep down— that his strength would hold the Emerald together. This can't be happening, he thought, This isn't how I lose!

But of course, it wasn't enough. Knuckles' stomach dropped as the crack splintered across the whole gem; it shattered into countless shards in his arms, but before he could pull those holy pieces to his chest in mourning, he was blasted— backwards, head over tail— cast to the base of the temple steps. At the top of the pyramid, where the Master Emerald once was, the red glow was now free, and in front of it, a trembling blue shape began to take form. Knuckles was too far to see distinctly, but he could make out the creature's green eyes. The red light still shone from behind the thing, its skin was translucent.

"You! You've taken everything from me!" he screamed, his terror tugging at his tongue, "Who the hell do you think you are?" With all the energy he had left, Knuckles charged up the stairs, beelining toward his new sworn adversary. But before he could reach that quivering shape, it began to melt.

"What?" cried Knuckles. "No, no no no…" but it was too late. Whatever had been standing there— if it had ever even stood there at all— had dissolved into a puddle. Before Knuckles could even attempt to give a piece of his mind to the untouchable puddle, it darted to the right, swimming inside itself, until it had completely vanished. Everything Knuckles was, all that he had left of his people, his only purpose in this world— all of that was gone now. Knuckles felt an ocean stirring in him, a storm so contemptuous that he was nearly pushed to tears. He would have shed them, too— he would have put his hands around his eyes and bawled in memory of the Echidna lives who were lost, in longing of a family he had never known, in pity of his own life— so small, so repetitive, so much weight on his back— he would have cried for all of this, were it not for what came next.

There, on that day, Angel Island fell from the sky.

As the sun began its dip into the horizon, a strange ripple tore through the air of West Side Island. It made no sound, but Sonic felt it. Like a leaf on the surface of a startled pond, the ripple lurched in his gut. Blocking out the sun with his arm, he could almost make out a two-tailed speck floating off in the distance.
"Hey, Tails," he said, "Long time, no see!"

This was a joke, of course, they'd seen each other every hour of the day. Off in the distance, Tails threw his thumbs in the air, shouting his response— but the words were lost in the wind.

"Did you notice the ripple, Tails?" Sonic said, cupping his hands to carry his voice.

Before Tails could hear, there was an eruption of sound: stone grinding on stone, like a mountain eating another mountain. Sonic followed the noise with his eyes, until he finally saw it: Angel island was leaning on its side, lowering toward the sea, and just as suddenly as it had tilted, it began to fall— slowly, as though it were suspended from strings that were suddenly snapped. Sonic and Tails exchanged a brief, knowing glance before rushing off in the direction of the plummeting Island.

Angel Island falling out of the sky? Again? Sonic pondered the implications. Somehow, I know Eggman's got to be involved. We could looking at countless animals with head injuries, physical trauma, jeez— what if some of them fell into the ocean? A lot of creatures don't know how to swim…

As countless doomsday scenarios sped through Sonic's head, he noticed he'd been gaining on Tails. Catching up with the fox, there was a soft ffft-ffft-ffft sound as his twin tails twirled in flailing circles against each other. Far ahead of them, Angel Island sunk farther toward the ocean, its twilight shadow creeping slowly over the Red Mountain range.

"That's getting a little too close for comfort," Sonic said, "You don't think Angel Island is gonna fall on top of West Side, do you?"

"It's only casting a shadow because it's gotten in the way of the sunset. So, it's looming overhead, but that doesn't quite mean we're going to have any sort of terrestrial collision. Not definitively." Tails scratched his chin as he spoke. "Still, it doesn't exactly bode well, and I think we should always count on the worst possible scenario with something as catastrophic as this."

Concentration had furrowed Tails' brow, he was clearly deep in thought, but the feeling washed over him, and he returned to his sheepish demeanor.

"I mean… that's just off the top of my head. I think. I don't know, Sonic. What do you think?"

"You know what I think, Tails? I think you doubt yourself too much. Like you said: we can't take any chances. Give me a boost, and I'll evacuate the coast— just in case." Sonic reached for the air, and Tails grabbed both of his outstretched hands. Sonic pushed his legs— stepping faster and faster until his legs gained a momentum that was somehow elliptical— when he got to his fullest speed, Tails somersaulted in the air before releasing his grasp, tossing Sonic at a blinding trajectory. The hedgehog curled into a ball, spun himself, and rolled off at breakneck speed when he hit the surface of the ground.

Reaching the shadowed area, Sonic darted about to any bystanders he could find. Most of the animals had followed their best instincts, and fled from the spot when they noticed a giant falling island. Others, though— namely, a burrow of rabbits, some tree squirrels, and an assortment of frogs— were a little shocked by what they were seeing. Before they could even know what had happened, Sonic moved each and every last one to the nearest, safest spot on the island.

It didn't take long, it took less time than even Sonic had anticipated. He had half a mind to gloat over this, but his success felt somewhat diminished as he looked ahead. Angel island was settling into its collapsed position, but it was touching down just far enough away from the coast to avoid landing on West Side itself.

Oh well, Sonic thought, Guess we couldn't afford to be too careful. However, he might have relaxed too soon— for as the base of Angel Island began to pierce into the settled ocean, a disastrous cascade of water rushed from the fall.

"Uh oh…" Sonic gulped as the tide receded, anticipating the approaching colossal waves. He revved up his feet, jogging in place, before zipping towards the peaking wave.

I've never been much of a surfer before, Sonic thought, but if it'll keep me from getting completely drenched? Hey, there's a first time for everything.

As the tip of that wave fell into a perfect spiral, Sonic reached a critical velocity. His feet carried him boldly over the surface of the water, growing faster as he looped around the wave. Just as the wave was collapsing in to itself, he launched himself back over the sands, carried by the added momentum of the tides. Sand met grass, and he kept cruising on forward. The beating thump of his shoes on the ground had already dried whatever parts of him had gotten wet.

"Sonic!"

He skidded to a halt in his tracks. That was Tails calling for him. He sounded worried. Sonic had heard Tails call out for help many times before, but this time— this time something was different. Tails' voice was wavering, as if it was about to break.

"He's hurt— he's hurt really bad…" Tails cried.

Sonic turned towards the sound and ran, reaching the fox in a near instant. His mind was racing faster than his senses. Tails' face was stained with tears, and he was clutching a frail blue bird in his arms. Something feels wrong here, Sonic thought.

"What is it buddy? What happened?"

"I… I just found him like this," said Tails. He stroked the bird, softly, on the top of the head. It flinched a little less with every touch. "He has a broken wing, and he's having trouble breathing."

"Gosh— is it that bad for a bird to have a broken wing?"

Tails nodded and wiped under his eyes.

"I read a book that said— that said— if a bird can't fly, it won't survive in the wild. He's really wheezing… I wonder if his lungs were punctured…" It became too much for Tails, and he began to sob into his gloves.

"Well, hey… you're probably the smartest kid on this whole island! You know a way to fix it, right?" Sonic felt a lump in his throat as Tails began to shake his head.

"Machines, Sonic. I only know machines. And even then," Tails said, gulping his tears, "Everything I've learned about mechanics comes from junk and scrap-metal. I can't do bodies." Sonic did what he could to prolong his fading smile.

"I'm really sorry, Tails. This is a lot to handle for a fox your age, you're doing great." Sonic reached for Tails' shoulder, but he pulled himself away.

"He's in so much pain, and there's nothing I can do." In his hands, the little bird began to flutter its eyelids while it made little kicks in the air. Blades of grass folded in the breeze.

"Alright, Tails. We'll work this out. The humans have gotten a lot built down in the colonial district. You could take the train down to Station Square, they've got a hospital down there!"

"A hospital? Already? Wow," said Tails, looking bewildered, "I guess the humans really are here to help."

There'd been uncertainty ever since the humans had started to explore the Mystic Ruins on West Side Island. Most of the animals living in The Zones were skeptical. For them, any project even tangentially affiliated with the Robotnik legacy was met with suspicion, if not outright disdain. In many ways, Station Square could be seen as the final product of the Eggman's rapid and automated development. Sure, his name wasn't on every building, but this wasn't for lack of trying. His machines paved the roads. Animal labor ran the city's power grid. Even Twinkle Park reincorporated assets of Dr. Robotnik's brief stint in the entertainment industry (neither Studiopolis nor Carnival Island turned a profit for the Meteor Tech Corporation).

For Tails, the industrialization left him feeling very conflicted. On one hand, he was thrilled to see the rapid discoveries humankind was making every day. Newspapers, databases, textbooks… there was so much to learn! Explorers and archaeologists in the Mystic Ruins were getting closer and closer to decoding the secrets of the ancient Echidna tribe. Maybe they would soon understand how chaos physics influenced the strange natural formations of The Zones.

On the other hand, this was West Side Island. This was his home. The United Federation had been funding Robotnik's ecological devastation of The Zones for as long as Tails could remember. Seeing cars and highways where there used to be meadows and forests made him feel a little uneasy, especially knowing that the UF was behind it all.

But apparently, they've got some really efficient infrastructure, thought Tails, maybe the Federation is really going to improve how we live our lives!

"Okay," said Tails, "Get there as quick as you can, but please… be gentle with him, okay?" He passed the poor thing to Sonic, who cradled it in his arms.

"Don't worry, okay? I'll make sure he gets better. The tracks are only about a mile that way." Sonic said, pointing a thumb behind him.

"Tracks?" Tails cried out, frantically. "The next train won't be here for another fifteen minutes!"

"Who said I was taking the train?" Sonic smirked. "Come on, you know me better than that! I don't wait around. Not for anything."

With that, Sonic was off— leaving nothing but a faint blue trail in the distance and a gust of wind. Tails reached out for a bird that had no name.

"Seriously, Sonic," Tails said, knowing he would not be heard. "Please be careful."