I'm gonna be upfront here, this fic involves a new human character. I know the Sonic franchise has some bad history with that concept, but please give it a chance here.
"Alright, you're done for the night."
Without a word, Joe nodded at his boss and headed out to his car. He was tired; who wouldn't be after working the late shift?
When he got home, he took off his knee brace, showered off, changed into his pajamas, and turned in for the night. It wasn't until he got out of bed for a drink of water that it happened.
There was a blinding flash of light, and he suddenly found himself falling, as if he'd stepped into a gaping hole in his kitchen floor.
From then on, he felt like he was falling through a different world with every passing moment. One second, he was passing through a place where everything was paint, then a place where everyone was dressed like they were in The Matrix, then one where cats and dogs were friends! And that was just to name a few.
Eventually, he landed in the middle of a forest. He scrambled to his feet and looked around. This didn't look like any forest in his town—not that he went hiking that much. The only thing he could tell was that it was morning, based on the position of the sun. Had he been falling all night?
"Hello?!" he called out. "Anyone?!"
No one answered.
He quickly reached into his pocket, only to remember he didn't have his phone.
'Shit! I doubt anyone back home knows I somehow teleported to…who knows where.'
With no other option, the young man was forced to start wandering around. He was still worried, though. For all he knew, he could be going in circles or, just as bad, he could be moving away from civilization. As he walked for what felt like hours, the panic started getting to him, and he broke down in a fit of laughter.
"Hehe. Hahahahah! No phone, no map, not even my brace. This is starting to feel pretty hopeless," he said to himself.
Nevertheless, Joe pressed on. Soon enough, his stomach started growling. Looking up, he saw that it was high noon, meaning he really had been walking for hours. Thankfully, he came across a creek.
"Well, I would've preferred some food, but this is a close second," he said with a smile.
The water seemed clean enough—at least he hoped—so he drank his fill. Right as he was about to continue his quest, he heard voices through the trees.
"Alright, everything in the bag!"
Moving toward the source of the noise, he was shocked by what he saw. It was a small village, but instead of people, there were a bunch of pint-sized, cartoony-looking anthropomorphic animals! He couldn't even tell what any of them were supposed to be. What he could tell, however, was that a trio of the animals with black shirts and colored bandanas were robbing all the rest.
Some people would've jumped in to play hero upon seeing this play out in front of them, and while Joe certainly wanted to, he took a second to gauge the situation first.
'Okay, there's only three of them, they're small, and it doesn't look like they have any weapons…which kind of raises the question of how they're sticking those people up.'
With his little analysis complete, Joe stepped onto the scene. All the animals paused what they were doing when they saw him.
"Huh, another human?" the robber with the yellow bandana observed. "Wasn't expecting that."
"How about you give these people their stuff back?" Joe suggested.
The robber with the red bandana pointed at him. "Let's get him!"
On his command, the trio charged. Not knowing how to properly fight, Joe just raised his right fist and brought it down on their heads as they came at him.
POW! POW! POW!
Each hit knocked a robber out cold. The villagers lightly applauded him when he was done.
"Thank you for saving us from the weasel bandits," a villager who Joe assumed was the chief said.
"Those things were weasels?" Joe asked. "And while we're on the subject, what are you guys?"
"We are the Gogobas," the chief explained. "By chance, do you have any relation to the Doctor?"
Joe raised an eyebrow. "What doctor?"
The chief nodded. "That answers that. Anyway, thanks to you, we're all safe! That is, until they try this again next week…"
The young man tilted his head. "Wait, this happens to you guys weekly?"
"Oh, yeah. But you shouldn't worry about it. I'm sure you have much better things to do than save us all the time," the chief said, looking rather forlorn.
"I do, actually," Joe replied. "I'm trying to figure out where I am. What country is this?"
This time, one of the villagers answered, "Country? This isn't a country. This is Seaside Island."
'Seaside Island? I've never heard of that,' Joe thought to himself. 'I mean, yeah, I was never big on geography, but still, you'd think there'd be news of an island with things like these on it.'
"Well, I'd say you deserve a reward for saving us, even if you never do it again," the chief said. "We invite you to stay in our village. We'll even give you our finest bed."
Figuring he'd been wandering around enough for one day, Joe nodded. "That sounds great."
Soon enough, the sun went down and the Gogobas presented Joe with his bed. He flopped onto it and was delighted by how comfy it was.
"Man, this is nice."
"Glad you think so," a female Gogoba said. "It's where my children usually sleep. They'll just have to seek out other accommodations tonight."
That made Joe bolt up. "Wait, what? I don't want to take a bed from someone who needs it. I know I saved you guys, but that feels excessive."
"No, no, it's no trouble. Enjoy your rest," the chief said as if nothing was wrong.
"Uh, okay?" Joe hesitantly made himself comfy before falling asleep.
The next morning, he was ready to head out.
"We wish you luck on your journey," the chief said cheerfully. "We'll try our best not to get killed by bandits in your absence."
Again, Joe was put off by this statement. He wanted to assume these people were joking, but going by their tone, it didn't seem like it. Taking that as another indicator that he should leave before they appealed to his emotions again, he started walking.
When his back was turned, he heard one of the Gogobas say, "Huh, he didn't get roped in."
Joe kept on walking. Unfortunately, one's night's sleep apparently wasn't enough to recover from yesterday, because his feet were getting sore again already, not to mention his knee. Taking a quick break, he sat down on a log.
"I probably should've asked those guys for directions," he said to himself. "Eh, if I go back there, they'll probably just hit me with more mixed signals." And so, he continued walking.
"Come on, there's gotta be somewhere else to go on this island."
Thankfully, as if on cue, he saw a small hut in the distance. "Oh, thank God."
However, before he could get there, he was suddenly pulled up into the air by the foot, courtesy of a snare trap. "Gah! What the hell?!"
"Who's out there?" a scratchy voice from within the hut asked. Its occupant quickly exited, revealing another anthropomorphic animal. This one had orange and brown fur, large pigtails, and clothes that looked like they were made from whatever she could find in the forest. She was wielding a boomerang, which would have been less terrifying if he hadn't been hanging upside down helplessly.
She walked up and inspected him. "Hmm. Human with a mustache? Are you an alternate version of Eggman or somethin'?"
"I don't know who that is!" Joe shouted.
"Well, then what are you doin' here?" the little hermit asked.
"I don't know how I got here! I've just been wandering around," Joe replied. "Who are you? And also, what are you?"
She frowned. "I'll ask the questions here. Anyway, got any weapons on ya?"
"If I did, I would've used 'em by now," Joe snarked.
"Okay, fair enough. Who are you?"
"My name's Joe."
"And who are you workin' for?"
Joe groaned. "Did you not hear me when I said I don't know how I got here? No one sent me."
The animal girl narrowed her eyes. "I don't know. Another human shows up and Eggman's not involved? I don't buy it."
"Can you please let me down?" Joe asked politely. "The blood's starting to rush to my head."
"So you can attack me the moment I let ya down? No way," the girl scoffed, crossing her arms.
"Come on. I'm unarmed and I have a bad knee. I doubt I could hurt you much," Joe said, trying to play up his helplessness to persuade her. As he pleaded, he noticed a device on the girl's wrist start blinking. "Uh, your thing is going off." He gestured to his wrist.
His captor raised her arm to check, and another voice came out from the machine.
"Hey, Sticks, we've been trying to call you!" the person on the other end exclaimed. "Eggman's at it again! We could use a little help."
"I'm on my way, Sonic," the now-named Sticks replied.
As she ran off, Joe called out, "Wait! Please, let me down! I wasn't kidding about the head rush thing!"
Unfortunately, she left anyway, leaving him dangling outside her house all alone. He tried to untie himself from the snare, but he couldn't reach his foot while hanging upside down.
"Shit. I've got no core strength," he cursed himself. "This fucking sucks. The first group of people I run into in this place are weirdos, then I meet this girl who captures and interrogates me, and they all keep asking me if I'm related to people I've never met!"
Taking a deep breath after his rant, Joe tried leaning up as much as he could to get some of the blood out of his head. It only helped a little.
Thankfully, less than half an hour later, Sticks returned—and this time, she wasn't alone. With her were several more anthro animals of varying colors: a buff red one, a skinny blue one, a feminine pink one in a dark pink dress, and a yellow one with two tails. Like with the rest of the islanders he'd seen so far, he couldn't tell what any of them were supposed to be, barring the yellow one, who resembled a fox.
Said fox looked surprised to see him. "Wow, sorry I doubted you, Sticks."
"Eh, we've seen weirder stuff than this," the blue one commented.
"Can someone please get me down from here?" Joe asked.
"Okay," the red one said, walking over to him.
The rest of the party objected, "Wait, Knuckles!"
But it was too late. Knuckles grabbed Joe by the upper arms and yanked on him, tearing the snare and freeing him. The young man landed flat on his back and clutched his head as the blood cleared out. "Ugh, thanks."
"Alright, so, who are you?" the blue one asked.
"I'm Joe. Who are you guys? Also, what are you guys?" Joe asked in return.
That made them raise their eyebrows.
"What are we?" Knuckles scoffed. "You act like you've never seen an echidna before."
"I don't even know what those are," Joe said, feeling exasperated.
That made Knuckles slump over, so his blue friend spoke up, "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." He gestured to the rest of his friends, starting with the pink one. "This is Amy. She's also a hedgehog. You've already met our crazy badger friend, Sticks. And this little guy is my best bud, Tails the Fox." He finished tussling Tails's head.
"I think this guy's from another world, guys," Sticks speculated, still skeptical of Joe.
"Like I said, wouldn't be the first time we've dealt with something like that," Sonic shrugged.
"Does anyone know where I am and how I can get home? I'd really love an answer to that," Joe asked, slowly losing patience with this whole situation.
Tails smiled. "That's no problem. I can just whip something up in my lab. Come on."
'Unless you're going to whip up a map, I don't see how this is answering my questions at all.' Joe stood up and followed the group, trying not to grumble. They soon noticed he was starting to lag behind.
"Is something wrong?" Amy asked.
"Nothing much. I've just been walking around so much already. My feet are killing me," Joe explained. "It doesn't help that my right knee is bad."
Sticks picked up a stick and handed it to him. "Here you go."
Joe raised an eyebrow as he used his new walking stick. "Wasn't expecting a gift from the girl who held me prisoner."
"You get used to it," Sonic smiled. "She's kinda crazy, but she's still pretty nice."
"Hey!" the badger in question objected.
The group kept walking until they reached Tails's lab.
"Wow," Joe whistled as he looked around. It wasn't as out there as some sci-fi movies he'd scene. It was something like a warehouse filled with gadgets and gizmos. Now he understood why they'd wanted to come here; why give him a map when they could just zap him back home with one of these fancy contraptions?
"Thanks," the little fox said with a bit of pride. "Now, I'll need to make some adjustments to my dimensional transporter, so you're gonna have to wait around a bit."
This left Joe and the rest of Tails's friends sitting around in awkward silence. Sonic, to his credit, tried valiantly to break it. "So, uh, that's a cool shirt you got. It almost makes me wanna wear one…almost."
Joe looked down at his T-shirt. It was gray, with a polar bear fighting a giant octopus on it. He'd chosen it from his closet at random to sleep in.
"Thanks. It's one of my favorites." Suddenly, he started chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Sticks narrowed her eyes.
Joe pointed at Sonic. "I just imagined how oversized my shirt would look on him. It made me laugh."
"Aww," Amy cooed. Everyone looked over at her, which quickly made her embarrassed. "Um, so, what were you doing in the forest with no shoes?" she spat out hastily, deflecting the attention back to Joe.
'Seems like someone has a bit of a crush,' Joe thought to himself before responding, "Whatever brought me here struck in the middle of the night. That's why I didn't have my brace or any shoes. I'm actually in my pajamas right now."
"Walking around in your PJs? Nice," Knuckles said with surprising earnestness.
"So, uh, what do you guys do for fun around here?" Joe asked, changing the subject.
"Well, sometimes we play games, and other times we stop Doctor Eggman from destroying the village," said Amy.
"There's that name again. Who the hell is this Eggman I keep hearing about?" Joe asked.
Sonic shrugged. "Just some mad scientist who wants to take over the village. We beat him all the time."
"Alright, the modifications are complete," Tails said. "Just stand on this pad right here."
Once Joe did as instructed, the young fox hit a button and his transporter fired a beam at him. The beam hit but nothing happened. It kind of tickled though.
"Uh, why am I still here?" Joe asked.
Tails looked back and forth from his machine to the human. "I'm not sure. Let me double-check." After a brief inspection, he activated the machine again, only to experience the same result.
"That's strange. I know my calculations were correct. Maybe…" He trailed off. "Do you mind if I scan you?"
Joe got a bad feeling but nodded his head. Tails circled him, waving around a device that resembled one of those portable metal detectors you'd see at an airport.
"According to my scans, you're coated in a layer of strange particles that prevent you from passing through dimensions," Tails reported.
"Well, can you get them off me or something?" Joe asked, concerned and annoyed that his trip home was delayed. He'd just passed through a dozen dimensions. Why was he stuck now, when he actually wanted to travel?
Tails shook his head. "It's not that simple. You can't just peel unknown particles off you like a Halloween costume. And even if I tried, there's no telling what could happen to you. For all we know, you could disintegrate."
Joe opened his mouth to say more but the sound of an explosion in the distance cut him off. The team immediately left the building to go check it out. Not knowing what else to do, Joe followed them.
Running to the edge of the village, they found robots of varying shapes and sizes attacking villagers and shooting up properties. Some were shaped like bees, others were crabs, and still others were ladybugs on single wheels.
Leading the charge was an oddly proportioned man wearing sunglasses and red and black clothing. Joe figured this must be Doctor Eggman.
"Hey, Eggman!" Sonic called out, confirming Joe's assumption. "Didn't get enough last time, did you?"
Eggman growled, "Sonic! And your merry band of—" He paused when he noticed Joe. "Hold on. Where did you come from?"
"Some other dimension," Joe answered.
"Well, what did you come to this dimension for?"
Joe glared at him. "Nothing! I just wanna get home and be done with it!"
Eggman raised an eyebrow at this information. "Well, since you're here, you can perish along with Sonic and his team." Right on cue, his robots advanced on the group.
Sonic's team sprang into action. Sonic himself punched and kicked some of the bots, but what blew Joe away was how he could curl into a ball and strike with extra force. Knuckles, predictably enough, stuck with just his fists. Amy pulled a large gold and pink hammer seemingly from nowhere and used it to smash robots left and right. Sticks simply used her boomerang as both a melee weapon as well as a throwing weapon. Tails pulled out a wrench and spun his twin tails rapidly, lifting himself up like a helicopter, which allowed him to hit the Bee bots that the rest of the gang had trouble reaching.
'Wow, and here I thought that was just a birth defect,' Joe thought to himself.
He quickly noticed that some of the robots were closing in on him. He looked around and saw that Sonic's team was too preoccupied with other robots to help. Realizing he had to fend for himself, he raised his fists and took a crude fighting stance. One of the ladybugs rolled at him at high speed. Against the odds, he managed to catch it mid-charge. Finding it to be lighter than he thought it would be, he picked it up and threw it at a robot crab. Another crab charged at him. For this one, he caught it by the "wrists" and, with a heave, flipped it over onto its back, rendering it helpless.
'Holy shit, I think I can do this,' he thought to himself.
Unfortunately, the mere thought of victory seemed to have jinxed him, because he felt a horrible burning sensation in his back. He screamed in pain and fell to the ground. Looking around, he realized that one of the Bee bots had shot him.
Seeing his new acquaintance was injured, Tails flew over, smashing a few Bee bots in the process, and landed in front of him.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"No," Joe answered through clenched teeth.
Tails frowned and guarded him from more robots.
Soon enough, the rest of the team had defeated the remaining bots.
"Grr… Alright, you win this round…again," Eggman conceded. He glanced at Joe. "And you. I have some research to do." With that, he made his exit.
"Wonder what he meant by that," Sonic commented before returning his attention to Joe. "Looks like we'll need to get him to a doctor." He grabbed the young man's legs, while Knuckles got him by the shoulders.
"Jeez, he's really hurt," Sticks observed. "Are all humans this soft? No wonder Eggman never fights us up close."
"It's not like he chose to get hit, Sticks," Amy scolded her.
Eventually, the group reached the hospital, "'Scuse us? We got an injured man here," Sonic announced.
The armadillo clerk at the front desk looked surprised to see Joe. "I thought Eggman was the only human around here."
"That's not the issue here. Can you please just call the doctor?" Amy pressed.
The clerk did so, and the doctor arrived on the scene. He was a seagull who stood at around Knuckles's height.
"Alright, just bring him into my office. You'll all need to sit in the waiting room after that, though."
Once the team had delivered Joe to the doctor, they sat around as requested.
"I still think this guy is trouble. Why are we even helping him?" Sticks asked.
"He got hurt on our watch. This is the least we can do," Tails pointed out.
"He didn't seem that bad to me," Knuckles said. "I even saw him take out a few of Eggman's robots."
At that moment, the doctor came out. "Alright, he's patched up and he was never unconscious to begin with, so you can see him."
The team entered the office and found Joe lying on his stomach. His shirt was off and he had bandages around his waist, covering his wound.
"How you doin'?" Knuckles asked.
"Well, the anesthetic helped a bit, but I'm still in pain," Joe replied. "Kinda surprised you waited for me. You don't even know me."
"That's what I was trying to say!" Sticks agreed, glaring at the rest of the group.
"Anyway, I was thinking while the doctor treated me and, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but can I join your crew?" Joe asked. "At least until I can find a way back home."
Sonic's team's eyes widened. "That's flattering, man, but we're not really looking for new recruits," Sonic informed him.
Joe sighed. "Could you at least give me a chance? You guys were so badass out there and—"
"Thank you for the compliment, but could you watch your language please?" Amy cut him off.
Sticks nodded. "Yeah, we like to keep things PG around here."
"Uh, okay. Anyway, you guys were really"—Joe paused to find a more family friendly word—"cool out there. It was like something out of a superhero cartoon. And you saw me help out a bit out there. Maybe I could do better next time."
"This guy has a way with words," Knuckles whispered not-so-quietly to the group.
"Also, I need something to take my mind off how I'm stranded here," Joe muttered.
Sticks heard him. "A-ha! I knew it! You're just in this for yourself!"
"Actually, under the circumstances, I think that's pretty understandable," Tails pointed out. "What other choice does he have but to make himself at home here?"
"You know what? Guys, meet me outside," Sonic directed the group.
Closing the door behind them, he said, "I say we let this guy down gently."
"No way," Knuckles said. "We should let him on board. I can finally have a Knuckles Junior!"
"Knuckles, this is serious," Amy said. "We can't bring some random human into our battles. What if he gets hurt even worse?"
"Then we'll just train him up so that doesn't happen." Knuckles shrugged. "It can be our way of seeing if he's got the mettle to help out."
"That's surprisingly well thought out, coming from you," Tails commented.
"For the record, I'm still against this," Sticks chimed in.
Amy looked at Sonic. "What's your vote, Sonic?"
The blue hedgehog was about to answer when Knuckles interjected, "Think how cool it would look if Sonic the Hedgehog successfully trained an apprentice."
That made Sonic stop and picture Joe at full health, smashing Eggman's robots while making Bruce Lee noises. When Joe finished the battle, Team Sonic approached him and he gave a slight bow. "How'd I do, Sensei?"
Sonic nodded sagely and said, "You did well."
"Uh, Sonic?"
Tails's voice snapped Sonic out of his daydream. "Uh, sure. We can give him a shot."
That made Tails facepalm, while Sticks glared at Knuckles. "You're pickin' now to be persuasive?"
Knuckles shrugged. "Hey, I have my moments. Why do you think I have so many days in the limelight?"
"Then it's settled," Sonic declared. "Let's go break the news." The team reentered the office.
"Good news: you're getting your tryout. After you've healed up, that is," Sonic announced.
Joe's eyes widened. "Wait, really? I honestly figured you'd say no."
"Some of us wanted to," Sticks said with her arms crossed. "What would you have done if that happened?"
"Probably ask if you guys knew a place to crash," Joe replied. "I don't have anywhere to go."
The gang looked at each other.
"Not it."
"Not it."
"Not it."
"Not it."
"Not it." Tails finished before realizing he'd been last. "Aw, man."
Guessing what that little display was about, Joe deadpanned, "Thanks for the warm welcome."
Tails at least had the decency to feel embarrassed. "Ehehe, sorry about that. Come on."
As they walked, Amy noticed something, "Hey, you said you left your brace at home."
"Huh?" Joe looked down at the new brace on his right knee. "Oh, yeah. I told the doctor I used a PTO knee brace, and he gave me one. My leg's feeling better already."
The group left the doctor's office and went their separate ways for the day, with Tails leading Joe to his house and giving him a tour.
"Alright, now that you know where everything is, make yourself at home. I only have one bed, though, so you'll have to take the couch."
"It looks comfy enough. Thanks," Joe said. "And I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not gonna take advantage of your hospitality."
Tails frowned. "I wasn't thinking that."
Joe deadpanned again, "You're taking in a total stranger. You were totally thinking that."
That made Tails laugh a bit. "Alright, you got me. Something like this has actually happened before, except it was Eggman asking for a place to stay."
"And you let him in?" Joe asked incredulously. "He's your enemy, isn't he? You had to have known that'd end badly."
Tails rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, we really should've." He yawned. "I think I'm going to go to bed. See you in the morning."
"See you then. I'm excited for 'superhero training' next week," Joe smiled, doing small jazz hands when he said the word superhero.
Tails laughed, "We've been called heroes, but I don't think anyone's ever called us superheroes."
"I'm pretty sure that's what you'd be called in my world," Joe said. "Good night."
While Tails went to his room, Joe sat down on the couch. Seeing that he was finally alone, he let his smile fade.
"Lost, distrusted, and now I've imposed on a group of strangers," he muttered to himself. He took a deep breath. "It's just 'till you can get home. It's just 'till you can get home. It's just 'till you can get home. It's just—"
The young man chuckled as tears started falling down his face. Though soon the chuckling stopped, leaving only the tears.
