Renegade Runway Zone Act 1

So Cream was super fast. That was one of the first things she had to adjust to, which didn't take long, being her race was already pretty fast naturally

As her Chao, Cheese was spiritually connected to her, so anything good for her was good for him, which meant he shared her speed and power, able to keep up with her and see as well as she could as they ran through the jungle, plowing through fallen trees like they were Lego bricks, slamming through any tree that got in their way. Unlike , she couldn't do all the fun flippy stuff he liked to do when saving the world, but she was getting there, and before she landed in this world, she was still learning to control her jumps while running at full speed.

That was why she stopped the second she reached the shoreline. A massive lake that had to be at least 6 feet deep, at least that's what she guessed when she fell into it the first time, was surrounded by a forest that covered the lake in its shadow. Dozens if not hundreds of pipes ran across the surface, went into the rocks, went into the trees, and some of them even went up to the sky! Using her mask's night vision, Cream was able to see the pipes via the heat radiating off of them, and those would be her way across the lake. She couldn't run across walls like or could, and the last time she tried to cheat by going through the forests surrounding the lake, Cheese kept beating up a bunch of cute bears. She didn't know why he beat up those grizzlies when they were just teething on her ears. Even when she told him she didn't feel anything, he still wouldn't let her go in that forest! Cheese didn't like bears.

Cream took a breath, bent her knees, and jumped, landing perfectly on the first pipe. She took a second to steady herself before jumping up to the second pipe, running to the left to the walls until she came across a large pipe she could stand on. When she reached the rocky wall, she ran into it feet first, jumped off of it, and landed on the pipe, running across it, the third large pipe coming up. Keeping her speed, she looked to one of the upper pipes, one she couldn't stand on, but she could grab it. She jumped up to the pipe, using her momentum to swing herself off of it to propel herself across the lake. Her destination was more leftward however, so a quick flick of her massive ears in that direction propelled her to the next big pipe. She landed with a thud, skidding to a halt as she caught her breath. It wasn't because she was tired, because she honestly wasn't…she just wasn't used to performing such intense acrobatics at that speed.

She waited until her heart stopped beating so fast before running down the pipe, the shore on the other side of the beach in sight. "Ha!" She jumped off of the pipe before she reached the wall, landing and skidding on the sand, scaring away a few deer in the process. "Awww.." She sighed as Cheese patted her head. "Do we have any veggies Cheese?" The Chao hovered in front of her and shook his head. "Those poor deer." Regardless, she had a job to do, so she had to keep running.

XXXXXX

Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Miles Tails Prower, and the Angel Island Guardian Knuckles the Echidna were immediately disqualified for potential variables. When he was deployed on this mission, it had only been an hour since intelligence reported the four heading to the islands that headed to.

Agent Shadow, Agent Rouge, and Agent Omega were busy assisting G.U.N with reclaiming former human territories captured by the Eggman Empire. The one known as Blaze the Cat was crossed off too. There were no dimensional anomalies related to her world's Sol Energy detected prior to his deployment, and since G.U.N weren't using her equivalent of the Chaos Emeralds, there was little if any reason for her to follow them into this world. Silver the Hedgehog had not returned to this timeline(as of yet, sad as he was to admit), and the Chaotix weren't even worth mentioning.

The thought crossed his mind that maybe it was that rabbit child that Sonic and the others seemed so attentive to, but he just laughed. She's beaten Eggman once or twice, but this was far outside of her league, and her she-beast of a mother would never let her do something like this!

"So who is this variable?" Ironside said to himself as he looked through the classified files on his tablet. Anyone capable of dimensional travel, whether by their own power or were noted to have been sent to one against their own will, were out of the question, and he wouldn't have gotten that inkling if this Mobian would be willing to work with him. "Tell me you have good news?"

"Indeed." The Demon answered. "We're close to cracking our foe's security. Soon we'll be able to see what they see."

"Interesting!" Well, at least some good news came out of this. And if his superpowered neighbors from across the ocean were good at one thing, it was meddling in affairs they had no business being in. like it or not, they'll make contact with their enemy soon enough. And by the time they did, Ironside would see exactly who he was dealing with.

Cream zipped off the shore and onto a rocky hill, kicking up pebbles and dirt as she came across the familiar train tracks nearly hidden by weeds and grass. Remembering her practice runs, she got on the tracks and turned left, heading into a cave that began to twist and curve. It was pitch black, which meant nothing to her thanks to her mask, and the terrain wasn't a problem for her either, because there weren't any loop de loops to be found here. Since she didn't have to worry about springs or Dash Panels either, she could take it nice and calmly. Dash Panels were a very frightening experience for this little rabbit.

Her ears weren't tingling this time, which thankfully meant she wouldn't have to turn around and run. As she learned from past practice runs, being hit by a train was incredibly aggravating. The sounds of her feet hitting the ground were the only thing she heard while in the cave, though she wasn't in there for long. One minute after she entered the cave, Cream sped out of the exit and was met with a sparse, thin forest, the night sky visible from the thin treelines o the right. Still following the tracks, the rows of trees had thinned enough for her to see a city in the distance, far below her. Also it was nighttime, which was a mild surprise for her. It was hard for her to get a sense of what day it was or how much time had passed while in the Secluded Deathly Village of the Lost.

"CHAO CHAO!" Her brother's cries and the beeping of the stopwatch caused Cream to skid to a stop. A few droplets of sweat escaped her fur and landed on the dirt as her soft breaths escaped her lips. The sounds of chirping birds and crickets met her ears, and below the cliffside was the faint sounds of cars passing by. This route ran by one of the many roads leading out into the city, and if she was back home, one of the many places would show off at. She still couldn't believe he could jump over three of them in a single bound! "Chaochao!" Cheese flew out in front of her and showed her the stopwatch, pride on his face.

"That's a new record!" Cream yelled happily. "You're really good at keeping time!"

"Chao Chao!" Her brother said smugly. "Chao Chao Chao!"

"Yep!" Cream answered with a nod. "And now it's time for a break, wouldn't you say?" Cheese let out a cry of agreement. The rabbit girl sat down on a rock that, one of her favorite rest spots when she took this route. As Cheese put away the stopwatch and sat in her then used her ears to scoop up a clump of dirt, and then with her enhanced strength, chucked it through the trees in front of her with enough force to leave a gaping hole in it, enough to give her a better view of the bright city lights below. Though she couldn't see the full city from here, just the bright blinding lights were enough to make her happy, and it was far enough away that the light pollution didn't affect her viewing of the stars in the sky.

"It's so pretty." Cream muttered to herself as they stared out into the distance. She used her ears to unclasp her mask, one ear to undo the strap, the other to hold the mask and guide it into Cheese's hands for him to hold. "I miss Floral Forest." It wasn't too big, it wasn't so gloomy, and the only things that were tall were the trees. Her and Cheese could fly all they wanted without having Mother having to go to city hall and get them a permit, she didn't need to use a bus or a car to travel everywhere, she didn't have to go to school where everyone bullied her…..

Droplets fell from Cream's eyes and onto Cheese's head. Cream had already shed too many during her first couple weeks here, but seeing the beautiful night sky without her mom always made them come back. Cheese said nothing, and only offered his support by nuzzling into her and purring softly, which she reciprocated with by patting the top of his head, his antenna moving out of the way of her hand. It formed into the shape of a heart, as his sister's sadness was beginning to affect him as well. The night runs always got her like this. Sixteen times she gazed out at the stars, and each and every time his sister cried like this. He wasn't a worldly Chao, barely two years old at this point, but even he knew Cream wasn't going to last long like this.

He heard mom say that Chaos like him needed people their age to play and be friends with, a Chao was a mirror of their owner, so if their owner didn't like being around people and didn't need to be, then their Chao would be the same. If the owner was happy, then the Chao was happy. If the owner was sad, then so was the Chao. worse emotions however…He had a feeling that he was going to see what that would do to him in due time.

Cream was a big girl. She was a hero in training, and she'd make and the others proud, despite the fact they would not be happy with any of this whatsoever. And when Cheese made his opinions known? She made it clear what she thought of that, and it was a good thing for both of them that she was a very 'let bygones be bygones' type of rabbit, but that wasn't going to last long while in that village with the stupid name. "Squishy." He heard Cream mutter as she petted his head, lost in her thoughts. She was completely tuned out at the moment, completely disassociated from her surroundings. Someone could probably yell in her ears right now and she probably wouldn't even notice!

"Hehehehehehehe…"

And she certainly didn't notice that! "Chao Chao!" He shook his way out of her hands and floated in front of her, his little stubby arms flailing in panic. "Chao Chao Chao Chaooo!"

Cream immediately got up. "Are you sure?" She asked, only to receive a sarcastic retort. "Well there's no need for that type of language!" Cheese rolled his eyes as Cream quickly put her mask back on, and put her package on her back. The two soon sped off, leaving their mysterious voyeur to ponder what they just saw.

She stepped out of the shadows, amazed that the creature didn't hear her breathing with those massive ears it had. It's pet certainly did, so she might have to watch out for that once those two returned.

If they returned, that is. Reynald's stupid knight should be enough to take care of those two. She held out hand, and on her pale arm formed a bracer in the shape of a warty bird's tightly in the bird's foot was a computer with a mini keyboard, and on the screen were the rabbit's massive footprints. "Bi-ngo! "

8 minutes later, and Cream was running parallel alongside a highway. Hidden by the foliage, the natural darkness helped conceal her as her destination was closing in fast. Stealth was a very important factor when dealing with , something stressed to her during their running exercises in his own…unique way, of course.

XXXXXX

'Pretty cool huh?' said during one of their running exercises as they ran at the same speed as the cars, her top speed at the time. The trees hid them from view on this beautiful Friday morning, and the breeze felt so pleasant that it almost made her want to stop and have a picnic!. 'I can see them, but they can't see me! Bet ya totally feel like a secret agent, huh?' When he looked back, he could see Ceam looking away from the streets, her cheeks red. 'You don't have to look look, ya know. That whole secret agent stuff as all hyperbole and junk!''

'But what If I see something inappropriate?' She protested. As the path banked from the highway and back into the mountains. 'That would make me a bad person!' She didn't miss roll his eyes at that.

XXXXXX

Cream blushed at the memory, not seeing the trees she was barreling through, much to Cheese's horror as he deftly dodged each and every one of them. 'That was pretty silly of me.' What, just because she was looking at the cars, that meant she was spying on the people inside like a pervert? It was kinda funny when she thought about it.

Thud!

Her tripping over a rock wasn't as funny, however. At the speed she was going, what would have just sent her to the ground had instead caused her to fly up into the air.

XXXXXX

'You should have better midair control than I should.' Tails told her during her 2nd flying lesson, Tails using his Tails to stay in the air while she used her ears as the sun began to set for the day. Below them was a massive trampoline, made by Tails himself, ready to catch her should her ears give out while in the air. And if she did a good job, it also doubled as a bouncy, springy reward! 'It's simple biology, really! You're a rabbit, so your ears are way more flexible than my tails. If I have to come to a quick stop, I don't have that many options outside of dropping like a rock or slowing the speed my tails are spinning at, but you…'

XXXXXX

Cream thought fast. When the front of her body faced the ground, she rotated her ears to the front of her body and flapped, the force of the wind sending her flying upward in a spin. She positioned her ears to the right and flapped again to send her body flying into a tree, where she landed on the side of the tree with a thud, creating a thick indent in the bark. She fell, catching herself with the branch with her left ear, before letting herself fall and using her ears to slow her descent. She landed on the ground with a soft tap, Cheese congratulating her for a job well done. 'That was so embarrassing!' She thought as she resumed her run, making sure to pay attention this time.

After a few more minutes of running, both rabbit and Chao jumped off a 30 foot tall cliff and floated down softly using their appendages. The sounds of the forest quickly gave way to honking cars and dozens if not hundreds of humans talking. Though she was hidden by the trees, she was dangerously close to a very populated part of the city, and her options to move around were very limited. Luckily she'd done this plenty of times before. Mother and her weren't even allowed to move to Station Square unless they could properly filter out all the background noise present in large human cities like this, and this city was far denser than Station Square when it came to people. The lessons certainly helped, and her friend's tutelage in regards to her powers made the noise as bothersome as grass rustling.

"Cheese, scout." Her brother nodded before he flew off into the canopy. One Saturday morning in Westopolis, while Mother was working at that McDonald's place at the Drive Thru, crashing down into her apartment's backyard, having fallen off Angel Island for some reason he was too embarrassed to tell her about. After apologizing for scaring off her friends, they began talking, or rather, it would be more apt to say he began talking. And babbling. She didn't understand why everyone found her mom to be scary, but he was doing everything in his power to make sure she didn't tell Mother that he was the one who left that crater in their backyard, though that fear changed to jealousy when she changed the subject…

XXXXXX

'That spiky blue idiot's been teaching you junk?!'

'Please don't call an idiot,, and his teachings are not 'junk'!'

'Well if he's gonna be teaching you stuff, I'm gonna teach you stuff! And it's gonna be better than anything he ever taught you!'

'Uhmm….ok?'

XXXXXX

One of the things he taught her was how to connect with Cheese better as a person. Before she thought of him as a pet, and he seemed perfectly content with that. Now however? "There aren't that many people on the next block over?" It was like that movie where the twins had telepathy, only her and Cheese weren't twins, because she was a rabbit and Cheese Was a Chao. She could sort of see through his eyes, which let her know where the safest areas to move were. "That's great Cheese! Come on down and let's go!" The Chao was immediately at her side, spitting out a leaf that got in his mouth with a smile.

It took them 2 minutes to reach a chain fence that they easily jumped over, landing on the other side and…oh no. "Chao…." Cheese's Antenna morphed to a facsimile of a frowny face as Cream began to shake. It was something Mobians and humans had in common; homeless people, and lots of them. But the homeless weren't what was causing his sister's panic attack: it was the wall of graffiti that was reminiscent of the walls of their temporary apartment in Westopolis, back before all that paperwork cleared so they could go back home. The problem here was that this wall didn't remind Cream of Westopolis because it looked like it: this was the wall in Westopolis. And so was the building itself. And the dirty pavement.

And worst of all, the red sky.

"No…" Cream's fur stood on end as her eyes bulged, a common reaction for rabbits, Mobian or otherwise, when they were utterly terrified. "W-we're back here?!" Cheese attempted to calm her down, but she was having none of it. "I-I can smell the pee! I can hear them above us!" She began running out of the alley, Cheese flying behind and quickly noticing that she was passing through the crowd of pedestrians like they were one of 's holograms. "Itsthemitsthemitsthemitsthemitsthem!"

Cheese's antenna formed a question mark, more confused than terrified. This energy…it felt like the type of power his sister always had whenever she woke up from her dreams with that Miss Margaret! This strange aura wasn't from his hated progenitor wasn't malicious, but…curious? Was that it? Cream suddenly skidded to a halt, her mouth moving a mile a minute as tears flowed violently down her face. "Mother! Cheese, where's Mother?!" This…. told them of situations like this before!

XXXXXX

'Oh yeah, I've seen my share of magical mumbo jumbo.' said with a huff, his mood slightly dampened. Cream's ears drooped, thinking she might have opened up a sore wound, but as always, knew how to make her feel better. He petted her on the head, and Cheese knew where he got his purring from as she clearly liked the gesture. 'You didn't do anything wrong.' He said to her gently, 'You gotta stop worrying about not offending people. You're not gonna please everyone no matter what you do; trust me. Since you're gonna be palling around with us, we gotta get you magic-proofed. I don't know if it's a midlife crisis or something, but Eggy just loves him some magic nowadays!'

'Magic is supposed to be fun and whimsical.' Cream said sadly, already imagining the evil things could do. 'Now cruel and mean.'

'Oh trust me, magic can be all that!' reassured her in that same gentle tone. 'I'm just gonna teach ya how to avoid all that bad magic!'

XXXXXXX

"Cheese, where's Mother?!" Cream shrieked, shaking the Chao. "They're gonna be here any minute now!" Her breathing was becoming haggard, the tears darkening the fur around her cheeks. "PLEASE CHEESE HELP ME FIND HER!"

Cheese stared at her, his expression empty before nodding. "Chao." A smile came on his sister's face as he led the way back to their apartment, Cream not even noticing when the cars ran through her body. One of 's lessons was very similar to a situation like this, and if it was anything like what he went through, then the key to getting out of here was in their apartment.

Cheese stopped her once they got to the front gates and flew up to the 3rd floor balcony. All that tasty gum wasn't here; this illusion wasn't perfect. Cream shakily flew up to the balcony, tripping overself the second she landed. She used her ears to get back up and frantically shook the dirt off her face as she barged into their apartment, the force ripping the door of her hinges as she frantically screamed for their mother, only for no one to answer. It was there that the siblings realized that the apartment was empty. The cozies and carpets the three of them knitted together were nowhere to be found, as was any furniture or the cheap TV Mother spent weeks paying off the pawn shop to get. "No…" Cream fell to her knees. "They got her…"

Cheese narrowed his eyes in suspicion remembering 's lesson: The way to break a spell like this was to go to a place most important to the victim and find something wrong. That should be their key out of this. But he couldn't find anything wrong; there was nothing here to find anything wrong about! It was then he heard his sister finally break down and sob profusely. Oh how he wished he was a Dark Chao right now, because when he found the person who did this to her…. "Chao?!" What was that?!

Cheese tilted his head and slowly floated over to the leftmost corner, where one of the many family portraits that survived his progenitor's rampage should have been. "Chao?" The wall looked strange. It was rippling like water, but at the same time, it looked completely solid. Curious, Cheese touched it and-

BZZT!

The entire room began to distort! "Cheese?" And Cream was back to normal?" He quickly turned around to meet a confused, teary eyed, and hiccuping rabbit. "...Why was I crying?" She looked around nervously. "And why are we in an abandoned garage?"

"CHAO?!" Oh this just got weirder and weirder! He quickly explained everything that happened to Cream, and once he finished. He needed to know what she was seeing right now.

"The nerve!" Her cheeks puffed up as her ears tensed, the veins in their powerful muscles visible from her anger. "How dare they put you through this?!" ….Of course she doesn't even think about herself in this situation. "Well…" She looked around her surroundings and walked to the nearest wall, phasing right through it. "There's a poster here I think, but it's all torn up. And there's a hose on the wall. It's like I said, we're in a garage." She came back to him and put a hand to her chin before her eyes widened in realization. "We're in an illusion!" She wiped her tears as a smile came onto her face. " told us a super simple way to get out of this one, remember?" Cheese nodded. He remembered, it was just that Cream wasn't in her right mind." Cream took off the mask and the package, and put it on something he couldn't see, since it was floating in midair to him. "Ready?"

"Chao!" Cheese yelled with determination as he flew into Cream's arms. Cream bent her knees, lifted her ears up, and the second she moved- "CHAAAOOOOO!" Her ears flapped, sending her flying as she ran all the way down the block, kicking up leaves and stray trash. Thanks to their connection, he could see everything she could at these speeds, and he smiled as the image of Westopolis slowly melted away and was replaced with the human metropolis. By the time he told Cream to stop, they were far away from the city on what looked like an island.

"Better?" Cheese nodded happily. "Good!" A few seconds later they were back where they started, and yep, it was a garage alright; a really ugly garage. He wished he could believe it was abandoned, but he could sense the passion and cynicism emanating from the building. Cream quickly put everything back on, and once they were sure the coast was clean, she used her ears to fly up to the roof of a large, 30 story building. "So…" Cream began as she twiddled her thumbs, Cheese hovering at her side. "You said we were back in Westopolis, right?"

XXXXXX

{Attention all civilians!} The intercom blared throughout the shelter as people ate their rations or whatever food they managed to take with them during the evacuation. {Mandatory curfew is in effect! I repeat-}

'It's going to be okay Cream.' Cheese remembered Mom telling his big sis as the aliens could be heard outside the emergency shelter. The laser gates for the shelter turned on, promising a very deadly end to anyone who touched them. He never saw it of course, and neither did anyone else, but he was a Chao, and there were plenty of Chao in the shelter with him. Something that blatantly deadly was going to set off all kinds of alarms in their head. 'G.U.N is friends with Sonic and the others, and they're going to beat the bad guys and save us all!' It really sucked to be able to read the emotions of those you were close with; it made it all too easy to know when they were lying. They were the only Mobians here with hearing good enough to know the fight on the surface, and Cheese was glad he wasn't one of the many Chao here who didn't have ears with enhanced hearing.

'What do you mean they'll save us all?!' Exclaimed an elderly turtle Mobian, getting the attention of everyone around him. 'I bet those stupid bald apes were the ones that got us into this mess!'

'Sir!' Mom nearly shouted, her tone firm. 'My daughter is obviously frightened, as are the rest of the children here! We don't need your pessimism making an already awful situation worse for our children!' Murmurs of agreement came from the crowd.

The turtle spat. 'That ain't pessimism, it's realism! Those dumb apes tried to screw us over ever since Station Square! Or did you forget what they did to that little blue boy? Kid's a hero, saved their bacon more than once, and what did they try to do to him?!'

'Did you forget what I said about making an already terrible situation worse?' Now mom's voice was absolutely frigid as she held Cream tighter to her. 'If you don't have anything to contribute, I suggest you zip your toothless, vulgar mouth shut.'

Seeing that the crowd was on her side, the turtle shook his head. 'You don't know the things I do mam! I was there when they put these damn shelters into every part of our island home, and back then I didn't ask questions.' He let out a sigh. 'I should've asked more questions; I should have done something! Oh Gerald ,you fool!'

And that's when the Black Arms ripped open the roof of the shelter.

XXXXXX

"Chao."

The rabbit stared into the distance, her eyes glassy. "I see." Cream closed her eyes and focused on anything else. 'It's just like Mother said.' Take a deep breath, and exhale. Calm down, focus on things that make you happy. Make sure that there was nothing around to trigger another anxiety attack, and hug Cheese like your life depended on it, which she was doing at this very moment. It took her six minutes, but she was back to normal, and she knew she was back to normal because Cheese was smiling when she opened her eyes!

"What the hell?!"

From the rooftop adjacent from the cartoonish rabbit alien, Reynald watched the creature, obviously a female, converse with what was likely her pet. On his arm was an angel shaped bracer with a computer on it, which was how had been watching her the second it alerted him that she was in his city. Its feathery wings formed the clasp, the head was where the analog clock was, and in the angel's arm was a rectangular computer. When Reynald got the alert that the infamous Rabbit Bandit operated around this part of Japan, he never expected it to be a 2 foot tall alien rabbit. He also didn't expect it to be so easy to track where she'd been. Whatever she wanted on this planet was something he didn't care about, that was up for the suits to decide.

He just had to bag her with his Demon, dead or alive. The Phantom Society will have their alien.

[Chaos Energy detected, Chaos Energy detected.]

The alert caused the foreign, man, a Caucasian in his mid 20s, to pause his briefing to turn on his cell phone., where a very foreboding alert was playing. "Oh shoot." Well, now the commander's gonna know who the Mobian was.