10 years later

In the small town of Green Hills, Sheriff Tom Wachowski sat in his car with a speed-measuring device, though no cars passed him.

"... C'mon. One car?"

He eventually began pretending his device was a laser, to pass to time. Still, the only thing he had to speed check was a turtle.

Be-dede-beep!

001 mph

He leaned out the window. "Hey, buddy! Where's the fire?" The turtle continued marching, not responding to the sheriff's joke.

"Eh, it was kinda funny. Sorry."

Be-dede-beep! Said the speed measuring device. Tom looked at it.

270 mph

Tom was... very confused. That was faster than a cheetah and way over the speed limit. He didn't notice a blue hedgehog peeking in the back window, seemingly discontented with the number on the device. He took off down the road.

Be-dede-beep!

300 mph

Now Tom was really confused. He smacked it with his hand a couple times, thinking it might be broken. He again failed to notice Sonic, who was much more pleased with these results. He then zipped off again.

Tom did notice this, out of the corner of his eye. He walked over to the bushes, finding only a blue quill. He picked it up, inspecting it. Wondering what that came from, what it was. His pondering was interrupted by his radio.

"Tom, we need you down on main street. There's been a violent gang shootout. ...Hahaha, just kidding! A duck stole a bagel. But they do need it back."

Tom drove away to stop the kleptomaniac duck.

The turtle continued down the road, either not noticing or being too slow to react to another car, driving straight toward him. Right when it seemed like he was about to get crushed, the blue blur returned, grabbing the turtle and carrying him to safety.

"Whoa, buddy. You almost got yourself killed! What are you, some kinda of adrenaline junkie?" He lightly tapped the turtle's head. "Must be rough, being slow all the time." Sonic didn't know if his speed caused his love for speed and short attention span or if it was a coincidence, but he couldn't imagine what he'd do if he didn't have his powers.

"You know what, today if your lucky day!"

He then proceeded to take the turtle on a speed-of-sound adventure (involving one terrifying moment where Sonic dropped the turtle) down the road and into the woods, where Sonic gently placed the turtle, who was trembling (not from the speed, but from the part where he went flying from Sonic's hand. He rather enjoyed the rest of it.)

Sonic said, "Let's keep this our little secret. You never saw me. I was never here."

He zipped off to where he called home—a cave where he and Knuckles had dragged all sorts of stuff to make it cozier. They had a beanbag (mostly used by Sonic), a washing machine used as a treadmill (mostly by Sonic), a makeshift ping pong table (mostly used by Sonic), a pair of nun chucks (these were pretty even in use). The only thing Knuckles used more than Sonic did was an abandoned sleeping bag that they'd stuffed with grass and leaves to make a punching bag.

When Sonic jumped in, Knuckles was positioned in front of the bag as usual. He and Sonic wore matching wooden beaded necklaces traditional to the Echidna tribe. Knuckles had made the beads himself. Sonic had found one old shoe and had made one for his other foot, but neither of them fit, both were by now worn out, and generally painful to wear, though Sonic said nothing about it. Knuckles preferred to not wear any shoes, once he outgrew the ones he brought when they came.

"Morning, Knuckles!" Sonic hollered cheerfully.

"Sonic." Knuckles addressed him. He took a fighting stance, never looking away from the bag. Sonic zipped off into a tire swing. Multiple times in the past, Sonic had tried to get Knuckles to join him in some play activity, wanting him to have fun instead of training as a warrior all the time. He stopped this when Knuckles told him training was fun for him (which Sonic didn't get but let be.)

After a while of goofing around their cave, Sonic started playing ping-pong against himself. It started as a normal pace for a ping-pong game, but progressively got faster and faster.

THUD! "Darn, it, again?!"

This sudden outburst surprised Sonic. He accidentally smacked the bag Longclaw gave him instead of the ball, knocking it to the floor and spilling the rings. He looked over to Knuckles. "Did you knock it off the rope or rip a hole in it?" he asked, knowing it had something to do with the bag.

Knuckles inspected the bag. "I think both," he replied. "Duct tape doesn't seem to be able to hold this together anymore." He looked over to Sonic, then gasped. "The rings!"

He and Sonic scooped up the rings into the bag. Sonic didn't put the last ring in the bag, though. He looked at the map Longclaw had given him. It had pictures of worlds that would be safe for him and Knuckles. A few were crossed off, since they'd done a little exploration and been discovered. Sonic tossed the ring, to look at the planet they'd go to next.

Knuckles stood next to him and crossed his arms. "Nothing but mushrooms." Sonic sighed. "I hate mushrooms." The ring closed, and Knuckles waved away the golden dust. "Then we just have to avoid anyone knowing we are here." he said, trying to comfort Sonic. "And we've made it ten years doing that." Sonic smiled. "Yeah..."

There was a pause. Then Sonic said, "I'm gonna go watch the baseball game." Knuckles chuckled. "Tell me who wins." Knuckles didn't have any powers. He was stronger than average, but only because much of his free time was spent lifting heavy things. He wouldn't be able to run away so fast no one could see him, so he stayed in the woods.

With Sonic gone and his bag punctured, Knuckles wasn't quite sure what to do. He climbed out of the cave and wandered around the woods. He eventually came to a cliff overlooking the small town. It was night, and Knuckles could see the lights of houses and buildings shining through the dark.

He remembered a time when he and Sonic had come up here. It was a few years after they came to earth. Sonic and himself were talking, but he couldn't remember what about. Sonic started a sentence cheerfully, but in the middle of it, his ears dropped and eyes saddened. He finished his thought and turned his head away from Knuckles.

Knuckles looked at Sonic, feeling sorry for him. Then, he put his arm around Sonic's shoulder and pulled him closer. Sonic looked up at Knuckles and smiled. Knuckles smiled back.

Present-day Knuckles smiled as well. Even though he had no idea what they'd been talking about then, he had a feeling he remembered the most important things about the night.

FWOOM!

Knuckles whipped his head in the direction of the explosion. He saw a large blue dome or light, expanding rapidly. As it passed the town, the lights inside it went out. When it reached Knuckles, he instinctively covered his face. It didn't seem to do anything, but when the dome passed over him, he felt... something. Like it powered him up a tiny bit. He failed to notice a few of his red quills glowing.

After a few moments of trying to process this, he frowned. "Darn it, Sonic," he muttered. "What the heck was that?"