A/N: I got this prompt done on the same day as Day 10! This was a super fun one to write, and probably one of my favorite ones so far!

Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the prompt!

6 Reviews

Guest

Everyone would face Sonic's wrath anyway if anything happened to Chris. He is THAT protective of him, just like Tails!

Super duper waffles (2 reviews)

Superior was eventually rebuilt, but not until after Sonic and his friends went back home. And GUN as a whole did eventually go through some reforms after what happened in Jennings State Park, so Superior did become more humane. The other reason it became humane was it was decided that Howard Watcher was not the best fit for the chief warden, so they got a new one who wasn't sadistic.

And that is very possible that planets like Secco, Hobidon, etc. exist in either the same galaxy or other galaxies in Chris' universe. Since nothing's impossible, I'm going to say they are out there somewhere.

Jenaku

Absolutely, Chris should take some lessons in self-defense after what happened. It doesn't matter if the bullies are older than him, if Chris can fight for himself, that's all that matters.

thor94

Yeah... No one likes bullies.

CreativeKitty975

Yeah, same here... It was tough because I wanted the bullies to come off as believable while still being bullies. And same here, I want to be there to protect Chris too!

Day Eleven: Seeing Double
Prompt: Loneliness

It had been over five hours now and there was still no sign of any of Chris' friends returning.

The Blue Typhoon had landed on a large desert planet that morning. It was roughly five times the size of Earth and had six moons. Chris remembered Sonic had been very excited to run around on its surface. He knew how much the hedgehog loved exploring new places.

Last night, Tails had detected a Chaos Emerald coming from the direction of the planet, but it took him longer than he thought to get there. He had constantly been anticipating an ambush from the Metarex, but to his surprise, that didn't happen. As a result, Tails had been somewhat exhausted, and he didn't get much sleep last night.

By the time they touched down on the planet's surface, the crew of seven had come up with a plan to retrieve the Emerald. However, both Sonic and Tails insisted that Chris stayed behind, and the others agreed. Chris had to admit the captain was right; the last time he was out of the ship on a Chaos Emerald hunt, he almost lost his life.

The ocean planet they had been on before had incredibly turbulent weather, and a freak storm blew Chris into the Metarex-infested waters, and he would have been impaled by the shark-like Metarex long before he would have drowned. Even if he wasn't blown in, Chris would have become unbearably uncomfortable with how dark the planet's atmosphere was. The clouds were so thick that they almost completely blotted out the sun.

It was a wonder how Chris wasn't completely scarred by that incident, but it did make him want to stay inside the ship for a while. This was exactly why his friends wanted him to stay behind this time. There was no way they wanted him to risk his life like that anymore.

But now three hours had passed since their departure, and loneliness was his only companion now.

This was one of the disadvantages of being a human. He wasn't strong like his friends; in fact, even Cream was stronger than he was. While he was surprised that Cosmo wasn't also left behind, unlike him, she could float, which proved useful to herself and the crew time and again. There were many times where he felt like he was dead weight to the crew, but Sonic and Tails helped him to fit in with them as their programmer. Tails couldn't be everywhere at once, so he greatly appreciated Chris for helping him pick up the slack.

Chris was idly sitting in his seat in the Typhoon. As a result of his loneliness, he was bored. The view of the planet outside looked like it was straight out of Dune, but there was nothing to see at all for miles, and it could only be so entertaining. At least it wasn't too hot outside, so he could leave the ship if he wanted to. But under the captain's orders, he was to stay inside.

With each minute that passed by, Chris could feel his separation anxiety getting worse. In a way, it felt like being homesick. This had been his biggest fear his whole life, and it stemmed from when his parents had been away on business for months on end, and they only visited one or two times a year at most. And it didn't help that being rich meant he didn't have a lot of friends. The only people who liked him only liked him because he was rich. This was exactly why his mom insisted that he travel to and from school like normal kids, which meant Mr. Tanaka couldn't drop him off in the limo, and he appreciated that.

But when Sonic and his friends entered Chris' life, he couldn't have been happier. He finally had friends who understood him, and he was no longer lonely. They had so many fun adventures together, and parties were even more fun. Sonic was the best entertainer, and he never ceased to put a smile on anyone's face.

However, Chris knew that nothing could last forever, and eventually Sonic and his friends had to eventually return home. The worst part was that Chris had known this was coming from the moment he first met Sonic. He knew that he would have that hole open up in his heart again, that he would be lonely, just like he had been the first twelve years of his life.

Except he wasn't completely lonely. Thanks to the influence of Sonic, he had made three very close friends who were here to stay: Danny, Frances, and the love of his life, Helen. Thinking about them now made him realize just how much he missed them. As much as he loved spending time with Sonic in his dimension, he would give anything to return to Earth, or even better, find a way to open a portal to connect the two worlds forever.

But now he didn't have either Sonic or his human friends with him. He was truly alone in the purest sense. And the fact that the ship was dead silent increased his fear a hundredfold. He jumped at every sound, and he had to tell himself it was either the ship settling or the sound of the machines that regulated the ship's air flow.

He felt like he had to run somewhere now. He felt antsy, and he couldn't focus on anything no matter how hard he tried. This must have been what Sonic felt like during certain social settings, or when Eggman was attacking and Sonic couldn't fight back right away for whatever reason. It was worse than any sickness he ever had, and the only cure was to have someone in his company. He didn't care if it was human, or Mobian, or Seedrian.

He just wanted someone to talk to.

Because no one was ever made to be alone.

And then a chime sounded in the air. This caused Chris to jump; his senses were heightened since the ship was completely quiet. When he regained his senses, he realized it was an incoming message.

He practically ran toward his console and tapped a few buttons on the touchscreen. A holographic image of Tails appeared across the front windshield.

"Hey Chris, I'm really sorry we've been on radio silence for this long," Tails spoke. Chris couldn't help but feel disappointed that the message was pre-recorded, but it was something at least. "The comlink connection is really bad out here, and we've been trying to contact you for over two hours now. Um… Don't worry about us, we're okay. It's just that the planet is a lot bigger than we all thought, and we only just now found the Chaos Emerald. We landed a lot farther away from it than we thought, and it's already getting dark. So… we have to camp out here overnight, but we'll be back on the Typhoon first thing in the morning."

As Chris looked at the holographic image of Tails, he could see that the fox's expression was full of regret.

"I'm also sorry that we didn't let you join us," he continued. "Sonic and I had a really serious talk about it, and we are worried about your safety, so that is why we wanted you to stay back on the Typhoon. We care about you and we wouldn't want to risk you getting hurt again, do we?"

The emotion in Tails' voice almost made Chris want to cry.

"Um… I have a favor I want to ask from you," Tails said, his tone shifting, and Chris became alert. "Stay strong, okay? I know you're probably feeling very lonely right now, but please stay strong, and we'll be back before you know it!"

Tails flashed a wink and thumbs-up in Chris' direction, just like he had seen Sonic do all those times before, as the message ended and the bridge became silent again.

Chris felt like crying all over again. His friends had not forgotten about him. They just weren't able to contact him due to circumstances beyond their control. And he couldn't blame them for asking him to stay behind.

Loneliness was no longer his only companion.

He now had hope.

A/N: That concludes day 11! Shoutout to elprovchico for helping out with ideas throughout this prompt, especially the message from Tails!

For the longest time, elprovchico and I were having a touch time deciding between "Loneliness" and "Convenience Store", but we agreed that "Loneliness" fit Chris' theme more. We almost had a shoplifter appear in "Convenience Store", however.

Tomorrow's theme is "Starvation!"