Although Sonic had travelled the world and seen its beauty from space multiple times over, he always found himself coming back to Green Hill when he wanted to relax. It was where he grew up, after all, and sometimes he got nostalgic for the good ol' days before Eggman started his scheming. Not that he ever minded the thrill of cracking robots open and taking on whatever machine or angry deity of the week the mad genius cooked up, but sometimes he'd like not to have the obligation of saving the world every time. He was strong, and he had made many friends who would always help him out, but some of Eggman's more devious plans had him questioning what would happen if he failed.

These thoughts drifted through his mind as he laid lazily in the green grass, taking in the sun. Maybe a nap would let him forget about it. Or a chili dog. One of the joys of running all the time was that there was no such thing as a wrong time for food, which meant he could eat as many chili dogs as he wanted.

A beeping interrupted the peace and quiet. It was his wrist communicator that Tails had made for him a long time ago. Turning on his side, he brought it up to his face so he could use it.

Sonic: "What's up, buddy?"

Tails: "Sonic! Eggman's forces are surging into the City! We need you here, now!"

The City was the name of the only settlement on South Island. In fact, it was one of the only permanent settlements of anthropomorphic animals (or Mobians, as the humans called them for some science-y reason he didn't understand) in the world, as the island was one of few locations where they occurred naturally. The humans didn't have a name for it, as they didn't even know of the island's existence until recently, long after the City had been known as such. You can thank Eggman for spoiling it when he started kidnapping the animals here.

Sonic: "Hold on, Tails! I'm on my way!"

In a flash, Sonic was up on his feet. He immediately regretted that decision as the blood rushed to his head, darkening his vision and causing him reactively to hold his hand up to his forehead. Shaking it off, he burst into a sprint towards where he knew the City was. It wasn't long until he saw some of Eggman's robots marching along, though he didn't know what they would be looking for out here. They were unusually uninteresting for Egg Pawns, looking like regular ol' robots with sterile white exteriors and simple shapes for their body parts. Admittedly, their bodies did look like eggs, but Eggman loved both halves of his nickname, so something bizarre must be happening that he put less of his face on his inventions.

Calling upon his inner power, the Blue Blur surrounded himself in a blue aura as he activated his Boost. The robots didn't even see him coming before he pelted right through them all, ripping them apart on impact without even slowing. If only Eggman built ears into these things. They might actually hear me break the sound barrier when I do that, he thought. Just kidding, I'd still own them all the same.

He kept the Boost going as he ran up a larger hill, jumping at the apex for maximum momentum. As he soared, he was surprised by what he saw in the distance: a huge robotic sandworm, of a model that he recognized from the Oil Desert, was burrowing through a vast, parched expanse that made Green Hill look a lot more like Sand Hill. He couldn't imagine how else his neighborhood could turn into a desert if not for that robot, but he also hadn't been here in a while, so maybe it was like, climate change or something.

In any case, he didn't have time to lose in making his objective. He dismissed the train of thought as he hit the ground again and kicked his speed up a notch. Without any blunder, he wove through some more complicated terrain, the contrails from his speed causing a couple of the desiccating pillars to wobble or outright crumble in his wake.

Those slopes rose up into a small valley, and the ridges he ran through had become so worn that they collapsed behind him onto some of the spike-shaped rocks that weren't uncommon to the area. The crevice bottomed out into a meadow with sporadic flowers and bees flying about – only, they too were bland and unnatural. Metallic, single-eyed Buzzbombers turned his way to fire at him but were quickly scrapped as the hedgehog Homing Attacked them to clear the fireballs spat by similarly monochromatic Bloominators and take them out too.

Exiting the valley, he could see that the desertification seemed to continue all the way through and past where the City was. He hopped over the end of a ledge only to see that beneath it was a sand flow going into a hole in the hill up ahead. Unable to stop himself, he went for a slide, curling up as he entered the hole. It dumped him unceremoniously onto the ground in a growing sand pile.

"Pffft!" he exclaimed, spitting a glob of sand out of his mouth. "Thanks, Eggman! I'm going to be knocking sand out of my shoes for weeks!"

After a quick brush-off, he resumed his journey towards his objective, feeling slightly more disoriented. There was nothing but sand and dried grass everywhere. It was saddening to see one of his favorite places so soiled. Clean up was going to be a chore – he didn't know anything about gardening.

Soon there was a road that he knew lead into the City, and he found more robots blocking his path. They quickly became as ruined as the area, joining some much larger robot parts that had been scattered around since his last visit – which was a little concerning.

He ran over a bridge that spanned a now-dry pond, which he remembered signaled city limits. However, he spotted large pillars of smoke before he saw any buildings. Seeing this, Sonic decided to get ready for some action and reconnected with Tails.

Sonic: "Tails, I'm on approach. Where's Eggman?"

Tails: "No sight of him. But we've got a bigger problem on our hands."

Sonic: "What could be a bigger problem than Egghead?"

Tails: "Metal Sonic's here, and somehow, so is Zavok."

Sonic: "Zavok? Didn't we toss him in a pit of lava back on the Lost Hex?"

Tails: "Apparently he survived. What's more, I've gotten reports of a floating creature with a red aura flying around and helping them. Some say it's Shadow, but others are claiming it's somethin*khlejshj*…

Crackling static began to interrupt Tails' transmission. When it came back, the fox was whispering.

Sonic: Tails?

Tails: This is wei*rdsh*… Whatever that thi*nshg* is, it mu*kshtshbe* clo*ksh*…

Sonic: Hang on, I'll be there soon!

Sonic redoubled his pace, re-activating his Boost. The cloud of dust behind him began to shrink as the road turned to cobblestone, and he was soon surrounded by a blur of faded rainbow from the pastel colors of the city's buildings. He could make out people on the streets as he passed by, and they were fleeing in the opposite direction that he was. Up ahead, he noticed a large squadron of Egg Pawns terrorizing some citizens by backing them into a corner.

Using his momentum, he curled up and angled himself to begin spinning towards the side. This curved his trajectory, allowing him to come in at the right angle to avoid hitting the Mobians with either himself or the robots being sent flying by his attack. Some of them slammed into buildings, crumbling into a pile of parts and rubble. A few skidded along the ground and survived, but they were quickly dispatched with Homing Attacks.

He stuck his landing, facing towards the people. They began applauding him.

"Is everyone okay?"

"We are, thanks to you," one of the civilians said.

"That statement was a grave mistake," a projecting voice behind Sonic announced. It sounded like it was echoing, but almost like a stutter. He turned around to see a masked creature with a long tail that was radiating a sickly red. The light was coming brightest from a strange jewel embedded into its chest.

"You must not know who I am. I've stopped a dozen wannabe villains just like you!"

Without saying anything further, Sonic sprinted towards the thing. As soon as he jumped to deliver some spine-on-loser action, he was suddenly knocked aside by an incoming yellow projectile. He landed flat on his back, but quickly crouched into position to prepare another attack. However, the figure that stood now before him caused him to hesitate. It looked a lot like he did, except it had black spines that faced outwards instead of back.

"Shadow! Is that you?"

Then he almost fell over as the ground shook from an impact behind him. He turned to the side to see the imposing figure of Zavok, with no signs of his extremely hot bath to be seen. His observation was cut short when he had to tumble to the side to avoid a pair of dark-colored missiles that flew at him from either side. They circled around and landed, revealing themselves to be one navy and one black robot.

"Metal!" Sonic shouted. "And… Gemerl?"

He was surrounded. The mysterious foe that summoned them floated into the air and began laughing at him.

"Ahahaha, but have you defeated them all at the same time? I didn't think so."

Sonic looked around, almost panicking, for a way out of this. Running wasn't going to be an option when both Metal Sonic and Shadow were able to keep up with him; rushing them down wouldn't work either due to Zavok's bulk and Gemerl's combat prowess that it inherited from Emerl.

"Sonic!" a voice called. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a yellow figure swoop in from above, and he jumped up to grab the outreached hands that came with it.

"Cutting it kind of close there, buddy!" Sonic responded. Tails flew over a half-destroyed wall and landed down, taking out his trusted Miles Electric.

"I need to know what's going on with this guy. How's he doing this?"

"I've been trying to figure that out, Sonic. But these readings are all messed up! They don't make any sense!"

Their conversation was interrupted by a red fist smashing through the wall between them, followed by its body leaping through and turning its attention towards Sonic.

"How about fight now, smarts later?"

"Deal." Tails took flight as Sonic began to run away, but then everything turned red and something began pulling him back. The fox turned to see whatever strange being was masterminding this operation had called upon the gem on its chest, and he was being forced towards it as if it had a gravitational pull. He began accelerating rapidly, but instead of going to the gem, he was flung straight into Sonic, who had been pulled from the other direction.

The duo rebound apart and fell to the ground. Sonic was immediately set upon by the rogues' gallery, engaging in a deadly dance of almost pure defense to avoid being hit. What he wasn't expecting was for the ringmaster to step into the fray himself, and as he held back a fist from Gemerl, he was swept to the side by the masked mammal's long tail, sending him careening into a building.

"Running out of time here, Tails!"

Tails didn't know what to do. He was a great complement to Sonic's fighting style with his flight and their coordination, but on his own, he wasn't proficient in martial arts and relied on his inventions to keep himself safe. Whoever this was knew that and clearly was not going to have any of it.

He watched observantly and kept trying to scan the enemies, but he simply could not see a way he could intervene. All he could do is watch his best friend get tossed around like a volleyball before being slammed into the ground. He did not get back up.

"SONIC!" he cried.

The five victors all turned towards him, with the red monster moving to the front. "Haha, MWAHAHAHAHA! Go, run away in fear, and tell everyone of how you bore witness to the defeat of the so-called hero, Sonic the Hedgehog! I know who you are, fox. You would do well not to repeat your friend's mistake."

Overwhelmed by this point, Tails obliged. He picked up his tails, too ashamed to fly, and fled.