Breaking Point: A Sonic Forces Rewrite

14: Friend Panic

"Everyone here?" Knuckles asked loudly, huffing a little from all the running back and forth. Everyone nodded to their commander. "Good." He replied to himself as he put Sonic down on a seat. "Scan him for any bugs." He commanded his technician soldier that was holding a device. Blue light shined out of the device scanning Sonic for anything of Dr. Eggman's.

"According to these readings, it says he's all clean of devices." The soldier affirmed.

Knuckles nodded as he took a seat next to Sonic. His body has been doing nothing but blinking and breathing this whole time, almost on the verge of drooling from his mouth.

"Sonic? Can you hear me?" Knuckles asked concernedly as he waved his hand in front of the blue hedgehog's face.

Still nothing but a straight stare into the void in front of him. The soldiers on board were just as uneasy as Knuckles was. Sonic is their hero... without him they might all fail.

'What happened to you?' Knuckles thought to himself a bit scared that his friend might be all gone.

As soon as the spaceship reaches Earth's orbit, Knuckles decided now would be the best time to report to Amy. "Amy, do you read me?" Knuckles asked into his communicator. A few seconds went by but briskly got a response back.

"Yes I read you." Amy answered anxiously about hearing their mission report with their missing friend.

"We have Sonic with us but prepare yourself. He isn't looking too good." Knuckles sighed cheerlessly.

Amy's stomach dropped when hearing those words strung together. "W-what do you mean? Physically? Mentally?" She started getting fearful about her Sonic.

"All the above." Knuckles replied softly knowing she's scared. "We'll be back in around 15 minutes. See you there." He closed the conversion gloomily, aware he told his friend about bad news. "Amy isn't going to like this." He sighed to himself quietly.

* * *

Those 15 agonizing minutes made Amy keep bouncing herself up and down to get the anxiety shakes off. 'Is he okay? Is he badly hurt? Is he even still alive?' Tons of scared what if's flooded her mind as she waited by the loading dock where she said she would be.

'How could Sonic himself be this damaged? Was this all my fault for not searching hard enough for him? Please tell me he's actually okay.' She's biting the inside of her cheek and swaying side to side to keep herself at bay.

'There's no point worrying if all the damage is done. What we need is to make him better. But what if we can't.' She tries comforting herself amongst all the stress but it all comes back in a full circle of worry and panic.

The ship carrying Knuckles and his crew eventually landed in the dock. Amy is back to bouncing up and down as the hatch slowly undid itself, opening the trap to let passengers out.

'He's here! He's here! He's here!!' Amy screamed silently to herself trying to contain her excitement. It's been 6 months since she last saw Sonic. Now she's begging for him to just be home again. Seeing the red and blue tops of her friend's heads makes her want to run up and hug them both.

As the hatch lowers showing more of the two show themselves, Amy's excitement quiets down into heartbreak. All of her worried fears came true. Knuckles is gripping Sonic by the arm, holding him up straight as they walk down the hatch door. They started getting closer to Amy and that's when she can see everything. Sonic limping with every step they take. His bright blue fur desaturated with sweat and grime embedded with dried blood. His once long quills were slashed short and sticking out of formation. Most of all, his bright caring green eyes were empty.

Nonetheless, when Knuckles brought Sonic closer to Amy, she didn't hesitate to wrap her arms around him. No matter what, he's still the same person she cares about. The hug feels cold like she's hugging someone different. His body feels boney as he's slightly trembling from malnutrition. He doesn't put his arms around her like usual, Sonic is still standing there paralyzed. After a tight squeeze from Amy, she gazed up at Sonic's face. She brought her hands up and cupped the older hedgehog's face. His eyes are glazed over almost like he's looking through her.

"What did they do to you?" She whispered grievously, running her thumb across a scabbed up laceration on his cheek.

Sonic didn't react to Amy one bit. She scanned the rest of his body head to toe, noticing all the cuts and bruises showing. She reached down to his worn out shoes to notice his left ankle was well bigger than his other ankle.

"Look how swollen his ankle is. It has to be broken." Amy stated, getting under Sonic's left arm so he doesn't put too much pressure on the broken foot. "Help me take him to the infirmary." She continued to Knuckles as he wrapped Sonic's other arm around him like she did. Together they slowly helped walk their broken friend to get some help.

* * *

On the other side of the small continent Sonic's friends were on, a smaller, light blue, hedgehog was speeding through and ripping apart any Eggman's badniks that stood in his path. The two tailed fox was stationed higher above the hedgehog, looking down at the destruction of the robot horde. Tails has been helping the younger version of Sonic take on Eggman's army in secret. It's the least he can do since he feels too ashamed to show his face to his other friends.

He should've saved his Sonic from getting beaten up by all those enemies but he couldn't do it at the time. He freaked out, shut down, he's not as strong as his best friend and he was the one getting thrown around. The younger fox feels so guilty about himself. He should've done something more at the time, but sadly, he can't invent a time machine. Helping out the younger version of his best friend is the best he can do right now. He's not a hundred percent sure why or how he's here in this time period, but he's glad there's one Sonic here.

It's been ages since anyone has messaged Tails about anything going on in the war. All he said to his friends was two text messages saying, 'They got Sonic. I'm sorry.' 'Don't come looking for me. I'm safe.' and didn't speak again to any of them. They tried to reach out and help Tails, but he didn't want the help. For a full month, his friends filled up his communicator with messages, but slowly backed away knowing he needed some time to himself. Today was one of those days where out of the blue, Amy messaged Tails again. He couldn't help but wonder what could they be asking of him after so long, so he viewed the text.

'We have Sonic. He's not looking too well. Please come over to the base's infirmary.' That message made Tails' heart sink. They finally managed to get him back after 6 months of trying, and he wasn't in any part of trying to save him. Now Sonic is badly hurt from being kidnapped from Eggman. All Tails cared about was himself at the moment. He didn't stand up and fight like he used to. All he did was run away. He has to be there now, Sonic needs him.

Tails took one last look at the younger light blue hedgehog jumping on top of robots to dismantle them. "I'm sorry, but my Sonic needs me." Tails said quietly to himself, leaving the scene to get on the Tornado.