A blast from the broken city

It was supposed to be an ordinary day. An ordinary day of just relaxing, with not a single care in the world. No bots to smash. No evil egghead to scramble. Just a nice day of running around having a blast while doing so in the (mostly) peacefull Green Hill. And as far as he knew, giant purple monsters crawling out of equally ominous dark purple portal had no place in his plan. Neither did he have time to react as everything faded to white (literally!). The next thing he knew, he was running around in a white limbo, greeting many unknown faces (except Tails, but even then he wasn’t- he couldn’t be HIS Tails; something about the way he seemed to be around the same height as him, the way his eyes shined so familiar, yet so foreign at the same time made him wanna speed out of there as soon as he could. And DON’T get him started on Amy), fight Metal again, having HIS Tails back (thank Gaia, he was about to go insane), meeting himself (it was as weird as it sounded), beating Eggman, seeing the purple misty monster of the week again and then cutting back to rescue missions and getting the Emeralds. He didn’t know how he got himself into this situation.

Sonic grunted, trying to catch his footing as a strong gust of hot wind was pushing him back. Yet the wind stopped blowing suddenly, causing him to stumble forward. A red Mobian huffed as he held on to the large piece of building he was using to shield the both of them. Sonic paused in awe at the raw display of power, failing to notice the red fire monster creeping up behind him. Unfortunatly for the creature, a Chaos Spear through its chest was all it took to make it vanish into a red mist.

„Keep getting distracted and you may never make it to your 16th birthday.” Said the dark hedgehog, Shadow, as he past through the vanishing red mist. The red mobian, Knuckles, let go of the building, feeling the strong wind die down as quickly as it appeared. He cracked his, well, knuckles as he stared at his younger friend.

„I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he’s right. You gotta step up your game if you wish to make it out of this alive.” Sonic felt a small vein pop up on his temple. Oh, so that’s how it was going to be.

„For your information, I had it covered. I had defeated Eggman enough times to make me an expert in cracking bad eggs.” He said as he leaned a bit forward with his hands on his heaps. „A little gust of wind and a silly salamander weren’t going to stop me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have places to go.” He ignored the other two’s shouts as he speed out of there. What was their problem? THEY were the ones that came up to him and told him to stay with them only to complain about every little thing he did! Do this, do that, just who did they think they were talking to? It was official, his future self sure had a weird taste in friends. Whatever, he just needed to reunite with himself(?) and get away from this mess of a place. As he thought that, he saw a goalpost. Perfect. He reached the meeting spot. Now all he had to do is wait (ugh) for his other self to arrive. But the world, yet again, said no to another plan of his.

The hot gust of wind picked up suddenly again, this time with a little more force. Sonic grunted as he pushed back, trying his hardest to reach the goalpost. Until the ground containing it was ripped off and flew away. He couldn’t help the yelp that escaped his lips as he barely stopped on the edge of the newly created rift. With a lot of effort and flailling (and the still blowing wind) he found himself on the ground, at a safe distance from his almost imminent death. When the wind finally stopped blowing he looked up. Only to let out a groan. The goalpost was moved several blocks away. Had the road not been utterly and unrepairably destroyed and littered with bloodthirsty lava monsters, it would have been a piece of cake.
He heaved out a sigh and stood up, ready to dash for the meeting point again. The rapid approaching steps made him pause and make him groan.

„I thought I told you I had it covered!” He snapped as he turned sharply towards the two newcomers. They looked taken aback a little but composed themselfs rather quickly.

„This place is a certified death trap. There’s no way you can get through here at your current level.” Justified Shadow as he crossed his arms. Knuckles sighed too as he shook his head. Agreeing with Shadow multiple times a day wasn’t how he imagined this particular birthday to go.
That was the last straw. Sonic got right into their faces, startling the both of them a second time.

„You know what I think?” He asked and then he pointed his finger at them. „I think you both need to cool it. You don’t know and don’t get the right to tell me what to do or can do. I’m not the hedgehog you know. I'm me. And that’s final.” He turned around and prepared to spindash out of there.

„WAIT!” Sonic got pulled back before he could even try. He turned around to give the echidna a peice of his mind but stopped himself. The sight of the mobian with pure terror in his violet eyes, heavy breathing and a slight tremor in the way he held his shoulder was enough to shut down every spitefull remark he had in mind. A quick look at the dark hedgehog behind him proved that he was in a similar state. Knuckles took a deep breath, scolding himself before he gradually let go. „I’m sorry.”

Sonic blinked. Well, today just got weirder.

„What-”

„It was wrong of us to assume we know what’s best for you when you barely know a thing about either of us. With everything you’re dealing with all the Time Eater stuff, we weren’t making it easy for you either. For that, we are sorry.” Apologised the echidna, slightly bowing his head. Shadow said nothing, just stared off into the distance.

„...I suppose we were a little irritable.” Mumbled the dark Mobian. „A little” is an understatement. Still, Sonic couldn’t help but shake his head.

„What’s with the sudden change of heart?” Asked the younger blue blur as he crossed his arms. „Not too long ago you seemed dead set on treating me like a kid.” Knuckles stayed silent for a bit, as if searching for the right words to say.

„Something... bad... happened here.” He finally explained. He then looked at the blue hedgehog in front of him. „And that something extended to you.” Sonic’s quills uncounciously spiked up. He tried to play it cool and try to get to the bottom of this.

„And that is...?”

„We don’t know.” Shadow continued. „None of us has ever set foot in this city. Including Sonic. And yet”, Shadow started to look around the destroyed building, „there’s a feeling of dejà vú whenever we take in our surroundings.”

„It didn’t feel right leaving you alone.”  Explained more Knuckles. „We just wanted to accompany you until we got out of here.” As omnious as that peice of information was, everything started to make sence. Still, he had to set the record straight.

„You shouldn’t underestimate me just cause I'm younger. If my older self is anything to go by, you should know I’m a lot harder to kill then I seem.” The two red and black rivals exchanged a glance. The silence lasted for a moment. Then Knuckles chuckled, while Shadow kept fighting the smile on his face, his shoulders slightly shaking. Sonic kept looking between the two. „What’s so funny?” Knuckles just waved him off.

„Nothing you should worry about. Just seems like we forgot just who we were dealing with.”  The blue blur smirked triumphantly.

„Was about time you realised it!” He was about to speed off again, until he realised something. With a more sheepish look on his face, he scratched the back of his head. „Also, sorry for losing my cool for a sec’. Got a bit too heated with everything going on.” The two ceased their suppressed laughter and exchanged a bewildered look with one another. Then they quickly recovered.

„All’s forgiven.” Nodded Knuckles. „We should keep going tho. Can’t have the other Sonic hog out all the fun.”

„Finally. I have a score to settle with Faker.” He then skated off, leaving the two rivals behind. Well, Sonic wasn’t gonna let that one go so easily.

„Hey! Not cool, dude!” He yelled and immediately started the chase.

Knuckles simply shook his head before following suit.

The future ahead of him was  proving itself to be one of the weirdest and most confusing thing that could ever happen to him.

„What’s the matter, Faker Jr?” Asked Shadow smugly. „Can’t handle the Ultimate Lifeform?” Feeling the challenge, Sonic responded by speeding up.

„Get real! I’m only getting started!”

But you know what? He doesn’t mind.

Sonic picks up lava monsters being decimated behind him. He turns around in time to see Knuckles punch a fire reptile out of existence. The echidna then flashed him a smug smirk of his own.

„Don’t count me out of the race just yet! Soon you’ll be eating my dust!”

„Don’t make me laugh! The only thing waiting for you at the finishing line is your ultimate defeat!”

Or rather, he wouldn’t trade anything for it.

Sonic chose that exact moment to speed off, leaving his future rivals bewildered behind him.

„See you at the finish line!” Teased Sonic. He continued to run until he saw a dead end and a spring. With a confident smile, he kept the momentum before using the spring to jump over the destroyed part of the road. There, another monster awaited him.

Cause afterall...

Sonic’s expression never changed. He simply curled up into a ball and proceeded to spindash into the incoming lava monster.

...he was a guy who loves adventure.