The Gang's All Here

13: He's Back!

Sonic quickly got everything ready.

He'd told Sonia when she'd stopped by that he'd wanted to throw a party for her arrival. Sonia liked the idea, as she wanted to meet Sonic's friends.

Sonic also told Scourge and Tails about the party, and they were okay with it, too. Sonic had invited his friends as soon as he got everyone's approval, and in a few hours, his friends would gather at his house. Tails decided he'd take a short break from his project to help set up.

Mind you, Scourge still didn't want anyone to see him. He was still afraid of someone recognizing and hurting him. So he asked to stay in a different room for the day.

Sonic wanted to spend time with Scourge during the party, but agreed to let Scourge have his room.

Everything was almost done. Tails had left to get more of the building supplies he needed, Scourge was watching TV in Sonic's room, and Sonic was waiting for the first few guests to arrive.

There was a sharp knocking on the front door.

'Yes! The first guest is here!' Sonic thought happily.

I'm sure you could imagine Sonic's shock when, instead of one of his friends, he saw a figure resembling a wild version of his Super form. The glowing yellow hedgehog in front of him was about a foot taller than him, had messy (though surprisingly clean) quills, and red targets in his eyes. A long-clawed hand was holding a small dollar store bag and a map.

Sonic recognized the hedgehog. This was Fleetway Super Sonic.

(A/N: Actually, if you watch Fleetway's origin story on YouTube, he isn't actually called Fleetway, it's the name of the comic brand that created him. But we'll stick with Fleetway to make things easier.)

Fleetway was nervous. If Sonic refused to talk to him, there was even smaller chance of him finding his friends.

He didn't recognize Sonic.

Fleetway cleared his throat. "Um, hi. My name is Fleetway. I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but I'm looking for Sonic the Hedgehog. I was hoping he could help me. Is he here?"

Sonic became a bit confused. Why was Fleetway behaving like this? Last he'd checked, Fleetway was dangerous. In fact, after their last encounter, he was taken by some science people. What was he doing here?

"Sonic?" Sonic asked. "I mean, I know about Sonic. I could try to get a message to him if you want. What did you need him for?"

Fleetway sighed. "I got separated from my last two friends a few years ago. I'm worried about them, and I was hoping that maybe Sonic could give me an idea of where to start looking for them."

Sonic didn't trust that Fleetway wasn't hostile, but seeing the look on Fleetway's face made him feel bad for him.

Sighing, Sonic admitted, "Okay, I wasn't sure if I should trust you, but I guess it's only right to help you. I'm Sonic."

Fleetway was happy to hear that. "Great! Well, can you help me?"

Sonic shivered at the sharp teeth in Fleetway's smile. "I can try. You're gonna have to tell me about your friends and-"

Sonic's phone buzzed. He took a look at the time,

"Oh, man. Okay, I have something I'm planning later, could you talk while I'm setting up?"

Fleetway nodded, and soon, he was sitting on a kitchen stool, watching as Sonic ran around.

After a moment, Sonic spoke up, "Aren't you going to tell me about your friends?"

"Oh, right. Well, on the day we got separated, one of my friends... died. Then, one ran away. He was too far to catch by the time I was calling for him. But my last friend, who was actually my best friend, I have no idea what happened to him. We were just about to go after the one that ran away, then everything went dark, and I woke up not knowing where I was."

'Surprisingly sad story,' Sonic thought. "Well, do you know now where you ended up?"

"The Dark Dimension. None of my friends were there. If I could just find my best friend, finding the other one should be easy. And I figured that if anyone could help me, it would be the guy that's supposedly saved the world a few times."

At this point, Sonic really wanted to help (not only to get rid of Fleetway, but so he could find whoever he cared for). "Okay, I guess we should start with a name. Who was your best friend?"

"Bear with me, his name was kind of weird. I called him Mo, but his name was Mephiles."

~Meanwhile~

Silver and Shadow stood in front of Shadow's house. Silver decided he'd help Shadow figure out what was happening that made Shadow not want to be at home. He loved having Shadow sleep over, but Shadow still had a house to go to.

"Ready?" Silver asked.

"No, but let's do it," Shadow replied.

Shadow unlocked and opened the door.

They stepped on inside, and the silence was already nearly unbearable. Shadow started getting a crawly feeling up and down his back.

"Silver, we need to make this quick. I'm already getting the bad feeling."

Silver, though he didn't feel any unease, recognized the aura in the house. He turned to Shadow, "You said that you would see shadows twitch, right?"

Shadow nodded, shivering as the feeling had gotten worse. "And something out of the corner of my eye will move. And the nightmares."

Getting an idea, Silver got his gloves powered up. "Where do you feel most uneasy while you're here?"

"My bedroom. Why?"

"We need to go there."

"Silver, I really don't-"

Shadow was interrupted with what felt like an icy hand on his back.

"Shadow?" Silver called.

"Silver, something touched me."

This surprised Silver. "Where?"

The moment Shadow said "On my back," Silver flickered a bright light from his palms in Shadow's direction.

Silver knew that Shadow wouldn't be hurt, but if what he was thinking was true (and it was),

A deep voice shouted in agony.

Shadow jumped in surprise. Silver quickly pulled Shadow out of the way as a pool of dark matter writhed on the floor.

Shadow, confused, looked to Silver, but Silver pointed back to the mass as it began taking shape. Soon the figure became recognizable.

Shadow was shocked to see his twin.

"Mephiles!?"