Don't you get it yet? Of course not. You're just like everyone else. Complacent with normalcy. Consumed by ignorance. Confused by change, and completed by blind optimism. Do you think you're different? Do you believe yourself beyond this universal facade? No, don't strain yourself. It's okay to admit when you're wrong. After all, nobody's perfect.
Not even Sonic the Hedgehog.
Since his story began, he's been a hero, a savior of time and space. He doesn't stop. To clarify, he doesn't give up. This is the reason his home dimension hasn't been destroyed. Similarly, this is the reason everything and everyone revolving around him is under constant threat of annihilation. When you're balancing the world on your shoulders, super speed is neither wise nor efficient. You're bound to drop something, or you might leave it behind just to quicken your step. Maybe you'll decide it's not working anymore, and break it yourself. Eventually, you'll fracture something important. And then everything else comes crashing down.
…
"Denizens of this world, follow us in a single-file line!" Swat-Bots shouted, hundreds of them marching down the streets of Emerald Town. Bashing down doors, shattering windows, rounding up townspeople and taking them towards Hover Units.
"Halt."
One Swat-Bot held its arm in front of the others. The sounds of distant cannonfire shook the entire block. Explosions, the Swat-Bots didn't bring that kind of firepower. A crack of lightning under clear blue skies. All of this noise, just a distraction for the real threat to sneak up from behind.
Rouge unscrewed one of the bots' heads in one swift spin, and with a bat of her eyelashes, the rest of the squad was blown to bits. "Took you long enough, Omega! You must be getting rusty," Rouge exclaimed, swooping onto the E-Series robot's shoulder as his arm cannon smoked. "I guess that's not your fault. It's been a while since our last mission as a team…" Rouge's eyes darted, Swat-Bots were charging towards them from both sides. "Ahem… as a TEAM."
A GUN Truck crashed down the lane, smashing Swat-Bots and smearing oil everywhere. Shadow the Hedgehog leapt out of the windshield as the truck toppled, creating a barricade between the straggler Swats and his two teammates. As he descended towards the pavement below, he activated his Rocket Skates, crashing into the other advancing group of Swat-Bots and creating a Chaos Blast which turned most of them to dust.
"You're both getting rusty," Shadow grunted, wiping ash that used to be skin off his face.
"Cheap foreign parts," Omega yammered on. "Eggman just does not make it like she used to."
"Isn't this Sonic's hometown?" Shadow asked, crossing his arms and looking away from the two. "Why are we taking out HIS trash?"
"He hasn't been feeling it, lately," Rouge sighed, resting her head on Omega's. "Remember what I told you about Ariem and the Reverie?"
"The hedgehog's going to therapy. Such weakness!" Omega shouted.
"Can it, tin-man!" Rouge barked. Shadow clenched his fists, and his skates ignited once more.
"I'm going to find him, he doesn't have permission to rest on his laurels," Shadow said. He took off, smashing through building walls until he reached a Don Fachio Hot Dog Stand. He saw a blue hedgehog there, snarfing down a messy chili dog. "There you are, you pathetic excuse for a hedgehog. You're indulging at a time like this? Face me!" Sonic didn't turn around.
"Man, the chili dogs in this town are to die for!" The hedgehog exclaimed, sucking chili stains off his gloves. "Three more with the works, pal." Sonic slapped some strange coins onto the counter… their imagery didn't match any nation's currency.
Shadow grit his teeth in contempt. "Is that… a MOHAWK?" Shadow grabbed Sonic by the spines and yanked him away from the stand.
"Yow! Mind the spines, Sal—!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed, before trailing off. Shadow stared into his beady black eyes for a moment, before unhanding him.
"You're not my target," Shadow grumbled, skating away.
"Hwuh?!" The Sonic lookalike asked.
…
"Sonic?" A girl asked, approaching Sonic on the roof of his house. He had his guitar, and Sage had his pick. "You forgot this in the television room. Based on previous data, this is the time that you like to play your guitar, correct?" Sage sat down by Sonic on the edge of the building, their legs dangling above a shimmering Emerald Town.
Gently, Sonic took the pick from Sage's hand. "Any requests?" Sonic asked, tuning the guitar. "I'll be here all night."
"You know the one." Sage took a deep breath of the salty air and smiled. She blew her bangs away from her eyes. Sonic began to play her favorite song, singing the lyrics wrong. Strumming the melody as best as he could. It was everything Sage could have ever hoped for. She began to sing along to her favorite verse. Everything felt right. The two were aligned.
Sonic missed a strum, and when he tried to correct his mistake, the guitar cracked. "W-what the?!" Sonic asked. Sage put her finger on a string and played one broken note. The cracks on the guitar spread to her arm. "Sage?!"
"You know, we don't have to wait for guitar time. We can have this all the time," Sage said, the cracks tearing her apart. Sonic tried to hold onto her arm, but his hand phased through every time. "I can make this your reality. There's no need to search. If you run fast enough, the road will lead you back to me."
And just like that… the guitar shattered. Sage shattered. Leaving Sonic alone on the roof of his house. He held his chest. "What was that about?!" Sonic asked, his breathing out-of-rhythm. He didn't have much more time to process it when the doorbell rang. He hopped down, and spotted Shadow waiting on his front porch.
"For the so-called 'fastest hedgehog', he sure takes a while to answer to his superior," Shadow mumbled. As Sonic snuck away, Shadow lied down in Sonic's hammock. "Hmm… when he comes back, I'll use these hammock strings to hang him." Sonic stepped on a disembodied Swatbot head, cracking it under his shoe. Shadow's eye snapped open, and Sonic froze.
"H-hey, Shadow! Feelin' comfy?" Sonic asked. Shadow closed his eyes again. "Look, I'm guessing you're upset about something I did, so why don't we just talk about it inside?" Shadow stepped off of the hammock.
"Very well. Take that robot part."
…
CRUNCH!
Shadow chewed the premium coffee beans Sonic had broken the bank on, leaning against the wall. "I'm quite displeased with your weakness as of late," Shadow spoke with his mouth full. "I had to come all the way out here again to fight your battle."
"There was a fight? I had no idea," Sonic replied. He had been dreaming… right. The guitar, Sage, the rooftop… it was the Reverie.
"Swatbots, Eggman launched an attack on UF soil. At least…" Shadow swallowed the coffee grounds. "That's what I assumed." Shadow teleported to the table, and picked up the broken Swat-Bot part. Sonic eyed it. "Rouge messaged me not long ago, she had Omega run scans on these parts. They don't match any Swatbot builds on-record."
"Whoa… Eggman's been stuck in the Reverie, so there's no way she could have made new ones," Sonic mumbled. "Someone else is making Swatbots?"
"That's almost certainly the case. Because the materials the Swatbots are made with… the molecules forming the metals… they're not of this world," Shadow said. He grabbed the glass of water Sonic was drinking from. "Observe. They have volatile reactions to even the most basic elements of our reality."
Shadow poured the water on the Swat-Bot head. When the two came in contact, the metal cracked, flashed every color of the rainbow, convulsed… before shattering. Sonic shielded his eyes from the bright light.
"Something brought a robot army to this world from another universe. Furthermore, I saw an alternate version of you earlier today. With this new information, I feel like he has something to do with all this, so we have to track him down and get answers," Shadow said. Sonic stood up.
"You've got it. First one to find this faker wins!" Sonic exclaimed. The two blasted out the door.
SONIC RUNAWAYS: SHATTERED
The Sonic from another dimension wandered through Emerald Town. "How'd I even end up in a town like this?" He turned the corner to see a beautiful garden lining the sidewalk leading up to Holy Summit. "If only the others knew about this place. I've gotta get home to Knothole before they get worried!"
"You're not going 'home' anytime soon!" Shadow shouted, leaping from the top of a building and shooting a Chaos Spear at the alternate Sonic. He lost his balance for a second, but was able to jump out of the way before Shadow could stomp down on him. Sonic then materialized behind his lookalike. "That should've paralyzed him. Chaos attacks have little effect on this one… I wonder why."
"Then we'll have to do things the old-fashioned way," Sonic cracked his knuckles, then swept the floor out from under his counterpart's shoes. In a series of blurs and flashes of light, the other Sonic landed softly on a lawn chair. The air around him felt colder. He looked around, the townspeople were frozen in place, and Shadow was slowly readying a punch.
"What the heck?!" The alternate Sonic asked, his voice slow and his movements sluggish.
"Comfortable?" Sonic chuckled, materializing in front of him as a hazy apparition. "That settles it, you're Sonic, because no way you would even be able to talk if you didn't have my kinda speed."
"It's like I'm swimming in Mega Muck… how are you doing this?!" The alternate Sonic asked.
"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, I'm the fastest no matter what dimension you're from. So I get to decide the pace." Sonic said. "That guy over there? He's Shadow. If it were up to him, you'd probably be down for the count already. We have about a minute before he lands his punch, so talk. If I like your answers, I'll help get you back home." The alternate Sonic nodded, and began to speak.
"The name's Sonic. On my home planet, Mobius, the nasty Doctor Robuttnik has taken complete control by Roboticizing anyone he can catch. But not me… because I'm the fastest thing alive…! Or so I thought."
"One night, Robotnik discovered Knothole Village, where I hide out with all my Freedom Fighter friends. I dunno who told him what about how to find it, but I made a deal with the doctor to let him stuff me in the Roboticizer in exchange for him giving the other Freedom Fighters a 24-hour headstart to juice on out of there. Just as the Roboticizer was about to power on, the Power Ring I had on me started to glow, and I got sucked into it!"
"Pass the juice, cuz I'm in a total jam. I'm not a robot, I feel like I have another chance at life, to make sure my friends are safe… But now you're telling me I'm stranded in a whole 'nother universe?!"
The other Sonic sighed, and put his head in his hands. Sonic himself looked to Shadow, who was about to land his attack. Tapping his foot, Sonic struggled to think of a solution. "I got it!" Sonic snapped his fingers, prompting his lookalike to look up. "Here, we have devices called Portal Rings. All you have to do is think of where you want to go, and then throw it. They could probably even warp you back home!"
"No kidding?" The other Sonic asked, eyes widening in hope. "Where do you find them?!" Sonic looked to the coast, smirking.
"Follow me, 'Juice'. Just try to keep up."
…
The two Sonics arrived at Golden Capital, the city where Rings are made. "Took you long enough, Juice!" Sonic laughed.
"Watch it. You only got here first cuz you've got longer legs! Besides, what's with the nickname?"
"I'm the only Sonic around these parts, so I gotta call you something, don't I?" Sonic asked.
"Juice… I guess it's better than 'rodent'," Juice groaned. Sonic burst out laughing.
"No way… lemme guess, that's what YOUR Eggman calls you, right?!" Sonic eyed a pair of Red Star Rings on display.
"Eggman? You mean Robotnik?" Juice chuckled. "I gotta start calling him THAT when I get home, he'd totally hate it!"
Juice leapt onto the railing, overlooking a vat of molten gold. Part of the Ring-making process. "Yo, check it! Your universe has a bunch of great ideas. We only have so many Ring lakes, and it takes way longer just to make ONE." As Juice looked into the vat, his amazement slowly fell. "Say, I bet this is how 'Buttnik would make Rings if he knew how. You sure it's… right?" Sonic averted his eyes from Juice.
"You come from a whole different dimension, I dunno if it's really comparable," Sonic said. "Even my Eggman has made some benign tech. It's kinda just how things work here."
"Gee, I dunno how to feel about that," Juice muttered. "This world's pretty messed up if THAT'S normal!"
"Eggman even made… her," Sonic mumbled, thinking of Sage. He remembered the vision he had.
"'Her' who?" Juice asked. Sonic's hands began to tremble.
"You don't happen to have a Sage, do you?" Sonic asked. "She's an AI girl, speaks softly? Kinda cold? You'd do anything for her…"
"Slow your roll. You mean Nicole? She's cool, but I don't think she's the same as this Sage you're on about," Juice said. Sonic exhaled shakily. "Besides, what good would it do you if there was a Sage where I'm from?"
"I dunno," Sonic looked straight ahead. "She wouldn't be my Sage, anyways. Forget it." The two stopped as something shimmered in front of them. "Hold it, Juice… someone's here!" The shimmer grew into a Portal Ring, and the ground began to quake.
Somebody shot out of the Portal Ring, grabbed Sonic, and slammed him to the ground. Sonic was dazed— he couldn't even perceive what had just happened. He looked over at Juice, and saw he was being carried over someone's shoulder back into the Portal Ring. Sonic stumbled to his feet, and ran over to the unsuspecting figure. The figure turned around… it was another Sonic! With a single glare from the tall dark and gruesome hedgehog, Sonic was slashed all over. One of the slashes cut deep, and Sonic found himself paralyzed. He tried to power through it, but the taller Sonic lifted a foot and stomped Sonic's head deep into the floor tiles.
As the taller Sonic grinded his cleats into the back of Sonic's skull, he pulled out a wrist watch and talked into it. Sonic tried to listen in as he struggled. "It's Reap, reporting in. Yeah? Yeah, I caught the Space-hopper. The little shit didn't put up much of a fight. I'll be back at HQ before you know it."
A red hologram girl took form out of Reap's wrist watch, startling the unusually grotesque Sonic. "What the— HEY! What did I say about interrupting my calls, Rage?!" Sonic clawed at the floor, trying still to get up. That name… was it an alternate Sage?
"Sonic, it's against the law to harm denizens of other Spaces. That includes…" Rage the hologram girl looked down at Sonic underneath Reap's shoe. "... Other versions of yourself. We've been over this."
"Would you just shut up? You're the last thing I want to hear," Reap grumbled.
"I'm only trying to remind you… you could get in trouble," Rage said meekly.
"Just shut up! I will listen to the law when that annoying fox is the one spouting it. Let's get out of here," Reap shouted. Rage flickered, holding her arms over her ears. She took shaky breaths.
"Very well. Let us depart."
Reap walked back into the Portal Ring, Sonic let his eyes roll up as far as they'd go, watching Juice, Reap, and Rage disappear into the glow of the portal. He couldn't move. He couldn't keep his eyes open. It hurt so much. Sonic fainted into a puddle of his own blood.
…
Sonic awoke to a void. It couldn't have been outer space. There were no planets, no stars, only fragments of what once was whole. Floating idly through the rift, Sonic reached for a distant shadow. It was Sage! It was! Right? Sonic tried to breathe as the thing drifted closer.
"Is he lost?" The shadow asked. It could have been Sage, but it wasn't. Here. But gone.
"Impossible. If he's all the way out here, I don't think he ever had a place to call home," another shadow in the exact same spot as the other one muttered. It was like one of Sonic's eyes saw his precious Sage, while the other one saw a complete stranger.
"Maybe he can help us? Let's ask," An indistinguishable duplicate of the other shadows said.
"We can't, not when he's like…" one of the shadows turned up her nose at the sight of Sonic. "... That." Sonic tried to speak. To hold up his hands and show that he could communicate with them. Despite his efforts, he couldn't. "Perhaps we can help him first. Make him…" Their eyes glowed red as their forms danced around Sonic. "Whole."
Drip, drip…
Sonic saw a trickle of crimson liquid falling into a pool of bright nectar. He felt every splash beat his heart, every ripple run through his veins. Filling his body with energy, life, and light. He felt like he could move once more, he opened his eyes with a deep gasp of air. Like headlights shining through the night, he could only see a hazy row of tiled floor in front of him, leading into the Portal Ring. There were bloody shoeprints on the ground, leading into the light. Sonic ran, his shoes landing in his own steps from another place, and another time.
He jumped into the Ring.