Chapter Text
Sonic woke up in his room and stayed in bed for a moment, relishing the silence.
The absolute quiet, the slight chirps of birds just outside, the sounds of life moving, so consistently it seemed to be standing still.
Sonic felt a sleepy kind of contentedness in his chest, warming him from head to toe.
With a yawn, Sonic sat up, stretching.
His feet hit the floor, his new mattress frame creaking as he stood up.
Amy had forced him to buy it not long after seeing his room. Sonic had never gotten around to buying one because, well, he didn’t think he wanted Fleetway to have any more ammunition against him.
But Sonic supposed he didn’t have to worry about that anymore, huh?
Sonic’s room was still a mess, after all, a room isn’t completely repaired in a month.
A month. That’s how long ago Sonic passed out in a mall and woke up in his living room.
That’s how long Fleetway’s been gone.
It… still doesn’t feel real. Fleetway was a constant presence, a constant force of chaos on his life.
For him to be just gone so suddenly and unexpectedly…
Should Sonic throw a party?
As joyous as he should feel, Sonic couldn’t help feeling like… he missed Fleetway. Well, maybe his consistency. Sonic was suddenly thrown into a life where he had to figure out who he was when he wasn’t constantly being torn apart by a demon.
Except… Fleetway hadn’t been a demon.
Sonic groaned, running a hand through his quills.
He didn’t want to think about that right now. He’d spent a lifetime thinking about Fleetway, so sue him if he didn’t want to ever think about Fleetway ever again.
Sonic glanced at his communicator, making a face at the time.
Damn it, he’d slept in. again.
Enough moping about, let’s get to work.
And so it was that at 6 am, did Sonic the Hedgehog wake up. It was the same daily routine as ever, you know, brush his teeth, put on his soft, actually clean, warm hoodie, make sure his shoes are on his feet and out the bedroom door.
Tails was still asleep, hopefully. If she’d gone to bed. Sonic’s 80% sure she did.
Sonic hums as he steps out into the hallway, the sound seeming infinitely loud with the quiet of the house that morning.
Sonic stepped into the kitchen, ducking under the counter.
Not a lot of stuff for breakfast… Maybe it was time to go shopping? Later.
There was enough for pancakes!
Sonic reached in and pulled out the pancake mix, the half empty bag rustling as it was yanked out.
He poured some into a bowl, stirring slowly so as to not get flour on himself.
Once that’s taken care of, it’s just a matter of turning on the stove and slowly pouring the batter onto a dented pan.
The batter sizzles as it hits the buttered up hot pan, slowly pooling into a small circle. Sonic nods at it, satisfied, and moves on to the next.
Seven pancakes. That’s four for Sonic and three for Tails.
Sonic placed them on their separate plates. Sonic remembered how Tails liked her pancakes.
A little bit of butter on top, some syrup drizzling down, and, lastly, a light dusting of crushed mint candy.
Then there was Sonic’s. He liked his whole and toppingless.
He set them down on the table, walking over and knocking on the door.
No response. Sonic opened the door, only for a loud alarm to go off.
Sonic yelped and jumped back, slamming the door shut.
The alarm turned off after a moment and Sonic backed away from the door as steps started to storm up the stairs.
Tails swung the door open with a sharp glare, a laser gun in hand.
“Sonic, it’s seven o'clock, what the hell is your problem?” she snarled, her bedhead making her look like an absolutely feral beast.
“Sorry, sis!”
Sonic chuckled sheepishly.
“I made breakfast! Pancakes!”
Tails looked past him, seeing the pancakes at the table.
“...alright,” Tails grumbled, setting down her gun on the kitchen counter. “But could you wake me up properly next time?”
“I tried to! The alarm went off when I opened the door!” Sonic explained himself. “What are you doing down there anyway?”
Tails’ eyes got a sharp spark in her eyes, gleefully sitting down at the table.
“Just a project,” Tails explained. “I want it to be a surprise.”
Sonic groaned and he went to sit down at the table across from her.
Man, he wanted to know so bad! He was so curious but, well, if Tails wanted to keep it a secret…
Tails slowly cut her pancakes into small pieces, eating her three pancakes bit by bit. Sonic picked up a pancake with his bare hands and bit into it like a hamburger.
Tails made a face as her brother tore, literally, into his breakfast.
“You’ve been in a better mood lately,” Tails commented. Sonic hummed at that, swallowing the last bite of his pancake down whole.
“Been sleeping in,” Sonic signed in between his first and second pancake. “Might be because of that!”
Tails was quiet as Sonic ravished down his second pancake, her own fork tightly gripped in her head.
“So you’re still not telling me,” Tails finally said after a moment, a growing anger in her voice. Sonic paused his eating.
“Would it make you feel better if I told you that would never happen again?” Sonic signed, setting down his half eaten pancake.
Tails frowned thoughtfully, genuinely thinking over her response.
“No,” Tails finally admitted and Sonic drooped.
“But… it’s better, I guess. Usually you say you will try to make it not happen again. You seem… confident.”
“I am confident,”
Sonic responded with a huff.
“I’ll swear if you want.”
“Nah,”
Tails shook her head. She looked up, smiling hesitantly.
“I’ll believe you. But don’t think you can keep avoiding this forever. One of these days, we are going to talk about it!”
Sonic smiled and nodded. Well… maybe.
Sonic doesn’t want to think about Fleetway anymore. He doesn’t want Tails to know about Fleetway, about the way Sonic was a ticking time bomb for years.
How long Tails had actually been in danger this whole time, from the claws of a child playacting a villian.
Sonic didn’t…
Sonic resumed eating, ignoring the impulse to just leave his food and run.
“Any plans for today?” Tails asked, resuming her own food.
“Just a flight,” Sonic replied.
When you aren’t racing for them, the Chaos Emeralds are a surprisingly easy item to find.
Then again, it could just be Sonic.
It was strange, picking them up didn’t bring up that supernatural sleepy feeling, didn’t make him feel like he was sinking out of his very body.
It actually almost felt… good.
But Sonic didn’t have time to dwell on that, he was collecting the Chaos Emeralds for a reason.
Well, a very silly reason but… he had to know.
The Chaos Emeralds certainly didn’t seem to mind. Everytime he was holding one but wasn’t directly looking at it, he could have sworn he heard laughter.
Which was weird, right? No one else hears that? No one else finds that weird?
Sonic found it weird. Sonic didn’t like it.
But it wasn’t Fleetway’s laughter and that was good enough to make Sonic smother his reservations. He had to know.
With the seven collected, Sonic stopped in an empty field. If he was wrong and something went… bad, the only person who’d end up hurting is Sonic himself. He can handle a lot of hurt too so…
Sonic took a deep breath, two in the palms of his hands, the other five arranged in almost a circle around him.
As he exhaled his fear, his anger, his worry… he breathed in the feeling of pure utter power.
His quills floated up and his feet lifted off the ground, Sonic felt a feeling of uncontained joy and freedom flow through him.
The Chaos Emeralds vanished, absorbed into his being, and Sonic breathed out steam.
He opened his eyes, now a crimson red, and glanced down, noting how the wildlife seemed to trying to crawl up to him.
Sonic was still here. This didn’t hurt.
Sonic let out a laugh, twirling and soaring into the air.
He’d have to keep an eye on his energy, going super could tire him out pretty quickly and he didn’t want to get stuck exhausted somewhere.
But where could he go?
The answer, as always, was anywhere but there was something different about it.
Sonic laughed again, just for the sake of laughing. It was a little too loud, a little too close to a crackle but it was his laugh, his joy, no one else’s.
Maybe fly up to see the stars? There was a meteor shower later tonight if he remembered right, Amy might appreciate some pictures right up there with them.
Sonic’s aura was a warmth and a light in the dark abyss of space, making him feel almost like he was a star himself.
Sonic squinted out into space. Wait, what was that?
From a distance, Sonic could see the barest pinpricks of light. Something was there and it was approaching, approaching rather quickly.
They did not seem friendly, as far as Sonic could tell from this distance and there was quite a lot of them.
Well, rest for the wicked, huh?
Stories. Legends. Rumors. That’s all she was relying on.
She would feel almost foolish for doing so, but what other choice did she have?
It was the last goal, the last wish of her people to defeat the Metarex. How could she ever hope to refuse, even as she felt unbearably certain they would not win, no matter if they had some legendary Chaos emerald wielding hedgehog on their side or not?
The pod was meant for escape, in the case of an emergency. It was all that remained of her original ship, now little more than space debris.
The little sapling was correct to fear failure. But the Metarex had their own designs for this mysterious flesh sack of a hero.
Best to have someone… on the inside.