"Sonic! We did it!" Amy exclaimed, running along with Sonic under the dusky orange sky. Whether it was sunrise or sunset was unclear. "We've almost made it! We're right here!"
"We are?!" Sonic asked, looking all around. They were running through an autumn cornfield. It was chilly… but Amy's hand felt so warm. Her presence was comforting. Sonic smiled, and kept running along with her. He quickly took the lead and whisked her away further towards their destination, the details so fresh in his mind. "You said it's right up ahead? I can't quite see our home…" Sonic stopped and looked back at Sweetheart Sierra Zone. Both of his arms fell back to his side. "Hold on… Our house is back over there, right, Amy? In Kerosen… in… in Station Squ—?" Sonic grunted, wiping tears from his eyes, his nose running because of the cold. A splitting headache shot through Sonic's head. His ears rang, he clutched his temple as his brain brawled against his skull. Then, Amy put a hand on his face. Sonic's headache went away, and suddenly he didn't feel any pain.
"Shut up…" Amy groaned teasingly. "That's not where we're going. That's not where we need to be. You're here… it's okay. Everything will be okay."
"Right. I'm… I'M HEEERE!" Sonic bellowed into the heavens above, smiling as a tear trickled down his face. "I'm so glad to be here! I'm so glad to be here with you! We beat Lord Robotnik, and now we're here together." Amy grinned with an insurmountable bliss. "Promise… promise me this will last forever!" Amy squeezed his hands tighter. Sonic didn't care about anything else in the world in that one moment. Sonic was there. Simply there.
And so was Big.
"Sonic," Big's voice echoed as he stepped closer. "Can you hear me?" Sonic opened his eyes. He was on his back in a pitch black room outlined with a blinding white. Two flashlight-like eyes stared at him from the doorway. Sonic couldn't move, he couldn't run, it still felt like Amy was holding him tightly. He had no energy to keep his eyes open. So he didn't. He shut his eyes tightly and hoped the thing would leave. "Ayee… poor guy. Sweet dreams, old friend." Sonic retreated to his comfort zone for a few more minutes.
"Wake up."
Sonic jolted awake, screaming. His entire body hurt. It hurt his throat to scream, but it was the only thing he could think to do as the memories wriggled their way back into his brain like worms. His true predicament and all the fear that came with it. That thing… Giganto… It could have killed him. Sonic looked around, his vision blurring. He was on the floor of some kind of cabin. The fireplace was lit, but the lukewarm feeling wasn't enough to end his panic. He looked over to Sage, who was floating right by him. "GO AWAY!" Sonic yelped hoarsely, curling up into a ball. "I want to go back! I want to go back home! Please leave me alone!" Sage looked to Big as he stomped into the room.
"Is he awake?" Big asked Sage. Sage nodded. "You sure? He's had breakdowns like this a few times before, and they all end with him passing himself out. I don't know if I can wake him up the same way you can."
"You can't. Only I have the power to wake people up from Cyberspace," Sage explained. She held her glitchy hands up, and Sonic felt his blood buzz. "Observe. Sonic allowed me to inject him with RED-CODE. You were always too superstitious to undergo the operation, even though it would make waking you up a lot easier. We can fix that, you know." Sage turned to Big as Sonic took deep breaths and began to calm down.
"Not a chance," Big growled.
"I want to go home… please, show me the way out of here," Sonic sighed, as he regained control of himself. "I know I have somewhere to go. I have people I need to take care of… well, at least one." Sonic stared Big in the eyes. "I remember Amy. I know why that name felt so familiar. I was in love with her." Sonic sniffled. "I loved her and now I want to go back to her. I beg of you, show me how to get off this island!"
Big looked down, and took off his straw hat. He and Sage sat down on the bed next to Sonic. "The only known way out is the ocean," Big sighed, placing the hat on Sonic's lap. "If you want to leave, you must confide in the tides to bring you home. Wherever that may be." Sonic looked to Big confusedly. "I've tried and failed to to make it out myself. Right beyond Cronus Cove there lie the Titanic Tides, a circle of harsh waves encompassing the archipelago that more often than not, drown those trying to leave the Starfall Islands."
"The closest landmass in my database is west of here. Apotos is hundreds of miles away," Sage recounted to Sonic. "If you believe you can make it, then go. Run!" Sonic nodded, and blasted out of the cabin.
Sonic looked off into the distance, as he arrived on the shore of Kronos Island. He looked back at the frontier behind him as the sun rose in the east. He swallowed his fears, and then bolted into the ocean. The mud scratched off of the soles of his shoes as he glided across the ocean like Poseidon and Orion before him. If he stopped or slowed for a second, he knew he would die. Kronos Island became a speck in the distance. Sonic looked ahead, only to see a collection of monster waves crashing towards him. He ran up them like solid slopes and loop-de-loops. It was on one of these loops that he realized these waves couldn't be natural. Sonic launched off of a watery ramp and rocketed into the sky in a blast of lightning. He screamed as he fell. He skipped across the water like a rock, eventually regaining his footing and continuing to run.
Sonic switched from looking down to focusing ahead at a collection of large rocks protruding from the ocean. He could probably rest there and wait out the storm. He changed direction towards the largest rock, panting. He hopped atop the rock and stood on the slippery surface. He took a deep breath, which ended in a gasp as the rock was smashed to pieces below him by some kind of large metal tentacle. He jumped into the air and looked to the ocean as he fell back down to the water's surface. Swimming in place by the ruins of where he once stood was a colossal squid-like robot.
"Aah, geez. As if this running across the ocean biz wasn't hard enough already!" Sonic shouted. The Squid looked over to him and shot his direction. Sonic dodged the energy blasts midair, and Homing Attacked into the Squid. Repeatedly. A large gash eventually appeared on the Squid's head. Just when Sonic thought he had the upper hand, ink bled out of the gash, rocketing all over the place at hundreds of miles per hour. Sonic was splattered with a stray blob of initially burning ink, and it solidified around him. He was trapped. He couldn't move his arms or legs as he splashed into the ocean.
He sunk into the cold salty depths, and took a look around. Through his blurred vision, he could barely make out that there were small wriggling eel robots making their way towards him. He nearly screamed, but had no option but to keep his mouth shut. One of the parasites wrapped around Sonic's arm. Sonic tried not to panic as its slimy silicone exterior rubbed against him and began warming up. He focused. He calmed himself.
He remembered Cyberspace.
The Squid continued to bleed above the tides, and just as it was able to patch itself up with the same mechanical creatures keeping Sonic down, the surrounding water electrified and zapped the Squid. Sonic then blasted up from the ocean, cutting through the solid ink with his spines. He was now free to shoot a bolt of electricity into the Squid's head. He noticed the parasite was still on his arm as he grappled over to the Squid and stomped down onto its head, cracking it down the center from the freshly opened weak spot. The Squid screeched as the metal making up its body shattered. Leaving only a floating, ghost-like mass of ink. Sonic revved up a Figure-Eight Peel Out midair, and as soon as he touched the water he rushed forward as the inky apparition followed.
The ink splashed into the water, lost its form, and spread towards Sonic, the darkness thinning out but becoming faster with each mile. Sonic was sent hurdling back by a monster wave. He landed right in the burning bubbling ink. The eel shattered. It felt like oil as he tried to swim but only sunk deeper, each second was agonizing as he felt his body get practically deep-fried from the waist up. He screamed, as he cut through the solidifying ink with his spines and nails. A huge wave crashed into him, sending his upper torso lurching back with a loud crack and sending gallons of salt water up his nose and through his mouth. As it cleared, he sputtered and gasped. Sonic finally blasted up out of the ink and into the clouds, becoming a spire of blue light that could barely be spotted for a few seconds from the Starfalls as well as the bay of Apotos. Almost there. Sonic couldn't see his end goal, but it could see him. Then, the ink shot up out of the ocean as well, grabbing him by the ankles and pulling him back in. It spread up his body and covered his face, leaving him encased in a rubbery shell as he fell into the ocean, unable to break out. He could hardly breathe. He couldn't run. He couldn't swim.
…
Big and Sage stood by the shores of Kronos Island, as Big fished for his dinner. "So Sonic never came back, huh?" Sage broke the silence. Big glanced over to her. "I wonder what I'm going to do now."
"Aye… I guess my supper tonight will be in remembrance of Sonic the Hedgehog," Big sighed. Something bit his bait. He reeled it in excitedly. "Ohhhhh, this is a big one!" He grunted with a hint of laughter. Big hopped back and put his foot against the ruins of one of his fallen boats to support himself. Finally, he fell back. Something landed next to him. His catch.
Big and Sage looked down at a strange black fossil. It had a familiar shape, but it was too rounded and misshapen to discern what it could have been when it was alive. It was covered with dead robot eels. Without hesitation, Big slammed his anvil-like fist down onto the sea trash and cracked it apart. The dust of the once mighty chunk cleared away with the gentle breeze, revealing Sonic underneath it all. His dry, bloodshot eyes were wide open, and he gasped for air while trying to get up. The small air pocket in the shell around his mouth had hardly been enough to keep him alive the whole time.
"Sonic," Sage greeted.
"You guys?!" Sonic sputtered, getting to his feet. He breathed heavily. "I'm back here… I was almost to Apotos when I got jumped by a robot!"
"You should've known it was a bad idea," Big grumbled. "You must have forgotten that Sonic's number one weakness has always been water."
"Yeah… guess it slipped my mind. Comes with the MEMORY LOSS aspect of things…!" Sonic grunted, scowling.
"It's the ocean you moron," Sage interjected. "You're lucky to be alive. Even luckier to have washed ashore here where we can immediately assist you." Sonic hissed inwards, furious but also trying to catch his breath. He raised his fist and staggered towards Big.
"L-lucky?!" Sonic slurred, as Big held his hand forward, caught Sonic by the head, and held him in the air. Sonic kicked and punched at nothing despite Big's arm being in reach. "I don't want to be here anymore! There's a GIANT KILLER ROBOT here! You two may be content dying here, but I'm not! I WANT MY LIFE BACK!" Sonic's voice was muffled.
"Have mercy, Big. Sonic, you're manic with no energy to back it up," Sage muttered. "You've been breathing a small pocket of carbon dioxide for fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds after running over halfway across the Starfall Sea and battling a Squid." Sage recounted. She stared into Sonic's very Core. "And yet you continue to fight, this time against those trying to help you. Why? I do not understand this shameless display of arrogance." Sonic stopped swinging his limbs about, and Big dropped him to the floor, where he fell onto his back.
"You're right. I'm sorry…" Sonic wheezed. "I dunno what came over me."
"Apology logged and accepted. I understand. You really want to go back to Amy, don't you?" Sage asked. "And yet your speed has been drained from your time in Cyberspace. Your power has been siphoned by your Titan." Sonic raised an eyebrow. "In your current state, you are correct to be afraid of death."
"'My' Titan? Does that mean the Titan in Cyberspace was designed for me?" Sonic asked.
"... I must take you somewhere," Sage told him. "Sonic, follow me. Big, your company is not necessary at this time." Sage floated past Big as Sonic wobbled after her.