Sonic Runaways

A rush of memories.

Memories where entire bodies are doused in shadow, memories where smells, sounds and tastes are twisted and bent into abstract noise. Memories that may have meant something literal at some point, but for some reason or another, can now mean anything or nothing. What appears to be a shadowy couple walking through a strange colorless field, holding amorphous hands. Two friends relaxing on a pyramid, guarding a green glow on a floating shape on the brink of a neverending black space. Two bitter enemy ball shapes bouncing into each other amidst a collection of skyscraping monuments. And so much more.

"Wake up."

Sonic awoke to the voice of a little girl. He opened his eyes quickly, and saw nothing but bubbling, cobalt-blue water all around him. He couldn't breathe, but he wasn't drowning either. The liquid around him was warm, but his entire body went cold as he saw a huge serpentine mass swimming mere yards away from him. His immediate instinct was to swim away, but as he paddled his arms and legs to do so, he found he was only propelling himself deeper into this odd ocean.

"Don't panic. Take slow, calm strides."

Sonic didn't obey the girl's voice. He opened his mouth and screamed as he continued to plunge himself into the depths. The sea monster that was in there with Sonic directed what must have been its head over to him. Sonic heard many more of them coming his way, muffled swoosh sounds accompanying their movement. They surrounded him, and opened their horrible mouths. Sonic felt a sharp tingling all over his body as the water rumbled, as ripples clouded his vision, and as his vision cut out.

He slipped back into his comfort zone. Reliving memories he couldn't recognize. Life stories that he couldn't even say for certain were his own. A lifetime cut short played out in his head over and over. It was a little sad, but it felt sweeter than the nightmare he had just experienced. Right… it was just a nightmare.

"Wake up."

Sonic opened his eyes once more. Back in that cold, wet tank full of horrific beasts.

"Are you going to listen this time? How many times will we have to do this?"

Sonic looked all around, floating between the spot where the water turned from dark and cold to bright and warm. He was almost upside-down.

"Swim. Slowly. Don't let them find you."

Sonic nervously curled up into a ball.

"Giving up? Going to sleep won't take you back, you know. How pathetic."

Sonic jumped.

He jumped again, slowly and silently. Each jump propelled him farther up.

The girl growled. "What is this. What are you doing." Sonic felt his spines scratch against a window of some kind. It almost felt like a thin layer of skin mixed with glass. "They're going to find you, they're GOING TO FIND YOU. You're making too much noise."

Sonic kept scratching against the membrane, hearing swooshing sounds behind him as he cut away at his cage. "Oh well. Maybe next time you'll listen. You're coming closer every time," the girl sighed. This time, Sonic felt his lungs fill up with the water. It burned. It tasted bitter, until he couldn't taste it anymore. He kept cutting, slashing… scratching. Until his lungs curdled and his skin peeled. He slipped back into a deep sleep.

Black blobs. Familiar places trapped in 5-second loops. Memories isolated from context. Feelings. Sonic's eyelids opened in an instant, his eyes tingling. He shot forward through the lake like a harpoon going at the speed of sound. The window broke open in one hit this time.

Sonic was in freefall. Rhythmic humanoid screams echoed behind him as he plummeted into a strange, foggy alien forest. Droplets of colorless, musty liquid rained down from a huge metal beast behind him. Sonic couldn't even see the whole thing, only its white metal legs. That's just how big it was. Sonic landed on the ground, and stumbled forward. He burst into a sprint, surprised by just how fast he could go. Was it the adrenaline? The fear? The drive? Maybe it was all of them working together.

"Metaphysical realignment. Intuition is the reality that every instant that ever was is happening in this very moment. Yes, this is some minute, invisible glimpse of what is plain as day to Sonic at all times." Sonic heard these words repeat in his mind, words from a poetic, wise man he couldn't remember. It didn't make much sense, it didn't need to. Sonic felt every word's hidden meaning in his blood. It had been so long since he felt something like this. He couldn't remember when he had, for the life of him. In fact…

He couldn't remember anything for the life of him.

Sonic heard a deep rumbling. He mustered up the courage to look back, only to find a spinning magenta ball tearing through the flesh of the very planet following his footsteps, toppling trees and grinding grass into atoms. It seemed to have been shot out of the mecha, which itself was stomping towards Sonic at a speed nearly rivaling his own.

"Sonic! Over here!" A glitched female voice called out to him from his left ear. It was different from that of the first girl. It was different in tone, pitch, and most importantly of all, Sonic instantly knew he could trust it this time. He took a left, and continued down the path towards a blinding light. He heard something behind him, a sharp whistling sound that was only growing louder. He looked back, and saw a bunch of diamond-shaped chunks of metal with red lining shooting down from the sky. The mech's projectiles.

They collided with the ground, letting out a flash of light that sent Sonic flying forward. It could have killed him if he was a nanosecond slower. Time seemed to slow to a crawl. He extended a foot, and landed on the grass. This was all he needed. He burst forward at a speed unimaginable to anything before or after, the forest unraveling around him. He crashed through another window, one that he didn't see until it was in shards. He closed his eyes to protect them, and tumbled forward. He opened his eyes, and saw a cliff overlooking a vast blue ocean. Stretching into a cloudy sky.

"Whoa…" Sonic marveled, taking it all in. He turned around, and saw that the forest was gone. The robots and the giant mech had all disappeared. Everything that was once there had been replaced by a vast sprawling highland.

Sonic jogged up a hill, and stepped foot on a stone staircase that didn't seem to lead to answers, only telling him a story in indecipherable runes with each step. He arrived at the top stair, and looked down upon the entire island from his new vantage point. "Where am I?" He asked, gazing at every mountain. Every forest. Every lake. It didn't seem like anybody had been here in ages, it could very well be that nobody had been here at all. A terrifying thought hit Sonic. "Does anyone else… even exist?" Sonic sifted through the ashes of his memories, and none of them confirmed the existence of any other beings like him. Only shapes, shadows, and what were probably just imaginary voices with no words to associate with them. "Guess I have to figure that out for myself." Sonic turned around and walked down the staircase. Only to see something floating up towards him. A person with crimson glitchy effects covering their body. The glitches all but faded with every stair they floated up. Sonic screamed, and backed up until he was at the very edge of the top stair. "What— what are you?!" The white-haired, pale human figure looked up at Sonic. This revealed one blood red eye, the other one was covered by odd swirly bangs. But there was a shape resembling an eye on said swirly bangs.

"I am Sage," the little girl inched closer. That voice... "I've been expecting you, Sonic." She floated all around Sonic, examining him from every angle. He felt cold breath on his back.

"You've been… expecting me?" Sonic asked, shocked. How could he possibly be so important that someone he had never met was expecting him? Unless… "Have we met before? Please tell me we know each other!"

"No, no we do not," Sage shoved her finger into Sonic's ear and dissected his brain. He tensed up until she stopped. Sonic sighed, balling up his fists and hiding his face in case he lost control of the tears welling up in his eyes.

"I see. You're lost, confused, and scared… Typical. Most people who find themselves here are, at first. Listen closely. Let me tell you something important. Knowing the answers to your past won't help you. Ignorance is bliss, and you're in no condition to be broken by what you have lost. You're better off not knowing."

Sonic looked on, helplessly. Something told him it would be hard to get through to this girl.

"Please, please help me," Sonic clasped his hands together, falling to his knees and begging like a dog. "I need to know something, anything! What am I doing here? What are these visions all about?! What does it all mean?!"

"It means nothing," Sage grumbled. "It will never mean anything. It never has. You have no past to remember."

"... What?" Sonic clawed his hands. "You're lying! That's impossible."

"Impossible but true. And I face the same dilemma. I awoke here with two sole desires… to find you and to learn aaallll about you. Why? I have no clue," Sage paced around, even stepping off of the platform. "For years, I have been trapped in this land, Kronos Island. Unable to leave."

"But… you can fly," Sonic argued. "Surely you could've—?"

"You're right. The ocean wasn't an issue. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I would've been leaving you behind if I were to go out into the world," Sage turned to him. "I sensed you on the island, but I couldn't ever find you until recently. It turns out you were trapped in the dimension known as Cyberspace, a realm of fraudulent matter and altered reality."

"Really? How did you get there? How did I get out?" Sonic asked, pinching his arm to make sure he was real. It was just a light pinch, but it felt like he had been stabbed. His softened arm bruised.

"I'll let you figure those things out for yourself," Sage replied. "I'm not actually supposed to interfere all that much." Sage stared into Sonic's soul, and it felt to Sonic as if the world was dimming around her. "Think of yourself as a captive animal, Sonic. You cannot leave this place. I only got you out of that titan to study you." Sage gripped Sonic by the shoulders and pulled him in. He couldn't feel her fingers. Their noses were nearly touching. Sonic couldn't feel her nose, either. "I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND. Merely your guardian and your guide. I will come back to you by day's end. If you can survive that long." The darkness enveloped Sage's face, enveloped everything until Sonic could see nothing but a pitch black void.

"Anyhow, welcome to the Starfall Islands."

A snapping sound. Sonic found himself all alone. The wind felt just like Sage's cold breath. Sonic turned around, and took a good long look at the frontier ahead. He gulped before jogging down the staircase, turning around, and dashing into the distance. Hopefully towards answers.

Sonic ran through the plains, up and down small verdant humps on the ground. It felt good, but it didn't dispel his fear. Was that even a real person? Or was it his loneliness playing tricks on him so soon? Sage moved and felt like a ghost. Sonic didn't realize where he was running, it was all a blur until he found himself at the foot of a huge tower. He looked up, and saw the tip of the tower was blocked out by a passing cloud.

"Oioi, don't you think it's a bit rude to sneak into someone else's front yard?" A deep voice asked from behind Sonic. Sonic jolted away from the tower, and turned around. Standing there was a muscular, purple cat. Someone you wouldn't want to mess with for sure.

"Oh… sorry, sir," Sonic gulped, sweat running down his quills. Something about this cat was oddly familiar. But for the life of him, he couldn't remember the big cat's name. "I didn't know anybody else was here. Do I know you?"

"Maybe. Maybe not," the cat muttered. He took a fish bone spear from his backpack, and gripped it tightly in both hands. It glinted along with his yellow eyes underneath the evening sun. "But I'm not taking any chances."

The cat rushed towards Sonic, and Sonic jumped out of the way as the cat nearly plunged the spear into his chest. "I remember someone who looked like you. Somewhat. My memories of HIM are a bit jumbled, but I know this much: you can't be Sonic."

"I AM Sonic! I know that much!" Sonic exclaimed, trying to catch his breath. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't lie to me," the cat growled, taking a fishing pole and slinging the line around Sonic's ankle. The cat swung him around overhead, before slamming him into the ground with it. Shards of the ancient stone walkway went flying everywhere. "Sonic disappeared over a decade ago, taking many of his closest friends with him. It was a birthday party, I believe. Sonic's birthday party. At least, that's what it started as. It turned into a missing persons case for everyone attending. They all vanished, and were never seen again. Even my two best friends, Amy of the Roses and Cream the Rabbit."

"'Amy'…?" Sonic asked as the dirt cleared. His head hurt, and not just because he was thrown into the ground by the fishing pole. He Spin Dashed and cut through the fishing line, hurrying to his feet as circulation returned to them. The fishing line turned to razor wire. He dodged once more as the cat nearly decked him in the face with his tree trunk arms. "Why is that name so… familiar? I don't remember a 'Cream', but…"

"You tell me," the cat grumbled, spinning around with a spiked metal ball on the end of his fishing pole. Sonic dove for cover, only for the cat to catch up with him and grab him by the neck while continuing to spin. Sonic slammed into the wall of the tower with a sonic boom, the wall cracking and a tremendous dust devil shooting out from the side of the ancient spire. He kicked for dear life, as the cat gripped harder, despite the dust and dirt in his blind eyes from the storm. Sonic's entire life flashed in front of him. Shadows, blurs, vague memories of love and freedom. The cat raised his other fist. "I'm being serious. Tell me. NOW. Why is that name so familiar to you over the others? What significance does her name have to you? Where have you heard it before?!"

Sonic gasped for air, spit mixed with blood running down his mouth as his eyes bulged out of his head. "I— I don't know!" Sonic looked into Big's eyes. "Maybe you can tell me? Please?! I recognize it from somewhere, but I don't have all the pieces. Please, please help me, sir! I don't remember anything at all!" The cat growled deeply. It sounded like the rumbling of a volcano. He then lightly tossed Sonic aside like trash. Sonic bounced twice before skidding to a stop on the grass. He pulled his head out of the dirt, and looked over at the hazy image of the cat.

"Then begone, I have no faith in your lies," the cat muttered, his back turned to Sonic. Sonic could hardly make out his words. It began to rain. "Surely you're another one of those visions. Just like the little human girl. I don't know what you want, so just leave." the cat glared at Sonic from the side. "If I ever see either of you again, I'll kill you both." The cat opened an umbrella, and floated to the top of the tower casually. Sonic stumbled to his feet, and scampered away into the now rainy alpines.

That name… Amy… It wouldn't get out of his head.