Chapter I

On the Run

Today was nothing special. The weather wasn't particularly wonderful, but it was the kind of day in which one could make outdoor plans without fear of them falling victim to inconsiderate precipitation. In fact, barring possible cloud cover, it was the perfect circumstances for the meteor shower predicted to peak at eleven thirty tonight.

Atop a lush hill overlooking a lake - which was at least passably picturesque if you ignored the floating garbage - was a small split-level dwelling. The house was in some state of disrepair, although this was due more to inattention from the occupant than anything. As far as he was concerned, unless the actual structural integrity of the building was compromised there was little cause for worry.

Miles "Tails" Prower stepped out the front door, shoulder bag strapped to his side. He scanned the surroundings expectantly but found nobody waiting for him. He sighed loudly and slammed the front door in annoyance, shattering his front windows.

"Typical," he scoffed and began rummaging through his bag. He produced a can of cola, cracked it open, downed it in one gulp, belched loudly, threw the can into the lake, and began on his way. Amy Rose and Cream the Rabbit had agreed to meet him at nine o'clock sharp, and from there they were to travel to an idyllic spot atop a nearby plateau. It was an arduous hike, but it was the best possible viewing spot for the meteor shower, and Tails had no intention of missing another one due to light pollution.

About seventy yards down the dirt path from his house, he produced his cell phone from the bag and dialed Amy's number.

"Where are you?" Tails said, gruffly.

"On the plateau," Amy answered. "Where are you?"

"Waiting for you! We said nine o'clock at my place!"

"No, we said we'd be at the plateau at nine o'clock. We came to your place at seven and you weren't there."

This was met with silence. "No, you didn't," Tails straw-grasped.

Amy ignored him. "Can you make it by eleven?"

"Of course I can," he lied. He clacked the cell phone closed. "And now," he said to himself, "I get to feel like an idiot for the rest of the day."

It had been a quiet few months. Despite the recent events regarding the space colony ARK, the remainder of the year had been downright pleasant for the gang. Winter had come and gone without incident, and the lush spring air gave an inviting sense of contentment. Life was slow and uneventful with a few bursts of excitement here and there, and that was precisely the way it should be. There was surely something horrible just waiting to pop up just over the horizon, but the extended break was more than welcome and, what's more, decidedly earned.

However, with half the moon missing, there was a devastating effect on the tides which resulted in a not particularly small number of coastal cities being wiped off the map. Eggman was only able to escape trial for this by trading a large amount of his highly advanced weapons technology to the Guardian Units of Nations. G.U.N. oversaw the military operations of quite a few countries around the world, providing equipment and soldiers and were starting to be seen by many as a modern empire. Eggman deeply despised them, though they let him quietly operate unimpeded in payment for the tech so it seemed more than worth it. Had the public known about this, there certainly would have been a massive outcry, but if anyone knew how to keep behind closed doors, it was G.U.N. commander Abraham Tower. He had leaked the story that Eggman had been taken out in a mission by G.U.N. and all his assets and equipment seized, allowing the scientist to quietly live on his own, keeping himself useful by inventing various gadgets.

Tails huffed his way up a steep incline, flashlight in hand. It had gotten quite dark in the past hour, and he wasn't prepared to trip and break anything vital to his continued locomotion. The thousands of cicadas in the surrounding forest hummed loudly, repeatedly reaching a crescendo before quieting back down again. He continued along, panting and wiping the sweat from his forehead. Here he was, again, late to the party. As always.

"Hey!" he shouted.

"Tails?" came the response.

Tails ran as fast as he could, covering the remaining distance. The trees dwindled to shrubs as he entered a large clearing where Amy and Cream had set up camp. A decent-sized bonfire was crackling loudly as Cheese the Chao swooped in a figure-eight pattern above it, singing gibberish.

"I'm here now," said Tails, pointlessly.

"Did you bring the camera?" asked Cream, lounging across a sleeping bag next to the fire.
Tails answered by unzipping the bag and producing a rather fancy DSLR, complete with telephoto lens. "Freakin' sweet, isn't she?" he beamed. He set the camera atop a tripod, lens fixed on the sky. "I don't suppose Sonic is anywhere to be found?"

"Of course not!" Amy blurted out. "He still has to answer for all the property damage he caused escaping from the feds. "

"It's not like they could overlook it in light of him saving the world or anything," Tails grumbled. "There's always gotta be a fall guy, and Sonic is straight-up haphazard with nearly everything he does."

"Some might call it free-spirited," Amy suggested.

"I call it clumsy and dangerous," said Tails, shrugging, "but whatever. He destroyed a lot of cars charging through the city streets like a maniac. Maybe it's good that he's being held accountable." Tails shifted around uncomfortably. "You haven't seen him, have you?"

"Not even for a second," Amy answered, as Cream nodded an affirmative. "Why?"

"No reason," Tails lied. "I just want to see my buddy, y'know?"

A cool breeze lightly rustled the tree branches as the sun let out its last flare and disappeared across the horizon. No longer could one frantically make the case that the thin sliver of light wavering through the forest still arguably constituted daytime; that ship had sailed. The cold blanket of night fully covered the land, and now it was time for the meteor shower.

The rest of the evening was an overall pleasant experience. Save for one or two spectacular fireballs, the shower was nothing special. Adequate. Not disappointing. Simply adequate.

"Well that was a load of bull," Tails complained at an inappropriate volume, doing an incredibly poor job of concealing his deep-seated stress and frustration over Sonic's situation.

"Quiet, Tails. It was pretty," Amy shushed him.

"I've seen better."

"Chao chao chao," input Cheese, unhelpfully.

"I'm gonna head back to my place," said Tails, stowing his camera back into the messenger bag. "Sorry if I sounded flippant about the meteor shower," he said, trying to excuse his uncharacteristically sharp attitude without having to justify it. "I still really enjoyed hanging out with you guys."

"It's fine," Cream reassured. "You're a perfectionist. We understand."

Tails blushed. "Yeah," he admitted.

And he was off.

South Island offered its fair share of disreputable districts, and under normal circumstances Sonic the Hedgehog would want nothing to do with them. They were dilapidated, full of quite amazingly shifty people and just generally depressing. However, admittedly, if one wanted to not be found, they served as some of the best hiding spots available. Going incognito wasn't a problem if nobody was willing to take the dive and search for you.

True, he'd caused a fair amount of unnecessary collateral damage, but it was entirely unintentional, and he felt that his actions should outweigh a few totaled minivans. But there was no such luck. Somebody had to be held responsible, and Sonic had to admit that he had undeniably caused several million dollars in property damage. But then he was not exactly an income-earning individual either. The intricacies of the economy did not concern him, as he was entirely focused on living his life day to day in the most entertaining and engaging way possible. It's not that he didn't want to pay for the damages, it's that he simply did not have any money. Period.

Not for want of trying, but after thoroughly establishing that he was unable to hang on to money without immediately spending it on the first possible opportunity, Sonic was forced to concede to the fact that his financial skills, for lack of a better word, sucked. But, he decided, that didn't matter; being a well-respected hero, he could procure most anything he wanted for free from his adoring fans. He briefly pondered the morality of this system, but quickly dismissed the thought in favor of charging around the city at an obscene speed for the second time today.

Well, considering the many traffic accidents he'd caused in the past, maybe a little slower this time. That'd probably be for the best.

Atop the Shrine of the Master Emerald, Knuckles the Echidna was playing yet another game of checkers against himself. Even though this was the sixth or seventh time he'd won, he'd been losing just as often. Knuckles was bored. So bored that he almost found himself missing his frantic searches for the shards of the Master Emerald; at least it gave him something engaging to do, something he could focus all his time and energy to that actually had a tangible reward.

"I'm so bored," he said for the fifth time in two minutes.

Just then, as if to answer his predicament, Sonic came zooming up the stairs of the shrine. Knuckles objected to his use of the Emerald as a buffer, but Sonic defended himself, explaining that the slick stones made it impossible to stop in time.

"If you shatter this thing again, I'm going to be royally pissed off," Knuckles lied.

"Oh, big deal," Sonic dismissed him. "The chaos emeralds are scattered across space. Why do you even keep this thing around any more?"

Sonic wasn't being entirely unreasonable. Shadow had been carrying the seven emeralds as he fell from orbit, and everyone determined just a bit late that dying while utilizing the power of all seven chaos emeralds at full capacity sends them catapulting off in all directions. Unfortunately, being in high orbit, this meant the Master Emerald was now out of a job, and in effect Knuckles was too. The conduit that bound and controlled the most powerful gems in the world had lost its true intended function.

"Maybe you could power a car with it," said Sonic.

Knuckles ignored him. "The emeralds may be missing, but they're still out there somewhere. It may be possible to use the Master Emerald to track them down."

"Brilliant plan," Sonic scoffed. "Let's all pile into the family camper and drive to space, why don't we? I'll pack."

"Shut up, Sonic," Knuckles pointed out. "It's just a thought." He paused. "What are you doing here?"

"I've been slumming. I'm pretty sure the fuzz is after my head so I decided to hide in the red light district until the heat's off, but that place smells like a sulfur mine filled with sewage runoff. So I decided to visit you."

"Do you think they're just gonna forget if you run around a few more weeks?"

Sonic sighed. "Well, what do you think I should do? Pay for the damages?"

Knuckles barely paused. "Yes."

"I'm broke. People just kinda give me stuff."

"Or I dunno, go to a dealer and convince them to give you enough free cars to replace the ones you wrecked."

"Dude, do you have any idea how many that is?"

"I don't know what to tell you." There was a momentary beat. "Wait, hold on, Tails was looking for you."

Sonic paused. "Why?"

"No idea," said Knuckles.

"Huh," said Sonic simply, and a moment later he was gone. Knuckles shrugged and went back to winning his seventh or eighth chess game.

Several miles away, and an additional tenth of a mile underground, Dr. Eggman found himself unusually restless. His current loyal servant (for he went through them like tissues), Abacus, named after the purely stylistic mechanized beaded-tubes that adorned his metallic frame, had been malfunctioning to the point of uselessness. Eggman wanted the day off, but it looked like he might have to invest his time and energy into whipping up another DIY supervisor to oversee things before he could take a day to himself.

It wasn't that he particularly wanted to return to his pattern of failed attempts at seizing power, but, in much the same dilemma Knuckles was facing, he certainly missed having a singular purpose to devote himself to. And true, he was still designing deadly machinery, but it was purely for the sake of recreational mechanical work. It's not like he'd find another use for these things, right?

It seemed a waste of his genius to sit around doing not much of anything. After all, his end goal had always been to build a utopia. Any action in pursuit of such a noble goal was justified, he reasoned, but the more overt violent approach simply didn't work. He was outgunned and outclassed by both Sonic and his friends and G.U.N., who, thanks to their similarly warped devotion to keeping the free world free, probably hated him even more. Definitely a threat to Eggman's dream of running his own utopia. As such when he was approached by the Minutemen, a terrorist group devoted to destroying (or, more realistically, merely impeding) G.U.N. he was more than happy to quietly fund and supply them. After all, it only added to the more than decent money he was already making off selling the same technology to G.U.N..

Eggman leaned back in his chair. There was just one other thing bothering him: "What am I going to do with that Egg Carrier III?" he wondered aloud. He'd built it in the lull between the Chaos incident and that unfortunate business with the space colony ARK, and it seemed a shame to let such a marvel of engineering lay dormant in an underground hangar gathering dust. But then he certainly couldn't take it out for a spin. His newfound status as a non-criminal was precarious at best, and taking such a massive craft out on a joy ride would raise all of the red flags possible with any one of the multiple agencies monitoring his activities for potential threats. The sky up to and including orbital space was monitored by some agency or another, and while Eggman solely possessed cloaking technology capable of subverting detection, nothing less than chaos emeralds could power it on anything above a small scale.

Tails sat in his backyard, mentally dissecting the surrounding landscape into national borders and then putting them to bloody war after a series of diplomatic faux pas caused by incompetent translators. He zeroed in on one country, his favorite; while it only occupied a single hill, that high ground gave it a massive strategic advantage. He'd dubbed it Hillsylvania, having used up all his clever names on the larger nations. Tails took a deep breath, grinned, and promptly began plotting the takeover of the neighboring Meadowslovakia, occupying their forces with a land invasion before they could launch an offensive against Hillsylvania.

Suddenly Sonic appeared out of nowhere, two feet in front of him. "Yo," he said.

"AAAAHH!" Tails answered.

"Knuckles said you were looking for me."

"I think my aorta just exploded," Tails wheezed, trying to subdue a panic attack from the lightning-fast invasion of his personal space. "But yes, I have been. Look, I know how to clear your name and give you your life back. You're not gonna like it, though."

"Try me."

"G.U.N. is offering to pull strings and get all charges against you dropped if, if you offer your services to them as a..." Tails paused, trying to come up with the most enticing way to word this. "...secret agent." You could've done better than that, he thought to himself.

Sonic didn't hesitate even a moment. "No."

"Uh, hello, all charges dropped? Was that not clear to you?"

"After what they did to me? After what they did aboard the ARK? At least Eggman admitted he was doing highly immoral things to achieve his end goal. These guys play army in the name of freedom, but behind closed doors all bets are off. The ends justify the means, and the means are moral garbage."

"That...was a highly articulate tirade for you," said Tails, genuinely impressed despite the slightly condescending tone. "Look, nobody's forcing you to do anything. We just want our friend back." He put his hand on Sonic's shoulder, where there was suddenly a sharp prick.

"Hey! Did you just pinch me?!" Sonic shouted.

"What? No. Why would I even...?"

"Either you pinched me or jammed a thumbtack into my shoulder.'

"I just got through telling you how much we care about you. Why would I do that? You can trust me."

Sonic blindly groped for any foreign object on his shoulder but came up empty. "Static?" he suggested.

"For lack of a better explanation," Tails agreed, "let's go with that. But seriously, I know you don't want to do this, but you're of far more use to the world when you're not fleeing the authorities. Please just consider it, OK?"

Sonic nodded his head ambiguously in several different directions and went on his way.