Author's note:

This story is, albeit being a Sonic fic, in many ways, let's say, out of context. There will be no Robotnik, no Chaos Emeralds… It's an experiment on doing something different… Instead, this is tale of action and mystery, of secret puzzles and hidden treasures, of fanaticism and insanity, and of friendship and adventures.

Rain

Branches caught at his feet and he tripped over, finding himself once again face-down on the hard ground. He pushed his sore hands into the mud and picked himself up again, groaning at the fresh jolts of pain the bracing of worn-out muscles forced through him.

He looked back as he stood, swaying on his feet, fearing his persecutors would appear behind him. He knew he couldn't have gotten far away from them. They would have noticed his escape and followed him, and he knew they were coming closer with every time he stumbled, with every time he hit the ground.

His breathing came in ragged gasps when he forced his legs to move. He felt the pain of his injuries only as a dull ache any more. Injuries of their tortures, and from falling during his escape. His stomach hurt with emptiness that had lasted for weeks now and his mouth felt dry as sand. His formerly bright red fur was now dull and painted with blood, sweat and mud. His gloves that had been white what seemed an eternity ago, now wore the same color as the dirty ground.

He brushed one of his long spikes out of his brow and staggered forwards. He didn't know where he was going, had not even the slightest clue where he was. He wanted home, wanted it so desperately that he felt like he could close his eyes and smell it. But this place wasn't home, it was far away from that.

But it was heaven compared to where he came from. And these people, beating him, asking questions. Questions he couldn't even remember. All he knew he had had no answers to them.

And now his enemies had decided he was useless and wanted to finish what they hadn't managed so far. He knew if they caught up with him, they'd kill him.

So he was running. Or what came as close to running as he was still capable of. His exhausted body revolted against any kind of movement with waves of nausea and his tormented mind was craving for rest. His eyes wanted nothing more than to close, not caring if he would wake up again.

But stubborn pride and what remained of his willpower couldn't allow for that. If he rested now, he would die. But he had a duty to fulfill, a very important one. One he had spent his entire life on. And there was a promise he had made, a promise of that kind you couldn't ignore.

Moreover he wanted to live, wanted to go back to the life he had had before. At home. With his friends maybe. He had never thought that he would crave to see anyone, but right now, as he seemed to be all alone in a harsh world pursued by people wanting to hurt and kill him, he wished to see one of his rare friends more than anything else. For the first time in his life, he felt helpless. Vulnerable.

He stumbled over a stone in his way and fell on his hands and knees once again. For a moment he hunkered on his bent knees, panting for breath, then pushed himself up like all the times before and forced himself to go on.

How long would he be able to take this? Standing up was getting harder with every time he fell; with every one of his staggering steps the urge to give in to tiredness grew stronger and stronger.

But the knowledge that they must be close behind him was pushing him onwards. Knowing that they were many and unharmed and that he was alone, injured and beat.

A drop of water fell onto his nose and he looked up. The sky was darkening with every minute, now far nearer to black than grey and the clouds were releasing their content. The cold water drenching his fur made him shiver, but maybe darkness and rain would give him some stealth. Although he doubted they'd lose his trail.

So he kept forcing himself forwards. Step after step, fall after fall. Along a path he neither knew nor cared where it led.

Sonic hated rain. To be honest, there weren't many things in the world he hated more than water and getting wet. Especially when the water was cold.

The droplets of rain felt hard when they smashed onto his face. Sonic was running, running as fast as he could to get out of this bloody storm and his speed made the impacts of water drops on his skin feel like needles.

It was one of the days when the weather seems to have gone insane suddenly. It was early spring, the flowers and leaves of the trees all around were starting to grow to tiny new green, the days were getting longer and the beams of sunlight warmer.

At least that was what it had been like the past few weeks. Sonic had spent them outside the most of the time. The blue hedgehog had been on a run all over the planet, to see new places and explore and have fun. It was his favorite free time activity and he needed it like food and sleep. It was what he lived for.

This morning the blue hedgehog had wakened very early because it had started to rain, and cold and wet sleeping wasn't any fun. So Sonic had turned home.

Now it was afternoon and much to the hedgehog's disgust the weather wasn't getting any better. Quite the opposite. The rain was about to become an adult thunderstorm. Sonic knew these signs of nature. Generally, he like thunderstorms, liked the sounds and lightening. But only as long as he could watch the show from a dry place.

Sonic reduced his pace as he followed the gentle hills of the forests in the Mystic Ruins. He was nearly there.

The blue hedgehog stopped in front of Tails' house. From the outside, it looked more like a warehouse than a place to live at. It was a big, cubic building with a flat roof. The front wore a huge portal to the hangar of the Tornado and the workshop. Aside of it, a small door led inside, the entrance for people.

Sonic walked up to the door. Next to it, a small control panel was placed on the wall. Sonic's fingers rushed over the numeric panel; he knew all of Tails' codes. The door slit open almost soundlessly when the security systems granted the hedgehog entrance.

Sonic stepped in and the door shut behind him automatically. The hangar was empty; the Tornado wasn't in here. What meant Tails wasn't either. Maybe the fox had gone for a ride.

Sonic paced the huge room to the inside stairs that led up to Tails' apartment on the second floor that covered a half of the upper part of the hangar. The hedgehog stopped when he spotted a piece of paper that was pinned to the wall next to the stairs. He picked it up. The top of the paper wore a date from last week. Sonic started reading.

Hello Sonic!
I'm leaving this message here in case you come along and I'm out. I made some adjustments to the Tornado's engines and radar systems that should handle better now under bad circumstances. To test it out in extreme conditions, I followed an invitation of a group of scientists who work on a small outpost in the Twinkle Snow Zone. They asked me for a bit of help and some flying services. They agreed to give me free stay if I help them out. I think I'll be back Thursday in two weeks in the earliest. Don't wait for me if you're bored. But I have to admit I'd be happy if I returned home and found some warm food…
Hope you're having a good time. too.
Greetings, Tails

Sonic smirked as he put down the message. "'Bad conditions'? Well, he could have had that here, too."

But probably the weather at the North Pole was worse than here. Sonic grinned, thinking of Tails sitting in the cockpit of the Tornado wrapped up with a thick jacket torturing the poor plane through a snow storm. Certainly his foxy friend was having fun right now.

Thinking of the cold in Twinkle Snow drew Sonic's attention to the cold here and he realized he was shivering. The rain was cold and he was soaking wet. The hedgehog looked down, finding that he was standing in a puddle the water dripping from his blue fur and quills had left on the floor. He pulled off his wet sneakers, socks and gloves, simply dropping them where he was, then went to the corner of the room underneath the stairway. Aside of a huge hammock and a stereo, a cupboard was placed against the wall. The two doors were plastered with photos and pictures.

Sonic smiled when he looked at them. Tails and Sonic himself sitting one on each of the Tornado's double wings and Cream, Amy and the Chaotix crew standing aside the plane. A few photos Tails had cut out of newspapers that showed Sonic fighting Dr. Eggman's robots, together with all of his friends and one that showed him as Super Sonic, shining in bright yellow.

But Sonic's favorite was one he had taken himself about half a year ago when he and Tails visited Knuckles on Angel Island. It showed the red echidna's completely puzzled face in a full-frame view. It was one of the most stupid and funniest pictures of anybody Sonic had ever seen. It was a result of Sonic waking Knux up when he had been taking a nap. With eyes just opening, the echidna had found himself face-to-face with a camera. The photo was considerably dumb, and always good if you needed a laugh. Knuckles had spent a few days chasing Sonic around and trying to beat seven shades out of the hedgehog for playing that trick on him, but finally he had been able to laugh about it as well.

The hedgehog opened the left door of the cupboard and reached for a pair of fresh socks and gloves. Then Sonic walked back to where he had left the wet stuff. He brought his socks and gloves up to the bathroom, tossing them into the box that contained things to be put into the washing machine, then hung up his shoes to drip-dry on their own.

Two hours later, Sonic was swinging lazily in his hammock, a plate with chili dogs in his lap. He had made use of having the entire workshop to himself and turned on his stereo to the very top of the possible volume. Now the guitars were nearly blasting out the small skylights.

The blue hedgehog kept enjoying his personal concert as long as he could take the loudness, then he finally switched off the music, what resulted in immediate silence in the hangar. A big contrast to the noise before. It took Sonic's ears two minutes to get used to the suddenly quiet surroundings and notice the small sounds of rain drizzling on the roof.

He was somehow looking forward to the next week he would be here on his own. Seven days a huge house all for himself. If he stayed that long. You could never know that.

Little did Sonic know that the peace should last for only a few more hours…