A charismatic sunrise… wakes all of Haven City.

  Individuals going off to work…

  Individuals going off to school…

  Every individual goes off to their daily lives…

  Everyone’s eventually going to wake up at some point in time.

  Though some individuals are unable to wake up.

  Sometimes they’re just too tired.

  Or sometimes they’re medically impaired.

  And for those who are awake…

  Sometimes, different emotional tones throughout each place.

  Some are happy…

  Angry…

  Or depressed…

  However, a beautiful day allows everyone to live in harmony and peace.

  Even the two Mobians… will eventually have something to do in their lives… here in this mysterious world… in this massive city.

  — Safe Haven Park (Nature District) —

  Nature District is nature; streets lined with trees, a garden on each building’s rooftop and balcony, along with most restaurants and stores dedicated to fulfilling the wildlife trend. The main stage in this district is the largest park in the entire city, Safe Haven Park.

  Once they enter the park, it’s a whole other scenery, an unorthodox one compared to the usual busy streets of Haven City. “It almost feels like home… somewhat.” Sonic gazes around the park, admiring the scenery of people spending their time and lives playing in this nature-filled environment… in the middle of a dense, populated city. Filled with a variety of activities like picnicking, playing sports, or anything in general, making it a remarkable place for every citizen to enjoy.

  Tails takes a long sniff in the park’s environment, no longer smelling the pollution from the bustling streets; instead, all is filled with clean air. “Nothing beats an environment just like home. Right, Sonic?”

  “Can’t disagree, Tails. This place is beau-ti-ful.” Both of them love the tranquility of the park; it’s the perfect situation in which they could be living. “Though something’s missing.” He stops walking, declaring a strong message. “Something crucial… Something miraculous… not even my super version can defeat it…” He pauses, intently looking at Tails, “Try to guess.”

  Tails instantly freezes his movements, now trying to find the answer that Sonic wants. “... Uhh-”

  “Amazing answer!” Sonic eagerly points at him with a smug expression. “However, that’s not even close to what I’m about to say…” He rubs his chin, letting his imagination spiral while envisioning things around him. “You see, Tails… What I imagined in this park… was something I also imagined in this city… but isn’t quite there from the first day.” A long pause, letting the park’s noise engulf them. “What I want… is-”

  “Chili Dogs! Chili Dogs! Eat these amazing Chili Dogs for one Lunar! No taxes!” The vendor says as he rings the bell. “CHILI DOGS!!!”

  “Really.” Sonic’s expression turned 180, and his smug and mysterious expression dissolved upon the vendor’s voice, echoing around the park. “Well, that’s what I was about to say before he ruined it- But it’s alright!” He exclaims as he approaches the vendor. “I would like to buy one Chili Dog, please.” He points a finger while awaiting a Chili Dog order.

  “One Lunar, sir.” The vendor says, patiently waiting for him.

  “Uh oh.” Realizing that Sonic’s in another world where this currency is far different from the one used back in Mobius, specifically his own… “Not my rings!” He secretly pulls out tons of rings under the vendor’s view before putting them away. Eventually, he has to abide by the law and focus on getting some Lunars. For his plan, he goes back to Tails, searching for some sort of miracle. “Hey, Tails. Do you have any… Lunar that I can borrow?”

  “Lunar? What is that?” Tails confusingly questions him.

  Sonic facepalms, “Not you too…” He can’t believe that Tails has been in this city longer than he has, and he still doesn’t know what a Lunar is. “N-Never mind.” He says before his mind races about his own choices, “It’s gonna be unethical, but…” He looks at the Chili Dog; his temptation is on the roof, with a bit of sweat dripping down from his fur. “I… I NEED IT!!!”

  With his first plan already an immediate failure, he quickly creates a backup plan. He quietly approaches a random family picnic, hiding behind a tree, before stealing a bit of cash without any witnesses. Then, he casually rushes back to the vendor and hands him the one Lunar. “Sorry for the wait, sir.” He says while chuckling nervously and scratching his quills. “Here’s your one Lunar you’re talking about…”

  The vendor gives a suspicious expression, having a gut feeling that whatever the hedgehog did was something dubious. But ultimately, he receives the one Lunar and hands the Chili Dog in exchange. “Have a nice day, hedgehog.” The vendor eventually continues, strolling and shouting. “CHILI DOGS!!!”

  Tails just stands there, watching Sonic casually eat his Chili Dog. “Please don’t tell me you stole some money…” He crosses his arms and shakes his head in disappointment.

  “Shh…” Sonic shushes Tails, still focusing on his Chili Dog. “I know it’s unreasonable, but sometimes we do this for fun.” He says with a smirk before taking a huge bite. “Or… we need to find some money… especially when we don’t have any…” Despite his muffled voice, it’s still heard while having eyes of disappointment. “Man… this… tastes…” The taste of the Chili Dogs causes him to widen his eyes. “SO GOOD!!!” The taste causes him to gobble. The taste of the Chili Dog is arguably amazing, not his favorite version compared to other places he has traveled, but it tastes amazing. “You know, we should steal everyone’s money.”

  “Sonic!” Tails raises his arms in complaint. “We can’t just steal people's money!”

  “Hah-Hah!” Sonic laughs at his reaction, tears falling down his face before wiping them away. “Oh, Tails… I won’t. I promise you that. I won’t… steal anyone’s money away for some Chili Dogs.” He pats his back, still showing him respect while calming himself down. “Come on. Let’s keep on exploring this park.”

  After a few hours of strolling and having fun in the park, with loads of activities and talking to some strangers, they decided to rest beside a tree on top of a hill. Still, even a few hours after exploring this huge park, the scenery here never changes, regardless of the time. “Man. This place is still the same.” Tails says, exhausted from walking around. “Are you tired of encountering the same things?”

  Sonic smiles, his eyes closed and leaning on the tree, his arms relaxed behind his back. “Nah.” He’s lying, “I’m just tired from all the noise. At least it’s somewhat quiet here.” The tree they’re resting on is in the center of the park and is the largest tree in the city. It seems like a place for civilians and tourists to rest here; as expected, it’s mostly calm. “You know, I like it here. All the content, the people, it’s an amazing area to live in. However, I feel that I’m gonna be homesick yet again.” He lightly chuckles, understanding the situation they’re in. “But don’t worry, we’ll find the others and retrieve the Emerald from Eggman.” He slowly opens his eyes, gazing at Tails and nodding with a reassuring smile, further strengthening their promise.

  “Thank you… Sonic.” Tails eventually looks at the park around him, a peaceful state right now, all before chaos can surround his mind.

  “You gotcha, buddy.” Sonic pats Tails's shoulder, then also looks around the park. The park's scenery remains calm, with sporadic people walking around either in groups or alone. The same activities still… the same things… almost like time is repeating itself. But that’s just life here.

  Everything is calm.

  Until…

  In one particular moment, Sonic spots a familiar yet unfamiliar person.

  An orange hedgehog strolling around the park either looks around or is just on his phone, minding his own business. There’s nothing abnormal about his activities, but the way he’s presented… “Hey, Tails.” He nudges his elbow at him, “Why does he look so familiar?” He says while closely examining him at a distance.

  Tails observes the orange hedgehog closely and also feels the eerie familiarity that Sonic feels, except he notices the details before him. Just like Sonic, he doesn’t have much on; his gloves and shoes are the same, although he has these weird pink wristbands. But the elephant in the room is that his quills strike a huge combination of the three hedgehogs; the shape and the formation of his quills are just like theirs combined. Even though his quills are predominantly covered by his orange fur, traces of the hedgehog’s fur colors are seen on their respective formation. “I’m not sure if you noticed this before, but he reminds me of you, Shadow, and Silver… all combined.” He’s astonished by this discovery, an orange hedgehog with the same looks as the three.

  Suddenly, the orange hedgehog stops walking, ceasing whatever he was originally doing. Then, out of nowhere, the orange hedgehog zooms away, leaving his flash of orange trail behind. “He… He can run!?” Sonic loudly exclaims while his jaw drops in infamy.

  “His speed is similar to yours…” Tails stares at the same spot where the orange hedgehog was initially.

  “… I guess I have more competition.” Sonic returns to his smug expression, still retaining his competitive personality. “Whatever his name is, I’m in the mood to beat him. Let’s see who the fastest hedgehog is now.”

  Tails playfully rolls his eyes in amusement, already knowing that Sonic would say something like that. Though he shortly returns to being curious. “But other than ‘Who’s the fastest guy?’, all we’re wondering about is ‘Who is this guy?’” He keeps on staring at that spot. “We should follow him. See what information we can grab, but more importantly, he could potentially help us with our mission.” They both slowly stand up and stretch their bodies, now feeling more content with their new objective.

  “Looks like another side mission has been added.”

  All around the streets of Haven City is the greatest event nearly every day called ‘Rush hour’. Where everyone who’s doing a regular daily life commutes, going somewhere to meet their family or friends, all to their destinations…

  … Just to be stuck in traffic.

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

  “Come on, I’m trying to go to work!” An ocelot driver complains to the drivers ahead of them.

  The marten driver ahead looks behind and starts shutting him off. “Hey! Zip your complaints for later! Can’t you see that you’re in the same situation as all of us!” She says, before angrily looking ahead at the long traffic. “Stupid people… always shoving those complaints into my ears…” She frustratingly mutters to herself, always dealing with this kind of stuff in her daily life.

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  “WHAT DO YOU POSSIBLY WANT RIGHT NOW?!” She yells at the ocelot driver behind her yet again.

  The ocelot driver continues honking his horn until he fully gets her attention. “Just letting you know, I have a loving wife and two children to take care of! So jokes on you, I’m dealing with a stressful life for a living!”

  “Great… another annoying driver who bickers with someone by talking about their lives…” She clears her throat before giving off a powerful counterargument. “As a college student who’s majoring in architecture AND has a part-time job, don’t you think you can lay your tone down for a bit, sir!?” She makes her final remark before rolling her window up and ignoring him, wanting to mind her own business.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  BEEP!

  “I guess not.”

  The ocelot and the marten both argue, exchanging words with each other. Although they’re not the only ones complaining, as other drivers throughout the city face similar situations about the numerous traffic delays, they start to squabble.

  But deep down within a particular street, a flash of blue and orange abruptly passes by them within an instant, causing them to stop arguing and start wondering. “What was that…?” The marten asks, with all the honking around them dissipating.

  “... I-I don’t know… but I’ve seen it a couple times before… only with an orange flash. But now with a blue flash too…” The ocelot experienced orange flashes passing by his car roughly around 8 times before, but was unable to make out what it was or who it was, to be exact. “I’ve heard locals telling me about some kind of orange hedgehog that produces these orange flashes before, all because they can run at an immense speed.”

  They both remain silent briefly before the marten responds, “I wish we had those traits…”

  “True…” Both of the drivers chuckle it off, reacting the same way when thinking about their wishes. They eventually apologize to each other, both accepting their lives in the rush hour.

  Meanwhile, the duo flashes through the city, pedestrians only seeing the trails they leave behind, wondering what had happened. “Thanks to my new invention, I’m able to track down this hedgehog’s location just from the singular fur of his!” Tails exclaims while they’re still keeping track of his whereabouts.

  Sonic gives him a thumbs up, avoiding the numerous obstacles ahead of them, “Great job, Tails! Maybe we can use that for the others if we do come across their furs!” He says, before they abruptly stop at the front of a building’s entrance. “Hmm… Haven City Finances…” A quick inspection by him, asking Tails, “Does he work there or is he just visiting?”

  — Haven City Finances (Downtown District) —

  “I have no idea.” Tails checks the detector he’s using; the tech, however, doesn’t locate the height of the individual. “Darn, I should’ve created that system! What am I doing!?” He groans in frustration, but quickly recovers his normal facial expression to Sonic. “Unsure… but there are lots of people inside there, so we’ve got to find him urgently.” He says before they enter the lobby.

  Inside the lobby, loads of workers are packed, mostly waiting in a long line for the elevators, yet no orange hedgehog is in sight. “Not a single hedgehog other than me.” Sonic looks around for any guidance, asking some coworkers if they’ve encountered him before, but nothing. “Man, this is hard! Where could he possibly be!?” He groans and sits down on a random seat.

  Tails takes another look at his detector, which continues to signal his presence inside the building. “He’s probably somewhere on the other floors of the building, indicating that he does work here. If so, we might need some assistance from someone here…” He thinks for a moment before setting his answer on one sight, the receptionist. He goes up to the receptionist and greets her, “Excuse me, ma’am. I’m curious, how many floors are in this building?”

  The receptionist named Woofa the Dog is seen busy scrolling on her phone before looking at Tails. “There are 10 floors, sir.” She says, glancing at the hedgehog briefly while she’s too busy finishing something on her phone, but secretly hides a smirk. “Another hedgehog? I guess he’s lucky that he’s not the only victim here that I’m teasing.” She readjusts her blouse before Sonic approaches her, standing beside Tails. “Hello, sir. What do you need for today?” Her expression returns to normal, although a hint of tease is still within her voice.

  “Mornin’, Woofa. We’re here to meet someone who works here.” Although impatient, Sonic politely says while letting her take the time she needs to pull up the list of workers on the computer screen.

  As the list pops up on her computer screen, Woofa glances back at him with a smirk. “Someone you wanted to meet? Like a relative, friend, or anyone in general?”

  “We’re meeting someone…” Tails responds, but doesn’t know the hedgehog’s name. However, he does give her a key clue, “... who’s an orange hedgehog.”

  Silence ensues throughout their conversation; Woofa’s eyes widen, and her smirk has completely faded at the mention of her friend. “An orange hedgehog… right?”

  “Yes. That orange hedgehog, blah, blah, blah.” Sonic's patience wears down, rapidly tapping the desk impatiently. “Anything to let us meet him?”

  Woofa suspiciously looks at them, unconfident of what their objective is with him. “What do you want with him?” Letting her protective instincts get into her, she silently taps her fingers on the table, feeling the anxiety building up inside her, and even slowly reaches down to her phone to try to call him.

  “We just want to talk with him. That’s all.” Tails says with a reassuring smile, hoping that it’s enough to gain her confidence with his answer.

  Even if he’s telling the truth, Woofa is still tense, but does slightly calm down with a clarifying question. “... What if you’re lying?”

  “Nope, we promise that it’s just a talk.” Sonic pats Tails’s shoulder, “Isn’t that right, Tails?” He smiles and ruffles his head.

  “These two… I know they never have any correlation with him. That’s why I’m hiding his name, to prevent him from getting recognized. But that’s hard to do because he’s the only hedgehog who works here.” Woofa takes a deep breath before she responds, “Fine. You got my queue.” She drinks her coffee and tells them. “He works on the 5th floor. And don’t get me started on the stairwells, they’re doing construction… So, the elevators are the only viable option to reach him… Though you already know the long line, so...” She immediately goes back to working. “Good luck, you two.”

  Looking back at the long line, and despite the elevators doing their best to transport coworkers, the line appears longer with each passing second. “The line doesn’t have to be THIS long.” Sonic says while approaching one of the workers, “Excusseee me?”

  “What is it?” The mongoose worker ignores him, patiently waiting for the elevator to open while being at the front of the line.

  Sonic puts on a graceful smile, hoping it insulates his peaceful request, “I was wondering… may I cut you-“

  “No.” Their response was quick and straight to the point. “Go in line, and wait with the 100 other people.”

  In defeat, Sonic groans and goes back to Tails, seemingly stuck in a limited set of options. “What are we supposed to do? We can’t just wait in this line. We need to get up there right now!” He taps his foot, desperately requiring some sort of answer to appear in his mind. “Come on, Sonic. THINK! You’re the fastest being in the universe. What can you do to stick your head out and make a decision? That line is too long. Why not take a shortcut? A shortcut that maybe… is already closed…” His attention slowly turns to the closed stairwell, an idea in his head. “Tails, you know that stairwell that she mentioned earlier?”

  “Y-Yeah…?” Tails is confused about where Sonic is leading them, but signals a bad feeling. “What is your plan on that… unless-“

  Sonic instantly grabs Tails’s wrist and busts through the door, entering the stairwell. “Shortcut from the line!” The door immediately shuts itself, and the loud closing causes most of the people to stare at the door, stunned by what just happened.

  “That hedgehog is creative, yet reckless. Heh, watch out, orange furball, you've got a competition.” Woofa giggles before focusing on her job yet again.

  Rumbling.

  Rumbling.

  “Hey! What are you two doing here?!”

  “Sorry, sir! Just gotta hop there, right there, and…”

  …

  THUD.

  Both Sonic and Tails are covered in debris and dust from the construction, coughing from the amount of debris in their throat. Despite the door loudly bursting open to the 5th floor, the amount of noise and presence on this floor doesn’t draw the workers’ attention, only a few, much to their relief. This is because everyone is moving around as if the stock market has just crashed, accidentally bumping into each other like a chain reaction. “Man…” Tails momentarily coughs before continuing. “... this place is busy. At least I have a workshop of my own.” He continues to cough ferociously, spitting out tiny bits of debris that were stuck in his throat. “… Don’t you ever do that again, Sonic.”

  “Sorry! I couldn’t help myself!” Both of them shake the dust off their fur, which comes off easily. “There you go, all spotless. Come on, Tails, open up that device and guide us to that hedgehog!”

  With the tracker out, Tails locates the orange hedgehog, finally locating his whereabouts. “Towards the left! We just need to meet him!”

  A relatively easy objective to complete, with Sonic showing off a smirk, “Let’s go find that hedge-“ He accidentally bumps into a worker. “Whoa! Sorry about that. I was… heh…” He scratches his quills in embarrassment before the worker rolls their eyes and goes on with their day. “We should… Umm…” He quickly snaps out of his embarrassment, immediately grabbing Tails’s wrist again. “Another round of recklessness!” Sprinting around the floor at the speed of sound, papers flying everywhere from his trail, leaving more workers scrambling. “Whoops! Hopefully I’ll clean all of that up!” He briefly glances at the workers before looking back at Tails, “How far!?”

  “JUST KEEP GOING!!!” Tails yells out, screaming at the top of his lungs. “WE’RE ALMOST THE-!!”

  CRASH!!!

  Sonic accidentally crashes into an unsuspecting worker, causing Tails to be launched onto the wall, while the worker remains stunned from the collision, unsure of what to do. “Are you alright!?” Sonic immediately gets up and goes to the worker lying on the ground.

  “I-I’m fine…” The porcupine worker slowly sits up, processing what had happened in an instant. “I’m not badly injured or anything, just… stunned.”

  In relief, Sonic slowly stands back up and extends his arm. “I’m sorry about running into you. All I’m gonna say is… thank god you’re alright-”

  “Tricky!” The orange hedgehog approaches them, with Sonic's eyes widening when he finally hears his voice. “What happened!?“ He checks for any signs of brutal injuries.

  “I’m fine. I’m fine. Thanks, brother.” Tricky chuckles and shakes his head as his valid reaction. He holds on to Sonic’s hand, helping himself up without any pain. “Thanks for checking on me, you two.” The porcupine walks away to continue his usual mundane job.

  “Brother? Are a porcupine and a hedgehog blood-related?” Sonic is puzzled by their odd brotherly interaction, but still, his main focus is on the orange hedgehog. “Umm, excuse me?” He successfully gets his attention while having the opportunity to get a closer look at this orange hedgehog’s face. His eye color stands out uniquely, a mixture of green, red, and gold. A different type of heterochromia, where his eye color perfectly replicates a triadic color scheme of the three hedgehogs’ eye colors combined. Something abnormal for a hedgehog like him to harbor their traits, leading to Sonic becoming more perplexed. “... May we talk privately, with him over there?” He points to Tails, who’s dizzily upside down and leaning against the wall.

  The orange hedgehog looks confused by what’s going on, being approached by another hedgehog of his kind. Nevertheless, he complies, “... Sure. Follow me if you want to speak privately… with your… friend.” Still bewildered by whatever happened to Tails.

  Sonic nervously chuckles, slowly checking on Tails, “Y-Yeah, I will! Uhh… just give me a second!” Tails, who’s still unconscious, leads Sonic to put him down on the floor and shake his body in desperation. “Wake up, Tails! Please!” He shakes him even harder, causing Tails to let his eyes open. “Tails! Good news, we finally interact-!”

  Tails pushes him away from his view, “That’s amazing, especially when it was a BAD idea to crash into someone!” He rubs his head to ease his pain. “... Don’t do that again!” He frustratingly says.

  Sonic's ears droop in response to his rare, hurtful message, “Sorry about hurting you... But we should follow him right now. He’s leading us to a private room.” He firmly lets Tails’s arm wrap around his shoulder for support, guiding him to where the orange hedgehog is taking them, “Come on, we can do this together.”

  Once the orange hedgehog directs them into the storage room, he closes and locks the door to prevent anyone from hearing their private conversation. “Okay. Tell me what you two want to discuss with me.” He says while leaning on the door.

  Both exchange nervous glances with each other, unsure what to say to a random hedgehog whom they’re heavily invested in, yet don’t know who he is. Sonic stares directly at Tails, bopping his head towards the orange hedgehog. “Go, Tails! Say something!”

  Tails shakes his head erratically, with bits of sweat starting to drip down from his fur. “I’m not going to say anything! You do it!”

  Even though they’re non-verbally talking, both of them seemingly know what they’re saying. The pressure from Tails also causes Sonic to sweat. “Why would I say something to him!? I have no idea what to kickstart our conversation with!”

  Tails angrily glares at Sonic, desperately wanting him to make his first move, “COME ON!!! JUST SAY SOMETHING!!!”

  Their visual altercation, without a word spoken, made them even more stressed, and this entire conversation just… awkward. They’re increasingly becoming sweaty, with the tension getting heated, but whatever happens, one must have the will to- “Why is it so hot inside here?” The orange hedgehog is also surprisingly sweaty; his voice causes them to look at him with surprise. He walks around the room and finds the thermostat, which is set to 100°. “Ohhhhhhh… no wonder this building sometimes gets high electric bills.” He immediately turns off the thermostat, allowing the temperature to drop slightly, while still containing the heat. “All of us on this floor had to pay for that? … Well, since you two aren’t gonna say anything, I’ll say this.” He briefly cleared his throat before leaning back against the door. “Who are you guys?”

  Finally, the awkward conversation and the tension created earlier dissolve, and both are now relaxed. They look at each other, feeling relieved from the now non-existent tension they created for absolutely no reason at all, other than to waste time. “I’m Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog! The fastest being in the universe and the one who should be on the news right now, but sometime soon!” He smirks after briefly introducing himself.

  “Another hedgehog who can run like me and claims he’s faster…? He could be faster, but we need to see for ourselves.” A slight, convinced nod is the response that he gets. “Nice to meet you, Sonic.” The orange hedgehog replies in a nonchalant manner. “So you’re saying that you’re faster than me?”

  “Yep! And I’ll prove it to you right now!” Sonic looks at the clock before looking back at him. “What do you want right now?”

  “Me? Hmm… Maybe some green grapes… sushi… too? They’re my favorite food-” Sonic instantly disappears with the door open, leaving a blue trail behind. The orange hedgehog is stunned; he’s no longer the only hedgehog who runs incredibly fast. “Wow. Sonic is right, he’s fast-” Just right then, Sonic proceeds to enter the storage room, the door already shut and locked, while he’s holding a bag filled with cleaned green grapes and store-bought sushi.

  “Green grapes and some sushi for the mighty orange hedgehog!” Sonic hands him the bag. “Bon appétit.” He is enjoying their interaction, honestly, just showing off who he is.

  Fascinated by his speed, his eyes widen, impressed by how fast he does it. “Way faster than how I usually do it.” He snaps one of the green grapes from the stem. “Thank you, Sonic.” Proceeding to take a bite of one of the grapes.

  Sonic's usual smug expression appears while he crosses his arms in achievement, “No problem. Just showing you my immense speed, crowning me the title of the blue blur. … Umm, but I’m not gonna lie… I stole them.”

  “Oh, you did?” The orange hedgehog takes a slight snicker while taking a bite of his sushi, not caring that what Sonic has done is a crime. “I don’t care. As long as you’re not caught on video frame by frame, you’re impossible to get caught.” Still eating his food like usual.

  With the hedgehog's interaction, Tails sighs in relief, while nonverbally amused by them, before deciding to introduce himself. “My name is Miles ‘Tails’ Prower. But everybody calls me Tails because of my-”

  “Two tails.” Both hedgehogs answer without any sort of amusement.

  “Oh, seems like everyone… knows. Heh heh…” Tails does the usual embarrassed scratching of his head, with his cheeks slightly flushed. “Well… I’m glad that we’re grateful to see you. Though we’ve got something to say about us.” A slight pause in his voice until he revealed their status. “We’re from a different dimension. I know it’s unbelievable, especially when it looks like we could be joking- but it’s all true.”

  Responding to their revealed status, Sonic takes out a familiar golden ring. “You know what this is?” He hands the ring to him.

  The orange hedgehog closely examines the ring. “It’s just a ring… a golden ring-”

  “Exactly!” Sonic snatches the ring from him, “It’s just a ring, not until you hold it.” The ring suddenly disappears from his hand, which makes an iconic sound. “Try to hit me.”

  “S-Sonic! You’re not trying to get yourself injured, are you!?” Tails freezes, concerned that he’s doing something reckless yet again.

  “Let me test his strength,” Sonic whispers to Tails, trying to reassure his own decision. He looks at the orange hedgehog, anticipating a singular punch. “Hold nothing back.” He spreads his arms open, waiting for an attack.

  Though just like Tails, the orange hedgehog is also concerned about his decision, “Are you sure about this? Seems like Tails isn’t-“

  “Just hit me. We’re testing how this ring functions.” Sonic gives him a wink before closing his eyes.

  “Oh… Okay then.” The orange hedgehog gets ready to punch, now in his stance, “It can be anywhere, right?”

  “Just my stomach, that’s all.” Sonic gives him a specified answer, and he takes a deep breath, knowing that a punch from him can hurt. “Testing his punch is going to be insane. His arms don't stand out, and are like mine. Even if it does hurt, this ring doesn’t help me from my knockback, but it does allow me to stay alive. Hopefully, his punch-”

  BAM!!!

  An unexpected and brutal instant punch to his stomach, causing him to crash through the wall of the building and crash into another. Fortunately, he lands inside an abandoned building. “THAT WAS UNEXPECTED!!! I DIDN’T-” He repeatedly coughs, briefly feeling the lack of airway. “I underestimated him… I really did… underestimate…”

  “Oh, dozens of rings dropped.” The orange hedgehog tries to pick up the rings off the ground, but it also disappears with the same iconic sound, with a singular swish. “That’s probably the reason why you survived that!” He yells out to him, making his voice hearable against the city’s noise. “A-Are you okay though!?”

  Sonic gives a weak thumbs-up before recovering on the rubble. “Uhh… let me bring him back here…” Tails says before his tails start to revolve, leading to him hovering and flying towards the now stunned blue blur.

  “Tails can fly? I didn’t know they both have powers… that must mean that their world is filled with people with such unique abilities.” The orange hedgehog non-verbally observes them as Tails safely brings Sonic back to the storage room.

  “M-Maybe next time… don’t test out anything on me anymore…” Sonic groans, slowly getting up, and leaning on the table for a bit of support.

  The orange hedgehog scratches his quills before unlocking the door, “… Anyways… Thanks for the introduction, you guys. You can talk to me if you want, though I have work…” He slightly looks away at them before putting on a sly grin, “Unless I can cancel work for a week.”

  Both their ears perked up upon hearing this astonishing news, “C-Cancel work!? Sweet! You should because you're in the perfect situation for what we need!” He excitedly nudges Sonic, “Is that fine, Sonic!?” He looks at him with confirmation.

  “… Yes, Tails… ” Sonic amusingly jokes around, but groans in pain.

  “That’s a deal then. I had a feeling that you two were highly invested in me.” He leaves out a light chuckle. “For now, I’ll tell my boss and cancel work for today.” The orange hedgehog finally opens the door, now ending their introduction with each other.

  “Wait!” Tails exclaims to the orange hedgehog, leading to him freezing in place. “You haven’t introduced us to your name.”

  “... Oh, right.” He looks outside the room before looking back at them, “I guess all of that work and stress I’ve been doing, and-“ He clears his throat, now taking a chance to reveal his name.

  …

  “My name.”

  …

  “I’m Solid.”

  …

  “Solid the Hedgehog.”