Chapter Text
“Take this!”
Smoke clouded the surroundings. The last set of doors groaned and strained under the deluge of firepower.
The young warrior in the helmet too big for her head nearly couldn’t see what she was being handed. But she extended her hand and fumbled around for it.
“I put in the coordinates! You go!”
She looked down at the device. She gasped.
“This is- this is the time traveling thing!”
“Yes!” the captain shouted back. “Use it! Find them! Like we discussed!”
The upper corner of a door fractured. It spun back towards them. They ducked.
“Why me?” she shouted frantically.
“Because!” the captain shouted, aiming his weapon through the hole in the door. “You’re too young to die here!”
She watched as he fired through the opening. There was an explosion on the other side. But the firepower from behind the doors only seemed to increase.
The door glowed, and then shot forward, crashing into the tables they were using for cover.
“Get going! NOW!”
Trembling, she pressed the button. She pressed it again.
Enemies were pouring into the room. The remaining fighters behind the tables aimed and fired, but the opposing firepower was overwhelming.
She felt a strange feeling emanating in her gut. It could easily be nerves. Then, something sharper hit her.
Her body felt like it was shutting down. She cowered, and closed her eyes. Hoping, one way or another, she would leave this room behind.
She opened one eye after a second. Her hand had nearly disappeared.
Then, she was gone.
“Woohoo!”
“Aw yeah!”
Two hoverboards carved their way down the mountain. Weaving in and out, not touching the green grass beneath them.
The rider on the blue-colored board was ahead, just by a smidge. The rider on the yellow-colored board stayed just far enough behind so that they could weave without colliding.
Two spectators below watched. At times, the riders looked like they were putting on a synchronized show. Other times, one would pull ahead, freestyle, and force the other to catch up. Either way, the stunts were commanding attention.
Sonic finally decided to pull ahead for good. He lowered himself and felt the accompanying acceleration. Tails didn’t stand much of a chance to catch up, so he simply shrugged and started doing a few tricks. He began doing a handstand on his board, first with two hands, then with one. To keep his balance, his tails started twirling. Eventually, his tails started taking him higher, so he grabbed the board and flew down the mountain at a comparatively leisurely pace.
Now seeing he had plenty of room, Sonic began showing off. He kicked up high on the board, grabbed, it did a cartwheel in the air, then put the board back beneath his feet. Quickly, he jumped again, this time into a triple backflip. He landed again, then jumped once more, spinning around and around like a top. Even the frenetic pace of his moves couldn’t prevent him from landing smoothly.
One more kick flip for the fans, and he had reached the bottom. Amy applauded. Knuckles, arms folded, smiled and shook his head.
Sonic picked up the board and walked over.
“Always the show-off,” the echidna said.
“It looks like so much fun!” exclaimed Amy. “Let me try!”
“It’s easy when the boards are so good,” Sonic said, as Tails touched down on the ground next to him. “Real high-quality craftsmanship, buddy.”
“Pretty good, but wait until you see the additional features I’ve been working on,” said the fox.
Sonic handed his board to Amy. “Hope you don’t mind blue.”
She giggled. “Not at all.”
“Was that a speed competition or a skills competition?” Knuckles asked. “Looked like both.”
“Eh, we’re just messing around.”
“Sonic?”
The unfamiliar voice startled the four of them. They looked over to see who it was.
A young-looking squirrel was shakily walking up to them. In her hand was a round, shiny metallic device.
“We- uh, we need your help…” she said. Despite her timidness, her feet kept moving slowly towards them until she stopped a few feet away.
Sonic looked her over. She seemed shell-shocked. Her clothes were tattered. Her large helmet was dinged in several places.
“What’s the matter?” Sonic asked. “Where are you coming from?”
“Uh, well…” her eyes darted nervously around. “To you, I guess, the future.”
This was an unexpected answer. The four friends exchanged glances.
“Umm…the future? Like, where? How far in the future are we talking?”
She pointed at the device. “It should be on here…I think a hundred years or so…I forget exactly…”
“This device…” Sonic said, taking it. “Is this…a time machine?”
At these words, Tails extended his hand. Sonic gave it to him. The fox read over a line of numbers and characters, each of which had an adjustable knob next to them.
“Whoa,” said Tails. “Look at these units…the different coordinates.”
“This is an interesting look for a time machine,” Knuckles commented.
Sonic looked at Tails. “Does it look like anything you’ve seen before?”
“Not exactly,” he said. “But it doesn’t look that complex. I could study it…if we had time.” He looked to the girl.
“It would be…great if you could come quickly,” the young squirrel said. “Well, I guess…erngh…that you can take your time deciding, as long as the time coordinates are right. I was supposed to put in a new set of coordinates for you to return to…just after I left. They’re in there now.”
“We don’t want to keep you waiting,” Amy said. “Are you feeling okay?”
The girl was clutching her side now. “I-I-I’m alright…” she stuttered. “Just feeling a little…dizzy…”
Amy watched her with concern. Her hands moved slightly towards her, making sure she wouldn’t fall.
“If you’re from the future,” Knuckles said. “How did you know about Sonic? And why did you need him?”
“You’re heroes, all of you…erngh…if there were any heroes we knew about that could help us…we thought you would be our best hope.”
Her legs shook. Suddenly, she tipped over. Amy caught her before she hit the ground.
Sonic and Knuckles jumped over to her side. The three of them held her up.
“I…think…I should…lie down…” the girl said.
“It’s okay, you’ll be fine. Amy, can you get her some water?” Sonic asked.
Amy nodded, and began walking away quickly. Knuckles and Sonic lowered the squirrel gently to the ground.
“Y…you-you just have to press…the button…and be touching it…” she whispered.
Amy suddenly stopped in shock, having caught sight of her own hands. Her gloves were stained red. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails saw this as well, and looked back at the girl.
Sonic lifted up the side of her shirt around her abdomen. It was sticky. He flinched at what he saw.
“Please…save us…”
Her chest stopped rising, and her head fell to the side.
The four of them stood still for a moment. Sonic reached for her neck, feeling for a pulse, but he already knew what he would find.
Slowly, he dropped his hand back to the ground. He kept his head down. Everybody remained still, for enough time to start to come to terms with it.
Finally, he got back up.
“Tails, can we head to your place?”
Tails did not immediately respond. But then his eyes flew to Sonic’s, and he nodded and began walking off. Sonic motioned to Knuckles, and together they picked up the girl and started following him. Amy remained standing there for an extra second, looking from her hands to the red stain that was now present on the grass.
“Can we save her if we just…go back a few minutes on the device? Arrive just a little earlier?” Amy asked quietly.
Tails scratched his neck. “It may not be so simple…when we’re dealing with time travel, if we go back in time before she leaves, she might never travel back in time in the first place…which would mean we couldn’t be there. It’s best to stick the time they wanted us to arrive.”
“Isn’t it worth a try?” she pushed, still quiet.
“I- I know…but this is our first time with this device, so we probably shouldn’t mess with it yet …The chances of things going wrong would increase exponentially. Let’s start with where they wanted us to go, and maybe we can figure something else out later.”
“What if…” she was still working for something, but was less confident. “…we tried to take her back with us?”
“That wouldn’t change anything…”
Amy looked discouraged. Sonic wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her a pat.
“Ames,” he said. “If there’s a way to save her, we’ll find it. No matter how much time jumping we need to do.”
Amy was slightly comforted by this, and looked at Sonic with respect. For her sake, it was a good thing she wasn’t looking at Tails, because his look clearly conveyed that he thought this was wishful thinking, Sonic saw.
Knuckles, meanwhile, was holding the girl over his shoulder. He searched around for a place to put her. Laying her on the floor, he took another look at her. “Battle injuries,” he muttered. “Way too young…”
Sonic didn’t want to examine her too closely. He had already seen enough. But he asked anyway, “Can you tell…how?”
Knuckles turned to him for more clarification.
“…What got her?”
Glancing back, Knuckles looked more closely at the wound. Sonic and Amy turned away as he did so.
“Bullet,” he said simply. “That’s about all I can tell, looks kinda small…maybe Shadow could identify the type, if you wanted to know…”
“I don’t think that’s necessary,” said Sonic as he swallowed. He still had his arm on Amy’s shoulder. Unconsciously, he pulled her closer. Meanwhile, Tails turned on a few lights by his work station, and powered his screens on.
“She should have a proper funeral,” said Knuckles. Just like that, he lifted her up off the ground again, and marched outside. Sonic and Amy followed.
A few pieces of wood, and a few matches. That’s all it took for a firepit.
Knuckles did the honors. Once it was properly prepared and the fire was stable, he stepped back and looked at the flames rising into the sky. Sonic and Amy were behind him. Sonic looked upwards at the ashes. Amy’s gaze was fixed on the body, burning away.
She took a look behind her. Sonic followed her glance and saw Tails, solemnly standing there.
After another minute of silence, he spoke. “I’ve got a little bit on the makeup of the device. I scanned it. Found some interesting things. I want to map out the blueprints.”
He walked back inside. Sonic and Amy followed. Knuckles remained staring at the flames.
“Alright,” Tails said. “Here’s what we’re working with.”
He sat down in a chair and pressed some buttons. Within a few seconds, he was looking at a breakdown of the materials used on his screen.
“It seems to run on chaos energy,” Tails said. “And it’s got a reservoir of it.”
“Wow,” Sonic said. “So, wait, if it runs on an energy source, does that mean we have a limited amount of times we can use it?”
“Well, in theory, yes,” Tails said. He tapped a few more things on his computer. “But practically speaking, it doesn’t seem to run out of energy. This device has been used before, but shows far less power drainage than I would expect. It looks like you can use it almost as much as you want, so long as there is some existing energy in there. The parts would probably degrade first before you would actually run out of energy.”
Amy raised an eyebrow. “So…we don’t have a limited amount of times we can use it?”
“From what I can tell, no, we don't.”
Tails began sketching something.
Sonic looked over his shoulder. “Trying to make your own?”
“I mean, it’s time travel. Kind of a dream invention. Plus, having our own device could be useful in the future.”
Sonic couldn’t argue with that.
“I want to study this while we have it here,” Tails said. “It could take an hour or two. I know with what just happened…we may want to spring into action. But really there isn’t anything to lose by staying put for the moment. Our best chance to save everybody is when we think through a plan. When we decide it’s time, we just press the button.”
The gang nodded at each other.
“Good, then,” Tails said. “I’ll be as quick as I can…”
After another half-hour had passed, Tails had finished his sketching. He was now building a prototype. Sonic snacked, trying to fill the anxious void hanging over the day. Amy paced around, peeking outside at Knuckles. The flames were gradually dying.
Tails drilled something into place. “There’s a material in here that I’ve never seen before. It could be something from the future. But it’s super-efficient with conducting the energy, and it’s what helps recharge it.” Tails swiveled around in his chair. “So, I can’t reproduce the device exactly. But I can write down what material should be used, while finding an appropriate substitute. One that isn’t as energy-efficient, but one that at least exists in our current time.”
“So…can you be sure that it will work?” said Sonic.
“Not totally sure, but I imagine it will be able to make a few jumps.”
Sonic blinked in acknowledgement. He supposed there was nothing wrong with this.
“Are you just copying it? Do you actually understand how, you know, time travel works?” Amy asked.
“Well, in some ways,” Tails said. “Think about it this way: time and space are connected, so what the device is really doing is helping us jump to a super faraway place, instead of a different time. I mean, also time, but it’s easier to think about in terms of space. It’s really cool! Essentially, you need to plug in coordinates in space-time, and then we make the jump. It has to use a lot of energy to do that. In fact, the only power source we have here that can fuel it is an emerald.”
Sonic and Amy looked at each other, shrugging and semi-understanding.
“But in the future, they have more efficient conductors, so once they infuse it with the energy, they can use it for a long time.”
Knuckles walked back into the room, his expression sober. “So, are we ready to go?” he asked.
“I’m basically done over here,” Tails said. “Do we have a plan?”
“Well, there’s not much to talk about,” Sonic said. “We don’t know what happened in her time until we jump there. It’s the future. So, we’ll show up, and hopefully make a pretty quick distinction between the good guys and the bad guys.”
“I guess…” Tails said. He picked up his device. It was less shiny than the other one.
The others watched him spin the knobs. Tails pressed the button. Nothing happened.
“Everything working over there?” Knuckles asked.
“Well, I don’t want to do a full test of it, because it needs chaos energy…which would be a pretty intensive test. Not one we have the time or resources for right now. I just wanted to get the build right.”
Knuckles thought. “…Then…are we ready to go?”
“Yes.” Amy quickly answered.
Sonic nodded, mentally preparing himself. There didn’t seem to be anything left for them in this time.
“Alright,” he said. “Let’s save some people in the future.”
Tails set his reproduction on the table, and picked up the shinier device. He walked over to the group, who stood in a circle.
“When we jump back,” Sonic said. “Do we know the coordinates for our time?”
“I wrote them down. They’re in here.” He patted a small bag around his waist. “Hopefully this will transport with us. If not, I remember them.”
“We can take stuff?” Knuckles asked.
“We can try. Just anything you can carry.”
Amy already had her hammer in hand. Sonic couldn’t even remember how it got there. He and Knuckles didn’t move.
“…Or if we’re all packed, that’s fine too,” said Tails. “So, we need to be touching the device. Guess we just hope this works.”
Amy took a long exhale, closing her eyes. Sonic wondered how the sensation of time travel with the device would feel. The future could be cool. But it could also be confusing.
Tails looked over the three of them, then looked to the button. Then he stopped. “Oh, wait, give me a second!”
He dashed over to his desk and picked up a pencil. He hastily jotted something down on a piece of paper. Then he grabbed an envelope. Glancing to the side, he temporarily froze, holding the pencil in his hand.
“Uh, buddy?” Sonic asked. “What’s the holdup?”
“Nothing.” He gave a small shake of his head, then scribbled something on the envelope, sealed it, and ran outside.
He came back inside empty-handed.
“What was that?” Knuckles asked.
“Oh, you know…” Tails said. “Just needed to write a letter.”
Sonic gave a small smirk. “What, cancelling plans?”
“Just in case. If this goes well, we won’t lose any time at all.”
“Ready?” Sonic asked.
“Ready,” everybody said in unison. Tails pressed the button.
Eyes closed, Sonic felt nothing at first. Then he felt it. He felt the nothing.