with my life i fight this fear;

Sonic scratched his head. This whole situation was giving him one sonic boom of a headache.

“I don’t get it.” He frowned, putting his hands on his hips as he panned his gaze across the cedar trees which lined the burgundy lake. “I thought we fixed the Paradox Prism? How did we end up in another shatterspace?”

He glanced at his fox friend. If anyone would have answers as to what was going on, it was Tails/Nine. Unfortunately, Nine was being more Niney than Tailsy right now. He pursed his lips and turned away, apparently scanning up the beach for signs of a threat. Did he not know what was going on either? No – if Nine didn’t understand something, he’d react with openness and frustration, not by closing himself off and turning his back on the question. So did he know something… but didn’t want to say?

“Nine…?” Sonic began cautiously, in the same gentle voice he would use with a startled flickie.

He was interrupted by a volley of barks. Nine immediately elevated himself onto his mechanical tails and turned towards the trees where the sound was coming from with narrowed blue eyes.

“What’s that?” He demanded, his voice alive with suspicion. One of his mechanical tails twitched.

“Uhhh…” Sonic glanced up at the trees. “Sounds like Knuckles if you touch the Master Emerald. I’ll go check it out.”

He leaned forward, not hearing Nine’s cry to wait, before he barrelled up the gentle slope towards the treeline. Slowly. Like, way too slowly. Sonic couldn’t even remember the last time he’d moved this slowly. He tried to push faster, but it felt like his lungs were caught in a vice. He skidded to a halt a few metres from the dog walker, gasping for breath again and staring, dumbfounded, at the weird-looking person and her pet.

“Woah.” He got his breath back just as Nine came stumbling out into the open behind him, and scratched his head. “You look like Eggman.”

“Sonic!” Nine wheezed.

“Sorry,” Sonic acknowledged to the woman. “That’s like, the worst insult ever. Are you related to him though? Or the Chaos Council? Also where are we? This shatterspace is crazy. And way too wet for my liking.”

While Sonic talked, Nine’s breathing returned to normal but he kept two if his mechanical tails elevated above his head, pointed at the dog.