Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest hedgehog in history, sprinted through the Mystic Ruins from the local train station. He easily ascended the ancient stone stairway, up the hill and to the small private workshop that Miles 'Tails' Prower used as a second home.

The bright orange sun was turning red as it began setting behind the large mountain range that connected the jungle and ruins to the floating island above, Angel Island. Dark, thickly building rain clouds unfortunately concealed the unique island's enigmatic beauty from sight.

"Hey Tails!" Sonic greeted as he skidded to a stop just inches from Tails sitting on the small step outside the workshop door. "What's up?"

"Hey Sonic!" The chipper twin-tailed fox jumped up and excitedly took the sky with his tails spinning in perfect synchronization. He hovered just above Sonic's head. "Glad you could make it!"

"I had to show up, your message sounded urgent!"

Tails landed in front of Sonic with a light thump. "Yup, I made an amazing discovery, and just you have to see it!"

"Lead the way!" Sonic gave Tails a quick thumbs up in response.

Sonic followed Tails inside the small workshop. Despite it's modest size the workshop housed many impressive inventions and the walls were lined with blueprints of inventions yet to come. Tools of all trades were littered on the floor and on the multiple pegboards mounted on the far wall. Below the boards there was a large metallic desk sitting against the same wall, and sitting on it was something red and glowing.

"Is that...?" Sonic pointed at the red object.

"Yup!" Tails picked it up and proudly displayed it in his palm for his friend to see. "A Chaos Emerald!"

"Whoa! Where'd you get it?" Sonic asked with astonishment as he held his hand out to take it.

Tails casually placed the Chaos Emerald in Sonic's opened palm. "I found it when I was exploring the ancient temple in the Mystic Ruins. It was deep inside, too. Hidden away in a secret chamber, with a second miniature altar that was used to honor the larger altar that houses the Master Emerald."

"The altar that sits way up high on Angel Island?" Sonic confirmed curiously.

"Yup. Knuckles said the chamber was once used as a sanctuary for the innocent inhabitants of the jungle." Tails hovered up to the rafters of the workshop and pulled down a large rolled up blueprint. He unfolded the design like a map and showed it to Sonic. "See this? This is my latest design."

Sonic stared at the white outline of some kind of machine on the blue paper. "What is it? A weapon?"

"Of course not!" Tails grinned as he rolled the print back up. "It's a design for a functioning TIME MACHINE."

"A what?! No way!" Sonic was sincerely impressed.

"Yup! After Eggman used time travel to try and stop you and your past self from saving the world, I had a discussion with my past self and we came up with the concept of a time travel machine."

"We? You mean you sat and planned with yourself while I... I mean, well, yeah, me and myself were running through our past... and, uh, future..." Sonic was trying to figure out how to best word his time travel and the concept of running alongside himself from another era of time. "Whatever, you know what I meant! While we were running through time, getting the flow to move on its own again, you and your past self were making designs?"

Tails grinned again as he flew back up to the rafters to stow away the controversial and magnificent blueprint to keep it safe. "Yup! Pretty neat, huh?"

"Sure is." Sonic looked at the Chaos Emerald in his palm. "And I take it this is the key to making the machine work."

"Yup!" Tails confirmed with his biggest grin yet. "I did some studying on the Chaos Emeralds and the legendary power that they can produce. I think the power is not only enough to allow a time gate to open, but it should also stabilize the wormhole, making time travel possible!"

"To go backward? Or to go forward?"

"Either way! It's entirely possible!" Tails beamed proudly.

"But... won't that mess with the natural chain of events?"

Tails winked. "That's the 'butterfly effect'! Can the actions of one person really affect the outcome of the entire world? Can going back in time and making a different decision cause a catastrophic chain of events as a result? Can going into the future affect the present?"

"And... once you go back or you go forward, can you get back to your original timeline?"

"I... uh... Hm..." Tails put his hand to his chin and closed his eyes as he pondered the notion. "I would like to think so, but if you go back into the past and alter the future, our present, would the present still have the knowledge of time travel and subsequently have an existing time gate? Or, maybe going to the future could set off a negative chain of events that could only be remedied by the destruction of the time machine in the past, our present, which would make it impossible for the traveler of the future to come back..." Tails opened his eyes and looked at Sonic. "That's a good question! And I can't answer it. Not now."

"So... are you going to put off time travel?"

"For now!" Tails replied with a heavy yawn as he stretched tiredly. "Wow, it's already pretty late, huh? It looks like it might storm, too."

"Yeah, but I don't mind. Distance is nothing to me!"

"Thanks for coming all the same."

"No problem." Sonic tried to hand the Chaos Emerald back to Tails, but he put his hand up and shook his head.

"Nah, you hold onto it. That way I know it's safe!"

"Are you sure? Don't you want to keep studying it?"

"I still have the yellow Chaos Emerald used to power the 'Tornado 2'. If I need to study the Chaos Emeralds further I'm covered."

"Alright, well, see ya' later Tails."

"See ya'!

In a blur of blue Sonic bolted from the workshop to the neighboring train station. Unfortunately the last train for the evening had just departed.

"Darn, well, guess I'm walking." Sonic casually tossed the red Chaos Emerald into the air and caught it again. "Who am I kidding? I'm running!"

Sonic climbed up onto the elevated rail track and ran toward the tunnel. As he ran he realized that since there were no more trains on the track he wouldn't have to worry about running into any incoming traffic.

He ran a little faster.

The red Chaos Emerald clenched in Sonic's grip began to glow brighter.

The rain clouds continued to build, concealing the dark sky and the twinkling stars beyond. There was a rumble of thunder.

Sonic ran a little faster still. The Chaos Emerald glowed even brighter.

Small drops of rain started falling. The fresh rain brought out the intense aroma and beauty of the plant life all around.

Not wanting to get caught in the rain, Sonic ran even faster. The Chaos Emerald glowed even brighter! A wave of energy escaped the gem and began radiating up Sonic's arm. But he didn't feel it.

The clouds opened up sending a deluge of warm summer rain to the earth below.

"Gah! I hate being wet!" Sonic complained, feeling his thick blue quills dampening with each drop of rain.

Putting all his energy into his speed, Sonic forced himself to run faster and faster, wanting to desperately get out of the strengthening storm and to his home.

The red Chaos Emerald continue to emit an impressive wave of energy, it's strength increased at the same interval as Sonic's increasing speed. The glow became an intense and almost blinding beacon.

"What the...?" Sonic finally took notice of the Chaos Emerald in his grip. "What's going on?"

In a single bright red flash Sonic felt his entire body lift up from the ground as the power of the Chaos Emerald unleashed itself. Sonic found himself floating in mid-air then suddenly flying forward at an incredible speed that he had never felt before. The red light that encompassed him was intensely bright and comfortingly warm. Before Sonic had the time to react or try to understand what was happening to him, the energy surge ceased as quickly as it began.

Sonic then felt himself falling. Falling from a great, impossible height... Energy surged through his entire body and left a red static charge running over his blue fur and quills.

"Whoa!" Sonic found himself falling head first to the thick jungle so far below.

With a heavy 'thud' Sonic fell from the sky and landed on his chest in the middle of the dense and isolated jungle.

"Oooohhhh..." Sonic groaned with pain and shut his eyes. His hand instinctively tightened his grip on the Chaos Emerald as he pulled his arm closer to his body and tucked it under his aching chest.

A butterfly landed on Sonic's nose, tickling it. He opened his eyes and focused on the bright blue butterfly sitting on the very tip of his black nose. "Can I help you?" He commented playfully.

The butterfly flapped its wings once before it took off, fluttering into the jungle and out of sight.

Pushing himself up from the ground with one hand, Sonic kneeled on one knee and looked around. "Where am I?" The thick jungle looked very much like the jungle just outside of the Mystic Ruins, but there was something different about. Something ominous and foreboding.

The glow of the rising sun caught Sonic's attention. "Morning? Wasn't the sun just setting a few minutes ago?"

Rising to his feet Sonic brushed the dirt from his pelt on his chest and arms. "This is so weird..."

It was then he remembered the Chaos Emerald. "Wait a second!" He opened his palm and stared at the mystical gem. "Why did this thing glow? What did it do to me?"

Sonic looked himself up and down. "Still blue, so I didn't go Super. I should go ask Tails."

Following the seldom tread trail on the jungle floor, Sonic jogged toward the lone ladder that rested against the cliff edge. On the cliff was the mine cart used to carry travelers from the Mystic Ruins to the jungle. It was the quickest way to Tails' workshop!

"Hey, wait a second..." Sonic found the ladder, but it was broken in half! "What happened here?"

Taking a few paces back from the ladder, Sonic gave himself a running start and jumped up as high as he could. With on hand he managed to get a grip on the lowest rung from the top half of the ladder still attached to the cliff. Pulling himself up by one hand Sonic put both hands on the rungs and ascended the ladder quickly, but carefully.

At the top of the cliff Sonic was surprised to see that the heavy mine cart was tipped onto its side, and from all the dirt and weather exposure that marred the cart. Sonic could tell that it had been left and unattended in that position for some time now.

"Who did that?" Sonic tried to tip the cart back onto the tracks but it was too heavy. "I'll deal with it later, right now I need to find Tails!"

Ignoring the cart and using the tracks Sonic jogged at a brisk pace and followed the tunnel through the mountain and to the Mystic Ruins on the other side.

Stepping out of the dim tunnel into the bright morning light, Sonic couldn't believe his eyes. "No... what happened?! What's going on?!"

The once beautiful land, preserved by nature and the power of the Master Emerald had been ravaged by unfathomable carnage! The small cabin that sheltered the explorers had been destroyed, burned to ashes. The train station had been blown apart, leaving only charred timbers and twisted track behind. The train tracks had been destroyed by a powerful blast, cutting off access from Station Square entirely.

On the hill beyond the train station was Tails' workshop. It was still standing, but it had been severely damaged by some sort of attack!

"No.. Tails! Tails?" Sonic called out as he ran for the workshop in the distance. "This isn't happening, this is NOT happening!"

...to be continued...