The sound of wind filled the pointy ears of the hedgehog, followed by the occasional sound of his cleats stomping down onto the floor of snow surrounding him, both doing their respective parts to make his day worse. It was dark, the snow was cold, and his Periwinkle/Midnight Blue fur did little to keep him warm. His heart hardened.

Sonic held his furry arms as his fangs chattered. "Almost there, almost over... I can f-f-f-feel it..." he told himself, imagining being in another continent far away from any cold, where he could relax and—for the first time in days—get to hang out with his best friend Tails. Sure enough, moments later he shoved his frosty, bulky fist into the snow and through the ice, finding and grabbing hold of the last Sun Medal he needed for the area. He then went to pull his outstretched arm back out, but... it appeared to be stuck.

"Ohhhh come on!" The Werehog growled in frustration, grunting and gasping as he struggled to get it out. It was then he saw the sun begin to rise over the horizon. "No..." he whimpered, horror and anxiety in his voice, before trying even more desperately to get his arm out before he changed back into his Hedgehog form, not knowing what on Earth could be in store for him, if that were to happen.

With all his might, he gave one last hard yank before he broke his arm free, at last. "Awh yeah! How do you like that, huh!" He howled to no one in particular, before hearing the sound of ice cracking... realizing the force of his last yank had caused the ice to begin to break apart below him.

He blinked, and then he ran.

Ice moved, leaving gaps of cold freezing water between them that Sonic dared not step into. As he ran, he began to change back to his Hedgehog form, which gave him the speed he direly needed in order to escape, narrowly evading a chilling death for the time-being and then speeding up as he landed on solid ground and headed back to town.

Sonic had spent nearly the entire night looking for that one Sun Medal, having hoped to get up to three that night, so most of the night felt very much wasted. Still, the new day had just begun, and now all he had to do was get back to the village and meet up with Tails.

From the moment he reunited with the fox, their travels mostly consisted of Tails locating the medals and Sonic getting as many of them as he could in as few days as possible—and, at the end of the day, Sonic would drag his tired feet over to the tornado and Tails would fly them to the next destination while the hedgehog slept.

Truthfully, Sonic had begun to almost view Tails and the Tornado almost like two symbols of escaping the exhausting work he had been doing nearly nonstop for weeks. He would imagine resting recklessly on the wing, leaving his fate to Tails in keeping him on it, feeling not a worry in the world.

Now, however, he was the opposite of relaxed. His eyes were stinging with cold, his body shaking uncontrollably moreso than when he was in his werewolf form, and his will to go on being frozen out of him more with each passing moment. He always preferred a warmer climate, which paradoxically led him to dwelling most-often near beaches and islands. The cold never warmed up to him.

Once he had made it to the village, he did his best to politely excuse himself through the crowd of thankful people wishing to show their gratitude for his help in repairing the planet. He appreciated their thankfulness, but he would find more time to be there with them when his work was done. He hoped he would, anyway.

When he finally reached the place where Tails had last landed the Tornado, he and the Tornado were nowhere to be found. "Wh-wh-wh-what?" Sonic spoke, through chattering teeth, as the cold breeze flew into his open mouth. Tails had always waited for him before, but now any trace of the fox and the Tornado had been snowed over and the hedgehog couldn't spot a single spec of snow in the sky that at all resembled the aircraft.

He had no energy left to cry out, he had nothing left but the snowy ground he stood on. His legs folded weakly as his trembling hand lifted the spare Miles Electric he had strapped to his hip before. Sonic attempted to call the fox's other Miles Electric, but the fox apparently did not pick up, for reasons unknown to him. Resigning to it, Sonic left a message, "T-T-Tails... c-c-c-c-c-come back t-t-t-to H-H-Holoska..." he couldn't think of what else to say, so he hung up shortly after. There was nothing left to do.

Everything else seemed to fade around him. The storm grew thicker, but what transpired within the hedgehog remained unmatched. Feelings swirled around within him, like a whirlwind in a whirlpool in an all-consuming flame, it was a familiar moment of pure chaos inside.

If you were anything like Sonic, you could only live fast and free for so long before everything began to ache. Like every good time the hedgehog had felt caused a rush of negative feelings to balance it all out, like he couldn't smile once without frowning twice later. He sank into a lower layer of snow, the snow piling on further around him, but the trembling all around Sonic's spiky blue body came from something colder than the most ferocious snowstorm.

Sonic's eyes twitched, wide open and not focusing on anything in particular. He looked through the snow, through the Earth, through everything and stared off into space. A nagging voice in his spiky head kept telling him he needed to get up and move on, but that too faded.

Numb. The hedgehog couldn't feel anymore. Every sense departed, to the point that he couldn't feel it when he was grabbed from the ground and held close. Heat. He began to feel another's body heat, snapping him out from within himself and back into the world. "H-huah?" Sonic reacted, through chattering teeth.

His hearing was all muffled, he could hardly hear a word of what the being was saying. He was lugged over to an unknown object and placed on something that felt like leather to the hedgehog's needles. More heat. His vision began to refocus and his mind cleared as the being joined in beside him as the unknown object he was in began to close around them translucently.

Until finally, it hit him – he was in the Tornado, the being was Tails, and they were leaving the snowstorm. "T-T-Tails..." Sonic breathed, "y-y-you came back..." With every passing moment, the heater felt as though it was bringing him back to life, making him almost sweat as it 'thawed' him.

"Of course I came back, Sonic, what kind of friend would I be if I didn't?" Tails said, as Sonic could faintly hear. His hearing was returning. "I'm so sorry I wasn't here earlier, I was helping Professor Pickle locate the next Moon Medals. When I got your message, I flew out as soon as I could," Tails apologized. Sonic weakly nodded.

"This is actually a prototype I've been working on for the past couple of months – it's a two-seat Tornado," Tails explained, with pride. "I usually wouldn't rush this out so soon, but I could almost hear you becoming an icicle in your message so I couldn't risk slinging you over the wing of the regular Tornado like usual in your condition," Tails added.

Now, it was times like this that he so sorely missed, moments before. Hearing about the fox's latest creations and his various reasonings for each thing he did. He certainly was in no condition to come up with a snarky response, but he was able to muster a chuckle. "I owe you o-one, Tails..." he smiled, before fading into a sound slumber.

When he awoke, it felt like not a moment had passed since he had fallen asleep, only he found himself in completely different surroundings. Still beside Tails in the prototype biplane, but in a different continent. He was sore all over from the exertions of the past—unaware whether it had been a day or mere hours since he had obtained that last Sun Medal—but his heart had healed more since he had rested.

Above them, the glass cover over the cockpit receded, allowing an exuberant being to come flying in. "Sonic!" Chip exclaimed, holding an unopened bag of chocolate chips, "Sonic, can you help me open this up? We're making chocolate chip cookies and Amy is too busy!" Sonic blinked and smiled softly at the little one, taking the bag from Chip's hands.

"Umm, Chip, I'm not sure Sonic is in any condition to exert himself," Tails offered, thoughtfully, but Sonic shook his head. "Y'think you can handle it, Sonic?" the fox asked.

Chuckling, Sonic answered, "I wouldn't be much of a hero if I couldn't open a bag of chocolate chips for someone, now would I?" He weakly opened the frail plastic bag and handed it back to Chip. "Be careful with that now, make sure you don't spill any—and don't eat any that fall out, okay?" Chip nodded dutifully, giving a grateful look to the hedgehog before flying back to Amy with the opened bag of chocolate chips.

Tails promptly flew out of the cockpit after unbuckling Sonic and himself, flying over to the other side of the biplane to help Sonic out of it safely. "Easy there, Sonic, the ground won't go anywhere if you take your time," Tails joked.

Briefly, Sonic remembered the feeling of the ice in Holoska cracking open under his feet. "Yeah, haha, guess so," he replied, trying to ease his mind. Sure enough, when he set foot on the solid ground of Spagonia once more, it was stable and he was safe from any freezing water.

"You've been making great time with the medals lately, Sonic," Tails told the hedgehog, to said hedgehog's surprise, "we can definitely afford to give you some downtime til the next time we send you out to get those last few medals. Sound good?"

As they walked into the laboratory that had been turned into an impromptu kitchen, Sonic took in the scent of cookie dough, met the sight of the rest of their little planet-saving 'team,' and felt as though all the cold from the latest medal-seeking adventures that had hardened his heart melted away. He turned back to meet the eyes of the fox beside him and smiled, "Yeah, sounds good to me, buddy."

The End