- CHAPTER ONE -

The Fall of a Hero

"So there we were, face to face with that freaky dragon looking thing that lives in the planet's core." Sonic recalled, unsticking a nacho from his cheesy pile – complete with hot sauce, guacamole and extra jalapeños.

He was sat on the counter of the diner owned by Don Fachio. The business had been doing rather well and the owner had invested in opening up several branches around Central City. Sonic visited most days he was in the area for the chili dogs. In his opinion, nobody did them better. His favourite diner was located on the east side, overlooking the canal. This was odd, considering his general distaste of water. Dusk was approaching and the sun was setting, bathing the diner in the long shadows of the tall buildings on the opposite side of the water.

"It wasn't up to full power." Sonic continued, chasing a slice of jalapeño around the plastic tub in his hands with the chip. "I mean, it was like it was waiting for me to show up or something." He said, finally capturing his prey and stuffed the entire creation into his mouth. "The rest of the Gaia energy was in me at the time, so then it saw it as the chance to take it back. Man, it really hurt as well – transforming back into myself, that is. I was lucky though; the Gaia energy sorta registered how you looked before the transformation kicked in, meaning that I got my shoes back every time. Sweet, huh?"

"How is that even possible?" the plump landlord said raising an eyebrow as he looked over from wiping a glass clean.

Sonic shrugged his shoulders, scooping up the rest of the guacamole onto his nacho. "I was just happy I wasn't gonna be fighting that thing barefoot. It was pretty hot down there, y'know."

"Then what happened?" the landlord urged, "Did you go gold?"

Sonic shook his head and lent back against the red and white chequered tiles behind him. "I told you, we left the Emeralds back in the temples, but even if we didn't, there was no way I could have pulled it off right there and then. Chip's the real hero. I was as good as out after all that. The next thing I knew, I was led at the entrance of a floating temple. I've seen floating islands before, but boy, this was a whole 'nother story!"

"A floating temple? Now I've heard everything."

"Ah, you ain't heard nothin' yet." Sonic winked, dropping the tub onto his lap and rubbed his gloved hands together. "The temples from all over the planet sorta pulled a mega merge mode into this huge giant colossal thing. It rocked. Get it? 'Cause it's made of rock. Anyway, old cranky sorta got even crankier and started lobbing rocky fireballs at us. Nothin' new."

"So, the monster with the power to tear planets apart settled for lobbing rocks at you? That's a bit cheap."

"Naw, it underestimated us, I'll bet – didn't wanna waste any of its true power until it had a good reason."

"Don't tell me. You two gave that thing a huge beating and saved the day."

"It wasn't that easy. It's never that easy. That was only round one. Cranky went through a… disturbing transformation and started sucking up energy from, well, everywhere. Ugh, all those extra eyes and limbs still give me nightmares. Anyway, things were getting ugly, so I needed to even the odds with a transformation of my own. Mine was just downright awesome though. I didn't sprout extra arms or anything." Sonic finished off the last of his nachos and jumped down from the counter to his feet. "Anyhoo, I think it's time I got going. I think I've kept Amy waiting long enough and as much as I'd love to miss this date with her, I did promise her a movie after all that." He announced, stretching his quad muscles briefly. "I think I'll take a chili dog to go. In fact, make that two."

"Alright then." The landlord laughed, straightening up. "Let's do this the Don Fachio way…"

Sonic arched an eyebrow and went on tip-toe to lean over the counter. "I'm listening."

"If you can get these two 'dogs to the gal in one piece, they're on the house."

"Come on, that's a bit harsh. You're expecting me to just look at them on the run over? Let's sweeten the deal here…"

"I can work with that." The guy shrugged, "You can have one of them."

"Ouch." Sonic rolled his eyes, drumming his fingers in a quiet rhythm. "That's gonna be tough."

"You in?"

"You don't ever see me passing up the opportunity for free chili dogs. You're on." The two shook on it and several minutes later, Sonic was outside with a chili dog in each hand.

Sonic gazed up at the sky and tried to figure out what time it was. It was grey and cloudy; the sun's rays could be seen spilling through the gaps in the clouds due to the moisture in the air. It had been quite a cold day in the city – all the tall buildings acted as wind tunnels and pulled the air into powerful whirlwinds that swarmed the streets below. It had also rained. Sonic had tried to convince himself that this wasn't the reason he had spent the majority of the day at his favourite lunch spot, mentioning the finer details of his latest adventure to the landlord – all the stuff he had forgot to mention in the interview for the article 'Do Blue Hedgehogs Dream of Electric Eggs?' in last week's World Treasure magazine.

The interview earned him a beating from Knuckles, claiming that he was 'just so full of himself all the time' and that he was 'just taking any chance he got to show off and running with it'. In truth, the only reason he agreed to the interview was to help the reporter get on with her career. In addition to that, she seemed to be the only person covering the story and it was such a big deal, with the world in pieces and all. People needed to know.

"Where am I going, again?" Sonic mused to himself, glancing down at the hot dogs in his hands. They smelt so good. "Right, Amy…" He groaned, wishing he had the heart to turn down her request to begin with. At the time, he thought he owed her for sticking with him despite everything that had happened. He couldn't put that faith in anyone but Tails and this meant something to him. To Sonic, this was no date, this was merely him saying 'thank you for being a good friend'.

This was a date. Sonic gritted his teeth and marched around the building and down the street. "It's just a one-time thing." He assured himself in a panicked grumble. "Nothin' to run off in the opposite direction for…"

Sonic stared at his feet and watched as the shallow puddles he trudged through splattered his shoes with murky water. "I'm going on a date with Amy!" He said out loud, stopping in his tracks and shot his gaze up to the dull sky above. "Can the ground just suck me up and swallow me? Please!"

And the ground did just that.

xXx

When falling out of the sky, one must consider several things. How you have managed to get yourself in this unlikely situation in the first place. Attempt to ignore the images of your life flashing before your eyes long enough to figure out how you are planning to land safely and maybe check if you have any rings on hand as landing safely might not be an option.

"WOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" This is Sonic, he found himself in this situation by falling through the ground. He lands on his head – big surprise. Ring count: zero.

Sonic led face in the dirt for a few moments. His head spinning, a single thought crossed his mind.

Man, it's great to be me.

Neglecting everything that had just occurred, Sonic bolted upright and caught sight of his falling snack in the sky. He yelped and jumped to his feet. With no delay whatsoever, he shot off in one direction to grab the first tumbling chili dog in one hand and threw himself in the other onto his front to snatch up the second inches from the dirt. Now, that was a close one. He stared at his saved chili coated sausage dog and marvelled at his little achievement.

It then suddenly occurred to him that he was supposed to be concerned about his location and staggered to his feet. "Hey… where am I?" This entire experience was weirding him out. He couldn't help but stand there arching an eyebrow with his mouth half open – Amy would never believe this, in fact, he was having trouble believing it himself. He was standing in the middle of nowhere. Judging by the cloudy dull sky, it was early dawn and he began to wonder if he had blacked out overnight or something as it was in late afternoon in Central City. There was a stony path beneath his feet that disappeared into the hazy fog swallowing the land ahead of him. To his right, crows circled an animal carcass of some sorts, cawing in alarm due to the sudden unrequested company of a vibrant blue hedgehog that had just fallen out of the sky.

"Being from a distant world!" A small voice was heard from behind him. What the… another world?

Sonic glanced over his shoulder at a young woman dressed in purple robes, looking very prominent indeed and he began to wonder why he hadn't noticed her sooner – especially with that giant staff in her hands. She crouched to his level and pulled back her hood to reveal large pointy ears and plaited thulian pink hair. "Forgive my abrupt summons!" Well, that explained a lot. So, this elf lady summoned him from another world. For what reason, well, it was plainly obvious considering that she was being tailed by an army of armour-wearing monsters. She needed help. That was it!

Sonic's ears pricked to the sound of clattering footsteps in front of him. He darted his gaze back to the path ahead to find another armour-wearing figure slowly trotting towards him. This figure seemed more human-like, mounted atop a large armoured horse whilst holding a massive pointy sword in one hand and the reins in the other. Yet, something did not seem very human-like about him at all. With white glowing eyes visible beneath the sleek metal that made up his helmet and black smoky stuff erupting from the crevices, he looked quite intimidating indeed. Sonic dubbed him the boss-man and tittered to himself in excitement.

Keeping his cool, he tossed the dog in his right hand into the air and caught it again. Eying it with delight, Sonic stuffed the entire thing into his mouth and swallowed it whole as the enemy stepped closer still. He glanced at the towering knight almost mockingly and licked the chili from his fingers. Smiling to himself, he spun the remaining hot dog around on his hand before tossing it into the other. "Oh, I get it." He said to the lady calmly, spinning his chili dog around yet again. "No problem! I'm used to stuff like this!" He tossed it high and then vanished into the wind, stirring up clouds of dust in the air. He took out the entire posy of goons in a matter of milliseconds and could hear the young lady gasping at his incredible speed.

Sonic skidded to a halt directly below the chili dog as it reached the peak of his throw, placed a hand on his hip and held out the other with his eyes closed and waited patiently to catch it. Maybe he was just showing off, but it might have been enough to intimidate that boss-man over there. When the hot dog had finally fallen into his outstretched hand, he opened his eyes and gave his opponent a cocky grin. Feeling rather pleased with himself, he continued to spin it around on his hand as he waited for the knight to make a move. He'd seen what the spiky blue hedgehog could do and now Sonic was somewhat intrigued to see what he had to follow up from that display of awesomeness.

All he did was stare him down. Sonic caught his chili dog. The knight flicked his wrist. Sonic readied himself to run and shot forwards.

"No, you mustn't!" The elf lady stated firmly, grabbing his wrist and pulled him back. Sonic yelped, realising he was going nowhere fast; despite how fast he moved his feet. She was telling him this now!? What did she know, anyway? He could take this guy. Eggman seemed like a malevolent phantom compared to this boss-man.

The two comically flew back into a heap in the gravel. As Sonic recovered from having his aching head slammed into the ground for the second time, the elf lady shoved him to one side and stood up. Talk about rude. She started stirring up yet another cloud of dust around them into a gigantic tornado. He realised that she must be a mage, there was no other explanation for this magical display. He really was in another world.

That was when Sonic noticed the other chili dog spiralling around them in the squall. "Nooooooooo!" He cried, reaching for it helplessly as it blew out of his reach. Unfortunately, that was the last thing he noticed.