Sonic Rift (ARCHIVED)

"And you're sure you can't find her? Them?" Sonic asked, slamming his hands onto the Chaotix Detective Agency front desk. He was scared. You could see it in his eyes, his stance. The way he shook.

"Sorry, Sonic…" Vector the Crocodile sighed. He had one ear free of his headphones to listen to Sonic. His tunes only blasted into one of his ears. Because he could tell this was important. "No can do. We have no lead! We don't have anything except for the fact they're missing."

"But… it's not fair!" Sonic whined. He shook the table. "You guys always go above and beyond to figure stuff out! You should be able to do this no problem!"

"No offense intended, but why do you need us for the job?" Espio the Chameleon asked, his back against the wall. He balanced a ninja star on his finger. "You're the fastest thing alive. If anyone can find them, it's you."

"That's the thing---" Sonic replied. "--- I can't…"

"Despite the fact that they disappeared into a blue light, I scoured all of Mobius looking for Sonja, Pico and Buck. I thought… they had to be here somewhere. Maybe Ivan was lying, maybe there was still a chance I could find them. But… nothing. Tails won't let me use the rocket to go into space, not after last time…" Sonic cleared his throat. "And since they fell into the void under the Infinity Consumer's Fortress, the Chaos Emeralds have gone missing. So I can't use them either."

"We'll try to keep our eyes peeled, Sonic," Charmy replied.

"Yeah, we'll break the budget to go to Green Hill Zone and start there!" Vector promised. He gave a thumbs-up. Sonic smiled weakly.

"Thanks, guys…" Sonic sighed. He looked down at the ground, then back up to Vector. He walked out the door. "See ya later."

Sonic walked down the street. Then, he broke out into a pace. Then a jog, then, he ran. People cheered as he rushed by, kicking up dust from beneath him. He just kept running, not feeling up to any sort of communication with even his biggest fans. He had no clear or set path.

When he got hungry, he got ice cream from a local shop. But after he paid and traded, he found he wasn't in the mood for ice cream. He just sat there on a distant sidewalk, scared to have the makers of the ice cream know their ice cream they put effort and love into went to waste. Sonic just stared at the colorful ice cream as it melted into the cone, and seeped into his gloves through a crack in the cone. Sonic felt and looked miserable.

"Hey, Sonic!" A familiar voice called, as Sonic heard footsteps approaching him. That voice… it was Silver!

"Oh, hey Silver!" Sonic replied, looking over, forcing a smile onto his face. He also forced himself to take a lick of the melted ice cream, to show that everything was fine. How can someone be sad while eating ice cream, right? "How's it going?"

"It's great!" Silver exclaimed. "I decided to stick around for a while after the Storm. How are you?"

"I'm alright," Sonic replied. Don't get Sonic wrong. He liked Silver fine enough. But he wasn't quite sure if he should open up to him about what happened. Then he remembered that he overheard what Silver and Blaze the Cat were talking about during his 18th birthday. The Blaze at his birthday party was from another dimension, and somehow Silver knew another Blaze from the distant future and was quite close to her. Sonic didn't remember seeing this Blaze even when he first met Silver, (then again, he didn't remember much of Silver's first visit). So he could only assume they got separated somehow.

Silver had talked to Blaze during the party about missing her. So much. And this Blaze didn't look like she even knew what he was talking about. Silver, though disappointed, continued to talk to her. Silver had lost someone, so Sonic assumed… Silver should have been the FIRST one he should have asked. A car drove by and splashed murky water from a nearby puddle into both their faces. Sonic clenched the ice cream cone until it broke, splashing ice cream onto him that was sickly sweet-smelling in tandem with the water. This didn't make him feel any better. It just covered him in lukewarm ice cream. "But…" Sonic followed up. "Eggman being gone, the war being over… even the Storm… that wasn't the end of it."

"What do you mean?" Silver asked. He looked around, and then back to Sonic. "Everything looks fine."

"Maybe for everyone else, but not for me," Sonic almost shouted. He put a hand to his chest, though quickly caught his composure, replacing his anger with sorrow. This was not the hedgehog to freak out at. He sighed. "It's very complicated, but… I'm missing some people." Sonic huddled his arms around his legs.

"Did you have a few falling outs?" Silver asked.

"No, not really!" Sonic exclaimed. "You see, a girl I know, and a friend… and someone who was basically like a son to me… all those people… just kind of disappeared into a blue light."

"Yeah, that's kind of what happened to me…" Silver said. Sonic looked over to him. "The girl thing… not the son thing," Silver corrected himself. Sonic assumed he was talking about Blaze. Silver smiled, and using his telekinetic powers, freed both himself and Sonic of the dirty water and ice cream in Sonic's case.

Sonic looked away, and to the puddle. He saw a yet again broken hedgehog in it. He thought he had form-fit the shattered pieces together, but it just fell apart no matter how much he tried. Was there any hope? Why not leave the past and any hope for it behind, and live in the present? Why not walk away from something broken? Stop trying to make it good again. Why not just leave it all behind?

"But I know someone who can help!" Silver exclaimed. Sonic stopped this train of thought and looked over to Silver. Newfound hope… yet hesitant pessimism in his eyes. "C'mere, I'll show you!" Silver grabbed Sonic by the hand and flew off into the distance, using his telekinesis to keep himself afloat.

Where was he taking Sonic? What exactly laid at their destination? Was a new adventure afoot? Sonic just had to wait and see.

Sonic hated waiting.