Sonic stood on the edge of a cliff looking out over the ocean as the evening sky reflected off the water. For the first time in a long time, it was hard for him to just sit still and do nothing, but he wouldn’t let it show to any of his friends, trying to keep up a strong image for them. All his mind could think about was his little sibling lost in places unknown, or even worse depending on what happened on that ship that hovered over Angel Island.
“We’ll find you, buddy. We’ll make sure you and Cosmo get back home,” he thought to himself, and then looked down at the Chaos Emerald he acquired before.
It’s been over a day since Chaos Control occurred, and Sonic and his friends returned back home to Mobius to rest themselves and try to be at ease while the Master Four and Team JAG continued the search for Tails and Cosmo. None of them could relax so easily, not without knowing whether their friends were safe or not. They spent most of their time at their homes doing what they’d do on their own to try and ease their minds, but nothing worked, whether it was Amy taking her frustration out on anything that went against her, or Cream and Cheese helping their mother with cooking and gardening, or even Knuckles’s silent meditation as he guarded the Master Emerald.
Towards the evening, many of them shared the same thought, and without contacting each other traveled to the home of the missing couple. The pink hedgehog arrived first, just standing outside the front door for a while doing nothing before one of her friends arrived from the air.
“Amy,” the voice said, “what are you doing here?” The voice came from Cream, who used her ears to fly from her home to there, landing next to her friend.
Unsure of what to say, Amy replied with “I don’t know. I just decided to come here, I guess.”
“That’s why I’m here, too,” Cream said.
“Looks like we’re all thinking the same thing,” said a third voice, this time from Knuckles as he walked towards the two girls. “I guess our worry brought us here for comfort, or something.”
“Makes enough sense to me,” Amy agreed. She then reached into a pocket on her dress, pulling out a key ring that had several different keys, two including for this home. One was a regular door and lock key, while another was an electronic key used to access or override the house’s security system.
The young rabbit then said “It kind of feels like we’re here to help housesit while they’re gone, but it still feels wrong.”
“Well, I can’t say it isn’t true. It’s been a long time since this happened to any of us,” Knuckles said with a sigh.
“Tell me about it,” said a fourth voice from out of nowhere. “Hope you don’t mind if I drop in to join the party.” Appearing next was Rouge, landing on her feet right next to the echidna.
“I wouldn’t exactly call this a ‘friendly gathering’ Rouge,” Amy told her with a sad tone.
“Believe me, sweetheart, I know. I’m thinking about the lovebirds, too,” the bat replied. “Like Knuckie was saying, it’s been a while since something like this happened, and those were the Station Square days.”
It was strange to believe that that fact was true – ten years ago, Chaos Control sent them and others to Chris Thorndyke’s world, where they all lived before having to return to Mobius to prevent their two worlds from freezing in time. Since then, so many things have happened that it would be hard to count without writing a list or using a calculator to add it all up. “
Yeah, those were some times,” Cream said as she thought about it, and the other three couldn’t agree more. “Chao-chao,” Cheese added softly.
“Come on,” Amy said, “I’m sure they wouldn’t have minded if we went inside for a while.”
She then turned around and used her keys to get them inside, opening the front door and disabling the security grid. As they stepped inside, all they could hear was quiet, and see a home filled with everything but who belongs there. They took seats across the living room sofa, each trying to form a conversation with not one of them lasting longer than a sentence or two. They began to start talking once they let their eyes wonder across the room, noticing items that told parts of their history- tools from Tails’s workshop below the house, a scrapbook Cosmo started a couple years ago, and several framed pictures that dated as far back as the Station Square days, and the first war against the evil Metarex.
At one point, a noise was heard that sounded as if somebody else was unlocking the front door, and when it opened, appearing inside the house was Chris.
“Hey you guys,” he said as his head turned to notice them. “I would’ve guessed you’d be here, too.”
“Yeah,” Amy replied. “Almost all of us are here thinking about them.”
“Come on, Amy,” Rouge said, “you know that Sonic’s done his own thing like this before.”
“I know, but at the same time, I know he feels very worried for them, especially Tails. Not knowing what happened to his little brother, it bothers him too much,” said the pink hedgehog.
Showing sympathy, Chris then said “Believe me, Amy, he’s not the only one. We’re all here worried about them.”
“All of us?” asked Knuckles, confused about how their friend said it.
Chris answered that by opening the front door wider to show them that he wasn’t the only one who came by the house. Having arrived around the same time as him were many familiar faces from across Mobius – The Chaotix Detective Agency, Maria the Hedgehog, Earthia, Galaxina, Lucas, Starla, Daisy, even Blood the Seedrian, Chopper the Chipmunk and his family. They all arrived thinking the same as those of Team Sonic, saving a couple ‘honorary’ members of Dr. Eggman’s – Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun – who were all busy at the Doctor’s base of operations conducting some search efforts and errands their leader had instructed them to do in his absence.
Standing outside on the highest point of the building was Shadow the Hedgehog, who stared up into the sky as the evening was turning to night, thinking about the events of the previous day himself. As he caught a glimpse of the first two stars to shine for that night, a speck of light emitted from a short distance away.
“I wonder what that was,” the dark hedgehog said to himself. He then sensed something about that light, and decided to investigate, racing down from the building and reaching the light’s source. What he came to find was the red Chaos Emerald, sitting at the base of a sole-standing tree in an open field.