A Quiet Beach

[Dr. Robotnik]

[From Cross Country - Egg Flag Ship]

Some distance from Soleanna, Robotnik's Egg Pod puttered to a stop over a deserted beach. Nothing but sand and palm trees stretched for miles in either direction. The good doctor motioned for Sonic to get out. "This is your stop. It won't take you long to get back to Soleanna from here, being you're the fastest thing alive and all."

The doctor chuckled.

"And like I promised, we are alone. My army isn't here. We can just go our separate ways, and then pick up where we left off the next time we meet."

[Sonic]

“One thing before I leave, Doc.” Sonic began, his arms crossed as he looked towards Dr. Robonik. “Just what’s going on here?” A dull look entered his face, as he closed his eyes and began to scratch the back of his right ear. “The last thing I remember was Amy trying to pull some stupid party for me…” He started, with a lackluster tone in his voice, “ Somethin’ ‘bout my birthday, or whatever. Either way, I remember just about everyone being around me when some huge light engulfed everything…”

He opened his eyes and placed his clenched fists on his side; a smirk appearing on his face. “The next thing I know, I’m see’n mountains cut straight in half! And they were pretty clean cuts too…” His smirk disappeared though, as a sterner look entered his face. “…and now with all that commotion you started, I feel like my heads spinn’. Care to explain?”

[Dr. Robotnik]

So this isn't the same Sonic from my universe, huh?

Robotnik wanted to smirk back, but thought better of it. Instead, he tried to look vaguely confused. "Really? Because the Sonic in my universe was fighting me and Nega-Robotnik, plus he had Blaze as a partner. He and Blaze went super with the Chaos and Sol Emeralds we had acquired...and the fabric of reality couldn't handle it. That's when the dimensional merge started."

Robotnik conveniently forgot to mention the emeralds had shattered in the incident, and the remains were scattered across the world. He didn't want Sonic out there looking for the fragments, after all. The doctor wanted to get as many as he could before Sonic started sticking his nose in things again...and he'd recently gotten word there was a high concentration on Angel Island...

"So...if you want to blame anyone for the merge...I hate to say it...but it was your double in the universe I came from." He gave a soft little laugh about it.

[Sonic]

Sonic simply smirked at the doctor’s reaction. “Oh really? Sounds to me it would of never happened if not for your own crazy schemes.” He replied back, folding his arms across his chest. The arms didn’t stay there for long though, as Sonic hopped off the Egg pod; feeling his feet already sinking into the loose sand.

“But, that’s the past now, so there’s no point in crying over spilled milk. Anyways, I’m pretty thankful for it. For a moment, I was getting scared that I had already seen the whole world…” Putting his hands behind his head, he looked off towards the distance.

“Oh, and by the way, Doc….” He stared off, sounding somewhat distant and vague, “You’re still a hammy actor.”

[Dr. Robotnik]

Robotnik blinked when Sonic mentioned ham. Then he got a rather ludicrous-looking grin on his face. "Ham? That sounds like a great idea right now!" He belted out a big laugh. "I'm going to ask my chef robots to make several pounds for me when I get back to the Egg Carrier with a side of eggs! Perhaps five dozen of them!"

When he settled down, he decided to answer Sonic's question seriously. Well, as serious as Robotnik felt like being right now. "What? You didn't like my grand speech when I first showed up at Soleanna? Or what about all that rhetoric I had to say when I was in Mecha Robo? Oh, and you're not such a great linguist yourself. How about all those lame insults you keep belting out?"

[Sonic]

Sonic practically sweatdroped at the Doctor’s strange reply about food; shaking his head. Was this guy serious? He’d always thought that his Eggman-eating-a-lot jokes were just that, jokes. But sometimes when you joked, you’d end up hitting the target dead center.

“No, I’m talking about what you had just said now. I can see your lying through your teeth about somethin’.” His foot began to tap impatiently as the hedgehog placed his hands at his side. “ Like you found an ace up your sleeve or something. You do it all the time…”

Smirking a bit, he looked towards the doctor. “Anyways, I’ve stopped listening to your speeches a while back. All I hear is-” In a somewhat annoying matter, Sonic began to act childish; putting his hand up and using it as a mouth as he looked up in the air.. “-‘Blah, blah, blah, I’m a –Genius-! Blah, blah, blah, surrender now!! Blah blah, blah, I’m better than everyone!!’...”

Stopping once his point came across, he folded his arms against his chest once again; his smirk a lot larger than it was before. “And the last I checked your insults and witty come back are just as lame! So I guess we’re even there!”

[Dr. Robotnik]

Robotnik just laughed at Sonic's remarks. "Well how about YOUR speeches? All I hear is the same couple phrases over and over again too." The good doctor did the best he could to imitate Sonic's high-pitched voice as he stood up in his Egg Pod, striking the same poses Sonic usually did before going into combat. "'We'll see about THAT...EGGHEAD!' 'Gotta juice!' 'I'm gonna to take you down...' or, or...whatever other slang you kids are using these days."

He settled back down into the seat. As he put his seatbelts back on, he spoke once more to Sonic. "By the way, you're right. I do have something in mind for my next plot." He chuckled and shook his head. "But I always do, so really, no surprise there right? You'll just have to find out what it is the next time we meet. I would hate to ruin the suspense by telling you right now."

He gazed off far down the beach, in the direction of Soleanna. You could almost see the sunlight glinting off the skyscrapers in the distance. In the meantime, the Egg Ships were beating a retreat, as smoke spilled out from multiple holes in their hulls. Tracers could still be seen flashing against the clouds, and they would hear the occasional explosion a couple seconds after it appeared in the sky.

"Let's just say I'm not going to give up on taking over Soleanna so easily. I will most definitely be back. You can count on that."

The Egg Pod's engines came alight, as it started to fly over the ocean, back to the Egg Carrier. Robotnik gave a wave as he left.

"Farewell, Sonic the hedgehog. We shall meet again, as we are always destined to do."

[To Egg Flag Ship]

[Sonic]

“Don’t keep me waiting, old man!” Sonic started off, as he waved goodbye to Dr. Robotnik, “Things just get boring if I have ta wait!!”

Before the Doctor would know it, it would soon see a blue streak stretching over the long, lonely beach. Where he was going, not even Sonic knew. He simply picked a direction and decided to follow it; to see what he hasn’t seen before. He didn’t have to worry about the good Doctor, for he was sure that, much like any other time, he’d run into him fast enough. But for now, Sonic only had to worry about where his feet would take him next.

[To Cross Country ]

[Tails]

(BOS - field hospital)

Tails flies his plane into what looks like some forest and a beautiful beach. He keeps his eyes on the ground as he sweeps around the perimeter of what looks like a hole in the beach. He never lands the plane, that would be too dangerous. He sweeps the beach first and makes sure to stay high enough for a very quick sweep, since Sonic was also fast.

Tails thinks to himself. "Sonic doesn't appear to be on the beach, he might be in the forest. It'll be hard to find him in there, but it'll be worth the shot."

[Tails]

Tails sweeps the forest more slowly and calls for Sonic down below to see if he'd run out into the open, preferably the beach. The sweep had to go into certain areas of the forest. The forest wasn't huge by any means. It was mostly just a small piece the beach to help with shade.

Tails prepares to sweep the beach one more time just to see if Sonic may have come out into the open just to make double sure he's safe. "I hope Sonic's okay and didn't get hurt."