Chapter Text
Sonic was running across the ring of lakes, the lake in Knothole that spawned rings at their disposal, it had just so happened to be in the way of his daily walks.
After today, he really wished he fucking didn’t.
A ring came out, it began spinning, and suddenly… it flew up in the air and began spinning, Sonic stopped a little while ahead and quickly ran back.
Okay. This wasn’t good. Sally would most likely chew him out for this. Maybe he could play it off as happened on his own.
Suddenly, Nicole materialized next to him.
“Hello, Son-...Sonic-”
“Uh huh?”
“What did you do?”
“I think I stepped on it,” Sonic murmured. Nicole turned her head to look at him very slowly.
“I’m not going to explain why that is dumb.”
“Don’t…” Sonic said.
“You’re usually a lot more responsible.”
“Mhm, I know,” He sighed and she pat his shoulder.
“We don’t even know if that is a Warp Ring or a Power Ring.”
“Yep…” Sonic pursed his lips in thought. “Please. Please don’t tell anyone about this yet.”
“...You have an hour.”
“What?” Sonic turned to her.
“How long do you think I can keep this under wraps for, it’s a floating ring that is getting larger as we speak, and glows brighter as we talk.”
“I-I dunno, at least just-”
Suddenly, something popped out. A blank, white figure. Only thing was, when Sonic and Nicole looked at him, they got an extensive amount of dread.
“Guess it’s a warp ring,” Sonic said before letting out a single dry chuckle.
“...Who, who is he?” Nicole asked.
“I…am what you all would call the world. The galaxy, the universe. God. Or one. Or all. I am. Truth…and I am you…”
It pointed at Sonic, and suddenly, a door opened behind him, and black tendrils with eyes on them grabbed Nicole.
“What the?”
“S-o-sos-sonic!” She glitched, before stabilizing, then glitched again. “He-e-e-e-lp!”
Sonic grabbed for her, but his hand went through her, oh yeah, hologram, and she was sucked in.
“Nicoooole!” He yelled. “Dang it. Wait, how did you grab her? She’s a hologram.”
“I am god.” He stood up, before tilting his head in confusion. “The fuck’s a holog-?”
“Pssshhh, no you’re not. We have gods. One of them are a water deity. Buddy, you’re no sweat,” Sonic waved him off. “But listen pal, I’ve beaten that god. So I’m gonna let you off with a warning. You better bring Nicole back, before I juice and jam and put foot to face!”
He revved himself up with the Peel Out, blasting forward and reaching his target in an instant. As he shot forward a punch, an invisible barrier came up and blocked it.
“What the?” Sonic’s eyes, eye widened and he leapt back. Landing, he dashed to the side and came from another angle, blocked by an invisible barrier again, electricity crackled and he was sent flying back.
“Uhh. Okay. So. I caused Ring to pop out some “create your character” loonie who sucked Nicole into a cupboard. And I am struggling to hit him,” Sonic thought to himself as he laid on his back, crossing his arms and thinking. “What to do, Sonic. Nicole’s in danger and it’s your fault…”
“Oh yeah, get them to talk too much,” He sat up, before standing up and cracking a few bones, walking around the Truth. “You can do that.”
“So. Uhh, buddy,” Sonic crossed his arms and looked at him. “Where’d you come from? Knothole? Robotropolis? Angel Island?”
“What are any of those?” The Truth crossed his arms. “What about Amestris, Xing?”
“Uhh, I don’t know any of those.”
“God. Boneheaded,” The Truth sighed, knocking his knuckles against his own head to illustrate, crossing his arms. “You’ll never be able to get your friend back if you don’t sit down and think of an offer…”
“Hah hah, so that’s your secret?” He pointed at the truth, who’s grin turned into a frown.
“Damn, he talks with purpose.”
“Alright, I gotta make you an offer to get my friend back!” Sonic sat his butt down. “Sit, if you will…”
…
Two hours had passed.
Sonic was losing his patience, he’d offered his guitar, his gloves, half of the lake of rings, his racecar bed (Truth got excited at that one), and himself. As well as loads of other things
So unfortunately, he had to invite all the smart people he knew. Tails, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge and…
…
Sally.
The chewing out was loud, his left ear was left numb, his right ear was left stinging. If he could hear tomorrow, he wished he wouldn’t be able to.
Nobody was working out what was needed here.
Sonic was getting pissed.
“Hey, yo!” He asked Truth, who was sitting in a circle with them, listening to music on headphones, Sonic tried to take the headphones off but was sent flying by the barrier, eliciting a hearty laugh from Knuckles, which for some reason got taken down when Sally offered him tea. Prick.
Sonic walked over to him.
“I’ve offered you everything I can think of, involving myself. And you won’t take it, why? What do I have to give?”
“I won’t accept you as a sacrifice because it’s not a big one. I’ve read up about you in the 2 fucking hours I’ve been here. You. You’re simply too self-sacrificing. You’ve let yourself die before, and you would gladly do it again. You would throw yourself to the pits for any of them…” Truth gestured to all of Sonic’s friends, the laptop he had used sitting in his lap, Sonic grit his teeth.
“Then what would you take?!” He stared into Truth itself.
“...” And Truth stared back.
Shadow looked at Sonic.
“Sonic…what is wrong?”
“I-I’ve figured it out..” Sonic looked at Shadow, who raised an eyebrow.
“You know what he’d want?” Tails flew up from his sitting position and walked up to him. “You’ve already offered Uncle Chuck’s recipe for Chili, what else would-”
He saw Sonic’s face, and saw the answer.
“...No…” Tails gasped, hand on his mouth.
Sally stood up, walking over to them. “I don’t get it. What’s wrong? What does he want?”
Knuckles sighed, shaking his head. “Damn it, Sal…there’s no good ending here.”
Sally looked at everyone, confused. “I don’t under-”
She blinked with surprise. Running over to Sonic. “Sonic, please, no.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Giving away his shoes, was the worst thing he could think of. They were with him when he started Knothole, grew with him when he got his body grown, endured him getting blasted to space, the beatings from Eggman, all the stuff that they went through.
Only to go down. To a blank space…
Nicole was returned, safe and sound, and upon seeing what Sonic did, rushed over and consoled him, cradling him, apologizing for being captured.
And she didn’t need to, it was Nicole, or his shoes. He’d obviously choose Nicole. It was Nicole, she rebuilt their home.
Still though. Losing the shoes bit hard. Was a fair trade for endangering her life though. He walked around in his black shoes.
Sonic laid in his room, sighing, his dignity and pride gone, it’d been a couple weeks.
Suddenly, Nicole materialized in his room.
“Hi, Son-”
“We had a long, stern talk about popping up in people’s rooms.”
“Sorry,” She held her arm ashamed
“That’s alright Nicole, continue,” He sat up and smiled at her, apologetical for his attitude.
She held a bag in the arm she rubbed, and gave it to him, it dropped in his lap.
“It’s a thank you present,” She smiled. “For trading them for me. Some people thought it was dumb, but I know you loved them.”
He looked inside, there were shoes, like his iconic red and white ones but yellow accents on the end of the straps, and the shoes looked to curve upwards.
“They’re better for running, and remember that time you tried grinding, they’re good for that too.”
Sonic smiled and hugged Nicole. They wouldn’t replace the originals, but they’d do.
“How’d you figure out how to interact with physical objects?”
“Being in that void changed me a little,” She smiled. Trying to ignore the shiver that went down her spine.
“So, what, you can physically interact with things?”
“Half and half,” she picked up Sonic’s guitar and played a few strings, before putting it down. “More like Metaphysical.”
“Not bad,” He smiled. “You play like that often?”
“I’ve been learning. Besides, we’re gonna need all the advantages we can get. I doubt that’ll be the last time a ring will open like that,” She sighed, and sat next to him on his bed. "Truth got sucked back in a little after, but who knows who we'll see next..."
“Eh, we’ve got this. We’re the Freedom Fighters,” He put his hand up to fistbump her.
“Yeah,” She wiped her worried expression, and fistbumped back.
Their hands lingered, longer than necessary, Nicole blushed, and her smile widened considerably, before stepping backwards.
“I’ve gotta go…” She smiled, and dematerialized, leaving Sonic to grin.
“Woah…totally worth it,” He looked down at his shoes, totally wicked.