Sonic Runaways

"Stop carrying that piece of scrap around, Tails," Sonic groaned through Metal's constant confused whirring as Tails dragged him along the limestone floor of the Labyrinth by Metal's leg. "It's already busted, it's just slowing us down."

"I can't do that!" Tails exclaimed. "This is a marvel of technology! I've been studying it, and it seems to have some sort of next level artificial intelligence that not even I have been able to master yet. If I can reprogram it to be peaceful, maybe even locate its AI chip for another robot, it might end up being useful to us somehow." Tails jumped at the sight of a sharp spike shooting right up from the limestone floor right in front of him.

"If looking after that thing ends up getting you hurt, I'm breaking it," Sonic warned. "You hear that, Metal me?" Metal's head stopped spinning like an owl's. It stared daggers at Sonic, but the hedgehog was just observing one of the many engravings of strange figures on the Labyrinth's yellowish, water-damaged, vine-ridden walls.

Metal then activated his jet thrusters, and pulled Tails along with him. Sonic spun around to face Metal as he blasted off, and carried Tails along with him. Tails wouldn't unhand the metal monster. Tails yelled as he was now the one being dragged along, quite effortlessly by Metal too. "Hey! Get back here!" Sonic shouted, immediately running after Metal Sonic.

Soon enough, they reached a large body of deep water that extended on for as far as Sonic could see. "Great… can't stop now!" Sonic exclaimed. He ran across the water, moving so fast that he stayed on the surface instead of sinking. Sonic was gaining on Metal Sonic. "Tails, let go!" Sonic shouted over the turbulence and the sound of water splashing. "This thing isn't worth it!"

Tails was practically jet skiing with Metal Sonic. "Not happening! Let me at least get his AI chip!"

Sonic continued running, as Metal began to zip around all over the place in attempts to shake Tails off. Tails all the while trying to locate his chip. Until finally… "I found it!" Tails exclaimed happily. He removed the chip, and instantly Metal was reduced to just an empty husk. His eyes turned white. His jet thrusters remained active for a while as Tails celebrated, but when they too cut out, he was thrown forward with Tails still on him.

Metal began to skip across the water's edge, spinning all around with Tails on him. Sonic's eyes widened as they approached a waterfall. Right when Metal fell with Tails along with him, Sonic jumped into the waterfall.

When he hit the water, he quickly realized there was slanted ground right underneath the shallow water. He skated down the slide on his feet, as Metal fell deeper and deeper into the rapids. Sonic was just about gaining on them… he reached out to Tails and grabbed him. He jumped onto a handcrafted cliff and grabbed onto the ledge. Metal crashed loudly against a limestone wall, and fell down into a body of water.

"Glad we're finally rid of him," Sonic said. He looked to Tails, who looked too shaken up to even speak. He just kind of stayed there, shivering.

Everybody took a second to regather their bearings after climbing up onto the ledge. "Is the chip okay?" Sonic asked. Tails used his tails to blowdry his fur.

"Yeah, I think so," Tails replied. He pulled out the chip and examined it. "We're all good. This thing has a waterproof shell, luckily I didn't land on it."

"Alright, you better make something real good out of it for all that trouble it put us through," Sonic laughed.

"You bet!" Tails looked to a wall. It appeared to be a dead end at first, but engraved in the stone wall was a hole in the shape of a hand. "Umm, what exactly is this?" Tails asked.

"I don't know…" Sonic replied, walking forward as Tails looked on confusedly. Sonic glanced to his hand, and then up to the engraving of a hand as he approached. Images of the statue in the Marble zone flashed through his mind. He wiped off some dirt and dust from the bronze lining around the hand. When he did, he found a pure black painting on the wall that had aged with time. He examined it closely.

It displayed a hedgehog, with what appeared to be all 7 Chaos Emeralds. And many strange bird-man creatures that, despite their mix of animal and human features, could not have been anything from Erius. The hedgehog not only looked different from them in proportions and shape, but it looked just like Sonic.

"Sonic… your hand! It fits right into the hole!" Tails cried in shock at the same time that it clicked for Sonic. That was him in the painting. And that was the exact shape and size of his hand. "What is this place?!"

Sonic stared at the hand engraving. Without a word to himself or Tails, he placed his hand into the plate. A blue and purple glow shined through, shimmering and dazzling. Then, it ceased. The wall split apart, and the separate pieces slid open, with stone grinding against stone loudly. Tails gawked at the sight, and Sonic too, looked dumbfounded.

"That really worked?" Sonic asked. "What's going on?" The doors showed a room inside. The torchlight barely reached the foot of a limestone statue. Sonic walked in, and it felt like every step was suddenly counting towards something big. Further amplified by the loud clacking of the soles of his shoes against the stone floor. As he got closer to the statue, a blue glow grew stronger. He looked to his hands, and saw them sparkling with electricity. Something that usually only happened when he went hyper, like in the Death Egg and Prison Hill.

The light grew, and grew, and eventually illuminated the statue. It was in the likeness of a very familiar figure. An owl, one that never looked completely from Erius to Sonic. It was someone who could strike fear into the hearts of anyone who saw her, but was still maternal, protective, and caring.

"Longclaw?"