Humidity was the order of the day, with an added heat index of a hundred and eight degrees to make everything extra spicy this midsummer day in the city.
The sky was a brilliant blue, a sight that brought Laik a pang of nostalgia each time he looked up. Sure, it wasn’t as deeply colored as it was over Azure Lake, but it was pretty nice for what it was.
With a tummy full of a copious amount of eggs, bacon, and at least three cups of coffee, Laik stepped out onto the busy sidewalk of Central City with no real plans or an idea of what he wanted to do or where he should go.
He had never been to the big city before; his adventures kept him in the remote countryside more often than not, and it had only been during the war with Robotnik that he first set foot in a dwelling bigger than his own village.
Sunset Heights was small in comparison. The wolf marveled at the sky-high buildings that lined each street, with even bigger ones off in the distance. Very few were destroyed in the carnage, and even those that were harmed only sustained minor damage… Well, except for the one with the giant Death Egg Robot leaning against it.
Memories of the weird dream from last night flooded back. Odd, he thought, since he seldom remembered his dreams the next morning. The weirdness of it all had made it stick to his memory a bit more, he figured.
The featureless Lanolin, the morphing into a wriggling mass of tentacles, and the face they eventually formed.
Laik scratched his chin, losing himself momentarily in thought as he slowly made his way down the street away from the diner, dodging other folk as he went.
What was it the voice had mentioned? The Phantom Ruby? Yes, that was it. The face-of-tentacles had asked about the whereabouts of that stupid stone. Robotnik had used it to augment reality and power his army. It was a topic of much debate during meetings, and many of the strategies were composed based on how to best counter the effects it had on individuals.
Then there was its ability to create portals and hurl people through dimensions, to other worlds, to—
A clinking sound, followed by what he could only describe as slime being violently sucked through a sink drain, rang loudly out of a nearby alleyway.
“The heck was that?!” He yelled, catching the attention of the crowd around him.
“You all right, buddy?” A rabbit in a cowboy hat asked.
“You’re scaring my baby!” A woman holding a watermelon shouted angrily, a sight and declaration that gave Laik a momentary pause despite the familiarity of the now purple-pinkish glow coming out of the alley.
“I’m-I’m fine,” He said to the rabbit with the hat, “Just a weird random question, pal, but do you see a purple light coming out of that alleyway, by chance?” He pointed and the rabbit’s eyes followed.
“Eh, no? You all right? Is this summer heat getting to you, lad?”
But Laik shook his head and said, “No, I’m fine. It was a rough night; I didn’t sleep well. Sorry for bothering you.” He looked at the sparrow cradling the watermelon like an infant. That lady is bonkers, he thought, as he casually stepped off the sidewalk and headed for the opposite side.
The purple-pink glow intensified as the wolf drew closer. How was no one else seeing this, he wondered. The familiar distorted sucking sound was so loud that it was drowning out the nearby traffic, but no one paid it any mind.
“Such a strange color. It’s purple but not, but pink at the same time… but also not.” He said to himself again, doubting anyone could hear him through all the noise.
Finally, when he rounded the corner, he saw it. The all-too-familiar look of a portal. A circle floating in midair like a Ring Portal, but without the physical body to hold it in place. Pinks, purples, and dashes of yellow and orange swirled endlessly down a hole that seemed to go on and on forever.
“This is bonkers. How on earth is there a Phantom Ruby portal here?!” Before anyone reacted, he began to feel the familiar pull of the wormhole as it dragged him forward. It increased in intensity the second he grabbed hold of anything, threatening to rip his claws off if he tried grabbing onto the corner of the nearby building.
“Help, somebody, help me!” He yelled, but no one responded or even looked his way. It felt like one of those nightmares, only he could hear his voice loud and clear despite the hum of the portal.
“I just got baaaaaack—” He yelled sharply before being cut off. The portal closed suddenly, leaving only a single discarded hamburger wrapper floating about in the contained chaos.
He kept his eyes closed shut tight, but the sensation of his body tumbling over itself again and again was not lost on his senses, and his stomach wasn’t handling it as well as he had before. Perhaps being full of breakfast foods made it weaker this time, but the urge to blow chunks again was quickly coming to the forefront of his mind, overshadowing the frustration of once again jumping through portals.
Where was he going to end up this time crossed his mind. Better yet, what was causing these portals to seemingly open up at random, and why was no one else being affected? Lastly, what did the Phantom Ruby—
SLAM! The darkness gave way to a lush green that came up on him faster than he could open his eyes. He collided with the top of a thick palm tree frond, knocking the wind from his lungs in a sharp exhale. The tree bent under his weight as he coughed and fell, hitting a shorter tree on the way down.
And then he hit another. “How—“
Sunlight faded the further he fell as the sky quickly swapped placed with the undersides of palm trees, both small and giant.
“—tall...” Bam! Another thick frond that bent but quickly snapped upwards, acting like a springboard and sending him soaring into a net of damp, moss-laden vines.
“Is this freaking jungle?!” He yelled as the vines, too, gave way under his weight and sent him plummeting straight to the jungle floor. He struck like a rock into the mud, which was exactly what he had fallen into: Mud!
He lay there on his back, red eyes staring up at the canopy that blocked out the sky above, thankful it wasn’t the sinking kind of mud hole. “I’m getting…” He inhaled, filling his lungs once more with the moist jungle air, “…real tired of this.”
Clear of the mudpit, he found a small stream nearby to wash the caked-on matter off his body and gloves. Beside the stream, the sound of life all around him became abundant. Critters both big and small could be heard squaking or grunting. Brightly colored parrots soared overhead, accompanied by snow-white cockatoos. Nearby, a tiny, brightly colored frog expanded its throat and let rip an impressive-sounding croak for such a tiny creature.
“Well, at least I’m seeing some familiar faces… kinda.” Clean, dried, and ready to explore—and find a way home—Laik began following the river as it flowed. If there were any people nearby, they’d be living close to a fresh water source, so it only made sense.
The dense forest soon gave way to a clearing, and beyond that, something that looked like a treehouse high up. Far too high to jump, and a lack of springboards meant this wasn’t Mobian in nature. “Oh good,” he thought as he cautiously surveyed the area. The treehouse looked well-maintained, so whoever lived there was likely still around, if not watching him at this very moment. Waiting to attack.
“So okay, do I step out into the clearing and shout for some help and risk a spear in the leg, or do I wait it out here…”
The decision was made for him the second the giant furred fist exploded from the brush behind him, connecting with his gut and, once again, knocking the wind out of him as he soared high into the air!
A gorilla covered in brown fur burst from the treeline, a red tie draped around its neck, and stared upwards at the wolf as he reached the peak of his ascent.
Crap, crap, crap, crap! Laik panicked, trying but failing miserably to latch on to branches as he began to fall back to the ground, and the grinning ape that waited there for him.
With seconds left, Laik took a few sharp breaths and then rolled up into a ball, pulling his legs and arms forward. Like any native Mobian, he instinctively tapped into a power that caused the gravity around his body to begin rotating around his circular form, spinning him rapidly. Sonic the Hedgehog was the master of this technique and had even shown him a few tricks he could do with it while serving with the Resistance.
The gorilla’s grin stretched clear across his huge, brown fur-covered head as he wound up his next blow like he was playing a baseball league game.
“All right, you big ape, this one’s coming at’cha face!” The wolf shouted as his body shot forward like a cannonball, catching the ape off guard with a well-timed homing attack! Laik slammed into the gorilla hard enough to knock him off-balance, sending spittle flying from the impact. The wolf uncurled himself and then performed a lightning-fast tornado kick that finally sent the oversized ape to the ground!
Laik landed with all the flourish and technique of the Hedgehog that inspired him. He just wished he had Sonic’s carefree attitude, when the actual truth of the matter was that Laik was frightened, freaking the heck out.
“Buahahaha! You donked the Kong! Good show, sonny! Good show!” Yelled an old voice from high above! Laik looked up and saw another ape staring back at him, this one much older, with a bald head and a beard. “DK, get your sorry keister up, boy. I think we found the help we were looking for.”
The ape rose to his feet, looking no worse for wear, shrugging off a two-tiered attack that would have destroyed most Badniks.
Laik took a quick step back as the gorilla lumbered up to him. The two made eye contact, his deep brown eyes connecting with the wolf’s red ones. The staring contest lasted all but five seconds before the ape smiled and scooped the little wolf up with one hand, placing him atop his back as he began climbing effortlessly up the tree, towards the house above.
And Laik, he just screamed.
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