𝙎𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙘 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚𝙝𝙤𝙜: 𝙉𝙤 𝙒𝙖𝙮 𝙃𝙤𝙢𝙚!

      The next morning, Sonic woke up a little later and sleepy. Because Ozzy woke him up by slobbering all over his face. At this time, Tails was walking in circles and getting angry. — Crap! Zero ideas! None at all! Stupid, stupid head! — he cursed in his direction, pronouncing each word in turn. Nearby lay his semblance of a laptop. He was clearly trying to find some free flights and somehow automatically lure out tickets on his own, and then present them at the airport. However, all flights were suddenly closed. Absolutely everyone and not one is going to give a single ticket to the Vakovskys, much less sell them or let someone hack access to them. Sonic gets up, wipes his face from the dog's kisses and leaves the attic, passing by his friend and saying: — Good morning! — If! The poor blue guy couldn't eat or have fun. His mood was completely sunk to the bottom of the sea. In the figurative sense of the word. All he did was lie on the sofa, staring at the TV, which was turned off and which he did not watch. The hedgehog finally gave up on this, deciding that he and his friends, as well as Wakowski, were simply doomed. And it's all his fault. No matter what he does and no matter how rightly he acts, there will always be a rake everywhere that he will step on. But the military will always be one step ahead and he really can’t avoid them, and he can’t stop them in any way. With a sigh, he lowers his head, lying on the sofa and almost preparing to pretend to die in this very place, as did one character from a movie he once watched. — “All these moments dissolve like tears in the rain... It’s time to die!” He suddenly jumps to his feet as he hears the sound of a portal opening inside the Wakowski house. Sonic is already getting into a fighting stance, thinking that an enemy or someone worse will come out of the portal. However, two echidnas emerged from the portal. The hedgehog immediately recognized one of them. — On... Knuckles? — Hi, sorry it's so late. I thought it would be quick, but I had to stay late. — red one explained and began to introduce the second orange echidna, in a white dress with blue sequins and slippers, which he brought with him. — This is Tikal, the sorceress and daughter of the leader of the echidna tribe. — Greetings. — she bowed to the hedgehog, as the Japanese usually greet each other. — I assume you are the same Sonic the Hedgehog? — Yes. Did Knuckles tell you about me? — Many tell me! — Tikal explained briefly, taking a couple of suitcases from behind the portal and carrying them into the Wakowski house, after which the portal to the other world where they came from closed. - Well, Sonic. How should I help you? — M-m-m-m... It’s not smart for me to bother the leader’s daughter over such trifles! — hedgehog wanted to apologize. — Drop it! You helped the guardian himself, so you can stop bowing to me! — the sorceress hinted at Knuckles. — To the Guardian? — Sonic didn’t understand, but then switched to another topic, continuing the conversation: — In general! After I accidentally created that electronic explosion in the stadium, which cut out electricity throughout the globe... My whole life went topsy-turvy and... I don't know how you can help me with this, but... You can come back into the past and prevent that explosion on Earth? So that I remain a secret from everyone and so that people continue to not know about my existence? — No. Time travel is a dangerous thing. Besides, it won't change anything here anyway. Just imagine, you jumped into the past and changed something there. Your change in the past turns into a new present and a new future, and your past from the present remains the past and its new present, and especially the new future, cannot be changed in any way. You are more likely to create an alternative universe and a time collapse will occur, which will be punishable by your complete disappearance. Besides, this could also affect the random deaths of countless lives and you are asking me to make your life easier? — No, no, this is not about me... There are many victims in this story because of me. My friends who have become family to me. Sir Donut, I mean Tom Wakowski and his wife, Lady Pretzel, I mean Maddie. Their personal lives and rights to live in their own way and fly or move somewhere abroad have been destroyed. And all because the whole world knows about my existence and that I live with them in their house. They don’t deserve this, because it’s not their fault... I’m the only one to blame. — It is not true! — Knuckles intervened, trying to justify Sonic. — Really, Knuckles! You yourself saw all this with your own eyes. Every night I blame myself for this and even think that maybe it would be better if I had never existed in this world at all... So that the whole world would never know about my existence! — Why didn’t you say so right away? — Tikal smiled back at him, put one of the suitcases on the table, next to the sofa, and opened it. — It’s not for nothing that I brought everything I needed with me. We will arrange a ritual of oblivion. — Ritual of oblivion? — the hedgehog didn’t understand. — These are standard charms that instantly erase any memory of any humanoid and he forgets it forever, without possibly remembering it sooner or later or looking at the hints, also not remembering anything. I remember once waking up one morning on the roof of a house, although I remembered that I fell asleep inside the house. But it turned out that before that I was just a naughty child and wanted to leave home, but then I was so ashamed that I wanted to forget about it and Tikal helped me forget about it. I don’t remember any of this at all, and the stories about it to me only sound like just stories or false rumors. — We may not turn back time, but I promise that this whole world will forget about your existence and who you are, as if you were never here. — Except for Tails and me! Knuckles added. — Don't worry! The effect of the spell will only affect the inhabitants of this planet, and you are not them, so the spell will not affect you. — Tikal explained. — But... — But? — Sonic didn’t understand. — The most important thing is missing, what is needed in order to carry out the ritual of oblivion. — sorceress finished her sentence and, narrowing her eyes, finished with pathos: — Chaos Emeralds. — Is the Master Emerald suitable as a replacement for the Chaos Emeralds? We can bring it. — Sonic suggested. — Hm-m... Give it to me! — Tikal wanted to check the Master Emerald. The hedgehog and Knuckles handed the sorceress a large emerald and she began to examine it. Closing her eyes, she felt the emerald and tried to feel the power of Chaos in it. Strangely enough, there was much more of it inside the Master of Emerald. — Yes. This is the perfect replacement. Sonic immediately turned around, seeing a droid watching in the window, which immediately flew to the side and hid as if it were not there. — Let's just not here, but choose a safer place!? And we'll take Tails with us!

***

      Sonic escorted Knuckles and Tikal near the city and forest into the thicket. Having found a hole on the ground, they descended into a huge cave, which would have been the envy of the Ninja Turtles and even Batman himself, according to the hedgehog. It was huge, and even resembled a temple. — Beautiful cave! — said the sorceress, and Sonic began his story: — I read about her in the history of the founding of the city of Green Hills. This old cave was built by robbers two hundred years ago as a hiding place to avoid cavalry and escape to another state with looted gold. And when the sheriff and the cavalry tracked down the robbers and found her, the cave was cleaned out and everyone forgot about it. And in the nineties, a couple of episodes were filmed here for a series about a journey to the center of the Earth. — You know a lot about the Earth. — Knuckles was surprised. — I’ve been living on Earth for a long time, have you forgotten? — The robbers had bad taste. — Tails wondered out loud. — It wouldn’t hurt to rebuild this old abandoned cave! For example, make beautiful arches or statues from these protruding stalactites from the pier, put beds there for rest, benches there, and a sign here so that people don’t get lost while looking for the exit. — Tails, don't forget! We didn’t come here to carry out repairs, but to hide from the eyes and ears of the military, so that it would be easier and faster to carry out the ritual. — said the hedgehog. While the hedgehog, the fox and the red echidna were looking at and discussing the cave, Tikal took out a bowl for the fire, took a few dry branches, lit a fire and instead of a lid put the emerald on top. — You ready? — Tikal asked Sonic. Sonic nodded without hesitation: The sorceress, despite the hot temperature of the cup, touches it with her palms without getting burned, closes her eyes and sharply stretches her arms to the sides. The Master Emerald began to shine, and a semblance of some kind of protective field, green in color, consisting of patterns, formed around the bowl, a green ring formed around the bowl, which Tikal, as if by the power of telekinesis, pulls into his arms and another such ring is formed around the protective field, but huge. — And so. There is no turning back now. Now all of humanity on planet Earth will forget about the existence of Sonic and who he is. Suddenly the hedgehog came to his senses: — In what sense is everything? Is that all right? — he clearly did not agree to this. — Wait! Is it possible to make sure that someone doesn’t forget? The sorceress stopped and opened her eyes, after which the protective field and rings stopped spinning and seemed to freeze in place. — The spell just doesn’t work that way. To do this, you should have discussed this with me earlier, before I started. — Tikal explained. — Moreover, it is very dangerous to change anything during the process. — So absolutely everyone will forget about me, even my best friend Tom Wakowski? — Sonic thought in despair. — And he’s only friends with you because you’re an alien from another world whose existence no one should know about? — asked Tikal. — Yes, that is, no. That is... It's difficult to explain. He just said that I was his friend and... — Okay okay. — sorceress took pity and lowered her ring in front of her, which immediately disappeared from sight. She again brought her palms to the bowl, forming another, similar ring and pulled it towards her. At this moment, a second huge ring will appear around the protective field. Now there were two of them. — The whole world will forget about your existence, with the exception of... Tom Wakowski. — Thank you. — Sonic exhales with relief, no longer worrying about his friend. However, he almost forgot that he was married and that she also knew about his existence. — And Maddie? Tom's wife? — You said earlier that your friend couldn’t be married? — Tikal frowned. — Sorry, I almost forgot myself. — Sonic apologized. Tikal lowered the new ring in front of her, which immediately disappeared from sight. She again brought her palms to the bowl, forming another, identical ring and pulled it towards her. At this moment, another huge ring will again appear around the protective field. Now there were three of them. Tails loved the beauty of the spell, it made him feel as if he were watching a movie, and Knuckles squinted. — I do not like it. — he said. — This has never happened before. — I changed the parameters of the spell again, but you don’t have to do that anymore! — Fine, fine, I understand. I won't do it again. Honestly! — Sonic said at first, but then he remembered that there was also Ozzy the dog and crazy Carl. — M-m-m-m... Crazy Karl should still remember about me. — Sonic, will you let me do magic? — The sorceress frowned even more. — You don’t understand, when he found out about my existence, he was the only one who tried to attack me and catch me even before the military, and when the whole city found out about my existence, he sharply changed his attitude towards me and I don’t know, he won’t whether he will attack me when he finds out about me again. I don't want to repeat this! — the hedgehog was almost pleadingly on his knees. — Will he remember? — Yes. — Tikal grumbled, repeating the same thing and forming a huge ring around the shield of the fourth in a row, which, together with the three previous ones, began to spin around. — Thank you. — sighs with relief. — Oh, and Ozzy? — No, it’s hard for me now because of you. — the witch was almost angry. — You don’t understand, this is Wakowski’s dog, man’s best friend. And then there's Tom's partner Wade. — Maybe you’ll finally shut up? — Tikal hissed through her teeth, like a beast. At that moment, her dreadds rose into the air and flashed with yellow lightning. Knuckles had already seen six huge rings spinning rapidly around the protective field, which began to spin even faster, like the original design of the time machine in James Cameron's Terminator. He immediately realized that the spell was spoiling and ran towards Sonic. — SONIC, STOP!!! ENOUGH!!! — he shouted. The spell immediately goes out of control, the last front ring disappears itself, and Tikal rises in the air along with Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, as if they were in outer space, in zero gravity. An earthquake begins and the floor under your feet suddenly breaks, opening cracks and crevices through which green smoke emanated, somewhat similar to fog. Sonic, without thinking, shouts out loud: — AND ALL WHO BEFORE KNEW ABOUT MY EXISTENCE, LET'S THEM ALSO REMEMBER ME!!! — NO-O-O!!! — That's all Knuckles shouted. The huge rings immediately began to spin even faster, and the protective field began to split and crack, as if it could not hold these rings and was about to break. Immediately, a huge crack with green fog opened on the wall of the cave, where two silhouettes appeared that glowed with a green radiance. One somewhat resembled a girl in a short dress and heels with short hair, and the other, who stood next to her, resembled a huge anthropomorphic bull. The silhouette of the girl looked around, as if she did not understand where she was or where she had ended up, and the big horned man growled heart-rendingly and slightly twitched his hands, after which he began to move forward, although he himself stood still. — My God! — Tails’s eyes bulged at what he saw, and his eyes and pupils began to glow green. Sonic himself did not understand what was happening, and Knuckles was in a panic. Of course, he didn’t understand anything either, but there was a suspicion that it was something terrible. Tikal was covered in yellow lightning on her fur and in her eyes with raised dreadlocks. With the last of her strength, angry and hissing through her teeth, she clenches both palms into fists and, as if trying to hold and lift weights, she pulls both hands from the sides to the center, in front of her. The rings rotating around begin to slowly shrink and shrink, while the green protective field completely cracks and disappears. With the last of her strength, the sorceress reduces all the looped spells to the size of an apple, seals them in a magical green cube, somewhat reminiscent of a Rubik's cube, but only with green and translucent colors. When this happened, Tikal, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles landed back on the ground and the green cracks disappeared. Trying to collect his thoughts, the hedgehog looks around and sees that essentially everything around remains the same and has not changed. — Happened? — he asked. The red echidna, taking a breath from anger, approached his blue friend and hit him in the face, shouting: — HAPPENED??? YEP??? YOU NEARLY DESTROYED US!!! YOU SATISFIED??? WHO ASKED YOU TO INTERVENE DURING THE RITUAL??? WHAT IF SHE DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO STOP IT AND SOME OF US WOULD DIE??? — Without holding back his anger and malice, he tries to kill his friend until Tails grabs him from behind and pulls him away from Sonic, trying to calm him down. — LET ME GO, TAILS. THIS NIT IS TO BLAME THAT WE NEARLY DIE!!! CinemaSins: No. It's Tikal's fault. She had to first make sure more precisely whether Sonic really wanted absolutely everyone to forget about him or find out if he had true friends to cross off all his human friends from the list during the ritual. Sonic has absolutely nothing to do with this. AntiSins: What does Tikal’s fault have to do with it? It's really Sonic's fault. After all, he himself could have normally thought of explaining to her normally about his friends even before the start of the ritual and telling her that he would not want them to forget about him. Tikal doesn't care what anyone asks. Since she was asked to help, then she will do so, and the rest is trivial. — KNUCLES, LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! — Tikal shouted and Knuckles froze in place like a statue. — Okay! — Sonic, do you have any idea what you did? — she was already turning to the hedgehog. — You changed my spell seven times. — Correction. You yourself changed your spell. — the fox raised the index finger of his left hand. — No, Tails. — Knuckles corrected, recovering from his shock. — It’s Sonic’s fault, because he asked her to change the spell. She has nothing to do with it. She wanted what was best, and this blue freak ruined everything. — Look who's Talking!— Sonic was indignant at such impudence. — Stupid, brainless red echidna! — Oh you! — echidna said, angry. He decided to teach the impudent hedgehog a lesson for such an insult, but he was stopped by Tikal’s shout. — WELL ALL SHUT UP!!! — the sorceress screamed, she was again covered in yellow lightning for a couple of seconds, and then calmed down. — The oblivion spell cannot be changed. I talked about this and here is the result. — points with the finger of his right hand at a translucent green Rubik’s cube with an electrified ball inside. — Because of you, the witchcraft got out of control, and if I hadn’t stopped it in time, something terrible would have happened. And this something terrible could not be corrected at all. Sonic knelt in shame. — Sorry! Forgive me, I didn't know. — Well, well. Of couse. — Knuckles started a scandal again. — You don’t know anything at all. Why did you go where you weren’t asked, since you didn’t even know what the consequences might be, you little idiot? — Knuckles, that's enough already! Sonic is already ashamed! Why are you pushing him even further? — the little fox defended his friend. — He asked for it himself! — Snorting in response, the red echidna then cooled down, and Tikal also calmed down a little. Although she also kept her anger at bay. She closes her eyes and thinks for a short time about what happened and what almost happened. — Give me your rings! — she extended her hand to the hedgehog. Not wanting to anger her or offend her with a refusal, Sonic gives her his entire bag of rings. The red echidna, holding the bag in her right hand, takes one of the rings in her left hand, after which she fastens the bag with the remaining rings to the left side of her white skirt. “I’m returning to my world to bring one necessary thing. — And you will make sure that this cube does not break until I return! — she strictly punished Tails and Knuckles. Tails and Knuckles hummed and both nodded in response. Tikal threw her ring and opened a portal to her world. She was already ready, with raised shoulders and clenched palms into fists, to return to her world, from where Knuckles brought her, when she heard the hedgehog cry. Sonic was truly ashamed. Not only because the idea with witchcraft did not work, and it went like this through his fault, but also because he was rude to Knuckles, who rightly attacked him for this. And also for the fact that even with witchcraft nothing came of it. Of course, the hedgehog tried not to show anyone that he was crying, turning away his downcast gaze. However, the sounds of sobbing cannot be hidden. The sorceress, hearing the sobs, stops a step from the portal and slowly turns her gaze to the hedgehog. — “Why does this always happen to me?” — thoughts were spinning in his head. Even Knuckles was already ashamed that he attacked Sonic like that and was almost rude to him after hearing his sobs. Red was about to approach him and apologize, but the fox grabbed him by the shoulder and did not allow him to approach the hedgehog, deciding that he was already in a bad way. Even without him. Only Tikal thought of delaying returning to her planet and approaches Sonic. She kneels down, raises the hedgehog’s gaze to herself and wipes away his tears. — Listen, Sonic, the problem is not Major Bennington, nor Robotnik, or even you. The point is that you are a child in the body of an adult who still won’t grow up. And he will not begin to think normally, like all normal and adult people. You’ve been an adult for a long time, but you behave like a child who cannot normally move into adulthood and be serious in terms of circumstances. And the more you do this, the more dangerous it will be not only for yourself, but also for your close friends, whose lives you are putting in danger. Trust me! Well, I myself am very sorry that because all of humanity knows about your existence, and that the major and the military do not leave you alone, which is why you cannot even move abroad away from them. But if you received a refusal, and you assumed that it was the major himself who was involved here, and at the same time you could not persuade him and the rest of his military to at least leave Wakovsky alone, then... There is nothing you can do about it. These are adult problems, and you must first solve them yourself, and not rely on the help of those who are smarter than you. Sonic stopped crying as the redhead explained to him, trying to calm him down. But the last words made Sonic's eyes widen. He couldn't even think about it. — What does it mean to persuade? — he asks her. — Do you think I should have just personally gone to the major and talked to him about this? — Yes. — Was it possible? — the hedgehog didn’t understand, when suddenly Tikal again replaced his calmness with anger: — Stop! So you?... Not even?... — Well, I didn’t think that... — Wait wait! That is, you didn’t even think to personally talk to the major and convince him that he could at least keep an eye on you, and leave Wakowski alone and not interfere with their personal lives, before asking Knuckles to he asked me to give your entire world a brainwash? - with the last words, the sorceress rises to her feet, finding herself taller than Sonic, again covered in yellow lightning and raising her hair. Sonic didn't even know how to respond to this, so as not to seem like a fool or say something stupid. In fact, he is already showing himself to be a fool, as always.