Everything Changes (A Sonic Boom Fanfic)

Chapter One

Come to think of it, Tails was, too. The fox looked older in the face, and wore goggles on his head and a tinker's gloves instead of the standard ones everyone seemed to wear on Mobius. He had sports tape wrapped around various parts of his body – for no logical reason that Kay could discern. And Sonic...he had even more differences.

His arms were blue. His fur overall was a darker shade of cobalt. He wore a scarf now. His head had extra quills. His shoes were new. He wore sports tape as well – again, for no apparent reason. Kay could hardly believe her eyes.

She remembered the final battle against Dark Gaia that had encompassed two worlds – hers and Mobius. She was certain that she could use the rest of her power to fix everything in one go. In theory it would have caused a reset of sorts on Mobius to eliminate Dark Gaia's presence from the world, but she didn't think it would have changed things this drastically. Surely she couldn't have done this?

"Hello?" Tails was waving his hands in front of her face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Kay stammered, shaking her head to clear her mind. She forced herself to focus on the here and now; the rest could be thought about later. She had no idea where Mount Safety was, and the fox was still waiting on her answer. "I don't know how this happened...how I got here...I thought for sure I was dead just a few minutes ago..."

"You thought you were dead? Why?"

"Because..." Kay started, then remembered it was probably best not to just spout everything at once without having thought it through first. The last thing she needed was a bunch of questions when her head was still spinning from the newness of everything around her. "Well...I don't know, I guess."

The fox frowned. "You don't know why you thought you were dead?"

"Well..." Kay sighed. "I was in a battle—"

"Oh, come on!" a new voice exclaimed – a voice Kay would have recognized anywhere. Tails looked to the sky behind her and she turned her head to look as well. Sure enough, it was him. The good old doctor.

"Eggman!" All three of them cried at once.

She could just barely make out the doctor's upper body, as he was hiding behind the shield of his Egg Carrier, but already she could tell there were differences to him, too. The uniform was the only thing she could tell for sure was new at the moment. She took note of Orbot and Cubot hovering on either side of the carrier.

Eggman growled down at them, "Can't I beat you to an anomaly just once? I left my island long before the sun rose, you rodent!"

Sonic scoffed. "Beat the fastest thing alive? In your dreams, Eggman."

Kay was taking note of everything different in her mind to meditate on later. Eggman's island. Sonic's voice. The fact that he hadn't snapped at the doctor for calling him a 'rodent.' That was a big one.

"There's nothing to see here anyway," Sonic continued. "Just this girl sleeping in the middle of the lake."

At last the doctor's eyes turned to her. Kay couldn't help but think it refreshing to have him see her and have no clue who she was, or remember the trouble she'd caused him before. He asked, "Why would you do that?"

But before she could answer, Tails piped up. "She could have come from the future."

"I'm not from the future," Kay replied. "I already said that."

"Wait, you're the one who caused the anomaly? You're nothing!" Eggman scoffed. "I'll have to run a diagnostic on my system."

"But—" Tails started, but Kay put a hand on his shoulder to silence him. She gave him a knowing look, which he seemed to understand.

"See you in a few hours, Sonic!" Eggman shouted.

"Yeah, yeah," Sonic called back, clearly unimpressed.

Then, after throwing a few idle threats their way, the doctor finally turned and retreated, muttering about faulty computers and early mornings as he went.

That, Kay thought, was the strangest – and briefest – encounter with Eggman I have ever seen in my life.

"Well, if you're not from the future, where are you from?" Tails asked suddenly, breaking the silence and changing the subject all in one go.

Kay looked at him. "I'm...not sure." If she had been on the Mobius she remembered she would have probably said Angel Island, but somehow she got the feeling that would be an unwise thing to say now.

Tails' not recognizing her didn't strike her as strange – that had happened before. But to have Sonic and even Eggman not know who she was? A serious reset had occurred somewhere, and until she was able to figure out more about all these crazy changes she was noticing, she would do her best to avoid questions that put her on the spot.

"Well, wherever you're from," Sonic finally spoke to her directly, "I'm sure it's not from Lonely Rock in Frozen Lake. Why don't you come back down to the village with us and we can all get a bite to eat at Meh Burger? It's breakfast time."

Kay had no clue what a Meh Burger was, but she certainly had no qualms about hanging out with Sonic while she figured out what the heck was going on, so she nodded her agreement.