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Sonic and Silver Wallpaper Cover Story (Parts 1 & 2)

Part 1

A morning mist as fine as white silk draped over Kingdom Valley.

Sonic rushed towards the ruins of castle gates wreathed by the wisps of faintly clouded skies.

Kingdom Valley was the slumbering royal castle of what used to be the Principality of Soleanna. Sonic had come racing over after hearing rumours that a rainbow shooting star had landed there. With the castle gates in sight, he was about to put the pedal to the metal.

Then, something caught his foot.

“Whoa—!?”

Sonic tripped. But just as he was about to tumble over, his body began floating in mid-air. Startled as he was, the feeling was a familiar one: a psychokinetic hold.

“Yo, Silver,” Sonic called out, his tone teasing. He hadn't turned around to see who it was, but he didn't need to. “This how everyone greets each other in the future?”

“Sorry,” Silver said after a chuckle. “It was the only way I had to stop you.”

Sonic gently landed on the ground, the hold around him dissipating before he finally turned to the silvery-white hedgehog.

Silver came from an era several centuries into the future. Although he was no match for Sonic in terms of speed, he wielded formidable psychokinetic powers, proving useful in the times he had teamed up with Sonic on several of his past adventures.

Now why would Silver go out of his way to stop Sonic like that?

“Again, sorry about that. That was my bad,” Silver apologised after a few moments of silence, scratching his head. “I actually want to ask a favour of you.”

——————————

This was the favour Silver asked for.

“The bridge here is going to collapse. I’d like your help.”

A story passed down through the generations about the Bridge of Resurrection, telling of a bridge that would piece itself back together mere moments after crumbling. In his own time period, Silver had heard that the stone bridge would give way the day after a rainbow shooting star landed in Kingdom Valley.

Just like Sonic, Silver had come to Kingdom Valley after hearing about the rainbow shooting star. Upon arriving, he had found a government-led sightseeing tour was taking place on the bridge, leaving it open to the public.

“I warned them that the bridge would fall and that it wouldn’t be safe, but no one’s believed me since the officials arrived!”

While Silver had riled himself up recounting everything that had happened without stopping for breath, a thought occurred to Sonic.

“Lemme guess,” he said. “Did you tell them you know all this because you’re from the future?”

“That…might not have been the best move. But it is true, though.”

Sonic hummed mildly in response, his smile droll.

“The point is, I want to save them,” Silver continued, closing his eyes. “Please. With you here, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

His gaze was straight and true when he opened his eyes, looking back at Sonic. This was the way Silver was, through and through: straightforward, honest to a fault, and always concerned with somebody’s happiness.

Sonic took on the task with a grin.

“All right, Silver! I’m happy to help out a hero hailing from the future.”

“I owe you one, Sonic! But I’m no hero or anything.” he said, starting to make his way forward. “I just don’t want to sit around when I know something bad’s going to happen.”

Guy never cottons on to a joke, does he? Sonic thought to himself as he watched Silver go.

“I hear you,” he said, letting out a kind, if wry smile. “You’re Silver. Not a hero; just an honest guy from the future.”

——————————

Using Silver’s powers of levitation, the two hedgehogs flew over the ramparts of Kingdom Valley that towered towards the sky. Sightseers enjoyed themselves in a walking tour below them, with others still in a pleasure boat further down on the gorge that ran through the valley.

They flew from spire to spire past the castle’s ramparts, losing count of all the ones they had flown by before they had arrived at their destination last. A wide, long bridge made of white stones bound two spires together, where one could just about make out the mist rolling along the river far below.

“This is the Bridge of Resurrection.” Landing on the bridge, Silver spoke earnestly as he turned to admire it. “With the wisdom of masons of old, the bridge manages to stay stable just by the way the stones are stacked alone. That’s how this single keystone has held up the bridge’s weight for centuries… Isn’t it wonderful?”

“You’re pretty knowledgeable, Silver. You got a part-time gig in construction or something?”

“I do have a bit of worldly wisdom under my belt, you know. This bridge becomes a thing of legend by my time period.”

While they chatted idly in the middle of the bridge, a considerable number of tourists also started passing by them, putting the two hedgehogs on edge. It would have been a disaster if the bridge were to collapse then.

Then, as an even greater influx of tourists began to cross the bridge, great rumbles and tremors suddenly welled up from underfoot.

People’s shrieks swelled to a din on the overpass with the earthquake violently rocking the bridge back and forth. Everyone fought for their life to not fall off the bridge. No one could stay standing even if they wanted to as the quakes staggered everyone to their knees.

“HRAH!”

Light flashed from Silver in his rallying cry.

With his psychokinesis, he caught people going limp from shock from where he hovered at the heart of the overpass, keeping them afloat with streams of cobalt green light that coursed from him. Sonic covered for the others his powers couldn’t reach, catching one person after the other in his arms before he brought each of them somewhere safe.

With Silver keeping several dozens of people in his psionic hold, they gradually managed to finish evacuating everyone off the bridge.

Though the tremors had yet to fully subside, it seemed they managed to avert immediate danger.

“Nicely done, Silver.” Sonic gave Silver a confident thumbs up, happy that it was plain sailing rescuing everyone. “Things’ll be all right now even if the bridge does fall!”

In response, Silver wiped some sweat from his forehead as he relaxed with a sigh, just about to think the same.

Then, floating above the bridge, he spotted the pleasure boat far below.

Terror struck Silver at the sight. The boat had stopped moving in the gorge. Maybe there was a malfunction or it had run aground. Either way, countless stones would land directly on the boat if the bridge were to fall.

The earthquake didn’t seem to be letting up. Suddenly, as if things weren’t already bad enough, a noticeably large quake struck the bridge.

With a single, deafening rumble, everyone’s worst fears came to pass.

Someone let out a cry. A shiver coursed through the bridge right after.

Then, everything came tumbling down…!

“Whooooa…!”

——————————

Sonic braced himself for the fall, expecting to plummet with the stones that made up the bridge. But then a distinctly familiar feeling enveloped him once more.

Silver, while still keeping himself afloat, had caught Sonic in his psychokinetic hold.

As well as all the bridge’s stones.

There was no telling the bridge’s tonnage. The true number might have even reached the dozens. Yet Silver had the entirety of its weight in his psionic hold.

The burdens one had to withstand when wielding psychokinesis, how taxing they were, eluded understanding. What was clear, though, was how much Silver poured his heart and soul into staying focused as he put himself through the indescribable ordeal.

“Can’t…hold it—much…longer…” Silver struggled to tell Sonic something as he grit his teeth, trembling under the strain. “Please…!”

“Please, what?!”

“Please…!”

Sonic’s eyes widened. The bridge in Silver’s hold kept shivering. Every time it did, the anguish on his face seeped out further. Any more talking would only have rendered his convictions in vain.

Sonic gave a fearless smile, his mind made up.

“Okay, Silver,” he said, looking around him. “Just hold on a little longer…

—I’ll be your hero!”

Part 2

A terror bordering on hysteria mounted within the white mist shrouding Kingdom Valley.

Using his psychokinesis, Silver had stopped the bridge from crashing the moment it had started to fall. He was the only thing standing between the debris of the collapsed bridge raining down on the pleasure boat stopped below and the despair of the tourists still inside it.

While Silver stayed linked to the bridge from on high, Sonic racked his brain as he circled the area at a breakneck pace down low.

They were running out of time.

He could tell by looking that no part of the bridge had actually broken so much as the whole thing had just been disassembled. The bridge seemed to have fallen apart because the earthquake had shaken the its stonework out of place, leading to its collapse. That brought something to mind for Sonic, recalling what Silver had said when they had been crossing the bridge. About how it held up its own weight just by the way its stones were put together.

If he was right, then they had a shot…!

Whether it could or would happen didn’t matter. This was do or die.

“I’m gonna fix this bridge!” Sonic shouted towards Silver, turning the impatience gnawing at him into purpose. “After I do, lift it up a bit before letting it go!”

Silver gave a start, taken aback at the request. But, rendered speechless as he was, he gave a weak nod. There was no room for error on his part, let alone for him to give a proper response.

Yet a dauntless smile managed to slink onto his face.

If you say so, Sonic, Silver thought. I can take a chance on you.

——————————

Luckily, all the bridge’s parts seemed to have stayed in the same position relative to one another. Silver was surprised Sonic had figured that out so fast.

Sonic was getting close to restoring the bridge to its original form by hitting the the floating stones into place. With his homing attack, he boosted up the stones that had fallen lower while keeping his own balance.

At times, vibrations would dart through the stones when the psionic hold on them faltered for an instant. Sonic pressed ahead, knowing from experience that Silver was already nearing his limit.

Almost a minute had passed.

Sonic was nearly done reassembling the bridge. It was a stroke of luck that it had only fallen to pieces due to missing its central, load-bearing part.

But the last piece was nowhere to be found.

Sonic was getting agitated. Of all the pieces to be missing, it had to be the keystone that Silver had cheerfully told him about earlier, too. It likely sailed off somewhere when the earthquake had dismantled the overpass.

Each passing second was as piercing as a stab as Sonic tore around the place, searching for the keystone.

After what felt like an eternity, an unusual glint caught Sonic’s eye. It led to a light coming from a bush from one of the spire’s balconies below, making him take a closer look.

It was a Chaos Emerald.

The Chaos Emerald must have landed on the bridge after it had fallen down as a rainbow shooting star. Which, come to think of it, was what Sonic had initially come looking for.

And right by the Emerald was the keystone!

The Chaos Emeralds were mystical, sacred gems that responded to people’s hearts and made miracles happen. The Emerald must have heard the hearts of Sonic and all the people in crisis, granting them a miracle in their moment of need.

Sonic focused intently, making sure he had a good spot for the final stone in sight from the balcony. After cannoning it into place, he let out a sigh. With that, all the bridge’s pieces were put back together.

Gaps still laid between the stone parts of the still levitating bridge. The hope was that if they could mount either end of the bridge, the stones would pack together into a strong, stable structure.

“Okay, Silver!” Sonic exclaimed to him after making sure nothing looked out of place the bridge’s formation. “The rest is up to you…!”

Silver closed his eyes, giving back a smile as best he could while enduring the struggle.

Then, with resolve etched in his face, his eyes snapped open.

——————————

“Nrraagh…!”

With Sonic and the people ferried to safety cheering him on and all the tourists looking up from the pleasure boat praying for him, Silver bellowed as he summoned all his strength.

“Ngh…!”

But he was already running out of strength. It had taken all he had just to keep the bridge in his hold until now. How was he going to actively lift it up?

The bridge just had to rise one metre—no, half of that—so that it could be mounted in its former place. But no matter how much of his power Silver poured into it, he couldn’t push the bridge up a single centimetre.

“Ugh… Come—on…!”

Silver was exerting himself to the brink, his fists balled as if he were clutching hold of the air. But the bridge, or what it was made of, wasn’t rising. Far from it, it started lowering in altitude bit by bit as it tottered and trembled.

“Is it not working…?! But…I have…to…!”

In his anguish, Silver’s neck finally went slack, his eyes casting downwards.

But then, he spotted all the people’s faces on the deck of the pleasure boat beneath him. In that split-second, a new fire set ablaze in Silver’s heart.

“…Ngraaaah…!”

With the last of his energy, the bridge somehow stopped in its gradual descent.

“I’m no hero…!” Silver roared, the fire in his heart bursting forth. “But if a hero is someone who keeps so many smiles on people’s faces…then that’s who I want to be!”

That was the moment Sonic's hand started to glow.

With a start, Sonic realised the Chaos Emerald he had picked up earlier started emitting a silvery-white aura.

Shafts of light spilled forth from the Emerald in a flood, gleaming as they throughout the area and enveloped Silver and the bridge’s remains.

Silver was taken aback. But, in that same moment, he felt a vast power now within his reach.

The Chaos Emerald had answered Silver’s heart.

“HRAAAAH…!”

With that newfound power, he forced the last of his strength into his cry.

Sure enough, the bridge’s stones started minutely trembling, rising a metre high before they sank in the next instant. With the stones all clattering into place, the bridge had been restored to its former glory.

With a final, thunderous boom, the Bridge of Resurrection’s newborn cry echoed within the gorge of Kingdom Valley.

——————————

Sunlight shone through the clefts of the clouds and onto Kingdom Valley, the afternoon’s mild weather driving away the mist. Sonic and Silver gazed up at the skies, at peace as they looked down at the Bridge of Resurrection from one of the castle’s ramparts.

It was safe to say that all’s well that ends well. No casualties or injuries happened during the earthquake and the pleasure boat had been recovered without issue, too.

Now, a gratifying sense of accomplishment washed over the two of them after they had run away from the crush of onlookers on the bridge.

“But, still… You really want me to have it?”

Sonic tossed the Chaos Emerald in his hand like a bean bag as he asked, the gem darkened from being drained of its power.

“Yeah. You know more about the Emerald than I do. It’ll restore itself if it stays with you, right?”

Don’t go saying the same thing as Shadow, Sonic thought to himself, his smirk dry as he pocketed the Emerald.

As things stood, the bridge would be marked off-limits from now on and be opened for private access only after repairs were complete, according to the officials of the Principality of Soleanna.

“Well, the bridge will become a sightseeing spot as soon as it’s open to the public,” Silver said, armed with his knowledge of the future. “I don’t know if they’ll host any tours for it, though.”

A thought suddenly came to Sonic as he watched Silver smile.

“Hey, Silver…? Did you know today would happen? That I would come here, that everything would work out,” he asked, looking mystified. “Did you know all that from the start?”

“Not at all! There’s no way I’d know that much!” Silver denied straightaway with a laugh. “Although…” His expression turned sincere once more. “When I came across you this morning, I knew that everything would turn out okay.”

Once again, Sonic let out a kind, if wry smile at just how straightforward Silver was.

“Right, okay, I hear you,” he said. “You’re Silver. You are a hero. And from the future!” He grinned. “Just not an all-knowing one.”

The two hedgehogs chuckled. Scores of rainbow-coloured bridges spanned across the peaceful skies above. Countless more would, too, as a soft breeze had them both gazing up at the sky.

——— ★★★ ———

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