Stitches in Time

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I will write this story as I go along.  Poor planning is the hallmark of unsuccessful authors, but that's never stopped me from trying before!

Self-deprecation aside, welcome to the story, please enjoy, and if the story isn't done (which it probably isn't) please be patient.

Sonic paused before knocking at the door of the Mystic Ruins workshop.  The call from Tails had only clued him in that he was going to run an experiment and he wanted Sonic to be there.  But the last time that had happened...

The cobalt speedster shuddered at the thought.

Nevertheless, after glancing at the greying sky, he knocked, then stretched a bit while waiting for his best bud the young inventor.  The answer came with the opening of the door a few moments later.  "Hi, Sonic!"  Tails had a welding mask on...which Sonic wasn't quite sure whether to take as a good sign or a bad one.

"Heya, Tails.  What's the mask for?"

"It's for my latest project!  You know, the one I told you about!"

"You didn't exactly tell me anything about it, little bro."

Tails caught sight of the cloudy sky and ushered the hedgehog in, removing the mask and starting to talk again once the door was shut.  "It wasn't easy, but once I figured out how to control the electromagnetic waves and manipulate exactly one electron exactly how I wanted - since, you know, theories go that all matter is made up of one infinitely fast electron - I could trace its path back through the wavelengths that make up time in the fourth dimension and reach points in its previous paths and in its paths to come and extend the control to-"  Sonic waved a gloved hand to cut him off, having already gotten an earful.

He smiled at the fox.  "English, buddy."

"I built a time machine, Sonic!"

The blue hedgehog just stared at his friend. Time travel was bad enough the first time...at least he thought it was the first time. Whenever he actually chased the fleeting memories of a silver hedgehog, his head just hurt. And letting Tails make that happen again could not be good.

By the time Sonic snapped out of these thoughts, the fox was pulling him down the stairs into the main laboratory. Already the little natural light that had made its way through the clouds gave way to artificial light, including the dingy fluorescent lighting that Sonic hated and Tails continued to brighten but not upgrade for some reason the hedgehog couldn't figure out. Sonic pulled back slightly. "Hey...hold on a sonic second, Tails."

"Hm?" The young kitsune glanced back at his big bro. His sky-blue eyes sparkled in the elder hero's visage, the same way they always did down here when he was among all the machines. "What is it, Sonic?"

"I'm all for adventure, but...are you sure this is safe?" He gave a trademark eyebrow-raise.

"It won't explode if that's what you mean."

Sonic shuddered again, though he did his best to hide it from Tails and take a stern face instead. "That's what you said time before last and it still did."

"It's different this time!"

"And that's what you said last time. Get what I mean?"

"But-"

"Tails, do I have to lock up this part of the workshop again?" He knew that the fox could get in despite a locked door but would get the message and stay out until he found a reason to go back in. An invisible struggle, a misunderstanding from both - on Sonic's side to keep the kitsune safe and on Tails' side to make the hedgehog proud of him - started to play out again, leading to storm clouds over their relationship like the bleak storm clouds over the workshop.

"...I need to turn it off," Tails eventually said, voice drained of excitement.

"Do it," Sonic tersely replied.

The two-tailed fox started towards one of the machines, followed by the hedgehog. The former longingly looked over the device, a metallic affair with five domes arranged in a cross and many intricate, sliding panels. "Stable rifts, sending the consciousness through time...redoing the past, or at least a past...not needing an Emerald...but needing lots of power..." Sonic, for his part, started paying attention to the words that made sense. Tails took it as a license to continue. "So I hooked it up to the power grid, and set it up so that once both of us got here I could plan for getting us sometime and back..." The lights flickered; for a moment it could have been the low-quality fluorescents but then thunder boomed through the workshop.

The gold-orange fox trembled. Ever since making the connection that lightning and electricity weren't that different, he'd made progress over his astraphobia, but the animal fear of lightning flash and thunder boom remained deeply ingrained. Shaking with every step, he moved to a cabinet, took out rubber insulation gloves and returned to the machine. Quivering paws did little to disconnect the device from its power source. Sonic nervously watched, putting on a reckless look to try and encourage his little bro to be brave, while trying to find a way to get him feeling better. He nonchalantly asked, "Why don'cha name it, Tails?"

"Can it..." He took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. It didn't work well. "...can it wait?"

"Gotta think about something, and I thought you liked it better than the storm."

The fox cowered slightly. "Okay, okay. Um..." He worked on for a few moments in silence. "Most of the stuff I can think about has to do with the storm...the time-travel is kinda complicated and stormy too..." He paused at his work. "I name it the Tempest!"

---

And at that moment, lightning hit the workshop's lightning rod, sending all the electricity Tails planned for into his power grid.

And at that moment, the panels surrounding the domes slid back, revealing cyan glows that distorted the fabric of space-time.

And at that moment, an unearthly green-blue light brightly lit the whole workshop from within for less than a second - but when the second was over, hedgehog and fox were both gone.