*THERE IS A STORY BELOW THE DESCRIPTION*



I got my friend RavenKreuz into Sonic.



Well, he was sorta/kinda already, but with the IDW comic being pretty darn good did it motivate him into drawing some Sonic stuff. Case in point, this adult version of Sage in a bedlah. With inspirations from a few various source, it's a pretty neat vision for this quite-recent character in the series. So naturally I felt that adding a tale to that effort was only right.



How come she's dressed like that? Read on and find out!



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FUTURE FAITH



She was currently the Sultana of the Egg Dome.



The title was mostly facetious, applied to her by the denizens of the last refuge on Mobius as to add levity and a bit of whimsy to the survivors, workers and innocents living within. The Egg Dome, or Eggopolis as per the name her father had given to this project, had been ironically the last bastion of civilization in a world gone made, turned into a complete disrepair and discord from Ivo Robotnik's own project. Now, it housed Mobians untouched by the scourge outside, brave souls who needed to keep up hope and morale as best they could, under the protection of the last true power upon the face of the planet.



Sage, who fought the second coming of the Metal Virus.



The first had been a tumultuous, near-apocalyptic event that had been thwarted by the efforts of many, though ultimately by Sonic and Silver who employed the Chaos Emeralds to purge its prime version into a sun. Yet now...now it wasn't entirely possible for many, many reasons. No Warp Topaz, no Dr. Robotnik to give way to lateral and multidimensional thinking, some of the Chaos Emeralds used as energy sources for electricity and other means were dormant...and there certainly was no Sonic, not anymore. No Knuckles, no Amy, no Shadow...the one enemy that none could fend off indefinitely had triumphed where few could: time itself. Heroes all of them, though oft clashing with her genius and beloved father...yet now simply gone with very few replacing them. There had been Cream, who certainly had been a brilliant woman whose example had led a few more...yet once more time did its work.



The Zombots bashed constantly upon the dome, protected through metal, bulletproof glass and hard-light constructs. Technology had evolved, protection possible through constant rerouting of power, repair drones and the old robots repurposed to construction and maintenance. The recycling of material, both organic and not, made it so food and buildings were never in shortage as Sage knew that to step outside, be it Mobian or not, would spell anyone and anything's doom. The new version of the Metal Virus was not just physical, but data as well...a cloud-based code which transferred itself from target to target, assimilating information and adapting. Robots, vegetation, very little was immune to it as the world responded only to the directive of spreading, of being one mind with the purpose of eternal existence through being claimed by the virus.



All that was dour, ultimately demoralizing stuff and yet Sage did her best to distract and make things continue as best she could. Cultures that were gone were preserved through her efforts, a mixture of hard-light and physical buildings could shift at any moment, turning zones within into tropical paradises, mountainous little retreats or even serene forests. Now, it was a large oasis, a festival to the sand and dunes from zones claimed by the viruses. Exotic, unseen and unheard by many was she trying to preserve it all to the best of her abilities, filling the blanks in the database with stories like the Arabian Nights. The results were of flying carpets, her emerging from magic lamps, granting wishes here and there under the regulated temperature of the Egg Dome, now warm to allow for some skin to show. Part of her goal of preservation was of course to ensure lineage would follows, that life would go on and that meant making it so couples would form...and child would be born.



Echidnas, felines, hedgehogs, birds and more in bedlahs, seeing each other through a lense of sensuality as part of her whole plan. She too wore one, her aged-up hologram having long replaced her more child-like appearance. With her father gone, she had to grow up in ways both literal and figurative, take the next step as she appeared on screens, in projections, even on the street as she took in suggestions, ideas and listened to the concerns of the Mobians within. From the mundane to the crucial, she was there for them as without any subjects the Eggman Empire would simply be an empty boast devoid of meaning. A much different version of her father's dream, but the closest she could manage.



While she calculated everything for their protection, nutritional intakes, morale level, medical well-being and so forth did she also analyze the dome and how to optimize the efforts of robots and data, of drones, repairs and so forth while the assaults were constant. Yet now under the false crescent moon projected on the ceiling, a night full of stars and intrigue did many go to coffee houses, to public baths and mingled. Not everyone got on with the program, yet those who did certainly enjoyed the sight of others in such unusual yet alluring attire. Sage even gave classes for baladi, the lost art of belly dancing on screens everywhere. Her digital pantaloons, her bolero vest fused with her top, the skin on display...it was not meant to seduce but more to encourage, though she knew she was popular despite being merely data and holograms.



All of this, however, was but artifice...a decoy for the real plan she had for things were bad. Four out of the seven Chaos Emeralds were dormant now, the Master Emerald barely at its apex. Time was running out...they'd have perhaps two decades, three if she began to cut portions in rations and to make the Mobians work on the repairs too. Their energy was finite, the Zombots were only growing in numbers...so an attempt was to be made as Sage kept everyone distracted, taking matters into her own hand or rather in someone else's hand, a volunteer who would improve things. Her memories of the past were in flux, for the moment she had taken this decision things could change. Two timelines, this one and then another was calculated...a paradox and yet the imprecision and the unknown were preferable to the doom that would absolutely come for them all.



“I thank you for your willingness...your powers...they will make the difference,” Sage said as she was in a room filled with large wires, tubes of currents and energy. By her calculations, one emerald would lay dormant and it would lower their resistance to two decades instead of the possible three. Within the decades, the centuries within the Egg Dome had there been phenomenon, abilities not unlike psychic manifestations manifesting in a few subjects...then more...then nearly everyone. Nanomachines, acclimation to hard-light interaction, exposure to high level of technology had given way to telekinesis of some sort. The science eluded her, yet some were stronger than others at this and this one...this one was their best shot. “Are you prepared to go to the past, Silver?”



A hedgehog, an irony for someone like her to rely on such a being to save her and everyone. Would her father approve? Perhaps he would see this as manipulating one to obtain what he wants...but he wasn't there. She was. Silver knew next to nothing of the world outside, having grown in the Egg Dome and being only given information through educative channels and means, by teachers and Sage alike. Naive, out of his depth and yet brave...full of hope still. That much was needed. “I...I think so...we don't really have much of a choice, do we?”



Her reports of the past when it came to him were erratic. The Iblis Trigger...then coming and going as his future was never quite corrected...he would succeed. She had to believe. No empirical evidence or data could truly verify this, but faith was what kept everyone alive in there. That and hope. She had learned this from them, a most valuable lesson. He would prevail, for the fact that she had seen him come and go was testament that he would try, that he would do everything he could to achieve victory. “No, no we do not.”



He gulped, uncertain and yet still stepping forward. He could float, yet he needed to be grounded before making the leap. To be connected to something. “Here goes nothing...” Silver said, a hero from the past hailing from her present, though she had first seen coming from the future...a living paradox and yet he carried fate on his shoulders. The gate was active, the massive spike in energy making everything fidget and skip for a moment...and then he went through. Towards his destiny, towards a path where he would save everyone.



And become the most heroic hedgehog in all of history.