#post-wake

A small comic set way, way post-Wake (and also post-Sonic Forces but that’s another story), after Meph vanishes without a word for a while. Silver naturally has some feelings about that.

Sonic skidded into Tails’ lab, the sound of the front door opening following a moment later. “So what’s up?” Then he paused to actually take in the scene.

Silver offered a casual wave from in front of a computer screen. Tails glanced up from his work for less than a second before turning back to focusing on Mephiles’ arm. And Mephiles…

“I thought you couldn’t go crystal-ey anymore,” Sonic said, phrasing it as almost a question.

“Can’t isn’t exactly right,” the crystalline dark being said, his tone rather flat. “It would be more accurate to say that while it allows a different type of access to my powers, changing between forms is a high energy operation.”

Tails picked up the thread in his ‘I can’t believe you thought that was a good idea’ tone (the one usually reserved for Sonic). “On top of that, considering how delicate the balance between his organic and inorganic systems is in his usual form, changing to a different without careful planning can easily mess things up and completely disrupt that energy, thus overcomplicating the metamorphosis process going forward.”

Sonic blinked slowly. “And that means…”

“He’s stuck like this,” Silver said, his tone way too gleeful.

Sonic cast him a wary look. “You know what, I’m not gonna ask what happened. You got this under control Tails?”

“Yeah, I just have to run a few tests to make sure I don’t mess something up worse. He’s gonna be feeling pretty terrible for a few days anyway while his system reorients.”

“I’m right here, you know.”

“You didn’t have any trouble not listening to me earlier.”

Sonic ignored the casual quibbling, studying Mephiles. He hadn’t really gotten a chance to study Mephiles’ crystal form before. Now that he’d seen it, he had a niggling thought that wouldn’t go away. What if…

Mephiles let out an inhuman shriek, spinning around as far as he could while keeping his arm perfectly still. Tails gave him a Look anyway. “What in my name was that?!?!”

(Silver mumbled something that sounded like “I still can’t tell if he’s saying that ironically.”)

Sonic stepped back, trying his best to look innocent and not like he was hiding a grin. “You look like rock candy. I wondered if you tasted like it.” He pulled a serious, thoughtful kind of look. “Though I guess salt flavor would make sense too, considering how salty you are…”

Mephiles spluttered incoherently, his free hand flexing like he’d really like to sink his rock candy claws into a certain hedgehog.

“So what’s the verdict?” Tails asked, shrugging when Mephiles gave him a betrayed look. “What? He already licked you, might as well find out.”

“That isn’t the-”

“Black licorice.”

They all went silent to stare at Sonic and his too big for his face smirk.

“Forbidden candy,” Silver whispered.