Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The year was 2006. It was a magical time. The seventh generation of video game consoles was settling in, Sonic the Hedgehog finished researching the Arabian Nights, Shadow had come to grips with his backstory, and it was the fifteenth anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Nothing could go wrong.

That was, until the Sun Festival of Soleanna, in a town which rested in a distant and absurdly realistic corner of the world. Things were more innocent, no one knew what disaster lied ahead. What camp and unintentionally entertaining things were in store…

...

"Yo princess, snap out of it!"

A young woman in a fancy white dress woke up from an apocalyptic daydream. She was standing before robed sages and an unlit torch in the middle of a canal during the festival.

Name: Princess Elise
Her Role Model: Princess Peach

"Sorry, I just imagined the whole town going up in flames, and there was a giant monster," the princess explained.

"Oh…" The lady-in-waiting was at a loss for words. "…Good for you? You should take the torch now."

"Oh, are we doing the Olympics with that plumber and his friends again?"

"No, we already had the Olympics this year. Just light the torch, Your Majesty."

The princess went over to the torch and lit it aflame. Everyone cheered, and for a moment, all was well. After that moment, missiles and robots ransacked the city.

"What the heck!" "AAAAH!" "Run away!" "The robot landed on my car!" All sorts of cries were heard in the pandemonium. As the princess looked around in confusion, a hover pod lowered down. The pod held a fat, bald man with a big nose and glorious mustache.

Name: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik
Quality or Quantity?: "You know what they say… the more the merrier!"

"Hey there, princess. Look, I'm just gonna make this simple. I'd like to use the Flames of Disaster and the Chaos Emerald that you have." The scientist motioned toward the blue gem in Elise's grasp. "So how's about you just come with me?"

"Where are we going?" asked the princess.

"Well, it's not about where we go, I just need to-"

"How long will we be gone?" the princess interrupted.

"Well… I don't really know how long it'll ta-"

"Don't you think you should have asked politely before sending my citizens into a state of panic?"

Eggman scratched the back of his head. "Okay, the politeness was just me being facetious, since I'd already made the threat with the robots. I wasn't really asking, I was going to abduct you anyway."

Elise glared. "So why be so rude about it? You look like a supervillain, so I can expect you to be a jerk! But you have to be pretty smart to have all these robots! So didn't you think that maybe a subtler approach would work? Use that brain of yours!"

Eggman groaned, dragging his palm downward across his face. "Look, just get in the stupid hover pod!"

At that time, a blue blur whizzed around the platform, wrecking any and all robots. It stopped and took the form of an anthropomorphic hedgehog atop a pillar.

Name: Sonic the Hedgehog
Rating: Awesome

"Yeah, ol' egghead has the subtlety of a train wreck. Speaking of train wrecks, nice abduction, Eggman."

Eggman fumed. "Sonic! I do not need this right now!"

Sonic shook his head and sighed. "Oh Eggman. I don't think you know what we're in for."

Eggman was curious. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you know which game this is? It's gonna be a lot less painful if we just have fun with it."

"Again with your talk of 'games' and 'plots'! Like we're all players in a grand scheme scripted beyond our control! I'm not in the mood today! Princess, we're leaving!"

Sonic then got a closer look at Eggman. "Whoa! Doc! You look different! What happened?"

Eggman noticed that his appearance was more realistic than usual.

"Oh, that's just how I look whenever I'm in Soleanna and surrounding areas. I'll look normal again eventually. Maybe once I start building that orb-shaped robot assistant I'd been meaning to get around to…" Eggman started thinking aloud. "Say Sonic, do you think 'Orbot' would be a good name? I want to go for something clever, but subtle."

By the time Eggman looked for Sonic, he had noticed that the hedgehog had run off with the princess.

"… Yeah, that last part might've been my own fault."

A white hedgehog with even more quills was standing on top of a roof.

"I've finally found it…" the hedgehog summarized.

He was looking at a building across the street. "So that's what Wendy's looks like."

Meanwhile, Sonic was carrying the princess through the streets.

"Why'd you save me?" asked Elise.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Well, it's not like any good has come from just letting people get kidnapped. Duh."

Before long, robots appeared to halt Sonic. The hedgehog set the princess down and began beating the robots. That was when Eggman reappeared in his hover pod, and used its mechanical arm to grab Elise.

"YOU-CAPTURED-THE-PRINCESS. HER-INFORMATION-HAS-BEEN-ADDED-TO-YOUR-EGGDEX. WOULD-YOU-LIKE-TO-GIVE-HER-A-NICKNAME?" asked a computer voice in Eggman's ship.

"No, that won't be necessary."

"Eggman!" Sonic turned to face the scientist.

"Hi."

Elise wiggled around in the arm's grasp. She pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald. "Sonic, take this!"

She threw the Chaos Emerald, and it landed on the ground a little ways to Sonic's left.

"Uh… Maybe next time…" Sonic said to himself, as he went to grab the jewel.

"You'll give it to me sooner or later, so I'mma just leave." Eggman declared.

Sonic shrugged. "Yeah that's usually how these things work. Honestly, I'm just gonna try to enjoy the ride. Can't say I'm too concerned."

Eggman flew off, Elise in tow. Sonic yawned.

"I think I'll catch some shuteye. He needs her alive, so she'll be fine if I wait until morning."

The next morning, Sonic started running around town. Some would say that it was at the speed of sound. But that would be ridiculous, breaking the sound barrier is detrimental to combing the town for clues.

"Hey! Sonic!" called a small, yellow fox with two tails.

Name: Miles "Tails" Prower
IQ: Uh… a lot

Sonic turned to greet his friend. "Hey Tails. I imagine you're having a better time on our vacation than I am?"

"Not important!" Tails started. "But I have a question for you in return! Rumor has it that you're going to save the princess! Is that for real?"

"Tails, I tweeted about it five minutes ago, that's not a rumor."

Tails paused. "Oh… Say, how about I help you? I can fly to reach places that you can't! And I can give you technical support! So you know, the same old thing."

Sonic nodded. "All right, that sounds reasonable. Got any new tricks up your sleeve? I'm thinking lately that I'm going to start running faster than usual every so often. So that way, bumping into things will be even deadlier."

Tails pulled out a fake ring. "I have these bombs that look like rings. I can slowly throw them, and leave behind a bunch of fake rings. Will that help?"

"Barely, but who's counting? Let's go."

Sonic and Tails looked around until they came across a portal on a small inlet across the water.

"Something tells me that we need to hop in that portal. C'mon, Tails." Sonic leaped across the water, following the ring trail. Tails merely jumped into the water.

"Ahhhh," Tails screamed in deadpan as he had trouble swimming.

"Tails, come on! You can fly, why'd you fall?"

Tails reappeared next to Sonic. He looked around. "Wait, how'd I get over here?"

"...Good question…" Sonic was wary. "Let's just go…"

Sonic and Tails went into the portal.

NOW LOADING…

"Oh this is just fantastic," the hedgehog sarcastically spoke.

After around twenty seconds, our heroes found themselves on a beach. Wave Ocean. Sonic had begun to do what he did best, which was running like a madman through levels, bopping robots all the while. Everything was going fine until-

"WHOA! GEEZ! TAILS, HELP ME OUT!"

Sonic was currently hanging onto a Killer Whale's dorsal fin for dear life.

"Hold on, Sonic!" called Tails.

The fox flew over to a switch and pressed it. A gate closed, keeping the whale from leaving the enclosed area. The whale rammed into the gate, sending Sonic tumbling over the gap above it.

"Whoa!"

The hedgehog landed on a nearby shore, sprawled out in the sand.

"Pain… My life is pain right now. Everything is pain."

After taking a moment to recompose himself, Sonic stood up and noticed the Egg Carrier flying off in the distance. He then took a glance at the obstacle course directly ahead of himself.

"… Welp. This is going to suck. Ahem… I GOTTA SPEED UP!"

Sonic dashed forward, running along the beach. He tripped, and started tumbling all across the shores, grunting in pain upon each impact.

"Ow! Ooh! Ow! Ooh! Ow! Wagh! Naht! Wagh! Naht! Wagh! Naht!"

Sonic rolled along, getting thrown about in pain, as he flew over robots and obstacles. He eventually landed face first on a boost ramp, which automatically threw him into a pillar.

"Aaaah! Gonna be feeling that one tomorrow..." Sonic spoke as his body slid down the rock spire in pain. He landed in the water.

After regaining his composure once more, he swam over to the next section of the beach, and made it to the dock. "Okay… trying this again…"

Sonic burst forward with speed, running the rest of the way across the beach. He came across a double shuttle loop, and narrowly avoided running off the side and flying into the water. With one last spring, it launched him to the goal ring at the end of the level.

"Phew!"

A familiar victory jingle blared.

"THIS GAME'S WINNER IS… SONIC!"

"Too easy, piece of cake! Wait, wrong game."

Soothing guitar music began as Sonic got graded on his performance in the level.

D

"Oh come on! You try going through that death course!"

Tails flew up to Sonic. "Hey Sonic, look!" He pointed to the sky. Sonic obliged and caught sight of Eggman's ship getting away.

"Shoot! It was all for nothing! I think I cracked a rib somewhere on that beach!"

Tails put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "It's okay Sonic, let's just go back to the city and look for more clues."

"… Yep. It's definitely going to be one of those games…"

After too many loading screens, Sonic and Tails found themselves in a desert temple that contained Princess Elise.

"Hey, Princess," Sonic greeted.

"I'm here too!" said Tails.

"He's here too." the hedgehog confirmed.

Elise's eyes lit up. "Sonic, you came back!" She ran over and hugged him.

"Whoa! You're gonna give the shippers material, I wasn't ready for this!"

"Ahem." Eggman made his presence known. Everyone turned to face him. Despite this, Elise was still holding onto Sonic.

"Uh, princess… you can… No? Okay."

Equally disturbed, but remaining silent on the matter, Eggman began to speak. "Until I unlock the secret of the Flames of Disaster, I must have the princess in captivity! So have this boss robot I whipped up just for you, Sonic!"

A large robot dog appeared. Sonic squinted. "You didn't make this just for me."

Eggman rolled his eyes. "Oh all right fine, he's built to guard one of my bases, but I took him out for a walk. Happy?"

Sonic shrugged. "Well, for a first boss, it could have been worse. Could have been a scrawny, pink ogre."

Pink fists slammed down on a table.

"HOW DARE THEY DISRESPECT MEH!"

"Zazz, calm down." replied a red ogre, while reading a newspaper. He spoke in a disinterested tone to the pink one. "Who are you even talking about?"

"I 'unno. But when I do, I'MMA SKIN 'EM ALIVE!"

Boss: Egg-Cerberus
Danger Quotient: 50%

Sonic and the Cerberus were strafing around each other. Sonic got confused.

"Where are its other two heads? It's called 'Cerberus', but it only has one head."

Tails shrugged. "Not sure. But just try to ram it into one of the walls. You can do it by hopping onto its head and taking control of the horn."

"Like this?" Sonic was sitting on Cerberus's head. He steered it over into a wall, and it shut down. Sonic jumped off. "Now… sit. Stay. Play dead. Good boy, have a treat."

Sonic threw a squeaky bone toy at the Cerberus's inactive body. Tails flew over to Sonic, and the princess followed. Tails was confused.

"Sonic, where'd you get that toy?"

"Let's get out of here." Sonic ignored the question.

The three of them went outside and noticed a battalion of Eggman robots headed their way.

"I have an idea!" Tails declared. "I'll go distract them, while you escort the princess! Glad I thought of it! Good luck, Sonic!"

Tails flew off before the hedgehog could get a word in edgewise. Sonic looked in the direction Tails went. Then he looked at the robots. He looked at the princess. And then he looked down at his hands.

"It's going to be a looooong game…"

Chapter Text

We now move to roughly 200 years after Sonic has rescued Elise from the Egg-Cerberus.

(Uh… I don't know what to say… Oh! Uh, the world ended! Well, kind of. It's still here. So I guess the world didn't technically end, since it's still here, but everyone's dead, there are monsters everywhere, and there's no more weather. So I guess it might as well have ended. Or something.)

A white hedgehog was hovering around the wreckage of a city. Fire tornadoes and lava pits were everywhere.

Name: Silver the Hedgehog
Rating: Not Awesome

(Whenever I ask about how this happened, nobody answers me directly. They just say 'I dunno' or 'I wasn't there' or 'Go away Silver, I'm trying to nap.')

A fire tornado sprang up in front of Silver. He used a power of some sort to suppress the tornado, but nothing happened.

"Aw man…"

He tried again and it worked. Silver smiled.

(Yeah! I hope Blaze saw that! Uh, anyway where was I? Internal monologues are hard when I'm also focusing on keeping myself afloat. Uh… Oh! These fires! The fires and their immortal master Iblis are probably the reason for this ruined world. I think. Probably a safe bet. I mean-)

"Hey Silver, over here!" a girl's voice called. It belonged to a lavender cat in a purple coat.

Name: Blaze the Cat
Lives Left: 6

But Silver was too busy narrating to himself to notice.

(We don't really know for sure if he's the cause, since most people alive now weren't alive back then. But it's a pretty safe bet.)

"Silver, it's important!"

(Come to think of it, how do we even know his name is Iblis? If I were a world-ending fire monster, I'd go for something cooler. Like… Biggasaur... Or Destructinator! Hmm.)

"Oh great, he's narrating to himself again." Blaze hung her head in annoyance, speaking under her breath. She looked back up and shouted, "Silver, we don't have time for this!"

(I wonder if I'd still have telekinesis, or just fire powers. I don't know how I could end the world with telekinesis. Fire powers would be better for ending the world. Oh, but Blaze wouldn't want to hear-)

A rock hit Silver in the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Silver, snap out of it!" Blaze called. Silver looked over.

"Oh, hi Blaze! Did you see me show that tornado who's boss?"

Blaze was confused, but she did not show it. "Uh… yeah, yeah I did, good job. Listen Silver, I have something important to tell you. He's back!"

"What?" asked Silver. "…Wait, who?"

"…The only other person here."

"Oh, Iblis! I-I knew that! Let's go!"

Silver flew off in the direction of the main city wreckage. Blaze shook her head and sighed. She followed, jumping across other rooftops.

NOW LOADING…

"I wonder if Blaze ever gets tired of my internal narrating…"

"Silver, you're narrating out loud again."

"Ahh!" Silver freaked out.

Silver and Blaze began exploring the burning ruins of the city. A lizard made of stone and lava dropped down before the two.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

"Aaah!" Silver instinctively picked up a rock with his mind and slammed it into the lizard's head. Both the lizard and the rock crumbled.

Silver wiped sweat off his brow. "Man, I never really get used to the lizards." He received no answer. "Blaze?"

Silver looked over, and saw that Blaze was fighting off two firebirds with graceful air combos.

(…Now she's just showing off…)

Silver started climbing around until he found a green design on the ground before the lava chasm.

"I think that if I stand on this marker, I can create a path ahead!" the hedgehog announced to nobody in particular. "…So yeah."

He concentrated and caused a car, a billboard, and a piece of road to levitate over a lava chasm. Silver proceeded to hop along the platforms. After he was done, Blaze went to the edge and froze before making the first jump.

"Um… Can you go on ahead, Silver?"

"But… how is the car going to stay afloat?"

Blaze looked around nervously. "I'll… think of something."

"Wait, is this a 'heights' thing again?"

"No!" Blaze said, defensively. "I just… uh…"

"You jump from rooftops all the time, how are you scared of heights?"

"It's not the same! Those are big roofs, this is a small car! Besides, you're scared of the Iblis monsters!"

It was Silver's turn to get defensive. "Hey, only the lizards! The rest of them are fine! …Well, for fiery death-beasts anyway…"

Blaze was unconvinced. "Look, just go on without me. You're the only one able to suppress Iblis anyway, so-"

"IT'S NO USE!" Silver used his powers to pick up Blaze. With the power of his mind, he plucked Blaze from where she stood and slowly set her down on the ground next to him. "There."

"…Never do that again. But thank you."

"She seemed upset, but I could tell that deep down, she was grateful. But maybe I should make it up to her later."

"You're narrating out loud again."

"Dang it!"

Blaze chuckled, and tussled Silver's head. "What am I going to do with you?"

The two went on a little further and found themselves walking along what used to be the side of a building, but it has long been knocked over. More Iblis Lizards appeared.

"Aw no!" Silver whined. Blaze looked to her friend.

"You can get rid of them if you just pick them up with your mind and throw them."

"Yeah… but that's kind of like touching them. But with my mind. And they do the Thriller whenever I pick them up, it just looks wrong when they do that!"

Blaze briefly put a hand on Silver's shoulder and then ran ahead. She did a fiery slide kick on one lizard, shattering it. The cat ran over to the other lizard, grabbed it, and leapt into the air.

"Yes!" she shouted, as she gave the lizard a fiery headbutt, destroying it. She landed gracefully, holding her arms out, and bowed.

"Whoa, where'd you learn to show those moves?"

Blaze pointed to destroyed billboard nearby. "From him."

Silver looked over. The billboard showed a man with a red helmet. Next to him were the words 'SHOW YOUR MOVES'.

"Oh, that guy. He's real old, I can't believe he's still around in this world."

After a while, Silver and Blaze came across a boost ramp. They both ran off and flew into a different part of the city.

Blaze landed inside an old building, on her feet.

"Oof. Kinda hurt my legs. Wish cats didn't always land on their feet." Blaze received no response. "Silver?"

She looked around. Silver was not with her at the moment.

"Uh-oh. I'd better find him. When he's alone, he gets… anxious."

Blaze ran out of the skyscraper and flew through the air, her eyes closed tight.

"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down…"

The cat eventually landed on a roof and found herself surrounded by Iblis monsters. With a fiery spin attack, she wiped them out and unlocked a spring.

"I'm really surprised at how these springs have survived the apocalypse."

Blaze hopped onto the spring and it launched her toward the window of a nearby building.

"…I hope there's no glass." Blaze said, near the last moment.

She went through the window- "OW, THERE WAS GLASS!"- and started ricocheting off the numerous springs in the skyscraper's hallway. But due to her distracted state, she hit the springs at bad angles. "WHY ARE THERE SO MANY SPRINGS IN THIS HALL?"

After a moment, she was launched back out of the skyscraper and landed on her stomach on a freeway.

"Oww… Guess that's what I get for complaining about the feet…" She stood up and tried shaking the pain off. "Never doing that again… Ow…"

As she dusted herself off, a large ball rolled past Blaze. "Hm?"

She looked down and noticed that the freeway was tilting based on where she was standing. Taking a moment to sort some things out, she went to one end of the road in order for it to tilt. This caused the ball to roll toward her. Blaze ran, jumped off the moving ball, and did a midair spin to make it to the rooftop past the freeway.

"Phew." She looked and saw Silver on a lower rooftop, throwing boxes at more lizards. When they were taken care of, she jumped down. "There you are, Silver!"

Silver's eyes lit up. "Blaze! It was awful, there were lizards everywhere! Also those weird worm-hand things, but mostly lizards! …Oh shoot, are you okay?"

Silver had noticed just how banged up Blaze looked after her venture through the window and springy hallway, as well as landing on that freeway. Overall, she looked a little torn up, and her fur was dirtier. Also Silver could have sworn there was a bit of glass sticking in her tail.

"It's fine, you won't get rid of me that easily, Silver." Blaze feigned confidence.

Silver looked over to the fiery tornado nearby, and Blaze took that opportunity to clutch her abdomen in pain. She quickly stopped when Silver looked back.

"I think I should take the lead, Iblis can't be much further."

"Good idea." the cat conceded. Silver turned to face the tornado, and Blaze pulled the shard from her tail.

"Myow!"

Silver turned around. "What was that?"

"Nothing."

With that, Silver looked back to the tornado and began narrating.

(Here we go. Iblis is up ahead. And I'm going to defeat him! I know I say that every time, but this time, I really will defeat him!)

"Today, Silver."

"Oh, right." Silver snapped out of it. He ran forward, with a look of determination in his face and a song in his heart.

"Every night I will save your life-"

"Silver, I'm not in the mood right now."

"Aww. Whoa, that tornado!" Silver exclaimed.

Blaze tried to look up from slouching in pain. "What? What is it?"

"It's carrying a car!"

Blaze looked at her friend flatly. "…Silver, can we just go?"

At that point, the aforementioned car was thrown out of the tornado and slammed down onto the ground before the friends. They ducked as it bounced over their heads.

"Blaze, watch out for things flying out of the tornado! Like that car!"

Silver and Blaze hurried through the rest of the wreckage. The tornado kept spewing debris at our heroes, but they managed to dodge it. Whenever Blaze was hobbling too slowly, Silver was able to use his powers to catch the debris and throw it elsewhere.

"Blaze, I really don't think you'll be up for this fight. Maybe I should do it alone."

Blaze looked nervous. "Silver, are you sure? You remember what happened the last time you did that."

"I'll be fine, Blaze! Trust me! Besides, there probably aren't going to be any spiders this time."

Blaze closed her eyes and smiled. "Fine, you win."

"There's the end!" Silver cried as he saw the shining goal ring. "I just hope this tornado doesn't pick it up and put it somewhere else!"

Silver leapt down and made contact with the ring. Silver began to dance around and carried himself in the air. Guitar music began as the gods tallied his score.

C

"Nailed it!" Silver declared, obviously proud of his performance in the level.

Blaze slowly walked over and smiled at Silver.

"Sure did." the cat white lied.

"Okay, let's go get Iblis!"

A giant lava and rock monster, similar to the ones before, was bathing in a pit of lava, using a lava fall as its shower. It had four arms.

Name: Iblis
Favorite Food: Skyscrapers

Iblis was scrubbing his upper pair of armpits with a flaming car when Silver walked up.

"Okay Iblis, let's… What are you doing?"

Iblis ignored Silver and kept scrubbing himself. When he was done, he ate the car.

"Uh, Iblis? Hello? Fight time?"

The beast looked down at Silver. It rolled its eyes and did a strange roar that almost sounded like a sigh.

"Okay, let's go!" cried the hedgehog.

Iblis roared at Silver.

Boss: Iblis (Form 1)
Danger Quotient: 400%

"Silver!" Blaze called from a safe vantage point. "Remember to go for the head!"

"Okay, cool!"

Silver picked up a nearby rock with his mind and threw it at Iblis's head. The beast roared in mild annoyance.

"Had enough? Taaake this!"

Silver picked up a car and threw it at Iblis's head. Having had enough, Iblis picked up a large boulder and flung it at Silver.

"IT'S NO USE!" Silver declared as he caught the boulder with his mind. He threw it back at Iblis, finally dazing the beast and cracking the rock armor on his head. "I win!"

"Silver, don't be careless." warned Blaze.

"Yeah, don' wanna lose my head though!" Silver spoke in a horribly exaggerated British accent.

"Seriously, Silver. Don't."

Iblis furiously roared and began to breathe fire all over Silver's platform. The hedgehog quickly jumped up and used his powers to hold himself in place.

"C'mon Iblis, go back to throwing things!" Iblis used its hand to try and smack Silver, but the hedgehog dodged. "No, I said to throw things!"

The fires subsided and Silver landed on his feet again. Iblis eventually belched out the car from before.

"Gross…" Silver and Blaze said at the same time.

With his powers, Silver caught the car and threw it back at Iblis's head. With the car still under control, he bopped Iblis on the head with the car, over and over.

"Take this! And this! And this! And this!"

Silver kept this up for ten whole minutes. Finally, Blaze had had enough.

"Silver, think you could finish him off?"

"This will end it!" Silver picked up a nearby street sign with his powers and mentally threw it like a javelin through Iblis's head.

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!" the monster roared in anguish and sunk into the lava bath.

Fifteen minutes had passed. Silver and Blaze were resting near the crater where Iblis was. Silver had brought Blaze a capsule with a 1-up inside. She took the item from inside and instantly felt better.

"Thank you, Silver."

"Yeah… Man I wish Iblis would die for good. He just keeps coming back! Like a cat or something!"

Blaze looked to her friend in confusion. Silver did not seem to notice what he just said, and kept speaking. "How can we get rid of him?"

"Perhaps it is not the present, but the past that concerns you," bellowed a deep, manly voice from above.

Silver and Blaze looked up to the source of the voice. It was a black and gray hedgehog with green eyes and no mouth standing atop a pile of wreckage.

"And you are?" Blaze asked, wary of this newcomer.

Name: Mephiles the Dark
Manliness: Dan Green/10

"I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark."

"That sounds like a name we can trust," Silver said, completely sincerely. Blaze once again looked at Silver flatly, but went unnoticed. "So we just need to focus on the past?"

"Oh yes!" the newcomer answered. "I can help you. Like all things, Iblis has an origin. You need to find that origin… and wipe it out. Forever..." he said, dramatically.

Silver raised an eyebrow. "How do we do that?"

"You simply DROWN HIM IN DARKNESS!" Mephiles struck a pose. He then looked down, holding the pose. "With my help, you can."

"That sounds reasonable," Silver stated, again without a hint of irony.

"Hold that thought," Blaze told Mephiles. She took Silver off to the side. Mephiles held his pose and his eyes stayed fixed on where Silver used to stand, not following the hedgehog's movement at all.

"Silver, don't you think this a little strange?"

"No, why?"

Blaze sighed. "Come on, Silver, think about this. Some stranger comes out of nowhere and suddenly has the answer to our problems? That seems too good to be true."

"Well what other choice is there, Blaze? Nothing else works!"

Blaze looked away wryly. "Well… You have a point."

Silver walked closer to the base of Mephiles's vantage point. "Okay dude, show us the way!"

"Oh yes! Follow me."

Mephiles did a pirouette into an old computer room. "Behold."

"Wow. That was a nice dance," Silver commented, as he and Blaze entered the room.

Mephiles spoke evenly. "Not me. The computer."

"Oh. So what are we going to be doing again?"

Mephiles made a grand gesture, but aimed his gaze at the ceiling, rather than Silver. "You will travel to the past and eliminate the one who unleashed Iblis. I have the power to travel through time. I can take you with me."

Blaze scratched her head, albeit facetiously. "Wow. It's almost as though you could have done this without our help, since you can control time. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was a trap."

Mephiles completely ignored Blaze, and began to pace dramatically. "The Day of Disaster. That was when the Iblis Trigger saw fit to burn this world."

"Iblis Trigger?" Silver did his best Solid Snake impression.

"Indeed. I have records of that day."

Mephiles paced over to the computer and casually slapped the back of his hand against the keyboard. A video came up.

"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN, NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DE-SERT YOU! NEVER GONNA MAKE YOU CRY-"

Mephiles sloppily pressed another key and replaced the video with online news articles.

"Apologies. Those were… private matters."

Silver and Blaze got a good look at the articles. They detailed an airship crashing some 200 years ago. A mad scientist and, more importantly, the regional monarch had been lost to the flames. Iblis was unleashed shortly after.

"So Iblis knocked down that airship?" Silver asked. Blaze hung her head and groaned, while Mephiles remained static.

"No. This was moments before his birth. The Iblis Trigger, the one responsible… was this person."

Mephiles made another grand gesture, as he pulled out a purple jewel. The jewel showed Silver and Blaze visions of a blue hedgehog. He looked similar to Silver in some ways.

Silver gasped. "So that person… is Iblis's mom?"

"As long as this person lives," Mephiles ignored the question, "the world will remain the same. Forever. I will take us to a time when he was still alive, shortly before the Day of Disaster."

Blaze was still skeptical. "I'm pretty sure that was Sonic the Hedgehog. He's not Iblis Trigger material."

"Oh yes! He is," countered Mephiles. "He is intimately tied with the brink of ruin."

Blaze was silent, but unamused. Mephiles held his hands out, and things started getting brighter.

"Wait, I have a question-" Silver started.

"TIME TRAVEL!" shouted the dark hedgehog. The room flashed white, and all three of them were gone.

(Owww… my head… I feel weird… What happened? Oh right, that guy time traveled me and Blaze to the past! I gotta wake up, Blaze can't worry about me!)

Silver woke up. He found himself in some grass. He was in a lush, verdant jungle. Then, he had a realization.

"Th-the sky! It looks… different! The ground is… soft?" Silver got a whiff of the air. "I don't smell any fires or smoke!" He got a look around. "No ruins or fire… I've never seen so much green in my life!"

Silver got up onto his feet and got another look around, though now with a huge smile.

"…The past rocks!" Silver started walking forward. "Man, Blaze, can you believe what we've been missing?" He received no answer. "Blaze?"

Silver stopped and looked around. The realization hit him like an anvil.

"Oh no! I'm all alone in the past! What do I do? I can't do this, what was I thinking?" Silver lied down and assumed fetal position.

"I'm all alone in a strange place, completely out of my element, and the creepy puppet-walking hedgehog is gone too, I don't even know where I'm supposed to go, I don't know anyone here, and I don't think I like the color green! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"

Put simply, Silver was having an emotional meltdown.

"Okay… deep breaths…" Silver tried to calm himself. "Maybe if I just follow these rings, I'll find something. It's a good thing rings exist in the past!"

NOW LOADING…

Silver was running through a jungle, avoiding robots shooting at him.

"WHAT KIND OF MADNESS IS THIS, WHY ARE MACHINES SUDDENLY WORKING AND WHY DO THEY HATE ME?"

The panic had returned. After a short time, he found himself on the back of a giant turtle.

"SAVE ME, GIANT MONSTER!"

The turtle remained stoic. It slowly swam through the river.

It was eventually nighttime by the time the turtle carried Silver to the opposite end of the jungle. He slowly walked through the forested area past the jungle and into the big city.

"Uh, are you authorized to pass through here?" asked a town guard.

"I… don't know?" Silver responded.

"What kind of answer is that?"

"Uhh… Hey, did a lavender cat go through here? Or a creepy black and gray hedgehog that looked like he didn't know how to walk, and rarely looked at people when he spoke to them? And didn't have a mouth?"

"No."

"Oh…"

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion. The guard ran into the town to investigate, and Silver followed suit.

Fire and robots were everywhere.

"Aw man, this is just like back home! Don't tell me I'm too late! I gotta at least know what a Wendy's looks like before they all get destroyed!"

Silver floated all the way to the top of a nearby building. He gasped.

"I've finally found it… so that's what Wendy's looks like."

Silver took a moment to revel in its apparent beauty. His gaze drifted downward as he saw a blue hedgehog yawning and walking into an inn.

"Oh hey, the Iblis Trigger! That was fast."

Chapter Text

Silver was still in Soleanna on the night the festival was ruined.

"Iblis Trigger, here I come!"

Silver leapt down from the rooftop.

"Sonic, here I come!" said another voice, at a higher pitch.

A pink hedgehog in a red dress ran out and tackle-hugged Silver.

Name: Amy Rose
President Of: Sonic Fan Club, Sweaters for Penguins Foundation

"Hi Sonic, you're in Soleanna? What a coincidence, so am I!" Amy then paused. "Well, I mean, I didn't follow you or anything- Oh but you probably don't believe me. But really, you know how I love the Festival of-"

"What… are you… talking about?" Silver asked, feeling pressure. Amy picked up on that and decided to back off, letting Silver stand up.

"Oh don't be silly, Sonic! You know who I am!"

Silver was starting to panic. "Uh, I do?"

Amy tilted her head and gasped. "Oh! You're not Sonic! Oh gee, I didn't mean to!" Amy blushed and turned away. She started kicking the ground. "Knew I should've brought my contacts…"

Silver scratched the back of his head. "So… can I go now?"

Amy turned back around. "Wait, I'm sorry about that, I thought you were blue and had different quills!"

Silver looked up to his own quills and started messing with one of them. "… Okay… I have to…" (Think, Silver! How can I get out of this conversation? Uhh… tell her you have to take first watch so Iblis doesn't surprise her! No wait, Iblis isn't around yet. Huh… What did people do in the past? Now that I think of it-

"Are you okay?" Amy snapped Silver out of his internal monologue. "Hey you look tired. It's late, you can crash on the couch in the place I'm staying! That's my repayment for ambushing you!"

Silver looked around, as if to find anyone who could help him out of this predicament. He sighed when he found no one.

"Well okay, but… we don't even know each other's names!"

Amy held out her hand. "Well then, I'm Amy! I'm your new friend!"

Silver's eyes bugged out. "New… friend?" He became giddy. "You mean I can have more than one? YAHOO!"

During sunset of the next day, Silver and Amy found themselves in a desert. Amy was holding a balloon in one hand. Silver was wearing an 'I [heart] Soleanna' shirt and drinking soda out of a cup with a crazy straw.

"I loved that tour! Soleanna rocks!" Silver beamed. "Too bad the Iblis Trigger wasn't in any of the places we went though."

"Maybe he's in this desert! And maybe we'll find Sonic!"

"But they had one of those in Soleanna, didn't they?"

"No, I mean my friend named Sonic! I can't believe he's in Soleanna at the same time as me, he's gonna see that I'm here, then we'll get to hang out, then we'll have fun, and then maybe he'll even fall in-"

"DID SOMEBODY SAY, 'SONIC'?"

Amy and Silver looked behind them. A human man was there, wearing goggles. In addition, he had gloves and shoes like Sonic's, as well as a spiky, blue wig.

Name: Sonic Man
Embarrassing Secret: Does not like chilidogs

Silver was confused, but Amy only glared.

"Sonic Man, my old rival from the Sonic Fan Club… Why are you here?"

Sonic Man struck a pose. "You are indeed correct, Sonic is in this desert! And Sonic Man is going to find him and prove that he's the best Sonic fan of all time! Here's the ultimate proof!"

Sonic Man gave Silver a photo. It was of Sonic Man delivering a suplex to one of Eggman's robots while other robots were fleeing in terror.

"Show it to your friends!" Sonic Man paused. "Sonic Man senses danger. And now Sonic Man sees it!"

The crazed manchild pointed towards some robots nearing the desert temple. Sonic Man took off in a mad dash, but Amy would not take this sitting down.

"Not if I have anything to say about it! C'mon, Silver!"

Silver was still staring at the photo. "His hair… looks familiar…"

Elsewhere, the real Sonic was carrying Elise through the desert.

"Aw man, all these robots are here, shooting at me! What on Mobius is Tails doing? I thought he was being a distraction!"

"Aw c'mon, chase me!" Tails tried to goad a robot.

"NEGATIVE. OUR-DIRECTIVE-IS-TO-DESTROY-SONIC-AND-CAPTURE-THE-PRINCESS."

"…Please?" pleaded the fox.

"Is Tails your friend?" asked the princess. Sonic gave her a blank look as he ran.

"… Yes. WHOA HOLD ON!"

Sonic came to a stop. The hedgehog leaped onto one robot, then bounced off its head onto a robot that was hovering over the quicksand. He bounced off that one and landed on a platform.

"Crossing quicksand is hard enough, but doing it with an escort? Geez!" He began to run again.

Elise disclosed an idea as casually as describing the weather. "Well, we can use my force field, if that'd help."

Sonic blinked. "What."

He came to another stop. "I have a force field ability. It can let you run across the quicksand. True story."

Sonic looked at Elise for a long time. "And… and you never saw fit to mention or, better yet, use this ability… until now." Sonic let out a big sigh. "Fine. Fine, just do it."

"Love Shield Activate!" Elise cried, pointing a finger to the sky. Sonic gave her a look of incredulity.

"You did not just say that!"

A golden energy orb appeared around Sonic and Elise. Sonic sighed. "Yeah. Okay. Just, what, six more levels after this? Seven tops?"

Silver and Amy walked into the temple (Silver no longer with the fun shirt) and were greeted by a set of large, stone billiard balls. Sonic Man was trying to knock one into a hole.

"DYNAMITE KICK!" He kicked the ball, but it did not move. He kept trying until Amy just sighed and shook her head.

"I don't get it," Silver stated. Amy gave him a look.

"We're in Billiard Temple. The ancient Soleannans… Soleannites… Soleannians… the ancient people who lived here used to smack the billiards balls into the pockets to access different rooms! This was before immigrants taught them how to use keys! Didn't you read the brochure I gave you?"

Silver squeaked. "Er, well, I was gonna… but…"

"INTRUDERS-SPOTTED. ASSUME-FORMATION."

A small team of Eggman's robots dropped down along the room's perimeter.

"BEEP. AMY-ROSE-CONFIRMED. SONIC-MAN-CONFIRMED. ENEMIES-OF-THE-EGGMAN-EMPIRE-PREPARE-TO-BE-DESTROYED."

Sonic Man struck another pose. "You're no match for Sonic Man! YEAH!" He immediately ran over to punch a robot, but it backhanded him into unconsciousness.

"NEXT."

Silver gulped. Amy waved her hand reassuringly for Silver. "Oh don't worry. Eggman's robots look less silly than usual, but they're still easy!"

Silver stopped worrying for a second. "Wait… Eggman? What kind of name is that?"

Amy ignored Silver and ran over to one of the robots and hammered it to smithereens. Two more began to focus on her, while another turned to Silver.

"IT-IS-NO-USE." The robot bleated. It then fired a missile at Silver.

"AAH!"

Silver flinched and caught the missile with his mind. He opened his eye and noticed this. "Huh? Hey! This is all right!"

The hedgehog promptly rammed the missile into the robot's torso, blowing it up. "These things aren't so tough after all!"

Sonic was still running along the path of the ruins.

"Man it's hot out." Elise stated. "Are you okay under all that fur?"

Sonic looked over to Elise. "Huh? Well actually, yeah. I never thought about that. The lack of fur on my arms probably helps."

The blur dashed past some rings, automatically collecting them. Elise raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to those rings?"

"I collected them."

Elise was unsatisfied. "Okay, but how?"

Sonic spoke as if Elise asked for the color of his fur. "I ran into them. Now they're mine."

"Yeah, but… where did they go? In fact, how did you even pick them up? You're carrying me with both arms."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "All right. I told Knuckles, and I'll tell you. You see-"

Blaze was all alone on a beach, near some houses. She was lying on the ground, next to an impromptu campfire.

"Well… I've been in this era for twenty-four hours. No sign of Silver in that town. The people say they saw him near the jungle, but no sign of him there. No sign of him at the beach either." She sighed. "I think I'm starting to get anxious now. Where could he be?"

Blaze suddenly squinted. "That cloud… it looks like Sonic. Mephiles said Sonic is the reason the world came to an end. I don't buy that for a second. I'm even sure I've told Silver about Sonic and me before, but I guess he didn't make the connection. I swear, Silver, sometimes you can be so naïve."

An old man was sitting on the porch outside one of the houses. "Get off my lawn already!"

"Oh! Sorry!" Blaze stood up and began walking away. The old man grumbled.

"Dang talkin' time-travelin' cats, stealin' our jobs…"

Blaze took off, running along the beach. Realistic Motobugs were trying to keep pace with her. She looked at them as she ran.

"What am I looking at?" The Motobugs all revealed guns. "Enemies, that's what!" Blaze briefly crossed her arms, and let out flames while she uncrossed them, frying the robots.

Up ahead, there was the shore, and stone loops in the water. Several springs were positioned on said loops, causing Blaze to narrow her view.

"Great, more springs. Okay, this time with feeling!"

The cat jumped, unnecessarily flipped, and landed feet-first on the spring. This launched her to the second spring. She positioned herself favorably so that she could propel herself off each consecutive spring. She came out to the opposite shore, unscathed, and held her arms triumphantly.

Realistic Crabmeats held up Blaze's score. '10', '10', '9.5'. The third Crabmeat was subjected to a fireball.

Free of the robots, Silver, Amy, and Sonic Man were left alone in the Billiard Chamber with all the stone balls.

"Phew! They were tough!" Silver commented. "Now we just gotta put the billiards into the holes, and we're good, right?"

Amy nodded. "Yep! And it'll be way easy with that cool power of yours!"

Sonic Man spoke up. "Sonic Man could have taken out those robots if he'd wanted to, but he had missed breakfast today." Sonic Man turned toward where he imagined a camera would be. "Remember, kids! Always be sure to eat your breakfast! Haha!" He struck another pose and gave a thumbs up.

Amy sighed and shook her head while Silver did his thing. With the wonders of psychokinesis, all of the stone spheres were put into place, opening the door.

"Silver!" Amy clasped her hands. "You're amazing!"

"Aww, shucks." Silver blushed and rubbed the back of his head. Sonic Man walked past and placed his hand on Silver's shoulder.

"Onward to adventure, fellow Sonic fans!"

Silver, Amy, and Sonic Man went into the next room. There were robots in patrol. These robots were all much bigger than the last few.

"I've got this!" Amy declared. She put on a stony mask with weird eyes. "Nobody will notice me when I wear this!"

Sonic Man turned to Silver. "You hear something?"

Silver shrugged.

"See? It works!" cheered the pink hedgehog. She briefly took the mask off. "I'll go scout ahead!"

"Amy, you disappeared for a second, where'd you go?" asked Silver. Amy playfully chuckled, but Silver only blinked. "No, really."

Sonic was running up a circular stone path, still carrying Elise.

"And that's how my friend Shadow beat the aliens."

"Wow Sonic, your friend sounds so… needlessly intense."

"It was a weird time. That was also around the time everybody's voices changed."

Sonic jumped over a spiked ball. More were on their way, and he managed to clear them as well. When he got to the top of the path, he saw some platforms. But something did not sit well with Sonic.

"Wait hold up… What was causing those spiked balls to roll down? What gives?"

A singular robot waved its hand. "HI-SONIC."

Sonic sighed. "Hi, robot." Elise waved her hand awkwardly.

"Good afternoon…"

Sonic ignored the robot and jumped along the vertical platforms.

A scrawny, pink ogre with horns and a mohawk stood atop a stone shuttle loop, eyeing the hedgehog that was running through the desert.

Name: Zazz
Information: [Not for another seven years]

"Theeere's that little punk! I've been dreaming about poundin' his sorry blue butt! That'll teach him to disrespect meh!"

A nearby hover-bot turned to face Zazz.

"THAT-SOUNDED-UNSETTLING."

"What? Get away from me, stupid robot! I came all this way 'cuz someone talked smack about me, and I'm not gonna-

As the Zeti ranted, Sonic activated Elise's shield and ran across the sand, along the loop, and then across a stony path.

"Now if you'll excuse me-" Zazz looked down to see that Sonic was nowhere in sight. He turned back to the robot. "STINKIN' ROBOT! I MISSED MY CHANCE! YEEEEURGH!"

Zazz jumped for the robot, holding onto it. He began gnawing on it as his weight started pulling the robot down.

"HELP." The robot blared. "THE-VIRTUAL-TRAINING-MISSIONS-NEVER-ACCOUNTED-FOR-THIS."

Back in Wave Ocean, Blaze was running along the piers and narrowly avoiding spike bars.

"What kind of beach is this, with all the death traps? The robots are probably because of that 'Egg Man' I've been hearing about, but the spikes?"

Blaze landed on one last pier before the goal ring. A giant robot got in her way. The cat threw several fireballs at the robot's feet to distract it. As it was dealing with the fires, she rammed it with a fiery spin, breaking through its torso.

"Woohoo- OH!"

As Blaze spun, she passed the goal ring and landed in the water.

"AAAH! NO! MYOW!"

"Uh, ma'am?" asked a tourist on the beach.

"I never thought I'd go out like this! Forgive me, Sil-"

"Ma'am, stand up."

"Huh?" Blaze noticed that she was in shallow water near the goal ring. "…Oh… Would it justify all of this, if I told you I've had a long day?"

"No."

Blaze hung her head. "I thought not."

Blaze started breakdancing, did a flip, and then pumped her fist.

B

"Weak," she said, bitterly. "I can do better, that was pathetic!"

"I 'unno, I thought it was pretty good," said the tourist.

"This doesn't concern you!" She sighed, and stared at the ground, angry. "I should've done better than that. Unbelievable, what kind of Sol Guardian am I?"

"You don't need to be so hard on yours-"

Blaze turned back to the tourist. "Quiet!" She sighed. "I wonder if I can go back to those huts and try it again…"

"Young ward!" Sonic Man called to Silver. "Sonic Man has been meaning to ask. Are you an alien? Given those powers of yours…"

Silver shook his head. "Some people think I'm an alien. But I'm just awesome."

Amy 'reappeared' before Silver. "Silver, there's another stone billiard ball in the next hall. I think it opens the path to the exit!"

"All right!" cheered the futuristic hedgehog. "Let's go!"

Silver and Amy ran ahead. The young lad picked up the billiard ball with his mind and began running alongside it, down the hall.

"9-8-7-6-"

Silver looked at the ball. "Huh?"

The number on the ball was decreasing, with a robotic voice announcing as much.

"4-3-2-"

"Oh no."

The ball exploded at the countdown's end, with the force knocking Silver back near a wall.

"Owww…"

Amy's voice called out to Silver. "It's okay Silver, another one reappeared, so you can try again!"

"Great…"

Silver trudged over to the ball and tried the same thing again. This time, he ran a little faster, and he was sure to suspend the ball in the air further away from him.

"5-4-3-2-"

Silver winced, and the ball exploded. "Awwww! It's hopeless! No matter what I do, the ball always explodes!"

"DYNAMITE KICK!" Sonic Man called. He dropkicked the next ball, sending it roaring down the hallway. It bounced off the walls back and forth, until it whizzed past Silver and landed near the hole.

"Aha! Teamwork!" chanted Silver. From where he stood, he used his powers to sink the ball into the pocket, opening the door. The goal ring was in sight. "All right!"

Silver ran up to the goal ring, but Sonic Man pushed him out of the way and began flexing.

"OH YEAH!"

C

"Sonic Man has brought the thunder!"

Sonic jumped across several platforms over the quicksand and eventually reached the goal ring.

Sonic set Elise down and started breakdancing. Then he struck a pose.

A

"Too easy!"

Elise looked at Sonic in confusion. "Sonic, what are you doing?"

"Shh. I'm having a moment."

"Oh… Okay, I guess." Elise stood around awkwardly for a few moments.

Sonic held his pose.

"Um, Sonic?"

"Not done."

"Oh."

A few more moments passed. "…Now?"

"Little bit longer."

Elise sighed.

Eventually, Sonic was running through a grassy meadow. He still held Elise in his arms.

"Just admit you're lost," Elise told Sonic.

"No way! I told you, I know exactly where I'm going! I know that the castle is just a little bit further in… uhh…" Sonic began looking around, until he looked to his left. "That direction."

"Opposite direction."

Sonic sighed. "Okay fine." He set Elise down. "Well anyway, I think we've earned a breather."

Elise noticed a cut on Sonic's arm, or so she insisted. "Oh no! You're hurt! On your arm!"

Sonic looked at his arm. It was fine.

"I am?"

"Yes!"

Sonic took a closer look at his arm, but still found nothing. "I don't know, I'm pretty sure I'm good to go. I don't see, nor feel anything off."

Regardless, Elise came up to Sonic and knelt down. She pulled out a cloth from nowhere and started wrapping it around the hedgehog's arm. Sonic spoke up.

"Smile."

Elise looked up. "What?"

"Smile! You're creeping me out with that face you're making!"

Elise was currently making a face that resembled the 'Me Gusta' expression on the internet.

"Okay. Is this better?"

Her new expression resembled the Grinch smiling wickedly. Sonic winced. "…Sadly, yes. So can you tell me more about the Flames of Disaster?"

Elise nodded. "Okay. So Soleanna honors Solaris, the Sun God. But he also has time powers. You see…"

As Elise began to monologue, Sonic could have sworn he saw visual aid appearing in the sky behind Elise, but chose to let this one slide.

"So anyway, if Solaris gets really mad, he'll unleash the Flames of Disaster and destroy everything. True story."

Sonic nodded. "Okay… So…"

"But wait, there's more! Ten years ago, there was an accident in the old castle labs, in the valley. Solaris blew up the lab, and tried to destroy the world. But he was sealed. Next thing I knew, I had the Chaos Emerald instead of my father, and I'm not allowed to cry ever."

Sonic stood silent for a moment.

"…Uh-huh… Okay, time to move."

Sonic grabbed Elise's arm and began running again.

"Sonic, wait!" the princess called. "I can't run as fast as you!"

"Oh you'll be fine… uh… Eliza?"

"My name is Elise, actually. And besides, I'm also wearing heels! And you're still going in the wrong direction!"

"Dang it!"

Sonic and Elise made it back into town. An older gentleman came to greet them.

Name: Lord Regis
Previous Job: Daytime Talk Show Host

"Princess, you've returned!" Regis was delighted. "And Mr. Hedgehog? I told you that you weren't allowed into the desert without a pass!"

Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, but this was important."

A green blast hit the ground at Sonic's feet. Elise and Regis both screamed like small girls and ran to hide behind barrels.

"…That was odd," commented Sonic. He looked over and saw Silver the Hedgehog floating in midair. "Are you floating?"

"I've finally found you… the Iblis Trigger!" (Nailed it! I knew saying it over and over on the way here would pay off! I sounded totally dramatic!)

Silver lowered himself down to the ground, making UFO noises with his shoes. He dramatically pointed at Sonic.

"Your actions will condemn us all!"

"Stop talking like you're in an anime, you're creeping me out," the blue hedgehog said.

Silver glared, further making Sonic uncomfortable.

Sonic sighed. "So what's going on? Are you an advanced Metal Sonic or something? Is Eggman making another faker?"

"Faker?" Silver asked. "I'll make you eat those words! I am Silver!" Silver struck a pose. "Silver the Hedgehog!" The look on Silver's face became less harsh. "…D-did I sound cool?"

Sonic was completely thrown off.

"Um… If I say 'yes', will you leave me alone?"

"No! A shady hedgehog without a mouth told me that you're the reason the world comes to an end!"

Sonic could only bring a palm to his face. "OHHHH. I UNDERSTAND." he sarcastically confessed. "What are you talking about, you nut?"

"I must put an end to you, so that the future won't refuse to change!" Silver took on a battle stance. "Get ready!"

"…Eh, I don't feel like it."

"Huh? B-but you have to! I'm challenging you to a duel!"

Sonic shrugged. "I'm beat. It's been a long day. Can we do this tomorrow?"

Silver was borderline hyperventilating. "N-n-noooo! We have to do this right now!" This made Sonic roll his eyes.

"Oh, all right, fine already. If it'll make you feel better." Sonic began limbering up.

"Good luck, Sonic!" Elise cheered from behind a barrel.

"Don't need it, but thanks."

And so, our two heroes have met at last. As they prepare to do battle, many things are left unresolved. What became of Tails, Blaze, and Amy? Where is Eggman now? Who is Mephiles, and can he be trusted? (...No. Why would you even think that?)

But all that and more would have to wait. For there was another piece to this puzzle. During the night of the Sun Festival, a certain government agent was on a mission of his own in Soleanna. Let's watch.

Someone with rocket-skate shoes sat in a helicopter high above even the clouds.

"Approaching release point," a worker droned. "Ten minutes until drop-off."

A commander's voice came through on the agent's wrist communicator. "Hey! Agent! Put on your pack already!"

The agent with the special shoes sighed. He put on a parachute backpack and the workers around him were going through different procedures.

"Six minutes to drop-off. Open the hatch."

The helicopter's hatch opened. It was sunset.

"Two minutes to drop-off. Start standing up, agent."

The agent stood up and started approaching the opened hatch. The other agents were counting down the clock as the agent prepared to make his move.

The commander's voice rang through the agent's communicator. "All clear to jump. Spread your wings and fly. Solaris be with you."

The agent jumped out of the plane. With his limbs sticking out, he started flipping around. He finally curled into a spinball, and then began to dive headfirst toward the ground.

When he was finally close enough to the ground, he activated the parachute and glided toward an ice-covered valley.

The agent went along and detached himself from the parachute pack, landing on the ground, on one knee.

"I'm the coolest."

Chapter Text

In the frigid, snow-smothered mountains of White Acropolis, a black hedgehog was breezing past an armada of Eggman's robots. This hedgehog's shoes had rocket-skate functionality, and he had red highlights in his quills. The robots opened fire, but it was in vain. This hedgehog quickly made his way to the sealed entrance of a heavy fortress. All he had to do to gain access was jump atop one of their heads, and then over the wall and into the yard.

"Agent Shadow, how goes it? Respond."

Agent Shadow stood up and dusted some snow off of himself.

Name: Shadow the Hedgehog
Rating: Edgy

"Kept you waiting, huh?" Shadow inquired. "I'm in."

"And I'm sure you don't need briefing on why you're on this mission."

"I remember it like it was yesterday…" Shadow wistfully turned his gaze skyward.

…

Shadow was sitting on the beach in a chair, all by himself. He had donned sunglasses and a red, Hawaiian shirt.

"Freaking finally. I could use a break after that last mission," the hedgehog grumbled. But before Shadow could get too comfortable, a song blared on his wrist communicator.

"ALL HAIL SHADOW, HEROES RISE AGAIN! OBL-"

Shadow rolled his eyes under the sunglasses. "Oh this had better be important." He answered the communicator. "What is it now?"

"Shadow, we need you to go to Soleanna and rescue Agent Rouge from Eggman's lair."

"Soleanna? That realistic kingdom? I don't know… Besides, Rouge is a big girl, she can take care of herself."

"C'mon, please? Just do me this solid, you owe me after I spotted you lunch when we went golfing last week."

"Look, I just miscounted the exact amount I'd need, I had no idea the restaurant changed the menu."

"Or how about that time I let you come with the family to Six Flags?"

"Oh all right fine. I'll go save Rouge. But only because you insist… Mr. President."

"America thanks you, Shadow the Hedgehog."

…

Shadow looked thoughtfully to the path ahead.

"I'm still certain that Rouge doesn't really need my help. But I can't let the President down. Commencing Operation Vespertilio now."

Shadow began skating down the slope.

"Wheeee," he deadpanned. The hedgehog noticed several robots flying in the air, aiming their weapons at him. "Oh please, you're not even a challenge." Shadow snapped his fingers, and energy blasts decimated each of the drones.

Shadow kept going until he reached a ramp. He started kicking his feet faster to gain speed.

"I'm going to have to accelerate if I want to cross this canyon. LET'S. GET. MOOOOVING!" Like a black bolt, Shadow zoomed up the boost ramp and began posing in the air.

Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! AMAZING!

Shadow cleared the gap with ease and continued his skating. Some more robots appeared, with their guns aimed at Shadow.

"DESTROY-SHADOW. GET-PROMOTION."

Shadow smirked. "I didn't know scrap metal could talk."

"IT-CANNOT." replied another robot.

"That's funny, because you see," Shadow threw an energy spear at the second robot, reducing it to mere nuts and bolts, "you just did."

"ATTACK."

The other robots tried to swarm Shadow, but he sent out small blasts to distract them. He then teleported to behind the mob. "Chaos… BURST!"

The robots were nothing more. Satisfied with his handiwork, Shadow continued. He ran into a bipedal purple chameleon.

-ESPIO-

"Hey, Shadow. Want to help me break into Eggman's treasure vault? Vector and I got a tip about some ancient artifact of doom."

A robot monitor lowered down, it had a screen showing Eggman's face.

-EGGMAN-

"Shadow, just the hedgehog I wanted to see! Some Soleanna guards are on their way here to infiltrate my base. Could you help my robots take them out while I kidnap the princess?"

Shadow sighed. "Oh come on! This was annoying last year and it's annoying now! I'm not doing random tasks for the first person I come across! Espio, what are you even doing here?"

Name: Espio the Chameleon
Smash Bros. Main: Greninja Purplish Sonic

"I just wanted to be loved."

"Espio, go home."

Espio walked away, hanging his head low. "I never get to help out with anything anymore…"

Shadow and the Egg-Monitor watched Espio leave and shook his head. The Egg-Monitor turned to Shadow. "So anyway…"

"No thank you, Doctor. I have a mission of my own at the moment. Besides, I doubt you're up to any good."

"Oh we'll see about that," Eggman looked overly confident on the monitor, "once you get a taste of Cerberus!"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Oh geez, you actually made that robot? I thought that was a joke! I didn't think you could go any lower than the Egg Dealer! I saw the Cerberus blueprints, it doesn't even have three heads!"

"Artistic license!" Eggman defensively said, on his end of the monitor and pointing at Shadow. This caused Shadow to lean in closer.

"Doctor, why do you look so different?"

On the screen, Eggman gave his body a quick look. He looked more realistic, as Sonic would later point out during the festival "Oh, don't worry about it. Just… go infiltrate my base or whatever. Not like it matters. Nothing I ever do is right. I always end up failing."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Not this again…"

Eggman wistfully sighed. "Shadow, have you ever wondered what the point to your existence was? Whether anything you did had any meaning?"

Shadow retained his impatient expression. "…Yes."

"You know, sometimes I just start to think-" Eggman could not finish his statement, as Shadow turned off the monitor. The hedgehog sighed.

"That was getting old."

Elsewhere, a bat girl was flying across a canyon, dodging searchlights with a smug grin on her face.

Name: Rouge the Bat
High School Rival: Locke Cole

"Hmm-hmm!" the bat hummed to herself. "Eggman's security has more holes than a slice of cheese. Then again, when you can fly, it would be pretty easy to break out."

As she flew, Rouge looked down to the scepter she was holding.

"And you. You almost got me into some hot water back there." Her gaze lingered on the jewel at the tip. "You're just lucky you're cute."

Rouge kept avoiding the searchlights until she found a cliff. "That looks like a good spot to give the ol' wings a rest."

The bat flew down to the cliff and threw a bomb at the door. Shrapnel and pieces of door were flung everywhere, as the bat hid for cover.

BOOM!

When the dust settled, Rouge sauntered through and into the open snowfield, where she saw a familiar face.

"Well, if it isn't Shadow." She took on a faux affectionate tone. "Aww, were you worried about me? You're so sweet!"

Shadow remained stoic. "Not for you. It was a request from the president."

Shadow looked down to his wrist. He wore a friendship bracelet.

…

In the White House, the president was looking down at the same friendship bracelet on his own wrist. A tear formed in his eye.

"Shadow…"

Title: The President
Favorite Band: Crush 40

The First Lady tried to put a consoling hand on her husband's shoulders, but the president rejected it.

"You don't understand, Starla! You don't know what it's like, what Shadow and I have!"

…

Shadow sighed. Rouge rolled her eyes.

"Yeah okay whatever."

"Tell me something, Rouge. Did you really need my help?"

"Nope!" Rouge stated, matter-of-factly. "But it's been a while since we've hung out."

"Of course!" Shadow put his arms up. "Way to eat into my vacation! I'm leaving!" The hedgehog started trudging away, muttering. "The things I do for my country…"

Shadow stepped up to an armed buggy. "Hmmm. It looks like that buggy still works. If I press the button, I should be able to hop aboard and fire missiles."

Shadow hopped into the car, and buckled up. Rouge flew down into the passenger seat. The buggy sat still for moments, completely immobile. After having enough of this, Rouge turned to face her companion. "Are you going to drive, or what?"

"Not until you buckle up."

Rouge was exasperated. "Oh come on, Shadow!"

"Rouge, road safety is serious business! If you buckle your seatbelt, you have a reduced risk of fatalities on the road! Did you even pay attention in Drivers' Ed? It's not that complex!"

"If it will shut you up…"

After Rouge buckled her seatbelt, Shadow started the buggy and slowly drove it around the snowfield.

"So Rouge, I've been meaning to ask…"

"Oh?" Rouge tilted her head, coyly. "I'm sorry, Shadow, but I just don't see you that way."

"Stay focused! Now, Rouge… are you a vampire?"

"It'd never work out, we're just too- Wait what?" The bat was thrown off.

"Are you, Rouge the Bat, a vampire?" repeated Shadow.

"N-no. Where did that come from?"

"Well…" Shadow began, "not only are you a bat, but I've never seen you eat garlic."

"I've never seen you eat garlic." Rouge retorted.

Shadow carried on. "There's also the fact that you don't like silver objects."

"Why go for second-best? Honestly, Shadow, it's like you don't even know me."

"And what about the fact that you never enter somebody's house without being invited?"

Rouge scoffed. "Um, hello? You really think Dr. Eggman invited me here?" This caused Shadow to shrug.

"Well it's not his house, but I guess-" The buggy crashed into a searchlight's post, knocking it over. "…Shoot. We're walking now."

Shadow and Rouge found themselves in a wide, open snowfield.

Rouge was fawning over the scepter. "Say, Shadow. Wanna know what this is?"

"I am bound by my duty to my country to retrieve you from this base and nothing more. Then I can go back to sipping tea on the beach. I don't care about your new toy."

"Welcome to Soleanna!" blared Eggman's voice over the monitor from earlier. "We've been expecting you, Shadow."

Shadow glared at the monitor. "Yeah. I figured."

"I can't stay and talk, Shadow, about to interrupt the festival in a few moments. So you'll have to get a load of my new pet instead! Hohohoho!"

Egg Cerberus dropped down and mechanically roared at Shadow and Rouge.

Boss: Egg Cerberus
Danger Quotient: 300%

"The doctor's guard dog, huh?" Shadow commented. "This should be easy enough."

Cerberus started randomly running around, doing nothing about Shadow and Rouge's presence. "…I mean really, really easy."

"BARK-BARK."

Rouge flew over closer to Cerberus. "Shadow! I'll distract him, then you can attack from behind!"

"Sounds good."

Rouge landed in front of Cerberus and struck a pose. Cartoon hearts appeared, stunning the Cerberus and making it pant.

"What," was all Shadow could say. He shook his head to regain focus and skated over to Cerberus's tail. He leapt up and made his way for the horn, and took hold.

"YOU'RE MINE."

Cerberus started thrashing around, with Shadow trying to hold onto its horn.

Rouge tilted her head. "I don't think Cerberus had any horns in the myths."

"Artistic license," Shadow responded, rolling his eyes. "Rrrrrgh!" Shadow grunted as he steered the horn to his right, sending Cerberus crashing into a nearby wall. Shadow leapt away from the robot, and landed in the field's center.

"Why don't you just blast that robot with Chaos attacks?"

"Oh now you want the easy way out! Back when you could've escaped on your own, you didn't seem to mind!" Cerberus recovered from the crash and prepared to attack. "It just so happens this mutt makes a good stress ball."

Rouge rolled her eyes.

"BARK-BARK-BARK." Cerberus's horn lowered down, so the tip pointed forward. It ran its frontal paw across the snow like an enraged bull and charged for Shadow.

"Shadow, watch out!"

Shadow took a wide stance and prepared himself. "I'd be more worried about Cerberus."

Just as Cerberus got close, Shadow grabbed the horn, digging his feet into the ground to keep Cerberus from going any further.

RULES OF NATURE!

And they run when the sun comes up… with their lives on the line!

ALIIIIIIVE!

"Hrrrrr!" Shadow grunted. He began to glow red and lifted Cerberus off the ground. "HA!"

Having taken Cerberus by the horn, Shadow spun the beast around and threw it into the air. He teleported up to Cerberus and began snapping his fingers over and over, creating energy explosions all along the beast's body.

"Now for the finishing move. Chaos… LANCE!" Shadow shouted, throwing a large energy spear through Cerberus's torso. The dog crashed to the ground, with Shadow landing on the ground. Cerberus began exploding, but Shadow refrained from looking at the explosion.

"Now you're just showing off," Rouge commented.

Shadow did a flip and crossed his arms. "Yes."

S

"Perfect!"

"Nooo, my creation!" Eggman cried over the monitor. "Curse you, Shadow! I can still rebuild him overnight, but you've reduced his Danger Quotient by at least 250 percent!"

"And this is the sound of me not caring. Rouge, let's go."

"Finally."

Shadow and Rouge found themselves in some sort of bunker, complete with computers detailing Soleanna.

"I spaced out, how did we get here?" Shadow asked.

"Ah, good old Soleanna." Rouge ignored her friend's question. "City of Water. Or City-State of Water. I'm not real sure. Did you know it has a constitutional monarchy?"

"So there's not a president? Not sure if I like the sound of that…"

Rouge put a hand to her chin. "Except if the princess is Head of State, why isn't she the queen already? Is there an age limit? And why was the Duke of Soleanna her father, yet she's the princess?"

Shadow started looking for an escape. He eventually saw one and started heading out.

"Let's go, Rouge."

"Unless his name was Duke, so 'Duke of Soleanna' would be like saying 'Elise of Soleanna'..."

"Rouge."

"Their main industries are tourism and-"

"Okay bye Rouge."

Shadow was all alone in the forest outside of Soleanna.

"…Yep. I'm lost."

A town guard came up to Shadow. "Excuse me! Sir! You're not related to that white hedgehog what came through the other day, are ya? No wait… you seem to have a mouth."

Shadow raised an eyebrow. "What are you going on about?"

"There was a white hedgehog, and he asked if I'd seen a lavender cat or a black hedgehog with no mouth. Shortly before the festivities were ruined last night."

"White hedgehog… black hedgehog…" Shadow repeated. He started thinking aloud. "Is Eggman making more androids based off me? Or some new version of Metal Sonic?"

The guard shrugged. "How should I know?"

Shadow sighed. "Not talking to you! Idiot…"

Rouge lowered down from the sky. "Shadow, you left me behind!"

"Well you'll excuse me if I didn't want to hear you reciting the Soleanna travel brochure. What next, did you buy me a fun t-shirt that says 'I heart Soleanna' or something?" Shadow taunted. "I'm trying to find the port so I can get on the next ship home."

Rouge looked down at the scepter in her hands and then back to Shadow. "Look, how about you just escort me to the rendezvous point in Kingdom Valley? After that, you can enjoy yourself here, they've got a nice beach."

"Oh all right, fine. But I have the feeling I'm not going to like this." Shadow trudged further into the forest. Rouge flew after him.

"Shadow, wait, you're heading in the wrong direction."

The guard was still there. "Okay, I'll just… be here."

NOW LOADING…

"By the way, Shadow, Soleanna was first founded in 1506 when-"

"UUUUUUUGH…"

Shadow floated over a canyon with an armed hang glider. There a lake waited below, and the scenery was peppered with castle towers lying in ruin. He fired missiles indiscriminately at robot and set piece alike.

"Wheeeeee."

Rouge flew through the air behind Shadow. "So this is Kingdom Valley. The castle used to be here before they moved it to the city."

"I'm more interested in how I'm suddenly using this glider."

Rouge was confused. "Wait, how would you not remember that?"

"I space out sometimes. It helps me deal with the fact that my vacation was cut short for no reason. Rouge."

NOW LOADING…

"Wait, I forgot to say what buttons I could press to fire missiles!"

"AAAAH!" Shadow screamed.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The glider was out of fuel and going down fast. Shadow leapt away as the vehicle crashed into the lake. Fortunately for the hedgehog, he had found a ledge to land on.

"The door ahead is locked," he muttered. Rouge stepped over to Shadow and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave this one to me. These ruins require keys, which can be found nearby."

Shadow turned to Rouge. "Okay, why do you know so much about Soleanna and its surroundings?"

The bat shrugged. "Can't a girl have a hobby?"

Shadow went over to the door, mumbling to himself. "Could've sworn stealing jewels was her hobby…" Rouge shook her head and took flight.

As the bat flew through the air, she began to scan her surroundings.

"Now, if I were the keys, where would I be?" Rouge continued for a bit, until it hit her. "Oh, duh. I'm a bat." She inhaled deeply. "HELLOOOO OUT THERE!"

Rouge immediately closed her eyes and her ears began to twitch. She was listening for the location of the keys. "Jackpot!"

Shadow was still standing. He was perfectly still and practically having his nose rub up against the door.

"…I'm bored."

"I'm back!" Rouge glided down toward Shadow and handed him the keys.

"Finally. Sure you didn't nab a few jewels on the side, and that's why it took so long?"

"I will neither confirm nor deny."

Shadow opened the door. He saw some stairs, and they led down to a hovercraft on the water.

"That looks like a hovercraft. If I press the triangle button, I can get on. But which button lets me fire missiles?"

Rouge gave Shadow a look. "What is it with you and vehicles lately? Ever since the Black Arms, you've just liked picking up random weapons or vehicles you see in front of you."

"Oh, you can rattle on about Soleanna, but suddenly it's weird for me to know about vehicles?"

Shadow hopped into the hovercraft, and Rouge took shotgun. They sat still for a few minutes.

"…Shadow?"

"Buckle your seatbelt, Rouge."

"Oh come on!" Rouge groaned. In spite of this, she complied. Shadow took off. He began firing missiles at all of the robots he saw, which had the unfortunate side effect of knocking over the towers in the water.

"Shadow, you're destroying the castle, there could've been treasure inside!"

Shadow narrowly steered the hovercraft out of the path of some debris. "I'm more worried about keeping us afloat, thank you very much!"

At the end of the path, Shadow and Rouge hopped off and were greeted by a bald eagle. Shadow smiled.

"I knew Uncle Sam had my back."

Shadow and Rouge were dropped off inside an emptied castle tower. Eggman's robots were waiting for them.

"I'm not liking how Eggman's robots are here. What if they shoot down the GUN helicopter? Let's get 'em, Shadow."

"Ha! There's no strength in numbers! Not against the ultimate lifeform!" Shadow let out a Chaos Blast to wipe out the robots.

With the robots taken out, Shadow leapt up to a bouncy tightrope and used it to propel himself out a window, and onto a nearby spring. He ricocheted all over the lake, until he landed on a castle roof. Shadow used a boost pad to make further progress.

"LET'S. GET. MOOOVING! …Again."

Launched in the air from the roof, Shadow homed in on a hovering robot, then on another, then on all the rest of the robots until he made it to a stone ledge. He was greeted with a giant robot.

"PREVENT-SHADOW-FROM-ESCAPING."

"You can try," taunted the hedgehog. He used a homing attack on the robot, and followed with some punches and kicks. The robot fell to pieces. "Well, so much for you."

Shadow casually walked up to the goal ring.

The two present members of Team Dark found themselves on a castle balcony.

"So the helicopter will be here soon?" asked Shadow.

Rouge shrugged. "This is the highest part of the valley, so I just assumed it would be here."

Shadow grunted and pinched the side of his head, as the bridge of his nose would not be very doable for him. "Rouge, you're killing me here."

"Well I hope she saves enough left for me," a familiar voice spoke up. Shadow and Rouge looked to see whom it was.

"Doctor..." Rouge and Shadow spoke at once, with a bitter edge.

Eggman was there, this time in person. Aboard his hover craft, he lowered down to be closer to Shadow and Rouge. "Ten years ago. Ten years ago, this was the site of the disastrous Solaris Project."

Rouge's eyes lit up. "Ooh! I know about that! That's what caused them to have to rebuild the castle in the city."

Eggman nodded. "That's right, Rouge. And that project's failure is-"

"SHUT UP!" Shadow shouted. "I already have one Soleanna nerd, I don't need two! Why are you here, Doctor?"

Eggman held out his hand. "The Scepter of Darkness. I won it fair and square in that online auction, and I want it back."

Rouge held it closer to herself and stuck her tongue out at Eggman. "Finders keepers."

The doctor growled. "Hrrr! Curse you, Team Dark! I'd be well on my way to completing my goal if it weren't for you two, snooping as usual! Bad enough that Sonic finished what you started with Cerberus! I'm in a bad mood, so hand it over!"

Rouge tried to fly away, but a robot jumped from a hidden vantage point and attacked her.

"Ahh." Rouge expressed as little emotion as possible as she fell lifelessly to the ground.

Shadow rolled his eyes. "You're tougher than this, Rouge!"

The ultimate lifeform ran and jumped to capture Rouge. However, she had dropped the Scepter of Darkness, causing Eggman to tense up.

"You fool! Grab it!"

"DO-YOU-MEAN-ME-OR-SHADOW?" asked the robot.

"Anyone! Just so long as it doesn't break, which would cause-"

The scepter hit the floor and broke, causing a black and purple mist to burst out.

"Nooooo! Curse everything!" Eggman pulled out a paper bag and started breathing into it. He soon put it away. "Okay, I can still work with this. But first, I'll just need to kidnap the princess. Again."

Eggman flew off in his hovercraft, leaving Shadow, Rouge, and the random henchman robot behind with the mist, which was moving about the balcony's airspace like a pinball.

"HAHAHAHAHA! OH YES! IT HAS BEEN FAR TOO LONG!"

Shadow set Rouge down on her feet as she regained her strength. Not a moment later, the mist flew through Shadow.

"Urrgh!"

Shadow fell to his knees, as the mist began to take on a new shape behind Shadow. It became another Shadow the Hedgehog, though different. He had no mouth, and all of his red highlights were gray.

"Oh how ironic," the newcomer stated. He stretched his neck and repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fingers. "After everything you've done to me, it is your form that I take. I told you I would remember."

Shadow was on his knees still, feeling winded. "What… are you… talking about?" he panted.

The newcomer turned around. His steps were awkward, and his head began to hang low. "Don't tell me you've forgotten. Ten years ago… Jake from State Farm!"

Rouge gave the mystery hedgehog a weird look. "Your name is Jake?"

He shook his head and pointed his whole hand at Shadow. "No, his name is Jake. I am Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark."

"My name," Shadow stood up, "is Shadow." Mephiles immediately put one hand around Shadow's neck. "Rrrgh!"

Rouge gasped.

"It does not matter." Mephiles said, as Shadow failed to remove his doppelganger's hand. "I have spent ten years thinking about what I would do to you. And it will be painful. Oh yes. You will die."

For the first time in this conversation, Mephiles raised his head to make eye contact with Shadow. His eyes were an eerie, sickly green.

"That's enough, you creepy recolor!" Rouge kicked Mephiles in the head, loosening his grip on Shadow and sending him flying a few feet.

"AAAAH!"

Rouge tended to Shadow. Shadow caught his breath and nodded. "Thanks."

Shadow and Rouge turned their attention back to Mephiles, who was already back on his feet, though he seemed off-balance.

"Maybe I don't need to do this myself. I can let the fires kill you. TIME TRAVEL!" Mephiles held out his arms. Nothing happened.

Shadow and Rouge looked around, confused. They looked at each other. Rouge shrugged.

"I said… TIME TRAVEL!" Mephiles tried again. This time, a blue orb appeared. It rapidly expanded, absorbing all three of them.

"Whoa!" Rouge cried.

"I don't get paid enough for this!" shouted Shadow.

"Hahahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

The laugh of Mephiles echoed through the valley as he, Shadow, and Rouge were spirted away to another time. All that remained was the lone robot.

"...OKAY-I-WILL-JUST-BE-HERE."

Chapter Text

"IT'S NO USE!"

"HERE I COME!"

"HOW 'BOUT THIS!"

"You're too slow!"

"TAAAKE THIS!"

"C'mon step it up!"

Princess Elise and Lord Regis, both hiding behind barrels, had long given up on watching the two hedgehogs fight each other. In no time at all, it had devolved into a simple cycle of repetitive battle cries.

Boss: Sonic the Hedgehog
Danger Quotient: 400%

Boss: Silver the Hedgehog
Danger Quotient: 100%

Sonic scoffed. "What? Only 100? Dude, I'm four times the fighter you are!"

"What are you talking about, Iblis Trigger?" Silver kept his defenses up.

Sonic waved his hand. "Oh never mind, it's pointless anyhow. And stop calling me that! I have a name!"

Silver loosened up a little. "Well, uh, you never actually told me your name."

Sonic's eyes widened. "Oh yeah..." He did a flip and gave Silver a thumbs up. "Sonic's the name, speed's my game!"

"Hey that's the same name as the guy my friends were looking for earlier! Say, did you know you can have more than one friend? I had no idea!"

Sonic gave Silver a look. "Are… are you sure you wanna fight me? You don't really seem… aware. Of anything."

"IT'S NO USE!" Silver picked up Sonic with his mind.

"Whoa, I can fly now!" Sonic looked amazed. Silver put a finger up.

"Well actually I'm just-"

"Princess, look at me! I can fly! And I'm not even in a super form!"

Behind the barrels, Elise was reading a newspaper, completely disinterested in the battle. "Yeah that was a nice punch, Sonic. Way to go."

Sonic remained oblivious. "I can't wait 'til Tails sees me now! And I can totally rub it in Knuckles' face!"

Silver gazed at his victim, in disbelief. "B-but you're not supposed to like this! I'm holding you in the air against your will!"

Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, but as long as I'm up here, I guess I can just kinda chill for a while." Sonic shifted himself to a more comfortable position in midair, with his hands behind his head. He looked to the left. "Oh hey, there's a chilidog stand across the way."

Silver's eyes narrowed, he balled his hands into fists and they began to shake.

"Rrrrrrr! Don't you mock me! Take this!" Silver abruptly lifted Sonic higher and dropped him onto the concrete.

"Oof!"

"Ha! Maybe now you'll take this seriously, Iblis Trigger!" Silver looked over to an outdoor café, specifically its furniture. "And if you won't, then I'll just have to make you!"

Silver motioned with his hand, and suddenly tables and chairs from the café began to levitate.

"Whoa!" screamed a customer who was still sitting in one of the chairs. Silver threw the obstacles at the ground where Sonic rested, but the blue hedgehog managed to get out of the way. "This is so getting mentioned in the Yelp review!"

"IT'S NO USE!" Silver screamed as he trapped Sonic again.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Okay, at the very least, can you stop repeating that?"

"Stop making fun of me!"

Sonic sighed. "This is going nowhere fast. Hey! Regis! How's about you take the princess somewhere safe while I'm busy?"

Behind the barrels, Lord Regis and Elise were playing checkers.

"Go fish," Regis declared. Elise put palmed her forehead, so Regis shrugged. "What?"

Back at the fight, Silver kept Sonic suspended in the air.

"I've got you now, Iblis Trigger!"

"Sonic."

"I've got you now, Sonic! You'll pay for your crimes!"

Sonic scratched his head. "Yeah I've been meaning to ask, what did I do again?"

"You're going to cause the end of the world!"

"How?"

Silver raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what?"

"How am I going to end the world?" Sonic asked, though his tone made it sound more like a statement. Silver looked at the ground in a panic.

(Oh no! I forgot to ask Mephiles! Uhh… uhhh… UHHHH!) Silver started breathing heavily. Sonic tilted his head.

"Uh, dude? You all right?"

"I FORGOT!" Silver shrieked. This loss of composure caused him to let go of Sonic, sending him flying into a pillar.

"Ooh!" Sonic started slowly sliding down the pillar.

Silver fell to his knees and held his head in his hands. "What am I even doing? I don't know where I am, now I'm face to face with the Iblis Trigger and he keeps making fun of me, and I forgot to ask why he's the Iblis Trigger, and I can't find Blaze or Amy, and nothing seems to hurt this guy, so I'm going to lose, and he's going to end the world and it'll be all my fault!" Silver started moaning, but not really crying.

At that time, Silver glanced over and saw Sonic on the ground. He gasped.

"Wait, I… I won? I WON! I DID IT!" Silver leapt up. "I did something right! I actually won!" He looked over at the disgruntled café patron, still sitting in their chair. "Did you see that? I won!"

"Eh," the patron shrugged. "I give it a C."

C

Silver lifted himself in the air. "Looks like I'm on a roll!"

"You're not," the patron corrected. They then looked over at Sonic. "And you! You look like you're dead!"

D

Sonic's unconscious body did not react to his score.

Zazz had watched the whole fight from up on the roof. He slammed his fists on the roof.

"AWWW MAN! I wanted to do that! You got lucky, white hedgehog!" he shouted, as he jumped away.

NOW LOADING…

As Sonic regained consciousness, Silver walked over to him, his confidence fully restored.

"Are you some kind of joke? How could a weakling like you cause the end of the world?" Silver crouched down to get a closer look at his victim. Sonic looked up and glared a dagger at Silver.

"You're the most annoying doppelganger yet. And I gotta tell ya, Metal Sonic was pretty annoying."

Silver got up and stepped back. He struck a pose, trying to look dramatic again. "For the sake of the future, I must destroy you!"

"For reasons you don't understand." Sonic was still on the ground, but now laying on his side and resting his head on one of his elbows. He rolled his eyes. "Crono would be so proud."

"SONIC!"

The princess shouted Sonic's name. Both hedgehogs looked over to find that she was held captive by Eggman's hovercraft.

"Round two, sucker!" Eggman taunted. "Ohohohoho!"

The scientist flew off with the princess. Sonic sighed, and once again rolled his eyes.

"Well that didn't last for long. I bet this becomes a trend." He glanced over at Silver, while still reclining on the ground. "So you wanna just apologize and team up already? It's gonna happen. C'mon." He stuck a hand out for Silver to take.

"No!"

Sonic shrugged. "You'll come around. Meanwhile, I've got a princess to re-rescue. Later!"

Sonic got up and set off in the direction of Eggman. Silver gaped.

"Wh-what? No! Don't you dare turn your back on me!"

"I'mma turn it!"

"Noooo!"

As Sonic was getting further from Silver, he just waved goodbye.

"Come back… No…" Silver hung his head and sighed. "Aw man… I can't do anything right!" He kicked the ground. "I sure wish Blaze was here, or at least Amy."

"SILVER!" a shrill voice shrieked, catching the hedgehog off guard.

"Ahh!" Silver looked over and saw Amy with her hands on her hips. "Oh, there you are! You startled-"

"What do you think you're doing?" She was mad. "You were just beating up Sonic!"

Silver lifted a finger. "Uhhh, but I had a good reason! Mephiles said that that guy was the Iblis Trigger, the one who'd end the world! So I had to go back in time and get rid of him!"

Amy donned a look of disbelief. "So Sonic's the one who ends the world? Is that what you're telling me? How? How could he possibly do it?"

Silver looked down at his shoes and began twiddling his thumbs. "Well, uh… I… I don't actually know that part. B-but Mephiles said-"

"So your friend Memphis tells you that-"

Silver interrupted. "Actually I only just met him, he's not my friend."

Amy cupped her hands and pressed them on her forehead, taking a big breath. Silver leaned in close. "A-Amy? Are you okay?"

The pink hedgehog let out a sigh. "So… You mean to tell me that you tried to kill Sonic because a complete stranger told you to do it."

At this point, Silver was aching to find validity in his quest. "Well yeah, if you say it like that, of course it sounds stupid!"

With no patience left, Amy whipped out her hammer and pointed it at Silver. "Okay! Say it so that it doesn't sound stupid! You have ten seconds!"

"Aaah! Ummm…" Silver started thinking. (Uhh… Oh gee… What do I do… Uhhh…)

Amy started pacing, dragging the hammer along the ground behind her. "I can't believe this! And after all we've been through!"

"Are… you mad?" Silver foolishly asked. Amy sighed.

"No, Silver. I'm just disappointed…" With no more words, Amy walked off. Silver looked down at his hands and sighed.

"Why can't I do anything right?"

"YOU!" a deeper voice shouted.

Silver looked behind him and saw Sonic Man. He was furious. "You've disrespected Sonic! Now you must pay!" Sonic Man clenched a fist.

Silver gulped. "Oh no."

Sonic and Lord Regis were walking around Soleanna.

"And you're sure you saw Eggman head in this direction?" asked the hedgehog. Regis shrugged.

"I dunno. …Say Sonic, if your friend never comes back, can I be your new sidekick?"

"No," Sonic answered immediately. He then felt his wrist communicator vibrate. "Speaking of Tails, that's him now."

"Awww…" Regis began to slouch and then walked away. Sonic picked up.

"Hello?"

"Sonic! Knuckles is here in Soleanna! I guess he found out we were here or something."

"Ohh… Knuckles. Yeah. Okay." Sonic took an uncomfortable tone. "I guess I should be meeting with you two, then."

"Please don't leave me alone with him, Sonic," Tails asked over the communicator. "Just meet us by some warehouse or whatever."

"Got it."

Sonic walked up to the gates leading into New City.

"There a warehouse past here?" Sonic asked. "I wanna get in."

A Soleanna soldier shook his head.

Name: Captain Pietro
Previous Employment: The Department of Redundancy Department

"You can't get in unless you have the captain's permission."

"So I gotta ask the captain?"

"Yep."

NOW LOADING…

"Wait a second…" Sonic mused.

"Okay, go look around for the captain. Ask all the guards. But one of them will lie to you. Begin!" the soldier announced.

"Wait hold on-"

NOW LOADING…

"Come on…"

Sonic remained beside the same soldier. He spoke flatly. "It's you. You're the captain."

"Yep."

NOW LOADING…

"But how did you know?" Pietro asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Seems like the kind of thing this game would do. And I read your nametag. Now let me through."

"Fine, fine." Pietro went over and pulled a lever. The doors to New City opened up, allowing Sonic to head on through.

"This game, I swear. And I've still only gone through two worlds, this is gonna be tough."

Sonic walked over to the warehouse, and was met by an ambush of robots.

"ATTACK-SONIC."

"Uh boy."

Sonic ran around and broke all the robots like a breeze. All told, it took him a few seconds.

"See your death, see your death, see your death…" Sonic repeated, sounding more bored with each robot than the last.

When the robots were destroyed, Tails and a red echidna walked out of one of the warehouses.

Name: Knuckles the Echidna
Hobby: Being included

"Hey Sonic, what's up home skillet?" Knuckles raised his hand for a high five. Sonic shook his head.

"Knuckles, the 90's are over."

"Say what? Don't be buggin' Sonic. Anyway, I came down from my crib when I heard you guys were in Soleanna! I ran into Robotnik, and he gave me a letter!"

Knuckles pulled out a letter, but Tails put his hands up.

"Whoa wait. That's what you wanted to tell Sonic and me about? And what were you even doing with Eggman?"

"Uhh…" Knuckles was struggling to think.

…

Knuckles and Eggman were in the same warehouse harbor.

"Curse you, Knuckles! You and your bodacious battle skills!" Eggman shouted to Knuckles, from the safety of his hover pod. He looked more like his usual self than being super realistic.

"Time for you to bounce, Robotnik!" Knuckles taunted. He was wearing sunglasses and solid gold chains. He also had a long, flowing cape.

"I should not have underestimated the one and only rival to Sonic the Hedgehog! That was my undoing!" Eggman lamented, putting his forearm to his forehead. "Woe is me!"

Knuckles jumped up into outer space and came down onto Eggman, fist-first, knocking him out of the hover pod.

"Oof! …Waaaaaaah!" Eggman ran off crying. Then Shadow the Hedgehog appeared, wearing dorky glasses and having buck teeth.

"Um, Mr. The Echidna, can I have yer autograph?" Shadow asked, before snorting.

"All in a day's work, citizen!" Knuckles autographed Shadow's piece of paper, then pat him on the back a little too hard for Shadow's nerdy frame, knocking him over. "Hmm? What's this?"

Knuckles picked up a paper off the ground. It was an envelope with a drawing of Eggman's face.

"Garsp! What is this supposed to buh? I'd better go to Soleanna and deliver it to Sonic, my rival!"

Without changing his position or stance at all, Knuckles simply levitated into the air and moved through the skies toward Soleanna.

…

Knuckles stood proudly. "And that's how I got the letter from Robotnik."

Sonic and Tails stoically stared at Knuckles. They looked to each other and back to Knuckles.

"So…" Sonic started, "You were in the Soleanna harbor, fighting Eggman, who somehow didn't have the princess, and he dropped a letter that you automatically knew was for me. And then flew to Soleanna."

"And Shadow was there," Tails added.

Knuckles got defensive. "Uh, no! It wasn't Soleanna, it was… Moleanna!"

Sonic and Tails were unconvinced. Knuckles pulled out the letter. "Don't believe me? Just watch!"

"Whoa!" Sonic was surprised. "Guess there was a nugget of truth after all!"

Knuckles put his hands on his hips and shook his head with a smile. "Sonic, my home slice, when will you learn that all of my stories are true?"

Ignoring Knuckles, Sonic opened the letter. It was a bunch of scribbles.

"…You wrote this, didn't you?" Sonic flatly asked, not looking up from the letter. "Of course you did, you don't even know how to read."

Tails was fiddling with a pad device. "Hmm… I'm getting electromagnetic signatures that match Eggman's robots. They're to the north of the city, in the mountains!"

Sonic gave Tails a thumbs up. "Nice! Let's go, Tails!"

"Yeah, let's bounce!" Knuckles pumped his fists. Sonic and Tails awkwardly looked back at the echidna.

"Uh… yeah…" Sonic started. "I dunno, Knuckles. Y'see, Tails and I kinda have this rhythm going right now, we wanna keep the momentum, ya know? And a third person might…" Sonic trailed off, hoping Knuckles caught the hint. He did not. "Tails, back me up."

Tails scratched his head. "Uh, what about the Master Emerald? Aren't you worried something could happen while you're gone?"

"As if! I got it all taken care of, booya!"

The Master Emerald sat proudly on its altar.

Mousetraps were spread out on the floor around it.

"Looks like we have no choice, Sonic." Tails conceded. Sonic sighed.

"Fine, let's just go…"

Sonic and Tails marched along, mildly annoyed. Knuckles boisterously followed along. On the nearby shore, Silver was sitting on some stairs. He was rubbing the back of his head.

"The Dynamite Kick really hurts…"

Blaze the Cat appeared, though she looked a little roughed up. There was also sand in her fur. "Silver, is that you?"

"Blaze?" Silver turned around and saw her. She smiled. "Blaze, you're back!" Silver ran over and embraced his friend. "I was worried we'd never see each other again!"

Blaze chuckled and pat him on the back. "Same old Silver. Well, I was… a little… preoccupied…"

…

"THIS-IS-THE-FIFTH-TIME. CAN-YOU-JUST-LEAVE?"

Blaze and several Eggman robots were on the shores near Wave Ocean.

"No! I can do better than a B, we're trying this again! Back into positions!"

The robots were incapable, but they would have sighed at that moment.

…

Silver let go of Blaze and began pacing around.

"Blaze, it was awful! First there were these robots and a giant turtle, then the whole city was on fire, then this pink hedgehog kidnapped me and we had fun, then we went to the desert and there were more robots, and a guy dressed up as the Iblis Trigger was there, then I met the Iblis Trigger, and he was rude, then he got away, then Amy yelled at me, and then the guy dressed as the Iblis Trigger kicked me in the head, and I lost my wallet!"

"Okay slow down. What?"

Silver sighed. "It doesn't matter. But I have a question for you. Do you think killing the blue hedgehog is the right thing to do? Even if it is for a good reason?"

"Well, he is Sonic the Hedgehog. So I doubt it."

Silver's eyes widened. "That's the name that the Iblis Trigger used too! And Amy!"

"I still don't know who Amy is. Sonic and Cream are the only ones I really remember."

Silver ignored her. "Does that mean you knew the Iblis Trigger and never told me? Blaze… is there something you're not telling me?"

Blaze put a hand to her forehead. "No, Silver. It's something I've kept telling you, but you never seemed to listen. Remember that time I told you about Sonic and Eggman Nega? From back before I showed up in your time?"

Silver looked confused. "What? What does that have to do with- Oh. Ohhhh. …Oh."

"Yeah."

Silver sighed. "So… was this all for nothing?" he sounded as if on the brink of complete despair. "Is the world just doomed to become fiery ruins and there's nothing we can do? Is there even a point to anything?"

Blaze began to look uncomfortable. "Uh… well… maybe? Er, I mean… Hey, what about that Eggman? He can't be up to any good, what if we head to White Acropolis and see what he's up to?"

Silver looked up. "How would you know that?"

Blaze pointed. "I just saw Sonic and his friends head in that direction on my way here. He even waved at me. If we follow them, we might learn something about this whole mess."

Silver nodded.

"Yeah, okay! Let's go!" Silver ran off, grabbing Blaze's hand as he went.

"Whoa!"

Sonic was snowboarding down the mountain. Tails was flying right behind him, carrying Knuckles. Espio was nearby, sitting on a rock.

"Hey guys! It's me, Espio! You wanna-"

They went right past him.

"Aww…"

Sonic kept on snowboarding. "Woo! Not only can I save the princess, but I look good doing it!"

"Go, go Sonic! You're the most!" Knuckles cheered. Sonic looked back.

"Most? Most what?"

While he was distracted, Sonic's board collided with a rock, causing him to start tumbling down the mountain.

"Ooh! Ow! Ah! Eh! Ooh! Wagh! Naht! Wagh! Naht!"

"Not again…" Tails moaned.

Sonic reached a boost pad at the bottom, which launched him over the canyon and over the base's walls.

"Whoooa!"

Tails, still carrying Knuckles, flew after Sonic.

Further up the slope, Silver was floating along behind Blaze. Unlike Sonic, the cat decided to go without a snowboard, opting to sprint.

"Um, Blaze?"

"What is it?"

"Look." Silver pointed behind them. Giant snowballs were going down the slope, aiming to crush Blaze and Silver.

"Oh shoot. Silver, think you can hold it off with your mind?"

"What?"

"I need you to try and hold the snowball in place with your mind, and once we get far enough, you can let go of it.

Silver looked back at the snowball, then to Blaze, then the snowball again.

"Um, okay." Silver turned to face the snowball, while flying backwards behind Blaze. "Say, this snowball gives me an idea for an attack..."

A bruised Sonic, a disappointed Tails, and an excited Knuckles ran into a cylindrical chamber in Eggman's lair.

"Team Sonic is in the house! We're Sonic Heroes, right Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"Uh, sure Knuckles. Whatever you say."

"Sonic?" Eggman asked in disbelief from behind a window. "How did you find me here? And you brought Tails and Nickels along with you?" Eggman then shrugged. "Well, you know what they say…"

Knuckles pointed at Eggman. "Hey Robotnik, hand over the princess that Sonic and Tails keep mentioning!"

"You're the only one who still calls me that. But no." Eggman went over to press a button, but stopped. "Wait. Sonic, do you still have that Chaos Emerald?"

Sonic's eyes shifted. "…Maybe."

"Well, do you or not?"

"Wouldn't you like to know!" Tails scoffed.

"Yes, I would! That's why I'm asking! Just…" Eggman ran off and came back with Elise. He held her captive, and had a laser gun pointed at her head. "Hand over the emerald, or the princess gets it!"

"This is actually his squirt gun," Elise told Sonic, bored.

"Sonic didn't need to know that!"

In the cylindrical chamber, all of Team Sonic just shook their heads. Knuckles spoke first.

"Man, Robotnik is the real deal… Not!"

Sonic began to limber up. "Okay, I'm gonna break through the glass to get to Eggman. It'll hurt, but I've been through worse today."

"Nice try, but it won't work! This is unbreakable glass!" Eggman boasted.

Tails got up close. "It's cracked."

"Err, that's what you think! But it's actually… a crack." Eggman gave up. "Oh forget it! Nothing I ever do works!"

Sonic was still preparing himself. "Geez, dude. When'd you become such a sad sack?"

"You sound like my father," the doctor told Sonic. "But that's not important! Just hand over the Chaos Emerald! Then I'll let the princess leave."

"Really?" Elise asked.

"I think it's a trap," Tails mused. Knuckles nodded in agreement.

"No duh."

"Oh for the love of-" Eggman let go of Elise and ran over to press a button. A robot hand came out and knocked the Chaos Emerald out of Sonic's grasp and out of the chamber.

"Rude!" Sonic scolded.

"Hohohohoho!" Eggman creepily laughed. "Now get a load of this!"

The doctor pressed the button that he had almost pressed earlier. A purple electrical barrier surrounded the whole chamber. Sonic looked around and shrugged.

"All right. What giant robot do you have up your sleeve this time? Egg-Hydra, a robot dragon that also only has one head?"

Eggman scratched his head. "What, the Egg-Wyvern? Uh, wait! I mean…Say hello to the Solaris prototype!"

Elise gasped. "Solaris prototype? You mean-"

The mad doctor continued his speech. "It's always been one of my backburner goals to be able to manipulate time, and now I can! With this power, I can do anything! Rule the world! Erase past failures! Make a fortune off tomato soup! All in the same day, even!"

"Bet you still can't make your parents proud of you," Tails quipped.

"You leave Mr. and Mrs. Robotnik out of this, Tails! Just for that, I'm sending you three to after the apocalypse!" Eggman walked over and turned a dial on the machine. "Hehee!"

The chamber sucked up Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles into its ceiling. They were gone. Eggman smirked, but it soon turned to a frown.

"Just because I never came as close to world domination as my parents did… They didn't have to rub it in…"

Elise gave Eggman a look. "You are psychotic. Now bring them back!"

"No! Now, I might've sent them to a nearer future, but someone had to tell Sonic that my gun was a squirt gun!" As if on cue, Eggman held out the squirt gun and shot it into his mouth. "Mmm. Throat was getting a little dry, there."

Elise kept glaring at Eggman.

"Oh don't give me that look. They'll probably make it back somehow. They always do. And we'll just keep doing this over and over. I'll inconvenience Sonic, he'll foil my plans, and it'll just keep going until one of us dies first. Probably me."

That just made Elise feel uncomfortable. Eggman hung his head and sighed.

"Maybe I just should've gotten my teaching degree…"

Chapter Text

Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat sat alone in the middle of a ruined city. Rouge was sitting on a ruined car in the street, while Shadow was sitting on a ruined bench.

"Rouge, get out of the road. It's not safe to be in traffic."

Rouge looked at Shadow with disbelief. "Come on, we've been here for hours, and nothing's happened at all!"

Shadow sighed. "Whatever. I'm bored."

Rouge got down from the car. "Well then let's go back to looking around."

Rouge walked off. Shadow started to follow, but made sure to look both ways before crossing the street. Rouge shook her head and kept going.

"So it appears we've found the computer room…" Shadow muttered to himself. Rouge looked to him.

"So?"

"N-nothing, just… memories. Let's see if there's something interesting on this computer."

Rouge walked over to the computer and activated it.

"NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP, NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN-"

"Ahh!" Rouge quickly closed out of the video. "Wasn't expecting that. Oh hey, according to the little calendar at the bottom of the screen, we're in…" Rouge gasped. "I don't believe it!"

"What?"

"The year is 2206! We're in the distant future!"

Shadow took the time to look around. "Well. Soleanna really fell to pieces. Can't say I'm surprised, they don't even have a president."

"Now's not the time for your sense of humor, Shadow."

"Humor?"

Rouge ignored him. "At least, that's assuming the database is up-to-date…" Rouge turned back to face Shadow. "Heh. Wouldn't it be funny if someone just put that date on there as a joke, and it's actually… next Tuesday or something?"

"No."

"I should do that sometime," Rouge said while ignored Shadow. "Maybe to Knuckles."

"So what we can take away from this," Shadow started, "is that Mephiles can control time. It felt a lot like Chaos Control, to me."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Well I can only imagine what Mephiles intended to do when he shouted 'time travel' before warping us away from the valley…" she said, sarcastically.

The whole room shook. Shadow tensed up.

"I detect… him."

Rouge tilted her head. "Oh? Mephiles is back?"

"No... More like-"

"Sonic!"

"Tails, I'm right here."

"Sorry, I just instinctively yell that when I'm nervous." Tails admitted.

"We need to work on getting you some independence, pal."

"Am I buggin', or is this place different?"

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles had found themselves in another version of Eggman's cylindrical chamber. It looked like it was partially destroyed. Rust, dust, decay, mold, the place was in a state of severe neglect.

"I wonder where Eggman sent us," Tails pondered. He whipped out his pad device. "Hmm… There are no functional robots with detectable electromagnetic signatures nearby…"

"You hurt your what?" Sonic asked. Then it hit him. "Wait, didn't Eggman say something about sending us to after an apocalypse? You don't think…" Sonic stopped and slapped himself. "Eggman totally used a time machine on us."

"Time machine?" Tails repeated.

"As in… a machine?" asked Knuckles.

"Hey, gang," a familiar womanly voice echoed. Sonic and friends looked up through a broken window to find Rouge and Shadow. Rouge waved, while Shadow kept his arms crossed.

"How… long were you standing there?" asked Tails. Rouge shrugged.

"Whole time. I was gonna think of something witty to say, but then I got bored."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Took long enough."

Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Rouge & Knuckles all stood atop a cliff, just outside a ruined city.

"I declare myself the new mayor of this city," Sonic announced. "As mayor, my first order of business is to rename it. I'm thinking something cool… How about 'Crisis City'?"

"Sonic, take this seriously." Shadow said.

"What for? If this really is after the apocalypse, there's no pressure anymore." Sonic shrugged. "Besides, this game takes itself too seriously already, it doesn't need my help."

"Can I be the deputy?" Rouge asked. Sonic gave her a thumbs up.

"First come, first served. Welcome aboard."

"Thanks, buddy."

Tails looked hurt. "Sonic, how come I'm not your deputy?" Sonic shrugged again.

"You snooze, you lose."

"We gotta bounce, man! We're 210 years past my comfort zone!" Knuckles exclaimed. Shadow started counting on his fingers.

"…carry the four- Wait, that would put us back in 1996. Why would- Oh yeah, you're Knuckles."

Sonic spoke up. "As the mayor of Crisis City, I deem-"

"-that we need to go back in time." Shadow finished. Sonic glared at him.

"Not cool, Shadow."

Tails shrugged. "How are we going to do that, anyway? Chaos Control?"

Shadow put a hand to his nonexistent chin. "With my power alone, that would be insufficient. We need Sonic to join in. But that would also be insufficient. Both of us would need to use Chaos Emeralds, as well. That would prevent our Chaos Control from being insufficient, allowing us to return to the past. Sufficiently."

"Stop saying 'insufficient'." Rouge nagged.

Tails was fiddling with his radar again. "Well it just so happens that there's a Chaos Emerald nearby! Talk about convenient!"

"So in other words…" Sonic gave a thumbs up. "We need to team up!"

Shadow nodded. "Yes… It's just as I feared." He turned to face the city. "Now the only question is how we're going to find it…"

Then, the black hedgehog eyed a buggy nearby. "Hmm…"

NOW LOADING…

Shadow cruised the buggy along the highway leading into Crisis City. Rouge was in shotgun while Team Sonic sat in the back.

Sonic was standing up, waving to imaginary crowds. "Greetings, my citizens! Have no fear, for your new mayor is here!"

Tails would not hold still. "I gotta use the bathroom!"

And Knuckles was bored. "Shadow, are we there yet?"

"For the love of Cheese, would all of you shut up? I'm trying to drive!" Shadow shouted. "Rouge, I need to unwind. Could you hit the radio for me?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Uh, I guess?" She hit the button.

"WHOA THERE, SOLEANNA! Or what's left of it! Welcome back to 77.8 KSOL! With DJ Fancy Pants-"

"And MR. BANANAS!"

"OHHH, BANANA…" a sound clip from Donkey Kong 64 played after Mr. Bananas introduced himself.

Rouge's eyes widened. "What? There's actually a radio station in this future? Seriously?"

"What sorta weather we got today, Mr. Bananas?"

"Well today will be an infernal 102 degrees, same as it was yesterday and every day before! Speaking of, here's our first request! This one goes out to you, Ms. The Cat!"

"BURN, BABY, BURN! … BURN, BABY BURN! … BURN, BABY, BURN! … BURN, BABY, BURN! … To my surprise-"

Knuckles smiled. "My favorite!" Shadow turned the radio off. "Hey!"

"Too annoying," replied the hedgehog.

"Look!" Rouge pointed. Shadow and all the others had made it to the city, and it looked much worse up close.

"The whole city's on fire!" Sonic shouted.

"We have eyes, Blue," said Rouge.

Shadow resumed his driving, at the same slow pace as before. An Iblis Worm popped up from the ground before them.

"REEEEEK!"

With no reaction, Shadow pressed a button, firing a missile at the worm, destroying it. The buggy kept going, destroying more monsters as it went, but never going fast at all. Sonic sighed.

"Shadow. I say this without a hint of irony. But you really are too slow. I'm out." Sonic hopped out of the car and ran ahead. "See ya at the Emerald!"

"Sonic, don't leave me alone with Shadow or Knuckles, please!" Tails flew off after Sonic.

"I'll just chill." Knuckles leaned back.

From extremely high up above the ground, Sonic dropped from the sky. He was on the snowboard from earlier, and aiming for a grind rail.

"This'll be sweet!"

Sonic missed the rail.

"WHAT! How?"

Sonic x01

...

Sonic x00

From extremely high up above the ground, Sonic dropped from the sky. He was on the snowboard from earlier, and aiming for a grind rail.

"This'll be sweet!"

Sonic landed on the rail and rode along.

"Déjà vu…" Sonic rubbed the back of his head. Eventually he leapt off the rail and onto a slanted skyscraper.

BOOM

The skyscraper was exploding all around him.

"Holy mackerel, why is this building randomly exploding?" Sonic was fighting to stay balanced. Tails then managed to catch up. "Tails, what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I just wanted to make sure nothing happened to you, Sonic!"

"A bit late on that one, I'm pretty sure I just died. But I had a 1-up, so it was cool," Sonic said. He hopped onto a highway's guard rail and began grinding on it. "This dystopian wasteland is perfect for snowboarding, way better than White Acropolis! Cool to know I'm the mayor of it!"

"Yeah it was a real smart move to leave it like this, you're a good mayor!" Tails said.

"You're still not my deputy."

"Darn it!"

Back with the others, Shadow sighed.

"I-It's not like I like you or anything, Rouge!" Knuckles was flustered. Rouge crossed her arms and looked away.

"Well you're nothing special either! I don't need you, I have jewelry to keep me company!"

Shadow wordlessly turned the radio back on.

"It's me again, DJ Fancy Pants!"

"And Mr. Bananas!"

"OHHH, BANANA…"

Sonic was still grinding over the skyscraper canyon that was Crisis City. Some firebirds lowered down and started charging breath attacks.

"Guess I gotta wing it!"

Sonic used homing attacks on the birds, to Tails' surprise.

"That looks like a homing shot!"

Sonic landed on a spring, which started bouncing him all over different springs located around the city.

"Whoooooa! Too many springs! Too many springs!"

"Someone could get seriously hurt, if they don't land on them properly." Tails noted.

Sonic eventually made his way to a grind rail, and started grinding. Iblis monsters were getting sent airborne all around Sonic, until he looked down and saw Shadow skating past a mob of them, knocking them into the air. The black hedgehog reached a spring and bounced up to a rail neighboring Sonic.

"Shadow? What happened to the jeep?"

"You mean the buggy? Rouge and Knuckles happened. They won't shut up. I don't think they've even noticed that I've left yet."

"Oh yeah?" Knuckles started. "Well bats are just flying mice, so there!"

"Excuse you?"

Shadow simply ran through another section of the city. He looked up and saw Sonic trying to navigate some upheaved earth and floating cars that were caught in the fire tornado's pull.

"Think Sonic will be okay?" asked Tails.

"Can't say. For some reason, he always takes the showiest path. Showoff."

Shadow came across another buggy.

"It looks like this buggy still runs. If I press the button, I can-" The tornado started carrying Shadow's new car. "…Darn."

Shadow found a spring. He hopped on and it launched him onto a grind rail that circled the tornado.

"This massive fire! It's a good thing I'm the ultimate lifeform, or I might get heatstroke just from being near it!" At that time, Shadow noticed the buggy floating in the air, taken in by the tornado's pull. "Hmmm…"

Shadow hopped in and revved up. Sonic was headed his way, hopping across some more cars.

"Sonic! Give me a boost before I get pulled in and burnt to a crisp!"

"Got it!" Sonic did a homing attack on the buggy, knocking it out of the tornado's pull, and hurtling towards the streets below. He then noticed a spring on a nearby piece of land. "Now it's my turn!"

Sonic went over for the spring and it launched him toward the ground near the tornado. But the tornado started pulling him in.

"Uh-oh. Gotta speed up!"

Sonic took off, trying to outrun the fire tornado. He noticed several pipes and crates scattered along the highway ahead.

"What gives? As the new mayor, I think a city-wide cleanup is in order!"

Sonic kept narrowly avoiding the crates and followed the trail of rings. Some firebirds appeared to give him trouble.

"Oh not now, this section's already hard enough!"

Two missiles came in and blasted the birds to bits. Sonic looked over and saw Shadow driving along a parallel highway. He gave Sonic a nod, and Sonic gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks, pally!"

"Never call me that. Ever."

Sonic returned his focus to the road ahead and ran straight for the goal ring. Shadow sped up his buggy and jumped out, leaving it to crash while he jumped toward the ring himself.

Both hedgehogs did flips.

"Ye-eah!"

"Yes."

Sonic stuck out his pointer finger.

S

"That was incredible!"

Shadow crossed his arms.

S

"Perfect!"

"Surprised I did that well, considering I died at that one part. Or did I die? Extra lives are weird," Sonic said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

At that point, Tails hovered down to meet the two hedgehogs. "Sonic, Rouge beat us to the Chaos Emerald!"

"It wasn't a race," Sonic said. Tails nodded.

"Yeah, but I think that Knuckles thought it was, 'cause he keeps complaining about it."

Shadow noticed Rouge and Knuckles up ahead, walking over to greet him and Sonic. "How did they even get through the city before us?"

"Well Rouge and I can fly. And Knuckles can kinda glide. So we just sorta… went over you guys." Tails explained.

Rouge stared at the green Chaos Emearld she held in her grasp.

"Heheh. Oh, my darling. My beautiful emerald. You're so shiny and magnificent."

Shadow chuckled to himself. "At least take it out to dinner first."

Rouge looked up to Shadow and stuck her tongue out. "Bleh! You're just jealous we beat you!"

The gang kept walking through the city, though Tails tilted his head at a curious sight. "Hey, is that…?"

Everyone saw an old robot sitting in the middle of the street. Nearby were several dusty cars with skeletons in the drivers' seat of each of them. But more importantly, there was that robot in the street. It was red, black, and yellow.

"Can it be?" Shadow muttered. He walked over to it. "No…"

Name: E-123 Omega (of the Future)
Morning Routine: Tarnish remover, liquid polish, anti-corrosive foam, WD-40

Rouge went over and tried to wipe some dust off of Omega, but-

"DON'T TOUCH IT," Shadow shouted. Rouge flinched.

"Shadow, what gives?"

"It looks like he's in standby mode. You might trigger some kind of alarm and he'll go off, and fire whatever he sees in front of him! That's Future Omega, he might not be friendly. It's been 200 years."

"I'm just surprised he's held up as well as he has," Sonic commented. Something caught his gaze. "Hey what's that?"

The blue hedgehog slowly walked over and crept into a building. He silently motioned for Tails to join him. Tails complied and the two friends listened in.

"So Iblis knocked down that airship?" a familiar voice asked. Sonic peeked in. It was Silver. He, Blaze the Cat, and another version of Shadow were talking to each other.

"No. This was moments before his birth. The Iblis Trigger, the one responsible… was this person," said the Shadow lookalike. The lookalike then made a dramatic gesture and held out the purple Chaos Emerald. Silver and Blaze saw something in it that Sonic and Tails could not.

"So that person… is Iblis's mom?"

Sonic and Tails gave each other a weird look before going back to spying.

"As long as this person lives, the world will remain the same. Forever." The stranger ignored Silver's question. "I will take us to a time when he was still alive, shortly before the Day of Disaster."

"I'm pretty sure that was Sonic the Hedgehog. He's not Iblis Trigger material," said Blaze. Sonic silently nodded in agreement from his hiding place.

"Oh yes! He is. He is intimately tied with the brink of ruin."

Silver lifted a finger. "Wait I have a question-"

"TIME TRAVEL!"

Sonic and Tails gasped as a blue wormhole sucked Silver and Blaze into its core. The black hedgehog dropped its head and pointed at Sonic without even looking at him.

"Soon…"

He was then taken into the portal, which closed it immediately. Sonic and Tails stood there in shock for a few moments.

"…"

"…"

"Well…" Sonic started, "that explains a few things. Guess we know who to blame for my time-travelling assassin."

Tails ran up to the computer that the trio left behind. "Holy cow! This article says that the princess died on one of Eggman's airships! Back in 2006!"

"See!" Knuckles shouted, startling Sonic with his presence. "This sorta thing would've never happened in the 90's!"

"Knuckles, how long were you there?" asked Sonic.

"And why'd that guy look so much like Shadow?" Knuckles ignored Sonic.

"That must've been Mephiles," Shadow stated, startling Sonic and Knuckles with his presence.

Sonic flinched. "Geez! How many people were eavesdropping with us?"

"Is he the chump that you said sent you here?" Knuckles asked Shadow. The hedgehog nodded.

"Yes. And judging from what Sonic said on the way into the city, the other hedgehog must've been that 'Silver' character. The one who tried to wipe him out. Knuckles, Sonic: Mephiles is bad news. He was probably just making up all that Iblis Trigger stuff for Silver."

Sonic put his hand on his own nonexistent chin. "Hmm. Makes sense. Silver's too adorkable to be a straight-up villain. At least, that's my mileage out of him."

Shadow hung his head and sighed. "Sonic. I told you to stop going to that site."

"Uh, guys?" Tails interrupted. "This article dates the princess's death as two days after the Festival of the Sun. It was one day after the festival when we left, and it was nighttime by the time we reached White Acropolis! So she died in Eggman's captivity only hours after Eggman got rid of us!"

"Interesting if true," Sonic remarked. "As much as I enjoy being the mayor of Crisis City, I'd prefer it if the world didn't meet its untimely end. We should find that second Chaos Emerald and warp back. Too bad Morpheus took the purple one with him."

"Mephiles," Shadow corrected, unheard.

Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, and if we bounce to even earlier than we left, we'll have extra time!"

Sonic pointed to Knuckles. "Good idea." He raised his eyebrows. "Did I really just say that to you?"

BEEEEEH-BEEEEEEH-BEEEEEEH

"Intruder alert! White hedgehog and lavender cat are in the base!"

"Son of a horse!" Eggman yelled. "SA-55! Rev up the Genesis! I'm going for a drive!"

Silver and Blaze were walking about a snowfield. Silver turned to Blaze.

"Are you sure the Iblis Trigger went past here?"

"You mean Sonic? Well, that's what the chameleon said, at least."

"Uh, Blaze?" Silver donned a worried look and pointed to the sky. "What is that?"

A giant, robotic pod descended from the skies. It remained in midair as four wings attached themselves to the main core. The friends also caught sight of a fat man sitting in a hover pod nearby, holding a remote control.

"Heheheheh! Sorry, but I'm no longer accepting visitors! Egg-Genesis will kindly show you to the door… OF LIFE! Ohohohohohoho!"

Blaze grimaced. "Yep. It's coming back to me now. He's Eggman."

"Do I know you?" Eggman tilted his head. "Oh well, doesn't matter! Get them, Genesis!"

Boss: Egg-Genesis
Danger Quotient: 510%

Genesis started firing missiles at Silver, but the hedgehog caught them all with his mind and threw them back at the robot.

"WHAT?" Eggman's eyes nearly bugged out from behind his shades. "These hedgehogs just keep getting weirder! No matter! Time for a change of pace!"

Eggman opened up a compartment on the controller and pressed a new button. A laser started firing from the dome beneath Genesis.

"LASER!" shouted the Wisp Announcer. The laser started chasing Silver.

"Aaah!" Silver floated around to evade the beam. Blaze leapt up to the top of one of the searchlight columns.

"Don't look down, don't look down…" she whispered to herself. Blaze then performed a fiery homing shot on Genesis's head.

"HEY!" Eggman was indignant. "That's cheating! Not that I mind cheating, but at least do it right!"

"ROCKET!"

The Genesis started firing homing rockets at Silver.

"Silver!" Blaze shouted from atop the robot. "Those look like homing shots! You'll just have to avoid them!"

"Wait, I can't just catch them and-" The missiles hit Silver, sending him into a nearby wall. "AAAAAAAH! EVERYTHING HURTS! Not… now…" Silver went unconscious. Blaze's eyes narrowed as she bared her fangs, glaring at the robot.

"Rrrrrr! You…!" Blaze started clawing at the Genesis's head, with her claws on fire. Eggman was frantically pressing buttons on his remote.

"Shoot, where's the button? Aha!" Eggman slammed a finger down on the button.

"FRENZY!"

Genesis started spinning wildly, knocking Blaze off and into the snow. She landed on her feet, but they got stuck in the snow.

"Great." She rolled her eyes.

"Hahaha! Time for a change of pace!" Eggman repeated himself, pressing a new button.

"DRILL!"

Genesis began to fire two drill missiles. They burrowed into the snow. Eggman watched with glee.

"Prepare to be skewered!" the doctor taunted.

"Huh? Uh-oh!" The cat freed her feet and moved just in time. A drill missile flew up out of the snow where Blaze was. The cat then noticed movement under the ground near Silver. He was about to get drilled. "NO!"

Blaze ran over, picked Silver up, and jumped out of the way, just in time for the other drill missile to fly up.

"Phew!" Blaze set Silver down and picked up some snow. She burned it in her hand, turning into water, which poured onto Silver.

"AAAH I'M AWAKE!" Silver flailed his limbs. He remembered where he was. "Blaze? Did… did we win?"

"No, you… took a nap. Yeah, that's it."

"Uh, hello? Giant killer robot here!" Eggman interrupted from his pod. "Kind of trying to kill you guys! Oh forget it! Prepare to be schooled!"

Eggman pressed another button, and the Genesis began to fire regular rockets again. Silver stood up.

"I gotta make it up to you, Blaze! TAAAKE THIS!" Silver caught the missiles and returned them to the Genesis again.

"STOP DOING THAT!" Eggman shouted, slamming a hand on the side of his hover pod. Blaze glared.

"Quiet, you! Don't think I've forgotten what you've done!"

Eggman raised an eyebrow. "Uh, could you refresh my memory? I do a lot. Look, if I cut you off in traffic or something, I'm sorry, I was just really in a hurry-"

"The Sol Emeralds, you fiend!"

"The what, now?" Eggman shrugged. "Look, I have a hard time remembering all my schemes." He then sighed. "Especially since they all end in failure… Really, sometimes I even wonder why I get out of bed in the morning. Nothing ever goes my way… I think my first real mistake in life was-"

Blaze whispered to Silver. "Think you can pick up the robot while he's busy?"

"What? I've never picked up anything that big! The closest thing was that snowball on the way here, and I was only able to slow it down for a little bit! Although…"

Silver turned his attention on Eggman and caught the man and hover pod in his psychokinesis.

"Whoawhoa, no touching me with your mind!" the scientist yelled. Silver brought him closer and started swinging him around with his mind. "Whoooooa! Stop, you're gonna make me sick!"

Silver telekinetically threw Eggman and his pod far from the base. "So long-a Eggman!"

Genesis merely stood in the field, master-less and dormant. Blaze did some stretches, then ran up to the robot. She leaped into the air and threw dozens of fireballs as she flew over Genesis, setting it on fire.

"OVERHEATING. MUST-SHUT-DOooownnn…" The burning Genesis collapsed. Silver and Blaze both struck a pose.

C

"That took too long!" Silver sternly noticed.

"I'll say…" Blaze bitterly agreed.

Something shiny in the snow caught both of the animals' attention. Silver went over and picked it up. The blue Chaos Emerald.

"Oh, a Chaos Emerald." observed Blaze. "I guess Eggman dropped it when you were getting rid of him. Well, it might come in handy for us. If you collect all seven of them, a miracle can happen."

"Ooh! Ooh! Will we get to summon a dragon?" Silver asked, eagerly. "I wanna summon a dragon!"

Blaze winced. "Well, I suppose. Who knows?"

BEEEEH-BEEEEH-BEEEEH

"Intruder alert! Pink hedgehog is in the base!"

"Pink… hedgehog… That's Amy!" Silver exclaimed. "Oh man, we should get outta here. She might yell at me again…"

"What about Sonic?"

Silver rubbed the back of his head, uncomfortably. "We… can do that another time. I really don't want Amy to yell at me again. She almost threatened me with her hammer."

Blaze took on a stern look. "She was going to hit you with a hammer? Okay, I don't think we should've come back to kill Sonic, but I won't let anyone hurt you, Silver. You want us to find this Amy and I have a word with her?"

"No, please, it'd just make things more awkward."

Blaze started thinking out loud. "Amy… Was she the one with the knuckles? No, that can't be right… Was she the one with the tails?"

Shadow, Rouge, and Team Sonic made it to a rocky canyon.

"As King of the Mountain, I dub this volcano, 'Flame Core'." Sonic announced.

"Stop doing that," ordered Shadow.

"Tails, home slice, you sure a Chaos Emerald is in this volcano?" asked Knuckles. The fox nodded.

"Yep. Just a little further."

"Then let's hurry it up. All this heat isn't doing my fur any favors. It gets all frizzy." Rouge said, before shuddering.

"You barely even have fur!" Knuckles commented. Rouge glared and slapped him on the back of the head.

"And everybody had the good grace not to mention it until now! Thanks for reminding everyone I'm a freak!" Rouge pouted and stormed off toward the volcano. "Come on, Shadow, who needs this guy! We're leaving!"

Shadow sighed.

"This should be fun," Shadow said, sarcastically. He slouched and followed Rouge.

Sonic went over to Knuckles and put a hand on his shoulder. "C'mon man. You know she doesn't like it when people talk about that. Kinda crossed a line there."

Sonic then ran off after the others. Tails awkwardly looked between the leaving group and Knuckles before deciding to follow Sonic.

The cyan Chaos Emerald floated over a pond of magma. Rouge flew up to it.

"Aha! There you are, my darling!"

"DON'T TOUCH IT! Again." Shadow said.

Rouge looked back. "What for?"

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"

A hideous roar echoed through the cavern. Shadow and Rouge noticed a giant lava worm with a monstrous face staring at them. Team Sonic ran in.

"Sorry we're late, we just- WHOA that is one ugly son of a gun!" Sonic declared. "Looks like we have our area boss!"

The boss roared at its intruders.

Boss: Iblis (Form 2)
Danger Quotient: 600%

"He's as strong as six of Silver!" Sonic stated.

Sonic and Shadow looked at each other.

"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin', Shadow?"

"Winner gets to fight that monster."

"Agreed."

Both hedgehogs began shaking their fists.

"One-two-shoot!" both hedgehogs said at once.

"Scissors cut paper!" Sonic cheered.

"Best two out of three!" Shadow demanded.

Their companions sighed.

Chapter Text

Mephiles stepped out of a portal in the middle of Soleanna.

"Back to the Year of Disaster. Purposefully sending myself to a point further along than the hedgehog and cat should have given them enough time to have obliterated the Iblis Trigger by now…"

Mephiles stumbled off in a random direction. A certain citizen was watching the whole time.

"… Weird," Sonic Man commented. Then he heard a noise. "Oh no! It's Amy! Sonic Man must find where Sonic went before she does!"

Sonic Man ran off. Amy then walked up, followed by Princess Elise. The pink hedgehog glanced around incredulously.

"I can't believe no one seems interested in the fact that their princess is walking around town in broad daylight."

"Yeah the citizens are pretty apathetic. But that's not important. I've been meaning to tell you, thanks for saving me from that base."

Amy waved her hand. "P'shaw! That was easy! You weren't the person I was looking for, but I was glad to help!"

Eggman ran past them, picking up the princess as he went.

"WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP!" cried Eggman. Amy stood there in stunned silence.

"…Oh come on!"

In another part of Soleanna, Silver and Blaze were walking around. They saw something peculiar.

"Hey…" Silver tilted his head. "Isn't that…?"

There was an outdoor restaurant with a long line. Dozens of people in the line were complaining.

"Hey get a move on!"

"Decide your order!"

"Get out of the line!"

"Does this place have vegetarian options?"

At the very front of the line, just standing there and staring at his feet, was Mephiles.

"Oh, great." Blaze narrowed her eyes. "Him."

"Looking for me?" Mephiles was suddenly behind Blaze, making her jump.

"Aaah!"

He was still staring at the ground. Silver cleared his throat.

"Um, Mephiles?" The dark hedgehog kept staring at the ground. Silver shrugged. "Uh, okay. Mephiles, who is the Iblis Trigger exactly? What makes him the Iblis Trigger?"

Mephiles shook his head. "It does not matter why. All that's important is that he will lead this world to ruin." He held his arms out and stared at the sky. "The future is yours to decide. I'm feeling it."

"You're really not good at direct answers, are you?" Blaze asked, hands on her hips.

Mephiles gestured toward the train station. "The Iblis Trigger is fated to arrive shortly. It's now or never if you want this."

The dark hedgehog twirled away. He bumped into a random human.

"Oof!"

"Watch where ya goin' ya fool!"

Blaze sighed, while Silver tried to focus.

"So I guess… We need to go to the train station!" Silver pointed a finger skyward. "Let's go!"

"Silver, I'm not so sure about this. For one thing, I don't see why he doesn't bother going after Sonic himself."

Silver shrugged. "Maybe he just can't beat him in a fight. I only barely won, and even that didn't stop him! But now there'll be two of us!"

Blaze put a hand behind her head and looked down. "Well… I did fight Sonic once, but I don't really remember which one of us won. And I still really don't think we should kill Sonic."

"Well what else do we do?"

"Hmm…" Blaze was at a loss for words.

"ROOOOOOAAAAAAW!"

Back at Flame Core, Sonic was running around a stony field, which was dotted by several magma openings.

"Sonic, watch out!" Tails shouted from the plateau. Sonic turned around and noticed Iblis popping his head out of one of the holes.

"RAAAARARRARAR!"

"Heh. Hello, handsome!" Sonic began to stretch his legs as Iblis charged a breath attack. "I see you wanna beat me. Well don't hold your breath. Or on second thought, do."

Sonic did a homing attack on Iblis's face. The beast shrieked in agony and sunk back into the magma, only for it to fly out of another one and hover through the air, spitting fire everywhere.

Knuckles was smiling. "This fight seems like something that would've happened in the 90's. But where does it seem familiar…?"

Rouge pointed a finger at the echidna. "If you mention that decade one more time-"

The whole chamber began shaking. Stalactites were falling onto Sonic's arena.

"Whoa!" the hedgehog exclaimed. "I gotta watch out!"

Iblis eventually gave up flying around and sunk back into one of the magma holes. After a few seconds, the magma in one of the holes began to show signs of disruption.

"Oh, come back for more?" asked Sonic. The magma stopped. Suddenly, the hole behind him began to show signs of disruption, which caught Sonic's attention. But then it stopped, and a third hole started up instead. Sonic rolled his head. "This is getting old. This is the opposite of a BBBE."

"A what?" asked Shadow.

"Best boss beating ever!" Knuckles answered. He then gave Sonic the mitten version of finger guns. "Who loves ya, Sonic?"

Iblis emerged from the hole at last, only to be met with another homing attack from Sonic. Iblis's head collapsed onto the arena.

"This'd be easier if I had a giant hammer or something. His head is literally as thick as a rock!" Sonic then prepared a Spin Dash and unleashed it on the dazed beast.

"EEEEEEAH EEEEEEAH!" Iblis roared in pain and sunk into one of the holes, unconscious at last. Sonic struck a pose.

A

"Too easy! No sweat! And I'm pretty sure that fight was a ham-fisted reference!"

Sonic and Shadow stood together, surrounded by their friends. Each of them had a Chaos Emerald, Shadow with the green one, and Sonic with the cyan one.

"So how does this work again?" asked Sonic. Shadow looked at him.

"You need to think about the past."

Sonic grimaced. "I don't like dwelling on the past. I like to live in the moment."

"I meant the era. You need to focus on the past."

"…Like Knuckles does?" Sonic winced.

"Think about Soleanna in 2006, two days after the Sun Festival," Shadow explained through gritted teeth.

"Haha! Yeah I know, I was just foolin' around."

Shadow glared at Sonic.

"What? We're not on the clock to prevent the apocalypse until we get back, gotta laugh now while we still can!"

"I never laugh," Shadow said.

Rouge spoke up. "It's true, I've never heard him laugh before. He might not have been created to have that ability."

Shadow turned back to look at Rouge. "What is that supposed to mean? Of course I know how to laugh!"

…

Shadow stood in a metallic hallway with an old man. There was a window showing outer space.

Name: Gerald Robotnik
Greatest Disappointment: Gerald Jr.

"Shadow! Why did they bury the fireman… heheheh… behind the hill?"

A younger, more innocent Shadow who looked exactly the same scratched his head. "I'm not sure. Why?"

"Because he was dead! Ohohohohohohoho!"

Shadow stood there for a moment. "…Heh."

…

"Good times…" Shadow said, wistfully. Rouge shook her head and sighed.

"Just use Chaos Control already."

Knuckles put a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Hold on a sec, Sonic. You sure you wanna do this? Think about it! We can go back to the good ol' days! Back before Amy, Shadow, Big, Cream, and all them!"

"I met Amy before I knew you," Sonic said flatly. Back to the matter at hand. "So we just gotta focus on the target time. What time of day do we want?"

Tails was fiddling around with his miniature computer again. "Estimated time of the Egg Carrier's crash was between 4:30 and 6:00, both were pm."

"So noon should cover it," Sonic said, shrugging. "You ready Shadow?"

"I've been ready, Sonic. Let's go!"

Sonic and Shadow held out their emeralds. Sonic tilted his head. "Y'know, I've always wondered, is this one really an emerald if it's not gre-"

"SONIC!"

"Okay, fine! Chaos…" Sonic started.

"Control!" Shadow finished.

Quack

A portal simply appeared between the two hedgehogs, as if it were nothing special. Rouge tilted her head.

"Well… That didn't live up to the hype at all."

"Less talking, more time traveling!" Knuckles called out. He leapt into the portal first. Tails and Sonic followed suit. Rouge walked up to Shadow.

"Mine!" she plucked the Chaos Emerald from his grasp and flew into the portal. Shadow rolled his eyes and began to follow, but stopped short.

"Wait. I detect… him."

"Hahahahaha!" Mephiles' laugh echoed. A black mist flew out of the portal and landed behind Shadow.

Shadow turned around and saw that the mist had already taken on his form again, as Mephiles the Dark. He stared at the ground, as usual.

"Mephiles!"

"Jake…"

The mouthless hedgehog turned his head up looked straight at the portal and widened his eyes. His irises shrunk and began to twitch. The portal disappeared, stranding Shadow in this future.

"…Shoot."

The portal spit Team Sonic out in the middle of Soleanna, on the ground.

"Oof!" "Ow!" "Rrk!"

Sonic stood first, brushing dust off himself.

"Well… That was a thing. Who's up for chilidogs?"

Tails got up. "Sonic, what about the princess? Eggman still has her."

"Oh yeah…"

Knuckles finally got off the ground. He looked into the portal. "Weren't Rouge and Shadow gonna come with us?"

"Eh they'll be fine. Shadow's too popular to get killed again, and there's no point in killing off Rouge. We have our own problems, anyway."

Sonic walked off. Tails and Knuckles looked at each other, shrugged, and followed. Once they were gone, Rouge flew out of the portal.

"That was close, right Shadow? …Shadow?"

Rouge turned around and saw that Shadow had yet to step out of the portal.

"Hoohahahahaha!" a black cloud flew into the portal and closed it behind him.

"…Shoot."

Out in Crisis City, Omega's lifeless body jerked awake.

"Designated time confirmed. System reboot 100% complete. Directive: Check on Shadow. Priority Directive: Make myself look nice for the visit."

Omega stood up from his spot on the street in the centuries-old traffic jam. He began vibrating intensely, shaking the dust and dirt off his frame. He looked as dark red, black, and yellow as he did back in 2006.

Shadow walked up to a flat, stony platform in the middle of a magma sea. Mephiles waited atop a pillar.

"There you are, Mephiles. First you trap me here, then you don't even show yourself. And when we finally meet, you trap me again and then run away from me? What are you after?"

Mephiles looked down and locked eyes with Shadow. "I simply want to restore myself. And punish those who made a mockery of me. Oh yes!"

Shadow looked around. "Wait… you're not some alternate version of me, are you?"

Mephiles stood still for a moment before answering. "…The answer's yes… and no."

Shadow took on a battle stance. "You have five seconds to explain what that means before I beat you to dust. Four… three…"

Mephiles shook his head. "We have no quarrel, Jake. Not anymore. I'm willing to let bygones be bygones."

"That's not what you said at the valley…"

Mephiles held his hands out. "That was before. During our time in this era, I've seen what has become of you. What this world saw fit to put you through. In the end, we share much more than just our appearance."

Shadow's eyes widened. "What? I'm… in this future?" Shadow stood at ease. "Oh yeah, I'm sort of immortal. I guess that makes sense." Then he took the stance again. "But wait, what happened to me? How did it change your mind?"

"And that is the reason I led us to this spot. Behold."

Mephiles made a grand gesture. Nothing happened, so Shadow looked around.

"…The volcano?"

"No. You."

Mephiles snapped his fingers, and another Shadow the Hedgehog appeared. 2006 Shadow nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden appearance of himself. The new Shadow was unconscious, trapped in an elaborate cage of purple energy.

Name: Shadow the Hedgehog (of the future)
Pastime: Making up stories about the guards

"What… what is this? Is that-"

"Oh yes. He is you, all right. Or rather, he will be you. But this fate can be avoided, if you join me. Come with me, Jake from State Farm-"

"I told you, my name is Shadow."

"-and we can have our revenge!"

"And you're not even going to tell me how I end up like this?" Shadow crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "For all I know, you did this to me."

"I read about it in the documents," Mephiles began. "Humanity is to blame. As usual." He looked over to the imprisoned Shadow. "They blamed you. They said that you were too edgy and child-unfriendly. You were a menace and needed to be stopped."

Shadow gave Mephiles a blank look. "…What."

"Oh yes! Society cowered before your powers. Your weaponry. Your methods. Your vocabulary. It was only a matter of time until a small child picked up a gun and injured another in your name."

Shadow rested his head in his hands and hung it. "Oh for crying out loud, I'm talking to a moron."

"You cannot deny it, Shadow. The article said so. Not long after the Day of Disaster, humanity came to fear you. You put up a fight, but gave in eventually. That was when you were put to rest under this mountain."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Because no one ever edits an online article to falsify them…"

"And yet… here you are." Mephiles gestured again toward the sleeping hedgehog. "Maybe those aren't the pretenses, but even I would not subject you to this. Don't you wish to punish humanity?"

"No."

Mephiles continued, as if Shadow said nothing. "Your life was suspended, with no input from you, no consent given. Doesn't that make you furious? Outraged? Sick with anger?"

"Meh."

"It's only fair to- …Why are you not bothered by this?" For the first time, Mephiles was beginning to give an air of being annoyed.

"Because. I'm over what humanity's done to me. That hedgehog over there…" Shadow motioned with only his head. "He's not me. I'm me. All of me, you could even say. And he'd say the same thing."

Mephiles dropped his hands. "You… you forgive humanity? For all they have done to you? And all they will do?"

Shadow took on a battle stance once more. "If I can accept what they did to me on the ARK, then I can get over this. You're a psychopath, and I'm going home. Even if I have to go through you to do it."

Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"Shadow… Hrrrrrrrrrr…." Mephiles began to vibrate violently, almost as if by some outside force.

"This is gonna suck…" Shadow winced.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Everything went bright. Once Shadow regained his vision, he saw that Mephiles was different. His sclera had turned red, his quills and fur turned crystalline, his gloves replaced with crystal claws, and his legs have changed into crystalline peg legs.

"…That's it?" Shadow tilted his head. "Well that sure didn't live up to the hype. Oh well."

Rouge paced around Soleanna with the green Chaos Emerald in her grasp.

"So… Shadow is trapped in the future with the creepy doppelganger that sent him there in the first place." She stomped her foot. "Oh if only I didn't call him out here to Soleanna in the first place. Eh. That's life."

Rouge walked over to a bench and sat down. She sighed.

"Wait… Calling someone out… That gives me an idea! Oh how smart I can be!" Rouge turned on her wrist communicator.

"Agent Rouge! …Wait, how'd you fix your communicator?"

Rouge waved her free hand, though she could not be seen on the other side. "Oh, that. I turned it off myself, it was never broken."

"Agent Rouge, that was grievous misconduct."

"Never mind that, we have a real emergency this time. Where is E-123 Omega?"

"Well, he was in the helicopter with Agent Shadow before the HALO Jump, but everyone agreed that Shadow would've been enough to bust you out. He's still in the helicopter, waiting to extract you and Agent Shadow."

"Well, change of plans. I need to talk to Omega, because Shadow's trapped in another time period with another version of himself, and I need a super robot like Omega."

"Sounds legit. Sending Omega. The helicopter is currently above the tropical jungle outside of Soleanna's forest."

Rouge tilted her head. "Oh? Why there?"

"Because that's the extraction point. You never showed up. Remember?"

"No, the extraction point was Kingdom Valley."

"No, Rouge. It was the jungle. We've been over this."

Rouge shook her head. "Ugh! That'd explain why you never showed up! I can't believe we went to Kingdom Valley for nothing! Anyway, I'll be there soon."

NOW LOADING…

In the jungle, Omega jumped out of the helicopter and crashed into the ground. After climbing his way out of his own crater, he stomped over to the nearby Goal Ring. Before long, Rouge flew up to it and caught sight of her robot friend.

"Hey, Omega. Long time no see, huh?"

"It has been one week since our last conversation."

Name: E-123 Omega

"Not important. Listen, I have a huge favor to ask of you, and you're probably going to say no."

"State your request."

"Okay. Omega…" Rouge took a breath. "I need you to shut yourself down for around 200 years. When you wake up, I want you to look for Shadow, because he'll be in danger."

"…I do not understand. Is this humor?"

"No joke, big guy. Here." Rouge gave him the green Chaos Emerald from the future. "Shadow and I got trapped in the future. I made it back, but Shadow's still stuck with the guy that sent us there. He'll probably need this Chaos Emerald to help him back."

"Do I get to come back too?"

Rouge smiled, for once out of sincerity. "Well yeah, I'd miss you if you were gone, you're my friend too." She stopped smiling. "Just don't tell anyone I said something like that."

"To what point do we return?"

Rouge crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "Hmm… Oh! Record what time it is before you shut down. Then return to five minutes after that. And watch out, the guy harassing Shadow looks just like him, but without a mouth."

"Parameters recognized. New Directive: Assist Shadow in 200 years. Requirement: Find suitable waiting position."

Omega stomped off. Rouge cringed. "He's a lot louder than I remember."

…

Omega plopped down right in the middle of Soleanna traffic.

HONK-HONK

"Get out of the road, jerk!" a driver shook his fist at Omega. Numerous cars began to line up behind said driver, but Omega paid no heed.

"The time is 12:56 pm, Nov. 14th, Year 2006. Shutting dowwwwnnnn…n…"

Mephiles was floating in the air before Shadow. His movements were much more fluid and natural now.

"What a shame. Truly a pity. And here I thought we could be friends," Mephiles taunted. "Come, Shadow… Show me your moves."

Boss: Mephiles the Dark
Danger Quotient: 660%

Mephiles summoned a swarm of miniature Mephiles-like shadow monsters.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" "Hehehehehehehe" "HAHAHAHAHAH" "Eheheheheheh"

Shadow grimaced. "Urrg! That's annoying. Like nails on a chalkboard. Or Knuckles playing piano."

Mephiles sunk into the ground. Shadow's own shadow then extended and took a monstrous shape. "Let's see how you deal with them."

The shadow monsters began flying toward Shadow. The hedgehog charged a Chaos Spear and threw it, nailing several of the underlings at once. More of them dogpiled on Shadow.

"Aaah!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA" "Yahahahahaha"

"That… laughing… getting… on my nerves!" Shadow unleashed some energy, sending all the monsters flying, disintegrating them. "Pests!"

"It does not matter how many of them you defeat, you know…" taunted Mephiles, from Shadow's own shadow.

"So this is your game, Mephiles?" Shadow looked down. "Hiding and letting your minions wear me out? Pretty cowardly if you ask-" Shadow got tackled by another group of monsters.

"Hoohoohahahahahaha!" Mephiles laughed. "Oh the humanity…"

"Rrrrrrrr!" Shadow growled. The monsters kept laughing.

"Heeheeheeheeheehee" "HAHAHAHAHAHA"

"Get… OFF!" Shadow yelled, he began to glow red. Shadow unleashed more energy, disintegrating more of the monsters. With murderous intent, Shadow looked at his shade and shot a blast at it, releasing Mephiles from his hiding spot.

"What? Shadow! But how-"

"Chaos Blast!" Shadow used his attack on Mephiles, knocking him a ways away.

"Aaaah!" Mephiles landed on the ground. "Oof!"

Shadow began to charge another one. "This will finish you."

Mephiles stood back up. His eyes widened and irises shrunk again and twitched. Mephiles vanished.

"What the… Where'd he go?" Shadow wondered out loud. Suddenly he tensed up. Shadow quickly leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding a spear of light that was coming at him from behind.

"Curses!" Mephiles lamented. "That would have killed you for sure."

Shadow turned to face Mephiles and smirked. "Heh. Only an idiot would let themselves get killed by an attack like that one."

As Shadow said that, two of Mephiles' monsters came behind him and grabbed him.

"Oh how ironic!" Mephiles began to charge a blue energy attack. "The documents mentioned your history. In the next life, give that professor and his grandchild my regards."

Mephiles threw the orb at Shadow.

"AAAAAAHHH!" Shadow writhed in pain. The monsters holding him were also hit, and easily crumbled to dust. When the energy dissipated, Shadow was on his hands and knees, short of breath.

"Now…" Mephiles slowly stepped toward Shadow. The tired hedgehog looked up to face his opponent. "You may be the ultimate lifeform. But I am above lifeforms. I am Mephiles; Mephiles the Dar-"

A grenade flew right into Mephiles' head and exploded. Shadow looked away. When the smoke cleared, Mephiles' body was without a head. It lifelessly fell over.

"…Oh."

It was all Shadow could say.

"He did not live up to his hype." bleated a robotic voice. Shadow looked over to find the origin of this voice.

"Omega! But how?"

Omega did not answer. "Shadow. You appear to have esca-" Omega stopped short when he saw that in the distance, there was the imprisoned Shadow, still asleep. "My apologies. It appears there are two of you. In addition, you were being attacked. This must be the operation Rouge asked me to complete."

"Rouge?" asked Shadow. He looked down and smiled. "She's not going to let me hear the end of this one."

"Mission complete. And it only took me 61 attempts."

Shadow had finally caught his breath and stood up. "What are you talking about?"

"FOOLS." Mephiles' voice echoed throughout the cavern. Shadow and Omega looked over to find his headless body floating in midair. Black mist swarmed around where his head should be. "I told you, I am above lifeforms. A simple explosive is insufficient."

Shadow nodded. "That's a good word."

The mist settled into the shape of Mephiles' head and solidified. Mephiles was good as new. "Now… where was I?"

Omega's metallic hands turned into Gatling guns and unloaded a stream of bullets into Mephiles. "It was time for your bullet massage." He began firing.

"Rrrk! Aaar! Stop!"

"Coincidence: I, too, am above lifeforms. Strange, isn't it?"

"Cursed robot…! Taaaake this!" Mephiles summoned more monsters to swarm Omega. Shadow prepared to fight, but Omega turned to him.

"Shadow. It has been years since my last fight. Let me enjoy this."

Shadow sighed. "I forgot how much you enjoy fighting. I am pretty tired. Go ahead."

"Now it is Omega Time." Omega announced. His guns changed into flamethrowers, and he torched the incoming monsters. "I am turning up the heat."

"Was that… was that on purpose?" asked Shadow.

Ignoring him, Omega continued burning all of the monsters, reducing them to ash. Mephiles crossed his arms.

"Omega… Why does that name seem familiar to me? From the articles, perhaps?"

Finished with the minions, Omega turned to Mephiles.

"Would you like to be medium rare or well done?"

Mephiles held his arms above his head and began charging another blue energy attack. Shadow called out to Omega.

"Omega, watch out! That's how he got me before you came in!"

"Calm down. I believe I am stronger than you. Therefore I am able to handle this."

Shadow glared. "Well I can see 200 years did nothing for your ego."

Omega quickly changed one of his flamethrower hands into a grenade launcher and shot another grenade at Mephiles.

"AAAH!" Mephiles' hands were blown up, causing him to drop the energy orb on himself. "GAAAAAAAA! My own… attack…!"

Mephiles sunk down to the ground. For good measure, Omega changed both his hands to machine guns and unloaded his ammo on Mephiles' body.

"…Ouch," Shadow said. "I almost feel sorry for him now."

Omega spun his torso around. "Mission complete."

S

"Perfect mission."

Shadow walked over to Omega. "You know, I softened him up for you."

"Incorrect. Mephiles had you severely weakened by that energy blast. Ironic how the same blast weakened him in the end."

"It was a joke, Omega."

"I understood your attempt at humor. I just did not find it entertaining."

Shadow sighed, but then smiled. "Good to see you again, Omega."

"Rrrg… arggg.."

Shadow and Omega looked over and found the bullet-filled Mephiles crawling into another portal.

"Mephiles!"

Ignoring Shadow, Mephiles crawled on his wrist stumps and knees into the portal, disappearing to another time. Shadow and Omega hurried after him.

Shadow and Omega fell out of a portal and landed on some chairs and tables.

"Again! Freaking again!" complained a customer. "I just can't go to this café without weird hedgehogs messing things up!"

Omega looked around. He began to beep and buzz, confusing Shadow.

"Omega… Are you okay?"

"The date is Nov. 14th, Year 2006. It is 12:30 pm. Rouge asked that we meet her a few minutes after 12:56. Mephiles' portal sent us back to an earlier time in the same day."

Shadow shrugged. "Guess we're a little early, then."

"Rouge was meeting with me at this time in the jungle outside Soleanna. We cannot meet her until the designated time."

Shadow looked over and saw Sonic running towards the train station.

"Hmm. Sonic must be after that princess that he kept going on about. And if the princess is there, then I'll bet I can find Eggman. I think it's time I paid the good doctor a visit. He knows something about Mephiles, and I'm going to find out what it is."

Shadow finally got off the table and hopped onto the ground. He turned back to Omega.

"While I'm gone, tell Rouge what happened. You also need to get her to ask GUN HQ to tell us everything they know about the Scepter of Darkness."

"I want to come with you. I must destroy Eggman."

Shadow held out his hands. "Omega. It's important."

"Fine."

Shadow walked off. The customer still watched Omega, whom was still on the table.

"So… will you get off my food already?"

Silver and Blaze were on their way to the terminal station, when they both saw Shadow running into the train station.

"Mephiles?" Silver asked. "He just left a few minutes ago, why's he heading into the station?"

"He looks different. I don't like this." Blaze crossed her arms. "Silver, we mustn't be careless."

"LET'S GO!" Silver carelessly shouted and ran for the train station.

"Silver, what did I just say?" Blaze was about to run after him, but some of Eggman's robots dropped down. "Great, more of these."

The cat quickly melted her enemies with a fire blast.

"…Now to follow-"

"That was amazing. I know I am a robot, but that was beautiful. Such a way of destroying Eggman's robots. Such force, but with finesse at the same time."

"…What?" Blaze turned around and saw E-123 Omega standing there.

"Take me with you. We can burn many things together."

Blaze was at a loss for words. A ways off, Tails and Knuckles were watching the whole thing unfold.

"Shouldn't… we go help Sonic?" Tails asked. Knuckles shook his head.

"I wanna see this plays out."

Chapter Text

Eggman was enjoying himself in the train's control room. The train was under his control, of course, and the wonders of autopilot freed Eggman to taunt Sonic over the speaker system. He knew Sonic had made it back in time to stop him. Nothing ever went right for Eggman. Not for longer than a few minutes, so he took Sonic's return like a champ.

"HEY SONIC, YOU'D BETTER SAVE THE TRAIN BEFORE GOING AFTER THE PRINCESS! WOULDN'T WANT IT TO EXPLODE AND KILL THE PASSENGERS, WOULD YOU?"

Sonic was running through the abandoned mines. He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah I'm sure that's what's going on right now. This totally isn't one of your own trains or something. I can see the Eggman logo sloppily painted onto it. …Wait, he can't hear me from here."

"OHOHOHO! … SHADOW? WHY ARE YOU HERE? DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!"

Sonic tilted his head, yet kept pace. "Shadow? I don't see him anywhere…"

Sonic began looking around, but a voice threw him off guard.

"HELP ME, SONIC!"

"Ahh, the melodic voice of the princess…" Sonic deadpanned. "Now that I think about it, what's Eggman even doing with this train?"

Sonic then heard another voice in the distance.

"Let's. Get. MOOOOVING!"

Sonic smirked. "Yep, Shadow's definitely here."

Sonic dashed past some crates and leapt onto a conveyor belt. Right as he landed, an old 'friend' landed on the opposite belt.

"THRASHING TIME!" Zazz announced.

Unfortunately for Zazz, he was immediately carried off the belt and flung into the abyss below.

"LOUSY MACHINE!"

"…Did I just hear something? Eh, doesn't matter." Sonic shrugged and resumed chasing the train.

Silver struggled on some platforms.

"AAAAH! This is hard!"

Every time Silver jumped onto another platform, it would sink down. He had tried placing boxes to keep his path available, but had difficulty reaching the higher platform from the lower one.

"The Iblis Trigger's gonna get away and it'll be all my fault! If only Blaze were here, she'd know what to do!"

...

Omega and Blaze were at the Soleanna café together.

"Look, you seem like a nice robot, but I really need to stop my friend from making a huge mistake. He's a bit… naïve."

"Let me come with you then. As the most powerful robot in the world, and the most powerful cat in the world, we can make wonderful fires together."

Blaze sighed and put her head to the table. At a nearby table, Tails and Knuckles were still observing.

"Knuckles, I miss Sonic."

"Relax, home skillet. We're just getting to the good part!"

...

"DYNAMITE KICK!" Sonic Man announced.

"AAAH HOW'D YOU GET HERE?!" Silver shrieked. Sonic Man kicked Silver toward a plateau nearby.

"Ow…"

"Sonic Man cannot allow you to go any further!" With that, Sonic Man leapt all the way over to the plateau to which he had thrown Silver. "Sonic's life depends on it!"

"But you don't understand! He's the Iblis Trigger!"

"Enough talk! Have at you!"

Silver gulped.

Further along the mines, Shadow pressed a switch in order to put up a laser barrier.

"THE BARRIER'S DOWN! HIT THE BRAKES! HIT THE BRAKES!" Eggman cried over the intercom. The train came to a screeching halt, inches before the lasers. "GREAT! NOW TO SIT HERE FOR FIVE MINUTES, AND DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! …GUESS I'LL SEE WHAT'S TRENDING RIGHT NOW."

"Hey Doctor, your train looks like it could use some renovations!" Shadow proceeded to lob a few Chaos Spears at the train.

"CURSE YOU, SHADOW!"

Sonic dropped down. "Hope I'm not interrupting!"

Elise stuck her head out the window. "Sonic, you came!"

"Not now Elsie, the grownups are talking," Sonic dismissed. "Anyway Shadow, what's going on?"

"It's Elise…" the princess pouted to herself.

Shadow remained focused on his assault. "I have questions, and the doctor is going to give me answers."

Elise was pulled back into the train car, and this time Eggman stuck his head out.

"If I answer your question, will you stop blowing up my train? I put a lot of money into these modifications!"

Sonic tilted his head. "Are you saying you didn't put money into all your other robots?"

"That's the difference, Sonic! This train wasn't meant to fight you! It was a birthday gift! …From myself… But still!"

"You bought yourself a train?" asked the Blue Blur. "Why?"

Eggman sighed. "Sometimes you just need to feel young. You'll understand when you get to my age." The barrier disappeared. "Five minutes already? Hot dog, I'm out!"

With that, the doctor leaned his head back inside and the train went off again. Shadow glared at Sonic.

"Sonic, you could have helped me! Instead, you got him to talk about his midlife crisis!"

Sonic shrugged. "To be fair, he had me very confused."

"Ugh…" Shadow took off after the train. Shrugging once more, Sonic followed along.

Silver began to hover around the abandoned mine, with Sonic Man leaping across various platforms to keep up with him.

"You can't run from Sonic Man forever!"

"I already told you, he's the Iblis Trigger! He's gonna cause the end of the world!"

Silver ran out of energy and landed on a platform. Sonic Man leapt to a nearby conveyor belt. Only it was carrying him in the opposite direction, so he had to resort to running in place.

"And how is Sonic Man supposed to believe that? Sonic's even more cool and blue than this planet!"

"Well it's about to become red and hot!" Silver retorted.

"Like Knuckles? …That came out wrong."

"Look, I came from the future, where everything is a fiery wasteland. One day, this guy I'd never met before told me that Sonic would cause the end of the world, so I need to kill Sonic!"

"You… lie!" Sonic Man was beginning to run out of breath. "Sonic Man needs a breather…" He stopped to catch his breath, but the conveyor belt carried him into the abyss. "WHOOOOOOOOOOA!"

VROOOOOOOOM

Shadow was practically flying through the long path past the mines on his newfound motorcycle. A blue streak briefly flashed along Shadow's right side. Shadow glared.

"Showoff."

Shadow then noticed a chasm up ahead. He steeled his gaze and steered the bike toward one of the acceleration ramps. He soared over the gap, and landed on the train tracks, zooming forward without missing a beat.

Three Eggman robots held up signs. The first two had a '10', the last had a '9.5'.

"Sure wish I had a helmet right now, I could seriously hurt my head if I fell off the bike… Though I just jumped over a canyon, so there are worse dangers. …Come to think of it, why is this obstacle course here?"

Shadow noticed he was now in a field of train tracks with random trains going in opposite directions.

"Ugh, this feels like one of those math problems where different trains leave the station at different times…"

The dark hedgehog drove toward the nearest ramp and flew over the field of trains.

GOOD! GREAT! AWESOME! OUTSTANDING! AMAZING! SWOOD!

After landing, Shadow sped forward. He noticed a white hedgehog hovering slowly in the air, a little ways away.

"That must be Sonic's 'friend'…"

"HE'S CATCHING UP!" Eggman's voice blared over the intercom. "DETACH THE BOMB CARS!"

Shadow smiled to himself. He spoke, though he knew Eggman could not hear him. "Way ahead of you."

Shadow pressed a button that fired a missile at the caboose. It exploded, and debris flew everywhere. Shadow quickly steered away from an incoming piece.

"And while we're at it…" Shadow fired at the next car. It exploded in a similar manner, and Shadow kept it up until only Eggman's car remained.

"NOOOO! MY RADICAL TRAIN! YOU RUIN EVERYTHING, SHADOW!"

Shadow glared. "I've had it with this." He swerved the bike and jumped off, homing in on the last remaining car of Eggman's train.

Eggman was sitting alone in his chair. He sighed. "I wonder if I can still get a refund on this train… Then again, I did steal it."

Shadow crashed through the ceiling, startling Eggman.

"Shadow, how did you- Uh, I mean… I figured my train couldn't hold you off for long!"

"Drop the act. You know why I'm here."

Eggman gained a hopeful expression. "You mean we can go back to being a team?"

"…No. Tell me more about Mephiles."

"Oh…" the wind was taken from Eggman's sail. "I don't know what to say, he wasn't supposed to break out of that staff. Then someone had to fumble it! I told you to catch it when it fell!"

"Well maybe if you weren't shooting at Rouge-"

"If she didn't steal it in the first place-"

"If you didn't even bother with this scheme-"

"Shadow, be real here. We both know I'm going to go through each and every artifact and ancient demon there is to find." Eggman's tone turned wistful. "And then you, or Sonic, or some other animal will come in and foil my plan… If the monster doesn't do it first… And I'll just keep trying… Then someday… I'll die."

"I don't have time for this," Shadow said, rolling his eyes. "Could Mephiles possibly have to do with that Solaris Project you and Rouge wanted to talk about?"

"…Shadow, do you think it's too late for me to find a nice girl, settle down-"

"DOCTOR."

"Huh? Oh, the Solaris Project? Yeah, probably… probably…" Eggman stared at a nearby computer screen and began stroking his mustache. "Say, could you bring Mumkhar-"

"Mephiles."

"Mephiles back to me if you find him?"

Shadow shook his head. "I'm not sure if I can trust you."

"Well what about the princess?" Eggman asked. "A few minutes ago, Sonic just ran in, grabbed her, and left. Not even so much as a 'hey eggface'! Could you go sock him one, for your old buddy Eggman?"

"I'm not your buddy."

"This is why you only have two friends, Shadow." Eggman folded his arms. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"That's still more than you, isn't it?"

"…I don't have to take this! I'm leaving!" Eggman got up and stormed out.

"It's your train, you know." Shadow called.

"I AM AN ADULT, MAKING MY DECISION."

Sonic was carrying Elise through the final part of the mountain path.

"I knew it! You had to return, you had to! I knew you'd return, I knew you had to, you-"

"Stop talking."

A green blast hit Sonic and he tripped, dropping the princess.

"Oof!"

"Waah!"

Silver the Hedgehog floated down, making more UFO noises. "I have you now, Iblis Trigger!"

Sonic rolled his eyes and stood up. "Look, I've seen your future and-"

"You were in my old time period? Lies!" Silver declared. Sonic glared.

"OH! OH I GET IT! Some dweeb comes in and tells you that I end the world, and you believe him without question! But apparently I could never tell the truth! You really should listen to Blaze more."

"Leave Blaze out of this!" shouted Silver. "I know you have a past together! You must've tricked her into helping with some evil plan at one time or something!"

Sonic palmed his face. "You're hopeless."

"IT IS YOU WHO ARE HOPELESS!" Silver indignantly yelled. With his powers, he began to hold Sonic in place. At that time, Eggman came by in his pod and swooped up Elise with his pod's robot arms.

"WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP!"

"For crying out loud!" Sonic and Elise said in unison. Sonic turned back to Silver.

"See what you do? Every time I save… er… what's-her-face, you attack me and then Eggman kidnaps her!"

Silver narrowed his eyes. "Enough! It's time for you to die!"

Conk

"Ow!" Silver fell over, rubbing the back of his head. Shadow was present, his foot raised in the air. "You kicked me in the back of the head! Who does that?"

"Hmmph." Shadow had no words. He looked over and saw that Sonic was free from Silver's psychokinetic hold. Sonic gave him a thumbs up.

Silver recovered and was rubbing the back of his head. He got a look at his attacker. "Mephiles, why'd you do that?"

"Well at least someone got his name right…" Shadow spoke under his breath. Sonic cleared his throat.

"Crazy lookalike that's trying to kill me, allow me to introduce to the crazy lookalike that used to try to kill me."

"Sonic…" Shadow spoke through his teeth.

"All right, all right." Sonic looked over at Silver. "Hey I'll play with you some other time." Sonic then ran off.

Close to the forest outside Soleanna, Eggman and Elise were atop the doctor's hover pod. The jet engine was a little too loud, however.

"I would rather die than remain your prisoner!" Elise yelled.

"WHAT?"

"That's right, I said it!"

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Elise sighed. "I SAID I'D RATHER DIE THAN BE YOUR PRISONER!"

"WHY? AM I REALLY THAT UNBEARABLE?"

"YES!"

"HOW RUDE!" Eggman turned away and folded his arms. He stood there for a few moments. "THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU APOLOGIZE!"

Eggman turned around and saw that Elise was gone.

"OH- I mean, Oh…"

Eggman looked and saw Sonic running along the ground, holding Elise again. "I didn't even have her for five minutes! Though I guess that's how I made Amy and Sonic feel earlier…" He pulled out a remote. "Still, this world ain't gonna take itself over!"

The doctor pressed a button, and Egg-Genesis flew out from behind a mountain, good as new.

Sonic stopped running and set Elise down. She ran to hide behind a rock.

Name: Egg-Genesis (Ver. 1.5)
Danger Quotient: 600%

Sonic gave Egg-Genesis a once over. "…Cerberus looked cooler."

"STOP MAKING FUN OF MY ROBOTS!" Eggman shouted over the roar of his pod's jets. He remained far above the impromptu battlefield.

"FRENZY!" the Wisp Announcer called out again. "ROCKET!"

Genesis began to fire missiles at Sonic. Sonic smirked and began to run. He ran all around the clearing, with the missiles pursuing endlessly.

"Heh-heh." Sonic then increased his speed and continued his path. He ran so fast that he was now behind the missiles. He then used homing attacks on each of them to knock them toward Genesis.

"AAAAAAH!" Eggman clasped his hands to his head. "I keep forgetting that homing attacks don't work when your opponent can break the sound barrier!" He pressed another button. "So I'll just aim where he will be!"

"DRILL!"

Genesis fired drill missiles, which burrowed into the ground immediately.

"HAVE FUN PREDICTING WHERE THEY POP UP, SONIC!"

"You know I always have fun, Doc!" Sonic said cheerfully.

"WHAT?" Eggman could not hear Sonic.

Sonic ran up to a nearby cliff and began running up its side.

"What? No! He's not supposed to do that!" Eggman complained. "Mulligan! MULLIGAN!"

When Sonic was high enough, he jumped off and homed in on the top of Genesis's head.

"Hiya! Can't stay for long, though!" Sonic immediately rolled up into his ball form and gathered energy. He leapt up and slammed down on top of Genesis's head.

"Gaaaah! The softest part of Genesis's armor! How did he know? Why is Genesis suddenly so horrible?!"

After crashing into Genesis's head, Sonic kept up his momentum and did it again. And again. And again. Sonic would keep slamming Genesis's head, gaining more height with each bound.

"Aaaaaah! Try everything!" Eggman panicked and pressed as many buttons on his remote as possible.

"FRENZY! DRILL! ROCKET! SPIKES!"

Genesis shook Sonic off, and began firing drills, missiles and darts at the hedgehog.

Sonic donned a smug grin. "Oh Eggman, if you wanted me to finish it off in the coolest way, you should've just said so!"

"WHAT?"

Sonic went out to the perimeter of the makeshift arena and began doing laps. He began to run faster and faster with each lap, with all the ammunition failing to catch up to him from within the perimeter.

Before long, Sonic was going so fast, that he was perpetuating a whirlwind that blew the projectiles off their course and flying up. Genesis was also getting blown around, and even Eggman in his pod was having trouble staying still.

"Ha!"

Sonic picked up speed one last time and the tornado knocked all the missiles upward at Genesis, blowing the robot up. The tornado immediately picked up the debris and sent all of it flying upward Eggman.

(I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to work…) Eggman thought to himself. Not a second later, he and his pod were struck by all the debris and he is sent flying into the distance.

"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOOOOOOOOOOOOG!"

Sonic finally stopped running and struck a pose.

S

"That was incredible!"

Elise came out from her hiding spot. "It sure was!"

Sonic gave her a look. "Oh yeah, you're still here. That sure was a gutsy move back there. You know the world will end if you die, right?"

"What was that?"

"Eh never mind, I've still got two or three more levels before I fight Eggman again."

Elise brushed some hair out of her face. "I owe you a lot, Sonic."

"Got that right…" he mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's just get you back to the castle."

NOW LOADING…

Sonic ran, carrying Elise through the jungle, and taking in his surroundings. "I'm pretty sure we were just in the forest outside Soleanna."

"You took a wrong turn again."

"SON OF A HORSE!"

Further ahead, Zazz poked the top of his head out from under the water.

(Stinkin' conveyor belt, messing mah plans! After I get that hedgehog, I'm comin' for YEEEEEW, CONVEYOR BELT! Now, where is that rotten-) Sonic ran past, splashing water onto Zazz's face. "YAAAAAAAA!"

Sonic was able to run along the water, because Elise had projected another of her random force fields. "Sonic, did you hear something?"

"No."

Sonic and Elise found themselves beside a glorious lake with flowers blooming on the trees.

"…I really oughta get a map of this kingdom," Sonic said. Since arriving, he had set Elise down and she was frolicking in the blossoms.

"Sonic, have you been to a lot of wonderful places?"

"I went to a Five Guys last week." Sonic shrugged. "…So yeah."

Elise stopped and turned to Sonic. "You're going to leave once you beat Eggman, aren't you?"

"Yeah. No offense, but I'm not really picking up what this kingdom is throwing down. I think it's the town guards. That and the time-traveling assassin." (And you.)

"Eggman's kind of a weird guy, but other than that, I've had fun these past few days."

"…You've spent most of these days in captivity," Sonic started. "We've probably spent… ten minutes together, not counting those times I had to carry you through the levels." He scratched his head. "I am pretty cool, but I'm not seeing the fun in this situation."

"Well it let me be something other than a princess. I could be something else."

Sonic turned his head. "…Like what? A hostage?"

"A normal girl."

Sonic stood there for a few seconds. "…A normal girl. That's what a normal girl is to you. Okay. Okay. Okay wow. Wow. …I mean… wow. I figure being a princess isn't that easy all the time, but…" Sonic looked down and rubbed the back of his head. "…This is new. This is definitely a unique conversation I'm having."

"Sonic, when you do leave, please don't forget this place."

(Oh, that's what I'm afraid of… Hm. Wonder where Tails and Knuckles are. Weren't they supposed to follow me to the mines?)

"Have you seen a white hedgehog around here? About… this tall, five quills sticking up top-" Blaze describing Silver to a random citizen was interrupted, however.

"Baby come back. You can blame it all on me." Omega was down on one knee, trying to serenade Blaze with a guitar. Blaze groaned and walked off, though still shadowed by Omega.

Tails and Knuckles were watching from behind a barrel.

"Knuckles, we really need to go help Sonic! I miss him, what if he makes another friend? What if he picks a new deputy and it's still not me?"

"Don't be buggin', Tails!"

Back near the ruins of Eggman's radical train, Silver and Shadow prepared to have their faceoff.

"So wait, are you really Mephiles?"

"For the last time, no. I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

Shadow got into a stance.

Boss: Shadow the Hedgehog
Danger Quotient: 700%

"And I can't let you kill Sonic." Silver gained a look of determination.

"Oh yeah? Well…" He got into stance too.

Boss: Silver the Hedgehog
Danger Quotient: 100%

"I can't let you not let me kill Sonic!"

Shadow sighed. "You're hopeless."

Chapter Text

"IT'S NO U-"

Shadow kicked Silver in the gut before the white hedgehog could use his powers.

"Owww!" Silver clutched his stomach and floated away from Shadow. Shadow, on the other hand, was dealing with pain of a more emotional nature.

"I've just about had it up to here with Soleanna. Not bad enough that I had to cut my vacation short to come here, oh no. It had to be because Rouge felt like calling me to save her! She could have gotten out on her own, but she didn't feel like it!"

"Why you…! How 'bout this?"

Silver picked up some barrels and began hurling them at Shadow. Shadow jumped up and avoided them all. He continued his rant when he landed.

"Then some demon comes along to try and convince me that I'd wronged him somehow, so he sends me to the future- your future- and then tries to offer me a seat in his new world order! Like I haven't had enough of that! I don't need any more aliens or whatever telling me that I'm a monster!"

Silver's mind tried to pick up another barrel and throw it, but Shadow kicked it into splinters. Silver began to float in the air, to gain distance from Shadow. Shadow was still fuming.

"I'm a decent guy, I don't deserve this! And now I have to prevent the apocalypse, which hinges on me saving Sonic! Sonic! Just how many enemies does one hedgehog need to make, anyway?"

"IT'S NO USE!" Silver called, as he tried to grab Shadow with his mind. Unluckily for Silver, the black hedgehog wordlessly teleported away from his spot and appeared in the air, behind him.

"Wh-where did he go? Did… did he run away? Yeah… yeah that has to be it!"

"No."

Silver turned around in time for Shadow to pimp slap him into a crate on one of the slow conveyor belts.

"Owww! Stop doing that!"

"Stop trying to kill Sonic."

"But I must!"

"Then I must," Shadow mirrored. Silver gulped while Shadow dropped to the ground, taking a fighting stance. "Well?"

Silver looked around, frantically. "Uhh… uhh…" He noticed more crates were on belts behind Shadow. "Take this!"

Silver reached an arm out and picked up one of the crates behind Shadow, using his arm. He tried to drop it behind Shadow, but the black hedgehog disappeared in time and reappeared right in front of Silver.

"Rrrr! Are you even trying? Don't telegraph yourself like that!" Shadow grabbed Silver's arm and swung him over his head, slamming him onto the ground.

"Ow!"

"This whole trip to the mines was a waste. You're a joke, and Eggman couldn't even tell me the first thing about Mephiles. And to top it all off, I have this sneaking suspicion that Espio is still trying to hang out with me!"

"UH… NO," Espio said from behind a nearby rock. Shadow shook his head and turned away from Silver.

Silver glanced at all the giant crates still around the area. He put all his energy into lifting them with his mind, and then silently threw them.

The ultimate lifeform immediately turned around and either kicked or backhanded all the crates in different directions. He charged a Chaos Spear and threw it at Silver.

"Cheezit!" Silver leapt out of the way in time, while Shadow casually walked over to him.

"And you. It's like you have no idea of what's at stake here, or even how to properly fight! I'm not even going to question how you were able to beat Sonic!"

Silver tried to grab Shadow with his mind. "IT'S NO-"

Shadow teleported away in time and reappeared elsewhere in the arena. "You know what? I've put up with a lot of crap these past few days, and if you want to be my stress ball, then fine!"

Shadow snapped his fingers, and a pulse of energy knocked Silver into some nearby barrels.

"OOH!"

Shadow let loose another snap, and another, and another.

"OW! OW! WHOOOA!"

Silver's mind picked up the barrels and threw them at Shadow again. "Dance barrels, dance!"

Shadow sighed and blasted them all with a Chaos Spear. "It's like you only know how to do that one thing! And why do you think barrels would work after I already backhanded a crate? A crate! My hand doesn't even hurt!"

"I'm not stupid!" Silver retorted. "It's all part of my plan!"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "What, your plan to bore me to death?"

Silver got into a defensive stance. "NO! I just need to tire you out! Then once you're too tired to warp or knock things away, you're mine!"

Shadow sighed. "Okay… I have a few notes for you."

"N-notes?" Silver's stance lightened.

"First, never tell your plan to your opponent. Second, my endurance is far higher than yours, even on a bad day." Shadow's eyes narrowed. "Trust me."

Silver was apprehensive. "And third…?"

Shadow teleported behind Silver and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him into one of the crates that Shadow had deflected earlier. "…That."

"Rrrrrrr! FINAL ATTACK!" Silver cried. He began to float high up and gather all the stray materials he could find: crates, rocks, barrels, scrap metal, Espio-

"Aaaah!"

-and even one of the cargo trains.

"METEOR SMAAAAAAAASH!" Silver swung both arms forward, motioning for the ball of junk to slam down onto Shadow. "Just try and dodge this one!"

Shadow shrugged and cracked his knuckles.

Shadow focused his energy and opened up a portal in the air above him. "Chaos Rift!"

The meteor flew in, with the portal closing behind it. Silver's eyes practically bulged out of his head.

"Wh-wha-how-wha-why- NOOOOOO!" Silver dropped onto the ground. "Rrrrr!"

He grit his teeth, and if Shadow looked closely, he could see tears forming in Silver's eyes. Shadow rolled his eyes. "Good grief, are you crying?"

"Uh, NO!" Silver lied. "SHUT UP!"

"You're actually crying."

"Uhhh… uhhh... TAKE THIS! AND THIS! AND THIS! AND THIIIIIIIIIS!"

Silver began throwing blades of psychic energy, one after another. Shadow shook his head and slowly walked towards Silver, dodging the blades with ease.

"BORN IN A WORLD OF STRIFE! AGAINST THE ODDS! WE CHOOSE TO FIGHT-"

"We're done."

Shadow backhanded Silver, knocking him into a wall.

"uhhh…" Silver's head spun in a daze. He reached an arm out for Shadow, but it collapsed. "…uuh."

"Hmmph."

Shadow did a backflip, then a quick breakdance before crossing his arms.

S

"Perfect."

"nnnn… nn-not… not done… yet…" Silver groaned. With great effort, the ivory hedgehog stood up. He slowly wobbled over to Shadow. "no… it's no… take… it's no use… take… somethin'…"

Shadow rolled his eyes, sighed, and held out the green Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control, or whatever."

-!-

Time had stopped for everything but Shadow. He had noticed Silver paused, trying to throw a punch, and horribly off balance. Shadow took his time and walked over behind his opponent.

"Shooby-dooby…" he sung to himself. He then held out the emerald again.

-!-

"Uh." Shadow roundhouse kicked Silver in the head, once again, knocking him over. He turned and shook his head.

"H-how did you…?" Silver started. Shadow was still holding the emerald.

"With the Chaos Emerald's power, I can control time and space. You can't break free. In other words… it's no use." Shadow smirked. "…Heh."

"Well two can play at that game!" declared the beaten hedgehog. He pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald. "Chaos…"

(Oh great. Better counter it.) "Chaos…" Shadow copied.

Both hedgehogs held out their Chaos Emeralds.

"CONTROL!"

Quack

A wormhole appeared. Silver stared like a deer in the headlights, while Shadow put a palm to his forehead and closed his eyes.

"I can't believe it. I thought you were just gonna make something up. But you actually can do Chaos Control."

"I… I did that?" Silver asked. Shadow nodded without changing his expression. "Should… should we close it?"

Shadow marched over to Silver and gestured toward the portal.

"The portal is derived from our thoughts during Chaos Control. It will take us to a time that we were focused on. I was thinking about the beginning of all of this. The Solaris Project. What were you thinking of?"

"I…" Silver started, "I wasn't really thinking about anything."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "What a surprise. So either that means my thoughts dictated the portal, or there's a 50% chance we'll end up nowhere in particular. Or no-when in particular. Either way, I think we should both go into this portal. We could learn something interesting about our 'friend' Mephiles."

Silver shook his head. "Oh! Everyone yells at me for trusting a stranger and going through portals because the stranger told me to! And now suddenly the guy who beats me up wants me to do the same thing? Who do you think you are?"

"…"

Now, that response may not have seemed like much. But a trained observer would tell a different story.

Shadow was currently giving Silver the mother of all death glares; the patented 'Shadow the Hedgehog Glare of Impending Frenzy'. It is beyond description, and has been known to make even the bravest of mortals wake up in the middle of the night, screaming. The previous recipient of such a glare was Black Doom, whom Shadow summarily executed. Recognizing this glare from Blaze, albeit to a lesser degree, Silver found himself in a cold sweat.

"On… the other hand, I guess… it couldn't hurt… Let's… let's go…" Silver jumped in.

"That's what I thought." Shadow then followed Silver into the portal.

As the portal closed, the Chaos Rift briefly opened back up and spewed all the junk and Espio from earlier.

"Owww… Where was I?"

NOW LOADING…

"Are we there yet?" asked Silver.

"Don't you even."

The portal spit Shadow and Silver out into a metallic hallway.

"Oof!" "AAH!"

Shadow recovered first, and rolled his shoulder, as Silver merely rubbed his forehead.

"My head gets hit a lot…"

"Wear a helmet."

BRAAAANG BRAAAAANG

"Just in time," Shadow said to himself. He then began to skate down the hall.

"Wait up!" Silver called.

A bunch of scientists were panicking over some fires in a tube in the center of the room. A purple substance had been filtered into a small container above the tube.

"It just generated an electromagnetic pulse!" announced a scientist. "Inject the decompression agent!"

"Wait, wouldn't that make the pulse bigger if we're decompressing it?"

"What? What are you even doing here if you're not familiar with the procedure?"

"Oh I just wandered in here, 'cause I got lost from the tour group. I'm not one of the scientists. Hey if I order a pizza here, would they deliver?"

A third voice spoke up. "It's cool, bros, I got it. Wait… didn't work. Both halves of Solaris are getting restless!"

"No!" the first voice cried. "At this rate, a spatial meltdown is inevitable!"

"Ah what's the worst that could happen?" asked the second voice. "Wouldn't you agree, Your Highness?"

Nearby, the duke of Soleanna put a hand to his chin.

Name: Duke of Soleanna
Advice: Always bet on him

"Strange, this experiment worked for my college roommate Klaus. Wonder what he did differently…"

"Father!"

The duke turned around and saw his daughter.

Name: (Young) Princess Elise
Kidnap Count: 4 times (this week)

"Hmm. I may be starting to regret Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day…"

The flames within the central tube burst out and smothered the whole room, creating a massive explosion.

Hssssss…

When the dust and smoke started up, the sprinklers activated. At around that time, Shadow and Silver came in.

"Eww, my fur's gonna get all wet…" Silver whined.

Shadow smacked Silver on the back of the head and motioned for him to look ahead. The white hedgehog gasped.

"That… flame!"

The room was in ruins, dead bodies everywhere. But most hauntingly of all, was the small fireball twitching and moving erratically, perhaps in reaction to the sprinklers.

Name: Iblis (Pure)
Hot or Not?: Uh… shoot, I dunno.

The fireball did not stay for long, and listlessly flew down the corridor. Meanwhile, a black and purple ooze was grouping itself together on the floor and slithering away in a direction opposite of the fireball.

"That fire! I'd know it anywhere! That's Iblis!"

"And something was uncomfortably familiar about that ooze. That might've been Mephiles. I'll go after him, while you take care of Iblis."

"If there's anything I'm good at, it's stopping Iblis! …Temporarily…" Silver then sighed. "Whatever, let's just go."

"…Hold on… guys…" the duke's voice weakly called. Both hedgehogs looked over. He was barely gripping onto the Scepter of Darkness. Shadow's eyes widened.

(Does this mean… Not important right now.)

"… black ooze… mind of Solaris… goes in here… use magic… or whatever…" the duke put the scepter in Shadow's hands and then fainted.

"Well… this is awkward," Shadow muttered. "Let's go."

"MEPHILES!" Shadow called. He was already hot on the puddle's trail.

The Mephiles puddle left behind small droplets, which soon reformed into purple lizard monsters.

"RAAAAAAR!"

"Gross," Shadow said, grimacing. He immediately roundhouse kicked the lizard in the head, killing it. Shadow was going to move on, but he then found himself surrounded by four purple hand-worms.

"REEEEEK!"

"RAAAAA!"

"RAAAAAR!"

"REEEEEK!"

"So Mephiles really can make monsters in the same way as Iblis." Shadow performed a Chaos Blast, disintegrating all the worms. "Except he sucks at it."

"AAAAH, NOT THE LIZARDS!"

Silver, in another part of the base, was cornered by a pair of Iblis lizards.

Silver had noticed a nearby floating orb and controlled it to smack into the side of one of the lizard's heads. That did a little damage, but not much. The lizards began charging up a breath attack.

"Aaaah! Oh no!"

Silver looked away and winced, prepared for the worst. But nothing happened.

"…Well? Aren't you going to do it?"

No answer.

"… Lizards?" Silver decided to look and saw that he was telekinetically carrying the lizards. "Ew!"

Silver frantically clapped his hands together, which caused both the lizards to ram into each other, making them crumble.

"I… I did it! I did it! All right!"

Some Iblis phoenixes swooped down and began scratching Silver's head with their talons.

"AAAH! STOP! WHY IS IT ALWAYS MY HEAD?!"

Shadow was going around a large, central room. He moved at a quick pace, and was wiping out Mephiles' worms with ease.

However, he was not on foot.

"I am not riding a motorcycle around in circles in an underwater laboratory!" Shadow griped. "…How is this even happening?!"

…

A man walked into the ruined test chamber. "Hey has anyone seen my motor…"

Smoke and damaged equipment were everywhere, and everyone was dead.

"…Never mind."

Back with Silver, he was floating across a chasm and using spiked balls to punish all Iblis monsters he encountered.

"NOOOOO!" Shadow shouted, falling into the chasm. Silver went over to the edge of a platform and looked down.

"Huh? Why are you here?"

"Me? Why are you here? I'm still following Mephiles!"

Silver tilted his head. "But I'm still chasing Iblis! I couldn't have gone the wrong way!"

"Well I sure didn't go the wrong way!" Shadow's voice echoed from the chasm.

"Well… d-do you want me to help you out of there?"

"No, I want you to leave me forever and forget you ever saw me."

Silver paused. "…Really?"

"For crying out loud!" With that, Shadow teleported himself to the platform with Silver. "Which I haven't forgotten, by the way. You, crying out loud."

"I wasn't crying!"

"And I'm an alien."

Silver paused again. "…Really?"

"…I'm done with you. Professionally." Shadow walked off, but forgot about the bottomless pit. "NOOOOOOO!"

Sometime later, Shadow walked through a door and found himself on the upper floor of the motorcycle room.

"Oh my goodness! Just what kind of maze is this lab?! I fell down and now I'm higher up! There are chasms everywhere, and a motorcycle! How do these guys even get around to do their work?! In fact, where are all the other labs besides that one?"

Shadow proceeded along his presumed path and found himself skating down a corridor, evading laser bars.

"Excuse me, coming through."

Shadow looked over and saw a scientist sprinting alongside himself. He was avoiding lasers and running on boost pads just as Shadow.

Shadow stared blankly as he ran. "…What."

The scientist kept pace with Shadow. "You got a problem? I'm trying to get to my office!"

Shadow and the scientist ran along a metallic shuttle loop and leapt over a chasm. Shadow crashed onto the ledge, while the scientist landed gracefully.

"Back to the daily grind…" the scientist muttered, walking off. Shadow stayed still for a moment. Then another man landed next to Shadow, as gracefully as the scientist.

"Say, anyone order a pizza around here? I've got a pepperoni with extra pineapple on top."

"…I hate this kingdom."

Silver was sitting atop a large, metallic sphere. With his mind, he was moving it along an extended chasm.

"Is this place underwater?" he asked himself. Nearby, a janitor was walking backwards atop another ball.

"Noooo. The Aquatic Base being underwater? Ridiculous," deadpanned the scientist.

"Aw man! Even in the further past, everyone's mean to me!"

Silver eventually reached a door and ran through. Some Iblis phoenixes lowered themselves into Silver's view.

"Those enemies look like they're guarding that door. Let's start by getting rid of them."

"No way, I've got a job to do!" At that point, the janitor took out a mop and started swabbing the floors. "And after this, I gotta go drop down a laser chasm to restock the soap dispensers in the restroom!"

Silver noticed an energy pylon nearby.

"Hey, what happens if I touch this?"

The janitor was still mopping. "That's a trade secret."

Silver looked at the pylon again. He looked over to the janitor. Then to the birds. Then to the pylon again.

"…I think I'm gonna touch it."

"Are you even authorized to be in this base right now?"

Silver slapped the energy pylon. It radiated a glow that appeared to damage the phoenixes.

"Aha!" Silver smiled. With the birds distracted, he could easily hit them all with a psychic blast.

"CAAAW!" "CAAAAW!" "Ba-GAWK!"

The birds died, and a goal ring appeared. Silver ran towards it and leapt up, reclining himself in midair with his powers.

C

"Perfect!"

With that done, Silver walked into the next room and finally caught up to Iblis.

"Hyaa!" Silver held out his hand and exerted his powers on Iblis. "Take that, Iblis! …I don't really know what I'm doing, but take it anyway!"

The duke staggered into the room, carrying the napping body of young Elise.

"Geez! Do you… even know… how to conceal Iblis? Amateur…!"

"You? You have to get out of here!"

The duke ignored Silver. "Solaris was… entrusted… to my family… if the fire is… exposed… for too long… it will go mad… destroy… everything…"

Silver's eyes widened. "Oh! So that would mean that the Iblis Trigger is going to cause Iblis to-"

"Shut… up! Still talking…" the duke was still short of breath. Whether from fatigue of carrying his daughter through the obstacle course laboratory or from being near death, Silver could not reckon. "Anyway…"

He placed Elise on an altar and held out the white Chaos Emerald.

"Solaris… honor our pact… and hear my command! Rest… inside my daughter's mind! There's… not a lot in there… anyway…"

Silver did a double-take. (Did he just fire a shot at his daughter?! Right NOW?!)

With the combined effort of the duke's rite and Silver's power, Iblis was sealed within Elise.

"Wait, where'd the Chaos Emerald go- Whoa!"

Silver was suddenly carrying Elise, as she was given to him by the duke. The duke was on the floor, coughing and breathing heavily.

"take… … care… of her… … musn't… cry… ever…"

"For the last time, I wasn't crying!" Silver denied.

"elise… don't cry… …or else… flames will… … ravage the land…"

"…You're asking a lot of a seven-year-old." commented Silver.

"and don't… … get yourself… … kidnapped… … like always…"

With that, the duke finally stopped. He had died.

Silver's eyes slowly widened as he realized what had just happened.

"…AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

He looked at Elise in his hands. "AAAAAAH!"

He looked back at the duke. "AAAAAAH!"

He looked back at Elise. "AAAAAAAH!"

Elsewhere in the base, Shadow was racing through the corridors on his new motorcycle. The doors were slamming shut behind him, lasers were popping up in between each door, and several of Mephiles' monsters were taking shots at Shadow before the lasers got them first.

"Almost… there!"

The door at the very end of the hall began to slowly close. It was a glass door with Soleanna's symbol of Solaris on it.

"Oh no you don't…!"

Shadow tried to fire a missile from the bike, but it was out of ammo. He sighed and kicked the bike into high gear, causing it to accelerate.

"Hrrrrr!"

The riding hedgehog slammed through the door and leapt off the motorcycle before it crashed into a wall. Shadow was able to land on the ground near the purple puddle. Only the puddle now had some fog forming around it.

"I have you now… Mephiles!"

Name: Mephiles (Unformed)
Manliness: Still Dan Green/10

"Meph…iles?" asked a familiar voice. "I am… Solaris."

"No, you're Mephiles! I swear, it's like I'm the only one who can get it right!" Shadow shook his head.

"I… would know… my own name…" the puddle stated.

"Don't you back-sass me, after everything you've done. Everything you will do." Shadow revealed the Scepter of Darkness that the duke gave him. "With this, you're done for."

Shadow aimed the scepter with one hand, and used his other to hold his Chaos Emerald.

"Chaos Control! …For, what, the fifth time today?"

Mephiles began to be absorbed into the scepter. "Who…" the substance struggled to ask, "… are you?"

"My name is…" (I'd better not tell him my real name. That way, he might not go after me in the future. But what to choose? Uhh… uhhh…) "Uhh… Jake. …Jake from State Farm." (Wait, isn't that already what Mephiles thought my-)

"Jake… from State Farm… I will remember what you look like… what you did to me… as long as it takes… a thousand years… a million years… I will break free eventually… you will die… Oh yes."

Shadow narrowed his eyes, as the scepter finished absorbing Mephiles.

Ding!

A little knob on the side of the scepter went over to 'Full'.

The exterior of the laboratory was none other than Kingdom Valley. Silver stood there, holding Elise in his hands. He had a thousand-yard stare, which prevented him from noticing Shadow's presence.

"How'd it go?" Shadow asked. Silver did not turn around.

"…I don't want to talk about it."

"What about Iblis?"

"…"

"Well?"

"…Huh? Oh, yeah, he's… in the princess or something…" Silver did not sound interested in what he was saying.

Shadow tilted his head. "He is? Whatever. While you were doing that, I was able to seal Mephiles in this scepter. But I remembered that this will eventually lead to the circumstances for how Mephiles and I will meet."

Silver did not respond.

"It'd be better if I left it here, so I'm going to leave it here in the past. Which means Eggman will find this eventually…" Then Shadow started to realize something. "Which in turn means Rouge will go after it… but then she'll be caught…" Shadow was getting more worried. "And she'll decide to call for help… which would be me… That means…!"

Shadow's eyes widened and he bore the same stare as Silver. "I'm the one who ruined my vacation."

Silver remained the same. "… Well maybe if these scientists didn't try to do their experiment, this wouldn't have happened."

Shadow blinked and looked at Silver. A faint smile appeared on Shadow's face but for a fleeting moment. "…You could be right. Maybe you're not so hopeless after all. Come on, it's time to go."

Silver set Elise down by a tree. Shadow put a palm to his face.

"I take that back. Come on! We would've had time to take her to the town or something!"

"Oh. Oops. Sorry." Silver said, completely deadpan and distant.

"…Something happened to you in there. Whatever, we need to get back. I have a feeling that there's a way for both of us to stop our nemeses now."

"…Cool." Silver then held out his Chaos Emerald and turned to Shadow. Shadow pulled his out.

"Chaos…" "Chaos."

"Control!" "Control."

Quack

The time portal reopened and Shadow jumped in. Silver was about to follow, but noticed Elise stirring in her sleep. He looked down at the blue Chaos Emerald.

"Hmm…" Silver walked over and placed the Chaos Emerald in the princess's lap. "Here, this is your new father now. Don't cry ever, or else the world will end. No pressure. 'Kay, thanks, bye."

Silver then hopped into the portal, and it closed behind him.

In present-day Soleanna, Eggman's airship cast a shadow over the town. The doctor began to speak through the ship's intercom.

"Princess! You've evaded me for the last time! The destruction of my radical train and Egg-Genesis was the last straw! Meet me in the underwater laboratory! Alone! You have until 4pm, or else I'll level the whole town! …Probably should've just done this from the start. And to any hedgehogs listening to this, don't bother trying to find us! I, uh, I have another robot in the works! Yeah, that's it! Another robot!"

"Prove it!" called a random citizen.

"No!"

"Pics or it's not real!" another citizen shouted.

"I have nothing to prove to you! Don't tempt me to level the town regardless of your princess's decision!"

"I bet with his speed, Sonic could already be waiting for you at the base."

"ENOUGH! Princess, you've heard my warning! Make your choice! Eggman out!"

The ship began to slowly make a turn. In one corner of the town, Blaze was sitting near a fountain. She sighed.

"Man, where could Silver be already? This is getting ridiculous."

"AAAAH!" a woman screamed. Blaze looked over and saw Silver being kicked out of a women's restroom, onto the concrete. The cat's eyes widened and she walked over.

"…Silver? But… Why-"

"I can explain!" Silver stood up. "I followed the Iblis Trigger into the mines, but then the hedgehog who looks like Mephiles showed up! Only he wasn't Mephiles, and he beat me up while the Iblis Trigger got away! Then we traveled to 1996 and there was an explosion! Not Mephiles kept falling down a pit, and I was able to beat up Iblis lizards, then the duke of Soleanna and I teamed up to seal a smaller version of Iblis inside the princess! That means the princess is the Iblis Trigger and not Sonic, and she can't ever cry or else the world will come to an end, which I guess is what happened! And then the duke died, it was really awkward and scary, and I think Shadow said something about a vacation, then I left our Chaos Emerald with the young princess and went into the portal back to the present, but it was in that bathroom, and they kicked me out!"

Blaze stood there for a moment, processing the information. "…I'm sorry, what?"

Rouge was sitting at the café, sipping on an iced tea and reclining with her feet on the table. Shadow walked up to her.

"Well, you certainly seem to be enjoying yourself…" the hedgehog started. Rouge shrugged, but otherwise did not respond. Shadow narrowed his eyes. He decided to keep going. "Where's Omega?"

"He went after Mephiles. Turns out he's on the beach."

"And you didn't go with him… why?"

"Because I'm waiting for that spare Scepter of Darkness!"

"…The what?"

Rouge sighed and got out of her reclining position to sit up straight. "I called for some GUN scientists to make a new Scepter of Darkness. I had a feeling it'd come in handy."

Shadow put a hand to his chin. "That's… actually a good idea. In fact, almost exactly the idea I was going to suggest to you and Omega. Though I figured making an ancient artifact would take more work than that."

"Ancient, shmancient, some Soleanna lab geeks slapped it together in less than twenty minutes, before they used it in the experiment."

Shadow was not amused. His wrist-communicator then went off. He decided to answer. "Hello?"

"Agent Shadow, Omega has engaged with Mephiles. Head to the Wave Oc… oc… Agent Shadow, Omega has engaged with Mephiles. Head to Wave Ocean immediately. …That still didn't feel right. Agent Shadow, Omega has-"

Shadow removed the communicator and threw it at a nearby wall. He turned back to Rouge.

"Without the scepter, it won't do much good to go after Mephiles immediately, but I guess Omega jumped the gun. We'd better go stop him."

(Author Note to self, find funny way to end this chapter)

Chapter Text

"SONIC! SONIC!"

Tails was running all over Soleanna's watery district, searching for Sonic.

"I finally got away from Knuckles, now it can just be me and Sonic again! I gotta find Sonic and warn him about Dr. Eggman! And then he'll thank me for warning him, and I'll be his only partner again!"

Shadow walked past Tails, grumbling to himself.

"No-good agent, doesn't even know how to talk…"

This caught Tails' attention. "Shadow! Shadow!"

Shadow kept walking.

"Hey Shadow!"

(Just ignore him, he'll lose interest eventually.) Shadow thought to himself.

Tails started following Shadow. "Shadow have you seen Sonic?"

(No, and I plan to keep it that way.)

"Shadow have you seen Sonic?"

(Does he think I'm deaf or something? He has to know that I heard him the first time.)

"Shadow have you seen Sonic?"

(Oh good grief, he's actually going to repeat himself until I respond, isn't he?)

"Shadow have you-"

"No," Shadow said, as bluntly as possible. "And I'm very busy. If you want to go polish Sonic's shoes, you'll have to get in line behind Amy or that weird guy in the Sonic costume."

Tails thought to himself, but kept pace. (Hmm. Sonic made Rouge his deputy back in Crisis City. I bet that made Shadow feel disappointed! So if I become friends with Shadow, that'll make Sonic and Rouge jealous enough to want their respective friends back!) "Hey Shadow, wanna hang out?"

Shadow stopped dead in his tracks. He turned around to face Tails.

"…Excuse me?"

"Y'know… friends doing stuff together, you and me, anywhere and anytime at all!"

"...That sounded like a reference, but I'm too busy to care right now," Shadow responded. "I have to comb the beach for Omega and make sure my evil doppelganger doesn't destroy him or anything else. Can't you go play with Knuckles or something?"

Tails crossed his arms and gave Shadow a stern look. Shadow cleared his throat.

"Yeah, bad example. Okay Tails… I'm going to the inlet and taking care of my business there. I technically can't stop you from following me, but I'm not going to stop for you, or have any conversations, or even wait for you to catch up if I move on ahead. Now I'm already behind, I have to go."

With that, Shadow got into running position and began to skate towards Wave Ocean. Tails took to the air after him.

"I'm coming, Shadow!"

At the same time, Silver and Blaze were running around another part of town.

"We gotta find the princess!" Silver said. He turned to Captain Pietro. "And you gotta help us!"

Pietro spoke up. "If you wanna find Dr. Eggman's secret, you have to escort Anna!"

Pietro gestured towards one of Elise's ladies-in-waiting.

Name: Anna
Self-Preservation Skills: Absolutely none

"I KNOW THE SECRET!" Anna shouted. "ESCORT ME AND I'LL TELL YOU THE SECRET!"

"Aaah! Your voice hurts my ears!" Silver winced.

"ESCORT ME!"

"Aaah okay just stop talking!"

"Wheee," Shadow deadpanned, flying a hang glider over a portion of the beach. Some of Mephiles' phoenixes began to materialize in the air. "…Huh. I sure hope I remembered to apply sunscreen. Then again, I wonder if fur would negate-"

"Hey, those look like the monsters from the future!" Tails announced. Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"So Mephiles still has the ability to spawn monsters. Doesn't matter, though."

Shadow pressed a button, and fired missiles at the birds, blowing them up, as well as causing the stone shuttle loop to crumble.

"Shadow, no!" Tails wailed. "How could you! That was a very unique rock formation, a veritable miracle of nature! And you blew it up!"

Shadow looked back to Tails. "Okay, first of all, that was just collateral damage. And second, you can't be serious about those loops being rare. We see them all the time, Tails."

"Name one time!"

"Green Hill Zone," Shadow answered immediately. "About 20 seconds in, you can't miss it."

"Green What Zone?"

"Green Hill." Shadow was beginning to lose patience. "The place where it all started, Sonic's first clash with Dr. Eggman. Or Robotnik, at the time."

Tails shrugged as he flew. "I've never been."

Shadow's eyes widened. "…And? I've never been there either, but Sonic brags about it all the time! You would've at least heard of it from him by now!"

"Not ringin' any bells. Oh wait, are you talking about the place where Sonic and I started on my first adventure with him? I think I get it now!"

"That's Emerald Hill Zone." Shadow corrected.

"What's the difference?"

"I ask myself that every time Sonic tells me that story…"

Sonic walked into Soleanna's forest.

"And you're sure the princess went this way?" Sonic asked Knuckles.

"For reals, home skillet! And next time, don't take a nap while Robotnik announces his plans!"

"Hey, I literally hadn't slept since the night Eggman first attacked, I was overdue!"

"As if! Anyway, can I come with you to Kingd-"

Sonic had already left.

"Bogus!"

…

The blonde priest with glasses walked up to Sonic.

Name: Father Wheeler
Secret Fear: That this game is secretly a Mario romhack

"All right, looks like we have our final contestant," the priest said in an even voice. Then he decided to put more energy into it. "Sonic the Hedgehog, come on down!"

Sonic's eyes widened. "Uh, what?"

"Yeah, so you gotta pass three trials before you can go to Kingdom Valley. You gotta do it. So let's play Kingdom of Calamity!"

KINGDOM OF CALAMITY!

Suddenly, a gameshow version of 'His World' started playing from an unknown music source. Father Wheeler directed Sonic toward the altar before the Kingdom Valley entrance. There were three podiums, and Sonic was at the middle one.

Wheeler then turned to a TV camera.

"Hello everyone, welcome to Let's Play Kingdom of Calamity. I'm going to be playing this with three guests today. We're going to quiz them on general knowledge, and whoever has the lowest score will be eliminated at the end of the round."

Father Wheeler pulled out a cue card.

"Lessee here… Two points for a right answer, one point for a rebound answer, and minus two points for a wrong answer."

The gameshow camera proceeded to pan over to the contestants at their podiums while Wheeler kept talking.

"Our first contestant is this random guy we found in the jungle, Zed, no… Jazz, no… Zazz, that's it. You're Zazz."

Zazz looked at Sonic in the middle and pointed at him, while wiggling his tongue.

"I'M GONNA MESS YOU UP!"

Player 1 - Zazz

Sonic winced. "Ooookay… Wait, is there a camera on us? Is someone watching this?"

Father Wheeler ignored Sonic. "Our second contestant is none other than… Espio? Really?"

The camera panned over to Espio, with his eyes closed and arms crossed. His podium was on Sonic's other side.

Player 2 - Espio

"Espio, what are you doing here?" asked Sonic.

"I shall win. Then Shadow will know how cool I am!" Espio then yawned. "But that Chaos Rift made me drowsy… hope it doesn't… zzzzzz…"

Wheeler kept talking. "And finally, our third contestant in the middle, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Player 3 - Sonic

Sonic looked up and noticed heavy anvils dangling over all the contestants' heads. "Uhh, what's this about?"

The priest remained calm. "The loser of each round gets punished."

"This didn't even happen in the game!" Sonic complained.

ROUND 1 – A TON OF FUN

Wheeler went over to his own special podium and pulled out some cue cards. "First question, where would you find an eagle?"

Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Lord Regis: "Tropical Jungle"
B.) Anna: "Kingdom Valley"
C.) Realistic Crabmeat: "White Acropolis"

Sonic chose B.

"And two points for Sonic!" Wheeler announced. Sonic pumped his fist.

"That was almost too easy! I know my own game!"

Zazz: 0, Sonic: 2, Espio: 0

"Next question: What was Captain Pietro's last job before being a Soleanna guard?"

Sonic hit the buzzer again.

A.) Blaze: "Department of Redundancy Department"
B.) Cranky Man on Beach: "Redundantly Redundant Federation"
C.) Aquatic Base Janitor: "Department of Motor Vehicles"

Sonic chose A.

Zazz: 0, Sonic: 4, Espio: 0

"STINKIN' HEDGEHOG!" Zazz cursed at Sonic. Sonic winced.

"I don't know who you are, but you need a breath mint, pal!"

Father Wheeler clapped his hands, summoning a projector screen. "This question's a visual one, let's see who can name this character!"

On the screen, there was a green eye surrounded by redness. The eye rolled. Zazz slammed his buzzer.

A.) Mephiles Phoenix: "Iblis, Form 1"
B.) Realistic Motobug: "Ifrit"
C.) Town Entrance Guard: "Zavok"

Zazz chose A.

Zazz: 2, Sonic: 4, Espio: 0

Zazz started laughing. "HAHAHAHA! IN YOUR FACE!" Sonic merely shrugged in response. The projector screen remained in place.

"Next question, where is this?"

The screen showed a steel crate slowly moving. After a few seconds, it was out of the shot, showing a conveyor belt in the distance, with another steel crate on that one. Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Sonic Man: "Crisis City"
B.) Shadow's Car Radio: "Soleanna New City"
C.) Omega: "Radical Train"

Sonic chose C.

Zazz: 2, Sonic: 6, Espio: 0

Wheeler pulled out the next card. "Who were the DJs that Shadow and the others listened to in Crisis City?"

"Wait, how do you know about that?" asked Sonic. He received no answer. Sonic then shrugged and hit the buzzer.

A.) Tails: "DJ Fancy Pants & Mr. Bananas"
B.) Zavok: "MC Banana & Fancy Man"
C.) Egg-Cerberus: "TJ & The Wombat"

Sonic chose B.

"Uhh… the second one?"

BZZT!

Sonic put his head to the desk while Zazz slammed his fist down on the buzzer.

A.) Tails: "DJ Fancy Pants & Mr. Bananas"
B.) Zavok: "MC Banana & Fancy Man"
C.) Egg-Cerberus: "TJ & The Wombat"

Zazz chose A.

Zazz: 3, Sonic: 4, Espio: 0

Sonic turned to Espio. "Dude, you ever gonna start playing?" Espio did not answer. "…Dude?"

"Zzzzz…."

"Next question! What were the compliments Shadow received for jumping the gap at Radical Train on his motorcycle?"

Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Flashback Knuckles: "Cool! Great! Awesome! Radical! Grommet!"
B.) Iblis Form 1: "Nice! Wonderful! Spectacular! Amazing! Groovy! Tubular!"
C.) Amy: "Good! Great! Awesome! Outstanding! Amazing! Swood!"

Sonic chose C.

Zazz: 3, Sonic: 6, Espio: 0

"And that's all the time we have for Round 1! Ooh, Espio, not looking so hot. It's game over, man."

Espio kept snoring. "Zzzz…"

The anvil fell onto Espio, squishing him. Sonic winced while Zazz chuckled. Wheeler stepped away from his post and in front of the camera.

"We'll be right back after a word from our sponsors."

Silver and Anna were alone in town, with only Eggman's robots to keep them company. The robots began to open fire on the hedgehog and Anna.

"I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU!" Anna shouted, running directly towards the robots.

"Hey, be careful!" Silver quickly grabbed some barrels with his mind and threw them at the robots, breaking them.

Anna completely ignored Silver and kept running ahead.

"Anna!"

Still no answer.

"ANNA!"

Some of Eggman's gunner robots dropped in. "HEY-MEATBAGS-CATCH-THIS."

The one that spoke fired a missile. Anna ran towards it.

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT IS, I'M GONNA CATCH IT! WITH MY MOUTH!"

"ANNA WHY!" Silver quickly caught the missile with his mind and sent it back at the robot.

"HEY YOU TWO ROBOTS! LET'S WRESTLE!" She ran towards one of the remaining robots, with her arms ready to grapple it, though the robots simply responded with aiming their guns at her.

"FOOLISH-HUMAN-YOU-CANNOT-WITHSTAND-BULLETS."

"BUT MAYBE I CAN!" Anna responded. Silver hung his head and began charging energy for a psychic knife.

The robots' beams were nearing the end of their startup sequence. "READY… AIM…"

"Oh no!" Silver cut his charge short and threw a lesser blade of energy at the nearest robot, but the other robot remained intact.

Anna was nearing the last robot. "HERE WE GOOOOOOO-"

"NOOOOOOO-"

In that moment, a fireball hit the robot, followed by Blaze running up and kicking it into a nearby canal.

"Blaze, you're here!"

Pietro walked up. "Hey, she wasn't supposed to help you! This derailment is over! Anna, take five."

Anna looked back at Pietro. She cleared her throat and began dusting her clothes off. "Very well."

Silver was confused. "Wh-what?"

Some other citizens walked up. "Hey Pietro, you called for us? You had us waiting at the finish line, why call us back so soon?"

Pietro glared at Silver. "This rat had outside help!"

Silver's eyes widened while Blaze's narrowed. Pietro continued. "At this rate, he's going to catch up to Elise and get her back from Eggman!"

"What?" Silver was at a loss. "What are you talking about? Are you guys some of Eggman's workers in disguise?"

Silver stepped back, away from Pietro. Blaze also took a defensive stance, and neared her friend.

"No, kid, nothing like that." answered one of the townies. "But we can't let you rescue that idiot princess."

Pietro threw off his coat, revealing that he was not wearing a shirt underneath.

"Aaah!" Silver screamed and averted his eyes. Blaze, however, was fixated on Pietro's tattoo. Upon his fat, hairy chest was a tattoo of Soleanna's symbol.

Pietro held out his arms. "We are the Order of the Eternal Sun. And we must allow the future to come to pass."

"The future… so you knew?" Blaze was getting furious. Pietro smiled smugly.

"Of course we knew. What actual people could be so stupid to not even notice the events going on around them? The kidnappings, the robots, you." Pietro took a step forward. "Lord Solaris must remain on his scheduled path!"

"Praise Solaris…" all the other citizens began chanting, lifelessly. Pietro kept speaking.

"We have Father Wheeler forcing Sonic into a deadly gameshow. We had you escorting Anna- a task worthy of Sisyphus himself. Now we just need to find a way to keep Shadow at bay. And then, only then, may the Flames of Disaster rise and bring glorious destruction to-"

Silver's mind threw a barrel at Pietro, knocking him out. He turned to Blaze.

"Cheezit!"

Silver and Blaze made a beeline for the forest.

"I knew this town was crazy!" Blaze cried. "I think the princess ran into the forest!"

"I grow tired of you," Omega stated as a Mephiles Golem materialized before him.

Omega extended a blade from one of his hands, set it on fire with the built-in flamethrower, and rammed the golem with it.

"RRRRRR!"

"Finishing Strike: Final Blast." Omega's attack culminated in an uppercut slash, burning the golem as he cleaved it in two. "Now die and be silent."

Mephiles' laughter echoed throughout the area.

"Hooohoohahahaha! You're on-point like always, Omega. I look forward to our rematch. You merely had the element of surprise last time. Oh yes. It won't take much for me to deal with you. But first you must find me."

"Scanning area for Mephiles' energy signature. Location confirmed." Omega turned around and noticed (the fully-healed) Mephiles sitting on a crate.

"…Oh." Mephiles hung his head in shame.

ROUND 2 – THROWING YOUR WEIGHT AROUND

Father Wheeler walked on-camera and headed straight for the podium. "And we're back for Round 2, this time with feeling. Espio's out of the game, while Sonic and Zazz are left to fight for the right to enter Kingdom Valley. Let's get things started."

"Is… he gonna be okay?" Sonic asked, pointing towards the anvil where Espio and his podium used to be.

"Probably," responded the priest, shrugging. "First question, what was the second level which Sonic visited?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and hit the buzzer.

A.) Mephiles Form 2: "Dusty Desert"
B.) Knuckles: "Tropical Jungle"
C.) Iblis Lizard: "Kingdom Valley"

Sonic chose A.

Zazz: 0, Sonic: 2

Zazz slammed his fists down and seethed.

Wheeler pulled out the next card. "Oh boy… What was the radio station Shadow listened to in the future?"

"What?" Sonic was in utter disbelief. He looked over and saw Zazz clutching his head and thrashing about. "Well, looks like he's not going to figure it out. I guess I could just guess…"

Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Eggman: "88.7 KSON"
B.) Giant Turtle: "23.5 KSEG"
C.) Mephiles Lizard: "77.8 KSOL"

Sonic chose C.

Zazz: 0, Sonic: 4

"WHAT?" Sonic and Zazz asked at once, though with different emotions. Wheeler clapped his hands, and the projector screen lowered itself again.

"Another visual question- Where does this take place?"

The screen showed a darkened night sky. An Iblis phoenix flew across, before the visual ended. Zazz slammed the buzzer with his face.

A.) Elise: "Flame Core"
B.) Running Scientist: "Dusty Desert"
C.) Mephiles Form 1: "White Acropolis"

Zazz chose A.

Zazz: 2, Sonic: 4

"I'M CATCHIN' UP, HEDGEHOG!"

"Who even are you?"

"Next question! Which level has one of these?"

The screen showed a hovercraft in some water, reflecting an overcast sky. Zazz practically hammered the buzzer.

A.) Flashback Robotnik: "Wave Ocean"
B.) Duke of Soleanna: "Kingdom Valley"
C.) Silver: "Tropical Jungle"

Zazz chose B.

Zazz: 4, Sonic: 4

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

Sonic put a hand to his chin. "Hmm. This could be bad."

Wheeler readied the next card. "How many times have the characters been ranked on performance thus far?"

Sonic put his head to his hands. "As if I could know that!"

Zazz hit the buzzer.

A.) Young Elise: "13"
B.) Lost Tourist: "16"
C.) Rouge: "11"

Zazz chose B.

Zazz: 6, Sonic: 4

"How would you even know that?" Sonic asked, exasperated.

"Yer gonna lose, Sonic! Then it's bye-bye!"

"Next question," the priest started. "Which restaurant was Silver looking for when he first arrived in Soleanna?"

A.) Lady-In-Waiting: "Sonic"
B.) Gerald Robotnik: "Mc Yold's"
C.) Mephiles Copy: "Wendy's"

Zazz chose C.

Zazz: 8, Sonic: 4

"Man, I gotta get better at this! Though I could always sidestep the anvil…" Sonic mused.

"Next question: In which stage did Sonic lose a life?"

Zazz slammed the buzzer.

A.) Iblis Worm: "Crisis City"
B.) Eagle: "Wave Ocean"
C.) Waving Robot: "White Acropolis"

Zazz chose B.

BZZT!

Sonic hit the buzzer. "Of course I'd know this!"

A.) Iblis Worm: "Crisis City"
B.) Eagle: "Wave Ocean"
C.) Waving Robot: "White Acropolis"

Sonic chose A.

Zazz: 6, Sonic: 5

"Next question, which unexpected character did Shadow encounter at White Acropolis?"

Sonic hit the buzzer. "Ha!"

A.) Decompression Scientist: "Zazz"
B.) Wrist Communicator: "Espio"
C.) Shadow: "Sonic Man"

Sonic chose B.

Zazz: 6, Sonic: 7

Wheeler threw his cards away. "And that's all the time we have for Round 2! Ooh, Zazz, you lost by one point. I know someone who'd like to use that to make fun of you. That's not really relevant though."

Zazz thrashed around angrily. "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

The anvil fell onto Zazz, crushing him. Sonic looked just as uncomfortable as he did the last time.

Sonic shuddered. "Well… That guy was unpleasant."

Shadow was still flying on the hang glider past some caves out in the water, when Rouge flew up next to him.

"Hey, Shadow. Got the scepter!" She held it out for Shadow to see. Shadow did not bother to look at her.

"Rouge put that away, we can't have you dropping it again."

"Uh, excuse me? If it weren't for Eggman's robot shooting at me-"

"If it weren't for you stealing it in the first place-"

"If it weren't for whatever idiot left it out for Eggman to find-"

"Don't remind me!" Shadow snapped. Tails and Rouge were both confused. "Er, it's a long story."

Tails tilted his head. "You told me that Eggman bought it online-"

"Mommy and Daddy are talking, Tails!" Shadow interrupted.

Shrugging, Tails decided to change the subject. "Hey Rouge, ever hear of a place called Green Hill Zone?"

"Honey, I don't even know the name of this ocean place right now, let alone some crummy hill that's been gathering dust for fifteen years." She rolled her eyes. "Just earlier, I realized that I had Kingdom Valley and Tropical Jungle mixed up."

Shadow hung his head. "I swear, it's like I'm the only one who knows the names of things."

"Shadow, what's that down there?" Tails asked. Shadow looked down.

Omega was standing on a hill, shooting Mephiles repeatedly.

"Well if I'm not mistaken, that looks like my good friend Omega, and he is currently filling Mephiles' body with lead."

…

"OW! Stop it. OW! Stop it. OW! Stop it," Mephiles repeated, each time a bullet hit him.

"Your regenerative abilities will be your downfall. They cannot last forever. I can simply keep firing until you're too tired to recover."

"You and what army? It will take more than just one heavily-armed robot to stop me," Mephiles taunted. "Then again, this must be easy for you, seeing how I resemble Shadow. It seems all you do is undermine him."

Omega would raise an eyebrow if he had any. "…What does Shadow even have to do with this?" In spite of his question, Omega took the time to shoot Mephiles some more.

"OW! Stop it. You were created to contain him, were you not? And then- OW- 200 years from now, you go and- OW- do it again. Oh yes! And the best part is, you- OW- weren't even following orders! You did it all your-OW-self!"

Omega stopped shooting. "What?"

"How heartless you are, Omega. You keep fighting me, but you really just want to disassociate yourself from that future world. The one where you trapped Shadow, of your own accord! That's the reason, isn't it? You feel guilty. I'm surprised you can even feel that much."

Mephiles gestured dramatically.

"Join me, Omega. We are both far superior to these flesh and bone lifeforms that surround us. You've seen the path of this world, together we can- AAAAAAAAAH!"

Omega had changed both his hands into Gatling guns, bathing Mephiles in a spray of bullets.

"OW! OW! OW! OW! STOP! OW! OW! OH! OW!"

"Shut up already." Omega blared. "You seem to love the sound of your own voice. You have no idea why I target you. It has nothing to do with guilt. I have one reason for attacking you, and it is simple: Rouge asked me to."

The barrage ended. Mephiles was writhing in the sand, riddled with bullets.

"…What? You attack me… with no personal stake… only following orders… You really are… just… a machine…"

Omega stepped closer to Mephiles. "Correction: I am not only a machine- I am the strongest machine ever built."

Mephiles lied there for a moment. Then his chest began to move. "Heheheh… HAHAHAHA! This was certainly an eventful afternoon. But I'm done here. There are no Chaos Emeralds on this shore. That only leaves one place."

The dark hedgehog transfigured into a purple cloud. "Tell Shadow that I'll be waiting for him in the Billiards Temple."

As the Mephiles cloud flew away, Omega tried firing at it, but to no avail.

"Omega!" Shadow and Rouge called at once. Omega turned around.

"Shadow. Rouge. What brings you here?"

"Tails is here, too." Rouge pointed her thumb over her shoulder. In the distance, Tails was building a sandcastle.

"I could not care less about Tails."

"Omega, did Mephiles reveal anything important?" Shadow asked. Omega robotically formed a thumbs up with his right hand.

"Affirmative. He has re-positioned himself to the desert temple. That reminds me, Shadow there is something I've been meaning to tell you: I am the one who defeated you and sealed you in the future."

Rouge gasped. Shadow closed his eyes and crossed his arms.

"…Really?" was all Shadow could say.

"Affirmative. While I waited for two centuries, I occasionally woke up for visitation. The first time, I had imprisoned you. Since then, I had revisited you, in case it was time to assist you. As I said, it was on the sixty-first attempt that we met. At first, I had thought you had escaped."

"I see…" Shadow nodded. "Well there are worse people who could've imprisoned me. Glad it was someone I could trust," Shadow said with a smirk.

"I know you would do the same for me."

Shadow and Omega exchanged a high-five, a reverse high-five, a low-five, and a reverse low-five. Then Shadow's left hand and Omega's right hand met, and they pulled their hands down in a handshake. Then the two pulled each other in for a half-arm bro hug.

Rouge tilted her head, and squinted one eye. "…What…"

The bat cleared her throat.

"Hey, what are you guys going on about? Just what happened in that future without me?" the bat asked.

"Well…" Shadow stepped away from Omega, crossing his arms once more. He turned his gaze skyward. "Mephiles said that after the apocalypse, humanity came to fear me because they thought I was…" Shadow closed his eyes and sighed. "They said I was too edgy."

"…What."

"I know." Shadow nodded. "Omega, what happened from there?"

Omega's head turned around 360 degrees. "Memories found. I woke up to try and assist you, and we found each other. You were ragged from constantly fighting the authorities. In addition, all of your other friends were dead. You asked me to put you to sleep until- in your own words- 'something important happened'. So I imprisoned you."

"Hm. That's not nearly as bad as I'd thought," responded Shadow. "And as long as we prevent the Day of Disaster, then people should have no need to come to fear me."

Shadow turned to walk off, but Rouge spoke up.

"And you're not worried about the possibility of that happening one day, regardless of what we do today?"

Shadow shrugged. "If the world chooses to become my enemy… then I'll…" Shadow stopped. "I'll… I'll think of something."

Rouge was not finished. "Uh, Shadow?"

"Yes?"

Rouge rubbed her arm awkwardly. "Even if we screw up the Day of Disaster, I won't turn against you. …Oh and I'm sorry for dragging you into this and stuff."

Shadow nodded. "It's all right. So… We have the scepter, and we know where Mephiles is waiting. There's nothing to stop us from putting an end to this."

"What about him?" Rouge pointed behind Shadow, at Tails working on his sand castle.

"I'll call it 'Sonic Castle', and then I'll build a small castle town around it. And then I'll be the mayor, and Sonic won't be the deputy, and we'll SEE HOW HE LIKES IT!" Tails began slamming his fist down on one of the castle towers. "FEEL THIS PAIN, SONIC, THIS IS HOW I FEEL ON THE INSIDE!"

All of Team Dark felt uncomfortable. Shadow broke the silence, however.

"If we leave slowly and quietly, he may not notice us."

ROUND 3 – SMASHING SUCCESS OR CRUSHING DEFEAT?

"So I can go now, right?" asked Sonic. Father Wheeler shook his head.

"Sorry, but you still have a third trial. Let's just get this gong show over with. But since it's just you and me now, the rules will change. You start out with zero points like usual, but now you have to beat my score before time runs out. You can also choose to pass the question."

The priest pointed to the anvil over Sonic. "And you still have to deal with that. So yeah."

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 0

180 seconds remain

Wheeler pulled out his first card for this round. "So starting off, who is the Deputy Mayor of Crisis City?"

Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Pietro: "Rouge the Bat"
B.) Angry Café Patron: "Miles Prower"
C.) Iblis Phoenix: "Knuckles the Echidna"

Sonic chose A.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 2

170 seconds remain

"How much did Eggman's Radical Train cost?"

"Uh, pass. Dude, it was never even mentioned."

"Fair enough. Next question, what is the difference between Silver's Danger Quotient and Shadow's Danger Quotient?"

Sonic immediately hit the buzzer. "I'll just guess…"

A.) Dusty Omega: "400%"
B.) Awkward Lonely Robot: "None"
C.) Mephiles Golem: "600%"

Sonic chose C.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 4

151 seconds remain

Wheeler pulled the next card. "Which Chaos Emerald did Elise give up at the beginning of this adventure?"

"Uhhh… Uhhhh…"

"Take your time, don't mind me!" the priest teased, with a smug grin.

"Uh, how about no?"

"HOW'S IT FEEL?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "This is getting old! I'll guess!" He slapped the buzzer.

A.) Future Shadow: "Red"
B.) The President: "White"
C.) Luppy Guy: "Blue"

Sonic chose C.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 6

117 seconds remain

"Which is not an actual level in this game?"

A.) Egg-Genesis: "Radical Acropolis"
B.) Formless Mephiles: "Tropical Jungle"
C.) Cranky Driver: "Flame Core"

Sonic chose A.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 8

108 seconds remain

"Get ready for this, Sonic! One of my trump cards! How many times has Mephiles said 'oh yes' so far?"

"Whaaaat? No way!"

"And you have to include both times he convinced Silver you were the Iblis Trigger before heading into the past."

Sonic hung his head. "I don't want to waste time by passing, I'll just have to guess." He hit the buzzer.

A.) GUN Helicopter Worker: "9"
B.) Wave Ocean Whale: "12"
C.) Iblis Form 2: "10"

Sonic chose B.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 10

100 seconds remain

"A hundred seconds?!" Wheeler was shocked. "Uh, sorry, bad habit. Though I don't really say it that much."

Sonic shrugged. "Hey I'm just glad I guessed that question right. I mean, I'd never even meet Mephiles other than that one time I eavesdropped on 'im!"

"Well anyway, time for the next question."

Sonic smirked. "Bring it on, I just need one more, then I'm good to go!"

Wheeler looked at the next card. "Oooh, this is gonna be interesting… How many loading screens have we had so far?"

Sonic's eyes widened.

"Hahaha! Wanna pass, Sonic? By all means, I don't mind winning!"

Sonic shook his head. "No, I can do this. I gotta get through here and rescue Elise or else the world ends. I have less than a hundred seconds… Let's see… Got it!"

Sonic hit the buzzer.

A.) Pure Iblis: "10"
B.) Nerdy Shadow: "13"
C.) First Lady Starla: "16"

Sonic chose B.

Wheeler: 10, Sonic: 12

76 seconds remain

Wheeler threw up all his cards. "And that does it! Luthor wins- I mean Sonic wins! …Wait, what?!"

Sonic stepped out from behind his podium, and the anvil crashed right behind him. He jumped in shock and turned around.

"Gaah! That could've crushed me anyway?"

The priest shrugged. "Uhh… Bye!"

Father Wheeler ran off, desperate to get away from Sonic. Sonic did a backflip and held out his index finger.

A

"No sweat!"

An eagle swooped by and picked Sonic up.

"Whoa, what?"

"RAAAAWK! We're going to Kingdom Valley!"

Sonic was confused. "Wait, a talking eagle? How?"

"A talking hedgehog? How?"

"…" Sonic nodded his head. "Touche."

NOW LOADING…

Silver and Blaze ran into the clearing where the gameshow was held. Father Wheeler stepped out to greet the duo.

"All right, let me just get to the chase: Silver, you have to complete three trials before you can go to Kingdom Val-"

"DYNAMITE KICK!"

Sonic Man burst forth and drop-kicked the priest.

"…Sonic Man?" asked Silver.

Sonic Man struck a pose.

"He was part of Pietro's cult. Go. The future needs you. And more importantly, Sonic needs you."

"You… fool!" Wheeler gasped. "How dare you interfere!"

Sonic Man struck another pose. "Sonic Man is not afraid!" He turned to Silver and Blaze. "You two go ahead, Sonic Man will stay here and hold them back!"

Blaze and Silver gave each other a look, and Blaze nodded.

"We should listen to him, Silver."

Blaze ran ahead toward the entrance to Kingdom Valley. Silver started, but stopped and turned back to Sonic Man.

"Wait, how do you know what's going on? Why are you helping me?"

Sonic Man crossed his arms and looked to the side, trying to be dramatic. "Sonic Man works in mysterious ways. Now go!"

"Uh, okay… Man, the past is weird."

Silver ran off after Blaze, while Father Wheeler got back up. "I don't know who you think you are, but the Flames of Disaster must rise!"

Sonic Man got into a fighting stance, so Father Wheeler did the same. The priest made the first move and ran toward Sonic Man.

"PENTAGON PUNCH!"

"DYNAMITE KICK!"

Sonic ran toward Kingdom Valley, but Eggman had a robotic welcoming committee lined up for him.

"Oh great, another diversion. Except, these robots are pretty easy. I'll just-"

"IT'S NO USE!"

One robot started glowing green and floating in the air. It flew around like a ragdoll and crashed into all the other robots, destroying them. When it was the only robot left, it promptly crumbled like an empty soda can. Sonic turned around.

"Oh, great. You."

Silver.

Sonic rolled his eyes and put a hand on his hip. "What, here to kill me again?"

Silver tried to emulate Sonic Man's dramatic pose. "Circumstances… have changed."

"…What?" asked Sonic.

Blaze stepped out and sighed. "We're going to help you find the princess. Silver knows the truth now."

"Oh. Cool." Sonic gave a thumbs up and turned to face Silver. "I knew we'd team up sooner or later. A lot of my rivals do. Like Knuckles… Shadow… even Blaze."

Blaze blushed and looked away.

"Let's go!" the blue hedgehog cheered. He dashed off, forcing Silver and Blaze to work in order to keep up.

One last robot stepped out from behind a tree, having been spared Silver's wrath.

"…OKAY-I-WILL-JUST-BE-HERE."

Chapter Text

"This day just keeps getting better and better." Shadow greeted the situation with sarcasm.

Iblis' monsters and Mephiles' monsters were running amok all over Soleanna, forcing the citizens to run for safety. Rouge winced.

"LORD SOLARIS HAS RETURNED TO US!" a random citizen declared, on his knees with his hands to the sky. "HAIL SOLARIS!"

Lord Regis was stuck in a tree, hiding from some cheese on the concrete. "Someone help! I'm lactose intolerant!"

Shadow sighed. "Okay, forget this town. We're going to the desert now."

"AW YEAH! THIS IS AWESOME!" Sonic smiled earnestly for perhaps the first time since arriving in Soleanna.

Sonic had made himself a blue streak, dashing along a waterfall, running through the last stretch of Kingdom Valley. His passengers, however, were not so thrilled. In order to have any hope of keeping up, Sonic took both Blaze and Silver by the hand, and simply ran.

"NO IT'S NOT!" Blaze screamed, feeling as her arm could be ripped off at any second from the mere speed. "AAAAAAAH!"

"(blurble-gargle-gargle)!" was all Silver could say, with his face stuck in the waterfall.

Sonic ran past the goal ring, and made it to the edge of a cliff, coming to a skidding stop.

"Can we go again mommy…" Silver was too dazed to think straight. Sonic let go of his new companions, and they hit the grass.

"Sorry. I get carried away when I run." Sonic, while speaking honestly, also kind of wanted to get back at Silver for all the trouble he had caused. But he was not about to admit it.

Blaze sat on the grass, clutching her head. "Aaah… I'm pretty fast, but I keep forgetting how much faster you are than me… My head hurts…"

Sonic began to look around. "All right, now I just need to find the entrance to the lab… and there it is!" Sonic pointed towards a stony doorway nearby. He began to look in the air. "Now I just need to see if Eggman's ship has left… and there it… is… Dang it."

The Egg Carrier was visible in the middle of the sky. Sonic snapped his fingers. "If only I hadn't stopped to play that gameshow! …Or if I'd just asked the eagle to carry me all the way to the end, bypassing the obstacles in this valley… Yeah, I'm starting to see a few things I could've done differently."

Silver shook his head real fast and caught sight of something. "Hey, are there lights flashing on that ship?" He pointed at the ship as he said it. Sonic looked.

"…Double dang it."

In the cockpit, sirens and red lights were going crazy. Eggman was pressing buttons randomly on the control board.

"I demand an explanation!" Elise shouted. Eggman was looking panicked.

"You're stressing me out, princess! I'm trying to think, here!" He kept pressing buttons. "Ooh I should just abandon this whole thing and escape on the Wyvern! Oh wait, I never got around to testing it… too busy looking online for a new train… Yeah, I'm starting to see a few things I could've done differently."

The ship was losing altitude.

"AAAAH!" Elise was in hysterics. "WHAT DO WE DO?!"

Eggman was busy tying a blindfold around his eyes. "Only thing left is to close your eyes, so you don't see it coming." Eggman sat down in his chair and sighed. "You know, I always knew it would end like this… Come with me, and you'll be, in a world of pure imagination…" Eggman began to sing.

Elise looked at him in disbelief. The doctor kept going.

"Take a look, and you'll see-"

BOOM!

"Triple dang it," was all Sonic could say, at the sight of the now-smoldering Egg Carrier crumpled on the side of the valley cliffs. He snapped his fingers. "Do I hear a 'quadruple dang it'?" Sonic sighed and looked at Blaze. "So now what happens?"

Blaze was standing up by now, and tried to recall Mephiles' computer. "The princess died in the crash, which caused Iblis to awaken and destroy everything."

Sonic grimaced. "Ooh. That doesn't sound good. …Although, that means Crisis City will come back… I get to be the mayor again! Although-although, it's because I was too slow to save the princess. I can't have that. I'd lose my street cred! …Oh and, I guess the world dying a slow, fiery death would be bad as well…"

Blaze gave Sonic a look. The blue hedgehog shrugged.

"Hey I just thought it went without saying, that's all!"

"And the princess didn't deserve to go out like this." Silver nodded.

Sonic's imaginary eyebrows raised. "Oh yeah, the princess. Forgot about her for a second."

Silver blankly stared at the sky above him. "Well… Maybe it won't be so bad? What if she didn't cry while the ship was crashing? The duke just said that she doesn't have to cry, he didn't say anything about dying!"

"Uhh…" Sonic started, "Maybe… But I'm not holding my breath."

Silver put his hands on his hips and looked down. "Shoot! If only Shadow were here! He and I could open a time hole!"

Sonic's eyes lit up. "What? Are you saying that you can Chaos Control?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Interesting! It just so happens that I can do it too!" Sonic put a hand to his chin. "We'll just need to find two Chaos Emeralds. Shouldn't be too hard, they tend to show up nearby whenever we need them."

Silver pulled out the white Chaos Emerald. "I stole this from the duke after he died. …It was awkward."

Then Blaze gave Silver a look. "You did what?"

"Well he wasn't gonna use it!" Silver defended.

Sonic's hand remained on his imaginary chin. "Well, points for coming up with a plan and having a Chaos Emerald handy. But I'm gonna need one too." Sonic stood there for a moment. "Oh wait, I do have one. Duh." He pulled out the cyan Chaos emerald. "Picked up this bad boy after I schooled Iblis during my trip to your future. Forgot about it after a while, though."

Blaze was standing about, arms crossed. She looked over to the hedgehogs. "I'm the only one wearing clothes, so where have you guys been hiding- On second thought, don't answer that." Blaze looked over to a wall.

Shrugging, both hedgehogs approached the other and clinked emeralds.

"Chaos Control!" "Chaos Control!"

Quack

A portal appeared. Sonic nodded approvingly.

"As unimpressive as I remember. You're a natural at this." He turned and threw his Chaos Emerald to Silver. "Something tells me you'll need this a lot more than I will."

Silver nodded. "But wait, what were you thinking about when you made the portal? Shadow said we have to think about a certain place or time!"

The blue hedgehog shrugged. "I was just thinking 'some time that lets me fix this'. From there, I'll just wing it. And if worse comes to worst, I can just look for two Emeralds, find Shadow, and go back again! You have all the time in the world, once you can control time!"

Silver's eyes lit up. "…Hey! You're right!"

Sonic stretched his legs and began to make a move for the portal, but Silver spoke up.

"Hey, Sonic… I'm… I'm sorry about before."

"Eh. You're not the first who's tried. And you won't be the last. Seeya!" Sonic ran into the portal.

Silver and Blaze were alone with the portal now. The cat walked up and put a hand on her partner's shoulder.

"I think it's time we went back home."

"Yeah." Silver turned to Blaze and smiled. "I learned how to seal Iblis, and now I have a way to do it! If the portal takes us to 'some time that lets me fix this', then it should work!"

Blaze wryly looked at the portal. "Then I hope for our sake that the portal is capable of being subjective in times like this."

The two leaped into the portal.

Tails and Knuckles were sitting on the tower near the entrance to Kingdom Valley.

"I wish Sonic was here," Knuckles said.

"I wish you were Sonic instead of Knuckles," Tails said.

Sonic walked up to the two. "Hey guys, what brings you here?"

"SONIC!" his friends cheered in unison.

"Yep, it's me." The hedgehog then walked over to the ledge. Down below the tower, he could see the past iteration of himself still in the final round of Kingdom of Calamity. "Good, looks like I might have some extra time."

"You buggin', Sonic?"

Sonic took a deep breath. "Okay, here's the deal. Down there, I'm playing a gameshow. After that, I went into Kingdom Valley with Silver, after he agreed to stop attacking me. But we were too late to save Elise, so now I'm back in time to give myself more of a head start."

Knuckles nodded. "I instantly believe you."

Tails stood up. "Hey Sonic, I was just at the beach before coming here, and I built this castle-"

"Mommy and Daddy are talking, Tails," Sonic interrupted. "So anyway, now I gotta rush through Kingdom Valley and get to Eggman's base and onboard his ship before the Sonic downstairs finishes his quiz and tries the same thing. I feel kinda bad for leaving you guys out the first time, so wanna come with me this time?"

"Yeah!" Knuckles jumped out of his seat and cheered.

"B-but Sonic, my sandy vengeance!"

"I'm sure it was horrifying Tails, now let's go!" Sonic grabbed Tails by the arm and ran into the Kingdom Valley portal, with Knuckles following.

Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were running through the Dusty Desert, only stopping occasionally, in order to take down a Mephiles monster in their path.

Omega was taking in the sights. "There are ruined Eggman robots everywhere. If only I was here sooner. I could have destroyed them myself."

"I have a feeling our friends have been through here before," Rouge commented. "I can see half of a chilidog in the sand."

"This is taking too long," complained Shadow. "We need a way to get there faster."

"Wish granted," Omega stated, picking Shadow up and making a beeline for a nearby hovercraft. He dropped Shadow in the front seat and grabbed the handrail sticking out the back.

"Ooh, Rouge likes." Rouge glided over to the hovercraft and made herself comfortable in the passenger seat, kicking her feet up on the dashboard. Shadow shook his head.

"I can't believe it. Why are there vehicles everywhere I go?"

"Shadow, just start driving." Rouge leaned back and put her hands behind her head. Shadow sighed.

"Rouge. We've been over this. Seatbelt."

"All right, mom!" Rouge rolled her eyes and fastened her seatbelt. Shadow took off.

"Whee." "Wheee!" "Wheee."

Shadow turned his head back. "Omega, how are you doing back there?"

Omega was essentially waterskiing in the sand, holding on to the hovercraft's handrail. He gave Shadow a robotic 'OK' gesture, but stopped when something caught his attention.

"Shadow, watch out for the pillars."

Shadow turned back around and saw that he was heading straight for a pillar. "GEEZ!"

He swerved and managed to pass through the gap between said pillar and the other one, which caused another pair of pillars to rise up somewhere nearby.

"…What?" Shadow was lost. "Is this some kind of security system or something?"

"Oooh! I know!" Rouge whipped out the Soleanna brochure. "If you pass through all the pillars, you'll open up a shortcut to the deeper rooms within the temple."

"Strange… But I guess it's about time your Soleanna trivia came in handy."

"Oh Shadow, when will you learn that all my hobbies are useful?"

Shadow gave Rouge a wry look and raised an eyebrow. "You mean like how you confused Kingdom Valley and Tropical Jungle?"

"Oh come on Shadow, that was-"

Omega pointed forward. "DODGE!"

Shadow turned back to the road ahead and swerved just in time to avoid crashing into a pillar. Shadow wiped the sweat from his brow. "Phew…"

"New rule," Omega began, "No one speaks until we enter the temple."

"Agreed," both of Omega's teammates answered, in unison.

Quack

Silver jumped out of the portal, fists pumped. "LET'S DO THIS!"

Blaze leapt out gracefully. "Yes, let's."

The two ran ahead, paying no heed to the portal closing behind them. Though Blaze did notice the terrain.

"The volcano… I remember now, Iblis usually comes here when he's not terrorizing the city. It's just too bad that Sonic failed. I mean, look at this place."

Silver shook his head. "Nah. Remember what I told you about the princess? She can't cry ever, or the world will end. But I mean come on, it had to happen eventually. Even if Sonic saved her. Someday, she'd cry."

Blaze looked at Silver thoughtfully. "Wow, Silver. I… hadn't actually thought of that."

He looked down awkwardly, yet kept running. "Well… I'd know a lot about crying."

Blaze chuckled. "So anyway, I haven't seen any-"

An Iblis worm popped up, and two Iblis Lizards dropped down from nearby bluffs.

"REEEEEEEK!"

"RAAAAAR!"

"RAAAAAR!"

Blaze and Silver stopped. The cat was about to conjure some fireballs, but Silver beat her to the punch by psychokinetically grabbing both lizards and smashing them into each other. He then knocked both the crushed lizards into the worm, with great force, tearing its head off.

"Oh my." Blaze's eyes widened. "Silver, that was wonderful! And those were the lizards! You hate the lizards!"

Silver turned back and smiled. "I'm not afraid of them anymore!" (If I have to be honest, they're still kinda creepy. But… that face…) Silver recalled Shadow's Frenzy Death Glare. (I've seen worse.)

The pair continued into the volcano, until they found themselves at a waterfall, but with magma. Noticing the very tall path ahead of them, Silver only had one thought.

"…Do I call it a 'magmafall'?" Silver pondered. He turned to Blaze and asked, "What do you think?"

"I think we should find another way."

Silver eyed some platforms and springs strategically placed around the 'magmafall'. "Nah it's okay, we have a way."

"Uh… But we don't know if those springs work! They're pretty old." Blaze was blushing and looking away. "Yeah, in fact, I think I might've seen a cave nearby, it could have-"

"Blaze…"

The cat sighed. "You're right, Silver. Now's not the time to be afraid."

The two went through with the plan and scaled the 'magmafall' flawlessly. At the top, Blaze smiled at Silver.

"Hey, that wasn't so bad after all. You know, Silver, you've really grown since we left."

"Hey, thanks!" Silver beamed. "But really, should we call it a 'magmafall' or not?"

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were rushing through the Aquatic Base.

"Yo, this lab is- AAAAH!" Knuckles fell down one of the many chasms. Tails looked at Sonic, and the hedgehog nodded. Tails proceeded to fly down and rescue Knuckles.

"You owe me," the fox said.

"This crib is all that and a bag of chips… NOT! Who builds a laboratory with so many holes?"

Sonic shrugged. "I saw a shuttle loop earlier, so all bets are off. I guess the scientists ten years ago were into some kind of freaky feng shui."

"Wait…" Knuckles held his hands out. "Ten years ago?"

"What? Oh, yeah, back in the future, Rouge-"

(That homewrecker!) Tails thought.

"-she was telling me and Tails that the lab was last used in an incident ten years ago."

Knuckles' eyes widened.

"Wait, that means… This is a lab of the 90's! Hahaha! I'm in my element, home slices! Booya!" Knuckles ran off. "Follow me, dogs! I can sense where Robotnik's hiding!"

Sonic shrugged and followed Knuckles, while Tails followed Sonic.

Up ahead, Sonic and Tails came across the sight of Knuckles taking on a swarm of Eggman robots.

"NINETIES POWER!" Knuckles screamed. He was holding his own, but there seemed to be no end in sight. The echidna turned to his friends. "Yo, I'll stay here and take on these badniks! You guys bounce and get that princess!"

Tails nodded. "Good idea! Let's go, Sonic!"

"Uh, okay."

The two ran ahead, but Sonic stopped to look back at Knuckles. "Hey Knuckles, I'll see you when this is over."

"Word up!"

Sonic kept going, and found a giant, metal ball. He hopped on and started walking backwards. Tails was flying alongside Sonic.

"You know, I've been a little hard on Knuckles lately, he's still a good guy," Sonic mused. On the other hand, Tails was distracted by a nearby hazard.

"Sonic, watch out for the lasers!"

"Whoa!" Sonic stopped the ball, just in time to avoid the lasers. They disappeared, and Sonic kept going. "Thanks, buddy. You're my spotter."

Tails gasped. "You really mean it?"

"Uh… yeah… Would I not?"

"No, it's just… after Crisis City, I didn't think you cared!"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "For crying out loud! Is this about the whole deputy mayor thing? Tails if it really means that much to you, you can be- AAAAAAH!"

Sonic walked the ball into a laser fence, getting himself zapped and falling into the gap below.

"Ouch!"

"Sonic!" Tails cried. He swooped down and picked Sonic up off the floor, carrying him the rest of the way through the hall. "So I can be the deputy mayor?"

"Go nuts."

"Woohoo! In your face, Rouge! Wherever you are!"

"Didn't think it meant that much to ya…"

Tails set Sonic down on a platform at the end.

BRAAAAANG BRAAAAANG

Red lights began to flash all over the premises. Sonic and Tails looked ahead and noticed a long hallway ahead of them. Doors were slowly beginning to close. Sonic looked at Tails.

"Go," the fox said, understanding. "I'll see you later, Sonic."

"Not if I see you first!" Sonic nodded and blasted into the hallway.

Omega ran through the halls of the Billiards Temple, machinegun arms going wild on all the Mephiles monsters.

"This is for stealing all my kills!"

When all the monsters were destroyed, Omega turned behind him. "It's safe to come out now."

Shadow skated past, with Rouge flying closely behind. As they passed Omega, the robot activated his jetpack, in order to keep pace.

"Mephiles can't be much farth-AAAH!" Shadow was pushed backward by a wave of sand. "What in the world?"

Rouge and Omega flew over the sand room. "We'll wait for ya, Shadow!" Rouge taunted.

"Oh real funny. Yeah it's fair, seeing how I'm the only one that can't fly." Then something dawned on Shadow. "Duh."

Shadow concentrated and teleported. He disappeared and reappeared on another platform… just in time for another sand wave to push him back. "Uuuugh!"

Shadow teleported himself back to the platform, but then got caught by yet another sand wave. "COME ON!"

Omega and Rouge were still waiting at the other end of the room, as Shadow could be heard in the distance, grumbling to himself as he repeatedly tried and failed to avoid the sand. The robot turned to the bat.

"Can we just kill Mephiles without him? I really want to kill Mephiles."

"Wow, you hate him almost as much as Eggman, don't you?"

Omega looked back at Shadow, watching him try over and over to teleport, only to be pushed back by the sand. "You two are literally the only people I care about. He could have attacked anyone, but he picked you two."

Omega caught sight of Rouge smirking. "Awww, you really are just a big softie under all those weapons, aren't you?"

"Well… It is… Rephrasing: Mephiles implied that he is better than me. That is unforgivable."

Rouge shook her head, but smiled. "Of course, big guy. I understand."

Shadow appeared next to his friends, but he was out of breath, panting. "There… finally… past the sand room… Let's… go."

Rouge folded her arms and gave Shadow a condescending grin. "Are you really going to face Mephiles while you're out of breath like this? Mephiles isn't going anywhere."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Fine… two minutes."

Omega looked longingly at the doorway to the next room. "But I sense him in the next room."

"Omega…" Rouge started.

"Fine." He turned to the door. "So close… and yet so far…" Then Omega turned to Shadow. "Shadow, what do you know about a cat with control over fire?"

Shadow looked up from catching his breath, still panting. "A cat… with fire powers? Never… heard of her…"

"Can we find her after this?"

Rouge looked wary. "I dunno, Omega. If you met someone here, they could've been in on that cult. Y'know, the one I told you guys about." Rouge sighed. "Other than Mephiles needing to be stopped, I don't think anything good came of this trip at all."

"Trip? …You mean… your rescue mission?" Shadow asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rouge shrugged. "Well, if you want to sound like a workaholic…"

Silver and Blaze were hiding behind a rock wall, on a small platform. They were over a pool of lava.

Blaze was peeking out over the wall, while Silver was sitting still.

"Now?" the hedgehog asked.

"No."

"Now?"

"No, Silver."

"…I bet it's now."

"No."

"…Now?"

Blaze sighed. "Silver, I said that I would tell yo- NOW!"

Both of them ducked down and closed their eyes, as a ring of fire flew overhead. After counting to three, they both got up and jumped across a few more platforms and hid behind another rock wall.

"What even is that? Iblis' space heater?" Silver whined.

In the center of the crater, a giant, molten orb was emitting rings of fire at specific intervals. Blaze had resumed watching for the fire rings while Silver was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Man, this is crazy! To think, we're minutes away from stopping Iblis for good! And then the world can start over!"

"That reminds me…" began Blaze. "What was your plan for stopping him?"

Silver tried to make himself look noble. "I'm going to seal Iblis within myself! I can take better care of myself than the princess, so it shouldn't be a problem!"

Blaze gave Silver a concerned look, but shortly returned to watching for the fire ring. "But Silver… you cry pretty often. And I don't think we can just keep resealing Iblis inside you."

"I'd thought of that, so I decided that I'll change the rules! I'll just say that Iblis can only come out if I… if I… uh… Iblis can only be released if I rub my belly and pat my head at the same time!"

Blaze sighed, but remained vigilant, not looking at Silver. "Silver, have you thought that maybe it's not so much about the princess crying, but she just can't be extremely sad? 'Don't ever cry' is probably just a simplified version that her dad made up. She was pretty young, if what you said is correct."

Silver paused. "Oh… Oh."

"DUCK!"

Blaze and Silver got back down, and waited for the fire to pass. They counted to three, and then made their way to the next platform.

"Well, what could I be sad about after we beat Iblis? Everything will be great!"

Blaze reached the platform first. She frowned when she noticed that there was no wall. "It looks like there's nowhere to hide."

Silver landed next to her.

"Then we'll just have to get rid of that… thing, then!" With that, Silver proceeded to hover over to the rock and stand on top. Focusing all his power, he ripped it apart with his mind, destroying the rock. However, Silver himself was also falling.

"Silver!"

Blaze jumped down, and found her hedgehog friend kneeling on a pile of rubble in the middle of a stone platform in the crater. "Silver, are you hurt?"

"The fall had damaged me a bit. But I couldn't let Blaze know that, especially with how close we are to Iblis. I had to-"

"You're narrating again," Blaze said, hands on her hips.

"Aaah!"

Blaze shook her head. "C'mon Silver, it can't be much farther."

Silver nodded, and the two ran into a nearby tunnel.

[Recommended music: His World]

"Preparing for takeoff. Takeoff in 10, 9-"

Sonic had made it to the docking bay, and was making a mad dash for the Egg Carrier.

"No, no, no, no! I am not replaying this level again!"

"5, 4, 3-"

Sonic leaped and curled into a ball. He homed in on a small window near the back of the ship, and crashed through.

"Oof… Haha! Eggman, here I come!

…

By the time Sonic made it to the front, however, the ship was already beginning to have difficulties. In the cockpit, sirens and red lights were going crazy. Eggman was pressing buttons randomly on the control board.

"I demand an explanation!" Elise shouted. Eggman was looking panicked.

"You're stressing me out, princess! I'm trying to think, here!" He kept pressing buttons. "Ooh I should just abandon this whole thing and escape on the Wyvern! Oh wait, I never got around to testing it… too busy looking online for a new train… Yeah, I'm starting to see a few things I could've done differently."

"A few? Try, like, a million!" Sonic said, as he ran into the room.

"Sonic!" Elise and Eggman shouted at once, but in different tones.

"Curse you, Sonic! I can't even die without you bothering me!"

Sonic winced. "Geez, you're such a sadsack, Eggman. What happened?"

Eggman scoffed. "Oh like you don't know." He sighed. "This whole trip to Soleanna has been a waste. Ever since I lost control of-"

...

"MEPHILES!" Shadow shouted, running into the basement altar of the temple. Rouge and Omega followed closely.

"Looking for me?" the crystalline hedgehog impersonator asked. He descended from the ceiling, holding the yellow Chaos Emerald. "Ah, I see you've brought me the green one. It'll go nicely with this one, and the purple one I have hidden away. Hoohoohahahaha!"

Shadow pointed at Mephiles, and spoke confidently. "Have your laugh, because I've figured out the means to reseal you."

Mephiles crossed his arms. "Is that so? Nonsense. You cannot hope to contain me. You'd have better luck going after my other half. What was the name that white hedgehog gave him… Ifrit? Ignatius? Oh yes, I remember now. My other half, christened-"

...

"Iblis! We meet again, for the last time!" Silver declared, striking a pose.

He and Blaze were on a plateau at the center of the volcano. Iblis waded through the lava and crossed his gigantic arms. Blaze observed Iblis's appearance. He was back to a vaguely humanoid form, but more monstrous than he was in Crisis City, yet with only two arms.

"Silver, it looks like he's stronger than last time. We'd better be careful."

Silver nodded. "Yeah, can't get sloppy now. This time I'll finally beat him! …Wow I sound kind of like that one guy from the past… What was his name? Egg-something… Oh, it was-"

...

"Eggman, what are you going to do now? I'm on your ship, Elise is coming with me (whether I like it or not), and my friends have probably trashed your base. What's up your sleeve?"

Eggman stomped a foot down. "I'll tell you what's up my sleeve! I'm gonna go find my untested robot and test it on you! …Be a pal and press the button that activates the arena, would you? I'll be in the back, activating Wyvern."

Eggman strolled past Sonic. The hedgehog sighed and pressed the labeled button as Eggman instructed. Elise was confused.

"Sonic, couldn't we just escape?"

"Yeah, but… I'm going to win. I know it. Eggman knows it. But it's gonna eat away at him if he doesn't even try, first. So I'll humor him."

As Sonic stood on the midair platform, Eggman showed up, piloting the Egg-Wyvern.

"You keep getting in my way, you horrid little hedgehog! So now…" Eggman paused to flip through some notes. "Get a load of- No… Time for a change- No that's not it… 'The more the merrier'? When was I supposed to use that one again? OH FORGET IT!"

Eggman threw the notes to the wind, as the dome closed. He sat down in the chair and picked up a speaker, causing his voice to be heard over the Wyvern's intercom. "You won't be getting out of this one, Sonic! Because this time, I'm the one piloting the robot!"

Sonic gave a confused look. "And? Remotely or directly, I'm always breaking your things."

"Uh, well… I HAVE A DRAGON ROBOT, SO THAT MAKES ME BETTER!"

Boss: Egg-Wyvern
Danger Quotient: 800%

The Wyvern let out a metal screech, imitating a roar. Sonic got into a stance.

"CANNON DRONES! FIRE!" Three mid-sized gun turrets descended and began firing lasers at the platform, but none of them were any close to hitting Sonic.

"Uhh… Eggman?"

"I NOTICED! Just… hold on… ahh… There we go! FIRE AGAIN!" After Eggman fiddled with the controls, the drones flashed and re-positioned themselves before opening fire.

"Whoa!" Sonic jumped out of the path of several lasers all pointed at his position. "Now that's more like it!"

Wyvern began to swoop down. "Here I come, Sonic!"

The hedgehog smirked. "Hey, thanks for the heads up!" Sonic leaped just in time to grab the Wyvern's horn and hitch a ride.

Sonic noticed that he could subtly control the Wyvern's flightpath. He looked back curiously at Eggman in the cockpit.

"Did you really just recycle parts from Cerberus or something?"

Eggman continued to yell into the speaker. "Never you mind! I told you that it was untested, what do you want from me, my finest work?!"

Sonic gave Eggman a new look. One of pity. "You really… really just aren't having fun with this anymore, are you?"

Eggman sighed wearily. "Sonic, when you get to my age, you start looking back on all your choices, and you begin to ask-"

"Oh hey!" Sonic noticed one of the cannon drones and steered the Wyvern into it, damaging the Wyvern and ruining the drone. "Haha!" Sonic jumped back to the platform.

"HEY! WE WERE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION! So you wanna play it like that, huh? Fine, I didn't need all of the drones anyway!" Eggman flipped a lid in the cockpit and pressed the button underneath. "I can destroy my own property too, you're not special!"

The Wyvern's tail fired two sapping devices that cut off all electricity that was going toward two of the arena's tiles. This caused the tiles to fall into the abyss. Though Sonic was standing in the middle, and these tiles were towards the edges.

"Eggman, I think we're both interpreting this fight in different ways, now."

"WHY DIDN'T YOU EVER LOOK ME IN THE EYES, FATHER?! WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY FOR YOU?!"

"Ah geez…" Sonic put a hand to his forehead. The Wyvern roared again and charged for Sonic once more. The Blue Blur shrugged and grabbed onto the horn once again.

Eggman was still freaking out in the cockpit. "I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID, FATHER! YOU AND YOUR LITTLE FOX FRIEND, AND THE RED ONE TOO, AND ALL THE OTHER ANIMAL FRIENDS YOU KEEP MAKING OUT OF NOWHERE! OHOHOHOHO!"

"Geez, Eggman! Simmer down!"

"WHY ISN'T THE WYVERN RESPONDING?! WYVERN, LISTEN TO YOUR FATHER!"

Sonic looked straight ahead, not bothering to listen to Eggman anymore. "This… is the most awkward boss fight I've ever had."

The hedgehog steered the Wyvern into another cannon, cracking the glass dome around Eggman open. Sonic took the opportunity to leap back to the platform.

Eggman snapped out of his delusion. "There's only one major drone left! The wings are slowing down! Where did I go wrong?!" Eggman shouted. The Wyvern deployed some minor drones. "See if you can make it here, Sonic! I'll take you on with my own hands if I have to!"

Sonic rolled his head and silently made his way towards the edge. He homed in on the minor drones and, rather than go after Eggman, he did a homing attack on a large, red button on the dashboard.

"No! Not that button! That's the-"

Sonic jumped back to the arena, while Eggman's chair launched into the air, detaching from Wyvern. The draconic robot slowly fell to the water below, as Eggman's chair flew off in another direction.

"AT LEAST I'M WEARING MY SEATBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELT!"

Sonic did a backflip and then held out his index finger.

S

"That was incredibl…y awkward."

Sonic ran over to the edge and homed in on the last cannon drone. He used the momentum to get back to what was left of the airship and picked Elise up, as he had before.

"Sonic, that was amazing!"

"Not the word I'd use, but you just do you." Sonic shrugged. He proceeded to make his way to the back of the ship. "Man, I have the feeling the ship should've already crashed by now. But I'm not about to complain abo-"

The ship crashed into a cliff and exploded.

"WHOA!" Sonic yelled.

"AAAAAH!" shrieked the princess.

The force of the explosion knocked both Sonic and the princess onto the top of the nearby cliff, along with some debris.

"Oooh… Maybe I've said too much…" Sonic slowly got up. "Gonna be feeling this tomorrow."

Sonic looked over and noticed Elise laying in the grass, giggling like a maniac. (After all that, I really doubt Eggman will kidnap her again. I wonder if I could leave her here. … Nah.) Sonic looked and noticed Kingdom Valley on the opposite side of the lake. He spoke to no one in particular. "I wonder if Silver's having any better luck. Or Shadow. What was he up to again, anyway?"

"We don't need to fight, Shadow," Mephiles stated, gesturing dramatically. "I'll give you one more chance. Join me, and we can rewrite our futures!"

"That's wrong." Shadow pointed at Mephiles again. "You just want to merge with Iblis and destroy all of time!"

Mephiles' gesture fell flat. "…What?"

Shadow faltered. "That… that was your plan, right?"

Mephiles stood completely still. He remained still for a few minutes. Team Dark awkwardly exchanged shrugs with each other, until Mephiles finally spoke again.

"… No, it wasn't. But…" Mephiles began to gesture again. "Hahahaha! I like that plan even better! My vengeance will be fully felt with a plan like that! My thanks, Shadow."

Rouge slapped Shadow on the back of the head. "Oh way to go, Shadow!"

"Ah! Okay, my bad. But we still have the scepter. We just need to weaken him, and then he's good as ours."

Mephiles' eyes flashed, and suddenly the stone platform in the center of the chamber was covered in an inky, purple substance. Mephiles floated over and laughed.

"With these emeralds, I am not the Mephiles you once knew!"

Boss: Mephiles the Dark (+ 2 Chaos Emeralds)
Danger Quotient: 660% + (100% x 2) = 860%

Shadow smirked. "You'd better hope so, because the Mephiles I knew is a pushover!"

Mephiles waved one of his claws, summoning all of the mini-Mephiles doppelgangers.

"Hahahahaha" "Ahahahaha" "Hehehehehehe" "HAHAHAHAHA"

When enough of them dived into the ink, Mephiles followed, spawning three energy monsters on different areas of the platform.

"BAAAAAAARH" "BRAAAAAAAAAAKH" "RAAAAAAAAA"

Omega scanned the nearest monster. "They are all comprised of the same substance as Mephiles himself. Meaning that they are pushovers. All of them as weak as Mephiles."

"And ugly. Seriously, Mephiles looks weird," Rouge added. Shadow glared at the bat, and she caught on. "Oh, but you can pull it off, Shadow!"

The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Everyone, go after one of them!"

The team split up, each to take on their own monster. The beasts prepared searing mouth lasers for their respective Team Dark opponents, but each one was able to dodge.

"Yeah, how about no?" Rouge threw a grenade into the monster's mouth, and it went off.

"AAAAARGH" the beast wailed. It tried to grab Rouge, but the bat did a flying spin kick, and pierced the hand that was going for her.

"Aww, nice try. Maybe next time." The beast tried with its other hand, and Rouge countered with the same attack, having the same result. "Or not."

She flew up high and then dive-kicked the beast right in the center of its cranium, shattering the head and causing the beast to sink into the ground.

"Bullets are proving ineffective. Preparing alternate attack." Omega, having trouble using machineguns on his beast, switched to flamethrowers.

"RAAAARAAAAR"

A small compartment on Omega's chest opened, and a missile fired, hitting the beast square in the face.

"AAAAAR"

The beast withered and retreated into the ground. Omega ran over to where it stood. "Come back. I was not finished. You cannot retreat without my permission. I must destroy you first." Nothing happened. "…I can wait."

Shadow's opponent put both hands together and tried to slam them onto the black hedgehog, but it missed when Shadow teleported to the air in front of the beast's face and unleashed a flurry of punches and kicks.

"Hooh! Hah! Uh! Take this!"

With the beast sufficiently distracted, Shadow dropped down. "Chaos Spear!" He threw the energy javelin through one of the beast's arms.

"RRRAAAAH"

"Chaos Lance!" Shadow prepared a larger Chaos Spear and stuck it through the beast's abdomen. Then, as the monster was flailing in pain, Shadow snapped his finger and caused the lance to blow up, disintegrating the monster.

The inky ground changed back to stone, and Mephiles was flung out into the open.

"What?! But how?! How were you three able to- AAAAH!"

Omega was unloading bullets on Mephiles without delay. Rouge looked to Shadow and nodded. "You wanna do the honors?"

"My pleasure." Shadow leaped up. "Chaos…"

Mephiles' claw began to glow, and he began to charge an attack. "DROWN IN DARKNESS!"

Mephiles unleashed a blinding blast. Shadow teleported out of the way, while Rouge covered her eyes. The hedgehog reappeared behind Mephiles.

"…Spear!"

Shadow rammed an energy spear through Mephiles' back.

"HUAAAAH…aaaah…!" Mephiles dropped the yellow and purple Chaos Emeralds.

Shadow dropped down and backflip-breakdanced.

S

"Let's just get this over with," the hedgehog lamented.

Mephiles silently melted down into a dark puddle, as he was before. Omega stood stoically, while Rouge tilted her head.

"That guy was a freak, am I right?"

Shadow held out the Scepter of Darkness, along with the green Chaos Emerald. "Chaos Control!"

Mephiles' remains began to be absorbed, the Scepter of Darkness erasing the blight that was his existence. In but a moment, it was finished.

"…We did a good job," Shadow spoke to his team while staring at the scepter, nodding. "Maybe there is strength in numbers after all. I think we've all earned a vac- What?"

The scepter began to shake. Shadow's eyes widened. "Oh no!"

Shadow quickly threw the scepter away, toward the altar. The scepter exploded, creating an inky, black cloud.

"Nice try, I didn't expect that! But…" a portion of the cloud recreated the head of Mephiles. "The last time you tried it, I didn't have your form to sustain me. Now I do!"

Mephiles fully reformed and blasted Team Dark away with psychic power, knocking them down.

"Aaaah!" "Waaaah!" "External armor damage."

Mephiles telekinetically picked both his emeralds up from the floor. His mind then drew the green one from Shadow. "This makes three. Even kicking and screaming, you've still helped me."

Mephiles' eyes glowed, and the power of the Chaos Emeralds summoned another, thicker, blacker cloud all around the room. The cloud gave rise to multiple, perfected Mephiles doppelgangers.

"Oh yes!" each and every Mephiles said at once. The original floated higher, above the rest.

"Foolishness. Your limited power is nothing against a god."

Shadow stood up, followed by his friends. "Well then… I guess I'll have to get rid of my limits."

Mephiles raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Don't give yourself hope. Even if a miracle happens and you defeat me, what next? You can stave off as many threats as you'd like, but sooner or later, humanity will turn on you." Mephiles crossed his arms. "This world will shun you. Why fight at all? For what reason do you subject yourself to this farce?"

Shadow looked back to his friends and smirked. Rouge and Omega looked at each other and nodded, getting closer to Shadow, as he turned back to Mephiles.

"Because, Mephiles…" Shadow twisted the rings on his wrists, causing them to pop off. He then gave the demon god a dark grin. "I'm the coolest. And I'm tired of you looking like me. You're not even good enough to be my fake!"

Shadow began to glow and skated ahead, with Rouge and Omega sticking close. With his full power unleashed, Shadow destroyed every Mephiles on contact.

"RAAAAAAAAH!"

"You don't scare me, Iblis! I know how to beat you for good this time!" Silver declared.

Iblis let out a mighty roar.

Boss: Iblis (Form 3)
Danger Quotient: 850%

Iblis took a few steps forward, and summoned several drops of magma. He hardened them into boulders and launched every single one at Silver and Blaze's platform.

"Silver, be ready!"

Silver turned to face Blaze, with a confident smile on his face. "Don't worry, Blaze! I've got this all under co-"

Blaze tackled Silver, causing one of the boulders to miss him. Both of the animals got back up.

"Uh, starting now," Silver amended. He quickly caught the remaining boulders. "Taaake this!"

One at a time, Silver sent each and every boulder right into Iblis's face.

"ROOOOOOOAR"

Iblis stomped closer to the platform. Silver took this chance and flew up to Iblis' head. "Hey, there's one of the green marks up here! That means I can do this!"

Silver concentrated and ripped the monster's jaw off, using his mind.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"

Blaze winced. "Eugh. I think I'll be sick after this fight."

Iblis began to thrash around, so Silver glided back to the platform. "Hey Blaze, are you seeing this? I'm showing Iblis who's boss!"

"Uh… yeah… Good job…"

Iblis took a few steps back and tried throwing more boulders. Silver caught them just the same, having the same effect.

"Man, this is actually kind of easy! I love being more powerful than I used to be!"

Blaze smiled. "Confidence suits you, Silver."

"Haha, thanks!"

The fiery beast leaned forward on one leg and began to unleash waves of fire from his stomach. Silver's eyes widened.

"Oh no! Where's a wall when I need one?!"

Blaze took a step forward, pushing Silver back. "Allow me."

As each tide came, Blaze waved her arms, manipulating the flames and compressing them all into a ball of fire. Once all the waves were collected, she launched the fireball into the lava. The cat turned to Silver and smiled.

"It's about time I did something useful against Iblis. Seeing as how fire won't hurt him."

Iblis took a few steps forward and crafted a large boulder, much bigger than the other ones. The monster tossed the boulder with all its might.

Silver's eyes widened. "Oh no!"

"It'll destroy the platform for sure!" Blaze turned to her friend. "Silver, do you think you can catch it, or should we run?"

Silver gulped. He recalled the snowball in White Acropolis, and the Egg-Genesis. Then he remembered his own meteor, back when he fought Shadow.

"No… I can do this!" Silver stepped forward. "Did you hear that Iblis? That's right…" At the last moment, Silver's mind caught the boulder. "IT'S NO UUUUUUUUUSE!"

Silver threw the boulder back, it collided with Iblis' torso, taking off a good amount of it (and his right arm) as it flew past.

"AAAAAARRRRRRRHHHH"

Iblis quickly regained composure and started stampeding forward. His two tiny opponents went pale.

"He's going to ram us?!" Silver cried. Blaze's eyes narrowed, having already recovered from the shock.

"This must be his last resort."

Silver quickly started looking around for something he could throw at Iblis, when a thought occurred to him. "Oh! I know! I'll just wait for him to get closer!"

Blaze looked uncertain. "Silver, are you sure?"

The hedgehog nodded. "Oh yeah!" Silver began charging up energy in front of himself. "I should have plenty of time!"

Iblis kept charging closer. Blaze looked back to the monster, then to Silver. She nodded, and stood her ground.

"RAAAAAAAAAA-"

"Almost there!"

"So is Iblis," warned Blaze, "but I'll believe in you."

Iblis came closer.

"Almost…"

Nearing the platform, Iblis raised his remaining hand in a fist.

"NOW!" Silver shouted. He unleashed a giant psychic knife.

The knife soared, slicing clean through Iblis at the bust line, removing his head, shoulder, and raised left arm. The removed parts of Iblis splashed into the lava, leaving the lifeless monster's body standing knee-deep in the pool, close to Silver and Blaze.

"HAHAHAHA! I DID IT!" cheered Silver, in shock, disbelief, and joy. He carried himself into the air.

A

"I did something right for once!"

Blaze let out a breath that she did not realize she was holding. "Silver… that was amazing!"

Silver lowered himself back to the ground. "Now to finish the job!"

The white hedgehog stepped forth and held out the white and cyan Chaos Emeralds.

"Solaris! Or Iblis, or whichever! Hear my command! Rest inside my mind, where you won't be able to hurt anyone ever again!"

Nothing happened.

"Uhh… I mean it!"

"Try using your powers."

"Oh yeah… Kinda worn out from the fight…" Silver started to realize. He held out the emeralds and tried to channel his power. "Eternal Sun! Do as I tell you, rest within my soul and mind, and be sealed from this world you ruined!"

A pale flame lifted from the corpse of Iblis and tried to fly into Silver's chest, but recoiled.

"Aaah!" Silver winced and sucked the air between his teeth. "That's searing hot! But… I don't care! DO IT!" Silver kept holding the emerald, and the fire tried to go into him again, but recoiled, lightly burning Silver once more. "Aaaah!"

Blaze watched Silver as he kept trying this. She watched for about a minute, before walking closer.

"Why isn't this working?!" Silver got to his knees. "What's wrong?! I did everything the duke did, I traveled in time and became stronger, I even cut Iblis in half! So why can't I just do this one lousy thing?!" He closed his eyes, fighting back tears. "Just when I finally do something right, it doesn't work!"

"Silver…"

Silver sniffled, but refocused his attention. "No! Can't… give up! If I'm already crying before I seal Iblis, then there's no point!" Silver, still on his knees, held the emeralds out again. "OBEY ME, ETERNAL SUN! I PRESENT YOU MY SOUL WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED! SO JOIN WITH ME ALREADY!"

Nothing happened.

"J-join with me-e-ee-eee…" Silver could not hold back any longer. He was crying, and dropped the emeralds onto the ground. He slammed one of his fists, over and over. "Wh-why?! This couldn't have been for nothing! This can't be the end! We deserve a chance to live in this world!"

Suddenly, Silver could hear a noise. It snapped him out of his funk. He looked over.

"Blaze?!"

Blaze was standing next to him, holding out the emeralds, and grimacing as the pale flame was absorbed into her. Silver stood up, wiping away a tear. "B-but how?"

Blaze watched as Iblis slowly faded away, while the last of the flames was absorbed. "The royal family made a pact with Solaris. But my soul is royal too. I was a princess back in my home dimension, you know."

With Iblis fully absorbed, Blaze gave Silver the emeralds.

"Okay Silver… Use that Chaos Control or whatever it is, and send me to a different dimension! There, I won't have to worry about releasing Iblis!"

"I-I-I don't think I know how to do that, Blaze!" Silver panicked. "And even if I did, there's no one else to use Chaos Control with me, and most importantly, you'd be gone!"

Blaze looked to her feet. "I see…" Then she looked over at Silver and smiled. "I'll have to be the one, then. I'll use his power."

Blaze began to glow with Iblis' flames, while Silver was freaking out.

"Blaze, stop! You can't leave! We just saved this world, and you won't get to see it! What would I do without you there?! I'll be all alone, I'm nothing without you!"

"Silver… That's a lie."

"What?"

Blaze gestured towards the crater where Iblis stood. "All of that, when you destroyed Iblis? That was you. On the way here? That was you. In the past? Through the desert, fighting Sonic, learning the truth about Iblis; that was all because you were able to keep getting back up again! You're better than you think you are!"

"I…" Silver sniffled. "You're right." His eyes then lit up. "A-and hey! You came to my dimension once, maybe this time I can visit you!"

Blaze chuckled. "Heh… Maybe you can." Silver quickly embraced Blaze. She smiled and returned the gesture. Afterward, she let go and tussled Silver's spines one last time. "For luck!"

With that, Blaze started to levitate, and she began to look more like a ghost than a feline. She was leaving.

"Enjoy your new world, Silver!"

Blaze vanished, and the clouds immediately parted, giving way to sunlight thought long gone.

"Aaah!" Silver shielded his eyes, as the clouds disappeared, and the world grew brighter. Silver looked around and saw the emeralds left behind.

"Well… I guess all I can do now is see what happens next." He picked up the emeralds. "I met a lot of people because of these things…"

Go. The future needs you.

I'm Amy! I'm your new friend!

Maybe you're not hopeless after all.

I knew we'd team up sooner or later.

Silver smiled.

"Time to see what's out there!"

The white hedgehog walked away, humming a song to himself.

Chapter Text

Previously on 'Sonic 2006: Dude, Where's His World?'

"NINETIES POWER!" Knuckles screamed.

And now, the stunning conclusion.

With Eggman defeated and Elise rescued, Sonic had felt his day was quite productive. After a victory dance, which lasted for twelve minutes (and restarted every time Elise asked Sonic to stop), the hedgehog and princess began to make the trip back to Soleanna.

Sonic and Elise were walking through the forest, past the old gameshow set, when none other than Mephiles arrived, behind them.

"Long time no see…" Mephiles then looked down at the purple Chaos Emerald. "Go, my child."

The emerald levitated and flew over in front of Sonic and Elise. It began to flash brightly.

"Ooooh…" Elise was fascinated.

"That emerald's carrying my interest!" Sonic stated with all the majesty of seeing a tornado carrying a car. A thought occurred to him. "Wait, isn't this the part where I get-"

"Oh yes!"

Mephiles shot an energy beam, piercing Sonic's heart.

Elise gasped. "Casanova, no!"

"Ow!"

Rings scattered everywhere. Sonic picked one up off the ground. "Phew. That could've been bad."

Mephiles stood there in shock. Quickly regaining his composure, he shot Sonic again.

"Now, what were we talking abou- Ow!"

Sonic dropped the last ring, but quickly picked it up again. Mephiles growled and attacked Sonic once more.

"Ow!" Sonic dropped the ring, but picked it up yet again.

"Why won't you die?" demanded Mephiles. Sonic gave him a smirk.

"Rings, son. They scatter in response to physical trauma. You can't hurt me… uh… whoever you are."

Mephiles' eyes glowed, and he telekinetically ripped the ring from Sonic's grasp. He then blasted at Sonic one last time.

"Ow! Or… maybe… you can…" Sonic fell over. His life began to flash before his eyes.

"SEEEGA." "Get a load of this." "STRAAANGE, ISN'T IT?" "Teriaaaa." "C'mon ya big drip… where ya goin'?" "I'm the coolest." "That's NO good." "We'll show that creep the real super power of teamwork!" "IT'S NO USE! Taaake this!" "We're Sonic Heroes!" "Enjoy your future, it's gonna be great!"

Sonic had been killed.

Elise looked at Mephiles with exasperation. "Uh, rude!"

Mephiles could only laugh. "Hehehehahah. Uhahahahaha! Ehahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Elise sniffled. "You know," she began, furiously, "I've put up with a lot of crap! A lot! But that's it! I'm done! I'm just done! …WAAAAAAAH-"

A fireball forcibly clawed its way out of Elise's mind and formed in the air above her. It had Mephiles' full attention.

"Finally! After ten years of waiting, and… honestly just kind of mucking around until I had any ideas- I can finally rejoin with you! IBLIS!"

The purple Chaos Emerald returned to Mephiles.

"Now, we can become as one and reclaim our original identity!"

Shadow, Omega, and Rouge were still in the basement of the Billiards Temple after their battle with Mephiles. All of the Mephiles clones have been reduced to one collective ink puddle on the ground.

"Well… That went well." Shadow summarized. He promptly put his Inhibitor Rings back on, while Rouge made an observation.

"Oh hey, he left behind the Chaos Emeralds. Or at least two of them."

The emeralds started flashing violently and then disappeared.

"Or not."

In the skies above Soleanna, Mephiles summoned the rest of the Chaos Emeralds, and began to harness their energy to merge with the purified Iblis.

"Wait… Why didn't I just summon all of them to me before I freed Iblis?" Mephiles asked no one in particular. He shrugged. "Oh well." Then he went back to merging. "The power… The power is returning to me!"

Mephiles began to glow, and was consumed by the fires.

"Oh yes!"

In the town below, all of the citizens were cheering, with the exception of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy.

"Do these people think this is a lightshow or something?" asked Amy. Knuckles looked over.

"Amy? How long have you been here?" the echidna inquired. He then looked over to Tails. "Wait… how did we get here from the lab again?"

Tails shrugged, just in time for a blinding flash to overtake the town.

NOW LOADING… THE APOCALYPSE

The next thing Tails, Knuckles and Amy knew, they were in a strange, purple void. Bits and pieces of Soleanna were scattered around the ground and air, serving as the only landmarks.

The only contrast to this darkness was a white, glowing orb of energy- a false sun- high above the wreckage.

"Uh…" Knuckles decided to break the ice. "Did we die?"

Silver the Hedgehog walked up to the group. "Where am I?" He gasped. "Amy!"

"Silver?"

"We didn't die…" a familiar, deep voice spoke. Everyone turned to see that it came from Shadow, with Team Dark standing behind him. "In fact, I think we might be the only ones who didn't."

Eggman walked up to the group, waving with a cheery smile on his face. "I'm here too! Hey gang!"

Everyone else mumbled noncommittally. Eggman appeared not to notice.

Omega was the first to notice the giant sun overhead. "The power-readings on that star are enormous. They go further than any being I have encountered. Yet its signature closely resembles that of Mephiles. That ink stain just won't die."

The doctor sighed. "You know, he kind of reminds me of you. How both of you just kinda betrayed me. Now that I think about it, Shadow and Rouge betrayed me too and- Hey is Sonic asleep? Sheesh, leave it to Sonic to sleep through the apocalypse!"

Eggman pointed and everyone finally noticed Elise cradling Sonic's body. She was still crying. Everyone walked over to see, though Shadow, Omega, and Eggman hung back. From where he stood, Shadow spoke to the princess. "Is… he asleep?"

Elise shook her head. A violin version of His World started playing.

"Sonic no!" Amy shrieked. She tried to come closer to Sonic, but Tails pushed her out of the way and did it himself.

"SONIC! WHYYYYY-"

"Yo home skillet! Home skillet! Wake up, man, this ain't cool!"

"Phew." Silver wiped his brow. "Glad I didn't do it." He then noticed awkward stares from Tails and Knuckles. "Err… I'm sorry for your loss."

Rouge shook her head and sighed. "Wow… I… I never thought he'd go like this."

"Oh so that one was Sonic. Can we kill Mephiles now?"

Shadow crossed his arms. "Sonic… I can't believe- Okay where is that music coming from?!"

Shadow looked over and saw that it was Eggman playing the violin. "What? I'm setting the mood! Show a little respect, Shadow, our rival is dead before his time!"

Shadow tilted his head. "You actually care?"

"Of course I do! Fighting Sonic was all I had in my life! Now what is there? Besides, I didn't even get to do the honors!"

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He closed his eyes and clenched his fist. "I have a feeling I know who we can thank for this. I shouldn't have let Mephiles get away…"

Eggman resumed playing the violin, but started talking. "It would appear Mephiles pulled the wool over our eyes and made the princess cry in despair, unleashing the Flames of Disaster. How classless of him."

Shadow's eyes opened wide and he turned back to Eggman. "Okay, no. Just no. You don't get to criticize Mephiles' plan. That was exactly what you were trying to do! And stop playing the violin!"

"You have your hobbies, I have mine! As for the crying, I… admittedly I was just kind of improvising my plan."

With the other mourners, Silver shot his head up. "Oh! That'd explain why Mephiles kept trying to get me to kill Sonic! Wow, imagine if I'd listened to him…"

Eggman, sans violin, walked over to everyone else and gestured toward the sun. "Soon, Solaris will devour all of time, leaving nothing. I always thought that if Solaris got the better of me, he'd just destroy Soleanna. But it appears he went after the flow of time itself."

Shadow looked around nervously. "Yeah… wonder… wonder where he got that idea…"

"Can we kill Solaris now?" Omega asked, unconcerned with the apocalypse and loss of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Eggman shrugged. "What for? Sonic's dead, and so is everything else. Time and space have ended. Everything left is like the bits of peanut butter on the side of the jar."

"Because I just don't like him."

"Bleed… make him bleed…" Tails chanted. Knuckles and Amy both gave the fox uncomfortable looks, which the fox did not notice. Tails licked his lips. Knuckles took a step back.

"You can't," Eggman said. "Solaris exists in the past, present, and future at the same time. What else would you expect from a time god?"

Silver tilted his head. "I thought you said there was no time."

Eggman shrugged. "I'unno, I just assume he'll be difficult."

Shadow dropped his head. "It might've been possible to fight him during all three points." The black hedgehog looked over to his fallen rival. "But Sonic's not with us anymore."

"I have an idea." Knuckles puffed out his chest. "I'll take Sonic's place."

"No," everyone else responded at once.

"SONIC'S STILL DEAD!" Amy began crying all over again. Everyone else just looked at each other in confusion, wondering if Amy had somehow forgotten.

"Wait!" Elise spoke for the first time, gathering everyone but Amy's attention. "I have a better idea!"

"You have my full attention!" Amy shot up from crying over Sonic.

Tails ran over and pushed Amy aside again. "You have mine even more! And my attention's better!"

"Let's use the Chaos Emeralds!" Elise proposed. Silver shook his head.

"No, there's no way. It could never work! Unless…" Silver's eyes lit up. "We could use the Chaos Emeralds!" Silver suggested, smiling. Elise wondered if Silver was just trying to take credit, but the earnest smile on his face suggested otherwise. "And then I'll finally get to see that dragon!"

Eggman immediately started messing around with one of his sunglass lenses. "Ooh, I'm getting excited! Let's see… Aha! The Chaos Emeralds have been scattered to random corners of… whatever's left of this world. It seems Solaris couldn't destroy them."

Tails put a hand to his chin. "We'd have to split up…"

"Booya! Let's bounce!" Knuckles cheered.

Tails and Knuckles ran off, followed by Amy. "I'll save you, Casanova Hedgehog!"

Silver began to glide in a different direction. "Whee!"

Shadow motioned for his teammates to follow him. "C'mon, we'll split up just a little further."

Eggman watched as everyone left. "Uh, okay… I'll just be here…" he looked over to Elise, still clutching Sonic's corpse. "…feeling incredibly awkward." Elise started sniffing the corpse. "Oh dear mercy."

"Have no fear, your new deputy mayor is here!" Tails announced.

The small fox was flying over the ruins of the already ruined Crisis City. Blue versions of all the Iblis monsters were lurking about, throwing things at the fox.

"…Sure is a good thing I can fly."

An oversized, hideous blue eyeball appeared before Tails.

"AAAH!" Tails stopped short, and immediately fell. He started flying again, to keep himself out of the abyss. "What is this?"

The eye looked at Tails and began to vacuum-pull him.

"Noooo!" He threw a ring bomb at it, which did no good. Tails whimpered and fought against the pull. He made it out, but ran out of strength and fell.

"Aaaaa- OOF!" Tails landed. He noticed he was sitting atop a ruined billboard on the side of the slanted skyscraper. On the billboard was a man in a red helmet, and next to him were the words 'SHOW YOUR MOVES'.

"Wait, that guy's still around in the future?" Then something else caught Tails' attention. "Oh hey."

The yellow Chaos Emerald was visible in a trashcan in the corner of the office on the other side of the window. "Score!"

Omega stomped around the twisted remains of Flame Core. "Showoff hedgehog. Why should he get the glory of killing Solaris? I have needs. Also I am not dead."

He was shooting at all the abominations he passed.

"At least I get to kill these monsters." Three Eyes of Solaris appeared in a triangular pattern around Omega, each wanting to absorb him. Only, Omega was standing at the perfect distance from the three of them, being completely out of their range. "Well. This is just sad."

Omega continued to stand there, while the Eyes of Solaris could do nothing. He robotically shrugged. "Preparing scan… Chaos Emerald found. It is at the base of the waterfall of magma. A 'magmafall', as the natives call it."

Omega activated his jetpack and flew to the 'magmafall'. He proceeded to grab the green Chaos Emerald. "Familiarity. This is the same Chaos Emerald I'd carried for two centuries."

Omega began his trek back to the nexus, but stopped.

"I wonder if I could spare some time to kill a few more monsters." An Eye of Solaris appeared behind Omega, and began inhaling. Omega quickly escaped with his jetpack and began to fly for the nexus. "On second thought, I have had my fill."

Knuckles glided over the monsters in what was left of the Tropical Jungle.

"No more future means no chance of 90's culture making a comeback! And I can't leave Sonic dead if I can help it!"

Knuckles kept gliding, bypassing all of the hideous beasts.

"Yo, these things are creeping me out… though none of them as badly as that giant turtle."

The giant turtle was also spared in the apocalypse, simply by being in the right place. He turned over to Knuckles and glared. "Oh? Well forget you too, pal."

Knuckles stopped for a second. "Wait, you can talk?"

"Yeah? So can you."

Knuckles folded his arms. "A'ight, a'ight, I can dig that. Where's the dang third Chaos Emerald, by the way?" He unfolded his arms. "I just assume I'll be the third one to find it. Three's my lucky number."

"Like I care." The turtle then spit the cyan Chaos Emerald out and onto a small islet. "I thought it was candy. You can have it."

Knuckles grimaced. "Uhh… thanks…" The echidna shuddered and glided over to retrieve the gem. "Sonic, you'd better appreciate this!"

Silver had made his way to the warped Dusty Desert. He glided from platform to platform, throwing crates, spiked balls, and even monsters at the Eyes of Solaris, none of them seemed to work.

"IT'S NO… good. It's no good, nothing works on them."

An Eye of Solaris opened behind Silver, and began to absorb the entire platform he was on. Silver cringed and glided to a safer spot.

"Oooh… What would Blaze do?" He sighed. "Blaze isn't here, it's up to me now." Silver scanned the area. "If I were a Chaos Emerald, where would I be? Oh I know, a bonus stage! No wait, they discontinued those…"

Another Eye of Solaris opened next to Silver, forcing him to retreat to a third platform.

"This is hard! Where could it be?"

"GREETINGS." Silver looked over and noticed a robot waving at him. Silver waved back.

"Uh… hi."

"EVERYBODY-LEFT-ME-HERE."

"Oh… I'm sorry. Say, you haven't seen a Chaos Emerald, have you?"

"THIS?" the robot held out the white Chaos Emerald. Silver's mind powers pulled the emerald out of the robot's grasp, just in time for an Eye of Solaris to open behind the robot, sucking it in.

"TELL-EGGMAN-I'VE-ALWAYS-HATED-HIM!"

Silver did not hear the robot and looked at the Chaos Emerald. "Sonic, here I come!"

Rouge lazily flew about the ravaged island in the middle of Wave Ocean.

"Hmm. I wonder if that's natural lightning." The bat observed the lightning in the distance. What got her attention next were the Eyes of Solaris popping up all over the island, staring intently at the bat. "Ew. I know those aren't natural… Oh hey."

She descended to the beach and picked up the purple Chaos Emerald. "That was easy."

She then looked over and saw that Tails' sandcastle was still there. The bat looked around and whistled innocently before walking over to the sandcastle and kicking it to nothing.

"Welp, time to go!" Rouge flew off.

Solaris was getting desperate. One by one, the mortals were finding the Chaos Emeralds. The sixth was about to be retrieved from the demolished White Acropolis. In response, he placed more eyes, and an infestation of Solaris Worms.

"Lalalala!" Amy was being ignored by every obstacle, for she was wearing a red plumber hat. However, the hat was transparent and intangible, allowing Amy the same properties.

Lightning bolts kept striking the ground behind the pink hedgehog, but she ignored it, pleased with herself. A Solaris Worm unearthed itself and roared at Amy.

"RAAAAAAAAAA-"

SMACK

Amy knocked it into a nearby Eye of Solaris, using her hammer. She proceeded to waltz right into a fortress hallway, past the unobservant Solaris Worms, and snatched the blue Chaos Emerald.

"Heehee!"

In spite of everyone moving at once, Shadow was still the last one to reach his designated Chaos Emerald. He had come to the ransacked Kingdom Valley, and Solaris was throwing everything at him. More eyes, more monsters, more lightning.

"This isn't good… I'm running out of time… Though technically I guess there is no time, but I mean-"

A familiar eagle swooped down and grabbed Shadow in its talons.

"Uncle Sam, you never fail me," Shadow said, reverently.

"Braaaawk! America recognizes your efforts, Shadow the Hedgehog!" the eagle stated.

"LET'S. GET. MOOOOVING!" Shadow directed, and the eagle flew him past everything. It bypassed the lightning and anything the Solaris monsters could throw at it. With the red Chaos Emerald in sight, Solaris opened an eye right behind the eagle.

"Eeech!"

"Eagle!"

The eagle kicked Shadow away, toward the Chaos Emerald, leaving himself to be absorbed by the Eye of Solaris.

Shadow grabbed the Chaos Emerald and looked forlornly at the Eye of Solaris. It had consumed the eagle, and stared blankly at the remaining lifeform.

"Eagle… I'll alert the president of your sacrifice when this is over."

Shadow did a backflip, followed by breakdancing.

B

"I'll presume that's an aggregate score for all of us."

Eggman watched, frowning, as Elise was rubbing Sonic's forehead longingly.

"I'm back!" Tails said.

"Oh thank goodness!" Eggman immediately responded. "I don't know how much more I could take."

In short order, most of the others arrived as well.

"Hey guys." Rouge turned to Tails. "Hey Tails, someone destroyed your sandcastle. It wasn't me," the bat lied.

Everyone placed the Chaos Emeralds around Sonic's corpse. Sonic and the jewels began to levitate, as Elise approached them.

"Chaos Emeralds, please let Sonic come back to life so he can unscrew this situation."

She started walking closer to Sonic. Silver's eyes dilated. (Wait… she's not going to… OH MY GOSH, SHE IS!)

Silver began to violently shudder, as Elise leaned down and-

[REDACTED]

FBI WARNING

'Nope nope nope nope, the Land of Ten-Thousand Nopes.'

[This fanfiction has been suspended indefinitely.]

[Sicko.]

(I NEED AN ADULT!) Silver cringed and looked away.

Amy's jaw almost hit the floor.

Shadow winced. (Sonic… I'm so sorry.)

Rouge squinted one eye in confusion.

Omega did not care. "Can we kill Solaris now?"

Eggman had to fight to avoid throwing up.

Knuckles turned to Tails. "Uh, bro, should we… stop her or something?" Tails was watching, with a hint of a smile. "Tails?"

Tails became flustered. "Uh-wh-what's the hurry?! Why are you in such a rush?! Solaris isn't going anywhere!"

To the relief of everyone but Tails, Elise finally backed off. Sonic's eyes shot wide open. Only now, his fur had a brilliant, golden hue, and his eyes were a burning crimson.

Name: Super Sonic
Rating: Super Awesome

Super Sonic shook his head to refocus himself. "Whoa… I had a weird dream. I died, and… oh wait that happened." He looked over to his friends. "Thanks for the save back there, guys! Really!"

Instead of being relieved, everyone just looked kind of awkward. Sonic tilted his head.

"Did… did something happen while I was dead?"

"NO!" everyone answered at once.

"Just… look," Shadow started, "Mephiles merged with Iblis after you died. I also think he's the culprit, but that's not relevant now. He and Iblis became Solaris. Then he ended the world, but all of us and your corpse were the only ones left. So we grabbed the Chaos Emeralds and brought you back. We brought you back by wishing for it really hard. And nothing else." Shadow spoke the last bit through his teeth.

"I helped!" Eggman said. Tails glared a dagger at him.

"I helped more!"

"Can we kill Solaris now?"

Sonic nodded. "Good idea. Shadow, you've been my costar, so you should probably help."

Shadow nodded. "If it means getting this farce over with."

"Aaand…" Sonic scanned the crowd. "We'll need a third…" He noticed Tails clamoring for attention, but otherwise there was no movement. He sighed. "Silver."

(Homewrecker!) Tails thought.

"Yes!" Silver stepped forth. Sonic held out his hands and granted energy to the other hedgehogs.

Name: Super Shadow
Rating: Super Edgy

"It's been a while…" Shadow commented.

Name: Super Silver
Rating: Almost Awesome

"Cooool!"

"C'mon guys, no time like the present! …Or what's left of it!" Super Sonic took off, flying straight into the sun. Super Shadow and Super Silver followed suit.

"Do a good job, Sonic! And the other two!" Elise cheered.

"Do better than the other two, Sonic!" Tails countered.

Knuckles beat a fist against his heart. "You got dis, Sonic!"

Amy waved. "Bye Sonic, bye Silver!"

"Don't mess up, Shadow!" Rouge teased.

"Hit him once for me." Omega looked up.

Eggman held out a megaphone. "SHADOW, YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE I CAN KIND OF STAND. SO GOOD LUCK."

The sun faded, revealing Solaris resting in midair, high above everybody else.

He was a weird birdlike statue, with glowing eyes. His main body and arms were like stone. There was a faint implication of a red core in the middle of his main body, and he had strange stone wings extending from his back.

Solaris let out a contained howl.

Boss: Solaris
Danger Quotient: 999%

The super hedgehogs were flying around Solaris like flies.

Eggman's voice blared over a megaphone, reaching the hedgehogs. "HEY GUYS, SOLARIS EATS DIMENSIONS FOR LUNCH. HE ATE FLIPSIDE AND FLOPSIDE LIKE A DOUBLE-DECKER SANDWICH!"

Super Sonic looked down. "And?"

"JUST LETTING YOU KNOW… OH AND YOU SHOULD PROBABLY FIND WHATEVER'S TETHERING HIM TO YOUR POSITION, THAT'S HIS WEAKNESS."

Super Sonic nodded. "Never thought I'd say this, but thanks, Eggman."

"WANT ME TO PLAY VIOLIN FOR MORAL SUPPORT?"

"That won't be necessary."

Super Shadow whizzed past, snapping his fingers like a madman. He flew all around Solaris, and with each snap, small darts of energy homed in on Solaris.

Solaris belted out a ghostly wail as it held up its arms to shield itself from the darts.

"Wow," Shadow spoke up. "You might actually be more of a pushover than Mephiles. Guess you're better at temporal destruction than straight-forward combat."

Solaris' eyes flashed, and hardened Eyes of Solaris appeared. They all turned to stare at Shadow, and began flying toward him.

Super Shadow shrugged. "Whatever. I'll just have to-"

"I GOT IT!" Super Silver announced. He grabbed the eyes with his mind, stopping them short of Shadow. "Did I do good?"

"You mean 'did I do well'. And yes." Shadow crossed his arms. "You know what to do now."

"Right!" Super Silver floated in place for a few seconds. "…Uhh-"

"The same lousy technique you're always using! Geez!" Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah. I knew that…"

Super Sonic hung back, snickering. Shadow eyed him. "You know, Sonic, you can help out. Kind of the reason we brought you back."

"Oh and here I thought you guys just liked me or something," Sonic japed.

Shadow smirked. "Now what would give you that idea?"

"I WILL END THIS NOW!" Super Silver called, focused on Solaris. One by one, he slammed each of the eyes into the god's stony arms, shattering them.

Solaris wailed again, flailing his arms. Without their armor, it could be seen that his arms were rather spindly and bioluminescent.

"That's your cue." Shadow remarked.

"Good luck, Sonic!"

Sonic mimed rolling up his sleeves. "Time to show this creep the real super power of-"

"Today, Sonic," said Shadow.

Sonic shrugged and charged up a golden spindash. He zoomed right through Solaris' core, shattering it.

Solaris screamed and began twitching and writhing, even bending his joints in unconventional ways. Sonic floated back to the scene of the fight.

"Uh, that means we won, right?"

Solaris exploded, and pieces flew everywhere. But before anyone could react, the pieces flew back to their original position, reforming Solaris. The god let out another unearthly roar.

Solaris' wings were different, more traditional. They were similar to the Soleanna emblem. Worst of all, his core was fully regenerated.

Boss: Solaris (Reborn)
Danger Quotient: [INFINITE]

"Here it comes!" Shadow warned.

Solaris immediately started throwing dozens of lasers at the hedgehog trio. They all flew out of the way, and began to dart about the airspace, dodging more lasers, followed by more hardened Eyes of Solaris.

Down below, everyone was getting anxious.

"Nooo! Blast it all! Is Solaris truly unstoppable?!" Eggman stomped his foot and threw down the megaphone. Elise shook her head.

"No… Solaris has a consciousness! That's his core!"

Rouge gave Elise a look. "Uh… like the thing that just got regenerated after Sonic smashed it?"

Amy tilted her head, trying to get a better view of the fight. "So… what if we just make him unconscious?"

Eggman put a hand to his chin. "Hmm."

Knuckles looked back and forth between Amy and Eggman. "Wait, really? It can be that easy? Tails homeboy, what do you think?"

Tails was watching the fight with glee. "KILL HIM, SONIC! KILL HIM UNTIL HE'S DEAD!"

Knuckles grimaced. "I liked it better when you were the straight man to my antics."

The doctor nodded. "Yes, they can probably knock Solaris unconscious, and he'll lose control from there. That could give them an opening! I knew spending recess reading about ancient gods instead of making friends would pay off!"

Omega revealed a machinegun arm. "And you are sure we can't just shoot Solaris to death?"

Super Silver crashed into the ground in front of everyone. "Ow… I'm okay." He got back up. Just as he was going to take off, Amy grabbed his shoulder.

"Wait! Silver, we have an idea for you guys! Knock him unconscious by attacking his core!"

Super Silver turned to Amy. "So… we do what we've been doing?"

"Pretty much!"

"Cool!" Super Silver gave Amy a thumbs up and flew back to the others. Solaris was taking a break in between onslaughts.

"Nice of you to join us!" Super Sonic said with a smirk. "Bring any souvenirs?"

Silver gave Sonic a big grin. "Only the secret on how we can beat Solaris!"

"Eh, it's not a chilidog, but I'll take it."

Silver could not tell if Sonic was joking. "We knock it out by hitting the core over and over!"

Super Shadow glared. "That's… exactly what we've been doing."

"Yeah but… I dunno, they just told me to tell you guys!"

Super Shadow sighed. "Whatever. Nothing to lose at this point."

The ultimate lifeform flew closer to Solaris. The primordial beast prepared to fire a laser, but Shadow teleported in time to avoid it. He reappeared.

"Chaos Lance!" Super Shadow threw a larger version of the Chaos Spear into Solaris's core. The god-beast cried out in agony. Solaris then grabbed the spear with both hands, trying to pull it out. Shadow frowned. "No good. It's not deep enough."

Eggman's voice returned with the megaphone. "DON'T LET HIM REMOVE IT!"

"Leave it to me!" Super Silver declared.

Silver focused his energy and created twin golden psychic knives. Silver spun around and threw them both at Solaris' arms, severing them from the main body.

Solaris thrashed his head around in pain, and Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Now it's my turn!"

He began to charge up spindash like before.

"Heheh! All right, Solaris! The present? That here-and-now you took? I'm gonna take it back! You might think this world is yours, but I have news for ya! This is my world!"

"Quit talking, you'll waste energy!" Shadow demanded.

Sonic continued charging. As he prepared, his friends and allies encouraged him.

"Go, go, Sonic! You're my hero!"

"Show that fool, homeboy!"

"I love you Sonic!"

"Watch yourself, Big Blue!"

"No seriously, hit him once for me."

"Sonic, I don't like you and you don't like me, but I need you to make this count!"

"Do it, Sonic! I know you can!"

Sonic. Thanks for looking after Silver. Now go! Show Solaris why he's messed with the wrong timeline!

Super Sonic finished charging and bolted straight for the Chaos Lance lodged in Solaris' core. A bright beam of gold rammed the lance, pushing both it and Super Sonic through the other side.

NOW LOADING…

Solaris thrashed around some more and fell limp.

NOW LOADING…

Super Sonic sighed, shaking his head. "Stupid loading screens."

The three hedgehogs lowered themselves back to the platform and reverted back to their normal forms. All of their friends gathered around to cheer for them, while Eggman crossed his arms and nodded with approval.

Hsssssss

Everyone looked to where Solaris used to be. A white light began to emanate from his position, and it shortly overtook all of them.

…

Elise and Sonic were floating out in the middle of nowhere. Sonic spoke first.

"I'm… pretty sure we won. But in that case… What's going on?"

"Look!" Elise pointed, and Sonic turned. There was a brilliant, white flame. "The true Solaris."

The duke and his young daughter were in a dark hall, lit only by the small flame that was Solaris, kept in an ornate lantern.

"Look at that, Elise. That's Solaris. One day when he gets bigger, we'll be able to use him to control time!"

"And then we can see Mama again!"

"I was going to go back and warn my younger self to go on that diet, but resurrecting your mother works too. Come now, Elise. Let's go home."

"Daddy, can I have security guards for my birthday tomorrow?"

"What for?"

Once the duke and his daughter left, Sonic and the contemporary Elise stepped out and approached Solaris.

"So…" Sonic scanned the flame. "This is Solaris' true form."

Solaris spoke to Sonic, in a helium whisper. "Oh yes!"

Elise opened Solaris' lantern and carefully picked up the little tray upon which the flame rested. "If we put out the flame, Solaris will never grow. They'll never experiment on him, Iblis and that crystal hedgehog will never be created, and my father might even have a chance to live."

Sonic nodded. "Sounds good. I'll let you have the honors."

"B-but Sonic. This means… we wouldn't have ever met!"

Sonic looked around awkwardly. "Uh, oh really? Golly, darn shame. Well, at least we enjoyed our time together- pleaseputouttheflamenow."

Elise began to tear up. "Sonic… just know that I'll miss you. You've helped me. So much."

Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "Uh… yeah. No prob, bob."

Elise stared blankly. "…It's 'Elise'."

Sonic gave Elise a thumbs up and she nodded, sporting a tearful smile.

Solaris was extinguished.

The year was 2006. It was a magical time. The seventh generation of video game consoles was setting in, Sonic the Hedgehog finished researching the Arabian Nights, Shadow had come to grips with his backstory, and it was the fifteenth anniversary of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Nothing could go wrong.

Not even during the Sun Festival of Soleanna, a town which rested in a distant and absurdly realistic corner of the world. Things were innocent. No danger had presented itself. Not even any camp and unintentionally entertaining shenanigans. At least until Eggman launched his scheme to harness the power of Dark Gaia and rule the planet- but that's another story.

Elise stood upon a fancy boat in the middle of a canal, before some robed sages on a platform.

"Yo princess, snap out of it!" a lady-in-waiting called.

"Sorry, I just imagined a blue hedgehog running past us, along the street."

"Oh… good for you? You should take the torch now."

High above the festivities, Sonic the Hedgehog watched the whole thing with a grin. It became a frown.

"…Yep, still remember." Sonic held out his wrist, to speak into a communicator. "How about you, Tails?"

"Yep."

"Yeah, we should leave." Sonic said, turning his gaze to the moon.

Epilogue – Sonic 2006 Animal House Ending

[Credits music: Shout, by the Isley Brothers]

Elise – Elise was kidnapped the next morning after the festival. Her father, having survived in the new timeline, put out a bounty for her safe return. She has yet to be returned.

Espio – Espio became a street performer, living from day to day, breakdancing and doing rap battles for the public. He was later arrested when he was found smuggling red rings out of Chun-Nan.

Sonic Man – Sonic Man went on an expedition to find Christmas Island to learn the secrets of Sonic's speed. The trip ended early when he realized that he had no idea where Christmas Island was. He cried himself to sleep that night.

Zazz – Zazz became a door-to-door Tupperware salesman, along with the rest of the Deadly Six. No one buys anything because Zomom eats the products, but Zavok's death glares ensure sales regardless.

Pietro – Captain Pietro never became a Soleanna guard and instead took to performing saxophone at the local club. One night he fell asleep in the back, neglecting to blow out his birthday cake candles. The club burned down during his nap, and Pietro woke up in prison.

Eggman – Eggman put together a weekly tabletop group in an effort to make friends. Only Mighty the Armadillo, Jet the Hawk, and Big the Cat showed up. Their sessions usually derail into rules lawyering and arguing over whose turn it is to pay for takeout.

Omega – Omega became ordained and now had the power to wed. He held a conference amongst GUN and had several agents married against their will. It was later revealed that his license was not genuine, and Omega was excommunicated from the church.

Rouge – Rouge got lost in the middle of a heist trip when she saw something shiny. She was later found on a deserted island, proclaimed as the queen of the island. Before GUN could rescue her, they had to present her with several gems to remind Rouge of her true self.

Shadow – Shadow realized his true calling and became a Drivers' Ed instructor. Several of his students failed their tests and went home crying, and it was suggested that Shadow try being more patient. Shadow had his superiors fired and inherited their responsibilities and the coffeemaker.

Amy – Amy tried to free animals from the Soleanna Zoo, in a fit of confusion over the difference between her friends and the regular animals. They found her riding the giraffes, cackling like a madwoman. The animals pledged their lives to Amy.

Blaze – Blaze was approached with an offer to star in a cat food commercial. She accepted, but then things got awkward when she came to the set holding a fork and knife, with a napkin tied around her neck. They shot the commercial anyway.

Silver – Silver tried to make fast cash by entering himself into a dog show under the name 'Venice'. He was found out immediately, yet somehow still won the grand prize. Silver proceeded to spend the money on a new car.

Knuckles – Knuckles went on to drop the best album of 2006, 'Kibbles and Chaos Emeralds', inspired by the sadness he feels when he wakes up and remembers that he's not in the 90's. He was later approached to perform the song on SNL.

Tails – Tails was found in a closet with a mutilated Egg Pawn, wearing its head as a hat, mumbling about the apocalypse. When the story hit the news, the footage became viral and Tails became a minor web celebrity. Tails embraced his fame.

Sonic – Sonic unintentionally brought about a new fad in Mobius fashion by wearing a flea collar and accidentally leaving it on after it stopped working. Sonic appeared on the cover of magazines, with articles detailing his perspective on fashion. A special Sonic-themed version of flea collars began production, and Sonic is still receiving royalties to this day.

The End!