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~Toadtown Square – Mushroom Kingdom – Afternoon
Two friends from different dimensions sat near a café in the middle of Toadtown Square.
Both had stories to share, but the red-hatted plumber wanted to hear things from the hedgehog's side. Taking a deep breath, the blue blur stated that things had been crazy in his world, and he was currently sharing his tale.
“Mama Mia? What-a happened to the Chaos Emeralds?”
"I wasn't sure, but Tails said they were hidden in a series of landscapes called The Starfall Islands. They're split into five fractions – Kronos, Ares, Chaos, Rhea, and Ouranos. Amy, Tails, and I traveled to these islands to see if we can find the Chaos Emeralds when all of a sudden, we get sucked into this void and I end up in Cyber Space."
“Cyber Space?” Mario raised an eyebrow. “What the heck is-a Cyber Space?”
“According to Dr. Eggman’s new creation, Sage,” Sonic replied. “It’s a Digital Dimension that was made to house data created by The Ancients.”
“The… Ancients?” Mario repeated his last reaction, sipping his coffee.
“I’ll talk about them later, I gotta share something else with you,” the hedgehog smiled. “So… I rush out of the first Cyber Space level, and I wake up on Kronos Island. This mysterious voice in the sky tells me that if I want to see Amy and Tails again, I need to collect the Chaos Emeralds, defeat all of these Titan robots, and then break down the walls between dimensions. I wasn’t sure what that last part meant, but I was willing to do anything to save my friends. Eventually, I find out Amy and Tails weren’t the only ones trapped. Knuckles was there as well.”
“He-a lives on Angel Island, right?” the plumber inquired. “He’s-a the guardian of a giant crystal, I think… What was it called again? The… the um… the… Emerald Master?... No, that’s-a not right.”
Sonic chuckled as Mario tried to guess the name of a relic so easy to memorize.
“Need some help?”
“No, I-a got it… Uh…” the mustached man sat dumbfounded for a moment of silence. “Mi Dispiace, what was it called again?”
“You were close; it’s called the Master Emerald.”
"Oh… I was-a close as you said."
“Yeah, but you were just an inch too far.”
“Whatever,” Mario rolled his eyes as Sonic laughed. “Tell me what happened next? Were your friends captured and placed in cages?”
“Sort of,” Sonic shrugged, taking a bite of his chili dog. “They were stuck in-“
“Ay, ay, ay… please don’t-a talk with your mouth full.”
Rolling his eyes, Sonic swallowed his food and wiped his face with his arm.
“We have-a napkins for a reason.”
“Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?”
“Only if you’re-a gonna use your manners.”
Sonic sighed and used a napkin to clean the rest of his face. “Happy now?”
“Yes,” Mario smiled.
The hedgehog released another annoyed breath before he resumed his tale. “Tails, Amy, and Knuckles were trapped in Cyber Space; however, they were able to communicate with me and help me traverse through the different islands. They also helped me look for the Chaos Emeralds so I could take on the Titans.”
“I assume you-a couldn’t fight the Titans as your normal self?”
“Well, considering the first Titan threw me into a bunch of pillars like a chew toy… no.”
Mario chuckled after hearing that.
“But even with the help, getting the emeralds wasn’t easy,” Sonic said. “I kept having a few run-ins with Dr. Eggman’s new creation. She was a weird humanoid ghost girl who had this weird glitchy effect going on. She almost reminded me of Infinite… but she was stronger than he was.”
"Oh, yeah," Mario nodded. "I remember you telling me about that-a guy. Wasn't he-a weak?"
“Very.”
Infinite the Jackal, who was sitting a few tables across, glared at the hedgehog before he hung his head low.
"Nobody cares about me," he sniffed as he wiped a tear and took a bite of some jelly-covered toast.
“What was the ghost girl’s name?” Mario asked, sipping another drop of coffee.
"I didn't find out until I got to the last island," Sonic said. "But her name was Sage. She was… pretty… weird. She kept saying something about how she ran simulations and calculated that the Titans would kill me. Thankfully, I proved her wrong by turning into Super Sonic and I ripped the Titans a new one.”
“Mama Mia!” Mario exclaimed with widened eyes. “Did you fight Sage at all?”
“Nope, she was never around when I fought the Titans,” Sonic shook his head. “In fact, I never fought her at all. This is where my journey gets… crazy.”
"Sonic, I've had to team up with screaming rabbits to stop anomalies in the multiverse," Mario smirked. "In other words, I've-a hard my share of crazy. Lay it on me."
“If you insist,” the hedgehog shrugged. “So, after I defeat three titans – Giganto, Wyvern, and Knight – I end up on Rhea Island where that sky voice tells me to shut down these towers and then my friends will be free. As I shut them down, I wound up absorbing dark cyber energy and I saw the origins of the Chaos Emeralds themselves. Turns out they were created by The Ancients, who used the emeralds to flee from their planet which was destroyed by a dangerous force. As they ventured through space, the Chaos Emeralds started reacting to an energy source found on my planet. That source… was the Master Emerald.”
Mario took one more sip before he raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “Wait-a minute. Back up… what did you-a say?”
“Yeah, turns out the Chaos Emeralds from space.”
“And the Master Emerald which controls the Chaos Emeralds is-a from your planet?”
“Yup.”
Mario sat there bamboozled. “But… that doesn’t make-a sense. The Master Emerald was-a created to control the power of the seven main Chaos Emeralds, correct?”
“Yup.”
“So how did the Chaos Emeralds predate the Master Emerald? Or how did the Master Emerald come to be? Why was the emeralds’ energy drawn to-“
Sonic leaned forward and placed his finger against Mario’s lips. “That’s… not so important, right? Let’s just get back to the main story.”
Mario sat back and picked up his coffee cup. “Um… okay? What else did you see?”
“Well, as it turns out… that voice in the sky was the one that destroyed the Ancients’ home world.”
“I kind of guessed that,” Mario said.
"Yeah, and those Titans were powered by the Chaos Emeralds to stop the voice from coming back. The Ancients tried to fight it off, but they lost, and all of their spirits were transferred into these beings called the Koco. All of their memories and data went into Cyber Space. Data from my world is in there too. Every time I jumped in there, I saw Green Hill, Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, and the City. But… their layouts were reminiscent of places I've visited in the past."
“Why those four specific places?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe Cyber Space was on a budget.”
Mario snickered. “What happened after you shut down the towers?”
“Oh…” Sonic’s face dropped. He scratched the back of his quills and released a low, nervous breath. “That… yeah, I got cyber corrupted.”
Mario nearly spat out his drink. “WHAT!?”
“Yeah, I absorbed so much dark energy that I became stuck between worlds. My body in the real world was stuck in suspended animation but my mind was… it was… well, I have no idea what it was doing. Amy, Tails, and Knuckles were all free and they used their power to save me; they went back into Cyber Space while I teamed up with Eggman and Sage to fight one last Titan, get the Chaos Emeralds, and destroy the voice that killed the Ancients.”
“How can you destroy a voice?”
“That’s the thing… Sage and I went into space to fight it and we saw its physical form.”
“Oh, was it a monster like Dark Gaia?”
“No.”
“An aquatic being like-a Chaos?”
“Nope.”
“Another wolf like Infinite?”
“I’M A JACKAL, YOU DONUT!" Infinite shouted from afar. His voice was muffled because the toast was shoved into his mouth.
“No, not that,” Sonic shook his head. “It was this purple planetoid that shot lasers and stuff.”
Mario sat still for a brief moment. “…what?”
“Yup, it was just a giant grape. That’s all.”
"So… after you fought a bunch of menacing-looking Titans, the final battle of your adventure was just a purple planet?"
“When you put it like that, it sounds ridiculous.”
“More like-a underwhelming,” Mario chuckled. “Ha-ha. I mean, I’ve had my share of anticlimactic encounters, but most of the time, Bowser or whoever I’m-a fighting has some trick up their sleeve. That just-a sounds… I don’t know.”
“Yeah, it was a little lame but the point is, we stopped it,” Sonic winked and cackled. “I returned home and saw all of my friends again.”
"What happened to Sage? Did she and Dr. Eggman get away?"
"I'm not sure what happened to Eggman… but Sage didn't make it back," Sonic frowned. "She sacrificed herself as she dealt the final flow against the planetoid. I think it was called… The End or something. I can't remember."
"I assume Eggman thought of her as a simple machine?"
“Honestly… I had trouble reading their relationship. I assumed Sage was just another lackey like Orbot and Cubot, but once she told Eggman she needed to come with me to stop The End, Eggman said that she should do what she thinks is best. He then referred to her as his daughter.”
“He… did?”
“Yeah. I thought I was losing my mind, but…” Sonic shrugged his shoulders once more. “It was true. Eggman looked at Sage like she was his daughter.”
"I never took Eggman to be a fatherly figure," Mario said. "Despite Bowser's ruthless nature, he is a good father to Junior. He's-a always watching his back and-a making sure he's-a okay. I guess that's another thing Bowser and Eggman share in common."
“True,” Sonic nodded. “Anyways, getting to The End of my adventure – pun entirely intended.”
Mario groaned and rolled his eyes.
“My friends and I left the Starfall Islands and set out on different paths. Knuckles went back to Angel Island, Amy’s traveling the world, and Tails is shaping himself to become a better hero. I’m going to miss them, but I know they’ll be okay.”
“Aww, that’s-a sweet,” Mario smiled. “I’m-a sure they’re gonna miss you, but they’ll-a be back before you know it.”
“Thanks, Mario,” Sonic winked. “I know they will. Amy’s actually been keeping me updated. She, Cream, and Sticks are in Spagonia visiting Professor Pickle. He’s probably teaching them how to make cucumber sandwiches.”
“Ha, that-a sounds…” Mario raised an eyebrow after hearing a certain name. “Wait… Cream and who?”
“Sticks. You know, Sticks the Badger? You’ve met her before.”
“Was she the one raiding all of the gift shops during our Rio Olympics?”
Sonic sighed. “You had to bring that up.”
"Wait… isn't she from a different universe? I-a swear she comes from a world where you and the others wear-a sports tape on your shoes?"
“Well, I guess she’s part of my main universe now.”
"Oh... I-a guess that makes sense. I wonder why she's-a hanging out with Cream though. Doesn't she have a robot babysitter or-a something?"
"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked.
"If I-a remember correctly, Cream is-a friends with a robot named-a Gemerl, right? He was-a Eggman's robot before Tails rebuilt him and made him good again."
"Mario, what are you talking about?" Sonic asked. "That's not canon."
"What?"
"I mean-uh... my, look at this place, Mario," Sonic nervously smiled, admiring the scenery. "This cafe is gorgeous and this chili dog makes me feel like I've been shot out of a flavor canon."
Mario blankly stared. "What did you just say about ca-"
“Oh! There’s also something I gotta share with you!” Sonic interrupted him with the snap of his fingers. A bit of sweat dropped from the side. "During my time on Kronos Island, I saw these cool-looking ruins that reminded me of your world a little. They were these floating platforms with purple coins scattered about."
"Ho-ho, I-a love collecting those purple coins," Mario smiled. "Cappy and I had a fun time finding them during our Odyssey adventure, wahoo!"
“I bet you did,” Sonic nodded. “When I saw those ruins, I thought of you but I also thought about my friend, Tangle. I bet she would’ve loved climbing around those ruins.”
“Yeah, I’m-a sure she…” Mario stopped with a shocked expression. “…what? Who? What? Where?”
“WAAAAAAAAH!”
“Shut up, Waluigi!”
“NO!”
Mario rolled his eyes and turned to Sonic. “Who… w-who is Tangle?”
“Tangle the Lemur?” Sonic asked. “She’s a friend of mine.”
“Did you meet her recently?”
“No. I’ve always known her.”
Mario’s jaw almost touched the ground, and he scratched his head. “Then… why is this the first time I’m-a hearing about her? Did she fight against Infinite with you?”
“No?”
“Was she a racer in Dodon Pa’s tournament?”
“No?”
“Did she attend your birthday party?”
“No?”
“Then how do you-a know her?”
Oh no… he’s asking too many questions about my canon!
“Uh…” Sonic’s forehead began to sweat as he looked left and right. “Um…”
He then leaped on top of the table and pointed upward. “Look, Mario! The Smash Ball!”
“Where!?” Mario turned around excitingly.
Sonic then jumped out of his chair and began performing several Cyloops. Blue streaks of light appeared on the ground and several items appeared – golden rings, memory tokens, skill points, and red/blue speeds of power/defense. Mario turned around and watched as Sonic made a fool out of himself and that was when a dark blue/greenish-colored gear appeared out of nowhere.
“Ah-ha!” Sonic grabbed the gear and ran towards a portal, where he shoved the gear into its place and watched as the portal shined red. He looked at Mario, who was shocked by this behavior, and he waved goodbye. “See ya!”
Sonic then disappeared into Cyber Space.
Mario sat in his seat perplexed by what just happened.
Soon, he felt a tap on his shoulder.
The plumber turned around and saw a fishing rod being handed to him by a giant purple cat named Big.
“Would you like to try? I’ll let you borrow a rod.”
Mario slowly tilted his head toward the hub of the café, acting as if he was staring at an audience. With a neutral expression on his face, he muttered these final words. "Sonic the Hedgehog… your world is-a weird.”
“You’re telling me,” Tangle the Lemur said sitting across from Sticks the Badger. “I always thought I’d be living in the comic books.”
“And my world went boom,” Sticks nodded.
Luigi then came out of nowhere and sat beside his brother. "You know, Mario. Maybe we should add more characters from our past adventures into our current adventures. We can have an expanded universe and add more depth to our world."
"Hmm..." Mario stroked his chin. "That wouldn't be such a bad idea."
Sonic popped his head out of a portal and said, "Yeah, please don't do that. My world's weird enough as it is."
END OF STORY