Chapter Text
Nine’s Alpha bird took off, flying away through one of the tears pulsing ominously in the sky. The bird knew it was beat, and Sonic didn’t see a real reason to stop it from leaving. Regardless, Nine’s head popped up again, the hologram shifting in and out of focus. All thoughts of the bird left as Sonic watched Nine growl at something.
“No. Not yet!”
Sonic’s brow furrowed as the fox’s head cut out.
“Not again!”
Sonic heard the growing frustration in his friend-, No. he’s not your friend. Sonic reprimanded himself. He sighed heavily, but quickly shoved the thought to the back of his mind, in a safe, to which he threw the code away. Sonic didn’t have time for that thought, he had to be strong, he was strong.
“Come back, coward! We are not Done!” Mr. Dr. Eggman screamed.
Sonic guessed he didn’t notice Nine’s reluctance to leave. “It looked to me like he didn’t want to go.” Sonic turned thoughtfully to the sky, searching the tears for any more threats in thought. “I think his powers are on the fritz.”
“How? If he’s managed to complete the prism, he should have nearly unlimited power.” Dr. Deep finished, looking slightly more envious than confused.
“He still needs something.” Sonic looked away again. The information he was about to tell could end badly in the wrong hands, aka, theirs. Oh well. Sonic thought. He’ll probably have to tell everyone else anyway and if he was going to team up with the eggmen, they’d probably need to know. “Me.” Sonic glared at the sky in determination, waiting for the eggmen’s reaction. Surprisingly, none of the eggheads looked surprised.
“Figured.” Sounded Dr. Done-It. He shoved his cane at Sonic’s chest, pushing him back into Dr. Deep’s towering mech suit. “Speaking of energy, we need yours two. We’re sitting ducks out here without our shields.” Sonic laughed nervously. The close proximity of the four surrounding him made his danger bells ring. Sonic pushed that feeling aside, knowing the villains were his only option at this point.
“Alright. Let’s make a deal then.” Sonic looked at Dr. Done-it, his gaze firm.
“Ha!” Dr. Deep yelled, punctuated by a garbled sound from Dr. Babble. “Why would we need to make a deal when we could just take you now?” He pointed his sword at Sonic. The hedgehog looked up at him unimpressed.
“Think about it! You guys lose every time you try to catch me.” Dr. Deep folds his arms, scoffing. “But.” Sonic pauses dramatically. “If you let all my friends stay here, I will willingly power your shields.” The blue hedgehog smiles at Mr. Dr. Eggman. He scratches his chin in thought turning to Dr. Done-It with a nod.
“Power the shields, AND-” Mr. Dr emphasizes, “-the ship as well.” He points a finger in Sonic’s face, Sonic grimacing at the thought. For his friends. He thought.
“Ok. I’ll power the shields, AND-“ He rolls his eyes, as he put slightly more attitude into the word, “-your ship, willingly.” Sonic places his hands on his hips, smirking. Dr. Deep gasps at any kind of compromise. Sonic would be a liar if he said the jaw dropped expression on the eggheads face wasn’t slightly fulfilling.
“Fine.”Dr, Done-It answers, swiveling his egg chair, in the direction of the entrance. Dr. Deep protests vehemently, whining about how they shouldn’t make deals with a rodent as if it was their equal. But Dr. Done-It shuts him up with a swipe of his cane, moving his chair forward.
“Alright. Then it’s a deal.” Sonic holds out his hand, Mr. Dr, reluctantly taking it.
As the four eggmen walked through the halls, escorting Sonic in the middle of the group, (as if they thought he would run) Sonic braced himself. There were so many thoughts going through the blue hedgehog’s mind. He hadn’t forgotten about Shadows sacrifice, or wether or not the edgy hedgehog was alright. Again, Sonic had to abandon a friend when he was needed the most. And all for what? He put his friends in New Yoke, in danger by being here. He was honestly selfish. On top of all that, Sonic’s body ached.
Everywhere you could think was ether, scratched or bruised. Not to mention, he had pretty much been running non stop for the last five days. His head was killing him, with nothing to show for it. He was disheartened to say the least. But now he had to suck it up and face the music. And by music, he meant the hoard of shouting shatter-vercer’s behind the next door.
Predictably, the moment the egg heads entered the room, a fight broke out.
The New Yoker’s, and other variants all standing opposite from the eggmen, as both parties shouted at the other. “This is preposterous!” Shouted Deep, pointing dramatically at Sonic’s allies. “Just having these, things, in our home, is an affront to everything we hold dear!” Dr. Deep lunges at Mr. Dr, shaking the other by the shoulders.
“You know what? Keep talking’, Doc, and my fist will be an affront to your face.” Sonic’s attention was drawn to New Yoke’s version of knuckles, Knucks. Who demonstrates with a fist tapping his own face.
Dr. Babble points at Knucks and yells something in baby and Sonic decides he should probably step in.
“Enough! Stop!” He shouts, holding his hands out in a placating gesture.
“They started it.” Knucks grumbles.
“They started all of this.” Amy- Rusty Rose, cuts in.
“And we’ll gladly finish it! You ungrateful-“ Dr. Done-It cuts off Dr. deep before he can continue.
“Oh, for the love of-“ Done-It grabs Deeps ear and yanks it, earning a pained yelp from the other. “Keep a sock in it Deep, let the hedgehog speak.”
The Attention of the group was pulled to Sonic, who zoomed to stand in front of the egg men. Sonic sighs wearily and exasperated, as he addresses his Friends, placing his hands on his hips. “I made a deal with the Chaos Council.” He meets the eye contact of the group as gasps of surprise and horror sound.
“You made a deal with these egg-omaniacs?” Sonic’s heart throbbed as Black Rose’s placating tone sounded so similar to his Amy’s scolding. He shook his head slightly. Not the time, Sonic.
“Nine is using the Paradox Prism to siphon energy into the Grim!” Sonic didn’t notice as Mangy crawled away from the group, nor did anyone else. “He’s created this protective dome to keep his world safe, which has accelerated the decay of the Shaterverse, started by your portals.” He directs the last part of his sentence at the eggmen, an unamused look on his face. Mr. Dr eggman smiles sheepishly with a shrug. “We’re running out of time. We can’t escape him anymore, not while he’s got the prism. But if we use my energy and the Councils Shatter Drive, we can protect ourselves without doing any damage to the Shatterverse.” He paces in between the groups, thinking as he says, “At least until we can figure out how to stop him.” His chest tightens painfully at the thought of his little brother. Not your brother Sonic!
“So, the deal is, I charge their drive, and they give us sanctuary, i-inside the dome.” He stutters the last part slightly, fighting to keep his expression away from looking hopeless.
“I want to hear it from them.” Rouge- Rebel, Sonic corrects himself, says gruffly. Shooting a look and jerking her head words the five egg heads.
“Ugh, the hedgehog speaks the truth.” Mr. Dr says, the other eggmen turning towards him. “Once the dome is up,” he continues, “ We’ll let most-“ Sonic clears his throat, glaring at the Apple shaped man. He looked like a child told to eat his broccoli, grimacing with frustration and disgust. “All," he squeaks, "Who wish will be allowed inside.” He sighs, turning to Sonic for confirmation. Sonic nods with a sad smirk on his face, remembering that he’s the reason why they need sanctuary at all.
Suddenly Dr. Don’t clicks something on his device and the window into the lab becomes clear. The group watches as the eggmen walk up to the glass, only to stop in surprise. “Hey, what’s he doing with the energy extractor?” Mr. Dr calls in alarm. Mangy is sitting atop a computer like thing, reaching down and smacking buttons seemingly at random. “Stop him!” Mr. Dr yells, looking words the group before returning his attention to Mangy. “Heel, you beast!” The Dr shouts, looking amusingly stressed.
“Oh, hey look. Efficiency just increased by 38%.” Dr. Don’t surmised. Mangy looked at the group with pride. Mr. Dr looked ready to pull his toupee off.
The focus of the group shifted as Knucks addressed Sonic, who had noticed the echidna’s concerned stare but had been choosing to ignore it.
“So their gonna drain your energy ?” The red warrior asked, concern glinting in his eye, before Rebel shoved him.
“There has to be another way!” She glares at Sonic determinedly. Sonic selfielfishly had silently hoped mangy had ruined the energy extractor, but the hopeless uneasy feeling that had pooled in his stomach, returned when Knucks reminded him of what was to come.
“I don’t think there is. You’ve all seen it!” Sonic’s ears drooped and his lips quivered slightly. Darn it Sonic! “The worlds are falling apart. This dome is our only hope!” He gave a pleading look at Rebel to drop it, but she wasn't having it.
Huh. Was Rouge always so thoughtful perceptive? “How much energy are we talking about?” She glares at Sonic with her hands on her hips. Dread takes on a similar look next to her, though it’s more of a bored-angry look.
That actually was a good question. How much energy did they need? He got his answer, as Dr Done-it turns in his chair, scratching his chin with a smirk.
"Heh! Nothing the Hedgehog can’t spare, I assure you.” He didn’t sound very assuring.
This only served to heighten Sonic's anxiety, but he shoved it down as everyone turns back to look at him again. Rusty Rose speaks up. "Sonic, you realize that you cannot trust the council." Sonic just wants to get it over with at this point.
"I know, but I don’t have a choice." This is happening, it’s settled already! "Look! I know you don’t trust each other, and you probably shouldn’t." The last part was said more as an after thought. "But right now, we all have bigger problems!” Sonic really hopes they’ll stop fighting against it, it’s the only way to protect his friends. Which were in danger because of him.
Knucks looks angry at the the situation, turning to Rouge- Rebel, "I told you we couldn’t trust that fox!” She rolls her eyes, smiling gently as she approaches Sonic.
"As much as it pains me to admit it, Sonic's right.” She places a reassuring hand on his shoulder, shooting a sad look at the others. "For once, everyone in New Yoke is on the same side." She smiles slightly at the irony. "We’re all just trying to survive." Her smile falls and Sonic is reminded of his rouge, who would never be so vulnerable. But then her resolve returns to her face full force. "Once this is all over, we'll go back to freeing the city."
"-And protecting our Forests!”
“-And saving our seas!” The roses cut in.
"And we’ll go back to crushing you under our heel!” Mr. Dr. couldn’t resist. But then he seems to remember the truce. "Uh, but only after we’ve saved New Yoke.” He sheepishly grins at them all, Sonic looking at him, exasperated.
“Alright, let’s do this.” Sonic walk confidently over to the giant hamster ball. Dr. Don’t hits a button and it opens enough for him to climb in, closing with a tinny hiss right after. Sonic discreetly gulps. Everyone walks over, standing around anxiously as Done-it adjusts something on the computer panel. Sonic would crack a joke right about now if his voice would work. He shakes it off, taking a deep breath and setting a determined look back on his face. "See you on the other side.” He manages, not knowing if anyone could hear him through the material, as Done-it gives him the thumbs up and he starts to run.
Lightly at first, then he hears lightning strike the building and everything shakes. Nine was back.
He hears the egg-heads converse with a slight tone of panic, then he vaguely sees the two Rouge’s, out of his peripheral vision, flying away. He has no time to focus on anything going on outside. If he wanted to keep them safe, he needed to speed up. Which he does, but not enough apparently. "Faster! Faster, you fool!” He hears Dr. Done-it scream.
Faster, he had to go faster! He pushes harder, growling loudly from the strain. He sees sparks, the blue light from his own body is blinding as he pushes his legs to go even faster.
*Gotta! Go!* sparks fly at his face as he yells, pushing harder. *FAST!* his vision whites out as he gives a final push. His mind goes blank as he knows no more.