Sonic to the X

Disclaimer: Dragon Ball is owned by Akira Toriyama. Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by SEGA.

It has been five and a half years since Sonic defeated Knuckles at the 23rd World Battle Royale. During this time, Sonic has returned to his home in the Green Hill and became a father. Though his only major threat in between then and now was a battle with the son of Athair's rival, Naugus, soon he will have to go up against the greatest threats to Mobius yet.

Chapter 1: The Nikuhogs

The morning begins with Sally calling for her son, Chucky. At this time, Sonic is hopping though the forest behind his house looking for some firewood. After finding and knocking down one of the largest trees in the forest with one punch, he picks it up and heads for home.

When he gets there, Sally asks him to go out into the woods and look for Chucky, so they can go to Turtle House. Sonic agrees, and Sally tells him to take the Tornado so they are not late.

Meanwhile, a Farmer is working in a field, putting a stack of hay into his truck, when he hears a strange noise. He looks up to see a meteorite fall and crash in the fields. The farmer asks himself, "why me?" and gets in his truck to check it out. The farmer takes his pea-shooter with him for protection. He gets to the crater and sees it was not a meteorite at all, but a steel ball of some sort. The ship opens up and a robot steps out of it. The machine floats out of the crater; the farmer loads his gun and tells the alien device (nervously) that he is on his property. The alien presses the button on his scouter and reads his Energy Level, which is 5. The farmer shoots his gun, but the mysterious invader catches the bullet in his hand and flicks it back at him, seemingly killing the farmer. His scouter then picks up a high Energy Level and he takes off after it, calling "Prepare yourself, Olgilvie!"

The scene then goes to little Chucky in the woods, lost and scared. Chucky has blue fur and eyes like his father, but the fur on his muzzle and chest is more like his mother's color. He also has longer and messier spines on his head than his father. He calls out for his daddy, then starts to cry and runs through the woods.

He stops at the giant stump, where Sonic knocked down the tree, and sits down, looking up. He sees a beautiful blue and black butterfly land on the tree stump, and as he gets up, the butterfly flies away. Chucky chases after it and it lands on high up on a tree. Chucky tries to climb up to reach it, but miserably fails. He looks around and when he comes back, the butterfly flies away.

Chucky walks out of the woods and hears a noise in the bushes, and thinking it is the butterfly, walks up to it. Instead of a butterfly, it is a Saber Tooth Cat. Chucky tries to run, but trips on the ground. Chucky decides the best way is to play dead, so he lies on the ground. The tiger becomes confused, and licks Chucky's face. It tastes him, then takes his red hat (that has a Chaos Emerald on it) and runs away with it. Chucky gets up, and realizing that his hat is gone, starts crying, exclaiming his dad gave him that hat. He gets up and runs into the woods to chase the tiger. The tiger turns around, and seeing the crying boy chasing him, runs as fast as he can. The tiger tries to lose Chucky every way he can, going through bushes, around trees and over large rocks and he still does not lose him. The tiger finally takes a sharp turn and Chucky goes straight through bushes, and over a cliff. Chucky falls quickly, and as he falls, he faints. When Chucky wakes up, he is hanging from his tail upside down from a tree inches away from the ground and not hurt at all.

In a quick scene, Sonic is by the stump Chucky was sitting on earlier, calling for him. It then, goes back to Chucky trying to get across a river using stepping stones. He barely gets on one, and calls for his mommy and daddy again. He gets across the river and is walking along the rocks when he sees a blue bird roosting on a log hanging over the river. He says "Hello" to the bird and gets on the log to talk to it. He introduces himself to it and it flies away, so he tries to reach for it, but the log unhinges itself from the rock and Chucky goes into the river with the log. When he tries to grab onto it, the log spins, sending him further down the river and Chucky calls for his parents.

Meanwhile, Sonic is looking around and he sees the Saber Tooth Cat with a hat on. He recognizes it as Chucky's hat, so Sonic asks the tiger if he has seen him. The tiger growls at Sonic and Sonic asks again, but more angrily, scaring the tiger. The hat drops off its head and it runs into the woods.

Back to Chucky, he is going down the river on the log when it hits a rock. Chucky lets go of the log and flails around trying to grab the log. He grabs it and calls for his mom and dad repeatedly. Above, Sonic is looking for Chucky using the Tornado and sees his son flailing on the log in the river. Sonic calls his name and Chucky calms down once he sees his father above him. He accidentally lets go of the log and grabs the end of it when it turns around. He flies down, and once he is about to reach Chucky, he must fly up because of a small cave the river goes into. Sonic flies up as fast as the Tornado can go to get over the very large plateau. The cave ends at a waterfall, and before Sonic can get to Chucky, Chucky goes over. Sonic, thinking his son went over the edge, is about to jump over when he hears him crying above. He looks up to see Chucky crying on top of a tree branch hanging over the cliff, above the waterfall. Sonic flies up with the Tornado and Chucky jumps and hugs his dad, thanking his dad for saving him. Sonic asks how he got up there. Chucky says that he lost his hat, and Sonic puts it on, telling him to go get cleaned up so they can go to The Turtle Hermit's.

Over a city, the mysterious robot is flying in disgust. The scene goes to Knuckles in a wasteland, when he feels a huge power coming toward him. The machine lands and says he thought that Knuckles was this 'Olgilvie'. He reads Knuckles' Energy Level (which is 322) and says he would be a fool to attack him. Knuckles says he has no intention of starting a fight, but the robot says he does. Knuckles gets mad and fires a Booming Demon Wave at him, thinking he has destroyed him. However, when the dust clears, the mysterious robot is not even hurt at all. He is about to attack Knuckles with an energy attack, when his scouter goes off. He flies off, saying it is Olgilvie for sure. Knuckles gets down and breathes, saying how he hit him full force and he did not even flinch.

The mysterious robot is flying towards the Energy Level on his Scouter and talks about how he still remembers the day they sent Olgilvie to Earth.

After being away for five years, Rouge is invited to Turtle House, where The Turtle Hermit and Tails have been living. Sonic arrives shortly, and introduces his son, Chucky, to everyone. The Turtle Hermit points out that Sonic named him after his Uncle Chuck. Rouge is impressed with how proper Chucky's speech is, in light of who his parents are. Sonic tells her how Sally is quite strict about the education Chucky receives, and how she does not let him train Chucky.

Everyone then realizes that Chucky has a tail, and collectively worries, but after a delicately-worded question to Sonic, they are relieved to hear that his family goes to bed early, not giving Chucky a chance to ever see a full moon. The Turtle Hermit is surprised at how Sonic still has a lot of strength, especially considering his having settled down with a wife and a child.

Before they go inside, however, Sonic senses a strong presence headed their way. The robot soon appears. Tails, unaware of the strength the alien possesses attempts to show him off the island. He knocks Tails through the side of Turtle House with his wolf tail. The robot, who states his name is E-101, identifies Sonic as Olgilvie and berates him for not completing his "mission". Further complicating matters, E-101 also claims that Sonic is a Nikuhog warrior, and that he and Sonic are, in fact, brothers.

Sonic and Tails understandably think that E-101 is insane, but The Turtle Hermit reveals that there may be some truth to the evil robot's words.

The Turtle Hermit reveals that Sonic's adopted uncle, Sir Charles Chucky found a strange space capsule in the woods, containing a baby Sonic. He explains that, as a baby, Sonic was violent and ill-tempered. Nevertheless, an accident caused him to fall and hit his head, causing a case of amnesia in which Sonic forgot about his original Nikuhog programming which, in turn, changed Sonic into the happy, amicable child that everyone came to know and love.

Sonic then asks E-101 how he is his brother. E-101 tells them that he was once a proud Nikuhog warrior, but he was in a severe accident several years ago. The accident caused him to be placed in a robot suit to survive.

This new revelation shocks Sonic, who refuses to believe its validity. E-101 then goes on to state that Sonic's original purpose was to destroy all life on Mobius, which he should have done in a matter of years after his arrival. E-101 also reveals that the Nikuhogs' original home planet, Planet Niku was destroyed by an asteroid sometime after Sonic's departure to Mobius and that there are only seven Nikuhogs left, including himself and Sonic.

Finally, E-101 mentions that he needs his brother's help in destroying all life on a distant planet. Sonic refuses, which prompts E-101 to notice Chucky, who still retains his Nikuhog tail, which leads E-101 to threaten the fate of the child. Sonic tries to stop him, but is dealt a powerful knee strike to the stomach, which sends him plummeting to the ground. E-101 then kidnaps Chucky, and tells Sonic to kill one hundred Mobians, if he ever wishes to see his son again.

Unwilling to complete the task, Sonic sat there and pondered on how get his son back when his archrival, Knuckles, shows up. The others are shocked to see him and immediately take up fighting stances. Knuckles assures them that he means no harm, and offers Sonic a hand in defeating E-101. However, he states clearly that he is not doing it to save Chucky, but rather just wants to make sure E-101 does not conquer Mobius, as he wants to do it himself.

While the others do not trust Knuckles, Sonic accepts the offer. Taking Rouge's Chaos Radar to locate the Green Chaos Emerald that was on top of Chucky's hat. Mobius's two strongest fighters then depart from Turtle House to eliminate the threat and rescue Chucky.

Meanwhile, Chucky keeps annoying E-101 by crying out. Getting annoyed each second, E-101 locks Chucky in his Space Pod. This distresses Chucky further, and, for the first time, he starts demonstrating his unlimited dormant potential, as his Energy Level skyrockets. E-101 turns on his scouter, but unable to believe that a child could possess such power, he dismisses it thinking that the Scouter malfunctioned.

That was until Sonic and Knuckles arrive on the spot. Since the Scouter predicted their arrival, E-101 becomes shocked at realizing that his Scouter is not malfunctioning and that Chucky really does have an Energy Level of 710.

Sonic declines the offer of life as a Nikuhog and demands that E-101 give back his son. E-101 decides to give Sonic one last look at Chucky before he dies. Seconds later, the powerful warriors begin to do battle. The battle is intense, but even with their combined strength; Sonic and Knuckles are caught off guard by the evil Nikuhog. E-101 laughs maniacally at Sonic and Knuckles.

As Sonic and Piccolo charge towards E-101 to attack, he kicks out backwards and sends them rolling away. He then fires an AOE Laser that destroys Knuckles' left arm. Knuckles, now with only one arm, reveals that he has a secret ace up his sleeve, but will need some time before he can charge up this new attack. Thus, Sonic is given the job to stall E-101 for five minutes. Sonic and E-101 begin their fight, but once again Sonic is unable to keep up with E-101. He is sent crashing to the ground, and even after unleashing a Turtle Destruction Wave, Sonic is unable to do any kind of damage to E-101. E-101 then blasts Sonic out of the sky with homing missile.

But the time is enough and Knuckles fires his most powerful attack, which he had originally designed to use against Sonic: the Thorn Fist Cannon (where two lasers fire from his knuckles and combine into one). The Cannon almost hits E-101 dead-on. However, E-101 is able to dodge it, which completely horrifies Knuckles. The attack did nothing but injure E-101's shoulder and damage his armor.

E-101 then continues to tortures Sonic by crushing his ribs under his foot. Chucky watches from inside the Space Pod and something begins to crack.

Chucky bursts through E-101's Space Pod, shocking Knuckles and E-101. Sonic tells Chucky to run away, but Chucky is too deeply enraged to make sense of anything. E-101, reading Chucky's Energy Level to be well above his own, begins to panic.

Suddenly, Chucky charges at E-101 with his "Leave My Daddy Alone!" technique and hits him in the middle of his chest, leaving him mortally wounded. Chucky runs to his father's side as E-101 staggers to his feet. Sonic pleads with Chucky to run, but now he is too scared to run. E-101 reads Chucky's power again: it has substantially dropped to one. E-101 knocks Chucky unconscious, which sends him a few feet away.

E-101 approaches Chucky and begins to gather energy to kill him. E-101 reveals that Chucky was the first person to wound him this severely. As E-101 raises his arm for the final blow, Sonic puts him in a Full-Nelson, preventing the attack. He tells Knuckles to try the Thorn Fist Cannon again, even if it means his own death. Knuckles, without hesitation, begins to gather energy for another Thorn Fist Cannon.

E-101 pleads with his brother to reconsider what he is doing, but Sonic only holds on tighter. Knuckles finally gathers enough energy for the technique, and fires it at E-101. The beam goes directly through both Nikuhog brothers. The two fall to the ground fatally wounded. Knuckles approaches E-101 (seeing he was a hedgehog like creature in the robot suit), who is lamenting that Sonic foolishly sacrificed his life.

Knuckles tells E-101 about the Chaos Emeralds and that they can grant any wish, which includes bringing the dead back to life, but E-101 secretly relays the message to his two partners in deep space. E-101 laughs maniacally, and an irate Knuckles finishes E-101 off. He then restores his arm and takes Chucky with him.

In deep space, E-101's partners, Shadow and E-123 (who suffered a similar fate to E-101, but also suffered brain damage which has him acting like a child), pick up E-101's signal and learn of the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow decides to wish for eternal life, so they get into their Space Pods, and head for Mobius (all the while, E-123 asks "Are we there yet?". Meanwhile, Rouge, The Turtle Hermit, and Tails arrive just in time to bid Sonic farewell.

Sonic's body begins to vanish, which The Turtle Hermit believes was Athair's doing, while everyone is left to mourn his death and prepare for the approaching threat.

Athair, having preserved Sonic's body for resurrection, escorts the late hero into the presence of the gigantic King of the Afterlife, the judge of Heaven and Hell. He chooses to train with the great King Lazaar, a being whose position is above even that of the King of the Afterlife, before being resurrected by the Chaos Emeralds.

The King of the Afterlife reveals that thousands of years ago, he too trained under Lazaar, who is truly a powerful man. After receiving the King's permission, Sonic is escorted to the head of the one-million-kilometer Serpent Road, the route between the King of the Afterlife's palace and King Lazaar's realm.

Knuckles takes the unconscious Chucky from the others and carries him away to an uninhabited area. Determining the extent of Chucky's dormant power by hurling him at a mountain, Knuckles tells him that he will draw this power out and train him, whether Chucky likes it or not.

Knuckles leaves Chucky in the middle of the Great Unknown, saying that he will be back in six months to teach him how to fight; if he cannot learn to survive on his own, he does not deserve to live, much less fight.

While Chucky bawls to himself on Mobius, Sonic tries to save some time by leaping entire sections of the very twisty road, but catches his foot on an incredibly sharp scale of the Serpent Road and nearly falls into the depths of Hell below. Elsewhere, Tails is picked to visit the homestead, where he has to break the bad news to Sally about what happened to Chucky and Sonic, but when directly confronted with Maximillian and his hot-tempered daughter, he cannot bring himself to do so.

Chucky is chased by a T-Rex, and flees up a large rock formation, from which he cannot climb down again. Knuckles secretly watches Chucky's activities throughout his time there.

Tails, unable to break the news to Sally and Maximillian about Chucky and Sonic, returns to Turtle House, where The Turtle Hermit and Rouge are waiting for him. Big then shows up with a message from Chao: assemble the remaining Freedom Fighters at the top of Chao Tower, as Athair has decided to train them. Maximillian and Sally are hot on Tails' trail, in search of her husband and son. Sally could not care less about Sonic, but faints when told about how the "monster" Knuckles abducted her baby.

That evening, a starving Chucky, who is still atop the rock formation, goes to sleep hungry but Knuckles, in a rare display of tenderness, brings him some apples (sour, of course). When Chucky wakes and has to pee, he unexpectedly transforms into a Werehog. Knuckles realizes that the full moon is the cause of Chucky's metamorphosis, and wonders what will be left for him if Chucky destroys Mobius. He looks up at the moon, thinking it's mocking him, and destroys it with a single blast. He then removes Chucky's tail after he reverts to normal, and uses his Magic Materialization to create an outfit with the "demon" symbol and a sword for the unconscious boy. The power Chucky displayed as a Werehog causes Knuckles to be frightened by the idea how powerful Chucky can be.

The next day, a group of wild animals chases Chucky when he falls into a hole in the desert, where he discovers an ancient probe robot in the cavernous ruins below. After Chucky reactivates the robot, it tells him not to disturb it, but reconsiders when the boy starts to cry and, reluctantly, watches over him, as he is still dependent on others. Chucky tries to dig the robot out of the sand as it tells him how, thirty years previous, it had been buried by an earthquake as it was excavating the ruins.

However, the unstable cavern begins to crumble around the two, and the robot sacrifices itself to send Chucky back to the surface, being smashed in the collapse. Tears streaming down his face, Chucky overcomes his sorrows, walking away back into the desert.

For the past five years, Vector has been working on the side as a professional baseball player for the Pups (my parody of the Cubs). In the middle of a game, he is pulled out of a brawl by Tails with the news of Sonic's death and the upcoming attack of E-101's companions. The two of them, and Nicole, meet up with Rouge, who still has not forgiven Vector for their last breakup, and leave for their rendezvous with Athair in one of her pod hover cars.

Meanwhile, Chucky accidentally shares a cave with an injured Apatosaurus, and after a fright, tends to its wound with a treatment his father taught him. Suddenly, while he is away gathering medicine, the carnivorous dinosaur that pursued Chucky earlier attacks. Chucky leaps to the wounded dinosaur's defense with his new sword, but is no match, and as the boy is knocked unconscious the unlucky dinosaur is eaten.

As time goes on, Chucky endures his survival training; becoming stronger; so much so that the meat-eating dinosaur has had the tables turned on it and is instead being eaten from the tail up by Chucky as he continues to slice off parts of its tail with his sword and cook the pieces.

Elsewhere, Shadow and E-123, heading for Mobius, decide to take a short detour to a planet of bug people because E-123 is bored. E-123 is disappointed with the barren, reddish, desolate planet, but then two insect creatures appear riding on giant millipede-like steeds. As E-123 tells Shadow about foreign commune, the bug men both blast them with beams of energy from their mouths, and are confident that they have killed them. They are shocked when the smoke clears, revealing an unharmed E-123 and Shadow. E-123 moves to retaliate against their attackers, telling them that was not nice, but Shadow tells him to hold off for now and "surrender," so they can be taken as prisoners and have a little fun with their captors. They surrender and are chained. The Nikuhogs are taken to a large, ruined fortress and put in the dungeon. Their cellmate is a bug man named Indigo, who explains the planet's current desolate state to them. Apparently the planet was conquered by the evil King, who among other things took Indigo's bride, Pink, away from him on the day they were to be married and had Indigo imprisoned. However the two have both managed to hold on to the gold wedding bracelets they exchanged as gifts.

Elsewhere in the fortress, the King watching two of his guards fight a duel in an arena. This is apparently a regular occurrence. He invites Pink, a pink bug woman in a white shroud, to come and watch the fight with him. She politely refuses. Annoyed, and noticing she is still wearing the gold bracelet Indigo gave to her, the King reminds that she is his queen now, and to forget her past. She replies that her love for her imprisoned groom will never change. Just then, one guard wins the duel by stabbing the other in the abdomen. The King declares him the new champion, and orders the loser to be put into "the pit." Two guards seize the loser and drag him to a raised portion of the floor. One pushes a button, and the floor opens, dropping the defeated fighter down into a cavernous anteroom located underneath the arena. As he pleads to be let out, something gigantic rises up out of the shadows behind him. Seeing it, a terrified the loser calls it "Rancor" and pleads with it to stay away from him.

The king, still with Pink in the arena, complains of "royal boredom," prompting a guard to inform him of the recent capture of the "aliens." The King sounds interested, and orders some guards sent to the dungeon for them. However Shadow and E-123 have already let themselves out and approach the steps leading to the king and queen's thrones. When told they killed some of his men while escaping, the King is angry. E-123 irreverently insults the King, who is suddenly impressed with "the shiny one," and decides to see how he'll fair against the new arena combat champion. He sadly complains that "the little one" (Shadow) does not look like much of a warrior, though. The champion steps forward and moves to attack the Nikuhogs. Before he reaches them, Shadow raises one finger and fires a beam from it, which beheads the bug man. The King is shocked. The Nikuhogs are further unimpressed and desire to fight all of the King's warriors, and so the King summons all of his men who surround the Nikuhogs with swords drawn. He gloats that they cannot defeat his elite fighters, but then E-123 begins laughing as electricity arcs over his body and the ground shakes. The bug men look on in growing alarm, and then, without a sound, E-123 raises two fingers, and all of the King's guards disintegrate in a bright flash of light which rocks the entire fortress.

The King, clinging to his throne to steady himself (Pink does the same alongside him), yells for "Rancor" to be released. The section of the floor covering "the pit" is opened, and the thing which ate the loser before rises up into view on a hydraulic platform. Rancor is finally revealed as a bug man exactly like the others, only over fifty feet tall and more animalistic. E-123 looks excited, thinking Rancor is a pet as an indignant King commands Rancor to kill them. E-123 has his fun with the gigantic and cannibalistic bug man by shaking his hand (accidently pulling off his finger) and playing fetch with an energy ball that killed the beast. Terrified now that his biggest and best fighter has easily been killed, the King attempts to flee, hiding behind his throne. Disgusted by the King's cowardice, Shadow sends a hail of debris flying at him. A sharp rock pierces the King's torso, and then the top half of his throne breaks off and crushes his neck, pinning his dead body against the arm of the throne.

In the meantime, it's revealed that upon escaping the dungeon, Shadow and E-123 did not kill Indigo, who hurries to the arena, having heard the sounds of battle during his search for Pink. He is shocked to find the King dead and all of his guards nowhere to be found. Realizing that the Nikuhogs have freed their people, Indigo hails them as heroes. Shadow ignores him and has E-123 use his scouter to summon their space pods. They climb in and fly away even as Indigo is still exulting over the King's death. He is distracted however when he turns and sees Pink, who survived the battle. She now has a pair of beautiful butterfly wings.

In space, Shadow and E-123 exit their pods and look down at the bug planet. E-123 comments on how Indigo said they were their heroes, and Shadow, finding the planet to be annoying, fires his Chaos Spear which destroys the planet entirely just as Indigo and Pink run happily into one another's arms. After watching the planet get blown up, the two Nikuhogs decide to resume their journey to Mobius. Shadow grinds his teeth as E-123 asks "Are we there yet?"

Knuckles pours on his training; even becoming capable of levitating pyramids using telekinesis. Not knowing his own strength, however, he loses control and accidentally causes great cracks to form in the surrounding continent, not to mention smashing the pyramids. Elsewhere, Chucky is in the middle of his own training when he is swallowed by the resulting fissure. Panicked for his life, he barely escapes with his own skin.

Meanwhile, Bunnie has found Espio and Charmy training near a waterfall and with her famous tact tries to win Espio's heart with food. Needless to say, she fails. Tails and Rouge show up, and when Espio hears the news, he also decides to accept Athair's training.

On Serpent Road, Sonic has hitched a ride on a passing street sweeper. Exhausted, Sonic falls asleep and an accidental bump causes him to fall off the road

Sonic falls into the very heart of Hell, where he awakens on impact. He finds a well-tended tree growing there and tries to snack on its fruit, unaware that it is the exclusive property of King of the Afterlife. He is knocked out before he can touch any by Dev and Sata, two heavily-muscled guardian demons, and strikes a bargain with them: if he can outperform them at one game of their choice each, they will put him back on Serpent Road. Sonic tricks the two of them though into telling him into where the path back to Serpent Road is, and successfully makes a break for it.

Meanwhile, Chucky is shown playfully dodging the Saber Tooth Tiger as he gathers berries and nuts. He speedily dodges and jumps away from the beast, eventually tiring it out to the point of exhaustion. After which Chucky takes off again as he prompts the big cat to keep on chasing after him.

Chucky witnesses Knuckles honing his powers by levitating rocks and boulders, and creating a gigantic controlled whirlwind that manages to rotate a whole circle of land in a complete 360 degree circle.

Tails, Team Chaotix and Big gather at Angel Island and begin their training. Meanwhile, Sonic continues to tread the Serpent Road, where he encounters a castle on one side that wasn't there before. Inside, he meets the beautiful Serpent Queen and her attendants, who are immediately smitten with him. She tries to ply him with food, dance (Sonic thinks the Tango is a form of martial arts) and a hot bath, but, when none of these stop him from trying to continue along the path, she plays her ace card: a sleeping potion.

A magical mirror shows that his dreams are only of Sally and Chucky. Spurned, she reveals her true form, an evil queen that tempts travelers along the Serpent Road. Sonic narrowly escapes the castle, which, after the illusion is dropped, turns out to be the goddess' true body: a monstrous fire-breathing snake. As she pursues him a while on the Serpent Road, Sonic manages to tangle her up into a knot and continues along the million-mile path.

Eight months remain until the Nikuhogs reach Mobius, and Chucky is shown continuing his previous studies before being taken from home by solving a complex math equation, though this isn't enough to keep him from missing his family. Meanwhile, Knuckles, remembering his earlier battle with E-101, ups his training by splitting his body into two, creating an identical twin that he can fight against.

Elsewhere, Chucky is just finishing the construction of a home-made sand yacht which he will be using to try and cross the desert. In transit, he is attacked by a Sand Eagle which tries to lash out and grab him with its gigantic talons. He manages to maneuver the craft to avoid the air-strikes, but in doing so, drives himself into a patch of rocky land which slowly wears away at the fragile craft.

It finally goes to pieces on a downhill incline ending in a sheer cliff face where Chucky comes upon (and nearly lands on) the Saber Tooth Tiger that has appeared previously in the desert. Once the eagle gives up on Chucky, it leaves him, not knowing that Chucky has not disappeared, but is merely hidden in a pile of sand that he had fallen into when he landed. Once he digs himself out and sees the Saber Tooth (though he hardly pays attention to its growling) he realizes that he is on a beach, which in turn means that he has found the ocean.

Trying to find his house, he sets off running to try and find his home by following the beach. He is followed shortly afterwards by the Saber Tooth Tiger, who seems to have grown somewhat of an attachment to him. While Chucky manages the beach's rocky terrain with relative ease, the big cat seems to have quite a bit of trouble as it desperately tries to follow the young boy. The Saber Tooth finally manages to catch up with Chucky when it finds him asleep after he seems to have eaten a large fish, leaving only the head, tail, and bones behind because he didn't even realize that the beast had been following him. The Saber Tooth attempts to eat the meager scraps left behind by Chucky as he sleeps.

When day breaks yet again, Chucky starts off again with the Saber Tooth following behind yet again. The two travel the beach for quite a while as Chucky continues to attempt to find his home, they bond quite closely as Chucky is shown trying to pull the Saber Tooth back up the face of a ledge it had apparently fallen off of. As all of this is going on, Knuckles continues his intense training with his clone, as he battles with himself in order to get stronger. They battle fiercely, Knuckles' strength and speed having grown considerably with his training. But they are too evenly matched and neither one can beat the other.

The Saber Tooth is shown waking up just as Chucky is departing, and barely manages to get on its' feet quick enough to start following him as he fades out of sight. Back home, Sally is shown being terribly depressed as Maximillian tries his best to cheer up his daughter, as he says that she hasn't eaten anything in the past week. She won't let him in, however, and he states how she really misses Chucky and Sonic.

Finally, after running the along the beach for several days, he comes across the same gigantic stone wall that he had encountered when he first found the beach. Once he gets around it, he finds both the remains of his sand-craft, and his footprints from before. After realizing that he had somehow walked in a complete circle, he runs past the weary tiger and into the woods, his destination, a gigantic mountain. Once he scrambles up the mountain's side and reaches the peak, he looks around him and realizes that Knuckles has actually stranded him on a gigantic deserted island.

Once he realizes this, he resolves to somehow get off the island and get home to his home. After much careful planning, he designs a raft that will enable him to sail off the island. Elsewhere, Knuckles continues to push himself past his limits, namely by continuously firing his Thorn Fist Cannon. Though he continues to cause massive damage to his training grounds, he is still unsatisfied and continues his harsh self-training.

Chucky, in order to gather the needed materials to build his raft, chops down a gigantic tree with his bare hands, and then prepares it for building by using his sword to chop of the branches and leaves. He then drags it onto the beach where he chops it straight down the middle of the trunk and works at hollowing it out as the Saber Tooth tries its best to help. The sun sets just as he is finishing his work on the raft. He pushes it out into the water and bids the downcast Saber Tooth farewell, promising to come back after he has seen his mother.

It continues to watch him as he paddles out into the sunset and howls in its sadness. Once he finds himself out far enough, Chucky releases the sail and allows the wind to carry him out to sea. Overjoyed at being on his way at last, he enjoys the beautiful ocean and marine life as his ship leaps across the waves. Sensing something amiss, the two Knuckles cease their fighting. Once he realizes that something is off with Chucky, he re-joins himself into one being and flies off to see what is amiss.

Chucky, asleep at sea, awakens when it begins raining and a violent storm begins tossing his small craft around in the waves. Though he struggles to pull the sail down, it tears and he is left at the mercy of the gigantic storm swells. He begins eating the food he had brought with him to keep up his strength when his ship starts taking on water. He begins bailing out the water and reveals that he cannot swim (like his father) as he works to keep his craft afloat.

Sensing that Chucky is out in the storm somewhere Knuckles flies into it to try and find Chucky, but the harsh conditions keep him from doing so. Chucky's ship finally falls apart under the strain and he is left clinging to a piece of lumber that he managed to hold onto. He is then swept into a water spout and flung around as Knuckles continues to search for him.

After the storm, Chucky washes up on a beach, seemingly dead. He is found by two local children who believe him to be a castaway. They at first believe him to be dead, and they do not believe him to have anything they consider valuable, until they find his sword. When the boy picks it up and tests it out, Chucky awakens, revealing he was merely unconscious, not dead. The two panic upon realizing that he is still alive, but then Chucky collapses again and blacks out.

When he awakens, Chucky finds that the two have taken him in and have laid him on a bed. The boy and the girl introduce themselves and explain to Chucky where he is. Chucky discovers that they have brought him to a run-down old house with a few meager decorations and only a handful of intact pieces of furniture. Chucky then introduces himself and the two other children reveal that they are, in fact, orphans and they believe him to be parent-less as well.

Chucky, after having been alone for so many months, is extremely joyful at having the chance to communicate with others again. They tell their story to Chucky and explain why they are orphans. Two years prior to Chucky's arrival, a gigantic tsunami destroyed the town and killing almost everyone, leaving the boy and the girl to fend for themselves. They go on to explain about the other five parentless children who they banded together with in order to survive. Just as Chucky is about to explain how he still has his parents, a signal sounds from outside, interrupting him before he can finish. They make him follow them as they escape from the adults who are coming after them.

Chucky catches up just as the boy swings across from the building's roof to a small tree-fort on a vine with the girl, but the boy promises to go back for him once his sister is across. But the two men catch up to Chucky before the boy can go back for him. Acting like a cornered animal, Chucky slips away from his pursuers and leaps the entire distance between the roof and the tree and escapes their grasp. The adults are left speechless at seeing someone so young perform such a fantastic feat as the boy gloats to them from the tree fort.

The boy explains to Chucky that the two men are from 'the home', a place where the children will be forced to do chores and work if they are caught. Chucky is stunned by this explanation and the boy goes on to tell him that since they have found them, the adults will be back. The girl begins to cry when he says this, but they are stopped when they hear screaming. They look down and see that the adults have captured one of the other children, a little girl, and are putting her in the black van they came in. The little girl is rescued by a tall boy who zooms past and takes her from their grasp.

The boy shouts out the leader's name in joy at seeing the big boy. The leader then proceeds to fight with the adults and defeats them one by one as they rush at him. Once he has defeated them, he takes the little girl and they run as the rest of the children throw rocks and debris at the last adult standing. Everyone bands together under the leader, and try to drive them off. The woman, who was the only one who did not attack the leader, tries to tell them that if they come with the adults, they will go to a place where they will get new clothes and hot meals, but the children believer that she is lying. The leader yells at them to let them stay in the village as the other children cheer him on.

The adults then leave in a huff, promising to return. Once they are gone, the boy introduces Chucky to the leader, who immediately takes a liking to him. Now that the adults have left, the children go about their normal day. They play, wrestle, and Chucky joins the leader in climbing to the top of the tallest building that was left standing in the village.

A while later Chucky walks around a nearby town, and creates a distraction by crying in the town square. While the adults are gathering around him, the other children proceed to steal food from the nearby stands. Unfortunately, the children are caught in the act and are forced to abort their mission, running off as Chucky makes his getaway as well. The adults chase after them, but they are not quick enough to keep up with the children, who leave them in the dust as they keep on running. They escape the final leg on bicycles as they are being chased by a police officer on a hover-scooter. The children panic as the officer gains ground on them, but his pursuit is stopped when he crashes into a stand selling flowers. Now that the officer is out of commission, they leave the town in the dust, while the boy congratulates Chucky on his first food heist.

Later that night, Chucky lies awake as the other children sleep peacefully. Making sure that they are truly asleep, he grabs his belongings and walks out into the night. The leader, who was outside keeping watch, remembers the tidal wave that destroyed their village and took their parents away from them. He is snapped out of his thoughts when he sees Chucky walking out the door from his spot in the tree. He calls down to Chucky to ask where he is going. He jumps down from the tree and has Chucky explain to him why he is going. Not knowing what else to do, Chucky reveals that he still has his mother, and was on his way to see her when he got caught by the storm. Much to his surprise, the other children had woken up and overheard him when he said this. He apologizes for not telling them sooner, but they tell him it does not really matter to them whether he has a family or not. When Chucky tells them where his house is, the leader tells that Green Hill is nearby and he could take him there in the morning.

When the children prompt him, he tells them about his mother and his life back home. The children are impressed by his stories and tell him about how many of the cities are only 100 years old and how many children did not go to school then. They discuss how if things were different, they would set up a special place, just for orphans like them. They talk long and say how they would not build roads or highways and just live off the land if it were up to them. After their talk, they all come to an agreement to take Chucky and drop him off at his home. When one of them asks how they will accomplish this, the leader tells them that he has a plan.

The next day, they lie in wait for the people from 'the home' to come again, but they grow anxious as they are late in coming that day. The boy believes they may have finally given up, but one of them spots the black van from the day before and sounds the alarm. When the adults leave their vehicle, they are immediately bombarded with rocks and pebbles shot by the children. With the men distracted, the leader pulls the woman out of the car and commandeers the vehicle, then signals to the other children who run from their hiding places and head towards the van. They all pile in just as the police arrive on the scene. Upon seeing the law, the leader orders them to scramble and they all rush to get out, but they are surrounded before they can run away and hide. While the other children are grabbed, Chucky leaps over the head of the man who is trying to get him. The children fight valiantly, running, kicking, punching, and biting the officers to keep them from taking them. Unfortunately, it is not enough as the police soon overwhelm all of the children except for Chucky, who barely manages to free the leader by slicing his handcuffs in half with his sword.

Considering the future of the other orphans, the leader grabs Chucky and they escape in a stolen police-craft, to the betrayal and disappointment of the other children orphans. After they have escaped Chucky grabs the leader by the arm and begs to tell him why he has chosen to leave the other children behind, when the leader punches Chucky and knocks him down. His reason is because he cannot provide enough for them. After he drops him off on the slopes of Green Hill, the leader drives away with tears in his eyes as he sets off to start a new life as Chucky bids him farewell.

Once the leader is out of sight, Chucky begins to climb the side of Green Hill, eagerly energetic to see his mother again. Once he has climbed the side, he runs a path that he had found which will take him towards his home. After a few hours of running and climbing, Chucky rejoices when he finally comes within viewing distance of his home, even managing to see his mother through their front window. He begins to make the final steps of his journey, but begins thinking about the orphans, who continue to be brave even without their parents. After he thinks about them and the many hardships they have faced, he runs back into the forest with tears in his eyes.

After running as far as he can, he finally stops near a big tree nearby a small patch of flowers. As he tries to keep himself from crying, he senses someone and looks up, only to see Knuckles, who appears to have waited for him there. Knuckles sternly reminds Chucky of his mission, and he takes him back to the island where Chucky will continue his training.

After half a year of overcoming emotional and physical hardship, Chucky is finally being trained by Knuckles. Meanwhile, up at Angel Island, Tails and the remaining Freedom Fighters are growing impatient with Athair, who, after two months, has still not given any lessons to his pupils. Sharha then takes everyone (excluding Big) on a mental combat simulation, using an old and mysterious mechanism inside the palace: the Pendulum Room.

There, in the middle of a long-since ruined Nikuhog city, Espio and the others are attacked by two ferocious Nikuhog warriors. The four of them put up a fight, but the odds are hopeless, and they are picked off one by one. Returning to the present, Athair tells the team that their opponents were only half as strong as genuine Nikuhogs. Rather than being frightened off by this revelation, the prospects of facing such incredible warriors renews the convictions of our heroes to fight.

Chucky and Knuckles continue to fight each other; Chucky is obviously outmatched, but is intent on not giving up. Sonic continues to run on Serpent Road. That night, Chucky has a dream about when E-101 attacked his father and becomes totally enraged. He hears a voice saying "Wake up, Olgilvie", and responds to it as if he were Sonic. Knuckles hears his screaming and flies to him. Chucky attacks Knuckles and seems to be doing much better than he did before by actually giving Knuckles a good fight. Knuckles continues to fight Chucky, and splits into two beings in order to better his chances. While one Knuckles fights, the other watched on. Knuckles, seeing that Chucky's tail has grown back, deduces that it only takes six months to grow back. Knuckles turns around and sees the moon, which has mysteriously come back. Knuckles looks around and sees that it is coming from Sonic's original space pod.

Meanwhile, The Turtle Hermit, Rouge, and Hamlin have a celebratory party after finding all the Chaos Emeralds. They look on at the moon, since they, too, realize it is back. Chucky gets a sucker punch in on Knuckles causing the two beings to fuse together again. Knuckles traps Chucky in an electricity web, but it causes Chucky to look directly at the moon, transforming him into a Werehog. Knuckles evades Chucky's maneuvers and eventually has to destroy the ancient space capsule itself. Chucky transforms back into a hedgehog and Knuckles removes his tail again.

Meanwhile, Sonic reaches the tail end of Serpent Road. When he gets there, he finds that there is nothing there. He looks up and sees a small planet high above Serpent Road. He flies up to it and sees a house and a car. Just then, the gravity weighs him down and he crashes straight into the planet. He sees a fruit-bearing tree, and tries to climb it, but he falls off. He sees a monkey behind him and assumes that it is King Lazaar. He asks "King Lazaar" to get him one of the fruit from the tree, but it falls so fast it goes right through the ground. The monkey comes down and starts parading around, so Sonic does the same, thinking it is training. Suddenly, the real King Lazaar appears and introduces himself with one of his signature corny jokes.

Lazaar has one condition before he will train Sonic: he must think of a joke that will make him laugh. Sonic gives it his all and comes up with several weak puns that amuse King Lazaar immensely.

Sonic's new mentor tells him that the Nikuhogs are even stronger than himself, and gives him his first task: to catch Khan, the monkey, in the 10-G gravity of King Lazaar's World. Sonic strenuously chases Khan, and after three weeks, finally manages to catch him. Impressed that Sonic has overcome King Lazaar's planet ten-fold gravity, King Lazaar anticipates that Sonic may be able to master the powerful "Warp" technique.

King Lazaar gives Sonic his next assignment: to whack his personal assistant, Archimedes, a giant, incredibly fast ant, over the head with a massive weighted hammer.

He also relates to Sonic how the Nikuhogs, who had wiped out the only other intelligent race on Planet Niku (called the Nikais), had risen to acts of interstellar terror, clearing entire planets for resale to other races. They had since been driven to near extinction, and only seven individuals survived the destruction of Niku.

When Sonic learns of the evil heritage of the Nikuhogs, he flies off in a burst of light towards Archimedes, focused only on hammering him. Two weeks later, he succeeds. Back on Mobius, Tails and the others complete their training at Angel Island.

Sonic now tests the power of the Soul Blast, a life-energy ball technique which he learned along with the Warp from King Lazaar himself. Unexpectedly, the Nikuhogs enter the solar system a whole month earlier than anticipated and will reach Mobius the next day. They thought it was not a problem until King Lazaar realizes that he failed to include the time it would take Sonic to return to the world below.

Sonic contacts The Turtle Hermit telepathically through King Lazaar to tell him to summon the Chaos Force with the Chaos Emeralds and bring him back to life immediately. The Turtle Hermit, Rouge, Hamlin and Nicole release the mass, and Hamlin wonders out loud if they can't wish the Nikuhogs to be defeated. The Chaos Force answers that it would be unable to fulfill such a wish, since the Nikuhog's power is greater than that of Athair, its creator. So instead, they wish Sonic back to life.

Sonic says his farewells, and streaks back along Serpent Road; King Lazaar estimates that it will now take him just over a day to reach the end. The next day, at 11:43 a.m., the Nikuhogs' space pods make planet fall in the heart of Radical City (finally shutting up E-123). Knuckles feels the presence of the two warriors and realizes he needs to take them out before he can take over Mobius.

Shadow and E-123 defiantly announce their arrival on Mobius with the complete destruction of Radical City (because E-123 hates awkward silences). Sensing their power, Knuckles, Chucky and Tails prepare for the worst and meet the Nikuhogs face-to-face, where Knuckles (and to an extent Athair) learns of his origins as an Echidna from the planet Chidnai.

Big also learns of the Nikuhogs' arrival. A police inspector and journalists watch him surprised and Big yells and repeats that "It WAS the Nikuhogs!" The inspector questions what Nikuhogs are, and Big answers the question to him. Big uses this occasion for profit by telling that the Freedom Fighters are his men and will take care of the Nikuhogs. Our heroes are left facing an onslaught of sprouted Egg Pawns under the grinning command of Shadow and E-123.

The Egg Pawns face off with Tails, Knuckles and Chucky as they prepare to fight. Chucky is feeling rather intimidated by these powerful beings, but Tails and Knuckles encourage him to keep them from psyching him out. Their encouragement works and Chucky returns his focus to the battle at hand. The Egg Pawns strike first, and Tails and Knuckles go on the defensive while Chucky stands paralyzed with shock and awe, as they battle around him with lightning speed. One Egg Pawn catches Chucky off guard and knocks him away, and two more Egg Pawns attempt to get near him, but Knuckles comes to his defense and stops them from harming Chucky.

In a brief break, Espio and Charmy appear and join the fight. The two ask why the Egg Pawns are there, and they are then acquainted with Chucky for the first time. Vector also arrives, enthusiastic to test his new abilities. Shadow suggests that they hold a small contest with the Egg Pawns, since they are now six Freedom Fighters against six Egg Pawns. The Freedom Fighters accept, since this may buy them time for Sonic to arrive.

Espio volunteers to fight first, and quickly dominates his opponent. The Egg Pawn, however, stands back up, only to be destroyed mercilessly from behind by Shadow when he hears E-123 call it "Shadow Jr.", and then warns the remaining Egg Pawns to fight at their best. Tails volunteers to go next, but Vector requests to go instead, on the basis that Tails has already been wished back to life with the Chaos Emeralds and will be lost forever if anything happens to him. Vector battles an Egg Pawn and apparently defeats it with a Turtle Destruction Wave, but becomes cocky enough to challenge the remaining four Egg Pawns by himself that the beaten Egg Pawn catches him by surprise by latching onto him and self-destructing, killing the both of them instantly.

Grief-stricken and enraged over his friend's death, Tails vows to take on the remaining Egg Pawns by himself in Vector's place.

The gang at Kame House watches the fight on TV and sees that Vector has been killed, causing Rouge to cry and admit she was saving herself for him to which The Turtle Hermit replies "bull sh**".

Back at the battle field, an angered Tails promises to avenge Vector only to be made fun of for being weak. He destroys 3 of the Egg Pawns, leaving one for Piccolo to destroy. Everyone congratulates Piccolo and ignores Tails for killing 3 of them. E-123 steps onto the battle field and attacks Espio, removing his hand. Espio escapes, making E-123 think he wants to play tag. Charmy hops onto E-123's back and uses self-destruct. Charmy's death was in vain, as E-123 has barely a scratch on him. E-123 attacks Espio who begs for help. Tails and Knuckles join in and knock E-123 towards Chucky, who becomes too scared to attack and runs away. Tails asks if Knuckles has a plan. Knuckles says that he has 2 plans; either Tails gets him in a full nelson or they use the multi-form technique. They attack E-123, who confuses this as a game of patty-cake. He knocks all of them back into one form and claims his throne as the patty-cake champion. Espio uses a Final Energy Beam Cannon on E-123, using up all of his energy and causing his death. E-123 is still alive and charges towards Knuckles and Tails, only to stop and realize he can fly. Tails threatens that Sonic will arrive and defeat them all, making E-123 curious to meet him and wants to put the fight on hold until Sonic arrives. Shadow gives them 3 hours. E-123 gets bored and keeps asking if he's here, they all get annoyed and Shadow demands he goes to find something to do. E-123 goes to blow up an entire navy army and their battleships. Shadow's timer goes off when the three hours are up and E-123 arrives, without his armor's damaged parts.

E-123 knocks Knuckles out with a one swift attack. Chucky runs to Knuckles and attempts to wake him up Piccolo. Tails assures Chucky that his father will arrive, citing that he's never let them down. At this time, Sonic reaches the King of the Afterlife's palace and is warped back to Mobius by Athair. He then takes the Tornado to the battlefield, stopping only to get some Holy Beans from Chao.

E-123 attacks Chucky and knocks him unconscious as well, leaving only Tails to fight E-123. E-123 charges towards Tails, who, in a moment of desperation, tells him it's his turn to attack, to which E-123 stops instantly. Shadow questions E-123's actions, who claims that it is Tails' turn to attack and that he has to wait for him, causing Shadow to nosebleed from E-123's stupidity.

Annoyed that he is not being taken seriously, Tails prepares his new attack, sheepishly admitting he could have used it earlier to save his friends' lives and proclaims it as his "Energy Buzzsaw", throwing it straight at E-123. E-123 mistakes it for a Frisbee, while Shadow tries to warn him not to fall for such a trick, to which E-123, randomly, replies that "Tricks are for Kids". Irked yet again by his partner's stupidity, Shadow instead instructs him to catch it with his face plate. E-123 cheerfully tries so, but the disc just scars his face.

Distraught by his disfigurement, E-123 launches an energy ball at Tails that leaves him crippled. However, before he can deliver the finishing blow, he is struck in the back by Knuckles, who has regained consciousness. Knuckles makes threats to E-123 only to be cut off by Chucky kicking E-123 into a mountain. E-123 hops out, furious at Chucky and FIRES HIS LAZOR! At the last second, Knuckles throws himself in front of Chucky and takes the blast himself.

Though he is still standing when the smoke clears, he falls to the ground, mortally wounded. Sonic senses Knuckles' energy signal drop from afar. With tears in his eyes, Knuckles reflects on his time with Chucky and thanks him for being his first friend, going as far as to admit he had come to look at him as the son he never had. Knuckles bids a farewell to Chucky and dies peacefully. At Angel Island, Athair bids a farewell to Sharha and dies as well, taking the Chaos Emeralds with him. At Turtle House, Sally foolishly arms herself to the teeth to venture out and save Chucky from the Nikuhogs, getting into tussle with the others in the process, as The Oracle arrives with his Crystal Ball to inform them that Sonic has returned to Earth.

Back at the fight, E-123 is pleased with his work, but is somewhat upset that Shadow wasn't even watching the fight. Enraged at the loss of his mentor, Chucky unleashes a foul-mouthed rant at E-123, and proceeds to fire a Demon Flash at him. Unfortunately, E-123 easily deflects it away, and Chucky realizes that he will be unable to avenge Knuckles.

Confident of victory, E-123 mocks Chucky by pointing out that everyone important to him is dead (he does not include Tails in this). Chucky is about to be stomped on but is saved by the Tornado, confusing E-123 greatly. Sonic arrives and asks what he missed: he is then taken aback by the loss of Espio, Vector and Knuckles. Asking where Charmy is, Tails tearfully informs him that he got blown into pieces.

Apologizing for his late arrival, Sonic gives Holy Beans to Tails and Chucky. He then asks who was responsible for the deaths of his friends, and E-123 naively takes full credit, causing Sonic's power to rise considerably. E-123 asks for the Energy Level and Shadow replies that it is 1006. Unaware of the mix-up, E-123 attacks Sonic and is beaten to a pulp. Shadow then realizes his scouter was upside down and that Sonic's actual power is over 9,000.

E-123 is bewildered by Shadow's apparent apathy, and his partner explains that Sonic's Energy Level is only a threat to E-123, not Shadow. However, when he talks about the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic informs them that the Chaos Emeralds no longer work, as Knuckles is dead. A distraught Shadow is then enraged when he remembers that E-123 was the one who killed Knuckles. Unable to contain his rage any longer, Shadow finally destroys E-123, and is seen smiling when the dust clears. With E-123 finally defeated, Shadow sets his sights on Sonic, who orders Chucky and Tails to return to Kame House.

Sonic requests that they fight elsewhere so as not to damage his deceased friends' bodies, and Shadow accepts. As they fly off, Sonic watches Shadow out of his peripheral vision and wonders how powerful Shadow really is. Chucky and Tails look on, wondering if Sonic can defeat Shadow, but nevertheless start their own journey back to Turtle House. Chucky agrees, though he seems somewhat reluctant to do so. Tails puts his hands on his shoulders and reassures the boy, and they fly off with Tails telling Chucky that his mother will be pretty happy to see him after all that time.

Sonic leads Shadow to the Marble Garden. Shadow taunts Sonic over his low Nikuhog Energy Level at birth and it being the reason he was sent away from Planet Niku in the first place, but Sonic counters that he is grateful for being sent to Mobius, and challenges Shadow by telling him that even a low level Nikuhog can surpass an Elite Nikuhog with enough training. Shadow merely smirks and prepares to fight him. The two Nikuhogs begin to fight and appear to be evenly matched until Shadow manages to land a few good blows on Sonic. Sonic realizes that he is facing an opponent who may very well be stronger than him, but is excited rather than worried. He briefly powers up to Warp 2 and manages to topple Shadow, who quickly retaliates and boasts about having encountered a similar ability before.

At Turtle House, The Turtle Hermit, Rouge and the others attempt to watch the battle on The Oracle's Crystal Ball, to little success. He blames it on Rouge angrily smacking the ball around earlier, but The Turtle Hermit counters that it may be due to the energy from Sonic and Shadow's battle disrupting Mobius's energy. Rouge uses E-101's scouter and indeed senses two huge Energy Levels coming from the west. Sally is dismayed, believing that this means that Tails and Chucky are both dead.

Shadow powers himself up as dark storm clouds gather overhead and rocks begin floating up into the air. Pillars of rocks collapse and Shadow is surrounded by a bubble of pure, glowing energy. The ground shakes and the air is crackling with all of the energy floating around. Sonic is shocked by such amazing power and even seems to begin feeling worried. Somewhere else, bad Bunnie is sitting on a bar-stool, a drink in hand, while she is listening to the news of the battle over the television. The bartender turns off the news, disappointed that he may never know what happens. He then notice Bunnie, who seems to be very drunk, and yells at her not to fall asleep there. Hearing something outside, Bunnie leaves the bar and sees hordes of crows fleeing from the rampage caused by Sonic and Shadow's battle.

Shadow powers himself up and completely dominates Sonic. Shadow lands a good blow to Sonic's jaw and sends him flying. Sonic stops himself in mid-air, only to be sneak-attacked from behind by Shadow's charged Energy Blast. Sonic manages to dodge the blow, though it destroys his shirt. Shadow mocks Sonic, asking if that was all he could do. As a last resort, Sonic decides to push his body beyond its limits by using the Warp 3 despite King Lazaar having told him to never go past 2. The power amazes even Shadow, and he is even more startled when Sonic suddenly launches himself towards him with his fist balled and raised.

Risking his life, Sonic charges up the Warp attack to a triple. The incredible power generated overloads the scouter that Rouge took from E-101's body and begins to worry King Lazaar. With newfound strength, Sonic ferociously attacks Shadow. Unable to counter the onslaught, Shadow is quickly overwhelmed.

At Turtle House, The Oracle works hard to conjure up an image on his crystal ball. Although they have no way of telling how well the battle is going for Sonic, everyone is excited that Sonic's energy is so high, but The Turtle Hermit fears that Sonic is pushing himself beyond his limits.

Shadow continues to take damage from Sonic, and grows furious that his own Nikuhog blood has been drawn by a lower class warrior. Sonic's body begins to have trouble enduring the strain imposed by the Warp 3, and he realizes he has to defeat Shadow quickly. Fueled with anger, Shadow decides to destroy Sonic, along with the rest of the planet, by unleashing the Chaos Spear Barrage attack. Sonic counters with a Warp 3 powered Turtle Destruction Wave, and when he decides it is not enough, raises himself to Warp 7 (yeah, I went there). Shadow is hit point-blank by the beam and rocketed into the sky, leaving Sonic exhausted from the surge of energy.

Big, who had been watching the entire battle in hiding, comes forward to congratulate Sonic. A simple pat on the back turns out to be more than Sonic can handle, and he screams in pain. Upon hearing from Sonic that Shadow is still alive and will return soon, Big again retreats into hiding. Freeing himself from the crest of the Turtle Destruction Wave, an outraged Shadow decides to transform. After failing to find the moon, he returns to Sonic and reveals another way to transform. Shadow tells Sonic the origin of the Blitz Waves, reflected from the moon, and how they cause a reaction in the Nikuhogs. When thrown into the sky, the Blitz Waves are activated, allowing Nikuhogs to transform. It all seems to confuse Sonic, until Shadow creates a small, artificial moon with his own energy. With his tail gone, Sonic is unaffected, but as Shadow stares at it, he completes his terrible transformation into a Werehog.

While on their way back to the Turtle House, Tails spots the Fake Moon in the distance. He then began to tremble, remembering Sonic's Werehog transformations. Feeling Shadow's increase in power, Chucky becomes worried for his father and chooses to return and help him. Unable to stop Chucky, Tails returns as well. Back on the battlefield, Sonic does his best against the transformed Shadow. However, Shadow is amazingly fast and agile for his size, as well as ten times stronger than he was in his previous form, and Sonic begins to lose his energy. During the chase, Sonic soon realizes that he himself was the terrible monster of the full moon that his uncle told him about many years ago, as well as the one who actually killed him during a mindless rampage. Putting aside his feelings of guilt, Sonic prepares to retaliate against Shadow. Meanwhile, back at Turtle House, The Oracle manages to get the battle onto his Crystal Ball.

Sonic prepares to create a Soul Blast. In order to buy the time he needs to concentrate, he uses the Fist of the Sun technique to temporarily blind Shadow, and then flies off to a safe distance. Once safely away, Sonic stretches his arms out and begins gathering energy from everything in nature, and once enough is obtained, he concentrates it all into his fist. However, just before he can fire, Shadow recovers from the Fist of the Sun and launches a Super Chaos Spear at Sonic, catching him by surprise. Sonic subsequently takes the full force of the attack and loses his energy for the Soul Blast.

Exhausted by the strain from gathering energy, Sonic is unable to dodge Shadow for long before Shadow pins him and crushes both of his legs by stomping on them. Sonic manages to retaliate by firing the last of his energy directly into Shadow's right eye, damaging it severely. Furious at the loss of half his vision, Shadow grabs Sonic in his hands and begins to grabs Sonic in his hands and begins to squeeze him to death.

Big watches as Shadow slowly crushes Sonic in his hands. He is convinced that not helping Sonic is the right thing to do, as there is little he can do. Chucky and Tails arrive at the scene. Tails recognizes Shadow's Werehog form, and rushes to the ground with Chucky. There, they stumble upon Big's hiding spot.

After Big fills them in, Tails puts together a plan to cut off Shadow's tail, returning him to normal. As Big flees the scene, Chucky gets Shadow's attention long enough for Tails to form a Energy Buzzsaw and launch it from behind. Shadow is expecting this attack, however, and manages to avoid it.

All seems lost until Big catches Shadow off guard and slices his tail off with his sword, which returns him to his original form. After reverting back, an angry Shadow starts to attack Chucky as Big once again goes into hiding. Tails leaps to assist Chucky, but one swift kick from Shadow takes him out of the fight. Shadow then head butts Chucky, drawing blood.

At Turtle House, everyone is losing hope. Sally seems to have lost her senses, when all of a sudden, she encourages Chucky to fight. She leaps onto her feet and cheers on Chucky to beat Shadow, roughing up Hamlin a bit in the process.

Shadow tosses Chucky like a rag doll next to his defeated father. Wounded and frightened of Shadow, Chucky is about to give up, until he receives an encouraging lecture from Sonic about how Knuckles believed in him and ultimately laid down his life for him. Shadow mercilessly attacks Sonic again, and it is more than Chucky can take. Chucky, gathers his energy and continues his battle with Shadow. They fight one on one, and this time Chucky is able to hold his own. As Chucky and Shadow fight, Sonic calls Tails, who limps over to him. Sonic passes on the energy remaining from the Soul Blast to Tails, who manages to form it into a ball. Sonic warns him that he must hit Shadow at all costs as it is his last bit of energy, thereby making the Soul Blast their last hope of defeating Shadow once and for all.

Back at Turtle House, Sally continues to root for Chucky, but then begins to sob into her father's lap. The Oracle has a hard time following the rapid movements of Chucky and Shadow. Chucky and Shadow split up, and Chucky launches a Demon Flash at Shadow. He dodges it at the last second, and returns several Demon Flashes, each of which Shadow avoids.

The rapid movements make it difficult for Tails to aim the Soul Blast. King Lazaar speaks to Tails, telling him not to aim at Shadow with his eyes, but to allow himself to know when the right moment is. Tails feels the pressure of his task as King Lazaar reminds him the hopes and prayers of the entire planet rest on his shoulders. Shadow grows impatient, and begins shooting Energy Barrages at Chucky, who manages to stay ahead of the onslaught, but is eventually knocked against a rock. Tails concentrates even harder on feeling out Shadow's movements. Shadow rushes toward a stunned Chucky to finish him off as Tails finally finds the right moment.

Just as Tails is about to launch the Soul Blast, however, an impatient Big yells at him to get on with it, drawing Shadow's attention. Tails throws the Soul Blast, but Shadow sees it coming and leaps out of the way. It is at this instant that The Oracle's Crystal Ball explodes, leaving everyone at Turtle House clueless. Sonic sends a telepathic message to Chucky, telling him to bounce it back towards Shadow, since the Soul Blast will not harm anyone who harbors no evil in their heart.

The pure-hearted Chucky puts his hands out, and succeeds in bouncing it back. The Soul Blast subsequently hits Shadow and sends him back into the sky. Chucky and Tails gather around Sonic to rest now that the battle is apparently over. At the Turtle House, The Oracle attempts to repair his crystal ball as Rouge offers to take Sally to the battlefield to see what is happening. The Turtle Hermit offers to go as well, as does Chao, surprising everyone with his entrance. They all board Rouge's airship and take off in the direction of the battle. Rouge, however, immediately gets on Chao's bad side when she cluelessly compares him to an ordinary fairy.

Shadow's body falls out of the sky and lands nearby, startling them. Thinking he is dead, Big and Tails cheekily gloat about their victory, but Shadow suddenly wakes up and injures Tails as Big hides again. Shadow, though badly damaged and on the brink of passing out, forces himself towards Sonic and Chucky with the intent of finishing them off. Suddenly, he releases all of his energy in the form of his strongest attack, Chaos Blast, destroying much of the nearby land. Sonic, Chucky and Tails are knocked around a bit, but remain relatively unharmed due to Shadow's decreased energy. Desperate to stay awake, Shadow flies over to Chucky, prepared to finish him off next, though he is stopped by a painful sight: Chucky's tail has grown back, and with the Blitz Waves emanating from the Fake Moon, he could transform at any moment.

Chao continues to give Rouge directions to the battlefield. Desperate for news as to whether or not Chucky is still alive, Sally begins to threaten Chao as The Turtle Hermit tells them both to stop. Shadow begins to gather energy to remove Chucky's tail, but before he can do it, Big cuts into Shadow's armor across the back with his sword. Shadow is injured further, and falls to the ground. Big stands gloating over his fallen opponent, but Shadow rises again and starts walking toward him. Unable to connect with his sword a second time, Big tries to apologize to Shadow, saying his words were meant as a joke. Angry at Big for having injured him, Shadow starts beating him up repeatedly.

Sonic sees this distraction as an opportunity. In a last-ditch strategy, he instructs a dazed Chucky to look up at the Fake Moon currently radiating Blitz Waves. Chucky does, and begins his transformation into a Werehog. A panicked Shadow tries to prevent the transformation but to no avail, and Chucky begins to wreak havoc. Being half-Mobian, Chucky is slightly more easily reasoned with as a Werehog than Sonic, and with Tails and Big cheering him on, he directs his attacks toward Shadow. Shadow focuses all his power into staying clear of Chucky long enough to figure out a way to cut off his tail. None of his efforts even slow Chucky down; however, he finds a chance to remove Chucky's tail with one of his own Energy Buzzsaw. Shadow fails to get clear of the falling Chucky as he slowly returns to normal, and is crushed under Chucky's massive body. This last blow being more than he could deal with, Shadow activates his space pod to retrieve him using a small remote control device.

In the ruins of Radical City, a number of radiation-suited investigators are gathered around Shadow and E-123's space pods, the only things left in the city, when Shadow's pod becomes active and flies away. Tails sees it approaching and realizes Shadow is trying to get away. Crawling towards the pod, Shadow is angered for letting himself be defeated so badly. Visibly limping, Tails moves in to eliminate Shadow with Big's katana. From his planet, King Lazaar praises Sonic and the others for fighting so valiantly against the evil Nikuhogs, but makes a remark about them not defeating the worst evil of all. Barely able to move, Shadow is unable to defend himself against Tails' attack. However, a telepathic plea from Sonic stops Tails just short of Shadow's face.

As Shadow pulls himself inside the pod, Tails and Sonic argue over the wisdom of letting him go. Tails hopes Sonic isn't thinking Shadow's heart will soften if he is shown mercy, the way it worked with Knuckles. Sonic agrees that there is no guarantee that will be the case with Shadow, but adds that seeing him so close to death makes him think what a waste taking his life away would be and that killing him would only show him the same anger and violence he embraces as his way of life and instead wishes to expose him to the warmth of kindness and plant seeds of graciousness, mercy, and love in his heart, optimistic that they will one day grow. Besides, Shadow is the strongest opponent Sonic has ever faced, and after some recovery and more training, his own Nikuhog blood will yearn for a rematch. Tails feels he owes it to Team Chaotix to avenge their deaths, but reluctantly allows Shadow to go, saying that he hopes Sonic is right about this decision. Watching over the conversation, King Lazaar also hopes that Sonic is right. Swearing revenge, Shadow closes the pod and blasts off into space.

Upon reflecting on his failed mission in his space pod, he concedes that it couldn't get worse... until he is confronted by the Ghost of E-123, who says that he is now haunting him, Shadow is horrified and is last seen flying off with a loud "Nooo!"

(queue ghost busters music)

Sha Sha Shadow Shadow

Shadow Shadow Shadow

Sha Sha Shadow Shadow

GHOST OMEGA!