A/N: So this chapter is a bit shorter and doesn't focus on Shadow's ordeal at the USJ.
Anyhow, I'm happy that people are finding my little story interesting. It was brought up that I kinda downscaled Shadow's canon abilities in the last chapter, and admittedly that was a must. I can't have Shadow one shot Noumu at faster-than-light speeds, cuz y'know, fights gotta have a bit of tension.
With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy the story!
...
A blue streak is seen traversing Musutafu, Japan.
"Gotta find Eggman, gotta find Eggman, gotta find Eggman..." This was all the teen said as he fractionally searched the city, zigzagging throughout the streets and scaling up and down the buildings at speeds unattainable by most other beings on the planet.
Suddenly, the Speedster came to a screeching halt. He felt a quake as a building collapsed on the other side of town.
"Wanton destruction, huh?" The teen said in an upbeat tone, "That just screams 'Eggman'."
With that, the Speedster raced in the direction of the destruction, a smirk on his face.
...
Kamui Woods narrowly evaded an attack, managing to leap onto a nearby building. He glared at his foe: a powerful villain that possessed a Muntant-type Quirk that granted him the physique and natural abilities of a lion.
The villain, 'Kodos', was an extremely muscular, shirtless lion-esque man with a full mane, tail, large, and razor sharp claws. He wore solid steel, spiked bracelets and grey jeans. He had a ferocious, bloodthirsty look on his face as he growled at his Heroic combatant.
"I'm guessing it'd be too much to ask for you to come quietly?" The Pro Hero asked sarcastically, receiving only a snarl in response.
"Lacquered Chains Prison!" shouted Kamui Woods, protruding numerous wooden tendrils from his arm that acted as bindings, restraining the villain. Kodos broke free in an instant, sending shards of broken woods all over the place.
"Sure wish All Might would show up already..." The Hero thought as he prepared to attack the villain again. With a large crowd watching from afar, he thought it was best to subdue the Villain before he resorted to taking hostages.
A azure blur suddenly barreled into Kudos, earning the villain's attention. The blue figure practically bounced off Kudos, landing atop a nearby building. It was a teenager with emerald-green eyes, and sharpened, quill-like locks of hair. He wore a blue jacket, t-shirt, and ripped jeans. He also white gloves and was nonchalantly twirling a golden Ring around his finger.
"Alright, tough guy." The speedster addressed the villain, ignoring Kamui Woods. "If you're looking for a fight, I've got you covered!"
Kodos simply laughed, his voice booming. "Sounds like I need to teach you your place. I definitely won't be letting you off the hook-"
Sonic interrupted by tapping his foot impatiently. "I'm waaaaaaaaaaitiiiiiiing-"
"Listen up!" Kodos shot back, brandishing his claws, "I'm gonna slice your eyes out with these! Then we'll see if you're such a smartass! And just so you know-"
A giant fist suddenly smashed Kodos into the concrete, pinning the villain down. Sonic's eyes widened in shock as he noticed the gloved fist belonged to a giant woman wearing some sort of bodysuit.
"That's... new." Sonic mused, "How the heck did I miss her?".
"Kid, you can't go around assaulting Villains without a license." She reprimanded, still pinning the Villain in question under her fist. Sonic gave her a quizzical look. A license for what? Stopping badguys? That did raise the question of where exactly he'd been. He was pretty darn sure he'd been everywhere Mobius had to offer during his many adventures, and never ran into a place where he wasn't allowed to stop evildoers.
"Uh, hello!" The Speedster said, slightly annoyed. "Sonic the Hedgehog? Fastest Thing Alive? Ring any bells?"
Before the conversation could continue, the ground abruptly began shaking violently, causing everyone to lose their balance. Kudos was physically prying the giant woman's fist off of him with his above average strength.
"Out of the way, pissant!" He roared, yanking the woman's fist up and proceeding to launch the her into the distance. Sonic whistled, impressed at the feat of strength.
"And here I thought you were just a random grunt." Sonic acknowledged his strength, "You'd probably give a certain Knucklehead a run for his money!"
Kodos leered at Sonic, ready to slash the teenager to pieces with his massive claws. Sonic simply rolled his eyes, slowly striding towards the villain.
"Hold on!" Kamui Woods began, "You can't fight this guy!"
Sonic scoffed, brushing off his comment. "This won't take long."
Sonic bounded towards Kodos, throwing out a kick to his face. Reacting with surprisely great reflexes, the lion caught the speedster's foot and slammed him into the concrete road, leaving a Sonic-shaped imprint. Kodos quickly proceeded to yank Sonic from the ground, toss him high into the air, and leap after him.
Now airborne, Sonic recovered by retreating into his Spin-ball form, propelleing himself downward and slamming right into Kodos. Slamming the lion into the concrete with a powerful stomp, the hedgehog proceeded to immediately pounce on the villain with repeated Homing Attacks. The hero relented and leapt back a feet, smirking at the floored Kodos.
"Come on now, I thought lions were supposed to be fast!" Sonic called out to him, half expecting the villain to relent. No such luck.
Without saying a word, Kodos suddenly got his feet, looming over Sonic with a feral look in his eyes. The villain proceeded to unleash a massive flurry of slashes, prompting Sonic dodge with a myriad of sidesteps and hops. With Villain's attacks rapidly growing in ferocity and speed, Kudos managed to tag Sonic with a near-lethal slash to his chest, tearing the cloth and leaving a couple of large scrathes across Sonic's chest. Taking advantage of the moment of disorientation, Kodos proceeded to land a clean punch right to Sonic's face, throwing the speedster several feet away and to the road with a thud. Kodos grinned wildly.
"H-Hey, he's down!" Something from the crowd lamented.
"Where the heck are the rest of the Pros?!" Cried another.
"Hey peanut gallery, mind putting a lid on it ?" Sonic suddenly remarked, much to everyone's surprise
Sonic got to his feet, casually stretching and seeming relatively unfazed by that recent attack. He eyed Kodos, who glared daggers back.
"Guess I was little too casual." Sonic shrugged. "See ya."
Sonic hurtled into his adversary at breakneck speeds, inadvertently causing a sonic boom. Before Kodos could hope to react, the hero collided with him with such force that a shockwave surged throughout the area. The impact caused a large crater in the road, as well as a cloud of dust that briefly covered thet combatants. When it cleared, Sonic was seen standing triumphantly over Kodos.
The crowd seemed to express mixed opinions. Some applauded or said words of praise, others seemed to express disdain at the property damage and Sonic's nonchalant demeanor, and few were focused on recording the incident on their mobile devices. Sonic gave a toothy grin and waved at the crowd, not sure why they didn't run other way when a rampaging lion dude was trading blows with Superheroes. Were public battles involving superpowers always treated like schoolyard rumbles around here?
"All in a day's work!" Sonic proclaimed, giving the crowd a thumbs up.
With that, he zoomed off into the distance.
...
"Holy crap!" A young man screamed as if had just woken up with a tarantula on his face. He had caught a glimpse of his reflection in the middle of a city. That being Musutafu, Japan.
He was a relatively short boy with messy blond hair and blue eyes. His attire consisted of a t-shirt with an orange 'Sonic Team' logo, an orange vest, scarf, fingerless gloves, and white and red sneakers. His most defining trait two twin-tails and pair of fox ears.
"Okay Tails, don't panic." He addressed himself, muttering frantically, "This... situation was caused by the Phantom Ruby. This is probably just some sort of illusion..."
That line of reasoning was all Tails could muster considering the circumstances. He honestly had no earthly idea what was going on; the Phantom Ruby's powers were just too unpredictable. Sometimes it warped you across space and time like with Sonic's past self, and other times it distorted the way you see the world. The last thing he could remember was rushing to help Sonic fight Infinite alongside a few others and being caught in some sort of explosion.
Twirling his tails around like rotary blades, Tails shot through the air like a bullet much to the amazement of onlookers.
"Just gotta find-"
A sudden quake surged through the area, catching Tails off guard.
"...Sonic."
...
Five seconds and ten miles later, Tails arrived to see a dispersing crowd, a lion lying in a crater, and a pair of superheroes (?) locked in conversation.
"That kid was pretty good." A woman in purple spandex commented.
"He did subdue the Villain in less than a minute." A man with wooden attire admitted, evidently irked. "However, that doesn't change the fact that it was practically vigilantism. He'll have to he reprimanded."
"Excuse me." Tails interjected, landing to the ground. "What happened here?"
The two turned their attention to Tails, "Some reckless kid came out of no where and defeated this Villain." The masked man explained, gesturing towards the unconscious lion. Sure enough, said 'Villain' was out cold. "Word of advice: don't interfere in Hero-work until you gotten the necessary registration."
Tails ignored that comment and pushed forward with the questions. "This 'reckless kid', did he have any distinctive features?"
"Blue spiked hair and super speed." Kamui Woods answered. "Called himself Sonic the Hedgehog."
Without another word, Tails turned from the heroes and took to the skies, an enthusiastic smile stretched across his face.
"Guess I lucked out. Sonic must be somewhere around here!" The boy thought.
A voice broke through his inner celebrations and he turned to address who'd spoken. Satiety became confusion as he recoiled back several feet. It was the masked man in wooden attire, suspending himself in midair by extending branches from where his arms should be and clinging to a nearby building.
"Quirk usage in public areas is also frowned upon unless otherwise authorized." He reprimanded. Tails was confused for a moment at the term 'Qurik' but quickly connected the dots, landing to the ground with a sigh.
"Sorry sir. I'm... new to all this." Tails confessed.
"Just don't let it happen again." The Hero warned. Kamui Woods thought that such would common knowledge, but wanted to focus on getting answers. "What's your connection to this 'Sonic' character?"
There was a brief pause before Tails spoke up. "He's my brother."
"In that case I think it's best I take you down to the station for some questioning."
Well, getting interrogated wasn't really the plan, but it made things a bit easier assuming these people would help him get in touch with his 'brother'.
"I'm guessing you'll be helping me find my brother?" Tails inquired.
Kamui Woods nodded.
Tails expression lit up, his irritation being replaced with a warm smile.
"Lead the way."
...
A pile of scrap metal was scattered across a forest, Dr. Eggman groggily pulling himself from under it with the Phantom Ruby in hand.
"Ugh, stupid golden rodent!" The Doctor groaned.
Surveying the area, Dr. Eggman noticed that he had been warped far out into the woods. Taking a mental note to carpet bomb the area whenever he made it back to his forces, the Doctor picked a random direction and began trekking. Ten minutes later he came across a huge figure, mistaking it for a very ugly Mobian.
"Oh look, a total freak." The Doctor remarked, catching the creature's attention.
What stood before him was a quite imposing individual with a rugged body and spiky hair. It had sharp teeth, which were stretched into an angry frown.
"What are you supposed to be?" Eggman demanded.
"You may call me Gigantomachia." The creature introduced itself. "As for 'what', I am the last thing you will ever see."
Gigantomachia slowly reached out his hand with intent to crush the Doctor's head. Dr. Eggman rolled his eyes and activated the Phantom Ruby.
"You think you can get rid of me that easily?!" The Doctor laughed.
In a purple flash of light, a Metal Sonic manifested between Eggman and Gigantomachia, confusing the latter. The blue, Sonic-based robot took a defensive position, ready to defend its master.
"Metal, exterminate; no mercy."
"Commencing cellular destruction-
Gigantomachia punched Metal Sonic's head from its shoulders. The robot's body quickly vanished, much to Eggman's horror. His strongest robot was just treated like a toy!
"Well would you look at the time!" Eggman said, gesturing to his nonexistent watch nervously. "I have to go... not get my head crushed."
Before the Doctor could make a break for it, Gigantomachia picked him up like rag doll and brought him dangerously close.
"What was that?" Gigantomachia asked.
"'That?'" Eggman questioned.
Gigantomachia's patience was wearing thin. "That tin can you created out of thin air. How'd you do it?"
"Oh, that! It's very simple..."
Eggman went on to explain the Phantom Ruby, a magical gemstone modified by him to be able to manifest five powerful beings identical to some of his would-be allies. Eggman then elaborated as to why he had it upon Gigantomachia's 'request', claiming he needed to overcome a long-time foe.
"I see. So you're a failure who got lucky, finding a trump card by chance without any merit." Gigantomachia remarked at the end of his tale.
"What?!" Eggman shouted angrily, forgetting the creature could snap him like a twig with relative ease. "I am Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the most feared and powerful-"
"Never heard of you."
Eggman's rage twisted into confusion. Either this thing was living under a rock or he was was sent to another world altogether.
"Uh, hello! Doctor Eggman? IQ exceeding 300? Runs a global empire?"
Gigantomachia shrugged. Eggman face palmed and continued his rantings.
"I've conquered this whole planet and mopped the floor with the Resistance for six months!"
Gigantomachia evidently didn't believe a word. He voiced his disbelief: "I definitely would've heard if some clown conquered the world with an iron fist. Your ramblings are clearly just an pathetic attempt to buy time."
Eggman suddenly gained a panicked expression. He could not die here. Not before he brought Sonic to his knees and showed the world his genius!
"However, I'll admit you've peaked my interest. I don't know who you are but I'd like to see the extent of your resolve. Make an impact."
Gigantomachia set him down and began walking away. Eggman quickly began scurrying back to the pile of scrap that used to be the Egg Breaker.
"I'll have to teach this 'Gigantomachia' his place, but after I find out where the hell I am!" He thought.
