City of The Lost

by Shane Leath

Silver is pulled into an alternate dimension where an older Miles 'Tails' Prower is a fascistic dictator and former friend of Dr Robotnik who is now in hiding trying everything he can to overthrow his former friend.

2. Due Vendetta

14

City of The Lost: Part 2: Due Vendetta

Much later Silver woke with a start, he was held down by Robotnik "Whoa, whoa, whoa there kid. Calm down, calm down, you're safe. You've been out for nearly 8 hours." Silver looked around and saw he was back in the workshop, yet it was more crowded than when he and Knuckles left. Gathered by the table was Shadow, Espio, Knuckles and a few others that looked familiar but he couldn't put a name to their faces. Robotnik helped him to his feet and over to the table where they had a map of the city laid out before the group. It was marked all over with various colors of ink denoting locations of cameras, security bot hives, possible blind spots, and in the center of the map, Miles' tower.

"Alright Silver here's the plan…" Robotnik, Shadow, and Knuckles began explaining the plan and revising it when someone pointed out a potential failure. They made their plans carefully. Spending hours on the details. Shadow, despite having ties to Robotnik from before Miles' takeover, was one of his top security officers and the one who helped develop the telescreens and transmitters he used to control the city. Thinking that this situation may come to pass, he inserted a kill switch for the entire system that only he could flip or remove.

If he could reach the main telescreen on top of Miles' tower they could take out the central transmitter. They could stop the broadcasts going out to the satellite screens. They could stop the broadcasts going out to the machines. He could take out Miles' eyes. If they did that then Robotnik could get into the city undetected and finally get revenge on Miles and end this madness.

"This WILL be our only chance at stopping my son, to light this eternal night of oppression up with the fires of hope and freedom. If we fail now all of us will be killed. We'll need all of you in this room to pull this plan off but if you wish to step out now, then do so…" He waited a moment for anyone to leave, no one even glanced at the door. "Alright then, everyone armor and gear up. We leave as soon as sunset falls." The group cheered and started to do as such while Robotnik retreated to his room where Silver followed with a few questions, especially about that 'my son' bit. He sat at a desk in front of a mirror looking down at a group of pictures, Silver looked over his shoulder at them and what he saw caused him to actually feel sympathy for the man he knew in his homeworld to be a monster.

The first photo was of him standing alongside his grandfather Prof. Gerald Robotnik, his cousin Maria, Shadow, and what he presumed to be his and her parents. It was a celebration party for the Professor as held a framed plaque with a headshot and caption "Professor Gerald Robotnik, The Man who cured N.I.D.S.". The next was a series of wedding photos of Robotnik and his wife, caption "Ivo and Isabella Robotnik, Oct. 18th, 3229. Next another family photo but one of a birthday party, who it was for though surprised Silver, sitting at a table with a cake lit up with 14 candles was Tails smiling broadly, Robotnik and a woman kneeling beside him smiling fondly at the boy. Next was a graduation photo, Robotnik and the woman from the birthday picture standing next to Tails holding a diploma and dressed in graduation gown and cap, the diploma read "Miles 'Tails' Prower-Robotnik, Class of 3238 Summa Cum Laude.

By now Robotnik had taken notice of his silent observer and spoke "I found him wandering the streets at the age of 8, I was 21 and just proposed to the love of my life. When I brought him home Bella at first wanted to take him to an orphanage but then she looked in his eyes. Saw the innocence, the heart, the hope in his eyes and a year before we even got married we had our first child."

"What happened… to them, your family…"

Robotnik removed his glasses for he knew the tears were coming. "Well, my Grandfather died of old age long before Tails became… what he is now. I convinced my parents to skip town the night Tails became Miles and took over, Maria refused to leave and insisted on staying behind to try and talk sense into my son… I never saw her again after that night… Then my Bella, my precious Bella… she saw what I what I refused to see and that night when we first turned on the robots she confronted him. And so he killed her and framed me for the murder to cover up and hide his evil intentions."

Silver knew he should say something but could find no words.

"I waited over thirty years for a chance like this to come around… Miles took my life… my work… my family… my wife, my love… and my son… It is time for his rule to come to an end." Robotnik rose from the desk, tears wiped away and his face hardened with determination. He looked out the window then returned to the main room where the resistance was waiting and prepared to go. "Let's light up the night." The resistance cheered and roared as they exited the building, psyching themselves up for the assault and battle ahead. As a unit they rode towards the city, the group known as the Hooligans, which were almost an entire army in and of themselves rather than just Nack, Bean and Bark, lead the charge, their duty was to draw the attention of the police bots making an opening for the group known as the Babylon Rogues to start rallying as many people as they could and lead them to fight against Miles' forces.

With Miles' forces spread thin and chasing The Hooligans through town it made the perfect opening for Espio, Shadow and Silver to charge the Tower and disable the telescreens and transmitters and capture Miles, leaving Knuckles able to Chaos Control himself and Robotnik to the tower where he would end this madness once and for all.

As soon as they saw the first set of helicopters take to the skies and Hounds howl, they saw the telescreens switch to a message from Miles stating that a group of insurgents was assaulting the city but not worry and stay inside, that the State would take of it quickly and efficiently. The Resistance waited just outside the city limits watching the flag poles at each of the military bases, whenever the Hooligans had taken one down the flag would be lowered. There were 6 to be taken out and replaced with a Flag of Resistance, something the Babylon Rogue, Wave had been working on for awhile in secret.

10 minutes and the first flag fell.

Another 10 and the second fell.

The third fell in another 10.

"Say what you will about their methods, The Hooligans get shit done quickly and done right," Shadow commented. Silver nodded, only Sonic could do this that quickly; then again an army of 120 well-trained Ex-Military and Special Forces fighting to take back their city could match anyone with speed and ferocity. Within the hour all 6 bases had fallen "Mission accomplished Commander Shadow, we'll take care of these Hounds and Hawks and keep 'em off the backs of the Rogues."

"Excellent work Nack, the Rogues on their way." Jet, Wave, and Storm didn't even hear anything past "Mission Accomplished" they had already shot into the city and began to rally the men for battle after a few short moments they heard the telescreens switch to a picture of a very disapproving Miles chanting words to quell the uprising, inspire fear back into his citizens, take away the freedom just within grasp of his subordinates. Yet slowly but surely his chanting was deafened b the roar of the people and their battle cry, their cry for freedom!

"That's our signal, let's go!" the M-100 unit known as Unit-123 Omega lead the charge in full assault mode, his hand were Gatling guns, shoulders had missile pods sticking out of them, and his chest was retracted to reveal even more guns. Shadow ignited the rockets in his skates and blasted off after him with his Inhibitor Rings removed so his fur was lit up with bright red chaotic energy. Silver took note of the fact that this Shadow was much more skilled in manipulating the Chaos than his Shadow as he formed battle armor with it. Silver didn't know if it was for show or if it actually had a purpose but Silver would wait till an enemy hit Shadow to find out.

Espio and Silver on their own EX-Gear followed after them into the city, Silver looked behind him at Knuckles and the Doctor; They raised their hands in salute as they watched them fly away. They entered the city and before Silver's eyes was a war zone, within an hour and thirty minutes this small resistance group had turned Miles' sparkling silver metallic false utopia into the battlegrounds of a revolution. Robot parts, weapons, shattered telescreens, and debris littered the streets; as the buildings flew past them as they rushed towards the center of the city, towards where the fate of the city would be decided, Silver saw what was once scared citizens of the city had turned into ferocious soldiers of a fight for freedom.

Using whatever they could get a hold of as weapons against Miles' machines, the robots were built for combat yet even steel has a breaking point and everything has a weak point. Once people started finding the weak points and what could take them out, The Hounds, The Hawks, The Riot-bots, all of them started to fall. When you show men freedom, the way to achieve it, and the tools to do so, nothing can stop them.

The group of four blasted, slashed, smashed and crashed their way down Main Street towards Miles' Tower; when they reached the courtyard outside the entrance to the tower and found that Miles had a squad of large humanoid robotic bears, built like tanks standing at 12' tall; Some were transformed into bear form yet they still were massive standing at 6'. They had no weapons other than their large, long sharp claws and missile pods on their shoulders. Shadow smirked, his fangs bared, "Wonderful they brought out the Bears. I was looking for a challenge."

Above the crowd of Bears, Miles stood in a telescreen glaring down at them daring them to make a move. "YOU WILL STOP RIGHT NOW! THIS IS MY CITY! I BUILT THIS CITY! I SAVED HUMANITIES LIVES WITH MY CREATIONS! ATTACK THEM!"

Shadow blasted two of the Bears back with a Chaos Blast, Espio turned invisible and two more fell with kunai sticking out of their necks and heads. Silver grabbed one and threw it against another before slamming it into an archway bringing tons of stone and steel down on a group of three. Shadow faced the telescreen again and issued his own challenge "AND HOW MANY DIED IN THE PROCESS?" The trio continued to attack as more of the Bears attempted to cut them down, a shouting match broke out between Shadow and Miles.

"HOW MANY HAVE YOU SILENCED!"

"I SAVED THIS CITY!"

"HOW MANY YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN WERE CUT DOWN IN THEIR PRIME!?"

"I WILL SAVE THIS WORLD!'

"HOW MANY FATHERS, MOTHERS, BROTHERS, SISTERS, SONS, AND DAUGHTERS WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR FAMILIES BECAUSE THEY VOICED AN OPINION!"

"HUMANITY DOES NOT KNOW WHAT'S BEST FOR THEM!"

Shadow finally had enough and unleashed a massive Chaos Blast sending them and the Bears flying and blasting apart the courtyard. Then everything went silent for a moment… then the angry mob of people arrived at the courtyard chanting loud so that even over 2,700 feet in the air Miles could hear them loud and clear in his control room.

Shadow, breathless and tired issued one last question "Like you do?"

"Yes… I do. Now all of you stand down!"

"Look around you, Miles! You've lost! The people have opened their eyes to your tyranny! You may have given them all the time they want to indulge in the pleasures of life, but you took away their Hope, Hope for life, Hope for love, Hope for being whatever they want to be, Hope for a better future."

The Crowd continued chanting "GIVE US FREEDOM! GIVE US OUR CITY! GIVE US FREEDOM! GIVE US HOPE! GIVE US FREEDOM! OR GIVE US DEATH" and they continued to chant.

"FINE! You want death, then you can have it!" Ordered Miles then his screen went black. The crowd kept chanting and advancing towards the tower. "It is over?" Silver asked Shadow shook his head "No we still have to take out the transmitter and Tails." They started marching towards the entrance when something slammed into them, fast and hard, sending the three back into the crowd of people. When Silver recovered he was shocked at who he saw, it was not the face of evil. It was the face of a hero.

Sonic the Hedgehog

His face lacked the youth and vitality of Silver's Sonic, replaced with age and apathy; gone was the optimism and faith in his eyes replaced with cynicism and doubt. He also lacked a lot of other things like his left arm, his legs and more of his body; they were replaced with cybernetics. His left arm, now a canon, his legs and most of his torso were mechanical, one eye was a stoic malicious red cybernetic. Sonic, who fought so hard to keep and protect the world from being ruled by robots and the people becoming them, was now one of them

The crowd's cries suddenly died out and they froze in fear and looked to Silver after a few tense moments of silence Sonic spoke. "So they look to you now… they look to you to save them… they once looked to me like that."

"What are you doing Sonic!?"

"I'm saving mankind from themselves."

"All they want is freedom! The freedom that you stand and fight for!"

"USED to stand for. No longer. These people do not want freedom, no matter how loud they chant, no matter how much they fight, and call for a hero… they do not want one…"

"These people just fought through hordes of Miles' robots to get here to take back their freedom and city! If that's not a fight for freedom than what is?!"

"Yet they stand here now, frozen in fear watching you, waiting for you to solve their problems and save the day. There are no heroes left in man." To prove his point he focused on the crowd. "Is there anyone here that has the courage to even step forward and fight? Anyone who values fighting and dying for freedom over living a life of forced complacency!"

No one stepped forward.

Sonic gestured to the crowd as he turned his attention back to Silver. "Do you see now, Do you understand? If you want them to have their freedom, then you must stand against me and you will stand alone!" Silver walked closer to Sonic who just stood there eyeing the crowd and daring, almost begging, them to prove him wrong. "I will not fight you but ask you to stand with me. You were a hero once! You can be one again!"

"If I can be a hero to them, then they are fools!"

"They need a hero Sonic! You can be it!"

"If they want a fight for freedom, then let them fight for it! They need to fight for themselves!"

Shadow had finally stood back up and as he limped over to where Sonic and SIlver stood he protested his words "They don't know how! They know no better… they have no hope…"

"Well then, you finally understand. There are no heroes left in man." Sonic raised his arm cannon and charged it, ready to finish the fight when a can hit him in the head… followed by a rock… and a shoe… and robot parts spent bullet casings and anything people could lift and throw. They began to chant once again and march to the tower and attack Sonic "You want us to fight! We'll give you a fight!" Silver and Shadow turned to face the crowd and attempt to stop them but they overpowered them and dogpiled Sonic. The sound of metal crunching and wires ripping and Sonic's cries of pain echoed through the courtyard. When the people cleared and turned their attention to invading the tower, they left Sonic laying on the ground.

The two hedgehogs approached and kneeled next to him and found him to be smiling faintly and a tear falling from his eye, he looked at them as they got down. "Why didn't you fight back? You knew you could overpower them." Shadow asked.

"Heh heh… the caught me by surprise… They actually fought…" Sonic coughed then recoiled as something in his body started to buzz. "What's going on, what's happening?" Silver asked concerned.

"Don't worry kid, that's just my auto-repair going to-ACK! Work HURNG! I'll be operational in-RRRGGG- a few moments." Sonic looked towards the sky with a thousand yard stare. "I waited so long to be proven wrong…"

"Well, you were wrong Sonic, there are heroes." Sonic laughed and smiled. "Yes… yes, there are." He looked at Shadow and Silver, his faith in mankind restored. There was loud ca-chunk and pissh as Sonic let out a guttural roar of pain and his back arched sharply sending his chest skyward. Then he started to stand as Shadow and Silver helped he asked "So what's the plan boys? All that's left for me to do is to atone for what I've done."

"I need to get to the transmitter at the top, I can shut it down and stop this nightmare." Sonic nodded. "Alright follow me and try to keep up!" Sonic dashed into the tower with Shadow and Silver after him, they began making their way up the tower. Smashing their way through every robot that got in the way till they reached the location of the transmitter, Miles' Control Room. Silver ripped the door off its hinges and sent it flying into the room where Miles waited at his desk, he was sitting there leaning on it with his elbows, his fingertips touching. He glared at the hedgehogs as they entered the room and approached the desk, the air was cold and thick with tension as both sides wanted the other dead but were unsure if they could make it so.

"Are you happy now… My city is in ruins, my robots are broken parts, everything I worked for my entire life has been destroyed in only a few short hours." Sonic and Shadow stalked towards the desk with their firearms aimed straight at Miles. "Now that you ask it, no, no we're not. Once that transmitter is blown to pieces, you're locked behind bars and the control of the city has been restored to the people then I might be happy." Shadow spat and cocked the pistol. Sonic began charging his arm cannon. "Hands on the desk, palms up, now."

Miles smiled at Sonic "Oh, you're the one giving orders to me?" he asked each word dripping with sarcasm. "Yeah, I am you smarmy little fox now do it!" Miles laughed as he compiled "I think you forget who the master is in this relationship Sonic." As Shadow took out a couple of zip ties to cuff him he slammed the bottom of the desk with a knee; something went beep then Sonic screamed clutching his head. Shadow caught off guard dropped the zip ties and gun then Sonic swung around and locked him in a neck-hold. "HA HA! You idiots! You really think I didn't plan for this? That I wouldn't have a contingency plan for if Sonic or the people rebelled. Sonic blast Shadow's head off will you?"

"Yes, Master." His arm cannon whined as he charged it, Miles turned his attention to Silver. "Well then Mr. Psychokinesis looks like you have a choice you can save Shadow and kill Sonic or you ca-" He didn't even finish his sentence as Silver grabbed him and lifted him in the air. "Oh shut up, I've had enough of you villains grandstanding and delivering evil monologues about how you'll be the winner of it all in the end." Silver tore Sonic from Shadow and held him against the wall giving him a chance to get to the transmitter control panel. "If you spent more time actually doing stuff instead of grandstand then maybe you would win." Miles growled and Silver noticed his fur begin to darken.

"You're right Silver… monologuing is the reason why you three defeated me in the first place." Blas smoke and tar started to drip from his body as his eyes turned green, Shadow flipped the control switch on the transmitter and one by one the telescreens went dark and the robots shut down. He turned around to face Silver and Miles with a walkie-talkie in hand to inform Knuckles and Robotnik of the victory "It is over. No more- what the fu-" Then everything went boom.

Silver was getting very tired of things going boom around him.

Silver's hold on Miles and Sonic was broken and they fell to the floor, the blast shattered the windows and the telescreen hanging just outside them. Shadow was blown out the window and began falling 275 stories to the ground below, Sonic was slammed through the floor to another story, somehow Silver managed to stay roughly in the same place. As he picked himself off the floor he found the ground was covered in a thick black tar-like substance and every shadow in the room seemed to watch him. Miles was lying deathly still on his desk like he had been sacrificed to some god. Then the shadows started to talk.

"You fool… you fell right into my trap…" Silver looked around him for the owner of the voice but could see no one. "What are you talking about?!"

"Heh heh heh heh… this whole world, the robots, the city, Miles' betrayal and Robotnik's downfall… all of it was by design, all for you…"

"I'm touched, why not come out here so I can thank you personally."

"If I must…" All the shadows in the room started to converge at one point, the tar formed tendrils that rose to meet them slowly it started to form into a being. At first, it looked like Shadow then the tar began to harden and crystalize into a deep almost black purple slowly fading into stark white tips, the sclera turned a blood red and eyes a brilliant emerald green. As the rest of the creature's body began to form the room grew colder and Silver's unease grew; something in his mind was telling him knew this creature but at the same time he did not. It was also telling him to run like hell as far as he can as fast as he can… he ignored it.

The being finally formed and floated down to the floor, and he stalked over to Silver "What? Nothing? Did you forget me?" Silver's eyes widened. "If I saw you before I would certainly have remembered you! I've never seen anything like you before in my life!" Silver felt the tar lash out and wrap itself around his wrists and legs forcing him to kneel.

"I'm sure you've seen me before, in fact, we were once great… friends…" He raised a glowing fingertip to Silver's forehead and taped it slightly, Silver cried in pain at the contact and as old memories locked away deep in his subconscious came to the forefront of his mind. Memories of an altered timeline where he lived in a lost future locked in eternal conflict with a god known as Iblis and the journey back in time to stop him before he could take the world before failing and culminating in the fight with the God of Spacetime and Fire, Solaris. Then the fight with Mephiles as spacetime collapsed around them before trying to reset everything and Mephiles' meddling causing everything to be reset and reborn anew.

As Silver looked up at Mephiles he could sense his smugness "Well now, do you remember me?"

"How?"

"How what? How did I survive the reset? Please… you can't erase a god from existence, we ARE existence! Bah, what I'm doing monologuing, I should take your advice and just execute my plan."

"Plan? What would that be?" Mephiles bent down and held Silver's chin in his crystalline hands, the sharp fingertips opening cuts in his muzzle, his reptilian eyes gazed into Silver's. "You really think I'm going to tell you that?"

Silver couldn't help but notice the humor in the question. "Yeah." Mephiles rolled his eyes and dropped Silver's head. "Pathetic. Yet I'll humor you, you can't do anything about it anyway. I'm going to kill you, each and every one of you."

"But there's only one of me." Mephiles looked at him like a dog looking at a new dish. "Please, you've met alternate reality versions of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Robotnik, Shadow and more, you really think there isn't one of you in this reality?"

"Oh…"

"Oh is right, and I plan to do the same with Sonic, Shadow and all the others but first I'll have a little fun and run their world into the ground, crush their souls before I crush their existence in every reality."

The gravity of his plan hit Silver like a ton of bricks, if it came to fruition then there would be no one who could face or defeat Mephiles.

"If you want to destroy us then why not give us a chance to fight for our right to exist?"

Mephiles rolled his eyes "Now why would I do that, let me share a little nugget of wisdom. No matter how much power one has at hand, even the smallest bit of luck given to your opponent can swing the battle in their favor. So I'm taking away the chance for you to get lucky in battle and defeat me."

"If you're an all-powerful god of spacetime that cannot be erased, then why not chance it? You can always start fresh with a new set of Silvers, Sonics, and Shadows." Mephiles stopped, he hadn't thought of that.

"You raise an excellent point hedgehog." The tendrils that held Silver down released him and as he stood up, Mephiles challenged him. "Bring it on mortal, show me what you've got."

"You've got it!" Silver's fur glowed brightly as he charged towards Mephiles, throwing everything he could pick up at him but Mephiles batted them back towards him. Silver reached out the window with his powers and yanked a support beam from the telescreen from its moorings, Mephiles heard the crash and turned to see a 144 Lb section of steel flying towards him. The beam impaled Mephiles and sent him flying him through the front wall into the elevator shaft where it stuck him on the wall, Silver leaped onto the beam and taunted Mephiles. "Call mercy yet?"

Mephiles grabbed both sides of the beam and crushed it before Silver could react he twisted and the beam snapped sending both of them into a free fall. At first, Silver screamed in surprise and fear before catching himself and turning to face the falling Mephiles who tore the remains of the support out of his chest and hurled it at him. Not wanting to be impaled like Mephiles was Silver dashed out of the way latching onto one of the elevator cables he swung around and as Mephiles passed by him Silver slammed into him feet first. Mephiles crashed through the elevator shaft door and skid across the floor leaving a skid-mark of tar where a metal boot stopped him.

Mephiles looked up and found himself staring down the barrel of Sonic's Arm Cannon. "Eat plasma bitch!" The beam sent both himself and Mephiles flying, the floor below shattered under Mephiles as he fell through while Sonic hit the wall behind him and slid to the floor. Silver ran to his side and helped him up "Whoa-ho-ho. Are you good?" Sonic spat some blood on the floor as he moved over to the hole his blast made. "I'm not trying to blast your head off am I?"

"Fair point."

"Care to tell me what that thing I just blasted is?"

"Half of an evil god that went insane and wants to erase every version of you, Shadow and I from all realities."

"Oh, sound like a great guy." He stated leaping through the hole. Silver followed after landing in the tar below. "Eck this blasted tar follows him wherever he goes. He's probably hiding int now." He heard a chunk come from Sonic and saw the cannon change color and a small flame lit at the tip. "Then let's smoke him out." There was a whoosh of fire and the room was quickly engulfed in flames. "What are you doing!? You'll burn us both to death!"

"There is a chance of that yeah but there's also a chance of-" Sonic fired off a round that Silver quickly ducked under and hit a rising and on-fire Mephiles in the chest. "There's also a chance of that!" Mephiles growled and launched himself in jetstream of flaming tar into Silver and Sonic and into the elevator shaft. Sonic fell down into the darkness while Silver grappled with the demon. "YOU WILL DIE TONIGHT HEDGEHOG!" Silver reached out with his min and found the elevator with a mysterious occupant inside.

"I don't think so!" He spat in the god's face and yanked his hand upwards pulling the elevator at high speeds towards them, Silver compressed himself into a door frame as the elevator crashed into Mephiles where he punctured the roof and once again Sonic was waiting for him. "Miss me?" He heard another of Sonic's cannon shots resound inside the elevator before it began to freefall down the shaft, Silver flew after it and kept it from slamming into the ground but that didn't keep the occupants from being tossed about. When he was stable Sonic blasted Mephiles out the door and outside where he fell 250 stories to the courtyard.

Silver flew Sonic and himself down to it where they found both Shadow and Mephiles lying in craters, Shadow was unconscious while Mephiles floated dazed in a pool of tar. "Alright, now that he's dazed I can grab hold of him and seal him away!" Silver started running over to him with Sonic in toe.

"Do you have something to seal him in?" Silver stopped, no he didn't. He had to think of something to do and fast. Unfortunately, he didn't have the time as tendrils shot out of the pool and wrapped him, Sonic, and for good measure Shadow in cocoons. Mephiles growled as he rose from the pit and stalked towards them. "THIS! This is why I refused to fight you! How asinine of me to let you talk me into one… Gah! No matter I'll kill you three now and move onto the next set and not make the same mistake again." He clenched his fist and they felt the tar around them tighter, Sonic's metal parts crunched, Shadow shouted as the sudden pressure woke him with a start, Silver felt and heard his bones breaking and he started to blackout from lack of oxygen.

"This is it? This is how I go out? In an alternate reality saving a world that's not my own?" Were Silver's final thoughts as the black spots in his eyes multiplied and grew. There was a flash of bright golden-white light and the pressure subsided instantly and the hedgehogs fell to the ground. They looked to see who their savior was and saw a super-powered Knuckles standing with the Master Emerald behind him in a hover van driven by Robotnik. The Guardian glowed a bright pink and radiated energy, he stared down Mephiles from across the courtyard who was smoking and hissing and backing away from the super-powered Echidna. "That him?" He asked to seemingly no one, but a large water creature exited the van and silently nodded before engaging Mephiles in combat. "Seems he's not a fan of Chaos."

Silver got to his feet and helped Sonic and Shadow tho theirs. "What are you doing?" Knuckles helped them over to the van, they had a moment to breath as the two gods duked it out. "Lending a hand, we saw the massive explosion from the hideout and before we could think what the cause might be Chaos knocked down the wall of the room we hid the Master Emerald in and said that some god thing had been unleashed."

Robotnik approached the group "We loaded up the Master Emerald into the van and ran here as fast as we could. Would've been here sooner but the people got in the way."

"Right now all three of you sit tight, I'll take care of this!" Silver dashed to the Master Emerald with Sonic and Shadow behind him. They slapped their hands on the Master Emerald and without thinking almost instinctively began to pray.

"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power; power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. Give us the Chaos to Light the Darkness!"

Another blast of golden-white light resounded and when it cleared the trio were lit up in golden Chaos, Silver's fur turned a light gold, Shadow's was a golden lemon and while Sonic still retained his robotic parts they turned golden and he gained a pair of jet thrusters on his back. "Not without us!" Knuckles nodded and as Chaos retreated to let the Supers take care of Mephiles, Silver could swear he saw a flash of "Oh shit, not again." on his face. Knuckles sent Mephiles flying skyward with an uppercut that broke his crystalline jaw; Sonic flew to meet him and let loose a supercharged plasma blast that shattered the tips of his head crystals. Mephiles was sent flying smoking and cracking towards the ground where Knuckles sent him flying back into the air with another punch. He looked skyward and saw Shadow grinning like a madman above him with his fist in the other. He brought them down hard on Mephiles' face and it piledrived the god back into the ground where the force shattered his legs to shards.

As Mephiles lay there in pain Super Silver approached him and with a clasp of his hand gripped him in his psychokinesis. "You may be immortal, you may be a god, you may be able to reset time… but know this while I still exist. You will never win!" Then he cupped his hands at his chest and shot a concentrated beam of Chaos at Mephiles, trapping him. Followed by Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow and Mephiles roared in guttural rage and pain as he was burnt to a crisp by the light. Robotnik ran towards it with something in his hands, a scepter, he opened the top and Mephiles was drug screaming, burning, raging, and mad into it.

"YOU WILL NEVER BE RID OF ME! MY RAGE WILL LIVE ON! I WILL BE FREE AND DESTROY ALL OF YOU AND THIS WRETCHED WORLD!"

When the screaming, ranting and roaring ceased Robotnik closed the scepter and sealed it shut before handing it over to Knuckles who blasted it with Chaos Energy forming a Chaos Seal of some sort. "Not within the next couple hundred thousand years." They powered down and took a moment to catch their breath after a moment they looked at each other and started to laugh. It was over, Miles' control of the city was released and Mephiles' control over him was released and he was sealed away. "We did it, we saved the city and the people and ourselves." Silver rejoiced.

Shadow nodded "Yeah, all that's left is to clean up this mess." Robotnik started for the door. "Starting with my son." Silver grabbed him and the other with his powers and started flying them up to Miles' control room. "Sorry Doc, the elevator's out of order at the moment."

When they reached his room, the tar had vanished and Miles was still laying on the desk unconscious. Robotnik ran to his side and held his head "Wake up my boy, wake up, come one! Wake up! Don't let this whole endeavor be for naught!" Miles moaned and slowly opened his eyes, in them the Doctor saw youthfulness, naivety, innocence, and intelligence.

Tails was back.

"Dad? What's going on?" Robotnik grasped his son tight in a hug and started sobbing uncontrollably. "Don't worry my son, you're safe now that's all that matters now." As they held each other Silver took Shadow, Sonic, and Knuckles to the side curious about what was going to happen going forward. "So what happens now? You can't send Tails to jail, he was under Mephiles' influence."

"True but we can't let him lead either, the city won't trust him anymore after tonight." Shadow said looking over at the Robotniks.

"Yeah and we can't blame it on Mephiles' control either, no one will believe that either." Sonic replied.

"Then what do we do?" Knuckles asked. They stared out over the city which had seemed to stop entirely. Then Silver got an idea. "Hey, Shadow… how much of you do the public know?"

He raised his eyebrow "Next to none, I kept myself out of the public eye in the case that I did decide to usurp Mil- I mean Tails."

"Then that's what we do, you take responsibility as leader of the rebellion and ask the people if they wish for you to lead them. I'm sure they'd agree, hundreds saw you in the courtyard earlier."

"They also saw you, why not make you the leader? And what makes you think that the people will want someone to lead them, as far as they know I'll just take control like Tails did."

A new voice joined the conversation. "Then we give them what they want, me." They turned to see Tails standing at the edge of the broken windows staring out over the city. "I brought this on myself, I need to take responsibility for my actions and own up to it." Ivo turned his son to face him. "You can't! They'll kill you! I just got you back, I don't want to lose you again!"

"Then what would you have me do? Runaway and hide?" "No, no, no of course not but-"

"I'll lead." The father and son turned to Shadow. "I'll ask the people if they want me to lead and reform this city. I'll tell them that you died in the explosion that came when Mephiles was unleashed, your body was instantly immolated in the explosion. There'll be no questions and it will allow the two of you to re-enter society under new names and live a new life."

The Robotniks looked at each other and nodded "Sounds like a plan." Shadow nodded turning his attention to Sonic and Knuckles. "As for you two, Knuckles can now return to Angel Island and carry on with his guardian duties. And Sonic… I'm sure we can tell the truth about you and fabricate a few things for you to come in and save the day from."

"Thank you Shadow, I've been missing my home for a long time now."

"It may not convince everyone but at least I get to save the day again."

Then he turned to Silver. "As for you… Thank you for your help, this city, hell this whole reality, is forever in your debt."

"Do you want me to stick around for a bit? Maybe help with the cleanup?" Shadow smiled and laughed slightly. "No Silver I think we'll be fine on our own. We've got a long road ahead of us but we'll make it through." Silver smiled and nodded as he pulled out his Chaos Emerald "Completely forgot I had this. Guess it's time to go then…" The others waved at him while he opened a portal behind him.

"Good luck out there kid!"

"Thank you for saving me!"

"Goodbye and Good luck!"

As Silver stepped through the portal into parts unknown, not knowing if the next stop would be his home or some other reality. He left knowing one thing.

He was Silver the Hedgehog, he freed a city and reunited a father and son, he brought hope to the world, and he fought a god of time and space and won twice.

He was Silver the Hedgehog.