Chapter 1
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik entered his laboratory. Normally, his walk was slow and depressed. His back would be slumped over, a permanent scowl on his face as he moved from machine to machine. But not today. No, today, Dr. Eggman was quite happy. Instead of his slouch, Dr. Eggman's posture was perfect. His normal foot-dragging had turned into an almost skip. He'd even cracked a smile for the first time in a long while. Today was going great.
He gazed at his newest invention as he drew closer. The sleek chrome made it shine by the bright lights above. Finally reaching the machine, Dr. Eggman pulled from his pocket the object responsible for his attitude: a glowing, yellow gem known as a Chaos Emerald. He held the Emerald in front of his face, admiring its purity. Though he'd been digging in the side of a mountain, the emerald was completely clean.
Snapping out of his trance, Eggman looked through the glass dome on the top of the machine. Opening the last compartment, he placed the Emerald gently inside. Eggman felt a sense of accomplishment welling up inside of him. This was the first time in what seemed like an eternity that he'd ended up with all seven Chaos Emeralds. He turned to his robot henchmen, Orbot and Cubot.
"Finally," Eggman proclaimed. "I've collected all the Chaos Emeralds. With this machine, I will use their power to fuse all the worlds in the multiverse to create one world. One world of which I will rule!"
Before his henchmen could reply, the door to the lab busted down. The three turned around to see Eggman's arch-rival standing in the doorway: Sonic the Hedgehog.
"Stop right there, Eggman," Sonic said with a smirk.
Normally, this would make Eggman furious. But today, Eggman felt a rush of adrenaline that he hadn't felt in years. He felt both alive and confident that his plan would work. "Sonic," Eggman calmly acknowledged. "You're too late. To be quite honest, I expected you sooner."
"Better late than never," Sonic retorted. "Whatever it is you're planning to do with those Emeralds, you won't get away with."
"Really? I might have believed you a few days ago. But not today my blue friend. Today will be the beginning of a new era; an era under my command!" Wasting no time, Eggman pressed the button on the machine. It whirred to life, collecting energy from the Emeralds quickly.
Sonic gasped before running to the machine.
"It's too late, hedgehog!"
Sonic stared in horror at the machine, looking for ways to disable it. He began randomly pressing buttons while Eggman laughed behind him. After a moment, he decided to destroy the machine. Sonic curled up into a ball and began spinning in place, revving his body as if it were an engine. He let himself go, spinning into the glass casing. Glass sprayed everywhere, along with the Chaos Emeralds.
"No," Eggman screamed. "What have you done?"
Before Sonic could reply, Eggman's machine began sputtering and emitting light. It grew brighter after every second until Sonic could no longer see anything but white. After a few seconds, he blacked out.
Sonic's vision was blurry as he awoke. As he tried to focus, a sharp pain ran through his skull. After taking a moment to let his vision clear and his headache subside, Sonic noticed a change in scenery. He was no longer in Dr. Eggman's lab, but instead, Sonic had woken in an unfamilar forest. The area appeared desolate. Every tree was free of leaves, broken and lifeless. The ground around them was dry and dusty, lacking any foliage. In the distance were what seemed to be remnants of roads. Destroyed vehicles and buildings were scattered all over.
Panicked, Sonic checked his communicator, a device his best friend, Miles "Tails" Prower had built. While the communicator functioned perfectly, it was unable to pick up any signals.
"What happened here," Sonic muttered to himself. "Was this caused by that explosion?" Sonic ran through the area, looking for any signs of life. Within a few seconds, he'd searched around a square mile's worth of area. Nothing. He decided to check some of the ruined buildings, but before he entered the nearest one, he noticed something strange. A few feet from the building, there was a glowing strand of light, floating at eye level. As Sonic approached it, he could feel some sort of energy emanating from it. Intrigued, Sonic reached his hand out toward the light. There was another flash.
Again, Sonic found himself off balance as his eyes readjusted. Miraculously, Sonic was no longer in the area he had been. Instead of the bleakand lifeless area he'd woken up in, Sonic recognized his new surroundings. He was back in Eggman's laboratory.
"Strange. Where's Eggman?" The lab was empty, save for some desks and assorted machinery. The original machine that had housed the Chaos Emeralds was gone, as were the Emeralds themselves. While examining the area, Sonic's communicator began ringing. It was Tails.
"Sonic, are you okay," Tails asked as Sonic answered the call.
"Yeah, I'm fine Tails. What about you?"
"I'm okay, Sonic. What happened over there? I was monitoring your signal from my lab, but then I heard an explosion and everything went offline for a few hours."
"A few hours? Are you sure about that?" It didn't feel like Sonic had been out that long.
"Yeah, the power just came back on. What's going on?"
"I followed Eggman back to his lab. He had all 7 Emeralds. Put 'em in some kind of machine. It looked like it was harvesting their energy, but I'm not certain. I tried to destory it, which is the explosion you heard. I passed out. It only seemed like a few minutes, but you said I was gone for hours."
"Wait, what do you mean gone?" Tails' voice sounded even more worried than before.
"That's the thing," Sonic replied. "When I woke up, I wasn't in Eggman's lab anymore. I was somewhere else." Sonic told Tails about the strange area he'd woken up in and the strange light he'd seen."
"Sonic, look around you," Tails said. "Is there another one of those glowing lights around you?"
Sonic turned around to where he'd appeared in Eggman's lab, and sure enough, he saw the same light as before. "Yeah, I see one. It's where I was when I got back here."
"I think I have an idea of what's going on. Stay where you are, I'm going to meet you there."
"All right, but don't keep me waiting."
"Impatient as ever. I'll be there in a few. Bye." Tails hung up. Sonic kept looking at the light, confused. What did Eggman do?
