Chapter 7

White Space

Upon entering the next location, Sonic and Eggman both stood in surprise as they gazed at their surroundings.

The entire area was covered in metallic buildings and steel ground. Long, dark blue pipes were littered around while dumping polluted water onto the ground. There were also what looked like to be palm trees sprouted into the metal. However, the natural leaves on the trees had been replaced with brown, non-organic metal plants.

The gloomy sky loomed over the two rivals as they continued to stare. "What is this place doing here?!" Sonic exclaimed in shock. Dr. Eggman rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"Palmtree Panic..." Eggman mumbled.

The last time either people had seen this place was several years ago back on Little Planet. Dr. Eggman had managed to capture the entire planet and sought out magical artifacts, the Time Stones, so he could change time as he saw fit.

But, Sonic was able to stop his nefarious plot by taking the time zones for himself and repairing the future Eggman had remade in his image.

However, that meant that this future, dubbed the 'bad future' by Sonic at the time, should have been erased.

Something suddenly clicked in Eggman's mind as he began to realize what had been happening the them. "I think I understand now." he said out loud. Sonic glanced over at him.

"Understand what?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head. "Why this place still exists?"

"I don't know why I didn't catch this before." Eggman stated with excitement. His mind reeled at the newly found out information. "It's because of White Space."

"Huh?" Sonic asked, now really confused.

"White Space is why these places are still here." Eggman continued. "Don't you see? I assumed White Space only existed because the Time Eater created it. But, the real explanation must be that it had always existed."

"You're not making any sense egghead." Sonic told him as he tapped his foot impatiently. "Just get to the point."

"Just listen rodent!" Eggman snapped. "This whole area, all of white space, is simply a void of things lost from time. That city we were just in? It must have been have a place erased from the time line, just like this future of Palmtree Panic."

"But, if that's true, why didn't we recognize Crisis City? I mean we remembered about this future..." Sonic asked as trailed off in thought.

"The only logical explanation is that we all must have forgot going there." Eggman answered. "It wouldn't be here otherwise."

"I see." Sonic answered as he crossed his arms. Honestly, the whole time line mumbo-jumbo Eggman was talking about was something Tails would understand more than him. But, he did, at least, get why all these places were here now. That still didn't explain how to get out of the place though.

However, being the impatient person he was, Sonic was done standing around and wanted to get a move on. "Well, let's go on through here shall we?" he asked. Eggman stood still for a little longer before he briefly turned towards Sonic, giving him a small nod.

Since the area was covered in Eggman's traps from before, Sonic and Eggman navigated very carefully through the horde of badniks near the entrance. Since Eggman was unable to defend himself at the moment, Sonic was, once again, forced to protect him until they passed through.

Sonic spin dashed through a few mosquito looking badniks as he came across some floating platforms. Still barreling down the path, some butterfly bots popped out from the wall and swarmed towards Sonic at full speed. But, he easily sliced through them with a homing attack.

As he neared a series of waterfalls, giant water bug bots approached him as he leaped over the pools of water below. Using them to his advantage, Sonic used his homing attack to save him some time from dodging the falls.

Finally, he came across one last chasm and effortlessly hopped past it. Striking a victory pose, he looked behind him as Eggman finally caught back up to him. Sonic raised an eyebrow, surprised Eggman was able to make it past all those obstacles without asking him for help.

"Don't see an exit anywhere." Sonic said as he searched around. "Ya see anything?" he asked Eggman as he turned towards him.

However, Eggman wasn't listening as he seemed to have found something lying on the ground behind them.

"Find something?" Sonic asked as he walked over to Eggman. The doctor had now stepped behind one of the metal plants on the ground and gasped in excitement.

"It's the EGG-HVC-001!" he exclaimed as Sonic glanced down at said device in surprise.

Lying on the ground was a red and grey steel machine that Eggman had built during the time stone fiasco. It had one of Eggman's Eggmobiles on top, while a bipedal mech was attached to the bottom. , The feet were also covered in spikes. Overall, the machine seemed to be almost entirely intact, except for the arms, which had two broken bobbins on the ends.

Pulling out some tools from his belt, Eggman immediately went to work on repairing the machine. "Why are you fixing that old thing?" Sonic asked in confusion.

"Well, Sonic, it could be useful if it were fixed." Eggman answered as he busily fixed up the device.

"Oh, you mean you can use that to defend yourself so I won't have to?" Sonic asked teasingly. Eggman, merely huffed in response and continued to make more adjustments.

Eventually, Sonic got tired of watching him and laid down for a quick rest. But, not long after he laid down, he was awakened to the ground shaking beside him. Sonic abruptly bolted up, caught off guard by the sudden interruption.

Now standing near him was the HVC machine Eggman had found some time ago. But, it appeared to have acquired some upgrades when it was fixed. Instead of the bobbins that used to be on the hands, Eggman had now used the leftover parts to make a set of pinchers on each hand. The feet now had spikes on both the front and back of them, and the steel also looked sleeker, making it appear newer.

Sonic whistled as he caught sight of it. "Looks pretty snazzy egghead." he said as he stretched his head back to look at his rival.

Eggman merely smirked at Sonic's remark and activated the hands, testing them out. "This design is much more efficient than the old version."

"Well, let's hope so you can defend yourself now." Sonic snorted. "So, now that you fixed your toy, any ideas of where to go next?"

Unfortunately, a visible exit was nowhere to be seen as the two traversed through the rest of the terrain. In the distance, miles of land spread as far as they eye could see. It kinda reminded them of the endless emptiness of White Space.

Finally, after a few hours of dodging more obstacles and defeating more badniks, the two decided to take a break on one of the hills in the area. Sonic sighed loudly as he plopped down to the ground and lied down on his back on the ground. Eggman, on the other hand, stayed in his mech and went to work on some more adjustments to the machine.

"I don't get it." Sonic said as he crossed his arms and put them behind his head. "Shouldn't an exit have appeared by now?"

"Perhaps it's hidden." Eggman replied as he tweaked at his mech. "Or perhaps there is something we missed? Who really knows how things work here."

"Maybe.." Sonic said as he trailed off. It still felt awkward working with Eggman and Sonic still felt like he needed to be on his guard around him. Sonic kept glancing back up at his rival, anticipating an ambush at any second.

However, an attack never came and Eggman climbed down from the machine and sat on the ground. Sonic continued to eye him as Eggman stifled a yawn. He then propped himself against the foot of his machine, making sure not to lay on the sides with the spikes, and relaxed.

Awkward silence followed as the two rivals laid down on the ground, both looking down. To be honest, the two rivals had never had an opportunity to relax around each other. There was always some battle taking up the time to do so or they were either too busy making witty remarks to each other. Things seemed to always be on the move and time never slowed down in the heat of battle.

But, now that the two were forced to take things slow for the time being, neither knew what to do. Eventually, the two silently came to the decision to just get some rest for the rest of the journey. Since time didn't seem to pass through the areas in White Space, it was still morning when they awoke from their slumber.

Stretching his limbs, Sonic yawned loudly as Eggman climbed back into his mech. Preparing for more travel, Eggman looked down at the mech, seeming to be deep in thought, and didn't see the sudden appearance of something dark in the distance.

However, Sonic spied it while Eggman was busy with his machine. He put a hand over his eyes, trying to block out the sunlight so he could get a better view at what was in the distance. But, there was no need, as the dark figure suddenly snapped towards him at breakneck speed.

Sonic was caught off guard as the figure appeared directly in front of him and, quite literally, slithered on the ground in a dark puddle.

"What the-" Sonic began before he was interrupted by the puddle, who now was morphing into a person.

Eggman, now noticing the new arrival of the figure, went on the defensive as the puddle slowly morphed into it's new form.

Now standing in front of them, a purple, crystallized hedgehog with dark, green eyes appeared on the ground and bore a sinister smile. A sense of dread seemed to leak from him as he took a step towards the two.

"Who are you?" Sonic demanded the figure. The person chuckled at his remark, seeming to not feel at all threatened.

"I must say you two are fun to observe." he said with his smile turning into a smirk. Eggman felt a sense of familiarity towards the being, feeling like he had seen him before. "Running around as if you have any hope of getting out of here."

"What are talking about?" Sonic questioned while he gritted his teeth. His eyes followed the being as he continued to step towards Sonic.

He now stood right in front of Sonic, looking to try and intimidate him by standing so close. But, Sonic stood his ground and stared right into his eyes. "It's a pity I never met you directly before now Sonic." he stated.

"Stop messing around!" Sonic yelled, a little confused over the fact the figure knew his name. "I asked who you were." He glared at the being, eyes never moving from his target, before the being suddenly started to laugh at his remark once more.

"If you must know, I'm Mephiles, Mephiles the Dark! What, did you forget me?" he answered while holding out his hands. A sphere of dark energy appeared in his palm and Sonic immediately jumped back.

"We can't remember someone we never met." Eggman said for the first time since meeting Mephiles. "Just what is it you want?"

"No need to be so impatient." Mephiles answered as he continued to hold the sphere of dark energy in his palm. "You have all the time in the world here. There's no need to rush."

"Well, unlike you, we actually have places to be." Sonic snapped at him. For some reason, Sonic felt extremely uneasy around Mephiles and couldn't understand why. Normally, enemies he's encountered in the past haven't made him feel so on guard. Something about him screamed familiar as well, however, no matter how hard he tried to remember, he still couldn't figure out where he had seen him. The feeling was a lot like how he felt when he saw Crisis City again.

"Surely you have time to play a simple game?" Mephiles replied with another smirk. "Especially if it involves a certain jewel." Suddenly, the dark energy in his hand sparked and flashed a bright light to reveal the red chaos emerald. Sonic and Eggman gasped in surprise.

"How did you get that?" Eggman questioned him. Mephiles continued to smirk as he levitated the emerald in front of them.

"That doesn't matter." Mephiles answered. "What matters is that you two may need this, correct?" he chuckled again at Sonic's and Eggman's faces, confirming his suspicions. "Tell you what, you guys can have it, on one condition."

"How about we skip your little game and you hand us over the emerald instead?" Sonic said as he prepared an attack. However, Mephiles threw out his other hand and opened up a black portal behind him.

"If you can catch me, I'll hand over the emerald. Sound fair?" Mephiles asked as he backed away into the portal. Sonic dashed towards him, trying to catch him before he slipped away, but was too late as Mephiles had already went inside.

Sonic then turned towards Eggman. "C'mon! We gotta follow him! That emerald could be our ticket out of here!" He then jumped inside the portal, leaving Eggman to stand in annoyance in front of the portal alone.

"Can that hedgehog not stop and think for one second?" he mumbled before he heading towards the portal. He stood in front of it and sighed loudly before shoving the controls forward and disappearing into the black abyss.

The two rivals had then both traveled inside, leaving Palmtree Panic behind as the portal closed behind them...


As always, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favs!