Chapter 7: Chaos In Time

Sonic took off immediately, leaving the rest of the mismatched adventurers to scramble up after him. On the crest of the hill he halted to see that below him, only a couple yards in the distance, the flying circus was in town.

Well.

The situation was too serious to joke about it like that, but if Sonic hadn't been in mortal danger, it would have been hard to describe it otherwise. For a second, the blue hedgehog simply stared at the scene before him – Robotnik was sitting in his wildly bouncing Egg-O-Matic, a kind of hovercraft shaped like the lower half of a ball, and he was trying to strangle a screaming hedgehog kid in his large, fat hands. Apparently, it wasn't an easy task. The kid kept wriggling in his grasp, screaming for the police, his friends, and yelling general obscenities questioning Robotnik's purity of lineage. For the human's part, it turned out that strangling a hedgehog of all things poses certain problems of the spiky sort, and when the wretched runt keeps kicking your nose with his small sneakers, you idly wonder why you left your laser blaster at home. Nevertheless, the little hedgehog was fighting a losing battle, his cheeks starting to turn bluish with oxygen deprivation…

"Robotnik! Unhand me at once!" Sonic shouted, feeling slightly ridiculous had this situation not been so grave. His younger self was only six years old and he knew himself how defenseless he had been at that age. He wasn't quite daring to go in for a spin-dash yet, lest he would bring the hoverpod crashing down and maybe bury the kid beneath it. Fortunately, he had at least managed to distract Robotnik, whose eyebrows rose momentarily in astonishment at seeing his archenemy as transparent as a spectre.

"Sonic?! How did you-?" he sputtered, momentarily releasing his chokehold on the Mobian child in surprise, who drew a gasping breath. Then:

"Lemme go, you filthy, rotten sonnuva bi-"

"Oy! Language!" The blue hedgehog barked reflexively at his younger self, a habit born out of long-suffering years of raising Tails. The fact that the fox kid now soon would be prime witness to see just what kind of vocabulary his hero had used when he was his age made Sonic's cheeks flush just ever so slightly.

"If you lay one more finger on him, Buttnik, you're gonna lose it!" the blue hedgehog yelled again, this time falling easily into a battle stance to fling himself at the pair with pin-point precision.

"DON'T!"

At this point the rest of the group finally caught up with them, the Doctor already having taken in the situation. "Sonic!" he called again, "You mustn't touch your younger self or you will create a paradox!" His hand was already delving into his jacket as he shouted, presumably to pull out his sonic screwdriver.

"What?" Sonic turned around briefly, but another scream from the little hedgehog in Robotnik's hands let him snap back around and he hurled himself towards the hoverpod, which had already started to ascend. Even with the second Sonic aboard, it still managed to gain more than thirty feet of height, a distance from the ground that could already result in death by freefall. A wild struggle in mid-air ensued, the participants being a supersonic hedgehog who tried to rescue somebody without touching them or crashing the hoverpod, an overweight scientist who tried to hold on to his victim and the controls of the ship while fending off said angry hedgehog all with just two hands, and a young, scared Mobian who thought that right now was a good time to bite the hand that suspended him high above thin air.

His tongue between his lips, the Doctor pointed his tool at the hovercraft, but the screwdriver only lit up briefly, before it gave a small, unhappy whine and died.

"What? Battery failure? Now?!" The Doctor looked at the thing with disbelief.

"Sonic!" Tails took off flying instead, using his two rear appendages like a helicopter. The little hedgehog was now screaming incoherently after Robotnik had dropped him and was clinging to the rim of the bowl-shaped hovercraft for dear life. Meanwhile, the obese scientist was trying to strangle the other Sonic, who in turn was pulling the man's moustache.

"Rose! Give me the batteries from your mobile, I need something to charge the screwdriver!"

"Alright, alright, no need to shout-!" The girl tossed the thing to the Doctor, but was more concerned with something else. Waving at the spectacle, she pointed out:

"But isn't anybody besides me noticing that this hedgehog kid is brown?!"

"I was going to say that," Amy nodded.

In the aerial battle, the little hedgehog's screaming had just become a tad bit louder as he now saw what he perceived as a freaky flying fox mutant and a ghost trying to abduct him. Sonic finally managed to headbutt Robotnik what resulted in the hoverpod doing a loop-de-loop, and the rest of the fighters now yelling in unison.

Rose was about to ask the Doctor whether he was sure about this being Mobius and not the Marx Brothers Planet, but it was Amy who spoke first.

"What…what was this about the paradox, then?" the pink hedgehog looked nervously at both human and Time Lord. "What happens if you come into contact with your younger self?"

"Err…" for some reason Rose suddenly seemed rather sheepish.

"I will get eaten by feral, time-feeding pterodactyl monsters," the Doctor replied instead of her, still fumbling with his gizmo and doing something with the screwdriver to the cell phone that looked vaguely improper, "They appear through a gap in reality - usually because someone breaks the rules." He shot a pointed look at Rose who turned away with crossed arms. "Long story," he added to Amy. "And now let's see whether I can't put a stop to this nonsense."

He whipped out his re-charged sonic screwdriver and pointed it straight at the Egg-O-Matic. It buzzed with its strange vibrating noise and the crazily rocking hovercraft immediately steadied itself and then began to spark and smoke, descending down to safe ground slowly.

"What?! NO!" Robotnik exclaimed and began to fumble with the controls wildly as the control over his ship had been wrested away from him, but to no avail.

"Oh yes, Eggman. Curses, foiled again and all, admit that you're beat!" Sonic had leapt onto the controls and kicked the steering lever out of the human's hand. "Tails got me covered and the Doc controls your ship. There's no escape now," he finished with a triumphant grin.

"So you think, Sonic," the human snarled, in turn pressing a button on his wristband. "But I still have the time machine and there's lots of other possibilities." And with that, he turned for an instant as transparent as Sonic, before vanishing completely.

The hover pod touched ground.

"What happened?!" Amy yelled, the three members of their troupe that had stayed on the ground running towards them.

"Robotnik teleported," Sonic ground his teeth. "He must have parked the TARDIS somewhere else, that's why she wasn't here when we landed. Dammit!" he kicked the destroyed controls again in futile anger, his leg still as transparent as ever.

"Well, can't you just teleport after him?" Rose urged, grabbing Sonic's arm. "Just do that Chaos thing of yours or something! Transmat us into the TARDIS before Robotnik takes off!"

"Won't work, Rose." The Doctor smiled sadly. "Bigger on the inside, remember? The inside of the TARDIS resides in a different dimension, and I doubt that even Chaos Control could jump through realities."

"Well, then in front of the TARDIS!" Rose was getting exasperated. "Just teleport to us to the fat bloke before he can vanish, honestly, why do all of you Time Lords and, and hedgehog aliens have to be so complicated!"

Sonic winced at her sudden outburst. "Sorry, can't do that. I can only Chaos Control to places I know or can feel. We'll have to chase Egghead down at his next destination."

"Uhm, guys…that is all very interesting and stuff, but the little guy here has fainted."

Heads turned to Tails. The fox had been standing in the grass behind them, the now limp form of the hedgehog kid in his arms. Tails was only three years older than his charge, so that was no mean feat for him and his arms were trembling from the exertion.

"Lay him…me…down, bro. You were great," Sonic said quietly. They moved a step backwards to make space for the unconscious hedgehog and everyone for the first time got a good look at him.

Short of the species, there were no resemblances at all. Instead of the eight big blue quills present Sonic sported, this one's back and head was covered in hundreds of thin brown ones, much more like an Earth hedgehog in appearance. His shoes were run-down blue and white trainers, nothing like the sleek, red, gold-buckled versions the young adult Sonic wore. The kid's eyes were still open, rolled back to stare sightlessly at the sky and there was no hint of the brilliant green irises, but only two strangely black, giant pupils.

"Sonic…that's not you, is it?" Amy asked again, glancing from the kid to the hedgehog standing next to her.

Sonic nodded grimly. "Oh yeah, it is. Believe it or not."

"But your fur, your quills -"

"There was an accident." Sonic cut her off curtly, turning around to indicate that this topic was closed. "I better Chaos Control to collect Shadow so we can enter the time vortex again. No idea where he ended up but at least I can find him because of his Chaos Emerald signature." And with that, he vanished.

"Huh. You think supersonic hedgehogs regenerate, too?" Rose whispered to the Doctor after this strange display had taken place, but her companion didn't even appear to hear her. Instead, the Time Lord was deep in thought.

If not even Sonic's friends had recognized him at an earlier age, then how come Robotnik had?

A flash brought the Doctor back to the present (or, as the case might have been, past) time. Sonic had materialized again, once more holding the arm of the black hedgehog Shadow. The dark-furred Sapient grumpily yanked his limb away from Sonic.

"You don't have to grab me all the time. I got lost once, I won't get lost again."

"You just got lost because you refused to hold hands with anyone," Sonic retorted, unperturbed, "Now grab hold just like everyone else or we'll have to look for you again."

"Again?" Shadow looked irritated, for the first time now taking in the blue hedgehog's still transparent appearance. "Does that mean you let Robotnik get away? Do you think this is a game of some sort?'

"Yeah, myself, I've always had a weakness for Jeopardy," Sonic said with a pleasant smile, before instantly turning serious again, "What do you think, Shadow? This is the fate of flippin' Mobius in the balance!" The blue hedgehog waved his hands in agitation, yet his black double merely crossed his arms, his tone still condescending enough to put the Niagara Falls to shame.

"Well, then I would have expected you to handle this with more than your usual, non-existent care."

There was a sharp intake of breath from the insulted hero. "Oh, this is rich! Now listen, faker, if you had not been gallivanting off on your solo trip, then maybe we could have-"

"ENOUGH!"

The Doctor's voice bellowed both the ranting hedgehogs into silence. Both blue and black looked up at him like interrupted cats, their faces only inches apart where their noses had been touching.

Privately, the Doctor was wondering whether it was an innate trait of Sapients that they seemed to bicker at every single opportunity or whether he had just ran into the champions of the Nerve-Fraying World Championship by chance. The Time Lord strode towards them, both hedgehogs glancing at him warily like squabbling kittens surprised by a lion (and possibly a witch and a wardrobe, in the Doctor's case…)

"Now listen, both of you lot. I've been to planets where people communicate by permanent flatulence and I had to wear a gas mask. But you know what? At the moment I would even prefer that to you two. You argue while the fate of your world hangs in the balance. There's a race called the Daleks who mainly shout 'Exterminate!' but in comparison to you that's cooperative."

He paused and frowned.

"I mean, cooperative in the way that it allows them to continue to try killing me. So, not very cooperative. Uhm. Listen, forget this. What I meant," he said, bending down to them and creepily somehow managing to regain all of his menace again in seconds, "was that if you don't start acting like there's eight billion lives in the balance, then I am going to go Time War on your sorry plumage." His growl let the hair on everyone's neck raise instinctively.

"I think you meant 'pelt'," Amy whispered timidly from behind, thereby shattering the threatening atmosphere rather thoroughly.

The Doctor blinked. "Yes, actually. Thank you." Turning back to the hedgehog pair, he raised an eyebrow, trying to ignore the twitching of Sonic's mouth and the flatness of Shadow's stare. "Are we clear on this?"

Both Sapients nodded curtly, not saying anything in protest. Tails stared at the Doctor in awe. As they crowded around Sonic and Shadow, ready for their next jump through time and space, the fox kit briefly pulled at the Doctor's arm until he could whisper in his ear when he stood on tip-toe.

"Doctor, I've never shut them up before. You gotta teach me!"

To be continued…

Alrighty! Thanks today to the fantastic Forgotten Muse who not only has helped me out with the backstory here so much, but has actually written wonderful fanfics of her own, set in that same sonicverse our time-trevellers are currently exploring. Please check her out! :P

I also managed to meet her (far too briefly) at the SUMMER OF SONIC 2010, which was absolutely brilliant - there were several Maria Robotniks headbanging to Crush 40 live on stage, that's all I'm saying...XD Latest update here is from Edinburgh after traversing Cardiff (where else would I go? They have a Ianto shrine there. Seriously.) and I claim there's faaaar too much Sonic merchandise available in London than my purse can afford, which is just mean. And last but not least, I sincerely hope you've enjoyed the latest chapter! More to come, and for those who were looking forward to the next installment of "Burning Arrow", I can assure you it's in the process of being written, but I do need to have a Wii available to complete it, which is *kind* of hard to find when you're on the road. :P Until next time!