Just a few minutes later, Silver was standing in a prison, time frozen around him. He slowly looked around, unsure of what to do, so all he did for a short time was stand still. The hedgehog soon began feeling weak. He expected this to happen after using the chaos emerald, he just thought it would happen sooner. The young hedgehog began to lightly sway around before quickly falling to the ground, barely keeping consciousness. It was a short few moments before the silver mobian surrendered to his exhaustion, the emerald still held tightly in his hand as his eyes shut.


Three mobians were riding across Emerald Hill, towards Eggman Nega's giant base. "Hey Nack! Stop for a second!" Bean said, seemingly perplexed by something. Nack stopped the Marvelous Queen, turning his attention to the bird without a word. "Look at that!" the green mobian said, pointing behind the weasel.

Nack turned slowly, seemingly annoyed by the woodpecker's request. He was shocked by the sight he saw. Right in front of him was a small bird, suspended in the air, as if it had been frozen there. "What the...?" the mobian asked to no one in particular as he climbed off his vehicle and moved towards the bird. "I mean... you don't think..." Nack started, closely inspecting the small creature. "... that hedgehog could have anything to do with this, do ya?"

"I don't know..." Bean responded simply. "But we really don't seem to have any other reason."

The purple weasel had an uncomfortable look on his face as he jumped back on the Marvelous Queen. "Let's just not worry about it," he said, trying to reassure himself more than anyone else. "We've come too far to turn back now." They then once again sped off towards the base.

With everything frozen, nothing bothered the Hooligans during their travel. In just a few minutes the three were walking into Nega's base. Nack began heading left, and the others followed without argument. After a short few minutes the mobians arrived in a prison.

In front of them was quite an interesting sight. On the right, Metal Sonic was standing there, as solid as a metal statue, facing a cell holding Mighty the Armadillo, also completely still. In the metal beast's arms was Blaze, who appeared to be asleep. And to the left, Silver was lying on the ground, breathing heavily, clutching the purple emerald in his hand.

"He's not paused!" Bean said, stating the obvious.

Nack simply ignored the bird, making his way over to Silver and kneeling down to inspect him. "Well, if it's anything like last time then there's no use trying to wake him up," the weasel said, taking a close look at the young hedgehog.

"What are you even doing?" Bean asked.

"Makin' sure the kid's okay!" Nack responded angrily. "Don't ya see how he's breathin'?!" The weasel returned his attention to Silver as Bean walked over to Metal Sonic.

Bean was looking at the cat in the robot's arms for a few seconds before realizing something. "Hey Nack," he said, trying to get the weasel's attention.

Nack sighed before turning to the bird, "What?" he asked simply.

"What are we gonna do about this?" Bean asked, pointing to the figure in Metal's arms. Nack didn't have a response. He gave Bean an awkward shrug before turning back to Silver. Nack's face turned to one of extreme discomfort as Silver began lightly writhing while making sounds of discomfort, the chaos emerald still held tightly in his hand.

Nack began looking around. He was quickly realizing how unlucky this situation was. It was no use trying to wake up Silver, Blaze was trapped in Metal Sonic's arms, and Eggman Nega could possibly have the other six Chaos Emeralds. The worst part was that they were right in the middle of their enemy's base. At this point, the Hooligans seemed to have nothing they could possibly do.

They were stuck.


Silver was once again in the darkness of his own mind. He couldn't remember what had just happened, but he did remember running into Nega's base. The hedgehog began searching, much like he had before, for any sort of suppressed memory in his subconscious. It was a short time before he eventually grasped onto something, but much unlike the others, this didn't feel like a memory.

Chaos energy seemed to be flowing through the young hedgehog, morphing what may have once been a memory into something entirely different. The world began to quickly form around him as he simply stood there, waiting for whatever was to come. Eventually, Silver found himself in a familiar house, one which he recognized as home from his first strange memory. The difference this time was that he was in his regular body.

He began pacing around the room, glancing at random objects but not wanting to take anything in considering he didn't want to get attached to a room he may never see again. The young hedgehog sat down on a couch on one side of the room, trying to relax. He then quickly stood up and began pacing again. He was anxious about what could possibly happen in this place. "What's going on?!" Silver asked to no one while beginning to pace faster.

Suddenly, the front door began slowly opening. Sliver froze, still confused by this strange vision. He was not sure how to react when the door opened to reveal Amy Rose, someone he knew as a friend of Tails and Knuckles who had died years ago. "Hey Silver," she said, receiving nothing but a blank stare from the young hedgehog. "Is... something wrong?" the pink hedgehog asked. Once again, Silver did not respond. He simply stood there, not saying a word, barely breathing.

Silver could feel it. He knew that the woman standing in front of him was his mother. He ran to her, suddenly enveloping the hedgehog in a strong embrace. "Whoa! Calm down there!" Amy said in response, yet still hugging her son back.

Tears began pouring from Silver's eyes. He tried to forget that this was just in his head, all he wanted to do was stay right here. Silver didn't know how long he just stood there, hugging this woman he never truly met, but he didn't care. "So... where's your father?" Amy eventually asked.

"I... um," Silver started, unsure who his father even really was.

"Right here Ames!" spoke a voice from the stairs nearby. Silver turned around to see Sonic the Hedgehog walking down the stairs. Silver simply watched in awe as the blue hedgehog descended to the ground floor.

"Did you just get out of bed?" Amy asked, seemingly pretending to be annoyed.

Sonic chuckled lightly. "Gotta keep my energy up to be ready for Nega's next scheme!" he replied.

Nega. The familiar name was unnerving to Silver. It was as if just hearing the name meant something bad was going to happen. "So, how's my awesome little guy doing?" Sonic asked, rustling the fur on the top of Silver's head.

"I-I'm doing great... dad," Silver responded, trying to sound casual while still taking everything in.

There was a short pause before Sonic responded. "... 'Kay bud," he said simply.

"Guys! there's an emergency!" shouted Knuckles, suddenly appearing in the still open doorway. Everyone jumped at the sudden noise.

"Jeez Knux, what's the problem?" asked the blue hedgehog.

Knuckles appeared to be out of breath, seemingly having ran a long distance to the house. "Nega's built a new robot. It's attacking Station Square."

The two parents looked at each other for a short moment before Sonic turned to Silver. "Stay here," he said simply before the two ran out, shutting the door behind them and joining Knuckles as he began running towards the city.

Silver stood still for far too long, debating on whether or not to follow them. He then realized that he had to remind himself that, whatever this was, it wasn't real. The hedgehog began making his way towards the door when it suddenly flung open, revealing a familiar mobian with a red shell.

"Hey Silver!" he said, a little too excitedly, moving into the house and seemingly making himself at home. "So looks like it's just you and me again, huh?"

"Uh... Yeah," Silver responded, wondering how often this happened.

So, how ya doing pal?" Mighty asked. "You uh... You still talking to that cat girl?"

"Well I, um," Silver mumbled, unsure what to say.

The armadillo then interrupted Silver's stuttering. "Do your parents even know how serious you two are?" he asked.

Silver began lightly blushing. "I- well I mean... uh..."

"OH MY GOSH, they don't even know about her do they?" Mighty asked as he began to laugh.

Silver was getting a bit annoyed, wishing he could just get out of there. He suddenly felt something in his hand. He looked down to see the purple chaos emerald right there in his hand. "Chaos Control!" he shouted suddenly. He was gone in an instant, appearing in front of SS Central Station, but things seemed different. The sky seemed darker and yet the air seemed warmer. Silver decided not to dwell on it.

Silver quickly heard the sounds of battle coming from City Hall. He made his way over as fast as he could, letting the thought of this not being real once again leave his mind. He was shocked by the sight he eventually saw. fire was almost completely surrounding the area as multiple heroes attempted to fight off a giant, hedgehog-based robot.

The giant beast, who appeared to show some similarities to Sonic, was swiftly flying around the area, easily dodging or blocking the heroes attacks. The familiar dark hedgehog was also there, and he attempted to throw himself at the robot. He was easily knocked away, flying in Silver's direction. The hedgehog was able to land on his feet, skidding to a halt in front of Silver.

He suddenly turned around. "Silver? What are you doing here?" he asked, shocked by the young mobians appearance.

"Shadow! Get back in here!" Tails shouted at him, seemingly not noticing Silver behind him.

"Get out of here," Shadow told Silver before running towards the robot once again.

Silver refused to back away. The solution seemed obvious, he could just freeze time and make easy work of the robot. He walked onto the battlefield and once again said those two familiar words, "Chaos Control!" Everything froze.

Well, everyone froze. The flames still seemed to be blazing for an unknown reason. Silver then began making his way towards the metal beast, but as he approached, things began changing. The robot began to shift and grow, changing into something that seemed strangely familiar.

The beast was transforming into something Knuckles had told him stories about years ago. Although Silver never thought it could be real. Enormous pieces of metal began flying in from all sides, combining with the robot. A small piece of scrap metal flew by, cutting Silver's cheek under his left eye. Much to Silver's surprise, he began trembling as the monster's form was nearly completed. He dropped the emerald, releasing the area from his chaos ability.

It took everyone a second to realize what was happening. "No... No way..." Knuckles mumbled as he realigned himself and stared up at the forming creature. The mobians all seemed to fear the sight in front of them. Suddenly, the beast was complete. Two slits appeared on its head, one above another. the metal then pulled away revealing the beast's red eyes as it let out an ear-piercing shriek.

Metal Overlord.

The enormous beast loomed over them, growling, metal grinding against metal. The monster looked down at them, its eyes focused on Silver. "S-silver?! What are you doing here?!" Sonic asked.

"D-dad I-" Silver was cut off as the sound of the Metal Overlord opening its metal jaws. The beast then shot fire out of its mouth.

"Silver! No!" Sonic shouted as the flames rushed towards his son. Suddenly, the flames stopped. Silver didn't know what he was doing, or how he was doing it, but he began holding the fire back with his mind. He had to focus all of his energy on the fire to keep it from getting closer. He was soon weak, and hurting, but it was keeping him alive.

The hedgehog was doing his best, but he couldn't take it anymore. Silver fell to his knees, still using what was left of his strength to hold the fire back. Finally, he lost all of his strength, and the blazing inferno began flying towards him again. All Silver could do is scream as the flames engulfed him, completely erasing the hedgehog in mere seconds.

Silver awoke screaming, covered in sweat, breathing heavier than he ever thought he would. The chaos emerald was still held tightly in his hand. He looked around to see he was still in the frozen prison. Bean was standing next to Metal Sonic, Bark was standing near the entrance to the hallway, and Nack was sitting next to Silver, seemingly frightened by the hedgehog's sudden awakening.

Nack was ready to burst. He was about to start screaming when Silver suddenly curled up and began to cry. The Hooligans didn't know how to respond, so they didn't. All three mobians simply waited as they let Silver get out whatever feelings he had to get out. Silver seemed to be crying for what felt like it could have been an hour, even though no time truly passed in the prison.

Eventually, Silver was quiet, but still didn't seem to want to move. "So, uh..." Bean started. "Do we have any ideas on this yet?" he asked, referring to Metal Sonic. Suddenly, Bark began walking over. The polar bear slowly took hold of the robot's head before swiftly and smoothly tearing it off. "Well, that works," Bean said simply.

"Hey... Silver," Nack said, hesitant to speak to the hedgehog.

Silver also seemed hesitant to speak. "... Y-yeah?" he asked.

"Do ya know how to... make this all normal again?"

"Yeah... just gotta let go of the emerald."

"'Kay, great!" Nack responded. "But don't let go of it yet. I think we've still got some stuff to do here." The weasel stood up and began walking towards the hall. "C'mon kid. Let's get movin'." Nack then looked back to see the young hedgehog begin to doze off again.

Silver was struggling to stay awake, the emerald seemingly sapping energy from him. The hedgehog then felt the emerald slip out of his hand. "Kid, no!" Nack yelled as the emerald clattered to the floor. Everything began moving in an instant.

A commotion began rising in the prison as Metal Sonic began sputtering and buzzing before falling to the floor, Blaze falling in front of him. "What the hell was that?!" Mighty yelled. Everyone was scared and confused. No one was sure how to react.

"Let's get moving," Nack said again before storming out of the prison. Bean followed behind him as Bark scooped up Silver and Blaze before falling in behind the other two.

"H-hey guys wait!" Mighty yelled, but the Hooligans were already too far gone. "Come on guys! Get me out of here!"

The mobians were soon running up many flights of stairs, expecting to find Eggman Nega at the top. As they reached the top floor they were quickly able to find a large door they knew must lead to something important. Bark quickly set down the children before smashing the door in, once again lifting the two young ones over his shoulders and running in with the other Hooligans. The five mobians arrived in a pitch black room, the only light pouring in from the hall.

"Congratulations, you puny creatures!" sounded Nega's voice through the room. "But I'm afraid to say that this will be the end of your little adventure!" Bright lights suddenly flicked on, filling the room with a blinding glow. Once the mobians' eyes finally adjusted, they spotted a robot standing in the center of the room.

"I'd love to be the one to introduce you to your demise!" the doctor said with a sinister tone. "This... is Mecha Sonic Ultra!"

The robot then sprung to life, its red eyes lighting up and focusing on the Hooligans. It must have been well over twice their size. "Welp, were dead," Bean said, glancing anxiously at the others.

There was an uneasy pause before Nack responded. "Shut up, Bean."