Sonic 25
Note: yes I did have a shout out to Alien and Star Trek III: The search for Spock in the last episode and yes I did refer to the Star trek Next generation episode the best of Both Worlds before that.
What can I say, I am a nerd.
Level 4: The Labyrinth of time
Act 1: Maurice and the Eternity Room
Maurice was having a very bad dream again.
In this dream he was outside the tunnel and deep inside one of the towns Robotnik had conquered.
He saw a massive amount of Worker-bots, each one slaving away at its duty.
Maurice ranted to run from here but he was still slow even in his dreams.
He looked around and saw roboticized forms of Amy, Tails, Sally, Rotor, Knuckles and Bunnie all around him enslaved by his enemy.
"You will join us" said Bunnie appearing as she did before she was hit by the chaos emeralds
"This is the future" said the robot Tails
"You can no longer run" said the robot Sally
"Why not give up" said the robot Antoine
"It is useless to resist" said the robot Rotor
"You must be cleansed of your organic body" said the robot Knuckles
The robot Amy then grabbed him and threw him into a roboticizer pod
"All hail Robotniks eternal empire" she said as she hit the button and Maurice soon saw his body transform into a robot.
Maurice gave out a cry as he awoke in a sweat.
"Man what a bad dream" he said
He got up and slowly looked outside.
He saw in the distance the town of Spring Yard become torn down and be replaced by a large factory.
It was Green Hill all over again and no doubt Marble Town was just the same.
Robotnik just kept on winning, and with the fall of Knothole base he was yet another step closer to conquering the island.
Maurice was giving up hope, the power he had seemingly gone forever and he wondered if he should just go out there and get roboticized already.
Maurice was at his lowest point and he didn't think that things would get better now.
He then thought that the dark and dire nightmare was just a preview of what was going to happen.
"If only I had my emerald back" he thought as he sighed out loud.
Maurice and his group were marching farther into the cave to the labyrinth
Before them something was moving about, and then without warning the group was caught in a large net.
"Whoa!" cried Amy
"Zut Alors!" shouted Antoine
Below them they could see a badger dressed up in brown, a raccoon dressed in green and a wolf dressed up in a tribal uniform.
The wolf stepped forward and said "seems we have guests"
"Who are you!" Sally cried
"I am Lupe and this is Sticks and Marine" said the Wolf
"Would you mind letting us go?" asked Tails
"Yeah this net isn't very comfortable!" said Maurice
"Come on let us go!" said Knuckles
"We would" said Sticks "but you have a robot in your mix!"
"This unit means you no harm!" chimed Bunnie "this unit does not work for Robotnik"
"Liar!" Cried Marine
"All robots must be destroyed!" shouted Sticks
"But some of us robots were once like y'all and made this way by force!"
Lupe looked at her and said "can a robot lie?"
Bunnie shook her head "this unit can only speak the truth, it's not in my programming to tell falsehoods. Besides when this unit was normal this unit was quite honest anyhow. Y'all better get us down or this unit may start doing things you don't want to happen!"
"Let them go" said Lupe
"Are you sure?" asked Marine
Lupe nodded "I think we can trust them"
"If you say so" said Sticks as she lowered the net letting the group out.
The group all sighed as a voice cried "Princess Sally!"
From the corner came Cream the rabbit who ran up to Amy Rose and gave her a hug.
"Hello Cream" said Amy "thought you said you would keep my secret"
Cream giggled "oh… sorry but I am just so happy to see you guys"
"Likewise" Maurice replied
"Hey Mr. Sonic you are brown again!" Cream said with curiosity
"Yeah lost my powers" said Maurice "I am back to being Maurice"
Cream shrugged "it's okay Mr. Sonic I know you must have done your best"
Maurice nodded as Amy came up to Lupe
"You are a temple guardian aren't you?" she asked
Lupe nodded "you know of me as I know of you Princess"
Amy nodded "guess you caught us thinking we were going to take your temple"
"Yes and we are sorry for that" said Lupe
"We just heard from this one about the enemy" said Sticks
"And I survived Green Hill" said Marine "Hey I think I know you Maurice"
Maurice nodded "I can understand why you were so aggressive then"
"Tell me how many are there in these tunnels?" Asked Sally
"About ten" said Lupe "a very small amount of survivors"
"Oui such a shame" said Antoine
"So how big is this place?" asked Tails
"Quite large" said Lupe "but a lot of it is flooded and some robots made their way in here"
"Perfect, water and robots" Maurice said annoyed
"There is one other thing about this place" said Sticks
"Its haunted" said Marine
"Haunted?" Amy said with a giggle
"Don't believe us fine" said Sticks "but there are some odd creatures in this place"
"Plus there is the silver hedgehog" said Lupe
"Huh that's interesting" said Tails "but unscientific"
Lupe shrugged "its only because this place rests on the Genesis point"
"The genesis point?" asked Maurice
"It is said that this place is where the Mobia originated from" said Knuckles "there are all kinds of legends about this place"
"I see we have a Mystic with us" said Sticks
Knuckles nodded "yes, but there is one other thing here that you have, the place where the seventh emerald is said to be"
"The eternity room" said Lupe with a nod "it is where we see the silver hedgehog"
"Well why not go there" said Amy "you got my attention"
Lupe nodded and soon escorted them farther in.
On Robotniks carrier Worker-Bot 00001 was at work building some Crabmeats.
It was the oldest Worker-Bot and was the head of its assembly line.
As it worked its eyes began to glow deep red, as if something was wrong.
Then without reason Worker-Bot 00001 stopped, the robot ceased its function and it threw the assembly line off.
Robotnik looked at it and said "ah so it starts once more"
Maurice's group were all gathered inside a massive room, there were large stone heads of what appeared to be birds on the walls.
"This is the eternity room" said Knuckles "it was once built by my peoples rivals the Babylons"
"I thought this place was built by the mystics" said Sally
"We took it over during the War of the Sol" replied Knuckles "or as they are called today the age of chaos"
"Well what makes this room so special?" asked Antoine
"It is a room not in our time, but of its own" said Knuckles "I may not know what that means but I think it has to do with the ability of the seventh emerald"
"You are correct" came a voice as the room lit up and before them tiny teardrop shaped creatures appeared along with a silver hedgehog.
The silver hedgehog came down and greeted them "My name is Silver"
Maurice and Amy laughed
"Wow what an obvious name!" said Maurice
"Honestly could you not be more original?" Amy chuckled
Silver looked at them and said "well I didn't call myself Sonic because I became fast"
Maurice looked at him and said "you know I was Sonic?"
Silver nodded "this place is in its own time as Adam pointed out, I know all of your names as I am from your future"
"Future, how can there be a future with Robotnik around?" asked Maurice
"Well possible future" Silver said "my power is tied to that of what you seek"
"The emerald" said Sally
"Correct Alicia" Silver replied "I have the power of the seventh emerald"
Maurice came in closer and said "can you give me my powers back?"
Silver smiled and said "in a way you already have your powers back but it will cost you dearly to get them back"
"How so?" Maurice asked
"This room can take you anywhere and any time, it is without limits"
Maurice said "okay everyone let me take this one, Silver can you take me back and see where everything started, why Robotnik is doing this and can you give me my powers back?"
Silver nodded "but you may not like where this path goes, be warned"
Maurice nodded as he found himself sucked up, the others looked on as Maurice disappeared.
Maurice fell through what seemed to be an energy barrier, he looked down as he cried out.
He must have fell for some time before without warning he stopped.
He came down with a loud thud as he gave out a loud "oof!", he should have died but the landing only took the wind out of him.
He found himself in a room of pure light, as he looked on.
"Must be chaos energy" he said
"Correct" said Silver as came into view "and this is the room of time"
Maurice looked at him and said "Is this where your from?"
The silver hedgehog shrugged "in a way"
"Huh, so this room can send me back in time?"
"Or forward" said the silver hedgehog "it will send you where you need to be, but first I want you to see something"
Before Maurice there was an image, a meteor that was crashing onto Earth.
It was quite large, it smashed into a small island chain sending debris all over the planet.
He saw the planets lifeforms slowly die out, he saw the image of beings like Robotnik come up… the humans, he saw them seemingly die out but from the meteors impact point came large energy waves.
These waves effected a large chunk of the surviving wildlife.
He saw primitive forms of hedgehogs, squirrels, foxes, rabbits, raccoon's, cats, dogs, birds and countless others get hit by the wave and Maurice even swore it even effected a dolphin or two.
He saw the animals mutate and while not all of them did this was clearly the origin of the Mobia.
"That Meteor was called Mobius named after August Ferdinand Mobius a human scientist due to the way it looped around the planet before crashing into it" said Silver
"And its crash area we call genesis point?" Maurice asked
Silver nodded "at first no one knew why the meteor caused what it did to our ancestors but I think the answer is rather obvious"
Maurice saw a small team of humans around the meteors crash site as they pulled up a large emerald.
"The master emerald" Maurice said
Silver nodded "genesis point is a very appropriate term is it not? Not only did it create our race but gave birth to the chaos emeralds."
The image skipped forward a bit and then Maurice saw a small house
"This is the answer to your Robotnik question, inside that house"
Maurice nodded and said "so I can go into that wall and stop Robotnik, I think I will like that very much"
"The time travel for you may not work for you the same way it does for me, a part of you will be there beyond the wall as well as in here"
"There will be two of me?"
Silver nodded "in a way, just try to be careful as this can go very wrong for you"
Maurice nodded, he then put his hand into the wall and soon the rest of him followed.
He soon found himself in front of the house, there a young human child was playing outside.
Maurice looked at the child and asked "what does this kid have to do with Robotnik?"
The kid noticed him and said "oh cool it's a Mobia!" as he ran up to Maurice
"hello kid" Maurice replied
"I guess you are a gift from my grandfather, he is studying you after all"
"studying?" Maurice asked
The child nodded "he is a master of genetics and he said you Mobia are made mostly of human and animal DNA. He said the meteor mutated your animal DNA into that similar to ours and that Mobia are almost like humans in every way except in appearance"
Maurice smiled "you have some big words kid"
The child nodded once more "I am only 5 years old but my parents say I am as smart as my Grandfather, my name is Chris Thorndyke by the way"
"Nice to meet you Chris" said Maurice
"Likewise, well I better go back inside" said Chris "will you stay out here?"
"I will come and go Chris, but I will be around"
Chris nodded as he went back inside his house
"Nice kid" Maurice said as he seemed to flash forward in time a bit.
Outside in the Eternity room the others looked on, everywhere the creatures were moving about as Amy cried "where did you take Sonic!"
"Where he needs to be" Silver replied
"But he belongs with us his friends!" cried Tails
"Do not worry Miles, Maurice will not be harmed and anything that will happen will be for a reason" said Silver once more.
"I am a mystic and I don't know the reason" said Knuckles
"You will in time" said Silver
The others looked on hoping that soon Maurice would appear.
Maurice found himself in the energy room again and saw another image come to him, that of another area what looked to be a school, he looked and saw that Chris was much older and was being bullied by two others.
The two human bullies both wore what looked like some sort of military garb, dressed in dark green and with armbands with red fists in them.
They were kids no older than Chris but they were pushing him around
"Mobia lover!" one cried
"Don't you know humans are superior!" said the other
"But the Mobia are gentile and kind, far better than any of you!"
"Please those Mobia are good for nothing other as slaves and pets!"
"They are just freaks no better than the animals who spawned them!"
They began to attack Chris and Maurice could take it no more.
Maurice hated bullies, being so slow made him the target of bullying, now it was time to give some payback.
Maurice dashed forward as he gave the humans a few kicks, he then noticed that his fur was silver now and he was fast once again.
"Hurray my hero!" cried Chris
"Call me Juice!" said Maurice, not knowing if any of this was changing the future he knew of and one of those bullies could have been Robotnik.
The kids ran away as Chris got up
"Thank you Juice" he said
"You are welcome kid" said Maurice "so you like my kind?"
Chris nodded and said "but I don't think it will do any good, there are rumors that a war may start. There are not too many of you and you can wind up as slaves. I really don't want that, Mobia are so kind and gentile"
"Thanks kid, well you better head home and next time learn how to defend yourself!"
Chris nodded as he went back home.
In the eternity room one of the odd tear shaped creatures came up Amy and her group.
It seemed rather cheery and childlike and came up to Cream.
"What is this thing?" Cream asked
"That is a Chao" said Knuckles "they appear near areas where emeralds are found"
"I never seen one at Knothole base" said Amy
"They are not as common these days" said Knuckles they are normally said to be created long ago by my race but have vanished all over since then"
"They are kind of cute" said Cream "can I keep one?"
Knuckles laughed "sure why not but if it disappears I have no control of it"
Cream nodded as she began to play with the Chao.
Maurice seemed to flash forward once more, he found himself in front of the house he met Chris at and in the distance he heard alarms blaring.
Worrying the sweet kid he met was in danger Maurice ran into Chris's house and was met by two robots, a cube shaped one and a round one.
"Intruder!" they said as they came in close to him
"Is Robotnik at work here?" Maurice asked himself as they came in to attack him
"Cubot, Orbot stop!" said a voice, Maurice turned and saw Chris "this is my friend"
"As you wish master" they said as Chris came forward
"Chris what is going on here, where are your parents?" Maurice asked
"They are in jail" said Chris "they are prisoners of the General Union of Nations as criminals of the state because they sided with the Mobia and we are now at war with them"
"War, how long has it been?"
"I am 12 years old, last time I was 8 when I saw you."
"What about these robots, know about a man named Robotnik?"
Chris shook his head "never heard of him, I was the one who made these robots to protect me. I took your advice and used my skills to build them"
"Well I guess not all robots are evil" said Maurice
"Evil?" Chris asked "robots are neither good nor evil, in a way they are better than anything as they don't hate or wage war unless told to"
"I guess they are evil as the ones that use them" said Maurice but soon from outside a loud explosion came
"Oh no!" cried Chris "the city is under attack follow me!"
Maurice nodded as the four went down into the basement.
Before them in the basement stood a large pod as Chris said "I made this to protect me, it's a stasis tube that will freeze my body until the war is over and my parents can get me out"
"You made this too?" Maurice asked
Chris nodded "things will be hard during the war, I am going to hide here"
"Good luck kid, I don't think I will fit in there"
Chris nodded as he jumped into the pod alongside of his robots.
The pod closed as Maurice seemed to do another skip forward.
"It has been an hour since Sonic Unit vanished" said Bunnie
"I am sure he is okay" said Antoine
"I know you wish you were in that place where he may be, if this room can alter time you could save me in the past" Bunnie stated
"Oui but if you could never change back I would still love you" said Antoine
"But this unit will outlive you and this unit doesn't want to live life without you" Bunnie replied
"Perhaps I shall be ze robot next" Antoine replied
"I could help with that" said Tails "I may try to capture a roboticizer see how it works and learn from it"
"Seems dangerous Tails unit" Bunnie said with concern.
Tails nodded "there is risk in everything, if we don't take it than its not worth anything"
"Well do your best if you can get one" said Antoine "I would not mind being a robot for my sweet"
"Oh Antoine unit you are so sweet" said Bunnie with a smile
The two caressed each other as tails let them be.
Maurice looked on as he saw a pair of echidnas come into the basement and they were dressed very similar to Tikal.
"Wow Pachacamac this is amazing!" said one
"Yes Talia it's a stasis tube with a human inside" Pachacamac replied as he pressed a button on the tube
"Are you sure that is wise?" Talia asked "we don't know if he is friendly"
"He is just a child still like us" Pachacamac answered "we must learn from him"
Chris woke up as he looked at the two Echidnas "Mobia?" he asked
The two nodded
"He knows the old tongue" Pachacamac said "yes we are Mobia, you must have been in there for a while"
"Tell me are the Mobia and Humans still at war?"
The two looked at him oddly "we have not been at war for over 2000 years"
"2000 years!" Chris cried "my family… They are gone!"
The two echidnas nodded "sorry"
Chris broke down in tears as Pachacamac said "but we will take you in and take you to our island which is not far from here, my girlfriend and I are in our early teens but we will take care of you"
"You will?" Chris asked
"And your robots can come with us" said Talia
Chris looked on as it seemed Orbot and Cubot were not functioning
"I don't think they can, the stasis pod seemed not to work for them" Chris said sadly
"It's okay they are robots you can build more"
Chris nodded as the two echidnas took him up to the surface, Maurice while not there with them seemed to skip forward once more.
Maurice felt sad for Chris, he lost his home and family.
"The kid has gone through a lot" he said "poor child I know how you feel"
In the Eternity room Amy and Sally began to talk
"So who is this silver guy anyhow?" Amy asked "and where is the emerald?"
"Indeed this Silver is as new to me as it is to you" said Lupe as she sat down next to them
"So you never saw him before?" asked Amy
"He only appeared recently and the strange part is he appears instead of the emerald, usually these Chao only appear when the emerald does" she said
"So you are saying that this Silver is the emerald?"
Lupe shrugged "your guess is as good as mine"
Maurice looked on once more this time Chris was nearing adulthood, he was growing into a handsome young man.
"Chris we have good news!" said Talia
"We are going to have a baby!" Pachacamac replied
Chris smiled "that's great, what are you going to call her?"
"Tikal" said Talia
"That is a nice name" said Chris
"By the way come outside we have something to show you"
Chris nodded and followed them outside
There he saw a massive emerald as Pachacamac said "this is the great emerald, our search for the thing that created us is over. It was found in a place we like to call Genesis point"
Talia nodded "wonderful is it not?"
Chris nodded but then he spotted something, a crack.
Without warning the great emerald broke apart into eight emeralds with most of them flying off except two.
One emerald went to Pachacamac and the other to Talia
Pachacamac grabbed the emerald and said "this is a sign"
He then held up his emerald and said "the god Sol has told us to go after the emeralds so we can achieve supreme power!"
His fur turned reddish, the surrounding land lifted up as Pachacamac cried "this is the age of the Mystics!"
The land for miles lifted upward and soon the entire Island lifted up
"The day of Angel island is upon us, and we shall be masters of all!"
Maurice time jumped once more.
"Well you very cute" said Sticks who was hovering around Knuckles "like the red fur!"
"Now leave the poor guy alone" said Marine "he is a Mystic he doesn't need to hear that from you"
"But come on Marine you are such a party pooper, a cute guy comes around and you want to take him!"
"Girls please" said Knuckles feeling embarrassed "I don't want you to fight over me!"
"Tough guy don't like us fighting!" said Sticks
"Seems so" said Marine
"Actually… I am a little shy around girls" Knuckles said with a blush
"Oh how cute!" said Sticks hugging him
"Broody loner afraid of girls!"
"Sheesh" said Knuckles as Sticks hugged him harder
Maurice looked on, Chris was now another few years older… or at least he looked like Chris.
He was fatter and had grown a large mustache and Maurice could not help but notice how much he looked like Robotnik now.
Chris was looking after a factory full of robots, all being assembled, these robots were not like Cubot or Orbot but more humanoid in appearance and were certainly built for war.
"The new Gizoids are looking nice, better give them to the Nocturnus Clan" said Chris
Tikal came in and saw what he was working on "Chris have you gone mad, those are for my enemies!"
"The Nocturnus clan is your military though"
"But they are plotting a Coup against my father!"
"I know" said Chris "Pachacamac is obsessed with the emeralds after your mother died and another war is going to start, but this time between Mobia."
"The Sol emeralds did this" she said "its tragic. The only reason why I have my emerald is that mommy gave it to me."
Chris nodded "well so you know I am leaving here, I don't want another war. I am going back to where your people found me to start again"
"But you can't, there is an army out there from the waiting to seize the Master emerald and make Angel island crash!"
"It is irrelevant, soon it will not matter"
"But our civilization is falling don't you care?"
Chris shrugged "everything must end so they say, I saw the end of my civilization and I am going to see the end of yours"
"But the inventions you help us make like the ring generators that power those who have touched the Sol are being used for the war too"
"That is why my next invention will be an end to war, just you wait Tikal I will end war and suffering once and for all!."
"Oh Chris" Tikal said sadly
Maurice looked on as he saw Chris leave.
He then saw Chris's basement, there was a stasis pod a ring generator and saw Chris making something else.
He saw Chris become more fat, the stress of the war made him binge eat.
His hair was gone leaving a bald head and as Maurice looked on there was only one person who Chris was going to be.
Gone were the looks of the sweet kind boy from before, now was the man he knew as Robotnik in all but name. He saw him work on a machine in the corner, one he put a synthetic chaos emerald into and Maurice knew what this was.
Tikal had appeared, the basement was very far underground now and she discovered his lab.
She came towards Chris as Maurice cried "No don't go near him!"
"Chris?" she asked
"Chris Thorndyke is dead" he said
"But you can't mean that" said Tikal "you were so kind and gentile don't let the war make you into a monster! My people are gone and am one of the few left of my clan"
"But don't you see that is why Chris is dead. I no longer care about anything living, only machines"
"But you can't mean that!"
Chris nodded "I do because machines don't wage war on each other, they don't lie, they don't feel hatred or sadness. That is why I made this machine here, it will cure people of such things. This machine the roboticizer will turn anyone into my robot slave for all eternity. And you will be my first patient!"
Maurice then pushed his way back into their reality surprising Chris.
"Juice you can't be here!" cried Chris
"Let her go Chris!" Maurice spat "you are not a bad man!"
"I am only what this world made me" Chris said "I am a scientist… a Doctor and I know the ultimate cure to the suffering of everyone!"
Maurice ran and jumped on Chris's head, Tikal came down as Chris got up.
Maurice tried to run again but Chris was able to nab him, Maurice guessed that all this time jumping drained his powers.
"My name is no longer Chris Thorndyke, I am now taking my late fathers first name of Ivo. My grandfathers last name on my mothers side was Kintobor but spell that backwards is my new last name Robotnik which by the way thanks for the name idea friend!"
Maurice was then thrown into the roboticizer, Robotnik activated it and Maurice felt its energy go into his body.
Maurice did not know how this was possible, he watched himself become a robot.
He saw each part of him become segmented and mechanical and felt himself go cold.
His mind soon went as his new robotic personality came online.
The roboticizer opened and Robotnik said "meet the future Tikal, this is Worker-bot 00001"
"All hail Robotniks eternal empire" Worker-bot 00001 droned.
"Now be a good slave and capture Tikal"
"Yes Master" said Worker-bot 00001
Maurice in his cyberspace could not resist the orders, his robotic personality had taken over.
Tikal cried and said "guess I have no choice I am going to destroy this cave Chris, I am so sorry"
She then backed off using her emerald to seal off the cave leaving both he and Worker-bot 00001 alone.
"Tell me slave how long will it take to get through all that?" Robotnik asked
"Approximately 4000 years Master"
"Better get started then"
Robotnik then put himself back into stasis as the roboticized Maurice toiled and slaved away.
Inside his cyberspace Maurice was coerced into obedience as and his master rested he dug.
First a year passed, then a decade, then a century.
With each year Maurice faded into his robotic persona, soon it overtook him and Maurice was all but dead.
Within those 4000 years Worker-bot 00001 forgot its real name, its real identity, only its work mattered.
Eventually Worker-bot 00001 reached the outside as Silver stood over him.
"You are an enemy of Master Robotnik" he droned
Silver came up to him and said "poor thing, I warned you"
He then pulled the Worker-bot back into the eternity room
On the other side the others looked on as a roboticized hedgehog was pulled from the energy field.
"Sonic what happened to him!" Amy cried
"He fulfilled his path, the Mobius loop of time made its rounds" said Silver
"But he's roboticized!" cried Sally
"Yes but he will return to normal soon on both ends"
"what do you mean by that?" asked Tails
"Just watch" said Silver as before them Maurice's body lit up.
Before them he became organic again, all mechanical parts restoring to organic ones.
Maurice awoke as his fur turned blue and as he looked at himself he said "have your powers back but it will cost you dearly to get them back"
Sonic landed as Silver and the Chao disappeared except one which stayed with Cream.
Sonic got up and said "I know everything now"
"But Sonic what happened in there?" asked Amy
"The emeralds power transported me" said Sonic "it divided me into two people, one person you see here and the other well I will explain that later."
He then got up and said "in any case, the blue blur is back baby!"
Back on Robotniks command ship Worker-Bot 00001 came back online as Robotnik looked after it.
"Welcome back Worker-bot 00001" he said
"Malfunction" said Worker-bot 00001
Robotnik nodded "that's because your body gave in, 4000 years of digging and you being a result of my prototype did this to you"
"I am sorry Master" said Worker-bot 00001
Robotnik gave a nod "don't worry about it, I am going to give you some upgrades to help you. I am transferring your head onto a new body, one made to mirror that of who you used to be"
"This unit doesn't remember" Worker-bot 00001 stated
"Doesn't matter, soon you will be made into my newest combat robot. And you will no longer be my worker. No you are going to be… Metal Sonic"
Metal Sonic nodded, this was not a normal designation but it was what his master wanted.
End of Act 1