Chapter 9: All over the Place

"Captain! Captain!" the nervous young man called out as he stormed into the office at Naval Base San Diego. The tallest one in the building, in fact.

The elderly man behind the desk placed his phone call on hold and looked up grumpily. "What is it, Harris?" he asked, trying to hide his annoyance. He really preferred it if people actually knocked before entering.

"Captain, you haven't seen the news? Something airborne and massive just showed up off the coast of LA. Depending on what happens, we may need to act. A helicopter news crew just approached it. The TV downstairs is on. You have to see this, sir," he spoke rapidly.

Captain Mitchell, who simply frowned at this news, got up from his seat and followed Harris out the door, who continued to speak. "Believe it or not, sir, this isn't even the weirdest thing to show up on the news so far."

"Oh? What are you talking about?"

"There've been reports of, uh, other things showing up in other parts of the world. You'll understand once you see the reports. Sir…" Harris said as he lowered his voice, which showed no signs of joking. "Some weird shit is going down all over the place. Even weirder than what happened a few days ago with the ARA."

Sonic the Hedgehog had never been teleported before. And considering how fast he ran, he had deemed it unnecessary to ever really find out if it was even possible.

And now that it had actually happened to him, he would rather have never found out, at least not like this. His whole body felt weird, weak and hurting, the latter mainly due to the inertia that kept him moving even after the blast from the Master Emerald transferred him from one space to another. He had bounced on the hard, smooth ground several times before coming to a stop. Ow.

Sonic slowly opened his eyes to find himself face down on a black surface. He placed his palms on them to lift himself up slightly. The first thing he noticed was how smooth the ground was. Unnaturally so.

Then he finally paid attention to the sounds. There were a number of them, though his hearing wasn't fully back yet. They sounded like…people. And car engines. They all sounded like they were somewhat far away. Except for one that seemed to coming closer and closer. Very quickly, too.

Joining in the cacophony was a loud horn, and Sonic looked up to see a large vehicle coming straight towards him.

Gasping, his reflexes took over and commanded him to roll over to his left regardless of how weak he felt. He did it just in time as the bus shot past with nary an inch between them.

Right after that, however, he saw a second, smaller car headed coming, and Sonic had to flip himself over in the same direction as just now to avoid being hit.

Sonic did end up hitting something else, however, and that something else screamed, startling him to the point where he almost screamed himself.

He finally decided it was time to find out what was going on, and that it wasn't ideal to do so while lying down, rolling around and bumping into things. Sonic kicked his legs up and brought them down in a rapid motion, bringing himself into a standing position. But all of his movements came to a halt when he saw exactly where he was.

He was in the middle of a city square of some sort. Streets and tall buildings surrounded the place, and there was a dazzling amount of colorful lights and advertisements, which were further punctuated against the night sky.

But Sonic had seen such things before, however rarely he went into cities. It was not the appearance and scenery that froze him, but rather its population.

Surrounding Sonic in all directions was a massive group of human beings, all of whom were staring at him. Including the woman he had just bumped into.

Sonic would have marveled at how he was able to easily recognize a human lady, but even he wasn't that silly. Instead he told himself to keep calm, saying nothing as he closely observed the humans who were observing him in return. Some of them did not keep still and were already taking pictures of him with their cameras or cell phones. Murmurs could be heard amongst the crowd.

"What is that thing?"

"Is it a toy?"

"…just popped out of thin air!"

"…some sort of animal?"

Sonic knew that it was best he did not stay here for long. But there were just too many people standing around. He needed to wait for his opportunity to come before any of them tried something.

Then one of them did exactly that. Sonic felt something behind him touching his quills, which reflexively caused him to spin around in just the blink of an eye. The person who did it jumped back in fear, as did many others, and Sonic realized he must be quite young. He was very glad his quills weren't in sharp mode like when he was performing a spindash, otherwise he could have cut the boy's fingers off. "Woah, sorry about tha-" he ended up blurting out, and he immediately covered his mouth when he realized what he did.

"Holy crap, it talks!"

"…moved damn fast too!"

The excitement was getting louder until a new, powerful voice interrupted. "Police! Everyone step aside and keep back! I mean everyone!"

Everyone stopped speaking after that. From the crowd, four tall men dressed in dark blue uniforms emerged, walking towards the hedgehog with practiced bravado. They formed a rough semicircle around him before one of them asked curiously, "Dave, whadaya think this is?"

"Dunno. Some advanced toy, looks like."

"Maybe a lab experiment that escaped. Seriously."

Sonic took umbrage to that and really wished he could voice it out, but he held himself back. All he did was to glare at them in annoyance to see if they would notice it.

They didn't. "Whatever it is, we better take it with us and give it to lost and found or something," another suggested as got up closer to Sonic, ready to pick him up. "You'd think people would take better care of something li-"

Sonic recoiled and took several quick steps back before the man's hands reached him, and everyone was startled again. He did not like being picked up by anyone, or anything, for that matter. It gave him bad memories of just how immobile he was when that happened.

"What the hell?" the police officer said. "How'd it move so fast?"

"Maybe someone's remote controlling it and playing with us," Dave said, sounding like he just had a revelation. "Let's get it and see who it belongs to!"

And that was when Sonic knew he had to get out of there. As soon as the officers started running towards him, he leapt off the pavement over their heads in a somersault. Once he landed, he darted straight for the opening in the crows that the officers had entered through earlier. Around him, everyone was crying out in either amazement, shock, fear, or all at the same time.

Now I know what Alan felt like when he first came to Mobius, Sonic thought as he zoomed along the street, passing by and swerving in between the many cars on it, ignoring their horning. Then a new thought entered his mind, a much more important one. Where's Alan? Where's Tails? Where's everyone else?

People normally came here to admire the local landmark, but tonight, everyone's attention was on something else entirely.

Sonic had started to wonder where Tails or anyone else went only after he began to escape. On the other hand, that was the first question Tails could think of when he came to his senses and realized that no one else was with him. Where's Sonic? He wondered with alarm, feeling rather nervous.

The source of his nervousness was the huge crowd that surrounded him, consisting completely of humans. And Sonic was nowhere nearby to help him if, or when, something went wrong. Three of his worst fears at the same time. Tails had only just gotten used to having one human friend. That didn't mean he was ready to face others yet. Especially so many at once.

Equally distressing was the fact that he wasn't in the Tornado, and his goggles were missing as well, though he at least still had his gloves and shoes on. He spun around. There was no sign of them around here, just a lot of humans.

Despite his panic, Tails was still able to take note of where he was. He was front of a tall stone gate of some sort with six rectangular pillars, and with the dark sky, it appeared to be golden in color. In front of it, as far as he could tell, was a large open paved area. His keen ears let him know there were cars driving around the place, but he could not see them due to how tall and numerous the humans around him were.

They got closer, and he got more scared. There was no space for him to back up to. Any direction he moved in, he would still be getting nearer to the crowd. Except one. He fell backwards onto the ground, his tails cushioning the fall. This didn't help, however, as it only made them look even taller when he looked up. Oh well. It was worth a try.

„Was ist denn das?" one of them asked.

„Weiss nicht. Ein Hund? Ein Fuchs?"

„Mit zwei Schwänzen?" This one sounded incredulous.

„Es sieht aber ängstlich aus, oder?"

„Na ja. Und eigentlich auch ziemlich süss."

Great. Just to top it off, he was in a place where people did not speak English. Now he had to worry about how he would-

"Wah!" Tails felt his namesakes being pulled, and he automatically reacted by yelping in fear and jumping back onto his feet before turning around. The child who had tried to grab onto his tails and many of the observers also reacted similarly, and an adult man quickly came to whisk him away. The fox held his own tails in front of him like they were a security blanket, and he glanced at them to make sure they were fine.

Snap out of it! He mentally shouted at himself as he looked downwards. What do I do? What would Sonic do? Unfortunately, the first answer that came to him was rather useless: Find Sonic. But what if he and the others weren't teleported? The thought terrified him to no end. Then he told himself he was being irrational due to his fear. Find the others and the Tornado, he finally decided. And before that, stop being so afraid!

But how? Another voice in him asked. Only one solution came to him. He certainly wasn't going to able to immediately start socializing around and ask questions, since even if he could drop his shyness and agoraphobia just like that, the humans would all still be freaked out. I need to be alone, he concluded.

As if he was asking for further encouragement to do so, Tails felt someone pat him on the head. He had not realized how close he or she had gotten while he was deciding what to do, and he jerked his noggin away without even thinking about it.

Miles 'Tails' Prower couldn't take it anymore. "No, please don't hurt me!" he blurted out and brought his arms out in front of him as he deployed his only means of escape. He quickly wound up his dual tails and rose into the air after they reached the minimum RPM he needed to gain lift. Once he was a dozen feet into the air, he scanned the place for a place to hide. He found one almost right away, and he knew it would work at least for a while.

The now flying fox zoomed straight towards the large bunch of trees northwest of the Brandenburg Gate, ignoring all of the excited cries and camera flashlights that came from below him.

"What do you think, Captain? Should we move out?" Harris asked.

Captain Mitchell stared at the TV set. The video feed from the news channel crew was showing something that most definitely warranted the military's attention. The huge spaceship the size of an aircraft carrier – he knew the scales of such ships by heart – seemed dormant for now, but for how long? "Yes, we do. If this thing's going to cause trouble, we make sure it ends before it even begins. Get everyone ready within ten minutes."

"Aye aye, sir!" The petty officer dashed out of the room after that.

What the hell is going on? Mitchell wondered as he picked up his cell phone to contact the Air Force and Marine Corps, hoping to find out how they were dealing with the other UFO that had showed up.

Okay, so I'm fine, Knuckles realized. And so is Angel Island. He was glad to see he was still on the familiar grass and soil of the floating island, and was gladder still when he turned around and saw that the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds were also still there on top of the altar. Their colors were unfortunately no longer glowing, though that was to be expected given the events that had just occurred.

But he was pretty sure Angel Island itself was no longer in the same place. Or the same planet, for that matter. He could tell that much just by looking at the sky. It was afternoon, maybe evening, but it seemed…different somehow.

Knuckles knew it was something he had to make sure of to fulfill his duty as the Guardian. He broke into a run in the opposite direction of the altar's stairs and rushed through the trees. He was not as fast or Sonic or Tails, and never would be, but was still capable of outrunning most mobians or humans.

Less than a minute later he reached the very edge of the island. He stopped and looked downwards from it. The good news was that Angel Island was indeed still floating.

The bad news was that it was now floating over a city he did not recognize. The island was clearly blocking off sunlight for a large number of buildings and possibly houses below. Knuckles frowned. He did not like it when the island floated over settled areas. It was just a precaution he always insisted on taking.

The echidna noticed an ocean not so far away, though he could not tell what direction that was. Good. He didn't do it often, but it seemed he was going to have to command the Master Emerald to move Angel Island all the way out there. He was prepared to turn back and do just that, but he noticed something much further in the distance that caused him to stop. That was when he knew that atop that bad news was worse news.

Far away and high above the ocean was the faint but unmistakable outline of Robotnik's hovering fortress, its silver hull apparently gleaming in the setting sunlight.

As if that weren't enough, Knuckles began to hear certain sounds that came from his left. They were coming from above. He looked up to notice several flying machines approaching his island, machines that flew in the same way Tails did...but he could not recall what they were called. Regardless, he was able to see that these didn't seem like the kind of stuff Robotnik would use.

Robotnik and others are both here? Now that's just great. The flying machines seemed to be headed towards the center of the island. Knuckles the Echidna decided that they were the priority for now and he could deal with Robotnik later. He started to run back to the altar of the Emeralds. Robotnik or not, no threat was going to approach it and take what they want.

Alan Doherty was not feeling comfortable. Before he could even open his eyes or think about what just happened, he felt a wave of nausea overwhelm him. Traveling at about twice the speed of sound made him feel screwed up on the inside. It felt even worse than food poisoning.

Unable to hold it back much longer, Alan, who was barely able to stand up, started vomiting. He did it for at least four seconds straight, and it felt very damn good indeed.

No time to waste. Now that he felt better, he had to take notice of his surroundings right away. He opened his eyes.

Doherty found himself to be in the middle of a slum, on a narrow asphalt road with dilapidated concrete houses and buildings on both sides. He was obviously not alone here though as the inhabitants from the windows on the roadsides were all watching him. And they were all humans.

His first reaction to this was a sigh of relief. He was back on Earth. This had to be a good thing, right?

But then he remembered that Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik were there too when the Master Emerald had bathed the whole area in a bright flash. They had to be around here on this planet as well. He sighed again, this time to express how fed up he was. This wasn't over yet. Not at all.

Alan decided to focus on the positive first though, still glad that he was finally back after…

He paused. How much time exactly passed on Earth while he was on Mobius? Then he realized he could possibly calculate the answer. He quickly recalled the numbers Sonic and Robotnik had given. Robotnik was likely teleported to Mobius thirty years ago, but he stayed there for fifteen years. Alan himself had been there for almost 36 hours, give or take. So 72? But all of this is assuming Robotnik really was that guy…

Let's just ask, he told himself impatiently. Some of the people on the roadside were young children, and they had somewhat dark skin and black hair. Latinos? He listened carefully to what they were saying amongst themselves, and true enough, it was Spanish.

"Disculpe," Alan said politely, facing the kids, "what date is it today?"

The children were hesitant at first, but one of them, likely the eldest due to his height, told it to him. Only three days had passed since he was teleported from LA. His math was correct after all. He felt good to know that, not merely out of vindication but rather, if he were unlucky, it could have been several years or decades into the future already. Now for one more important issue. "¿Dónde estoy, por favor?"

"Caracas, Venezuela, señor," the same boy replied.

Alan's eyes widened at the answer. Venezuela? He knew about the relations between his country and his own. How would they react to...he promptly looked down to see that he was still in his combat uniform and that his weapons were all on him. While glad that they did not go missing, he was now worried about how he was going to explain-

There was the sound of boots trampling rapidly on the ground behind and in front of him, followed by that of guns clicking. "¡Alto!¡policía!"

"¡Manos arriba!"

"¡Deténgase o disparo!"

Goddammit. Knowing that there was no way he could fight out of this lest he cause an international incident, Alan raised his hands into the air and got onto his knees. As the policemen came up to him, he told himself that regardless of which country he was dropped into, his outfit would cause this to happen anyway.

Doctor Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik looked through the information on his computer screens in a hurry as he had been doing for the past ten minutes or so. He was thankful that the mass teleportation did not remove him from his beloved flying fortress, but he had to make sure it did not cause any problems to it in the process.

Fortunately for him, luck was mostly on his side. He could find no technical difficulties with the massive emerald-powered thrusters, the armor, or anything else…except for the vaporizer cannon, which had been heavily dented by Sonic, but even then, he was confident it could still function properly.

Next he had to get some information, such as where he was. There was a view of a coastal city from the bridge's front windows, but there were no outstanding landmarks he could see from this distance to identify it. And the only maps his fortress had were that of Mobius, not Earth. Naturally, his attempt to identify where he was on the 3D globe model only got him a critical error.

But there was something he could do. His radar showed that a small aircraft had been circling around his fortress for some time now, which he ignored until now. His multiple exterior security cameras showed that it was a news helicopter. Its crew was doubtlessly reporting and showing everything about his fortress from the outside, and only then did he have an idea.

Robotnik typed a few commands on the computer keyboard to activate its various antennas. His intention was to connect to the various satellites up above and see which one belonged to the news station reporting on him now, and perhaps find out what happened to Sonic or the others at the same time. He began to flip through the frequencies. Another computer screen allowed him to see what the world was seeing on their television sets.

"…unidentified animal or alien in the middle of Times Square, New York, which took off at a tremendous speed as soon as policemen tried to approach it. It was last seen…"

„...vor dem Brandenburger Tor erschienen, und nachdem es von einer Menschenmenge umgegeben wurde ist es plötzlich davongeflogen und in den Park verschwunden..."

"…在卡拉卡斯，一位从空中突然出现，而且有武器和防弹服的男子已被警方扣留…"

"…massive alien spaceship here off the coast of Los Angeles, alongside the large hovering island that had suddenly appeared over a local coastal neighborhood…"

Robotnik paused at that one. Large floating island? Alongside? He checked his exterior security cameras again. Not finding anything out of the ordinary, he decided to turn the ship clockwise in terms of yaw. He applied a bit of engine power to the port side, and…

There it was. Angel Island was now right in front of the fortress, visible through the bridge's front windows. Cursing the security cameras for not having 360-degree coverage but otherwise feeling very full of glee right now, he engaged the thrusters to maximum level to head straight for the same target once more to get in range. He could hardly suppress his giggling or believe his fortune. The location may had changed, but his objective, and his means of accomplishing it, had not.

Robotnik was lucky, but not that lucky. As soon as the fortress started moving, his radar screen sounded and detected all sorts of incoming threats headed his way. He brought the huge aircraft to a standstill again to take a good look. The cameras faced downward and indicated that they were naval in nature. Overall, at least twenty ships had been sent out to face him. He had to give credit, they were certainly being precautious.

"This is the USS Stockdale of the United States Navy. You are to cease your aircraft's movements and allow us to board. This is your only warning," one of the ships below commanded sternly through a loudspeaker, which Robotnik heard through the audio sensors.

The doctor almost fell down laughing upon hearing the Navy's demand even as he considered the ramifications of the presence of this new adversary. Of course it wasn't going to be so easy. Sonic wasn't here, so it looked like he would have to go through these guys instead.

He grinned maliciously. It had been a while since he had to attack a full military force. This was going to be some good practice.

Author's Note: In case you were wondering about what they were saying in other languages above, here are the translations:

When Tails first appears in Berlin: "What is that?" "Don't know. A dog? A fox?" "With two tails?" "It does look scared, doesn't it?" "Yeah. And actually rather cute too."

During the news reports: "...appeared in front of the Brandenburg Gate, and after it was surrounded by a crowd, it suddenly flew into the air and disappeared into the park..." "...in Caracas, a man armed with weapons and armor who suddenly manifested in thin air has been detained by police..."

I know Sonic appearing in New York seems cliche, but since so many people do it, I might as well too. I think it can help in the plot anyway.