Chapter 38: Replicas

"Sonny!" Miles cried, running into the underground circular room where Ava had been taken to earlier. "I thought I would never see you again!"

"Oh, you didn't have to worry about me, Miles," Sonny said, hugging his best friend. "I'm perfectly fine."

Espen scuffed. "According to Rouge, you had been captured at Green Hill six months ago and were being tortured for information on the Death Egg until the jailbreak."

"What kind of information was he torturing you for?" Amelia asked anxiously.

Before Sonny answered, he looked in the doorway and noticed Sonic. "Oh, hey, when did you get here?"

Sonic pointed his thumb sideways.

"Yesterday?" Sonny guessed.

In response, Sonic gave him a thumbs-up.

"So what is he?" Charles asked, kneeling down to look at Sonic more closely. "Some kind of mutated hedgehog?"

"He's from the past version of this planet, before Dark Gaia destroyed it," Miles explained. "But anyway, the reason I came here was to tell you that Eggman's cooking up a plan that'll wipe us out in three days' time."

Chuck folded his arms. "Any idea what this plan entails?"

As Miles shrugged, Victor came bursting in through the automatic door forcing Sonic to dash out of the way.

"Hey, guys, I'd hate to interrupt this important meeting but we've got trouble," Victor said, sounding breathless. "Shawn's tearing through our troops in the city, and we need reinforcements right now!"

"Shawn?" Sonny looked confused. "He wouldn't do something like that."

"He disappeared along with Omega when Eggman took over," Chuck claimed. "Rouge said they were looking for the Phantom Ruby to bring you back."

"But I found Omega in Ghost Town," Miles said, causing everyone to look at him. "Only he wasn't moving."

"That's not good," Silva frowned. "I hope Shawn hasn't decided to—

"Switch sides?" Espen interrupted. "He's done that before, like when the Black Arms attacked and he was collecting Chaos Emeralds for their leader."

"But that was against his will," Sonny claimed. "Maybe this is a similar thing."

###

At the city's Sunset Heights area, Sonny ran past several destroyed buildings and roads while small robots and more large ones attacked in the distance.

"Ugh, more Death Egg Robots? Seriously?" Chuck groaned from the headset Sonny had been given. "How come there are so many?"

"I don't know, but we're having a hard time holding them off," Espen replied.

"I'll be there to help, just as soon as I find Shawn," Sonny said, and ran faster.

Eventually, he found Shawn at the end of the road whose eyes didn't reflect the light from the setting sun sporting black hedgehog ears and a tail.

"Okay, Shawn, what's the deal?" Sonny demanded.

Instead of answering, Shawn leaped forward.

"Chaos Control!"

For a brief second, Shawn froze as an identical one that didn't have hedgehog ears and a tail came flying down and kicked the first Shawn into a nearby wall.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Sonny wondered, rubbing his eyes. "Why are there two Shawns?"

As he spoke, the first Shawn disappeared in the same distorted red light that Zavok vanished in.

"That one was a fake version of me," the second Shawn answered, turning to face Sonny. "Created by Infinite himself."

"Infinite?" Thinking back to the masked figure he fought earlier, Sonny gave Shawn a dubious look. "Have you met him before?"

Reluctantly, Shawn nodded. "I know what he's capable of, so if you need to know more about him I'm the guy to ask."

"How do I know this isn't some kind of trick by Eggman?"

Angered, Shawn grabbed Sonny by the collar of his shirt. "You have no idea what I've been through, while you were galavanting in another dimension."

"I wasn't 'galavanting,'" Sonny insisted. "It just took me a lot longer to get home."

"Then prove it! Where's the Phantom Ruby that you no doubt used to get back here?"

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"It got lost while I was traveling between the past and present versions of Mobius."

"Then how are you standing here? Maybe you're a fake version of Sonny that Infinite's created to trick me!"

"If I was, I would've attacked you. And probably had hedgehog ears and a tail, too."

"Hm, good point," Shawn admitted, and let go of Sonny's shirt. "And you wouldn't smell as bad either."

"Hey, I was trapped on the Death Egg for several months!" Sonny defended. "Give me a break!"

###

Once everything had been straightened out with the other Resistance members including Rouge, who was both relieved and angry at Shawn's return, Sonny had the two of them help Espen take down the Death Egg Robots before heading out.

"So what's Infinite's power?" Sonny said, getting Shawn's attention.

"He can create virtual reality projections," Shawn answered. "Like that version of me, they have mass and form but no heart or soul."

"So then the Zak, or Zavok as he kept calling himself, that I fought earlier—

"Was probably fake too," Shawn finished. "But just because they aren't real doesn't mean their powers aren't as strong as the originals."

"And that's not all," Rouge butted in on Sonny's headset. "I just hacked into a file regarding Infinite, who can apparently create countless versions of these 'replicas' you boys are talking about."

"So no matter how hard we hit him, he'll just make more," Sonny realized.

"Exactly," Shawn nodded. "So it's a no-win situation for us."

"No way!" Sonny objected. "We always find a way to win!"

"That's the spirit," Chuck said encouragingly. "And speaking of which, we just received word that Eggman's headquarters in Metropolis is currently undermanned."

"He probably sent his forces elsewhere to enact this 'plan' Miles mentioned," Espen guessed. "But this could be the only chance we get to take back Metropolis."

"And that's why we're going to focus on a full-frontal assault," Chuck announced. "Therefore, it shall be called Operation Big Wave!"

"That sounds cool and all, but we need a strategy," Silva butted in.

"We'll be going in hard and fast without stopping until Eggman's army is destroyed!"

"Did you think of that just now?" Amelia said dubiously.

"Yup!"

While an audible groan was heard, Chuck continued, "Come on, Amelia, we can do this! Sonny and Shawn may not arrive on time, but we've got the strength to win! In fact, there is no finer group that I'd want to fight alongside with!"

To be continued…