Preface: Hello again! First off, thanks for the small support of Spacehog from Mobius last night - as I write this, it's only six views, but it's definitely more than I was expecting! Also, I won't be taking answers for the question of the week right away anymore. When I get a good amount of answers for last week's question, I'll consider it closed.

Now then, this chapter's a bit on the shorter side, but I hope you enjoy it anyway!

10/31/20 update (original uploading 9/21/20): updated copyright notice and other minor tinkering

CHAOS HAVEN

Previously…after entering the world of Whisker Haven for the first time, Sonic, Tails, and their friends have ridded the village of Badniks, freed the trapped Ms. Featherbon, and made their way towards the besieged Little Planet, which apparently can also travel to Whisker Haven. As he did battle with Metal Sonic's creation, the Hyper Metal Sonic, in the Stardust Speedway Zone, Sonic also freed a kitten named Treasure and gathered all of the Time Stones, ensuring a good future for Little Planet once more.

Now…the heroes enter the Metallic Madness Zone, hoping to find a way to the Death Egg Model S and ensure a good future for Whisker Haven.

Roll Call

Sonic the Hedgehog - Issac Ryan Brown: Fastest thing alive, Hero of Mobius

Miles "Tails" Prower - Kate Higgins: Tech-savvy sidekick. High-flying pal.

Amy Rose - Jenna Ortega: Self-proclaimed girlfriend. Hammer-wielding ally.

Ray the Flying Squirrel - Joshua Rush: Mighty's little buddy. Adventurous flyer.

Mighty the Armadillo - Issac Ryan Brown: Ray's big buddy. Briusing pacifist

Knuckles the Echidna - Asher Angel: Master Emerald guardian. Angel Island native.

Vector the Crocodile - Keith Silverstien: Money-obsessed detective. Chaotix Detective Agency.

Espio the Chameleon - Matthew Mercer: Ninja detective. Chaotix Detective Agency.

Charmy Bee - Amy Birnbaum: Toddler detective. Chaotix Detective Agency.

Ms. Featherbon - Anne Halli: Hummingbird fairy. Gatekeeper of Whisker Haven.

Treasure - Sanai Victoria: Princess Ariel's kitten. Recently freed captive.

Chapter 6:
Mysteries of the Factory

[Main Party Selected: Sonic, Tails, Amy, Ms. Featherbon]
[Supporting Party Selected: Knuckles, Mighty, Ray, Vector, Espio, Charmy, Treasure]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Little Planet, Metallic Madness Zone Present]

[BGM: SEGA SOUND TEAM - Metallic Madness]

The Metallic Madness Zone was the last zone on Little Planet. A rather recent addition, the zone was a factory designed to develop new technology that Dr. Eggman had taken over whenever he conquered Little Planet. Much of the technology in Little Planet's future came from both this zone and the Wacky Workbench Zone.

The heroes were currently exploring the zone in search of something that would take them to the Death Egg Model S. "See, what did I tell you?" said Sonic as they walked through. "Not a single Badnik in sight!"

"These Time Stones truly are magical things," said Ms. Featherbon.

Knuckles looked at the Miles Electric, as Tails had hacked into the zone's digital map system. "Hey, guys, check this out," he said, once he noticed a room that caught his eye.

Everyone gathered around. The room he was referring to had a rocket in it, which would no doubt bring them to the Death Egg Model S.

"How are we gonna get to it, though?" asked Ray. "The pathway is too small!"

Amy looked around and saw an orange laser constantly shooting downwards. "Bingo!" she said, pointing at it. Everyone walked down to the laser, where Amy explained, "This'll shrink us down and let us walk through!"

Treasure walked up and stuck her paw out. One hit, and she instantly shrunk to a microscopic size. "Shimmering seashells!" she cried. "I'm as small as a fly!"

With the ray, everyone shrunk down to Treasure's new size. "Well then," said Sonic, "let's do it to it!"

Everyone began walking through the passageway. "Alright, so it seems like this is some sort of maze," said Tails, having taken back the Miles Electric. "But as long as I have reception, we can…" The tablet lost reception. "...find our way out."

Vector began looking around. They seemed to have already reached a fork in the road. "Let's go to the left," he said, and everyone took the left door.

Unfortunately, every turn they made, the group simply found themselves back at that fork. "Okay, this isn't working anymore!" said Mighty. "We're just going around in circles!"

Treasure began to think. She thought of her friend Berry, who was Snow White's pet bunny. While baking was her primary talent, she was also an exceptional listener, which helped them when Lily, Tiana's kitten, got lost in the Whisker Woods just before the Whisker Haven Cake-Tillion happened. Although no one else seemed to be as good of a listener, it was still better than nothing.

"What if we use our ears?" she proposed. "We can listen for the room with the rocket!"

"I mean, that doesn't seem like it'll work," said Sonic, "but I guess at this point it's better than nothing."

Treasure put her ear to the ground and began to hear some odd machinery in the distance. She began to crawl towards it, and everyone followed. As it got louder and louder, she thought they were getting closer, and closer, until…

ZAP!

Everyone came face-to-face with a blue laser, which returned them to their original height. That meant they had exited the maze.

"Oh, so that's what I heard!" said Treasure.

"And look!" said Knuckles. "There's the rocket!"

[BGM: Chowing Down Background Music]

Everyone whooped. All they had to do now was power the rocket. Since there didn't seem to be any obvious power source, and they didn't want to risk using Ms. Featherbon's magic, the group began to search the room for at least a clue.

Amy noticed a battery icon on the ground that seemed to connect to the rocket. She stomped her foot on it, but nothing happened. "Well, guess this is useless," she decided.

Digging through a storage area, Sonic found a monitor with a lightning symbol on it. "Would this computer work?" asked Ms. Featherbon.

"Nah, it'd just give me a magnetic shield," said Sonic.

Espio climbed up the wall, searching for something that could help them. "Hmm, is this some kind of encryption?" he thought as he noticed an odd sentence:

"Uog lpr Qqtpmrnht Azqrql bvms ybr jsbgjzl qvss nb xgerw bum ksherb."

"This sentence does not seem intelligible," the chameleon analyzed.

"Hey, Espio," said Charmy, flying up to him, "I found this key, do you think…" The bee looked at the sentence. "Hey, this is a coded message!" he called out.

"Lemme see!" said Tails, enthusiastically. Twisting his tails up, he looked at the code. "Hmm, can I see that key, Charmy?" he asked.

The bee handed him the key, and he noticed the word 'FUNISINFINITE' in small letters. "Aha! This is a Vegenere cipher! Gimme a second…"

After typing a few things on his Miles Electric, Tails read aloud the decrypted code for everyone to hear:

"Put the Lightning Shield onto the battery icon to power the rocket."

"Ah, so that's what it was for!" said Sonic, remembering the Lightning Shield monitor.

"And what this is for!" said Amy, remembering the battery icon. She walked over to the storage area and helped Sonic pick up the monitor. They carried it over to the battery icon and put it onto it. The wiring visible from under the floor instantly glowed and the rocket roared to life.

"Alright, there we go!" said Ray. "Now we're in business!"

Everyone entered the rocket, which was rather cramped due to its small size. "Well, it seems Metal Sonic was not expecting us," said Ms. Featherbon.

"Doesn't matter," said Sonic, typing on the destination controls. "Destination: Death Egg Model S! We're up, over, and gone!"

As he said that, the rocket blasted off from the factory and began to fly towards the mouth of the spaceship.

Don't worry, everyone, thought Ms. Featherbon. We'll be there soon.

[BGM: End]

[Character Selected: Metal Sonic]
[Current World: Whisker Planet]
[Current Location: Death Egg Model S, Testing Chamber]

The Chaos Emeralds were placed around two new Hyper Metal Sonics. When they were activated, the energy of the Chaos Emeralds entered the two robots and a yellow ura appeared around them, just like when Metal Sonic himself used the Chaos Emeralds not that long ago.

"Transfusion of Chaos energy was perfect," noted Metal. "And it didn't even require an organic host. That is test two complete."

Just then, Coconuts, the lowest-ranking of the Head Badniks, rushed in. "Metal! Metal!" he shouted, stumbling on himself. "Sonic and his friends are nearly here!"

"Catching me unprepared," said Metal Sonic. "That seems like my loathsome copy. Tell Scratch and Grounder to perform the final two tests without me. I shall put a stop to this myself."

"Okay," said Coconuts, "but use this thing I made myself! I call it the Egg Arm Robot!" The monkey Badnik presented a robot that had the body of the Death Egg Robot, the arms of the Big Arm Machine, two Egg Pistons for feet, and an Egg Mobile for a head.

"Hmm, this actually seems very nice," said Metal, stepping into the cockpit. He heard some odd rustling from the inside. "What did you use to power this?"

"I used that puppy in the control deck!" answered Coconuts.

"Hmm, I suppose that is one use for her," decided Metal Sonic. "If this goes well, once Master returns, I'll try to convince him to get you promoted from janitor."

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" cried Coconuts, happily. "I'm gonna get promoted! I'm gonna get promoted!"

To be continued…and next time: into the spaceship!

Next chapter: "Beware the Egg Arm Robot!" The action starts heating up as the heroes finally reach the Death Egg Model S! But Metal Sonic's ready to do whatever it takes to stop them before unleashing his secret weapon; including combining Dr. Eggman's original final weapons into one! But one of the heroes gets separated from the others in the process…

Postface: Chapter complete! I'm pretty glad with how this one turned out compared to the original version, which I felt didn't have as many mysteries as the title implied. My favorite new part's probably the maze, especially when Treasure channels a certain bunny!

Trivia time! The reason why I went with the Metallic Madness Zone is also because of my Mania bias when I originally wrote this. It actually still makes sense in the narrative, though, since it was Sonic CD's last zone and this is the last of the Little Planet portion of the journey. I'm actually a little glad I kept things accurate to the game and had no Badniks because of all the Time Stones being collected; researching which Badniks go where is tricky! I originally had a flashback sequence referencing the Sonic Terminator story from Sonic the Comic, where the future Sonic teaches his present self how to use the shrink rays. That bit is absent here because I thought it messed with the pacing. The bit with the encryption is a little Gravity Falls hat tip; the Veringe cypher was the one used for the credits code in Season 2. And why does the keyword seem so familiar…? Finally, Coconuts, the last of the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash squad is here! But it looks like he used the puppy Metal Sonic had with him…

That seems to be it! Please read, review, and share, and I will see you next time when our heroes fight the first three Sonic games' final bosses again…but all at once! Stay diamond, everyone!

-Alfred

~Sonic the Hedgehog and everything related to him are properties of Sega Corp. The Palace Pets and everything related to them are properties of The Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~