Tails' Workshop

Sonic finally came to a stop outside the workshop, his two traveling partners smoothing out their dresses and patting down messed up fur. Sonic looked around frantically, expecting the place to be burned down, but finding it completely intact. He reached up to his earpiece, deciding to call his friend.

"Hey, Tails, I'm here now, are you alright?" The blue hedgehog's brow furrowed as he received silence for a moment, letting out a sigh of relief when his reply came later.

"Sonic, I'm glad you're here. Nothing bad happened, it was just… unusual. I'd let you in, but I'm trying to find someone."

Sonic wondered what he meant, but shrugged and let himself and his friends inside. In the living room, they found some shards on the table that looked like they came from the flowerpot. Looking around, there was no sign of the fox who lived there, but they knew he was somewhere.

As Sonic and Amy spoke about what was so important Tails needed them to come back, Maisie went looking for a place to put her halberd. As she stepped into a storage shed, she was surprised to see an unfamiliar figure with their back turned. Setting the weapon down, she approached slowly.

"Um… hey there. The name's Maisie Dee. A-And you are?"

The figure looked up, turning to the red rabbit. "Do I know you?" she asked, mostly to herself.

"Nooo…? No, I don't think you do-"

"Yes! An unfamiliar face!" The stranger cleared her throat. "Apologies, Maisie. I'm Cosmo. I've just had an… eventful past hour."

Maisie raised a brow, pulling up a box and sitting next to Cosmo. "Well, I'm one-third ears, if you need to talk about it."

Cosmo smiled for the first time in a while at that joke, and so began explaining what happened since she woke up, and a little bit of what happened before.

In his room, Tails was searching under his bed for the mysterious new guest. He was so focused on searching, he nearly jumped out of his shoes when he felt a gentle tug on his two tails. Crawling back out, he saw Sonic standing over him. "It's just me, bud," the blue hedgehog said. "So, you said you lost someone. Did you have company over?"

"Well… not quite." The fox proceeded to explain what happened with the flower, and how it suddenly became Cosmo. "And don't make any jokes about me being lonely, because Nicole beat you to it."

"Drat," muttered Sonic, before getting back to the topic at hand. "So, you've never met her before, but she knows you? How does that work?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I was trying to find her so we could talk theories, but she seems to be avoiding me."

Topaz's House

Topaz and her houseguest sat on the couch, watching the soap opera that Rouge was insistent on watching.

"Lisa, what's wrong?"

"Donovan's been cheating on me."

"Sweetheart, why would you make him do that?"

"This show sucks," blurted out the human. "So Donovan goes around cheating on his girlfriend and she's the one getting punished for it? Why do you keep watching this?"

"I really wish I knew, hon," replied Rouge, doing her best to peel her eyes from the screen. Fortunately, there was a knock at the door, which gave them reason to switch off the screen, and the bat stood up to answer it. "Whatever you're selling, we ain't… Shadow!" She was much happier upon seeing her friend on the other side, taking note of the yellow squirrel with him. "And who's this?"

"I'm Grid," the squirrel answered, waving hello. "My village was wiped out, and Shadow took me in."

Rouge knelt down and gave Grid a comforting pat on the head. "Well, you're in capable hands with this one. I think maybe you remind him of someone."

Delighted for an excuse to change the channel, Topaz switched it onto a cartoon station before walking over to see Grid. "Why don't you sit down and watch some TV? I'm sure you'll love it."

"Sounds fun!" replied Grid, prancing over to the couch and plopping herself down. As she watched whatever cartoon was on with rapt attention, the other three talked among themselves.

"Grid says some woman came by her village and gave her the ability to see through walls, according to her," said Shadow. "Do we know anyone with the ability to give someone that power?"

"I don't think so," replied the human. "If there is, we might have their files in a restricted storage area."

She didn't need to turn around to know that her batty roommate had a positively gleeful grin on her muzzle. "Well, it just happens that we have an experienced treasure hunter standing here. I'll break into that archive and find that science chick for you. But first, I need to change into my gear!"

The other two went back to the couch, the black hedgehog making sure Grid didn't look in the direction of the bedroom. A few minutes later, the bat emerged dressed in a concealing (but still revealing) black suit with a brown satchel at her side. Waving goodbye to the three, she flew out the door.

Tails' Workshop

Maisie eventually convinced Cosmo to come out of her hiding place, and she told the others what Cosmo had told her.

"I definitely don't remember any of that," remarked Tails, his words making the plant girl deflate. "S-Sorry, I just mean that the events you're talking about would be too difficult to forget about."

"You say the flower came from a portal, right?" remarked Sonic. "What if she's from the future. I bet they've got plant people running around in Silver's time."

"I'm a Seedrian," said Cosmo. "And I don't know anyone named Silver."

Tails held a hand to his chin. "That rules that out, but…" he cleared everything from the coffee table, pulling a marker from his belt. "What if she's from another universe?"

Tails began drawing a Venn diagram on the table. In the middle he drew pictures of him, Sonic, and Amy, on the left he had pictures of Maisie, Sally, and Nicole, and on the right was a lone Cosmo.

"So, these universes both have us three in them, more or less the same, right? But our universe has Maisie in it, and Cosmo isn't familiar with her. And in this other one, which I'll call Universe X, we met Cosmo and had all these adventures with her. Does that theory sound plausible?"

The others muttered their agreements, save Cosmo, who gave a nod of her head. "Now we need to figure out how to send her home," put in Amy. "The versions of us where she comes from must be worried sick about her. What do you think, Tails? Think you can make a multiversal portal?"

"I'll answer that question after I've done it," responded the fox uncertainly, walking off to try and plan.

Maisie held out an inviting hand to Cosmo. "If being here makes you uncomfortable, you can stay at my place," she suggested.

"Really?" asked the Seedrian, not quite believing the gesture. "How come?"

"I'm pretty new to this group, and you don't have to worry about me being a familiar stranger."

Cosmo smiled, standing up with the red rabbit. "That sounds very nice, thank you, Maisie."

As the two of them left, Sonic couldn't help but smile. "I think she'll do alright," he said to Amy. "I'm glad Cosmo has a guide who cares about her safety."

Amy furrowed her brow, analyzing Sonic's unsure expression. The pink hedgehog knew the blue one had something on his mind, but didn't want to press. She cleared her throat as she stood up. "I'll be heading home myself," she said, giving a smile to Sonic. "Call me if something happens, or if you just want to talk."

Sonic gave her a half-hearted smile as she walked off, his mind elsewhere.

~~South Island, a long time ago~~

He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how he got there, he didn't know, well… anything. All the information he had was on the inside of his crate, and by that point the labels had faded to the point where they wouldn't help him further.

He was lucky the coast he had crashed upon was full of berry bushes, but those would only stave off his hunger for so long. The little critter was suspicious of every noise that came from the woods, worried that something would jump out and have him mauled. Thus, when he heard a branch snap not too far away, he zipped behind a bush.

He stayed curled up, not wanting to be seen or heard, when a voice called out. "Er… come out, little one, I won't hurt you." The critter tried getting his breathing back under control as he peeked out, seeing two long sets of legs belonging to a tall creature. He didn't move a muscle. "I'm sorry if I startled you, I wanted to investigate the helicopter crash."

The steps came closer to him, too close for his liking, and the legs knelt down before him. He could now see the top of the creature's head, which shone in the sun.

"Oh, my. I never realized you were a Mobian," the creature said, astonished. "What are you doing out here?"

"I… I don't remember," replied the critter, staying as curled up as he could. "I don't remember anything."

"You poor thing," the tall creature sympathized, gently reaching down and patting the critter's head. "Well, worry not, I'll take care of you until someone comes looking for you." This made the critter relaxed, and he slowly stood up, allowing his new guardian to pick him up. "Do you have a name?"

"It's Sonic. Thank you mister, um…" He could see the creature's head fully now, noticing the mustache underneath his large pink nose.

"Just call me Ivo."

I actually finished this chapter the day before the election, but held back from posting it until after it had ended. Now that it has, here it is. There won't be any multi-part stories for a while, just standalone things loosely connected to each other.

Let me know what you've thought of this chapter, and stay safe out there!