Chapter 67; an interdimensional disturbance

Amy was doing laundry at her house listening to the TV while Sonic was out running some errands. The day was good and she was even considering dueling some fans along with Sonic in the afternoon.

"I guess I would do the same if I was in Sonic's shoes yesterday" she thought smiling.

At that moment the phone rang. It was Miles. She picked up.

"Hey Miles? Is everything ok? The baby?"

"Mom!" Miles' voice was trembling from the other end of the line "Aurora and Evelyn just called me! He is dead! They couldn't save him! A security guard shot him accidentally!"

"Miles what are you talking about who was shot?!" Amy exclaimed terrified.

"Dad…" Miles' said as his voice broke.

"W-what?!" Amy screamed as immediately tears ran down her cheeks "Miles have you lost your mind?!"

"Look at the news mrs the hedgehog" Marianna was heard from the other end "Miles is in no condition of talking currently. I'm so sorry for your loss" she said as her voice silenced as well. She hang up and hugged Miles who was mourning in with his face hidden in his palms.

Amy immediately stopped what she was doing and zapped through the channels until she found a news report with a ginormous headline.

Duel king shot dead in known company's generator room.

If anyone was passing outside of Sonic's and Amy's house at that point they would probably think they had a pet banshee. A loud scream was heard all over the neighborhood. Only moments later people saw Amy riding her duel runner still screaming and accelerating towards the hospital where Sonic was declared dead.

Once she arrived she raced her way towards the autopsy room pushing, insulting and even fighting her way through people. She got to the autopsy room and saw him. The love of her life, eyes closed laying on a metal bed. Dead. She collapsed on the right side of the bed crying loudly. Security attempted to escort her out but she knocked them out and returned to mourning. However while mourning she felt a hand grab her shoulder. She immediately turned to attack the person who was disturbing her but instead came face to face with Sonic.

"S-Sonic?"

"Amy are you ok?" I heard you barged in this place and attacked people."

"I… Miles called me and…. he s-said you were k-killed" she said trying to stop her sobs.

A hospital staff member tried to tell them to leave but Sonic instead asked for some privacy. The staff member was about to object but saw the knocked out security guards and left.

"Amy calm down" Sonic said kissing her forehead and hugging her so her trembling would stop "I'm perfectly fine."

"Thank god. I was so scared." She said as she calmed down "but… if you are alive.. then who is this?" she said turning to the dead Sonic look-alike.

"What the…?" Sonic exclaimed seeing the body "this guy looks just like me. Could he be a crazed fan or something?" he said approaching the table to examine the body up close.

"It doesn't matter. You're ok. Let's leave. The police should solve this mystery."

"Amy…." Sonic said slowly.

"Come on. Stop looking at that corpse."

"Amy…."

"What?"

"Look at this" Sonic said, obviously in shock as he moved out of the way.

The vision struck them like lightning. The dead Sonic look-alike had the lunar dragon's head mark on his right hand exactly where Sonic's was once.

"Ok. Let's not panic. It could just be a tattoo. Maybe he actually is a crazed fun who copied you in every way."

"Only one way to find out" Sonic said taking her arm and leaving through the back door.

They texted their children to come to their house immediately. Miles, Aurora and Evelyn almost squashed their dad when all 3 of them tried to hug him at the same time. Once everyone had calmed down Sonic told them about the dead look-alike's tattoo.

"So he was just a crazed fan?" Miles asked.

"Aurora, Eve" Sonic asked his daughters "did they inform you about how the look-alike entered the generator room?"

"Yeah. It is one hell of a story. They said he appeared through a portal" Aurora answered.

"A portal?" they all asked in shock.

"Yeah. The witnesses said a blue sphere of light appeared and then manifested into a portal. The imposter Sonic came through and he asked something strange. He asked which dimension this was."

"Dimension?" Amy asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. Security then barged in and there was a shootout. He was killed minutes after. He took several workers down with him."

"Hmmmm." Sonic sighed in deep thought.

"What are you thinking dad?" Miles asked him.

"There is only one way to figure out if he was a crazed fan or not. We need to go back to that autopsy room. Then set a trap. If he really came from another dimension someone will come after him."

"But Sonic" Amy set grabbing his hand "first of all this is crazy. If he really is from another dimension… doesn't that make him another version of you?"

Everyone silenced. There was no need to answer. That was exactly what that would mean.

"I know Ames. But we might not be safe. We need to make sure there is no threat."

Amy bit her lip but agreed. Sonic sent his children at their houses. He then gave press conference to make sure the world knew he was still alive and well. In the evening after sunset he and Amy weaseled their way into the autopsy room, hid in a dark corner and waited. However 3 hours later they both heard gunshots coming outside the room. They immediately ran outside and headed towards the direction the gunshots were heard from. They saw an injured nurse bleeding. Amy who had had medical training in the past tied the wound with bandage fallen nearby while Sonic questioned her.

"Who did this to you miss?" he asked her softly.

She looked at him with frightened eyes.

"Your wife" she said whispering due to the blood loss.

"What?!" Sonic exclaimed "that's impossible. We were hiding in the autopsy room with the dead look-alike."

"I'm not lying mr the hedgehog."

At that moment a terrified thought crossed Sonic's mind. He screamed the word medic so that someone would come and then he and Amy ran back to the autopsy room. They found exactly what he was suspecting. An Amy look-alike dressed with war-torn clothes mourning the Sonic look-alike.

Sonic shut the door loudly. The Amy look-alike turned around and once she saw them she immediately took out a gun.

"Dimension number now!" she screamed.

"What are you talking about you faker? You and your boyfriend cosplaying us is not funny!" the real Amy screamed back.

"Are you Amy Rose?" Sonic asked the Amy look-alike.

"I am! I am Amy Rose from dimension 364! Which dimension am I in?!"

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked her raising his hands trying explain they had no idea. Once the Amy look-alike saw his right hand being devoid of mark she dropped the gun in shock.

"No way! I… I actually… made it… we made it my love…" she said to the dead Sonic look-alike "we found dimension 999"

"Alright that's it!" Sonic said losing his patience and picking up the gun "you will come with us now! We have some questions to ask you."

At that moment a blue light appeared right next to them. It immediately manifested into a portal. They saw a faint shape of Sonic aiming and then firing at Amy's look-alike. She dropped dead, accidentally pressing a button on her wristwatch. The portal started destabilizing. The blurry shape jumped through the portal just as it closed severing his right leg from the knee down. He screamed in pain.

"No way!" Amy said in shock "Another look-alike?"

The new Sonic look-alike saw the real Sonic and Amy and pointed his hand at them. That Sonic look-alike also had a mark of the lunar dragon only this one had Tails' mark. The mark started shining and Sonic started being choked to death by a blue shine around his throat. He grabbed it in vain trying to stop it but he collapsed. Just as he started to black out, he heard another scream and saw Amy stabbing the second look-alike into the wound of his missing leg with a big needle. She then grabbed a heavy box and hit him on the head knocking him out and stopping him from strangling Sonic to death.

"Are you ok?!" she ran to his side.

"I'm fine.." he said trying to breathe "but we have to get my look-alike with the missing leg and your look-alike out of here. If they are discovered we will have a lot of explaining to do. Plus we need to interrogate this guy."

Amy nodded and helped him up. They took the bodies very cautiously back to their house on their duel runners. Then they went to their basement which was soundproof so no one would here the interrogation. Amy first made sure the Sonic look-alike would not bleed to death by treating the wound. Sonic then tied the look-alike to a chair at the wrists and noticed he also wore a wristwatch like the dead Amy-look alike. He took both of the wristwatches and gave them to Amy instructing her to call Luke instantly there to examine them. Once Amy had left he started punching the look-alike until he woke up dizzy.

"Wh… where am I?"

"I ask the questions here. Who are you?!"

"Have I really made it to dimension 999?" he asked faintly after seeing Sonic's hand without a mark of the dragon.

"What is dimension 999?"

"Release me or I will kill you!"

"Too bad you can't. You are too exhausted to use the power of the lunar dragon. And obviously I won't let you recharge so spill the beans. Who are you? What is this wristwatch? Why do you and that dead Amy look-alike refer to this place as dimension 999?"

The tied-up Sonic started laughing though weak. A small evil laugh.

"I made it. Kill me it won't matter. The wristwatch will signal my location. And even if you destroy it he will find you. He is coming for you!"

"WHO?!" Sonic yelled punching him so hard a tooth was knocked out.

"My master. You can call him the warlord. He is coming for you. And you have no way to stop him. Especially now that you have lost your powers. You cannot beat even one of us who has powers let alone an army made of duelists from conquered dimensions!"

"Enough riddles!" Sonic screamed punching him again "what do you mean by dimensions?!"

"The multiverse of course!"

"The what? There's no such thing as a multiverse. It's only a theory".

"Ob but yes there is. And my master will have all of it! Once his grand plan is complete he will be the master of all creation!"

"I don't fear him! He can come! And once he does I will destroy him!" Sonic said trying to be intimidating.

"But you can't. You gave up your powers to live. Don't you understand? Your friends caused the war by bringing you back to life. Sacrificing the lunar dragon released its energy in the multiverse disturbing its balance! It's over! Once my master arrives and captures you all reality will be at his feet!"

"Enough lying!"

"I'm not! When your friends sacrificed the lunar dragon of this dimension to save you from death its power was spread across the multiverse. My master got a lot of it and decided being the king of one dimension was not enough. He developed these wristwatches to travel through the multiverse. And he is coming for you!"

"Why?! What does he want from me?!"

Suddenly the look-alike's eyes widened. He started trembling and did a lot of spams until he leaned his head and dropped dead. Sonic was at a loss for words.

Amy came back at that exact moment and saw the dead look-alike.

"What happened?!"

"He died…. For no reason. Just when I started getting answers he suddenly died. As if he had a heart attack or something."

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know. But we need to get rid of the bodies. If anyone finds them we will have a lot to deal with. You know what? Call the others and tell them to come now. And tell Knuckles to bring Ruff along. We need him to tell us how my look alike died."

"He is only in training Sonic. I don't know if he will be able to tell how this guy died."

"He is a doctor even if in training he should know more than us."

"Yeah. Ok I'll go call them."

Amy left while Sonic left the basement and went on a ride with his runner to clear his mind of things.

Once he returned Tails and Knuckles had already returned from their trips and Ruff was already examining the look-alike's corpse. Sonic told them everything the look-alike told him.

"A war with the multiverse at stake?" Tails thought loudly.

"Yeah. And they all probably have the powers of the respective dimensions' lunar dragons."

"What do we do? From the looks of things our dimension has something special about it. They will keep coming."

"How are we going to repel them with no powers?"

"Maybe" Knuckles said "we need to take the fight to them".

"Knuckles this is madness" Amy yelled "we just learned that there are hundreds of thousands of dimensions meaning that many versions of us out there and you want to take them on?!"

"Well it's not like we can travel through this multiverse" Tails said "we don't possess their technology."

"Actually we do father" Luke said walking in with the 2 wristwatches

"I just finished analyzing them. The one taken from the Sonic look-alike was broken during your fight in the autopsy room. Amy's look-alike's wristwatch however works perfectly. I even figured out how."

"Great! We can take the fight to them!"

"Not really" Luke stopped Knuckles "only the person wearing the wristwatch can travel safely through the created portal. Anyone who attempts to cross another person's portal could end up being disintegrated."

"How do you know all this?" Amy asked him in surprise.

"I errr.. took the liberty of testing the portals. I was able to open a few and walked in and out of them but when I tried to throw something through them it disintegrated".

"Good. Then take the look-alikes' bodies and throw them through a portal. Whether they disintegrate or not doesn't matter. We need them off of this dimension" Amy told him. Luke obeyed and left to go to the basement. Moments after he left Ruff came upstairs.

"The guy died of a small chip that was in his heart that basically exploded inside it and ruptured his heart. Whoever planted it there must have known he would speak under torture and planned accordingly".

"So we got a maniac who wants to conquer the multiverse… he has an army behind him… and we only have one wristwatch… meaning only one can travel to stop him?" Sonic summarized.

"Precisely" Ruff answered.

Everyone looked at Sonic.

"So…. What are we supposed to do?"

"You know the answer Sonic" Amy said sad.

"Amy no. you can't be saying…"

"She does mean it blue leader. You must be the one to take the working wristwatch."

"But… I can't do this alone…. Is there no way we can repair the other wristwatch?"

Luke who had just returned from his task heard the question.

"Afraid not. I was able to understand how it works but the technology is really advanced. I can't repair it. We're stuck with one."

"Damnit" Sonic said and got up "You guys should have left me dead!" he said and stormed out of the apartment in everyone's shock.

They all immediately chased after him but they weren't fast enough. They saw him riding his runner and leaving. They all started looking around the city in the places they usually hang out but he was nowhere to be found. However after merely half an hour Amy realized where he went. She drove to the duel palace. Sonic was right in the center of the dark arena sitting down looking at the ground.

"Sonic?" she approached him "why did you run away?"

"Cause this war is all my fault Amy".

"What? How can you say that?"

"My very existence created this. If you had let me stay dead and the lunar dragon lived that maniac warlord wouldn't have gained this power. And he wouldn't have been able to begin this war".

"Sonic… you are being a bid idiot!" she screamed slapping him. Sonic was taken aback.

"You curse your own existence because of a madman? If anyone is to blame by this logic it is us. We chose you over the dragon!"

Sonic didn't answer.

"But whatever happened is in the past now. We need you. I wish we would have been able to fight this war together.. but the circumstances don't allow this. We need you. I need you to save our world. Our family."

"I… I don't want to fight Amy.."

"What?!"

"I…. I don't want to admit this.. but I'm scared. If I mess up I will lose you all. I have all I need here. I don't want to risk it."

Amy was driven to tears at the pressure Sonic was going through. She gave him a big hug.

"I understand Sonic. But you are our only hope now. You are the unbeatable Sonic the hedgehog the duel king. If it was up to me I would join you. But right now I have to be what I if you remember said during the spirit world war that I wouldn't be."

"The girl who stays behind while the warrior husband goes to fight in the war?" Sonic asked slightly smiling remembering that time when his love for Amy had begun blooming.

"Yes" she looked in his eyes "I will throw away my pride and be this.. because I know you will save us. I believe in you, all our friends do. Don't be scared."

Sonic was still not entirely sure.

"But… what if I fail?"

"The look-alikes said that this dimension was special. I'm sure that reason was you. You were more important to us than our powers. That must be why this maniac is coming for us. You are the only one who can put an end to his reign."

Sonic stayed silent. Amy leaned in and kissed him.

"Please Sonic. Get up and fight for us. With or without powers it doesn't matter. Our feelings and our spirits will be with you every step of the way".

Sonic closed his eyes. He knew deep down Amy was right. He couldn't avoid this fight. He was the strongest duelist in his dimension. So it was only natural that he fought for it. He got up and looked at her smiling in determination.

"Thank you Amy. I really needed that. You're right. I will fight! And I will save our dimension!"

At that moment the craziest thing happened. A blue shiny light was lit on his chest exactly where his heart was. The blue light then made its way to his right arm and manifested into the dragon head mark. Sonic and Amy looked at it in utter shock.

"Did…. Did I just get my powers back?"

Amy placed her hand on the mark.

"Ι… I think you did."

Sonic looked at the mark trying to understand.

"But.. the lunar dragon is dead. How do I have its powers if it is dead?"

Amy suddenly had a realization.

"What if this was going to happen regardless of the war? And this maniac somehow knows it and he is coming for you?"

"It is a possibility. It must have something to do with my ceremonial duel with Tails to release the soul of my ancient Egypt alter ego."

"The origin matters not. Now you can fight them on equal terms."

"Yes. Now the war is on. Let's go home. We gotta prepare for my departure".

They all regrouped at Sonic and Amy's house. Needless to say everyone's jaw dropped when they saw that Sonic had reclaimed his powers. However the surprise soon turned into confidence and hope as Sonic was instructed by Luke how to use the wristwatch to open portals. Amy also brought him some supplies in a backpack.

"You just set the dimension number here and press the button. Unfortunately I found out minutes ago that it has some sort of cooldown after a certain number of portals are created so use them wisely".

"I will. Thank you Luke. My friends" he said looking at all of them "I wish we could walk this road together like we always had…"

"Spare the dramatic dialog Sonic" Tails said "just go. We know you will win this war for us".

Sonic was taken aback but smiled.

"Indeed I will" he said looking through the history of dimension numbers stored into the wristwatch's memory. He selected the last one used, the very one dimension the Sonic look-alike he had interrogated came from. He pressed the button and a blue light was emitted from the wristwatch. The light floated in the air and took the shape of a ring showing a totally different world. Sonic was about to turn and say goodbye when he was hugged by Amy. He hugged her back as she whispered "Come back to me ok?"

"I will" he also whispered back. He then stepped into the portal and looked back at his friends as they waved at him while the portal slowly closed. Sonic missing them already looked ahead and saw he was inside some sort of abandoned building. He looked outside the window and was shocked to see…

"You saw what grandpa?" Sonic Jr said in astonishment "seriously?"

"Yes little one. Exactly what I just said" Sonic said remembering the hell he witnessed looking outside that window.