A/N: Really sorry that this took so long to come out. Unfortunately, the timing of things just after releasing the first chapter were awful. I got really busy in my personal life that took time out of me being able to do my creative writing. Things should ease up now and, with any luck, I'll try to post a chapter every 1-2 weeks. We'll see how it goes.
Hope you enjoy!
CHAOS CONTINGENCY
Chapter 2: Blue
Dealing with the rest of the Badniks around the city was less of a chore thanks to the help of the other Sonic, though Tails struggled to feel comfortable comparing the blue hedgehog to his still-missing friend. For every moment that the speedster seemed to show a glimmer of familiarity, he'd soon alienate Tails, and others, by saying something odd, or behaving in a way that was out of character for Sonic. Still, he'd at least been useful, that was enough for the moment.
Once they'd returned to the base, the fox managed to convince the blue hedgehog to let him prick his arm for some blood, to test his bio-data. 'Sonic' had not made the process easy. Tails was used to being the intelligent one, but most mature? That was different. For all of Sonic's usual rashness and cockiness, he was always more put-together than Tails was, less likely to panic, and more understanding of a situation on an emotional level.
Tails felt like he missed his friend more now than when there wasn't any Sonic at all.
The fox sighed, putting his sample into the machine in his lab within the Resistance HQ, watching as the machine calculated the sample. The results turned out to be interesting, more so than Tails had really expected. First of all, the blue hedgehog was definitely a Sonic. That had been pretty clear already, but this made it certain. There wasn't a complete genetic match, but given the hedgehog was from another reality, that kind of variance could be excused when the differential was so small.
The real interesting part of the analysis came from the estimated age of the hedgehog. Thirteen. He was younger than their Sonic, or at least, his body hadn't physically aged in the same way. It might at least explain a little of why this Sonic was more impatient, and more prone to being bratty. Though even still, Tails didn't remember Sonic being anywhere close to that a few years back.
Now that he thought about it, given the rough data of his physical aging, it seemed to match up to about the time that everyone had been transported to Earth. So much had happened that Tails couldn't keep track of when everything went down, but that meant this Sonic might not know about Chaos, or the ARK, if their timelines were at all similar. Maybe something to question him about?
The fox shook his head – he was getting distracted. For now, he could at least assure the others that this Sonic wasn't some advanced, life-like creation from the Doctor, or an imperfect clone, or any other sort of weirdness.
Tails returned to the war room, where the others stood – Knuckles, Amy, and Silver too, were there. Silver's continued presence was welcomed, the hedgehog wanting to stay until the remaining forces were dealt with, before making his trip back to his own time. There was one person missing, though the fox was grateful for that.
Still, he had to ask, "Where's, uh…'Sonic'?" The two-tailed boy genius asked, to which a certain pink hedgehog had the answer.
"He got bored – said he would go for a run and come back." Amy said, sounding a little exasperated.
Tails let out a small, bemused noise, "At least that sounds a little more like our Sonic." The fox remarked. After, though, he patted Amy on the shoulder on his way over to the war table.
Amy seemed pretty down, and Tails couldn't really blame her. Though she had matured from the lovesick girl she'd been when she'd first become part of their friend group, she did have feelings for Sonic. She probably felt a similar kind of unease with the situation as Tails did.
Standing in front of the table, Tails plugged a small device into it, the electronic tabletop beginning to load information – various genetic information about this other Sonic.
"I did some readings on the DNA of this new 'Sonic' – as expected, he has a near 98 percent match to our Sonic." Tails began, noting a slightly bewildered look from Knuckles, he added, "I've collected various biological data on all of us before. Bits of fur or quill, mostly. Just in case Eggman ever tried to make clones or bio-copies of any of us instead of his usual bots."
Amy frowned, "So, why take this other Sooooon..." The pink hedgehog sighed, "This other guy's blood if you could just take a quill or something?"
"I wanted to be sure. And I wanted to run more tests than simply seeing if his DNA matched. Beyond confirming that he is a Sonic, I discovered a few other things. He's a little younger, as if he popped out from a different time frame, or…maybe there's some other thing going on there?" The young fox looked to Silver who shook his head.
"Time travel is…messy. Time isn't linear. My time travel is the only reason I'm a constant – I've become a fixed point. My future can change, based on actions that happen here. But because I exist both in your time and my own, it's more complicated. This…might not even be a Sonic from another dimension, but an alternate set of events in your world." The hedgehog offered.
Tails shook his head, brows furrowing, "I don't think so. Some things just don't match up." The fox said, sighing, "Anyway – beyond that, I found out something else, too. I'm not sure how serious it is, but…look here." The fox pressed a button on the surface of the table screen, and a new panel popped up, "This is a reading for latent Chaos energy. At first, I thought nothing of it. I mean, Sonic has turned into his Super form so many times, it's possible that there's just an undercurrent of energy from the Emeralds that stuck to him. But watch this…"
The fox pressed another button that begun a playback for a recorded monitoring of the reading – after a few seconds, the gentle, stable flow of the graph suddenly sparked erratically. Knuckles's eyes, in particular, widened.
"That rhythm…it's like the pulse of the Master Emerald's pieces, back when it was shattered by Chaos." The echidna said, looking to the younger fox.
Tails looked up at the echidna, then back at the readings. He brought his hand to his mouth – what did all of that mean?
Sonic returned to the Resistance base after only some ten minutes or so. It was long enough to explore a decent chunk of the surrounding region, to see if anything would really jog his memory. But it didn't. The blue hedgehog was becoming pretty convinced by the egghead fox's assertion that this wasn't his world.
A bitterness churned in the pit of the hedgehog's stomach at that. What did that mean? Where was Tekno? Porker? Kintobor? Did they still exist in this world, or would he just…not see them again?
Sonic collected himself before heading up to the automatic door to the war room, not wanting to let anyone seem him without his 'cool'. He tried not to wince when he walked in. He didn't know why, but the room made him think of Kintobor's lab. All that was missing was the holo-tube where the AI storing the Doc's personality would render an image of his face – untwisted by his transformation into Dr. Robotnik.
"Hey, you're back."
The voice of the young fox snapped Sonic back to reality and the hedgehog smirked, "Of course I am. Said I would be. Just needed to get some exercise in – see some sights." The blue hedgehog took a seat within the room, leaning back on it.
"Well, if you're bored – we might have a mission for you." Tails said, not looking up from the Miles Electric in his hands.
The blue blur rose a brow, "What, you're giving me orders now? You really are different from the fox nerd I have back home." He snarked.
That got Tails to actually look up from his device, "Really? Well, I'll have you know that I'm technically second-in-command now that I'm…well, back." The fox hesitated. Remembering how lost he felt when he'd first thought Sonic had –
The fox shook his head and stood up, placing the device down. "That's not the point. The point is – we've got a job for you." Tails expected the scoff from the seemingly apathetic hedgehog and lowered his eyelids, crossing his arms, "Unless, of course, you can't handle it."
Sonic suddenly sat up from his seat – practically jumping from it. "Are you challenging me? I'm the fastest thing alive. I can handle anything."
Tails smiled at that, "Well then, a recovery mission shouldn't be a problem for you. Our friend, Silver, is going to one of the outposts to the North. You're going to help him with some repairs, deal with a few more Badniks, and recover something for us."
Sonic let out a short laugh, "Hah! Is that all? Easy." The hedgehog said, already heading towards the doorway, only turning his head to ask, "What's this stupid thing I've got to find, anyway?"
Tails didn't answer straight away, considering the idea of keeping it from the hedgehog, but the risk was too great – after all, they didn't know what those reading meant.
The fox looked Sonic in the eyes and answered, "We found readings that indicate that a Chaos Emerald might have ended up in the area."
Sonic froze. The two of them looked at each other for seconds that felt like minutes, then the hedgehog smirked, "That all? Got it. I know what they look like – big, colourful rocks." The blue blur got ready to run, but then –
"Oh, and one more thing."
The hedgehog rolled his eyes, "What now?" He said, exasperated, raising from his warm-up pose to stand and cross his arms at the fox.
Tails looked at the hedgehog with a steely gaze, "From now on, you won't be called Sonic. It brings up too many memories. And you are not our Sonic." The fox's mouth quivered for a second, "For the rest of your time with us, you will be known as Blue."
The hedgehog looked Tails back for even longer than he had when the Emeralds were brought up, before his mouth formed a hard line. Then Blue answered,
"Fine by me."