Author's Note: Nothing much to say, so, let's continue forward!
I own no rights to Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the related media.
Chapter 7: A Different Dimensional Transportation.
Back in Sonic's dimension, the teenage hero followed Knuckles and Tikal around Angel Island deep in the somewhat misty forest, passing by the Mushroom Forest while traveling under the familiar giant fungi themselves while the fifteen year old wondered where they were going. Normally the giant floating island was beautiful and fun to explore if the guardian of the Master Emerald ever allowed it, but the blue hedgehog still felt nervy about the overdose of Chaos Energy he potentially carried that he didn't really need.
"So, exactly where are we going anyway?" Sonic spoke up, shrugging.
"You'll know soon enough, and don't worry, it's nothing for you to worry about." Knuckles replied, continuing to lead his friend to where he found the ancient hieroglyphics.
"You know how much I hate being left in the dark with this sort of stuff, Knuckles." The blue hedgehog grumbled, before rubbing his arms. "Plus, I'm still scared of having too much of the Chaos Energy and I know I should've come sooner, but things have been so busy since the human continents rose up from the ocean three weeks ago."
"This is it." The red echidna announced, pausing just outside of the Mushroom Forest and stood in front of a large but narrow tunnel protected by leaves and vines before pushing them away. He lead the amazed Sonic who whistled, and the two Mobians along with Tikal's orb treked through.
Despite the slightly claustrophobic feeling, it was a somewhat short trip and before long Knuckles brought Sonic and Tikal into a large chamber inside a cave that was surrounded by towering giant trees and fern growing among the higher parts near the ceiling. In front of them on the opposite end was ancient drawings that viewed Mobians and humans along with the image of the alter that the blue hedgehog recognized as the one from his dreams three weeks ago. Because it had the image of the Master Emerald as well as the Chaos Emeralds, and just below the pictures was writing in a completely different language that the young cobalt hero had no idea on what it said.
Sonic looked around in quick nervous but impressed awe. "What is this place?"
"It's the ancient area I've discovered during my search to solve the problem." Knuckles replied, while Tikal then transformed into her ghostly psychical form and joined the young guardian to the ancient panel, which Sonic quickly hurried over to follow them. "Problem is, the writing's so old that even I can't read it, and I've been a treasure hunter for quite sometime now."
"Must be a pretty old language you haven't even discovered yet." Sonic suggested, one hand under his elbow as he rubbed his chin with his other hand. "I don't remember seeing this in the previous times I came here, and I definitely never saw this in my dream-link either."
"It's written in the great language of the Mikusa." Tikal realized once she got a closer look, recognizing the ancient hieroglyphics almost immediately.
"The what?" The hero of Mobius asked, raising an eyebrow.
The Guardian of the Master Emerald's eyes widened as he exclaimed. "No way! You mean they're actually real? I thought they were a myth."
"Knuckles, do you know about this?" Sonic asked, blinking in further surprise and confusion. "What are the Mikusa?"
"Not what, rather who." Knuckles explained. "In ancient times, the Mikusa were the earliest known tribes of the Echidna race, ancestors of those who lived before the crisis that slowly drew my people to extinction, or so the legend says. They spoke in such in unique language and had sworn their duty to prevent anyone from using the Master Emerald and the Chaos Emeralds, let alone let them fall into the wrong hands. They had the highest levels of Chaos Energy of both good and evil, until one day they split into separate tribes after becoming less and less convinced that they should continue to live in peace with other Mobians, but nobody knows why they disbanded in the first place."
"...Maybe the Chaos Energy got to them and ended up what I'm in risk of going through?" The blue hedgehog suggested worriedly, shuddering as he rubbed his arms again.
"No. That is not the reason." Tikal spoke up, as she had been reading the hieroglyphics while the two teenagers spoke, causing Sonic and Knuckles to gaze her as she continued. "The Mikusa were split because part of what Knuckles has said, and the other is because their Chaos Energy began to become less and less powerful. Those who were the ancestors of my father's people are the ones who feared in losing power, thus becoming weaker than our neighbors and fearing they would be overtaken. That is part of what the ancient writtings say."
Sonic narrowed his brows in realization. "I get it. It's because of that and hearing part of the legend from your ancestors, your dad and his shoulders wanted to regain that power to become more powerful and let fear and wanting to be stronger go over their heads, not realizing the mistake they just made."
"Yes, those were my thoughts exactly." The Echidna Princess nodded in agreement, saddened by this discovery. Both Sonic and Knuckles could only gaze at her with sympathy, as she continued. "As you have seen in the dream-link, Sonic, my father was cruel and believed he was in the right. Ruthless and full of greed and never believed in making peace. He wanted to cause War everywhere and be the victor."
"But you're nothing like him. All you wanted was peace." Knuckles remarked.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she takes after her Mom, which is a good thing." The blue hedgehog guessed.
Tikal couldn't help but blush slightly as she turned around and admitted, "Yes, I do inherit my mother's positive nature. Like me, she believed in what I believe in, and while I never met her, my grandmother said that I should be brave and kind and caring, and that I was exactly like her."
"Wait, you mean you never met your Mom?" Sonic asked, surprised to hear this. All this time, while he and Dream-Knuckles never saw Tikal's mother, the blue hedgehog always had a couple of guesses that the older female Echidna passed away as Tikal grew up.
"She died on the day I was born." Tikal shook her head, "I was raised by my father and grandmother."
"Oh..." The cobalt teenager muttered, lowering his head in guilt and sympathy. "I'm sorry."
"As am I." Knuckles added, also lowering his head in sympathy and closed his eyes. It was hard to believe that he and the ancient princess had half of one thing in common, except he never knew his own parents by the time he hatched from his egg shell.
"It's alright. When I first met Chaos and the Chao, after my grandmother's passing, I didn't feel so lonely." She reassured them, smiling gratefully over the duo's kindness.
Sonic just smiled with a shrug while Knuckles smiled softly, before they allowed their guide to continue reading the ancient hieroglyphics. This went on for a little while to the point where the blue hedgehog quickly grew bored and felt the need to go out and go for a run to get his legs moving, but since he wanted to know if the alternative in drawing away his overdose of Chaos Energy without a tragic or catastrophic event from happening or hurting him or anybody else, the hero of Mobius settled for pacing back and forth impatiently, while the red echidna settled for sitting on the ground doing some sort of meditation.
'Man, learning how to read ancient writing that's like way over thousands of years old is mind-numbing. I'd go for a run by now, but I'm worried about if I have too much Chaos Energy within me. And...Why do I get this tingly feeling that something weird's about to happen soon?' Sonic thought to himself as he paced back and forth.
In fact, ever since just leaving the Master Emerald, the teenage hero felt this unusual feeling in his skin that something was about to happen soon, something unusual that gave him a slight flash of deja vu, only in reverse and it wouldn't happen to him or any of his friends.
"Sonic, Knuckles. I have learned what the ancient texts say." Tikal announced once she finished reading and translating the hieroglyphics, causing the two teenagers to look up and quickly approached her. "It has some answers to what we know thus far."
"What's it say, Tikal?" Sonic asked urgently.
"It confirms of what Knuckles has discovered and what I have told you, and thus far you are safe as you are still yourself. As we know, it was originally stated that those who fear their Chaos Energy in destroying their souls would pass it on to the Master Emerald." She explained.
"Originally?" The blue hedgehog asked, blinking.
"So there is an alternative." Knuckles remarked.
The Echidna Princess nodded, her expression becoming grim with worry and guilt, turning back to the writing and continued translating. "Yes. However, it also foretold an ancient prophecy that should the Master Emerald hold the lost guardian soul of it's first protector when it was infused by the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to transform from it's original form of a Chao, who's anger would make it lose other feelings and must be imprisoned and never released, one's Chaos Energy must never flow or be excepted by it, or else it would turn the Master Emerald black with too much energy...and it would not only destroy it permanently, but also spread out and drain away all light from the world."
"WHAT!?" Sonic and Knuckles both exclaimed in horror and shock as they both immediately knew what this meant.
"So if I let the Master Emerald absorb the Chaos Energy I don't need every time I get uncomfortable, it would only make things worse?" Sonic asked, horrified and fearful that his theory had been correct all along.
Tikal looked tearful, muttering. "This is over 8,000 years old, not even Chaos knew this part, because it was buried away. I'm not sure why it was hidden, but perhaps it wasn't needed anymore because no one had much of Chaos Energy at all."
"I knew letting the Master Emerald absorb my energy was a bad idea." The cobalt teenager grumbled.
"Indeed, and for this 'alternative', it is a much safer way for both the bearer and the world." Tikal nodded in agreement, getting the boys' attentions once again as she continued. "Behind this wall is an ancient stone which only the one who used the power of the Chaos Emeralds for good with the purest heart, swift as the wind, would enter and as long as they think of the people they love and the freedom of the world, and once the stone absorbs the unneeded energy but not draining you completely to render you powerless, it will make the energy fade away and you will still be able to use your powers. Whenever you sense or believe you have too much energy, return here and the process will continue until you no longer need to use your powers and the world is in peace."
"Behind this wall? Like as in, it's a secret door to another chamber?" Sonic asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
"In a way." The Echidna Princess confirmed.
"Whoa!" Sonic breathed in awe, gazing at the wall again. "Pretty cool."
"I've spend my whole life here on Angel Island and I never even knew such a thing even existed." Knuckles sighed, shaking his head in disbelief, shrugging.
"That's why you need to get out more often, Knux. The more you learn about the world, the more knowledge you gain from experiences." The blue hedgehog couldn't help but tease smugly.
"Very funny." The Guardian grumbled sarcastically.
"Just a quick question." Sonic then said to Tikal, ignoring Knuckles' annoyed glare. "What would happen if I think of something else and not everybody I really care about or the world?"
"It would only reject you and deem you unworthy and you would forever have the unneeded Chaos Energy." Tikal answered.
"Until it destroys my soul." He concluded, earning a nod in response. Understanding, the blue hedgehog nodded. "I get it, and that's okay with me."
"Huh?" The two echidnas blinked in confusion.
Sonic smirked, giving them a smirk and a thumbs up. "Who needs power when you got awesome family and friends? It's more fun meeting new people and hanging out and explore a cool world you were born in. Sure it's not always perfect, but lets face it. It's our home, and it belongs to everyone."
"Then we have nothing to worry about. Knowing you." Knuckles shook his head with a smirk of his own. If there was one thing he knew about Sonic, it's that he would never hurt anyone unless people like Eggman or worse hurt the people the young hero deeply loved so much.
"I wish there were more people like you, Sonic. You remind me of how determined Chaos used to be." Tikal smiled softly, which made the cobalt speedster chuckle in slight embarrassment.
Deciding to try and give this a shot, Sonic approached the wall and breathed a sigh. "Here goes."
Feeling admittedly nervous, he slowly reached out and touched the stone wall only for it to glow in white light which stunned Sonic, Knuckles and Tikal as they all gasped in shock. To had to the confusion, to the blue hedgehog, it felt like the wall suddenly disappeared yet it was still there even thought his hand passed straight through it. After sharing a hesitant glance with his friends, Sonic mustered up his courage and stepped through slowly while being reminded of how Chris' mother, Cream and Cheese, Ella, Tails and himself were kidnapped by ghosts that were accidentally released by the cameraman during the shooting of a medieval movie at that old castle, and he briefly wondered if ghosts really were real.
Once he passed through the wall and emerging on the other side, he found himself in a huge cave like chamber that kind of looked like a throne room, only without windows and all the fancy decorations. There wasn't much light, so he couldn't see much and decided to take it steadily and slow. Even though nothing much really scared him apart from water and the overwhelming Chaos Energy within his body, Sonic couldn't help but feel unsettled as anything could be lurking in the darkness of this place.
"Is this supposed to be a safer alternative?" Sonic wondered aloud, not liking this. He hugged himself, shivering and beginning to feel very frightened all of the sudden. Almost as though...he was trapped in a place where he was all alone, far away from his friends without a way in getting back home. The sudden urge to simply get out of here and be with everyone was overwhelming, and he couldn't help but fear that something horrible was going to happen to Mobius if he wasn't there to protect it.
This wasn't a safe place at all, and Sonic couldn't help but feel like this was some sort of trap and the intense feeling of more power and more Chaos Energy terrified him beyond belief, feeling sick to the stomach at the thought of hurting everybody, not being able to save them or the world, that he would never see them again. The blue hedgehog saw haunting images of things that were only for Eggman's dreams, not Sonic's.
Sonic wanted to leave, he wanted to be with his friends. He thought long and hard for them, for all the fun times he had with Tails, even hanging out with Amy and realizing that his feelings for her were absolute, sparing with Knuckles and hanging out with him, be in the sweet company of Cream and Cheese and Vanilla, finally reuniting with Chris, all of their adventures, all of the places they've been to, and many more to come, all of the people in the world.
'No. I have to be with my friends. I have to protect them, the world, and everybody in them. I'm not like Eggman, or Tikal's Dad. I don't want this power. I only want to use it in case of emergencies.' Sonic thought to himself, and soon enough the disturbing vision faded away, replaced by his memories of his friends and everything they all went through together.
Just then, there was a bright light shining in front of him that lit up the room that made him look up in confusion.
"Huh?" Blinking, the blue hedgehog's emerald eyes widened in disbelief, making him turn around and saw at the end of the chamber not even half-way from where he stood was a giant diamond shaped stone that looked just like the Master Emerald, only about at least five times bigger and pulsing like a heart's beat. Plus it was glowing and, as though it was attempting to draw him in.
Still feeling uncomfortable yet unable to break away from the invisible chains that seemed to suddenly draw him in, Sonic gulped nervously but slowly stepped closer. As it did, the unnervy feeling he felt since entering this terrifying chamber began to ease and he wondered what was going on. Once he stood in front of it, he wasn't sure what to expect, except he knew one thing.
This must be the stone that Tikal was talking about. The stone that was supposed to save his life. Still, it felt as though the giant stone was speaking to him, or making Sonic feel like he shouldn't feel afraid. Not sure what to expect, he hesitantly reached out, hoping that it would help him instead of sending him away. His gloved hand touched the giant glowing rock and while it felt cool to the touch, the light felt warm, similar to the Chaos Emeralds and the Power Rings. Only he wasn't here to absorb, he was here to give.
'I don't know if you can hear me, or feel my thoughts or feelings, but please, I need your help. I'm afraid of the overwhelming Chaos Energy within me, and I only want to protect my friends and the world. I want to be with them. I wish to use the Chaos Emeralds to protect, not take over or destroy.' Sonic thought, concentrating as he closed his eyes and hoped that the giant stone would grant his wish.
As the blue hedgehog thought about giving up the overdose of the Chaos Energy and stabilize the rest of it without it destroying his soul or draining his energy, the stone became brighter and some rainbow energy began flowing from his body and into it. It only took a couple of minutes until the giant stone's glow faded and Sonic stopped glowing himself, sighing before opening his eyes hesitantly and looked at it.
What he didn't expect next was a voice speaking to him.
"Welcome, young hedgehog." The voice spoke and to Sonic's shock, for some reason after he looked around, it was coming from the stone itself. "You are deemed worthy."
"Whoa!" Sonic yelped, falling onto his bottom in shock, unable to believe that the giant rock was talking to him. "What the!?"
"Do not be frightened, child. I am the Chaos Stone. I know why you are here, and I sense that your heart is as pure as my light, and you are as swift as the wind." The voice speaking from the stone, who called itself(or himself, as Sonic was certain that the voice was just like a guy's) the Chaos Stone, reassured gently. "Your Chaos Energy is stabilized, yet it was only very little that was beginning to increase beyond your control."
"...Okay?" Sonic just stared at the Chaos Stone with a sweat drop. He wasn't expecting this, but decided to treat it like it was any other person. "How much did you take?"
"Only enough that while it would not harm you, it would be far dangerous to simply let it grow until it was too late." The giant stone responded. "You made the wise decision to come to me, young hedgehog. Many before you would not be concerned until the Chaos Energy becomes too corrupted and they would need support of others to come here, especially when they become too weak to move, and when those who accidentally misuse their power begin to trigger those who use the Emeralds for good and not evil."
The teenage hedgehog sighed in relief, making a mental note to thank Knuckles gratefully later on, though he still had one thought in mind. "But, how will I know if the next time this happens and I need to come back here to keep my Chaos Energy in check?"
"If you still feel concerned whenever you use the Chaos Emeralds' full power, return to me and I will sense on whether your Chaos Energy is beginning to increase or not. However, I believe your friends will help you and if you see or sense an increase that it makes you uncomfortable, you'll know where to find me." The Chaos Stone responded wisely and kindly.
Feeling more relaxed now, and knowing that his Chaos Energy is back to normal though deciding that his next step would be to visit Tails and have him use his scanner, Sonic stood up and smiled gratefully at the giant stone that had successfully saved his life.
"Okay, I will. Thank you for helping me." The blue hedgehog responded, bowing his respects to the strange but kind stone.
"You are welcome, child. But, be careful how you use the Chaos Emeralds." The Chaos Stone replied.
"I'll be careful." Sonic replied. "By the way, my name's Sonic the Hedgehog."
The Chaos Stone made a sound that seemed like a chuckle. "It is a pleasure, Sonic the Hedgehog. Your journeys will continue to be dangerous, I have faith in your pure heart and outstanding courage."
"I got great friends and family to help me through in difficult times." Sonic shrugged. "Anyway, I'd better get going. I'll be seeing you."
"Goodbye." The Chaos Stone responded, only dimming it's light enough for Sonic to wave at it(though he wasn't certain if it could see him do that), and dashed away right back to where he came from.
Once he made it, the blue hedgehog, looking back at the Chaos Stone which stopped glowing all together, sighed before stepping through the wall where Knuckles and Tikal waited anxiously until both echidnas saw the teenage hero return and the wall returned to it's original state. Even though he still needed to go and check up on Tails to ran a few scans just in case, he gave them a reassuring smirk with a thumbs up.
"Are you okay?" Knuckles asked, stepping up to his friend who nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. But I'm gonna head over to Tails' place to scan me, just in case. The giant stone in there did help out a little." Sonic replied, sighing. "And this is gonna sound crazy, but it actually talked to me."
"It talked...?" The red echidna blinked. Sure he sometimes could communicate with the Master Emerald given it's power, but he never heard of any stones actually talk to people before.
The blue hedgehog nodded to confirm it. "It called itself the Chaos Stone, which actually makes sense, if you ask me."
"So the stone has deemed you worthy and could speak." Tikal said in surprise, smiling in relief. "I can sense that while your Chaos Energy wasn't overwhelming you, it seems that you have been stabilized enough to continue to use the Chaos Emeralds without worry."
"Yeah, well, I can't be too sure. That's why my next step today is to have Tails run a few scans just in case I missed some. It is still strange how a giant rock actually talked to me, but he said that if I have any problems in the future, I'd come back and he'd help me out. Like a therapy session. I didn't feel any different, but it was a good thing we came when we did, otherwise we'd really be in big trouble." Sonic shrugged, before sighing as he placed an arm around Knuckles' shoulders. "Anyway, I couldn't have come this far and still be alive without you guys, or everybody else. So...thank you."
"You should be thanking Knuckles, Sonic. It was he who helped you the most. I only aided you as much as I could." Tikal replied, shaking her head.
"What did I do?" Knuckles asked, despite that he was glad that he did manage to help. "All I did was look up information and remembered what I was told."
"But that's the biggest helping part, Knux. If you hadn't, I'd be gone by now. Or at least slowly losing my life. I owe you big time, pal." The blue hedgehog pointed out, smiling gratefully. "If you haven't told Tails and Amy, it would've been too late. Not to sound all mushy all over again, but all of you guys saved me, from my sadness and from the overdose of the Chaos Energy."
Despite the genuine surprise and embarrassment he felt, the red echidna smiled back at his friend, who once upon a time had been his rival and still was, yet Sonic had always been trying to be friendly with him, and tried to stop him from doing anything stupid(like being tricked by Eggman for example). The younger teen was honest, brave, caring, and never one to give up, even though he can be annoying and obnoxious.
"No problem." He responded, making his friend smile happily.
"Still, both of you guys really helped me out. Especially now that I know what to do with my Chaos Energy in case it goes all crazy, and we still have a lot of work to do with reforming peace between our people and humans. But we can handle it." Sonic added.
Just then, there was an unusual light that shone from the entrance where Sonic, Knuckles and Tikal came from and the trio glanced up in alarm. Gazing at each other, the three of them hurried out of the cave and out of the tunnel back into the Mushroom Forest, and when that wasn't enough, they hurried back to the Master Emerald Shrine with the blue hedgehog getting there quicker. When he did and stood on top of the altar, his eyes widened as he saw a huge sphere of light appear out of nowhere with several small figures flying across to different parts of Mobius, and seven rainbow lights fly everywhere until the lights faded and everything was in silence once more.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sonic asked, his eyes wide in disbelief as the deja vu he felt earlier grew stronger.
By then, Knuckles and Tikal arrived and the former asked the hedgehog, "What happened?"
"I'm not sure. But I coulda sworn I saw a huge light and smaller ones fly everywhere, and seven rainbow lights that looked kinda like the Chaos Emeralds." The cobalt teenager replied.
"But they're not." The echidna princess replied, causing the two teenagers to gaze at her. "It's something different. Something very strange, yet similar to the Chaos Emeralds."
"Sonic, didn't something like this happen while you and Chris were having that Dream-link three weeks ago?" The Guardian of the Master Emerald asked his friend.
"Well, something similar happened, except we got tossed across Space and Time, and scattered across Station Square. It was the Chaos Emeralds that flew all over Earth." Sonic shrugged, thinking deeply. "But this didn't happen in the dream at all. Unless you wanna count the times I used Chaos Control as Super Sonic that ended up bringing more of our friends here and Angel Island instead of taking us home."
"So that means this is different." Knuckles concluded, "And from the looks of it, the same thing that happened in your dream..."
Sonic's eyes widened in realization as he gazed back out to where he saw the light. "It could've happened to somebody else in another dimension and brought to our world...!"
"That means something's wrong!" Tikal exclaimed in worry.
Narrowing his eyes, Sonic then declared, "I'm gonna go and find out. Whatever's going on, I got a feeling trouble's close by."
With a quick goodbye to the two echidnas, the blue hedgehog speed off by leaping down from Angel Island and landed safely on the surface ground before running in supersonic speed to investigate, while Tikal informed Knuckles that she must return to the Master Emerald to keep Chaos at bay, and he in turn decided to investigate Angel Island just in case any one of those mysterious lights landed here. Thanking the princess once more as she then returned to the giant gem, the guardian, once again on his own, gazed out over the horizon in deep thought and concern.
'What could that be? I don't like the looks of this.' Knuckles thought to himself. 'Just when things were starting to look up after the last craziness, now this happens.'
Little did everyone know was that things were only going to get very complicated.
Meanwhile, Tails was fixing up the Chaos Energy scanner after giving the X Tornado a slight upgrade. Since the events that happened three weeks ago, he and Chuck had become such good friends and given what Sonic has told him via the Dream-link, he considered on building a bigger plane that matched the one from his old brother's dreams to help against future conflicts against Eggman.
"Okay, so I place this part in here and..." Tails murmured to himself, putting in the finishing touches before finally closing it up and declared happily. "Done!"
The young two-tailed fox held up his device and sighed. "This should make things easier to find the Chaos Emeralds and help out Sonic."
For the last three weeks, Tails had tried to remind Sonic that the blue hedgehog should be careful with his Chaos Energy, but due to the negotations of peace between humans and Mobians ever since the human continants rose up, neither of the two brothers had the time to do so, but luckily today was a slow, easy day and so the fox cub decided to fix up the scanner as well as giving the X Tornado an upgrade.
"Speaking of Sonic, I wonder what he's gonna do today." He thought to himself, before a sudden flash of light coming from outside caught his attention.
Confused and alarmed, and hearing some sort of strange noise, Tails rushed out of his workshop to investigate and gasped in shock to see a blinding light just fading and several light streaks falling across the sky, including seven different coloured ones that looked a bit like how the Chaos Emeralds would fly away once they were used. One especially was falling straight towards the forest. Crying out in alarm, the young fox ducked for cover just in case it landed on top of him or crashed into his home. Thankfully it landed just outside of his workshop and nowhere near him, but close by within the Mystic Ruin's jungle.
"W-what was that?" Tails stuttered, slightly shaken from what just happened. The light faded and it didn't seem to be a meteor, so he decided to rush over to investigate.
It didn't take him long as about ten minutes later after searching, he found himself in a small clearing near a river where, to his shock, someone was lying on the ground; a young alien looking girl with pale peach skin, green hair with two pink buds that were styled like hair-buns, a long green and white dress with a ruby on her chest, blue eyes(though he didn't know this as her eyes were closed), and long white stockings with green shoes, and she was unconscious.
Eyes widening in disbelief, Tails hurried over before he gently laid her on his lap, unaware that this was Cosmo. The unconscious girl made a soft moan, indicating that she is still alive, but having been knocked out from whatever happened.
"She needs medical help! I'd better take her back home and call Amy and Mrs. Vanilla." He quickly decided, and as carefully as possible, began carrying the mysterious, and admittedly very pretty alien girl back to his workshop, while wondering to himself. 'I wonder who she is, and where she came from.'
As Tails was carrying the girl, he looked up to the sky and many thoughts ran through his mind. She didn't seem Mobian, and she wasn't a human either. But that light...it was just like how Sonic described what happened in his and Chris' Dream-link three weeks ago; including the rainbow lights. Could it have been...something similar to Chaos Control?
If so, would that mean...the same thing that happened in Sonic's dream that the blue hedgehog thought was real...actually did happen but to this girl? From her own dimension? And if so...then the real Chaos Control Space-Time travel event has actually happened...
But in reverse.
In the middle of seemingly nowhere, Blaze was lying unconscious on her side until her eyes slowly opened. The princess moaned before slowly sitting up and rubbed her head, groaning at the unexpected explosion and unable to believe that she was still alive.
"Ugh...What just happened?" The lavender cat muttered, memories of the events that just occurred coming back to her, until her vision clears before gasping in shock.
She was in the middle of the road, with many people in their cars having came to a stop before almost running over her, as Blaze gasped before standing up in alarm, but luckily they all ended up forming in a circle. Breathing a sigh of relief, she looked around her surroundings and found that she was no longer in Dr. Eggman Nega's base, but rather in a very strange city, as it was close to midday, many humans staring at her with shock and wonder, some looking concerned and to add to the confusion since she's never seen these strange creatures before, but some other people, her own kind of Mobians, also staring in confusion and worry.
"Hey, watch where you're going!" A human guy in a truck yelled out.
'So these strange creatures that look slightly like Nega can speak the same language. And...why are my people with them? Where am I?' Blaze wondered in her mind, as a sudden realization began to dawn to her, just as police cars pulled up and human officers came out.
"Hey, uh, young cat lady. You have nearly caused a crash. Are you alright?" One officer spoke out.
Blaze remained silent, not sure if she should speak or not, and what was going on.
"What's wrong with her?" Another officer spoke out, slightly confused.
"Maybe she's shy?" The first one shrugged. "She is a Mobian kitty after all, so I don't think treating her like I do with my three kittens back at home will do the trick."
Blaze stiffened and glared at the officers. What kind of trickery is this? Had she been taken to another world where people similar to her are kept as slaves or pets to these tall people?
"She doesn't seem to be the talkative type. This fancy looking girl looks like to have a bad attitude. We should take her to the station." The second one suggested, not liking the way things were going.
'Station? Are these people some kind of forces? And...why is everyone so close to these creatures?' The cat Princess wondered, narrowing her eyes as she gazed around the confused humans and Mobians, even as one little Mobian girl commented on how pretty Blaze looked in her outfit. Either way, not only she was alone from her companions, but also the Sol Emeralds have gone missing.
"I cannot let them take me. I must escape. And...if these people are with these mysterious creatures, or trapped against their will, I must save them." Blaze whispered to herself, as she began to back away.
The police were surprised by this and tried to order her to stop, but she just glared and leaped up high into the air while they attempted to pile onto her, but ended up onto each other while thinking that they'd caught the rouge Mobian feline.
As the humans scrambled before realizing that they missed her, Blaze stood on top of the roof of a car and had her back behind them and not paying attention, until she sensed movement and spun around to find another officer with a net and handcuffs.
"Alright you, lady! You're under arrest!" The officer warned.
Blaze glared at the man, before raising her hand to which flames began to form, shocking everybody else as the witnesses saw what was going on and became shocked and frightened. But she took her aim to the man that attempted to arrest her, as he sweat dropped nervously, dropping the handcuffs.
Sending out a warning flare which made the man scream and the people inside the car below her quickly getting out while they and everybody else, including the Mobians who stared at her in shock, ran away in fear, the lavender cat glared at them before running off as fast as she could, avoiding as many people as possible and even the Mobian officials that came here to visit and work with the human government tried to stop her with their own special abilities, but were unable to do so as she was too strong and swift for them.
"Hey, come back here!" A Mobian Hound cried out, but he was ignored.
'I must find a way out!' Blaze thought to herself, as she ran, quickly hiding between the ally of two buildings and, seeing a sewer hatch, quickly opened it and climbed down, closing it behind above her. Sighing in relief while noticing how dark it is in here, she climbed her way down and glanced around her surroundings.
She was in an unfamiliar place, uncertain where her allies were and sighed. "Eggman Nega's machine and the Sol Emeralds have reacted, creating a transport of sorts...sending me to a whole new world. Would this mean...I am the only one here? Could everyone...has perished?"
Blaze lowered her sadness, remembering how most of her life she had to hide her feelings, to do her duy as both the Princess of her Kingdom and the guardian of the Sol Emeralds. That is until one day Tangle came into her life, and then Cosmo, who had lost her world, and had been transported to another dimension, which regards to the legendary Chaos Emeralds that were not seen before. Could this world be...the very dimension the Seedrian spoke of? Or somewhere else similar to her own?
"I cannot stay. I must find a way back. Eggman Nega will not get away with this." The Cat Princess muttered to herself, determined to avoid in getting caught and quickly began making her way to get out of the tunnels to begin her quest anew.
Unaware that she wasn't the only one who ended up in this world.
As everyone was trying to figure out what was going on with the light that appeared before vanishing, by then Sonic, who had followed the light which he realized was at the center of Station Square, stood on the roof looking for the source of the strange events.
"That's weird. What just happened?" Sonic muttered to himself.
As he thought about it, he then heard police sirens sound down below, and then looked up to see helicopters scanning the city as though a crime was going on.
"Uh-oh!" The blue hedgehog muttered, and decided to ask the people to see what they saw. So he curled up and spun his way down to safety before landing, and hurried over to the nearest group of people, a few Mobians and a few humans that became good friends already given the beginning of peace since three weeks ago.
"Hey, what's going on?" Sonic asked the group, who turned to him and were greatly surprised to see the young teenage hero. "Did any of you see the weird light just a little while ago?"
"Sonic! Yes, we did see the strange light, but that's not the strangest thing." The human man answered first.
"Rumors are quickly flying that a Mobian Cat can use some kind of magic fire!" A panicked human woman cried out, looking quit frightened along with the three Mobians and the human teenage boy about eighteen years old nodding in agreement.
"A cat having fire magic?" The cobalt teenager asked, his eyes widening in shock.
"Yeah, and she's being chased by the police and army!" A Mobian Wolf explained frantically.
"What does she look like?"
"Well, from what we've seen before she disappeared, she's purple for starters." Said a Mobian Deer. "She has these yellow topaz eyes with an outfit that looked pretty expensive, like she was from a rich family or something, but a little bit odd."
'First that weird light, and now somebody's casting trouble with fire magic? Could this cat person be connected with all of this?' Sonic thought to himself. He just hoped that it wouldn't cause serious problems, or else all of the hard work of humans and Mobians starting to live together again could be jeapodized. That thought alone was enough to scare him.
"I'll figure something out and see if I can talk to this person. If she's causing trouble, then I'll stop her." The blue hedgehog promised, and after being gratefully thanked which he smirked with a thumbs up, he sped off to help find this mysterious Mobian Cat girl and get answers out of her.
As he ran, Sonic's thoughts were onto what was happening and wondered if something similar was happening, or maybe it was just a coincidence and the light and the cat girl aren't related after all. Still, those rainbow lights...
What could it be?
At the beach in Emerald Coast, Tangle, having landed in the forest that was unfamiliar to her, seeing no sign of her friends and having been nervous to see humans around at first, but noticed that there were people like her around and seemingly having fun together with the strange people she'd never seen before, relaxed and casually walked out and passed them hoping to not draw too much attention.
Luckily nobody saw her any different and the young Lemur girl caught a couple of people mention that she might be a tourist to enjoy the sights of the human continant, as well as witnessing reporting a mysterious light that appeared out of nowhere half an hour ago, which left her confused but said nothing and instead just waved a hello before continuing her way. Now she sat on a rock her the shores, far from the crowd and gazed over at the horizon which looked beautiful. It was a nice clear day, the sky was blue, the seagulls were flying, and the ocean seemed to sparkle in the sun's reflecting light.
"The sky's the same. So is the sun, and even the clouds even though they always change their shape." Tangle muttered to herself. She thought about what happened that brought her here. "I don't get it. What did Eggman Nega's machine do to the Sol Emeralds? Did I get transported to a weird new dimension? Are my friends...missing? Or am I the only one that...that survived?"
The very thought of being the only one having managed to survive and being brought to an unusual world, to an unusual dimension, left Tangle feeling heart-broken and said as she hugged her knees, tears forming in her eyes. Here she was, stranded and without knowing if her friends survived or not, and chastising herself for her failure to get Cosmo out, the failure of stopping Eggman Nega.
Unbeknownst to her, nearby at another beach was Amy who, having decided to spend her day out in Station Square to get used to living with humans and travel the much bigger world, had just finished bargain shopping, having collected beautiful pink sea-shells and was now busy sewing them together with a string. After weeks of planning and remembering what Sonic told her, and feeling that he could still be feeling a bit scared given the events as well as the Chaos Energy beginning to rise up uncontrollably, the pink hedgehog had decided to do what her dream-counter part did; make him a good luck bracelet to protect him in the water despite the weird light she witnessed earlier, but like her, no one knew what it was or where it came from.
'I wonder what Sonic will say?' Amy thought to herself, until she suddenly heard the sound of someone sniffling. Brought out of her thoughts, she glanced to her right and found an unfamiliar Mobian Lemur(or so she thought) looking rather sad and lonely.
"Huh? I wonder who that is and why she looks so upset?" She asked herself, before finishing up her braclet and, carefully putting it into her dress pocket and gathering her things, Amy hurried over to see what was going on.
'Cosmo...Blaze...I'm really sorry.' Tangle thought miserable, softly crying.
"Um, excuse me?" An unfamiliar girl's voice spoke gently, bringing the female Lemur to look up and saw the pink hedgehog who held a concerned expression. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, um...I-it's nothing. I'm just...really lost." Tangle muttered with a sigh.
"How lost are you, if you don't mind my asking?" Amy asked, gently, taking a seat next to the distraught girl.
The young Lemur shrugged. "Something awful happened, I don't know where I am and...and I think I lost my friends. I don't know where they are, or if they're alive or not."
Amy couldn't help but gasp in shock as she stared at the Lemur in disbelief, which soon quickly grew into sympathy. Not only did this girl end up lost in whatever horrible event that's happened, but she lost track of her friends and wasn't sure of where they were or if they were okay. While she didn't think it was a coincidence, it made her think of Sonic's Dream-link of the beginning part where he thought he and everybody else ended up in the situation of travelling through Space and Time.
"Oh, you poor thing. I'm so sorry." Amy murmured with feeling, her heart cracking a little. "What happened?"
"Well...it's going to sound very crazy, and I'm not sure if you'll believe me." Tangle said, hesitantly while wiping away her tears.
"I bet it can't sound any crazier than what me, Sonic and our friends went through, especially recently with all the human continents rising up from the ground." The pink hedgehog said.
Blinking in confusion, Tangle looked at her as though she was crazy. "Human continents...rising from the ground?"
"You mean you don't know?" Amy asked back, surprised. "This happened like three weeks ago."
"Uh...Actually, I didn't know that. I thought you and everybody else were always friends with these humans, which I didn't know what they were at the time. And...who's Sonic?" The young Lemur admitted, now even more confused.
The pink hedgehog was further confused herself, before answering. "Sonic's the hero of Mobius and is my boyfriend. But you mean to tell me you never heard of him or what's happened recently? Or even that weird light that just happened about an hour ago?"
"I don't know any Sonic, and I didn't know something like this happened. Except...I might know about that light and it could be how I ended up here." Tangle replied, which only made Amy confused. Sighing as she decided to come clean. "Like I said, this is going to sound crazy but...I'm not from this world. I come from another world where there are people like you and me."
"Say what!?" Amy exclaimed, bewildered. Suddenly the idea of this not being a coincidence now felt like deja vu, only she never experienced it like Sonic and Chris did within their shared dream. Could what could have happened in the dream actually happened for real, but to this girl and her friends?
"I know. It's crazy." Tangle sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, I probably sound like I'm making this up."
"No no! It's not that! I actually believe you, I just didn't think something like this would've actually happened." The pink hedgehog quickly said, which confused the Lemur even more. "Sorry, it's a really long story and it's actually connected to what happened three weeks ago, but no one thought something like what happened to you could be real."
Tangle blinked, before shrugging. "I guess I'm not the only one having gone through crazy things. I thought Dr. Eggman Nega's stupid robots Orbot and Cubot were weird."
Amy gasped in shock by this, especially with what this girl just said. "Did you say...Eggman Nega?"
"You know him?" Tangle asked, now shocked herself.
"Well, not the Nega part, but we do know a guy named Dr. Eggman, who's been trying to take over our world for ages. He's nothing but a big, fat, lying, trouble-making evil man who uses robots to cause trouble and try and built his stupid Egg Empire." The pink hedgehog girl explained.
"Really?" The Lemur girl blinked with a sweat drop. "This world's version of Eggman sounds a bit less dangerous than Nega."
"A bit less dangerous? How come?" The pink hedgehog blinked, concerned.
Tangle shuddered, "Back at home. Dr. Nega wants to destroy our world, and...another dimension."
"WHAT!?" Amy exclaimed in horror.
"My friends and I tried to stop him and save a friend but, well, there was an explosion that spread out to all of us and the next thing I knew as I passed out, I found myself here in this world." Tangle muttered, before furrowing her brows in deep thought. "Hmm...But if my world and your world both have versions of Eggman, one slightly different from the other, could this mean..."
"Well, I'm not a Space-Time Continuum expert, and I'm not sure if I should believe this story or not, but maybe my friends and I can help you." Amy suggested after a long moment of silence.
Tangle blinked in surprise. "You mean you wanna help me?"
The self-proclaimed girlfriend of Sonic winked. "Sure! And I know Sonic, he'd want to help you out too, especially since he fights Eggman all the time."
"Wow...Sonic sure sounds like a hero, just like one of my friends." Tangle remarked in awe.
"Yep, and in the meantime, you can come stay with me at my house. It's across the ocean to the Green Hill Continent." Amy nodded and offered.
"Really? That's sounds great, if you don't mind. Thank you!" Tangle replied.
"Great! Then it's settled!" Amy cheered, before holding out her hand and introduced herself. "My name's Amy Rose."
Tangle beamed happily, and held out her long tail which, while this confused the pink hedgehog, she simply shook it while the Lemur replied. "Nice to meet you, Amy. My name is Tangle the Lemur."
While Amy didn't know if Tangle was telling the truth or not, she could tell that this Lemur girl was very friendly and she had a feeling they would both become such good friends.
Meanwhile, at Eggman's newest secret base he built on a deserted island southeast of Station Square, the evil scientist was busy plotting a new evil plan to take over the world and get rid of Sonic and his friends once and for all. After the humiliating defeat three weeks earlier, he knew that the newly established alliance between humans and Mobians have made things more complicated for him.
So far he'd come up with nothing, and despite all the good cards he had, he couldn't decide and the mysterious light didn't help either. Whatever it was, the evil scientist decided to play it safe and waited until things have settled down.
"What do you think that strange light show was, doctor?" Decoe asked curiously as he and Bocoe were trying to help their creator on solving this latest mystery.
"Excellent question." Eggman admitted, typing through the monitor. "It would seem that this strange unusual light has a powerful energy reading, similar to the Chaos Energy but very unusual. Those seven lights look just like the Chaos Emeralds, except they are not."
"Do you think it's to do with what happened three weeks ago? How Chaos Control brought the other human continents to the surface?" Bocoe wondered.
The evil doctor thought deeply about this. "Hmmmm...For it to happen, it would've happened at the exact same time. Except this energy reading seems to be triggered by a space-time travel, if the calculations are correct."
"How do you know?" Decoe asked, confused.
"The energy readings state that this is from an parrallel world of sorts, or it could be something that even I don't understand. This needs to be further investigated." Eggman explained.
While Eggman and his two minions were investigating this, Bokkun was bored out of his A.I mind, resorting to watching TV and eating snacks just as the doorbell was ringing. Confused on who would be visiting Eggman since the evil scientist didn't have any visitors, apart from Sonic who would usually knock down the door-Literally-instead of knocking like he would visiting his friends or allies or other people.
When the knocking didn't stop, the messenger robot groaned before flying over to the front door, grumbling as he made it to open. "What do you want? Don't you have any idea that Dr. Eggman...is...busy?"
He ended up trailing off when he saw three figures, two looking robotic but unfamiliar, one round, the other cube like, having no legs, and a towering figure that, to his shock and horror, looked like his creator but clothing almost in reverse and and a white mustache instead of ginger.
"Well, that was quite rude to greet a guest." Said Dr. Eggman Nega, who was grinning.
"Uh, boss? Who's this little robot? He is somebody new you created?" Cubot asked stupidly.
"We are very unfamiliar with this young robot." Orbot stated, confused himself.
Bokkun stared at the trio in shock, having remembering that his Dr. Eggman was still busy and not understanding what was going on. So much in shock that he screamed loudly and flew away back inside and not really closing the door behind him, which allowed Eggman Nega, Orbot and Cubot to enter themselves.
"Was it somethin' that we said?" Cubot asked, dumbfounded as he had no idea why Bokkun was terrified.
Back with this world's version of Eggman, he, Decoe and Bocoe were still trying to figure out what was going on, when they heard Bokkun screaming and in sheer annoyance and irritation for being interrupted, they all turned around just to see the smallest robot flew in, terrified.
"Will you keep it down, you dumb bot!? I'm scheming here!" Eggman growled, only for his messenger bot to hide behind him.
"I didn't mean let them in! Dr. Eggman, do something! That's big scary guy that looks just like you and he's coming with two dumb bots of his own! WAAAAH!" Bokkun cried hysterically.
"What are you talking about?" Bocoe asked, skeptically.
"Are you crazy? There's nobody that resembles to Dr. Eggman." Decoe added, placing his hands on his hips.
"But there is! I saw him!" The smallest robot wailed and panicked. "He looks just like Dr. Eggman, but with a purple jacket and a white mustache!"
Even Eggman found Bokkun's beliefs to be ridiculous. "Are you nuts? The only one who would resemble to me was my late grandfather."
"Then what do you make of this guy!?" Bokkun pointed in front of them, making the other three to look up, and as he had told them, Dr. Nega, Orbot and Cubot stepped in. Needless to say, the only one that wasn't freaking out as much as Nega himself who grinned calmly.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Decoe and Bocoe, and upon seeing Eggman, Orbot and Cubot, all screamed while glancing back and forth between the two Eggman.
"GAH! I-It can't be! Unbelievable!" Eggman exclaimed, as he and his robots leaned back while the minions hid behind him, shivering in terror. While the white mustache did look just like the photos of his grandfather Professor Gerald Robotnik, and the clothing this copy was wearing was worse than his own, but there was no denying that the man in front of the evil scientist was identical to him.
"I-I reckon I'm gonna pass out!" Cubot exclaimed, as he and Orbot hid behind Nega.
"There is no need to panic." Nega responded calmly. "Though I have expected our first meeting to be exactly like this. It is such a pleasure to meet my own counterpart, Dr. Eggman. I am Dr. Eggman Nega, but to avoid confusion, I wouldn't mind in being called Dr. Nega."
"W-what is he t-talking about, Dr. Eggman?" Decoe asked, nervously.
Eggman, still terrified himself upon seeing his 'double', came to a sudden realization as he cautionly approached Nega. "Hmm...Just as I thought. That mysterious light is the cause of a transporation between alternate realities, and Dr. Nega is me, but with a slightly different name and slight different appearance."
"That is correct, doctor. My assistants and I hail from a different world, and have been transported to yours." Nega explained, before glaring at his two idiotic minions. "No thanks to these two."
Orbot and Cubot gulped nervously, before bowing apologetically and pleadingly, with the former saying. "We're sorry, doctor! We have tried!"
"It wasn't our fault! It was Princess Blaze and 'er rowdy partners the Babylon Rogues, and twisty Tail Tangle tryin' to get steal the Sol Emeralds and take that alien girl Cosmo back to where she came from!" The latter quickly protested fearfully, which only made his companion to facepalm himself.
"Sol Emeralds?" Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun asked, confused.
"The counterparts of our world's Chaos Emeralds..." Eggman quickly realized.
"Oh? My, my. So your world also hold mystical emeralds but also with a different name." Nega remarked, even more impressed and pleased with his counterpart.
Despite feeling rather wiry with his alternate self who had rudely invited himself in(no thanks to Bokkun), the evil doctor then realized what Cubot meant and said. "And like my world, you have enemies who foil your plans every time, except your main enemy is this Princess Blaze girl. Am I right?"
The alternate evil doctor growled, thinking back of how Blaze and her friends foiled his latest plot. "Yes, that feline brat always gets in my way, and everytime I try to tame her fire abilities, she and her cohorts always foil everything."
"Really? In that case, I know how you feel, except my pain the neck enemy is an annoying blue brat named Sonic the Hedgehog who has friends of his own." Eggman stated. "And also unlike your enemy, that hedgehog runs in high speed that it makes it hard to catch him."
"Interesting." Nega thought deeply. 'So this world has a powerful hero, only this boy Sonic the Hedgehog was born with supersonic speed. This could lead a problem for my goals, especially since I have finally entered Cosmo's dimension, but both worlds are still intact. I would need Dr. Eggman's help for this.'
"Hey, is this Sonic a Prince or somethin'?" Cubot asked, curiously.
"He wishes." Eggman deadpanned, glaring at the two even more stupid robots than his own.
"Then perhaps would be a good idea for us to join forces." Nega suggested, causing Eggman and all five robots to gaze at him. "We both have enemies who stand in our way, we seek Emeralds for our goals to get what we want, and if we prevent Princess Blaze and this Sonic the Hedgehog from joining forces and take them both out, no one would be able to stop us."
The evil scientist of Mobius gazed at his alternate-counterpart and while he liked this idea, he was still admittedly uneasy with Nega. "Well...that is an excellent idea. But how do I know this isn't some sort of trick you're trying to play on me?"
"My friend, you and I are similar. There would be a mistake to trick each other, especially with how poweful we both are." Nega grinned wickedly, which made Eggman and his robots even more nervous as they leaned back with nervous sweat drops.
"Ah, then I'll do it." Eggman quickly decided. "The first thing to do is to keep Sonic and his friends away from Princess Blaze and her cohorts, and I have a feeling we should start on locating these Sol Emeralds and this...alien girl your robot just mentioned."
"Perfect, and perhaps we should locate these Chaos Emeralds as well. I can say that the alien girl goes by the name of Cosmo, and she is the last of her kind. Her planet has been destroyed by dangerous enemies, but you shouldn't be concerned because they have foolishly destroyed themselves as well. She hails from an alternate universe, and while I am not certain if this is where she comes from, as long as she exists, things will be complicated." Nega explained.
"I don't like the sound of this. Dr. Eggman." Decoe whispered, nervously.
"Are you sure we should trust him?" Bocoe added.
"Well, if it means in getting rid of Sonic and gaining the Chaos Emeralds, if we cooperate long enough to do so, we can send Dr. Nega and his minions back to their world where he can establish his own Empire while I gain access in building my Egg Empire." Eggman whispered as carefully as possible.
He then turned back to Nega who didn't seem to hear and declared as calmly and evilly as possible. "Looks like we have a partnership, Dr. Nega. Those fools will have no idea what they're up against."
Nega, who was secretly plotting on killing everyone in this world, including his alternate-self who wouldn't suspect a thing, grinned and shook hands with Eggman. "Glad to be in service, Dr. Eggman."
"I'm not so sure about this." Orbot whispered to Cubot.
"At least those guys could be fun to hang out with." The yellow-cube robot pointed out, which not only made his partner sigh, but also Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun glare at him, not liking those two already.
'This is a very bad idea.' Both the tall yellow robot and the small gray robot thought at the same time.
This was the start of the greatest threat that is yet to come, and Sonic was about to find out, especially when it's going to be just as dangerous as the Dream-Link he and Chris shared.
A/N: While Sonic's Chaos Energy has been stabilized, it seems trouble is about to become more serious now that Eggman and Nega have joined forces, and Blaze and her friends are stuck in Sonic's dimension in the similar situation as he had been through in his dreams! What will happen next, only time and space will tell.
See you later!