Author's note: I'm really sorry for the delay of this story. It's a bit of a struggle to continue this one to get to the point of the parts I've been wanting to write for ages, but now here's a new chapter of my version of the un-made season 4 of Sonic X!
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. The rights of the franchise and all Sonic characters and media belong to Sega, Sonic Team and other connected companies. I only own the OCs.
The Mutagen Saga.
Chapter 14: Crisis City.
During the battle against the giant gorilla...
When the Chaotix saw the sudden arrival of not just Rouge, but also the Eggman robot that Sonic mentioned that had caused part of this mess to start and, even more shockingly, Shadow the Hedgehog who had once again defied all odds, survived to tell the tale and had even come back to Earth as well. The three detectives had no idea what was going on now or how to make of this, especially when they were busy with their own assignment and that Vector was still feeling really unwell with what was going on with him and his unusual illness.
"Are you guys seeing this, or am I having a really weird dream?" Charmy asked, blinking as he was bewildered to see Team Dark. Sure he hardly knew the ultimate life-form, but he, Vector and Espio had heard plently and had been there when both the black hedgehog Cosmo (before the latter's resurrection) had sacrificed themselves in the final battle against Dark Oak.
"Rouge, where have you been? What are you doing with that robot that clearly belongs to Dr. Eggman?" Espio questioned the bat thief, ignoring Charmy's question despite that the chameleon ninja was still quite in shock himself.
"One, I've been with these guys and two, this is the robot who hates Eggman more than anything else." Rogue responded as she folded her arms. "I'm surprise to see you three here today, all things considered."
"So this is the robot that messed up with Eggman's porthole and got us and the others into this situation in the first place!" Vector hissed angrily, glaring at the robot, then turned to an unamused Shadow. "And Shadow! You're still alive!? I know that we don't know each other that much, but the last everybody saw ya', you stopped that explosion after punching Sonic away! Everybody thought you were-"
"Dead?" Shadow cut the loud crocodile off, before shaking his head. "I am the Ultimate Life-Form. I can't die. I simply stopped the explosion after preventing Sonic from suffering the same fate, and found myself here."
"For three months? Whoa, you're super tough." Charmy remarked to the black hedgehog. "Wait 'til Sonic and Chris hear about this!"
"Anyway, back to this piece of junk. It's YOUR fault that the world's are merging and we're dealing with another crisis as it is!" Vector turned his attention back to Omega, while attempting to ignore the painful symptoms coursing through his body.
"Correction. The course of the actions belong to Dr. Eggman who must be annhiliated. Do not stand in the way, organic life-form and see yourself for medical attention immediatley." Omega replied, picking up rapidly heat from the leading detective's body.
"Oh yeah!?" The green crocodile growled angrily, feeling insulted by the robot's response. "Well, too bad! 'Cause we're gonna get to Eggman first and stop 'im before things get worse! So out of the way, tin-boy!"
"Wait, Vector!" Espio tried to warn his friend, but the taller detective wasn't listening. Because Vector focused despite that he unknowingly began to glow purple and red once again, this time Shadow noticed and a red flag began to blare up within his entire body, and the taller Mobian blew out a stream of fire at Team Dark, much to the trio's shock as they immediately gasped before dodging out of the way.
"What?" The black hedgehog gasped, narrowing his eyes.
"That's not normal. Since when did Vector learn to do that?" Rouge asked, shocked beyond belief. She didn't know much about the Chaotix but she could tell that Vector breathing fire wasn't his forte. Plus given his illness she picked up since noticing the three detectives, she suddenly had a bad feeling about the crocodile's condition.
"Scanning through Vector the Crocodile's DNA system: his body contains a mixture of the unusual fog and a mutated liquid rapidly flowing through his blood stream, increasing through his system." Omega reported, before holding up his cannon. "He is becoming mutated! Annhiliate!"
The robot then fired a laser projectile at the Chaotix who yelped and dodge out of the way themselves, prompting Vector to charge again himself to land a punch, only for Shadow, realizing that even the crocodile was infected by the mysterious fog as well as something else that went wrong, to quickly step in and landed a powerful punch into the taller Mobian's stomach. Vector grunted in pain as he flew backwards before crashing onto the ground, much to the horror of his friends.
"Big mistake in attacking us, you fool." Shadow hissed darkly. "As for your health, I suggest you leave now or else you will become one of them."
The black hedgehog was about to attack again when Espio, having had enough of this misunderstanding and knowing that there was no choice but to fight, immediately stepped in and landed a rapid kick and mini shurikens at the Ultimate Life-form who sensed this and jumped back to dodge it quickly, leading Omega to attack again only for Charmy, now angry himself, charged and banged onto the robot's head.
"Bad robot! You caused too much trouble!" The young bee shouted, attempting to try and pull Omega's head off.
"Get off me, you bumbling bee!" Omega shouted, swaying around to get Charmy off of him, but the youngest Mobian held out surprisingly well.
Rouge in the meantime, groaned in disbelief as she facepalmed herself while feeling a headache coming on. "Ugh...men and robots...why do women have to do anything?"
The female bat then flew up and scooped the youngest detective off of Omega's head and flew up high, causing Charmy to protest while he tried to squirm out of the bat thief's hands. "Hey! What's the big idea!?"
"Sorry, kid. But we don't want you to get involved in a battle with grown-ups, do we?" Rouge said slyly.
"I'm a detective and you're a bad lady for teaming up with Eggman's bad robot and a bad black hedgehog attacking the Chaotix!" Charmy yelled out angrily. "Put me down or I'll sting ya'!"
That made Rouge glare angrily at him with a vein squeezing on her head. "So I'm a bad lady, am I? Let me tell you something, bee-boy! Your friend Vector's the one who attacked us first!"
"That robot caused everybody and our world to be merging no thanks to Eggman's stupid machine!" Charmy argued.
"What about Vector? Clearly he's not feeling well and breathing fire is not normal!" The bat thief argued back.
"How should I know? We're still trying to figure that one out, though Espio thinks that mutant-stuff that made Vector turn into a giant is-AH!" Charmy suddenly cut himself off when he saw something approach from his and Rouge's right and behind the fighting four on the ground below.
"Mutant stuff turning Vector into a-"
"INCOMING!" The young bee cut Rouge off as he frantically pointed at the direction. But they then it was too late as suddenly the duo were grabbed by the talon of a giant Albotross robot, causing them both to scream in alarm and discomfort.
"Ugh! This is getting old!" Rouge grunted in pain and sheer annoyance, as she and Charmy struggled to free themselves.
"So are Eggman and his robots." The young bee grumbled in agreement.
While the two flyers were caught by the giant robot above, Shadow, Vector, Espio and Omega were still busy fighting with Omega rapidly firing at the two Chaotix who were also dodging Shadow's Chaos Spears. In return, Espio turned himself invisible and sneaked up behind the unsuspected black hedgehog who hissed furiously over the disappearance of the chameleon and frantically looked around.
"Where are you, coward?" Shadow demanded.
"Behind you." Espio's voice sounded behind him.
The black hedgehog made the mistake to turn around only to be hit by an invisible force and flown backwards. Grunting as he crashed onto the ground before flipping back up to his feet, glaring at the chameleon who reappeared and stared back.
"Wrong move. You just made your biggest mistake." Shadow warned.
"I can take anything you can throw at me." Espio responded as he stood ready.
The black hedgehog smirked in his own amused and twisted way, admittedly liking the foolish detective's determination. "Really? Then you are just as foolish as Sonic. Let's see how you can handle it then."
Meanwhile, Vector swished his tail which expanded in size once again like before without him even realizing it and smacked Omega to the ground just as the latter was about to land a metal punch at him, causing the robot to seemingly grunt and skid across the road before stopping. But as his tail shrank back to normal, the crocodile detective groaned while placing a hand to his head, his vision beginning to go blurry again and unaware that his eyes were turning red and purple themselves, the Mutagen inside his body expanding within his cells even further.
As Omega stood up, his sensors detected the crocodile's body once more and through his scanners he could see the Mutagen was increasing.
"Cause of illness detected; two forms of Mutagen fusing together in accelerating rate." The robot detected, before he then picked up another alarm and glanced up before finally noticing the giant Albotross robot that held Rouge and Charmy captive and a familiar evil human man on top of it. "Dr. Eggman located! Comrade Rouge and small Bee captured!"
"Wait, what!?" Vector exclaimed, almost instantly snapping out of his trance as he, Shadow and Espio, who both also heard, looked up as a huge shadow loomed over them and saw to their shock was Eggman who was piloting the giant flying robot with their friends captive.
"AH! CHARMY!" Vector and Espio both exclaimed in horror to see their youngest friend and protege captured while they had been busy fighting.
"Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho! Surprised to see me? Well, that's understandable for you fools!" The evil scientist greeted sinisterly.
"Dr. Eggman...!" Shadow grunted, narrowing his eyes. "So you have finally decided to show yourself."
The mad doctor just grinned. "Shadow, long time no see. It seems that grandfather really has created the Ultimate Life-form. When I first saw you and your companions, including that useless robot Omega, which I'm still sore for you betraying me by the way, and that bat thief Rouge, I thought I was dreaming."
"Cut the act, Eggman!" Vector shouted furiously. "It's all your fault that all of this happened and we're here to stop ya'!"
"Really? Then you're in for a huge disappointed, because I have your friends within my Egg Albotross's grasp!" Eggman grinned, showing off his two captives who still struggled to get out.
Vector hissed just as the walkie-talkie turned on and growling frustration at the interruption but answered anyway, "What is it?"
"Did you find Dr. Eggman or Dr. Narasu yet?" The mysterious client asked.
"We're busy with Eggman right now! Can you call back later?" The crocodile grunted in irritation.
"What!? Eggman is there!?" The caller exclaimed in shock, before quickly saying. "Then you must take him down! That's your mission!"
"Ya' think?" The detective muttered sarcastically, putting the communicator away, and re-focused his attention to Eggman who seemed to be interested on who Vector was talking to.
"Release Rouge and that child, or I'll make you!" Shadow demanded, secretly pulling out the green Chaos Emerald just in case. He was furious that Rouge was captured again, this time by the doctor who, while not fully trustworthy, did help enough but even he knew that Eggman was a liar.
Plus there was something about the man above them that didn't seem right.
"You heard him, doctor. Let them go!" Espio added angrily as he and Vector quickly decided to forget their fight against Team Dark for the time being.
"Don't you give me orders! I'm the one with the advantage here!" The evil scientist snapped. "Bring me Sonic so I can fight him or you will never see your friends again!"
The four of them glared hard as they tried to come up with a way to save Charmy and Rouge as well as take out Eggman and his Egg Albatross before things would get worse.
Meanwhile, Chris, Danny and Francies were helping in evacuating the people of Casino Park or at least getting them to safer places while in a short distance the giant gorilla was wreaking havoc.
"This way, hurry!" Chris instructed a group of Mobians towards the safest path he, his friends and even a couple of Mobian police officers were directing them.
"Try not to shove into anybody!" Danny added.
"Please don't crowd, you'll get hurt." Francies advised, helping the frightened children back to their parents who gratefully thanked the de-aged girl.
Everyone continued to head for shelter as the city rocked a little due to the giant mutant ape's rampage before someone cried out in shock. "Oh no! Look!"
Hesitant on looking while hoping it wasn't G.U.N or Eggman at the moment, Team Chris looked up to see what it was and gasped in shock when they saw a little Mobian cat girl with ginger fur colour, wearing a pink dress and was stuck on the balcony that somewhat collapsed and the way back into the building was blocked, plus she was a few stories up, meaning that she was trapped. She cried for help in tears, frightened.
"Heeeeeelp! Mommy!" The little cat girl, no older than about Cream's age, screamed in fear.
"My baby!" An older Mobian female cat close by below the building screamed out, being the splitting image of her daughter, wearing a white blouse and skirt with black high-heeled shoes, and looking frantic and fearing for her child's safety.
"Oh no!" The two de-aged boys exclaimed in dismay.
"That little girl's trapped!" Francies exclaimed in horror.
"We gotta get her down to safety!" Danny quickly declared. "We need to find a ladder, a crane or something!"
But to their dismay there weren't any close by and the police and firefighters were busy as they were, and the giant gorilla in the distance was causing more damage whild apparently capturing someone, but Chris and his friends were too busy worry about the little girl. The de-aged Thorndyke began to sweat in dread while trying to come up with a way to save the child, again wishing that Sonic was here, before mentally berating himself that now wasn't the time to think about his hedgehog best friend.
He then gazed at the gripping hooks strapped around his waist and then noticed a pole sticking out next to the balcony before yet another risky but necessary idea formed in his head. Narrowing his eyes with determination, he turned to his friends.
"Guys, I'm gonna go up there with the hooks, but I'll need you both to be on stand-by." Chris quickly instructed his friends who gaped at him in surprise, before they realized what he intended on doing as he hurried over to try and save the girl.
The de-aged boy hurried and quickly calculated his position to which the mother noticed him and asked, never having seen a human before. "Huh? Who are you?"
"Don't worry, ma'am. My friends and I are gonna get your daughter down safely." The former twenty-one year old reassured kindly.
The mother was greatly surprised by what she was hearing, and as he told her to step back while his friends approached, Chris then had his hook to fly up and hold a tight grip on the pole before it drew him upward right next to the balcony where the little girl, who saw the hook and yelped a bit, softly gasped at the unfamiliar boy of a species she had never seen before, blinking in surprise and a little bit of uncertainty.
"Hi there. Are you okay?" Chris greeted gently as he stayed as close to the rialing of the balcony as possible, even though the little cat girl whimpered and backed away a little. So he softly reassured. "Don't be scared, I'm here to help you."
"Huh? Y-you are?" The little girl asked, still hesitant but then saw by the way he was smiling at her with softness in his eyes, she began to feel a little bit at ease.
The boy nodded. "My name's Chris, and I'm gonna get you back down to your mother. Okay?"
While still hesitant, seeing that this boy may be her only hope, the young child nodded. "O-Okay. M-my name's Lily."
"Alright, Lily. I need you to hold onto me. When I hold you in my arm, hold on as tightly as you can."
"But what if I fall?" The girl whimpered.
"You won't fall. I promise. I know you're scared, but it's going to be alright." The de-aged boy reassured once more, even though he felt a bit nervous himself but he had to make this count, holding out his left arm out towards her. "Take it nice and slow."
While Lily was still terrified, she decided to place her trust within this nice human boy, and slowly approached, climbing up onto the railing while trying not to slip. As he encouraged her, she continued to step over until Chris was close enough to gently wrap his arm around her and pulled the girl towards him and once she was placed to his chest, she immediately wrapped her arms around his shoulders and neck as tightly as possible. Chris winced while being slightly choked, but ignored it for the girl's sake. Everyone down below saw this and while Danny and Francies waited to help them just in case, Lily's mother watching worriedly, some of the crowd saw what was going on and began to cheer the de-aged Thorndyke's heroic actions.
"Atta girl. Now hold on tight, we're gonna climb our way down." Chris praised and instructed. Lily nodded, before he slowly made the hook expand downward as he used his feet to make his way down like he was rock-climbing.
"Way to go, Chris!" Danny cheered.
"You can do it!" Francies cheered on, while she was nervous and hoped that Chris and Lily wouldn't fall or lose their grip.
"Um, excuse me, Mr. Chris. Why are you helping me?" Lily asked curiously, and while she was still scared, she began to feel more and more safe in this stranger's arms.
"Uh...No reason." Chris answered sheepishly, while thinking to himself. 'I'm starting to sound and act like Sonic.'
Back with Team Dark and the Chaotix, Eggman laughed evilly before commanding his Egg Albatross. "FIRE!"
The giant flying robot did as commanded, launching lasers and missiles at the four who jumped back and dodged as much as possible and Shadow had to stop Omega from firing at it as he would end up hitting Rouge and Charmy at the same time.
"Hey, stop firing at our friends, Eggman! You're gonna be going to jail when this is over!" Charmy shouted angrily as he and Rouge still tried to escape the giant robot's talon.
"Quiet, you bratty bee!" The evil scientist growled.
That made the young bee give him a raspberry. "Forget it! You can't boss me around, you bad man!"
"Rouge, tell that bee to shut it before I rip his throat out!" Eggman shouted at the white bat who glared him.
"Don't you give me orders, Eggman." Rouge hissed angrily. "I'd rather hear this kid than listen to your blabbering all day!"
That made Eggman growl furiously, which as the group down below continued to dodge, both Shadow and Espio noticed this before they shared a glance as an idea formed in their minds.
"If I use my weapons to damage Eggman's robot, perhaps it will work to our advantage. But we need to get Charmy and Rouge out of there first." Espio whispered to the black hedgehog.
"I can stop that thing and Dr. Eggman briefly in time and save them." Shadow whispered back, holding out the Chaos Emerald, much to the chameleon's shock.
"A Chaos Emerald!?" The purple detective softly exclaimed, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Where did you get that?"
"It doesn't matter. I know how to use it more than you do. But you have to trust me on this." The Ultimate Life-form whispered impatiently, as Vector and Omega also noticed what the black hedgehog was doing and the crocodile was just as shocked and sweat dropped, completely speechless.
"How did you guys get that Emerald?" Vector asked Omega.
"Nevermind that. This is not the time for a chit-chat." Omega responded impatiently.
"Vector, we have a plan but we need you and that robot to distract Dr. Eggman while Shadow and I rescue Charmy and Rouge." Espio quickly whispered to his taller friend, deciding that this was their onlye chance in saving their friends.
Despite that he needed to know more, he had full trust in his teammates, so Vector decided to put his faith into his friend and gave him a thumbs up.
"Omega, whatever you do, wait until Rouge and that bee are out of harms way." Shadow ordered the robot.
"Affirmative, Comrade Shadow." Omega decided to agree.
"HEY!" Vector shouted aloud while both Espio and Shadow leaped away to avoid in being seen, getting Eggman's attention. "Why don't ya stop what you're doing, you Mustache Moron!?"
Eggman just growled, not liking Vector's attitude one bit and couldn't wait to take out all of his enemies below and even Sonic and the rest of his friends.
Somehow he forgot to turn off the walkie-talkie, because the caller exclaimed unexpectedly, sounding very insulted and angry. "Mustache Moron!? I'm the world's greatest..."
"Huh?" The crocodile muttered, as somehow the familiarity of the client was becoming more and more noticable, before the caller quickly and seemingly caught himself.
"Uh...Ahhum...Sorry, just stop talking and take him out." The caller quickly apologized sheepishly.
Narrowing his eyes suspiciously, Vector grunted at the mysterious client. "This is gonna cost you extra!" This made the cilent through the walkie-talkie and even the device itself sweat nervously with a sweat drop before hanging up.
"I'll get you for this, lizard-boy!" Eggman growled, commanding his robot to open fire once more, forcing Vector and Omega to dodge once again, which was the distraction Shadow and Espio needed as the two hidden themselves near a building before sharing and glance and nodded.
"Chaos Control!" Shadow chanted, holding out the green Chaos Emerald which froze the Egg Albatross and Eggman briefly in time, allowing him and Espio to quickly leap and jump from building to building to get higher until the black hedgehog used his Spin Attack to slice off both of the giant robot's legs and effectively freeing Rouge and Charmy who fell before quickly he grabbed them both and landed safely on the ground.
"Hey, that was cool! Thanks, Shadow!" Charmy exclaimed in amazement.
"You're really turning out to be more of a hero, Shadow. It suits you." Rouge remarked half-teasingly. Shadow just ignored their comments as he certainly didn't feel like one despite that he was relieved that they were both unharmed.
Espio in the meantime tossed six explosive shurikens which stuck onto the Egg Albatross's metal body and as he leaped down to safety, mentally counting to three, they exploded and damaged the giant robot's body, which the effects of Chaos Control wore off and Eggman felt the impact, screaming in shock and horror while holding on for dear life.
"OH NO!" Eggman screamed, panicking.
"It's payback time, Eggman!" Charmy declared after Shadow let him and Rouge down safely.
"You messed with the wrong flyers!" Rouge added as she and Charmy flew up, while Omega opened fired just before they did so, damaging the giant robot's wings, followed by Charmy flew up and bashing the robot as hard as he could and then he flew up to Eggman who panicked.
"STING ATTACK!" The young bee shouted.
"AAAAHHHH! W-wait! I j-just remembered something!" Eggman squeaked, ducking as he narrowly avoided in being sting before gulping. "I'm allergic to bees!"
"Then how about this!?" Charmy asked, bashing the evil scientist on the head with his fists painfully. "Take that and that and that and that and that!"
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" The mad doctor grunted and yelped in agony while getting a splitting headache. "You little-!"
Rouge in the meantime dodged the damaged Egg Albotross's attacks as she did her drill kick at it's face, creating a hole which sparked with fire and electricity before flying back safely as Shadow used Chaos Spear once more and then Vector breathed fire at it's body once more, forcing it back.
"Charmy, get outta there! We're almost beaten him!" Vector ordered loudly.
"Okay, boss!" Charmy replied back happily, before cheekily saying to Eggman after he stopped bashing the latter's head. "Bye-bye, Eggy-Weggy!"
As the young bee flew away to safety while the evil scientist growled as well as groaned at the pain he had to endure, he looked down and gulped nervously when he saw Shadow stand there, readying himself for the final blow.
"Uh-oh..." The mad doctor shivered nervously.
"Farewell, Eggman." Shadow smirked evilly, before leaping up and shouted an all powerful attack. "CHAOS BLAST!"
The all powerful attack from the black hedgehog blasted straight at Eggman and his giant robot and while not completely destroying it, it was damaged enough to be sent flying as the evil man screamed while holding for dear life, flying across the city while glaring at the two teams down below, already plotting his revenge on Team Dark and the Chaotix, unaware that he was spotted on the ground by Team Sonic and Team Rose who had just finished off the giant gorilla themselves.
"Well, that'll shut him up for a while." Vector remarked as he and everyone else watched the evil scientist being flown away, scratching the back of his head. "But I got a feeling we still oughta follow him and figure out what he and Narasu are up to."
"Yeah, but at least we won." Charmy pointed out happily.
"Large weapon of destruction: destroyed!" Omega announced.
"Is that robot always like this?" Espio grumbled to Rouge despite that their own battle had been interrupted.
"After being stuffed in a small closest by Eggman, he's all bent on taking him out and besides, he's a good robot. So we're not the bad guys here." The bat thief replied, shrugging.
"And yet you have one of the seven Chaos Emeralds." The purple chameleon pointed out skeptically.
"Found it, yes." Rouge replied.
"Well, Sonic and the rest of us will need it as well as the rest to prevent the merge and undo it's rapid course before Time is destroyed, and to also return to our home planet." Espio informed her firmly.
"So you know what is going on, don't you?" Shadow questioned, adding. "More importantly, what is Dr. Eggman up to and who is this Narasu?"
"Well, we're still trying to figure out what Eggman's doing this time besides coming back here trying to find blueprints to make robot army copies of you, Shadow. Narasu on the other hand was a dumb scientist who thought Sonic was a bad guy, joined up this group who tried to get rid of him but got arrested, but recently since he wasn't allowed to do science stuff anymore, he's the prime suspect for what's been going on with humanity and all of the animals in this world." Vector reluctantly explained.
"He even made this purple stuff that was made to turn Sonic into a giant but his dart hit Vector instead and turned him into a giant, but Sonic and Espio fixed him up with a bottle of aspirin." Charmy added.
"Pardon?" The black hedgehog blinked, skeptical.
"The Mutagen as Dr. Narasu called it. It was design to swell up a living being's body cells like a balloon. He attempted to secretly fire at Sonic one day before we all returned to our world, but unforunately he missed and hit Vector instead and as Charmy said, the cure was aspirin." Espio explained, before sighing as he remembered what he intended to tell his crocodile friend. "However, it may also only be temporarily as it could be building up again."
"Say what? Building up again?" Vector asked in shock.
"Not only that, it's also gotten worse." The purple detective added.
"Well, of course it is, or how else I was able to breathe fire or my tail growing and shrinking randomly!?" The green crocodile snorted.
"That explains it then. I was wondering how you able to do that, big green." Rouge commented as it made sense to her, Shadow and Omega.
"Hmmm...the Mutagen, huh?" The black hedgehog muttered thoughtfully with a concerned frown. He then gazed at the Chaotix, questioning. "Would this effect include your friend having this red and purple glow in his eyes and on his body?"
"Huh?" The Chaotix trio murmured, caught off-guard by the question.
"You mean you saw it too?" Charmy asked, shocked and surprised.
"Saw what? What are you guys talking about?" Vector demanded, feeling like he was left out of the loop.
"Vector, the reason for this is you have been occasionally giving out this aura of red and purple, similar to how some of the people here on Earth and the mutated animals have produced. Even your eyes have been giving it out each time you felt more unwell than ever before." Espio informed him gravely. "Given that you have already been affected by the previous Mutagen, I fear that the ancident remedy's effects are wearing off and now the fog on this planet is effecting you as well, and if I am correct, it's merging with the one within your body."
"WHAAAAAAAT!?" The crocodile screamed, his eyes wide in pure horror over the thought of that, pointing at himself as he began to now panic. "Are you saying that it's only a matter of time before I end up growing into a giant again and the effects of the fog is also effecting me too!? How come it hasn't effected the rest of you guys or even Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Cheese and Mrs. Vanilla!?"
"Do you think it was the Chaos Emeralds mixed up with the porthole?" Rouge wondered aloud, folding her arms in concern. "If that's the case, then big boy Vector's the only one who's effected by it since he's already has the last mutagen."
"Then that's proves that Narasu is behind the purple fog that's caused most of the humans here turn young again and turning all of the animals not from our world into monsters!" Charmy declared, narrowing his eyes with determination. "He's the one who used Chris's Porthole to make this mess!"
"He did?" Rouge, Shadow and even Omega asked in surprise.
"How did you know that?" Rouge asked.
"We were investigating the situation that somebody busted into Chris' old lab where he used his porthole to get to our world, most of us including Tails found a vial which might've had whatever liquid to create it. The reason for this is because GUN arrested Chris and put the poor kid into jail, blaming him for the mess he didn't cause since he was on a date with his girlfriend." Vector replied, while still in horror of the possibilty that he was not only badly infected by the original Mutagen, but now the fog has gotten to him as well.
"Christopher Thorndyke was arrested by GUN!?" Shadow demanded in shock, anger and horror, as memories of Maria's death by the hands of the corrupted organization flashed through his mind. Plus the way how they attacked him and his comrades earlier today added to it.
Now the human child, who was one of Sonic's best friends and who had convinced Shadow himself to not destroy the planet, was falsely accused for the current crisis the world was facing.
"Looks like GUN's been corrupted by the fog too." Rouge said uneasily, absolutely horrified that the boy she admittedly liked was now in prison because of Narasu's actions.
"Sonic, Tails and Knuckles are dealing with Eggman as well as looking for a way to stop the merge between both worlds, and had requested us to find the true culprit, all six of us no doubt hoping to clear Chris's name. Sonic visited the young Thorndyke earlier but was confronted by the Commander who disturbingly had a purple glow in his eyes, also effected by the mysterious fog that seems to be bringing out the darker desires in some of humanity's minds. He even threatened to keep Sonic imprisoned if he stood in the way to try and help our friend." Espio explained once more.
"The effects of the fog have not only de-aged most of humanity, but also corrupted some of the people's minds, making them more aggressive than ever before. The symptoms within Vector the Crocodile matches that of within these humans and all of the animals." Omega agreed after analyzing the match within his inner computer. "I have also detected that it is an upgrade of sorts of the Mutagen within the crocodile's body."
"I knew it." Vector grunted, clutching his fist. "It IS Narasu that's behind this. Plus he can control the monsters by using some sort of microchip that idiot's implanted within his body."
"How do you know?" Shadow questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Our client says so." The Chaotix chorused, as Vector admittedly pulled out the walkie-talkie.
"And who is this client, and how did he know?" The black hedgehog muttered.
"No idea." Charmy admitted. "The client sure seems to know a lot about Eggman and Nasaru."
"Definitely an agent, no doubt." Espio added.
"Strangely enough, I had the same feeling about the cilent's REAL identity. I kinda think I know who it is. It could be you-know-who." The green crocodile said thoughtfully, gazing at the communicator.
"Really? Who?" Rouge asked.
"Not sure yet, but I have a hunch. Either way, we'd better find Narasu and stop 'im before things get worse." Vector declared, and his two friends nodded in agreement. He then shuddered while rubbing his arms. "But if the Mutagen inside me's getting worse, I'm too freaked out to find out what'll happen if that gets worse too."
"Looks like things have gotten even more complicated." The bat thief announced, now feeling quite worried about Vector's condition as well as Chris' safety. Plus now that she thought about it, she was getting worried about her old human ally and friend Topaz.
"Mutagen or not, GUN have not changed in years, obviously. Either way, both Eggman and Dr. Narasu have a lot to answer for." Shadow declared.
"Then perhaps we should join forces." Espio suggested carefully, surprising everyone. "The more help we get, the better chances of solving this mystery. Time is running out and if Sonic can't do this on his own, then this would require the help from Shadow. Maybe that is why he is back here in this world."
"You mean we team up with these guys?" Charmy asked, bewildered.
"Well, I do hate to admit it, but Espio has a good point. Unless we come up with another idea, I don't think we have much of a choice." Vector admitted.
"Just as long as you don't get in our way." Rouge reluctantly agreed.
"I want get first hands on taking out Dr. Eggman, but I see the logic in the chameleon's words." Omega added.
"My name is Espio." The aforementioned chameleon told the robot in annoyance.
"Fine. Just don't mess things up. We must get a move on." Shadow declared, not liking in being with another group but he knew there was no other choice. Plus, with the worlds merging very quickly, he had a feeling that he would have to join forces with Sonic once again sooner or later.
Just then the walkie-talkie buzzed to life and Vector answered immediately. "Hello?"
"Here's your next mission: Pass through the Frog Forest and be cautious of the weather-controlling frogs. The next clue in learning of Dr. Eggman and Nasaru's whereabouts are located there." The mysterious client instructed immediately. "It's just outside of Bingo Highway where the canyon once was. Good luck!"
Then the call dropped and the two teams shared a glance, before nodding and Vector put away the communicator and declared. "Well, you heard 'im! Let's go!"
"Yeah! Watch out, Evil Doers! The double-teams are gonna get ya's!" Charmy declared with determination and excitement.
"Right." Espio nodded, while thinking to himself. 'And hopefully to find a cure before Vector's condition gets any worse.'
"Let's get a move on." Shadow ordered his two comrades who nodded with Omega muttering 'affirmative'.
The reluctant con-joined teams then hurried to reach Bingo Highway and enter the Frog Forest for the next phase of the Chaotix's mission, all the while Vector tried to ignore the mutagen getting worse within his body.
After what seemed like half an hour which was only around ten minutes, Chris successfully climbed down safely with Danny and Francies helping him while the de-aged boy held a firm grip on Lily before they finally touched the ground, and sighed in relief.
"You okay?" Chris asked the young cat girl who nodded, before he gently handed her to her relief mother who raced over. "Here you go."
"Mommy!" Lily cried as she immediately hugged her mother once she was in the older cat's arms, tears in her eyes.
"Lily! Oh, my sweet little Lily!" The Mother Cat exclaimed, hugging her daughter with tears leaking in her eyes as well, gently rocking her child from side to side to soothe her. "Shhhh...It's okay, sweetheart. Mommy's here."
Chris, Danny and Francies smilled emotionally while the crowd began to cheer for the young Thorndyke's heroic deeds in saving the child.
"Thank you so much for saving my little girl, young man." The mother Cat said gratefully.
"Thank you for saving me, Mr. Chris." Lily added, sniffling as she smiled at her rescuer.
"You're welcome. Just glad I could help." Chris replied, rubbing the back of his head.
Just then they heard a roar of defeat as they looked up to see just in time that the gorilla has been knocked down by a familiar blue blur, the ape falling and vanishing behind the buildings and the blue ball vanishing behind a couple of buildings as well. Team Chris' eyes widened in shock as did everyone else's as they wondered what has happened though they all felt that knew who had defeated the 'monster'.
"Hey, that looks..." Danny trailed off.
"Is that who I think it was?" Francies asked.
"...It's Sonic!" Chris realized, his heart leaping in hope and surprise that Sonic was within this city and close by.
"Wow! It's Mr. Sonic! He saved us from the giant monkey!" Lily exclaimed in amazement.
"Chris, if Sonic's here, then we should find him quickly!" Francies quickly informed her friend who nodded in agreement along with Danny.
"Right!" Chris agreed, knowing that the blue hedgehog was in for a shock to see that he had gotten out of jail. The de-aged trio then turned to the confused and surprised Mobians and said, "Sorry, but the three of us gotta go. There's something we have to do and Sonic needs our help to solve what's happening right now!"
Despite that they wanted to know how the three human children knew Sonic the Hedgehog, they decided to let it slide and thanked them again for all of their help before the trio, glad that everyone was safe for now, hurried into what they hoped was the direction of Sonic and unknowingly the others. But as the three de-aged humans ran, they heard a scream and looked up to see, to their shock was a giant badly damaged robot with a familiar fat man on top of it being flown away.
"Oh no!" Danny groaned as he and the others recognized the man.
"It's Dr. Eggman!" Chris exclaimed in annoyance.
"Not him again!" Francies complained. "Doesn't that weirdo ever give up?"
The de-aged Thorndyke sweat-dropped as he muttered with a groan. "Probably not in a million years."
Even though they were catching up to Sonic, they were unaware of who else was in the city.
After the battle against the giant gorilla...
Having nearly crash landed before he managed to reposition his almost destroyed Egg Albatross with great difficulty, Eggman groaned as he decided to call it a day and continue his original plan which would take place in the next two days, with the early signs of the morning sun beginning to peak through the horizon.
"Couldn't this week get any worse?" The evil scientist moaned, having bandaged himself up with a crossed-bandaid on his head and his arm in a sling.
Unfortunately for the evil scientist, it could, because unbeknownst to him, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese have finally managed to catch up to him and his giant robot, hurrying with the blue hedgehog making sure that his friends kept up with him as quickly as possible.
"Sonic, there's Dr. Eggman! And another giant robot!" Tails exclaimed, before he and the others noticed just how badly damaged it looked. "Or...what's left of it, anyway."
"Okay, explain to me how that happened?" Knuckles gaped, shocked that somebody else has already beaten Eggman and the giant dented Egg Albatross.
"Well, whatever it is, maybe Vector and the others had done a decent job in beating up that thing." Sonic shrugged, smirking as he prepared to attack it. "So let's finish it off before Egghead gets away!"
"Sounds good to me." Amy smirked in agreement, bringing out her Hammer with a gleam in her eyes.
Unaware of the further beating he was about to face, Eggman flew his dented machine closer towards the exit of Bingo Highway. "Just a little further, and I'll be..."
"Hey, Eggman! Where ya' going?" Sonic's voice called from below.
Flinching in fright and looking over his shoulder, he saw the blue hedgehog having curled up into a ball and was spinning up straight towards him like a cannon ball, Amy having used her hammer to give him a powerful boost. The evil scientist sweat dropped in fear.
"Oh no..." Eggman muttered in dread as he knew what was coming up next.
Sonic bashed straight into the Egg Albatross, causing to malfunction and lose it's altitude and speed, and any hope of escaping from seven more heroes while the evil scientist screamed as he held on for dear life but managed to keep his robot upright, though it was having trouble even just hovering.
"Why me?" The evil scientist slumped with sweat drop.
The teenage hedgehog in the meantime landed safely on the ground as he was quickly joined by his friends, before Sonic asked. "Whoa, what happened? Did ya' get into a fight with Vector or somethin'?"
"And what happened to you?" Tails added, noticing the doctor's injuries.
"You're all bandaged up." Cream remarked, feeling just a little bit sorry for the evil man.
"Chao-chao." Cheese chirped.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he got hit by another mutant monster he couldn't stop earlier. Or maybe Vector's new flame-thrower did the trick with Charmy stinging him." Knuckles remarked, snickering.
Eggman growled at the group. "Oh, shut up! I've already taken a beating by two teams earlier, one of them happened to have been your stupid detective friends, I'm not in the mood to handle the six of you!"
"Huh?" Teams Sonic and Rose murmured in confusion. Two teams besides them?
"You mean there's another team after you?" Sonic asked, genuinely surprised.
"Besides us and the Chaotix?" Amy added in confusion.
"Yes, and I'm surprised you haven't even known of their existence yet, three who you should be familiar with and one of them thought to have never be seen again! But enough of this, because I'm sick of losing! Once my plan comes to fruition, it's the end of you and your friends, Sonic!" Eggman furiously hissed, before pushing a blue button and despite the Egg Albatross's damage, it's hatch on the lower part of it's body opened up to reveal a giant cannon ball which was fired directly towards the two teams.
"Look out!" Sonic shouted, scooping up Amy, Cream and Cheese while Tails scooped up Cosmo as the six of them hurried away.
Knuckles leaped back before stopping the cannonball by practically grabbing it, grunting in slight strain. The red echidna then impressively heaved it above his head and smirked, much to Eggman's horror, before the guardian of the Master Emerald gave the ball a strong toss right back to the giant robot in the sky. It hit the machine right in the center and damaging it even more, making the evil scientist scream in panic.
The rest of the group looked on in awe, as Sonic whistled at his older friend's stunt, commenting to the older teenager. "Way to go, Knux."
"That was very amazing, Knuckles!" Cosmo exclaimed.
"Curse you, Knuckles! I'll get you all for this!" Eggman growled.
"Not if we get to you first, Eggman!" Sonic declared as he and his friends, even Cosmo, Cream and Cheese, stood ready to battle. "Kinda almost sad that the party's almost over, but better late than never in this case."
Eggman responded by firing at the giant robot's remaining working missiles, forcing both teams to leap out of the way before Cream picked up Cosmo and Amy, with Cheese holding on. Tails did the same with Sonic and Knuckles as the two youngest flyers flew up towards the Egg Albotross, dodging as many attacks as possible with determination on their faces, much to their enemy's frustration and increasing panic.
Cream and Tails then tossed their friends who performed a series of attacks: Cosmo spun before she surprisingly delivered a kick right into Eggman's face, causing the evil man to cry out in agony. Knuckles brought out his shovel claws and punched and sliced through the robot's heavy metal. Amy spun her arm before tossing her Hammer straight at the beak close to where Eggman was, destroying it entirely much to his horror.
Finally, Sonic performed his Spin Attack downward towards the robot, his quills sharpened as he chuckled excitedly before spinning straight through the huge robot to the other side, destroying it entirely as it began to explode.
"You'll pay for this!" Eggman shouted in rage, just as the robot exploded without damaging any buildings.
"Yeah, we did it!" Tails, Amy, Cosmo and Cream cheered as they, Knuckles and Sonic all landed safely on the ground.
"You know that you can't win, Eggman!" Sonic called out as he watched the remains of the Egg Albatross vanish just at the exit of Bingo Highway, the explosion seen behind the buildings and shooting up into the sky.
Once the explosion stopped, Team Sonic and Team Rose stood there for a moment before Cheese noticed something and squeaked in alarm, and when the others looked to see what had the Chao had all worked up, a peak of light shone from the sky and when they looked up, they all gasped when they saw it was sunrise.
"Oh no! It's morning! That means we've only got two days left before Eggman's big plan starts up!" Tails exclaimed in horror.
"C'mon! We've gotta get to Eggman!" The blue hedgehog instructed, already speeding off to the wreckage of the Egg Albatross, with his friends racing after him as fast as they could, all of them knowing that the two-tailed fox was right. Unless they stopped the evil scientist now, the situation was only going to get worse.
But they the time Sonic got to the remains of the robot and skid to stop to find the battered but most likely still alive madman, the teenage hero looked around and to his shock found him...or what he originally thought was Eggman. The evil doctor was lying sprawled on the ground and motionless, he didn't seem to be moving. A bit of dread filled his senses and filling up his heart and stomach even though they were enemies.
"...Eggman?" Sonic whispered hesitantly, wondering and kind of hoping that Eggman was just unconscious. Wouldn't be the first time the man was first thought dead. He remembered the time when he and Tails found Knuckles who had found Eggman unconscious, having been knocked out by Chaos before the youngest Mobian poked the man's leg nervously to check he was alive, and had been scared out of his wits when the man sat up, regaining consciousness.
Disturbingly enough, Eggman was grinning which made the blue hedgehog sweat drop nervously.
"For a guy that's supposed to be unconscious or maybe even dead yet he's grinning like that, it's giving me the creeps." The blue hedgehog muttered just as his friends caught up to him and also saw the motionless doctor on the ground.
"Is he still alive?" Cosmo asked, hesitantly.
"He probably is. Not the first time he was thought dead." Knuckles replied nonchalantly.
"Only one way to find out." Amy declared, holding up her hammer to knock the doctor awake.
Only for Eggman's head to suddenly pop off of his body, strangely attached to a metal spring and swaying a bit as he laughed manically.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese, and even Knuckles all screamed in fright at first when they saw the head come off. They then calmed down slightly once they realized what was going on.
"Hey! It's just as stupid copy!" Amy fumed, stomping the ground in anger, shaking her fists which were clenched tightly.
"Never pegged Eggman to make robot clones of himself. Guess he decided to try out his plan by reusing the old plan in making Shadow robots." Sonic remarked, scratching the top of his head.
"AHAHAHAHAHA!" The fake Eggman laughed even as one of the eyes popped out. "You fools have been tricks! Very soon, my air fleet will help me conquer the worlds, regardless of the merging...and you won't be able to stop me!"
The moment he said this, suddenly Sonic and his friends heard a loud noise from the distance to where the desert used to be and found, from Eggman's new base which was left unchanged as the roof opened up now that they were free, and a large air fleet of robots that resembled to a school of fish flew in the distance of the sky and over the jungle that only Cosmo was unfamiliar of, much her and everyone else's shock, that even in other parts of the city was witnessed by everyone else, including, unbeknownst to Sonic's group, Shadow's group and Chris's team also noticing in shock and horror.
"Dang...Eggman's been stalling us!" Sonic grunted, clenching his fist. "We've been led into a trap!"
Not wanting to waste anymore time despite that time was running out faster than he would've liked due to the merging of the worlds, Chris still in jail(or so Sonic thought), and the mystery of Rusca still haunting him, Sonic turned to his friends and gestured them. "Let's go! We don't have much time left!"
"Right!" The others nodded in agreement, as most of them hurried away to follow the air fleet to try and take it down, though Tails noticed something odd about the Eggman 'robot' and observed it a bit closely, to which Cosmo noticed and approached him.
"What's wrong, Tails?" The young Seedrian asked.
"Strange...This is not an Eggman Robot. Something's not right here." The two-tailed kit whispered.
"Tails, Cosmo!" Amy's voice called out, causing the two young members to look up and found that she and the others were already leaving. "Come on, hurry up!"
"Oh, right!" Cosmo called back.
"W-wait for us!" Tails yelped, as he and his 'girlfriend' hurried to catch up to their friends.
But as Team Sonic and Team Rose left to catch up to the fleet, the Eggman robot melted into silver goo and reformed into that of the mutated Narasu who groaned, rubbing his head over the agony of the attack he endured by Team Dark and the Chaotix who were unaware of his real identity. None the less, as he glanced up to the retreating heroes, he grinned wickedly.
"They fell for it. Hook, line and sinker. Now for the next phase of my ultimate plan, and soon Sonic and all of the foolish human will soon learn to never have made a fool out of me. Bwahahaha!" The evil scientist cackled madly.
Once he was certain that no one else was around, Narasu opened up his jet pack and flew away to continue his goal, as well as continue to pretend to be Eggman.
Yet one question remained in the minds of Sonic's mind as he and his friends left the two cities of his home world and into a jungle that was also from his planet.
'If that was just a robot made to look convincingly like him, where's the real Eggman?' Sonic thought to himself.
The situation was only getting worse, with only two days left before the great catastrophic even would take place.
A/N: Again, sorry that this chapter wasn't what I hoped, but things are already getting worse for all of the Sonic Heroes as they race against time to save the two worlds, and that Narasu is stepping up to his game. Hopefully my computer will survive long enough for me to make a new chapter(or at least let me access to fanfiction due to the worryingly new update).
Now Teams Dark and Chaotix have joined forces after going through a misunderstanding fight, and Chris's team is one step closer in reuniting with Sonic's group. Will they be able to, or will GUN get to the heroes first? Only time will tell.
See you later!
