Author's note: We're one step close to the end of the Mutagen Saga, and soon we'll move forward to the future saga, though before that, there will be a slight breather parts which may take a while as I'm still trying to figure out what to do with that.

Again, sorry for the long wait, but finally the new chapter is finally here! Here we go!

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 19: Mutagen Corruption.

Last time, Sonic and his friends have arrived at the Eggman Fleet when Vector nearly lost control again, but a quick thinking from Amy knocked him back to his senses, but time is running out for our heroes. They then split up into group. Team Sonic and Team Dark join forces to locate Dr. Eggman and finish off the fight once and for all, while Team Rose, Team Chris and the Chaotix hurry to rescue the prisoners including the mysterious client.

Meanwhile, GUN has been infiltrated by Agent Spy Stewart who along with others have saved the President and taken the corrupted Commander Tower into custody, taking command to withdraw from attacking Sonic's group and to aid the prisoners, but none of the heroes know that. Just as Amy's group are seemingly about to get captured, Sonic's team confront the doctor who arrived with another robot!

Will the Sonic Heroes save the way? And where is Dr. Narasu?

Team Sonic and Team Dark stood ready as they glared at 'Eggman' and his latest giant robotic creation, the Egg Emperor, ready for the final battle and end this once and for all. The evil scientist grinned wickedly.

"Hope you enjoyed your stay here, hedgehog, because you and your friends are about to learn the true mastery of the planets!" 'Eggman' declared, which while he spoke as he usually would, there was something about his words which caught the six heroes a bit off-guard, but focused on stopping their enemy and trashing this robot.

"You got that in reverse, Eggman! 'Cause we're gonna make you pack your bags, and you'll be goin' to jail! It's all your fault that the two worlds and space and time are in a total mess!" Sonic shouted back, determined as he clutched his fist tightly.

'There's something about the way how Eggman just spoke to us. Maybe this is just another fake after all. If so, then where's the real one?' Tails thought to himself, narrowing his eyes even though he was nervous.

The others were also noticing that the doctor didn't sound like himself. Why would he say the way he did? Something wasn't right all.

"Get rid of them!" 'Eggman' commanded, and the Egg Emperor thrust it's lance-arm high up before smashing it towards the two teams who leaped back quickly, though most of them did nearly lose their balance as the entire floor began to shake violently in a shockwave which caused Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and Omega to be pushed back, most of them screaming before landing roughly. That prompted him to laugh evilly while the heroes got up, with injuries and in Omega's case, damages.

"You think that'll keep us down!?" Sonic demanded, speeding forward while ignoring the pain and went for a Spin Attack, quickly followed by Shadow doing the same and Omega opening fire at right where Eggman was piloting the giant robot.

But the attacks were deflected by the giant shield which not only had the two hedgehogs flown back once more, but also Omega's ammo to be flying back at the others.

"Look out!" Tails screamed as he, Knuckles and Rouge yelped and made to avoid the attacks while Omega instantly fired more to cause a mid-air explosions of his own fire arms, and Sonic and Shadow hit the ground hard again, grunting.

"Normal attacks aren't working on that thing." Shadow hissed as he and his blue rival pushed themselves up.

"We came too far to give up now! We're just gonna have to counter attack!" Sonic refused to surrender now, and he for one was never the type to give up the fight.

Just then the Egg Emperor opened up more cannons and opened fire at the two teams who dodged and leaped out of the way to avoid in getting hit, before both Sonic and Shadow used their Spin Attacks again an an attempt to distract it, but once again the giant robot's flare deflected them which caused the two hedgehogs to be thrown back and hit the floor hard. 'Eggman' grinned and commanded the giant robot to attack the seemingly helpless two hedgehogs, when Tails and Rouge both flew in, picking up Sonic and Shadow by the arms while Knuckles held the lance arm in place, grunting as he held it in it's place.

"Hey, Omega! Feel free to fire at this thing while I hold it's arm!" The red echidna shouted, as he didn't want to end up being sliced in half.

"With pleasure." Omega immediately agreed, as though he had excitement in his motor-voice, before firing another laser at the robot's chest, catching Eggman off-guard as he screamed while holding on for dear life.

"GAAAH! You meddling prototype!" The evil scientist growled furiously, shaking a fist in the air while trying to get his robot back into position, when he heard a whistle above him, causing him to look up and saw Sonic, who had whistled to get his attention, Tails who carried him, Rouge who was carrying Shadow, gaze at their opponent. This made the evil man sweat drop, gulping. "Uh oh..."

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted, firing his attacks while making sure he didn't hit Rouge, or Sonic and Tails who flew a bit higher, the attack almost deflecting at the machine, when the two young brothers held each other's one hand each and performed a double Spin Attack, distracting Eggman enough to prevent him from using the shield again.

Sonic and Tails aimed for the Egg Emperor's head and gave a direct hit while Rouge flipped the ultimate lifeform before they both used a powerful kick at just below where Eggman was piloting the giant robot. All of these attacks combined with Knuckles holding the lance arm in place left the evil scientist no room to attack them at the moment, forcing his machine to stumble and nearly fall over while he screamed and held on for dear life.

"Stop that, you little pests!" 'Eggman' shouted.

"We're not gonna stop, Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed as he, Tails, Shadow and Rouge landed on the ground with Knuckles and Omega, before all six of them, shocked that the Egg Emperor was quickly recovering despite the damage it was beginning to sustain, about to launch another attack. "Look out!"

The two teams leaped out of the way again, but the giant robot sent out another shock-wave which caught Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and Omega off-guard once again which sent them flying and they all screamed in pain, with 'Eggman' controlling the robot to use it's lancer arm to smack them hard. Knuckles, seeing this, growled before flipping quickly to recover and punched rapidly at the arm to prevent it from killing his friends and allies. To his and everyone else's dismay while they all tried to recover and Omega opening fire once again, the Egg Emperor's shield deflected the attacks, knocking the red echidna back as he was about to hit the ground hard.

"KNUCKLES!" Sonic and Tails screamed as the former raced over to save their friend, who had crashed onto the floor and was about to be sliced in half when 'Eggman' had him cornered.

But the teenage blue hedgehog quickly scooped up the red echidna and leaped back, narrowly avoiding in getting sliced into pieces himself while the two teenagers quickly hurried back to safety, and Shadow attempted to use his Chaos Spear again, but like previous times before, the shield blocked it and forced him and everyone else to make a run for it at Tails' warning, and Omega fired more ammo to block the black hedgehog's deflected attacks.

"We've gotta distract that thing before it can use that stupid shield again!" Sonic grunted after he gently placed Knuckles back down.

"Easier said than done!" The older Mobian pointed out.

"It's no use, Sonic! You and your friends can't beat me! My Egg Emperor is invincible! You are all through!" 'Eggman' declared, grinning hideously which made Sonic growl back with clentched teeth, and a tightening clutched fist as his companions all glared at the evil scientist.

Time was running out, and unless they defeat the big robot and save Amy, Chris and the others, the whole world was doomed and Time would be stopped forever.

Meanwhile, back on lower deck, Team Rose, Team Chris, the Chaotix and Topaz found themselves stuck as well as they could hear the battle above them which, given how long it was taking and the GUN helicopters were getting closer and closer while taking out more of Eggman's fleet just to reach the main airship, all eleven of them(including Cheese) were going to get caught before Team Sonic and Team Dark would be able to defeat the mad doctor.

"Amy, I'm scared." Cream whimpered as she leaned against her older friend who held her close to try and protect her, and Cheese moaning in dismay.

"How are we going to handle this now?" Francies asked worriedly.

"I don't think they're going to let us go this time." Danny remarked in concern.

"Sonic and the others' better hurry up or we're all sunk!" Vector exclaimed in aggravation, before groaning as he placed his hand to his head again with the Mutagen's effects beginning to swell up again, his vision getting more and more blurry by the mine as this went on.

"Are you alright, Vector?" Cosmo asked, worriedly as she and everyone else noticed how the green crocodile was still struggling and the young Seedrian feared that the longer this went on, the more the detective could surcumb to the Mutagen all together.

"Just trying to hold it together..." The tall crocodile admitted, as he could feel the side effects creeping up again with the combined Mutagen within his body reaching it's peak.

"The Mutagen's getting worse...!" Chris realized fearfully, concerned for the detective. He then turned his gaze back to the helicopters, adding. "And GUN...they're right here."

Everyone tensed and backed up to the walls and locked doors as at least one of the helicopters landed, blocking their path and way out as the side doors opened and some of the soldiers came racing out, though their weapons were strapped to their backs and not held out, stopping half way across from them. Still, Chris and his group didn't want to take any chances as Topaz, despite no longer being with GUN as Commander Tower had stripped her of her rank, her duties, and her entire life, approached the men much to the others' protests as they told her to wait or stop.

"It's Agent Topaz!" One of the men remarked upon seeing the familiar woman who stood protectively in front of the Mobians and the three de-aged young humans.

"Men, please do not harm or arrest these young people! They, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, my former partner Rouge, and even Shadow the Hedgehog and a rogue robot who has chosen our side wish to save the worlds and time! Commander Tower is infected by the fog that has caused everyone to de-age and all the Earth animals to mutate into monsters, and has since began losing his mind." Topaz spoke with the authority tone she was known for.

The more the rest of the group listened to what she was saying as the men paused and shared thoughts, which unbeknownst to the Sonic Heroes that this was what they suspected and realized all along and given their new orders by Agent Stewart and the rescued President, the more Chris really began to feel guilty for the whole situation, which given the circumstances, if he had just destroyed the Porthole rather than leaving it just shut off with a little bit of himself deep down hoping to use it again one day to visit Sonic's world in another way instead of the fluke like he had three years ago, none of this would have happened.

It was then he realized, Mutagen or not, deep Chris still wanted to see Sonic again, thinking about his hedgehog best friend even though he had moved on and fell in love with Helen even more to the point of wanting to marry her and he had felt so happy when she said yes before the entire disaster struck. Either way, he knew that deep down, even if Eggman still would've arrived to try and mess things up, and despite Rusca's warnings, even though he felt that there was something still odd about it, he was truly at fault.

All because of his desires to see Sonic again, and his memories in shutting down the Porthole nine years ago to try and keep the blue hedgehog on Earth forever so that they would stay friends...and even now, he wanted things back to when the hero of his world first arrived all those years ago. Which only increased his guilt. Because Sonic had to make the difficult choice, and the young Thorndyke knew that it was all his fault, not Sonic's.

"Topaz is right." Chris finally spoke up, in heavy guilt despite doing his best to avoid in breaking down, which surprised his friends and allies who gazed up at him while the de-aged twenty-one year old approached the older woman's side. "Yet the whole thing is all my fault. All of you know that I created the porthole since I wanted to see Sonic the Hedgehog again, and even though I shut it down since it was useless, I didn't think that anybody evil would be able to use it...Like...potentially Dr. Narasu since he is the only one who would cause all of this."

He squeezed his eyes shut, his chest clenching. "I made a terrible mistake, and never thought this would happen. If anything...you should arrest me and Narasu and Eggman. Commander Tower was right; I'm mostly the cause of all of this. I'm really sorry, but please, give me and everybody else a chance to set things right."

Everyone remained silent, as Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese looked ready to cry, Charmy sniffled, Espio remained silent as he lowered his gaze in sympathy and Vector looked ready to bawl his eyes out, while Topaz could only gaze at the boy in concern and sympathy.

"Agent Topaz, and Christopher Thorndyke, we are under orders to no longer pursue any of you, Sonic the Hedgehog or even Shadow the Hedgehog." A second GUN agent spoke up, which caught Chris' group by surprise. "We...know what you are saying, and to tell the truth, we were wiry with the Commander's behavior. Especially since he had us capture the President. Agent Stewart and others have been given secret orders by the President himself to place Tower under arrest and to rescue the kidnapped people on this vessel."

"Huh?" Everyone else asked, stunned beyond belief.

"You mean you're not coming after us anymore?" Charmy asked, blinking.

"Mr. Stewart saved the President?" Chris asked in disbelief. He hasn't heard from the Spy that once disguised himself as his substitute teacher in years since he and his school friends began High School.

"Yes, he is the one who ordered us to no longer go after any of you." The first Agent that spoke earlier confirmed.

Despite the confusion and surprising twist of turning events, Teams Rose, Chris, the Chaotix and Topaz all sighed in huge relief. Just when they thought they were in further trouble, now thanks to Mr. Stewart and the President and even Topaz, everything was beginning to become right despite what Sonic would have to do...and what he would have to choose in order to save Time and both worlds and the Universe that would soon become one for all eternity.

"The President has also given you your rank and command back, Agent Topaz. We are to follow you, these young people and Sonic the Hedgehog's orders." The second Agent added.

"Looks like you got your job back, Topaz." Danny remarked in relief.

Topaz, stunned by this, knew almost immediately what has to be done and nodded before giving out orders to the men in front of her and the young group. "Alright. You are to take the prisoners back to lower ground to safety and back to Station Square. Sonic and the rest of his friends will deal with Dr. Eggman and hopefully Dr. Narasu as he is potentially somewhere on this vessel."

"Yes, ma'am!" The soldiers saluted.

"Hold on a second. I think I have an idea what's really going on, and I gotta feelin' who's inside this cell." Vector held up a hand to get the humans to wait, much to everyone's else confusion.

"What do you mean, Vector?" Cream asked.

"Chao, Chao?" Cheese chirped.

"I'm completely puzzled with this as well." Espio remarked, just as confused.

The green crocodile didn't say anything as instead he tossed the extra pair of keys they found for the other cells to Topaz who nodded, while the detective unlocked the main door which he knew was the one that held the client trapped. The female agent and the now rescue crew of GUN soldiers in the meantime unlocked the door detaining other prisoners and they were shocked to find more soldiers that were slightly disoriented and exhausted. Those of the Mark 2 squad.

"It's the Mark 2 squad! They're alive!" One of the men exclaimed in relief.

Hearing his voice, the men who had been swallowed up earlier looked up and saw, to their shock yet relief, was Topaz and the rescue crew and gave out cheers of relief.

"What happened? Why are you all locked up in here?" Topaz asked as she and the other men hurried to help the captured men out.

"We were under orders to capture Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends, when a giant monster machine swallowed us up, and then took us here to this giant airship. We have been trapped ever since." One of the pilots, still shaken by the experience, explained.

"It had been Dr. Eggman! Or, at least we think it was. We're not sure anymore." The second Pilot explained, shaking his head.

"Commander Tower has gone insane! He ordered us to fire at the giant mutant flying frog monster and to bring him Sonic, but the fire weapons were useless! We tried to escape, but it was too late!" The first Pilot continued, shuddering over the memories. "He didn't care about our safety or that the fire arms didn't even make a dent on that thing."

"The Mutagen has really corrupted him. All he can think about now is destroying Shadow and capture Sonic to make him into his top agent and soldier." Topaz lowered her head, shaken and guilt-ridden. "Sonic is our only hope now to save us all."

While Topaz knew that even if Eggman and Narasu were defeated, nothing was going to be the same ever again.

As the GUN agents were rescuing the Mark 1 squad, the Chaotix, Team Rose and Team Chris were waiting anxiously as Vector unlocked the locks and finally, after telling everyone else to stand back, he literally punched the door before ripping it open, prompting strange metallic and somewhat familiar screams of panic and fright to emerge from within.

"We're here to save you!" Vector declared as he stepped inside, folding his arms as he stood before the cilent and what he said next shocked everyone else behind him. "...Dr. Eggman, I presume."

"HUH!?" Amy, Cream, Cosmo, Espio, Charmy, Chris, Francies and Danny all exclaimed in shock and disbelief as sitting on the floor right before their eyes...

Was Eggman himself along with Decoe and Bocoe who were hugging each other in fright when the door opened, and Bokkun who had jumped as well before the smallest robot recovered. The evil scientist who was holding an identical walkie talkie to the one the detectives held for the last three days glared up at the green crocodile.

"Eggman?" Chris blinked, bewildered.

"What's going on?" Espio muttered.

"Why is he all locked up?" Amy demanded, her hands on her hips. She began to think that this was yet another fake waiting to trick them, and having tricked the Chaotix all this time.

Eggman said nothing at first, before he turned his gaze to the leader of the detectives. "You knew it was me all along, didn't you?"

"Yep." Vector nodded. "It's all part of being a good detective."

"But you sure took too long! It's about time somebody got us out!" Bokkun complained angrily, his hands on his hips. "Do any of you have some packets of chips or cookies at least? I'm starving!"

"Were we fooled that easily?" Espio asked, unable to believe that this had went under his radar the whole time and that Vector of all people had figured it out.

"YOU'RE COMPLETELY ROTTEN!" Charmy shouted angrily, which frightened the evil scientist, the real one this time, who along with his three dumb minions shrank back nervously when their young enemies began to glare furiously at them.

"Wait, hold on now!" Eggman held up his hands in defense and surrender as he stood. "It's no trick, and besides, I plan on paying you. You'll be rewarded handsomely for helping me! As soon as I conquer the world, I will pay you!"

A moment of furious pause, especially when everyone knew that Eggman was half of the cause for this mess and Vector, Espio and Charmy knew now that he would never hold up his bargain, meaning that they had gone through this whole adventure with no pay what so ever.

"Some nerve promising what you ain't got!" Vector growled angrily, cracking his knuckles as he was ready to pound Eggman into next Tuesday.

"We've been had!" Espio snarled in anger, taking out a couple of his mini shurikens.

"This whole thing is all your fault, Eggman!" Amy shouted, bringing up her Hammer to give the evil man a piece of her mind. "It's thanks to you that both worlds are merging and now everything's being forced to change forever!"

"You should be ashamed with yourself, Dr. Eggman!" Cream screamed in anger.

"You have caused so much trouble and disasters, it's unforgivable." Cosmo added, folding her arms in anger.

Now Eggman was becoming more terrified as he, Decoe, Bocoe and a nervous and now scared Bokkun all backed away in fear, the evil scientist pleadingly begging. "J-j-just wait a minute, just listen to me!"

Charmy, having had heard enough, charged with his stinger aimed. "Take this, you bad man!"

"And take that, you rotten Egghead!" Amy screamed as she and Charmy both began hitting, stinging and punching the evil scientist and his cohorts and left no mercy while the evil quartet screamed in horror and agony.

"That oughta hurt a lot." Danny remarked, feeling just a teeny bit sorry for Eggman even if the mad doctor did cause a lot of trouble.

"Well, it serves him right for causing this mess in the first place!" Francies pointed out, not showing any sympathy for Eggman what so ever.

"But, if Eggman's here all locked up, then who are Sonic and the others fighting right now?" Chris wondered, placing his fingers onto his chin.

"Yeah, that's a million dollar question. Eggman being locked up on his own vessel which it and the fleet had been freed..." Vector trailed off as he agreed with the de-aged boy, and waited until Charmy and Amy stopped beating the evil scientist and the three robots, before asking Eggman. "If you're here, then who was it? Who locked you up here for trying to conquer the world?"

Eggman, for the first time in his whole life besides the time when Shadow was thought to have been lost forever for the second time, and actually admittedly felt terrible for Sonic and Tails' loss of Cosmo, though how she came back to life was beyond him at the moment, was disappointed and remorseful for what was going on.

Not to mention badly beaten up with bandages on his head and sting bumps all over his face with bruises, and his three minions dented with bandages all over their mechanical bodies.

"It was...Dr. Narasu." Eggman finally conceded, much to the horror of everyone else who all gasped in disbelief.

"UGH!" Sonic grunted as he was knocked back by the Egg Emperor once again after a failed attempt to attack it. He hit the floor hard and rolled, wincing while painfully pushing himself up and glared at the giant robot and it's pilot who was laughing manically.

Knuckles gave out a loud battle cry as he attempted to punch the robot again along with Rouge using he drill kick, Tails trying out the spin attack, and Shadow and Omega firing more Chaos Spears and Lasers, but 'Eggman' controlled it to smack the other heroes away, causing them to cry out and grunt before landing near or around the horrified blue hedgehog who screamed out to them, reaching out for the two-tailed fox and red echidna helplessly.

"Give it up, Sonic! You and your friends will be history!" 'Eggman' declared, grinning down at the fallen two teams who all struggled to get up, glaring at their opponent and neither one are willing to surrender.

"We're...not beat yet...!" Sonic boldly replied, holding his injured left shoulder with his right hand as he painfully stood up, panting. But he held a startled and confused look when for a split second the image of the evil scientist faded out a little and revealed another man that looked horribly familiar, before returning to normal. "Huh? What the?"

What in the world was that? Why did Eggman...suddenly have an image of another man that brought up deja vu? Unless...

"It's over, hedgehog!" The evil scientist interrupted the blue hedgehog's thoughts and commanded the Egg Emperor to crush the young hero who gasped.

Sonic knew he couldn't move out of the way without his friends getting hit, and despite substaining heavy injuries during this fight, he quickly stood and raced over to rescue Tails and Knuckles to pick them up while the latter two tried to stand up only for their heroic friend to speed them away just in time. But the teenage hero was forced to keep running with his friends as 'Eggman' fired more lasers at the trio, and even at Shadow, Rouge and Omega who, recovering painfully themselves, were forced to leap and jump out of the way to avoid in being vaporized.

"We need to somehow distract it and give it a direct hit!" Tails exclaimed worriedly as he and his friends and allies once again regrouped as the attacks stopped for the time being.

"I wish that thing wouldn't move at all!" Knuckles growled in frustration.

"Not moving...Wait, that's it!" Sonic realized, as an idea formed in his mind. He then quickly told his friends of the plan. "Rouge, Omega, you both distract with everything you've got, and Shadow, you use the Chaos Emerald you got to use Chaos Control and freeze Eggman and that giant robot with your own attacks. Then, me and my team with finish it off. Sound good?"

"It's the only chance as got, so let's do it!" Tails almost immediately agreed.

"Quit your planning and face your doom already!" 'Eggman' snapped, as he commanded the Egg Emperor to get rid of the six who jumped and leaped back quickly as it tried to slice them into pieces with it's lance arm once again.

But little did Team Sonic and Team Dark now that even with their plan Sonic just came up with, the situation was far from over.

"You mean Dr. Narasu is behind what we've going through for the past three whole days?" Chris asked, bewildered.

"It must have happened before even I attempted to come back to Earth and find the files in the creation of my grandfather's research on Shadow." Eggman confirmed.

"No denying there. Dr. Narasu and those he followed hated Sonic, believing he was working for you to take over the Earth. As a result when they were eventually arrested, he lost his mind and became corrupted into thinking humanity have been driven insane." Espio admitted.

"And using the porthole I shut down after I got back home three years ago, Narasu used it to his advantage using the newly upgraded Mutagen to de-age everyone-"

"Not de-age, kid, but to age everyone rapidly and turn all animals into monsters." Eggman cut the young Thorndyke off quickly, startling the group. "That was his original plan."

"What!?" The group exclaimed.

"So then, I was right...?" Charmy asked, becoming horrified as both Vector and Espio stared at the young bee as he continued. "I kinda had a theory that that crazy Narasu guy wanted to make people older but it went backwards on him."

"And seeing how almost everybody de-aged, it makes perfect sense." Vector agreed, pleasently surprised that the youngest detective's theory, even though he had been speaking in half sarcasm at the time, was proven correct all along.

"And that's why he tried to use the Porthole, to get revenge on everybody on Earth." Amy realized, horrified.

The evil scientist before them nodded, grumbling. "So the bee figured it out before I told you."

"It's all part of being a good detective." Charmy proudly repeated Vector's earlier statement, hands on his hips.

"Which I should've known." Eggman groaned, before continuing. "Anyway, if calculations are correct, when Sonic and your other three friends attempted to stop me and my E-123 Omega attempted to shoot me like a swiss cheese, Dr. Narasu must've activated the Earth's porthole which caused a chain of reaction, and the power of the Chaos Emeralds that were close by reversed the Mutagen's effects, but only on the humans and those who were born after the nine year period and most of the side effects has mutated him as well, giving Narasu new abilities beyond imagination."

"...Including disguising himself as you!" Vector exclaimed in realization as he and the others' eyes widened in horrified shock once more as the clearer picture was dawning onto them.

"Yes, and he has also been commanding the cyborg monsters who share his genetic material to try and get rid of Sonic and the rest of you. Then it so happens that not long after that blue hedgehog and his two cohorts the fox brat and the knuckleheaded echidna defeated me and my latest robot, my assistants and I had been captured and knocked out, because the next thing we knew, we woke up here and he scanned my genius mastermind to copy my intelligence and memories and sent out my Egg Fleet I originally planned on releasing once I created an army of Shadow Androids. He told me everything of his plans and even forced Bokkun to send that message to Sonic to trick him." Eggman continued.

That made the heroes angry as Amy threateningly raised her Hammer again, hissing. "So you were going to use the stupid Egg Fleet anyway!? You no good rotten creep!"

"AH!" The mustached scientist yelped, leaning back.

"Please don't hurt us again!" Decoe begged pleadingly.

"We're in a middle of a crisis here!" Bocoe exclaimed.

"It's all Eggman's fault that the two worlds are being forced to merge and the only way to at least save time is for Sonic to make the choice on which timeline he has to save!" The pink hedgehog snapped, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "He has to either age us by nine years, or reverse the timeline of Earth to give everybody here a new timeline while creating another one to keep all of the younger people a chance to still exist...!"

"Huh?" Eggman now looked confused along with his three robots, before asking skeptically. "Yes, well I know that it's too late to separate the Earth and your world, but whoever gave you the idea that Sonic has to choose which timelines to spare and change?"

"A ghost of someone who told us the truth last night. They told us what has to be done and...well, I know this is just an excuse for me for things to be like what happened nine years ago, but it would be wrong for Sonic and all of our friends here to age by nine years while we go back to our original ages here in the present." Chris reluctantly explained. "I mean, if he chose to save our timeline and age himself and everybody else, they would lose nine years of their lives and be forced to grow up more quickly, especially Tails, Cream and all the other kids in their world."

"A ghost? You still believe in that silly nonsense which I overheard yesterday?" Eggman asked incredulously.

"That would make a whole lot of sense. Cream is pretty but I wouldn't wanna see her age by nine years in a few minutes." Bokkun blurted out, which puzzled the very little girl who murmured in confusion with Cheese chirping. Realizing this, he quickly held out his hands and nervously corrected. "Uh, I-I mean the whole thing's like a bad dream and I wouldn't want anybody age by nine years in a few minutes!"

While Cream, Cheese, Amy, Cosmo, Chris, Francies, Danny, even Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe were all utterly confused, Vector, Espio and Charmy, being detectives that they were, all sweat dropped and felt and even looked pretty annoyed and disgusted with Bokkun's remark as they realized that the little robot's A.I was so powerful that not only he was capable of eating food like sweets, but he had a crush on the little rabbit girl.

"I think he ate too many sweets that it's making him go all crazy." Charmy dryly commented.

"Yeah, especially since Cream's mother would definitely not improve since Cream's not only too young for romance, but I wouldn't want a robot dating her either." Vector whispered in agreement, and Espio nodded silently.

Despite what Chris said however, Eggman was even more skeptical as he thought deeply about this. "Are you sure that is what this ghost has told you? Because I can think of something more differently regards of the whole age and time difference thing, even though you are correct that the first option is the wrong choice."

Before anyone could question the evil scientist any further, the tensions from the other two team's fight against the fake Dr. Eggman and the Egg Emperor rocked the area close to them, causing the heroes and the mad doctor and his robots to stumble and cry out in alarm, along with Topaz and all of the GUN soldiers that were beginning to evacuate back to the helicopters.

"The situation's getting more dangerous! We have to l-" Topaz came in quickly as she had wondered what was taking them so long, when she cut herself and saw the very evil doctor inside the room and gaped in surprises. "Dr. Eggman!? What is he-"

"We'll explain later, Topaz! Right now, Sonic and the others need help and the one they're fighting is another fake and the true cause behind all of this!" Chris quickly interrupted. "The fake Eggman had captured and trapped the real one for the last three days and he knows what really going on!"

"What!?" The female Agent exclaimed, shocked, before gazing somewhat suspiciously at the mad doctor and questioned sternly. "Is this true? You were a prisoner just like everyone else?"

"Yes, it's all true! I know who's behind the mutation and he is facing Sonic as we speak!" Eggman quickly responded, as he began to panic. "Although, chances in actually defeating the man now could be very slim."

"Not without us!" Amy declared, as she felt that now was a good time to help her 'boyfriend' and began racing out despite the others' protests, before most of them realized that she was right as time was running out rapidly.

"Amy's right. We need to help them!" Cosmo agreed.

"I hope they're okay." Cream murmured worriedly before she, Cheese and the young Seedrian hurried out the door to follow the pink hedgehog to help Team Sonic and Team Dark.

"You heard the ladies! We've got another creep to stop!" Vector declared, before marching over and yanked the egg-shaped man by the back of his shirt and pulled him along despite the evil doctor's protests. "You're coming too, doctor!"

"Haven't I had been held captive long enough already!?" Eggman growled in frustration and humiliation, being bodily dragged against his will even though he knew that Narasu did need to be stopped, but he didn't have much faith as the other evil scientist was becoming worse than Dark Oak. If not already more so.

"No, you have not. Because once this is over, you will be sent to prison." Espio informed firmly as he and Charmy followed. "Or we could just leave you up here."

"I say we do so, because it is his giant airship." Charmy teasingly suggested, making the others smirk a little despite that it was pretty cruel even on their part.

That made Eggman gulp nervously over the thought, especially if he ended up going down with his own airship. "N-No, that won't be necessary. I'll be on my best behavior, really!"

"Hey, wait for us!" Decoe cried out as he and Bocoe ran while Bokkun flew to follow.

"Chris, you, Francies and Danny should leave this place. It's too dangerous now for the three of you. You've done more than enough." Topaz advised the de-aged trio.

"No. I'm not going to leave without Sonic." Chris declared boldly, and quickly continued before the older woman could protest. "We came this far, and I'm not gonna turn back now. I'm not a helpless, gullible and spoiled kid anymore. At least mentally. It's time for me to finally grow up and make up for my mistakes. I have to help, no matter what."

"Anywhere Chris goes, I go!" Danny added.

"Yeah, there's no way we'd abandon our friends now. Just because we have to live through our childhood again doesn't mean we'll forget what we've all been through. We're staying and that's that." Francies concluded stubbornly as she wanted to stay to help out as well.

Topaz remained silent for a moment, hesitant and torn on whether she should let them go or not. Still, for some reason she couldn't find it within herself to abandon Rouge either, especially when her former partner, along with the redeemed Shadow and a rogue robot, saved her from death in that forest earlier. Even as the GUN soldiers told her that they needed to get going, she knew almost in that instant what she had to do.

So like Chris, she made up her mind as well.

"Take this!" 'Eggman' shouted, commanding the Egg Emperor to strike again, and repeatedly trying to destroy Sonic, his friends and his allies once and for all take over the two worlds and let time itself be destroyed. Yet the two teams dodged again while trying to put their plan into motion.

"Okay! Now!" Sonic instructed the other five who nodded, before they split up into three groups, hoping to catch the giant robot and the evil scientist off-guard.

"Over here, doctor!" Rouge called up as she flew high above the machine which made 'Eggman' look up just when the white bat then used a spinning kick to distract him.

The mad doctor grinned with a cackle. "Nice try."

But as he was focused on attacking Rouge to stop her, the evil scientist failed to see Omega opening fire with his Inferno Beam right at the chest of the giant robot, causing the Egg Emperor to stumble and 'Eggman' to scream in an unmanly manner that some of the group would've laughed if they weren't in a serious situation. This distraction allowed Rouge to kick at the giant robot's head and the Egg Mobile, forcing it to stumble and the mad doctor to hold on for dear life.

This allowed Shadow to quickly use Chaos Control with the Emerald he held, which froze 'Eggman' and the Egg Emperor in time, before the black hedgehog unleashed a flurry of Chaos Spears and struck the machine without mercy. As Sonic had hoped and predicted, the robot's armor was slowly starting to peel away, which had the blue hedgehog and his two friends to try their luck.

"Let's go!" Sonic told Tails and Knuckles, gesturing them to follow his lead as they nodded before the trio made to give out an all out attack.

But 'Eggman' quickly recovered and so did the Egg Emperor once they were fully mobile again and spun around, much to their shock as they gasped. The giant machine used it's lance arm to smack them back once again and were thrown back screaming, with Sonic crashing into Shadow, Tails crashing into Omega, and Knuckles crashing into Rouge who all grunted at the force of the impact.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! No matter how many times you punch me, I will punch you all right back when I want to!" 'Eggman' bellowed in laughter. "Now to finish you all off!"

"Get off, hedgehog." Shadow grunted as the younger hedgehog pushed himself up.

"Sorry. Guess we're gonna need more team effort than just the six of us." Sonic apologetically responded, now starting to really get worried that they might not be able to beat this thing unless he transformed into Super Sonic, but the blue hedgehog knew that he couldn't. He had to save his strength as well as the Chaos Emeralds to save time and the worlds, or else it would be more of a mess and far too late to save everyone.

In fact, as much as he hated to admit it, he was scared. No matter how hard they beat this thing, 'Eggman' and the giant robot he was controlling was making it impossible and Sonic knew he couldn't give up. Yet his turmoil over his difficult choice wasn't really helping and both decisions just felt wrong. But Tails was right; if he tried doing what he wanted to do, it would still cause major problems, so the cobalt teenager had no choice but to either save Earth's nine year gap while sacrificing nine years of his world's time, or save his world's time by changing the nine year history and create two separate timelines.

"Get off of me, you two-tailed young fox child." Omega commanded. "Before I force you."

"I'm sorry, Omega. Didn't mean to land on you." Tails replied apologetically as he quickly got off.

"Ugh, you're as heavy as a boulder!" Rouge complained as she was stuck with Knuckles on her back.

"Yeah, well you're not exactly light like a feather." The red echidna retorted back in annoyance, while glad for once that he wasn't at the bottom this time.

"It seems to me that your team efforts are a waste as you cannot get along." 'Eggman' taunted as Sonic and his friends all glared back up at him, while the evil scientist continued. "I've been waiting for this day, and now with you all gotten rid of, everything will be mine!"

Sonic narrowed his eye ridges as he hissed. "You're as evil and cruel as the real Eggman and the Metarex combined. Who exactly are you, you fake doctor?" He knew that deep down this wasn't the real Dr. Eggman, but he just wished he knew the true identity of this cruel and twisted opponent.

Surprisingly, 'Eggman' grinned more darkly as he attempted to whisper at the teenage cobalt hero. "That is something you will never realize, hedgehog. This vessel will be your grave."

"No, it won't!" Came a familiar girl's voice, startling 'Eggman' and Sonic's group who all looked to see where it was coming from...

Just as Amy, who had spoken, while holding onto Cosmo and Cream who was flying straight towards them, was wielding her Hammer ready for an attack. Behind Team Rose were the Chaotix with Charmy carrying Espio and Vector, while on the ground, Team Chris who all decided to join in the battle after Topaz allowed them to accompany their Mobian friends to help Team Sonic and Team Dark to end this fight once and for all.

"'Cause we're all gonna stop ya'!" Amy continued with pure determination.

"Amy! Chris!" Sonic exclaimed in sheer relief, as seeing them safe and out of the GUN's clutches was the best thing he'd seen all day despite worrying about Topaz and the prisoners.

Not only all of his friends were okay, but now with new added numbers, he felt that there was still time and hope in winning this fight once and for all.

"Cosmo!" Tails added happily. "Cream, Cheese, Francies, Danny and the Chaotix too!"

"Glad to see you're okay!" Knuckles agreed as he and the others quickly got up. Needless to say, Rouge felt relieved while secretly worried about Topaz, Omega just stood there, and Shadow, upon seeing Chris alive and well, secretly smirked in relief as well.

"Not you!" 'Eggman' growled in irritation, beginning to become a little bit worried with more numbers of heroes about to attack.

"Take this, you fake Eggman!" The pink hedgehog shouted, as Cream and Cosmo tossed her towards the giant robot, while she gave out a loud battle cry, her Hammer ready for an immediate attack, joined by her two companions and Cheese as they gave out kicks as well.

Chris and his team in the meantime used their grapple hooks to launch themselves up as the hooks attached to the Egg Emperor and with their weapons in hand, they charged as well. This didn't give the fake Eggman any time to react as he was now really beginning to panic at the sheer number of distractions.

"Hey, this is too much!" 'Eggman' exclaimed in fright, and screamed when Team Rose and Team Chris used this distraction to their advantange, striking at the Egg Emperor that not even the shield could stop it from tumbling back this time.

"Now it's our turn, you imposter!" Vector declared, and once the two other teams quickly moved out of the way at the signal, the green crocodile breathed in deeply before unleashing a huge flame breath, melting parts of the machine's armor which began to fully malfunction, combined with Espio striking with his Ninja Stars, which exploded and caused parts of it's arms to begin to fall off, and Charmy flew up before charging with the same treatment as he gave to the real Eggman.

"NO! NO! Not that!" The fake doctor screamed, sweating in fear the moment the young bee came charging with his stinger ready to sting him.

'If I get stung right now, I'm as good as done for!' Unbeknownst to the heroes, deep within the fake Eggman was Narasu, who was thinking of this while fearing for his life due to his allergic reactions to bee stings.

Suddenly, just before Charmy could sting 'Eggman', all of the sudden Narasu' pet Fulgar came flying out of nowhere from the evil scientist' left and saved him by blocking the youngest Detective who gasped in shock and confusion...and ended up stinging the giant Mutant-Fly instead on the side. The Fly-Spy wailed and buzzed in agony as it shocked not only the evil doctor, but also the Sonic Heroes who all gaped in disbelief.

"Where did that giant mutant fly come from!?" Sonic and Chris both asked simultaneously.

The fake Eggman, strangely enough to some of the group even though the rest knew what this meant, screamed in horrified dismay as the giant Fly, being the weakest in having been transformed by the Mutagen effects, wailed before it de-transformed back into a small normal fly and the mad doctor gently caught it as he landed on the palm of his hands.

"Oh, my Fulgar! My poor little friend! What have they done to you!?" He wailed in dismay.

That only made Team Sonic and their friends to sweat drop, dumbfounded. Even Shadow and Omega couldn't comprehend on the meaning of this unusual behavior.

"Okay, now I know this is the fake Eggman since the real one never even had a pet before." Sonic remarked awkwardly.

"Let alone a pet fly. Who would do that?" Tails added in agreement.

"If you would all just stop gawking and finish that imposter off already, now would be the perfect time!" A shockingly familiar voice shouted in aggravation, causing everyone else to turn around and like Team Rose, Team Chris and the Chaotix, not only was Topaz approaching, but she was keeping a close eye one the real Eggman who had spoken, and was forced to follow her along with Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun, Team Sonic and Team Dark were shocked beyond belief.

"Eggman!?" Sonic exclaimed, not having expected to see the real Eggman right here at the same time as the fake Eggman he and his friends and allies were fighting. Yet at the same time, seeing the three dumb robots there now with him given their absence, it began to suddenly make sense.

"This must be the real Eggman this time! Because this is the first time we've seen those three dummies in days!" Tails quickly realized.

"I'm actually starting to think you're right, Tails." Knuckles agreed.

"Affirmative: Scans detect this is the true Dr. Eggman. DNA scans confirm it." Omega agreed.

"Well, don't just stand there! That fake is the real problem right now! He's using my creations and causing a catastrophic event!" The real Eggman snapped impatiently.

"I don't know what's going on...but I sure now know what we're gonna do." The blue hedgehog reluctantly agreed, turning back to his friends and instructed. "Let's do this!"

"Right!" The two-tailed fox and the red echidna agreed.

"Yo, Fake-Man!" Sonic then called up to the fake Eggman who, in the midst of his mourning, snapped out of it and looked down to see, to his horror and dismay, the teenage hero along with his friends, allies, and the true Dr. Eggman all glaring up at him. "You might as well drop your disguise, 'cause your scheme is over!"

"Oh no...!" The fake Eggman muttered worriedly.

"GO!" Sonic commanded as he, his team, and the other four teams charged to launch a final counter attack.

While some of them kept the fake doctor distracted around the front, Team Rose and Team Chris hurried around the back with Cream carrying Amy and Cosmo above the Egg Emperor's head while Chris, Danny and Francies used their hooks to swing around, the de-aged humans then attacked at the fake Eggman's Egg Mobile, jumping and leaping out of the way to avoid the machine's lance arm that tried to them and the other teams. Chris and Danny both used their clubs to bash at the giant robot's shoulders while Francies used her Nun-Chucks at the back of the head.

"Take this, you fake!" Chris grunted, as he pulled at the imposter's fake mustache which, in retrospect on Nasaru's part, it was extremely painful.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The fake Eggman screamed in comical agony, tears coming out of his eyes. "OW! That hurts! Let go, you little brat!"

"He may be a fake and stealing my looks, I know exactly how that feels." Eggman couldn't help but comment as he gently caressed his own mustache with slight sympathy, memories of when Chris did the same thing to him ages ago.

"Nice one, guys!" Sonic praised, before he did an axe-kick at the robot's chest, quickly followed by Tails, Charmy, Espio and Rouge, while Shadow, Vector and Knuckles punched, creating more heavy damage and not giving the fake Eggman any time to control the Egg Emperor or recover.

Meanwhile, Amy and her companions then dropped as they attacked from behind, the pink hedgehog bashing at the robot's back repeatedly without holding back, Cream and Cosmo both drop kicking as hard as they could, and Cheese once again curled up using the spin attack he learned from Sonic, bashing it close to where the fake Eggman was, while Team Chris, their job done, leaped off and swung towards to safety, and Team Rose finishing up and leaping away as well.

Omega then opened fire with everything he has while exclaiming. "Human who is an imposter of Dr. Eggman must be eliminated! Annihilate! Annihilate!"

Once the others were out of harms way, the rogue robot shot out lasers and whatever else against the severely weakened giant robot, much to the fake Eggman's horror while the evil scientist was rubbing his sore face over the mustache pull. It soon became clear to him that at the rate things were going, he was ultimately about to lose.

"Large ultimate robot: almost completely destroyed! Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails the Fox, Knuckles the Echidna, you shall finish this piece of garbage." Omega announced once he stopped firing.

"Thanks, Omega! For a robot, you're not bad after all." Sonic gave the good robot a thumbs up with a smirk, before he and his two friends charged for a final attack of their own.

"You're finished!" Knuckles declared as he clasped hands with Tails and Sonic who both smirked with determination, as Team Rose, Team Chris and the Chaotix cheered the trio on, doing a triple spin attack without the Chaos Emerald for once like a multiple coloured wheel, bashing and smashing against the Egg Emperor.

"It's over!" Tails added as he and the others then hovered into the air, then spun around again, this time the two-tailed fox and the red echidna using their combined strengths to throw Sonic who was launched straight towards the enemy who sweat dropped nervously.

"Here comes Sonic!" Sonic taunted, curling up tightly into his ball form and attacked all over the robot in supersonic speed and not missing even an inch of the Egg Emperor.

As the heroic teenage hedgehog gave a final smash by going through the giant machine and back out, the imposter lost alll control and the Egg Emperor was beginning to self-destruct.

"OH NO! Time to go!" The fake Eggman screamed in panic, only to find, to his horror, that as he attempted to eject the Egg Mobile from the machine which began to burst into flames and spark with electricity, he accidentally hit the wrong button and was instead shot off along with the now damaged ride, spinning out of control while screaming.

The Egg Emperor finally explodes while everyone else backed up to avoid in getting hit by the impact, and is ultimately destroyed with the Sonic Heroes victorious.

By the time Sonic flipped and heroically landed with a crouch in style and most of his friends celebrated, the fake Eggman crashed landed onto the ground and tumbled and rolled before landing face first on the floor. The blue hedgehog in the meantime stood up with a proud and confident smirk.

"And that, with teamwork, is how it's done!" Sonic declared, dusting his hands off.

"SONIC!" Amy suddenly shouted, startling the teenage hero as she raced over to him before hugging her 'boyfriend' tightly which startled the blue hedgehog as he yelped a little. She nuzzled her face into his cheek which made Sonic chuckle at the tickling sensation before she rested her head onto his shoulder, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I'm so happy that you're okay!"

Despite feeling a bit awkward and uncomfortable, Sonic felt sheer relief that everybody was okay and gently returned the embrace, while nearby, he noticed Tails and Cosmo happily embracing as they were reunited despite only being apart for a short time. But the blue hedgehog didn't blame his little brother.

"Cosmo!" Tails exclaimed happily.

"Are you alright, Tails?" Cosmo asked happily yet worriedly, relieved that the young boy of her dreams was safe.

"I'm okay. I was more worried about you. I'm just so happy that you're okay." The two-tailed fox cub replied.

"Thank goodness." The young Seedian girl sighed, sharing another embrace with him which he shared back.

Sonic smiled at the two young lovers, feeling so happy for them and thankful that the other teams had come to the rescue. Without them, the blue hedgehog didn't think that they would actually win against the fake Eggman or the Egg Emperor. That took an effort of five whole teams to get through this time. He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard Chris call out to him, and turned to see his human best friend racing over happily.

"Hey!" Sonic greeted back, and laughed alongside Amy as the de-aged humans joined in the hugging session, followed by Cream and Cheese, and quickly by Tails and Cosmo, happy to see them and group laughed that they were all safe and sound and having won the battle. Knuckles folded his arms as he approached while giving Chris, Sonic and Tails friendly shoulder punches with a smirk, feeling as cheerful as he had ever been, while Rouge smiled at the adorable scene alongside Topaz, Shadow looked away, seemingly uninterested, the Chaotix were also celebrating as Vector and Charmy cheered on while Espio folded his arms, and Omega just stared at the fake Eggman's lying position.

"Awwwwwwwww..." Decoe and Bocoe cooed at the Sonic Heroes' happy moment.

"Well, at least they're happy, but what about us?" Bokkun complained childishly, while Eggman remained impatiently silent as the evil scientist knew that despite having defeated Narasu, the situation wasn't over yet.

"Is everybody alright?" Sonic asked, once he and his friends ended their hug and celebration. "How did you manage to get away from those GUN guys?"

"We're okay. The GUN soldiers that came here were actually trying to save the prisoners." Chris explained, which surprised Team Sonic and Team Dark.

"Save the prisoners?" The blue hedgehog and Knuckles blinked.

"Mr. Stewart and other people had saved the President who ordered them to knock out and arrest Commander Tower and gave out the orders to stop chasing us and save everybody that were kidnapped in the Frog Forest." Francies explained.

"So then, why is Eggman here? Unless he was...A prisoner too." Tails slowly realized as the pieces of the puzzle were coming together.

It was at these words that Team Chris, Team Rose and the Chaotix suddenly remembered the reason behind this whole mess and Amy softly gasped. "Oh! Right! Sonic, Eggman had been kidnapped by that fake and he's the one who lead Vector, Espio and Charmy the whole time."

"What!?" Sonic exclaimed in shock.

"It's true. The one behind all of this had imprisoned me and used Bokkun to trick you and your friends, Sonic." Eggman finally spoke up, as he and his robots, being lead by Topaz who was keeping an eye on them, approached, with the evil scientist gazing at the fake man's form nervously. "And you're about to find out his real identity...right there."

While Sonic and the rest of the group were skeptical by this, they and their friends slowly turned to see the fake Eggman lying there and, to everyone except for Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun's shock, the imposter melted into silver like goo before taking shape of, not a robot as Team Sonic had suspected, but to everyone else's horror, the very man who hijacked Chris' porthole, who had hated the Sonic Heroes and had joined a group that was originally known as S.O.N.I.C.X who had wrongly believed that the blue hedgehog was evil and had been working for the evil scientist.

"DR. NARASU!?" Team Sonic all shouted in horrified disbelief.

Yet what caught them and the other teams and Topaz off-guard was that unlike most of humanity including Team Chris and the GUN Agent, was that Narasu had mutated and looked like an aging cyborg version of his former self, as the demented evil scientist had lost his disguise.

"He really has been affected by the Mutagen too, but in a worse shape than the rest of us." Chris realized in horror.

"And by doing so, he realized he had the power to control the other lifeforms that were infected by the Mutagen, including the monsters that have been terrorizing the merging planet ever since this happened." Espio continued.

"So he turned into half a robot with his own mind, but even more crazy than ever before." Sonic half-whispered, stunned, shocked and horrified beyond belief. "This is awful..."

"Not only that, but the original idea was to age humanity by nine years to teach them a lesson for liking you, yet what happened back in your world only reversed it, corrupted most of the animals on Earth and corrupting himself. It's the case of the Metarex all over again." Eggman informed, which horrified Team Sonic and Team Dark even further. "He told this himself not long after he imprisoned me and used Bokkun to lure you into a trap."

"WHAT!?" Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all shouted, their eyes widened over the horrific thought.

Before Eggman or anybody else could continue to explain the situation, Narasu, returning to his current mutated form, had regained consciousness and began to laugh manically, getting everyone's attentions as they all saw the deranged human of Earth slowly push himself up, with an insane look that frightened some of the heroes.

"Heheheheheheheh...Ha ha ha ha ha...AH HA HA HA HA HA!" Narasu laughed manically, before turning his gaze to the heroes, the other evil scientist and the three robots. "You fools have made it this far, but your journey is about to end!"

"Narasu, what have you done to yourself!?" Sonic demanded, glaring bravely at the mutated scientist.

"Why are you doing this?" Chris added.

"You just don't get it, do you, Christopher Thorndyke? Ever since that blasted blue alien hedgehog, his cohorts and that madman Dr. Eggman have arrived nine years ago, life on Earth has never been the same! They sought to take over our planet, because of Professor Gerald Robotnik's madness in creating that monster Shadow the Hedgehog. It was a little wonder why the Robotnik family line vanished not long after the professor's execution." Narasu scoffed, shaking his head.

"You dare to mock the Professor!? He created me to cure Maria!" Shadow snarled in anger, clutching his fists and was about to attack when Rouge held him back by the shoulders. "It was the soldiers who misunderstood and had taken her away by killing her, so that they could destroy me!"

"I hate to admit it, but Shadow's got a point. The government back then years ago were all scared and instead of really asking what was going on, they just jumped to conclusions. I'm not saying that all humans are bad, because Chris saved my life, he's one of my best friends, and his friends Francies and Danny, and their families and other people and even the former President had been kind to us." Sonic reluctantly agreed.

He then shook his head and continued. "But it was wrong to do that, especially killing an innocent little girl, who was just trying to save her best friend!"

"Even I know that my grandfather's mind was lost because of what happened to my cousin, but to tell the truth, I hardly even knew that this planet was where I was born." Eggman agreed despite his shaken faith in his late grandfather. "Losing loved ones is enough to make anybody insane."

Hearing that made Sonic try not to flinch as he was reminded of his own horrible near transformation, the time when Chris and Cosmo had been hurt on purpose, so that Black Naccissis could use him to take over the universe and bring out the darkness that the blue hedgehog never thought he had. Plus what had happened with Chaos didn't help either, because as much as cobalt teenager hated to admit, his nemesis was right.

Chaos had been corrupted with sorrow, hate and rage because of what Tikal's father had done to her and all of those innocent little Chao, Gerald Robotnik plotted revenge against humanity on Earth because of what the corrupted government back then had done to him and killed Maria without remorse and drove Shadow into being brainwashed. Sonic had been lucky, because his friends had been saved and he himself had been saved by Eggman of all people from falling into the same corrupted and raged path.

"Oh, please. There was no cure for the NIDS back then, so there was no point in trying to make one by creating a lifeform. That girl was beyond saving, so the soldiers were doing her and your grandfather a favor by putting that brat out of her misery. If anything, SHE is the cause for the corruption in making that man lose his mind. Men of science are meant to focus on science, not on people's lives because having a family is a waste of time." Narasu scoffed.

This shocked and angered the group upon hearing this.

"You...Don't you dare blame Maria for this! She was my best friend and only a child!" Shadow snapped in pure anger.

"That's a horrible thing to say!" Cream added in agreement angrily. "You should be ashamed with yourself!"

"Losing friends and families is the most horrible thing to ever experience! I should know, because I lost my mother, my sister, and all of my friends and even my home was lost before I was born. Tails, Sonic and everyone here are all I have left, and you want to destroy all life and blame Shadow's friend? You're a horrible and cold-hearted man, Dr. Narasu." Cosmo agreed, her heart breaking as the memories of her own loss began to resurface, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Narasu just growled at the young Seedrian, growling. "Aliens do not have emotions. They are outsiders meant to destroy other lifeforms. You yourself are one, you little mutant weed!"

"HEY! Don't call Cosmo that!" Tails snapped, standing in front of his deeply loved friend, furious and heart-broken. "You don't know what Cosmo's been through, and what she had to sacrifice to help us save the Universe!"

"More lies and more attempts to convince the human race. You animals are the end of Mankind, that the Organizer knew of for years. Even worse, you have brainwashed them along side that Thorndyke brat. It's a surprise that your world has survived that green crocodile's mutation." Narasu responded.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Vector demanded.

"Did you ever notice, how you were feeling ill? Tell me this, did you ever go into space yourself, after you were temporary cured from my original dose of the Mutagen, and began to experience unimaginable symptoms, including enlarging yourself and losing your mind to go on a rampage?" The evil corrupted scientist questioned, grinning darkly.

That made everyone pale in horror as another realization fit in.

"Uh-oh..." Charmy murmured worriedly.

"So that's what you meant when you briefly talked about Vector...!" Decoe began to realize.

"Saying that Vector would've destroyed the world within the span of nine months because the cure wasn't permanently..." Bocoe added.

"Wait a minute...the Mutagen was inside that dumb brute all this time?" Eggman asked, becoming horrified.

"He tried to use that stuff on me to turn me into a monster, but he missed and somehow hit Vector instead. That's how he ended up turning into a giant in the first place, and Espio had the idea on using Aspirin to shrink him back to normal." Sonic explained, realization dawning onto him as well along with his friends and allies.

"HE WHAT!?" The mad doctor exclaimed loudly, bewildered. "And Aspirin was what shrank him back to normal!? No wonder it was like curing a headache!"

"And that explains why I sneezed when we were delivering stuff Chris' family sent for 'im when we were up in space...And I felt fine until before this mess started." Vector muttered, lowering his gaze in horrified realization before gulping while sweat dropping. "Not only that, some of the new Mutagen stuff must've passed onto me when we were transported back to this world...!"

"Yet Chaos Control and the Chaos Emeralds protected the rest of us as none of us had the original Mutagen, nor were were infected by the new one. Being up in space has decreased your immune system." Espio added, his eyes widening in horror.

'This is all my fault...If I had been more careful in rescuing Cream and Cheese, none of this would've happened. Everybody in both worlds wouldn't have been in this situation...' Sonic thought to himself in sheer guilt, his heart aching as he began to blame himself for Vector's condition, for the troubles on Earth, for putting the lives of humanity at risk.

"This is all my fault..." Chris murmured, startling the blue hedgehog out of his own guilt-ridden thoughts and gazed up at the human boy who continued. "If I had destroyed the porthole instead of just turning it off and leaving it, none of this would've happened...!"

"So, you admit that you, Dr. Eggman and Sonic the Hedgehog are the catalyst of what has occurred. You should have put that blue rodent for testing, but instead you have kept him and his friends, but mainly him because you are a spoiled little rich brat." Narasu grinned wickedly. "Yes, everyone still remembers how when they were just about to return to their home world where they belonged, you shut off the original machine in order to keep Sonic as your little pet, even taking him away until your parents found you and that hedgehog was finally let go. Yet you still couldn't bare to stay away, so you built your own to see him again, and when you came back, you had simply turned it off..."

He paused, before grinning with a conclusion. "Because you have hoped in using it again one day and with my science and the cause of Dr. Eggman's actions along with Sonic's, you have succeeded in bringing them back and now the worlds are merging, soon Time will stop and you will get what you always wanted! Except I will destroy all of you and take over both humans and animals! I should be thanking you, Christopher Thorndyke, for making me realize my true goals!"

The more Chris heard Narasu speak, the more his guilt increased as he knew that deep down the man was right. Admittedly a part of him wanted to one day use the machine again hoping the elightment would connect his world to Sonic's again, and maybe bring his family with for a visit despite what Eggman has told him. Eventually he had given up, but he didn't think that b simply shutting it down it would give people with evil intentions an opportunity to use it for their own gain. The de-aged boy couldn't stop the memories of when his younger self ran over to shut down the machine to prevent Sonic from leaving Earth in order to keep him forever so that they would still be friends.

Even now, that part of him still wanted to go back to those times, and even worse, by making Sonic to choose in changing the nine year gap's history, Chris would get what he wanted by having his hedgehog best friend stay and merging the two worlds without Time being destroyed. It would be like nine years ago...and even worse, it was because of that he ruined his own wedding with Helen, by giving Narasu, who had lost his mind, a chance to mess things up.

"You want me to stay here forever, don't you?" The blue hedgehog whispered in sadness.

"...It's all my fault...! I messed up everything...! He's right...Commander Tower was right...all of this happened is because of me...!" Chris began to cry, squeezing his eyes shut as he fell onto his knees, sobbing which alarmed all of his friends. "I'm sorry, guys...I didn't-I didn't mean for this to happen..."

"Chris...!" Francies, Danny, Amy, Cosmo, Tails, Cream and Cheese and even Sonic gathered around the distraught and guilt-ridden former twenty-one year old, all trying to comfort him.

Even Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow and the Chaotix felt their chests ache over this, and surprisingly Eggman, who had known that the boy had tried to blame him on the time issue mainly because the young Thorndyke wanted to keep Sonic all for himself considering how close they were in their friendship, felt awful and sorry for the young man.

Sonic in the meantime, continued to blame himself for the mess, tears beginning to sting his eyes as he tried to hold them back. Yet he knew now that there was no changing this, and they had to focus on the crisis right now. Still, Eggman and Narasu were to blame for all of this.

"It's not too late. We can still fix this." The blue hedgehog reassured, knowing that if he had doubts now, there was no way he could save the universe or time. "I can fix this. I promise!"

His friends all gazed up at him despite the hopelessness and in Chris' case, sheer guilt, before Sonic smiled at them reassuringly and then glared back at Narasu who was grinning like mad.

"I don't care what you say about Chris, or about me, but you're wrong!" Sonic snapped at the mutated scientist who stopped laughing and frowned at him. "You just hate the fact that I'm not a robot, that my friends and I came from another world, and that there are other worlds out there with just as kind people."

"Hedgehogs were not meant to run at supersonic speed! It's against the rules of nature!" The mad scientist snapped childishly.

"Yeah, well, rules can change and be different everywhere else. You seriously didn't think that other planets were exactly like Earth in terms in nature, didja? And come on, I heard that there were humans that have special abilities that not everybody has. Not everyone's the same, and science can't control the weather. It can change into doing even unusual ways, and in case you forgot, both of our worlds were once one until something horrible happened that forced it to split into two. Humans and people like us used to co-exist in the past, but they were forced to live separately because as we found out a little while ago, a man messed things up, forcing a hedgehog who was close friends with a king and raised by him had to use Chaos Control and sacrificed himself to split the worlds apart." Sonic explained.

"What foolish nonsense! And even that was the case, you and Dr. Eggman are allies to rule the Earth!" Narasu argued.

"Oh, give me a break! Sonic is the total opposite of what I want to do, and I want to rule the planet, while the little stubborn hedgehog here wants freedom for everyone! He has always been a thorn on my side, but even I cross the line in violence! Ruling over others is one thing, but to mutate them or age them, that's over my standards, buster!" Eggman growled in irritation. "There had been times I've been forced to help him to save the world and even the universe, because even I don't want to see them destroyed! I aim for dominion, not destruction!"

"That is exactly true! Dr. Eggman came here only for documents on Shadow's creation, not to mess everything up like you did!" Decoe agreed, glaring at the mutated scientist.

"Even he has morels and so do we!" Bocoe added.

"Yeah! You're an arrogant phony who hates being wrong and hates anything that's different!" Bokkun snapped, waving his fists up.

Instead of being insulted, Narasu just grinned and held up his hand as he said. "Say what you will, it does not change that you are already too late to save time. And now, you're about to face your impending doom."

"What are you talking?" Francies demanded. "We beat you and Eggman's stupid giant robot."

"Yeah, and there's nothing else for you to stop us!" Danny added.

"Dr. Kai Narasu, this is the end of the line. You're under arrest for conduct of illegal experiments, frame, attempted murder, trespassing, and near destruction of the worlds and time." Topaz declared as she stepped forward.

"Face it, Narasu. You lose! We stopped you before Eggman's fleet could take over the worlds." Sonic concluded, folding his arms.

"Correction, Sonic the Hedgehog. You are too late, because the sun is set and the next part is about to begin." The mad scientist grinned, as the sun had fully set and night has come. He held out his hand which, to everyone's shock, held the red gem within his palm and strangely enough aimed at Vector. "Your nine month cure has been expired, crocodile...And you're about to face the true terror of the Mutagen!"

As soon as he said this, Vector groaned more painfully as the Mutagen within his body, both old and new, had completed the merge and began to expand and spread through his veins and mind. The tall green crocodile grunted and held his hands to his head, feeling the major side-effects quickly began to take over his will. Espio, Charmy, Team Sonic, Team Chris, Team Rose, Team Dark, Topaz, Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun noticed and all gasped in shock and horror.

"Oh no...NO!" Espio cried out in alarm.

"Hey, Vector! You might wanna snap out of it, boss!" Charmy cried out, worriedly.

"Vector, no! Pull yourself together! You gotta fight the Mutagen!" Sonic exclaimed pleadingly, only to glare at Narasu who began to laugh victoriously once again.

"It's no use, Sonic! Your friend is now under full control of my Mutagen...and under my control!" The evil scientist grinned like mad, his cyborg eye glowing bright red as did the gem in his palm as the storm began to pick up, winds beginning to become more violent even as the GUN choopers, seeing how the weather was getting worse, were forced to fly away and leave Topaz and the Sonic Heroes behind.

"No, Vector!" Tails cried out, as did Cosmo, Amy, Chris, Francies, Danny, Cream and Cheese.

"UGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Vector screamed in pure agony as his body then began to burst with glowing red and purple aura, strong enough to cause a gust of wind to blast the Sonic Heroes, Topaz, Eggman and his minons flying backwards as they all screamed far back further onto the middle of the airship.

By the time they crashed onto the floor hard, with Chris, Danny, Tails and Sonic attempting to soften Cream, Cheese, Cosmo, Francies, and Amy's landings while they ended up landing on top of Eggman's back which made their enemy yelp in agony, Omega landing on top of Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun, and Rouge landing on top of both Shadow and Knuckles with the red echidna comically dazed. Everyone all groaned as they tried to recover.

"For the record, Eggman, I blame you for this." Sonic grumbled, glaring at his old-time enemy.

"Sonic the Hedgehog is 100% correct. Dr. Eggman is to blame for the current situation, especially with Vector the Crocodile under full corruption of the mutated Mutagen." Omega blared in agreement.

"If you hadn't messed up and tried to come back to Earth, we wouldn't be in this mes right now!" Amy yelled in agreement.

"Alright, I get it already! Do you have to keep on about it!? We're in a middle of a crisis with your overgrown green lizard friend about to cause problems!" Eggman snapped in frustration.

Just then, the whole ship began to shake violently which made everyone gasp in alarm, some of them getting scared as Sonic and the others quickly got off of the evil scientist and all of them stood up as steady as possible, wondering what was happening and Cream and Cheese going over to Cosmo and Francies, hugging them in fear.

"Speaking of overgrown...!" Decoe remarked, pointing up at where they came from.

When Sonic and the others looked to see what the yellow robot was talking about, they all gasped in shock and horror as Vector, no longer able to control the Mutagen within his body, once again began to grow rapidly as he let out an uncontrollable roar and due to the growth of the detective, the entire ship was beginning to creak and grown and descend towards the ground and high above them, was Narasu who had once again used his jet-pack to fly up to safety as he watched on with glee.

"The whole ship's losing altitude!" Topaz exclaimed in worry.

"We won't be able to get off in time!" Rouge pointed out in concern.

"VECTOR!" Sonic screamed out in dismay, unable to believe that this has happened. He was about to race over to try and snap his friend out it, but was quickly held back by Knuckles who stopped him from going any further. "Hey, lemme go! Let go!"

"Sonic, we can't do anything right now! We have to get off of this ship!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"I'm not leaving without Vector!" The blue hedgehog shouted, struggling to break free from his friend's grip.

"Sonic, it's too dangerous! We can't do anything without getting squashed!" Tails pointed out, despite that he wanted to try and save Vectot too.

"They're right, Sonic! We have to go!" Chris reluctantly agreed.

Despite wanting to try and save everyone, the teenage hedgehog stopped struggling as he lowered his gaze, guilt, fear, sorrow and worry filling his senses. His friends were right. It was too dangerous to try and stop this while in airborne.

"But how can we get off!? We have nowhere to run! The only way off of this ship now is if we had at least one Chaos Emerald!" Eggman pointed out frantically while Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun all hugged each other in panic.

Everyone's eyes lit up as realization dawned onto them, before Shadow pulled out the green Chaos Emerald he kept in his quills which was noticed by the evil scientist and his robots who gaped in surprise, but the black hedgehog paid no attention to them as he told everyone. "Gather around, and hold still! This is our only chance to escape!"

"But what about Vector!?" Charmy protested, as Espio held him firmly to stop the young bee from doing anything foolish.

"Chances are that he will survive, but unless we get off, we won't! So just shut up and gather around me! NOW!" The Ultimate Lifeform yelled in frustration and impatience.

Everyone screamed as the giant ship began to descend and even break apart due to Vector's growth and to their shock, he had grown so big that he jumped off and descended towards the ground. Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Chris, Espio, Charmy and Topaz all screamed in dismay while Rouge covered her mouth with her hands and Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun were bewildered. Yet as they continued to fall while hearing a thud, they found that they were already nearing the ground, Vector had grown so big already that he landed safely...and they were about to crash!

"Quick, gather around!" Sonic screamed out.

Everyone did as they were told and holding onto each other as close to Shadow as they could despite that he has never used Chaos Control with this many people before, but it was the risk they had to take. Once he was certain that they were gathered around and Topaz had earlier confirmed that the rest of the prisoners were already safely taken off the ship, the black hedgehog held up the Chaos Emerald above his head.

Sonic, feeling that they needed an extra help, pulled out his Cyan Emerald and answered the black hedgehog's unasked question when the latter gazed at him. "I know you haven't used Chaos Control with this many people before, so this might be a two person job!"

Realizing what the younger hedgehog had in mind, Shadow nodded and focused alongside his rival who held the other Emerald high above him, which surprised Eggman even further.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic and Shadow both shouted.

The two Chaos Emeralds glowed brightly and soon enough the group all disappeared in the flash of light, while Vector, now grown into a giant, bigger than the last time, his skin two shades darker with purple and red markings all over his spins and body, his eyes all bright and dark red and about a good 105 feet tall, mindlessly gazed up at the falling airship that lost altitude and easily caught it with both hands, before crushing it like a tin can, destroying it and all of the robots that were on it. Thankfully all of the mutated animals that were also on the ship managed to get away, so there were no casualties.

Sonic's group in the meantime reappeared on a hill about at least three miles from where the now giant Vector was, and most of the group alll winced and groaned before falling onto the knees, panting and feeling nauseous over the feeling of having been teleported via Chaos Control that was uncomfortable for them.

"That was...a very pretty...light show..." Bokkun muttered, dazed and acting like he was drunk.

Some of the group even felt like they were going to be sick, before Cheese squeaked out in horror, which prompted Cream to exclaim. "Oh no! Look at what happened to Vector!"

When they did look up, everyone was in horrified shock and Sonic, Espio and Charmy, and even Eggman and Bokkun, having seen this before, were stunned that this was unlike the last time. Before them was Vector the Crocodile, now fully under control of the Mutagen and being the only Mobian to be mutated.

"Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Yes! This is a success! The crocodile is under my control and soon the world, the whole universe, will be mine to rule!" Narasu declared evilly, flying over Vector who gave out a huge roar, with thunder booming and lightning flashing in the background which made the detective's current monstrous form even more terrifying.

As everyone watched on in horrified awe at this display, Sonic narrowed his eyes as he and his friends, allies and enemies felt their hearts race. Just when they had thought they won and were close in setting things right, the truth has been fully revealed as Dr. Kai Narasu makes his next move with his disguise dropped and now Vector was at the evil crazed man's mercy.

How will Sonic and his friends win this fight? Can they save Vector and return him to normal?

The fight to save the universe has become much more severe than ever before!

A/N: Things were getting from bad to worse and now Vector is under Narasu's control! Will Sonic and his friends save their detective friend before it's too late?

The only way to find out is for the next chapter to come! Which will begin what I've been wanting to write for this story for ages now. As for Sonic's decision making, more twists are soon to be revealed, because Eggman seems to know something more about this.

See you later!