It's that time again! Here's the next exciting chapter of this tale of adventure, action...and romance. Yes, it will come eventually, believe me. Now then, I wanted to make sure I got this chapter out by today because today - October 17th - is a very special day. If you're confused as to what makes it special, read the author's notes below. Also, new cover image for the story! Yep, E-vay allowed me to use some of her art so the story actually has a face now. Thanks E-vay!

So then, anonymous reviews!

Yago: I see that you're confused, and your questions are valid. HOWEVER, they will be answered in due time, so don't you worry. But because this is the second time this has been brought up, I will say this. NO, Silver is not Shadow and Aurora's son. In this universe, they're all from the same time period.

And that's it! So, to recap, when we last left off, Ba'Gan and Eggman had escaped and Tails and the rest of the team headed back to Mobius to try and find Sonic. Upon reaching his lab, they ran into Blaze's team along with Cream, Cheese and Gemerl, and that is where we pick up the story. Without further ado, enjoy! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog and the cover image of her belong to E-vay.
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"What do you mean by 'both our universes?'" Tails asked with a slight shake of his head.

Blaze hesitated to answer, it would've been difficult to explain that she'd just come from the future...even though she was currently in her own present. She blinked away the headache that was building from thinking about it. The whole time travel thing was incredibly confusing. "A new threat has appeared in my dimension, and it happens to have the capability of coming into this one. We need help from you and Sonic if we're going to defeat it."

"Oh...well," Tails coughed into his fist and moved to his computer chair which Cream had just removed herself from. "There's a small problem with that."

"What is it?"

"How much time do you have?" Tails logged out of Cream's account and quickly got into his own, and then he began typing madly as he started searching for information. "Believe it or not, we just got back from Eggman's newest base...and we lost Sonic in the battle."

"What?!"

Everyone turned to Aurora who now looked positively horrified and was on the verge of tears. Sensing an outburst coming, Silver hurried over and grabbed Aurora by the shoulders to lead her over to the corner. "We'll just be over here, don't mind us!" Ignoring the suspicious glare that Amy was currently giving them, Silver led the girl over to the corner of the lab and looked her in the eyes. "Aurora, your dad is fine, calm down." he whispered as firmly as he could.

"Calm down?!" she hissed furiously. "You did hear what he said right? They lost him in the battle! How am I supposed to believe he's fine?!"

"Because if he were dead, you would've already been phased out of existence."

Aurora's anger quickly dissipated and she blinked as her rationality returned to her. "Good point." she turned her head slightly to see the young version of her mother still glaring at her, and she gave a faint chuckle at the sight. "My mom's flipping out because of how I reacted, she's jealous."

"Well you better find a way to fix it without letting her know we're from the future, we gotta make sure we're all on the same page, at least where it counts."

Aurora smirked. "Don't you worry about that, I've got a pretty good idea of what I need to do." Walking past the silver hedgehog who was now scratching his head, Aurora calmly walked over to where Amy was standing with her arms crossed, now refusing to look at her. "Sorry about the outburst, I'm a big fan of Sonic and I kinda freaked out."

"No kidding."

Her mother's cold response didn't even faze her. "But you know, as much as I wanted to meet Sonic on this adventure, the one I was really looking forward to meeting was Shadow the Hedgehog."

Amy's ears perked up and she turned her head just enough so that she could get a good look at Aurora. "Shadow?"

"Yeah, he's just sooo dreamy, don't you think? The way his quills are shaped, or his ruby red eyes that can see right through you..." Aurora looked down at the ground with a forlorn smile, her voice cracking ever so slightly from the tender thoughts of her Shadow running through her mind. "Or the way he's willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the ones he loves."

"Sounds about right," Amy finally turned to face the bright pink hedgehog, her jealously now forgotten. "You sure seem to know a lot about Shadow."

Aurora breathed out a sad laugh before speaking up again. "I guess you could say I know him better than most...I've had a long time to learn about him."

"Hey, there's no reason to be all sad!" Amy placed a hand on Aurora's shoulder. "Trust me, I spent almost half my life learning about Sonic and making friends with him, and I went through a lot of trouble on the way. All you gotta do is keep trying and eventually you'll reach your goal of meeting Shadow. Heck, you might even become friends someday!"

"Yeah," Aurora looked up with her eyes half-lidded. "Someday."

"I got something!" Tails shouted in an attempt to get everyone's attention. Once everybody gathered around his chair, the fox boy began pulling up information. "I've gained access into G.U.N.'s database, and there seems to be some archived information from the Space Colony ARK on Incursites, the species that took over Sonic's body." Tails brought up a 3D image of a typical Incursite, and it began spinning as more data was extracted from the G.U.N. computers. "Looks like Prof. Gerald was working on more than just weapon designing, there's information here on all sorts of alien species."

"You mean like those scary black aliens that came to Earth a few years ago?" Amy asked.

"There's more data on the Black Arms than any other species in the ARK's database, obviously since Black Doom had a hand in creating Shadow." Tails pressed a few more keys. "But Prof. Gerald had information on a lot of other alien species as well, luckily the Incursites were one of them."

Knuckles crossed his arms. "So does it say anything about how to beat 'em?"

"Not that I can tell," Tails squinted as he attempted to focus on the data. "According to what's here, Incursites are parasitical beings who require a host in order to function properly, they do this by absorbing themselves into the chosen host and then overriding all nerve functions with their own...even the host's personality is overridden with that of the Incursite's." Tails frowned as more data came in, and a new picture of an unknown species came up with wires and machinery running around and through the unknown species' body. "They also have highly advanced technology that once used on a victim, it will essentially turn them into robots, programmed to serve the will of their masters!"

"Droids." Aurora and Sticks whispered to each other with worried looks.

"Tails, those robots, those are what are currently overrunning my world," Blaze got in front of the fox boy who was now watching her as she spoke. "Those creatures took the Sol Emeralds from me, I must get them back so I can save my world."

"Wait a sec," Amy stepped up with an eyebrow raised. "If those robots took the Sol Emeralds from you, how'd you get to our dimension in the first place?"

Blaze flinched ever-so-slightly, but she thought fast and came up with a reasonable excuse. "I was able to get my hands on one of the emeralds and open a portal to your dimension, I would've taken it with me but the robots arrived and took it back, I barely managed to get here."

"And these other guys came with you?" Knuckles asked as he turned to look at the other strangers.

The Sol guardian decided to go with it as she nodded an affirmative. "Yes, they were attempting to help me retrieve the Sol Emeralds but we were stopped by the sheer numbers the robots had." she clenched her fists as she tried to keep her voice level. "I can only imagine what those monsters have done to my world," That much wasn't a lie, and it infuriated the cat girl to no end. "I must get back there before it's too late."

Tails sighed and leaned back in his chair, running his hand through his hair as he tried to think. "We'd love to help Blaze, but we have a problem of our own! Eggman has managed to revive an Incursite here, and it took over Sonic's body which is currently being powered by the Chaos Emeralds," he sat back up and started typing on his keyboard again. "If we're gonna help you, then we need to get Sonic back first." After a few more seconds, the fox boy slammed his fists into the control panel in frustration. "I've looked through every folder of the ARK's recovered database and there's nothing on what type of weakness an Incursite has!"

"But there's gotta be a way Tails!" Amy exclaimed desperately. "We can't just give up!"

"I'm not giving up, I have an idea." Tails started typing furiously and a whole new image appeared on screen, one which displayed the blueprints of a strange tuning fork-shaped device.

"What's that Tails?" Cream asked as she leaned over the side of the chair.

Tails paid her no mind and kept working. "It's my Gene Splicer, a new invention I experimented with a few weeks back by taking kiwis and strawberries and merging them into one fruit." Tails looked at the rabbit a moment with a smile. "It was a success, and a tasty one at that."

Cream smirked at him before looking back up at the screen. "So what do you plan on doing with it now?"

Tails' smile vanished instantly. "Well, genes are made up of DNA, and each individual has their own specific DNA which makes them unique, even identical twins have different DNA. According to the data from the ARK, Sonic's nerve functions have been overridden, but not replaced. We've seen firsthand that Sonic is still very much in there." The fox boy got up from his chair and everyone watched as he rummaged through a box of gadgets. "Theoretically, if I reverse the polarity on my Gene Splicer, I could separate Sonic's DNA from Ba'Gan's DNA and remove Ba'Gan from Sonic's body altogether."

"Bah-Gone?" Sticks scratched her head.

Tails shook his head. "No, Ba'Gan; that's the name of the Incursite inside Sonic." he quickly explained as he turned back to everyone with his handheld device in one hand. "Here it is, now to reverse the polarity."

"That's great Tails," Amy said as her eyes followed the fox boy around the room. "But you said 'theoretically' which doesn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies." she put her hands on her hips. "What's Plan B if it doesn't work?"

Tails frowned deeply and looked the darker pink hedgehog in the eye. "Plan A better work," he said grimly. "If it doesn't...well..." his voice trailed off.

"Oh," Amy paled in horror at the thought of what Tails was suggesting. "Well then, let's get to work on Plan A, I'm not about to let Sonic become a martyr for our cause."

"Already done." Tails pressed a button and the Gene Splicer lit up with a soft purple glow.

"Awesome, so all that's left is to find them," Knuckles crossed his arms. "Which is gonna be a problem, since there's no telling where Eggman's gonna set up shop until he actually does."

"Oh, that's not a problem." Tails grinned confidently and went back to his computer to activate his spy cameras. After a moment or two, an image appeared on screen and the team also grinned as they instantly recognized the figures on screen. "That's not a problem at all."

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"Got any threes?"

"Nope! Go fish!"

"He must be cheating."

"I am not!"

"That is what you said the last three games."

"Well, it doesn't matter, I win!" the tiny creature flew around the room laughing loudly, much to the irritation of the other two in the room with him.

"No one likes a sore winner Bokkun!"

"And no one likes a sore loser Decoe!"

Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun, three of Eggman's older robots were sitting in a darkened room with only a light bulb to illuminate it with, and they were currently engaged in a game of Go Fish, which somehow the small gremlin-like robot kept winning much to the annoyance of the two larger robots. "I wonder if Dr. Eggman will return soon, I do not think I can take much more of Bokkun's gloating." the tallest of the three groaned with his hands on his head.

"We should be grateful. Orbot and Cubot got stuck with babysitting duty the last two times, we are actually getting off easy." the stubby Bocoe said more for his own good than Decoe's.

"You guys just don't wanna play anymore because I keep beating you!" Bokkun laughed and flew around the two robots who were simply getting angrier as the grating laughter continued to ring in their robotic ears.

"I think it is safe to say that listening to Bokkun laugh at us is even more irritating than listening to Cream talk three years ago." Bocoe winked at his friend, who picked up on the message and seemed to grin evilly despite not having a mouth.

"Yes, I remember those days, listening to her voice was like listening to nails scraping against a chalkboard!"

The laughter immediately stopped as Bokkun swooped down in front of them and screamed with his limbs flailing in rage. "Don't you talk about her that way!" his mood quickly changed as his eyes began to sparkle. "Not a day goes by that my sweet Cream doesn't get even more beautiful than ever."

"And even more out of your league." Decoe replied smoothly as he began reshuffling the cards.

"Yes, surely you realize by now that she has outgrown you, both literally and figuratively." Bocoe added.

"I'm working on that!" the little robot screamed. "I'm working on a brand new design for myself that'll make her instantly fall in love with me!"

"You plan on having Dr. Eggman make you look like Justin Beaver?"

"Or perhaps he wants to trick her into thinking he is Tails."

Bokkun began to tear up and whimper, and it wasn't long before he was on the ground bawling. "You guys are awful! I'll never forgive that bat for spilling my secret to everyone!"

Decoe and Bocoe just gave each another deadpan looks before the skinny robot started dealing the cards again. Bokkun's secret crush on Cream the Rabbit had been revealed to them by Rouge the Bat two years ago, and the only time the robots ever decided to exploit that knowledge was when the messenger robo was being more obnoxious than usual. Suddenly however, an alarm began blaring and red lights began to flash in the fortress that shocked them and knocked them out of their chairs, sending cards flying everywhere. "What is going on?!" Decoe shouted over the alarm.

Bocoe quickly rushed over to the nearest active computer console and examined the alert. "It is an intruder alert! There is an enormous aircraft that has just landed in the hangar bay!"

"Wait a second!" Decoe went over to the console and looked at the craft. "That is no intruder! That is Dr. Eggman!"

Just then the door on the other side of the room opened, and in came Eggman with Metal Sonic, Orbot, Cubot...and of course the form of a very familiar hedgehog.

"And he brought guests!" Decoe exclaimed.

"He brought Sonic!" Bokkun pointed at the organic, and once again blue, hedgehog in complete shock.

Just then, the form of Sonic the Hedgehog opened his eyes, and the three robots gasped in shock when they saw that they were glowing red instead of their usual green hue. "What is this place?" Ba'Gan slowly turned his head and glared at the three stunned robots. "Who are these useless heaps of primitive scrap iron?"

"Hey!" Decoe raised an angry fist. "Do we insult your body?!" But the tall yellow robot quickly lowered his fist a bit as he stumbled upon a realization. "That did not sound like your typical Sonic saying."

"I am not Sonic you archaic imbecile," Ba'Gan suddenly groaned and held his head, wincing in pain. He then turned to Eggman who had gone over to the computer console to shut off the alarm. "Doctor, explain yourself. Where are we?" Ba'Gan winced again and groaned. "And why does my head feel like it's being crushed inside of a gravity field? Where is my power?!"

The scientist looked back at the alien with a neutral expression before going over to his main power grid and pushing up on a lever to activate the base's main power. As the lights above began to steadily power on in a row, Eggman walked back to Ba'Gan with a smirk. "Welcome to my secret underground base just below the sleepy little town of Blue Ridge, one of many homes away from home if you will." he stretched his arms out to make a grand gesture, one that Ba'Gan clearly didn't find amusing. "And to answer your other two questions, I'm sure that the exertion of using the power of the Chaos Emeralds combined with your current necessity to fight off Sonic's...indisputably irritating willpower, has put you under a great deal of stress."

"Yes," Ba'Gan snarled even as he put his other hand on his head and winced once more. "This...this host of mine is unlike any other I've ever encountered. I have his memories, his knowledge, and I can see that his persistence knows no boundaries...rraahh!" Ba'Gan got on his knees and growled in agony as his headache began to grow unbearable. "I require a quiet place to rest," he strained. "I need time to recover and reestablish my hold on this body!" he looked up at Eggman and glared, slowly getting back to his feet. "You will provide me with suitable quarters!"

"Hey! You can't talk to Dr. Eggman like that!" Bokkun's bold statement earned him a murderous glower from Ba'Gan, which got the robot to scream in fear and hide behind Eggman who was also giving him a glare, only this one was one of annoyance. "On second thought, who am I to tell you what to do?" the small robot whimpered.

Eggman chose not to acknowledge the messenger robo and simply looked back down at Ba'Gan, who was trying desperately to look like he was in a position of power, but the sweat pouring down his face from the exertion and the constant wincing along with the very rigid stance made that difficult. "My robots will escort you to your guest quarters, and they will be at your beck and call for any request you might have," Eggman gave the creature a smarmy smile and an exaggerated bow. "Consider yourself my guest Ba'Gan, it's the least I can do for your agreeing to be my ally in my quest to take over the universe." Ba'Gan opened his mouth to respond, but another shooting pain in his head cut him off and he merely followed Orbot and Cubot out of the room and down the dingy hallway. Once the door closed, the smile vanished and Eggman went over to his computer console.

"Doctor, what is happening? Is that Sonic?" Decoe asked as he humbly approached his master.

"In a manner of speaking," Eggman said cryptically as he continued to type in several command codes. Finally he pressed the enter button and several whirring sounds were heard throughout the base. "There we go, that should keep any annoying intruders away." Eggman then turned to his older robots and grinned. "Because you've finally managed to not do something wrong, I shall reward you by giving an explanation as to exactly what's happening." he turned back to his computer and began typing, and G.U.N. files began appearing on screen. "I see those fools at G.U.N. have updated their security systems, it took me about two minutes longer than usual to get into their files."

"What do you need to get into there for?" Bocoe asked.

"Even the greatest scientific genius in the universe can learn something new," Eggman replied. "Who you all thought was Sonic was in fact an alien creature known as an Incursite, which has taken control of Sonic's body. As far as I am aware, he is the last of his kind, and with his power at my disposal I will soon rule the universe!" Eggman folded his hands and began to read as information began to slowly scroll down the screen. "But before I get too comfortable, I must first learn everything I can about these creatures so that I can be prepared for any contingencies, and I'm sure my grandfather has some interesting data that should come in quite handy."

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Central City, the largest city on Mobius and known to all as "the place to be" if you were looking for excitement. Various hotels and apartment buildings lined the streets, along with small mom and pop shops and chain restaurants and anything else you could possibly ask for could be found there. And construction was almost always happening in one area or another in order to expand it further. This morning was no exception, as construction workers went about their jobs and complained about the daily drawls of life, blissfully ignorant of the danger now present on their planet.

However, Central City was more than just the cornerstone of Mobius, it was also the headquarters to the Guardian Units of Nations, otherwise known as G.U.N. They were the military elite, the first responders to any crisis be it big or small. Of course, their fame was usually undermined by the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog and his band of friends, but most soldiers understood that their job was to protect the citizens of Mobius with their lives.

Today however, there was no life threatening crisis, no reason to go out and lay their lives on the line, at least not yet. Instead, they were currently dealing with an internal crisis, one that they were already intimately familiar with. "Have you traced the source of the hack?" the G.U.N. Commander asked gruffly, his aging form still as imposing as ever.

The young technician sitting in front of him looked over his shoulder and nodded an affirmative. "It's him sir."

"I suspected as much," the Commander nodded solemnly. He then pressed a button on his wrist and it began blinking a soft shade of blue, and several minutes later, the doors to the main headquarters opened and the Commander spoke without turning around. "Agent Rouge, welcome."

Standing in the doorway was the sultry and curvaceous form of Rouge the Bat, known to all as one of G.U.N.'s top agents by day...and a "reformed" jewel thief by night. "So what's all the hubbub?" she asked as walked into the room to look at the enormous main screen.

The Commander paid no mind that the bat had just walked up next to him and began giving her the briefing. "We've just detected that someone has hacked into Prof. Gerald Robotnik's top secret files, and thanks to your friend Tails' upgrades, we've already traced the hacker's electronic footprints and determined his identity and location."

About a year and a half ago, Tails had come to Central City offering to upgrade the firewalls and antiviruses of the G.U.N. computer systems, stating that they were too outdated and too easy to break into now, and G.U.N. would never even know if someone like Eggman had hacked in. He met with a certain amount of resistance, but with Rouge vouching for him, he was eventually allowed to make the upgrades, and now on top of the increased security measures, the G.U.N. computers now had a hidden program that would immediately begin working on tracing the source of a hack if someone was skilled enough to get through.

Up until this point, no one had been able to. "So the little genius did good," Rouge smirked. "Who's our mystery man?"

The Commander looked down at the 21-year old bat girl and gave her a grim look. "It's Dr. Eggman, and he's apparently holed up somewhere underneath Blue Ridge."

Rouge's eyes widened slightly at first, but she quickly recovered and gave an amused snicker at what she'd just been told. "Well now, things just got a little more interesting around here."
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A/N: Enter Rouge the Bat, a character who merely made a sort of cameo appearance in my original Dash Adventure, but she'll be doing more in this story. Also, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun! Yes, I'll also be bringing certain elements of Sonic X into this story, as I think they'd be fun to play with. Speaking of elements, Justin Beaver mention. That was for you, Sonic Boom fans. Hope you liked that reference.

Now then, I said that today was a very special day and that was the reason I wanted to get this chapter out before the day was over. For those of you who don't know about why today is special, it has something to do with the one who has been graciously accommodating me and letting me use her characters and artwork for this story. Today, October 17th, is E-vay's birthday!

That's right, Aurora's creator and one of the elite Sonamy artists on the internet turned one year older today, and this chapter is my attempt at giving her a gift. I realize it isn't much E-vay, but I hope you enjoyed this short little update. It will get exciting again soon, that I promise you! So until then dear readers, make sure to leave a review and let me know what you think. Happy Birthday E-vay!