Chapter 17 - Introductions
"My people!" King Acorn said as he addressed the crowd. "Today is a great day for all of us.
Not only have I returned to my home, my family, and my people, but we also have a new hero who
was not only responsible for my return, but has also brought the other worlds of Arcadia
together to help us in our struggle! I give you, Anthony Bault, descendant of Sir Eric and new
Gamemaster of Arcadia!"
The crowd cheered as Anthony stood up next to Acorn and started to speak. "Thank you your
majesty. I only hope my next news will excite the crowd further." He then turned toward the
crowd. "As King Acorn...er...Max as he would like to be called until this war is over, has
said, I have gathered the other worlds to help in your struggle against Robotnik. I plan to
open the portals leading from your world to the worlds of Hylas, Gardenia, and Neo-Earth to
give them access to help. At this moment, soldiers from those worlds are waiting for the
portals to open so they may lend support in your effort. I also have the heroes of those
worlds waiting to help as well, individuals who are to their worlds what Sonic here is to
yours!"
"My counterparts, huh?" Sonic said, adding his two cents to the speech. "Can't wait to meet
them!"
Anthony smirked as the thought of how priceless it would be when Sonic met Mario. Nintendo and
Sega would have a fit!
"I'm sure they can't wait to meet you either, Sonic! At any rate, tomorrow I head to the first
of the remaining portal locations, once I receive the information of course. But for now, it
is a time of celebration. So for those who are ready for a free Mobius, give me a 'Hell
yeah'!"
The entire crowd said the phrase, and an even larger cheer erupted afterwards.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The party that followed the speech was in full swing. Anthony was getting a sore arm from
Mobians shaking his hands left and right in gratitude for returning their king. Anthony
managed to break away from the crowd long enough to perform a duty.
He had seen and met certain freedom fighters amongst the crowd that he wanted to get together
with to discuss something odd from his side of the portal. They all managed to arrive:
Bookshire Draftwood, Chris Petrucci, Ryan Nightweaver, FX Ferret, Sir Kain, T-Bone, and
David Kintobor, all with the same question on their mind as to why the Gamemaster wanted to
meet with them.
Anthony didn't give them long to wait. "Good, you're all here. I realize this may seem weird
my asking to meet with you guys altogether like this, but it was necessary. Especially
considering something that exists on Earth that concerns all of you. First, before I begin,
Bookshire, how's Amy?"
"Sasha's looking at her now and applying her healing magic, Anthony. Amy's arm may be sore for
a while, but she'll recover. Oh, Amy did want to see you after we're through here!"
"Yeah, so make it quick!" Chris piped up. "I promised Rebecca a dance!"
"Very well, Chris," Anthony said, "or, should I call you Keith?"
Chris looked absolutely shocked. "How did...but I...where did you...HOW?!?!?"
"That's part of why I called you all here. On Earth, the same latent psionic power that
allowed Sega to create the Sonic games also allowed certain individuals to create stories based
on you guys in the form of 'fan-fiction'. Here's where it gets weird though...your fanfics
were originally 'self insertion', where the author thought they were putting themselves in the
story."
"Wait," Ryan said, interrupting Anthony, "does this mean there's another me running around?
Another Ryan Huber?"
"Yes. In some cases, the names are the same and I'm guessing you, Chris, and Sir Kain come
from a version of Earth native to this reality because the odds of two Ryan Hubers from the
same Earth are sparse plus the fact you seemed to know nothing about the games that exist on my
world. In other cases, only the first name is used, like Kintobor's author here is David
Gonterman. In the remaining cases, the fanfics author's Internet handle is your name. FX,
your author is named Ettinger, but he uses the handle FXFerret."
"Cool," FX said. "Any chance we could met these guys?"
"Yeah," David said, "I wouldn't mind meeting my other me!"
"I don't see why not, if we can find the time. At any rate, when I go to the portals, I was
hoping to have one or more of you come with me for added support if needed, since it might be
nice to have fellow 'earthlings' along. Yes, FX, I know, you aren't from Earth, but I think
you know where I'm coming from with what I said."
"Pretty much, yeah."
T-Bone looked towards David and said "I guess we'll be the biggest help to him because we came
from his world and know the games. Hell, we could be Gamemasters too!"
"T-Bone," Anthony said, "technically you can only be a Gamemaster if you are of Sir Eric's
bloodline. But you are right, you two will probably be able to put that gaming skill to the
test. By the way, T-Bone, Major Sharpe wants you to report to him ASAP for some new info."
"I'll do that first thing tomorrow then, Anth."
"Good. Well that's all I had to say to you guys. Any questions?"
"Just tell us who you want for your team and when, Gamemaster," Sir Kain answered, "and we'll
be ready."
"Excellent, and please, call me Anthony, we're all friends here. Now if you excuse me, I have
a young hedgehog to see..."
They all left the table, going in different directions. Chris had a worried look on his face
and ran up to Anthony to ask, "Anthony, just how far did that fanfic describe my past?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sasha, Tail's cousin and a mage skilled in healing magics, was tending to Amy's arm as Amy lay
on a one of the beds in Bookshire's office. Anthony walked in as Sasha was finishing her
spells.
"Oh, Anthony," Sasha said upon spying Anthony, "I'm glad you're here! I just finished with Amy
and she was hoping to see you once I was finished."
"How is she, Sasha?"
"Well, there's still a lot of bruising, so Amy's arm will be sore for a while, something I'm
sure Bookshire told you already."
Amy still had tears in her eyes. "It hurts, Sasha! Can't you do anything more?"
Before Sasha could answer, Anthony said, "Let me try something, Sasha."
Anthony walked up to Amy's side and placed his hand on the wounded arm. His hand started to
glow as he concentrated on a psionic healing technique. Within seconds, the bruise was gone.
Sasha was impressed. "Amazing! I didn't think you knew healing magic!"
"Actually it's a metabolic psionic power that can heal on the cellular level," Anthony said and
then turned towards Amy. "How do you feel, kid?"
"The arm feels great! Thanks Anthony!"
"Now...Bookshire told me you wanted to see me about something. What was that?"
"It's a secret. I'll whisper it in your ear."
Anthony gave a confused look toward Sasha and then placed his head near Amy's. Suddenly,
Anthony felt a light kiss on his cheek.
"That's for saving me from the Roboticizer."
"Why you little rascal..."
Sasha giggled. "Looks like you have a new friend, Anthony!"
"I guess..." Anthony said then getting a look of horror on his face. "Amy, you're not going to
idolize me like you did Sonic, are you?!?"
"Nah...I'm already on those types of terms with Tails now. But, you definitely have my
gratitude!"
Anthony turned back towards Sasha as Amy left Bookshire's office. "You know, Sasha...I think
I'm going to like being the Gamemaster..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Anthony left Bookshire's office, Sally came running up to him.
"Oh, Gamemaster, there you are!"
"Sal, we're all friends here. Please call me Anthony."
"OK then Anthony. I just wanted to ask you what types of sleeping arrangements you were going
to make, since it's getting late. Were you going to head back to the portal and head back to
Earth?"
"No, I want to stick around in case I'm needed again, and I brought a few changes of clothes in
anticipation of staying around for a while. Just give me a sleeping bag and an outlet I can
use to recharge my armor and I should be fine."
"Alright. I'll see if I can arrange for you to bunk with one of the other freedom fighters."
"That's not necessary, I can just sleep out in the stars. This place kinda looks like a camp
so I can stand roughing for the night."
"Are you sure? I mean, I'm sure I can find..."
"Sal...I also snore like you wouldn't believe. I just made some friends here and I am NOT that
ready to start making enemies."
Sally giggled. "Okay, I'll go find a sleeping bag then." She pointed towards an open area
near some of the huts. "Would over there work?"
Anthony looked where she pointed. "That should work fine. First thing tomorrow, we can go
over where the other portals are."
"I've already got Rotor searching our database. We should have the locations by tomorrow. One
other thing, Anthony..."
"Yes?"
Anthony soon found himself being hugged by a teary eyed Sally. "Thank you so much for
returning my father! You don't know what..."
"I understand princess..." Anthony said as he comforted Sally. "You know you're the second
female anthropomorph tonight who's shown me such affections of gratitude. Is this contagious?"
Sally giggled while wiping away a stray tear. "Amy, right? Well after all the recognition and
praise you got tonight, you shouldn't be surprised."
"I guess not. Well, I'd better turn in and recharge my psi powers. It's been a LONG day!"
"Alright, Anthony. I see to your sleeping bag. As for your armor, you can give it to Rotor
and he'll recharge it for you."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That night, Anthony was having trouble sleeping as old doubts started to resurface. Although
he was getting used to being the Gamemaster, he still wondered if he was ready for the
challenge. The other worlds weren't taken over by the enemy like this one was...and unlike the
games he knew he couldn't hit RESET to start over if something gets screwed up.
Anthony sat up briefly to collect his thoughts and to clear his head. He realized he was still
new to this "hero" business, but for some reason he wasn't as overwhelmed by what was expected
of him like he was heading towards the Neo-Earth portal back on Earth.
"Maybe I AM getting used to this," Anthony thought to himself. "It's not like I had to do
anything too extreme, although that run in Robotropolis and facing Packbell sure came close!
At any rate, I should chill, as Sonic would say, I'm just going to be opening the portals and
bringing in some extra players to this game. I'm not going to be fighting a whole WAR for
them!"
As Anthony laid down to go back to sleep he suddenly felt feelings of fear again. But this
time they weren't his...he was sensing someone else's. He let his mind's eye wander to focus
on who's fear it was, a power called "clairvoyance", and saw Sally looking out at his sleeping
bag with a look of doubt on her face.
"What the...?" Anthony thought to himself as his powers showed him this scene. "What is she
doing up, and why is she worried about me?"
Anthony then saw the figure of King Acorn approach her side. Anthony decided, despite how rude
eavesdropping was, to use his "clairaudience" power to find out what was going on.
"Sally dear, what's wrong?" King Acorn asked.
"Oh...it's just...Father, are we doing the right thing, relying on Anthony to help us in our
struggle? I mean, from what you told me about what Major Sharpe said, Anthony's still getting
used to the position of Gamemaster."
"Sally, Anthony is doing this on his own, without any prodding from anybody. Major Sharpe said
Anthony is more than capable when the need arises, and has already done a lot for Earth and the
other worlds before coming here."
"Really, Father?"
Anthony decided to join in on this conversation by sending a psychic message to Sally and
Acorn.
*Really, Sal.*
Both of them jumped when they heard Anthony psi-voice and watched as Anthony got up and walked
toward them.
"Sorry about that, Sally...Max. I sensed Sally's worrying and heard what you said and thought
I should relieve her fears." Anthony turned towards Sally. "Sally, I'll be fine. Yes, this
is all new to me, but I'll manage. It's not like you're asking me to save the world all by
myself!"
"I guess...but still..."
Anthony shushed Sally and said, "No buts. I'm with you all the way. Besides, I have some
issues of my own with Buttnik's taking over this world, and I intend to..."
Suddenly they all heard a scream coming from one of the huts. Anthony was the first to react
by going, "The HELL?!?"
"That came from Amy's hut!" Sally said as she rushed from her hut.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sally and Anthony ran towards Amy's hut and found the young hedgehog sitting up and teary eyed
in her bed.
"Amy, what's wrong?" Anthony asked as he went to her bed's side.
"I...had a nightmare...about the Roboticizer..." Amy said between sniffles. "I dreamt you
weren't there and...and..." Amy then placed her paws over her eyes and sobbed loudly. Anthony
took the young hedgehog in his arm and hugged her in an effort to calm her down.
Sally sighed. "I'm sorry Anthony...this is a common nightmare we've seen occur whenever
someone comes as close to being roboticized as she was, where they dream they become
roboticized anyway. Would you mind staying with her tonight? Someone should watch her and it
looks like she wants you to stay."
Anthony looked down at Amy, who was now holding him and hugging him tight. He had seen his
niece do this whenever she was scared or sad and understood completely. "No problem Sal. Can
you get my sleeping bag?"
Sally nodded and went to get Anthony's sleeping bag. She smiled as she watched Anthony try to
comfort the young hedgehog and thought, "I guess you will manage just fine after all, Anthony."
"My people!" King Acorn said as he addressed the crowd. "Today is a great day for all of us.
Not only have I returned to my home, my family, and my people, but we also have a new hero who
was not only responsible for my return, but has also brought the other worlds of Arcadia
together to help us in our struggle! I give you, Anthony Bault, descendant of Sir Eric and new
Gamemaster of Arcadia!"
The crowd cheered as Anthony stood up next to Acorn and started to speak. "Thank you your
majesty. I only hope my next news will excite the crowd further." He then turned toward the
crowd. "As King Acorn...er...Max as he would like to be called until this war is over, has
said, I have gathered the other worlds to help in your struggle against Robotnik. I plan to
open the portals leading from your world to the worlds of Hylas, Gardenia, and Neo-Earth to
give them access to help. At this moment, soldiers from those worlds are waiting for the
portals to open so they may lend support in your effort. I also have the heroes of those
worlds waiting to help as well, individuals who are to their worlds what Sonic here is to
yours!"
"My counterparts, huh?" Sonic said, adding his two cents to the speech. "Can't wait to meet
them!"
Anthony smirked as the thought of how priceless it would be when Sonic met Mario. Nintendo and
Sega would have a fit!
"I'm sure they can't wait to meet you either, Sonic! At any rate, tomorrow I head to the first
of the remaining portal locations, once I receive the information of course. But for now, it
is a time of celebration. So for those who are ready for a free Mobius, give me a 'Hell
yeah'!"
The entire crowd said the phrase, and an even larger cheer erupted afterwards.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The party that followed the speech was in full swing. Anthony was getting a sore arm from
Mobians shaking his hands left and right in gratitude for returning their king. Anthony
managed to break away from the crowd long enough to perform a duty.
He had seen and met certain freedom fighters amongst the crowd that he wanted to get together
with to discuss something odd from his side of the portal. They all managed to arrive:
Bookshire Draftwood, Chris Petrucci, Ryan Nightweaver, FX Ferret, Sir Kain, T-Bone, and
David Kintobor, all with the same question on their mind as to why the Gamemaster wanted to
meet with them.
Anthony didn't give them long to wait. "Good, you're all here. I realize this may seem weird
my asking to meet with you guys altogether like this, but it was necessary. Especially
considering something that exists on Earth that concerns all of you. First, before I begin,
Bookshire, how's Amy?"
"Sasha's looking at her now and applying her healing magic, Anthony. Amy's arm may be sore for
a while, but she'll recover. Oh, Amy did want to see you after we're through here!"
"Yeah, so make it quick!" Chris piped up. "I promised Rebecca a dance!"
"Very well, Chris," Anthony said, "or, should I call you Keith?"
Chris looked absolutely shocked. "How did...but I...where did you...HOW?!?!?"
"That's part of why I called you all here. On Earth, the same latent psionic power that
allowed Sega to create the Sonic games also allowed certain individuals to create stories based
on you guys in the form of 'fan-fiction'. Here's where it gets weird though...your fanfics
were originally 'self insertion', where the author thought they were putting themselves in the
story."
"Wait," Ryan said, interrupting Anthony, "does this mean there's another me running around?
Another Ryan Huber?"
"Yes. In some cases, the names are the same and I'm guessing you, Chris, and Sir Kain come
from a version of Earth native to this reality because the odds of two Ryan Hubers from the
same Earth are sparse plus the fact you seemed to know nothing about the games that exist on my
world. In other cases, only the first name is used, like Kintobor's author here is David
Gonterman. In the remaining cases, the fanfics author's Internet handle is your name. FX,
your author is named Ettinger, but he uses the handle FXFerret."
"Cool," FX said. "Any chance we could met these guys?"
"Yeah," David said, "I wouldn't mind meeting my other me!"
"I don't see why not, if we can find the time. At any rate, when I go to the portals, I was
hoping to have one or more of you come with me for added support if needed, since it might be
nice to have fellow 'earthlings' along. Yes, FX, I know, you aren't from Earth, but I think
you know where I'm coming from with what I said."
"Pretty much, yeah."
T-Bone looked towards David and said "I guess we'll be the biggest help to him because we came
from his world and know the games. Hell, we could be Gamemasters too!"
"T-Bone," Anthony said, "technically you can only be a Gamemaster if you are of Sir Eric's
bloodline. But you are right, you two will probably be able to put that gaming skill to the
test. By the way, T-Bone, Major Sharpe wants you to report to him ASAP for some new info."
"I'll do that first thing tomorrow then, Anth."
"Good. Well that's all I had to say to you guys. Any questions?"
"Just tell us who you want for your team and when, Gamemaster," Sir Kain answered, "and we'll
be ready."
"Excellent, and please, call me Anthony, we're all friends here. Now if you excuse me, I have
a young hedgehog to see..."
They all left the table, going in different directions. Chris had a worried look on his face
and ran up to Anthony to ask, "Anthony, just how far did that fanfic describe my past?"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sasha, Tail's cousin and a mage skilled in healing magics, was tending to Amy's arm as Amy lay
on a one of the beds in Bookshire's office. Anthony walked in as Sasha was finishing her
spells.
"Oh, Anthony," Sasha said upon spying Anthony, "I'm glad you're here! I just finished with Amy
and she was hoping to see you once I was finished."
"How is she, Sasha?"
"Well, there's still a lot of bruising, so Amy's arm will be sore for a while, something I'm
sure Bookshire told you already."
Amy still had tears in her eyes. "It hurts, Sasha! Can't you do anything more?"
Before Sasha could answer, Anthony said, "Let me try something, Sasha."
Anthony walked up to Amy's side and placed his hand on the wounded arm. His hand started to
glow as he concentrated on a psionic healing technique. Within seconds, the bruise was gone.
Sasha was impressed. "Amazing! I didn't think you knew healing magic!"
"Actually it's a metabolic psionic power that can heal on the cellular level," Anthony said and
then turned towards Amy. "How do you feel, kid?"
"The arm feels great! Thanks Anthony!"
"Now...Bookshire told me you wanted to see me about something. What was that?"
"It's a secret. I'll whisper it in your ear."
Anthony gave a confused look toward Sasha and then placed his head near Amy's. Suddenly,
Anthony felt a light kiss on his cheek.
"That's for saving me from the Roboticizer."
"Why you little rascal..."
Sasha giggled. "Looks like you have a new friend, Anthony!"
"I guess..." Anthony said then getting a look of horror on his face. "Amy, you're not going to
idolize me like you did Sonic, are you?!?"
"Nah...I'm already on those types of terms with Tails now. But, you definitely have my
gratitude!"
Anthony turned back towards Sasha as Amy left Bookshire's office. "You know, Sasha...I think
I'm going to like being the Gamemaster..."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Anthony left Bookshire's office, Sally came running up to him.
"Oh, Gamemaster, there you are!"
"Sal, we're all friends here. Please call me Anthony."
"OK then Anthony. I just wanted to ask you what types of sleeping arrangements you were going
to make, since it's getting late. Were you going to head back to the portal and head back to
Earth?"
"No, I want to stick around in case I'm needed again, and I brought a few changes of clothes in
anticipation of staying around for a while. Just give me a sleeping bag and an outlet I can
use to recharge my armor and I should be fine."
"Alright. I'll see if I can arrange for you to bunk with one of the other freedom fighters."
"That's not necessary, I can just sleep out in the stars. This place kinda looks like a camp
so I can stand roughing for the night."
"Are you sure? I mean, I'm sure I can find..."
"Sal...I also snore like you wouldn't believe. I just made some friends here and I am NOT that
ready to start making enemies."
Sally giggled. "Okay, I'll go find a sleeping bag then." She pointed towards an open area
near some of the huts. "Would over there work?"
Anthony looked where she pointed. "That should work fine. First thing tomorrow, we can go
over where the other portals are."
"I've already got Rotor searching our database. We should have the locations by tomorrow. One
other thing, Anthony..."
"Yes?"
Anthony soon found himself being hugged by a teary eyed Sally. "Thank you so much for
returning my father! You don't know what..."
"I understand princess..." Anthony said as he comforted Sally. "You know you're the second
female anthropomorph tonight who's shown me such affections of gratitude. Is this contagious?"
Sally giggled while wiping away a stray tear. "Amy, right? Well after all the recognition and
praise you got tonight, you shouldn't be surprised."
"I guess not. Well, I'd better turn in and recharge my psi powers. It's been a LONG day!"
"Alright, Anthony. I see to your sleeping bag. As for your armor, you can give it to Rotor
and he'll recharge it for you."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That night, Anthony was having trouble sleeping as old doubts started to resurface. Although
he was getting used to being the Gamemaster, he still wondered if he was ready for the
challenge. The other worlds weren't taken over by the enemy like this one was...and unlike the
games he knew he couldn't hit RESET to start over if something gets screwed up.
Anthony sat up briefly to collect his thoughts and to clear his head. He realized he was still
new to this "hero" business, but for some reason he wasn't as overwhelmed by what was expected
of him like he was heading towards the Neo-Earth portal back on Earth.
"Maybe I AM getting used to this," Anthony thought to himself. "It's not like I had to do
anything too extreme, although that run in Robotropolis and facing Packbell sure came close!
At any rate, I should chill, as Sonic would say, I'm just going to be opening the portals and
bringing in some extra players to this game. I'm not going to be fighting a whole WAR for
them!"
As Anthony laid down to go back to sleep he suddenly felt feelings of fear again. But this
time they weren't his...he was sensing someone else's. He let his mind's eye wander to focus
on who's fear it was, a power called "clairvoyance", and saw Sally looking out at his sleeping
bag with a look of doubt on her face.
"What the...?" Anthony thought to himself as his powers showed him this scene. "What is she
doing up, and why is she worried about me?"
Anthony then saw the figure of King Acorn approach her side. Anthony decided, despite how rude
eavesdropping was, to use his "clairaudience" power to find out what was going on.
"Sally dear, what's wrong?" King Acorn asked.
"Oh...it's just...Father, are we doing the right thing, relying on Anthony to help us in our
struggle? I mean, from what you told me about what Major Sharpe said, Anthony's still getting
used to the position of Gamemaster."
"Sally, Anthony is doing this on his own, without any prodding from anybody. Major Sharpe said
Anthony is more than capable when the need arises, and has already done a lot for Earth and the
other worlds before coming here."
"Really, Father?"
Anthony decided to join in on this conversation by sending a psychic message to Sally and
Acorn.
*Really, Sal.*
Both of them jumped when they heard Anthony psi-voice and watched as Anthony got up and walked
toward them.
"Sorry about that, Sally...Max. I sensed Sally's worrying and heard what you said and thought
I should relieve her fears." Anthony turned towards Sally. "Sally, I'll be fine. Yes, this
is all new to me, but I'll manage. It's not like you're asking me to save the world all by
myself!"
"I guess...but still..."
Anthony shushed Sally and said, "No buts. I'm with you all the way. Besides, I have some
issues of my own with Buttnik's taking over this world, and I intend to..."
Suddenly they all heard a scream coming from one of the huts. Anthony was the first to react
by going, "The HELL?!?"
"That came from Amy's hut!" Sally said as she rushed from her hut.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sally and Anthony ran towards Amy's hut and found the young hedgehog sitting up and teary eyed
in her bed.
"Amy, what's wrong?" Anthony asked as he went to her bed's side.
"I...had a nightmare...about the Roboticizer..." Amy said between sniffles. "I dreamt you
weren't there and...and..." Amy then placed her paws over her eyes and sobbed loudly. Anthony
took the young hedgehog in his arm and hugged her in an effort to calm her down.
Sally sighed. "I'm sorry Anthony...this is a common nightmare we've seen occur whenever
someone comes as close to being roboticized as she was, where they dream they become
roboticized anyway. Would you mind staying with her tonight? Someone should watch her and it
looks like she wants you to stay."
Anthony looked down at Amy, who was now holding him and hugging him tight. He had seen his
niece do this whenever she was scared or sad and understood completely. "No problem Sal. Can
you get my sleeping bag?"
Sally nodded and went to get Anthony's sleeping bag. She smiled as she watched Anthony try to
comfort the young hedgehog and thought, "I guess you will manage just fine after all, Anthony."