Sonic Chaos Rivals (Season Three)

by sleepfiction

Framed for a crime he didn't commit, Sonic goes on the run with his friends when a dangerous and incredibly powerful doppelganger makes him public enemy number one. Facing all kinds of enemies- new and old, of Earth or in space- the truth about fifty years ago will be uncovered as Team Sonic tries to prevent this shadowy figure from exacting his vengeance upon humanity. (READ S1&2)

1. City Escape

It was a cool mid-autumn night. The north-westernmost section of Station Square was abandoned, empty and quiet. The only real noise was the idle hums of the streetlamps illuminating the streets.

A set of tires whined as a blue car came to a stop on a parking spot against the sidewalk.

"You have reached your destination." The artificial assistant, Breeze, spoke with a masculine voice. It was using the satnav system to guide the driver to this place.

The headlights, almost designed like eyes, shut off. Only the streetlamps were giving light near the vehicle now. Both doors of the car opened at once, as the car was filled with four Mobians that were all piling out of the car- two forms hopping out of the backseat as they didn't have doors next to them.

With the press of her keys, Amy locked her new car. She pulled on her Hammer Purse 2.0, clutching the strap across her chest to keep it on. Letting everyone ahead first, Amy pulled out her phone and texted somebody.

They were parked across from a restaurant called "Eggstraordinary," which was boarded up and currently abandoned.

After the destruction caused by Perfect Chaos, in the next months the city underwent extensive reconstruction projects. Most, if not all of the inner city was rebuilt, while the outer parts of Station Square were quickly trying to catch up.

The front boards were pulled off by Knuckles, the echidna tossing them aside and holding the door open for his friends. With a flip of his hand, Tails activated his Vulcan Cannon, turning on the flashlight feature to illuminate the abandoned and (still) water damaged restaurant.

It was small, pretty cozy. Too bad it was gone.

They all walked in silence, walking around the breakfast counter and headed through the kitchen. The quartet stepped down towards the walk-in freezer. Pulling out his tablet for a quick second, Tails detected that they needed to go through it.

It was strangely warm inside the walk-in freezer. Amy winced and covered her nose at the stench of rotting foodstuffs.

Fingertips passed around the bare back wall, sliding around until they hit something raised from the wall, outlining a rectangular panel that was slightly sticking out from the back wall. Pulling her hand back with a smile, Cream pushed up her glasses.

She pulled her Omochao plush backpack around to her front, unzipping the top. She gave Cheese a pet- letting the chao sleep in her bag for the time being- before pulling out a mobile printer and what looked like a wide-beam flashlight with the HEXAeco logo on it.

Using the flashlight, Cream scanned the raised panel with a red beam, letting it slowly pass over the panel as if scanning it. Once it was done, the mobile printer immediately started up, printing out a long paper with a strange looking paw-print on it.

Cream pulled it out, pressing it ink-side down against the panel and pressing her own hand firmly against it.

The panel turned green.

"Hybrid print accepted. Welcome."

As the rest of the wall next to the panel opened inwards slowly, Cream put her things back in her Omochao backpack, gesturing to the opening with a big smile.

She took up the back with Amy, letting Knuckles lead with Tails using the light to guide him. They stepped through darkness, only led by the light showing them barren walls and flooring, until they were stopped by a light overhead turning on.

It showed a table far ahead, with three chairs closest to the group. There was a chair behind it, leaned back as the sitter was reclining slightly. In one hand, on a finger, he was visibly spinning a pistol around from the trigger guard.

He slammed the pistol down on the table, spinning himself around to face the group.

"G'day, mates." Fang the Sniper grinned, his titular fangs bared to the four.

The quartet stood in a line in the light, facing Fang together.

"Hi, Nack." Amy replied.

Fang's grin disappeared after that. He leaned in his chair again, still holding his pistol, resting his feet up on the table. He used the barrel of his gun to flick up his hat and see the group better.

"You certainly know how to track a man or two down, love."

"Would've been here sooner. You aren't exactly the easiest man to find."

"Ya think that's for a reason?" Fang replied. His eyes flicked from each person. "It's been a bloody hot minute since I've seen you hoons. There's something a bit different about you bludgers…"

Fang looked over at Tails first, his gun pointed back and away to keep the four from getting antsy. His eyes trailed down to Tails' feet.

"Blue shoes, eh?"

"I'm a fan of the classics." Tails shrugged, arms crossed.

The sniper looked over at Cream next, eyebrow raised.

"Here I thought carrots made your eyesight better."

Cream huffed, adjusting her octagonal glasses.

It was Knuckles next, with Fang looking at his hands.

"You got on boxing gloves, mate?"

"Sonic said it made my punches hurt less." Knuckles pressed his fists together. It was true, he was wearing pure white boxing gloves (to match the paint) though his white spiked knuckles still poked through, piercing through the glove.

Fang's eyes rested on Amy, finally.

"New hammer." He said. "Think I wouldn't notice cause it looked the same, eh love? I see everything, know everything."

Amy quickly whipped one end of the strap around, forming her purse into its hammer form quickly. The pole extended out though, with a special squeeze of two fingers on Amy's gloves, stopping only an inch from the sniper's face.

"It'll be smacking you upside the head if you don't give us what we need."

She lifted the hammer up and gently bonked Fang on the head, her hammer making an audible piko sound like a toy hammer, before the pole retracted.

As the hammer was pulled back, a swipe of a bear's claw came from the darkness. Bark bared his teeth at the group in warning as he stepped into the light beside Fang's chair. On the other side, Bean crept in, poking out from the other side of the chair to peer at the group.

Fang put his feet on the ground the same time Amy clicked her hammer back into its purse form. Sitting up, Fang rested the pistol on the table again.

"What is it you need then, love? We haven't broken any of Station Square's crummy laws recently. In front of you." The sniper growled. "You break into three men's hideout like it's nothing? As far as I see, you're down a blue hedgehog. What's keeping me from firing one round into each of you and calling it a night?"

"You think we didn't count for that?" Cream said, tilting her head.

As the sniper lifted his pop gun again, it was suddenly jerked to the side as if something was hitting the opposite end of it. It was pulled out of Fang's hand, going into the edge of the darkness and landing in a hand that faded in. The rest of the body faded in next, revealing a darkly-dressed chameleon.

"Now doesn't this look familiar?" Espio twirled the gun around his finger and aimed it back at Fang, staring into him.

Bark moved to reach Espio, but was suddenly jerked backwards. In from the darkness, Vector pulled the polar bear into a full nelson hold, securing his arms back so he was unable to get out.

Before Bean could react, tiny hands grabbed onto the Dyna-mite's handkerchief, pulling it up and holding it over his eyes. Charmy laughed as Bean struggled around, waving his arms wildly as he tried to reach for the evasive bee.

Fang looked around, then back at the four, a deep frown on his face. He took a deep breath to center himself, drumming his fingers on the table.

"Alright, alright. You proved your point, ya bunch of drongos…" He growled. "Let my boys go and sit down. We'll talk."

The detectives all stopped their meddling. Charmy snickered as he flew away from Bean, the demolition man very violently readjusting his handkerchief with a huff, his feathers rustled. Vector let go of Bark, jumping at him slightly afterwards.

"Stay mad, Combi." The croc said.

Espio handed the pistol to Fang, who snatched it away and put it in his chest holster under his vest. Joined by his boys behind him, Fang folded his hands on the table to look business-oriented.

Amy, Tails and Cream sat in the three chairs. The detectives, joined by Knuckles, stood behind the trio.

"Anyone else, love?"

After a moment's pause, Amy pulled her phone to her mouth.

"Plan C is a no. Froginator is no longer needed."

With heavy footsteps, holding a fishing rod against him, Big trudged in to join the group from the darkness. Froggy ribbited his hello to the group from between Big's ears.

"What was he gonna do?" Bean asked.

"Stuff you couldn't even believe, man." Cream said, waving her hands over her face for an extra bit of pizzazz.

"What is it that you need, love?" Fang focused on the matter at hand, staring at Amy.

"Sonic's been taken. We need your help to get him back."

"What, from that doctor? As much as I'd love a little bit of payback for the things he's put us through, I don't think it's worth our time to do something even big, red and dull over there could handle on his own."

"My knuckles are razor sharp. They're never dull!" Knuckles said.

"Sonic's been taken by GUN." Amy corrected herself. "He's been taken for a crime he didn't commit. We need the helpful eye of a few allies… outside of the law."

"Allies? Is that what we are, love?"

"You still owe Sonic for the Sleet and Dingo incident."

"We repaid it by saving your frozen butts!" Bean interjected.

"Then you owed us again when we got the heat off of you after that." Tails replied. "Either way, we know that Nack over there wouldn't want anything bad to happen to his precious little rival, right?"

Fang bit his cheek, grunting.

"Plus, it's a shot at stealing really high-priced technology from the Guardian Units of Nations…" Cream said, in a sing-song kinda way.

"I didn't want that to be a key factor, but I'm desperate." Amy added. "Sonic needs our help. We think Ivo is planning something crazy, and GUN has now turned on us. We only have each other left."

"How touching. What's in it for us?"

"What more could you possibly want? Besides the opportunity to steal right under GUN's nose?"

"Could always go south, love. I need to know you're really in it for the long haul."

Amy was silent. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and letting out a long sigh.

"Dang it…" She murmured. "We'll give you information on the location of Meropis."

"The underwater city? That's just a myth." Bean said.

"No, it isn't. We have information on where to find it."

"Amy, no…" Tails murmured. "We've been following that for years. You can't just give it up!"

"Wait, she's tellin' the truth?" Fang looked at Tails.

"After Chaos flooded the city, we got pieces of rubble of some kind of strange architecture we believe belongs to Meropis." Amy continued. "We'll give you the map we've been working on for the last three months. All you need to do is help us break Sonic out."

It was clear the sniper was considering it for a moment, buttoning and unbuttoning the strap on his holster keeping his pistol secured, fidgeting with it.

Soon, he clipped his gun in, leaning forwards and smiling devilishly at Amy.

"Sure. You got yourself a deal, love." He said. "How's about you tell me what happened? Make sure you start from the beginning."

---

THIRTY-SIX HOURS EARLIER…

"Ugh! Knuckles, stop pulling on my quills so hard! Is this almost done?"

Sonic was sitting on the edge of his bathroom's tub, placed between Amy and Tails while Knuckles stood in the shower, smearing white paint across the hedgehog's quills.

"Yes, it is. I still don't understand why you're so weird about your quills." The echidna replied. "Moss had been doing this to me since I was a baby, and I started doing it to myself when I was as young as five years old."

"Sonic's always been iffy about his quills."

"I have not!" Sonic replied to Amy. He writhed as Knuckles continued to paint around his top quill spike.

"What about that time Aleena tried to brush your quills and you tore up the strawberry fields running away from her?" Tails asked.

"That was different! Those hard bristle brushes hurt…"

"Done. I think I did well."

At Knuckles' words, the three stood up, crowding around the nearby mirror to look at the alterations done by the echidna. There was a ring, painted in white, placed on their body. It was on Sonic's top quill spike, Amy's right hanging spike, and on one of Tails' tails.

"Huh. Not that bad. I think it looks good." Sonic said, turning his head to look at it.

Knuckles stepped out of the tub, getting the door for the others to leave the bathroom. He picked up his newfangled white boxing gloves from the sink, sliding them on and letting his spiked knuckles push through the holes created in the fabric. He opened and closed his mitted hands to get a feel for them again.

"With those markings, I hope to make a symbolic gesture to show you three and others my commitment and partnership as a group."

"Thanks for explaining it." Tails snorted as he passed by the echidna.

They entered the apartment's den in time to hear a knock at the door.

"I got it." Amy said, walking off to see who it was.

Sonic laid across the futon, letting out a long sigh of relief as he did so.

"Long day, Sonic?"

"You know it, buddy." The hedgehog said to Tails. "It's so hard being such an icon now."

As if to add on to that statement, Knuckles turned on the television to show a commercial starring Sonic- now one of many. This one was for some kind of two-in-one console that was far ahead of its time.

After the reckoning, and subsequent calming, of the water god Chaos, Sonic and his friends were each thrust into the spotlight due to their successful efforts to save the world, becoming international celebrities instead of just in the UF. Ever the guy to take all the fame to spare his friends unwanted attention, Sonic took most of the extravagant deals for commercials and sponsors.

That didn't mean they weren't still given things though.

Amy grunted and huffed as she waddled inside, carrying a big box that was practically twice her size. Noticing immediately, Knuckles came over and took it from her, carrying it more easily to the den and setting it down.

"Thanks, Knux."

"Oooh, what's that, Amy?" Tails asked.

"I dunno. Mailman Dave said it was from a furniture company in Spagonia." She replied. "It was addressed directly to Sonic, as thanks for saving the world and stuff."

"Oooh, goody!" Sonic sat up, cutting the tape down the middle with a spiky finger.

"Sonic, don't you think you're getting a bit too many presents from people?"

"Hey, I'll send this back if you send back the Rascal Part 2."

"He's called The Breeze and I'm not sending it back anytime soon!" Amy said. "I don't have infinite stamina like you, sometimes I like driving in a car. I'm just glad Dodon Pa doesn't hold a grudge about that interview I messed up from so long ago…"

"Maybe he rigged the car to activate a bomb when it hit a certain speed, then when it goes under that speed it'll make the bomb explode with you inside of it!"

"...you've been watching too many action movies, Knuckles."

The box was opened, packaging peanuts scooped aside as Sonic felt something soft and plump inside. It wasn't squishy like it was slime, but as if it had thousands of foam pellets inside of it.

Sonic was nearly completely inside the box, kicking his feet in the air as he searched inside.

Suddenly, he gasped loudly.

"Holy crap!"

"Sonic? What is it?" Amy asked.

The blue hedgehog put his feet firmly on the ground, pulling something out of the box with a smooth slide. He held his prize over his head- an elongated, soft plushy thing twice Sonic's size. From the looks of it, the thing had a bun, a hotdog in it, and chili with cheese on top of it.

"...a chilidog?"

"A chilidog bean bag, my dear echidna!"

With a giant smile, Sonic placed the bean bag down across from where Tails' recliner was, leaping in to lay face-down on the big chilidog. He sunk in slowly, air audibly hissing from the bean bag as the other three watched him pretty much get devoured.

He let out a long moan as he fully relaxed.

"This is heaven. I think Chaos did kill me and I was sent to heaven…"

"Dude…"

"Sonic, c'mon!"

Knuckles chuckled instead of scolding the hedgehog. Seeing Tails and Amy staring at him, he quickly stopped his uncharacteristic, Sonic-like amusement. The echidna cleared his throat in the awkward silence after.

Strolling over to Sonic, Amy pulled the hedgehog up to his feet and off of the bean bag.

"C'mon Sonic, we gotta leave."

"But I just got the bean baaaaag…"

"Yeah, well, someone promised Vanilla his fox friend would set up the website for her upcoming mayoral campaign."

"And I can't drive!" Tails added.

"You can fly a plane!"

"That's different."

"Why do I have to come, though?" Sonic asked Amy, exasperated.

"She's practically your aunt, and you were on the verge of dying like, three months ago. She'll want to see you." Amy looped arms with him, leading him out. "Besides, staying indoors and wallowing in all your free stuff is turning your brain into chili."

"Ooh, chili…"

"Sonny. Focus." Amy snapped in his face. "I get there hasn't been any significant bad guys in the last few months, but you never know when another one will strike."

"What, I can't enjoy some free time on my own until that happens?"

"I never said that. I just… I have this bad feeling something is going to happen soon." Amy replied. Knuckles opened the door for them to leave, Tails trailing behind them. "When I was on the fleet months ago, I had this… vision. It looked like you, but… he had a scar over his left eye. He looked disheveled, but he had your clothes."

"You think it was me?"

"I never know with psychic visions. All I felt was… the intensity of anger, the heat of a scream." Amy shrugged, walking with Sonic to the elevator. "But… What I'm getting at is… you know, I don't really wanna risk it. If we have to go to Vanilla's, I'd rather you go with us instead of being home alone."

Sonic glanced at Amy for a moment. With the ding of the lift doors opening, he let out a sigh, a small smile still on his face.

"Alright, alright. I like Vanilla's carrot cake anyways."

"She adds too much cream cheese icing for me." Tails remarked as the group got into the elevator. The doors closed a moment after.

"Speaking of which," Amy unhooked her arm from Sonic's. "Cream wants to see you, Tails. She's got a bunch of new gizmo prototypes that HEXAeco created that she would love for you to tweak with."

"I was under the assumption that HEXAeco created technology that provided energy to citizens." Knuckles interjected, an eyebrow raised.

"They did! But with Vanilla trying to campaign for a better, more advanced technological future for Station Square, she's altering her company to become an applied science company instead of simply an energy provider." Amy replied. "She's created prototypes that she hopes to provide to the local government systems- medical services, firefighters, the works- to keep them up to date on the best technology."

"Then there's stuff Cream builds on her own just for kicks."

"C'mon, can you blame her, Tails? It feels like she can finally show her full potential with a mom that can engineer incredible inventions. You're just jealous because she's catching up with you."

"I don't care if she's catching up with me!" Tails replied defensively. "I'd honestly love another intelligent sidekick on the team. It just makes us look good."

"And it makes us look good to have you with us!"

"Don't push it, Sonic."

They got to the lobby, walking out of the apartment complex to the deep blue car that waited for them outside. As stated previously, as a thank you gift from the oddball tanuki running the local car dealership, Amy was presented with a brand spanking new car- the Drift Breeze, or simply calling it by its model, The Breeze.

Much like the Rascal (R.I.P.) The Breeze was a convertible, but this time only a two-door car. Sonic and Knuckles jumped into the backseat, letting Amy and Tails use the doors to sit in the front. Amy put her hammer purse on the floor in the back, before starting up her new car.

"Welcome. Please be wary and obey traffic laws while using this automative system." The center console spoke- much like the model of the car, Amy simply referred to the car's artificial assistant as Breeze.

They pulled off and drove down the streets of Station Square. However, a block away, an ice cream truck pulled away from its curb and began to follow a few cars behind.

With construction still underway all around, the streets were still relatively empty. Pressure from Governor Pickle forced Velox to give the citizens of the city payments in order to renovate their destroyed apartments, both from his pocket and with assistance to the very sympathetic President of the UF.

Because of this, a lot of people were busy cleaning up and rebuilding their apartments and businesses, keeping the street clear for construction workers to rebuild public areas, like the park with a statue of the city's indigenous founder Moon River.

Not all construction workers were under the city's payroll, however. The team drove past a large fenced off area with a giant sign on it- "COMING SOON, IN CONJUNCTION WITH BREEZE MEDIA: CASINO PARK"

Good to know Vickie Park was keeping busy.

Sonic nodded along with the guitar playing through the radio, tapping and swiping his finger across his phone as he played a mobile rhythm game with a pink-haired reporter in space. It was weird, but he loved it.

Leaning on his door, Knuckles looked at everything passing by. He spotted a lone person on the sidewalk, wearing the mascot uniform for Meh Burger's Burger Man, waving slowly. The person slowly turned their head, staring directly at Knuckles as The Breeze passed by them.

Since the streets were empty, it was easier for Knuckles to notice the ice cream truck following them, spotting it as his head followed the mysterious mascot waving eerily at him. Ever the subtle one, he flipped in the backseat, staring at the truck but not seeing the drivers through tinted glass.

"Sonic…"

"Knuckles, we already went through this, you can't play when you have your gloves on."

"No, not that. I think we're being followed."

That statement got everyone's attention. Tails turned in his seat to look at what Knuckles was looking at. Sonic locked his phone, peering over his shoulder, and Amy's eyes flicked to and from the rearview mirror.

"The ice cream truck? It has to be a coincidence." The fox said.

"Why would an ice cream truck be here? The city's all inside to renovate their buildings."

"They need something to cool down from all the work?"

"It's the middle of fall. I doubt they'd get overheated with how chilly it's been here."

Amy looked one more time at the ice cream truck- she got a bad feeling in her stomach from just looking at it, whether that be her psychic abilities or just a gut feeling. On a whim, she pulled away and onto the interstate, planning on taking the long way to the HEXAeco building.

Sure enough, behind The Breeze, the ice cream truck pulled onto the interstate as well.

"Aaaand now he's followed us to the interstate. What kid on the interstate wants a disfigured Sonic ice cream pop on a chilly autumnal afternoon?" Knuckles asked, looking at Tails.

"Okay, nobody panic." Amy said. "We've all gotten just a little on edge. How about we play some tunes to calm us down while we figure out a plausible explanation as to why an ice cream truck is following us?"

She reached over, turning on the radio and turning it up. It was the end of a song, the guitar playing out the tune before voices came through the speaker.

"You're listening to 95.1 FM, Set Jet Radio. This is Pico and Saturn in the Afternoon!" A guy said on air. If you listened casually, you would know that this was the titular Saturn.

"That was another banger from the King of Pop himself! But we're interjecting here with a new breaking news story coming down from Westopolis," A woman, presumably Pico, continued. "It seems that Station Square's own superhero, Sonic the Hedgehog, is currently being investigated for causing a major disturbance there! It says he reached speeds so powerful it shattered the windows of multiple businesses and cars, as well as tore up the streets! Literally! I wonder what he was rushing for…"

"You what?!" Tails turned around and looked at Sonic.

"I didn't do that! I haven't even been to Westopolis!" The blue blur replied defensively. "At least, I think I haven't…"

"You think?!"

"I was given golden god powers through the power of positive thinking a few months ago, Amy, anything is possible at this point!"

The four swiftly noticed that the ice cream truck was picking up speed, now coasting right beside them. The logo on the side, which simply said "I SCREAM" was slowly peeling off, the corner of it flicking from the power of the wind as both cars were driving at high speeds.

Soon after, the entire sticker came off, revealing the 'G' of a GUN logo underneath. The front passenger window of the truck opened, a GUN agent there, staring at Team Sonic with the shaded goggles attached to his helmet.

"Oh crap." Amy said.

The passenger agent pumped something that looked like a shotgun, aiming it at the group.

"Th-They wouldn't shoot an innocent kid, would they?!" Tails exclaimed.

"I don't think so!"

Part of Amy felt like that statement was false.

"Uh, hi! Look, I know someone did something bad up in Westopolis, but that wasn't—"

Sonic suddenly sneezed, interrupting his statement. Directly after, the gun fired, sending a red-feathered dart directly into Sonic's chest.

"Sonic!" Everyone in The Breeze said at once.

The blue hedgehog pulled the dart from his chest, looking it over.

"Ugh. A poison dart is so… cliche…"

With that, he passed out, landing across the seat with his face pressed down into the cushion. A loud, but muffled snore came from the now sleeping hedgehog.

"Oh good, it wasn't poison." Knuckles sighed with relief.

Tails leaned forwards, against the glovebox and dashboard of the car, the Vulcan Cannon forming over his hand. He launched a dummy ring from the crimson cannon, aiming accordingly to land perfectly through the passenger window.

It hit the dart gun, knocking it out of the agent's hands. Because he was holding it out of the window, it dropped to the street, ran over by the truck and crushed to pieces.

Reaching behind her, Amy pulled the bag from the backseat with a quick yank. Whipping the bag around, it automatically transformed into the hammer with a flick of her wrist, extending out in front of Tails.

Amy tilted the hammer in front of her next, pointing the hammerhead towards the pursuing van.

One of the new features of her brand-spanking-new hammer was the addition of special commands. Tails had created a special new handle that responded to pressure from different fingers. It was truly a marvel in hammer technology.

With a press of her first two fingers, the pole of the hammer extended out, stretching as far as Amy held her fingers down. The hammerhead flew into the passenger window, slamming against the passenger agent's face. It didn't knock him out, but it did hit hard.

Though she couldn't exactly see it (eyes were on the road) Amy could feel that her extended hammer was grabbed by the people in the car- most likely both driver and passenger agents. She held on as tightly as she could as the opposing agents tried pulling the hammer away from her grip.

Amy's body twisted as her hammer was pulled away from her, partially messing up her steering ability. She looked between the road and the other car, before pressing a button on the wheel with her free hand.

"Tails?"

"Huh?"

"The Breeze's on cruise. Take the wheel."

Tails perked up, wide eyes watching as Amy let go of the steering wheel to hang onto her hammer, standing up on the seat and putting a foot on the door to brace herself. The fox scrambled over and grabbed onto the wheel to keep it steady.

"I told you I don't know how to drive!"

"Just pretend you're driving a plane!"

"I SAID THAT WAS DIFFERENT!"

The fox kept the car steady, with Amy playing tug-o-war with her hammer to try and get it away from the drivers in the next car. In the backseat, Knuckles was gently smacking Sonic's face to try and get him to wake up.

Grabbing Sonic's jaw, Knuckles shook his sleeping face.

"Sonic… C'mon, wake up!" He grunted.

Knuckles lifted his hand and smacked Sonic in the face harder than usual. After a second, his eyes widened, looking at his hand as if contemplating what he did.

"What if that just knocked him out deeper?" He murmured to himself. The echidna went back to shaking the hedgehog to wake him up.

With the freeway empty, both cars swerved together across the lines as they tried to keep up with each other. The truck steered to and from the Breeze to try and get Amy to let go of the hammer (or even fall) and Tails made sure to steer in the appropriate way in response.

As the driver was trying to keep the hammer at bay, the passenger grabbed another dart shotgun from the wall behind their seat, hanging on a door that led to the back compartments of the truck.

The passenger agent turned around, pointing the shotgun weapon out of the window and towards the Mobians in the car.

"Tails, tails!"

Rather than saying her fox friend's name twice, Amy was giving out a command to her companion for him to react within a second's notice. Tails ducked down, still hanging onto the steering wheel to keep it steady, but unrolled both his tails upwards.

Amy flung herself back, both feet on the door now, the tails set up perfectly for her to land on. Pulling her hammer back, the other end of the hammer slammed into the back of the passenger agent, making him let go of the shotgun. The weapon clattered onto the speeding concrete, bouncing once perfectly to get run over by the back tire, crushed to pieces.

Making sure both hands were on the handle, Amy squeezed the handle of her hammer with the bottom hand, all five fingers, activating another command.

The hammerhead expanded rapidly, like a balloon, activating a feature not unlike her long hammer mode from her hammer's earlier version. The expanded hammerhead slammed into both agents in the truck, knocking them around and making the truck swerve.

Deactivating the long hammer form, Amy let the hammer slip through the window, flipping back into the passenger seat with her hammer in both of her hands. Tails, in the driver's seat, slammed on the gas to evade the swerving truck.

Though they managed to compose themselves only a minute after, the truck was still behind the Breeze, beginning to speed up directly behind the sports car as they continued to barrel down the freeway on the cool autumn's night.

"See? You're doing fine." Amy pat Tails' back as the teenager kept the car going.

Right after the vote of assurance, the truck rammed into the back of the Breeze, making Tails let out a noise of fear and jostle the wheel slightly. The truck behind them slowed down, clearly intending to ram into them again, most likely to run them off the road.

"Ugh! My car!" Amy ushered Tails away from the driver's seat and took her car back, grabbing the wheel and keeping the petal to the metal. "Knuckles, can you take care of that?"

The echidna nodded. Knuckles let Sonic lay in the backseat, getting up and swinging his legs over the trunk of the Breeze. He slowly slid down the metal of the car, hanging onto the opening of the convertible, so his legs were hanging off the back edge.

Undeterred, the truck sped up again as the GUN agents inside went to ram into them again. Instead, with his legs out, Knuckles stopped them dead in their tracks with his feet, keeping them a safe distance away from the car as they attempted to speed up. The truck's engine revved up loudly, the driver attempting to speed into the car but unable to move forwards due to the echidna keeping them back. Knuckles bent his legs slightly at the revving, staring the driver down with a small scowl.

The passenger agent slammed his fist on the door leading to the back.

"Agent Mercury, I think you're up!" He yelled.

Knuckles straightened his legs out, kicking the truck back with the incredible force of the strongest Mobian alive. The truck was spun, spinning out of control as Knuckles climbed back into the car, watching the truck whirl with squealing tires.

Suddenly, the backdoors of the truck burst open as something slammed through them, perfectly positioned so the doors were facing the Breeze. It was someone riding a motorcycle, a white and blue motorcycle, wearing a black and gold jumpsuit.

Human eyes stared down the group as before the agent pulled down her helmet's face shield, the gold reflective cover mirroring the confused expression Knuckles had as he watched the cyclist speed up.

"Oh no." Knuckles said. Tails turned around at that, looking past him.

"'Oh no' is right. That's an Omnitempus R!"

"A what-tempus-what-now?"

"It's the fastest motorcycle ever made, meant to travel over every terrain."

"How fast does it go?" Amy asked the fox.

"Over two-hundred-and-fifty miles per hour. That's like, fifty more than this thing can go."

Agent Mercury revved her motorcycle to the max, speeding towards the Breeze at top speeds and steering to drive beside it. She simply leaned in, while Knuckles was distracted by the conversation in the front seat, grabbing Sonic by his collar and putting him in the compartment on the back of the motorcycle.

"Sonic!" Amy yelled, watching the agent speed ahead of them.

"Can't this thing go any faster?" Knuckles asked.

"The petal is to the metal Knux, and last I checked you aren't paying for gas!"

"Keep driving." Tails summoned the Vulcan Cannon into his hand, turning back to Knuckles. "Knuckles, ring sling."

He shot a dummy ring at the echidna, who caught it easily. The tether was activated, and Tails jumped out of the car, quickly flying to keep up as much as he could at that speed. He didn't want to exceed the car, so the tether could get tight.

Knuckles gripped the ring with both hands, looking forwards towards the escaping Mercury.

"Go!"

At Tails' command, Knuckles swung the tether as hard as he could towards Mercury, whipping the fox around and flinging him forwards with a powerful swing of his arms.

Deactivating the tether and his cannon, Tails used both hands to grab onto Mercury once he finally caught up to her, grabbing onto her jumpsuit and causing her to swerve slightly. The fox reached up to try and grab onto the handlebars, wanting to hit the brakes, but his hand was smacked away by Mercury.

The agent wildly smacked a hand behind her, hitting Tails in the face and knocking him back. The fox landed on the seat, leaning back against the compartment he knew that Sonic was in. Tails scrambled over to open it, starting to slam his fist into the plastic lock that was keeping it closed.

Up ahead, the overpass ended with a road straight ahead, and two exits leading to other freeways. Mercury granted what the fox wanted- she hit the brakes, causing the tires to squeal and smoke as she slowed to a stop. The agent swung the back of her cycle around to skid to a stop.

With no grip on the bike, Tails was flung away, able to swirl his tails in time to slow his descent, only flopping across the road at a smaller speed than it was before.

Picking himself up, Tails looked up at Agent Mercury, who was staring back. Her attention was pulled away to the car that was quickly headed towards her. It was Amy, of course, with Knuckles still in the front seat. It was unclear if the pink hedgehog was going to hit the agent, or simply pull in front of her to try and prevent her from driving off.

It didn't matter either way. Flicking something open on the handlebars, Agent Mercury pressed the glowing red button underneath. Tails witnessed from where he was sitting, inside the area where the engine was, seven separate tubes of different colors glowed brightly, showing off the shards of some kind of crystal inside of it. It made a rainbow glow that shined through the Omnitempus, before the engine roared again.

The cycle sped off, this time followed by the rainbow path of the crystal drives inside of Mercury's engine. She was going much, much faster this time, down the exit and underpass within a moment, becoming a colorful streak down the road.

Amy slammed on the breaks. Tails winced, blocking his face with a hand as the Breeze came to a stop merely half a foot in front of him. Both driver and passenger were out in a moment, with Amy watching Mercury drive off with their friend in her motorcycle.

Knuckles got Tails to his feet.

"Ugh… dang it!" Amy kicked the side of her car gently in anger.

The three stood around the car, eventually catching headlights in the distance on the overpass. That GUN truck was finally catching up- however, the team watched it slow to a stop, signal to turn, and then head down the exit, as if forgetting the others were even there.

"What're we gonna do now?" Knuckles asked.

"We have to save Sonic." Amy replied with the obvious, climbing into the driver's seat. The others followed suit, with Knuckles climbing in the back. "Maybe hope that crazy cycle lady won't come after us again. How did she do that?"

"She has some kind of crystal thing enhancing that Omnitempus' engine." Tails replied, watching Amy drive down the road. "It's making her as fast as Sonic! GUN's had this tech all this time?"

"Or maybe just recently."

"Knowing GUN, I'm going for the former." The pink hedgehog replied to Knuckles. "Tower's always been weird about Sonic. I think he was just waiting for an excuse to unleash everything he had against him."

"So how are we gonna get Sonic?"

"We're gonna bust him out!"

"Bust him out? Of prison?" Knuckles asked.

"We don't even know where he went, Amy."

"We can ask Chaotix to find them."

"It's probably super high tech!"

"We can ask Cream to get us some tech to break in. Big can supervise her."

"Amy…" Tails said. "I appreciate the go-get-em attitude, but we're only as good as a bunch of young vigilantes would be at, y'know, doing a prison bust! It's not like what you see on television."

"Besides, aren't we supposed to detest crime?" Knuckles interjected. "Though I suppose the act of us being vigilantes is technically us being criminals… hm…"

"Criminals…" Amy murmured. After a moment of staring at the open road, she sighed. "Tails, call Vector."

"You're really gonna ask Chaotix to look for that prison?"

"No. To look for something else. Someone else."

---

PRESENT DAY…

Well this sucks.

Sonic kicked his feet idly as he sat in the metal chair, his hands cuffed to a small ring that was attached to the table ahead of him.

After being held in a prison cell for a whole day, Sonic was finally released… only to be shuffled to this interrogation room and told to wait.

He was surprised that this interrogation room was a lot like the ones he saw on television. Dark room, a simple metal table in front of him and sitting in a very uncomfortable metal chair. There was a plastic pitcher of water and two paper cups on the table.

Part of Sonic told him he could easily escape his restraints, run out of the building and return home. But another part of him told him that it would only make him look incredibly guilty if he ran, so he should definitely just face this problem head-on.

A smaller part of Sonic told him they probably had a dozen booby traps outside the door that would either apprehend or eradicate Sonic instantly.

The door opened, making Sonic look up quickly to see who was coming in, to his left.

Stark white hair, two different colored eyes and a stone face of neutrality- behind door number one was Commander Abraham Tower.

"Commander Tower!" Sonic exclaimed. "I never thought I'd be happy to see you. You have to tell your guys to let me outta here, I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Don't act dumb. You know what you did."

The hedgehog looked at him, bewildered.

"Oh sweet Mobius, not you too."

"I'm the one who put out the warrant for your arrest."

"Look, Tower, I know we haven't really been the best of friends, but… do you really think I did this? I'm a good guy!"

"That's what they all say." Tower replied in a deadpan, sitting down across from Sonic and tossing a file onto the table. "They make a grand speech about what they're doing is the betterment of mankind, how it'll change the world. You look up to them, expect them to save the world… then you wake up and find everything you love turned to ash."

"...that's awfully specific, do you want to talk about something?"

Tower didn't reply. He reached over, pouring himself a small cup of water, taking a sip.

"What did you do with the gravity diverter?"

"The gravity… diverter?"

"Yes. The component you stole from our vaults here in Westopolis. Where is it?"

"Tower, dude, I don't even know what a gravity diverter is." Sonic replied. "What would I possibly do with something like that?"

"That's for you to know, and me to find out."

"I didn't do anything!"

"DON'T act like you're free of consequence!" Tower barked. Sonic jumped a bit at the sudden exclamation, unexpected from someone like the Commander. "You let those powers of yours get to your head, and now you're finally found out. You can't play dumb and get out of this one."

"I assure you… I'm never playing about that."

Tower slammed his hand into the table, making a loud slam as he did.

"You're going to tell me where that gravity diverter is, and you're going to tell me now." Tower hissed, his eyebrows furrowing in an icy glare, leaning in. "That remnant is one of the final pieces of the Space Colony ARK remaining after the Project: Eclipse incident, fifty years ago. Whatever idiotic excuse for a plan you're making makes me sick to my stomach. People have died!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sonic replied loudly, defensively. "Space Colony ARK? Project Eclipse? Nothing you're saying makes any sense!"

"We know Ivo Robotnik accessed the encrypted files about the ARK. Since you're so close with him, I expected that he'd show you something about the incident that occurred instead of leaving you in the dark."

"Ivo accessed files about that big arch thing in the midwest?"

Commander Tower sputtered, red in the face, utterly baffled at what Sonic was saying. The door opened again, a decorated GUN agent rolling in an old television on a rolling shelf, like something you'd see brought into a classroom. Part of Sonic wished it was Topaz rolling that TV in, but alas, she was nowhere to be seen.

Grabbing the remote from a shelf under the TV, Tower turned it on, the video of a security camera feed playing on screen. From the date at the bottom, Sonic could see that this video was taken about five days prior. It was black and white, and there was no sound, but the video quality was very good.

It was recording a long hallway, with a glass wall and door seen at the end. There was clearly a keycard scanner beside the door for somebody to swipe their ID and get into this area, most likely the aforementioned vault that was broken into.

Sonic watched, eyebrows furrowing as he saw the hallway stay empty for a moment.

On the screen, suddenly, a streak of something came in, stopping directly in front of the glass door, his back to the camera. It was a hedgehog, clearly, but there was something off about this kind of hedgehog. He was wearing Sonic's clothes- the jacket, the track pants, even the shoes.

What looked like electricity crackled off of the hedgehog's body, creating black streaks on the walls around him as it burned everything it touched. Sonic's eyes widened as he looked upon his imposter, standing perfectly still in front of the glass door.

They could see on the feed- the faker brought his hand up, before simply snapping his fingers.

The glass door and wall shattered instantly, the pieces of glass falling to the ground. From the flashing lights around the faker, it was clear that the alarms were instantly set off at that moment.

Switching the feed to a camera inside of this vault, Sonic watched as, in a blur that nearly obscured the camera, everything was opened and tossed around the room. The faker stopped when he got a bag that he set on the center counter of the room, only half of his face seen as he rummaged through it.

It was hard to make out, but Sonic felt that there were a few things wrong with him. Disheveled quills, darker quilless spots… probably shorter.

The faker retrieved his prize- a strange device with a rapidly spinning, glowing core. He gave the nearby security camera a side eye, before he was off again, racing out of the room in a blur before he disappeared from either camera, the boost coming off of this faker shattering the lights in the hallway, making everything go dark.

Tower ended the tape.

"Tower, that wasn't me. I'm not lying!" Sonic pleaded. "I wasn't anywhere near Westopolis then. I was in Station Square with my friends!"

"Accomplices making excuses for people found red-handed. They're lucky we didn't go after them, too." The commander replied. "You were caught stealing important GUN property!"

"That's not me!"

"That- THAT'S NOT YOU?!" Tower yelled, reversing the tape and watching the faker move. "This is 4k definition! WE CAUGHT YOU IN 4K DEFINITION!"

Commander Tower paused the tape on the faker eyeing the camera, slamming down the remote.

"Your weak jokes are a diversion, your crimes against this country will not go unpunished! You will spend the rest of your life rotting on Prison Island, the Devil's Gulag, just like that other Robotnik who tried to continue that damned professor's plans! You make a mockery of this country and yourself by acting as if you're some kind of hero! You're not! Now TELL ME WHAT YOU DID WITH THE GRAVITY DIVERTER!"

Sonic was twisted slightly, in a defensive position, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide as he stared at the commander in utter shock.

"...Tower, this is the most emotion I've ever seen you show since we've met." Sonic said. "Do you want a number to a therapist or something? There's one I've been seeing semi-regularly, and…"

"Take him away!" Tower barked out the door.

Two agents came in, undoing Sonic's restraints but locking him up in separate ones, including a pair that went around his ankles. The hedgehog was lifted up by his arms and legs to keep him from going anywhere.

"You're making a mistake!"

"No, I'm doing what's right. I've been waiting for this day for a long, long time."

Looking back, Sonic watched Tower glare at him while he was carried away. Not struggling against his restraints or the agents holding onto him, Sonic was carried back to his cell deep within the facility, tossed inside.

Sonic landed with a grunt, shaking his head after to compose himself. With his body still restrained, it was a bit more difficult to get to his feet.

"Stay still, hedgehog." One of the agents said. "The transport helicopter will be here soon to take you to Prison Island. Hope you really like the taste of gruel."

The hedgehog watched as the agents walked away, leaving Sonic alone. Sonic sighed, sitting on the bed provided in the cell as he thought over what he saw on that television. Somebody was pretending to be him? If he had a nickel for every time someone was copying him…

Well, he'd have two nickels. Not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice, right?

His cell had no windows, so he couldn't look longingly out into the city to wait for his transport. Part of him wondered what his friends were doing- if they were trying to get him out of this cell the legal way, or the incredibly illegal way.

Sonic was split on which one would be much more satisfying to him.

He'd have to settle on the latter option soon, however. Sonic didn't notice that his shoes- a new pair of shoes gifted to him by his beloved Soap brand- was starting to blink. These pairs of shoes were given a few upgrades by Tails, but were also bugged with a tracking device that the hedgehog didn't know about.

This tracking device led to the Miles Electric, which was in a car currently parked down the street from the very clearly marked GUN facility. The green sedan camouflaged nicely in the bushes, allowing Tails to peer at the facility without risk of being seen.

The aforementioned tablet beeped, in coordination with the distant shoes' blinking, in the back seat of the sedan beside where Tails was sitting.

"What's making that noise, Tails?"

"It's the tracking device on his tablet, Uncle Big!" Cream said to Big, who was in the driver's seat. "It's emitting a frequency that nobody can hear in that facility, but using echolocation to give Tails an accurate reading of the entire building!"

"...how long were you waiting to tell Big that?"

"So long. It's one of my best ideas! I'm glad Tails implemented it."

"Wow, Cream. I'm sure that's the best emitter ever!"

Tails watched a model of the floor Sonic was on be created from his very eyes. He got a detailed look at Sonic's cell, and around it, but the further away it went, the more predictive the design was of the facility.

Bringing his tablet up, Tails peered through the camera, spotting where Sonic was located from a blinking blue dot on his screen. He was right in front of the back transport area, where he would soon be loaded up and taken to a transport helicopter that would land somewhere closeby.

"Sonic's near the back parking area thing." The fox said. "You're sure Charmy has correct information about the guards, right?"

"C'mon Tails, have faith!" Cream replied, turning in her seat to look at Tails. "He spent a whole twelve hours staking this place out to get that info!"

"Right… guess I'm just a little nervous."

"We got this, Tails! Sonic will be busted out in no time!"

The encouragement helped Tails feel a bit better, but he snorted a bit at the statement.

"I never expected someone like you to say something like that, Cream."

"Hey, since Cheese and Froggy are being sat for this adventure, I can say anything I want without fear of negative influence!" She gasped. "Is this what my mom feels like when I'm off doing Team Sonic stuff?"

"Probably. It's probably the same for Big, too."

"Huh?" Big looked away when he heard his name called, flipping his sun visor closed, having been longingly looking at a photo of Froggy that was clipped inside of it.

Before he could be caught up, a chao-themed walkie talkie that was on the dashboard in front of Cream started talking through a bit of static.

"Pinky to Hip-hop, come in, Hip-hop."

Cream took the walkie talkie and spoke into it.

"This is Hip-hop. What's the 411?"

"Chuckles and I are in position. Everything ready to go?"

"The Froginator and Music Maker need to get in their spots, but that should only take a minute. You're all free to engage."

"Everyone set?" Amy asked through the radio.

"Hoons are set, love."

"The Gumshoes are ready!"

"Phase one of three is a go."

"Music Maker?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because of your tablet beeping. I dunno, I couldn't think of anything else." Cream said. "Hand over the tablet and get out there."

Tails passed the tablet over to Cream, the rabbit sliding down and hunkering in her seat to keep as hidden as she could. She held the tablet in both hands, looking over the diagram of the entire building.

The entire sedan shifted as Big got out, followed by Tails. Pulling his backpack around his body, Tails pulled out a small square and placed it on Big's chest, two straps extending out to keep it on Big's chest. He pressed the small black screen at the center of the white square until it glowed red.

"The Change Rig should activate once you're in vicinity of its target." Tails said to the cat. "Just stick to the plan and I promise you won't get hurt, Big."

"Okay…"

With spinning tails, the fox flew off to get in position. Big started treading down the road to the front side of the building, gently picking at one of the straps on the Change Rig.

Down at the front side of the facility, inside of the gated off part of the building's parking lot, a hole was punched through the concrete by a spiked fist. Knuckles climbed out, pulling Amy out next so they were at the edge of the lot. They dusted themselves off of dirt.

"Ugh. Haven't done that in years." Amy said.

"Same here! I've been meaning to start doing it more recently."

Lowering their bodies slightly to sneak, they crept down the front of the building to get to the front doors. On security cameras they would probably look very dumb- but that didn't matter to them, because the more people on them the better.

Amy peeked out from a corner of the building, looking over at the front doors.

"Ready, Knux?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

Agents of GUN were walking in and out of the glass doors of their Westopolis division, some chatting on phones and some to each other. They were dressed formally, very plainly, though some were in uniform- most likely as the Guardian Units of Nations was formed as an offshoot of the military.

There were only a few agents on the steps at the moment, as Amy and Knuckles strolled out to the section of the street in front of it.

"Wow, Knuckles, I sure am tired after assisting Sonic the Hedgehog with that incident in downtown Westopolis!" Amy said loudly.

"Yes. It is good that we were able to get away and Sonic was not." Knuckles replied stiffly. He definitely was not a good actor.

"Now we're here inconspicuously in order to conspire with our friend and figure out why he did what he did! I'm sure there's nothing anybody would do to interrupt our plan."

Both of them stood still, pausing for effect. Turning their heads, they looked up the steps of the building, seeing that GUN agents were shuffling in and out like normal. It was like they didn't even hear what Amy and Knuckles said.

Amy and Knuckles stared blankly.

"...should we try it again?" Knuckles asked. "Perhaps I could've done better with my acting…"

"Knuckles, you did great. I think these guys are just dead inside."

"How are we gonna get their attention, then?"

A black car came to a screeching halt right beside Knuckles, the echidna not reacting but Amy jumping and scrambling slightly. The driver of said car laid on the horn, clearly upset that two Mobians were blocking their way.

The driver window rolled down.

"Hey! Get outta the road, aardvark!"

"I am not an aardvark. I am an echidna warrior. Knuckles the Echidna."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! I have very important business things to do, so get out of the way, Nipples the Enchilada!"

Knuckles' eyebrows furrowed, both in annoyance and mild anger at the misinterpretation of his name. Before Amy could say anything to him, the echidna leaned down and grabbed onto the front fender of the black car tightly.

"You first."

With a swing of Knuckles' arm, the car was pushed backwards, tires squealing and smoking at the black car forcibly reversed across the lot, crashing back-first into the fence.

Satisfied, Knuckles dusted off his mitts.

"FREEZE!"

Suddenly, Amy and Knuckles were surrounded by GUN agents pointing various weapons towards them. Both Mobians had their hands raised immediately, surrendering to the group.

"Yes!" The pink hedgehog said. "I mean, oh nooooo…"

The agents came up behind the pair, forcing both of their arms down to put them in cuffs and force them into the glass doors of the facility. Because of the scramble due to Sonic's same-day transport, they didn't really bother to do a deep search of the two, just taking away Amy's bag and Knuckles' mitts.

As they were escorted away, Amy noticed she was being led away from where Knuckles was headed. This was definitely intentional, and Amy was sure she was going to be put in a cell that was far away from where Sonic was- that didn't matter, the plan could still be put in motion no matter how far or close the team was from one another.

Amy was placed in a cell in an empty hallway, one with bars akin to a stereotypical prison. The doors closed swiftly, a keycard reader turning red to signal to anyone that the doors were locked.

"Don't even try to get out. Those bars are reinforced steel, and last I checked, you weren't as strong as that echidna friend of yours."

Amy stood quietly, staring straight ahead. The agent, though dissatisfied with their taunt not being reacted to, walked away. The pink hedgehog stood right at the door, staring blankly ahead for a solid minute, doing nothing.

After a moment, she tilted her head, brushing her tongue against one of her back teeth.

"Team Breakout, you read me?" She murmured.

"Loud and clear Amy! Er, Pinky." Cream said on the other side.

"Are you sure nobody can see or hear this thing?"

"The Communication Crown delivers sounds through vibrations into your jaw and to your inner ear. It's like those musical toothbrushes that were all the rage a few years ago." Tails replied. "They work like a normal dental crown, Amy. It's meant to look like a tooth. Ready to start phase two?"

"I sure am. Make the cameras go dark for a moment."

Amy waited for a moment or two for the signal. There was a warping sound somewhere from afar as an EMP generator went off, created by Tails, making the keypad and lights flicker for a moment.

From information gathered by Charmy, the security cameras were efficient, but had a flaw- it took a whole minute for them to properly restart. Amy spotted the camera down the hall, still turned off when the lights came back on, and turned her hand over to press a button under her single rose gold bracelet.

It popped open, but split in half, creating four spider-like legs that crawled to Amy's palm. She offered it to the bars, letting the spider-bracelet crawl across the bars towards the keypad.

"Are you sure your mom's alright with turning her bracelet into a hacking device?"

"Eh, she'll get over it. What's she gonna do, leave me again?"

"Amy!"

"What? I'm just kidding!" The hedgehog said defensively to Cream.

The spider-bracelet got to the keypad, pushing its thin legs under the edge and popping it out of the wall slightly. It slid underneath the keypad and brought it back against the wall behind it, as if nothing happened.

"You should be let into the system, Hip-hop."

"Roger that, Pinky."

Down in the green sedan, still hidden, Cream watched as the Miles Electric was filled with a highly accurate diagram of the facility. She scrolled over to the security system, seeing it was nearly back online.

Part of the plan was for the entire building to look casual. Cream changed the camera views to a looped video that showed everything at peace, as well as the prisoned heroes doing absolutely nothing.

She went back to the diagram of the building. Cream zoomed into the intensive containment area, down to the red blinking dot she could recognize.

Cream pressed the red dot.

"Boop!"

Inside the intensive containment section, the thick stone and metal wall opened up slowly in front of Knuckles, the echidna peering out into the hallway. He touched his Communication Crown with his tongue, turning it on.

"Phase two is a go! You're up, Chuckles."

Knuckles smiled a bit, running out of the hallway and immediately running into a few agents standing around outside. The echidna paused, like a deer in headlights, as if wanting to be caught by the agents.

They noticed quickly.

"Hey! Freeze!"

The echidna made an exit stage right, pursued by the agents.

Outside, in the back transport area, there were two agents standing guard at the entrance point of the glorified parking garage, both wearing heavy body armor. They stared out into the backyard of the division building, down towards the landing area where the transport helicopter would soon be touching down.

One of the agents turned suddenly, eyebrows furrowed.

"You alright?" The other agent asked.

"Yeah… just thought that—"

The agent was interrupted by his body suddenly flinging back into the wall behind him, hit by an unseen force. Before the other agent could react, something dropped down and stepped on his helmet, forcing it to obscure his eyes.

Taking a moment to get the helmet from over his eyes, the agent looked in time for the end of a nunchuck to hit him across the face with a whack, making the agent yell in pain.

Charmy spun the nunchucks around, passing it over his shoulder to hit the agent with an upwards swing, then passing it behind his body and hitting him one last time with a downwards swing of the nunchucks, making the agent fall to the ground and groan in pain. The bee tucked one end of his weapon under his arm, holding out his hand in a defensive position if the agent got back up.

The invisible force slammed the first agent's helmet-covered head into the wall, knocking him out but saving him from any serious injury. Espio reappeared, eyeing the bee and the stance he was in.

"You really like those nunchucks, eh?"

Easing up, Charmy perked at the question, spinning the nunchucks in his hand again.

"They're awesome! They make me feel like those turtles on TV!" He said. "I'm so glad Mr. Kaziwaka taught me how to use them! Or… would I have to call him dad now, because Miss Alianna…?"

"Charmy." Espio said curtly, making the bee go quiet. The chameleon looked into the transport area, at the different parking spots, seeing the back wall where the cells were- one of them had Sonic in it.

He turned on his communication device.

"This is Espio—"

"Who?"

Espio sighed deeply at Cream's interruption.

"This is Hayabusa." He corrected himself. "Where's the cell that Inky is in?"

"It's cell number seventy-seven."

"Hmmm, let's see." Charmy tapped his chin. He pointed out near the door leading into the facility. "Each parking spot is half of a cell, the cells start right about there… seventy-nine, seventy-eight, seventy-seven. There."

Espio quickly threw a kunai where Charmy pointed out, letting it sink into the wall right where Sonic's cell was to mark it.

"Welp, I did my job!" Charmy said. "I'm gonna go join Cream in the car. Stay safe!"

"Cheerio is on his way to you, Hip-hop." Espio said through the comms. "Hoons and Music Maker, you're up. I marked the wall for you- I'll commence on my next few tasks while the Froginator and Leatherhead continue theirs."

With that, the chameleon went invisible once more, just in time for the transport helicopter to start touching down behind the facility. Invisible footsteps kicked up dust towards the aircraft.

Back inside of the facility, agents continued to scramble across the hallways after the running red echidna, having lost him for a moment but quickly finding him again. A gaggle of the GUN agents were practically climbing on top of each other to try and catch the escaping Knuckles, a lot of them wondering why the alarm systems weren't going off at that moment. They tried using their comms, but found only static on the other end.

With the security cameras only showing everything peaceful in the facility, the camera feed watcher was too engrossed in his romance novel to actually see any inconsistencies in the feeds. With the radios taken out, there was no way for anyone to activate any alarms.

The groups of agents continued to try and go after Knuckles, just missing him as he managed to stay just far enough ahead to be leaving that corridor when the agents were entering.

Once they turned another corner, that group of agents suddenly crashed into another group, making all of them fall down and topple over each other.

"What're you doing?! You're letting that echidna get away?"

"Us? You're the one making us lose track of him!"

"He isn't even going that way!"

"Yes he is!"

The agents argued amongst each other, becoming increasingly suspicious of the echidna they were chasing. They split up again, running down the halls after where they thought Knuckles would be next.

Both groups found Knuckles. They ran quickly, moving further and further away from the holding cells and towards the front half of the facility, running past the offices. One office, specifically, had Commander Tower- he noticed the blur of red before watching his agents run after it.

His eyes squinted in a fairly monotone scowl, knowing something was up.

Keeping as close as they could on the echidna they saw, both groups led the Knuckles down the maze of halls towards the furthermost corner of the building.

Turning corners, the two Knuckles weren't paying attention, only turning in time to crash into one another with a loud crunch coming from somewhere. Both echidnas landed on their rears, their bodies flickering in and out to reveal the real people under the disguises.

"Ugh…" Vector rubbed his cheek. "Like getting hit with a freight train…"

"Uh oh…" Big looked down at his chest, seeing their collision caused both of their Change Rigs to shatter, disrupting their holographic disguises.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Big and Vector got up in time to see all the agents that were after them point various weapons to keep them still. They both put their hands up in surrender.

From around the corner nearby, Knuckles peered over and watched the pair surrender. He sighed, upset he had to leave his friends behind, before the real echidna warrior took off towards his next objective, back towards the holding cells.

In the green sedan, with a tap of the Miles Electric and a "boop" from Cream (now joined by Charmy), she pressed the pink dot on the diagram of the facility.

Amy's cell opened for her, the pink hedgehog looking for any guards before briskly walking down the hall. She activated her Communication Crown again.

"Everyone good?"

"Froginator and Leatherhead have everyone's attention. We're in the clear."

"Pssst."

Amy turned her head sharply. From the shadows, her bag was tossed towards her, and Amy caught it quickly. Opening it, she made sure everything was there- including Knuckles' mitts. She zipped it back up and put it over her body.

"All set, Espio?"

"Yes it is. Regroup with Knuckles and get ready- phase three should go without a hitch." The shadows replied to her.

"Right. It'll be a while until we see each other again, but… Be safe."

"You too, Amy."

The pink hedgehog ran away, intending to run into Knuckles somewhere near the back transport area, gripping onto her bag's strap. Espio, in the shadows but still invisible, headed down towards the front corner of the facility.

Those agents that were holding Vector and Big in place had scattered a bit, a few going to secure heavy-duty restraints for the powerful Mobians, and a few going to inform Commander Tower of what was happening. Tower brushed them off, not caring about the pair, instead headed back to find his prisoner.

There were only four agents holding Vector and Big still, still aiming weapons at them.

Suddenly, one of the rifles shifted, as if something unseen hit it, before it was pulled over and hitting another agent in the face. The weaponless agent was kicked into the back wall by someone invisible.

Espio, still unseen, yanked the weapons away from the other agents, throwing them all away and shoving them back. He reached into his jacket, throwing a bunch of shurikens (which came into view when they left his hand) towards the agents.

They didn't hit the agents, but instead their clothes, causing all of them to become pinned to the wall. Espio became visible again as Vector and Big slowly put their arms back down.

"Hayabusa here," Espio said into the comms. "Got our getaway ready?"

"Ready and revving up the engine!"

"Charmy, you're not driving Big's car."

"He's driving Big's car?!" Vector forced open the chameleon's mouth, speaking into it. "CHARMY, GET AWAY FROM THE WHEEL!"

Espio swiftly kneed Vector in the gut, making him groan and double over.

"Let's go."

They left soon after that, leaving the agents behind.

Back in the holding cells, Sonic sat quietly, thinking everything over still. He had barely noticed the flickering lights, the running agents, the chattering. He was too engrossed in the appearance of that mysterious dark hedgehog that was currently ruining his life.

Not that it took much. That dark hedgehog could've parked a little too long in a parking meter zone and Tower would want to arrest Sonic for soliciting, treason, and maybe some kind of attempted murder charge or something. The commander was a man on a mission, and that mission for some reason involved hating hedgehogs.

What a speciesist.

Why would someone want to replicate him now, of all times? Part of him mused that he was lucky this faker didn't want to ruin his life when Metal Sonic was around- may he rest in peace.

What the heck was a gravity diverter anyways?

Sonic sighed, resting his cheek on his hand as he leaned on the bars of his cell.

He heard a sizzling behind him.

His ear twitching from the sound, Sonic turned around to see what the source was from- it was the wall suddenly turning green. Specifically, green markings started to appear on the walls, forming into a smiley face that seeped through to Sonic's side.

The blue hedgehog tilted his head curiously, before the entire wall started shaking. He quickly ducked down and covered himself, bracing for whatever was about to happen next.

Then, the wall exploded. It formed a small hole, before the hands of a polar bear tore off the rest of the wall, revealing a vehicle parked in the parking area that was behind Sonic's cell. Smoke and dust gathered in the cell, but were pulled out by twin tails spinning in reverse, sucking it all out.

"Sonic!"

Tails was standing on the edge of the Marvelous Queen's trunk, there with Bean and Bark. At the front, Fang was sitting in the driver's seat, looking over his shoulder.

"Tails? …Hooligans?"

"Heya, Sonic! Long time no see!" Bean waved. "C'mon, we're getting you out of here!"

Leaning in, Tails offered his hand over to Sonic. The hedgehog stepped forwards and reached out to grab his best friend's hand. He paused for a moment though, his eye twitching and nostrils flaring. He sneezed.

With the duck down to sneeze, Sonic narrowly avoided another sedative dart that instead landed in the trunk of the Marvelous Queen. The blue hedgehog's eyes widened, and he looked between his legs to see who fired.

Commander Tower tossed away the dart shotgun, shoving his ID into the keypad- however, it rejected it. His eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, trying again and again, until the card reader fell off of the wall slightly.

"Sonic, c'mon!"

Sonic stood up again, climbing into the Marvelous Queen.

The commander frowned deeply, reaching into the wall and grabbing the spider-bracelet rather quickly. Tower yanked it out before slamming his ID into the reader, opening the door up and briskly walking in as the vehicle in front of the cell took off.

Tower calmly walked through the destroyed wall, reaching into his service dress uniform and pulling out a thin black prism, and another silver part. He pressed them together, the two pieces unraveling and forming an enhanced laser rifle in his hands.

As the Marvelous Queen started to quickly leave the transport area, Tower aimed the rifle, closing one eye as he aimed for the vehicle. His sights stayed on Sonic for a moment, just a moment, before traveling over and firing somewhere else.

The shot hit the Queen's back right thruster, causing the entire vehicle to start spinning out. Without the extra thruster to keep the vehicle in the air, the back right of the Queen crashed into the ground, grinding against the concrete and forcing it down.

They stopped just in time for two GUN-marked SUVs to pull up right in front of the exit, blocking the team inside.

"Ah, crap." Sonic grumbled.

With agents flooding in, everyone was yanked from the Marvelous Queen. As Sonic was forced onto his stomach, another pair of restraints placed on him, he watched a pair of loafers step right in front of his face. He looked up to see Tower staring down at him, hands behind his back.

He presented the rose gold bracelet to Sonic, dropping it in front of his nose.

"I believe that belongs to Amy Rose." He said. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. We're going to take her, your adolescent accomplice and that annoying echidna friend of yours to the same place you're going. Congratulations, Mister Hedgehog- your irritating friends get to be arrested, all thanks to you."

"Ugh, what is your deal?" Sonic asked as he was forced to his feet.

Tower didn't answer, his eyes going to the Hooligans, who were also being restrained.

"Those three. The Hooligans. If I remember correctly, they assisted you with one of your little 'Sonic Adventures,' didn't they?" The commander asked. "That's associating with known criminals, and being accomplices. What a lovely addition to your list of crimes- how nice of you to remind me."

Commander Tower stared blankly at Sonic for a moment before stepping away, looking past the cars towards the idling transport aircraft.

"Where are the pilots of the transport helicopter?"

Two GUN agents appeared, standing in front of Tower. They had on body armor, completely covering their bodies, including helmets that obscured their face. They stood there quietly in front of their commanding officer.

"Hm. Shorter than I expected." He said. "You're free to take these prisoners to Devil's Gulag."

Tower stood there to watch Sonic, Tails and the Hooligans be escorted away by a variety of agents. They were forced into the helicopter, with the two pilots and an extra agent climbing into the aircraft with them.

He was most likely internally relishing the sight before him, even staring as the transport helicopter flew up into the air and away from the facility.

Commander Tower watched for another moment, before beginning to turn and leave.

"You know, I thought Randall was gonna be the one to fly the helicopter. Who the heck were those guys?"

The commander paused. He looked at the nearby agents talking.

"You. What did you just say?"

The talking agent paused at his commander speaking to him.

"Uh… well, sir, one of my buddies said they were going to fly the transport copter to the Devil's Gulag, but… neither of those guys looked anything like my buddy."

Tower's white eyebrows furrowed. Suddenly, there was a bang from a nearby door, making the commander quickly walk over. It was the door to a service room, out of anyone's thoughts as nobody but personnel was supposed to go into there.

He opened the door. There were four agents tied up in there- two that were clearly meant to guard the entrance to the transport area, and two were in their underclothes. The latter two clearly had their clothes stolen.

"Whoa! Randall!" The agent from before had joined Tower to look at the sight.

The commander's breathing got heavy, his face turning red and twisting into a look of pure fury as he realized what was going on. The sight was enough to make the agents around him back away, while the ones who were tied up cowered in fear.

---

"Talk about a low-budget flight. No food or movies, anything?"

"Quiet, prisoner."

Sonic huffed, frowning at that. He was placed in the exact center of the hanging bench situated at the back of the transport helicopter, situated between the two sliding doors at either side. He could see into the cockpit, the entrance open. On either side of the opening was an agent and the second pilot sitting on either side.

He thought it was a bit peculiar that the second pilot was sitting back to watch them, but ultimately thought nothing of it. Sonic swung his feet gently, feeling something placed under the bench covered in black fabric. There was something fairly soft, maybe like some kind of bag, and something beside it that was thin but hard.

Bored, still, Sonic turned his head to look over at Tails, who was seated right next to him.

"Hey." He murmured.

"...hey." Tails replied at the same volume.

"Thanks for the escape attempt, buddy."

"Yeah. Sorry we didn't get you out… yet."

Sonic grinned.

"Quiet, prisoners."

The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes.

"Look, Tower showed me something in there. Apparently someone who looks like me stole some high-grade GUN tech."

"Someone who looks like you? Like Metal Sonic?"

"No, it was a real hedgehog. Someone's pretending to be me."

"Shut your mouths right now!"

"Why would he pretend to be you? What's that guy's endgame?"

"I dunno, but whatever it is, it isn't good. Especially with Tower's hatred for hedgehogs. We're all gonna have to brainstorm a way to figure out who that guy is and—"

"QUIET!"

The agent stood up, storming towards Sonic.

Suddenly, the second pilot in the holding room stuck his foot out, making the agent trip. The pilot got to his feet, swinging down sharply and punching the agent in the face, knocking the man out.

After a moment, the pilot slipped off his helmet and mask with a sigh.

"Hey, Sonic!" Knuckles said with a grin. He tossed the helmet out of the helicopter.

"Knuckles?!" Sonic exclaimed. He looked at Tails, who had a giant grin on his face. "Holy crap, this was part of your escape plan?!"

As the echidna went down the row, physically breaking the cuffs off of each Mobian, the pilot pulled off her helmet, tossing it aside. Amy let out a sigh as well, looking back from the cockpit.

"Phase three is a go." She said. "Anyone want to take this over? I barely know enough about helicopters to keep us steady."

"I got it, m'lady." Bean strutted over, slipping into the pilot's seat to swap with Amy.

Amy and Knuckles undid their disguises, revealing their normal clothes under it.

"Ugh, bloody oath!" Fang rubbed his wrists. "Didn't know how long I could keep my bloody mouth shut! Was startin' to feel like Barky there for a minute."

"You're the one who said you would spill to Sonic the moment you saw him. How are you a criminal mastermind and you can barely keep a secret?"

"Can't help it, love! Once ya get me goin' I can't help but share!"

"Yeah, like when he was listening to that learner's permit song, and blubbered to Bark and I for an hour." Bean yelled back from the cockpit.

"Olivia just gets me on a spiritual level, mate! Can't bloody judge me for that."

"So judged."

Knuckles pulled out a parachute from the side of the inner fuselage, putting it securely on the knocked out agent. He opened the side door, gently nudging the agent out, being sure to grab onto the cord as he did.

As the agent dropped, the cord broke off, the parachute opening and allowing the unconscious agent to fall gracefully towards the earth.

Reaching under the seat, Amy pulled the black fabric off of the mysterious objects- her bag, of course, and four… snowboards?

"No. No way." Sonic said, grinning widely. "Skysurfing boards?! You did read my online shopping wishlist!"

"Guilty as charged." Amy smiled, reaching into her bag and giving Knuckles back his mitts.

"C'mon, let's get these on and get the heck outta here!"

"Not so fast, foxy."

Tails' statement was ruined by Fang walking in front of them, spinning his gun in his hand. Bark stood behind them, cracking his knuckles.

"Fang, we had a deal." Amy said.

"Sure did, love. But since this might be the last time we ever see you again… you better hold off on your end of the bargain. Hand over the map, or I'll make Beanie keep us here so we're all sent to that supermax prison."

There was a moment's hesitation, before Amy reached into her bag, rummaging around and pulling out a rolled up piece of old-looking paper. She stepped forwards, hesitantly putting it into Fang's hand.

The sniper snatched it away, looking it over and grinning.

"Pleasure doin' business with ya, love. Catch ya on the flip side."

Fang put his gun away, strolling to the front and climbing in the passenger seat, kicking his feet up. Bark grunted, sitting back down, watching Team Sonic.

The heroes put the skysurfing boards on without any other delay, and Sonic opened the side door of the transport helicopter, looking down at the world below. It kinda looked weird, like a painting, or a very compressed JPEG.

He cracked his neck, before jumping out, quickly followed by his friends.

"WOO!" The blue hedgehog said, spinning while he was upside down, before getting back up.

They pierced through a cloud together, with Amy looking up to see the helicopter get away, the Hooligans taking off to follow that map to their supposed treasure.

"What the heck was that piece of paper for?!" Sonic yelled.

"I told the Hooligans that Meropis- that fake underwater city- was real, and we had a map to it!"

"So it wasn't a real map!" Knuckles nodded at what Amy said. "I was worried!"

"We had to have an edge against the Hooligans in order to get them to help us!" Tails replied. "I figured a group of criminals like them would believe in the score of an abandoned sunken city!"

They broke through the bottom of the cloud, the city below them coming back into view.

"Oh no!"

"Oh no? Oh no what?" Sonic yelled back at Tails.

"The rendezvous point with our getaway driver is at the edge of Westopolis! We dropped too early!" The fox said. "I was planning on flying you guys to her, but I couldn't fly you from this far away!"

"Keep those boards on, boys!" Amy yelled out. "Looks like we're boarding down the streets of Westopolis!"

"Aw yeah! Now this is happenin'!" Sonic smiled at the adrenaline rush he was getting.

As they got a few miles up from the streets, Tails grabbed onto the collars of Sonic and Amy's tops, using his tails to slow their descent slightly. Knuckles grabbed onto Sonic and Amy's boards, creating a diamond shape as they slowed down, but only enough so that they probably wouldn't die on impact.

They got to the streets of Westopolis, luckily closest to a street that was headed downhill. They could see the cars and trolley of the city, the unsuspecting town laying below them.

Then, they hit the ground. Team Sonic's momentum from the fall was enough to let them shred down the streets of the city without any injury, beginning to board down the city roads and weave through traffic.

Sonic was grinning like crazy. On top of escaping GUN, ending the breakout with a trip down the streets of Westopolis on a freaking snowboard was absolutely phenomenal.

"We're about ten minutes from the rendezvous point!" Tails said. "We should be there in no time!"

All traffic ahead of them suddenly came to a screeching halt. Ahead of them, they could see more clearly marked GUN vehicles stopping traffic to try and keep Team Sonic from getting by. The agents started climbing out of the truck to look at the heroes.

As they got closer, Sonic and Amy spotted an empty auto carrier truck with no cars behind it. They leaned over, strafing on course to ride up the top of the carrier truck, using it as a makeshift ramp. Tails, nearby, grabbed Knuckles by his arms and flew him over the intersection.

While in the air, Sonic spun and flipped for flair, letting out another yell of excitement as he did so, seeing the GUN agents watching them fly over.

All four heroes landed together, going around a corner and cutting through another intersection.

Headed further down the city together, they passed by a merging lane for cars to get onto the street as well. They zipped by it, cutting off a car that was about to merge onto the street.

The car inched forwards again, but was cut off by a motorcycle roaring by.

Team Sonic looked behind them to spot Agent Mercury on their tail once again. The agent had her Omnitempus R at full throttle, moving between traffic and focusing on the Mobians.

"Oh great, it's Wonder Wheels." Amy said.

"Who?"

"That's Agent Mercury. She has a souped-up motorcycle that can move at super-speeds!"

"Really?!" Sonic said to Tails. "That's awesome!'

"It's really not!" Amy replied. "Sonic, go! We'll try to keep her back!"

Sonic hesitated, but nodded. He boosted forwards, headed further up the street.

Mercury's bike roared as she rocketed down the street after the escaping heroes. She came up to the back of the group, right up to the side of Tails.

Forming the Vulcan Cannon on his hand, the fox swung it around to try and hit Mercury, who ducked underneath the hit. She leaned away from Tails, raising her foot and kicking him in the side.

The fox fell to the side, tumbling across the ground and losing his board in the process. Once he was right-side up, he fired a ring tether from the cannon, hoping to hit anything at all.

Knuckles grabbed onto the ring, yanking Tails forwards so the teenager flew towards him. The echidna caught the fox by his arm, putting him on his back.

"I gotcha, buddy." Knuckles said, letting Tails piggyback him.

Agent Mercury revved up her bike again, headed towards Knuckles to try and hit him next.

Amy steered her board towards Mercury, turning her bag into its hammer form and swinging towards the dark rider. Agent Mercury pulled away in time to dodge the hammer swing, kept away from Knuckles and Tails.

The pink hedgehog ducked under a swipe from the agent and swung her hammer again, this time missing as Mercury ducked under it. The agent steered towards Amy, forcing the hedgehog back and towards the other end of the street, where a truck with a presentation going on was parked by the curb.

She would crash into the truck if she didn't get out of the way. Though that would actually entertain and attract people around the presentation. Some random guy was desperately trying to get people into buying "ownership" of a crudely drawn picture of Sonic, stating that doing so would help them get into the future of online cryptocurrencies.

Immediately figuring that the truck wasn't really doing anything worthwhile anyways, Amy grabbed the handle of her hammer with both hands, squeezing tightly to activate the ultimate new feature. The upward facing end of her hammer suddenly glowed, before releasing a steady stream of pink plasma-like energy from it.

Amy swung the hammer, propelled by the activated thruster on the back. Mercury ducked another swing, but the speed and strength of the assisted swing was enough to send the scam truck flying and spinning forwards.

As it swung towards Mercury, the agent flipped open the boost button and pressed it. The drives in the back of her engine locked in, and with a twist of the throttle she was off in a rainbow streak, narrowly missing the vehicle and headed towards Sonic.

The back of the truck swung back around, but this time directly towards Amy. With no way to dodge it in that split second, the pink hedgehog was knocked off of her board and back into the air, hammer in hand.

"Amy!"

Tails fired another ring tether at Amy, connecting it with the ring that Knuckles was still holding, creating a ring sling. Amy grabbed the ring, but knew she was doomed to hit the ground at intense speeds if she didn't do something soon.

Then, ahead of her, she saw Burger Man.

The Meh Burger mascot was holding a sign at the side of the road, having been spinning it around to get people to come into their restaurant. The mascot guy had already noticed the group screaming down the road, and when they got close, the Burger Man let go of the sign to book it back onto the sidewalk.

That discarded sign lined up perfectly, and Amy landed right on it, using it as a makeshift board and sliding down the highway, with the ring sling in her hand allowing her to skitch down the streets a few yards behind the echidna and the fox.

Far ahead, Sonic noticed they were going to hit a GUN-made roadblock miles away. A lot of miles, but at this speed, he would easily hit it within a few minutes. Hearing the motorcycle behind him, he turned to see Agent Mercury catching up with him, who was staring directly at him.

Sonic boosted again, speeding up, but Mercury accelerated again, the boost with her enhanced engine allowing her to coast next to Sonic at insane speeds.

She grabbed onto his jacket sleeve, which caused Sonic to react by swinging that arm towards the agent. The attack was dodged, and Mercury leaned away to try and kick at the blue hedgehog. Sonic steered away, evading the kick, headed to the other side of the street. The agent followed.

With Sonic nearby, Agent Mercury reached to the side of her jumpsuit, grabbing a stun gun and aiming it towards the hedgehog, closing in to tase him.

Though the world was speeding by around them, Sonic was still able to comprehend everything ahead and around him. Up ahead, he saw a chilidog stand, the stand attendant at the end of the sidewalk and holding up a chilidog.

"Come and get your Primo Supremo brand chilidog, the blue blur style!" The attendant yelled. "Triple banger, quadruple chili, extra spicy!"

Right as he was finished, Sonic was speeding by. It was almost in slow motion, as Sonic grabbed the chilidog from the attendant, swinging it around and throwing it at Agent Mercury before she could get the taser close to his body.

The chilidog splattered across her shoulder and face, covering her helmet visor in chili. She let go of the stun gun and reached for her visor, wiping it off and swerving slightly.

They were barely a minute away from the roadblock. Sonic grinned, reaching down and undoing one of his feet straps on the board.

"Hey Mercury!"

The agent whipped her head around to look at Sonic, helmet still covered in chili. Sonic undid the second foot strap on his board, still smiling.

"You should get better at the speedster thing. Because you know, once you start going a certain speed… it gets really hard to slow down."

And with that, Sonic leapt off the board, allowing his sudden departure from it make him fly backwards and through the air. Mercury looked behind her, then ahead, finally noticing the road block.

She tried to brake, but it was too late. She hit a barricade, smashing through it and causing her to fling off of the Omnitempus R, hurtling through the air towards the side of the street, where two people were packing up a moving truck.

One of the workers couldn't get the shutter door down.

"Ugh, boss, the door's stuck again."

"It always gets stuck open and closed. Just keep jiggling it. We need to get these memory foam pillows, inflatable pool toys, and various stuffed animal plushies to the distribution warehouse."

"Gee boss, where do you get all these things?"

"Don't… Don't ever ask me where I got this stuff."

With that, Mercury was flung into the truck with a crash. The shutter door closed with that, trapping her inside of the back.

Sonic tumbled across the road, but was stopped after he crashed into something that pulled him along. It was Amy's hammer, and the pink hedgehog brought Sonic up to the sign she was on, letting him stand there beside her and grab onto the ring. She switched her hammer back to a bag, putting it over her shoulders.

When they came across the crashed bike, Tails reached in towards the exposed engine, grabbing one of those crystal drives he saw that enhanced Mercury's speed.

He looked it over, peering at the yellow shard of crystal inside, before slipping it into his backpack for safekeeping.

As the heroes ripped by, Commander Tower watched beside the blockade, narrowing his eyes in a scowl.

"Sir, Agent Mercury is…" An agent saw the cyclist attempt to get out of the moving truck. "...out of commission, for now."

"I'm aware." The commander replied. "You want something done, you do it yourself…"

"Sir?"

Tower stormed away, over to the semi-truck that had brought the things for the roadblock to be set up. He was followed by a few agents, who watched him climb up to the driver door of the truck, opening it.

The driver was on his phone with the radio on, listening to an upbeat and funky rock song. He scrambled when he noticed Tower, putting his phone away.

"Uh, commander! I wasn't on my— Huh?!"

Commander Tower grabbed the agent by his collar, before pulling him out and throwing him onto the street below. The commander climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door, starting up the semi-truck again.

When the radio was back on, the song was just ending.

"You're listening to Set Jet Radio, Pico and Saturn in the afternoon!" The radio personality said. "That was Nathan Sharp with this year's jam 'Escape From The City,' and up next, still number one on the UF billboard charts for the seventeenth week in a row, it's Crush 40 with Live & Le—"

Before the song title could be finished, Tower pulled out a pistol from his uniform, unloading into the radio and destroying it, making the speakers go silent. He tossed the gun away after.

"I hate that song." He growled.

Tower switched to the highest gear and slammed on the gas. The semi-truck pulled off, tearing through half of the roadblock and slamming into one of the GUN cars as it began to barrel down the streets of Westopolis.

Up ahead, Amy and Sonic were in tandem, dodging the passing cars like they were riding a wakeboard on the water.

"You said something about a fake hedgehog framing you?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. Tower has video footage of someone who looks kinda like me stealing technology from one of GUN's vaults. He looked similar, but… his quills looked different. He was a bit darker."

"Like, navy blue instead of cobalt?"

"I suppose. Why?"

"I told you about that guy from my vision. The one I had on the fleet?"

"You think it's the same guy?"

"It has to be. It's certainly something I should try to have another vision about, if anything."

"Mmhm… what's that sound?"

A chorus of screeching tires and honking horns got Sonic and Amy's attention, looking behind them to see people sprinting from a crosswalk. A semi-truck with the GUN acronym overtop the front windshield. Through the window they saw the scowling face of Commander Tower.

"IS THIS GUY PSYCHOTIC?!" Amy yelled in horror.

"Knuckles!"

As they dipped down another steep hill of the road, when the semi-truck drove over the edge, the front of it soared into the air. Knuckles pulled the ring sling sharply, pulling Sonic and Amy out of the way before the semi-truck could crush the two of them as it landed.

Clutching onto each other and the ring, Sonic and Amy opened their eyes as they saw them slide further away from the rampaging semi-truck. They looked at each other, before they noticed they were slowly passing Knuckles and Tails.

The team looked at one another, all with faces of bewilderment, before the rush of the semi-trucks engine reminded them of what they were doing.

Knuckles pulled the ring sling, yanking his other friends to him, letting go of the ring to grab onto Sonic and Amy. Behind them, the sign and rings were crushed under the wheels of the unforgiving semi-truck as Commander Tower just kept on trucking.

Sonic and Amy climbed up on top of Knuckles, toppling over Tails, the echidna below trying to stay balanced from all the shifting weight. He held his arms up to hold onto each of them, grabbing onto one of Tails and Amy's feet.

After trying to get to a good spot, Sonic, Amy and Tails all stood up at once. Sonic was standing on Knuckles' head, holding onto Tails and Amy's hands as they stood on Knuckles' shoulders, still balanced by the echidna holding one of their feet. They looked ridiculous, almost like an inverted water ski pyramid.

Looking over his shoulder again, Sonic got a glimpse of the uncaring and cold heterochromia eyes belonging to Commander Tower. He knew the man was putting the pedal to the metal, trying his best to catch up with them.

With a swift yank of his foot, Knuckles pulled one of his feet out of the strap connecting it to the board. He pushed off of the ground with it like he was on a skateboard, sending them faster down the hill as the semi-truck continued to get closer.

"You got this big Knux!" Sonic said.

"We're close to the rendezvous point!" Tails yelled. "We just have to make it over that railing up ahead and we're home free!"

"You think Tower will not try to follow us?"

"I doubt it!" Amy replied to Knuckles.

As if to challenge their route of escape, at the three-way intersection, the street perpendicular to them had their light switch to green. A separate semi-truck, advertising Chaos Cola, was starting to cross the street.

The semi-truck behind them was getting closer.

"Guys, any suggestion is appreciated!"

"Keep hanging on!" Tails yelled after Amy.

His tails spun rapidly, the fox summoning all his strength to lift the entire group upwards. The board fell off of Knuckles' foot, which subsequently was crushed under the semi-truck like the other objects before it.

Flying up in the air, they used their higher position on the hill to soar across the intersection in another diamond formation, with Amy hanging at the bottom. Tails held onto Sonic as tight as he could, looking down to make sure Knuckles was hanging on as well.

They made it over the Chaos Cola truck. Tower did not.

The GUN semi-truck t-boned the trailer of the Chaos Cola semi-truck, creating a giant spray of soda as Tower's vehicle came to a screeching halt. The bent metal of the trailer made the entire GUN truck flip over to its side as it crashed through it, causing it to lay across the destroyed soda trailer like a beached whale.

Team Sonic landed on a couple of rails, grinding down a set of stairs together off to their rendezvous point, safe from Tower's wrath.

Speaking of which, Tower kicked out the windshield with three kicks. With a cut forehead, Tower army crawled from the crashed semi-truck, breathing heavily and looking at where he last saw Team Sonic. He snatched a radio from inside the truck.

"All available units." He growled. "All priority is to locate and detain Sonic the Hedgehog and his companions. No new missions until this is settled… lethal force is authorized."

Tower threw the radio on the ground, letting it shatter into pieces from his anger.

---

A checkpoint was created at the edge of Westopolis within the hour.

Cars shuffling out of the city were stopped by GUN agents, checking the drivers of each car and usually checking the car for any signs of that blue hedgehog.

All the cars were let go, as there weren't any signs of anyone in Team Sonic anywhere.

The agent stopping the cars leaned in towards a family van, flashing a light in on the driver to get a good look at her.

"We stopped you while we're all in pursuit of a criminal we believe is going to leave… the area…" He squinted. "Wait a second. I know you."

"You do?"

"Yeah! You're running for mayor in Station Square!"

"Who, li'l ol' me?" Vanilla put her sunglasses down to bat her eyelashes at the agent. She had a blue scarf tied around her head, hiding her ears from view.

"Yeah! You're Vanilla Tarte, right?"

"Sure hope so!"

"Your stance on local monuments and parks is something I love! At least, as an environmentalist. Part-time of course."

"Of course."

"I think that Velox guy is a total moron."

"That seems to be the common consensus!" The rabbit replied. "I hope to change all his strange work with a strong, hopeful future for the city."

"My husband and I live in Station Square! You sure have our votes!"

"Why thank you so much! Am I clear to head out, though? I gotta get back to the office and continue on my campaign."

"Oh sure! Of course!" The agent haphazardly shined his light into the backseat before waving for the blockades to be moved, stepping back.

"Thank you so much, dear! I wish you and your husband the best!"

Vanilla drove through the checkpoint, heading down the street and onto the interstate, headed back towards Station Square.

Once she was out of range of the city, only illuminated by her radio and the street lamps as the sun began to set. She took one more glance in her rear view mirror just in case.

"…alright, you're all clear."

A blanket in the open space trunk behind the backseat lifted up. Team Sonic climbed over the seats, with Amy sighing as she got in the passenger seat.

"Thanks for being our getaway driver, Vanilla." She said.

"Yes. Especially considering you're risking your career just to help us get away." Knuckles said, as he and the others put on their seatbelts, the echidna seated in the middle.

"Eh, when am I not risking my career helping you kids?" Vanilla waved her hand, looking at the echidna in the rear view for a moment. "It's fine. Thanks for making sure Cream got away."

"They got home safe?"

"All of them did." Vanilla nodded to Amy. "Where to now?"

"To my workshop." Tails spoke up. "We can take the Tornado-III to Angel Island. GUN won't be able to follow us for a while when we're up there. Besides, it's best to check up on the Master Emerald too."

"Alright! Get ready for a long drive ahead of you guys. Make sure you all take a nap before you fly- especially you, Tails."

It was silent after that, before the radio was soon turned up slightly to fill the quiet of the car.

Sonic leaned his head against the window, still thinking about the faker who was framing him. Within a few days, the fame they had gained from saving the world was all but tarnished.

At least locally. He was sure he could maintain his internationally famous status. But now's not the time to think of that.

What was the goal of that faker? How did he know, specifically, to dress up as him? There was certainly something fishy going on here.

Part of him wondered if the faker was working alone. Part of him wondered if he was working with Ivo, somehow.

Ivo had been completely radio silent since his defeat during that Chaos Crisis. It had begun to worry Sonic a bit, especially considering that the team couldn't find him anywhere in Station Square or around it.

It was like he dropped off the face of the Earth.

He looked up towards the sky, to the just forming stars in the darkening atmosphere. Sonic let his mind go blank as he just tried to relax before things possibly got any worse.

---

FAR ABOVE THE EARTH…

With the slam of a service panel and a flip of a giant, rusty switch, lights turned on in the remnants of the satellite above the planet.

Heavy footsteps clanged through the halls as the abandoned and dusty space colony was finally illuminated for the first time in fifty years, give or take.

Ivo directed his E-Mech into the observation room, enjoying that it was now lit up with the bulbs that somehow still worked after all this time. He wondered if the bulbs were even energy efficient.

He'd probably have to check for lead paint poisoning later as well.

The scientist stepped out of his mech to look upon the Earth. He pulled his blue tinted goggles over his head, over his copper hair, to look at the planet with his own eyes.

It had been a while, and he had managed to grow out his hair. He shaved the sides to give it a mohawk look. He kinda liked it like that.

Climbing out of the E-Mech, he finally got a real moment to admire his custom made shirt under the lights. There was a picture of Metal Sonic on it, with text underneath.

NEO METAL SONIC - GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

"The construction of the Eclipse Cannon is nearly completed." Ivo spoke. "The ARK should be finished in the next few months or so. At least, enough to withstand the power of the cannon firing. And now we have lights!"

"Excellent job, my grandson."

The translucent visage of Professor Gerald Robotnik appeared beside him, looking down at the planet with his grandson. He stood with his hands behind his back- that must be where Julian got it.

It was so surreal for Ivo, these last months. What he originally believed to be a stress-or-psychosis induced hallucination of his late grandfather turned out to know stuff that Ivo didn't even know.

He led Ivo to a "matter transport system" within Gerald's old research station, in the north-eastern UF city, Empire City. He managed to kickstart it, and it surprisingly sent him up to the space colony.

After modifying his damaged hovercraft to become a mech, Ivo began working on the ARK. Using his own supplies, and remains of the supplies floating in the mad space around the destroyed satellite, he got it to where it was today.

Gerald was clearly more than a vision. He had to be a spirit, or… something sent to guide him. He was right about the teleporter, about the remains of the satellite, even the closed off area around the destroyed space colony.

It looked like someone blew half of it up. Ivo could only imagine what happened here as Gerald stayed quiet about the subject.

"As we approach the cannon's full repair, I think it's time for me to finally introduce you to my… associate."

Ivo raised an eyebrow. Gerald had mentioned a mysterious third party who was assisting him with things on Earth. He wouldn't mention who this mystery guy was.

"Do you have the item I requested ready?"

"…yes."

Walking back to his mech, Ivo reached inside and retrieved the item he created- a pair of white and red shoes. Made with a powerful polymer, these boots were specially built to redirect energy to the soles, where they would be blasted from the thruster-like holes made there.

Jet boots. The coolest thing Ivo's made in a while, considering all the blandish retro architecture he was enduring with the rebuilding of the space colony.

"Good. My associate will be here very shortly for a trade off. Try not to stare, grandson."

Ivo wondered what that meant. He looked out towards the Earth once more, for just a moment, before he heard the door to the observation room open.

It was the silhouette of a hedgehog. Ivo recognized the red jacket, the shirt, the gloves, the pants. The shoes were fairly recognizable, but they were torn to shreds. The shadow from the top of the door obscured the hedgehog's face. He was holding something fairly large with a spinning, glowing core.

With widening eyes, Ivo took a step back. He looked towards his grandfather for a moment, before back to the hedgehog.

"What is this?! Is that you, Sonic? Are you trying to spoil my plans again?"

After a second, the hedgehog stepped through the doorway, letting his entire body become fully seen.

"Wait a minute, you're not… Sonic. Who…?"

The faker had deep navy quills, which were disheveled, like he just rolled out of bed. The quilless parts of his face was a soft blue, instead of tan. There was a scar over his left eye, the wound being the reason that iris was clouded over. The remaining eye was crimson.

He held out the gravity diverter, letting it drop to the ground.

"Be careful with that!" Gerald barked.

Ivo looked over at his grandfather.

"The shoes."

The rumbling murmur of this hedgehog turned Ivo's head back to him. It was deep, raspy… almost like he'd been yelling. Or crying.

After a second, Ivo realized what was asked of him. He quickly held out the shoes for the dark hedgehog, who walked slowly over and took them in his hands.

He looked them over for a moment, before kicking off his tattered sneakers and slipping the jet boots on.

"With these, you'll be able to properly redirect your chaos energy through the jets, instead of those destructive boosts." Gerald said. "Forgive me, I believed you mimicking that technique was required for you to pretend to be Sonic. But now… it doesn't matter if you boost or not."

The dark hedgehog closed his eyes, in focus. After a moment, golden energy blasted out from the thruster holes on the soles, lifting the faker into the air for a moment.

Ivo stared in wonder, slowly strolling around the dark hedgehog to look him over. Once he was back in front of him, the jet boots were off, the faker dropping to the ground in an act that made Ivo flinch.

After opening his eyes again, the hedgehog nodded once, thanking the doctor. He turned around and walked off slowly, with Ivo still looking at him puzzlingly.

He paused in the doorway.

"My name is… Eclipse." The hedgehog said, back to Ivo. He turned his head slightly, his crimson eye looking back at Ivo. "I am the Shadow of Doom… the Ultimate Lifeform."

"…what… why are you helping me?"

"To make this world pay. If you want this planet under complete control… bring me the Chaos Emeralds."

Ivo scoffed and sputtered.

"I still have to fix this space colony! We all can't just stroll around the surface of the planet and pretend to be Sonic!"

"…then I will find the emeralds myself. Repair the control room of this space colony… when I have one or more, I will meet you there."

"How will I—"

"You'll know."

It was quiet after that. Eclipse left in the silence, his new shoes clanging down the hallway as he did so.

He reached the transporter in a few minutes. He stood on the octogonal panel at the center of the teleporter, pressing the button to start it up.

Eclipse heard the whirring of energy, closing his eyes to calm himself. In the familiar whining, he heard a young voice far beyond.

"Sayonara, Mr. Needlemouse…"

There was a moment where he felt a tear in his heart, as if someone was trying to rip it in half like a phone book. His stomach sank slightly as he heard the memory replay in his head.

After the sadness was settled, it was replaced only by more anger.

He opened his eyes again, a scowl on his face as he reminded himself of what he was here for. What he needed to do.

With purple energy rising around him, Eclipse was teleported off of the Space Colony ARK.

UP NEXT: Return to Angel Island!