AN: This story has been quite the ride, I already have plans for the sequel
and I'm just fleshing it out. It's been fun everyone, as for where he is,
you'll just have to figure that out from the hints I'm leaving or wait
until the first part of 'Summer Vacation' shows up. I would definitely like
to thank any reviewers and everyone who read this story, without you there
this would never have expanded past the opening chapter, or at least after
the second.
One last question that my beta reader is still pestering me out is just who the Guardian is, well, that has something to do with way later, but he is on the good side, he just can't help out like he would like to due to the rules he agreed upon, even if his foes break them, he will only do what he can within that framework.
The blinding light had died and Super Sonic relaxed slightly as he realized that he wasn't in Hell like the portal had been made to do. But he wasn't on the ground either, miles upwards and above the clouds. The full power of the Chaos Emeralds pierced the clouds and showed a place he had never seen before. It was beautiful and serene, but it wasn't anywhere near Sunnydale, and he was rather sure he wasn't above the same world he had been in mere instants earlier.
Instinctively he flipped out Nicole.
"Nicole, scan the area and report," he said, the panic in his tone of voice pushing the AI to work as fast as she could.
"Location, five miles above sea level, nearest location, Ireland," she reported.
"Well, then I head home, plot me a course to Sunnydale."
"Connection to GPS satellites obtained, error, no reference to Sunnydale on local maps, the location on prior maps before the dimensional travel is empty, the only thing referenced as Sunnydale is a military base just outside of Los Angeles."
"What? Use the scanning program, locate any reference to the paranormal, and anything with possible technology that can get us home."
"Understood," the AI answered as Super Sonic lowered himself to the ground, gently touching ground.
"Scan complete, two sources of requested energy signatures, not an exact match, but it does fit closely with magical parameters that you requested, also there are three possibilities that may have the requisite technology to send us home, two of them match the magical signatures, the other, while the least likely to have the technology, is the most accessible to us, it is within fifteen miles, on the surface. One of the other two is buried nearly ten miles underground and the other is underwater at a depth that is not easily accessible."
"Just great, another Labyrinth Zone, just what I needed," Sonic snapped, his sarcasm coming back to him.
"Interesting, the computer technology does not reach my own level, I am getting a full upload from their system and filtering it."
"What?"
"I have identified the groups with the tech below ground and the one above ground, below ground there is a collection of races known together as fairies."
"Do they know that we're here?"
"Undoubtedly, our arrival here would have given headaches to every being with magical energy on the planet, the chaos energy disrupted the portal and left us here, also, I just sent them a little greeting by pining them."
"You're playing Ping Pong with them?"
"Honestly, don't you ever listen?"
"Whatever, what is the projected response to this situation?"
"Unclear at the moment, perhaps hostility."
"Oh great," Super Sonic muttered as he relaxed and changed back into Sonic and then to Xander, "The welcoming party wants to shoot us."
"Or it could be curiosity, I have insufficient data to make a conclusion as to how they would react."
A pale blue hedgehog twitched slightly as he began to move. The light slowly drawing him awake. His eyes fluttered open and he scanned the wreckage around him, the computer parts of his being were empty as they reinitialized.
His mind was blank, no memories, no past, no history. A thought bubbled up within him.
"Who am I?"
He crawled to his feet, no answer coming from the rattled recesses of his mind.
Pain shot through his leg and he reached down, spotting an item that his mind identified as a crossbow bolt protruding from the leg, just above his sock.
Without a second thought, he ripped it out and stared at it for a moment before tossing it away as the wound sealed, the nanobots inside of his bloodstream already sealing the damage and healing him, not even leaving a scar as the wound simply shrunk and vanished within thirty seconds.
He tried to find his name, some self identification; one brushed his mind for a mere moment, "Cyber Sonic."
But then it vanished, the name didn't sound right, it was not who he was, his mind searched and compared probabilities from the little information he had, choosing a name that would suit him.
"I am Zero," he whispered, the tag identifying him now firmly in place.
He headed out of town as fast as he could, one of the programs within him left him rather paranoid and the destruction around where he had come to was not something he wished to be connected to.
The only stop that Zero made was to retrieve an interesting object, a sword that carried several streaks of dried blood, stains that matched the blood on his hand that he analyzed and confirmed was not his, the plot thickened.
Janus' eyes slowly opened, pain filling the former god the instant his brain had awakened. The steady beeping of the machines around him kept him awake as he scanned the hospital room he was in. He tried to focus on his energy and found nothing, it was gone all of it, he wasn't able to focus like he had then a thought crossed his mind, he'd felt the power being ripped out of him during his foes transformation.
He'd lost it all, his enemy had won and he was now...mortal.
The Scoobies had come back in the morning after the cops had gone through it, the reporters still didn't know what to say about this, heck it was wide spread enough that the news was still commenting on it, theories spread from weapons test to terrorist threat to aliens, some even got the truth that it involved the supernatural.
The watchers were in shambles after Sonic blew up most of the council, the others had fired Giles. Jenny Calendar had explained some of her past, mainly after noticing Willows reaction to the surge of energy that had floored her and Giles, Willow had nearly blacked out but remained on her feet. Buffy was close to completely shut down, her mind still working through the previous nights activities. The other Scoobies were picking up the pieces after the near obliteration of the entire non human population of Sunnydale.
Willow had managed to discover that Janus was in the hospital in the psychiatric ward, in the padded room right next to their former principal, Snyder. But as of Cyber Sonic there was no word, he had vanished and vanished good.
The redhead looked down into the crater from behind the police line and portable fencing at the burned out spot where Acaltha had been, the stone melted and creating an odd look, a perfect ring that glistened gold in the light.
"Wherever you are Xander," Willow whispered, "Come back soon."
One last question that my beta reader is still pestering me out is just who the Guardian is, well, that has something to do with way later, but he is on the good side, he just can't help out like he would like to due to the rules he agreed upon, even if his foes break them, he will only do what he can within that framework.
The blinding light had died and Super Sonic relaxed slightly as he realized that he wasn't in Hell like the portal had been made to do. But he wasn't on the ground either, miles upwards and above the clouds. The full power of the Chaos Emeralds pierced the clouds and showed a place he had never seen before. It was beautiful and serene, but it wasn't anywhere near Sunnydale, and he was rather sure he wasn't above the same world he had been in mere instants earlier.
Instinctively he flipped out Nicole.
"Nicole, scan the area and report," he said, the panic in his tone of voice pushing the AI to work as fast as she could.
"Location, five miles above sea level, nearest location, Ireland," she reported.
"Well, then I head home, plot me a course to Sunnydale."
"Connection to GPS satellites obtained, error, no reference to Sunnydale on local maps, the location on prior maps before the dimensional travel is empty, the only thing referenced as Sunnydale is a military base just outside of Los Angeles."
"What? Use the scanning program, locate any reference to the paranormal, and anything with possible technology that can get us home."
"Understood," the AI answered as Super Sonic lowered himself to the ground, gently touching ground.
"Scan complete, two sources of requested energy signatures, not an exact match, but it does fit closely with magical parameters that you requested, also there are three possibilities that may have the requisite technology to send us home, two of them match the magical signatures, the other, while the least likely to have the technology, is the most accessible to us, it is within fifteen miles, on the surface. One of the other two is buried nearly ten miles underground and the other is underwater at a depth that is not easily accessible."
"Just great, another Labyrinth Zone, just what I needed," Sonic snapped, his sarcasm coming back to him.
"Interesting, the computer technology does not reach my own level, I am getting a full upload from their system and filtering it."
"What?"
"I have identified the groups with the tech below ground and the one above ground, below ground there is a collection of races known together as fairies."
"Do they know that we're here?"
"Undoubtedly, our arrival here would have given headaches to every being with magical energy on the planet, the chaos energy disrupted the portal and left us here, also, I just sent them a little greeting by pining them."
"You're playing Ping Pong with them?"
"Honestly, don't you ever listen?"
"Whatever, what is the projected response to this situation?"
"Unclear at the moment, perhaps hostility."
"Oh great," Super Sonic muttered as he relaxed and changed back into Sonic and then to Xander, "The welcoming party wants to shoot us."
"Or it could be curiosity, I have insufficient data to make a conclusion as to how they would react."
A pale blue hedgehog twitched slightly as he began to move. The light slowly drawing him awake. His eyes fluttered open and he scanned the wreckage around him, the computer parts of his being were empty as they reinitialized.
His mind was blank, no memories, no past, no history. A thought bubbled up within him.
"Who am I?"
He crawled to his feet, no answer coming from the rattled recesses of his mind.
Pain shot through his leg and he reached down, spotting an item that his mind identified as a crossbow bolt protruding from the leg, just above his sock.
Without a second thought, he ripped it out and stared at it for a moment before tossing it away as the wound sealed, the nanobots inside of his bloodstream already sealing the damage and healing him, not even leaving a scar as the wound simply shrunk and vanished within thirty seconds.
He tried to find his name, some self identification; one brushed his mind for a mere moment, "Cyber Sonic."
But then it vanished, the name didn't sound right, it was not who he was, his mind searched and compared probabilities from the little information he had, choosing a name that would suit him.
"I am Zero," he whispered, the tag identifying him now firmly in place.
He headed out of town as fast as he could, one of the programs within him left him rather paranoid and the destruction around where he had come to was not something he wished to be connected to.
The only stop that Zero made was to retrieve an interesting object, a sword that carried several streaks of dried blood, stains that matched the blood on his hand that he analyzed and confirmed was not his, the plot thickened.
Janus' eyes slowly opened, pain filling the former god the instant his brain had awakened. The steady beeping of the machines around him kept him awake as he scanned the hospital room he was in. He tried to focus on his energy and found nothing, it was gone all of it, he wasn't able to focus like he had then a thought crossed his mind, he'd felt the power being ripped out of him during his foes transformation.
He'd lost it all, his enemy had won and he was now...mortal.
The Scoobies had come back in the morning after the cops had gone through it, the reporters still didn't know what to say about this, heck it was wide spread enough that the news was still commenting on it, theories spread from weapons test to terrorist threat to aliens, some even got the truth that it involved the supernatural.
The watchers were in shambles after Sonic blew up most of the council, the others had fired Giles. Jenny Calendar had explained some of her past, mainly after noticing Willows reaction to the surge of energy that had floored her and Giles, Willow had nearly blacked out but remained on her feet. Buffy was close to completely shut down, her mind still working through the previous nights activities. The other Scoobies were picking up the pieces after the near obliteration of the entire non human population of Sunnydale.
Willow had managed to discover that Janus was in the hospital in the psychiatric ward, in the padded room right next to their former principal, Snyder. But as of Cyber Sonic there was no word, he had vanished and vanished good.
The redhead looked down into the crater from behind the police line and portable fencing at the burned out spot where Acaltha had been, the stone melted and creating an odd look, a perfect ring that glistened gold in the light.
"Wherever you are Xander," Willow whispered, "Come back soon."