AoStH Timeline: Between "Sonically Ever After" and "Sonic Christmas Blast"

Chapter 3: AoStH Sonic's POV

"Man, this place reminds me of the Warp of Confusion a bit too much."

Now that I was in the Cosmic Interstate again, I felt less...constricted than I was in that other world. From talking with the Sonic of that world, I had figured out why earlier: the laws of physics were stricter there! In that world, if you broke your arm, it would take a few days instead of a few hours to heal. Yikes! ...I wondered what their life spans were like. I bet they were pretty short.

Just then, a familiar hologram appeared out of nowhere. This time, we could see Robo-Robotnik's whole body and a bit of the room he was in, like he was using a camera.

"Well, well. What are you rodents doing here? Don't you know better than to play on the streets at night?"

"Whaddaya want, you talking egg?" asked the Sonic who had been put in charge of our group. Some of the other Sonics asked similar questions.

"I wouldn't be so rude if I were you, hedgehogs." Robo-Robotnik looked all over the squadron. "I see your cybernetic cohort is not with you. What a pity... I would have loved for him to see this." He stepped out of the way.

I gasped and so did many other Sonics. Right behind Robo-Robotnik's previous position was a cyborg, just like Cyber Sonic, wrapped almost entirely in chains. A cyborg that looked vaguely like...

"Sally!"

Even if her body couldn't move, her mouth still could. "Sonic! Help..."

Suddenly, another long chain whipped out from the side and wrapped itself around Sally's mouth, forcing her quiet.

Robutt-Robuttnik's voice then kicked back in. "Oh and allow me to introduce you to your malevolent 'brother'." The camera then moved to where the chain had come from. "Evil Sonic!"

It was another Sonic! This one was clad in a leather jacket, boots and sunglasses. He sneered at us and waved mockingly, still holding one end of the chain. "Hello, goodie-two-shoes! Guess what: me and ol' Robo-Robotnik are in cahoots!"

The camera moved back to said robo-transmogrified egg belly.

I was furious. How dare he! Even if she wasn't from my world, she was still Sally. "Let her go, Robutt...!"

Robo-Robotnik interrupted me and the Sonics who had voiced similar replies, waving his finger and saying, "Uh-uh-uh-uh! What did I say about being rude, hedgehogs?"

Me and the others seethed silently.

"You'll have to make a choice, rodents: the princess's life or everyone else's. As of now, some of my Shadow Swatbots are heading for the location of the Giant's Hand. You have ten minutes to find either it or the princess. And don't even think about splitting up. There would be too many Shadow Swatbots both guarding my fortress and looking for the Giant's Hand for two halves of your squad to handle. Farewell." With that, the hologram disappeared.

We looked at one another. "This reeks, peeps," I said.

"Now what?" asked the Sonic in charge.

"If only we know where Robo-Robotnik's universe is," I replied. "Then we could probably rescue Sal and get the Giant's Hand without having to split our group."

As if in reply, an orange portal appeared on the road before us, not on the end of a road as usual.

Me and the others stared at it, wondering what to do.

"Should we go?"

"Do you think it leads to Robo-Robotnik?"

"Maybe it's a trap."

"It did pop up suddenly."

"I'll check it out." The lead Sonic zoomed right through it.

A second later, he popped out again, grinning.

"Where does it go?"

"Is it Robo-Robotnik's place?"

"You bet!" He gave the thumbs up.

"Someone must be helping us."

"Never mind that! Let's go!"

"Which way should we go?"

We were all now in long, wide, metallic hallway which ran off to the left and right. The portal had disappeared when the last Sonic had come through. Now, I felt constricted again.

A loudspeaker suddenly blared. "What? How did you get into my fortress so fast? Not even you hedgehogs could infiltrate this place in less then two minutes, let alone find it!"

I yelled back. "We'd love to tell you, Robo-Robutthead but we kinda don't know that ourselves. Ha ha ha!"

"We'll see who gets the last laugh, rodents. All Shadow Swatbots, deploy to Level 5, Hallway 3!"

Uh-oh. That was our cue to beat feet. We chose to go right.

We didn't get more then a hundred feet, however, when the floor dropped out from under us.

"Ahhhh!" Since I was near the front, I scrambled to grab hold of the edge of the floor but missed and was caught by the lead Sonic who then helped me back up.

"You alright?"

"Yeah." As the others' screams faded, I turned around and stared down into the hole, which took up the whole width of the hallway. I saw nothing but darkness. I looked at the other side, quite a few metres away, where a few Sonics remained, having managed to stop in time. The trap door stayed open.

"Now what?" one of them yelled. "It's too wide to leap!"

The lead Sonic answered back, "Listen, try to find the others and get out of here! We're gonna go look for the princess!"

"You sure you two could handle this on your own?"

"Very."

A moment of hesitation. "Okay then, good luck." They ran off. We had been forced to split up after all.

"Come on. We're outta here." We sped off in the opposite direction.

We made our way through hallways filled with Shadow Swatbots. Most of them must have been on the lower levels fighting the other Sonics 'cause we only encountered groups of five to eight at a time. So we easily tore through those 'bots like hot knives through chili dog buns. This was so easy, we even talked a little about our worlds.

"You know," I said as I finished off the last Shadow Swatbot, "this kinda reminds me of the time my Robotnik got his mitts on all four Chaos Emeralds and...*"

"Wait a minute, 'all four Chaos Emeralds'?"

"Yeah, I know. It's really amazing, him pulling that off..."

"No, I mean, there's only four Chaos Emeralds in your world?"

I frowned at him as we ran down the hall. "Well, yeah: Invisibility, Invincibility, Immortality and the Power of Life. Why? Are there more than those four in your world?"

"...Uh, yeah, there's seven. But they don't each represent the powers you just described. The only thing that makes them different from each other is their colours."

"Colours? Aren't they all green?"

"...One of them is. The rest are red, yellow, light blue, dark blue, purple and grey."

"Then why are they all called Chaos Emeralds? Emeralds are supposed to be only green!"

He chuckled. "Come to think of it, I don't know. I guess whoever named them didn't like the name 'Chaos Gems' or something. Hey, maybe there are more than four Chaos Emeralds in your world; they just haven't been discovered yet. I used to think there were only six."

Just then, we heard the voice of another Sonic. "Hey, babe, why don't you and me do something beautiful together."

Me and the lead Sonic skidded to a stop next to an open doorway and peered into a tiny room bare of furnishings: there was Cyber Sally, still wrapped in chains, and Evil Sonic, who was leaning into her face and grinning.

"I'll take that chain off your mouth if you swear you behave yourself. As an added bonus, I might let you go free afterwards too. But one wrong move (he held up a remote control) and this electric...electro...EMP will ensure you go to sleep for a very long time."

Cyber Sally looked furious but then she caught sight of us.

As she bit back an exclamation of surprise, I mouthed, "Distract him."

She stared for a second then nodded.

Evil Sonic saw it but his grin grew broader. "Alrighty then." He unwrapped the chain from around her mouth. He obviously thought she had been nodding at him.

A seductive smile appeared on Cyber Sal's face. "You know, with that leather jacket, you kind of resemble my Sonic... Only a lot more handsome."

"Heh heh, I know." Evil Sonic licked his glove and smoothed back his spines.

While she continued to play on his oversized ego, me and the lead Sonic tried to come up with a plan.

"How about a Sonic Spin?" I suggested.

"...A Super Spin Attack? Nuh-uh," said the lead Sonic. "I've never used it on a living being before but I bet it wouldn't be pretty. Not to mention we'd risk injuring Sally with her so close to him as well."

I've got to remember that the laws of physics are different in other universes.

"Well, we can't fight him hand-to-hand either;" I replied. "He might activate that remote. Hmmm... I've got it!"

"Got what?"

"Hold on a sec."

I curled up into a ball and willed my spines into pressing against my body instead of sticking out.

"What are you doing?" I heard the lead Sonic ask in confusion.

"Kick me into Evil Sonic!" I answered.

"What?" He barely kept his voice quiet.

"You heard me. Pretend I'm a soccer ball!"

"Won't that hurt?"

"Not as much as Sally will be if Evil Sonic presses that remote."

"Good point. Okay... Brace yourself!"

Pow!

I barely felt anything as the lead Sonic's foot connected with my body, sending me flying right smack into Evil Sonic.

"Oof!"

I felt ourselves collide with a wall, with me being cushioned by him fortunately.

I uncurled and saw, before me, an unconscious Evil Sonic lying against a dent in the wall. I heard the sound of chains clinking and turned around. The lead Sonic was untying Cyber Sally.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.

She smiled. "Thanks to you two, I am."

I walked up to them. "Aw, no biggie."

Just then, we heard the sound of clanking feet getting steadily louder outside in the corridor. The lead Sonic picked up Cyber Sal. "We better get outta here and find the others."

"Yeah, let's juice before they cook our goose." We exited the room, leaving Evil Sonic behind to be dealt with by Robo-Robotnik.

*"Prehistoric Sonic"