Author's Note: Hi, I'm back with another new chapter and I will do my best with how the rest of the story will turn out.
To TomtomtheWriter: Glad you really like this story so far and thank you for your support. I do have a few plans for Shadow, and in regards to the Sonic Heroes adaption, I'm already working on a loose adaption of the game in my other work in progress story "Sonic X: Back to Earth" with some changes to that as well.
You can check it out as I'm still working on it's Mutagen Saga, if you like.
In the meantime, here's a new chapter of Sonic Worlds!
I do not own any rights to Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the related media. All rights go to Sega.
Chapter 7: Suspicions and Discoveries.
Things were relatively silent and somewhat peaceful on Angel Island since the incident against Dr. Eggman two weeks ago. Yet even as Knuckles had done what he did to help Sonic, Tails and Amy to rescue Cream and Cheese and retrieve the Chaos Emeralds, something has been bothering him that he couldn't get out of his head. The fact that the evil scientist had the Chaos Emeralds, yet something happened with the machine. From what Sonic and Tails told him when they found time to visit and explained the situation, the red echidna had been uneasy.
The Chaos Control bringing a human boy from another world who, according to the blue hedgehog, had ran away from home but didn't get into that much detail for Chris's sake, like they didn't want to get into the kid's private life and Sonic made Knuckles swear to not tell anyone else about this given the latter's history of being gullible. Yet the Guardian of the Master Emerald wasn't known to be a liar, and he knew that the hero of Mobius hated lying and hated liars as well. Still, that begged the question; how did two worlds briefly interact to the point of taking a child from one world instead of sending them all to that said planet?
'There's something not right about all of this. Why would the Chaos Control take some random kid from another planet to ours? Sonic had better have a good explanation.' Knuckles thought to himself, seated at the bottom step of the altar where above him the legendary and mystical Master Emerald rested as it always did, save for a few times before it was returned to it's rightful place.
Unless he saw the twelve year old Earth-Boy himself, the red echidna was never going to be at ease, and while Chris was no different to every other human on Mobius, and seeing how Sonic was actually concerned for the kid which meant that like with Tails, the fifteen year old was quite close to the young Thorndyke, the moment Knuckles saw him that night, there was something...quite different he just couldn't describe.
Why did Chris give him such a feeling no other human did?
His thoughts were cut off when he heard the sounds of a sonic boom and whooshing getting closer and closer until a familiar blue hedgehog came into view, skidding to a stop just in front of him.
"Hey there, Knuckles." Sonic greeted casually, having just made sure that Chris was comfortable at the latter's new school and from what the hero of Mobius had seen, the twelve year old boy was acting like any other kid would while the fifteen year old had witnessed it since he had been lounging on a tree branch all morning, and having smiled when he saw the kid get along greet with his new classmates and human friends before deciding that his new friend would be alright.
Since then, Sonic had left to check out the city while keeping an eye out for anymore Eggman attacks and found that the evil doctor was still keeping silent despite that the blue hedgehog knew that his enemy would attack again soon, but hoped that it wouldn't be today of all days. Finally, he decided to pay Knuckles a visit to discuss further on the situation. Sonic and Tails had informed Chris in letting Knuckles know and made the red echidna promise to keep this as a secret as well, which the young Earth-Boy agreed since he felt that it would be best considering that Knuckles was the Guardian of the Master Emerald.
"I thought you were going to take that kid to school today." Knuckles grumbled as he stood, vaguely annoyed at the uninvited visit as usual.
"I did and I kept an eye on him for a little bit, but Chris is doing pretty well at his first day. He went off making friends with a cinch at the gates and was enjoying himself." The younger Mobian explained casually and calmly. "He was really comfortable in finally having a life he couldn't have back in his world. He'll be fine. I could see it already. Since then, I left at lunch and ran around Station Square, making sure Eggman didn't attack, and, well, here I am now."
"Sonic, you shouldn't have left that kid on his own. Especially since he isn't from this planet." The red echidna cautioned.
"C'mon, dude. I wanted to help Chris to make his wish come true. Not be his bodyguard and besides, we already took care of making sure he's safe and happy and free to make his own choices." Sonic shrugged, smirking.
"Even so, he's trapped here and unless we do something about it, we can't help him to get back to his world. He may be human, but he's a different kind of human that could cause problems." Knuckles warned, getting a bit agitated.
"No way." Sonic shook his head. "He's a great kid and I really like him. Sure, I gave him the choice on whether he wants to go back home or stay with us, but it all depends on him now. I don't want to force him to do things like his family keep on doing to the poor guy. He ran away from them for a really good reason."
The sixteen year old echidna sighed explosively, facepalming himself. "Look, there's something about that kid that leaves me uneasy. Yes, he's human and yes, from what I keep on hearing, he's like everybody else. But let's face it; he's a human from a different dimension and I don't like it one bit."
Sonic frowned and folded his arms. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't help him. It's Chris's family that leave me uneasy. I mean, c'mon. Not allowed to make friends, watch TV, go to places, read good fiction books, getting grounded just for doing so, forced to one day marry a girl who's more intersted in money then anything else, and locked up in your room just for asking in making friends while being treated like a prince? It's no wonder he finally had enough and not once did his folks or grandpa give him any love, comfort or freedom. Sure some rich people do force their kids to do things, but that kind of family is almost as bad as Eggman's grandfather."
When Knuckles didn't respond straight away, the younger teen continued. "He's scared, Knux. Not only he's been brought here by accident, but if he wants to go back, I can't stop him. But at the same time, I'm worried that he could be forced to go back to the kind of life that makes him feel like a robot or uh...like how you treat the Master Emerald."
"And would it be better if Chris decides to stay here, knowing that he's in constant danger with Eggman?" The red echidna asked skeptically. "He's in more danger with us than he is in his world. Whether he likes it or not, he was a lot safer with that kind of life. It's a sacrifice for one's safety that has to be made and the other world may not be a safe place."
"I know that! But everybody's in danger whenever Eggman's around, so Chris being here with us doesn't make much of a difference! I'm going to protect him like I do with everybody else and I'm not gonna let anybody stop me from keeping them safe and happy!" Sonic snapped. "Besides which, it's better than you, me, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese and even potentially Eggman being sent to Chris' world where we could be hunted down like criminals just because to everybody on the other Earth we're aliens."
Knuckles paused, seemingly absorbing what the blue hedgehog had just told him. Given what he's been told, if whatever's happened in the other world hadn't happened, then the Chaos Control effect would be in reverse; they could have been taken to the parallel universe instead of Chris being brought there, and then things would have been a lot worse; Other than Eggman would be treated like a normal criminal, Sonic and everybody else would be treated like criminal aliens who would be hunted down, killed or experimented on for further study for the Earth-Humans. At least with Chris, he's a human and thus wouldn't be treated as differently as long as they all kept his true origins a secret.
"Then the whole thing is your fault either way. If you hadn't been messing around, neither scenario would've happened in the first place...!" The guardian of the Master Emerald grunted.
"I know..." Sonic grimly admitted, scratching the top of his head. "If I had been more careful, Eggman's machine wouldn't have caused the messed up Chaos Control. To tell the truth, I feel awful that Chris was brought here and before he woke up in the hospital and told me that he ran away, I promised myself to take him back to his parents 'cause I thought they'd be worried. But at the moment, he's...a lot more happier to actually be a normal kid, and he gets on really well with Cream and Cheese and Mrs. Vanilla."
"Let me guess; he's fond of you, Tails and Amy too, right?" Knuckles sighed, admittedly a bit caught off-guard to hear his friendly-rival to actually admit his faults. It was rare to see the obnoxious, annoying and aggravatingly happy-go-lucky fifteen year old to look and feel guilty for his mistakes.
Sonic sadly shrugged with a small smile. "I'm his first friend he's ever had. So yeah, he likes me and Tails and Amy a lot. Chris is a great kid, really kind and caring. It's really sad that his parents never allowed him to have the luxury of actually going on to make friends and from what he told me, there was never a real danger of getting to know people as far as he's concerned. But his family thinks there are no such things as friendship or freedom."
He paused as he thought back to what his new human friend had told him about his grandfather, Chuck Thorndyke. Sonic wasn't sure why, but given how Chris wasn't allowed to know that kind of dimensional research stuff and not allowed to do anything, the blue hedgehog was scared of the elder man. The more he thought of his new friend's relatives, the more he began to feel even more uneasy. Just what were those people thinking?
More importantly, why were they so paranoid against their own world to the point of forcing Chris to obey their extremely strict rules and not let him even be interested in other dimensions? Were they hiding something that the kid wasn't allowed to know of?
"Hey, I'd better get goin' and pick up Chris from school. It's almost 3:PM." Sonic suddenly realized as he noticed the time of the sunlight. He gave a quick goodbye to Knuckles and jumped off of Angel Island, landing safely in the forest before speeding off back to Station Square, leaving the older teenager behind once more.
Alone once again to his own thoughts and his duties to guard the Master Emerald, the red echidna folded his arms and closed his eyes, thinking about what the blue hedgehog had told him.
"If that kid's world is exactly like ours yet he wasn't allowed to get to know other people, what were his mother and father and grandfather's motives? Are they...hiding something?" The sixteen year old whispered to himself.
Despite that there wasn't anything they could do about Chris' situation apart from Sonic and his friends helping the kid along, Knuckles just hoped that the rest of the Thorndykes weren't doing anything extremely troubling.
Or worse. If Charles Thorndyke is researching ways to cross other dimensions, yet was just as cruel as Chris' parents, then the situation was much more dangerous than with Eggman causing problems.
Meanwhile, at Eggman's new secret base he rebuilt in the last couple of weeks since his two previous defeats by Sonic and his friends just off-shores on an island near the main continent, the evil scientist was already coming up with a new plan to take over the world by doing something no one would think of doing.
Following his latest creation which was another robot with a teacher's hat that flew straight towards Station Square in his Egg Mobile, Eggman grinned wickedly, believing that this was a plan not even Sonic would stop.
Things had started out surprisingly well for Chris the moment he and his new classmates and first human friends went into the first class for the day. He got to sit with them after the teacher introduced him as a new student, and the other kids seemed to be nice despite them making whispers about him being close to Sonic, but other than that, things had quietened down before the lessons started.
After that, even though he responded with the 'lack' of memories, the twelve year old Earth-boy hanged out with Danny and Francies all day, even competed in the sports classes and despite the few mishaps, he actually got the hang of it and had heaps of fun. During breaks he got to play and hang out, he got to read fiction books and even talk about his favorite moments with his new friends who shared their interests as well. Chris just got the chance to be...a normal kid.
Sure there had been some rude kids around, but they were either mostly ignored or the teachers reported them to the Principle's office for causing mischief and problems, making Chris see that back at home, he had been a good kid considering and kind of wished that his parents could see that there are good people around.
As the day began to end which he was kind of disappointed in, Chris felt that he couldn't wait to tell how his day went to Sonic, Cream and Mrs. Vanilla. For the first time in his life, he was very excited.
"So Chris, how'd you find your first day today?" Danny asked as he, Francies and their new friend were just getting some of their things from their lockers as school was out for the day and the kids would either walk home from school or wait to be picked up.
"It was great! Sure schools can be boring, but I actually had fun today. With you guys and all the sports activities and the other fun stuff." The Earth-Boy replied brightly.
"Yeah, there's nothing more fun than hanging out with friends." Francies agreed happily. "We should all hang out more often, like on the weekends."
"Yeah, we can play baseball, the video arcades, and other fun stuff." The other twelve year old boy agreed.
"You think I can invite the others too?" Chris asked hopefully, referring to Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, despite that the blue hedgehog would be busy adventuring out. "It'd be really fun for all of us to hang out together."
"Good idea!" His new friends agreed, both the fact that the twelve year old Thorndyke liked to hang out with them and wanted to invite his Mobian friends as well which made it even more exciting, especially in hanging out with Sonic's group.
But just as the trio of kids were chatting while approaching the school gates, all of the sudden they and the rest of the students heard a loud rumbling of jets coming from above which made everyone look up and saw something beginning to approach from the sky, much to their sky.
"What's that?" Chris and Francies both asked simultaneously.
"A fighter plane?" Danny added, just as confused and alarmed.
Unfortunately that wasn't the case. The object that was heading towards them was actually a robot, which landed in front of the school which made the kids stop in their tracks in shock as they saw it was...a black robot with wheels, human sized wearing a teacher's hat?
"Is that robot supposed to be a new teacher or something?" Francies asked, dumbfounded.
"I don't think that the case." Chris muttered worriedly, feeling a flash of deja vu.
"Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Why, kids! You're not leaving so early, are you?" A familiar and unwanted man's voice laughed, causing the students to all look up and saw, to their shock and dismay, was Eggman who landed his Egg Mobile to ground level and hopped out, grinning. "Because if you do, I'll be sending you all into my office!"
"It's Dr. Eggman!" The children all exclaimed in shock, dismay and some with fear, all knowing about the evil scientist that has been causing problems to Mobius for years.
"What do you mean, your office?" Chris asked, narrowing his eyes.
"Yeah, what are you talking about? It's 3:PM and school's out for the day." Francies added, skeptically.
"Yes, it's only 3:00 and that means it's time for your next lesson, because from now on, no one's allowed to go home until I say so and do your Egg-Homework, and the school curfew is from 6:AM to 7:PM, twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Including weekends! I'm your new Principle, kiddies, and that means whoever runs this school is in for an early retirement!" The mad doctor declared.
"Says who?" Danny asked as the other children were not happy with the news.
"Yeah, you're not our principle! He'll call the police!" Another boy added, and numerous of children agreed.
"Not unless you actually pay attention to your new teacher Teacho-Bot and his eyes." Eggman stated, turning to his aforementioned creation and ordered. "Alright, hypnotize these students and send them into detention!"
"Yes, Principle Eggman!" The Teacho-Bot saluted, his eyes glowing red as the children, now scared, quickly closed their eyes while bracing themselves. Some of them then screamed as rather than a hypnotizing event happening, red lasers came flying out straight towards them.
"Look out!" A young girl with dark hair screamed out, as she and the other students leaped out of the way, to which Chris, Danny and Francies hesitantly looked up before panicking and hit the deck. The two laser beams flashed past them and hit the side of the school's building, damaging it in a small explosion. All of the kids and even Eggman looked on bewildered at this with huge sweat drops at the close call.
"Okay, either Eggman thinks hypnotizing means vaporizing, or his robot was built to hurt people and not put them under his spell." Chris murmured scaredly.
"I'm gonna go with the second one." Danny commented with a gulp.
"Ditto." Francies nodded in agreement.
"Heads up!" The young Thorndyke yelped, panicking as the Teacho-Bot prepared to fire again. The twelve year old boy quickly grabbed hold of his new friends' wrists and pulled them up before they and the other children who also ducked to run out of the way, screaming and narrowly avoided in getting hit once again, causing more damage to the school grounds than anything else.
The more the kids tried to run away even back inside the building, the more the Teacho-Bot prevented them from leaving, having them cornered to the point of narrowly hitting Chris and his friends, resulting an explosion which sent the three of them flying backwards and screaming. They hit the ground hard and winced, yet Francies screamed out in pain while placing a hand onto her right arm which was hit slightly with a scrap and started bleeding.
"Francies!" Chris and Danny both screamed out, hurrying to their friend and knelt beside her as she began to tear up.
"Are you hurt?" Chris asked worriedly.
"Where did that robot hit you?" Danny demanded fearfully.
"It hit my arm...!" Francies winced, hesitantly moving her hand where a badly deep cut was revealed, and a trickle of blood began oozing out, much to her friends' horror.
"Oh man..." The twelve year old Earth-Boy muttered, before quickly turning to his other new friend, "We gotta somehow get back inside and call the nurse!"
"Right!" The other twelve year old boy nodded with determination.
Just as Chris was then carefully helping the young twelve year old girl up and accidentally brushed his fingers against the small wound which made Francies wince and whimper in pain and he quickly muttered an apology, all of the sudden there was an unusual golden glow seeping out from his hand which shocked both him and Francies who gasped in surprise. As they and Danny, who also saw this, gazed in shock and wondering what was going on, suddenly the glow transfered itself into the deep cut and began to heal it, shrinking the injury until it was gone, the blood suddenly disappearing and the pain vanishing like it wasn't there at all.
"Huh?" The three kids gaped in shock and disbelief.
"It's gone...!" Danny murmured in disbelief.
"Chris you...you healed me?" Francies asked, amazed as she gently rubbed her arm, before gazing at the young Thorndyke with awe. "I didn't know you could do that."
"M-Me neither." Chris blinked, wondering what just happened. Even back on Earth, he definitely never had this some kind of magical power of healing before. This sort of thing was way too much like in the movies. Then realizing that this would cause more problems, he quickly whispered to his friends. "Maybe we should keep this as a secret, 'cause I'm not sure showing this off is such a good idea."
Even as Francies and Danny were in pure agreement over this, especially with Eggman still around and thankfully the evil doctor didn't notice, they didn't have time to respond as they and Chris, still in shock over this unusual ability he just demonstrated, saw that the Teacho-Bot was about to attack again, forcing them and the other students to try and make a run for it while Eggman not attempted to tell his creation to stop.
Further up in Station Square, Sonic was speeding his way to the school when he saw a glimpse of Eggman and his robot earlier and gasped in shock when he realized where it was going. As the blue hedgehog got closer, he could hear the sounds of explosions, police and fire truck sirens go off and faint sounds of screams coming from the school. His eyes narrowed when he realized that the children were in danger.
'Hang in there, Chris! I'm coming!' The fifteen year old thought in his mind, urging himself to speed it up with his boost ability, once again fearing for his new friend's safety as well as the safety of the other human kids.
Eventually as the children managed to successfully get inside the building and slammed the doors shut with hopes to not get hit again, the mad doctor finally bashed his robot on the head to get it to stop firing, while Chris and the others nervously peered out of the doors' windows.
"Hold your fire, you dumbot! I said hypnotize these brats, not vaporize them!" Eggman shouted angrily as this wasn't what he wanted things to go.
The Teacho-Bot just glared back at his creator while pointing out angrily. "Well, I was built for these lasers to vaporize Sonic! It's you who didn't put in the hypo-swirls in my system!"
"You were supposed to self-manually switch over! I can't make these kids grow to become like me if they're rendered to dust!" The evil scientist argued.
"He wants us to be just like him?" Chris asked in disbelief as he, his friends and the rest of the children stared at Eggman, before they all shuddered in disgust over the idea.
"Ew!" Francies cringed.
"Man, that's just too gross!" Danny complained.
"I think I'm gonna have nightmares...!" The young Thorndyke groaned.
As Eggman and his robot were arguing with the latter turning to prepare to blast open the doors to force the children out, a blue blur suddenly zoomed past which knocked out the laser system from the Teacho-Bot which at first confused the children, before they looked up and saw to their amazement and relief was the familiar teenage heroic Mobian.
"Oh, never mind! Just capture these kids and THEN turn on your hypno-mode to brainwash them!" Eggman growled.
"There is no time now! We have company!" Teacho-Bot snapped angrily, pointing up. When the evil doctor looked up, he saw that the person standing on the stone part of the gates was Sonic who had his arms folded and his usual smirk on his muzzle.
"If you're trying to get a job as a teacher, no wonder you flunked out with your college degree, Eggman." Sonic taunted.
"It's Sonic!" Chris exclaimed in relief, glad that his first friend had arrived just in time to the rescue.
"Whoa! It really is Sonic!" Francies exclaimed in awe.
"Awesome!" Danny cried out, amazed.
Eggman on the other hand was furious that his young enemy had arrived again, having noticed that Chris was here, realizing that he was now attending this school and that the blue hedgehog had come to pick him up and take him back to...wherever the young Thorndyke lived now.
"Teacho-Bot! You can change your mode later! Get rid of Sonic now!" The evil scientist commanded.
"Yes, sir!" Teacho-Bot saluted, before firing his lasers at Sonic who jumped just in time to avoid it even as the gates were now getting damaged which made the cobalt speedster wince at the sight.
"Sure hope this school's got insurance!" Sonic muttered to himself, landing on the ground and dashed out of the way to avoid more lasers and even missiles when the robot opened up his hat to fire said attacks. He easily dodged the attacks and ran in a zig-zag pattern while approaching Teacho-Bot.
Yet he miscalculated as one of the lasers actually managed to scrape him on the arm slightly just above his glove's cuff, making him cry out in pain at the burning sensation. "Ow!"
"Sonic!" Chris cried out in horror as his friends and the other students gasped.
But Sonic ignored his injury and glared angrily at the robot before charging once more, going even faster to the point that he jumped and spun using his Spin Dash, bursting straight into the Teacho-Bot's chest which resulted a huge explosion. Eggman shouted in dismay to see that he lost yet again and even worse, also due to a technical problem that refused to fix itself.
The Earth-Boy and his classmates, hesitantly coming out of the building, waited as they stared at the smoke before the hero of Mobius emerged safe and unharmed and frowning at the evil scientist who almost ruined his new human friend's first day of school.
"All right, Sonic!" Chris cheered happily while the other students cheered on as well.
Eggman on the other hand, annoyed, congratulated in sarcasm yet not willing to throw away his dignity just yet. "Alright, Sonic. You win. Here, take your prize."
"What prize?" Sonic asked suspiciously.
"A little reward for your victory." The evil scientist handed out a small round badge which had his ugly, evil grinning face on it, much to the teenage Mobian's disgust.
"I don't want a booby prize. You can keep it." The fifteen year old as he folded his arms in annoyance.
Growling, Eggman then turned to Chris and the other children while attempting to offer the badge to hopefully earn some respect and liking. "Fine. You take it!"
"No thanks!" Chris immediately replied, as he and everyone else were just as disgusted as their hedgehog hero.
"Ugh!" Francies groaned and cringed in distaste. "Who'd want that?"
"Yeah, it's too nasty." Danny added in agreement, much to the evil man's sheer annoyance.
"Alright, I'll wear it myself." Eggman grumbled as he pinned the badge onto his shirt and waved with a grumble. "Bye."
The mad doctor then hopped into his Egg Mobile before glaring at Sonic over his shoulder and warned. "But don't think this is the end of it, Sonic! One of these days, I'll get you!"
"Just get outta here, already. There are kids who have parents waiting for them!" The blue hedgehog snapped in return.
"Well, excuse me for having a complicated family life! I'll be back!" The evil scientist growled, before he flew away to return to his base, leaving Sonic and the human children as well as the teachers who all sighed in relief to stand there in an awkward silence.
"For an evil doctor, he's a weirdo." Francies remarked.
"Yeah." Danny agreed.
Chris nodded as he replied. "He could keep me after school for a million years and I still wouldn't admire him."
Sonic sighed, shaking his head in exasperation over his enemy's lousy time to mess things up before gazing at the young Thorndyke and said apologetically. "Sorry that your first day of school turned out the way it did, Chris. I was hoping that Eggman wouldn't get involved, but that guy's plans always end up being random."
"It's okay, Sonic. You don't have to apologize." Chris reassured with a soft smile. "Thanks for saving us."
"You were awesome, Sonic! It's so cool to finally meet you." Francies added as she and Danny approached.
"Hey, thanks." The blue hedgehog chuckled, before saying firmly. "But you kids better hurry home. Your parents are waiting."
Realizing that he was right as the sun was beginning to fully set, the students nodded in agreement as Danny and Francies wished Chris the best and to see him tomorrow which he did the same.
"Ready to head back home to Mrs. Vanilla too, buddy?" Sonic asked the twelve year old Earth-boy.
"Yeah." Chris replied.
"Alright! Hold on tight." Sonic smirked, gesturing his friend to hold onto him as Chris carefully wrapped his arms around his shoulders. "Here we go! All aboard the Sonic Express!"
With that in mind, the cobalt hedgehog carried the human boy in high-speed since they missed the train, and raced all the way out of Station Square and back to the village.
By the time Sonic and Chris made it back to Cream's house, the blue hedgehog skid to a stop in front of the footpath leading to the place itself and gently set his human friend down.
"Here ya' go." The blue hedgehog said.
"Thanks, Sonic." Chris replied.
"So, apart from Eggman showing up, how's your day been?"
"It was great! Sure school lessons are always boring, but I had more fun than I ever did at boarding school. I hanged out with Danny and Francies, we had lunch together, did sport activities and even played lots of games." The twelve year old boy explained with excitement.
Sonic smiled. "That's great. Glad you're enjoying yourself, buddy."
Chris nodded, but then he noticed the burn and wound on the fifteen year old's arm and gasped in shock and worry. "Sonic! You're hurt!"
"Hm?" The cobalt teenager blinked, then winced a little when he felt the injury on his arm and remembered how he got it, but mentally shrugged it off as he got a good look at it, which he had to admit it got him pretty good. "Oh, this? Nah, this is nothing. I've had way worse before."
"Even so, you should get that seen too. C'mon, Mrs. Vanilla should help." The young Thorndyke pointed out as he made to gently grab his friend's injured arm.
"Chris, I'm fine, really. Don't worry about-"
Sonic was cut off when as his friend accidentally touched the injury which made him wince in discomfort, to his and the Earth-Boy's shock, the same thing that the latter saw earlier with Francies that healed her wound happened again, this time miraciously healing the blue hedgehog's as the burn and wound faded away and healed up completely. The same golden glow, which Sonic had to admit, to his shock, it felt warm and alarmingly familiar.
"Whoa...!" The cobalt hero breathed in awe.
"H-Huh? Again?" Chris muttered, shocked beyond belief.
"Huh? Whaddya mean again? Did this happen before?" Sonic asked, surprised by his friend's response.
"Only once. When Francies got injured by Eggman's robot, I accidentally touched her injury on her arm as I tried to help her and...somehow it healed up from my hand just like it did to you." The twelve year old boy explained.
"What!?" Sonic exclaimed in disbelief, his eyes wide as not only he was horrified that Eggman actually injured an innocent girl, but he was shocked and amazed that this is only the second time that Chris...used a healing power that not even the Earth-Boy knew of before.
"Sonic...I'm a little scared. This never happened to me before." Chris muttered, now becoming shaken by this new ability that he never knew of, except for this experience was only that in movies, or in Mobius' case, certain Mobians having amazing abilities and powers.
"Calm down, I'm sure we can figure this out." The fifteen year old Mobian attempted to reassure. "A healing power is rare, even in Mobian standards, but it can be a good thing. I know that in the legend that Chaos Emeralds provide healing powers too when one has strong Chaos Energy, but I gotta admit, this is the first time I've heard and seen a human having a healing power of Chaos Energy and not having any Chaos Emeralds around."
"Huh? Chaos Energy?" Chris blinked, confused.
"I think it's best to call Tails to have him come over to talk about this, but as long as you, and your new classmates like Francies don't tell this to anybody, it's going to be alright. We'll find a way to solve this and make sure you keep on living a normal life." Sonic suggested, gently rubbing his friend's back to give him comfort. "But you know, this is pretty cool. The healing power, I mean."
"...Right. But I really never did this before." The young Thorndyke said, lowering his gaze in worry, which made the blue hedgehog feel concerned for him.
Then Sonic began to wonder if maybe this was a side-effect of the accidental Chaos Control which inadvertently granted Chris the Chaos Energy power of healing without the need of the Emeralds.
Half an hour later, the blue hedgehog was invited by their youngest friend and her mother while he made an urgent call to Tails and even Amy on the urgency of the situation that involved the Earth-Boy's new sudden ability to heal wounds and injuries. When their friends arrived, the two boys explained what happened and as both Cream and Vanilla were frantic over their house-mate's safety which the twelve year old reassured them that he was fine, they, the two-tailed fox and the pink hedgehog were quite stunned to hear the events that happened.
"A healing power formed of Chaos Energy?" Amy asked, blinking in surprise.
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, we're not sure why, but Chris healed not just my small burn, but also the cut his new friend Francies ended up getting when Eggman's robot tried to hypnotize them but instead nearly vaporized the kids."
"And you never done this before, Chris?" Tails asked, unable to believe that such a thing could actually happen. "How is this even possible?"
"I'm just as confused as you guys are, Tails." Chris shrugged cluelessly. "I already asked Francies and Danny to keep this as a secret since I don't want to end up getting into anymore trouble."
"Especially if Eggman finds out. It might be small, but I got a feeling you've got Chaos Energy now within ya'." Sonic added.
"Hmm...Well, considering how much Chaos Energy has been exposed and Chris has been transported here due to Chaos Control and the machine back in his world, it could be a major side effect that's starting to emerge. I'll have to run a few scans for the Chaos Energy to learn further about this, but until then, it's best to be very careful, just in case." The two-tailed fox theorized.
"So how do I handle this then?" The twelve year old boy asked.
"Well, Chaos Energy isn't something to completely come by these days, and certain powers connected to a few Mobians like me can only access to that kind of power with the Chaos Emeralds. But even I can't use the healing ability as much unless I have at least one Chaos Emerald or when I'm Super Sonic." The blue hedgehog stated.
"Every Chaos Emerald has a strong magical power. Can you imagine what happens when all seven are together?" Amy added.
"Not so sure if I like this. I don't wanna end up going all crazy with this. I've seen enough movies on what happens when people use powers to do all sorts of bad things, and it's like you guys told me. If the Chaos Emeralds can even power up machines, then it's more bad news for me." Chris shuddered over the idea.
Sonic gently placed a hand onto his friend's shoulder. "I know what you mean, buddy. To tell the truth, I was kinda scared when I first used the Chaos Emeralds too, but then we all learned what really powers the Chaos Emeralds and gives you the power to perform miracles. It's our friendship and happiness, caring for others and never giving up."
"Sonic's right, Chris. It's all of that that turns our thoughts into power to save the world, and besides, healing others of injuries is an amazing ability. The fact that you can do that even without the Emeralds and that you're a human is just as incredible." The eight year old fox added.
"You helped Sonic and miss Francies, Chris. Even when you wanted to help them without using your magical healing." Cream agreed optimistically.
"Chao, chao." Cheese squeaked.
"They're right, Chris. I'm sure everything will be alright, as long as you're all careful." Vanilla agreed kindly as she handed a cup of tea to the young boy who thanked her.
"I guess so. It's just...I'm not used to it and it really scares me." The Earth-Boy sighed.
The Mobians felt sympathy for their friend, especially since he has been through so much in his entire life. First experiencing his whole life with a family who wanted him to do what they wanted with powerful misleading lives of how the world works, then running away only to end up accidentally taken from Earth to Mobius, then during his tour in Station Square with Sonic, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Eggman attacks in an failed attempt to kidnap him, two weeks of going through the organizing of getting him settled in, and now fragments of Chaos Energy that was inside his body unknowingly to everyone else began to make itself known by granting the twelve year old the power of healing without the Chaos Emeralds themselves.
'Poor Chris. It's already bad enough that he's stuck here with us after running away from the worst kind of family on his planet, especially with Eggman causing problems. Now he has strong Chaos Energy that might be too much for him. I wish there was some way to make him feel better without it going out of control.' Sonic thought to himself, feeling the guilt over his new friend's situation get even worse.
Sure the blue hedgehog and even Knuckles and potentially Tails and Amy can handle Chaos Energy since they were Mobians, and while Shadow had been created, even the late black hedgehog had more powerful experience since his body had said energy added into him during his 'birth'. But humans never had that kind of ability, whether there were on Earth or here in Mobius. But Chris was the very first human to had that kind of power and yet he wasn't born with it; he had been exposed to it's energy due to Chaos Control that was summoned incorrectly.
Then Sonic softly gasped as he suddenly remembered what Knuckles told him earlier today.
"Even so, he's trapped here and unless we do something about it, we can't help him to get back to his world. He may be human, but he's a different kind of human that could cause problems." Knuckles warned. "Look, there's something about that kid that leaves me uneasy. Yes, he's human and yes, from what I keep on hearing, he's like everybody else. But let's face it; he's a human from a different dimension."
'Knuckles is right. Chris is in more danger, especially with this kind of power. Maybe he knows how to help the kid with this.' The blue hedgehog thought, knowing that the twelve year old boy had to left out of Eggman's hands and the hands of other potential evil that could use the kid to their advantage.
Even so, did the red echidna detect growing traces of Chaos Energy before Sonic himself found out? If that's the case, then why didn't the hero of Mobius sense-wait, he did sense it. He felt it as he carried the boy to Station Square two weeks ago, and at first since learning of his past and homeworld, the teenager thought that it was because he was a slightly different kind of human.
But was it because he felt the mixture of Chris being from another dimension while unknowingly having been exposed to Chaos Energy and that's why neither Sonic or Knuckles couldn't figure it out?
"I think this is gonna take more than just Tails' scanners to solve all of this. We're gonna need help from the Emerald legendary stuff expert." Sonic finally decided, making his friends gaze at him.
"Hold on, are you suggesting we ask Knuckles?" The pink hedgehog girl asked.
"Well, there's nobody else that knows more about this sort of thing, and unless we go out looking for clues including the Chaos Emeralds, Knux is our only best bet." The blue hedgehog pointed out.
"That's a good idea. We'll head over to Angel Island on the weekend to ask for his help." Tails agreed, turning to Chris while adding. "And maybe it'll be a good idea to bring your new friends Francies and Danny since they saw what happened too."
"You think Knuckles can help?" Chris asked, surprised.
"If anybody knows more about this sort of thing considering he's the guardian of the Master Emerald, it's him." Sonic confirmed. "Don'tcha worry, Chris. We'll figure this out and help you control your healing power so that way it won't go out of control."
Even though Chris was still a little uncertain about this whole thing, he felt that this was his best bet and plus while he had hoped that this weekend he and his new friends, both the Mobians and his knew classmates would have a fun hang out, those plans would have to wait until further notice. When the others nodded in agreement and giving him reassuring looks, he knew that everything would be fine.
So he nodded in return, hoping that things would get sorted out soon.
Meanwhile, in the ruins of Eggman's base that has been destroyed two weeks earlier, Rouge had sneaked in to find anything valuable since she had no luck in locating any Chaos Emeralds during that time, and thus she was unaware of Chris' existence. Well, she was a bit but paid no mind to that. Since then she had tried locating any other beautiful jewels or simply trying to steal the Master Emerald as usual, but was chased away by the furious Knuckles who kept her out of his sights at all times.
Sneaking in was the easy part, considering that she is also an GUN agent for spying missions to report back to her superiors, but in her free time, old habits die hard. It was decoding digital locks with passwords that was the tricky part. Thankfully all of the security robots, even in the lowest basement that Eggman thought was also destroyed in his haste to get away, were all gone so the white bat didn't have any problems with that.
"Oooh...I hate it when there are passwords that take forever to crack. It would've killed him to use locks the pick instead?" Rouge groaned, placing her hands on her hips.
She tried everything she could think of that was the correct password; she tried Chaos Emeralds, she tried Robotnik, she tried robots, everything that the evil scientist would've used. Growling in frustration, she bashed in the mad doctor's full permanent name 'Doctor Eggman' while ready to screw-kick the doors open, when suddenly the alarm code blinked green and flashed words 'confirm' before the doors finally opened. This left the bat thief standing there blankly at first, before she facepalmed herself.
"Ugh...Sonic was right. Eggman really has no imagination of naming things." Rouge grumbled, before smirking as she stepped inside. "Oh well, now that I'm in, that secret treasure is all mine to take."
But to her disappointment and senses, this didn't seem like a treasure room that was filled with all of the stolen loots and things as she had expected and foolishly hoped, or even a storage room that would have had boxes and crates filled with metal parts and such. Instead, to her curiosity, in the middle of the room was a large capsule connected with life-support wirings, filled with green liquid.
"Hmmm...What do we have here? What has Eggman been up to all this time?" Rouge wondered to herself, and, her curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to check it out and drain it to see what was inside. If it was a broken robot, then she can easily smash it, but she was too curious on what it could be.
But as she quickly scanned the control panel before pushing several buttons and then pulled the lever, when the liquid drained to reveal what or who was inside, the female bat saw the very last thing, or rather, person, that she expected to see again. Her eyes widened in shock while covering her mouth in disbelief; deep within was a black hedgehog with red stripes lined up on his arms and legs and even his quills, white fluffy fur on his chest, with white and a bit of red shoes with new golden rings on his wrist just above his gloved hands, peach muzzle with a face that was identical to Sonic's.
Appearing to have been sleeping, the black hedgehog blinked his ruby red eyes open before snapping them open completely, taking sight of the room before him by glance at it twice. He then noticed an unfamiliar yet shell-shocked Mobian bat girl who looked frozen in place, looking as though she was wondering if she was having some kind of hopeful dream.
"...Shadow!?" Rouge half-exclaimed, unable to believe what she was seeing. Could she dare to hope? The last time she saw the black hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform, was during the Space Coloney ARK crisis. Everyone, even Sonic, thought that Shadow the Hedgehog had died when he sacrificed himself to save the planet that Eggman's grandfather Professor Gerald Robotnik brainwashed him into destroying.
But what he said crushed her hopes.
"...Do I know you?" Shadow questioned, with an expression of a bit of distrust yet full confusion, as the capsule opened up and he hoped out, his injuries all but fully recovered as though he never went into any sort of battle at all.
"...Shadow? You don't recognize me, do you?" The female bat questioned, folding her arms in disappointment.
"Shadow...Is that my name? Who am I?" The black hedgehog muttered, sighing as he, and Rouge both realized that he had indeed completely forgotten everything. Even his own name. "Who are you?"
"You can't remember anything, can you?" Rouge muttered, before shaking her head. "That's too bad. Well, at least I know that you're okay, but I guess we'll have to start from the beginning."
Shadow narrowed his eyes as he folded his arms with a deep frown. "If you say that my name is Shadow, you could at least tell me who you are, miss stranger and what was I doing in this unusual place."
"Well, for one, I'm Rouge and we go back in being partners and allies. Another thing, I honestly don't know why you were here, except that I have a clue on who put you here to begin with. Unfortunately, I have no idea where he is right now, but knowing him, he's probably causing trouble. The only good thing he did was that he save you somehow and brought you here to recover, but I guess you hit your head so much that you don't remember anything at all." Rouge explained.
"I see...Then I need more answers." The amnesic hedgehog muttered, narrowing his eyes with determination. "I need to know who I am."
"Then it settles it. Starting today, we're teaming up to help you get those answers!" Rouge declared, taking hold of Shadow's arm with a sly smirk. "I know the guy who's name is Eggman and if we find him, you get your answers and I get his treasure!"
While the black hedgehog was skeptical over this 'stranger's' way of offering her help to get him on track and he would rather do this on his own, as much as hated to admit it, he had no other leads and thus he had no choice but to go along with the female bat. Plus, there was something oddly familiar about her that he just couldn't place yet. She obviously knew who he was, at least by name yet Shadow wasn't certain of it was his real name or not, and she had an idea on who had placed him inside that capsule which, even though he didn't know how it happened, but it did save his life.
"Just don't stand in my way." Shadow finally declared, walking off with the white bat, a bit miffed over his response, smirked as she followed.
"He may have lost his memories, but he definitely didn't lose his attitude, or charm." Rouge whispered to herself, secretly relieved that the black hedgehog she came to know as a friend was alive.
But that now left the problem with his memories. Either way, she would reveal the answers she knew of when the time was right. At the moment, it was best that he didn't know so that Shadow can recover gradually on his own.
A/N: Sorry that this chapter was late and not as good as I hoped it would be. I was struggling with how to continue this, and while do plan on having Helen in this at some point, and I tried to make Chris as useful as possible, it's not easy when you're on a writer's block and so many things going on with the world. Plus my grandfather's been moved into a Carer's home so there was him to worry about due to his health but he is doing okay as he has a strong spirit.
Anyway, the next chapter will have Sonic and gang to visit Knuckles to learn more about Chris being exposed to Chaos Energy. What will the heroes learn from there, and what will Shadow and Rouge do next, only time will tell. As for the Sonic Heroes adaption, like I said, that is already partially set up in my Sonic X: Back to Earth story, but with changes to suit it.
See you later!