Author's Note: Sorry that the last chapter wasn't that great, but I'll try and make it up for it.
To Snake Screamer: It's okay, don't worry. All computers slowly die over the years and we all have to get new ones eventually. I got my current one almost two years ago. Thanks for the review, though and I'm glad you're liking this story so far.
In the meantime for everybody around the world, please stay safe during this crisis and stay home, because the virus is dangerous.
And to get our minds off it while we stay safe, let's continue onward!
I do not own Sonic The Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Chapter 3: Factories and Silver.
With Silver the Hedgehog...
Everything was in a blank. Silver had no idea what happened or how long he was out. All he knew that his world had gone black and now as he began to regain consciousness, his head felt foggy and disoriented, his body ached from all the fighting he had to endure. As the fourteen year old hedgehog from the future groaned, he struggled to open his eyes as his eyelids felt heavy like someone had hooked a set of weights on them.
"Ugh...W-what happened?" The teenage hedgehog groaned, finally managing to open them and his vision began to clear. He pushed himself up with a bit of a struggle due to how sore he felt, before shaking his head and winced at the spike of a headache. "My head...I'm gonna need some aspirin if there is any."
It didn't help that there was this constant brightness of white all around him, which at first made him think that the explosion of sorts made him begin to lose his sight. But when he blinked and looked, while he could see his hands, the silver hedgehog was shocked to discover that it wasn't his eye-sight going.
"What? Where is this? What's going on?" Silver blinked, glancing around to see if there was any signs of anything or anyone else around. To his dismay, there was nothing.
It was just that the only thing he can see was just endless white. Not a sight of Dr. Ovi Kintobor's lab, or the Sol Emeralds, or even...Blaze, Ovi himself or Scourge. The very thought of the three made him gasp as almost instantly his memories returned to him of what happened. The losing fight against the evil green hedgehog, his friends of the past, the Sol Emeralds, that bright light from the gems themselves...and then nothing.
"Blaze? Blaze!? Blaze, where are you? Dr. Kintobor? Ovi!? Guys!?" The teenage silver hedgehog called out, but no reply came to him. He couldn't even see Scourge either. Then, he remembered what Ovi had said before the Sol Emeralds reacted.
"Space and Time has been distorted! We are about to be transported to the deepest parts of reality in between!" Ovi exclaimed in dismay.
"No...! Is this...this must be the deepest part of reality in between. It's more plain, dull, cold and...blank than I thought." Silver muttered in horrified realization. How could he have let this happen? He had traveled back in time to stop the disaster in the future from ever happening, only to end up in a situation far worse.
He gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut in guilt, clenching his fists to stop them from shaking. "This is all my fault! I shouldn't have time traveled."
Then, remembering the true cause of how this happened, Silver growled furiously and glared up at the endless sky, screaming at the top of his lungs. "SCOURGE! If you're here, I'm going to kill you! You'll pay for this! I'll set things right, no matter what! For Blaze, for Dr. Kintobor, for Moebius, and for the new, bright future!"
His voice echoed all around the area, which made the fourteen year old sigh before glancing around once more. Deciding to see if he can find Blaze and Ovi, as well as finding a way out and possibly confront Scourge as well as find the Sol Emeralds, he focused before levitating into the air and scanned his surroundings. At first everything was white, but then he spotted something that made his eyes widen. In a far reached distance but also close, where movie-set like places. Two were green hill like zones, and another looked like buildings, but in pure white as though life and colour had been lost.
What really got his attention were to figures standing on a platform; a pink and red figure, and...a blue figure that looked familiar. Silver narrowed his eyes as he tried to get a good glimpse at the blue one, before they widened in shock and disbelief as it then vanished in a blue blur, into the building in such speed that he couldn't believe it at first. That speed...it was just like...
"Scourge? But, I thought the Superior Emerald permanently changed his fur from blue to green. Could this place have changed him back? And who is that he's talking to?" The silver hedgehog muttered to himself, instantly suspicious and mistaking the blue figure as the evil green hedgehog.
Deciding that he should follow, Silver decided to talk to the pink and red person first and see if they are with Scourge that hasn't heard of. As he got closer, he was surprised that it was a pink hedgehog girl, who had watched the blue hedgehog take his leave. She seemed to be cheering him with a thoughtful expression.
'Well, that can't be good. I think I should question her first.' He thought to himself, careful in not being seen and landed just next to the building where she was. Sighing, he then carefully walked around and began to approach the girl, Amy Rose, and cleared his throat to get her attention.
"Excuse me?" He greeted.
"Huh?" Amy blinked, hearing an unfamiliar voice after watching Sonic leave, and turned to face an unfamiliar silver hedgehog with cyan linings and golden bracelets with dark shoes and yellow eyes, much to her surprise. Even though she didn't know him and one part of her warned that this new hedgehog, almost resembling to her 'boyfriend' was a threat considering on what was going on, another part of her reassured that he was a friend.
So, deciding to greet him back carefully, she replied while trying to hide her suspicions. "Oh! Hi there. Who're you?"
"My name is Silver. I would like to ask you a few questions." Silver answered.
"Um, okay. My name's Amy Rose." Amy said back, before saying. "If I answer your questions, will you answer mine? I've never seen you before."
"...Sure." The hedgehog from the alternate universe nodded hesitantly, before asking. "I couldn't help but notice you and that blue streak that went into this...white building. Who was that?"
"You mean Sonic?" The pink hedgehog replied, narrowing her eyes a little despite that Silver seemed to be clueless about who her boyfriend was.
"Sonic?" The silver hedgehog blinked in surprise. 'So...wait, that wasn't Scourge at all? But someone who is fast like him, and having the similar colour before he attempted to use the Superior Emerald?' He thought to himself in surprise. How could there be anyone else that was fast like the evil green hedgehog.
Amy nodded, placing her hands on her hips. "Yeah, he's my boyfriend. You know, Sonic the Hedgehog? Hero of Mobius? Don't tell me you've never heard of him."
'Sonic the Hedgehog...Hero of...Mobius? Wait, did I cross not only through time but also space? Another world? It does sound similar to Moebius. I really need to find Dr. Kintobor and ask him about it.' Silver thought to himself, before shaking his head and answering. "No, I haven't. To be honest, I have no idea where I am or what this place is."
"Well, that just answers my question, then. I was gonna ask if you knew what this place is, or if you know anything about a giant monster that dragged us and our friends here." The thirteen year old hedgehog sighed, disappointed.
"A giant monster dragged you and your friends including this Sonic here?" Silver asked, dumbfounded. Well, that was a new one to him. So Scourge wasn't the only one behind this? Unless...
"It sure did. Grr! It ruined all our hard work in setting up Sonic's birthday party! On top of that, I've been stuck as a statue when I got here before Sonic saved me and one of our friends, and our only clue are these really weird magical crystals none of us ever seen before and that's what brought two of us back. I'm so glad that Sonic managed to avoid in turning into a statue, especially when he tried to save us before we ended up in this weird place." Amy explained with a scowl.
Silver listened to what Amy was saying, and at the part of the 'magical crystals' made him almost instantly think that it was the Sol Emeralds. Even though this Sonic sounded like a true hero, he couldn't be really certain and if the blue hedgehog did resemble to Scourge and if he did have them, the future hedgehog had to be certain.
"I think I know what you're talking about, regards to these 'crystals'. Does Sonic know of their name?" He asked.
"No. Wait, do you know what they are?" Amy replied and asked back.
"I have a hunch on what they are, but I need to talk to this Sonic friend of yours to be sure. If I'm right, then it's our only hope in solving this problem. I don't know where this monster that attacked you has come from, but I know how I got here, and who's really responsible." Silver explained. "If you see him, be careful. He's very dangerous and evil."
"What does this evil guy look like?" The pink hedgehog asked, hesitantly even though she didn't know if she could trust Silver or not. He didn't seem to be that bad, but she wasn't really certain. Maybe she should talk to Tails when she sees him and hoped that Sonic would be okay.
"He's a green hedgehog, with a black leather jacket and sunglasses. If you also see a purple cat or a man in a lab coat, tell them that 'Silver has gone to find the Emeralds to speak with this Sonic person and stop the evil hedgehog'." The future hedgehog of Moebius answered.
Amy's suspicions only grew, especially when the word 'Emeralds' came into mind, but she nodded and told him that she will let his friends know. Thanking her, Silver immediately ran into the entrance where Sonic has entered. No sooner had he vanished from sight, she couldn't help but clasp her hands together to her chest, now more worried about her heroic boyfriend. On top of that, she now had a hunch that the Chaos Emeralds could be related to this whole thing as well.
"Sonic...Please be careful. I've got a bad feeling about this." She whispered to herself. Amy couldn't help but wonder if Silver was telling the truth or was trying to trick her into thinking that he was a friend only to be fooled and that Sonic's life was in much more grave danger.
As the pink hedgehog began to think, Tails, after his odd conversation with his younger, alternate self who went into the entrance below to find the other Sonic, spotted her and landed on the platform, relieved that she was okay and back to normal.
"Hey, Amy! Are you okay?" He greeted in relief, but found that she either didn't hear him or was ignoring him, and suddenly feeling that something was up, asked her. "Amy? Hello?"
Amy blinked, turning to face Tails and while she was relieved to see him, held a concerned expression on his face. "Tails...I think Sonic's in grave danger."
"Huh? What do you mean?" The two-tailed fox asked, worriedly.
The pink hedgehog sighed, before she began to explain to him about what she heard from Sonic, and the new mysterious silver hedgehog named, well, Silver.
Back with Sonic...
The sixteen year old blue hedgehog ran through the factory in his usual speed the moment he entered the portal, finding himself getting the strong vibe of deja vu like he had back at Green Hill, but since he'd hadn't been back on South Island in a long time, he didn't know how much has changed or even thought of visiting his parents, which he really should. Like his childhood home that he grew up in, everything about this place gave him the familiar feeling.
The metal walls, the cranes, the machinery, even the robots, the Spider-Bots that were suddenly in front of him, to which Sonic took out easily with a combination of his melee skills and speed, didn't last long, were all much too familiar. The blue hedgehog jumped and leaped from one platform to another and grabbed hold of a hook and swung his way over the deadly looking liquid, landing on a grind rail and surfed his way down and up.
"I've been to this place, too. Why does it feel like history is repeating itself?" Sonic thought aloud, the strong feeling of familiarity overwhelming him so much that it was like he was literally reliving his previous adventures. "...Or more like, why does it feel like I'm actually going down a memory lane?"
As he was thinking this through, the young hero soon found the grind rail ending and he quickly made a leap to safety...only to end up falling straight towards a familiar tube that made his eyes widen in horror with the unusual liquid. Squeezing his eyes shut, Sonic landed right inside the tube while holding his breath to avoid in drowning. Landing in a splash, the blue hedgehog held on and mentally yelped in alarm when the familiar sensation of being sucked down along with it towards the bottom.
'WHOOOOAAAA!' The blue hedgehog thought while doing his best not to drown, tumbling upon being sucked as though he was being swallowed down a giant throat, which that thought gave him the memories of being swallowed alive by a giant whale who freed him before he'd ended up inside it's stomach, and his mental conflict with the hallucination of the Werehog.
When he thought that it didn't seem to end, Sonic was then thrown and landed onto the hard floor, coughing and spluttering for air, not that this place had any fresh clean air at the moment, but he'd take what he got. On his hands and knees, he gasped for oxygen.
"Ugh...Next time, I'm putting on my Sea-Mask before I jump into any kind of liquid that's trying to kill me." He groaned once he managed to get his lungs back in order. "I hate going under water, and that wasn't even water for crying out loud."
Getting a hold of himself, Sonic stood up and immediately dashed off to continue his quest, almost instantly taking out Mine-Bots that also brought back memories. He then came across another one that was seemingly patrolling a pathway that bridged over pink water which made him mentally groan for having come across even more deadly liquid(Well, the pink water wasn't deadly as long as one didn't jump and drown in it, but it was deadly to him) much too soon. Not to mention that the pink always always smelled so bad it was like...it was chemical.
"Hold on...The Chemical Plant? No wonder it looked familiar. But how'd this place end up here?" He asked himself, now remembering why this place looked so familiar. That just raised even more questions and the blue hedgehog was nowhere near closer in finding any answers.
Still, taking out robots wasn't anything new to him even though he had no idea what was going on or why he had to still be fighting these pieces of junk when there shouldn't be any since Eggman's demise. Shrugging, he whistled to get it's attention and smirked confidently when the Badnik turned it's attention to him, and quickly went onto full alert.
"Hiya, pal! Let's see how you can manage this." The blue hedgehog greeted, turning and slapping his butt to taunt it with a grin. The robot became infuriated and shot fired a laser, which he easily dodged with a chuckle and Spin Dashed right into it's chest when he found an opening, destroying it almost instantly.
"Heh, too easy." Sonic chuckled, while fully unaware that a large heavy-bulky robot was falling from above and passed the bridge he was on before it ended up in it's pink watery grave in a huge splash.
Even so, he couldn't help but become concerned with the numerous robots in previous place and in this one. He folded his arms in deep thought. "Still, why are there so many robots that like I've beaten a long time ago?"
He then gasped as a terrible thought came into mind. "Unless..."
Flash-Back: The final battle against the Nega-Mother Wisp...
Bracing himself as he screamed, Super Sonic was soon engulfed into the giant mouth to which the Nega-Mother Wisp closed shut and trapped her prey inside.
"Chaos Control!" Super Sonic shouted quickly just as soon as the giant teeth closed around him as he had found himself trapped inside the darkness of the mouth, with his aura being the only light to help him see, and desperately hoped that Chaos Control will get him out, otherwise he had lost and would soon be sucked in and swallowed up to suffer the same fate as Eggman.
Thankfully it worked, as the golden hedgehog vanished from within the mouth seconds before the Nega-Mother Wisp attempted to swallow him. He reappeared safely back outside and right above the giant alien who held a sinister, evil twisted grin as she believed that she had eaten him alive.
Back in the Present:
"What if I...what if I not only used Chaos Control to get myself out to avoid in being swallowed up, but I accidentally sent Eggman to someplace where he found that thing, and attacked at the right spot to get revenge on me?" Sonic muttered to himself in horror, gazing at his hands. "If so, then...I'm not free from him after all, and neither is Mobius, and now he finally managed to get this to happen...!"
Sheer terror, guilt and anger washed over him and while a part of him was protesting that this wasn't the case, there was no denying that maybe the crystals he has to find are linked to the unusual beast and to make things worse, Eggman could very possibly still be alive after all...and Sonic had inadvertly saved his life by sending him to a place beyond his control. Maybe it was a side effect of being inside the Nega-Mother Wisp's mouth before freeing himself and restoring her back to her true self.
"Oh, Chaos, what've I done!?" The blue hedgehog cried out in dismay, covering his face with his hands, struggling not to panic or break down. But he did end up hitting himself on the forehead with a fist, chatising himself angrily. "Sonic, you total complete idiotic doofus of a hedgehog!"
After a painful minute of bashing himself, Sonic stopped before he'd end up giving himself the mother of all headaches or any kind of brain damage, and glared up at the ceiling in pure anger for having not realized this a lot sooner, or having not known that he caused this to happen and Eggman took that pleasure to take what he wanted.
"EGGMAN! If you're still alive, then I know you're behind all of this! COME ON OUT AND FACE ME, YOU COWARDLY EGG-SHAPED CROOK! AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON EXPRESSING YOUR GRATITUDE IN SAVING YOUR BUTT! I'M GONNA BEAT YOU LIKE I ALWAYS DO AND SET THINGS RIGHT! YOU HEAR ME!?" He screamed out furiously, to which his voice echoed all around the area, and received no reply which wasn't anything new.
Sighing as he willed himself to calm down, the blue hedgehog lowered his gaze as his heart ached at the familiar feeling of guilt, memories of his last three adventures began to linger and while he tried hard not to let get to him, just knowing that if Eggman was alive, then Sonic would never forgive himself over this. It was bit of a relief that his old time enemy did survive, but as he had told Tails three days after the evil scientist's 'supposed' death, he knew that if he had saved the madman's life then he would just come up with another evil scheme to get what he wants.
"It's all my fault. How could I've been so stupid and blind? Three whole months and now this happened." Sonic muttered, tears beginning to form and sting his eyes. "...I ruined my own birthday by having Eggman send that monster to get to me and take over the world...!"
He knew that he had to atone for this mess and learn more about what Eggman's latest goal is, assuming that if Sonic was right about this new theory, before realizing that he might be jumping to conclusion and that there was someone else that could also use robots and evil purposes. Blinking in realization, the blue hedgehog wiped away his tears and forced himself to get a grip.
"What'm I saying? I can't jump to that conclusion just yet. Maybe it's not Eggman, but somebody else." He said to himself, patting himself on the cheeks. "Maybe it's someone who could've been his fan-which is really gross, but I guess there had to be other bad people and I just don't know it-and they could've stolen his blueprints or something."
Nodding to himself, Sonic gazed up ahead with determination. "Other way, I gotta find out more and if it's Eggman, then I made this mess, and I'm gonna fix it. If it's not, then I'll give whoever's behind this a piece of my mind. One way or another, I'm gonna set things right! Gotta go fast!"
But as he was about to set off, something ahead of him in a distance caught his eye. Squitting his eyes to get a better look, the blue hedgehog caught sight of two streaks of light blue and metal blue, the latter streak sending out some kind of laser blast or whatever. The two stopped and seemed to form into figures, but they were still too far for him to see from where he was.
"Huh? Who're are they?" Sonic muttered in confusion. "They look awfully familiar, but it's hard to tell from here."
Then another thought came into mind; could either one or both be behind this? As the blue hedgehog thought, he soon saw that the metal figure that looked familiar was attacking the smaller blue figure who had to run out of the way of a large piece of metal crate that was being tossed at him and the former seems to be relentless. He didn't like this at all. What was going on? As Sonic pondered over this, the two figures then sped away. The blue guy practically flew after the other.
"Hey! Wait!" The teenage hero of Mobius cried out, and seeing how something was up, decided to investigate and see what was going on. So he quickly ran to try and catch up...while taking out more annoying robots as he did. But taking those out were the least of his worries.
Back with Alternate Sonic...
"Man, I was just here not that long ago and it's like I hadn't been here at all. What's going on?" Young Sonic groaned as he raced through the factory-like area, getting a strong case of deja vu. He made his way to find not only the Chaos Emerald, but also his older, alternate self and figure out how to solve this latest crisis. "I know that Ro-butt-nik is an evil genius, but there's no way he can pull this off by himself...right?"
Slightly distracted by a large Spider-Bot that shot out a net to try and catch him but he easily dodged and Spin Dashed into two times, and taking out another with melee skills he learned a little, the young blue hedgehog rolled underneath a Mine-Bot that attempted to fire lasers at him and kept on running, leaving it and another that was chasing him to end up vaporizing each other.
"On the other hand, he did know about the locations of the Chaos Emeralds the first and second time. But how did he manage to get that giant monster and caused all of this to happen? Guess the only way to find out is to keep looking. Can't have that loser get the Emeralds first!" He added to himself and kept running to investigate, and also to restore Young Amy back to normal.
He went along the hallway and passed by a bunch of cranes and ignored the tube, knowing that if he landed in one, he was a drowned hedgehog. Plus the pink chemical water stinks anyway and he really didn't fancy on going through that...again.
Suddenly another Badnik robot appeared out of nowhere in front of him shooting out triple lasers at him, causing the young blue hedgehog to cry out in alarm and dodged quickly. As Young Sonic looked up to get a better look at it, he rolled his eyes as he found that it was an egg-shaped heavy metal that looked more like some guy in a far too heavy bulky suit. Which suited him just because large and bulky meant way too slow. The hero of Alternate-Mobius smirked as he folded his arms calmly while the robot made it's way towards him step by step. Slowly.
"Give me a break. Ro-butt-nik thinks he can get rid of me with this guy? Lame." Young Sonic scoffed with a smirk, before taunting the large metal. "Ya' know, Tin-Can-Man, it woulda been a lot easier for you if ya' lost all those heavy metal scraps. I feel sorry for you for having so much of that. Not."
The eleven year old hedgehog then wiggled his fingers above his head while crossing his eyes and giving the robot a raspberry. He then dodged quickly to the right when the robot fired another laser as though it was angered by his insult, and then Spin Dashed into it a few number of times, smashing away the over layers of metal and then raced towards the edge of the platform which was over not only another bridge, but also the pink water. Young Sonic turned to see the robot charging straight towards him. He grinned and ran right underneath it before kicking it on the back.
This caused the Badnik robot to stumble and lost it's balance, falling right towards the pink water and passing the bridge, and Sonic who was busy taking out another robot down below to which Young Sonic didn't even notice because he clapped his hands as though he was dusting them off.
"Too easy. I can take these guys out in my sleep." The young blue hedgehog chuckled before racing onward, only to be nearly blasted off himself, causing him to cry out in alarm before jumping back. When he looked up to see his attacker, his eyes widened in shock as he gasped, seeing the familiar blue and silver metallic robot that resembled to him. "No way!"
The robot that resembled to Young Sonic(and Sonic), stood, as he was known as Metal Sonic, the hedgehog(s)'s robotic copy created by Robotnik/Eggman.
"I thought I got rid of you on Little Planet!" Young Sonic exclaimed, glaring angrily at his enemy. "What, did Robotnik rebuild you or something?"
Metal Sonic just stared and made noises, pointing at himself, before pointing at the young blue hedgehog, clutching it's metal fist as though saying that he will destroy Young Sonic and win once and for all. This made the eleven year old grit his teeth.
"Oh yeah!? I like to you see try and destroy me, you fake metal hedgehog!" The young blue hedgehog yelled as though Metal Sonic was speaking to him, so the young hero prepared himself for battle. "I told you, you may be copied from me, but you can't beat the original!"
His robotic copy responded by holding out a familiar red glowing jewel of energy in his hand, making Young Sonic gasp in shock and horror as he instantly recognized it; a red Chaos Emerald. Metal Sonic then placed it inside his chest by opening a compartment before closing it, and then took off flying.
"Hey! Not cool! Give it back!" The young blue hedgehog shouted, immediately giving chase after the evil robot as he knew that Robotnik really was behind this situation and if he didn't get the Chaos Emerald back, Young Sonic wouldn't be able to free Young Amy and the evil doctor was on step further ahead.
As the young blue hedgehog chased after his enemy, Metal Sonic spun around and fired lasers at him, but missed as the hero of Alternate-Mobius easily dodged and Spin Dashed to hit him, but the real hedgehog missed as the robot flew out of the way, making him frustrated. He kept chasing after Metal Sonic and tried not to be distracted when he thought he heard himself, or rather his older, alternate self, scream out something about Eggman and focused on getting the Chaos Emerald and defeating the evil robot.
The two eventually came to a stop on top of a platform and leered at each other, as Young Sonic demanded angrily. "Gimme that Chaos Emerald before I smash you into a pile of junk heap! I won't let you give it to Robotnik!"
Metal Sonic responded by lifting a large heavy metal crate and tossed at the young blue hedgehog who leaped out of the way to dodge it before attempted to charge himself, kicking and punching at his enemy who blocked his moves and even used his force field device to repel him, causing Young Sonic to stumble back and glared hard. He tried again and ducked when his robotic copy mimicked his moves. But he found an opening on the robot and kicked him hard at the legs before kicking Metal Sonic in the chest, causing him to fly back and compartment to open up.
The red Chaos Emerald flew out and Young Sonic wasted no time in jumping as high as he could and caught it, cheering. "Yeah! I got it!"
But as he turned his gaze back to Metal Sonic, the robot leered at him with his gleaming red eyes, before gesturing at something to the young blue hedgehog's left. Before Young Sonic could ask, his robotic copy powered up his jet engines and flew away in high speed, making the eleven year old grunt before quickly placing the red emerald into his quills and gave chase after him even as the Chaos Emerald began to glow. He tried keeping up with his enemy and by the time he caught up with him, the emerald glowed which caused him to cry out in alarm.
When the light faded, Young Sonic found that he was back outside of the Chemical Plant, before being punched into the chest. He screamed in pain before landing on his back hard. Hissing in pain, he glared up at Metal Sonic who leered down at him and then took off running and then flew away. Grunting angrily, he was about to give chase when he remembered Young Amy who was still trapped as a statue. Hoping for the best, he quickly pulled out the red Chaos Emerald and held it close to her. When nothing happened, he gently tapped it onto her hand. To his relief, sparkles formed onto her and soon enough, Young Amy was back to her original self.
"Huh? Where am I?" The young Pink hedgehog glanced around, before she took sight of a familiar young blue hedgehog and squeeled happily. "SONIC!"
"AH! A-Amy, wait!" Young Sonic cried out, holding up his hands with a sweat-drop and a terrified look, before finding himself wrapped tightly in his self-proclaimed girlfriend's arms. "L-let me go!"
"Oh, Sonic! You saved me! My hero! I knew we were destined to be together!" Young Amy exclaimed happily, her eyes all sparkling with stars of love.
The young blue hedgehog groaned in exasperation, before finally managing to push her off and quickly said apologetically, "Amy, I'm glad that you're okay, but this ain't the time for hugs and kisses right now! I've gotta go after Metal Sonic before he gets too far!"
"Huh? Metal Sonic? But I thought you beaten him." The eight year old hedgehog blinked in confusion.
"Yeah, well, Ro-butt-nik is at it again, and apparently not only brought that robot back, but he somehow trapped us inside this weird white place and I've gotta go find the Chaos Emeralds before he does. Came pretty close in getting the one I just found, but I'm gonna make sure he doesn't get them. I have to find the copy-bot right away." The eleven year old hedgehog quickly explained, already taking the lead out of the factory entrance, only to be greeted by Young Tails who flew over and panted.
"S-Sonic! I-I saw-" The four year old kit panted, eyes all wide in disbelief and shock.
"If you saw somebody flying, it's Metal Sonic. The robot I told you about earlier." Young Sonic gently interrupted, knowing what his little brother was about to say.
"That...explains why it looked so weird." Young Tails said, trying to catch his breath as he placed a hand onto his chest. "I saw him head straight towards another white area that looks like...a giant Casino City."
"Then I guess I'd better go give him a good pounding, and this time he won't get away from me!" The young blue hedgehog declared with a smirk, waving to his two friends. "I'll be back before you know it."
"Go get 'im, Sonic! Kick that tin-can's butt!" Young Amy cheered. Young Sonic gave her a thumbs up before dashing off towards his next destination.
Young Tails cheered him on as well, even though he was thinking to himself. 'Wonder if he's met the other Sonic yet.'
Back with Sonic...
Sonic chased after the two streaks and came very close in catching up, but when there was a flash of red light, he was forced to stop and shield his eyes while instantly feeling that familiar vibe of Chaos Energy before it faded. When he looked up again, his eyes widened in shock, disbelief and annoyance that his two targets had vanished, like they were never there to begin with.
"Dang! I've lost 'em!" The cobalt hedgehog grunted in frustration, kicking the metal floor angrily, then groaned as he folded his arms. "And for all I know, that red light must've been that crystal I could've found to help find my friends, even though it felt more like a Chaos Emerald. Now what'm I gonna do?"
No sooner had those words escape his mouth, a glimmer of a smaller red light caught his attention up ahead. Confused and curious as it seemed to be in the direction where, unknowingly to him, both Young Sonic and Metal Sonic had vanished from, Sonic rushed forward to investigate. When he reached the spot, his emerald eyes blinked in shock and surprise as resting on the floor was rectangular shaped crystal just like the one he found in Green Hill, only this one was red. There was no doubt in his mind that he found the second of unknown number of crystals.
"Okay, so whoever it was that glowed in red didn't have this. Guess it makes things a little bit easier for me." The sixteen year old hedgehog shrugged with an awkward smile, carefully picking it up and examining it, frowning thoughtfully. "Hmm...But, if the crystal is here, and what I felt was Chaos Energy...could that mean-?"
"I've been looking for you." An unfamiliar voice suddenly spoke behind and above him, cutting the blue hedgehog off as the teenager snapped out of his thought and gasped before he looked around for the source of the voice who continued. "You look just like him."
Sonic spun around and saw, much to his confusion, was a silver hedgehog with cyan and seemingly glowing marks on his body, hovering above him with a glare of his yellow eyes. The sixteen year old narrowed his own on suspicion and quickly stood in defense as the fourteen year old lowered himself and landed in front of the hero of Mobius.
"That Emerald shouldn't be in your hands." Silver continued darkly.
"Who're you?" The blue hedgehog demanded. Whoever this guy was, Sonic had a feeling that they weren't about to become friends anytime soon.
"My name is Silver." The younger hedgehog from the future replied, adding. "Tell me who YOU are, before I make things more difficult."
"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic replied, a little relieved to have an easy demand to answer, before asking a question himself. "So, Silver was it? Are you the one behind what's going on here? The giant monster that turned all of my friends into statues and kidnapping me into this weird white place, was it your doing?"
"No, I'm not behind any of that. But seeing that you're Sonic, I guess your friend Amy was telling the truth." Silver replied.
"Amy?" The sixteen year old hedgehog gasped, his heart skipping a beat as a horrible thought came into mind. Thinking at first that this guy might've hurt his self-proclaimed girlfriend, he glared hard. "What'd you do to her!?"
The fourteen year old hedgehog held up a hand for peace, answering. "I just asked a few questions before I came to find you, Sonic. She's fine, I didn't do anything to her at all. Here's another question; do you know anyone by the name of Scourge?"
Sonic raised an eyebrow. What was this guy, who looked to be two years younger than himself, talking about? Though if what Silver mentioned about the blue hedgehog looking like someone he knew, he suddenly felt like it was the case of meeting both Shadow and Sun all over again.
"Doesn't ring any bells to me. Is he a missing friend of yours?" He replied.
"He wishes." Silver scoffed, looking away in a look of disgust. "Scourge is the one who has trapped me here in this place, separating me from my friends and scattering the important crystals all over the place. Two that you have."
"You mean this?" Sonic inquired as he held up the red crystal, even though he now had another clue in the mystery of this situation. If he was right, then maybe this Scourge guy is behind the giant monster and what has happened.
"Yes. They hold tremendous powers beyond imagination." The silver hedgehog hesitantly explained, pointing at the red crystal in the blue hedgehog's hand.
"Really?" The sixteen year old asked, shocked as he gazed at the crystal. "Huh. I've never even heard of these. They're pretty new to me. What are they called? A friend of mine who, let's just say, knows a little bit more of what's going on than I do, told me that these are the only way to bring my friends who turned into statues back to normal. I'm trying to figure out where that monster had come from or where we are."
Silver shook his head, "Sorry. I can't tell you."
"How come?" Sonic questioned suspiciously. "Wait, how do I know this isn't some sort of trick?"
"What did you say?" The fourteen year old hissed, glaring at the blue hedgehog over the accusation.
"You won't tell me what these crystals are, you say that this Scourge guy is the reason how you ended up in this place but have no idea what that giant monster is, and I'm trying to save my friends and the world, your friends are missing too, and I'm starting to think that you're trying to mess with me and stop me from doing the right thing. For all I know, you're working with Dr. Eggman who I actually thought died three months ago." The blue hedgehog theoried, glaring back. Though he felt that he was going a bit too far with this kid, but experience taught him to not take things too lightly with strangers who act suspicious.
Then realizing that Silver may be thinking the similar thing with him, the cobalt hero sighed to calm down and scratched the top of his head. "Sorry, that was uncalled for. I shouldn't have jumped to that thought. Is the reason why you won't tell me is because you don't trust me?"
"You're the one accusing me for being evil." The younger hedgehog grunted, not cooling off as immediately as Sonic. "I don't even know who this Dr. Eggman is, and the way how you're using the crystals to save your friends is too similar in what Scourge is trying to do. For all I know, you are Scourge and attempting to trick me by pretending to be someone else."
"Ouch. That's cold." Sonic grumbled, feeling his pride sting a little. "Why on Mobius would I pretend to somebody that I'm not? Plus, I've already been mistaken for somebody who did bad things 'cause of Eggman before, then he changed sides and now the two of us are sort of friends. The other guy I mean and not Egghead."
"Who?" Silver questioned suspiciously.
"My friend Shadow. Well, friendly-rival, really. But pretty close. That guy's been around way before I was born." The blue hedgehog admitted, adding thoughtfully. "Hmm, I think he's been around while Eggman was a kid or somewhere along the lines. The creep always messes with things he shouldn't be touching and the last time really backfired on him so much that he destroyed himself."
He then cringed as the memories of the evil scientist being engulfed by the Nega-Mother Wisp resurfaced. "Or uh...got eaten by a giant corrupted alien."
'Or maybe not completely. If this Scourge guy is behind this, and everything I'm going through is like everything I did when I was a kid, could it be that he might've saved Eggman and the two found the monster by working together to get to me? Maybe that's why I'm facing these robots. If so then...I really did accidentally save him and sent him somewhere else and Silver's enemy used these crystals at the same and planned it for months.' Sonic thought to himself, his previous theory resurfacing and his guilt renewed almost instantly.
"Never mind." Silver sighed impatiently, and held out his hand. "Look, I need those crystals and find the rest before Scourge does. They're not meant to be used to play around with."
Sonic snapped his attention back to his new rival and narrowed his eyes. "Who says I'm playing with them? All I'm doing is using them to turn everybody back to normal. I don't even have a clue how these things work and I'm too scared to find out more about them, so I'm being really careful."
"Then you should find another way to restore your friends. Only certain people can use those crystals and even then, there's no guarantee that it will work without causing disaster." The future hedgehog warned lowly. "Those are part of my problem in the first place."
That made Sonic's heart drop into his stomach as he gazed at the crystal again, his blood going all cold at the new information. These crystals...Scourge tried to use them for evil? And only certain people can use them but there was still a dangerous risk of causing disaster? So far he'd been lucky and restored parts of the places from his past, and saving Tails and Amy. Maybe he was one of those people who can use them without messing up? Like how he was careful with the Chaos Emeralds?
"Well, um..." The blue hedgehog began, growing nervous with the crystals now, then suggested wirly. "M-maybe we should team up and find out what's going on together? The white weird place doesn't give out much hope in any other way in saving everybody else."
"No." Silver said simply, crushing Sonic's hopes. "You're on your own, Sonic. If you continue to harness their powers, you could easily be wanting more power to save others, when there's other another way, or for the sake of the world, you have to give up those you love in order to do the right thing."
"So you're saying that I should just abandon my friends?" Sonic growled angrily.
"What do you know? Sometimes there's no other choice!" The silver hedgehog argued.
While he knew that the hedgehog in front of him was right, the blue hedgehog had been pretty lucky so far, and while it was true with his dear friend Chip, that was understandable because it was his duty as Light Gaia to fix up the planet after Dark Gaia splits it up every millenia or so. But memories of almost losing those he cherished the most resurfaced; Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Shadow, Sun, and Yacker, the little alien who had died but was brought back to life by Sonic's pleads and the Chaos Emeralds.
The blue hedgehog shook his head in denial, shouting. "NO! I won't leave anybody behind! I'd rather die than lose everybody I care for and love or let other people get killed! I just need to burrow these crystals to save them, and then I'll give them to you."
"You won't be even burrowing them!" Silver yelled, but when he saw that Sonic refused to budge, the fourteen year old hissed before standing in a fighting position. "Fine. Then I'll force them out of your hands, for the sake of the future!"
Sonic glared back before placing the red crystal into his quills with the green one and stood ready. "Alright then. Bring it on! Show me what ya' got!"
Silver smirked with a chuckle. "With pleasure, Sonic the Hedgehog. If that's who you really are!"
The younger hedgehog then sped forward while glowing in a cyan colour which caught the sixteen year old by surprise and saw that Silver was reaching out to grab him. Sonic quickly ran out of the way before his opponent had the chance to grab him and dashed all around him, much to Silver's shock. Before the future hedgehog of Moebius could react, the hero of Mobius attempted to Spin Dash into him, but Silver jumped high into the air, using his telekinesis ability to levitate above him. The blue hedgehog glanced up with wide eyes in disbelief.
"You're fast, I admit. But I know how to handle speed!" Silver declared, as his battles against Scourge taught him how to handle fast opponents, and his current one had the same speed as the green hedgehog did despite that he lost to the evil guy back in Moebius.
"Oh yeah!? Well, you're in for the biggest challenge, 'cause I'm the fastest thing alive!" Sonic retorted challengingly. He had to admit that the silver hedgehog dodged pretty well with that psychic ability, but he won't let that stop him.
"Then let's see if you can handle this!" The future hedgehog held up a hand as he began to glow a bit brighter, and to the blue hedgehog's shock, two pieces of metal and crates were being levitated high into the air to his level, before thrusting them down towards Sonic who glared hard and dashed out of the way easily, while the objects crashed into the metal floor hard.
Silver then flew down towards him to grab him again, but Sonic jumped and leaped out of the way before deciding that if his Spin Dash won't work, then he'd have to try something else. So the blue hedgehog was behind his opponent and just as the silver hedgehog turned around, the young hero already curled up tightly and performed his Homing Attack, successfully bashing into the future hedgehog who screamed in alarm and pain while being thrown forward, hitting the floor hard. However, when Sonic landed and stood in defense, Silver hissed while pushing himself up, and then zoomed towards him again.
This time the cobalt teenager couldn't dodge as Silver grabbed him by the arm and while Sonic tried to pull himself free, he was picked and spun around and around and around as he cried out in alarm before being tossed high into the air, screaming. His opponent then flew up with ease and grabbed him again before thrusting the hero of Mobius to the floor where he landed hard himself, rolling a bit before resting on his side, grunting in pain over the surprise attack. Attempting to recover, Sonic looked up just in time to see Silver hurl more objects towards him.
"Take this!" Silver shouted, telepathically tossing the crates at the blue hedgehog.
Sonic glared hard before flipping over to his feet and Homing Attacked quickly to bash his way into the crates, smashing them into pieces much to the silver hedgehog's shock. Too stunned, the future Moebian failed to dodge in time as the blue hedgehog continued his attack and hitting him right into the chest, sending him backwards once more. He didn't stop there as the Mobian landed on the floor and dashed forward with his incredible speed, using his melee skills of karate kicks and punches to hit Silver who surprisingly managed to block some by delivering a bit of his own, but Sonic was too fast for him.
'Every move he uses, it's exactly like Scourge's! What is he!?' The fourteen year old hedgehog thought to himself as he attempted to not panic despite that this fight was giving him too many cases of deja vu.
When the blue hedgehog let up and jumped back into a safe distance, Silver glared hard and snarled as he then used his powers to crate a large ball of energy, much to Sonic's shock. "How about this!?"
The silver hedgehog then rolled it straight towards Sonic who jumped and used his boost ability to quick step out of the way, exclaiming tauntingly. "Catch me if you can!"
Silver was really starting to get aggravated and desperate before he levitated more crates and other metal objects he could use and tossed them down towards his opponent like a meteor shower. The hero of Mobius however easily ran between them while the items crashed all over the place which shook the platform before he used a combination of his Homing Attack once he got up close, hitting the younger hedgehog hard, and then his boost while sliding straight at him, kicking Silver at the legs and then at the chest which sent his opponent flying backwards screaming.
The silver hedgehog then crashed onto the floor, rolling and tumbling before coming to a stop. The air knocked out of him, Silver panted before slowly pushing himself up onto one knee, trying to catch his breath and unable to believe that he just been defeated by a blue hedgehog that had the same skills, and same looks as Scourge, only without the jacket and sunglasses. Sonic landed safely and stood up straight, cautious as he panted a little himself.
"Hey..." The blue hedgehog began gently, taking slow steps towards the Moebian who looked up, glaring furiously at him despite the soft expression the Mobian was giving him. He stopped halfway, just in case. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry...Sorry!? Is that all you can say!?" Silver hissed angrily, refusing to admit defeat and focused on his energy despite the injuries he suffered. He then used a psychokinetic blast which caught Sonic off guard, sending him flying backwards.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Sonic screamed before hitting the wall hard and cried out in pain, before falling onto the floor, slumped against the metal behind and now rendered helpless and weak. He hissed in agony, gasping for breath, while his opponent stood up and, ignoring his injuries, walked up to him and knelt before the injured blue hedgehog.
"Hmph! Is this a joke? You're weak compared to Scourge!" The silver hedgehog scoffed, disappointed.
"I am not...!" The blue hedgehog argued, wincing in pain but forced himself to ignore them. "You just...caught me off-guard. I've faced many enemies...! I just want to save my friends and save...and save the world...!"
"By using the crystals?" Silver asked, glaring hard.
"Well, how else am I supposed to do that?" Sonic asked back, pushing himself up shakily despite that he was cornered by the twice as stubborn hedgehog in front of him. "Sure, I'd use gems which, I'll lay out on you, are very similar to these things you happen to know more about than I do, but the problems are is that one, I don't have them at the moment and two, other than this factory and the Green Hill area I was at earlier where I found the first crystal, the rest of this place is just plain white...and empty, in case you haven't noticed."
"Really? And I thought this place was filled with beaches and rainbows." The young Moebian replied sarcastically. He then shook his head and stood up. "It doesn't matter. For the sake of the future, you have to give me those crystals so I can find the rest and stop Scourge. He's the enemy of all the world."
"Which makes him my enemy too!" Sonic pointed out angrily. "And that means I have to help you to stop him, and even if we haven't met, I probably would've met the guy already and fight him, which I will! He and that monster won't get away with this!"
"Huh?" Silver raised an eyebrow.
The blue hedgehog softened his expression again, continuing. "Do you really think I'd just stand by and let some creep behind this run around causing trouble? I tried to fight that thing when it took away everybody and I couldn't do anything to save them. When I woke up here, as much as I hate to admit it, I was all alone and scared. Then my friend Tikal came to me as spirit, and told me what to do. I'd do anything to save the world and everybody in it, including all of my friends...my family."
"And you would take the risk despite the dangers, not knowing what you're holding?" The fourteen year old asked, his expression beginning to soften the more he was hearing the truthful words from the sixteen year old before him.
"I risk my life almost every day. Can't even keep track of how many times I almost died in the past five years." Sonic answered, shrugging. "Fighting giant killer robots and ancient monsters from the past Eggman tried to control but end up being betrayed or just won't listen to him at all, being nearly cooked by lava and volcanoes or freezing, drowning and such, almost eaten by a mutant giant hair-ball, and swallowed up by a giant whale who only did that to help me out since he let me go before I'd end up inside his stomach...I'm used to weird stuff happening to me."
"Why is that?" Silver queried.
"Because it's the right thing to do." He answered, sighing. "Look, I didn't mean to upset you about these crystals, but I have no idea how else to save my friends or to save the world, and I don't even want to think about how these crystals even work. And you said yourself, you got separated from your friends too, right?"
"Yeah...?" The younger hedgehog trailed off, not sure of where this was going.
The cobalt hedgehog smiled softly, "Then we should work together to find and save everybody, both my friends and your friends. If we team up, that Scourge guy won't even know what's gonna hit him."
Silver hesitated, looking away from Sonic and sighed. "It's just...I made a promise I'd save the world. Even with both of my friends' help, it's my responsibility."
"I know what you mean. It's because you don't want them to get hurt, right?" Sonic muttered, causing the other hedgehog to glance at him in confusion. "You kinda remind me of both how I usually feel, and how a certain Knucklehead liked to work on his own. 'Cept in his case, he guards a giant shiny rock and doesn't like to be sociable as much even if he pretty much grew up on his own. Sure he hangs out with us more often now, but still..."
"What are you trying to say?"
"What I'm saying is that sometimes you can't do everything on your own. I know that more than anyone."
That caught the future hedgehog by surprise as he turned back to the Mobian hedgehog, and for a split second he saw a mixture of Blaze and Ovi in Sonic's place before his vision and mind returned to reality. The blue hedgehog had the same kindness and determination, bravery and a strong heart like the purple cat, and while he had such a different fun and optimistic personality, his words of wisdom was similar to the human kind scientist who wished for a world of peace and no evil.
For one thing, he realized that Sonic was right. In the end, Silver had no idea how to solve this problem even on his own, and then it's the situation of how he first came to the present of Moebius all over again before he met Blaze and Ovi. It took him a while to trust them, and Blaze just as long to rely on others and open up to others, but it was Dr. Ovi Kintobor who brought them together, to save the world as best as they could. Now in order to restore everything, he would need help from more kind strangers who took wish for their world to be in peace.
They had come so close after the demise of this Dr. Eggman, only for a mysterious monster to appear and ruin it. Suddenly Silver realized that maybe Scourge had discovered that as well and, realizing that the green hedgehog's actions caused this to happen, might be taking control of it considering how insane he was.
"You remind me of a kind man who wished for a world of no evil at all, even though you do strongly resemble to Scourge. All right. I accept your offer." Silver finally smiled softly, and offered his hand to help Sonic up. The blue hedgehog blinked in surprise, before smiling in relief and optimism, taking the younger hedgehog's hand and was pulled to his feet.
"To tell the truth, I have no idea where to start on how to solve all this either, other than to find Scourge. You were my first and only lead so far, Sonic." He added apologetically. "I"m sorry for misinterpreting you."
"Aw, don't worry 'bout it. No biggie. I'm sorry for not trusting you at first either. Guess this whole thing really got to us, huh?" Sonic replied. "Let's head back to Amy and probably Tails. I bet he's met up with her by now."
"Huh? Tails?" Silver asked, curiously while blinking in confusion.
The blue hedgehog chuckled, "My best friend and little brother. Well, through adoption, but I love him a whole lot."
As he scratched the back of his head, he felt the sudden pulse of the red crystal which made him blink in confusion. Confused and shocked, Sonic pulled it out and gazed at it, before he and Silver cried out in alarm as the bright light shone and spread, engulfing them which forced the two hedgehogs to shield their eyes. By the time the light faded, Sonic and Silver looked and found that they were right back where they started.
Where Amy and Tails are talking, before the light caught their attention and two younger Mobians jumped a little before seeing that their blue true friend and the mysterious silver hedgehog had returned.
"There you are, Sonic!" Tails greeted in relief as he and Amy quickly approached the aforementioned blue hedgehog.
"'Sup, Tails?" Sonic greeted with a wave, before flinching and quickly moved out of the way to avoid Amy throwing her arms around him again. "Whoa!"
The pink hedgehog wobbled for having missed before turning around and gave him annoyed look, demanding, "Where have you been!? I was worried sick!"
"Calm down, Ames'. I'm fine. I just met the guy who talked to you earlier and we cleared up a few things." The blue hedgehog quickly said, holding his hands up in defense, scared that she might go and hit him again.
"He didn't hurt you, did he?" Amy asked, casting a glare at Silver and added. "'Cause if he did...!"
Silver flinched in fright at just how scary the pink hedgehog was, causing Tails to quickly come to both his and Sonic's defense. "Amy, Sonic looks find to me and like he said, they both cleared a few things up. Whatever you think must be a big misunderstanding!"
He then turned to the future hedgehog and asked, "So you're Silver, right?"
"Uh, yeah?" Silver blinked, surprised with not only how young this nine year old fox was, but what really stunned and amazed him was that the kit had two tails. "You must be another one of Sonic's friends, right?"
"Yep! My name's Miles Prower, but everybody calls me Tails." Tails replied, smiling brightly.
'So he's the one Sonic mentioned. I gotta admit, he's cute.' The Moebian hedgehog thought. The younger Mobian looked very friendly which surprisingly made him feel comfortable. No wonder Sonic was very close to him. "Hi."
"Anyway, from what Silver told me, that giant monster isn't our only problem. Turns out there's this guy he knows that's been causing trouble and considering what's going on, it might be connected." Sonic kindly interrupted, causing his two close friends to gaze at him and then at Silver who nodded in agreement.
"Really? What?" The two-tailed fox asked.
Sonic and Silver then both began to explain everything they know so far, or at least the latter explained as much as he could as he had no idea what was really going on at the moment. Yet neither were aware that they weren't the only ones facing major problems, or that their conversation was slightly over-heard by two others who are just like Tails and Amy...only slightly different and younger.
A/N: So Silver joins Sonic's team and our heroes are about to discover and encounter more dangers and answers as the chapters go by. What will they find? Only time will tell.
See you later!
