Time travel was the worst.

Miles had long thought himself intimately familiar with every facet of truth behind that statement, but somehow, time after time managed to disappoint him.

Nuts Blazkowicz didn't know him. Had he forgotten? Was this some younger variant of the one he once knew before he had stumbled into the belly of the Blind Dreamer, Achamoth?

Or had they never met at all and never would? Paradox headaches were the worst headaches.

"You just gonna keep staring?" Nuts snapped, face twisting into a familiar scowl.

"Sorry, been a while since I had someone to talk to." Miles turned back to his task, tearing through metallised earth with a spade fashioned out of the time probe. "Not sure why you ended up here, but welcome to Little Planet, specifically my Little Planet."

Temporal entanglement? If he interacted with Nuts, past or future, then perhaps it had slipped into his own tangled timeline on its way back. Miles moved on from his hole with an irritated grunt and walked on a few steps, trailing his fingers along the ground as he felt after his quarry.

"I assume you didn't check the probe before you stepped through?" Great, now there was demon blood where he was digging. He rolled a boulder bigger than him to one side and started scraping the earth once more.

"Uh… what probe?"

Miles sighed. He didn't need to look up to know the face Nuts was making. Sometimes he could swear the fox applied his impressive brainpower exclusively to wisecracking and violence.

"I doubt you'd be very interested in long-winded exposition. Suffice to say that the world is going to end. Yes, all of them." Bingo. He straightened in satisfaction, staring at the depths of the hole before him.

"We've been called in to save it and everyone we care about. Pass me that stick, please."

Miles reached down again, this time using the very end of the stick to liberate his prize from its earthen covering, carefully revealing a glittering blue jewel the size of his fist.

The eighth time stone.

"I have a debt to repay, however unintentional my rescue, so I'll be making my way there in a bit. I can either send you back to where you came from, or you can come and help save the universe. You in?"

"Ah, not to pussy out, but I kinda had a world-saving thing going on already. Gonna at least need to check in on that first? Might be able to get some extra help if this is such a big deal."

Miles nodded, smile still unchanged. Nuts hadn't come to help him. That was as true now as it had been when he fell outside. This Nuts still had people he cared about and wanted to get back to.

"Fine. Should be able to get you back to when you left, maybe a bit before. Mind giving me a hand first?"

"Sure, I guess."

"Pick that up for me?" Miles pointed at the faintly glowing blue jewel in the hole, taking a long step back to give the larger fox space.

Nuts squinted suspiciously at the time stone. "It's not going to give me cancer, is it?"

"It shouldn't interact with you at all." Miles shrugged.

"So why aren't you picking it up?"

"Let me put it this way, you see that there?" He pointed at a spinning golden ring before touching it with a finger. It disappeared into his hammerspace with a sparkle of light.

"... Is you waving your hand in the air supposed to explain anything?" Nuts stared at him blankly.

Miles sighed. Was this really that rare? He'd have thought mobian physiology to be fairly consistent between the "threads", absorbing ring energy to provide an ablative energy shield against harm or in high quantities to repair even life threatening levels of physical trauma.

"Suffice to say if you can't even see what I just grabbed you probably can't absorb the time stone and it's completely harmless, but it should let you power Robotnik's time grid to get you back where you came from."

"Alright." Nuts frowned as he gingerly pulled the stone from the soil. As predicted, nothing happened. "And what happens if you touch it?"

"It reacts with the other six I picked up."

"... And?"

"And I start dying." Miles brushed dust from his tails as he turned away from the hole once more. "Brains aren't meant to work four dimensionally."

"You sure I can't put it back agai- hey! Wait up!"

"You can still run at least, correct?" Miles glanced back at Nuts, his tails spiralling about one another faster and faster as he stood, bracing his feet against the growing thrust.

"Faster than you I'll bet, shri-"

"Good."

Miles launched, tearing past idyllic ponds and toxic swamps that were one and the same. He moved too fast to hear the stream of epithets behind him, but he knew they were coming anyway.

Which world did Nuts see? The one he saved or the one that was left behind? His success or his failure? Did it matter? Miles was the one that had been left behind.

It didn't take long for his goal to be in sight - he'd left this time stone til last because it had been closest, after all. A shining waterfall on crystal cliffs, a dusty basin carved into rust and decay, a cave carved into the rock beyond.

The first place he'd ever met Amy Rose.

Sort of? By her timeline at least? He skidded to a halt, spraying dust or metal leaves into the air as he stopped at the bank. Nuts crunched behind him a moment later.

"Anyone ever tell you you're fuckin' annoying, dude?"

"Yeah, you have." Miles smiled faintly, his fingers dry as he trailed them in the water before him.

"What?"

"Forget it. We'll get you home in a minute. Just need to tap into the time grid once she wakes up."

"'She'?" Nuts raised an eyebrow.

A metal foot emerged from the cave, hidden behind the waterfall. Miles smiled faintly as a crimson mecha emerged from the basin to stand before him, its rounded hull dripping with water and still shining like the day he built it.

"Hey, Meka. Miss me?" Miles patted a metal flank. Good thing he built to last.

"Dude, that looks like something I would have built when I was four."

"What a coincidence." Miles pointedly ignored the marine as he ran his fingers across the cuddly looking fox mech. "This is the Meka Teirusu, and as soon as we find a time post we're going to get you home."

"...The fuck is a time post?"

Miles sighed.

"PENDERS!"

Nuts scowled at the shrill expletive, his fists clenched into balls, as his smaller counterpart tapped irritably at his console. The battle mech the pair occupied shuddered, and the marine steadied himself against a bulkhead.

"This thing gonna stay in one piece?!" Nuts grumbled, tucking his helmet beneath an arm as the flying mech straightened itself, "Or are we gonna get pasted over the fuckin' ground?"

"Sorry…" the other fox responded idly, without an ounce of apology in his voice, "It's been… awhile since she last flew."

Nuts grunted and set himself in the seat beside his companion, looking the fox over once again. He didn't know how to handle this situation. One moment he had been in the middle of a combat situation, and now he was running around some crazy metal planet with a pint-sized version of himself.

And more importantly, he had no idea how the war to save Earth was going back home.

"So…" The smaller fox said as he glanced toward his larger, armoured double, leaning back as the Meka-Teirusu's auto-pilot systems engaged, "What's back home that's so important?"

"Like I said, little dude…" Nuts replied as he set his helmet on his knees, "I already have a world to save..."

The smaller fox cocked his head. "Do you even understand the stakes?"

Nuts simply glowered in response. "Dude, I don't even know how I got here!" He smacked his helmet onto the console before him, rotating his right arm to work out a twinge, "Maybe it'd help if you explained to me exactly what the crack was?"

"Fine." Miles shrugged, setting his hands behind his head. "This is the full recording."

Nuts frowned as the smaller fox produced some kind of data-pad from… seemingly nowhere, and tapped at the screen with a finger. Before long, a shimmering blue hologram of a uniformed, twin-tailed fox bloomed from the device, and a proper-accented voice began to play.

"Greetings gentlemen, ladies, and possible others… my name is Lord Admiral Miles Prower. And I have a request to ask of you…"

Nuts listened intently as his oddly-accented counterpart delivered his information. Ultimately, the hologram faded away, and his smaller companion offered him a pointed look.

"So that's the situation." Miles blinked the data-pad out of existence once more. "This is more than just one world, this is everything, for everyone. So…" Miles tapped at his console once again, checking the craft's heading. "Are you in?"

Nuts considered, before scowling petulantly. "Ugh! Sure!" He replied, "I'd at least like a little chat with this Captain Birdseye guy!" He frowned as he considered yet again. "But… how do you plan on getting us there?"

"Oh, don't worry about that…" Miles responded lightly, "I know a way…"

Before Nuts could formulate a response, the hull of the Meka Teirusu shuddered with the force of an impact.

"We're hit!" Miles cried, hands flitting over his controls, "What was that?!"

Nuts set his jaw as he leaned forward to peer through the viewscreen.

"Oh no…" Beside him, the ghostly form of the pink camo-clad Amy Rose clasped her hands to her mouth and stared with frightened green eyes, "They're here…"

The companions watched with mounting dread, as swirling red portals flashed into existence… and the minions of Hell began to descend on Little Planet.

"JESUS BASTARD MOTHER-FUCKING CHRIST!" Nuts snarled as he grabbed his helmet from the dash, "THE MOTHER-FUCKERS FOLLOWED ME!"

"I need to know what's happening," Miles said flatly, inspecting the systems of his Meka Teirusu.

"Demons…." The marine replied, inspecting a chunky energy weapon that had materialised in his hands. The marine glared at the smaller fox through his visor. "Does this fucking thing have weapons?"

Miles offered him a flat stare. "What do you think?"

The marine grumbled. "Look, I know we just met, but these things are fucking dangerous…" Nuts positively glared at the smaller fox as he adjusted his weapons and armour."I'm going to fight them…" Nuts growled, predictably, "And I need you to give me some fire support, got it? Anything this crate has, I want it laid down on these bastards! Do you get me?"

Miles nodded, and returned his attention to his controls. "You'll find I'm quite used to the sidekick role."

Nuts snarled as he clambered from the mech's cockpit, and boosted right into a mixed pack of imps and gargoyles. He was shorter by the things by at least a full head… but his speed and momentum, combined with the enhanced strength afforded him by the Tornado suit, transformed him into a streak of demon-mincing rage. He slashed with an arm blade, removing an imp's head. He raised his plasma gun one handed and vaporised the upper torso of another. A gargoyle was shredded by his rapidly spinning tails, the appendages transformed into vicious blades.

With a warning whine of whirring barrels twin arm-mounted gatling guns delivered a hail of high-velocity rounds into the demonic horde. Demons vanished in mists of blood as the barrage transformed them into giblets. As cuddly looking and rounded as it was, the Meka Teirusu's weapons were potent, and sufficiently destructive enough to turn the attacking demons into cheese with its covering fire.

"This is quite cathartic." Miles' voice crackled over his helmet's audio receptors in calm monotone.

The marine grimaced and sprayed a pack of possessed with his weapon, reducing them to so much smoking meat. The demons were piling in now, a full on Hell-invasion spawning from this location.

And it was all his fault. Again.

"Nuts." Miles' voice came through his helmet again, grabbing his attention. "Four o'clock!"

Another flaming red portal slashed open, fodder demons spilling out... Accompanied by a pair of Marauders… and a hulking Cyberdemon.

"Ah, shit…" the marine spat, checking over his weapons as the beastly champions set their sights directly on him.

The corrupted warriors raised their axes and bellowed a challenge, while the huge Cyberdemon directed its arm-mounted rocket launcher directly at him. Nuts prepared to streak for cover… until, clanking and stomping fodder demons underfoot, the Meka Teirusu lunged into the fight, and delivered a comically powerful fist to the Cyberdemon's face.

"I've got this one!" Miles squeaked from the mech's cockpit, the back-mounted helicopter blades spinning and reducing attacking demons into swiss cheese, "Handle the horny guys."

Horny guys. Pfft. Nuts lowered his visor and snarled as the Hell Marauders turned their attention back to him. "COME ON, YOU MOTHER-FUCKERS!" He growled, spinning into the air like an attack VTOL, "EAT SHIT AND DIE!"

The Marauders began their charge, accompanied by attacking demons of all kinds… and then, before they could make contact with the trigger-happy fox, Another portal blossomed into existence, this one swirling blue in colour… and as the Meka Teirusu finished off the Cyberdemon, the Unchained Predator himself pounced from the portal, stomping into the dirt with fat boots, BFG-9000 at the ready. He raised the glowing green super-weapon, released a globule of pulsing green energy directly toward the Marauders… who vanished in twin puffs of blood and gore.

"Oh, hi Green!" Nuts quipped, racking his own shotgun, "Glad you finally made it!"

The Slayer nodded, a huge double-barrel shotgun materialising in his hands. "For some reason…" Samuel Hayden grumbled from the helmet speakers, "The Slayer insisted on finding you before our mission was complete…"

"Yeah, I missed you too, Johnny-Five… anyway, I'd love to explain but we kinda have a situation here… a little outnumbered, but that shouldn't be too big of a problem, right?"

"I wouldn't say outnumbered…" Miles' voice crackled from the Meka Teirusu, still busily stomping a pack of imps into paste. The marines exchanged brief looks of bewilderment… before remaining demons began to vanish in puffs of red mist, or fall into pieces after being sliced by laser fire. "Sorry for the delay, I had to reprogram their targeting parameters."

Nuts and the Doom Slayer watched in astonishment as, emerging from the surrounding expanse, what appeared to be small animals hopped into the fray, unleashing glowing rings that flew in arches to explode among the demons, and bursts of vicious laser fire from hidden emitters. Behind his visor, the Slayer raised a questioning eyebrow to his companion.

Nuts shrugged. "Long story, Green…"

With that, the marines joined battle once again alongside the cuddly red battle mech and the army of critterbots, and proceeded to kick Hell's minions back where they came from.

"Well!" Nuts said happily, removing his helmet as the previously chaotic warzone fell dead silent, the remains of the invading demons fizzling away out of cohesion, "That was fun!"

"I'm relieved you enjoyed yourself…" Hayden replied with his usual grumpy demeanour, "Now could we please continue with our assigned mission? Earth is not going to save itself."

"Yeah…" Nuts muttered as a hiss sounded from nearby, and Miles hopped from his battered and bloodied battle-mech as it rested on its suspension. "About that…"

"Oh, hello!" Miles approached the space marines, comically small next to the armoured warriors, the Slayer especially.

"Like I said," Nuts said, gesturing to the smaller fox with his helmet, "Long story."

There was a flash of green from nearby, and all three turned, the marines with weapons at the ready, as a whirling green portal flashed open, and a floating, spherical device with a single glowing eye emerged. A dent was visible in its side.

"I guess that's your probe…" Miles said lightly as the machine came to regard Nuts. "I suppose it finally caught up with you?"

The Slayer watched curiously as the probe regarded his apprentice. "Greetings," the machine said, "I bring a message from one Admiral Lord Miles Prower…"

Nuts gestured at the machine. "Turns out an alternate version of… well, me and him-" the marine again directed a hand to his smaller companion, "-To help save… well, everything…" The vulpine regarded his mentor. "You want in on this, Green?"

The Slayer shook his head and grunted. "Do what you must…" Samuel Hayden translated for the mute human, "But our work back on Earth is unfinished...Your presence is… unnecessary as it is."

"Oh gee, you're breaking my heart doc…" Nuts replied dryly. He then turned to his smaller double. "Okay, mini-me…" the fox said, raising his helmet and replacing it with a hiss, "I'm in."

Miles offered a very light smile in response, before turning to regard the Doom Slayer. "Don't worry," he said, "I'll make sure he comes back in one piece…"

"Hey!" Nuts grunted, "Shouldn't that be my line?!"

"From what I've witnessed, I wouldn't be so sure."

The Slayer reached out and clapped Nuts on the shoulder. The meaning was clear - good luck.

"See you soon, Doomguy!" Nuts said, before turning to the floating probe. "Okay. I'm ready to see what Admiral Akbar wants."

"Very well. Please follow me…"

The two foxes followed the probe back through a spinning green portal, while the Slayer himself marched back to his own dimension to continue the fight against the forces of Hell. As the portals died down, the critterbots that remained began to gather the fallen scrap from their fellows, ready to recycle and replicate once again. Soon this version of Little Planet, having narrowly escaped demonic corruption, would recover once again.

"The personnel that you had requested are being transported now to your position in the Combat Information Centre." NICOLE advised. "Cargo is being separately transported to the hangar."

The vulpinroid gave the lynx hologram a nod and proceeded with the task he was in the middle of before her interruption, packing his straight-stemmed Peterson billiard pipe with tobacco. Of course this was a far cry from the carcinogen and additive filled kind from the 21st century, the leaf farmers took the craft back from the industrial concerns.

The admiral packed the bowl with Tewksbury Hobbit's Weed before tamping it down with a small metal Czech tool. With the press of a small stud on the underside of the bowl, the bowl's interior heated up, causing the tobacco to burn. It had a pleasant cherry aroma, but on top of that it wasn't going to set off any alarms or give anyone, especially the admiral, any medical issues. Clenching his teeth around the stem, the admiral rose up to his feet and turned to look at the screen-wall behind him. The infographics which he had created were all there, verified with a quick runthrough.

At that point, this was when the transporter patterns began to come into being. Once they solidified, the party of foxes would see a very tall iteration of themselves. He had his double breasted black jacket draped on the back of his seat, just wearing the No. 3A white shirt and black slacks combination, the epaulets on his shoulders denoting his rank were gold, featuring four silver eight-pointed stars with crossed swords above them, topped off by a red coronet.

He looked at each of the foxes, smoke continuously blooming from the bowl of his pipe as he puffed. One of those other foxes stood out with his green armour. In a way it almost reminded him of his V-01 powered armour, but by initial sizing up the V-01 was akin to a Champion main battle hovertank to this fox's green Land Rover. In fact, he took shots from a hovertank section during initial fitting trials many years ago.

"Welcome to the British space-time battleship Warspite." The admiral said in introduction. "I am Admiral Lord Miles "Tails" Prower, the Earl of Devon. I was First Space Lord of the Royal Space Navy seventy-three years ago. I look rather well kept for a fox of 109, but that's because I'm not biological like you, not entirely. I hadn't been for some time," He gave them a weak smile. "We are in my family vault here on Little Planet, I had deposited myself here to shut down after my wife's death." There was a sound of footsteps which made him pause. "My great-grandchildren combined with a mass casualty incident however had other plans." He gestured towards the open hatchway. "Here they are. Elisabeth Volkov and Bertrand Robotnik-Prower."

"Skye." The young vulpinmimi corrected before grunting after being elbowed by his cousin.

"You've been called here for two reasons; one of them is to protect you all from the effects of the aforementioned mass casualty incident. And that may cause you to ask, what do I mean by that? A town's population being struck down is one, same if it were a city. But when I say mass casualty, it's with the utmost of gravity. Timelines are inexplicably collapsing. Your own began the decay process which is why you were all retrieved. Little Planet and my ship are immune to the effects. Warspite was my second command, and when they intended to scrap her I bought her from the Navy and kept her in mothballs ever since, combat ready with some shall we say, creative logistical acquisition techniques. They can drag me before the Court Martial after we get our histories back." The admiral snorted. "Secondly, I figured if anyone had the capacity to unscrew this particular pickle jar from hell, it would be me. Maybe I would find others exactly like me, a large scale coin flip that landed rather prettily upon tails. For identification purposes, you can simply refer to me as Admiral Prower, Admiral or Lord Devon."