"Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot?" Sonic repeated with a furrow. He paused to think midstride– maybe they were people he saved at some point? But nothing came to him and so he shrugged his shoulders.

"Never heard of them.. Are they important?"

"I suppose? At least my brother implied they were with you, like they were your friends or something – like Amy or Tails. " 10-961 said "He also seemed focus on your eye color. Said they weren't supposed to be green but brown? Can eye colors change?"

"That's… very odd? And no my eyes have always been green, maybe a little darker when I was younger, but never brown! Anything else?"

"He also muttered something about Tails not being able to fix things?"

"What?"

"Yeah I know – that's weird. I think he said Porker was the guy who fixed things."

"Again – What? Tails not being able to fix things! That's like saying water is dry!" Sonic exclaimed with disbelief, and then put a finger to his chin. "He seemed really out of it though.."

"Yeah, he was starting to slur and forget words. Couldn't even say your name." 10-961 mimicked Sonic's chin-tapping before shrugging. "I'm thinking a glitch in his memory or.. maybe something else? I'm not really sure what."

"hmmm…Definitely a big mystery, that's for sure…"

The two continued on in silence as they walked back to Chris' house. None of that stuff made sense; friends he never heard of, different eye colors, and Tails not doing a very Tails thing. After a few minutes of questions unanswered, 10-961 broke the silence with something new.

"He thought you guys turned me into a bomb." 10-961 said abruptly. He thought that might be useful to tell Sonic. It was one of the reasons he had been hostile to them. He also thought his brother ~might~ be okay with sharing that – but didn't think through how Sonic would whiplash his head so hard that his head looked like it had disconnected from his body for a split second.

"What? Where'd he get that idea?!" Sonic blurted. He may destroy and blow up robots regularly, but turning a sentient robot into a bomb was NOT his thing. That seemed a little too cruel and wrong.

"It happened before… I think. He did say 'never again' after he said the bomb thing."

"But we never met before this. There couldn't have an 'again' if it never happened in the first place." Sonic scrunched his face in thought. "But back at the house he did a move that looked like he battled me before."

"huh, he did?" 10-961 tilted his head in interest.

"Yeah, when I jumped near the pool. It was like he knew I was going to try and kick him into it," Sonic pondered. "Most robots I go up against wouldn't know to avoid something like that – especially on their first fight."

"Wait –waitwaitwait." 10-961 stepped in front of Sonic with a waving hand. "You fight robots?"

Sonic winced a little. Considering how he had destroyed robots before coupled with 274 words of "you killed them!' – well… least to say this would definitely be a sensitive topic.

"You know how we asked about Dr. Eggman?" Sonic started.

10-961 nodded. They did ask about him quite a bit. But what did that have to do with fighting robots?

"Well he builds robots." Sonic mulled over his next words. "He builds robots to hurt people."

"what?" 10-961 said quietly as his eyes widen.

"And I umm… protect the people he tries to hurt –so I end up fighting his robots a lot." Sonic continued, gauging the metallix's reaction – just in case things went sour.

"The day we found you and your brother.. it was immediately after very large and devastating attack. Half the city was destroyed because of one of his robots. Some people almost died."

10-961 didn't know what to say. He felt betrayed.. but it wasn't really directed at anyone. He was mostly confused. From the sound of things, Sonic DID ki – destroy robots…

like himself… like his brother.

But it was because he was forced to, to protect others from a madman and his creations.

"Did… did these robots." 10-961 almost whispered. "Did they…willingly do what you're saying?"

"No," Sonic shook his head. "Most of Eggman's robots aren't sentient. They don't think and feel – not like you and you're brother. They only do what Eggman programs them to do."

10-961 thought for a long moment. About how Sonic and his friends had asked him if he knew of a 'Dr. Eggman'. They must have been thinking 'were you built by him, are you here to attack us?'

How many times have they fought against him and his robots?

How many times did the news crews see such attacks that their first assumptions would be of him hurting or kidnapping Sonic?

"Is Eggman the only one who builds robots?" 10-961 asked. Maybe he and his brother were built by someone else; someone out to do good.

"Technically, no." Sonic said as they resumed walking. "But his are the most advanced; especially here."

"Did you think we were built by him?" 10-961 asked – with hope, with hope that he wasn't.

"We don't know. You might've." Sonic said as he watched 10-961's shoulders slump.

"When Tails was checking you two over on Angel Island… Well your brother had Eggman's logo on his backpanel –" Sonic started to explain, but saw 10-961 begin to panic. "BUT!" he shouted, managing to lift a finger up in a "there's more!" fashion.

"But what?!" 10-961 spilled anxiously.

"Calm down." Sonic gently said, and then he continued. "But the logo was all wrong. The shape and colors weren't right and it was scratched out like someone was trying to get rid of it." The Metallix tilted his head again.

What Sonic had just said, it sounded a lot like the confusion that his brother had a few minutes ago. Things that were similar, yet 'not right.' A logo with the wrong colors –Sonic with the wrong colored eyes.

"That's… It's…" 10-961 fought to think of the words to describe the weird connection. "It's just like what 274 was saying."

"huh?" Sonic stared at the metallix.

"Things that are similar, but not quite right." 10-961 began. "His data states you should have brown eyes – but you don't."

Sonic ears perked up as he listened.

"And this logo, it's like Eggman's, but at the same time all wrong!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Sonic nodded enthusiastically. "Then that must mean your brother's mismatched data, is definitely part of something else!"

"Yeah! There must be something bigger going on!" 10-961 excitedly exclaimed. So excited, in fact, that he forgot about the possibility of being built by a lunatic for the moment.

"hmm.. but do we have any other information that could help solve this little riddle?" Sonic pondered. He also thought to himself how they should be seeing Chris' house any moment now –and he still didn't have a plan on how'd they'd get pass the news crews.

"Well, me and my brother did teleport here via a giant ring. Apparently, some other brothers of mine had been testing to see where objects went when thrown through one– tracker chips and everything. But results showed that some tracked objects simply "vanished" like they didn't exist anymore." 10-961 rambled and would've continued to ramble, but stopped when Sonic held out his hand and then motioned him to be quiet.

Up ahead was the mansion buzzing with activity.

And no clear way on how to sneak past all of it.

"How are we gonna get back inside?" 10-961 asked. He hadn't realized how many news crews there had been – at least ten were seen rolling film and talking away. A few were in the personal bubbles of Sonic's friends asking questions that they didn't seem too keen on answering.

"Beep beep!" The sudden noise right next to them startled the two; sonic nearly dropped 274!

"OH jeez, Lucky! You scared us!" Sonic whisper shouted. "Hey think you can help us? Pretty please? We need to get into the house without being seen."

"Beep!" Lucky said happily as he skipped off towards the crowd. Anything for his hero!

10-961 didn't know how this odd robot could help – he couldn't even guess what he could do based on his odd design. And where had he been all this morning? He hadn't seen or heard him at all until now.

But sure enough, just his mere presences seemed to attract every crew members' eye towards him. Like they couldn't help but look.

10-961 gave his own confused beep at Sonic as the two waited for all the cameras to shift as well.

"Oh? Wondering how Lucky did that?" Sonic guessed correctly. "Lucky's got this ability to bend probability in his favor. Or at least that's how Tails' describes it. Basically Lucky is… well, Lucky!"

"how… does that work?" 10-961 asked with bafflement. How could one even figure out how to program that into a robot?

"er.. well.. I'm sure Tails can explain it?"

"I read his notes – I don't think I'll even understand his explanation."

"… Truue..." Sonic nodded in sympathy, but then saw their opportunity to move." Anyway, let's go!"

Quickly the two dashed across the back yard towards the house. Lucky was very good at his job and not one person noticed the trio disappear into the mansion.

"SONIC!" Someone shouted as soon as they made it in. Sonic and 10-961 both made a shushing motion as they turned towards the person in question.

"Oup! Sorry.."Amy apologized quietly as she brought her hands to cover her mouth. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, for the time being at least." Sonic said as he tried to shuffle past her. Amy put her hands on her hips at the sight of 274.

"He's not gonna try attacking again is he?" Amy said skeptically.

"er- well, he did calm down, but I don't think he trusts us very much." Sonic said with a sheepish shrug –avoiding eye contact. Amy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Listen, once everything calms down out there, and everyone is back in here, then I'll explain what happened and so can 10-961." Sonic said as he managed to get by the pink hedgehog.

"At least give me a short version? Or at least something to say to the creeps outside?" Amy exasperatingly asked.

"Uh.. hm.. well short version? 274 thought we turned 10-961 into a bomb and was… angry about it? And had a bad reaction?" Sonic answered as he readjusted his grip on 274. "There a lot more, but that's the gist of it."

"… Okay, um not sure if that's a good answer to give the news crews?" Amy said with a concerned look.

"How about… 'he had a damaged processor and thought we had done something bad first?" 10-961 tried. "I mean that's not entirely true, bit too vague, maybe something like-?"

"No vague's good, I can work with that." Amy cut him off as she started to walk towards the door. "Also try going to the attic! Some of Paparazzi managed to trap Tails in his little workshop." Sonic gave a thumbs up as he changed course to head upstairs.

10-961 marveled at how truly massive the household was as Sonic navigated the halls and stairs until they got to the entrance to the attic. It was rather narrow and lugging 274 up was a bit of a hassle, but they managed. 10-961 couldn't help but feel safe in the smaller, quaint space of the attic; from the little window and small desk to the pile of beanbags that Sonic gently laid 274 onto.

"So what now?" 10-961 asked as he took a peek out the window. It was hard to see, but it looked like the news crews weren't going away anytime soon.

"For now, we just gonna have to lay low until they go away." Sonic answered as he too peeked out the window.

"How long will that be?"

"I'm thinking this might end up being a big story, so they might be here all day and then back again the next few." Sonic sighed. "ugh."

"Well at least we're in the house and not somewhere unfamiliar." 10-961 said flatly. "You gonna go down there?"

"I'd rather not, but I'd also rather not be cooped up here either." Sonic deadpanned then took in an extra deep breath. "Wish me luck!"

"Wishing you luck!" 10-961 said as he patted Sonic's back in empathy before he disappeared down the attic stairs.

"Make sure your brother doesn't break anything else!"

"I'll try!"

Now what could he do in the meantime?

A few agonizingly slow hours had past as 10-961 waited for any of the household occupants to return from the grasp of the paparazzi. They just seemed to talk and talk and weren't giving the group any breaks.

Nothing changed with his brother. He was still offline in the beanbags. So that left 10-961 to wander about the attic. 10-961 had gathered some of the other beanbags and made a pile for himself and found it wondrous to jump into them – well until one of his sharp edges nicked one and the insides spilled a little bit; he hoped no one would notice if he left it under the others.

He then wondered over to the bookshelf to see if there was anything interesting to read about; he reasoned it would help him understand this world a bit more, but a lot of the more academic books frustrated him with terms he didn't understand and the teenage sci-fi stories he skimmed through baffled him with their so-called 'science'. In the end, he kinda just stayed with the simpler chapter stories, ones that still had pictures in them here and there. There was one on a robot that learned to live in the wild and speak with animals that he sort of liked, he liked the main character a lot, but the amount of casual death in it left him a little unnerved so he put it down.

But it did give him light on why Sonic had been mistaken for a robot; the animals here were apparently similar, yet extremely different to Sonic and his friends. But where did Sonic and his friends come from? How did they get here? He felt the answers to those questions might somehow fit into the weird "similar, yet not quite right" phenomenon going on and so they rattled in his processor for hours yet he could not answer them.

After flipping through most of the books on the shelf, 10-961 decided the day would probably go faster if he offline for a bit. At least until it got a little darker outside and the news crews were forced to go home. So he –very gently- plopped down next to 274 in the beanbag pile.

He checked his brother over for any signs of him waking up, but he wasn't even doing his click whirl thing; and his eyes remained dark.

After a bit of reflecting on the day's events, 10-961 decided leaving a note for his brother in case he woke up before him would definitely be a good idea. He'd have to put it somewhere where he knew it'd be the first thing his brother would see.

So 10-961 quickly nabbed a pen and paper from the desk and scribbled a note; a note of reassurances and simple explanations. 10-961 paused as he checked his grammar and spelling before looking for a spot to put the paper. None of the obvious spots seemed 'good' enough for the metallix; there were many ways the note could be missed entirely.

So 10-961 thought the best place would simply be to tape it to his brother's face – not thinking how silly it looked to others.

With a nod of approval, 10-961 settled down and offlined before any bad thoughts could reach his processor.

Turned out he didn't have to wait much longer.

Sonic came stomping up the stairs just thirty minutes later with a deep frown and a headache.

"Hello, we're back." Sonic announced without his usual flare.

10-961 eyes slowly flickered to life. He noted it was still a little difficult to wake up immediately, but it was better than what it had been before.

"Huh? How'd it go?" 10-961 asked after he realized Sonic was back and had said something.

"Awful. I don't know why they have to ask the same stinking questions over and over. we'll recount our suffering downstairs to fill you in." Sonic said as he picked up 274 with ease.

10-961 simply nodded as he helped maneuver his brother down the narrow staircase. He was curious and nervous to know if they cleared everything up or not.

The three made their way down to the living room where everyone was slumped over whatever couch or chair they could find.

"You all look drained." 10-961 remarked as soon as he saw the lot of them.

"Be glad you didn't have to join in on the fun mister." Amy sarcastically said from her spot on the couch.

"They're like if you combined genies with vampires." Tails added with an exasperated sigh.

"Are you guys even up for more talking right now?" 10-961 asked as he looked with concern. They looked like they wouldn't move let alone talk much for the rest of the day.

"Curiosity is keeping us going for the moment!" Chuck said. "Now before we get into our end with the news teams, what happened between you and 274? Sonic mentioned something about things not lining up?"

"He also said something about your brother thinking you were turned into a bomb by us?" Amy added sluggishly.

"Well, yeah. That's why he attacked me in the first place. He thought you guys reprogrammed me into a bomb!" 10-961 began with his tale. "Apparently that happened before and he wanted to prevent it."

"But we've never seen or heard of you guys before." Chris pointed out like Sonic had previously.

"That's part of a little mystery we have. Things that are similar, yet not quite right." 10-961 answered. "A lot of things aren't adding up."

"Well, what are those things exactly?" Chuck asked.

10-961 gave them the run-down; the eyes, the logo, unfamiliar 'friends', Tails not being a mechanic, and the fact that 274 had met them before and yet they didn't; basically how everything just wasn't lining up correctly on both ends.

"It's all just really strange." 10-961 finished off. "I have something to ask too; I think might fit into this equation, but I'm not sure."

"Go ahead."

"How did you guys get here?"

"huh?" the group collectively uttered.

"I was reading some books and it's clear the 'animals' here aren't like you guys." 10-961 explained. "I mean I was warped here with a giant ring. Did you guys get here that way too?"

"That's a good observation there 10-961!" Chuck remarked. "Sonic and his friends did warp here by accident with Chaos Control."

"Yeah we're not from Earth, we're from Mobius!" Sonic added with a grin. The word clicked with 10-961. 274 had mentioned that word in the testing room!

"OH! My brother asked me about that when we were testing my databank. I'm positive we're from there too!"

"Better be, or everything is just a bizarre coincidence." Tails chuckled. "But rings ARE made of chaos energy too, like the chaos emeralds that caused us to warp with chaos control. So we all got here basically the same way. However, rings aren't as powerful and usually they don't warp very far, usually just from one zone to the next – though more often than not they lead you to the special zone. How would the ring be able to warp you to Earth?"

"Maybe the timing had something to do with the extended range!" Chuck exclaimed, excitement in whatever vague idea his tired brain provided him. "10-961 and 274 landed on Angel Island just when Sonic used Chaos Control, right? I'm thinking, somehow, when they warped with the ring it must've gotten linked to Sonic's attempted chaos control!"

"That would explain that mystery, but the inconsistencies are still the-oOH!" Tails began, but realized something mid-thought. "What happens if when Sonic was trying to use Chaos Control he didn't just link to OUR Mobius, but to another one as well!"

"I'm lost.."Cream said as Cheese nodded in agreement.

"Yeah I'm lost, too. Wouldn't it make more sense that we warp onto Angel Island just before Sonic warped it here?" 10-961 asked. "What's with this other Mobius thing? Shouldn't there only be one?"

"Well.. you see, that does sort of make sense, but it still leaves the inconsistencies." Tails tried to explain. "So the only other logical answer is that you guys come from A Mobius, but not ours!"

"I'm still not following…"

"He means is that you come from another universe." Sonic simplified as he absentmindedly scratched his ear with a grin. Tails really ought to know that 10-961 still didn't know much about anything.

"… what." 10-961 said. "I… I know what 'universe' is. But how can there be 'another' one?" He felt a little stupid after seeing everyone else's faces brighten up in understanding and excitement at solving the riddle like in was an easy thing to understand.

"Well, for starters, there are multi-universe theories in which different, but similar universes run parallel to each other." Chuck said. "Each one is thought to have the same people, same planets, same everything; but the choices made in one universe are different from the next."

"Like if I had never went out on that walk in the woods- I would never have met Sonic." Tails added as an example.

"And in this universe, I must've never met Porker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot." Sonic continued with another.

"Hey wait! Johnny Lightfoot?" Amy asked surprised.

"Hold up. You recognize that name?" Sonic questioned.

"Yeah, He was my neighbor! We used to play fight with sticks and stuff before having tea." Amy recounted happily before drooping. "But he moved away when I was nine out of the blue and I never found out where to."

"Huh, so at least we know he exists in our universe too." Cream said with a finger to her cheek. "I hope you run into him again one day Amy!"

"Okay so that means.. we're from a different universe where things played out differently? Like Johnny not moving away, right?" 10-961 guessed. It sounded about right from the examples the group was giving.

"Right!" Chuck practically cheered with a raised fist. "That's exactly it, and it would explain all the little things not adding up because things are different in your universe!"

"I wonder what everyone is like in your universe?" Chris pondered aloud.

"Only my brother would know." 10-961 muttered while looking at 274 still in Sonic's arms. "I don't he's gonna wake up anytime soon to tell us…"

Everyone quieted for the moment as they remember about the other bot in the room. The one that was a lot more violent.

"Is it even possible for us to get back to our universe?" 10-961 asked. "If we can't… what are we suppose to do?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Chuck replied as he got up and sat down next to the metallix. "For now let's think of the present. You and your brother still need repairs and we also need to figure out what kind of fuel you run on."

"Alright." 10-961 said. Frankly he was a little surprised that the group would even still want to repair his brother after what happened today. But it all sounded like a good place to start.

At least until enough repairs were made that 274 could better explain his side of things.

A/N: I'm finally done rewriting the old chapters! Let the new ones commence! \(*O*)/