Chapter 3
What had started out as a day of fun and relaxation with friends had suddenly become a chaotic battle of epic proportions.
Dozens of Eggman robots were assaulting the park in droves. Waspbots flew in tight formations, bombarding their targets with energy blasts. Motobugs zoomed about in random patterns, trying to squish anyone who got in their way. Eggrobo's attacked from the land and sky, shooting blasts from their hand canons and taking swings at anyone that came at them with their strong metal arms. Right in the center of the action however was Eggman's large Octopus-like mech. Dozens of metal tentacles flailed about left and right, trying to grab its enemies and crush them to jelly, or slam them into the ground and grind them to dust. At the controls sat the portly doctor himself, spinning about in quick succession trying to direct his troops.
His efforts however were being thwarted in rapid succession. Blue and green blurs raced around the park, trailing after images in their wake and smashing apart machines like they were tissue paper. However the robots were still in play, as for every badnik that was targeted, the two blurs continued to steer into each other, clashing heavily and knocking themselves about the field, only to soon enough zoom back for another attack.
Between the laser blasts and the speeding blurs, multiple tussles continued from the other combatants. Knuckles leapt forward smashing two motobugs together, only to be nailed in the back by a spiked hammer as Rosy gave a demented giggle. Her mirth came to an abrupt end however as Fiona used her head as a springboard, attacking several waspbots and evading the blasts of Shard as he did his best to navigate his damaged body through the battlefield.
The metal mobian fired a few more blasts from his canon at the agile fox, only for Amy to sledge him in the side with her mallet. The surprise attack was heavily damaging and the metallic hedgehog gave a cry of pain as warning systems flashed in his optics. Before Amy could press her attack though, several Eggrobo's began firing at her and she was forced to retreat, deflecting blasts from her hammer and using her speedy reflexes to evade their follow up strikes.
Tails spin dashed into a formation of waspbots, scattering the few he didn't manage to destroy, only for the green blur to leap at him. Scourge, laughing darkly, slammed his heel into the foxes head, smashing him into the ground harshly. Scourge's attack was avenged quickly however as Sonic used his own speed to slam into Scourge's back with a powerful punch. The green hedgehog pulled himself into a roll, landing on his feet in a skid, growling at Sonic's attack. Rocketing back off into high gear, the green blur slammed back against the blue blur and their racing battle continued, with several Eggrobo's being decimated in the process.
Fiona hauled herself atop a charging motobug, steering it into one of its brethren and causing them to both explode. Leaping clear just in time, the vixen gave a satisfied smirk. However her landing was halted as Cream, flapping her big ears to keep herself hovering in the sky, intercepted her in mid air, punching Fiona in the back. Small as the rabbit was, and having no leverage due to being air born, the punch was barely noticeable to Fiona, but it did throw her landing off course and cause her to land on her butt rather then her feet. The red fox gave a growl and jumped to her feet, intending to lunge back up and swat the little annoyance out of the sky, only for one of the tentacles from Eggman's mech to slam into her stomach and throw her across the field, knocking her breath away and leaving her winded.
Seeing the attack on his girlfriend from his peripheral vision, an enraged Scourge cut off his clash with Sonic and charged at Eggman's mech, curling into a ball and slicing through several of the tentacles like a buzz saw. Sonic in turn sought out a new target, hoping to give his friends some back up. Knuckles dodged Rosy's hammer strike, counter attacking with a powerful punch. The crazy pink hedgehog was a wily opponent however, and she managed to perform a back flip, evading his strike. The two were relatively evenly matched, with Knuckles having the clear strength advantage, but Rosy countering it with her speedy movement and strong hammer blows. However, Rosy had an advantage that Knuckles did not. As the echidna readied a punch, Rosy stepped back and wound up her hammer. The two attacked at the same time, but as Rosy's hammer was longer and had more reach, her attack struck first and slammed into Knuckles ribs.
Before he had a chance to pull himself back up, Rosy kicked him in the head laughing as she rose up her hammer for a killing blow. However two others had seen her strike and moved in to stop it. Sonic using a homing dash, rocketed into the hedgehog girl and send her trailing into the ground, cutting a deep groove through the dirt. His moment of victory was cut short as Shard, who had been attempting to strike Rosy with an energy blast, instead hit the blue hedgehog. As Sonic went flying, Knuckles gave an angry growl and leapt to his feet, fists swinging wildly.
"... well crap."
Shard gave a groan seconds before Knuckle's gauntlet smashed into his chassis and sent critical warning messages through his subroutines. His leg could barely support him and his chassis was almost completely open, his inner works exposed and showing clear signs of damage. The metal hedgehog desperately tried to reroute whatever power he could to keep his power core active and operational, lest he go offline and leave Nicole at risk.
As Knuckles wound up for a another hammer blow that likely would have knocked Shard's head clean off, several Eggrobos swarmed the echidna and forced him back. As he raced back further into the action, Amy somersaulted over him, smashing several of the Eggrobos with her hammer and and splitting there focus between the echidna and the hedgehog.
Tails groaned as he rose back up, rubbing his head from Scourge's strike, only to yelp and dodge as a missile from Eggman's mech shot passed him. Glaring at the Doctor, the young fox spun his tails and ascended into the air, flying straight for Eggman's cockpit. He was forced to change his direction however as several tentacles suddenly shot towards him at the rotund scientist's smirking command. As Tails weaved through the tentacle attacks, he felt someone grab his foot and drag him down. He shot his gaze at his feet to see Fiona had recovered and was using his legs like a swing. She flung herself in a twirl, landing upon one striking tentacle and using her impressive acrobatic abilities to flip and whirl from one to the other, weaving her way through the string of attacks and making her way towards Eggman.
Seeing this, the doctor panicked and disengaged the next tentacle the fox was due to leap to. The heavy metal appendage dropped to the ground with a mighty thud, leaving Fiona to roll passed and land in a series of hand stand flips, carrying her momentum forwards to crash a motobug as she did so. Flicking some broken gears off herself, the fox simply turned to Eggman and gave him a cheeky smirk.
Confused by this, the mustached villain turned back where the vixen had been leaping, only to see a green spiked ball heading straight for him. Unable to react in time, the Doctor could do nothing as Scourge slammed hard against the cockpit's fiber glass covering, managing to crack it, though not completely break through it. The force of the hit did knock the mech back though, forcing the now very annoyed Eggman to counter. Rapidly focusing on his controls he corrected the mech's balance by using several of the Octopus tentacles to brace the machine upright, having the unfortunate consequence of crushing several of his badniks in the process.
Angered at having destroyed his own machines, Eggman now squared his attention solely on Scourge who stood in front of the mech rudely taunting by flipping the bird and pulling his lower eye lid down while sticking his tongue out.
Fiona laughed, watching at a distance as the Doctor through a tantrum at Scourge's behavior before trying to crush her boyfriend with the mech's tentacle claws. The effort was in vain though as Scourge simply dodged and started racing through the badnik horde, shouting obscenities at Eggman as he did. The fox closed her eyes and shook her head, amused by the situation as Sonic raced into the middle of the fight (and rapidly regretted it as both combatants stopped their own fight to focus square on him). Suddenly though, a metal arm wrapped around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides and lifted her off her feet. Initially suspecting an Eggrobo, the vixen was surprised as she heard the Metal Sonic knock off start to speak.
"Alright Fiona, what the hell is going on here? Why are you and Scourge back here on Mobius?"
"Uh, don't know if you heard earlier, but this isn't Mobius numbnuts. This is a different Zone. As for how we got here, hows about you mind your own business and back off!"
Fiona swung her leg back, kicking against Shard and forcing herself free of his grasp. She swung herself around and held her fists up, prepared to fight back against this metal annoyance. However before either combatant could make a move, Nicole projected her avatar in between the two of them, her arms raised and her expression worried and confused.
"Wait Fiona! Please wait!"
Seeing the AI in a projected physical form, rather then simply hearing her voice from her pad or displayed on a viewing screen gave Fiona pause. She didn't release her combat stance, but she didn't lunge forward like intended. Shard likewise immediately lowered his canon, worried the blast might disrupt Nicole's image projectors if she got hit.
Seeing the temporary ceasefire, Nicole lowered her arms and gave a sigh of relief.
"Thank you. Now Fiona, you said this is a different Zone. How did you arrive at that conclusion? We arrived via chaos control and did not try to break through the dimensional barriers, simply transport ourselves from one location to another. If this is a different Zone, then I am unable to process how we arrived here."
Fiona's eyebrow raised at hearing the two had arrived via chaos control but otherwise listened intently. She had to admit, she was curious why Nicole was here. She didn't know who the robot with her was, but she was definitely familiar with the AI Lynx from her time with the Freedom Fighters. Seeing her here was extremely strange, as Fiona had only ever known her to be with Sally in the handheld or at Mobotropolis and Freedom HQ.
"Well, I figured out this was a different Zone because Sonic and his pals had some pretty large gaps in knowledge. They had no clue who Scourge and I were and when I asked them some questions, they told us they had no idea about Freedom HQ or that the planet was called Mobius. Only explanation I could think of was that Scourge and I had traveled to a different Zone rather then the Prime Zone like we intended."
Nicole seemed very troubled with this information, but seeing that Fiona was still cooperating, pressed on with her questions.
"I see. That is extremely odd. How did you arrive here in this Zone? Were you utilizing a warp ring or chaos control?"
Fiona shook her head, easing her stance a little, though she was still tensed and ready to move if need be. "No, neither of us have a warp ring anymore. We were on Moebius when some strange white energy hit the place and the rest of the Destructix, and basically everyone we could see, all disappeared into nothing. Predator had our warp ring on him when he went, so Scourge and I were forced to use the globe posts set up in Kintobor's tower before everything disappeared. We were knocked out by the transport though, which was pretty weird, and we woke up here in this forest instead of in the middle of Freedom HQ. We figured Kintobor had just reconfigured the posts for a different Zone or something."
"Wait did you say white energy?"
Fiona turned to see the Metal Sonic wanna be looked extremely concerned by this. She was about to comment when Nicole drew her attention back and an uneasiness grew in her at the horrified look on the Lynx's face.
"This white energy, did it move like a wave, seeming to erase everything it touched?"
Fiona did not like the feeling she was getting from Nicole and her metal friend, but she nodded. "Yeah, and it was massive. Stretched as far as the eye could see. We only just managed to get to the the posts before it engulfed everything."
Nicole started fiddling with her fingers, looking down and breaking eye contact with the fox. Shard stepped forward and wrapped his non canon arm around her in comfort, but Fiona could tell, he was certainly far from calm himself. Finally the Lynx spoke again, still not looking back at Fiona.
"You're... you're positive you used the same globe posts to transport here? They weren't some new creation?"
Fiona creased her brows but nodded again. "Definitely the same. With how quickly the building was disappearing, we didn't have time to search for something new or unfamiliar, we just went with what we knew."
Looking as though she had received news that was devastating but still expected none the less, Nicole bowed her head in thanks.
"I see... then it seems I know what has occurred. Why Shard and I are here, why you, Scourge and Rosy are here, and why no one knows who we are."
"Wait, what are you saying?"
Fiona's question went unanswered as Nicole closed her eyes and folded her hands to her front. Suddenly a loud high pitched whistle emanated from her pad, echoing over the park, even cutting through the sounds of laser fire and battle noise. The fox slammed her hands over her ears at the noise, gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes, trying to block out the horrible sound.
Around the battlefield, everyone froze. Knuckles and Tails had been back to back fighting off several badniks, when they collapsed holding their heads in pain from the noise. Amy and Rosy had been locked in a duel of hammers, with a scared Cream hovering nearby in an effort to do something to help, when the shrill screech forced them to abandon their weapons to protect their ears. Scourge, Sonic and Eggman had all been wrapped up in a scuffle, with the two hedgehogs bounding back and forth attacking each other, using the flailing metal tentacles like a jungle gym to reach one another. The sound pierced through their skulls and immediately all three combatants stopped all attacks, forced to try and shut out the sound.
Nicole kept it up for a few minutes before cutting the noise and letting everyone recover. Before they could question what had happened or resume fighting however, she added more power to her projection system and enlarged her avatar so it now stood three times as large. As everyone turned to stare at this new development, the AI spoke, projecting her voice out as though through a large speaker.
"Everyone, please cease your attacks. I have urgent news to tell you all. It is extremely important information you must all hear, even Doctor Eggman. Please, listen to what I have to say."
Hearing that this newcomer to the battle had news even the collective enemy of the group needed to hear was very alarming, but slowly, everyone straightened themselves out and approached the Lynx. Eggman remained in his mech, but he issued commands to his badniks to cease fire and piloted the Octopus closer to the group.
Seeing that everyone had agreed with this temporary ceasefire, Sonic turned to the Lynx (who had reduced her size once more to conserve her handheld's power reserves), eyebrow raised and with his arms crossed. "Ok, so you got everyone to stop fighting, which is great and all, but I gotta ask. Who are you, and whose the Metal guy with you, because he sure isn't acting like a normal Eggman robot?"
"That's because he's not an Eggman robot rodent. I don't know who built this machine, but it certainly wasn't me." Eggman harrumphed, annoyed and confused at seeing Shard for the first time.
This gave Sonic pause, but before he could ask further, the machine in question spoke up. "My name is Shard ok. Look its a bit of a long story, but to cut it short, I'm not an Eggman robot, at least not anymore, and I'm on your side I swear."
Knuckles didn't seemed convinced of this, but before he could throw in his own two cents, Nicole drew everyone's attention back to her.
"We can discuss this later. Please, you all have to hear what I have discovered. It is very alarming and concerns us all."
Scourge, getting annoyed he couldn't keep up his fight against Sonic and Eggman, stepped forward next to his girlfriend, but kept his glare squarely focused on the AI. "Well get on with it then!"
Shard didn't take the green hedgehogs tone well, especially aimed at his friend as it was, but Nicole sensed this and placed a soothing hand on the Robian's shoulder. They shared a look for a moment before the metal hedgehog calmed down and the Lynx turned to face the group.
"My name is Nicole and I have discussed with Fiona the events of how she, Scourge and likely Rosy arrived here on this world, and combined with knowledge of a white energy, which Shard and I also experienced whilst on Mobius, I have come to understand a very alarming piece of information. What I am about to say may take a moment, so please have patience."
Scourge didn't look happy about this, but Fiona slinking herself around him kept him from speaking up. Her presence always seemed to calm him these days.
Seeing she had everyone's undivided attention (even if Rosy seemed like she couldn't understand what was happening and would much rather be getting back to her smashies) the Lynx took a deep breath, collecting her thoughts, before beginning to speak.
"Shard and I come from a different world to this one, as does Fiona. That world is called Mobius, or Mobius Prime. Mobius Prime is the center of the multiverse. Every dimension that has formed, including Scourge and Rosy's world, Moebius, is all connected with Mobius Prime. Should it ever be completely destroyed or so fundamentally broken that it cannot function anymore, it will cause a ripple affect that will spread throughout the multiverse."
Eggman seemed to be following all this the easiest, but Tails seemed to grasp it all as well, even if he could tell Sonic was struggling a bit.
"On my world, our Eggman had devised a plan so horrendous that Sonic had been forced to confront him with everything he could. The Doctor had created a machine so powerful, it could alter reality itself. Sonic was sent to destroy this machine. However, while he was away, the city of Mobotropolis where Shard and I were residing, was hit with a powerful white energy which seemed to erase everything in its path. In a desperate move to escape, Shard managed to use chaos control to teleport the two of us away. Simultaneously, Fiona explained that on Moebius, she and Scourge were forced to escape from this same type of energy, and only managed to evade it by using a pair of specially designed globe posts which had a link with Mobius Prime. Rosy, I suspect, used a similar method to escape."
"Uh huh. I saw my Scourgey Wourgey jump through the posts, so I followed behind. He won't be running away from me this time." her dark smile at the hedgehog caused him to back up a little, and Fiona to shield him from Rosy's view.
Nodding her head in confirmation at this, Nicole continued on, finding it harder and harder to keep talking as she was about to reveal the horrible truth she had discovered.
"While Fiona believed the posts must have been reprogrammed to allow her and Scourge to arrive here, I'm afraid that isn't possible. Having thoroughly analysed the posts during Scourge's assault on Mobius Prime," Sonic glared at the jacket clad hedgehog as he smiled at hearing this, "I know that they were specifically designed to only create a link between Moebius and Mobius. They couldn't form any sort of connection to another world. Plus, while chaos control is capable of transporting individuals across different multiversal Zones, it requires a great deal of power and experience to do so. Shard's use of chaos control to save us at Mobotropolis was his first time ever using the ability. He couldn't have transported us to another Zone, simply teleported us to another location on Mobius Prime. However it is very clear that despite this, we are not on Mobius Prime. While there is a Sonic the hedgehog, and a Doctor Eggman here, there are no Freedom Fighter's, and no Mobotropolis. This leads me to one very unsettling conclusion."
Taking a another deep breath, Nicole closed her eyes and let forth the horrible truth.
"Doctor Eggman succeeded in changing reality."
As everyone gasped at this (including the Doctor himself), Sonic stepped forward looking cross.
"Wait, what are you saying. That this is Mobius, despite us having absolutely no knowledge of it or something?"
"I'm afraid Sonic that that is exactly what I am saying. The lives you have lived, the world that you have always known, is different then it was. It has been rewritten, altering everything within it. This unfortunately had another side effect however. As I mentioned, the destruction of the Prime Zone affects all the Zones, and so, when Mobius was altered, so was every other Zone in existence. They are likely all completely different now, some possibly even ceasing to exist entirely, or being so rewritten that they are unidentifiable as the worlds they were. The only individuals who have any knowledge of the world as it was are myself, Shard, Rosy, Scourge and Fiona. By using methods that transported us off the physical plain of existence at precisely the right moment, we unintentionally escaped the rewriting of reality. That is why when Shard used chaos control we did in fact arrive in a new location on Mobius Prime, or at least what was Mobius Prime, and why the Moebian's were able to use the globe posts to do the same."
Scourge, for once looking far more concerned then angry or smug, stepped forward hands hung loose beside him. "So what you're sayin' is, my world is either completely gone or completely different, and with the globe posts not existin' here, I have no way to get back to check either way."
Nicole gave a solemn nod. "I'm afraid so Scourge. Until I can analyse further, we have to assume that is the case."
Scourge was silent for a moment before letting out an angry yell. However, while Shard and Sonic tensed, ready to pounce, the green hedgehog did not attack. Instead he turned and marched away from the group, raving and ranting as he did so."
"That's just freakin' perfect! So the Sonic whose ass I wanna kick doesn't exist anymore, I have no capacity to pillage and burn Moebius down to the ground and now I'm stuck here on this stupid planet that can't even use the right freakin' name! Graaaah!"
As the group watched this, all contemplating Nicole's words and processing the knowledge that their entire life had been altered, Eggman had different thoughts.
This Nicole individual had said that their was an Eggman on her world, so smart as to have created a machine that could alter reality. If that Eggman could do that, what would he be able to do if he could get more knowledge of this previous reality?
A devious idea formed in his mind.
Before anyone could say anything else, Eggman slammed down several buttons on his control panel. At once, all the badniks, which had been lying around unresponsive, immediately reactivated, weapons systems re engaged. The tentacles on his Octopus mech shot forward grabbing at specific targets. A startled Fiona, Cream and Rosy were immediately grabbed, while a fourth tentacle shot at Shard.
Seeing this, a split second before the claw could grasp him, the metal mobian hurled Nicole's pad at a startled Tails the fox, who caught it on reflex.
"Protect her! Protect her with your life!"
Nicole shouted to Shard, but he had no response as Eggman's mech squeezed his already damaged body hard. It was the straw that broke the camel's back, as the warning messages that had been flashing in Shard's vision reached a critical mass. His power core sparked and then fell dark, along with the rest of his systems. The robot had only a split second to give his AI companion a mournful look before his eyes faded from his cracked visor and his limbs fell limp, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
While Cream and Rosy struggled in their grip, Fiona, who had already suffered years of imprisonment at the Prime Mobius' Doctor's hands, began to thrash wildly, her eyes panicked and scared.
"Scourge help me!"
The hedgehog in question, who after having distanced himself from the group had been cordoned off by Eggman's badniks, heard her cry. Looking up in alarm, Scourge zoomed forward, smashing through the Eggrobo's and motobugs, heading straight for his girlfriend.
However he was not fast enough. Several engines morphed out from beneath Eggman's mech, and the machine rocketed up into the air trailing jets of flame. As the tentacles all flung about wildly, Scourge leapt, hand outstretched to grasp Fiona's. They were millimeters apart, but it was still too far.
The Mech shot off into the air, Eggman's laughing echoing in his wake, while his screaming captives continued to call out for help. Scourge landed in a roll, his eyes wide and panicked as he watched the madmen make off with his girl.
"Fiona!" he screamed, turning to give chase by the ground, but the remaining badniks blocked his path. Without Eggman to coordinate them, the machines were nothing but a delay. But a critical one.
Sonic and the rest of his friends moved in beside him, destroying the last of the robots, but it was no good. By the time the last machine exploded, Eggman and his victims, were long gone.