The energy finally began to disperse, allowing Team Dark to uncover their faces and see they were in a desolated building. It appeared to be cracked and decrepit, as if there hadn't been any upkeep on it in decades.
"Where are we?" Rouge asked.
"I'm not sure," Shadow admitted. "That 'Mephiles' character seems to have teleported us to another location."
"Uh… guys," Chessie called out, looking out a window.
The others came over and saw an entire city of ruined buildings and torn up streets off set by a red sky.
"I've never seen anything like this…" Topaz let out. "Are we on Mobius?"
"No," Rouge shot down. "Nowhere on Mobius. I don't think I've ever seen a Zone like this. Not even the Scrap Brain Zone is this bad…"
'Let's look around," Chessie suggested. "Maybe we can find some answers."
"Let's hope so," Shadow let out. "After all, Mephiles sent us here for a reason, and given this is supposed to be 'a one way ticket to oblivion', I'm not liking our odds."
"Agreed. Come on."
The group made their way further inside the building, Shadow mulling over who or what Mephiles could really be.
…
Back in Soleanna, Amy had gone with Silver and Blaze to inform the advisors on the situation regarding Elise.
"And Sonic and the others are on their way there right now to save her," she concluded.
"This is distressing news," one of the advisors commented. "Still, at least we know she lives."
"Exactly," Blaze agreed. "And I have faith that Sonic will pull through and save the Queen."
Silver just rolled his eyes.
"Uh, ignore him," Amy insisted. "Anyway, we just have to be patient until Sonic comes back with the Queen."
"Alright, but the people are growing quite distressed," another advisor commented.
"Just do your best to keep them at ease until they return," Blaze instructed. "There is nothing anyone can do for the moment but be patient and have faith."
"Very well. Thank you again for your aid in this crisis."
"It's our pleasure," Amy reassured as the three began to head off. "Now all we can do is wait."
"I still can't believe he left us here," Silver commented.
"Well I can't say I blame him with how you've been acting," Blaze replied. "You promised to give him a chance, and then you go right behind his back."
"I was just going to hold onto that Emerald just in case."
"Silver, please," Amy insisted, stopping right in front of him. "I know you want to save your world, but have you even stopped to consider that Sonic might be part of the solution and not the problem? I mean, what reason has he given for you to mistrust him, honestly?"
"I… he… " Silver stammered, unsure of how to answer.
"You can't even answer that. Don't you see? Saving the world doesn't mean being against Sonic."
Silver closed his eyes before turning away. "And if you have to choose between the world and Sonic? What then?"
This time, it was Amy's turn to pause, grabbing her arm before speaking. "I'd have enough faith to know I wouldn't need to make that choice…"
As the two continued to argue, Blaze looked around and noticed something, or someone, missing.
"Say, where's your little rabbit friend?" she asked.
"Cream? She's right-" Amy cut off, looking around. "Cream?"
"Where could she have gone?" Silver asked.
"Maybe she went back to the hotel room," Amy suggested, pressing a button on her watch. "Hey, Helen, is Cream there with you?"
"No," Helen reported. "I thought she was with you."
"Oh man. Where could she be?"
"She seemed pretty uneasy about Sonic leaving for Dr. Eggman's base," Blaze pondered. "You don't suppose…"
"That she'd go after him?" Amy grimaced. "That's probably exactly what she did…"
"Then we need to go after her before she gets in over her head," Silver declared. "Maybe we can find some clues as to this Eggman's plans along the way."
"Maybe… but let's save Cream first. Come on, let's go!"
…
At White Acropolis, Sonic walked through the snowy peaks, coming face to face with the metal gate of the base itself.
"Eggman!" he called out. "I'm here! And I have the Emerald!"
Upon hearing that, the gates opened up, allowing several Swatbots to swarm out and surround Sonic. Joining them was Robotnik, who was walking out with a malicious grin upon his face.
"So, you decided to see reason?" Robotnik noted. "You might have more common sense than I thought."
"Where are Elise and Agatha?"
"Safe. For now. Give me the Emerald, and I'll set them free. You have my word."
Sonic narrowed his eyes at that. "We both know how much your word is worth. I want to see them."
"I have a better idea," Robotnik replied, snapping his fingers.
Just then, all the Swatbots raised their weapons, aiming them right at Sonic. Sonic just stood there, unphased by the amount of weapons trained on him.
"... fire!" Robotnik ordered.
The robots then unloaded their weapons on Sonic, much to Robotnik's delight. When they stopped however, the mad doctor was surprised to see Sonic still standing there, untouched.
"What?!"
"Surprised?" Sonic remarked.
Robotnik walked over to him, looking him over to see any sign of injury.
"How on-" he let out, moving a hand onto him.
His words died in his mouth when his hand phased right through Sonic. He repeated the action several times, finally seeing that this Sonic was a hologram.
"Catch you on the flip side," the holographic Sonic remarked before vanishing, much to Robotnik's irritation.
"SONIC!"
…
Meanwhile, on the other side of the complex, the three Mobians were snowboarding down the side of the mountain towards the base with their respective human companions riding with them. Tails had just disconnected his hologram program as they began to approach.
"Ya think he's gonna be upset?" Sonic remarked.
"Oh totally," Tails confirmed. "But it diverted enough forces for us to get inside."
"You know, we could have just flown in with the X-Tornado," Keith suggested, holding onto Sonic for balance.
"Nah, too boring," Sonic replied.
Just then, a loud humming sound rang out, causing the group to look back and see several drones and buzz bombers coming from behind.
"He sure didn't waste much time," Knuckles remarked.
"You guys go on ahead," Sonic insisted. "I'll take these guys."
"Just be careful," Hope insisted.
"No worries," Sonic replied, looking up at Keith. "You want the board or should I?"
"You take it," Keith insisted. "Besides, I've been dying to try out my new skates."
Sonic nodded as Keith clicked his heels together before leaping off. His skates worked, allowing him to ride off as Sonic steered the snowboard away from the group, causing the robots to follow.
"Still priority one, huh?" Sonic noted. "Nice to feel wanted."
As Sonic shredded away, Keith made his way up to the group, trying to keep a good pace.
"Alright Orbot," he let out. "Tell me where we're heading."
Orbot, who was clinging to Keith's back, peaked his head out and scanned the surrounding area.
"There appears to be a blank spot in the security system on the far side of the east wall."
"Roger that. Knuckles?"
"I'm on it," Knuckles replied, pounding his fists together.
…
Meanwhile, Sonic continued riding down the snowy slopes, dodging and weaving between their laser blasts.
"Still wanna play, huh?" Sonic remarked, quickly scooping up some snow. "Then how about a little snowball fight!"
Sonic then made numerous snowballs and chucked them at the oncoming robots. The collision disoriented their flying and caused them to crash into each other. Sonic held onto one snowball, scoping one buzz bomber in paticular as it prepared to fire. He finally chucked the snowball, nailing it in the head and causing it to spin out of control as it fired, nailing two other drones before crashing to the ground.
"Sometimes, it's just too easy," Sonic remarked, turning around as he leapt off a ledge and right towards a massive collective of waiting badniks. Sonic went wide eyed as they all opened fire, but he was quick to react. He leapt off the board and weaved between some lasers before homing attacking a drone and leaping towards another one. He kicked it in the center, causing it to spin out of control. He then landed on a third drone before leaping off and sailing through the air, narrowly avoiding oncoming laser fire as he grabbed a hold of a buzz bomber by the tail and spun around on it, using its laser to take out several more badniks. He then used his momentum to launch himself upwards before using his homing attack to take out the remaining robots and land safely on his board.
"I make this look good," he remarked before moving to catch up with the others.
…
As the others quickly approached the base, Knuckles moved past the group, Kat clinging to his back as they rapidly moved towards the wall. Knuckles leapt forward, slamming his fist hard into the wall and breaking a huge hole in it before flipping through the air to land on the other side.
"There's our opening!" Tails let out.
"Alright! Sonic let out as he caught up with everyone, even rushing past them. "Let's do this!"
The group continued forward, ready to make their way into the base.
…
Inside her cell, Elise sat in contemplation, working to keep herself together as she recalled the worlds of her father.
"You're a good girl, Elise. Be brave. Don't cry, no matter what happens…"
"I'm trying father…" she whispered.
Just then, the cell door was knocked clean off its hinges, causing it to crash to the ground. Elise looked up and saw Sonic and the others standing in the doorway.
"Sorry I'm late," he quipped. "You would not believe the traffic out there."
"You came…" she let out, standing up.
"Of course. I never abandon people who need me. Speaking of which, there's someone else here we need to save."
"A girl about twelve, brown hair, and glasses," Hope described. "Have you seen her?"
"I believe so," Elise replied. "Some robots were taking her down that hallway," she gestured to the left of the cell.
"Then that's where we go," Sonic declared. "We get Agatha and get out of here."
"Then let's move," Keith gestured as they all took off.
…
Outside the base, Cream flew down to where Sonic and the others had busted their way in, cautiously looking inside.
"This looks like the place, Cheese," she noted.
Cheese chirped nervously as they approached.
"I know it's dangerous… but I don't want to lose any more friends. Besides, Sonic's done so much for us. We should do something for him."
Looking inside Cheese steeled himself, him and Cream heading inside to find Sonic.
…
Meanwhile, Sonic and the others kept moving through the base, hoping to find Agatha without too much difficulty.
"Man, this place is massive," Keith commented. "How did Eggman build this in such a short amount of time?"
"He always was an industrious one," Sonic commented. "Orbot, you got anything that can help us?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't have much."
"Then we're just going to have to keep searching," Knuckles lamented.
"Hey, don't be like that," Kat remarked. "It's not Orbot's fault."
"Yeah," Cubot added. "He's just not successful at saving the life of-"
"Yes, we get it," Orbot cut off.
"Help!" a voice called out. "Somebody! Anybody!"
The others perked up, hearing the voice coming from down the hall.
"That way!" Tails called out.
The group quickly made their way down the hall, Sonic rushing forward and using a spin dash to bust down the doors. There they saw Agatha strapped to a metal chair with Robotnik standing next to her, with two drones trained on her.
"You think you're pretty clever, don't you?" Robotnik remarked.
"Aggie!" Hope let out.
"Let her go, Eggman!" Sonic demanded.
"I believe we had a bargain for such a trade," Robotnik recalled. "The Chaos Emerald, please."
Sonic looked back at the others, then back towards Agatha, forced to relent and pull out the Emerald. Robotnik pulled out a remote and pressed a button, causing a pillar to rise out from the ground.
"Place it there," Robotnik instructed. "And no fake Emerald tricks."
"Like I could just pull a fake emerald out of my butt…"
Sonic put the Emerald on the pillar, causing it to lower to the ground.
"Alright. Now let Agatha go and we're out of here."
"Oh, about that…" Robotnik replied, pressing another button.
Suddenly, a glass capsule shot out of the ground, encasing Elise inside.
"What?!" she let out.
"Elise!" Sonic let out.
He was about to rush over when Robotnik pressed another button, causing an energy field to shoot down, encasing Sonic and his team and trapping Elise, Orbot, and Cubot on the outside. Knuckles tried to punch the field, but it just shocked him back.
"Nice try, Knucklehead," Robotnik remarked. "But this force field is impenetrable to your brutish attacks."
"Man, he is as dumb as you said," Agatha commented, her fearful demeanor completely gone.
This surprised everyone as Hope moved forward, seeing Robotnik release her from her restraints.
"Aggie…?" she let out.
"Oh I'm sorry, did I forget to tell you?" Robotnik spoke up. "Young miss Agatha here… is my new protege."
"What?!" Everyone let out.
"Aggie, what the hell?!" Hope exclaimed. "You- You sided with him?!"
"Uh… Duh!" Aggie declared, crossing her arms and smiling proudly. "I mean, who wouldn't? It's an inventor's paradise here! Cool robots, unlimited resources, able to cause general mayhem! And the best part, no more nagging and lectures and punishments from Dad!"
"But he's evil! He's a monster!"
"So?"
"So?!" Sonic let out. "Do you have any idea what he's done?! The devastation he's caused?! The lives he's ruined?!"
"I mean, I know about the Solaris Incident, as well as the stuff from the news. And he's been telling me about Mobius. It's gonna be so cool to have access to all that Mobian tech! Especially that one device. The… robo…whatzit?"
"I believe you mean the Roboticizer, my dear Agatha," Robotnik corrected. "It was a gift from an old colleague of mine," he turned to Sonic, smirking. "Sir Charles Hedgehog."
Sonic gritted his teeth and clenched his fist, unaware of the electricity surging in it.
"Oh yeah," Agatha recalled. "The one that turns people into robots. That's gonna be so much fun to play with!"
"You traitor!" Hope shouted. "You conniving-! You-! You rotten egg!"
"Guess dishonor is a genetic trait," Knuckles snarled.
"Haven't you learned, Knuckles?" Robotnik retorted. "Dis is how we roll."
"Well then," Sonic muttered, his voice low and shaky, "we know where 'Eggatha's' loyalties now lie. I'm sorry, Hope."
"Eggatha…" Aggie rolled the name on her tongue. "Eh, I've heard worse. Honestly, I kinda like it."
"Better than Eggman, I'll concede," Robotnik noted. "As for the rest of you, you get the grand honor of being guinea pigs for my little experiment."
Robotnik hit a button, causing a massive device to rise up from the ground in front of them, one Sonic knew all too well.
"That's the machine…" he let out. "The machine that caused Chaos Control. That's what brought us all here in the first place."
"Oh it's much more than that, Sonic. This is my variation on the Solaris Prototype Engine."
Elise was shocked by the revelation, trying in vain to free herself. Robotnik then pressed a button, causing panels inside her capsule to light up as some kind of energy was siphoned out of her, causing her to keel over in pain.
"Your Hhighness!" Knuckles shouted, punching at the field.
Tails drew his laser pistol and tried blasting at the field, but it seemed to have no effect. Sonic ran up to the field and tried punching, the electricity in his hand causing it to fluctuate. It wasn't enough however as Robotnik pressed another button, causing the Chaos Emerald to glow and the machine to power up.
"With this machine, not only will I harness the full power of Chaos Control," he boasted. "But I will have mastery over the flow of time itself!"
The energy from the machine became more and more intense, actually pulling the six heroes into the air. They all let out panicked screams as they began circling a vortex of energy, before finally causing them to vanish in a flash of light. Finally free of the pain, Elise collapsed, trying to contain the amount of emotion she was feeling.
"What… did you do…?" she let out.
"Oh rest assured, they're not dead… yet," Robotnik told her, approaching her capsule. "They've just been transported to another point in time."
"Whoa…" Eggatha let out. "Where'd you send them?"
"To be honest, I'm not sure. It could be the distant past, or far future. My machine still requires some fine tuning. For that, I'll still require the Scepter and the remaining Chaos Emeralds. Once I have those, I'll be able to manipulate Chaos Control, merging the two worlds as I see fit, and allowing me to rule over the newly forged planet."
"You're insane…" Elise accused.
"True evil geniuses are unappreciated in their time. Take her back to her cell."
The capsule retreated, as two Swatbots took Elise by the arms and carted her off. Robotnik then turned to Orbot and Cubot.
"As for you two…"
"You'll never take us alive!" Cubot declared.
He tried to hover away, but just crashed into a wall.
"Ow," he let out.
"We may have been your servo matts before, but not anymore," Orbot declared. "We would sooner go offline then-"
"Yeah, yeah, hold that thought," Robotnik cut off, reaching behind their heads and pressing a button.
This caused the two to shut down, hanging limp in the air.
"What'd you do?" Eggatha asked.
"Just erased their memory banks for the past few weeks. When they come back online, they will have no recollection of ever siding with Sonic and his friends."
"Ooh. Whatcha gonna do with 'em?"
"You can hang onto them for now. Consider them yours to play with."
"Sweet!"
Back out in the hall, as the robots took Elise away, they were unaware of Cream hiding behind a nearby corner, seeing them take Elise away.
"Looks like it's up to us to save them, Cheese," Cream declared.
…
The energy field finally let out, dropping the six heroes towards the ground, the humans screaming as they fell.
"Tails!" Sonic called out, getting the fox's attention.
Tails quickly began spinning his tails as he grabbed Sonic, slowing his fall before throwing him towards the wall. Sonic quickly bounced off it before grabbing Keith and landing on the ground. Tails then darted down towards Hope, grabbing her by the hand and working to fly upwards, slowing their descent towards the ground. Knuckles just began gliding down towards Kat, grabbing her and clinging to the side of the wall, sliding down it until they made it to the ground.
"Everyone ok?" Knuckles asked as he and Kat leapt down.
"Fine," Tails confirmed, finally getting a chance to look around. "Where are we?"
"Wherever it is…" Kat looked around, "it's far from friendly…"
The room they were in looked similar to Eggman's lab, but with cracked walls, broken windows, and a fair amount of decay everywhere.
"It… kinda looks like the room we were just in…" Keith deduced, running his finger on a wall and blowing off the dust. "Except in major disrepair."
"Hold up," Knuckles interjected. "When Eggman was going on his tangent, he mentioned that the machine would give him 'Mastery over time'. What if it's not where we are…. But when."
"You think we went through time?" Sonic proposed.
"If I had to guess," Tails spoke up, looking the place over. "I'd say a few decades into the future. Maybe more."
"Silver…" Hope recalled. "Could… could we be in Silver's time?"
"Maybe…" Sonic considered. "We're going to have to look around to be sure."
"It's never a dull moment, with you, is it blue hedgehog?" a familiar voice retorted.
Everyone perked up, Sonic and Keith looking up to see Shadow standing in the observation booth over them, crossing his arms in a signature pose with Chessie, Rouge and Topaz coming up behind him.
"Shadow?" Keith let out in disbelief.
"Heh, talk about being stubborn and full of surprises," Sonic remarked.
Shadow just smirked as he leapt down towards them, slowly looking up and freezing at the sight of Hope. Suddenly, his mind was filled with flashes of another blonde girl in a blue dress.
"Who… who are you…?" Shadow asked.
"Uh… me?" Hope asked. "My name is Hope… Hope Robotnik."
Suddenly hearing the name caused Shadow's mind to be flooded with images of the other girl, some of them even showing her being in excruciating pain. The amount of memories caused Shadow to kneel over in pain. Sonic saw this and ran over to him, with Chessie leaping down as well.
"Hey, you ok pal?"
"Memories," Chessie supplied. "He's remembering."
"It's… too much…" he let out.
"Just take it easy, Shadow," Sonic insisted.
Shadow grunted in pain due to the influx of images coursing through his mind, desperately trying to sift through them all.
"Is… is he gonna be ok?" Hope asked as Rouge carried Topaz down.
"It'll pass," Chessie assured her. "Though I'll admit, he's never had one this strong before.
"Must be because you're a Robotnik," Rouge deduced. "He was pals with one once. Meeting another girl with that last name might've set something off."
After a minute, the pain began to subside, allowing Shadow to take a breath before standing up.
"I'm alright…" he reassured. "Sorry…"
"Nothing to be sorry about," Tails reassured. "Your memories will return in time."
"All these images… it's like I want to remember… but something keeps me from doing so… what did Eggman do to me…?"
"That seems to be the popular question of the day," Knuckles remarked. "He's the reason we're in this place."
"For us, it was a mouthless hedgehog that stole Shadow's shadow," Topaz declared.
"Whoa," Kat responded. "Freaky."
"We think this place might be the future," Keith informed. "About two hundred years to be exact."
"That would explain the poor upkeep," Rouge noted.
"But how could this be our future?" Topaz wondered.
"Got a few theories," Keith responded. "But we should look around to know for sure."
"If this is Eggman's base, there must be some kind of database we can look at," Chessie suggested. "Fortunately, I know where to look."
"Then lead the way," Sonic declared, gesturing to the exit.
The two groups started moving out, with Hope falling back to speak with Shadow.
"Uh… sorry about overwhelming you like that," she told him.
"It's not your fault," Shadow reassured. "You just… reminded me of someone I had forgotten about."
"Aunt Maria, right?"
That caused Shadow to perk up, turning towards her.
"My… my grandmother told me she died when she was really young, but we never knew why… until Grandpa Gerald's message appeared on TV."
"The ARK…" Shadow recalled. "I remember little… but I know the jist."
"Well… for some, it was just another black mark on the family name. It's the reason my uncle changed our name when we moved out of Soleanna…" her face dropped a little. "Didn't stop Aggie from bringing more trouble…"
"Aggie?"
"My cousin. I joined up with Sonic and the others because I thought she was in danger… but she sold us out to Uncle Ivo…"
That caught Shadow off guard. "I… I'm sorry."
Hope paused for a moment before shaking her head and moving forward. "It doesn't matter right now. Let's go."
She walked forward, Shadow sensing the frustration she was feeling, but decided to leave it be for now.
…
Back in the present at Robotnik's base, Elise was still being led down a hallway by two Swatbots. Just then, a small, blue, fast moving object spun right through one of the robots, destroying it. As the second robot turned around to find the source, Cream came flying in, kicking the robot to the ground before landing next to Elise.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I… yes. Who are you?"
"My name is Cream, and that's Cheese. We came to see if Sonic was ok when we saw you were in trouble."
"Oh… I'm sorry but… Sonic's not here."
"What?" Cream let out in surprise. "Where is he?"
Before Elise could answer, an alarm began sounding, and more Swatbots came pouring down the hall. Cheese flew close to Cream as she and Elise backed away from the approaching robots. Just as they raised their weapons however, they were suddenly all surrounded by a green aura. Cream and Elise were surprised by this, before Silver dropped down in front of them, thrusting his hand forward and causing the robots to collapse on top of each other. With the robots toppled, Silver turned towards Cream and Elise.
"Are you two alright?" He asked.
"Yes…" Cream responded.
"Wait…" Elise recognized. "You're that hedgehog that attacked Sonic before."
"Yes…" Silver confirmed. "But things have changed. We're here to get you two out of here."
"We?"
"Blaze and Amy are on their way, dealing with a few of Dr. Eggman's robots. Come on!"
He quickly took off, prompting Elise and Cream to follow close behind. They quickly approached a pair of massive doors, prompting Silver to stop in his tracks and use his powers to pry them open. Cream instantly took off flying and picked up Elise, carrying her through the hole as Silver created it. Once they were through, Silver followed suit, the three of them catching up to Amy and Blaze as they duked it out with the Swatbots.
"I found them!" he called out, flying over to them. "They're ok!"
"Great," Amy replied as she turned to Cream, who was setting Elise on the ground. "Cream, what were you thinking, coming here like that? You could've gotten hurt. I know you can handle yourself, but that doesn't mean you should go looking for trouble like that."
"I'm sorry…" Cream apologized. "I just wanted to make sure Sonic was okay."
"Speaking of," Blaze noted. "Where are Sonic and the others?"
"They're… they're gone…" Elise informed.
"What?!" the mobians let out.
"Gone?!" Amy repeated. "What do you mean gone?!"
"Robotnik used some machine to send them through time," Elise clarified. "And he used me to do it."
"Through time?" Blaze let out in disbelief. "Where? When?"
"I don't know. He said his machine was incomplete. That he needed the Scepter and the Chaos Emeralds to make it work."
"Scepter?" Silver wondered. "What Scepter?"
"Doesn't matter right now," Amy replied, smashing an oncoming robot. "We can figure that out when we get out of here."
"But what about Sonic?" Cream asked.
"Sonic's tougher than anyone I know, no matter what time period he's in. They'll be fine, I'm sure of it."
"More than I can say for you!" a new voice let out.
The others turned to see more Swatbots approaching from a gate. Behind them was a massive octopus shaped mech that had claws on each of the arms that allowed it to walk through the snow. Inside the cockpit was Agatha, now decked out in a red coat with dark tinted glasses and gloves similar to Robotnik's.
"If you wanna feel your legs in the morning, I suggest you back off and let me take the Queen back inside!" she demanded.
"Is that… a child?" Blaze questioned.
"It's Agatha," Elise informed. "The girl Sonic and the others tried to rescue. Except she's joined with Robotnik."
"She what?!" Amy exclaimed.
"It's true!" Agatha confirmed. "Being the bad guy is a ton of fun! Plus, I get to blow stuff up. Watch."
She pressed a button and fired some missiles at the group. Silver quickly grabbed Elise and flew her upwards as he and the others dove out of the way as the missiles hit.
"See?! Bet you guys don't have fun toys like this."
"But Dr. Eggman is a bad man, Agatha," Cream criticized. "He only wants to hurt people."
"Hate to break it to you kid, but so do I," Aggie replied, raising two tentacles to strike at her. "And by the way, the name is Eggatha."
…
Back in the future, the two groups made their way down the halls, Knuckles looking out to see the desolation that the world had fallen into.
"Nothing but ruins and fire for miles," Knuckles noted. "It's exactly like Silver described."
"No wonder he was so hellbent on fixing things," Sonic remarked.
"Hopefully, the database has some clues as to what really happened," Tails added.
"If not, then we might need to scour the ruins for any kind of clue," Chessie commented. "Who knows, maybe we'll find some sort of settlement or something."
"Silver did mention other survivors," Keith recalled. "Maybe they know something."
"So we're in this mess because something caused the two worlds to merge?" they heard Silver's voice ask.
"Hey… that's Silver," Sonic recognized.
"Down here," Topaz gestured, rushing down the hall.
The others quickly followed behind her, stopping at a door that was cracked open. Sonic and Keith carefully peaked in, seeing Silver and Blaze talking with a hooded stranger near a computer terminal.
"Not something…" the stranger replied, with Shadow perking up at the sound of his voice. "Someone. Someone who sought to tamper with the natural order of things, and chose to play god with powers beyond understanding. If you want to change the past, you must eliminate the being that would awaken Iblis… the Iblis Trigger."
"And just who is this Iblis Trigger?" Blaze questioned.
The stranger turned back to the computer, pulling up several files on Earth and Mobius.
"Here are all the remaining records on the Day of Disaster. The day that Iblis was freed, and his flames were unleashed upon the world."
The two looked at the images upon the screen, the stranger moving towards Silver and pulling out a purple Chaos Emerald.
"And you have this person to blame," the stranger continued, holding out the gem to Silver.
Silver took the gem and looked into it, seeing a blue figure streak through a window, flames pouring out behind it. The world seemed to be engulfed in flames as the figure landed on a ledge, looking out upon the devastation. This allowed Silver to get a good look to see the frame of Sonic the Hedgehog himself.
"I see it!" he let out. "So that blue hedgehog's the Iblis Trigger?"
"Indeed," the stranger replied, taking the gem back. "I warn you though. He is a powerful warrior. He will not go down easy."
"Nothing in life has been easy before. Why should this be any different?"
"I knew I came to the right person."
"Silver, are you sure about this?" Blaze asked. "For all we know, he could be wrong about this Iblis Trigger."
"Blaze, for the first time in centuries, there's hope for this world. I've got to try."
"... alright. Let's do it."
Silver nodded before turning towards the stranger. "We're ready."
"Then let us be off," the stranger replied, energy building up in his hands.
Eventually, the energy grew into a sphere that engulfed all three of them, causing them to disappear in a blinding light. Once they were gone, the others quickly went inside to look around.
"So that's how Silver learned about me," Sonic recognized.
"But who was that cloaked guy?" Tails wondered.
"His voice…" Shadow recalled. "He sounded just like Mephiles."
"Mephiles?" Kat questioned.
"Shadow's shadow," Rouge answered. "The one who sent us here."
"But why would he send Silver to kill Sonic?" Hope wondered.
"I'm not sure," Shadow admitted, crossing his arms. "When we first encountered him, he acted as though he knew me, even though I've never seen him before."
"If this guy can move through time, maybe you'll meet at a later point in time," Tails proposed.
"Perhaps…"
"In the meantime, let's see if this database can tell us anything," Chessie decided, walking over to the computer.
Tails and Keith quickly joined her as the others huddled up.
"While they're doing that, we need to figure out a plan to get back to our own time," Topaz suggested.
"I've actually been thinking about that," Shadow spoke up. "And I might have a solution."
"You do?" Rouge asked. "How?"
"Mephiles' power. It feels similar to my own Chaos Control."
Sonic perked up at that. "I get it. You think using our own Chaos Control could send us back to the present."
"Yes. But to do so would require a lot of energy. More than a single Chaos Emerald could provide."
"The Master Emerald," Knuckles offered. "It could give us the power we need."
"Assuming it still exists in this future," Kat dreaded.
"It exists… it has to…"
"No… no, no, no!" Keith let out, getting everyone's attention.
"Keith!" Kat let out, running over. "What is it?"
"According to this… Elise died when she was kidnapped by Eggman."
"What?!" Sonic let out, coming up. "Are you sure?!"
"It says so right here," Tails informed. "Eggman's battleship hit a mountain that appeared out of nowhere, causing it to crash. No one survived."
"When was the date of this incident?"
"Checking..." Chessie replied, typing away before something appeared on screen. "Two days after the Festival of the Sun."
"And we got here a day after. That doesn't leave us much time when we get back."
"Meaning we need to get to Angel Island, fast," Kat declared.
"But how?" Keith asked. "It's not like it's just down the street."
"Uh, about that…" Knuckles spoke up, looking out a window.
The others came over, shocked by what they saw.
"What the…" Keith let out.
"No way…" Sonic uttered in disbelief.
The others looked on in disbelief, seeing Angel island itself having fallen out of the sky and settled into the fiery seas before them.