16:00. Central Bell Tower, Trolberg, 21 days after the anomaly.
Dark clouds were gathering overhead as the bells tolled, as Gerda awaited Eggman's next move.
"Robots! Commence attacks on the general population!" Eggman ordered with a shrill voice. Gerda watched on in horror as the robots dispersed, battering against the doors of countless innocent people, and banging against their windows. She knew deep down, that this was a ploy to get her to surrender, but the act itself disgusted her so much that her fear quickly evaporated into a raging, hot anger which burned inside her. She charged at Eggman, socking him right in the face with a well thrown left hook.
The hit took Eggman by surprise, as he staggered backwards, clutching his cheek as he wiped blood from his mouth with his other hand, smearing his gloves in the process.
"I guess I should have expected that." Eggman huffed. "Never mind, you can't stop me. The city will be mine by sunset." He grinned, as the sound of glass smashing could be heard in the background.
"By sunset, huh? Bold, considering it took you 8 hours to get here." A familiar voice popped up from behind, standing with his arms crossed as his friends were engaged in combat with Eggman's army.
"Blasted hedgehog. Always showing up at the wrong moment." Eggman growled under his breath.
"If it isn't Sonic!" Eggman turned around to face his nemesis, who managed to get a good lock at his face.
"Wow, what happened to you? You look pretty beaten up." Sonic teased, glancing at Gerda, who was looking rather proud of herself. "Somebody bruise your ego?"
"Grrr. When I get my hands on you, I'll..." Eggman reached out at Sonic, who calmly dodged him without even blinking, making Eggman look feeble in front of him.
"Robots! Get rid of this blue menace!" He yelled, desperate for the ceaseless mockery to end.
"I was waiting for you to say that." Sonic smiled smugly, dashing away to join the fray, With Tails, Amy Shadow, Tangle and Whisper alongside him, Sonic and friends had a simple task, freely able to roll around and smash through badnik after badnik with aplomb.
"Wanna see how many I can take out at once?" Sonic boasted, as Tails nodded enthusiastically. Sonic charged up his spindash and rolled through 10 in one motion, whilst his friends were also taking out more and more robots by themselves, Sonic's words enough inspiration for what was by now, almost a routine exercise.
Eggman could only watch as his army was torn apart by his nemesis. He had counted on them not being ready, that his army would have cut through and taken hold in all three of the other worlds before Sonic could get to them, that they wouldn't notice his disappearance, and most of all, that they wouldn't have demolished his base, where all of his robots had been produced. There were supposed to be reinforcements, but Eggman could tell by now that they weren't coming. Gerda walked up to him as he stared forlornly at his failure.
"Now then, what do you have to say for yourself?" She muttered, whilst Sonic and friends continued to whittle down Eggman's forces to only a whimper.
"You got lucky this time. Next time I will have a better plan, more dastardly and more terrifying than you can imagine! You haven't even seen the likes of what I have unleashed against Sonic in my world!"
"And yet he still beats you. I've heard quite enough." Gerda sighed. "Sonic, do you have a spare minute?" Gerda called out, waving something shiny in her arms.
"Sure thing." Sonic looked over and saw the pair of handcuffs Gerda was dangling from her hand.
"Just hold still, Egghead." Sonic dashed about the place, snatching the handcuffs and placing them around Eggman's hands before he could even react.
"What?!" Eggman flailed around, fruitlessly trying to wriggle himself free. "You infernal rodent. How dare you put me in chains!" He growled, writhing in ignominy.
"He's all yours." Gerda smiled, as Sonic's friends dealt with the last of the robots.
"Nice one." Sonic quipped. "I didn't catch your name, what was it again?"
"Gerda Gustav. Tails knows who I am." She replied as Tails smiled back at them, before he began looking around, as if he'd lost something.
"What's wrong, Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Not that I'm worried or anything, but have you seen Hilda anywhere?" Tails asked. "Normally she'd be the first to arrive when something big goes down like this."
"If she's listened to us, she'll be safe at home, but then again... I'll check, hold on a moment." Gerda picked up her radio.
"Hello? Niamh, it's me. Not to interrupt you, but have you any idea where Hilda went?"
"If you're asking me that, then I assume you have everything sorted out down there, correct?"
"Correct." Gerda replied.
"Good. Johanna and I will be with you shortly." David's mum replied. "I don't really know where they are exactly, but I overheard them saying they might go into the Huldrawood. They think some robots might have gotten lost in there.
"Huh, really? Guess our work is not over just yet." Sonic replied.
"We'll take care of Eggman, you just make sure everyone's safe and that those robots are gone." Tails promised.
"Gotcha." Sonic replied, as he dashed off through town directly towards the Huldrawood.
Hilda and co were still safely nestled in the trees, waiting for more robots to drop down on. she and her friends had dealt with nearly all of them by now, as Sonic noticed when he sped past multiple robot carcasses on his journey. Hilda was the first to see the blue streak zoom past. Jumping down from the tree, she called out to him with a loud "Hey!"
Sonic pricked his ears up, as he barely caught the sound at the speed he was travelling. He zipped back, and was pretty happy to see Hilda looking none the worse for wear, though she did look quite tired after all that fighting.
"I thought that was you, Hilda!" Sonic sounded jovial. "Long time no see!"
"Same to you." Hilda replied. "Is everyone okay? Eggman hasn't taken over has he?"
"Nah. Tails and I brought some friends. Turns out he was trying to take over three worlds at once, and he couldn't keep up. We were too fast for him."
"Nice." Hilda replied.
"All three? Oh my, is Linus okay?" Frida asked.
"Yeah, he's fine. Well, physically anyway." Sonic replied. "Eggman isn't going to be bothering him anytime soon."
"So we can put this mess behind us now?" David asked hopefully.
"Yep. Just the handful of robots out here to deal with, and that's it, though it looks like you already got most of them." Sonic smirked.
"We did our best." Hilda replied proudly.
"Okay. You guys make your way back, I'll sort out these last few bots, and we can catch up later." Sonic decided.
"I imagine there'll be lots to talk about." Frida replied.
"See you then!" Hilda waved, as the trio headed back to town, leaving Sonic to deal with the 10 or so bots still wandering the wood. By the time they got back to the Central Bell Tower, Sonic was already done, and Gerda had been joined by David's mum and Johanna, who were patiently waiting for their children to return.
"Hilda!" Johanna shouted, holding her arms out wide. Hilda ran into her mother's arms, and was embraced in a tight, long and loving hug. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? I've been worrying about you all day." Johanna looked her daughter in the eyes, and Hilda could tell that her mother still felt anxious.
"I'm fine, mum." Hilda chuckled softly. "Exhausted somewhat, but I'm not hurt anywhere." She assured.
"I know, but please don't go throwing yourself into danger like that again." Johanna urged. I can't... I can't lose you." she hesitated, struggling to hold herself together.
"You were throwing yourself into danger about six hours ago." David's mum commented.
"Really?" Hilda looked up.
"Yeah, she rappelled down the wall onto Gerda's patrol car and shot a bunch of robots in the face!" David's mum regaled.
"Wow, mum!" Hilda looked impressed.
"Well, I had to." Johanna protested unconvincingly.
"I could say the same thing." Hilda replied.
"Well, you are my daughter." Johanna laughed. "Why don't we have a game of dragon panic when we get back?"
"And some hot chocolate." Hilda added. "Of course." Johanna replied.
"That sounds good. I'll make some for the rest of us back at HQ." Gerda suggested.
"Oh, I think you've done enough." Johanna replied. "You can join us, if you'd like."
"Thanks." Gerda replied. "I'll have to do a debrief first, but I'll join you when I can. It's going to be a big job to fix all the things Eggman broke."
"I'm sure in a week or two, things will be back to normal." Johanna replied. "Barring any more sudden interruptions."
"Nah, I think this'll be it. Once Eggman's in proper custody we'll shut our portal down. They've already caused enough chaos." Tails replied.
"Agreed." Frida sighed exhaustedly.
"I guess this is goodbye, then." Hilda looked downcast.
"Yeah. It was fun though, wasn't it?" Sonic replied.
"Well, I might not call staving off a robot invasion 'fun', but I know what you mean." Hilda answered. Sonic smiled at this, before turning away.
"Maybe one day, when the villains of our worlds stop trying to fight us, I can invite you to visit." Sonic suggested.
"That'd be nice." Hilda replied.
"It sure will. Until then, Hilda." Sonic then departed, along with his friends and Eggman, dragging his heels as they pulled him to the top of the wall and through the portal. Belle and Jewel were waiting for them on the other side, along with Lanolin, who was sitting in a police van she had borrowed in case Eggman needed to be carted away.
"Hey guys!" Sonic waved as Eggman was dragged through.
"I take it everything is sorted?" Jewel took Sonic's smile as a good sign.
"Yep. All the robots are gone, and Eggman will be in a jail cell as soon as you can get him in one." Sonic confirmed.
"Nice." Lanolin smirked, as she got out to open the back doors, allowing Sonic and co to haul Eggman into the van.
"Right, now that that's over, it looks like I've got a ton of paperwork to do. The justice department are going to have their hands full trying him for his litany of crimes." Jewel sighed.
"Now that it's safe I guess that means I can go fetch Harrison and Nerris and bring them home, right?" Belle asked.
"Yes, although the portal won't return them to their world until midnight, so it might be worth leaving that to us. We shouldn't have any trouble picking them up closer to the time." Jewel replied.
"Yeah. I'll drive them. No worries." Lanolin replied. "You guys deserve a rest after what you've done."
"Speaking of, with regards to the portals, we've come to the decision the we should shut them down once everything is sorted out." Tails added.
"Yep. We'll do that tomorrow morning. I assume the portals in the other worlds are going to be shutting down as well?" Jewel asked.
"I know that two of them are running on residual power, so they will shut down by themselves soon enough." Tails responded. "Tangle, do you know whether the other one is still generating power?"
"Nah, that's been running on residual power for a while now." Tangle answered.
"Ok, so we don't need to worry about running off into the other worlds to switch them off. Good." Jewel breathed a sigh of relief. "That should be everything. You guys can go and relax now. Trust me, you've earned it."
"Yep, and I think I know just the place." Sonic replied.
"Dinner for two at Paradise Prairie?" Amy suggested.
"Sure, why not?" Sonic accepted, as Amy ran over and hugged him before they both ran off.
"Make that two dinners!" Tangle followed after them, dragging Whisper along with her, who was a little surprised, but smiled nonetheless.
"Guess the rest of us are going back to HQ, huh." Tails muttered.
"For now." Lanolin replied. "Come on, we've got to give them all the good news." she beckoned them.
"We could hold a party!" Tails replied enthusiastically.
"Without Sonic and the others?" Belle seemed reluctant to leave them out.
"Eh, their loss. Besides, they'll be too focused on each other to worry about simple pleasures like cake, and mint candy." Tails replied.
"If we go on ahead, we'll have everything ready by the time you get back." Belle promised.
"Alright, see you then." Jewel replied.
"Fine. You go off on your little galivant. Guess it's up to me to guard the truck." Shadow huffed.
"And while you're doing that, we'll catch you up on what you missed." Jewel suggested.
"Tch." Shadow tutted dismissively. The journey went as planned, with Shadow taking some time to rest lying on the van's roof, while Jewel and Lanolin handed Eggman over to the police. Eventually the three of them arrived at HQ where Tails and Belle had told everyone the news and were waiting for with cakes and party food. They celebrated with music, games and long chats until dark, when Lanolin had to leave in order to pick up Harrison and Nerris, prompting the others to pack up and go to bed at around 10.
Lanolin arrived at the door where Nerris and Harrison were staying and knocked lightly. Nerris opened the door gently, so as not to wake up the elderly vixen who had given them shelter.
"Oh, you must be from the HQ?" Nerris assumed.
"Yes. My name is Lanolin. I've come to pick you up and take you home."
"The robots are gone already?" Nerris sounded shocked.
"Thanks to your quick thinking, yes, they are. We wouldn't have known until much later had you not come and alerted us. Where is Harrison?" Lanolin noticed he hadn't made himself known.
"Oh, he's asleep... I'll go get him." Nerris looked over her shoulder at the sofa where Harrison was dozing. She tiptoed her way there and whispered Harrison's name loudly into his ear.
"What? Harrison yawned, arching himself upwards and rubbing his eyes.
"We're going home." Nerris stated plainly.
"Okay." Harrison was too tire to argue the specifics, so he followed Nerris as they headed to Lanolin's truck. Nerris kept Lanolin and Harrison awake for the entire journey regaling tales of her D&D sessions, as well as the camp's adventures with Tangle and co. Arriving at the portal, Lanolin waved the pair of them off as they returned to camp, before returning back to her truck, where she decided she would be better off sleeping inside, rather than making 2 extra trips to HQ and back later in the morning.
As the night drew on, all was quiet in each of the four universes, silent and still, save for the long droning strum of a one stringed guitar in C#, which rung out across the entire cosmos.
The End (?)