((So far we've succesfully gone 8 full chapters with a low-low score of one single (very excellent) review, not counting my own brief whine. Let's all stick together and see if we can manage a full 10 chapters with a mute audience. This achievement in mediocrity can be done if we all believe in ouselves, so let's give it our best shot.))

Chapter 11: History of Doom

The Black Tower rose several miles over the crimson wastelands drained of nearly all of its original life. The only buildings in the vicinity of the stronghold were the supply structures for the mighty Black Comets being crafted from the blackened mountains. Although this planet had sustained the Black Arms for thousands of years, it would soon be abandoned as its alien masters sought out new worlds to conquer and drain of all resources...

It was fortunate that one of the many eyes of the omnipotent overlord of the Black Arms was nearby when the party of soldiers happened upon the first two animaloids seen on the planet in over seven hundred years. Black Doom, in his infinite wisdom, knew better than to allow such a unique discovery to be destroyed without first seeking answers. If there was a hidden community of animaloids somewhere, then it would be a terrible waste to abandon the planet without harvesting it first. The soldiers were ordered to merely overpower and capture the hedgehog and the cat, rather than killing them. Although the pair put up a very impressive fight, they had little chance to escape once the hedgehog breathed in too much of the paralyzing gas that made up the planet's atmosphere. The Doom's Eye watching the battle found it strange that the cat wasn't affected by the gas. The inevitable interrogation should yield the answers, though.

"Whe' ae 'e?" said Silver, unable to move his jaw, as he and Pia were carried towards the ominous structure streching beyond the blood-red clouds that filled the sky.

The soldiers had stuck them both up to their shoulders in some kind of cocoons. Whatever it was, it smelled revolting and kept them from being able to move a muscle. In Silver's case the bondage was redundant.

"History's been changed, horribly. I'm getting flooded with temporal distortion warnings, here," said Pia. She was lucky that her Jumpsuit had all its holes patched, or she'd be as immobile as Silver.

"'m sho'ee," Silver apologised.

"Not your fault. Shadow destroyed the Black Arms months before Sonic and his friends travelled to Soleanna, and the illegal cloning of the Jet Black Arms shouldn't have anything to do with what happened on Angel Island in the twenty-second century."

The Doom's Eye flew in close to the alien party and its captives. It said something at length to the pair, ending with maniacal laughter.

"'had id 'e shay?" Silver wondered.

"You don't want to know. Oh, that's funny. Now it's asking what we're saying. I've got a hunch that that no one ever got around to developing the English language in this timeline."

-

A short while later, the Doom's Eye that'd observed the capture of the animaloids returned to the source via special passages through the interior of the Black Tower designed specifically for their travel.

Black Doom, supreme ruler of Earth and its surrounding planets, had evolved to his final stage since he oversaw the succesful enslavement of the pathetic humans and anthropomorphic animals of this planet. His tentacles blended with the structure itself, making the Black Tower as much his body as it was his stronghold. This bulk would never be removed, but each of the many Doom's Eye creatures born from his massive body contained the potential to grow into a new overlord for its personal Black Comet, launched into the far reaches of space. It was the eternal life cycle of the Black Arms species. It didn't matter that hundreds of the motherships would never find an apt planet to feast upon, because there would be millions of Black Comets created from the barren rocks of the many planets of this solar system.

This overripe alien hive mind called Black Doom knew that he would soon die. Already his direct control over the billions of spawn innhabiting this planet was weakening, as the Doom's Eyes slowly developed independent sentience and control over their respective swarms. In just a few more years it would all be over for him. To put it bluntly, the last few centuries had been unbearably boring. There was nothing left to conquer, nothing left to corrupt, nothing left to plan. The sudden and completely unexpected appearance of a pair of actual living animaloids was such a treat that Black Doom felt like he was a youngster of five hundred years again.

Even as the pair were carried through the lengthy passageways of the Black Tower, its ruler and prisoner thought up exciting methods for keeping the animaloids alive and ripe for torture for years to come. Oh, this was going to be so much fun!

-

Pia had thought the Black Arms soldiers looked disgusting. Compared to their leader, they were shining examples of class and appeal.

Tentacles that had become thin and wrinkly, with their outer layers hanging loosely towards the floor, tied a grotesquely bloated black body to its seat in the centre of the hive-like throne room. Barely more than a few threads were left of the decaying outfit, and the ornamental jewelry had become corroded with age. Literally hundreds of eyes surrounded a single gigantic red and sickly eye in the middle of the twisted body.

At the telepathic command of Black Doom, the soldiers secreted a fluid that dissolved the goop Silver and Pia were trapped in, then left the animaloids alone in the throne room.

Black Doom started talking in the same language they'd heard earlier. Pia heard the translation as "Welcome, mammals. I am glad to see that your species is not extinct, after all. To destroy your kind a second time will be a wonderful pleasure in the final days of my existence."

Now that her hands were free, Pia quickly adjusted her system to automatically translate what she said into the ancient language Black Doom was speaking.

"Oh, perfect ruler," she said, pouring it on thick, "please share with us the story of your triumph over the weak and pathetic beings native to this world."

Silver could tell what she was planning, so he kept quiet and let her handle things. Besides, he could barely get a syllable out at this point.

"A fond memory," Black Doom responded. "Twenty-two hundred cycles of orbit have been completed around the nearby star since the eve of my triumph. It was a brief visit to the planet as my Black Comet passed through the solar system. My intention was merely to plant a mighty fortress upon the planet in preparation for future conquest, but to my surprise and delight, a native delivered to my minions the very seven vessels of supreme power that I had sought for so long..."

"I am awed by your achivement, supreme Black Doom. Tell me, is the fortress you speak of the one that was to be hidden away in the canyon of glyphs in the South-Western continent?"

"Indeed. The glory that-"

"Yeah, you can shut up now, pus-bag," Pia interrupted the alien overlord in a dismissive tone. "Let's go, Silver. We're going to visit Glyphic Canyon 2000 years before Shadow the Hedgehog is supposed to destroy the Black Arms. We'll find out what Pretorious screwed up, and prevent this mess from ever happening."

Frustrated by confusion, Black Doom lashed out his tentacles at the cat standing close to her paralyzed friend, only to have them both vanish with a flash before he could grab them.

Black Doom's scream of rage could be heard from miles surrounding the Black Tower...

-

In the next chapter:
- Pia and Silver must find out how the Chaos Emeralds wound up in Black Doom's posession in the past, and prevent it from happening at all costs.
- What's Dr. Pretorious after this time? Did he mean to allow the Black Arms to achieve their conquest, or did he make a catastrophic miscalculation?
- Just how did the innhabitants of a primitive Earth repel the alien invaders in unchanged history?