Chapter 20: Caught in the Loop - Take 2

"Don't ask too many questions right now," said Silver urgently. He could tell Pia was scanning him, comparing him to the Silver she knew as her father in this time. "It's really important that what happens next goes the same way it did the first time. Just follow me!"

Silver hurried out of the kithchen and down the stairs, kicking open the mahogany door at the bottom. Okay, Pretorious's office was through here... Wow, talk about anal - who in the world stacked their papers exactly even with the edges of the papers underneath? "I need to make certain of something," Silver said aloud, as something caught his eye. "If that wild goose chase was really all about..."

It was a doodle in the margin of a print-out detailing the work history of Pia the Hedgehog. A rough circle with a diamond shape drawn inside, and a bunch of numbers underneath it: 06211050590BC. That was more years than the universe was old... No, there was a zero first, so that had to be a date. June twenty-first one million and fifty thousand, five-hundred and ninety BC? He must've doodled that to remember the date. Chaos Emerald in a rock? It has to be. "Yes! Of course!" he heard himself exclaim over his thoughts.

Silver noticed that Pia was leaning over his shoulder to see what he was looking at, so he quickly threw the paper away and turned towards her.

"I'm really sorry about what has to happen after you take me with you back to my own time, but I can't tell you the outcome in case doing so changes things for the worse. Truth is, Pia, I don't know if I'll survive or not, but just trust me. I've got a plan."

And I'm lying, Silver thought. The me that went through this the first time around the loop must've lied too. I know exactly how I'm going to survive Pretorious's attempt to kill me, but I still don't know if you will survive or not, Pia. I'll go back and get you as soon as I can. Promise.

Funny, when you told me about this you never mentioned that my spikes were plastered down on my back like this. I can't wait until I get to deliver your Jumpsuit back. It's not designed for hedgehogs.

Silver walked closer to the girl and put his hands on her shoulders.

"You said that the other me told you this, so here goes: When what has to happen has happened, you must promise to go after Pretorious right away. Oh, and it's not your fault. Remember that."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Heh. That must be what I sounded like when this whole confusing adventure started. Don't worry. It will all make sense when you get to the point where I am right now. Trust me."

Pia narrowed her eyes and pushed his hands off her. "Trust you? Like I'd trust you if you even were my father. What have you got here for me, Pretorious? Replicant droid? Shapeshifter agent? What's the matter? Couldn't get a more up-to-date image of Captain Silver to work with?"

Silver ignored the gun pointed at his chest and continued. "You've got to take me with you when you go after Pretorious back in time."

Pia sneered. "If you think I'm so naive that I'm going to take you with me back in time just because you kind of look like my father, then you've got another thing coming, kid," she said, prodding Silver in the chest with the barrel of her firearm.

Silver sighed. "Okay, fine. I really didn't want to do this, but you, I mean the other you, did say to mention a certain something to convince you that I'm who I say I am... Here goes...you know Pretorious has been researching you ever since you started upsetting his plans on such a regular basis, so telling you about that...bad situation that occurred when you were young wouldn't really do the trick, since Pretorious probably knows about that. But...here's one thing that NOBODY but you should know...ah, er..." Oh, just jump into it and get it over with! "The real reason why you started dating Conquest's daughter two years ago was in order to get to me, er, your father. You even typed up your break-up speech on your personal computer, but you never used it, and...in the end she dumped you. And, and the text you DIDN'T put in the header of that e-mail but thought to was 'Poora, jigglypuff.'"

The colour drained from Pia's face. Wow, that was a greater look of horror than he'd ever seen from her during even the worst parts of their adventure in the past. 'Poora Jigglypuff'? What the heck was with that?

"Alright, I believe you. Never ever repeat that to me or anyone else ever again, got it?"

"Wouldn't dream of it. I kind of wish you hadn't told me about it in the first place."

Silver knew that was a stupid thing to say even as he said it. He'd have to be some kind of neander-hog to be bothered about ambiguous sexuality in this day and age. Actually, and somewhat to his own relief, what he found to concern him most was who the heck Conquest's daughter's father would be? Shadow was a great guy once you got to know him, and he and the Commander seemed to be getting on great, but when you got right down to it, he was a creation shaped like a hedgehog, not a real hedgehog, and totally unable to reproduce. Maybe they adopted, or maybe...

"So you know where Dr. Pretorious went, right? Where am I supposed to take you with me to?" said Pia, interrupting Silver's train of thought in the nick of time.

Silver got a grip on himself. "Where it all began," he said. "My apartment at 9.03 PM, August 24th, in the year twenty-two- Hang on a sec."

"What is it now?" Pia asked irritably.

"You just set the coordinates. There's something important I almost forgot about," Silver responded, hurrying into the kitchen.

"What coordinates? You didn't say the year!"

"Sorry. It's the year-"

-

The violent arcs of purple energy formed of Pia's Jumpsuit and connected to the walls and nearby furniture. The electrical display disappeared as soon as Pia got her feet on solid past. Before the blinding blast had settled, Silver hurried behind the curtains, so he wouldn't be seen until it was time. He wondered if it was the cuts and nicks in Pia's suit or the interference of his copy of the very same Jumpsuit that caused that violent display as opposed to the gentle flash of normal time travel.

"Isn't that an unnecessarily attention-seeking way to time travel, Silver?" he heard the voice of Dr. Pretorious and resisted the urge to rush out and tackle the villain. No, he couldn't. Messing up at this critical juncture could have catastrophically unpredictable consequences. "At least Eggman Nega had the decency to go for function over fashion with his time machine design. Look, it's a wrist watch. His fifth generation version, which he sadly lacked the time to complete before his untimely death. Oh, I'm sorry. Am I spoiling too much, captain Silver? I do tend to go on. It's a silly habit of mine."

"SHUT! UP!" said Pia in a commanding tone. She really did sound just like Blaze when she shouted like that.

"Watch that tone, young lady. I might get startled and accidentally apply pressure to this little button under my index finger here. You wouldn't want something to happen to the captain of the Temporal Protectorate, would you? Oops, another spoiler. Where can I put my head? Aheeheehee! Well, since we're all getting acquainted, why don't you tell the captain- I mean Silver the Hedgehog, here, your name?"

"Pia."

"Come now, I should think a meeting this special would call for a little formality. Her name is Pia the Hedgehog. Yes, I know what you're thinking, Silver. Hedgehog? Why, surely she's a cat! Let's review the family history. I'm not entirely certain if we're after of before the point in time when you learn this, Silver, but you are the direct descended of Sonic the Hedgehog. Isn't that remarkable? Your grandfather knew this, and therefore had his name legally changed to 'The Hedgehog', thus circumventing the long-lasting animaloid tradition of just abscent-mindely picking the name of the animal as a surname. And gosh, wouldn't you know it, when your daughter, Silver, is not a hedgehog at all, but a cat, there do actually arise some legal complications with the name. Ridiculous, I know, but it happened. This seventeen year-old cat won't have the legal power to properly disown her given family name for another year. Hence, Pia the Hedgehog. Amusing when you think about it, really."

"I told you to shut up, Pretorious!"

"Sorry. No more dawdling."

NOW!

Silver shot across the room with a Teleport Dash, throwing himself right in the path of Pretorious's shot. As soon as he felt the explosive force, he squeezed the thing in his hand hard enough to make it burst, then fell over and laid still in the expanding pool of blood.

"No!" Pia shouted, moved as if to rush towards the apparently mortally-wounded hedgehog, but instead ran at Dr. Pretorious. Silver's past self followed suit. There was another flash as Pretorious activated his time portal, and all three were swallowed up by it.

Afterwards, all that was left was an immobile Silver lying in a pool of blood.

Silver opened his eyes, and stood up. He was impressed to see all the red stuff pour right off the invisible Jumpsuit without leaving a single stain.

It was a grotesque solution, but all Silver could think of at the time. While Pia had prepared for their trip back to this time, Silver had hurried into the kitchen and grabbed a little plastic container off a shelf, then scooped up as much of the dead hedgehog underling's blood as he could. When the time came all he had to do was make the container burst, and make sure he fell with his apparent wound facing the floor.

Well, that did it. He'd gone through the time loop and out the other end. Now to save Pia, then finally stop Dr. Pretorious once and for all. Chaos Emerald in a rock - the Chaos Core. Silver now knew exactly what Pretorious planned to do in order to complete his insane ambition. If Pretorious escaped from the time of the Gi, then Silver would know exactly where to look for him...

Okay, now for the tricky bit. Silver had no idea how to program a time-space destination to the Jumpsuit. He'd managed to reach Pia and Pretorious's present by simply finding the Recall function and fiddling just a little with the space and the time axis, so he'd arrive a little away, and a little earlier than when Pia had first left. Now, he had to find the entry for...ah, here it was. Third from the top in the list on the left-hand side of the heads-up display. Okay, to travel to exactly the same time as before counted as an illegal action, apparently. Probably to prevent two time travellers from getting caught in the same space and getting their matter all mixed - gross.

About one day after he and Pia first arrived should be enough. He didn't want to interfere with his own escape from Pretorious's makeshift tour bus, so he needed to find the right window of opportunity. How long after he escaped would Pretorious hesitate before doing something to Pia? Probably only minutes.

"Here goes everything," said Silver, and activated the time travel function.

Afterwards, all that was left was a pool of someone else's blood.

-

In the next chapter:
- Silver's race against time.
- The ultimate stealth mission.
- No predestination to worry about now.