As everyone walked into the main room, Tails looked around, wide eyed at how big the Tower, or even just the room, was. "This place is so cool! I've never seen this much advanced technology in one place! How did you come up with it?" he said, sounding like an excited kid a Christmas.
"I designed most of it, some of it based on my own circuits," Cyborg said, grinning at the fox's amazement. Sonic and Knuckles exchanged glances, sitting down on the couch. Knuckles stretched out and yawned, his eyes half closed.
"Well, if you guys don't mind, I'm probably going to fall asleep on this couch," he said tiredly, already starting to nod off.
"Knuckles has the right idea, I'm pretty sleepy," Beast Boy said, also yawning a little. "You wanna to sleep in my room tonight?" he asked the red echidna. In response, Knuckles got up, his eyes still half closed.
"Hope you don't mind the smell," Cyborg said, getting a tired smirk from Knuckles.
"I've probably been through worse," he grinned, following the green changeling out of the room. Sonic however, was still showing no signs of sleepiness, jumping to his feet.
"Anything a super speedster can do?" he said, looking around at everyone.
"You could try telling Amy where we all are," Tails said, seeing his friend grin nervously.
"You want me to tell Amy where we are?" he asked, seeing Tails nod. He tried to stall, but then an image appeared on the monitor of the pink hedgehog standing at the docks, hands on hips. "Oh no, how did she find us?" Sonic muttered as he left the room to talk to Amy. Meanwhile, Raven was in her room, searching for the story of King Arthur. She wanted to find out if what Sonic said was true, and when she finally found the book, her eyes widened when she saw, on the cover, it read "Sonic and the Black Knight". She opened the book, seeing the images of Merlina, the Black Knight that was King Arthur, how Sonic had been summoned and the point where he found Caliburn.
"Wait, this can't be..." she said as she continued to turn the pages. Near the end of the book was the tale of Malchior and Rorek.
"So, you know of that tale then?" came an English accented voice from the book. Startled, Raven dropped the book, ready to attack anything that came out.
"Who are you, and what do you want?" she asked, her hands surrounded with dark energy.
"My name is Caliburn, and I simply thought I'd actually have a conversation with someone of your world," the voice said again.
"How do I know you're not Malchior?" Raven asked, the energy glow fading.
"If I was that horrid beast, would I know of Sonic the Hedgehog?" Caliburn asked.
"I guess not. He said that you were the real Excalibur, and that he fought the Knights of the Round Table and King Arthur. Did he really fight them?" she asked, picking up the book.
"Indeed he did, but right now I think we have possibly bigger problems. It seems Malchior, through some reason, is planning to escape into your world again, and this time, you're powers won't be enough to stop him," Caliburn said, his voice hinting at something.
"You're saying that you can help defeat him," Raven said, placing the book on a pedestal.
"Yes, and you will also need the help of Sir Sonic, and I know just how to help you there," he said, his image now on the pages.
"Okay, how? Don't I need to learn all kinds of spells first?" she asked, hearing Caliburn chuckle.
"Is that what Malchior told you? No, you simply need but one spell, and that is these words are Ifaras zaras yezaras ifaris zaris yezarik. Simply say these words twice and you have a summoning spell," Caliburn said, the words for the spell appearing on the page.
"If you're sure about this, okay," Raven nodded, her hands glowing. She said the words, a strange wind filling the room. The wind could be felt throughout the tower, everyone but Beast Boy and Knuckles taking notice of it.
As Sonic got back to the Tower with Amy, he felt the wind, putting Amy down and telling her where to go, then sped towards the source of the wind.
As the wind faded, a light shone. Raven covered her eyes as Sonic ran into the room, also shielding his eyes as the light faded. He looked around, then looked to his hand. His eyes widened when he saw it was his old gauntlet, mainly silver with a gold ring around the wrist and a red orb imbedded in it. "No way!" he gasped.
"You had better believe it is true, or there wouldn't be much point to my coming, now would there?" Sonic looked across the room, seeing Raven standing there with a light grey hedgehog in golden knight like armour. The visor of the helmet was raised, showing orange eyes.
"Caliburn? Is it really you?" Sonic asked, staring wide eyed at the new hedgehog.
"Of course it's me! Who else would it be?" Caliburn said, chuckling a little. "This young girl here gave me a hedgehog form so I wouldn't be so out of place in your world. I can still become your trusty sword if need be," he added. "Raven, are you okay? Do you know anything of a strong wind that swept through the tower?" came Robin's voice over the communicator.
"I'll explain once we get to the control room," she said, putting the communicator away as she followed the two hedgehogs.
"What happened, and who's this new guy?" Robin asked as Raven, Sonic and Caliburn ran into the room. Everyone stopped to look at the gold armoured light grey hedgehog.
"I am Caliburn the hedgehog, probably best known to you all as the sacred sword, Excalibur," he said, getting surprised looks from everyone. "I must say, it is an honour to meet you all, and to get a chance to actually have my own form," he added.
"So, you really did enter the tale of King Arthur?" Amy asked nervously, a nervous grin on her face.
"I tried to tell ya, but you just came chasing me with that hammer!" Sonic said, making Tails giggle a little. Caliburn simply looked around the room, amazed by the technology.
"So, this is what the people of this world have come up with? I can't begin to understand it after being in that book for such a long time," he said, looking at the gadgets around the room. "Hmmm, I must say, you look quite like Nimue, the Lady of the Lake," he said to Amy, seeing her blush a little.
"So, you can become the sword Excalibur?" Cyborg asked, scanning Caliburn.
"Well, only with the combined power of the sacred swords wielded by Lancelot, Gawain and Percival, but you are indeed correct," Caliburn said, looking at the robotic human with a look of slight wonder. "I must say, you do look somewhat like a knight yourself," he said, making Cyborg grin a little.
"Well, I'm going to go to bed. Anyone else coming?" Robin said with a little yawn. Tails, Amy, Starfire and Cyborg started to leave, but Sonic, Caliburn and Raven stayed.
"So, I believe that now we can get down to business. It would appear that Malchior, a dragon imprisoned in the same book as I inhabited, is going to escape into this world again," Caliburn said, making Sonic raise an eyebrow.
"Wait, and you're saying that we need Raven's power AND Excalibur to beat him? I'm sure Raven's pretty powerful, but how do you become Excalibur without the sacred swords?" Sonic asked, getting looks from Raven and Caliburn.
"Since you left, strange things have occurred. Lancelot, Gawain and Percival, along with Sir Galahad and Sir Lamorak, have been keeping the kingdom safe. However, the knights of the underworld are on the move again, trying to find a way into this world, and that, in turn, is causing Malchior to stir. However, if we find Lancelot, Gawain, Percival, Lamorak and Galahad's counterparts in this world, then we should be able to summon the sacred swords," Caliburn said, seeing Sonic smirk.
"That'll be easy, Gawain's counterpart, Knuckles, is already here, and finding Shadow, Silver, Blaze and Jet should be easy," Sonic said, seeing Caliburn and Raven exchange glances. "What? I thought you said all we had to do was find the Knight's counterparts in this world?" he said.
"Yes, but it appears the sacred swords are also present in this world. And they will be harder to find," Caliburn added, noticing Raven's eyes widen.
"I hope I'm wrong, but some of the villains in this world have those swords, and I doubt they'll be willing to give them to us," she said.
"It is unfortunate, but a problem we must overcome. But not one to be beaten with tired minds and bodies. Tomorrow, we will tell the others, and then try to get the other knight counterparts to this location. We must also be on the lookout for knights of the underworld," Caliburn said, yawning. "I hope you don't mind, but I wish to sleep near my book in case I need to contact Merlina," he added, following Raven out of the room.
"I guess I'll just sleep on the couch like I did at Amy's," Sonic yawned making himself comfortable before his eyes slowly closed.
"So, you are the infamous Slade," Shadow said, facing the masked villain. After trying to find a chaos emerald, the black hedgehog had ran into the villain, and was now having to fight for the emerald.
"And you're Shadow, the so called ultimate life form," Slade said, grinning behind his mask. As Shadow stood in a fighting stance, he noticed Slade's hands ignite, but didn't even flinch. He also ignored the Slade androids that had came from nowhere.
"Is this all you've got? I've fought children's toys tougher than this," he said, disappearing and obliterating androids while dodging flame blasts. As the last android fell, he aimed a downward kick at Slade, narrowly missing as the villain moved. A fireball flew towards him, but he dodged it all too easy, engaging Slade in hand to hand combat.
"I hate to admit it, but we're evenly matched," Slade said, dodging another punch from Shadow while returning his own blow.
"I'll admit, you seem to know how to actually fight, but I'm no-one's equal," Shadow said, narrowly missing Slade with a kick. He didn't expect the villain to punch him in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. A blow to the hedgehog's back knocked him stone cold, and he fell limply to the ground.
"You're right, I'm better than you are," Slade said, walking away with the bright green gem in his hand.