Sonic SatAM

Sparkly sat at the table sullenly, poking a piece of grilled fish. She didn't like Mobian food. It tasted funny.

She had been sitting like that for the past few minutes, looking down at her plate as if Sonic, Sally, and Tails were not there. Sonic decided to cheer her up by striking up a conversation. "So Sparkly."

"Yeah?"

"Do you have a family back home?"

She nodded her head and said nothing.

"Got any brothers or sisters?"

"No. It's just me and Mom and Dad, but actually it's just me."

"What do you mean by that?" Sally asked.

"My parents run a company called TransWorld Airlines, and the company is their life. They love it more than me. I hardly ever see them. They come home maybe once a week, but they don't stay long. They know it's wrong and that it hurts me because when they actually come home, they buy me whatever I want, but that doesn't make it better."

"That's so terrible."

"Don't feel sorry for me," Sparkly said. "I hate it when people feel sorry for me." She glared at Sally, who had the fleeting thought that the girl could probably kill people with that look. "My parents probably don't even care if I'm dead." She stabbed her fork vehemently into the fish, and then stared at it blankly, lost in thought.

"That's not true," said Sonic. "I'm sure they miss you right now. Where are you from again?"

"I told you already! California!"

"I've never heard of it."

"That's probably because it's on another planet! I keep telling you these things and you won't listen to me!" She stood up suddenly, placed her palms on the table, and gave him a hateful stare. Tails whimpered and scrunched his body as far down into his chair as he could.

"I'm only trying to help," Sonic said softly.

"Well stop it! I don't need anyone's help!" She stormed out of the hut, slamming the door behind her.

Sally looked back and forth from Sonic and Tails. She wasn't sure what to say or do. She had never encountered anyone quite like Sparkly, someone whose mood could shift violently in a matter of seconds. Sonic squirmed nervously in his chair.

"This situation is so difficult," she finally said. "The doctor said to try not to provoke her, but everything provokes her. She's been nothing but angry and argumentative since she came."

"Then don't talk to her, Sal," said Sonic. "See how she likes that."

Sally thought for a moment. "I don't know if that would make it better. I can tell that Sparkly really hates me, Sonic; I mean she doesn't just dislike me, but truly hates me."

Tails jumped out of his chair. "I don't see why you let her stay! All she does is make people angry or sad! And she keeps fighting with everyone!"

Sally felt her royal composure and polite nature breaking down. Sparkly was really getting to her, too. "Tails, I don't like Sparkly any more than you do."

"Then kick her butt out of Knothole!" said Sonic, his voice rising slightly in anger.

"As much as I want to, I can't. It would be wrong because she's a sick girl. We have to find out where she belongs."

"What if you don't find out where she came from? What are you going to do with her then?" Tails said.

Sally couldn't answer him. She hadn't considered that possibility. She had assumed that she would get this information out of Sparkly very soon. "I don't know, Tails, but I'll think of something. I promise." A look of relief crossed Tails's face. He knew that Sally kept her promises.

All of a sudden a loud boom echoed through the forest and Sally, along with everyone else, was thrown violently to onto the floor. Sally stood up, disoriented. She put a hand against the wall to steady herself. "What...what happened?"

"I don't know," said Sonic. "Come on, let's check it out." Sally followed Sonic out the door and gasped in shock. She didn't know exactly what to call what she saw. The scene playing out before her was translucent, as if it was some sort of mirage or hologram. A blue gelatinous monster, so large that it towered above the skyscrapers around it, surveyed the ruined city around it with satisfaction. It had two yellow, slitted eyes and a mouth full of countless sharp teeth. Its attention was suddenly caught by a loud whirring sound above its head, which was coming from a metal air ship hovering nearby. The creature raised on of its many tentacles and flicked it away as if it were an annoying mosquito.

Sonic suddenly noticed Sparkly was standing a mere inches away from it, staring. He grabbed her arm and pulled her away.

"What are you doing?" Sparkly said, jerking her arm out of his grasp.

"I don't think that you should be near that...thing! It could be dangerous!"

"Oh please! It's not even real! Look!" She walked towards the image of the beast and thrust her hand through it. "See? Why are you two so scared?"

"Because we don't know what that is!" said Sally. "What if it's one of Robotnik's tricks?"

Sparkly scoffed. "And why would Robotnik beam a picture of Cha--I mean--that whatchamacallit, into Knothole?" She raised an eyebrow and put one hand on her hip.

"Um, I dunno, a distraction?" said Sonic.

She rolled her eyes. "You can be so dense."

"Hey!"

Sally looked at Sparkly and then at the vision of Chaos. Sparkly had a point. It sort of didn't make sense for Robotnik to beam random images in places, and he didn't know where Knothole was any way. She sighed. "Sparkly, it's okay. He was only looking out for you. We don't know what this is or where it came from, so it's best not to mess with it. However..." her voice trailed off. There was one person who might know. "Nicole, can you trace the source of this transmission?"

Nicole's screen lit up and she made a series of beeps and clicks. "The transmission is not from this world, Sally."

Sonic and Sally gasped.

"You mean..from outer space or somethin'?" said Sonic.

"Yes and no," said Nicole.

"What?! It can't be both!" said Sonic.

"The transmission is not a transmission. It is a distortion caused by a magnetic disturbance in the spacetime fabric."

"Spacetime what?" said Sonic.

"She means that--" Sally was interrupted by another loud bang, sounding much like the first one. A bright sphere of blinding yellow light materialized, crackling with electrical energy, and a hedgehog was thrown from its center and was sent skidding and rolling in the dirt, and then the energy ball vanished.

The hedgehog sat up, rubbing his head, and groaned. "I'll never get used to time traveling," he said. He looked around him, his eyes widening in surprise. "I didn't expect the stones to take me to this version of Mobius. I thought that I'd land in my own!"

"Uh, excuse me," said Sonic, "but what are you talkin' about? Time travel? This version of Mobius?"

The hedgehog stood up and dusted himself off. "I should introduce myself first. I'm from the future. My name is Silver."

Sparkly pushed her way between Sonic and Sally. "And what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be in this cartoon." Her voice was low, and almost a hiss.

Silver took an awkward step backward, almost tripping. "This cartoon? What do you mean?"

"It's nothing," said Sally quickly.

"Oh. To answer you question," he pointed behind him at the image of Perfect Chaos. "I'm here because of that."

"You know something about it?"

Silver nodded. He took a deep breath, taking a moment to organize his thoughts. "I'm not only from the future. I'm from a parallel universe, too." He gestured towards Chaos. "That one. What you're seeing is an interdimensional bleed."

Sally said slowly, "So parallel worlds are real? Our scientists have theorized about them, but nothing has been proved."

"It doesn't surprise me that you don't know. The scientific knowledge and technology on this Mobius are far behind ours."

Sally's eyes sparkled in fascination. She would have to ask Silver about this advanced technology later, but went back to Sparkly's question. "Interesting. What brought you here?"

"In the future something caused the interdimensional barriers to collapse, melding all different versions of Mobius together. It was so terrible, and so many people died that everyone thought that the end of the world had come! But it was only the beginning! It was like..." Silver struggled with an explanation. How could he explain the bizarre phenomenon he had witnessed without sounding insane? Suddenly he remembered an incident Tails had told him about.

"The Mobius that was left, it was all of them melded together. All was quiet for a little while, and people thought it was over. Then Mobius...changed. The people on it began changing. Tails, do you remember when Robotnik kidnapped Sally and replaced her with an android?"

"Yes. How did you know about that?"

"We're friends in the future, and you told me about it. Do you remember how you saw that Sally was not herself?"

"Yes."

"Something like that happened to almost everyone I know."

Sonic looked at him in disbelief. "Robotnik replaced everyone with clones?"

"No. The people aren't robot clones. They're...different. They become different overnight."

"I don't get it," said Sonic.

"It's like people are under a spell! I'll give you an example: Mephiles."

"Who?" said Sally.

Silver described how Mephiles normally behaved and their hatred towards each other, and then told them about the incident in which he had woken up to see Mephiles beside his bed, claiming that he loved Silver. "And it's like that with everyone! They just become so different so suddenly!"

"I kind of get what you're sayin', I think," said Sonic slowly.

Silver sighed in relief. He was glad that someone got it. "I came here with the help of the time stones. I asked them to bring me to the time and place where it all began, so that's how I came here. From the looks of that," he said, pointing at the image of Chaos, which was beginning to fade. "The interdimensional collapse has already began. I have to stop this now. You'll help me, won't you?"

"Of course!" said Sonic.

"Why don't you come inside with us?" asked Sally. "Then we can talk about it more." Sparkly stood still for a moment, watching the others walk ahead of her. She was torn between following Silver to hear what he had to say about this, or going home to accomplish what she had planned for tonight. In the end she decided against the latter; whatever Silver had to say couldn't possibly be important. He couldn't be smart enough to know anything anyway, she told herself. There was no need to worry over him. He was nothing.