Sonic Underground

"Hey Sonic, give me that 3/8 wrench," said Manic. He heard the clanking of metal as Sonic dug through Manic's toolbox and he slid the wrench under the van. "Thanks."

Manic heard the garage door open. "Sonic! Manic!" Sonia yelled, walking in wearing a bathrobe and slippers.

Manic crawled out from under the van. "What?"

"Do you two have to play that music so loud? I'm trying to get some beauty sleep. If I wake up with dark circles under my eyes tomorrow, both of you are going to get it!"

"Chill, sis," said Sonic. He turned the radio's volume knob down.

Sonia suddenly gasped. "Manic! Look at you!"

Manic shrugged. "I know. I'm all oily."

"No. Look at you!" said Sonic.

Manic saw that his brother's face had a look of terror. He looked down at himself and saw that he was translucent. He began to panic. "What's going on? What's happening to me?! Sonic, help!" He tried to grab Sonic by his shoulders, but his hands went through him, as if he were a ghost. The world around him began to blur and all sound became muffled as if he were under water. He could faintly hear Sonia screaming at Sonic to go get the Oracle. Everything faded to black and Manic grew colder and colder by the second. He felt like he was frozen to the core and would never be warm again. Falling unconscious, his body was pulled through interdimensional space.

When Manic awoke he was aware of someone poking him in the arm. "Stop doing that!" said a familiar voice.

"Sonic?" he mumbled, slowly opening his eyes. Who he saw bending over him was not Sonic, but some strange female hedgehog. He blinked, not believing his eyes. Seeing Sparkly's obscenely glittering rainbow fur and bizarre eyes, he wondered if this was what it was like to be on an acid trip.

She poked him again. "You're alive," she said, giggling.

"Yeah," said Manic. "Now stop poking me." He sat up and saw that he was in an unfamiliar wooden house, a fire crackling softly in the fireplace. Sonic and a strange ground squirrel were sitting on the floor beside him. "Sonic, where am I? What happened?"

"You know who I am?" said Sonic.

Manic rolled his eyes. "Of course I know who you are. You're my brother."

Sonic raised his eyebrows. "I don't have a brother."

"Sonic, stop being dumb."

"I'm not being dumb! How is it that you know me and I don't know you?"

Deciding that Sonic was intentionally being really annoying, he frowned and walked over the fire to warm his hands. He wondered if the residual coldness would ever go away. "Where on Mobius are we, any way? The last thing I remember is that you and me were in the garage changing the oil in the van, and then Sonia came in griping about our loud music. Everything got real dark and cold, and then I passed out, I think. And then I woke up here."

"Where are you? You're in Knothole!" said Sparkly in a singsong voice. "I'm Sparkly!" She held out her hand.

"I'm Manic." He took her hand and shook it, only to jerk it away quickly. That was so weird, he thought. Upon touching her, he had felt a jolt of energy run through his body and his hand was tingling. He felt his vision cloud over for a couple of seconds.

"Dude, are you okay?" asked Sonic, noticing the blank look on Manic's face. Manic rubbed his eyes, and the blurriness went away.

"Uh, yeah."

Sonic held out a large green glowing gem in one hand. "We saw this beside you when we found you. Is it yours?"

"Yeah. It must have fallen out of my knapsack." He stared into its glittering depths. He wondered if the chaos emerald had anything to do with this. Chaos emeralds were unpredictable as their name would suggest, especially if one emerald was near another one.

Sparkly's eyes widened. "Oh, that is so pretty. Is it a chaos emerald?"

"Yes. You know about chaos emeralds?"

Sparkly nodded. "Can I hold it?"

Manic regarded her with suspicion. He didn't like the greedy look in her eyes. "No, it's a really dangerous gem. You, um, could get hurt." He replaced it in his knapsack.

"Manic, what is a chaos emerald?" asked Sonic.

"Sonic, seriously, if you don't cut it out--"

He was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Come in," said Sally. It was Silver. "Hey Sally, Rotor wants to know if--" He stopped mid-sentence. "Manic the hedgehog? How did you get here? Why are you not in your home dimension?"

"Excuse me?"

"You shouldn't be here! No, no no!" He shook his head and briskly paced the floor. "This is happening faster than I expected. The alternate versions of Mobius are already merging together! How fast is this happening? How much time do I have left?!"

"Dude, what are you talking about?"

Silver explained how the different versions of Mobius were melding together, and told Sonic how his alternate self in another reality was Manic's brother.

Manic said, "So you're saying, I'm in a different dimension? I got caught up in all this spacetime warping stuff, and that's why I'm here?"

"Yes."

"And you don't know who's doing it?"

"No."

"Any ideas?"

"Uh, no." Silver felt a rush of anxiety flood him. Since last night, Sonic and his friends had been looking up to him to know something, to have some idea of what was going on. After all, he was the one from the future who had rushed back here to save everyone. He had the sudden realization that he had no idea what he was doing here or what he was looking for. He felt ashamed and foolish. If only Blaze was here, she would know what to do. What have I gotten myself into? I don't even have any clues to go on. Okay, think, Silver. Hmmm. I asked the time stones to send me to the source of the problem, and they sent me to this Mobius, so it all started here. But this dimension is so unfamiliar that I don't even know where to begin to look. But maybe they would.

"Sonic, Sally, who in this world would even have the power to do this?"

"Robotnik!" said Sonic.

"Yeah, but who else?"

"Ixis Naugus?" said Sally. "He is the most powerful sorcerer on Mobius. It's possible that he could have something to do with it."

"Anyone else?" There was silence. "Okay, I think we should investigate those two."

"Good idea," said Sally. "Sonic, you can take Tails with you to Robotropolis. Silver, you can come with me to the badlands to check on Naugus."

"Do you need help?" said Manic. "I'm a seasoned Freedom Fighter back home."

"Sure. You can go with Sonic," said Sally.

"I want to help, too!" said Sparkly.

"No! It's too dangerous!" said Sonic.

"But--"

"NO!"

"Jerk," she muttered under her breath. She clenched her fists and left the hut, slamming the door behind her. Sonic rolled his eyes.

"All right everyone. This is what we're going to do..." began Sally.

Sega Sonic, the Future

Leaning back in his chair, his feet upon his desk, Vector felt his eyes getting heavier and heavier. Things were getting very boring. Vector hadn't had a new case in so long that he worried how he would pay everyone this month. The minute that he dozed off, he was awakened by the front door of the Chaotix Detective Agency opening violently. "Aaah!" he said, jumping up and nearly falling out of his chair. It was Mephiles. He ran to Vector's desk, tears pouring out of his eyes.

"Vector! You have to help me! Silvy was right next to me, and then he was gone, and I called for him and he wasn't there! Someone kidnapped him I know!"

"Whoa! Slow down, Mephiles! Start over again. Where were you when you last saw him?" Vector handed him a tissue and he blew his nose loudly.

"Angel Island."

"What's this all about?" said Espio as he came into the room followed by Charmy.

"Someone stole my Silvy from me! He's gone!" said Mephiles in between sniffles.

"When did you last see him?"

"Yesterday. He didn't come home to me last night. He wouldn't just disappear like this. He loves me! I'm scared that I'll never see him again." Mephiles dropped down to his knees and grasped Espio by his legs. "You have to help me find him! I'll pay you fifty power rings! No, a thousand! Anything to find my Silver. I...I..." his last words were drowned out in a loud wail.

"Okay, okay," said Espio. "We'll take the case, but get up off the floor and stop that, okay?"

"Okay." Mephiles wiped the tears off his face with his hand and smiled. "Thank you so much! You don't know how much this means to me!" He grabbed Espio in a big bear hug.

"Mephiles, let go! You're going to suffocate me!" Charmy chuckled. "Not...funny..." he said, gasping for breath.

Mephiles released him and giggled. "I'm sorry. I forgot that mortals were so fragile." Vector groaned. He thought that he felt a headache coming on. He didn't want to put up with Mephiles acting like this, but a case was a case and they needed the money.

"Okay, Mephiles," said Vector. "Start at the beginning. Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out, even if it seems unimportant."

Mephiles nodded and began his account of the last time that he had seen Silver.