Notes: Hi again! Thanks for the positive feedback I've been getting, guys! As promised, this chapter will focus less on Sonic, and more on a new character. (For clarification: the new guy isn't mine, he's from the Archie comics. Jsyk.) Enjoy!

Chapter 3

Meanwhile, another, different blue hedgehog was looking in on the same exact scene. However, he was not comforted by watching the Sonics and the Tailses eat dinner together. As a matter of fact, he was stressing out.

Zonic the Zone Cop was a resident of the No Zone- an alternate dimension that existed 90 degrees from everywhere else. It was his job to keep a close eye on as many Sonics in as many alternate dimensions as he could to make sure nothing was going majorly wrong in the grand cosmic scheme of things.

And Sonic Prime eating a meal with his past self fell into the 'majorly wrong' category.

Of course, there were thousands upon thousands of other Sonics in the multiverse; heck, Zonic was one of them. There was an inherent difference, though, in meeting yourself from another dimension and meeting yourself from a different point on your timeline. For example, Sonic and Zonic had teamed up a number of times in the past to save various universes from destruction. There was even a whole fiasco around a year ago involving the Sonic from the Anti-Mobius trying to conquer Mobius Prime. Needless to say, the Zone Cop had seen some pretty weird things when it came to watching every Sonic in existence. But two Sonics from the same timeline was unheard of.

He had noticed the two Sonics about a half hour ago, and thought nothing of it. He simply chalked it up to illegal Zone-hopping, and instructed some of the lower-ranking officers to check it out. However, when they returned twenty minutes later saying that they hadn't been able to detect any Zone-hops pertaining to Sonic the Hedgehog or the Prime Zone, Zonic got suspicious. It was starting to seem like the doubles of Sonic and Tails had originated in the Prime Zone. Just who were they, though? Robots? Mini-clones? Celebrity look-alikes? He unmuted the Prime Zone monitor- just one of hundreds in his headquarters- to get a better idea of what was going on on-screen. Once he did, he heard the Sonics and Tailses referring to each other as "older-me" and "younger-me." At that point, everything started to fall into place.

And now the confused hedgehog sat in his office, staring at the Prime Zone monitor in disbelief. There was literally a time paradox happening, live, on his screen. Was there anything he could do about it? He didn't exactly have prior experience with time travel. Not to mention, he didn't have access to all the details. Even after rewinding the tape back to that afternoon and reviewing the footage, he didn't learn much. Sonic and his friends were at a birthday party, they all got sucked into weird portals- the likes of which Zonic had never seen before- and then they were instantly back, with a younger Sonic and Tails in tow.

That left a lot of unanswered questions, and unanswered questions left Zonic uneasy. One question he had was: should he interfere? It was his job to deal with temporal abnormalities, sure. But time paradoxes? How exactly does one deal with those? Would it even be a good idea, introducing a third blue hedgehog whose name ended with "-onic" into the mix? Past experience told him that having more than two Sonics anywhere at any given time could possibly get really confusing, really fast.

The door to his private headquarters opened quietly behind him, the only sound made being the whoosh of the metal door as it slid open. He turned around to greet his surprise guest. The intruder, another Zone Cop, based on his red-and-gold uniform, entered the room. A single yellow horn protruded from beneath the visor on his helmet, and he sported a long, curly, purple tail.

"Hey, Zonic," the newcomer said, raising his right hand in a lazy salute. Zonic stood up.

"Lieutenant Zespio," he said calmly, returning the salute with swift, accurate movements.

"Always with the formalities, eh Blue?"

"Always," the hedgehog said, dropping his hand to his side. He didn't mind when Zespio or Zector was informal with him during work, but he himself insisted on keeping things official at all times. "Anyway, what is it? I've kind of got something big here that I need to continue to look into, so make it fast," he said, speaking quickly. He glanced occasionally back at the Prime Zone monitor.

Zespio nodded. "Yeah, I know. That's actually what I came to talk to you about. You see, the Commander has taken notice of this 'something big' and requested that you go see her immediately," he said, quick and to the point. The hedgehog groaned.

"Great... Just what I needed. A little pep talk from the new Commander." He sighed and picked his helmet up off of his chair. He slipped the headgear onto his head, squeezing his short blue quills inside. He had previously had worn his quills long, like most other Sonics in the multiverse. However, professionalism called. Besides, he didn't have much use for long, sharp quills like his dimensional counterparts did. "I'll go to see her right away. If you're not busy, mind taking my shift until I get back?" he asked. Zespio smiled.

"No problem," he said. "Good luck. She's not in the best of moods today." Zonic nodded grimly before leaving his office, letting the chameleon handle monitor duty for a bit.

Zonic frowned. He wasn't much in the mood to go talk to the new Commander. Especially if she was going to chew him out for something that wasn't even his fault. His old boss never would have done that. Commander Zally had been great at her job. She was qualified, and respected everyone who worked under her- and in turn, all of the officers that were under her jurisdiction had respected her. A few months ago, she had been promoted and moved to a different district of the Zone Cop Corps, so no one Zonic worked with had seen her in a while. In her place was a new up-and-comer, a "real determined and hard-working officer," as Zally had said. From the limited interaction Zonic had had with his new boss, he had to agree that the new girl had determination. Alas, she also was prone to being too hard on him and his men, and she expected everyone to work at a lightning-fast pace. It was true that Zonic liked his men to get work done quickly too, but he at least was understanding and knew that no one could work that hard for long stretches of time. The Commander had a real fiery personality, there was no denying that.

Zonic stalked through the halls of the precinct until he arrived at the Commander's office. He stood up straight and lowered his visor, as was expected of him, and knocked on the door before sticking his head in. The Commander's office was well-furnished, with a wooden desk, computer, leather chairs, and various certificates and awards decorating the walls.

"You wanted to see me, ma'am?" he said, addressing the purple cat who was sitting behind the desk.

"Ah, Captain Zonic. Yes, come on in," she said, motioning for him to take a seat. Zonic entered the room, closing the door behind him. His expression was unreadable- hard as stone, and with only his mouth visible due to his visor covering his eyes. He sat down in one of the chairs, leaning back and lacing his fingers together.

"So, Commander Zlaze," he said, taking the opportunity to speak first, "what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"It has to do with current events in the Prime Zone. Events which involve a certain blue hedgehog, whom I believe falls under your watch, correct?"

"If you are referring to Sonic, then yes. What do these current events entail, exactly?"

"You know damn well what they entail, officer," Zlaze said coolly. "They are concerned with the fact that there are- as I understand- two Sonics and two Tailses currently in the Prime Zone. However, all of the Sonics and Tailses that we keep tabs on are in their own Zones, aside from Scourge, who is currently locked away behind bars in Zone Jail. So, seeing as you are the officer tasked with keeping watch over all of the Sonics in the multiverse, would you be so kind as to inform me as to what the hell is going on?"

"Yikes, no need to get bitter, ma'am," Zonic said, sitting up straight and clearing his throat. "I was actually just looking into that issue. I believe it has something to do with time travel, not dimensional travel. The extra hedgehog and fox come from a different point in the Prime Zone's history."

"You believe?"

"The issue was only brought to my attention about fifteen minutes ago. I still don't know everything about the situation."

"You seem to know enough. Why haven't you gone to the Prime Zone to investigate the matter yet? You DO know how serious time paradoxes can be, yes?"

"Well, yes ma'am, I do, but-"

"-But you were just about to leave to go to the Prime Zone? Excellent, that is exactly what I wanted to hear, Zonic."

"C-Commander! I can't just go in there, I-"

"Off you go, Zonic. I am very busy at the moment, and I don't have the time to put up with your arguing. Our conversation here is done." Zlaze looked away from Zonic and turned to her computer. Zonic glared at her from under his mask, but said nothing more. He simply stood up, saluted, and walked out the door, closing it with a slam.

He walked back through the hallways to his office, appearing as calm as ever. The hedgehog was certainly glad he was good at covering up his emotions, because he was currently very unhappy.

'What is with her? I haven't even done anything wrong!' he thought. 'It's almost like she's never served as a regular cop before. These things take time to scope out, especially when it's something as sensitive as a time paradox. I don't have any experience with these- NO ONE around here does. And she expects me to just waltz right into Prime Zone, and do what exactly? Go in and yell at some kids for being in the wrong time period? I tried to tell her that there's just nothing I can do about this. But of course, me being an "elite officer" and all, I'm expected to be able to do everything.' He huffed in frustration. He swore, sometimes the whole Zone Cop gig wasn't all it was cracked up to be. 'I can't believe they thought that she would be a suitable replacement for Zally. Just because she's apparently good in a battle doesn't mean she's good at everything.' He shook his head. Now he had no choice but to go to Prime Zone, or else it was likely that he would lose his job. And he wasn't about to let that happen. Zonic sighed. At the very least, he could ask his Prime Zone counterpart about why there were currently two more people living with him than normal. Just because there was nothing he could do about the problem didn't mean that he wouldn't be able to learn more about it.

At that moment, in the Prime Zone, the four residents of the workshop were feeling drowsy after eating so much take-out food. The oldest hedgehog offered to clean up the mess they left in the living room. He took the leftovers to the kitchen, taking a few minutes to make room for them in the fridge. When he returned, however, he found his younger self and the two Tailses curled up on the couch, all of them fast asleep. He sighed, a small grin on his face. 'Looks like we set up that bunk bed for nothing,' he thought. He yawned. He bent down to pick some stray napkins up off the floor, but stopped when something made his ear prick up. It sounded like a low-pitched hum, and was barely audible. Still, Sonic was able to recognize it. He stood up and turned around, finding himself standing face-to-face with a large, orange portal floating in the middle of his living room. He placed his hands on his hips as the portal opened up, revealing an armor-clad, sideways-standing police officer on the other side. The cop didn't look to be in a particularly good mood- then again, he usually looked like that.

"Sonic Prime. It's been a while," he said.

"Yeah, I'll say. Long time no see, Zonic!" Sonic said, flashing a smile. "What brings you over to this little corner of the multiverse?"

"I'll give you one guess," the cop said, his expression remaining stoic. Sonic exhaled through pursed lips as he glanced back at his sleeping friends on the couch. He scratched the back of his head before turning back to face the Zone Cop.

"Fine, get in here. Just be quiet about it, they all just fell asleep." Sonic motioned for the No-Zoner to come in before picking up the napkins that were still on the floor and setting them on the table. The officer crossed the threshold of the portal, the gateway closing up behind him. He stood sideways, floating in mid-air, like always. That was one thing that differentiated No-Zoners from other folks; because their zone was perpendicular to every other zone, they always ended up standing sideways when outside of their own dimension. Sonic had always wondered how exactly they managed to walk in mid-air and avoid walls and things, but he figured that that question didn't have a straight-forward answer, so he never bothered to ask about it. All he knew was that it probably took a lot of practice, as he himself was always extremely disoriented when he was in the No Zone.

"Let's talk outside," the officer suggested. "Don't want to accidentally wake you up and cause any MORE confusion." Sonic playfully punched him in the arm.

"Was that a tiny hint of humor I detect there, Zonic?" he said with a chuckle.

"I don't know. You tell me," Zonic replied blankly. The two went outside into the warm summer air. Sonic closed the front door behind him, and then leaned up against the side of the house. The Zone Cop looked down at him and folded his arms.

"Alright, so what do you wanna know?" Sonic asked nonchalantly.

"What I want to know is where those two kids came from. Am I correct in assuming that they're the past-versions of you and Tails?"

"Mmhmm. Our younger selves. It's kind of a long story, so you might wanna take a seat," Sonic suggested. Zonic shrugged and sat down on the side of the house. Sonic continued. "Alright, so me and some of my friends were just chilling out in this field, eating some food, having a good time. Then, all of a sudden, this gigantic purple and black monster appears out of nowhere, and opens up all these weird time-portals. He sucks everyone up into a different portal, and when I tried to save them, he just swatted me aside and I was knocked unconscious. When I came to, I was in this bizarre, empty, white limbo. The only things I could see in the distance were some colorless hills and cliffs, so I ran towards them. Turns out, it was GreenHill- all lifeless and dead. Once I ran through the place, it lit up like a Christmas tree, and all the colors came back. I ran through a few more places, all of them being places I had been in the past. And as I went along, I managed to save some of my friends, returning color to them too.

"Then, I come to this big, ominous door, right? So I walk in, and I'm in a long, black hallway, with one wall of the place being nothing but mirrors. Well, at least I thought they were mirrors. What I thought was my reflection actually turned out to be another Sonic- you know, the one currently passed out on my couch. We hear Eggman, and he says some stuff, and the two of us take off towards the end of the hallway, where this other huge door was. The little me reached it first, and it closed after he went in. Turns out, he got to battle one of Eggman's big old robots in the Death Egg. After I leave the weird hallway place, we meet up, and we find the younger Tails. We manage to figure out that Eggman had something to do with the monster that had abducted us all, and that the creature was ripping apart space and time. The more we ran, the more color and life was restored to the places and times he had decimated."

"Sounds like one whacked-up adventure, if you ask me," Zonic commented.

"Haha, dude, I think every adventure I've had with you can top the whole time-travel fiasco," Sonic laughed. "Anyways, we eventually restored everything we saw to color, nabbed all seven Chaos Emeralds, and got ready to fight the monster. And, surprise surprise, Eggman was behind the monster- he called it a Time-Eater- all along. And it wasn't just him! He actually had the audacity to recruit his past self to help him out. Can you believe that?" Sonic chuckled. "Anyhoo, we whooped their sorry Egg-butts and sent the Time-Eater packing. The world once again saved, we all went back to the real world, back to the field where we started out. After we hung out there for a little bit, a portal opened up that would take the littles back to their own time. And, as you might have guessed, they didn't make it. The portal closed up before they could get through it. That's why they're staying with us until we can find a way to get them home. You wouldn't happen to know how to make that happen, would you?" he asked the Zone Cop. Zonic shook his head.

"Sorry. Time travel isn't exactly my forte. If they were from another dimension, it would be no problem," he explained. 'Try explaining that to the Commander,' he thought to himself grumpily.

"Oh," Sonic said, a little disappointed. "It's okay, no prob. I just figured, you know, since you actually showed up, I thought you might be able to do something."

"I'll look into it when I get back to No Zone. No guarantees I'll be able to find anything though," Zonic said, standing up. Sonic nodded.

"Alright, thanks," he smiled. "So, how're things in No Zone?"

"Huh?"

"You know, what's up?"

"Ah. Well, Dr. Nega is spreading my forces thin, I've got the new Commander breathing down my neck constantly, and I've been stuck doing monitor duty all week. Nothing but watching all the Sonics of the multiverse, all day every day."

"Jeez, Zonic, you ever do anything besides work?" Sonic asked, raising an eyeridge. The No-Zoner shrugged.

"Zespio and Zector were planning on taking me out tonight for my birthday, but the Commander ordered me to come here to figure out what the deal was with the whole situation going on here. And, well... Duty calls," he said, flipping up the visor on his helmet, revealing his face.

"Oh, man, bummer majores," said Sonic. A light bulb went on in his head as a smile spread slowly across his face. "Wait here," he said, heading back inside. Zonic cocked an eyeridge. 'What's he up to now?' the armor-clad hedgehog wondered. He was left waiting for only a moment, Sonic living up to his name. The speedster emerged from inside the house holding two plates, each one with a slice of cake on it. He handed one of the plates to Zonic with a grin.

"Happy birthday, Zonic," he said as Zonic took the plate of cake from him. The cop couldn't help but smile at this. Even though it was clearly leftovers from Sonic's own birthday cake, it was still birthday cake.

"Thanks, Sonic. You, too."

"Um, you can eat that, right? Because if the whole sideways thing is a problem-"

"Haha, no, I can eat it standing sideways," Zonic chuckled. "Trust me, I have practice with this kind of stuff."

"Okay, cool, just checking," Sonic said with a wink. "I couldn't just let you skip out on birthday fun because of your job. Even if you're practically a workaholic, you need time to chillax. Especially today!" Zonic nodded. He supposed it was true- he did have a tendency to take his work more seriously than he should. He had his reasons for this, of course, but that didn't deter from the fact that he worked almost constantly. It was nice to just kick back and enjoy his birthday for once. He took a bite of the cake- chocolate, his favorite!- and let the pastry rest on his tongue. Okay, he didn't care that the cake was leftover from that afternoon. It was really good.

It didn't take long for the two birthday boys to finish their cake, even with Zonic being forced to eat his at a somewhat awkward angle to make sure it didn't fall off his fork and onto the ground. Sonic let out a powerful burp.

"Oh, man! That's the stuff. Okay, I officially can't eat anything else today. I am stuffed," he laughed. "So, whatcha gonna do now?" he asked, looking up at his dimensional double. Zonic sighed, handed Sonic his empty plate, and flipped his visor back down over his eyes.

"Probably head back to No Zone. I still have work to do, after all. Thanks for the mini-birthday party, though. I needed it."

"Don't mention it! I mean, it's our twentieth. You shouldn't miss out on a little cake-break on your twentieth birthday, dude."

"Agreed," the Zone Cop concurred. "Well, I suppose my work here is done. I'll see you around, Prime," he said. He pressed a button in the center of his metallic belt buckle, which caused a Zone Portal to open up in front of him. He raised a hand goodbye as he leapt through the portal. Sonic waved back as the officer disappeared, leaving him alone outside the workshop. The sneaker-clad hedgehog turned to go back inside, placing his hand on the doorknob and twisted it. It wouldn't budge. He tried again, with similar results. Sonic groaned. He had accidentally locked himself out. Of course. At least it was warm outside.

Sonic jumped up to the roof with ease, placing the empty plates he was holding down on the shingles. He walked over to his bedroom window and pushed up on it. He could see that it was unlocked, but it was stuck fast. He shrugged nonchalantly. He was perfectly fine with sleeping on the roof, anyway, so it didn't really matter to him too much if he couldn't get inside. He laid down on the roof, arms crossed behind his head, quills relaxed so they spread out when his head came in contact with the shingled surface. He looked up at the stars twinkling in the night sky above.

'Well, today's events were... unexpected, to say the least,' he thought. 'Fun, though! Today was probably one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. Lots of me today. Me, my younger self, my double from No Zone... That's more Sonic than I bargained for today, but whatever. As long as Tails and I can get our past-selves back to their own time, we'll be in the clear. And considering little-me and I still have the Chaos Emeralds from when we went Super today, it shouldn't be too hard!' He smiled. This was going to be a cinch. He relaxed, letting his muscles loosen. He snuggled his face into his own quills- it is a little known fact that his quills are actually quite soft and comfortable if relaxed enough- and started to doze off.

"Wait." He shot up and reached inside his quills, where he had a habit of storing things. "Rings, check. Spare house key (hey, that would have been nice to know about a few minutes ago!), check. Chaos Emeralds... Emeralds, emeralds, emeralds, where the heck are those things?!" Sonic looked around for them frantically, thinking they might have fallen when he jumped up onto the roof. "No... No, those things stay put when I'm breaking the sound barrier, they wouldn't fall out of my quills just by me jumping up here. Don't tell me I lost them! Man, with all the time travel shenanigans that happened today, those things could be anywhere!" He held his head in his hands and groaned. He flopped onto his back. "Tails is soooo going to kill me in the morning," he mumbled, feeling like a complete idiot. He would just have to sleep on the roof, in order to put off that encounter until the morning.

Notes: And so concludes chapter three! Hopefully I made everything concerning the Zone Cops clear enough that you don't need prior knowledge about them to understand this chapter. They really don't appear in the comics too much, so I don't have much to go off of. Much of the stuff about the No Zoners here is stuff I've made up.

Sorry for the inherent lack of action and adventure in this story so far! The next chapter will have a bit more oomph to it in terms of that, and once we meet one last character, we can really get this train a'rolling. I'm excited, and hopefully you guys are too! If you are (or even if you're not), feel free to write a review! See you next week!

P.S. Super Mega Blasteroids 9 is a reference to Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, in the episode Bye Bye Nerdy. Obscure reference is obscure.