Ch 14: Time Travel Sucks
A huge bright flash of light appeared three times before three figures sprawled into the ground of the Bamboo Forest. "Oh…. My head." Silver groaned as he held his head.
"What happened?" Blaze asked as she stood up and dusted herself. "Last thing I remember was that Xenon guy murmuring something…"
Elise got up and shook the cobwebs out of her head. "What were you thinking?! Whatever you tried to do something may not have made a difference!" Blaze told her.
"I'm…. not sure what I tried to do really…" Elise frowned as she held out the green and yellow Time Stones. "Xenon has the other four. I don't think we can get back unless we have them."
"Yeah, but where are we?" Silver inured as he looked around. "The place is Bamboo Forest, right? But the area looks newer… don't tell me we went deeper into the past!"
"Looks like it." Blaze nodded. "But why here?"
Elise's eyes widen as she pointed forward. "Look!"
Silver and Blaze turned around to see a Metarex dragonfly dashing right for them. Blaze quickly took it out with a fireball. As it exploded, something fell out. When it dropped, it was shown to be a container full of now broken eggs.
"Eggs? What was it doing with eggs?" Silver blinked as he examined closer.
"That Metarex came from that hole over there." Blaze pointed. "Let's have a look."
The trio dropped into the hole and to their shock, they found everything that was into hole they went into previously, only the gadgets were still up and running, except for the large running wheel in the corner that was charred.
"This is… the Wacky Workbench!" Silver gasped.
"This explains a lot, I guess…" Blaze nodded. "But it still doesn't explain why that Metarex came here to steal some eggs."
Elise was beginning to have an idea on what was going on. She didn't like it, but the egg that the Metarex stole was an important factor. "Do any of you have something to replace those eggs?"
"What for?" Blaze asked.
"I have this." Sliver said as he pulled a blue and white box from his sub-space pocket. He popped the lid open and a foul stench came out of it immediately.
"Silver, what the hell is that?!" Blaze winced as she held her nose.
"Sorry, it was supposed to be my lunch." Sliver sweatdroped as he closed the lid. "I forgot it a few weeks ago."
"That will have to do." Elise said as she took the box and placed it into the refrigerator. Before the two could ask her what was going on, they heard footsteps. They hid behind one of the gizmos and peeked out to see a skinny man with a familiar mustache and glasses wearing a lab coat working on some cooking machines.
"Who's that guy?" Blaze asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"I believe that's Dr. Eggman." Elise answered.
"THAT'S Dr. Eggman?!" Sliver gasped, almost yelling. "But he's so… thin!"
"Hi Ovi!" a juvenile voice squealed from the entrance. A seven year old blue hedgehog wearing a blue pendant and green kiddy shoes ran up from the entrance and to the doctor with his legs a blur.
The younger Eggman turned around and, to the hidden trio's surprise, smiled kindly. "Come right in, Sonic. I'm in the kitchen getting ready."
"So you were right." Blaze whispered in disbelief. "Sonic and Eggman were friends in the past. Sonic looks quite innocent here too."
"So, do we have everything to make the cookies?" The younger Sonic smiled cheerfully as his tail wagged happily.
"I just need to get the eggs and then we are set." Ovi said as he went to the refrigerator.
Elise motioned the other two to follow her and they inconspicuously snuck into the main lab as the younger duo investigated Silver's lunch box. They found a large master computer with codes all over the screen. Six Time Stones were hooked there.
"Elise… just what is going on?" Sliver demanded.
She took a deep breath and explained everything. "Sonic was seven years old when it happen. Remember when I told you about the machine Eggman created to destroy all evil and something went wrong with his machine? I am beginning to have an idea on what happened."
Before anymore questions could be asked, Elise went behind one of the severs, hid behind it and moved closer to the computer. The two partners followed her. As soon as they did, Little Sonic came in dragging a chair. He hopped on to the chair and began to do some work. Elise pricked a feather from her hair and gently blew it at him to take his attention away from the computer. Like any other kid his age, he was distracted and began to look around.
"Silver, can I see that wire you said you had with you?"
He was unsure of what was going on, but gave a mini grappling hook like devise to Elise. She aimed it to the opposite wall and fired. As it hit, it made a soft click sound, but it was loud enough to startle the younger hedgehog.
"Blaze…" She pointed to the computer. "Blow a hole in there."
"What?" Blaze gave her a look. "What for?!"
"Trust me."
Blaze frowned as she stuck her finger out and made a fiery glow. It charged into a large fireball, blasted forward and melted a sizable hole into the side of the machine with flames leaking inside.
WARNING! WARNING! ANGELTRON 1000 HAS BEEN DAMAGED! DAMAGE CRITICAL BEYOND REPAIR!
The young Sonic gasped in shock as he saw it happen. He dashed back into the kitchen to get help.
"OVI! OVI!"
"What is it, Sonic?"
"Your machine! Something's wrong with it!"
The two ran into the room and saw that the machine was now malfunctioning. The hedgehog glanced to the doctor and saw his sad face. Without second thought, he ran to the computer to try and fix whatever caused the problem.
"NO, SONIC! STOP!"
Elise pulled the wire as soon as the young hedgehog crossed. Sonic tripped and made a few clumsy hops before stepping on a cord, pulling it out of place, and falling face first.
"SONIC! ARE YOU O-"
The alarm went louder and the doctor was unable to finish his sentence. He ran over to check on Sonic who was lying in fear with his head covered. Elise closed her eyes with sadness as she knew very well what was about to happen next. "I'm so sorry, Sonic…" she whispered to herself before pulling the wire a second time.
It all happened in slow motion. Instinctively, Ovi reached out for something, and his hand slammed down in the controls. Blaze and Elise screamed as Silver used a shield to protect them from the fiery blast. As it all died down, Silver deactivated the shield.
"Wha… what's all this?!" Blaze gawked.
"Ovi! (cough) Where are you? (cough) (cough)"
"I'm right here, Sonic."
They all turned around to find the young Sonic looking at something in fear. Out of the smoke appeared the now fat and mad scientist looking at him with an evil grin. They knew that face all to well.
"Egg-!!" Silver began to shout, but Elise gagged his mouth. The three ran out of the ruins into the forest and hid in the bamboo trees.
"Everything makes sense now," Blaze pointed out. "Xenon used the Time Stones to warp eight years into the past to prevent Eggman's rising. Without Eggman around, the Metarex would have no competition."
"And that's why he took the Stones away from us," Sliver noted. He heard some sniffing behind him and saw Elise trying to hold back her tears. "Elise? What's wrong?"
"I'm such a horrible person!"
"…What?" Blaze questioned.
"I'm the one who turned Eggman evil! Sonic lost his first friend because of me! It was bad enough that he was killed because of that damn demon within me…. but…."
"Elise…" Silver walked up to her and wiped her tears. "Don't cry. Look, it wasn't just you; me and Blaze had a hand in this too. But we had no choice."
"And you're forgetting one another thing," Blaze continued as she walked behind her partner and warped her arms around him. "Sonic is the one who brought us together in the first place. If it weren't for him, I don't think I would have ever met Silver."
Elise opened her eyes to look at them.
"Also, there's an enemy that we have back in our timeline who clams to be Eggman's descendent," Silver smiled as he let Blaze hold him. "If that's true, then we may not be here. At least we need to be thankful for that."
Elise nodded slowly and stood up. "Your right... I'm sorry I got all emotional there."
"Don't worry about it," Blaze smiled. "Now let's look for those other Time Stones and head back."
It took a while because they were on foot, but they managed to reach Mobotropolis. But when they got there, the saw hundreds of purple armed robots taking the locals captive.
"Are those SwatBots!?" Blaze gawked. "I thought those where Eggman Nega originals!"
"It's worse than I thought!" Sliver shouted as he looked at the destruction. "Eggman campaigned his world domination scheme in less than an hour! The people here must have never seen it coming!"
The jumbo-screen in Times Square emitted static before shitting to Eggman, who was standing proudly in the lab room of Castle Oblivion. "Dr. Eggman's ugly face on the big screen…." Blaze snarled as she gritted her fangs. "Now that's disturbing!"
"Greetings people of Mobius! You may not know me now, but you soon will! I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik, the greatest genus on the planet… no, in the universe! I know this may seem a bit sudden but I have decided to take over the world! I must advise you that all attempts to resist are futile, for I have taken captive… your former leader!" The camera turned to the current ruler of Mobius who was trapped in a glass cell. "So King Maximillian Acorn, on behalf of the Egg Empire, I here by banish you to the Zone of Silence! Any final words?"
"You won't get away with this! The Counsel of Four will stop you!"
"The Counsel of Four? What are they, some kind of super heroes?" The doctor did some cheap karate moves with those Bruce Lee howls, as if to mock him. "Whatever they are, they won't give me any trouble. Farewell, Your Majesty!" He pressed a button, which caused the wall behind Maximillian to open up into a purple void. He tried to grab hold to the floor, but the gravity was too strong.
"You'll pay for this Robotnik…!" The king swore as he was sucked in. The void closed instantly.
The camera turned back to Eggman. "Now that you have all witnessed what I am capable of, I believe that you should all think twice before defying me. For those of you that have not yet figured it out, I am transmitting live from Castle Oblivion of Mobotropolis, my headquarters for the new world! Soon, Mobotropolis will be known as… Eggman Land! The city of the future!"
Elise's fist clenched.
"Any moment now, my forces will reach the rest of the world. I suggest that all of you surrender in a calm and fashionable order so there will not be any problems. If you refuse…" He removed his glasses, exposing his bloodshot eyes, "Let me just say that you won't have to worry about thinking too much ever again!" With that said, the contact ended.
"Sometimes… time travel sucks!" Silver frowned.
"I think we should take a look around the castle." Elise told them.
The trio went to Castle Oblivion and went to the back to try and sneak in. They were about to find an entrance but they found the little blue hedgehog sleeping on a tree with tear marks on his cheeks. He must have believed that it was his entire fault, the poor kid. Elise silently walked up to him, picked him up and cradled him in her arms.
"He's so sad. The poor kid," She frowned as she stroked his head.
"Who would have thought the annoying showoff like him used to be a fragile child like that?" Blaze blinked.
"Behind that constant smile was a frightened kid. I couldn't image," Sliver nodded.
"We might need to take him somewhere. This area isn't safe," Blaze said.
They were about to leave, but then a large thud was heard. They turned around and gasped to find Xenon there. "So you've shown your face a last, huh?" Silver challenged.
Slowly, he pointed at Elise, who was holding the young Azure Wind. "Give me the boy…"
"You mean Sonic? Why?!"
"I sent my men to alter the time stream so that we may be free to rule the universe. You interfered so the only solution is the get rid of one of the children of Mobius."
"We can't let you do that!" Blaze shouted as she charged at Xenon into a Homing Spin. Xenon easily knocked her into the air but she retaliated with fire drill attack. Xenon was hit but he quickly snuffed it away.
"Is that the best you can do?" Xenon taunted.
"Not even close!" Silver shouted as he used blasts of psychic energy to repeatedly knock Xenon. Getting annoyed, Xenon used and electrical bolt to blast Silver back. He fired another to send him even further.
"Silver!" Blaze yelled as she ran up to him. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Silver grunted as he got up. "This guy isn't Dark Oak's second in command for nothing though. We need a little more juice!" He pounded his fists together and digital codes began to manifest all over his body. After a few seconds, the codes vanished and Silver was now wearing black and green spandex.
"Wow! What is that?" Elise gasped.
Without a word, purple Chaos Energy engulfed Silver as he rushed at Xenon with every step he took making huge, heavy cracks on the ground. He slammed into Xenon and crashed through the trees. After all the while, a huge shockwave was heard when the attack ended. The two princesses ran over to see Silver walk out of the huge crater.
"Silver… what is that?" Blaze asked him.
"Oh this?" Silver pointed at his costume. "This is a Chaos Armor that Tails made. It allows me to use my Chaos Powers without needing a Chaos Emerald. It also makes my current abilities twice as strong. Sonic and Shadow also have armors like this."
"You look kinda cute in that suit." Blaze smiled as she rubbed his arms causing him to blush.
Another huge blast was heard and Xenon hovered into the air and landed with a low growl escaping his throat. As he rushed forward, Blaze ran around them with her legs a blur, causing a dusty tornado. Xenon was caught of guard and she took the opportunity to launch flaming blasts to knock him back. Silver followed with a much more powerful psychic blast to knock him into the air. Using Chaos Control, he warped up and kicked him into the dirt. Xenon rolled away as he let loose a series of electrical blasts. Silver blocked them with his shield and then blew them back tenfold, causing more damage. Xenon roared with anger as he used a huge thunderbolt. It went past them but it caused a huge explosion.
"He's way too strong!" Blaze yelled. "We have to finish this now!"
"Got it!" Silver nodded. They created the Psyche Bomb again and threw it at Xenon, making a hole in his armor. Blaze fired a concentrated fire blast in the gash and Silver made a psychic blade to slice him in two.
"Noooo! How can this be?!" Xenon yelled in agony as he exploded in a huge blast of shrapnel. The other four Time Stones sprawled onto the ground.
Silver dismissed his Chaos Armor. "Now that's one less Metarex we can worry about."
"And look at what he dropped." Blaze added as she picked up the Stones.
Elise walked up to them with the hedgehog in her arms still asleep. "It a good thing Sonic's a heavy sleeper I guess."
"Yeah, we still need to get him somewhere safe though." Silver said. Suddenly, the area began to rumble.
"What the?!" Blaze gawked as the ground before them began to open up a little.
"What's going on?" Silver wondered as he jumped into the gap.
"Silver, not now!" Blaze shouted as they jumped after him.
The three went through the gap which turned out to be an underground base. Hiding behind a canister, they found a large black ship with nasty black fumes seeping out. Eggman walked around the ship, checking on his lackeys. "Status report!"
"The weapon is up and running." One of the SwatBots said. "Energy reactor core is in full power. Plasma barrier is at max."
"Excellent!" Eggman laughed. "My new Eggxterminator is just about complete! Soon all of Mobius will be polluted with trash! No one will be able to escape my rule!"
"I don't like this," Silver said. "Let's see what's up there…" Without thinking, he went up to the Eggxterminator.
"Hey! Get back here!" Blaze hissed as they continued to follow him.
They snuck into the Eggxterminator and looked around. It was fairly smaller than the other ships he was *going to build* but that's just because it was the first one. The hallways were fairly small.
"What is this thing?" Elise wondered. "What does he plan to do with it?"
"Eggman said something about polluting the planet. Maybe…" Before Silver could finish, the ship shook and the trio could feel themselves being carried into the air.
"What's going on?!" Blaze gasped.
"Look's like we're taking off!" Elise yelled out over the boom.
"Taking off?! As in flying?!" Blaze stammered.
"Aerophobia, eh?" Elise asked. Silver nodded slowly.
"We have to see where this thing is going." Sliver told her. A boom of adrenaline shook the Eggxterminator and Blaze quickly clinged onto Silver, bridal style.
"I WANT MY MOMMY!"
Sliver just sweatdroped.
As they made their way through the fortress, the machine began doing damage to the planet. The toxic fumes that leaked out of it turned beautiful cities into broken towns, made the water from the rivers dry up, and turned lively forests into dead wastelands. As it passed over a statue of Maximillian, the fumes made it crumble and collapse entirely. An ominous storm followed the Eggxterminator as continued to wreck havoc. The dark sky glowed blood red, very much in the some order whenever the Black Arms appeared. Clouds pooled together as the thunder and lighting grew greater.
It felt longer because of Blaze's phobia, but the trio managed to reach the master control system.
"This must be the central core of Eggman's machine!" Silver said.
"The sooner we can get out of here the better!" Blaze said as her eyes glowed red. She shot out beams of focused heat and melted all of the machinery. The entire ship began to shake.
"Come on, let's go!" Elise shouted. "This fortress is going down!"
********************************************************************
"Sir! The Eggxterminator has been severely damaged! It is crashing down as we speak!"
"WHAT?" Robotnik yelled as he slammed his fist on the keyboard. "What caused it?!"
"As far as we could tell, it was attacked from the inside."
"No! Could those stupid animals be starting to resist me already?! Where is the crash site!?"
"The area is Point Z ~ Area 23761."
"Well, what are you waiting for?! We must confront them at once!!!"
********************************************************************
Silver and the princesses got out of the busted fortress and swatted away the all the fumes. "Well that was fun…" he said with sarcasm.
"Next time stay put! Do you here me!?" Blaze warned.
"Yeah, yeah. Sorry."
Blaze huffed with obvious irritation as Elise just sighed. The three were about to continue on just as some noises from a bush caught their attention. Next thing they heard was were some voices. More specifically, child voices.
"Shh! Keep it down, Mina! They'll see us!"
"Sorry, big brother!"
"We know you're in there, so you can come out," Elise announced.
Slowly, two children walked out of the bush. Both were yellow mongoose siblings. The first one was eleven year old boy wearing a blue vest, jeans and blue sneakers with black hair. The second one was an eight year old girl with a purple shirt and skirt, white stockings and pink sneakers with purple hair.
"Hey…" Blaze blinked, "Aren't those two…"
"Sorry for spying on you," the boy began. "We saw that machine fall from the sky and went to see what it was. What are you going here?"
"We're trying to get this boy somewhere safe," Elise said as she showed them the little blue hedgehog in her arms.
The mongoose girl walked forward to took a look. She giggled brightly as she saw the sleeping hedgehog. "Aww! He's so cute!"
"Well, if you need any help, we can get you guys to a safe place: the domed city of Knothole. Our caretakers are helping anyone they find and bringing them to the city. But we have to get there before the gate closes. I'm Ash by the way; the other one is my sister, Mina."
"Nice to meet you," Silver smiled as he kneeled down. Like Sonic and Shadow, he had a soft spot for little kids. "Can you show us the way?"
"OK!" Mina smiled. "Follow us!"
The two young mongooses lead the way as the five of them went through the road. Soon, they found themselves in front of a cottage. There, they found some other escapees being looked after some elderly human women.
"Clam down everyone! Clam down!" The brunette one called. "We will be leaving shortly!"
"Just hold on a little while more!" The blond one added.
"Etna! Loran!" Ash called as they ran up to them. "We found more survivors!"
"Really?" Edna asked. "And where did you find them?"
"In that flying machine! They said they destroyed it before it reached here!"
"Children," Loran began sternly, "We still know little to nothing about most of these people here. If those three came up of that machine, they could be spies."
"That's what you said about Bunnie, but even though she's half robotized, she's still like us." Mina argued.
Suddenly, another flying fortress appeared in the sky, and hoards of Egg Pawns dropped to the grown and aimed their guns at everyone as they began to panic. Portable Robotizors dropped down as well. Above them, Robotnik gave them the command from his Egg Mobile. "Don't let them escape! Bring them to me dead or alive!"
"Holy crap!" Elise gulped, forget her royal manners for a moment.
"Shoot! He found out about the explosion!" Sliver frowned as he glowed with psychic energy.
"Elise! Get those people out of here!" Blaze shouted as she threw fireballs at the advancing robots.
Elise nodded as she turned two other humans of the crowd. "We have to go, it isn't safe anymore." Both of them nodded as they all tried to get into the cottage. Of course, it was physically impossible to fit they whole crowned in one tine cottage, but there was a secret passage way that could lead them all away to safety.
As Silver and Blaze continued to fend of the robots, Silver noticed a family of foxes being surrounded by some more Egg Pawns. The mother and father were protectively in front of their daughter, who was shuttering in extreme fright. Without thinking, he rushed over to aid them.
"We will not ask again." One Egg Pawn demanded. "Surrender or face the consequences."
"No." The mother said sternly. "We won't join the like of an overweight madman."
"I'd rather die then be turned into a slave." The father added.
As if complying to that statement, the Egg Pawns fired. The girl screamed as the shots rang out. When it finally stopped the mother and father fell to the ground, dead.
"No, no, no!" The girl screamed as she shook them, "Mommy! Daddy!"
The Egg Pawns were about to shoot the little girl but were soon bathed in green light as they levitated. They exploded and Silver appeared out of the smoke as he scooped the girl into his arms.
"We have to go," Was all he said as he ran to catch up with the mob.
"Why?" the girl whimpered as tears flowed out of her blue eyes. "Why would he do that? They were my mommy and daddy…"
"I wish I could answer that question…" Silver said sadly. He knew how she felt though. The sadness of being an orphan was unforgettable. As he reached the end of the mob, he ran into an eight year old red head squirrel girl who bore some resemblance to Maximillian. "Can you help this girl get inside?"
As if not trusting her voice, she simple nodded as she took the fox girl by her hand and both went after the disappearing mob. As Silver got back to the fight, he felt his arm being held by a strong grip. It was then that he found himself face to face with Robotnik. "Who are you?"
"Someone you're going to learn to hate," Silver retorted.
"I already hate you," the fat man said darkly.
"I don't know how or when but one day soon, you'll pay for everyone you've hurt."
"Ooh! I'm shaking in my pants!"
"Screw you, pal!" Silver declared his eyes glowed green. Without warning, Silver blew him back with a burst psychic energy. As he landed, his right arm got caught in a Robotizor and shocked him. Robotnik yelled in pain as it happened but he managed to pull it away, but not without side affects. He slowly pulled of his glove found that his arm was now bionic. Snarling, he turned to Silver and Blaze with an angry look. "Grr… get them… GET THEM!"
"Silver, the survivors have escaped!" Blaze told him. "Let's move!"
The two threw out a double team attack to keep the Robotnik and his army back and quickly went into the cottage. There the found Elise, Ash and Mina waiting.
"Is everyone safe?" Silver asked.
"Yeah, they're heading to Knothole as we speck." Ash nodded.
"Now we just have to get inside and close this door." Mina said.
Without word, Elise handed the young hedgehog to the mongoose siblings and pushed the children into the doorway. "Get going you two."
"Wait, are nuts?!" Ash gawked.
"What about you?" Mina gasped.
"We know were we need to go." Silver reassured as he turned the switch to close the door. "Now go, before he comes back!"
"And tell him that your caretakers found him! Whatever you do, don't mention us too him!" Elise added. The bother and sister could only watch as the door closed in front of them, the awakening hedgehog with them.
"Time to go back." Blaze said as she as she brought out the Time Stones. "Time Warp!" She activated the Time Stones to send them to the moment in the present just when the vanished. Three bright flashes and they were gone just like that. As soon as they were, shots opened fire everywhere. As it cleared, Robotnik and his lackeys stepped in and looked around.
"Humbug! How could a crowd just vanish into a cottage!?" He continued to search around but found no trace. He looked at his bionic arm and angrily made a metallic fist. "They did this to me… as soon as I find that hedgehog, cat, and girl, I'll know just what to do with them!"
"…What happened?!" Zelda blinked in shock. The last thing that happened was the hedgehog, the cat and the girl who suspiciously looked like Raphael vanished when that freak Xenon activated the Time Stones.
"They disappeared… just like that!" Cream stammered.
"But how will they-!" Sonic was cut off but three bright flashes. After the final flash, the lost trio was right in front of them.
"Hey, you guys are one piece!" Ash smiled as he ran up to them. "What about Xenon?"
"Gone and never coming back." Silver smiled.
"We took the Times Stones back too." Blaze added as she showed them the Stones.
"Cool, he didn't give you any problems, did he?" Sonic asked.
"You wouldn't believe us," Elise smiled.
"Well, we should get going. There's still one last Time Stone to get…" Shadow said.