Chapter 16: The Brawl of Four Worlds Part 1

Deep inside the Final Fortress, Shadow breaks out of Chaos Control with Metal Sonic still in tow over his right shoulder. He had found himself inside of a corridor without any security cameras or robot guards, and with the sanctuary of this area at his fingertips the black hedgehog lowers the robotic doppelganger against the wall in front of him and looks straight at him, stating in a quiet tone of voice "Alright, let's see what you're hiding Metal Sonic…"

Shadow reaches into the back of Metal Sonic's head, opening up a metal plate around there while leaning the head forward to get a good look at what the circuitry looked like once he tossed the plate aside. There was a specific button on the back that grabbed Shadow's attention, and he pressed it and pushed Metal Sonic back against the wall so the eyes could project video footage onto the ground in front of him.

The black hedgehog stands up and jumps beside the video projections as it activates. There is a bit of static at first, but most of it vanishes as Metal Sonic is reactivated by Eggman. The doctor stands before the metal doppelganger with arms spread out after he dropped a door that the robot was kept behind inside one of Eggman's bases. "Wake-up Metal Sonic! It's time for you to be put to good use once more!"

Metal Sonic lifts his head up obediently and a red glow fills the lower quality footage, but the voice that speaks afterwards belongs neither to Metal Sonic nor Eggman…Or specifically, the Eggman of the present. "So eventually I'm going to create a robot clone of Sonic? Huh, that's definitely not one of our worst sounding ideas…" The second voice belonged to the Eggman from the past, who was shorter and more cartoon-ish looking than the Eggman everyone knows today.

Metal Sonic turned to face the younger Eggman due to recognizing the voice, even if it did sound somewhat younger. The present day Eggman gestured at his younger self and commented "You won't be thinking that for long, trust me…If you can remember it, put a muzzle on his self-thinking capabilities, it will save you one extra failure."

"I'll keep that in mind…But if this robot is so much of a failure, why are you bothering to use him?" The younger Eggman asks. The present Eggman flicks one of his fingers against his mustache and responds with an honest "I need all the help I can get to set up my final plan to deal with Sonic once and for all. I will be pooling nearly ALL of my resources to stop that blasted hedgehog and secure my rule of the world for good!"

Eggman pumps his fist in front of his body and sounds triumphant, but his younger self has little faith in the idea and mentions to him "Do you really even HAVE that much left to use? I don't understand how we could have made all of these robots and battleships without eventually running out of resources."

The present Eggman responds with "You'll figure that out in due time my young, handsome friend. In the mean time though, you should have more faith in my plans. Before I went through time to erase my past mistakes, I had begun work on a grand battleship that will surpass all others in size. Not only that, but I still have plenty of Dark Gaia energy, Hyper-go-on Energy, Metal Sonic, Orbot and Cubot, the designs for all of my past creations, and my secret weapon."

"I don't even know what any of that means." Past Eggman bluntly points out, to which the present one goes on to mention "You will someday."

"Don't you mean I will soon?" Past Eggman asks. Present Eggman taps his glasses up an inch and points out bluntly "That's not possible. I am going to send you back to the past as soon as I can so we don't risk a time destroying paradox if you were to somehow perish."

"And we already didn't risk that enough when you pulled me from the past to help you with that Time Eater mech?!" Past Eggman angrily states.

Present Eggman glares at his past self and says to him "I should have expected this level of stubbornness from myself. Listen Eggman, I don't need your expertise in the present anymore since now I have another partner to help me stop that blue hedgehog."

"Please, my handsome future self…But you are naïve if you think that madman will go through with your plans all the way. From the sound of things you two have not only been on opposite sides before, but when you have teamed up you have failed to accomplish your goals." Past Eggman explains.

"Those failures are part of the past, they have no impact on how we will handle things now. Things will be different, especially now that he brought up an interesting idea…" Present Eggman takes a moment to walk in front of his past self in a prideful stride as he goes on to explain "Recall how our last effort worked out. We had both Sonics defeated at our feet, but they still managed to regain strength and defeat us…And what triggered this event? Why, it was none other than all of their friends cheering them on."

"…And your point is what exactly?" Past Eggman asks in a frustratingly confused tone of voice. The present one responds with a slick smile on his face filled with devious intent as he states "I shall let you in on a little secret…Remember the Hyper-go-on energy I mentioned earlier? It's a type of energy produced only by the Wisps, and by harnessing it is possible to create constructs depending on which type of Wisp you extract the energy from. But by inverting the energy, you create a power capable of infecting the mind and subjugating it under one's control."

Past Eggman tilts his head and says "I still don't get it." Present Eggman turns to look at his younger self and says straight to his face "By utilizing the Nega Hyper-go-on energy that I managed to keep from my second-to-last failed plan, I will capture and mind-control all of Sonic's friends, turning them against him and making sure that in his hesitation to fight back, he'll fall before them!"

Past Eggman's eyes light up at this ingenious idea, and in a confidently spoken tone he states "Ohohoho! That will surely prove to be the downfall of that irritating blue pest!"

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to use the energy on his best friend Tails. The fox will be immune since I had already used it on him once before. But there are plenty of others to pick from, so I am not concerned." Present Eggman says as an eerie smile crosses his face.

"And what if this plan fails?" Past Eggman points out the one obvious flaw in this whole idea, but his present self goes on to state "Then they will at least prove to be a great distraction. My end-game is not just the elimination of Sonic, after all. To rule the world, I need to secure absolute dominance over all major powers. To that end, I will create a machine so powerful in design that nothing in this world will be able to stand up to it."

"E-Even more powerful than the Time Eater?!" Past Eggman was both impressed and frightened by the prospect his future self ran by him, and as Present Eggman swung his arms out beside himself he stated "Yes…I will combine Dark Gaia Energy, Nega Hyper-go-on Energy and the Negative qualities of the Chaos Emeralds together as fuel for my ultimate weapon. The world will be mine once and for all! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Shadow comments as the footage reaches this point "So that is Eggman's endgame…" Even though he now knew the doctor's goals, there was something about what was said in the video that made him want to search through it further. Reaching into the back of Metal Sonic's head, Shadow presses another button to jump ahead to a later point in time, where the past Eggman can be seen walking through a temporary time rift that would send him back to his proper time period.

After the past Eggman vanishes, the present day Eggman turns away from the collapsing rift and says to his other visitor "Now that that matter's out of the way, we should get back to work on our projects. Unfortunately, since we were forced to captured Shadow and Rouge prematurely, we will need to push up the launch of our assault before G.U.N. comes after us, which in turn will grab Sonic's attention. It is quite bothersome I assure you, but if our mind-controlled minions do as commanded they should be able to distract them long enough for us to finish our main goals."

Eggman nudges his glasses up an inch and says to his visitor "And yes, that includes Orbot, Cubot and Metal Sonic too…I am glad that we could put aside our past indifferences to work for this common cause…"

The person in question starts to walk into Metal Sonic's view, at which point Shadow's eyes widen briefly and he states calmly "…It all makes sense now." He doesn't let Eggman state the person's name before he shuts off the video footage and quickly stands back upright. Once there he turns around and says "I need to get to the top of this fortress. There's no time to waste now…" before he sprints off down the hallway.

Back at the front of the Final Fortress, Team Sonic and Riku have managed to take a dash pad that launches them into the expansive battleship, which was reconstructed perfectly down to the last nut and bolt. Landing atop a steel rectangular platform, the four heroes make a quick sprint towards a glowing yellow grind rail as the platform collapses upon them making contact with it.

"Heh, leave it to Eggman to not fix the flaws in his machines the second time around." Sonic comments as his shoes create sparks along the rail as he grinds down it. Riku opts to fly beside the three heroes instead of taking the rail, though the sting of sparks flowing off of Sonic's shoes makes him rise up a bit after a few seconds as they touch his eyes and make him flinch.

At the end of the grind rail a spring launches Sonic, Tails and Knuckles far through the air, taking them to a walled in corridor filled with more of the collapsing platforms. Riku comments at this point "I don't even get why Eggman rebuilt this thing. Seems like a waste to me."

As Team Sonic scales the platforms and looks for the spring that will take them out of this semi-dangerous area, Tails jokingly comments "Like this is any different from Eggman's usual tactics. Seriously, if Sonic doesn't spend more than thirty seconds on something, then it was a waste of time for Eggman to focus on."

"Can't you say that about everything he's made?" Sonic quips as the three heroes land on the spring and bounce up towards some more stable platforms.

Tails smiles and says to the blue hedgehog "I don't know, remember that time on Angel Island when you spent more than a minute dealing with that barrel?"

Sonic skids to a stop for just a moment, causing both Tails and Knuckles to ram into his backside and collapse backwards. The blue hedgehog turns around and looks at his yellow fox, saying to him in a chiding tone of voice "Tails! I told you to never bring that up again!"

The yellow fox gets back on his feet alongside Knuckles and comments "Heheh, come on Sonic, it's a little funny when you think about it."

The blue hedgehog scratches the side of his head and says in a somewhat distressed tone of voice "Maybe for you Tails. I sure didn't enjoy it very much."

Knuckles interjects to the conversation by pointing out "I didn't enjoy it either. I mean Eggman built an amusement park right into Angel Island and blocked off the best parts with that annoying unbreakable barrel."

Tails turns to the red echidna and says "But Knuckles, how could you ever have time for an amusement park when you need to protect the Master Emerald?"

Knuckles is about to respond to that when Riku interrupts Team Sonic and gestures towards the tower in the distance simultaneously "Guys, I know you love your banter, but don't forget that we have an egg to crack."

Sonic turns around and points a finger at Riku, saying to him with his grin renewed "I haven't forgotten anything. Come on Tails and Knuckles, lets get our momentum back up!" With a swing of his hand as he glances back at his two friends followed by a nod of the head from them both and a comment reflective of their personalities, Team Sonic and Riku continue to sprint through the Final Fortress to chase down Eggman at the end of it all.

Thanks to knowing how this fortress operates, Sonic and pals are able to breeze through it with easy. As they reach the final set of grind rails filled with laser cannons firing upon them, Tails takes a moment to call out the colors of the lasers for old time's sake "Red Laser! Green Laser! Yellow Laser! Green Laser! Green Laser! Red Laser!"

"You have to wonder why he only used three laser colors…" Knuckles comments in a duller tone than Tails' enthusiasm. The yellow fox responds with as he leaps over a laser and lands on another rail "Well come on Knuckles, a brown laser wouldn't look cool at all now would it?"

After a few more seconds of high-speed grinding, Team Sonic is launched onto a large platform with nothing on it save for one familiar face. Once on the ground Sonic wastes little time in commenting with a look of surprise and confusion on his face "Shadow? How did you manage to get here before us?"

The black hedgehog turns to his blue counterpart and cuts past the question, saying to him in a calm yet serious tone of voice "I found out what Eggman's goals are…And just who his second partner is."

Tails and Knuckles flinch in surprise while Sonic cracks a smile and Riku remains stationary beside the blue hedgehog. Sonic asks "Well Shadow, it's not nice to keep someone waiting. Whatcha got for us?"

Shadow looks at his four allies and starts to say "Eggman is working with-" but suddenly the platform they are all standing on jolts up slightly, breaking him off in the middle of his conversation as the platform itself rapidly rises into the air, spinning around all the time to try and disorient the heroes.

Sonic and Shadow kneel down and focus all of their strength into keeping themselves steady while Knuckles digs his knuckles into the ground and Tails uses his arm cannon to magnetize himself to the ground. Riku looks up calmly as the area distorts around him, noticing a gargantuan arena in the sky coming rapidly into view with the tower adorned with Eggman's face visible on the end of it as the platform locks into place in the hole at the southern end of the arena.

When the platform locks into place, everyone stands back upright and directs their attention towards the tower. It was certainly as large and egoistically designed as Sonic remembered it being, but it had a little bit of a menacing feel to it thanks to the stormy atmosphere that still presides over the Egg Continent. The arena is covered in rugged red and white metal tiles with a ring of electricity residing around it, and as the five heroes finish scanning the arena they look up to see a holographic screen appear in front of the tower. Unsurprisingly, Eggman was on the screen with his arms outstretched on both sides of his body as he proclaimed to the heroes "Welcome! I finally have you all right where I want you!"

Sonic brandishes his pointer finger at Eggman and says to him "Ha, you wish Eggman! We have you right where WE want you! You shouldn't be so overconfident since we trashed all of your plans!"

Tails glances off to the left for a moment upon hearing a strange noise amidst the cracks of thunder, and upon raising his eyebrows suspicious he points out to his friend "Ummm Sonic…I think you should take a look at this…"

The blue hedgehog glances to the left nonchalantly at Tails' suggestion, saying as he does so "What's got you in a funk Taiiiiiiiiiils?!" Sonic's last word slurs out as he becomes quickly surprised by what he sees. Riding in his fashionably sleek Egg Mobile away from the Egg Continent is…Eggman?

As Team Sonic expresses disbelief at what they were seeing, the Eggman on the screen starts giggling like a madman, his voice taking on a slightly more high-pitched tone as he does so. Shadow confronts the Eggman on the screen with one brandished finger and a louder voice than usual "This game ends now. I know who you really are…Eggman Nega!"

Team Sonic turns back around to face the screen, with Sonic raising his arms up and nearly fall on his back in surprise while Tails and Knuckles gasp at this bit of news and state "Eggman Nega?!" At the same time.

The Eggman on the monitor grasps his right glove around his face and tears off the disguise he wore in an instant. Underneath the disguise was someone who looked exactly like Eggman in physique, only he had a silver bushy mustache, a more futuristic set of goggles atop his head, a black and yellow suit atop a red body covering, and black-yellow striped shoes. Still breaking into laughter out of enjoyment for everything that has happened up until this point, Eggman Nega stops only once Shadow says to him "What's so funny?"

Eggman Nega pulls his hand away from his face and responds to the black hedgehog in a somewhat unhinged manner "What do you think you annoying little black hedgehog?! I'm laughing at how easily we managed to deceive you into thinking there was only ONE Eggman running this operation!"

Shadow grumbles a bit at what Eggman Nega was saying, since in truth he should have realized what was going on long before he looked at Metal Sonic's video feed. Sonic points at the screen and proclaims "Geez, you're becoming just as persistent as your counterpart Nega! What, was Blaze giving you too much of a hard time in her dimension?!"

For once, Knuckles actually points out Sonic's wrong use of words here and says to him "Ummm Sonic…Eggman Nega's from the future. He's Eggman's descendant."

The blue hedgehog gets a disgusted look on his face for a moment as his bravado fades away and he turns to face Knuckles, saying to him blankly "I really didn't have to hear that Knuckles…Thanks a lot buddy."

Nega corrects both heroes quickly, saying to them in a deviously spoken manner "Actually, you are both right. Not only am I Eggman's descendant, but I am also the Sol Dimension's greatest villain! You see, since Eggman failed so often at conquering this world, I came back to the past and traveled to the Sol Dimension to try and conquer it before it became impossible to do so in my future! After all, if I couldn't be taken seriously in my own dimension, why not show another one that the Eggman lineage meant business?!"

Sonic looks back at Eggman Nega and says to him in a jovial tone "Yeah well you screwed that plan up big time, didn't ya? Guess you really are Eggman's descendant, hahaha…"

Sonic's laughter causes Eggman Nega to fume in rage, and he angrily declares "You blue infidel, if it wasn't for you and your descendants the Eggman lineage would never have been turned into a complete and utter joke by my time!"

The blue hedgehog responds with a kindly gesture and a simply spoken "Nah, you guys probably would have became a joke even without my help. I mean come on, who would take your mechanical bugs seriously?"

Nega slams his fists down on the keyboard in front of him, putting static onto the screen for a brief moment as his face turns a light shade of red and he declares "Enough out of you, you horrid little hedgehog! This shall be the moment of triumph for the Eggman lineage, where we avert my future and create a permanent Eggman Empire!"

Shadow says towards Eggman Nega with arms folded calmly against his chest "How did you even get back here? Last I checked you were trapped in Ifrit's Dimension."

Eggman Nega calms down and grins menacingly, saying in response to the black hedgehog's question "Hehehe…I suppose there is no harm in revealing that. After all, last you knew of me and my grandfather were not exactly on the best of terms, so how did we end up teaming up?"

"It all starts in Ifrit's Dimension, like Shadow so kindly brought to your attention…I was trapped under heavy amount of rubble thanks to that irritating Silver and his chameleon companion…With the portal back to Earth sealed off, I was left alone to break my way out, an endeavor that took quite a while until a random quake pushed most of the rubble off and freed me. From there I went on to gather all the spare technology I could from that broken, charred dimension in order to build a way out of there.

It took probably many months, but I finally managed to create a drill that would pierce through the dimensional wall trapping me inside. Imagine my surprise though when I found myself in a white void between dimensions, and who would I find but Eggman and his younger self meandering around. I had broken into an empty void of time that existed between dimensions, and after finding out what the two Eggmen were doing I offered them freedom back to Earth…On one condition.

Eggman and I would team-up again to try and take over the world by stamping you out for good. I was the one who suggested to him that he use the Nega Hyper-go-on energy to mind-control your friends, but he decided to take the idea even further after a bit of inspiration from his last failed plan. He told me he had a secret weapon in mind that would be powerful enough to stop Sonic or anyone else that would dare try to oppose him, but to fuel this weapon he'd need three types of energy.

Dark Gaia energy, Nega Hyper-go-on energy, and the negative qualities of the Chaos Emeralds. If he could acquire all three sources, then nothing would stand in his way and the world would become the Eggman Empire, thus preventing our lineage from becoming a complete and utter joke! Thus with my assistance and his low-tech Metal Sonic, we captured all of your closest friends and implanted them with Nega Hyper-go-on energy, while we also worked on our own separate projects along with a combined one…The Egg Continent you stand on this very moment!"

Eggman Nega's story comes to an end, leaving more questions than they do answers. Sonic addresses one of them right off the bat, stating to Nega "Ha! If Eggman's planning on swiping energy from the Chaos Emeralds, he's out of luck! I have all seven of them on me right now! He's wasting his time!"

Nega's grin widens as far as it possibly could, and he says to the blue hedgehog "Now…Who said anything about him drawing energy from the Chaos Emeralds? There is more than one way to get negative Chaos Emerald energy…And Angel Island holds the secret to this end."

Knuckles is puzzled by this, and with a tilt of his head he says "H-Huh? Angel Island?" Nega responds to the echidna's bewilderment by stating "Of course. The birthplace of the Chaos Emeralds still holds many secrets, some of which even it's guardian does not know. But that isn't the only thing with a secret up it's sleeve…"

Sonic states towards Nega with a wag of his pointer finger "Oh please Eggman Nega. I freed all of my friends, crushed all of your robots, and I have all seven Chaos Emeralds in my possession. I mean hey, if you want to bust out one more machine then go right ahead, I'll crush it and go deal with Eggman with time to spare!" The blue hedgehog pounds his fist against one of his palms and smirks after saying all that.

Nega, with his grin ever-present, says to the cocky hedgehog "Oh? Who ever said I was done with your friends? Let me tell you something…Shadow. Knuckles. Amy. Cream. The Chaotix. Rouge the Bat. E-123 Omega…All of them have been your ally at some point or another, but isn't there someone you might have forgotten to consider?"

Sonic gasps in shock, and says in a jokingly fearful tone "No! You wouldn't dare send Big the Cat to fight me, would you?!"

Eggman Nega's grin fades out into an annoyed scowl as he proclaims "No you idiot! That's not who I'm talking about!"

The blue hedgehog then raises his right hand up and counts off other names while tapping down on his fingers "Emerl? Bean the Dynamite? Bark the Polar Bear? Dare I say, Mighty the Armadillo?" With each time Nega say an increasingly angered "NO!"

While Sonic and Nega exchanged this banter with one another, Riku glanced off to the left and tried to slowly creep away from the scene, thinking to himself "I need to chase after the real Eggman before he gets to Angel Island. Sonic and the other should be able to handle Nega…"

As the teenage Overlord leaps into the air ready to take flight, however, he is suddenly grabbed by a telekinetic force and covered in a field of light-green energy. With his body froze in place, he is helpless as he is swiftly slammed against the ground with enough force that it distracts Sonic away from the monitor to look at the boy. "Huh? What's going on here?"

The blue hedgehog turns back ahead as a ball of fire nearly burns his face clean off. "Whoa!" He proclaims as he looks forward and sees the person responsible for the attack standing in the near-center of the arena. It was a light-purple furred cat wearing a regal violet outfit with white pants. Her hair was bundled up by a ruby clip on the back of her head, making it look a lot like the flames that burned out around her left glove. The cat stared blankly at the heroes with her golden eyes, but she was not the only one who shared in this action.

Floating in mid-air off to the right of her thanks to telekinesis was another hedgehog of silver coloring. His hair was arranged above his forehead in five different directions, with two ears stuck between them on both sides. He wore gloves with light-blue runs etched onto them that reached towards the cybernetic-looking bracelets around his wrists. His shoes had aquamarine toes and black stripes on both sides leading up to two more bracelets right below his kneecaps. He was also covered in the same light-green aura that captured Riku, though he shuts it off and lands on the ground at Eggman Nega's command just a moment later.

"Silver? Blaze?! You got to be kidding me, not you too!" Sonic proclaims with a look of utter shock on his face.

Eggman Nega takes delight in explaining to the blue hedgehog "Always cover all of your bases…And what better way to destroy you then by using my two greatest arch nemesis's power against you! Oh, and by the way…"

Nega presses down on a button in front of his body, and in an instant the front of the tower opens up and launches two large metal cuffs through the air. Knuckles is captured by one of the cuffs and pulled far enough away from the rest of the group that he is launched off of the arena, followed by Tails being clasped around the tails and sent after Knuckles. Sonic quickly runs to the edge of the arena, with the electricity stopping him from going far enough to grab Tails and pull him back to safety. The yellow fox lets out a fearful proclamation of "Sonic!" as he falls, and the blue hedgehog responds to this with an equally frightened "Tails, no!"

With Tails' fate unknown as he continues to fall towards the Final Fortress, Sonic turns around and glares at Eggman Nega angrily, and after running back beside Shadow he whips out the Chaos Emeralds and changes into his Super form while declaring "You'll pay for this Nega! Come on Shadow, let's get ready to rumble!"

The black hedgehog nods his head in agreement, and with the Chaos Emeralds in his presence he too changes into his Super Forms, which replaces all of his black fur with gold and does little else besides that. Staring down at two super-powered hedgehog from behind his monitor, Eggman Nega states confidently "You think I'm scared of you two? I was waiting exactly for this moment…This is why I didn't send these two after you sooner after all!"

Giving commands to both Blaze and Silver, Eggman Nega watches as the cat pulls out seven different colored emeralds shaped somewhat like rectangles. Using them, Blaze is covered in a massive pillar of fire that transforms her into a different form. Her fur becomes a bright pink and her jacket turns a burning red, with her cuffs becoming engulfed in magenta flames and her body is surrounded in a red aura that resembles the hottest of flames.

Meanwhile, Silver utilizes the Chaos Emeralds to transform, gaining a bright golden-yellow color fut with his mane becomes a darker yellow color that floats up behind his head. His eyes become a ruby red color, and the glow on his gloves, cuffs and boots become bright yellow as a golden aura surrounds his body. Sonic comments in a surprised tone of voice "What?! Silver can use the Chaos Emeralds as well?!"

Eggman Nega grins and mentions "Is that really so surprising? Blaze, Silver, destroy these three interlopers for your master!" With this order declared, Super Silver and Burning Blaze nod their heads and glare angrily at their opponents ready for battle.

However, before it could truly begin, a flash of piercing white light drops across the arena, causing everyone gathered to turn and look at Riku, who had now changed into his Light form as he lifted himself up off the ground. He quickly sheathed his katana though and folded his arms in front of his chest as he glared up at Eggman Nega, saying to him in a calm yet subtly irritated tone of voice "Your victory won't be easy Eggman Nega…Not so long as I'm around."

Eggman Nega scowls at the boy's ever-present presence and says to him "Yes, your existence here has been very, VERY troublesome for all of our plans so far…Rest assured boy, I will wipe you out along with the rest of my opposition. There is no escape now, prepare to die!"

Next Time: Fatal Five-Way Brawl