Chapter 109: Negative

"Whew!" Sonny said as he emerged from a large olympic-sized swimming pool filled with coral and robotic fish of all shapes and sizes that was on the planet Eggman called Aquarium Park. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when Sonic and I could swim underwater."

"Neither did I," Miles said while Yacker nodded in agreement. "Of course, the feat was made possible when you absorbed the Yellow Wisp and turned into that drill-shaped thing."

"True," Sonny looked over at the Yellow Wisp and waved to it. "Thanks, buddy."

The Yellow Wisp spun around joyously and floated away.

"The Wisps really seem to like you," Miles noted.

"Maybe it's because I'm not trying to enslave them," Sonny replied.

"Or because they recognize Sonic's spirit when they merge with you," Miles suggested. "I mean, according to Yacker, Sonic is considered to be an eternal hero to them."

"Well, that's comforting." Sonny then noticed a generator several feet away and said, "I'm going to go shut down that generator. See if you can find those missing satellites somewhere on this planet, Miles."

"Sure thing," Miles said and transformed into Tails so he could fly away along with Yacker.

In a few moments, Sonny came up to the generator and was about to shut it off when Eggman's voice blared over the loud speakers. "While you're in Aquarium Park, be sure to visit Eggman's number one restaurant for underwater-dining, the Bucket O'Sushi! Now with fish!"

"Ugh, sounds disgusting," Sonny muttered.

Just then, a large mechanical koi fish appeared right beside him making noises as it scales shifted and its robot eyes opened and shut.

"Oh, you don't like my review of your restaurant?" Sonny said mockingly as he transformed into Sonic. "Then give me your best dishes so I can clobber them!"

As the giant fish submerged under the water, Sonic followed behind and swam onto the fish which turned out to be the deck of a ship. While the ship threw tracking missiles at him, Sonic swam rapidly towards a switch which caused the fish to sink further. Then before Sonic ran out of air, he found the Yellow Wisp who helped him earlier and merged with it to form the Yellow Drill which he used to slam into the robot that was piloting the fish which wore a white lab coat and had a bald head. Once he did this a couple of times, the robot exploded and Sonic flew triumphantly out of the water back onto the platform where the generator was. While Sonic changed back into Sonny as the Yellow Wisp left his body, Tails appeared along with Yacker.

"How did it go, Sonny?" Tails asked as he changed back into Miles.

"Pretty good," Sonny said breathlessly. "Though I wish there was some way I could maintain Sonic's form after each Wisp I absorb leaves my body."

"I'm not sure if that's possible," Miles said then he suddenly clutched his stomach and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Sonny asked.

"I stopped by the Bucket O'Sushi while looking for the satellites, and let's just say that Eggman's cruelty knows no bounds."

###

After taking a ride on a roller-coaster that looped around several asteroids and artificial planets floating around the fourth Wisp Planet known as Asteroid Coaster, Sonic came across a dark purple Wisp with a horn-shaped head, no eyes, a jagged mouth, and sleeve-like arms. As several robots ran towards him and his way was blocked by several large crates made of black and silver material, Sonic desperately merged with the Purple Wisp which transformed him into a dark purple version of the Cyan Laser which had massive teeth that devoured everything in its path including the robots and crates. During all this, Sonic lost control of himself and by the time the Wisp left his body he collapsed onto the ground.

"Sonic!" Miles said and ran over as Sonic changed back into Sonny. "Are you okay?"

Sonny groaned as he got to his knees and then he started uncontrollably shivering. "I got that same feeling again."

"What feeling?"

"The same one I felt when I became that…Werehog version of Sonic a while back."

"When you merged with that Purple Wisp?"

All of a sudden, Yacker started making loud noises causing Miles to pull out his PAD. Once he read the numbers, Miles' face looked grim. "Remember when Yacker told me about how Eggman is substituting the Wisps he drains Hyper-go-on energy from with some kind of energy that's dark and evil?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, that Wisp you merged with just now was one of them and they're apparently called Nega-Wisps."

"Nega-Wisps…" Sonny looked astray as he got to his feet still shivering. "I bet there's a factory around here that's converting the Wisps Eggman's captured into those things."

Yacker nodded and flew off in a particular direction with Sonny and Miles following behind.

###

"Well, I don't know where Yacker went, but I think we found the factory," Sonny said looking at a large room filled with thousands of Nega-Wisps inside capsules with tubes connecting to a larger capsule where Nega-Wisps were being dumped into from a machine above that had several conveyor belts leading out from it where dozens of Wisps inside smaller capsules were being fed into the machine.

"It seems Eggman has found new ways of using the Scepter of Darkness' energy for power," Miles said. "Or in this case, conversion."

"We got to rescue these poor aliens," Sonny said. "But in the meantime, I've got a generator to shut down."

"Right," Miles nodded. "I'll go look for Yacker."

Sonny then transformed into Sonic and ran out of the factory towards the generator only to come across yet another ship-shaped robot with green tubes pumping underneath it.

"Hey, you!" Sonic shouted. "I don't like what you're doing to my friends here! It's horrible and I'll be glad to take you down in less than ten-seconds if I don't pull a muscle!"

To be continued…