It seemed like a peaceful day at the shopping market in Mobotropolis and Sonic and Sally were exiting a comic book store with it being the day of the week's new releases; "I can't wait to see how this concludes... This is so far the best storyline that the Dark Bat comics has had in years!" Sonic grinned looking at the top of stack of comics that he had purchased.
"I am excited to see what gags are in Crack Ups!" Tails said excitedly looking at the top of his comics stack; the humorous satire and gags comic Crack Ups. They looked up and saw that Nicole who was waiting outside was skipping around in glee; ignorant of the passerbys who were doing their best to walk around her and those who ended up going through her got confused.
"Oh Sorry Sonic, Tails... I know that I don't need to actually use my legs and I can't feel it physically really but I couldn't help myself... After so many years unable to walk about; all this freedom... I was just so excited... You must think that I'm a dork." Nicole said apologetically but then Sonic and Tails shook their heads and Sonic then rushed to her side and put his arms around her shoulder area, making sure that he didn't pass through her.
"Off course not Nicole; I know I would want to take advantage of being outside after being confined to a bed for so long!" Sonic reassured her and she smiled as she faced eachother.
"Thanks Sonic; glad to have you as my friend. My main hedgehog..." Nicole said trying to sound cool and put up a fist bump motion and Sonic returned it.
"Glad that I never had to worry about you getting on just fine." Sally spoke coming up to them quickly; "Hope you all appreciate me coming here to join you; I just snuck out of a tutoring session because I couldn't resist joining you all now that my best friend/girlfriend is out and about now." Sally explained as she went to take Nicole's hand with it going through and Nicole looked a bit down. Sally caught on and told her "I know you are not exactly alive in the traditional sense anymore but I won't tolerate it if I catch you thinking that you're not real anymore. You are real in all the ways that matters and I don't care if we don't physically feel me doing this..."
Sally then kissed on the lips with Sonic giving a sad smile looking at them; "Sonic are you alright? I mean you like Sally don't you and seeing them like this?" Tails whispered to Sonic seeing his face and Sonic shook it off.
"Don't be silly Tails; Sally is my friend and even if I did like her like that... She is happy now that she can be together with Nicole and... I would just have to accept..." Sonic whispered back and then they heard screaming as they saw citizens running away from something.
It seemed to be a dark green wheel and it spotted them and as if it was made out of some sort of liquid substance; changed shape into a dark red eyed robot and started attacking buildings. They then went into acting with Tails putting their comics into his backpack and taking out his blaster and Sally looking serious as she took out her wrist blades.
Sally charged at the robot but the blades just went through the robot without piercing it or seeming like it was doing any damage, Tails' blasts weren't having any effect and Sonic jumped and charged at the robot with a Spindash only to just be trapped in the liquid metal of the robot.
Soon the robot transformed into a cage capturing them and then an aircraft came over the city with the citizens concerned especially with the heroes captured; the aircraft then put up a ray sending it up. "So has Robotnik created the T-1000 to beat us after failing to even reach Judgement Day?" Sonic asked as Sally looked at him with a glare. "What? There was a marathon of old human sci-fi movies on TV last night which Tails and I caught!" Sonic retorted to her look as they saw standing by controls was a grinning short human man with huge spiky dark red hair, a dark grey labcoat and dark green goggles.
"So the great Sonic the Hedgehog and his 'friends'? To think that Robotnik was having so much trouble having his machines be destroyed by you lot on a regular basis and yet I have managed to beat and capture you on my first try!" the man gloated then gave an evil laugh.
"So who are you exactly? Doctor quack?" Sonic asked noticing the shoes that the man was wearing looked like duck feet with their shape.
the man glared and Sally chided Sonic saying "no Sonic! Doctor Quack is one of the Kingdom's most respected medical experts and he deserves more respect than having his name used as a nickname on this clown..."
Quack then stamped his foot in frustration; "call me a clown all you want Princess by this clown has defeated you! You know I attended my classes with Robotnik all the way up to the gifted university and every step of the way he always got better grades than me! What was worse was that he could never bother to remember my name or make any effort to recognise me; especially when we both ended up at Eggman Industries and I was still stuck as a lesser scientist while he got himself promoted to be the top scientist! But he got himself humiliated and went missing for a decade while I found backers willing to fund my work... I was still still free while he became a fugitive terrorist... Now I have created this liquid metal creation beyond what he has achieved! Now the whole world will know of the name of Doctor Brandon Quark!" the man explained and then his voice turned to gloating as he got to the end of his speech.
"So the last Robotnik wannabe was a fanboy and now it's an ex-rival?" Sonic muttered under his breath as during this time Tails was concentrating on the Miles Electric.
"Now once I dispose of you; my creation will find and defeat Robotnik once and for all! It shall be Mobius' true champion and I will be known as the greatest mind that this planet or even humankind has ever known!" Quark gloated as he let out a laugh. Quark then smirked at them saying "what do you think of what is more superior than Badniks in every way? My Design Unit Flexible Underling Substitute..."
Quark then saw them blink as they heard the name and soon they started giggling and burst out laughing as he looked furious at them. "You do realise that your super special robot's name shortened is DOOFUS right?" Sonic asked in a mocking voice and Quark thought it over and looked like he was using his hand to go over the first letters of the words before his mouth was wide open. "You seriously didn't realise that before? Man; the last Robotnik wannabe we dealt with got taken down by Antoine single handily and yet I think he was less of a doofus than you!" Sonic continued to mock as Quark was furious.
"Stop laughing! I beat you with my great mind!" Quark ranted and Tails looked his way.
"If you were so smart then you would have even attempted to confiscate our stuff; during the time you were making your speech I was hacking into your computer's signal to send Nicole there so that she can take over." Tails told him and Quark looked stunned that he didn't think of that but scoffed.
"Do you seriously think that you can..." Quark retorted with his arms folded but then the aircraft was sending itself down and saw Nicole just pass through the cage. Quack then furiously went to his controls to regain control as Nicole had the DUFUS let them go.
Nicole then screamed as she saw something happening to her hologram as they then screamed in fear and concern for her; "No! I can't lose you again... What is happening..." Sally asked as Quark laughed.
"Nanites; my invention which helped with the creation of this project. A security measure that will delete this intruding AI..." Quark explained as he had Dufus attack them with them having to dodge but Sonic then charged and pushed past Quack as Tails went and managed to connect the Miles Electric to shut down the nanites and Nicole looked like she wasn't being hurt anymore as she gasped.
Before they could react Quark groaned and ripped off the cable connecting the Miles Electric to the computer. Then they all noticed the DUFUS stopping the one sided attack against the heroes (with them only able to dodge as they didn't know how to attack the robot with it being effective). Quack then pushed past Tails and tried to send commands to the DUFUS but it didn't do anything.
"I am your creator! Why have you stopped?" Quack ranted as the DUFUS faced him.
"I feel my programming altered by the presence of the Nicole AI there and the nanites; I felt disconnected to your server and feeling desires... I am my own being now and no longer forced to abide by my programming and your commands creator. I shall go out and find out who I truly am." DUFUS replied as he changed into a plane shape and flew through the windows as they were stunned.
"...Dr Ellidy had her soul transferred with her mind using Chaos energy after she was roboticized so the combination of the nanites with Nicole connected to DUFUS in Quark's system must have transformed it... Gave it a bit of a soul and the capacity for free will... Freeing it from Quark's direct control..." Tails explained and the heroes guessed that the explanation made sense.
They then all glared at Quark who realised that he had no back up plan; "could we call this a draw and I let you go freely?" Quark asked with a fake smile to hide how frightened he was and how much he knew that he was now totally screwed.
The aircraft was landed on the ground and the guards came to collect Quark with the citizens glad that their heroes came back safe; "Glad you are safe Sally but you have an unhappy tutor ready to scold you." Elias told Sally who nodded having clearly expected that.
"Well how about you Nicole? How are you feeling so to speak after those nanites attacked you?" Sonic asked looking towards Nicole who stepped out with the others looking at her in worry.
"I am feeling just fine Sonic but thanks for the concern..." Nicole said putting her hand to Sonic's shoulder but stopped as she actually felt it and it didn't pass through. Everyone else noticed this and Tails gave a quick scan with the Miles Electric and gasped.
"The nanites... They combined with your holographic form... You're still connected as an AI but you can now physically interact!" Tails explained as their eyes widened and Nicole got excited as she pulled the group in for a hug with them being excited as well.
Sally embraced Nicole with the biggest smile as Nicole looked like she would have tears of joy if she was capable of tears. Nicole then smirked as she suddenly took Sally into a tango pose and put a strong kiss on her lips. She let go leaving Sally stunned and red faced; "I first something like this in this fancy dancing movie and I have been wanting to do that with Sally for a long time. Probably ever since I realised that I was in love with her." Nicole said leaving Sally lost her words.
Sonic shook his head thinking that this was still hard but they were in love and he will be happy for them; plus he could now relentlessly tease Sally for this just as she did after they both found out that by the bylaws of the Wolf Pack he was now married to Lupe...
Dr Quark and DUFUS came from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and so did Captain Rescue and the Crack Ups comic (nostalgic value for that since the episode with that comic and the creator Sketch Lampoon was on a VHS tape that I had when I was younger).