Sonic and the Freedom Fighters: Parallel Dimensions

Chapter 9: The Spark

Three days ago...

-Sol Dimension, The Kingdom of Laevatein-

The sounds of explosions and cannon fire flooded the air of Laevatein, whipping the people into a panicked frenzy as they ran for shelter, with those that failed to escape finding themselves captured and abducted by the robotic pirates that stomped through the streets of the kingdom. And leading the small army was a robot with armor resembling a black pirate's coat with gold accents and a matching metallic hat, most of his face covered by a metal patch and a skull-like mouthpiece, save for the side of his cobalt-blue head and a glaring red eye, wearing a tattered blue cape and equipped with a blunderbuss on his right arm with a sharp blade underneath. With a wave of his hand, he directed the pirates to go after the fleeing civilians while he headed towards the castle...

Within the castle, meanwhile, Blaze raced as fast as she could through the hallways, steadying herself whenever the ground shook until she finally made it to a nearby balcony. From there, she could see the devastation being wrought, the metallic pirate ships that had weighed anchor nearby and started firing their weapons from afar, and the helpless civilians that were being led to them in droves by the vicious robot pirates that manned them. Staring at the scene in shock, then in anger, she leapt from the balcony and landed in the nearby plaza, gaining the attention of the pirates as they tried to rush at her. She responded by unleashing a wave of flames at them, blowing them back and reducing them to scrap metal before she ran in the direction of the fleet.

Along the way, she noticed a young Mobian boy trying to crawl away in fear as one of the pirates trudged towards him sinisterly. Shifting her course, Blaze flung a fireball at the robot's feet to get his attention, and the pirate turned to face her before retaliating with a few swipes of his sword. Taking care not to get the boy caught in the crossfire, Blaze avoided the strikes before eventually rolling under one of them, and when the pirate tried to attack, she formed a blade of fire and slashed through his torso, cutting him in two from the intense heat. Sighing in relief, she dispelled the flames and turned to face the boy.

"Are you hurt?" She asked as she helped him to his feet.

"N-No, Your Highness... I'm fine..." He replied, still a little shaken by the encounter. "W-Where are they taking everyone?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm going to figure out. For now, you need to hide." Blaze answered. The boy nodded and ran off to lay low, leaving Blaze to stand back up and look towards the fleet... only for an explosion to sound from the castle, causing her to divert her attention to the billowing smoke that now emanated from her home. "Mom!" She cried out as she raced toward the castle, making her way to the shrine where the Sol Emeralds were stored for safekeeping, the same shrine that the Queen of Laevatein was tending to when the attack started...

...And the same shrine that now lay damaged, both the Emeralds and the Queen nowhere in sight. Within seconds, Blaze processed what had transpired. Someone had invaded the vault and not only stolen the Sol Emeralds, but also taken her own mother prisoner along with the civilians.

With little time to waste, she rushed towards the coast where she saw the pirates docking, and saw that her worst fears were in fact true: Cinder was being transported onto one of the ships in a specially-designed prison, her transport overseen by what looked like their captain. Furious, she readied herself to charge at the ship, only for her attention to be drawn by some familiar shouting and screaming. To her shock, the pirates had also managed to take Marine prisoner, the young raccoon girl thrashing her legs about as the robots gripped her arms and suspended her into the air between them. The princess was now caught in a dilemma - to save her mother or her best friend.

With a reluctant growl, she leapt off her vantage point and launched fireballs at the robots carrying Marine, blowing them away as they dropped her to the ground, much to her surprise.

"Wait a minute..." She muttered to herself before turning to see Blaze racing towards her, the princess launching another cluster of fireballs at the robots before standing protectively in front of Marine. This caught the attention of the captain, who glared at the pyrokinetic cat with his single red eye.

"You lot deal with the princess!" He commanded as he walked onto his ship before the rest of the fleet began to escape, leaving the single ship and its crew to deal with Blaze. As Blaze fought with the robots, one of the pirates on the remaining ship readied one of its cannons and took aim at Marine. Out of the corner of her eye, Blaze noticed this, and immediately dove towards the young raccoon as it fired and protected her, the resulting explosion blowing them both back and resulting in Blaze taking the brunt of the damage from it. Once the smoke cleared, Blaze staggered back to her feet, determined to not let the pirates hurt Marine even as they approached menacingly, the cannon getting ready to line up another shot.

"Marine, get out of here." She ordered as she charged her powers into her hands.

"N-No way! I'm not gonna just leave ya for dead!" Marine replied, desperate to help in any way she could. Before Blaze could argue further, the cannon fired again, and Blaze prepared to launch a powerful flame to at least lessen the impact... only for a large mass of rock to suddenly fly overhead and collide with the blast, leaving Blaze completely unscathed.

"What in the...?" Blaze asked before she saw the pirate on the ship suddenly being lifted into the air and tossed overboard by an unseen force. Before anyone else could question what was happening, the other pirates found themselves being suspended in the air as well, a subtle cyan glow surrounding them before they were smashed together and tossed into the horizon. Blaze recognized what was happening and looked up... and just as she suspected, she saw him. A grey-furred hedgehog floating in the air above them, surrounded by that same cyan aura, clad in futuristic-looking gloves and boots. The hedgehog breathed a sigh of relief as he descended to the ground and approached the pair.

"Whew... thank goodness I got here in time." He replied as he approached Blaze. "Nice to see you again, Blaze."

"Silver? What are... what are you doing here?" She asked, only for Marine to suddenly get between the two and examine the hedgehog, much to his shock.

"Whoa, hang on! Ya know this guy, Blaze? Who is he? Some sort of guardian angel or something?" She asked, before letting out a sudden gasp. "Is he your boooyfrieeend?"

"What?! N-No, nothing like that. And besides, we have more pressing matters right now!" She replied, glancing over at the escaping fleet before noticing the now abandoned ship, the princess getting an idea. "Marine, gather your crew."

"Why, what do you-?" Marine started to ask, before realizing what her friend was planning. "Oooooh, I see. we're commandeerin' an enemy vessel! Leave it to me!" She cheered, before rushing off to find her crewmates...

A few minutes later...

"Alright, mates! Weigh anchor! Sails to the wind! We've got a kingdom to save!" Marine commanded as she stood at the helm of the ship, with the rest of the crew doing their best to make sure the vessel was prepared before it started sailing off towards the rest of the fleet. Silver watched from near the middle of the deck as the group waited to catch up with the pirates, before eventually turning to Blaze.

"So, I'm guessing that girl is a friend of yours. Is she always this... excitable?" Silver asked, gesturing subtly to the raccoon at the helm, spouting commands as the ship sailed.

"You get used to it. As annoying as she can be at times... I can't imagine life without her either." Blaze replied, turning to face him. "By the way... what exactly brings you to this dimension? I thought the future had been fixed already." She asked. Silver sighed at the question, his arms crossed.

"Well... It's not my future that I'm worried about." He confessed, much to Blaze's surprise.

"Hm? What do you mean?" She asked him.

"A few hours ago, one of my friends detected a temporal disruption - a sort of alteration in the timeline made by someone either going back in time or sending something back in time." He explained. "Anyway, whatever happened didn't affect my home dimension, so I had to look through the historical archives to find out what happened. And... well..." He began to trail off, clearly affected by whatever he discovered.

"What? What happened?" She asked, urging him to continue. He took in a deep breath and continued...

"...The Sol Dimension gets completely destroyed." He said, causing Blaze's blood to run cold. "I don't know how, but... someone or something sent back here must have done something that caused this dimension to become a barren, lifeless wasteland. That's why I came back. I couldn't bear to see this world in such a state." He explained. Blaze took a few seconds to process the information before replying.

"But... why? Whatever happened... it didn't have any effect on your world, right? Aren't you taking a risk in travelling back in time to keep it from happening?" She asked.

"Well, yeah... but... I just can't sit by and let another dimension be destroyed. Especially when it's the home of one of my friends."

"Silver... thank you." Blaze replied, touched by the hedgehog's generosity.

"There ya are! Robot fleet off the starboard bow!" Marine declared as she noticed the fleet nearby, Blaze and Silver snapping from their conversation to look over at the fleet. "So, how're we doin' this? Are you gonna slow one of 'em down so we can pick 'em off one by one?"

"If I do that, it might break them away from the rest of the fleet. But I have another idea." He replied before focusing his powers. The ship they were on started to glow with a familiar cyan aura before it began to move faster, racing towards the rest of the fleet. Bracing themselves from the sudden increase in speed, Blaze looked ahead and spotted two ships that were larger than the rest, pointing to one of them.

"Aim for that one. That was where the prisoners were being loaded onto." She said. Silver nodded and used his powers to aim the ship accordingly, eventually managing to ram into the prison ship's side. Marine leapt onto the deck of the ship alongside her crew, landing on one of the pirates and knocking him over.

"Boarding time, mates! Show' em no quarter!" She yelled enthusiastically as the crew began to brawl with the various pirates scattered across the fortified ship as they fought to defend themselves from the attack. Marine charged ahead, pulling out a grappling hook pistol and using it to latch onto one of the overhead masts, swinging towards a pair of pirates guarding the stairs to the lower decks and kicking them to knock them out of the way. She turned to Blaze and Silver, smiling at the hook retracted into her pistol.

"Me and my crew'll handle things up here. You get those prisoners freed." She told them before moving on to deal with another group of robotic pirates, leaving the duo in the clear to enter the lower decks of the prison ship...

Meanwhile, the leader of the pirates, Captain Metal, was lounging in the quarters of his fleet's flagship, the Metal Marauder, staring at one of the Sol Emeralds as he held it in his hand. While he was busy admiring his prize, one of the pirates burst into the room to alert him of the recent counterattack.

"Cap'n! Cap'n!" He yelled in a panic, the captain responding with an annoyed growl.

"What? I thought I told ye not to disturb me." He replied, barely turning his head to look at the subordinate.

"Aye, sir, but... s-some rogues have boarded the Oubliette!" The pirate responded.

"What?!" The captain exclaimed, rising from his seat to glare at the shaken pirate. "Well, don't just stand there, ye blathering oaf! STOP THEM!" He commanded, the subordinate hastily saluting before rushing out of the captain's quarters, with Metal placing the Sol Emerald away before stomping out of the room...

Back on the prison ship, Blaze and Silver looked around in shock and horror as they saw the multitudes of Laevateinian civilians imprisoned on the ship. Blaze wondered what the pirates were planning to do with so many prisoners before that train of thought was interrupted by a couple of pirates noticing the intruders and charging at them. Not wanting to risk the prisoners getting hurt by Blaze's flames, Silver stepped forward and picked the pirates up with his psychokinesis, holding them in the air.

"Go get the prisoners out. I've got this." He said. Blaze nodded, rushing towards the bars of the holding cells and using her powers to rapidly heat them up. The civilians stood back as the bars melted away, rushing out once it was safe to do so before Blaze repeated the process with the other cells. Once everyone was free, Silver tossed the pirates into one of the empty cells before Blaze scorched them with a fireball.

"Okay... is that everyone?" Silver asked as he turned to Blaze.

"Almost... we still need to find my mother." She replied before venturing further into the prison, eventually finding one large holding cell at the far end. Instead of bars, this one used an impenetrable screen to keep its sole prisoner contained... and that prisoner was none other than the Queen of Laevatein herself, her arms and legs contained in power-dampening restraints. Wasting little time, Blaze looked around for anything that could free her before she and Silver noticed a command panel tucked in at the side of the room. Silver rushed to it and typed into it until the screen door opened and the restraints unlocked, releasing the royal feline.

"Mother!" Blaze cried out as she ran to hug Cinder, the motherly cat returning the gesture.

"Blaze! I knew you'd come for me. And I see we have a new face here." She replied as she looked towards Silver.

"Introductions later. What were they doing to you?" Blaze asked, prompting the Queen to ponder for a bit.

"From what I heard, they intended to use me as a power source for some sort of machine." She remarked.

"Wait, what? Then why did they take the Sol Emeralds too?" Silver asked her.

"I have no idea, though I can't imagine it would be for altruistic purposes." She explained, before a shrill scream interrupted their conversation, one that Blaze recognized.

"Marine?!" She yelled before rushing back towards the main deck, with Silver and Cinder following behind her. The princess quickly exited the lower decks and looked around for her friend, only to find the captain of the robotic pirates looming over the helm above them, holding an unconscious Marine in his claw.

"So, this be the current Sol Guardian, eh? Here to plunder back yer family heirlooms?" He asked her as the other two exited the lower deck and joined Blaze. The robotic captain held up the unconscious girl as if to taunt them. "Well, there be a change in plans, lass. Ye can keep the Queen. I've found me a much greater source o' power for me plans." He said before leaping off the ship, towards the flagship of the fleet. Blaze rushed to chase after him, only to be stopped by a horde of pirates blocking her way.

"Silver, help the civilians. He's mine." Blaze growled furiously, the silver hedgehog nodding hesitantly and leaving as she readied her flames, only for Cinder to step in front of her.

"Allow me to handle these fiends, Blaze. You go after the captain." She said, much to Blaze's surprise.

"B-But Mother-" The princess protested, not wanting her mother to risk herself after having just been kidnapped, but Cinder turned to her with a reassuring smile.

"I'll be fine. Now go." She urged. Blaze reluctantly nodded and managed to leap towards the flagship, while Cinder stared down the robot pirates, ready to fight...

Meanwhile, on the Metal Marauder, Captain Metal stood at the helm of the ship as his captive was bound to the mast nearby, waiting for her friends to come and rescue her. He wouldn't have to wait long, he soon discovered, for Blaze landed on the deck of the ship in a matter of seconds, glaring up at the metallic pirate. "So... the princess comes to face me alone, does she? How foolish." He arrogantly remarked as she approached.

"Let her go. Now." She growled, a burst of embers emanating from her clenched hand. Metal huffed defiantly and leapt off the helm and onto the deck.

"Heh... if ye want her back, lass, ye'll have to take her from me cold, lifeless claw." He replied. "See, she may not know it yet, but within her be a vast well o' power, waitin' to be released. With that power at my disposal, I'll soon be able to sail across the seas of every dimension, plunderin' and pillagin' their treasures for me own, and pressin' the quivering masses into my service-" He continued, before his rant was interrupted by a sudden stream of flames from the enraged cat.

"Not on my watch, you won't." She remarked as she stared into the flames left behind, confident that she had seen the last of him... until he leapt out and swiped at her with his bayonet. Shocked, Blaze jumped back and launched a pair of fireballs at him, only for them to not even leave a dent in his armor.

"How are you still standing?!" She asked, baffled by his resilience to her flames.

"Ye can thank Lady Venom for the new upgrades to me armor, lass!" Captain Metal replied before firing a few shots of his own at the princess, who managed to dodge the blasts and take shelter behind the mast. Blaze pondered for a bit, realizing her options were limited if his armor was fire-resistant. She breathed a sigh and picked up a nearby sword before rushing at him, looking to push the robot into the water. The two collided, engaging in a tense swordfight, Blaze struggling to lure him to the edge as Metal parried her blows effortlessly before he eventually grabbed her by the neck and tossed her across the ship, the sword falling onto the deck as she struggled to get back up.

"A shame ye couldn't live up to the legend, princess." Captain Metal taunted as he approached, pinning Blaze down before aiming his blade straight at her... before being knocked away by something large being thrown at him, leaving Blaze to get back to her feet. "Grr... Who dares?!" The robot growled as he got back up, looking up to see Silver hovering over the ship.

Silver wasted little time in throwing various pieces of debris from the other ships at Metal, the nefarious robot doing his best to avoid, block, or destroy the objects as they flew towards him. His attention drawn towards Silver, Blaze took the opportunity to grab the sword again and throw it towards Metal, who quickly dodged the blade... unaware that Blaze's true target was the ropes binding Marine in place, cutting them and freeing her as Silver caught her using his psychokinesis. Blaze followed it up with another volley of fireballs, only for the pirate to chuckle and walk menacingly towards her, unaffected by each one.

"Ye never learn, do ye, lass? Yer precious flames won't work on me." He taunted, only for the princess to smirk confidently.

"No... but this might." She said before suddenly jumping into the air, revealing that one of the Marauder's cannons had been aimed right at the pirate. Metal had a brief moment of panic before the cannon fired, the pirate doing his best to block the blast, charged up a powerful blast of fire and launched it at him, prompting the blast to detonate, sending him slamming into the helm of the ship, his armor scorched and sparks flying from his body as he fell to the deck, futilely trying to line his blaster for one last attack, only to collapse within seconds.

With the fight over, Blaze made her way into the captain's quarters of the ship and looked around, finding a large metal container on the table. She grabbed it and pulled it outside as Silver used his powers to bind Captain Metal in heavy chains, with Marine slowly coming to.

"Marine! Are you okay?" Blaze asked as she pulled the girl back to her feet.

"Ugh... Sorry, Blaze... that bloke got the jump on me." Marine replied, rubbing her head. Silver, meanwhile, approached the container that Blaze pulled out.

"The Emeralds are in here?" He asked.

"Yes... I can sense them." Blaze replied, but before she could even attempt to open the container, she heard a noise from nearby. "What is that...?" She asked aloud, before a mysterious metal mech descended from the air above them, with razor-sharp claws and all kinds of weaponry. The trio was confused and alarmed by the sudden intrusion.

"I had a feeling Captain Metal would fail to keep his end of the bargain. At least he spared me the trouble of hunting these down." A voice said from inside the mech as it extended a hand towards the duo. "Now then... the Emeralds, if you would be so kind."

"After what we've been through to get 'em back? You can forget it, mate!" Marine scoffed, while Silver and Blaze assumed a defensive stance, ready to battle for the Emeralds.

"I see. No matter. Whether by choice or by force, you will relinquish the Emeralds to me." The voice replied as the mech prepared for battle with the two...

Present Day...

-Sonic's Dimension, Freedom Fighter Barracks-

"...And, well... I'm sure you all can figure out the rest from there." Blaze said, having finally finished explaining why she and Silver were here in Sonic's dimension, the rest of the group taking a moment to process all the information.

"Gosh, sugar, that's... a lot to take in." Bunnie replied, looking at the princess sympathetically.

"You know, now that I think about it, that explains a lot. The mysterious energy we found in that robot, and why it seemed to melt from the inside out... He was using the energy from the Sol Emeralds to power it." Tails said, finally wrapping his head around the various questions that popped up during their tests.

"It also explains why the design of that other mech was drastically different from Eggman's usual design. And how it had a completely distinct propulsion system." Rotor continued.

"But... why would this person steal the Emeralds from you, Miss Blaze?" Cream asked, tilting his head.

"All we know is that she needed them to travel between dimensions. Beyond that, we're not really sure..." Silver replied, crossing his arms and thinking for a bit. Before anyone could press further, Nicole suddenly materialized in front of Sally, clearly alarmed by something.

"Sally, a moment?" She asked, Sally turning her attention to the lynx.

"Nicole? Is something wrong?" Sally replied, concerned.

"I've detected a massive energy spike coming from a nearby island, but I can't tell what's causing it." Nicole explained, much to the surprise of everyone else in the room. Given what they just discovered, the conclusion was fairly obvious.

"What? You don't think Eggman's causing it, do you?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not sure. I'll need to look into it..." Nicole replied, doing her best to make sense of the readings.

"Okay then. Nicole, see what you can dig up. We'll decide on a plan of action in the meantime." Sally ordered, the others nodding and doing their best to prepare as Sally leaned against the table. "I just hope we're not already too late..."