Chapter 16: Junction
06231991
"Tails, how much longer is this going to take?" Knuckles asked, arms folded as he watched the orange fox do his thing.
"Not much longer Knuckles! Just gotta get some last minute calibrations figured out and this should be good to test!" Tails replied, screwdriver in hand as he was doing some last minute tightening on some screws
The young inventor had been in a frenzy assembling his newest device, working tirelessly on their potential answer to interdimensional travel. While he didn't have much in the way of materials to work with, the fox was able to use some scraps from the Tornado 3, his laptop, and from around Angel Island, eventually having assembled his newest creation. The device was not all that large, akin to a handheld electronic console, with a large screen, an array of buttons on both sides of it, and a trio of lenses in a triangle shape on the back of it.
"Uhhh, Tails? Isn't that just the translator you built to talk to Yacker back when Eggman made the whole Interstellar Amusement Park?" Sonic asked, looking over the fox's shoulder as he worked. Indeed, the handheld he was finishing up work on did resemble the old translator, though that device was yellow and had a small radar dish attached to it. This one was a bit more…rustic, due to the low amount of parts the fox had to scavenge together, the devices exterior a mix of metal plating and stone to contain its internal wiring and circuitry, Tails having had to ask Knuckles to assist in very precisely chiseling the stones so he could fit the buttons
"I did take some notes from that old things design for this, as I wanted something handheld, but changed up the overall structure," Tails explained. "Now one last tighten here and…Done! Alright, time to see how this baby fairs!" Standing up and wiping his brow, Tails lifted the tablet up and flipped it so the underside was visible, a port in the middle of said region. He walked over to the Tornado 3 and used his tails to fly up to the cockpit, pressing a few buttons.
In doing so, the lower compartment of the biplane clicked, as the underbelly of the aircraft opened up, revealing one of the seven Chaos Emeralds underneath, secured in the main power reactor. Tails floated down to the ground and reached into the reactor, pulling out a small cord connected to it, a usb port on the end of the cord, linking his creation to the red diamond. He waved for his friends to come over and join him as he gingerly inserted the cord into his device.
"Now, this is a lot so I'll try and explain this as simply as possible." Tails stated as he began to go over what he was about to do. "Alright, from the top. We are trying to breach the fabric of reality, right? So in that way, think of reality as…um…A stack of papers, yeah that'll work! So, our reality is one of those papers, nestled in between loads of other ones, are you with me so far?" He asked, looking up to see the hedgehog and echidna nodding, seeming to understand.
"Great! Though I guess fourth dimensional physics would apply as different realities would be all around us…Th-That's not important right now though!" He stammered, seeing the confusion already taking shape on his friends' faces. "Well, this device I've made, think of it as something sharp, like a thumbtack or a needle. We're essentially trying to make a hole through our reality and into another one with it, you know? The problem is, reality…is very, very resistant to tears or holes forming, and might not let something like that stay open long before it tries to correct something like that. So, I needed something with a lot of power to get to that point where I can keep the hole formed long enough for us, hence the Chaos Emerald! I also hypothesized that trying to make 1 large hole would be a bit of a challenge with the supplies that I have, so instead…"
Tails stopped to gesture to the back of his tablet, pointing to the three lenses in the triangle shape. "I opted to try making 3 smaller holes that would join together to save on energy!" The fox finished his explanation by turning the device back around to show the main screen, the screen having lit up now that it had power. The screen itself displayed a trove of information, a strange looking three dimensional graph showing wavelengths, some of which seemed to be rather distorted, with a glowing dot on one of the calmer wavelengths. A chart off to the side appeared to display data on the trio's current location, marking it as Angel Island with the exact global coordinates.
"Uhh, neat Tails, but what exactly is all that on the screen?" Knuckles asked, moving his head closer as though that would help his brain process what he was looking at. Sonic off to the side of the echidna smirked, also having little understanding of what Tails was showing them but opting not to open his mouth to appear smarter.
"Oh that. That's mostly for monitoring seismic activity in the fabric of reality. Though I'm not entirely sure if it's adjusted correctly, as that's a huge amount of disturbance in some of these…I'll have to see about tweaking this thing as we go I think." Tails turned and aimed the device in a direction where neither his friends nor the Tornado 3 were facing as he pressed some of the buttons along the sides of it. "Now, let's see if it works!"
"Hold on just a second little bro" Sonic said, stopping the fox in his tracks. "Are you positive this won't cause any problems if anything goes wrong?" Tails turned back and looked over at Sonic with a look that seemed to be both confident, yet also weary.
"I…really can't say for certain. What we're doing is something we've got no precedent for going wrong, so there's no telling what could happen if it doesn't do what I imagine. You guys might wanna take cover…" Tails trailed off, doubt starting to set in with his voice.
"Not a chance. If you're doing this I'm staying by your side for it bro" Sonic said, reassuring the fox. "And so is Knuckles, isn't that right?" He said, turning his head to the echidna.
"What? Uhh, yeah, of course. You got us by your side Tails" Knuckles spit out, glaring at Sonic when the fox looked away, who merely smirked at him. Feeling reassured by his friend's words, Tails looked down at his screen and plugged in the remaining bit of code he needed.
"Thanks guys! If you guys are sure, then it's time to fire this baby up! Oh I almost forgot to tell you two the name! I call this bad boy the Delta Conduit! Now, time to break free of our reality and find a new one!" Pressing start to begin, Tails aimed the tablet straight ahead of him off to the side of the Tornado 3 as the three lenses on the back began to glow.
Taking only a moment to warm up, a trio of red lights illuminated the back of the Delta Conduit, before all three fired off red energy beams. The beams traveled a short distance away from the trio before abruptly stopping, as the group could hear a strange sound from the point they had stopped, akin to someone violently tearing apart a phone book's pages. As they watched, the beams' endpoint appeared to start to grow, as all three formed into small circles that started to expand. Upon making contact with one another, the circles engulfed one another and conjoined the space they took up, the tearing sound growing louder, more chaotic and distorted, before finally…
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"Whoa…" Sonic trailed off, staring at what the three saw before them. The Delta Conduits beams had finished their job, as a circular tear in the fabric of reality floated before them. The tear had a few cracks around it, the cracks a cyan hue and resembling bolts of lightning, crackling occasionally. As for what lay beyond the gateway, the trio could see what appeared to be a bustling metropolis, a coastside city filled with people.
"Mission successful!" Tails announced, a big smile on his face as he tried to pinpoint where exactly the portal they made stood in this new world. Looking around what was visible to the three, they could see a small park, trees surrounding a bronze statue of a burly man standing proudly, arms bent at his sides. He wore no shirt, a belt clasped over his shoulder holding up his pants, some impressive muscles on his upper body alongside an equally impressive mustache on his face.
"What the heck…Where is this?" Knuckles asked, peering into the other world. The echidna had seen his fair share of humans in their own world, but whoever this statue was made in honor of certainly seemed a lot stronger than most of them. "I don't really know what I was expecting, but it wasn't a statue of some buff guy."
"Good question, Knuckles! Well, I guess I'm going to have to start marking the different worlds we have available to us…Our world, and this world" Tails noted, pulling up a small line of text on his tablet and writing up the two dimensions. "It is good to see that we found another world with humans, a familiar species should likely be easy to communicate with for us"
"You're probably right, Tails, but if we really want to find some help, we might want to hurry up and go in." Sonic added, trying to look past the edges of the portal to see what lies beyond their view. "There's no telling how much time we have before that oversized turtle and his goons find us."
"True, there's no time to waste!" Tails agreed, looking up from his tablet back at his friends. "Are we all good to go?"
"Hang on, now you want me to cross through as well?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow at Tails' question, arms folded. "Shouldn't one of us stay here and keep watch for trouble? I think it would be better if I stay behind, one for the Master Emerald, and two to warn you both if those invaders you saw arrive."
"So you're scared then?" Sonic teased, smirking as he watched the echidna scowl at that comment.
"Very funny. You two have fun in Chaos knows where, I'll be staying back for now. At least this way we'll have someone guarding this in the event something happens." Knuckles retorted, glaring back at the hedgehog
"Fair enough Knuckles!" Tails said, interrupting the twos staredown. "You stay here and keep watch, we'll do some recon and hopefully see if we can find anyone that could be helpful in stopping those invaders. Ready Sonic?"
"Ready as always little bro, let's blast through this, at Sonic speed!" Sonic nodded before turning to the portal and charging headfirst towards it, passing through the gateway to the other side. Tails gave one last look to Knuckles who nodded as he turned to stand guard before the fox followed his blue bud through, ready to see the new world they had discovered.
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