Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: Part two of Alt-Sonic's adventure where it really begins! Sorry that it wasn't as good beginning of the new arc as I had hoped(and for the spelling mistakes. I will try and fix them in the future).
Hopefully this will make it up for it.
Summary of Story 14-Part 2: In their attempts to prevent Dr. Eggman from using the Paradox Prism as well as being careful in not to destroy it, Sonic and his friends are none the less caught up in an event that will make them soon learn there is more to it than they originally thought.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Alternate-Sonic's Multiverse Adventure-P2: The Paradox Prism Shock.
Back with Sonic's group...
Back in Green Hill Zone, Sonic and his friends continued to follow the trail in locating the Paradox Prism with Tails using the energy scanner on his Miles Electric, which was beeping louder and louder.
"We're almost at the crystal's location." Tails announced once he and the others slowed to a stop, the two-tailed fox having flown until this point and landed safely on the ground. He turned his device from left to right until a tunnel cavern to the group's right at the fraction of a degree caught his attention. "The energy's stablizer is coming from in there."
"Do you think that's where the Paradox Prism is?" Amy asked, a bit nervously.
"Let's go take a look. Slow and steady." Sonic instructed firmly, he and Shadow both taking the lead just in case anything or anyone would come out to ambush them or attack, the others following close behind.
The eight friends slowly traversed their way through a crystal-like cavern with gems sticking around on the walls, ceiling and ground somehow lighting up the room, which amazed all of them. Eventually they came across the end of the tunnel with another large entrance close by. By the time Sonic and Shadow stopped on the edge of a cliff above a small ditch, their eyes widened in shock, soon joined by the others who gaped with their mouths open.
In the ground below them was a giant pink and rainbow like crystal glowing in immense energy none has ever seen before, about the size of Big the Cat, or perhaps even bigger. It held such a beautiful yet haunting appearance. For Sonic and Tails, seeing it up close was more amazing than it was on the latter's monitor.
"The Paradox Prism..." Knuckles whispered in awe.
"That's really it?" Sun breathed, astonished.
"Wow...! It's like the Master Emerald or the Chaos Emerald!" Amy remarked her and Star's eyes sparkled.
"I've never seen anything so beautiful." Star added, her hands clasped together.
Rouge's eyes sparkled the most as well as a sly smile despite feeling disappointed that it wasn't up for grabs. "Pity that it's not for taking. That giant gem is a fine art of beautiful jewelry."
That comment alone only made everyone else suddenly lose their amazement of the Paradox Prism and all grumbled with annoyed expressions and sweat drops, glaring at the white bat thief. Trust Rouge to think about half-stealing it. The only blessing from her is that even she knew the giant crystal wasn't meant to be stolen.
"Why am I not surprised?" Knuckles muttered sarcastically.
"We're here to protect the crystal. Not steal it, and especially not to destroy it either." Shadow reminded sharply.
"I know, no need to be so snappy about it, Mr. Grumpy." The Mobian Bat shrugged with an exasperated sigh. But that didn't mean she couldn't admire it, right? Very gem that shiny is as beautiful as she is. That was her policy.
"And we need you not to mess it up, Little Miss Trouble." The red echidna retorted, looking away with his arms folded, which made Shadow secretly smirk in amusement, Sun and Sonic both snickered with the latter covering his mouth with his hand to hide his mirth, and Tails, Amy and Star giggled.
"Har dee har har." Rouge responded dryly, looking at the opposite direction as she waited impatiently for everyone else to cease their laughter.
"He's right though, Rouge. The Paradox Prism is the very thing holding the balance and existence of the entire universe. Without it, we'll all cease to exist." Tails agreed with the black hedgehog.
Sonic frowned uneasily with his arms folded. "And if Eggman gets his crummy hands on it, we're as good as toast with him as the worst leader in history. We have to be very careful this time."
"Then let's get to it. You know of the plan and don't let anybody or robot go anywhere near the Prism." The Ultimate Lifeform declared.
"Got it." The hero of Mobius gave his rival a thumbs up, while the rest of the group nodded in agreement, before they all quickly hidden themselves behind and around other crystals and rocks while staying somewhat close to the Prism just in case. Knowing that Dr. Eggman and his robotic army would be coming sooner or later.
Though as they did, Shadow, remembering how he had confronted Sonic earlier, approached the blue hedgehog who's eyes twitched upon the former's footsteps.
"Hm? Something wrong, Shadow?" Sonic whispered, curiously. Right before he softly gasped and lowered his gaze in growing anxiety and guilt, then returned it to the Ultimate Lifeform with a pleading vow. "Shadow, I...I promise I'll be very careful-"
A hand held up by his rival stopped the blue hedgehog short, and to his surprise, the older hedgehog looked rather...self-reprimanded. Because little did the fifteen year old know, Shadow the Hedgehog, for the first time he had ever felt towards Sonic, felt very repentant. Especially since how the cobalt hero had gone through months living with misplaced guilt and having atoned for his mistakes in the past.
"Sonic...I apologize for my actions earlier. I should have known that, given that you are still the same as we have first met, you have...admittedly grown up a little. Not very much, but, you are mature enough now to actually listen and understand your recklessness by thinking straight forward." The ebony hedgehog lowered his gaze with his eyes closed.
Stunned by his friend's sincere apology for having punched and badly reprimanded him due to a strange vision they both received, Sonic smiled sadly before placing a gentle hand onto the older hedgehog's shoulder, prompting the latter to gaze at him once more.
"That's okay, Shads. I'm not the kind of guy to hold a grudge, especially when it was to stop me from doing something stupid. If it weren't for you and Tails, I really would'a done it." Sonic whispered sincerely, his eyes full of deep respect, gratitude and forgiveness. "When this is over, we're gonna seal off this place so that nobody will go near the crystal ever again. Sound good?"
While knowing that he shouldn't be too surprised by Sonic's benevolent personality and cockiness, Shadow felt the weight of guilt lift from his shoulders. 'He really has grown up a little. Lessons best learned the hard way, as they would say.'
"Agreed." Shadow nodded, and Sonic let out a delicate chuckle, before the two hedgehogs shook hands and then got into position to get ready for the next phase to save Mobius and the Universe.
With a new form of respect and growing friendship between Sonic and Shadow the Hedgehogs.
Three Hours Later...
A few hours had passed with the sun starting to set, the full moon rising from behind the hills and loopy-de-loops, the heroes still waited from their hiding spots after coming up with a decent plan. Yet for those who had lacked patience it was starting to get boring despite trying very hard not to let their guard down. Tails kept himself busy by keeping track of Eggman's movements while blocking out his device's signal to avoid in the evil scientist from locating the group, Shadow and Knuckles were both on high alert, Amy, Rouge and Star tried not to doze off, Sun groaned as he mentally wondered if their enemy would ever come, and Sonic was struggling to fight off the urge to simply run around to move his legs.
That, and he was also getting pretty sleepy that the blue hedgehog yawned in boredom and tiredness, partially covering his mouth with his left hand.
'Come on, is he here yet? I'm startin' to think that Egghead's comin' sometime tomorrow. Do we really have to like camp out here or something?' Sonic thought to himself, very annoyed. Even though he had gotten a bit better in being careful, unfortunately his tolerance in patience still needed some work.
Even months on the cobalt teenager still hated standing in one place without moving.
"Anybody besides me starting to think we're a little too early for-"
"Shh! Hold on." Tails suddenly shushed, cutting a slightly surprised Sonic off gently, silencing him as he and the others quickly became alert. The two-tailed fox cub made a recheck on his device, frowning as the signal of Eggman's movements edged closer. "He's coming this way."
"Good. You know of the plan, then. Don't make any sound until I make a move." Shadow ordered, creeping closer to the Paradox Prism without being seen, while the others quickly leaned further back into their hiding places, now readying themselves for the next battle.
'Finally. It's about time he'd show up.' The teenage blue hedgehog thought to himself, remaining silent as he prepared himself for bashing Eggman away without destroying the Paradox Prism itself. Though a few times when he gazed at it, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of emotions coming from that thing.
As though he could feel it's energy and lifeforce, urging him to come closer, to touch it, begging the fifteen year old for much needed help. But Sonic was afraid to even go near it, too scared that it might tempt him into destroying it, to erase the universe and create a new one, which he really didn't want to do.
That very thought of shattering the entire universe by simply destroying the giant crystal send out goosebumps crawling into his skin like worms wriggling.
'No! I won't do that! Tails and Shadow are right. I gotta be super careful this time, and I won't let Eggman steal it either.' Sonic narrowed his eyes with pure determination to not mess things up, for the sake of the universe, the world, it's people, and all of his family and friends.
Within the next few minutes, Eggman, along with Decoe, Bocoe, Bokkun, Orbot and Cubot all rode in the Egg Mobile attached to yet another giant robot, which was the remodel of the one he used to briefly capture Sonic five months ago, along with about at least sixteen badniks, the War Hammers and Laser-Shooters, hovered over the cave that was the exact location of the Paradox Prisim.
"Oh ho ho ho ho ho! Perfect! At last, I've found it!" Eggman declared evilly in glee, rubbing his hands together. "Now, time to barge into the cave and claim my prize before Sonic and his little friends get even a hint of it."
"Wouldn't it be easier just to go through the-"
"OPEN FIRE!" The order cut Cubot off from making a suggestion.
The Laser-Shooters obliged by shooting out powerful lasers to make the hole in the ceiling bigger, sending out rock and dust flying everywhere and deep inside, Sonic and his friends had to refrain themselves from screaming out as they all winced and their hearts racing. Amy, Tails, Star and Rouge almost cried out, but at the last second stopped themselves while the powerful gust newly blew them, Sonic, Knuckles, Sun and Shadow back from their hiding places until the winds stopped and giving them enough time to recover and keep silent in order for their plan to work.
"...Front door?" The dumb cube-shaped robot finished weakly, shrugging cluelessly.
Completely ignoring Cubot, Eggman and the rest of the fleet came hovering into the cavern where the moonlight shone onto the Paradox Prism, lighting up the cave in a beautiful but eerie glow as though they, and the hidden Mobians, were within a mystic dream.
"Oooooh..." The five assistant robots murmured in awe, fasinated by the crystal's beauty.
"It's even prettier than the Master Emerald." Bokkun remarked.
"Or the Chaos Emeralds." Orbot agreed.
"It kinda reminds me of the Wisps, only without aliens." Cubot stated, amazed.
"The Paradox Prism...The very crystal holding the existence of Space and Time of our Universe. Granting anybody the power to change it's fate...and now it is all mine!" Eggman declared, marveled by it's beauty, unaware that Sonic's group were listening in and unlike their evil enemy, they felt surge horror and dismay sweep into their hearts, Amy and Tails both nearly letting out gasps with the pink hedgehog covering her mouth with her hands to stop herself.
'So that's why it was sending me and Shadow those weird visions. Maybe the crystal is alive after all and it was calling out for help, but trying to tell us not to destroy it at the same time. But if Eggman uses it, he could change the universe into what he wants. We can't let that happen!' Sonic gritted his teeth silently, casting his gaze at Shadow who, sensing his thoughts, silently nodded and crept closer to begin their mission.
"Now, time to remove it ever so carefully." The evil scientist then made to control his giant robot's claw to grab the crystal after ordering his badniks to guard the area.
Only for a mental shout of 'Chaos Control!' from Shadow's mind and the green Chaos Emerald he found days ago to temporarily freeze Eggman and all of his machines in time, not even making an moving inch step forward.
Once that is successful, Shadow stepped out while Sonic emerged as well, shouting out aloud to his friends. "NOW!"
"Chaaaaaarge!" Amy, Knuckles and Sun shouted in unison, the pink hedgehog summoning her Piko Piko Hammer as they, Sonic, Tails, Rouge, Star and Shadow all made the quick timeless attack of the ambush.
While Sonic, Shadow, Tails and Rouge snatched up Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, Bokkun, Orbot and Cubot out from the machine, Amy raced forward while bashing away several robots back out into the air with loud grunts as much as her strength would allow her. Sun the meantime smashed up the War-Hammers by breaking the weapons in half and even used one, heavy as it was but he attempted to ignore it, to flatten the heads and far into the walls without causing a cave-in.
Star used her Grapple Hooks to swing herself around the smaller Laser-Shooters and performed several kicks, destroying the arms and chests as they were knocked away, exploding harmlessly. Knuckles punched and leaped over several more, before he lifted one up with a heave, yet being the strongest of Mobians, it was like carrying a mattress and tossed it through the ceiling effortlessly, determined to make sure the Paradox Prism was unharmed and untouched.
"That's step one! Time for phase 2!" Sonic declared, smirking as he and the other three quickly tied up their still frozen enemies with very secure and unbreakable rope.
"You sure this will hold them, Tails?" Shadow questioned skeptically, as the rope belonged to the nine year old fox.
"I made it to withstand laser-heat, chainsaws, drillers, even things as simple as a carving knive and a pair of sissors. Eggman-Use and robots purposes only." Tails proudly explained with his eyes closed, rubbing his nose identically to that of Sonic, making the black hedgehog roll his eyes exasperated.
But then again, he shouldn't be surprised. The little fox cub was raised by the blue hedgehog, so of course those annoying and cocky personality traits would be rubbed off on the child.
Rouge couldn't help but chuckle slyly over that, amused. "I'll bet GUN would kill for these sort of things. It makes the handcuffs look like paper now."
"Ready, Shadow? Time to get rid of this thing far away." The hero of Mobius grinned, cautious but confidently at his rival who returned it mischievously.
"With pleasure. I will handle this part, you keep an eye on the doctor." The black hedgehog responded.
"Right!"
With that and knowing that Eggman and his remaining robots will become unfrozen shortly, Shadow raced over to the giant machine and just as the power wore off, and the enemies returning to normal only to blink in utter shock and confusion, the Ultimate Lifeform used another Chaos Control to make himself and the robot disappear, teleporting away.
"Huh, what!? What in the...!?" Eggman looked around cluelessly along with his robots, only for them to find that they were somehow now all tied up in very uncomfortable coils of rope on the ground, struggling to free themselves.
"What's going on?" Decoe asked, incredulously.
"How did we end up all tied up like this?" Bocoe demanded in disbelief.
"Yo, Eggman."
Flinching over the sound of Sonic's voice, the evil scientist and his cohorts gazed up and gaped in shock to find the hero himself along with six of his friends standing over them with victorious and cheeky grins and smirks, Amy shouldering her hammer and Sonic with his arms folded.
"Comfortable enough for ya'?" The fifteen year old teased wickedly.
"Not again!" Eggman snarled in sudden rage, growling. "How did you even predict this?" It wasn't until he realized the sudden truth. "Wait a minute! This is the stalling, wasn't it? You planned this all out and somehow used Chaos Control, didn't you?"
"Yes to the stalling, yes to having planned this all out, and well...I didn't use Chaos Control to pause you guys like a DVD player, but an expert friend of ours did." Sonic innocently answered, his hands behind his back with a cheeky grin.
)-(
Back outside of the cave on a small sand dune in the middle of the ocean close to South Island, Shadow reappeared with the robots, before he stepped back and unleashed his Chaos Spear, wrecking it apart with his Homing Attacks shortly after as it then began to explode. With another Chaos Control to teleport back to his friends, the ebony hedgehog managed to avoid in getting caught into the destruction, the threat of it now gone.
)-(
Not even a second later, Shadow reappeared just beside Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Sun and Star who yelped a bit, before relaxing and turned their attention back to Eggman and his minions who were all horrified and dismayed by this planned out attack.
"You little rodents..." The mad doctor hissed darkly, furious that all of his plans were once again foiled and this time he didn't even cause any super major damage that Sonic had to fix up afterwards. "You planned a Chaos Control Ambush! You know about the Paradox Prism!"
"That, and since we knew it was another ancient artifact you'd get your egg-greased hands on, we had to do something to avoid in you stealing it." Sonic shrugged casually, feeling utterly relieved that the plan actually worked, that the universe was now saved.
They managed to prevent Eggman from stealing the crystal and use it's power to change the universe, and Sonic having prevented himself from accidentally destroying it. They changed the future and now everything and everyone were all safe.
Or so he thought, because unbeknownst to the blue hedgehog and everybody else, the Paradox Prism began to suddenly glow and blink ever so slightly, creating strange humming sounds so soft that almost none of them could hear. Yet, due to his senstive hearing, Shadow's ears flicked which caused the Ultimate Lifeform to mentally gasp in shock and alarm, a strange intense feeling surging through his entire body as the instant that something was wrong filled his senses, his ruby eyes widening sharply.
"Anyway, now that we stopped your latest evil plan, I say we all get outta here and Shadow and Rouge take you to a nice, comfy luxurious cell with your name on it." Sonic declared half-teasingly, turning to the oldest hedgehog for an agreement. "Right, Shadow?"
But to his and soon Rouge's and everybody else's deep concern, Shadow turned sharply around facing the giant crystal. Seeing the grim and sharp expression on his former enemy's face sent a cold chill trailing up and down Sonic's spine. "Shadow?"
"Hun, what's wrong?" Rouge asked, worriedly as she placed a gentle hand onto her close friend's arm. Whenever she and occasionally Omega saw the Ultimate Lifeform like this, that sent blaring alarm bells through her entire body and mind. Judging it now, it was definitely bad news.
"Something's wrong with the Paradox Prism." Shadow answered, not taking his eyes off of the crystal.
"What!?" Sonic gasped in horror, sharply turning to face and gasped when he and everybody else, the rest of the Mobians turning to see for themselves, saw that the black hedgehog was right, their eyes widening.
The crystal's glow grew brighter by each second, as a powerful energy wave began to surge through the whole area, the smaller normal crystals somehow effected and sparkling as well. The heroes and the villains glanced around in great confusion and growing anxiety as they began to fear that something has gone horribly wrong despite the best efforts to prevent a disaster from happening.
"What's happening!?" Amy asked, frightened with her voice trembling.
"Tails, what's going on with the Prism!?" Sonic asked urgently, his heart racing rapidly as he wondered if he had accidentally damaged the crystal. "Is it cracked or somethin'?"
Frantically attempting to get a reading on this unusual anomally, Tails fiddled with the readings and gasped in horror, exclaiming. "No, the crystal's still stabilized, but something within it is causing a friction and a rip in the Space-Time Continuum! I'm not sure what it is but..." He looked up fearfully, his heart hammering loudly, his voice shaken with a whimper. "If we don't get away from it now...it will...suck us all in like a black hole!"
"WHAT!?" Sonic, Knuckles, Sun, even Shadow and Eggman shouted in dismay while the robots panicked and the girls let out horrified gasps.
It was then that Sun came to a terrifying theory and sweat dropped. "You don't think...that using Chaos Control could've messed it up, do you?"
This caused everybody else to now fear that the orange hedgehog was right: If that were the case, then it wasn't Sonic who was the catalyst of the Universe's destruction...but Shadow for using Chaos Control far too close to the Paradox Prism which would also set it off into being destroyed.
"No...I...I DESTROYED THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!" Shadow shouted in rage and self-hate, the absolute guilt surging through his entire body as he squeezed his eyes shut. This was all his fault! He failed Maria's promise and because he came up with this idea to prevent Sonic being the one to destroy everything...he took the blue hedgehog's place instead.
Sonic could only murmur his rival's name in dismay and worry, only for the entire cave to begin shaking and everyone almost lost their balance with cries of alarm.
"If we don't leave now, we will all get into the cave-in and black-hole like engulfment!" Decoe screamed out frantically.
"It's too late!" Eggman screamed out in hopelessness and despair, causing his robots to gaze at him in shock. "Once this event starts, there's no stopping it! We're all doomed!"
"No...NOOOOO! Not when we were so close!" Sonic screamed, devastated, tears beginning to form in his eyes as he fought off the urge to cry.
The quakes became worse as the crystal glowed so bright that it sent out a white light to engulf everyone, though while Sonic and Shadow both briefly thought it was different compared to what they saw in their visions earlier, it still managed to reach them in the same speed as it would if the blue hedgehog had accidentally shattered it. Yet the crystal wasn't shattering at all, just releasing an energy wave...one about to hit the teenager who screamed out. Despite that he was the intended target, Sonic quickly stood in front of Tails and Amy who screamed out his name along with the rest of the group, intending to sacrificing himself to keep them safe and pay for his absolute failure.
"NO!" Shadow screamed, sensing what was about to happen with his heart freezing up in sudden great concern and, unwilling to allow his younger rival to die even though there was no hope in stopping this now, he instead stood in front of the blue hedgehog and the others who gasped in horror, quickly handing over the green Chaos Emerald to a utterly dismayed Sonic...
The last thing Sonic, his friends and enemies saw was Shadow looking over his shoulder, giving the cobalt teenager a resigned and sad smile, right before the light engulfed everyone as they all screamed while trying to shield their eyes, feeling themselves being swallowed up by the crystal, sucked right inside group by group, or one by one. Sonic held onto Tails and Amy as tightly as possible as did Sun, Knuckles, Star and Rouge, while Eggman and his minions were left in the crystal's mercy.
Once the light faded and everything strangely returned to normal, there was no trace of the heroes or villains of this world. They all had vanished without a trace.
Emptiness. Void of nothing but floating shattered crystals and twilight like space. That was all Sonic could see as he was free-falling with nowhere to land. In the impact of the Paradox Prism swallowing him, his friends and enemies up just moment after Shadow, much to the teenager's sword-stabbing of guilt, used himself as a shield to save the younger hedgehog's life, Sonic had been knocked out cold.
What felt like hours after the terrible incident, the blue hedgehog's eyelids twitched as he groaned, slowly regaining consciousness while while gently landing on a floating crystal-like platform. Slowly flickering his eyes open, his vision becoming clear until his memories instantly came back to him, resulting in him to gasp and jolt upright, panting before he glanced around the unfamiliar sand strange new world he found himself in.
"Hey...Where am I?" Sonic wondered aloud. A large chill crawling through his spine, seeing the crystal shards all over the place, the teenage hero couldn't help but whimper with his heart sinking, lowering his gaze in devastating realization. "We failed...The Paradox Prism is destroyed...Our world is gone..."
Tears beginning to swell up in his eyes, the cobalt speedster felt absolute guilt and grief wash over him. 'This is all my fault...Why didn't I...Why didn't I listen to Shadow?'
"Sonic?"
Softly gasping at the sound of Tails' voice right next to him which snapped him out of his distraught state, Sonic turned to his right and saw, much to his relief, his little brother who was rubbing his head before shaking it to rid the dizzy spells after awakening himself, Knuckles who was lying flat on his stomach groaning as he felt his stomach turn, and Sun who panted and shook his head.
"Tails! Sun! Knux!" The blue hedgehog breathed a sigh of relief, smiling emotionally, attempting to force back his tears. He then heard movement and looked to his left and his heart leaped even further to find Amy who was kneeling on her hands and knees, Star who rubbed the side of her waist, and Rouge who placed a hand to her chest, also panting. "Amy! Rouge! Star!"
"Sonic...!" Amy, once recovering, breathed happily in relief. She wobbly stood to try and reach him, but nearly fell with a yelp.
"Whoa!" Sonic cried out, catching her in his arms and steadied her into leaning against him. "Take it easy, Ames."
"Ugh...That was worse trip than Agent Neku taking his first Helicoptor Flying Test." Rouge groaned, feeling nauseous herself.
"Try riding in a plane with Vector and then come and talk to me." Sun grumbled, while Knuckles pushed himself up.
"Is everybody okay?" Sonic asked, using his other arm to wrap around Tails' shoulder as the little fox cub approached him, feeling relieved that, despite all feeling dizzy, responded that they were before he gasped as he realized they were missing someone.
Horrified, he quickly glanced around frantically searching for a certain black and red hedgehog. "Shadow! Where's Shadow?"
Seeing the horrified reactions and quickly looking around before one by one they all realized what happened and lowering their gazes was enough for Sonic to understand that, in distraught, that Shadow was not among them. Remembering how the Ultimate Lifeform had shielded the cobalt teenager made them all realize that Shadow had sacrificed himself to save Sonic's life.
Yet, with a prayer that their friend was already, they all looked around their new surroundings only to gaped in shock to find not only the shattered floating crystals...
But they also saw, much to their confusion and horror, many crystals holding images of themselves doing all sorts of different things: In one, there was a version of Sonic wearing some kind of futuristic gloves and shoes, of new technology, and shoes seemingly made from the same material, trapped inside a giant hamster wheel with his hands and feet chained in some kind of electrical surge, five men that all looked like Eggman but different...
And the pink figure...mostly robotic, turning on the controls of a panel which forced Sonic's other self to run in so much speed that it out-speed his own. Also trapped was a little yellow fox cub, but with two normal tails yet seven mechanical ones to match.
"What's this!?" Knuckles exclaimed, bewildered.
"T-That's me! But there's a bunch of Eggmen!" Sonic exclaimed, shocked.
"I'm there too!" Tails cried out, horrified to see himself.
"So am I...But I'm...I'm a robot!" Amy covered her mouth in horror, tears beginning to form in her eyes, while Sonic, panic-stricken, held her and Tails closer to him with his heart hammering. There were even versions of Knuckles and Rouge right there.
"Knuckie and I are there too, but wearing pretty badly designed outfits." Rouge remarked, feeling like she was going to be sick.
To add to the confusion of things, Sonic and his friends then noticed something else. Not only where there more crystals floating about, but there were also portals with giant golden rings that looked just like the Power Rings, all viewing different images and worlds, some that looked similar to their own, yet others were so different...Yet every single one of them had each versions them, two within crystals like the futuristic one with the five Eggmen, one that had feral-versions of Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge and even Big the Cat, the other where they were all pirates, yet in both of them Sonic was absent, much like Sun and Star.
Others within rings had many versions of himself, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, most of everybody the blue hedgehog knew of.
"What's going on here?" Sonic was dumbfounded.
"I think we're...seeing different versions of everyone." Star began with realization, causing her friends to glance at her hoping for some answers. She then explained. "When the Paradox Prism's light engulfed us, it must have taken us to this realm where everything is...shattered."
"THAT IS CORRECT, PRINCESS ARIA." A deep, echoing and frightfully giant unfamiliar voice spoke, causing Sonic and his friends to flinch with soft gasps.
'W-W-What?' Who had said that? Shaken and sensing a powerful aura of massive supreme energy and otherworldly, Sonic and the others slowly looked up only to let out horrified gasps when they saw...a giant polar bear!
Scratch that, it was a colossal, Dark Gaia-sized giant polar bear with glowing lavender-pink eyes that had no pupils, same coloured-glowing linings along his arms and face in a similar manner to Shadow, black markings on his ears and jaw, and a golden chained necklace with a large crystal in the middle. He was half-emerging from another giant shard.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star and Rouge all screamed in terror, recoiling.
"Wha-Who is that!?" Sun exclaimed, bewildered and terrified.
"Don't know, but from the looks of that big guy's face, he looks pretty mad." Sonic shakily remarked.
"I...Don't think pretty mad is the correct assumption I'd use." Tails whimpered, as he and Amy both clung onto both of the cobalt friend's arms as all three of them were frightened out of their minds. Star as well as she was held by the protective arms of the orange hedgehog, and surprisingly even Knuckles stood in front of Rouge despite their love-hate relationship.
"MORTALS OF THE ALTERNATE PRIME REALITY...YOU ARE TO COME WITH ME." The giant polar bear loomed in greeting, looming over the frightened fifteen year old and his friends who all took a couple steps back.
"Who...W-Who are you?" Sonic shakily asked. "Where are you taking us?"
"ALL WILL BE ANSWERED, BUT THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT PLACE TO BE." The massive creature replied, reaching out towards the even more scared Mobians. "COME, LITTLE ONES. THERE IS MUCH TO DISCUSS."
'Okay, there's way too many red flags going on here.' Rouge thought in great discomfort. For the first time in her entire life, she never felt so terrified. Aloud, she whispered in great caution. "This would be a good time to avoid him, because I have a feeling he's all strong and mighty."
"You're r-right. He looks way too powerful even for normal strategies to even work." Star trembled in agreement.
The closer the hand got, the more Sonic and even Knuckles could both sense strong god-like powers that even their normal tatics wouldn't even work, and the red echidna was this close in getting ready to fight. Plus the way how the giant polar bear spoke made their insides squirm.
Still, they shared an uneasy glance before quickly turning to Tails who shook his head, silently begging them that fighting against this new evil enemy who wanted them for some reason was a terrible idea. Given how the hero of Mobius had hard lessons learned months ago, he decided to heed his little brother's words, mentally spoken in his sweet, blue cerulean eyes.
"RUN!" Sonic screamed loudly, quickly scooping Amy who squeaked a little, and once he quickly knew that Tails, Rouge, and Knuckles would keep up, they, Sun and Star, who held onto the blue hedgehog, all made a mad dash as fast as they could. Sonic and Knuckles, who wasn't as fast as his friends but was still pretty speedy enough to keep up, ran while Tails and Rouge both flew.
They quickly all narrowly managed to avoid in the giant grasping them, crying out in alarm before fleeing, much the confusion yet frustration of the polar bear who hissed darkly. While Sonic and Knuckles both jumped off of the platform and used the floating pieces of crystal to their advantage, and seeing this made both Sun and Star, who shared a glance and nodded in agreement as they came up with the same idea, unhooked one grapple hook each and used them to launch themselves up to give Sonic some freedom without the extra weight, and Tails and Rouge both simply used their flying skills to get as high as possible.
"There's gotta be a way outta of this weird, creepy place!" Sonic exclaimed, holding onto the frantic Amy who at this point struggled against the urge to cry, and really, he didn't blame her when he saw the traces of tears forming in her eyes. His heart broke upon the realization how much he messed up this time.
Worse than usual.
"AHH!" Tails screamed as he took the risk of looking over his shoulder, his heart leaping into his throat. "He's coming straight for us!"
When his older friends, who made for the larger platform above, they all gasped in horror when they saw the giant Polar Bear raised his arms with an enormous will of power to levitate the crystal was within, controlling it to follow the heroes. Unbeknownst to them, he was rather intrigued with each of their abilities to escape and to stick together no matter what.
Sonic gulped nervously while he and everybody else sweat dropped. "...Not to mention getting away from that big dude! Don't know about you guys, but I don't want us to spend the rest of our lives as his toys or whatever he has in mind!"
Combined with flight, jumping and somersaulting as well as the grapple hooks lifting two hedgehogs up, Sonic and his friends quickly made it to the top, panting a little before looking over the edge and gasped when they saw the giant catching up with the latter's hand reaching out to grab them. Screaming in terror, the group quickly forced themselves to run once again. They all felt terrible for running like cowards, but at this stage in their unknown location with a giant polar bear coming after them, they had very little choice but to keep running.
"How are we going to lose that monster?" Amy panicked, holding onto her 'boyfriend' as long as she could.
"I'm more concerned about how we can leave this place!" Knuckles grunted, panting heavily.
Hoping to evade capture, the cobalt quickster and his friends continued to run in hopes in finding safety before they all hid around a large rock up ahead, all leaning against it while keeping silent in hopes in not getting caught. Despite that they seemingly managed to escape their persuer, Sonic felt his heart sink like stone, tears stinging his eyes with his chest and throat burning hot with the growing sense of guilt.
'This is all my fault...Why wasn't I more careful? WHY!?' Sonic squeezed his eyes shut as the full realization, which was soon setting onto his remaining friends, that that nothing would be the same again, they would never see their families, other friends or home again, sunk into their minds.
The Paradox Prism was destroyed, Mobius is gone. All the team's hard work in preventing all of it was for nothing.
"What do we do know?" Sun whispered, worriedly.
"G-Given w-what Star has elaborated, for some reason th-the Paradox Prism swallowed us up and lead us into this p-place." Tails panted, his heart beating refusing to stop.
"That doesn't give out much detail. If the Prism wasn't destroyed, why did everything, well, shatter?" Knuckles shrugged, cluelessly.
"Hmm...It could be..."
Unfortunately, before the nine year old cub could continue or even speak out his theory, a giant shadow loomed over the heroes with an evil loud chuckle booming above their heads which made Sonic's group gasp, looking up and nearly screamed when they saw, to their horror, the Titan-sized Polar Bear having caught up with them.
"THERE IS NO ESCAPE, MORTALS. YOU BELONG TO ME NOW." The giant Polar Bear growled, reaching out once more when the heroes nearly screamed.
"LOOK OUT!" Sonic, thinking quickly and making the dashed-heart-breaking decision to at least give his friends enough time to escape, pushed Amy and Tails aside which caused them to accidentally shove Knuckles, Sun, Star and Rouge who all cried out in alarm, aside.
Just in time as much to his friends' horror, the giant clasped him by the lower part of his body without pinning his arms. Panic-stricken, Sonic tried to pry himself free, but hissed in pain as the grip tightened, preventing him from even squeezing out.
"SONIC!" Amy screamed, angst and heart-broken as she reached out for him.
"Put me down! Let me go!" Sonic shouted, only to yelp when the Polar Bear held him up close to his face which prompted the trapped teenager to gasp in fright.
"NO, SONIC!" Tails screamed, devastated and horrified.
"HEY! LET HIM GO, NOW!" Knuckles, refusing to allow his younger friend to be taken prisoner and not heeding Tails' earlier warning, charged to rescue the teenage blue hedgehog.
"We're coming, Sonic!" Sun, also unwilling to allow his brother to die or held captive, charged along with Rouge who, despite knowing that this was suicidal, flew to help or at least keep the two other boys in line. Amy and Star, gasping in horror while Tails cried out for the others ignoring his warnings, shared a glance and nodded.
Seeing this while the giant Polar Bear gave a hard glare at the blue hedgehog, Sonic looked over his shoulder and gasped to see his friends attempting to try and save him, screaming pleadingly. "Guys, no! Get outta here and save yourselves!"
When the giant being turned to see the foolish other hedgehogs, echidna and bat attempting to charge with battle yells, he frowned deeply at them. "MISINTERSCEPTIVE MORTALS..."
The giant Polar Bear held out a hand calmly as a gust of wind came bursting out which hit Knuckles, Sun, Amy, Star and Rouge who were all caught up, wincing before being thrown back along with Tails who attempted to keep his ground in a way to save Sonic, all six of them screaming in agony before hitting the platform hard, skidding to a stop and winced.
"NO!" Sonic screamed, his heart dropping and gasped just as the monster that held him captive loomed over them just as his friends were painfully attempting to recover only to gasp in horror to see the beast now having the advantage.
"INFIDIALS...YOU ARE ALL MINE!" The giant Polar Bear darkly grunted, reaching out to use his power on the group who felt their hearts quicken, Tails, Amy and Star whimpering while Knuckles, Sun and even Rouge tried to mask their fears.
'I've gotta save them, fast! I can't let this happen!' Sonic thought frantically to himself and kept trying to slide free, but it was futile. Desperate and frightened out of his mind, the fifteen year old came to a desperate idea, and, squeezing his eyes shut he bit hard onto the giant thumb, ignoring the gross fuzziness of the white fur.
"UGH!" The giant Polar Bear roared in agony, forcing him to drop Sonic who screamed.
"Sonic!" Tails screamed out, wincing in being hurt, but he ignored his injuries and flew up as quickly as possible. Fortuantely, he managed to reach where his best friend/big brother was falling and caught him by the right hand. "I got ya'!"
Seeing that Tails was rescuing Sonic and the giant Polar Bear distracted, Knuckles and the rest of the group shared glances before nodding and hurried to at least shove the monster off.
"This is for trying to kill us!" Knuckles roared, leaping up as he glided into giving the powerful punches on the chest despite being smaller than the enemy, but he fought giant foes in the past.
"AUGH!" Roared the giant being, caught off-guard by the attack even though it didn't injure him as much but it still stunned him.
Sun in the meantime used a Homing Attack at the left shoulder, with Star karate-kicking and punching a few seconds later, while Rouge used her Drill Kick on the right shoulder, and Amy thrust her Piko Piko Hammer with a loud yell, mustering her strength to force the giant Polar Bear even further away from the platform.
"Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked, frantically as he carried his brother to safety.
"Forget me! It's you guys I'm worried about!" Sonic responded, smiling fondly and in relief at his younger brother.
"Ah, I've been through worse."
Hearing that made the blue hedgehog chuckle, feeling a little eased knowing that the two-tailed fox was in good spirits. He raised his little brother well. Just as the two were about to land, Sonic and Tails noticed how their friends were keeping their newest enemy from reaching over before an idea formed into their minds and shared a glance, nodding as they knew what to do.
"Ready?" Sonic counted down.
"Set!" Tails continued.
"GO!" The two chorused.
First Tails spun Sonic around several times before letting go, allowing the hero of Mobius to use his Homing Attack at the giant's face while the latter was distracted and attempting to attack the rest of the group. But unfortunately for the Polar Bear, the blue hedgehog hit it several times giving it quite a head ache, followed by Tails who spun his namesakes right between the eyes, temporarly blinding him. Soon Sonic and Tails finished off along with everybody else, who were seeing this, leaped to help the brothers.
"Chaaaaaaarge!" Amy shouted, her hammer raised, Knuckles and Sun's fists ready, and Star and Rouge about to give the Polar Bear a good final double kick.
Combined by the attacks of the seven Mobians, the heroes all attacked and hit simultaneously with pure great determination, just as the Polar Bear, who growled and made to attack the young mortals, but was shoved back when he somehow lost his control and balance. He roared in shock when he was hit all at once in the chest and shoulders, falling along with his crystal piece and descended into the void below.
Sonic and his friends landed safely on the platform, and peered over the edge, apprehensive for a long moment as they watched the giant Polar Bear disappear below. Waiting for a few more minutes, the group all sighed in relief.
"Phew...For a second there, I thought we were all goners." Sonic wiped his forehead, still feeling his heart beating in adrenaline.
"You okay?" Sun asked, as he and the others now gathered around the blue hedgehog, the orange mobian gently placing his hands onto his brother's shoulders.
"Yeah, I'm fine," The fifteen year old nodded, smiling in guilt and sadness, but also in deep gratitude. "Thanks for saving me, guys."
"I thought we were gonna lose you!" Amy wailed, clinging onto Sonic who yelped and nearly lost his balance while wincing at just how tight his self-proclaimed girlfriend was holding him. "Oh, Sonic...!"
"Amy, take it easy." Sonic whispered, for once allowing her to hold him while Tails joined in and he brought both of them as close as possible. They were all joined by Sun and Star, while Knuckles gently placed a hand onto his head with a friendly rub, and Rouge having her hand on the cobalt quickster's shoulder.
Tears began to form in Sonic's eyes that he tried to will back, his heart aching yet full of happiness that his friends were here, but the situation only made things worse. "I'm sorry, guys. I messed up big time."
"It's not your fault, Sonic. None of us knew this would happen." Tails tried his hardest to reassure his older brother, but his heart sank, as well as those of the rest of their friends, seeing the blue hedgehog rendering himself back to how he felt five months ago.
Sonic sniffled, struggling not to cry. "But...The Paradox Prism's shattered, the whole universe is gone, we're all trapped in this weird place and...and...Shadow's gone too...!"
"Sonic..." Knuckles murmured in worry.
"It's alright, hun. We're figure something out." Rouge whispered sympathetically.
"Uh...Guys?" Sun's very nervous voice murmured when he glanced down at where the giant Polar Bear fell, getting everyone's attentions. "I think we have more important things to worry about...!"
When his friends, feeling a strong sense of dread run down their spines, looked to see for themselves, they all gasped in horror to find the massive being, void of injury, snarl angrily as he began to recover, now beyond furious due to what they had done in order to protect each other and themselves.
"Uh oh!" The heroes all exclaimed, panic-stricken.
"Let's get outta here!" Sonic and his friends screamed in unison, the blue hedgehog telling his friends to hold on despite never having had to drag six people before but at this point of time it was their only chance of escaping, and made a mad dash further up on the platform with the others holding on for dear life.
Even though Knuckles was no coward when it comes to battle, this new opponent already proved to be far too powerful to overcome and without the Chaos Emeralds, not even Sonic could handle it. Fortunately, they were able to spot a giant ring that seemed to be a portal leading to somewhere, and despite not knowing where it would lead them, looking back to where the giant Polar Bear was about to emerge, they knew it was their only hope of escaping.
"We're gonna dive into that ring! Brace yourselves, guys!" Sonic declared, and despite some of them protesting and hesitanting, they knew they had no other choice left. "Here we GO!"
Speeding up with his boost, Sonic managed to make it through with his friends screaming and squeezing their eyes shut before giant Polar Bear, who emerged over where it's prey would have been...only to find the blue hedgehog and his friends seemingly disappeared.
"HUH?" The massive being blinked, confused.
Making it to the other side and free-falling, screaming away, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star and Rouge tried to figure out where they were now and where to land without being killed. Fortunately, even as the bottom seemed to be another platform and the whole area around them was more beautiful and peaceful, a realm with a star-like sky, platforms that had trees and lakes, or desert-like islands, or even buildings with more shards and portals leading to other places, Tails spun his namesakes and grabbed hold of Sonic who held on with one hand, and caught Amy in his free arm.
Knuckles quickly glided to prevent himself from crashing, while Rouge flapped her wings and she and Sun both repeated what Tails and Sonic did, the orange hedgehog holding a panting Star in one arm. All seven friends panted at the close call, before those who could fly or glide descended, gently dropping their passengers off onto the ground. They all sighed in relief while the flyers landed beside them.
"O-Oh...Man...This is a nightmare!" Sonic panted shakily, struggling to will his rapidly beating heart to calm down.
"Ugh...You can say that again, Big Blue." Rouge sighed, her hand placed to her heart. "I've been on dangerous missions before, but this is the most intense and terrifying, I've never been so scared in my whole life."
"Considering we're all trapped in this place showing images of us, a giant Polar Bear wanting to keep us as slaves or whatever, and unable to get back home...For once, I'm not in a the mood to argue." Knuckles groaned, placing one hand to his head.
"I blame Ro-butt-nik on this one," Sun grunted, narrowing his eyes in anger over how all of this unfolded. "It's his fault we're all stuck here in the first place!"
At the moment of Eggman made the rest of the heroes realize, since awakening in this strange new world, they hadn't seen any sign of the evil doctor or his five pathetic robots either and began dreading for the worst.
"Great! Not only Shadow's gone missing, but Egghead's gone too!" The hero of Mobius grunted in frustration.
"And what about those weird images of most of us?" Amy asked, leaning up once she caught her breath. "Why are we seeing them and in two, Sonic isn't really there at all?"
Tails thought long and hard about it, before a realization dawned onto his face and he gasped with his widening. "Wait!"
When his friends gazed at him in surprise and confusion, the two-tailed fox cub explained. "We're all seeing other versions of us before we were brought here, and what that giant Polar Bear was talking about earlier...I just figured out what this means!"
"Well, what is it, Tails? Tell us already!" Knuckles exclaimed impatiently.
The two-tailed fox swished his namesakes in perturbation. "Well, given how the Paradox Prism glowed but didn't shatter, and instead we found ourselves here in this place showing us these. The answer is simple."
A moment of hesitant pause.
"We've been seeing alternate universes, and now we're all in some kind of dimensional world with portals leading to other alternate realities."
A massive shock-wave crushed onto Sonic, Amy, Sun, Star, Knuckles and Rouge like an ocean swallowing them up.
"WHAT!?" Everyone else of Mobius screamed.
"How can it be? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard of!" Knuckles demanded.
"I'm with Knux on that one." Sonic muttered with a sweat drop.
"He speaks the truth, young mortals, you have all entered a passage of the Paradox Prism Link." An unfamiliar woman's voice echoed all of the sudden, seemingly above them.
"Huh?" Looking up as they all murmured in confusion, Sonic and his friends all gasped in shock and slight awe when they saw floating down towards them was a beautiful human woman, also having cyan hair which was long and loose and blue eyes, wearing a long white dress and a lavender shirt with long sleeves, and cyan wings on her shoulders.
When she landed in front of them, defense instinct kicked in with Sonic, Knuckles and Sun standing in front of Tails, Amy and Star, while Rouge, mentally admitting the new woman had beautiful style of fashion, stood beside them, neither one willing to trust this newcomer yet.
"Who are you?" Sonic asked.
"Don't be frightened, young ones. My name is Eris, I am one of the Seers of the Timelines." Eris, the Seer of Time, gently gestured the Mobains to relax with a soft, warm and kind smile. "I am relieved you and your friends have arrived safely: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Prower, Amelia Rose, Knuckles the Echidna, Agent Rouge, Princess Aria, and Sun the Hedgehog."
The eyes of the heroes widened in shock, not only this woman, who looked no older than most of the teenagers, knew their names, but also that she was a Seer(whatever that meant) of timelines. They all shared uneasy and worried glances as now they had not just the giant Polar Bear to worry about...
But Eris the Seer of Time herself. What will Sonic and his friends do now that they were in her presence? Would they ever find Shadow, and Eggman and get back home?
"Seer...of Timelines?" Sonic slowly questioned, feeling his heart beat.
This might be a bit of a problem.
To be Continued!
A/N: Sorry for the lateness of this chapter. I tried so many ways of how to end this page without it being far too long or being too boring for the new realm and had so many ideas that I ended up discarding in the end for this final result.
The next part will have Sonic and his friends learn more about their situation and figure out what to do from there, as well as the true identity of the giant Polar Bear who isn't what he appeared to be, and also what happened to Shadow and Eggman.
See you later!