Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: The fourth part of the Multiverse Adventure, at your service!
Anyway, let's do it to it!
Summary of Story 14-Part 4: On their journey to find the pieces of the alternate Paradox Prism and rescue Shadow, Sonic and his friends arrive in the alternate version of Seaside Island(named Bygone Island). But not only they encounter their alternate counterparts...but they also learn not everything is similar to their own reality. In more ways than one.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Alternate-Sonic's Multiverse Adventure-P4: The Sonic...Boom?
Back with Sonic's group in the Paradox Prism Passage...
"Is it just me, or does this place look kinda creepy?" Sonic asked, as he and his friends, having emerged from the portal leading them to their supposed destination, glanced around their new surroundings.
Unlike the area they all had found themselves trapped in earlier yet were found and informed by the mysterious Seer of Timelines named Eris, and almost captured by the mysterious giant Polar Bear who called himself Nero, it was, well, somewhat twilight here as well, but a bit darker, a few crystals floating around and giant Warp Rings with portals leading to who knew where.
"I'd say it's really creepy. Kind of dark, too." Amy muttered a bit nervously.
"Hmm...Not that dark to me." Rouge disagreed as she did like certain dark areas due to her nature in being a bat.
'You would say that.' Knuckles deadpanned, yet refrained himself from speaking aloud. In the months since the Dark Gaia crisis, he actually learned how to think first before blurting out words that would get him into trouble.
"Nah, the Twilight Cage is a bit darker and creepier..." Sun shook his head, closing his eyes. "Especially with an annoying giant panda involved."
"I find it intriguing that we have crossed space and time even through accident and if theory is correct, Chaos Control may have saved us somehow and sent us to that place," Star theorized, frowning in concern. "However, our events may have triggered at the exact same time as, what Eris called Prism-Sonic, had accidentally destroyed his world's Paradox Prism."
"Or perhaps even earlier depending on how time flows in each world," Tails added thoughtfully. He turned his gaze at Sonic who returned it quizzly. "Given how much we all been through and both you and Shadow had the visions, it's clear that our timeline was the closest for the crystal to make contact and very possibly bringing us here in order to prevent the complete annihilation of all of the multi-verse."
"But why would it pick me? I can be just as reckless as anybody else and that's sayin' something." Sonic shrugged.
Tails thought for a moment, before answering. "Well, maybe it just needed something like that to happen only for you to be extra careful without destroying our universe."
"I call dibs to put the full blame on Dr. Eggman-Both of him, in fact," Rouge pointed out.
"I'm with her on that one. It's his fault that we're all stuck here in the first place. If he and his Alter-Dumb-Self or whatever hadn't gone after the crystals, this mess would've been avoided." Knuckles grunted.
Amy was about to speak up when she noticed something and softly gasped, alerting her friends. "Guys! Is that what I think it is?"
Blinking, the rest of the group looked up to see what the pink hedgehog was talking about. To their surprise, a Warp Ring leading to a strangely very familiar place was right next to them to their left: It was an island as large as Angel Island, looking very peaceful yet there was another island that seemed to be volcanic yet extinct close by with a fortress built.
"Looks like Amy is right." The tangerine hedgehog murmured thoughtfully.
"It is pretty close and if calculations are correct, the Prism Shard from...well, Prism-Sonic's reality is somewhere on that island." Tails theorized.
"Only one way to find out. Not sure how we can get outta there, but something tells me that what Eris said about finding the shard is our only chance." The hero of Mobius, as nervous as he felt since Eris and Nero didn't really give out any sort of warnings on how to leave or get back, knew that they had to take the risk.
Amy felt scared, clinging onto the blue hedgehog's arm with a small moan. Sonic felt her feelings and, remembering how he saw the terrible world where his self-proclaimed girlfriend was somehow roboticized, gently rubbed her hand comfortingly. He didn't want to lose her, or Tails or anybody else. Sonic held all of his friends and family dear into his heart, his love for them so strong that he would sacrifice himself to keep them safe and free.
Knowing that they would have to hope for the best and figure out to not strand themselves in any world, Sonic held hands with Tails and Amy, while Sun and Star stuck close to them, and Knuckles and Rouge being the last to follow, cautiously stepped into the Warp Ring to enter the new world.
The Sonic Boom Reality...
The moment they emerged and stumbled out a bit with yelps, some of them nearly losing their balance in alarm, the heroes glanced around their surroundings, their mouths agaped in awe and shock at the sight of a tropical island stood before them as they were on the beach. The resemblance of this place was uncanny and almost instantly Sonic and his friends recognized it.
"Oh, no way!" Sonic gasped, taken aback.
"Is this...Seaside Island?" Amy asked, bewildered.
"It appears so, but this could also be something similar to what we're used to," Tails began, wishing to have done some tampering into his Miles Electric to get more access of alternate realities and their summaries. "For all we know, it could have a completely different name."
"With different versions of us, or Sun and the others?" Knuckles guessed, having only been to this island once as far as he could remember.
"Or even Kairi, Sophia, Manny and Gaiver?" Star added, her hands clasped in worry.
"...Sure hope we don't end up meeting an angry version of the big guy." The blue hedgehog murmured worriedly, swallowing a large lump in his throat. Sure Gaiver was scary in his current giant form, but at least the gorilla was friendly back at home, even having a fatherly personality in him.
But if his counterpart in this world was anything different and maybe...more aggressive, Sonic hoped that they wouldn't come across the giant gorilla if he existed here.
"ALIENS! Imposters!"
"Huh?" Jumping slightly in fright upon hearing the sound of a high-pitched, almost raspy screech of a girl shout aloud, Sonic and his friends glanced around to see what was going on. The answer they got was, much to their confusion, an unfamiliar female redish-brown badger with pigtails, and a feral-jungle like outfit, lacking gloves, looking like a semi-feral jungle girl.
The badger, named Sticks the Badger, snarled angrily at the group who flinched in fright, with Tails and Amy hiding behind Sonic, while Sun stood protectively in front of a nervous Star, and both Knuckles and Rouge stood quickly in defense, all seven of them wondering if this island was actually deserted and this girl was the sole resident. But then again, she mentioned aliens and imposters, so that theory was quickly dismissed.
"How dare you attempt to impersonate my friends, mainly Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles, only you're getting a number of things wrong!" The Badger girl angrily accussed, brandishing a boomerang threateningly.
Sonic's group stared at the crazy Badger dumbfounded, before sharing uneasy glances over what they were already hearing from this girl who apparently knew Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles' counterparts already, so that was a start. But what she said made him very confused.
"Uh...Say what?" Sonic blinked, dumbfounded.
Sticks didn't believe the blue hedgehog's confusion, however, as she continued while ranting on as though she was insane. Which wasn't far from the truth. "Don't you, 'Say what' to me, morpher! I know everything that makes you all fakes! They're here to impersonate us by kidnapping us, switching our brains for their brethern for garbage cans and take over the world! Or perhaps you're even for your leader of evil Pollen Brethren to hypnotize people into pulling out their brains and replacement with coockoo clocks and slow down time to grow deranged Washing Machines eating their victims like a roller-coaster!"
"Anybody got an idea who this crazy girl is?" Sun whispered, awkwardly.
"Nope." Sonic shrugged.
"Nope." Tails echoed.
"I've never met her before." Amy added, shaking her head.
"Me neither." Star agreed, raising an eyebrow.
"If I did, I would've mentioned it by now." Knuckles folded his arms.
"Mmm...Nope, doesn't ring a bell." Rouge concluded.
"Okay, that answers it then." The orange hedgehog raised an eye-ridge uncomfortably.
He could understand evil aliens and Eggman...But flower pollen, cookoo clocks and Washing Machines eating people? Where in this timeline did she get all of that insane conspiracy theories from?
"Flower Pollen Brethren?" Rouge questioned dully.
"Coockoo Clocks?" Knuckles blinked, bewildered.
"Deranged Washing Machines eating people?" Tails tilted his head, baffled.
"Where in the world did you get all of those ideas from, if you don't mind me asking?" Star asked, awkwardly.
"I know that I'm right, and people think I'm crazy with all of these theories! Now, beat it and go back!" Sticks snarled, charging with her weapon thrown at the heroes who gasped in shock.
Panicking and not sure what to make of this, Sonic and his friends quickly dodged out of the way and even had to repeatedly avoid the boomerang that was clearly used as a weapon with the crazy Badger girl attempting to beat them up believing that they were aliens. They had to admit, as they dodged her attempts one by one, with Knuckles on the edge to fight back and Sun wondering if the feral-girl was more insane than he thought, she had pretty good arm and aim even though Sticks was shocked that Sonic was super fast, Tails could fly and Knuckles was strong despite his height.
"Wait, wait, wait! We're not aliens!" Sonic shouted after landing in a bit of a safe distance with his friends spread out across the beach, frantically waving his arms. "And we're not imposters either!"
But the badger didn't listen as she tossed her Boomerang again at the cobalt teenager who screamed and ducked just in time, making the wise choice to stay low until the weapon returned to it's owner. Amy screamed before quickly summoning her Hammer to block it, which had Tails to hover up with his namesakes, yelping in alarm panicking, Rouge and Star both back-flipping to avoid it, Knuckles leaned back as far as he could, and somersaulted out of the way before Sticks caught her weapon when it finally came back to her.
The group panted and stared at the jungle girl incredulously in worriedly, all wondering what could they do in order to prove that they were not enemies. Either way, they all came to the conclusion that she was extremely paranoid and beyond crazy.
"You're lying and attempting to replace Sonic, Tails and Amy, even though you need a better chance to look convincing since I know how they really look!" Sticks hissed darkly, readying herself for another attack.
"Hey, we're not lying, you crazy badger!" Knuckles shouted, now feeling insulted as a vein squeezed on the side of his face.
That did little to calm the jungle girl, as she let out a loud battle yell before tossing her weapon again, aimed at the group who ducked and/or dodged quickly repeatedly all over the beach. Finally having enough, the red echidna jumped before catching the boomerang, much to Stick's horror as she gasped, her eyes widening.
"I've about had enough of this nonsense! Maybe this will get your head back into it's senses!" The Guardian of the Master Emerald snarled furiously, before preparing to throw the boomerang right at it's owner.
"Knux, no!" Sonic screamed in warning, as he and the rest of the group realized what their friend was about to do.
"Wait, Knuckles!" Tails frantically cried out, waving his arms.
Too late, Knuckles, with a battle roar of his own, tossed the weapon right at Sticks, causing the badger to scream and duck just in time...just as another blue hedgehog came speeding in, only to cry out in alarm and ducked just in time, his hands on his head...
Though unfortunately, a taller red echidna with thicker muscles, about maybe two-feet shorter than Eggman, having a more happier and child-like expression, and unlike Knuckles, he wore gloves that revealed his fingers, tape wrapped around his hands, wrists, and ankles, came racing in behind just moments later with the boomerang aiming directly at him.
"Hey, Sticks! What's going-!?"
CLANG!
The weapon hit the tall echidna, who was cut off from his sentence, right on the forehead, causing to scream out, "OW!" and collapse onto his back with a groan, as, to the shock of the heroes of Mobius who let out stunned and shocked gasps, another Tails and Amy came racing only to stop short with horrified gasps of their own, and the other blue hedgehog stood up, seeing what happened.
"Knuckles!" The other blue hedgehog, clearly this world's version of Sonic, cried out in worry. He and his group, including Sticks who, horrified, hurried to their taller friend's side while, unbeknownst to the other four, their counterparts and their friends stared in disbelief. "Knux! Are you okay?"
The other Sonic then quickly held up two fingers, asking. "How many fingers am I-" He cut himself off, before groaning and facepalming himself. "Ugh, wait. You can't count. Gotta...try something else."
"Uuuuuhhhh...Hey, Sonic..." The taller Knuckles said, completely dazed, as in his dazed vision, he was seeing triples of the other Sonic circle while hearing birds tweeting in his head. "I can see a Ferris-Wheel looking just like you...and your head's really big...Is there a...Theme-park based on you?"
"No, Knuckles, you're just dazed seeing my head in front of your face." The blue hedgehog sighed, exasperated but silently relieved that his friend would be okay.
Unfortunately, the taller echidna was really lost in his daze that he randomly muttered as though he was drunk. "Honey Spread? Oh...I'd love some...with Crumpets and Ice Cream..."
The group of this world all sighed, with Sticks shrugging. "Well, at least he'll live. That's a good sign." She then shuddered, coming up with another conspiracy theory. "Unless his brain is starting to melt and turn into pinecone for the Bowling Alley..."
This only made her friends slump in annoyance, while Sonic and his group, still shocked upon seeing their counterparts, well, at least the counterparts of the teenage hedgehog, Tails, Amy and the dumbfounded Knuckles, shared another bewildered glance. None of this made sense at all.
"Sticks, you and your conspiracy theories will be the end of you someday." The other Tails shook his head, exasperated. "And why were you attempting to throw your weapon at us?"
"Hey! I wasn't the one doing it! It's the imposters that attacked me, right there! With four of them attempting to replace you guys!" The badger girl snapped, pointing at the Mobians who flinched with sweat drops, while Knuckles looked downright insulted.
When the other Sonic, Tails and Amy turned around to try and correct her, they gaped in shock to find that there were indeed other versions of them and Knuckles, but looking completely different. The heroes of Mobius in turn were just as stunned, especially when the Boom-Sonic stood up.
For one, Sonic's doppelganger was taller but still shorter than the taller echidna, his quills were sticking up a bit, he wore the same gloves and shoes Sonic normally wore back at home, only decorated with tape like Taller-Knuckles, a brown scarf around his neck...and the other hedgehog's arms were blue!
Amy's counterpart was purple and pink in a more sporty design of her current outfit with purple wristbands, while Tails' was mostly the same only he wore long working gloves and a pair of goggles on his head, and like Sonic and Knuckles' other selves, he wore tape on his hands and legs.
Suddenly they understood why the badger thought Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles were imposters due to how different their alternate selves looked in this world!
"See? I'm not that crazy! They attacked me!" Sticks said, smugly.
"Attacked you!?" Knuckles's eyes widened, before he gritted his teeth with a vein squeezing on his head. "You're the one who accused and attacked us first!"
"Knux, you're not helping...!" Sonic murmured a warning.
"Whoa, wait! Please calm down, miss!" Tails quickly waved. "We're not the enemies here, honest!"
"We're sorry for scaring your friend, but she noticed us and we just got here." Amy added apologetically.
"...What's going on here?" The blue-armed Sonic asked, dumbfounded.
"Um...This is gonna sound crazy and creepy, but would you believe us if I told ya' we're from an alternate dimension?" Sonic asked, shrugging sheepishly as he understood where his counterpart was coming him as even he was finding it hard to believe he was face to face with his alternate self, answered meekly.
"Huh?" The other team, known as the Boom-Team Sonic, blinked bewildered.
An awkward moment of silence, just before Boom-Amy quickly clammed up Sticks' mouth to stop her from yelling out another crazy theory, with the badger muffling and struggling to free herself, yet the pink hedgehog, and the other two all groaned in dismay.
"Ugh...Not again." Boom-Sonic facepalmed himself, while both Boom-Tails and Boom-Amy sighed, all exasperated.
That caught Team Sonic off-guard as they shared shocked glances before turning back to the other team.
"Again?" Sun asked, blinking.
"You mean this sort of thing happened to you guys before?" Sonic questioned, unable to believe what he was hearing.
His taller, blue-armed counterpart sighed, shaking his head with a shrug. "Yeah, it happened a few times, actually. First, was when out Knux's, uh..."
He paused, sharing a glance at his friends who shrugged sheepishly, before turning back to the alternate heroes, and continued in growing embarrassment. "Well, let's just say that in that universe, my other counterpart is clumsy and his sounds like a, in his and Eggbreath's opinion, fortune cookie who's the leader of the team."
"A fortune cookie?" Rouge smirked slyly, her eyes gleaming at Knuckles who stood there, looking all pale in shock over the discription of his other counterpart that came here before. "Wouldn't that be interesting sight to see."
"You keep quiet!" The Guardian hissed with a warning, even though his cheeks were flustered in pink which only made his rival giggle teasingly, much to his dismay.
"And he also is kind of an aggressor who has this policy of jumping first and asking for forgiveness and whatever, and ask for permission later." Boom-Sonic continued, while a bit surprised how the shorter Knuckles' temper was almost as bad as Sticks', never mind Boom-Knuckles'.
"To be fair, it was Eggman who I suspect was more violent in the other Knuckles' world than ours is." Boom-Tails pointed out knowingly.
"Yeah, that's true." The taller hedgehog conceded.
"Huh...Guess that explains something." Sonic shrugged, thoughtfully even though he was still having a bit of trouble learning about all of this. But then again, he supposed that alternate realities worked very differently besides the appearances. He then suggested. "Maybe we should continue this conversation somewhere else, in case this world's Egghead figures out that we're here."
"Especially if he learns about what we're actually here for and that is not a good thing." Tails agreed, shuddering over the thought if Boom-Eggman figures out about the Paradox Prism.
"Sounds good to me. Let's head over to my shack and fry up some Chili Dogs for lunch while we're at it." Boom-Sonic added, gesturing over the direction of his home.
The shorter Sonic smirked upon hearing his favorite food being mentioned. "Heh. You're speakin' my language!"
While the two Sonics chuckled while the two of Tails and Amy giggled knowingly, Sticks and Sun both rolled their eyes while Rouge shook her head, Star tried to muffle hers, and Knuckles looked deadpanned at the two blue hedgehogs. As for his taller counterpart, who had awakened and only half-listned to the conversation, blinked before approaching the Master Emerald Guardian.
"Hey, you're an echidna, just like me! You even look like me, only shorter, boxing spiky gloves and...you got noodle arms too!" The taller Knuckles remarked in awe.
"Shorter...!?" Knuckles flinched, feeling greatly insulted even further, growling. "Noodle arms!?"
"And I didn't know Sonic and Tails had brothers and Amy had a sister! This is really cool!" Boom-Knuckles, completely oblivious to what his counterpart had said, beamed before gasping as a thought came into his mind and asked eagerly. "Are you and this guy my long-lost brothers? Where do you live? Do we have parents?"
"To answer your questions, one: no, I'm not your brother, I'm not even related to you, two: where I live is really far away, and three: I'm an orphan." Knuckles grunted, quickly growing more and more irritated by the second.
This was going to be more complicated than they thought.
Meanwhile, in the Island Fortress from the shores of Bygone Island, Dr. Eggman and his five robots, once the evil scientist calmed down enough to grasp his situation, and mentally discovered in annoyance that his counterpart, Boom-Dr. Eggman, was more of a bumbling villain and more childish than he was, explained how they got here and coming to a realization how it all happened in the first place.
All the while the two Cubots were playing a game of Tomatopatomous 2, and both of Orbot sharing an uneasy glance, while Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun were having trouble telling the four other robots apart.
"...So from this so called Chaos Control done by your reality's version of Shadow the Hedgehog, who isn't an evil, heck-bent lunatic who's goal is to eliminate me and that annoying hedgehog Sonic but still edgy yet loyal, caused this Paradox Prism to send you and your robot servants to this world." Boom-Eggman correctly assumed.
"Yes, and all so to prevent me from using the Prism's power to reshape reality and claim the world to build my Eggmanland Empire," Eggman confirmed, groaning as he placed a hand on top of his head. "That little blue pincushion has gotten more careful and calculated lately, I'm beginning to think he's actually growing up a little yet still being the same annoying brat he has always been."
"Hmmm...And here I thought there was one world already where my Lord self did that already since Sonic doesn't exist and it's similar to this one. And it was already insane enough with two of Knuckles nearly causing the anomly that nearly destroyed the world, to which the one from there sounded like a fortune cookie!"
"A fortune cookie?" That made the evil scientist stare at his Boom-counterpart dumbly, before realizing in bewilderment. "Are you saying that the Knuckles in this world is a doofus, or just clueless?"
Boom-Eggman glared at him with a deadpanned expression. "It's pretty much both. He can't read, I heard he made Meat-Hand Puppets, and I can't forget the time he was Mayor of Hedgehog Village for the day where he wouldn't even get the Trash Man to take out my Trash, and caused chaos in the village by having broken moving sidewalks where people end up too lazy to walk!"
An awkward moment of silence as the wording was so outrageous that even all of the other robots stared at the Boom-Scientist with baffled expressions.
"This world's version of Knuckles can't read?" Decoe asked, dumbfounded.
"He made Meat-Hand Puppets?" Bocoe added.
"Yuck! That's just gross!" Bokkun groaned, disgusted. "And why was he mayor of the village in the first place?"
"Simply because the Mayor went fishing and needed someone to to do civic work until 5: PM in the afternoon." Boom-Orbot explained.
"...With a pea-brained echidna of this world, that's just a recipe for disaster." Eggman deadpanned, already not liking where this was going. As much as he hated Sonic and all of his friends, at least Knuckles could read and while he was guliable, the Master Emerald Guardian wasn't that stupid.
Boom-Eggman nodded in agreement. "It's a real mystery why Sonic is friends with that red-peanut in the first place." He then gazed at his counterpart once more. "What about the echidna in your dimension? What's he like?"
"For one, he may have social issues and a problem with trust, at least he can read, isn't childlike and is more rivals with Sonic even though they have become friends over the years. The rest of them are twice as annoying: The two-tailed fox tries to outsmart me, Sonic's pink girlfriend is love-obsessive but terrifying when she's furious, and let's not go there with the rest of them for the last two years!"
"...Clearly you never met a crazy conspiracy theorist badger girl who literally lives in the jungle." The other evil scientist deadpanned.
Another awkward moment of silence.
"Oooouggghh...I wish there was a reality where there aren't any annoying rodents or brats or both that would put the end of us." Eggman facepalmed himself in dismay.
Just then, the alarm on the monitor goes off, alerting the two Eggmen as well as the robots, including both Cubot and Boom-Cubot who jumped in fright, causing them to lose the game and wailed in dismay, complaining about not winning and the noise scared the living out of them.
"Boss!" Boom-Orbot exclaimed as he floated over, checking the camera. "The visuals have picked up energy reading similar to when our guests arrives a few hours ago! At the north beach near Sonic's shack!"
"Near the...Doesn't tell me that hedgehog's own counterpart's here already!" Boom-Eggman snarled angrily.
"Oh, alright then...I...will not." The robot smiled meekly with a shrug.
"Oh, for the love of...Get out of my way, you imbecile!" The Boom-Scientist shoved his servant aside roughly and zeroed in on the security cameras to see for himself.
"Oh, for the love of...I thought that hedgehog was sent to oblivion!" Eggman hissed furiously, having had hope that he and his useless dumbots had come here alone and Sonic's group were either erased or sent to another timeline entirely where they would remain trapped for the rest of their lives.
Deciding to see for himself, the mad doctor stood up from the rather comfy seat he was offered earlier, and stood beside his alternate counterpart, quite impressed with the monitor and the rather nicely touch of Boom-Eggman's base: White, flashy, simple, full of machinery and things like that, the only thing out of place was...the tapsry garden...that had a giant rock monster sleeping with a Miles Electric playing awful screeching that was like a lullaby(?).
A lot of cameras viewed the island that was simple but lively, full of this world's versions of Mobians, including some Eagle who was reporting something, the Meh Burger, and on the very beach that Boom-Orbot had pointed out, were not only, much to Eggman's dismay, Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star and Rouge, not only still alive, but also strangely donning new outfits with the lack of Shadow.
Yet what caught Eggman, and Boom-Eggman, who was shocked to see the Sonic Heroes, off-guard was now there was two of the four Mobians, except the differences with the counterparts of Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles.
"That Sonic and three of his friends look different!" Both of Eggmen exclaimed, bewildered. They then realized what they said and glanced at each other, dumbfounded. "Wait, you mean that's what your enemies look like all the time?"
"Sonic's counterpart has blue arms, and that tall echidna must be Knuckles'!" Decoe, who along with Bocoe, Bokkun, two of Orbot and even two of Cubot, remarked in shock as they couldn't believe what they were seeing either.
"At least Tails and Amy look the same, except for the different clothes." Bocoe stated, uneasily. "I just wish I knew how the Sonic Heroes of our world got the new duds."
"It's strange how your Sonic has arms same colour as his face and chest, and is shorter just like your Knuckles, and who are the other hedgehogs and that bat woman?" Boom-Orbot remarked, curiously.
"Those are Sun the Hedgehog, who is Sonic and Tails' new brother since five months ago in our world, Staria Amantha who studies on history of the planet, and Rouge the Bat, a G.U.N Agent and a Jewel thief." Orbot answered knowingly.
"Yeah, and she drives Knuckles nuts." Cubot added helpfully.
Bokkun, stunned beyond belief to see two of Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles, blinked when he saw the appearance of the unfamiliar badger girl and blinked. "Is that the badger your Dr. Eggman talked about? No wonder he said she was from the jungle! Sheesh, she looks feral!"
"That would be Sticks, and yes, she is...semi-feral, to say the least. She once used Tinfoil hats to thwart Dr. Eggman's Hypnosis Robot plot to hypnotize everyone and worked to break her friends out of it's spell fairly easily." Boom-Orbot explained.
Eggman and his robots stared at Boom-Orbot blankly, before slowly turning to Boom-Eggman who, growling in irritation over his previous failures being made known, pulled out a baseball bat out of nowhere and whacked his own robot who screamed while sent flying across the room.
"I told you not to reveal my previous plans to anyone!" The mad doctor snapped angrily, as well as embarrassment.
"...Tinfoil hats to block off mind-control?" Dr. Eggman asked, incredulously. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of!"
"That Sticks girl really IS crazy!" Decoe murmured, now getting pretty worried.
"Quiet!" His own creator snarled, frightening the other robots who whimpered, before he turned to the monitors. "And from the looks of it, our enemies will no doubt know of each other's history as well as what is going on, so now we have two of that annoying blue pincushion against us!"
"Well, I say we go pay them a visit and stop their double-team before they get the full chance!" Boom-Eggman declared. "One Sonic is bad enough, and I only met another Knuckles once, but having two is my worst nightmare!"
"Actually, your worst nightmare is Amy being a therepist." Boom-Cubot pointed out.
Despite that rushing in to attack two of Team Sonic was hasty and he could already sense the dreaded feeling of failure written all over until they figure out what to do in order to destroy both of Sonic, Eggman had to admit, formatting the idea of preventing the two teenage heroes from teaming up was a pretty good solution.
"Do you have a super killer robot we can use to attack those pests?" Eggman questioned his counterpart.
Hearing this made Boom-Eggman snicker evilly with a nasty grin. "As a matter of fact, I do. I was actually going to use it earlier today when you kind of made me delay it. But that's just a minor inconvenience and rather a perfect teaming in getting rid of that curse Sonic. The one I know, at least."
"Excellent. I would like to see it myself." The evil scientist from the other timeline grinned back.
However, behind the two mad doctors backs, the robots shared an uneasy glance as they could tell something was bound to go wrong.
"This is a complete disaster written all over." Decoe whispered in dismay.
"Knowing Dr. Eggman's records of failures, you're right." Boom-Orbot shrugged sadly in agreement.
Especially when they had two of Sonic to worry about.
"Hey, I just realized something!" Bokkun spoke up, his eyes widening which had the other six robots and even two evil scientists, who glared at the robotic minions over their shoulders. "We can tell the difference between two of Dr. Eggman, as well as Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles, but how can we tell which Orbot and Cubot is which since they look the same as each other?"
Once again, a moment of silence filled the air along with the background sound of crickets chirping.
"We could do what our Amy did with Knuckles' Fortune-Cookie self and two of us can wear a party hat." Boom-Orbot suggested.
"A party hat?" Orbot asked, shrugging incredulously and sheer annoyance. "I can understand something like different clothing that don't look ridiculous, but to wear something like that is outrageous!"
"Ooh, ooh! A party hat! That means there's gonna be a party?" Cubot...Or erm, Boom-Cubot, exclaimed exictedly, and his counterpart clapped his hands in enthuastic agreement.
"How about we spray-paint the four of you in black and white?" Eggman grunted in sarcasm, despite that as much as he, and from the looks of it, Boom-Eggman, hated to admit it, Bokkun made a very good point.
At least it was easy enough to tell that Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun belong to him because clearly they were never made in this timeline.
"Or cover glue all over you and cover you up with feathers like that two-tailed brat did to try and win that Zooey girl's heart?" Boom-Eggman added just as sarcastically.
Again, this was met with incredulous dumbstruck expressions.
"Don't look at me! He's the one that came up with it and I have a suspicion that his friend Sticks suggested it! He tried a lot of train wreck ways to woo that one-tailed girl it was completely embarrassing!"
"Suddenly, I am glad that the Tails in my timeline isn't that desperate, and Sonic obviously has deep feelings for Amy." Eggman deadpanned in disgust.
It's official. This alternate reality was just absolutely nuts and illogical.
Back on the main island, the two Sonic Teams, making brief introductions for Sun, Star and Rouge to Boom-Team Sonic with Sticks being very suspicious of them, were inside the rather comfy looking shack and as Sonic and his friends had looked around, they found photos of their counterparts doing all sorts of fun activities, like the blue hedgehog and Tails' other-selves fishing, and playing video games.
"Okay, so we got four of you having nearly identical selves different to the last time," Sticks began firmly, still gazing at the Sonic Heroes suspiciously with her hands on her hips. "But at least it's pretty easy to tell between the two Sonics, two Amy and four Tails..."
"Uh...Four tails?" Tails tilted his head, confused.
"I think she's trying to not make things confusing since you and your other self both have two tails each." Sun suggested warily.
"...That would make sense, actually, considering our nicknames would make things even more confusing." The nine year old fox conceded with a sheepish smile.
"Not to mention that unlike this last time, we can tell which Knuckles is which considering this guy being a kid-"
"I am NOT a kid! I'm seventeen years old and a responsible guardian, thank you very much." Knuckles interrupted Sticks, before quickly casting a glare at both Sonic and Rouge who held snickers, trying hard not to laugh. "And don't you two say anything...!"
"Ah, c'mon, it's not everyday you'd get to meet duplicates of yourself." The cobalt teenager innocently shrugged, ignoring his older friend's heated scowl.
"Yeah, I met mine a long time ago!" Boom-Knuckles added, smiling happily. "That guy was just like me: A brave, noble and heroic leader of the entire team."
This was met with skeptism from not just Knuckles, but also from Boom-Sonic, Boom-Tails and even Boom-Amy who gazed at their taller friend with exasperation.
"Well, aren't you a responsible, benevolent and brave hero," Rouge smirked syly at the taller echidna, and while she found his mental state questionable, she had to admit he was more adorable than the other Knuckles. "Not to mention pretty handsome too."
That made Boom-Knuckles blush in embarrassment as he chuckled nervously, before whispering loudly. "She's really nice and pretty."
Knuckles groaned, facepalming himself. "You really don't want to get close to her. Believe me, she's the bane of my existence."
"Am I detecting jealously there, Knuckles?" Sonic teasingly smirked, lightly elbowing his older friend who hissed.
"...Bane of what?" Boom-Knuckles asked, tilting his head in confusion, which caught the Sonic Heroes off-guard when he said this.
"You don't know the meaning of that sentence?" Knuckles asked, incredulously.
Yes, he did live his whole life on Angel Island and had learned fairly quickly about the surface world, but this was one of his own alternate-counterparts who obviously lived on this island with everybody else...One would think this guy would learn what bane of existence meant, for crying out loud!
"...Should I?" The Taller-Knuckles asked, cluelessly.
This earned him incredulous and dumbfounded looks from Sonic's group who all stared at him as though he had just gained three sets of heads.
'Man...this Knuckles is more clueless than our Knux.' Sonic thought to himself, wondering if different personality traits ran deep within every single version of himself and his friends and enemies in other realities too.
"Just ignore what he said," Boom-Sonic, exasperated but not surprised, whispered to his alternate counterpart who glanced at him, still in shock. "It's pretty much normal for Knuckles. Ours, at least."
"...I'm just gonna take your word for it." The hero of Mobius murmured.
"By the way, what's with your Knux? I mean, sure we've met a really smart and 'aggressive' version of him, but this guy's...temper's worse." Boom-Sonic whispered, a bit skeptically.
"He grew up on his own, has social issues and...He's pretty cranky since he's this mess started." Sonic sighed, exasperated.
"Let me guess: Your world's version of Egghead, right?" The blue-armed hedgehog guessed with a groan.
"Yeah, pretty much." The hero of Mobius confirmed with a solemn nod, feeling awful for the failure of preventing Eggman from really getting to the Paradox Prism. "That's why we're kinda stuck here right now."
"So how'd you end up this Space-Time Continuum mess in the first place?" Sonic's counterpart shrugged, beginning to feel greatly concerned over this as he also felt a terrible case of deja vu wash over his body. 'Why do I get a bad feeling about this?'
"In our attempts to stop Dr. Eggman from taking over the world as usual, well...it's part of the reason why we're here," Tails continued for his older brother. "You see, he was after an ancient artifact that holds the very balance of the universe and all of reality: The Paradox Prism."
"The Para-what now?" Boom-Sonic raised an eye-ridge. He glanced at his friends who, just as confused, either shook their heads or in Boom-Knuckles case, shrugged cluelessly.
It wasn't until Boom-Tails' eyes widened as he, out of all of his friends, seemingly recognized the name as he began in shock. "Wait! You mean you guys saw the actual cryst-!?"
But before the two-tailed fox cub of this reality could finish his question, a loud boom was heard coming from outside that shook the ground and caused both teams to cry out in alarm, nearly losing their balance...Except Boom-Knuckles tumbled over a couch and ended up having the it flip on top of him, leaving the buff-echidna in an awkward position.
"Please tell me that's not what I think it is!" Sun grunted in sheer annoyance, already having a gut feeling on what or rather, who was causing the loud noise and tremor.
"If you say it's the evil Pineapple Patch Squad out to severely render us into their waffles, then it could be, but if you say it's Eggman, then yeah, that's most likely too!" Sticks ranted on, thrusting out her boomerang once again with an agitated snarl.
The orange hedgehog glanced at her, dumbstruck. "Yeah, I was pretty much only thinking about Egghead since he's a moron."
"That's one thing everybody agrees on...Unless you met disgusting fans of him."
"Ugh...Unfortunately, I fought one four months ago and he's more of a terrible monster in his head. But that's for later." Sun shuddered over the memories of Starline.
"We'd better check it out!" Boom-Sonic declared, narrowing his eyes before turning to Sonic. "Wanna help?"
"Like I'm gonna say no? Beating Eggman is my job too!" Sonic smirked with a thumbs up, making his taller self chuckle, before they and their friends all hurried outside with both of Amy brandishing their Hammers.
When the two teams raced outside to the beach, they skid to a stop and gasped in shock when they saw not only the Motorbugs out ready for an attack, but a large giant robot that had a Hammer for a right arm, and a lancer for a left, looking like a muscular monster with a creepy looking Dolphin head, and thick legs, a gleaming circle in the chest, coloured in blue and orange, and on the very top was not just Boom-Dr. Eggman and his robots, but also Dr. Eggman and his robotic servants. The two evil scientists chuckled darkly over their enemies.
"Good day, Team Rodents!" Boom-Eggman greeted evilly. "Or should I say, double annoyances?"
"Ha! It won't be double soon because there will be NONE of them shortly!" Eggman scoffed in dark amusement.
"Oh, great! Not another giant robot!" Boom-Sonic grunted in annoyance.
"This one's even more ugly than that Oak-Destroyer thing back at home!" Sonic remarked, equally annoyed, before saying to his long-time enemy. "And it figures that you'd be stuck here in this reality, Eggman!"
"Yes, well, it came as quite a shock when I was found by my generous but still evil counterpart, and I was hoping that you and your friends would have perished or been trapped in some kind of void, you stubbon little hedgehog!" Eggman responded to his arch-rival.
Sonic just frowned, refusing to let the evil scientist get under his skin as he calmly folded his arms. "Yeah, well, it's your fault for that part, Eggy. Unless we figure out how to get back home, you, me, my family and all of your toys are stuck here."
In the background behind the two hedgehogs, Boom-Knuckles was the first to notice the alternate-Eggman and whispered loudly to Knuckles and Sun. "Your put on some weight, didn't he? He looks more Eggy than ours does!"
"And your Eggman looks like he's had his clothes designed by a four year old." Sun grinned in amusement and Knuckles snorted.
"Yeah, your new duds look more cooler." The taller echidna chuckled.
Unfortunately, the two Eggman overheard the conversation as did the rest of the heroes who snickered and tried not to burst into laughter.
"Put on weight!?" Eggman snarled angrily, clutching his fist tightly. "You over-sized rodents! You're just as annoying as my enemies!"
"And I'll have you know, my clothes are a perfection! And do not dare mock my creations! I worked on them, you miniscule pipsqueaks!" Boom-Eggman added, which sounded more like childish whining that had his counterpart glance at him incredulously.
True enough, while the blue-armed hedgehog didn't recognize Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun which instantly told him that Eggman from Sonic's world created them along with the shocking doppelgangers of Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot, both of them were wearing red cowboy hats with fluffy trimmings and pink feathers, with Orbot and Cubot wearing blue hats with similar style.
"Clearly not hard enough." Boom-Sonic muttered, unimpressed. He then noticed the two of Orbot and two of Cubot asked, raising an eye-ridge. "And why are those bolt-bots wearing ridiculous hats, besides to tell each other apart?"
"It was my twin's idea, and don't we look fancy?" Cubot answered optimistically, doing some kind of Sombero Dance complete with a trumpet while Boom-Cubot was plaing an ukulele, both very badly with the other robots groaning in dismay, Bokkun wailing loudly, the heroes all looking dumbfounded, and finally, both of Eggman looking and feeling insulted as well as humiliated.
Unable to take it any longer, the evil Boom-Scientist snatched the instruments and hit the two Cubots on the head. "You be quiet! It's bad enough to have one of you, now my other self and I are stuck with two as well as both of Sonic!"
"Thank you, generous me." Eggman sighed, relieved that his counterpart had gotten the two stupid minions to shut up.
"Great, now got two of each of those buckets of bolts." Boom-Sonic grumbled.
"At least you don't have a version of Bokkun, who's that little guy with horns and loves playing pranks with bombs and exploding message TVs." Sonic pointed out in a whisper, not wanting to give his arch-nemesis' counterpart any ideas.
"Just you and your little blue brother watch, Sonic! My Splash-A-Don-3000 will have you all washed up!" Boom-Eggman, ignoring what Boom-Sonic said and having gotten the robots to remain silent, continued. Before muttering a little too optimistically, "Not to mention clean out the environment of the mess of the white dirt you're all standing on. It'll ruin the ocean and make it gritty!"
While Boom-Team Sonic glared hard at their enemy despite Boom-Knuckles looked practically shocked and looked at the ground, the Sonic Heroes, and even Eggman, his robots, and Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot, all stared at the mad doctor of this world incredulously.
Crickets began chirping in the background.
"Yeah, except this white dirt is part of the environment, Eggman. It's called sand." Boom-Tails deadpanned.
"You're...pretty much even weirder than our Egghead." Sonic scratched the top of his head, dumbstruck.
'For once, I agree.' Eggman thought to himself, feeling increasingly uncomfortable for his double's state of mind...not to mention intelligence. Shaking his head, he decided to take over and commanded the machines. "Get them!"
Because of how both of Eggman sound the same, the Motorbugs and even the Splash-A-Don-3000 charged for an attack, forcing both Team Sonics, who gasped, to dodge out of the way before the battle began. Sonic and Boom-Sonic both quickly Spin Dashed into a couple of the Motorbugs and Badniks that quickly joined in on the fight, the peach-armed blue hedgehog cartwheeling to the side to avoid a laser attack that attempted to vaporize him, but repeatedly missed.
The blue-armed hedgehog in the meantime jumped out of the way and kicked another robot before speeding off to avoid getting vaporized himself. But then he noticed his shorter self racing along with ease and even axe-kicked very quickly at other robots that tried and failed to attack him but was edging closer and closer to the ocean.
"Hey, look out!" Boom-Sonic cried out in alarm, racing to save his alternate counterpart. But he didn't need to worry as this was actually what Sonic had planned, because the hero of Mobius skid to a stop and smirked when two Motorbots charged up their lasers to attack him.
The fifteen year old then Spun and conjured up his Insta-Shield, reflecting the lasers that were sent back to the robots that were hit and destroyed almost instantly, pieces of metal flying and scattered everywhere. Sonic landed and rubbed his nose confidently.
"Heh...Too easy! You'd think this world's doctor would've come up with more of a challenge!" Sonic muttered to himself, then quickly recollected himself as he mentally shook his head. 'But I can't let that get to me, 'cause anything can happen.'
He knew that being overconfident was dangerous, and in any timeline it would be very different, so he had to be very careful.
"Whoa...! I can't form a shield like that!" The taller hedgehog murmured in awe, very impressed with that really cool ability the other Sonic had created. But this briefly distracted him as another came up behind him, but he thankfully managed to sense it and with a gasp of alarm he jumped out of the way before Homing Attacked it long with another robot that tried to grab him into oblivion.
But as the two Sonics made to continue the fight, the Splash-A-Don-3000 charged, making to thrust it's Hammer Arm to squash them both with both of Eggman, the Boom-version of the evil scientist, pouting angrily at his counterpart for taking over his job, controlling it with the giant robot looming over them.
"When smaller robots don't work, it's time to bring out the big guns! Or in this case, the big Hammer!" Boom-Eggman snarled, grinning.
"Suddenly, I'm begining to have my doubts in this fight." Eggman grumbled under his breath. Even he doesn't rant on confidently this loud, right?
"This is worse than the previous time Sonic defeated Dr. Eggman." Decoe sighed hopelessly, he and the other robots all slumping in defeat.
When the giant robot thrust the Hammer at them, Sonic and Boom-Sonic both stood calmly with deadpanned expressions and simply side-stepped out of the way, the large hammer that was about the size of Boom-Knuckles hitting the ground hard and not even making a shock-wave to blow them away. The two blue hedgehogs then quickly Homing Attacked it with Sonic charging up to smash the hammer arm off, while Boom-Sonic made to thrust kicks at the lance-arm that swung wildly to try and impale him.
"I thought this thing was going to wash us, not poke or flatten us!" Boom-Sonic taunted with a smirk, casually lying on the arm for a moment before quickly leaping off to resume his attack.
However, as Sonic continued his own attacks, hear heard what his counterpart said and gasped, his eyes widening and his heart dropping for a moment. He even had time to multi-task in fighting off more robots as well as keeping an eye on the blue-armed hedgehog who didn't seem to be too worried about this: That same cockiness, that overly confident attitude...and not even fully focusing on being careful but just relying on his speed.
'He's acting just like...just like how I used to do a lot. Guess it's due to the fact that he hasn't gone through the whole Dark Gaia nightmare. Oh, Chaos...If nothing's done soon, he's gonna end up in a worse situation that'll get himself and all of his friends in grave danger!' The cobalt speedster thought worriedly, as watching another version of himself, and remembering how his friends and former rivals would sometimes describe his attitude before he learned to grow up a little.
Now the peach-coloured blue hedgehog finally understood the meaning of it, or at least part of it, because Sonic couldn't help but notice his counterpart's cockiness was actually worse than his own prior five months ago. He snapped out of his horrified and deeply dismayed trance when the Splash-A-Don-3000 thrust it's hammer at him again, and leaped back quickly to avoid in getting hit while Boom-Sonic, focusing on bashing the head of the robot, ended up being whacked by the lance, screaming in pain.
"NO!" Sonic screamed, quickly dashing over and leaped before catching the taller blue hedgehog, flipping as he landed on the ground. "Are you okay?"
"Ugh...Ow...Maybe Eggbreath should've called that thing Sir-Lame-O-Bot-4000 or something." Boom-Sonic murmured sarcastically, wincing as he rubbed his head before smirking gratefully at his smaller self. "Nice catch, by the way."
As much as Sonic wanted to respond with a light joke, he just smiled back with a shrug, saying with a serious tone. "Word of advice: Watch out for Egg-Brain's tricks. He always has them up his sleeve."
"Noted." The taller hedgehog murmured, but to the other hero's concern, he really wasn't taking this advice or lesson seriously. This could create quite a few problems.
Meanwhile, Tails and Boom-Tails flew all around to avoid the Motorbugs, the two young foxes firing Laser guns at the evil machines, mid-air somersaulting as a result. The former then narrowed his eyes when a Beebot flew towards him.
"Guess it's time to take things up a notch!" The nine year old kit grunted, before landing and Spin Dashed with his namesakes hitting the robot so hard that it was sent flying backwards and crashed into another Motorbug which exploded upon impact.
"Whoa! My alternate-self can Spin Dash just like two of Sonic!" Boom-Tails exclaimed in awe, his eyes widening in belief. An idea then formed as he smiled excitedly. "I gotta ask my Sonic to teach me that!"
He then noticed a fourth Motorbug coming straight towards him, before Boom-Tails flew out of the way and, quickly using his skills, raced over to gather up discarded and broken pieces of metal and destroyed lasers and in a matter of seconds, made a much larger Laser Gun, taking aim very carefully before opening fire, unleashing a glittering cyan laser which, much to the horror of the robot, vaporized into oblivion.
"Whoa! You made that in seconds?" Tails exclaimed, having noticed and approached his counterpart. "I gotta burrow your blueprints!"
"Sure! Knock yourself out!" The goggled fox cub smirked...just before his new 'weapon' broke apart, leaving him sighing in disappointment and Tails now blinking in shock and sudden sympathy. "...Of course, it wasn't meant to last."
"Hey, don't worry. It was still awesome." The other twin-tailed kitsune patted his friend sympathetically, making the latter smile gratefully. Though, deep concern grew within the nine year old's chest. 'If he's inventions break so easily, I guess things are more...easy and child-like in this dimension. Which would explain the counterpart of Dr. Eggman not being as bright or intelligent despite still being an evil genius to create deadly robots.'
At the same time, Amy and Boom-Amy were thrusting their Hammers at several robots that came by them, either smashing or squashing them with great ease, the former leaping as she then tossed her weapon at several others that were knocked away, before ducking when another one, agitated to the point of heating up, opened fire right at her.
"Just once I wish we'd have a break for at least the rest of our lives from fighting against any kind of robots!" Amy hissed angrily, thrusting her right arm as she summoned another Hammer to continue the fight, unaware that her counterpart, who smashed away another, saw this and gasped softly in awe.
'Wow...My counterpart can summon as many hammers as she can? Is she...a wizard or something?' Boom-Amy thought, beginning to wish that she could do something like that, right before she angrily bashed another Beebot that attempted to knock her out or capture her. "Do you mind!? I was admiring my dimensional counterpart's beautiful ability!"
Hearing this made Amy briefly look over her shoulder, sweat dropping over the angry exclamation that was both flattering and a bit concerning. 'I really don't sound like that...do I?'
Over where the two Knuckles and Sun were, the echidnas and orange hedgehog were busy bashing away as many robots as they did. While Knuckles gave our a battle roar as he punched a Motorbug so hard that it literally made a hole through it before he sensed movement and spun around so fast that the other machine didn't stand a chance against his strength, Boom-Knuckles simply bashed and punched each robot that came at him, picking one up and smirked before he spun it around and rolled like a bowling ball.
The spinning robot crashed into five more robots like pins with the added sound effects in the bowling alley.
"Yeah! Total Strike! Those robots were totally rolled over!" Boom-Knuckles cheered, laughing to himself over his joke. "This is more fun than actual bowling!"
Knuckles and Sun, who used his Homing Attack to knock over several more robots before the latter uncurled and punched three more in mid-air, grunting loudly with pure annoyance and determination before landing, stared at the former's alternate counterpart with dumbstruck sweat drops.
'Did he just...Why is he acting like a more child-like version of Sonic in personality?' Knuckles couldn't comprehend on his other self's childish manner. He was brought out of his thoughts when another Motorbug and grunted in frustration.
He grabbed it before holding it above his head before the Master Emerald Guardian spun it around and tossed it right at eight more robots that were hit easily and exploded into nothing. This was noticed by his taller self who gaped in disbelief.
"...I can't believe my shorter self beat my record!" The buff echidna complained, already growing jealous.
'Okay, seriously. Knuckles' taller self really needs to get his brain scanned or something.' Sun remarked in his mind, before Spin Dashing into several more robots that opened fire but missed, as he easily took them out without much of a problem. 'And this world's Ro-butt-nik's robots are too easy! Like, does he use these guys 24/7?'
Nearby, Star, Rouge and Sticks all attacked the robots easily on their own, the lavender-pink hedgehog using her Grapple Hooks on the trees nearby and swung herself up and around to avoid the robots that attempted to attack her but missed, and she yelled out while kicking them with her martial arts skills, defeating her opponents with ease. Rouge in the meantime flew up and smirked slyly when two Motorbugs crashed into each other easily before she Screw Kicked several more, and Sticks ran and tossed her Boomerang are several others.
"It would be nice for once to not worry about Eggman's robots, crazy invasions of dimensions and worry about the end of the world constantly!" The female badger grunted in sheer annoyance.
"I know that feeling, Hon," Rouge commented in agreement, as she and Star, who rejoined them, both landed beside the jungle girl. "He always manages to ruin even a peaceful time for a vacation."
"And likes nothing more than himself." Star panted a little, starting to feel a little bit tired along with all of her friends and their counterparts, despite their desire to end this fight once and for all.
"Yeah, Amy kept on telling me that guy's ego gets the best of him all the time." Sticks conceaded, groaning.
"Not much different from our Eggman." The white bat nodded in agreement, though secretly she thought to herself. 'Though I'm more worried about this girl's state of mind. She seriously needs to see a therepist or something.'
But even when the two Sonic teams defeated all of the smaller robots with Sonic and Boom-Sonic still causing damage in eventually breaking off the Hammer and Lance arms, when everyone landed safely on the beach, they glared hard and gasped when the arms then sprouted out two giant hose-like cannons, ready to open fire.
"...Suddenly I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu, only with water." Sonic grumbled, having a flash-back of the Oak-Destroyer in Mobius.
"Okay, that's just plain ridiculous." Boom-Sonic shook his head, exasperated over Boom-Eggman's latest destructive robot.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha! When I said you're all washed up, I meant it! Now, time for you all to drown, especially you Sonic considering how you can't swim! Bon voyage!" The evil scientist laughed manically with his counterpart grinning.
'Now this is more like it! I should ask for the blueprints for this if we survive this and return home to our timeline.' Eggman thought evilly, liking this design already.
Boom-Eggman grinned while pushing a button as the heroes made to dodge the water blasts that were no doubt about to come their way...only for him, his counterpart, minions and even Sonic's two groups to frown in confusion when the hose-cannons didn't just jolted and rattled...and let out two pathetic drops onto the sand. That made everyone dumbfounded with question marks floating around the heroes.
"Is that thing leaking like a faucet?" Boom-Knuckles asked, cluelessly.
"With both of Sonic bashing that thing out...Maybe." Knuckles, still not liking his counterpart's stupidity, shrugged.
"What's wrong with this useless piece of junk!?" Eggman demanded, almost instantly having second thoughts on this robot.
"Ummm...I thought I put in the two water tanks for this thing earlier and filled them with fresh, clean water from the lake!" Boom-Eggman shrugged sheepishly, before turning to Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot angrily. "And you two were supposed to put them in!"
"S-Sorry, doctor! We were going to, but our guests made us distracted!" Boom-Orbot shivered nervously as he hugged Boom-Cubot who gulped scaredly.
"Are you saying that it's our fault!?" Decoe protested angrily, feeling insulted.
"We work just as hard as you two!" Bocoe yelled.
"Well, to be fair, we did delay our counterparts and Dr. Eggman's counterpart in destroying their Sonic's group." Orbot pointed out meekly.
"Yeah, and our Dr. E did try to steal the Paradox Prism that got us into this place anyway!" Cubot added, adding salt into the injury.
"Whaaaat!?" Eggman yelled, looming over his robots who, along with Bokkun and Boom-Eggman's robots, recoiled in fear. "Wait until I turn all four of you into scrap heap!"
While the villains were now going into the blame game, the Sonic Heroes and Boom-Team Sonic shared glances before shrugging as they mentally wondered what they should do now.
"Let's just...wrap this up." Boom-Sonic decided, awkwardly.
"Yeah, no argument there." Sonic sighed, agreeing before he smirking. "Double-Team?"
His taller self grinned excitedly. "You're on!"
The two blue hedgehogs then spun rapidly before using a powerful Double-Homing Attack and by the time the two evil doctors and their lackies noticed, screaming in terror, it was far too late. Sonic and Boom-Sonic bashed straight through the torso of the giant robot and emerged from it's back, causing it to explode and sent the bad guys flying with loud screams.
"Yeah!" Everyone else cheered happily, while the two Sonics landed safely on the ground victoriously.
"Yes!" The blue hedgehogs shared a high-five with grins.
"We make a really cool team." Boom-Sonic grinned.
"Sure do," Sonic chuckled, his hands on his hips. "I can't believe this world's Egghead is so dumb in not checking on his own robots."
While the Sonic Heroes were still concerned over their counterparts' lack of maturity and carefulness, it was clear that regardless to that, they were still heroes of this world none the less. The group then took notice of the sunset and gazed at it, realizing that the day was almost over.
"Huh...Pity that it's getting late, though. We didn't get the chance to finish our meeting," The taller blue hedgehog murmured apologetically, turning back to his counterpart. "Guess we'll have to solve whatever's going on tomorrow."
Even though the hero of Mobius wanted to keep on going, he knew that his new friend was right. Plus with everything he and his friends had gone through ever since their Paradox Prism swallowing them into the realm of Timelines, Sonic and the others did need a bit of rest before continuing their quest for the shards of Prism-Sonic's Paradox Prism.
"Yeah, you're right. We should really get some sleep..." The fifteen year old then chuckled sheepishly after his stomach grumbled, placing a hand to his stomach. "And somethin' to eat. I'm starvin'."
"Yeah, I'm getting hungry too." Tails agreed, blushing in embarrassment.
"I'm so hungry, I can eat 100 cheeseburgers." Sun jokingly said, making everybody else laugh that even Knuckles smirked.
However, as they soon calmed down and took a brief moment to admire the sunset, Sonic took a glance at his taller self and, reminded of their battle, he couldn't help but feel desponded and gravely worried. Despite feeling very relieved that things were working out alright in this world, the hero of Mobius began to fear that one day, just like himself...
Boom-Sonic's luck will run out and his overconfidence will soon cause more damage not just to himself, but towards all of his friends.
Just like what happened with Prism-Sonic.
'Just hope it's not going to be the case. But...what's gonna happen even after me and my friends leave?' The fifteen year old thought to himself.
Little did the heroes and villains of both worlds know, things were about to get even more complicated and dangerous. Because far off from the beach, the same mysterious figure witnessed the whole thing and chuckled darkly before walking away, secretly plotting his next move.
To be Continued!
A/N: As I didn't want to make this into some kind of rush, Sonic and his friends and enemies will be in the Sonic Boom Universe for a little while. Not sure for how long, and they might be able to leave in the next chapter, but it's hard to say at this stage. Sorry that the chapter was overly long, but I was struggling how to make it fit without over doing it.
Next time, the full explanation will be revealed(hopefully) and with any luck, we'll get a return glimpse of Shadow and his own problem in the other Sonic Reality.
See you later!