Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: Not much to say as he continue onward, and hopefully this is the last part of the Boom Reality in the Multiverse Arc. Speed onward, fellow readers!
Summary of Story 14-Part 6: After being kidnapped by the still evil version of Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic learns that some alternate versions of his former enemies stay evil no matter what they do. At the same time while his friends search for him, the evil enemy enters the final stage of his plan. Will the heroes be able to stop him before it's too late, and find the Paradox Prism Shard?
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Alternate-Sonic's Multiverse Adventure-P6: Double Trouble-P1.
In the middle of a desert still on Bygone Island, Boom-Shadow, having succeeded in his plot of kidnapping, materialized with Sonic now held firmly in his arms as the latter wriggled and squirmed, grunting to free himself from his rival's evil counterpart.
"Ngh...! Shadow...! Let go of me!" Sonic demanded, strained as the tightening grip was beginning to crush his ribs, right before his counterpart's enemy then roughly tossed him across the ground and he cried out when he crashed hard in a tumbling stop.
Wincing at the unexpected abduction, the teenage hedgehog glared over his shoulder at the, admittedly, taller black and red hedgehog that was the same height as Boom-Sonic. "What's going on here!?"
"I brought you so I can at least have one less blue hedgehog to worry about." Boom-Shadow coldly responded, his arms folded in a dark manner. "You are not the Sonic of this world, given you are bare-armed, and shorter."
"So that's the reason why you kidnapped me, so you can try and get rid of me? And I'm willing to bet that since I look just like the Sonic you know, you figured out where I came from? And about two of Eggman my friends and I heard about earlier?" The hero of Mobius grunted, standing up while mindful of his slight injuries.
"You know who I am, and you seem to be more smarter than that lazy blue slug. Why are you here?"
"Unlike your otherself who's actually my friend and becoming less and less of a jerk each day while still edgy, there's no way I'd ever tell you!" Sonic snapped.
"My own counterpart is friends with someone like you? That is just pathetic. He must be as weak as both you and the Sonic of this world are." Boom-Shadow scoffed with a deepened frown, unimpressed. Hearing that his alternate self would actually even consider on befriending someone like Sonic the Hedgehog was absolutely sickening.
Why would any version of the most powerful black and hedgehog hedgehog be friends with a loser like the cobalt hero?
The hero of Mobius hissed, eyes narrowed and his green pupils darkening slightly in growing anger that he struggled to hold back. "It's not pathetic, and he's not weak either! Sure, we didn't start out as friends, and our relationship is more of a friendly-rivalry, but he wasn't always evil, and he made up for his mistakes, even helping us to save the world! Heck, he saved the planet once himself, and we even spared not as enemies, but as respected allies!"
That made the black and red hedgehog shook his head with an annoyed sigh. "What is a big mistake is those like you, Sonic and now my own 'friendly' alternate self existing. Once I get rid of you, I shall take out that blue idiot as well as that stupid buffoon. You, Sonic the Second-Hog, are small, so I doubt you will be able to tickle me."
"I think your head's too far up into the clouds, and your mood swings are worse than a hurricane, 'cause I've faced my Shadow more times than I can count." Sonic knew he had to be careful, as unlike Shadow, Boom-Shadow can easily teleport without the use of a Chaos Emerald, which would be a problem. But apart from that, the evil hedgehog's skills could mostly be the same, so he can at least try and knock him out in order to escape.
The fifteen year old wasn't willing to kill anyone, he and the Ultimate Lifeform did let go of their bitter hatred for each other to become more respected allies, and Sonic remembered the increasingly growing friendship they both shared before the Paradox Prism swallowed them and everybody else up.
'Shadow...If you can hear me, I'm really glad that you're my friend and learned from your mistakes. I'll find a way to save you, even if it means facing other versions of yourself that are still grade-A jerks. I promise.' Sonic thought, knowing that he had to knock the evil Shadow out, because the latter was not his or anybody's friend.
The hero of Mobius, determined to get back to his friends and save Bygone Island, positioned himself for a fight. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, you know, but while I'm here until my friends and I leave, my nickname is Speed-Ace! And since you're still evil for the wrong reasons, I won't be holding back in clobbering you! Especially since you're everybody's enemy on this island!"
Boom-Shadow smirked, amused and admittedly impressed even more by Sonic's determination. Unlike Boom-Sonic who would whine and complain like a child instead of a teenager that he is, the peach-armed blue hedgehog was more...mature, braver, smarter, and willing to fight given what has happened.
"Hmph...This will be the day where you will die, and never return to your home dimension...Speed-Ace the Hedgehog." The evil black and red hedgehog stood in position as well.
Sonic just glared back, unafraid and hoped that his friends and counterpart were alright. But as a hero of Mobius, he refused to give up and will fight and win, no matter what it takes.
"Ready?" The ebony villain questioned.
"Ready." Declared the blue hedgehog.
The two hedgehogs then charged at each other, thrusting their fists and collided but equally missed at the same time, before Sonic spun around with a hiss while Boom-Shadow looked over his shoulder and grinned confidently, teleporting out of thin air which made the fifteen year old gasp in alarm. Thinkingly quickly and sensing the enemy of his counterpart appearing behind him seconds later, Sonic used an aerial Spin-Kick as he spun around just in time to block the other hedgehog's attempts to punch him on the back of his head.
"What!?" This wasn't what Boom-Shadow had expected from the smaller version of his hated-rival.
Using this distraction to his advantage, Sonic gave the black hedgehog an upward kick in the stomach with his arms spread out, causing the latter to feel the air leave his lungs as he grunted in agony before falling backwards towards the ground while the hero of Mobius somersaulted in midair and landed safely, quickly standing. Boom-Shadow though, gritting his teeth as he descended to the ground, flipped and landed moments later before glaring at his other-reality opponent.
"How did you anticipate my attack?" The dark hedgehog demanded, angrily. This never happened before when he fought against Boom-Sonic.
"I've battled your counterpart a lot of times in the past when we were enemies, now we usually spar to see who's the strongest and fastest in a friendly competition." Sonic shrugged casually, smirking a little even though he should be very careful.
Considering how Boom-Shadow can teleport without a Chaos Emerald was a bit of a problem, so the cobalt speedster knew this was going to be very challenging.
"Hmph! I hope you are aware that this not a competition between friends."
"Yeah...I know," The teenager's eyes narrowed further. "Just like the fact I'm not going easy on ya'!"
"Then show me your strength and I will end your pathetic life!" The evil hedgehog hissed, charging with a Spin Attack.
Sonic quickly did the same and the two hit hard with sparks flying everywhere, going for a Homing Attack at each other everywhere they go all across the desert, sand, debris of rock, dust and even cactus they would spin into flying all around as they went. The hero of Mobius in the meantime as he fought against his kidnapper just hoped his friends would be alright.
But it looked like finding the alternate Paradox Prism shard in this reality was going to take a lot longer than he and anybody else thought, and little did cobalt speedster know...He wouldn't be the only one in deep trouble.
And even worse, if Boom-Eggman or Boom-Shadow got their hands on it...
'Oh, Chaos...If this Shadow gets to it, the whole multiverse is as good as done for!' Knowing that the stakes were higher than ever, Sonic quickly managed to grasp both of the insane hedgehog's fists when the, well, he wasn't sure if the crazy teleporting Mobian was an Ultimate Lifeform or not, attempted to punch him.
The two struggled against each other with the fifteen year old's heart racing until he grunted in strain, heaving the shocked black and red enemy and tossed him over his head.
"AHHH!" Boom-Shadow cried out, crashing onto the ground and hissed in pain. He stood up with his anger increasing, glaring at Sonic. "I will not lose to the pathetic likes of you!"
"Sorry, Edge-Hog, but I don't have time for this nonsense! I know you wanna get rid of Blue Leader and now me, I gotta find my friends and head back home!" Sonic snapped, yet he could sense that his enemy wasn't willing to let him go and the only way out was to try and knock him into dreamland.
Boom-Shadow raised an eyebrow at this. "So I see you both have decided to give each other a code name while you both exist. I must admit, it is a logical and smart idea, and the appearance of you and your friends have not yet caused an anomaly that would have destroyed the universe by now. What is your secret?"
Sonic gritted his teeth, folding his arms stubbornly. "See, the funny thing is with secrets...is that you don't tell your enemy's your secrets! The only people dumb enough to spill the beans and brag about their evil plans, what they wanna do, blah, blah, blah, it's all types of Eggman!"
"Huh...I admit that is one thing we can actually agree on. But enough of this, let's continue."
"Took the words right out of my mouth."
With that, they both quickly went back to their fighting.
Yet, little did the blue hedgehog know, he wouldn't be the only one in trouble.
"Darn, that Shadow the Creep-Hog! He just HAD to go and ruin a good old adventure and bonding with new friends, didn't he!? I mean, I know that he's like one of the worst villains in the world, but come on!" Boom-Sonic was ranting in frustration as he ran all around in the Hazard Jungle in hopes of finding his worst hedgehog enemy, and rescue Sonic before the shorter hero would get killed by Edgy-The-Hedgy.
Just how was it that Boom-Shadow even know about all of this? There was no way he'd go for working with Boom-Eggman again, not after the first time when the latter kept on getting in the way.
The blue-armed hedgehog sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. "Villains just don't know when to fully quit, do they?"
Realizing he was pretty much searching all on his own this time, with everybody else having picked partners for the search party: two of Knuckles, Boom-Tails and Tails, Rouge and Sticks, with Star and Sun, and Amy and Boom Amy...
"Yeeeeaaaah, think I'd better get a few pointers from Speed-Ace when we find him."
Even as he continued musing to himself during his search, Boom-Sonic thought about how this situation unfolded yesterday, he couldn't help but feel increasingly jealous over Sonic, despite the alternate hero being shorter, having peach arms, being a bit more mature...and all of his cool abilities, and being okay with people just smiling at him. Almost as though his counterpart didn't really need certain things.
Sonic's insta-shield for one thing, not even Boom-Sonic could do that. Plus, there was also a pit in the hedgehog's stomach on what the hero of Mobius had been saying all day, and for some reason those words kept on ringing inside his head.
"That's pretty harsh to say about your Knux, coming from you. Sure, ours may be a Knucklehead and a sucker, but I always respected his loyalty. And besides, you've seen another version of the one you know arrive here, you went into another dimension, haven't you? And since my little bro, friends and I are here, don't you think that every reality is more than just a little different?"
"Heh, thanks, kid, and you can just call me Speed-Ace," Sonic responded, gently patting her on the head which made the girl giggle. "Seeing you smile is the real gift of appreciation to me."
'Guess it does make a whole lot of sense. Silly-Hat Knuckles called his version of me clumsy, and Lord Eggbutt is boring and moody. Maybe things are a lot harsher in the other worlds than it is here.' Boom-Sonic frowned in sudden sadness over it.
Sometimes being a hero had it's pros and cons, and quite a few times the villagers would be angry and boo at him, or even when things went wrong and the teenage hedgehog and his friends would get blamed for it. Boom-Sonic couldn't help but think back of the times when people disliked him: Like when he called an Ox just a guy, or when he and his friends were forced into Role Model training that ended in a disaster, when he was taken to court, or framed by Metal Sonic, or being banished, or when he decided to quit in being a hero...for a few hours.
Then his mind whirled back to just...how guilt-ridden Sonic looked last night when they were discussing things about what their other counterpart, Prism-Sonic, has done that caused this new mess in the first place.
"...Prism-Sonic is still me and while both timelines are completely different and separate, I still feel solely responsible for it and I gotta fix up it up somehow." The hero of Mobius pointed out, looking away from her. "Plus, I get the feeling that Prism-Eggman caught him so off-guard that the other me's not taking it seriously and...well, you know."
Boom-Sonic's heart sank in growing guilt, unable to stop the memories of his own mistakes returning to him. Sure he'd gone great things but...really...Something must have happened to Sonic if he acted with great guilt and even tried to be a lot more careful. Maybe this is what got his friends so frustrated and so did everybody else: The blue-armed teen was heroic, caring and brave, yes, but he was also brash, reckless, and overly-confident.
In his attempts to ensure Boom-Tails would stay retired to protect him had ended in a disaster, and fighting Boom-Eggman alone separately proved to be impossible. Worst part is, his own little brother flat-out called him out for being mean to Sonic and Tails earlier.
"Oh, man...Tails was right, and so was Speed-Ace. If Prism-Sonic ended up causing this mess...the same thing could happen to me, too." He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat, his eyes closed while skidding to a stop. Boom-Sonic leaned against a tree as the increasing guilt steadily got even worse.
Even worse, Boom-Shadow was now going to kill Sonic if the latter wasn't found and rescued quickly.
'This all my fault. If I had moved, none of this would've happened,' Boom-Sonic never felt so terrible in his life, that he slowly began to understand what his counterpart was going through. Because whatever happened to Sonic before the new Space-Time disaster started, it certainly was a wake up call for him. 'Maybe I should really just retire in being a hero. But then...Who's gonna help out my friends and keep Eggman at check?'
BOOM!
A loud sudden thud snapped the blue hedgehog out of his guilt and self-loathing, sharply turning to his right as he saw, much to his annoyance and shock, was a newly upgraded Decimator Bot leering at him. What stunned him the most was that with this version of the usual robot, it had now had two laser cannons on it's shoulders, jet engines on it's back, and on top of everything else, it even held a large cylinder capsule on the side ready to capture him, no doubt.
"Eggman, or other Eggman or whatever, I am seriously not in the mood! Why don't you reschedule our date for next month or something? I'm busy right now, so buzz off!" Boom-Sonic hissed angrily, yet he still stood on his guard none the less.
Surprisingly enough, there was no sign of either his nemesis or even the alternate mad doctor. None the less, the Decimator Robot made for an attack, forcing the Blue Leader to leap out of the way before he ran straight between the legs for a surprise attack. But he gasped in shock when it opened fire far too quickly, forcing him to leap out of the way and sweat dropped nervously when he saw that it was far more powerful than he was used to. Narrowing his eyes, Boom-Sonic then went for a Spin Attack, hitting the arms while dodging the other weapons as it swiped at him to knock the hedgehog away.
"Just because it had an upgrade, doesn't mean it still won't break down! Maybe try something new for a change!" He taunted with a smirk, punching at one of the arms quickly, and kicking at another before he landed on ground.
Boom-Sonic raced around the robot next in a similar fashion, remembering what his counterpart did yesterday. The Decimator Bot tried and failed to keep up with him as he began to increase his speed, yet it ended up causing a loud sonic boom like he had done ages ago. The noise was far too much for the large machine, yet it still opened fire randomly, slicing trees in half with wild animals screeching in fear, some monkeys landing on the ground hard, before they and the birds all fled for their lives.
"Whuh-oh!" Boom-Sonic blinked worriedly, seeing just how much more dangerous the upgraded robot was. He attempted to use another fast attack by hitting it repeatedly, but the Decimator Bot held up two hands that acted as shields, knocking him back as he screamed before he hit a few trees, crashing through them until he landed hard.
Wincing, he shakily sat up with a struggle with a bruise on his chest and left arm as Boom-Sonic grasped it with his right hand, a tale-sign of a black-eye forming on his right eye, a twinge of fear began to creep up into him. By then, the Decimator Bot stomped over to loom over the helpless hero as he could only glare at it.
"Neat trick, clunky..." The blue-armed hero snarked sarcastically, wobbily standing up to keep on fighting. "But you're still gonna be scrap pieces!"
"On the countary, Sonic the Hedgehog," An unfamiliar voice chuckled from behind, causing Boom-Sonic to gasp in fright as he quickly spun around to see a strange cloaked figure stand before him, and suddenly the hedgehog's bad vibes kicked in. He didn't like this guy already at all. "You are in for an ultimate defeat, one where you cannot escape from."
"Who the heck are you? You joined forces with Eggy or somethin'?" Boom-Sonic demanded.
"I believe the more correct way would be saying is that...You are about to find out, because as of this moment, you belong to me." The figure grinned underneath his hood, snapping his fingers.
In that instant, this distracted Boom-Sonic who realized far too late as the Decimator Bot almost instantly grabbed him tightly within it's grip, his arms pinned to his sides as the hedgehog was lifted up into the air. He screamed in alarm while trying in a futile attempt to pry himself free.
"Whaddya want with me, you Blanket-Weirdo!?" The blue hedgehog demanded, hissing in pain when the giant robot squeezed him a little bit. "Let me go!"
"I have a perfect little plan for you, hedgehog. With the help of a certain doctor from another dimension. But first, here is a riddle." The hooded figure chuckled evilly, taking a couple steps closer to the snarling trapped hedgehog.
"How 'bout just cut to the chase, 'cuz riddles aren't my thing. There more Amy and Tails' sort of thing." Boom-Sonic glared hard, wriggling and squirming within the robot's grip.
The figure ignored him with a barked laugh. "Good hedgehogs are blue, evil kind are black and red, overconfidence goes over both heads. Heroes and Villians are such a bore, but what would happen if one of either become more?"
An awkward moment of pause, crickets chirping in the background as Boom-Sonic could only gaze cluelessly at his supposed kidnapper.
"Is that supposed to be a messed-up parody of Poetry? Kinda late for Valentine's Day." The speeding hero asked, perplexed.
He should know, because Valetine's Day was a few months ago.
"Oh, nevermind. You're about to learn soon enough...But first, perhaps a little nap shall do you before the final...preparations." The figure shook his head, exasperated once he realized what his riddle meant nothing to the hedgehog.
While Boom-Sonic was on edge, admittedly becoming more and more terrified that his heart was beating rapidly and at that moment, he wished he could communicate with his friends to call for help, the mysterious figure then reached out holding some kind of glowing purple crystal and held it out towards him. The blue hedgehog gasped before he let out a scream, squeezing his eyes shut and the next thing he knew, his world went black.
By the time it had faded, Boom-Sonic began to slowly regain consciousness as though he had passed out, which he felt like was what happened. Slowly blinking his eyes open tiredly, feeling very woozy and nauseous, the blue hedgehog slowly sat up in the realization he had been lying on his back.
"Ugh...W-What happened?" Boom-Sonic asked tiredly, rubbing his head before shaking it, he was nearly blinded by the painful sight of white everywhere. Was he dead?
"It's about time you woke up, you blue pineapple!"
Startled by the familiar voice he recognized all too well, Boom-Sonic was snapped fully awake to see, much to his dismay, Boom-Eggman, Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot, the latter two still wearing those ridiculous hats, gazing at him a few feet away.
"Eggman!" The hedgehog grunted angrily, standing up and quickly stood on edge. "You sleezy-ball of yoke! You had that weirdo to kidnap me!"
Yet what also noticed was his rival's clothes and shuddered, dumbstruck forming. "...Again in your pink night dress?"
"As much as I'd take credit for it, we're much as prisoners as you are and in a tiny-literally by the way-predicument! And so is my other-self outside of our prison!" The evil scientist argued.
"Literally tiny?" Boom-Sonic raised an eye-ridge, wondering if this was some sort of trick. But when he looked around to see whether his enemy was telling the truth or not, his heart dropped into his stomach with his blood running so cold that it was like he was in the fridget zone.
While it was confirmed that he really was in Boom-Eggman's Fortress as usual, everything just seemed rather...huge. Almost like everything else except for himself, the scientist and the two dumbots had grown into enormous size. Except it didn't take him long to figure out what happened.
"OH MY GOSH! We've shrunk!?" Boom-Sonic screamed in horror, turning back to the evil trio who all nodded, in fear and defeat. Then his memories came back to him and he realized now who was really responsible. "Wait a sec! That hooded with the crystal! He shrunk you all too and put you in here!?"
"Yes, unfortunately." Boom-Eggman sighed in resignation.
"This happened last night, precisely." Boom-Orbot began.
"Yeah, right after the other Dr. E made complaints about our boss's Pjs!" Boom-Cubot piped up, only to be shoved to the side by the aforementioned scientist which caused the annoying drone to comically yowl like a cat.
An unamused Boom-Sonic deadpanned at his nemesis. "He might be your other-self like Lord Eggbutt, but I can't say that I blame him. Seeing you without pants is enough to give me nightmares."
"Will you just shut up and let us explain, rodent!?" Boom-Eggman grunted impatiently, "Now, as Orbot has said, this happened last night when an intruder, who isn't that stupid Lightning Bolt Club for once, came in with a mysterious crystal that shrunk the three of us and now you."
Flash-Back: The night before...
"How should I know? He's speaking in a language that is completely different besides English." The evil scientist shrugged.
"It sounds more like garbled gibberish to me." Boom-Eggman remarked dryly.
By the time the mysterious figure finished, the group soon quickly found themselves glowing, making all of them scream in terror as they all quickly tried to shield their eyes to avoid in going blind.
As it then faded, and while Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe, Bokkun, Orbot and Cubot all nervously lowered their arms to see what has happened, they found that they were perfectly alright. They sighed in huge relief with the taller yellow-robot wiping his forehead. Except when they glanced around and found that everything seemed normal...ish, they found that three of their counterparts were missing.
Or not.
"Um...Dr. Eggman...?" Bokkun whimpered, pointing downward with a terrified expression.
"What is it?" The mad doctor looked to see what his message bot was looking at, and he and the other droids all gasped in horror to find his, Orbot and Cubot's alternate-selves were now no bigger than a thumb. Horrified by what has happened, Eggman recoiled with his heart skipping a beat that he whimpered.
"Oh no...!" The mad doctor softly exclaimed in terror, shaking and silently praying that the same would not happen to him.
"I have a bad feeling that this intruder is a much bigger threat to us all right at this moment, boss." Orbot stated nervously, while Decoe and Bocoe, nearly breaking apart in horror, hugged each other while Cubot and Bokkun did the same, making gulping sounds nervously.
"Yeah, if not the whole world!" Cubot whimpered. "This just adds nightmare fuel into my sleep mode!"
While the horrified group could only watch on helplessly, the hooded figure grinned while approaching the now terrified and small Boom-Eggman, Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot who, while being able to crawl out of their net trap, whimpered and screamed as he quickly snatched them up before they could even run, holding them tightly within his grasp.
"Yipe! Hey, put me down! Turn me back to normal size, blanket-boy!" Boom-Eggman demanded, in a hilariously high-pitched voice due to his size.
"Sorry, Dr. Eggman, but this is my base now, and you shall observe what I intend to do next. In due time." The cloaked figure snickered, as he pulled out a glass jar before dropping his captives inside and closed it shut.
"We've been miniturized! Just like in that movie where a crazy inventor dad shrunk his kids with a shrinking machine!"(1) Boom-Cubot exclaimed in horror, frantically hovering about for a few seconds before crashing into the 'thick' glass and fell backwards.
"This never happened to us before," Boom-Orbot shook his head in dismay. "The agony of our lives."
"You mean the agony of MY life, you can-head! You're made of metal, you can't feel anything!" Boom-Eggman snarled, making his stupid minions to recoil in fright. The evil scientist snarled, "Just when things couldn't get any worse!"
"Oh, they look just like out of a snow globe." The hooded figure grinned mockingly, shaking the jar hard which had his trapped prisoners roll around screaming in fear as he would to said snow globe.
"AHHHH! Earthquake! Earthquake!" Boom-Eggman panicked, trying to keep his balance but ended up falling and slipping.
Ignoring the miniture Eggman for now, the evil hooded intruder turned his attention to the terrified alternate Eggman and his minions who flinched and leaned back even further. "As for you, Dr. Eggman of an Alternate Universe. I have a proposeful for you."
"Erm...F-For me? What is it that you want?" Eggman gulped, his heart's beating accelerating by the second while his own minions quivered behind him, fearing that they could be next.
"I am in a need of an aid for a certain project of mine, and you, my good fellow, are a perfect assistant. Far more intelligent than this buffoon."
"I'm not sure if I should be flattered or insulted," The evil scientist grumbled, as Decoe, Bocoe, Bokkun, Orbot and Cubot gazed on incredulously, before he realized what the figure intended on doing and raised an eyebrow. "Wait a minute! You want me to help you defeat Sonic of this reality?"
The hooded villain chuckled in a creepy manner that would send out nightmare fuel to virtually everyone. "Well, part of that. Yet, I wish to capture Sonic of this world for my own plans, as using his counterpart would cause a dangerous friction and anomaly between the realities. And you are to help me do that..."
He then held out the jar of his prisoners threateningly. "Or you can join these fools!"
That made Eggman and his robots to recoil in horror, while Boom-Eggman and his dumbots cried out for help.
"Hey! Get us out of here! Don't listen to this crazy blanket-hood!" The shrunken scientist banged on the glass in a futile attempt to escape.
"Please help us, Dr. Eggman of the other world!" Boom-Orbot pleaded.
"Pretty please, with a water can on top!" Boom-Cubot wailed, his hands clasped together as his eyes moisturized with tears.
While Eggman instantly didn't trust the strange figure that had a stone capable of shrinking people at will and keep them trapped as the same could happen to him(which brought back awful memories of the time when he, Decoe, Bocoe, Sonic and Tails had shrunk two years ago), an evil yet desperate plan began to form in his mind, knowing that time was quickly running out.
But he if could figure out how to get that crystal out of the new enemy's hands and use it to his own advantage, or at least keep it away from everyone while secretly figure out how to get out of this reality, and even have Sonic brought into this secretly, he can take charge.
"Well, alright. But as long as you don't keep us imprisoned as I have a world to go back to myself." Eggman reluctantly accepted, making his robots gasp in horror.
"Oh, so sorry. But I'm afraid I can't have you running off...like an escaped Circus Performer." The hooded figure snickered, pulling out a remote from out of nowhere and pushed it.
All of the sudden, Eggman and his robots were quickly found themselves trapped in a laser cage that materialized and unable to go anywhere, much to their shock and dismay. While the robots were horrified, the evil scientist was now even more furious. "You sleezing trickster! Let me out of here!"
"Oh, I will, when I need you. Hope you have a good night sleep, my new assistant. Now, if you excuse me, I have more matters to attend while you make yourselves comfortable in there." The figure was pleased with the results, grinning wickedly before walking off with the jar in hand.
End of Flash-Back:
"And so we've been stuck in here while that Riding-Hood's evil brother forced my counterpart to re-construct Decimator Bot with plots of capturing you and getting your shorter-self out of the way." Boom-Eggman concluded.
"But why would that weird cloaked guy want me for?" Boom-Sonic shrugged, perplexed. Something odd was going on, and it wasn't adding up. First more alternate counterparts arrive, then Boom-Shadow showed up and kidnapped Sonic, and now this?
"Even I don't know." His nemesis shrugged, scratching his head while turning to the readers/viewers. "But at least our voices are back to normal and not in that ridiculous high-pitched sound effect like we're Rescue Squad Chipmunks or whatever(2)."
That only made the blue hedgehog groan, facepalming himself. "Great. First Speed-Ace's been kidnapped by Shadow, now I'VE been kidnapped by a guy who can shrink people with a glowing rock!"
"What!? Wait, who's Speed-Ace?" Boom-Eggman asked, dumbfounded.
"My other-self, the other Sonic. We've agreed to give each other code-names."
"Oh, so it's like a code-name to avoid confusion!" The evil scientist perked up in realization. "That makes sense. Except that Shadow has captured that Speed-Ace friend of yours. Any reason why?"
Boom-Sonic sighed, looking away in guilt once more. "Don't know...I just hope he'll be okay. He probably doesn't have a Shadow in his universe."
"Er, hello? He does. My counterpart mentioned him and as it turns out, Shadow's alternate-self is not evil." Boom-Eggman grumbled the obvious.
"Yeah, they're good buddies!" Boom-Cubot added.
That caught Boom-Sonic off-guard when he heard this. "Speed-Ace's version of Shadow is what?"
If that's the case...then this was going to be a whole lot more difficult. Still, just hoped that Sonic would be alright and everybody else would come and save Boom-Sonic himself before that hooded figure did something more terrible.
Back with Sonic and Boom-Shadow, they were both still brutally fighting and even racing along the desert, the former hoping to try and find an escape route while knocking out his rival's evil counterpart while feeling a bad case of deja vu. The black hedgehog growled as he open fired a Chaos Spear to impale the cobalt hedgehog.
But Sonic jumped into the air, avoiding the attack which blasted the ground and sending out sand everywhere in a mini sandstorm, even exploding to the point of causing more damage, yet this didn't faze the hero of Mobius, because from where he was he easily spotted Boom-Shadow just behind the dust-cloud.
"HA!" Sonic bellowed with a smirk, causing his opponent to glare up angrily that this was a much harder battle than he thought.
The blue hedgehog then sky-dived to try and punch the evil hedgehog, who blocked each attack, wincing at just how much stronger the younger hero was compared to that...that scarfed ingrate who can't even build cabinets properly, or defeat the most strongest hedgehog on Bygone Island, yet Boom-Sonic can defeat Boom-Eggman all the time!
This is an outrage, and Boom-Shadow the Hedgehog will not stand for this!
He attempted to punch Sonic next, but the fifteen year old narrowly side-stepped out of the way, before returning the assault by kicking at him, yet the black and red hedgehog dodged the attack as well. The two then jumped, bashing at each other, with the mad hedgehog teleporting to catch Sonic off-guard.
"UGH!" The blue hedgehog grunted when he didn't pay attention, caught off-guard as Boom-Shadow punched him in the right cheek. He was sent falling to the ground and his enemy laughing evilly.
Sonic screamed as he hit the ground hard with sand and dust forming around him before it settled, leaving him lying in a shallow crater shaped like him, panting and wincing at the agonizing punch. He knew he was in for bruises and maybe a couple sore bones by the time this was over.
'If this keeps up, I'll be a flat-hog by the end of it. Guess I gotta change tactics a little bit. Just what is this Shadow's problem, anyway?' The blue hedgehog hissed, pushing himself up to ignore his injuries.
This is going to take a while longer than he had hoped.
High up in the air, Tails sat in the back-seat of his counterpart's plane while the alternate twin-tailed kit piloted it, keeping their eyes peeled.
"See anything yet?" Boom-Tails quried, scanning the land below for any signs of a blue and black and red blurs.
"The energy reading's picking up radio-active waves coming south from a canyon nearby, but it's pretty muddled up," Tails reported, fiddling with the touch-screen of the electro pad. "This might need a lot of work of getting all fixed up. No offense but there's more kinks and glitches, it's hard to keep it straight and focused."
A grumble audible in the goggle-worn fox's throat made known, Boom-Tails cast an apologetic glance over his shoulder. "Yeah, sorry about that. I tried fixing it when my Sonic and Knuckles wanted me to download a DLC content of the online version of the "Princess of Sermia"(3) game recently released."
"I'm guessing they accidentally wrecked it, right?" The nine year old fox deadpanned. Given his first interactions with Sonic and Knuckles' counterparts, trusting Boom-Knuckles with technology(or anything for that matter) was questionable.
At the same time, Boom-Sonic was just as reckless and cocky, more so than Sonic used to be long before the nightmare of Dark Gaia.
"Knuckles spilled grape juice all over it and Sonic tried to dry it with a hair-dryer...and frying the circuits. That was a day before yesterday and I did my best to fix it, 'til you guys came here looking for the shard."
Tails's expression was so comical that one would think it was a combination of bewilderment and dumbstruck. Ooookay, so this world's version of his big brother was way more irresponsible. Maybe it was due to things being less serious than it was back at home? Given Sonic's connection with the Chaos Emeralds and Eggman attempting to take over the world wherever he went, it was logically possible.
"You guys don't go out to see the world that often, do you?" He eventually ventured.
"Nah, not really," His counterpart shrugged, his attention back to focus on the flight while still into the conversation. "Most of them we try to keep the island safe from our Eggman, other times things just happen almost every day. A few times we had to save the world itself from the disasterous anomly, or Frogyldes that Amy accidentally released from Sticks' basement."
"Wha-!?" Tails gaped, his mouth dropped in shock. "Why would Sticks keep frog-whatever they are in her basement!?"
"They were sealed in order to prevent them from causing destruction to the world. Weird things happen here all the time, so it's always an everyday adventure. Sometimes though we get bored when Eggman isn't causing trouble. Like the time he lost his motivation to fight Sonic that he ended up wallowing in his own self-pity that it drove Sonic and us crazy. Then he went to Evil school to get his second doctorate." Boom-Tails nonchalantly explained.
An awkward moment of silence.
"Boy, your Eggman sounds weirder than ours does. In our case, we have to keep the whole world safe from him and he tends to go for things in every different locations on the planet, like the Chaos Emeralds that hold immesive power, a water creature called Chaos ironically enough, a giant monster that is an embodiment of darkness, and a few months ago, two months after Sonic fought said monster, saving cute little aliens and five planets Eggman captured using his generator beams for his Interstellar amusement park." Tails tilted his head, not sure what else to describe Boom-Eggman.
The other fox raised an eyebrow, dubious over his alternate-self's claims. "I can understand monsters since we've encountered some before, but there's no such thing as aliens. That's one of the crazy conspiracy theories Sticks comes up with."
"Maybe not in your reality, but since alternate dimensions do exist, don't you think it would make it more logical sense that we're not the only living beings in the whole universe? I can understand your suspicions since I can assume the more nastier aliens like the Black Arms don't exist here-and thank goodness for that since we dealt with them, and if it wasn't for Shadow, we wouldn't be here right now-but things are different back at home. Sticks' theories are odd, but the universe is gigantic." Tails frowned, not liking the attitude displayed from his fellow fox.
Another moment of pause.
"...You got a point. Guess the reason why we never dealt with aliens before is possibly because maybe our world isn't worth any of their time." Boom-Tails conceaded, realization weighing heavily like a soaking wet quilt placed onto him.
"I wish ours was like that," Tails turned his gaze to his legs absently. "When those Black Arms came, it was one of the scariest things I've ever seen. Sadly, that's not the first time they approached our world. Except they needed the Chaos Emeralds to begin their attack and bring their mobile home the Black Comet to the surface without burning out in the cryosphere. They pass by Mobius once every fifty years. Or at least they used to until Shadow used the Eclipse cannon to destroy it."
"I still can't believe your version of Shadow is a good guy, let alone saving the planet instead of trying to destroy it."
"Well, he didn't start off like that, but he wasn't always evil either. Our Shadow's history is...very sad and horrible, he lost the best friend he ever had at the time, his mind was messed up, and when he turned over to our side thanks to Amy, he helped Sonic to save the world, but lost his memories before Rouge found him. He managed to get them back when the Black Arms appeared, and since then he's been a great ally to us. Still a loner apart besides being with Rouge and a friendly robot called Omega, and he tends to have a somewhat friendly competition with Sonic in races." Tails thought back to how Shadow risked his life to save Sonic, now being trapped in another timeline somewhere in the Multiverse.
Which hurt even more since Boom-Shadow was still evil, and Sonic would be struggling against him. How can his big brother deal with the fact that the black hedgehog of this world was bitter and cold towards everybody?
Unbeknownst to him, Boom-Tails' thoughts turned melchonaly, memories of all the times Boom-Shadow sought to destroy Boom-Sonic, then eventually going for destroying the whole universe as a whole.
"I'm no longer satisfied simply taking vengeance on that lackwit Eggman. I want revenge on this whole pathetic universe."
'Based on what my counterpart has said with his world's version of Shadow, could ours had been badly affected by a trauma that made him believe life is unfair and thinks everyone just wants to either use him or is weaker than him? Maybe that's why he doesn't have friends...because he was either betrayed or...lost a really close friend of his own.' The more Boom-Tails sunk deeper into his own theory, the more it began to make perfect sense.
BOOM!
Both gasping in shock, the two fox cubs quickly glanced over the right edge of the plane and saw tale signs of dust clearing just as the Miles Electric started bleeping. Tails quickly analyzed the data with his eyes widening.
"The energy wave's coming from there! That's gotta be where Sonic and Shadow are!" Tails exclaimed, glimmer of hope rising in his chest.
"I got signal on the rest of the gang's locations too, except for Blue Leader's. Let's find and inform them so we can save Speed-Ace!" Boom-Tails narrowed his eyes, determination etching on his features. "Ready?"
"Ready!" His counterpart shared the feelings with a smirk that matched Sonic's.
Nodding and even more determined to save their blue friend, or at least one of them, they both flew close to Sonic's location while hoping to find the rest of their friends just in time.
It had taken the group of heroes what felt like hours in any hopes and attempts in locating Sonic and Boom-Shadow, but unfortunately, the teams of Amy and Boom-Amy, Knuckles and Boom-Knuckles(much to the, erm, more mature echidna's dismay in having to team up with his dimwitted counterpart), Rouge and Sticks(who both felt the senses of distrust and unease, the Badgar coming to learn of the bat's status as an agent despite the latter ensuring her that the organization she works for has no interest in simply kidnapping random girls, especially from the Jungle), Sun and Star met up by Sticks' burrow.
The only ones that hadn't returned yet are Boom-Sonic, Tails and his counterpart, the blue hedgehog being the only one without a partner for the search party.
"We searched the cave that Shadow lives: Not a thing." Amy conceded somberly, concern laced in her voice and failing to stop the worse case scenarios forming in her mind.
"No luck around the jungle or forests either. All we found were crazy herds of...weird looking animals that make no sense at all." Sun apologetically shook his head, with a grimaced expression of his and Star's encounter of the said creatures. Whatever they are.
"Searched the canyon from top to bottom. Zilch," Rouge began.
"Zip," Sticks continued.
"Dud." The two girls concluded.
"Did you read my mind?" The feral girl sent a mean look at the bat a second later.
"Nope, we both unknowingly said it at the same time." The GUN Agent shrugged, pointly ignoring the 'I'm-watching-you' mimick from the badger.
"We checked out the volcano for any sign of Sonic and that jerk-version of Shadow: Not even foot prints or evidence of an attack." Knuckles grunted in frustration, arms folded firmly with an angry scowl to mask his deepening concern for Sonic's safety.
Because if anything happened to the younger Mobian teenager, he would never forgive himself. All the years of being rivals, to think that two years ago Knuckles the Echidna had slowly but finally had come to accept the grasp of Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, virtually almost everyone else, as his true friends and trust-worthy allies. He dared not to admit it either, but Knuckles did secretly come to care for Sonic as an obnoxious but very brave younger brother.
Middle brother, really. Because Tails was the youngest little bro to both of them.
"I don't know what evidence means, but you'd think it would be easy to spot a blue hedgehog with naked arms and a black and red stripped bully when they fight..." Boom-Knuckles grunted frustratingly, before he frowned in confusion over his own words as usual. "Or do they move really fast when they fight?"
It took a lot, and I do mean, a LOT of will power on Knuckles' part to not scream out at his taller self for his lack of simple logic and common sense, let alone punch him. Plus the taller echidna just wouldn't shut up with all of the made up stories to make himself look like a far better leader than Boom-Sonic.
"Looks both of Tails and Blue Leader haven't gotten back yet," Boom-Amy remarked, her brows creaking slightly for the absence of the two fox cubs and blue-armed hedgehog. "You'd think they would be back by now."
"Maybe they found our Sonic and are fighting Shadow right now. That could be why they haven't called yet." Star suggested, though her senses were tingling. Unease was creeping into her since they split up from this world's version of Sonic.
"If both sets of Eggman got to them first, I'm so gonna give them a world of pain they won't forget...!" Sun hissed with another possibility. His fist tightened at the very thought of his original, his brother, caught by Eggman again sent out alarming warning signs of rage through out his body.
Plus he was worried about Tails as well, which didn't help matters over the curren situation.
"Or maybe Shadow has lead them to his evil brethren to swap their brains with conquerers of the universe plotting to take over the planet and spoon-feed us with soul-eating corn-cobs to use our bodies as hosts." Sticks snarled, making everyone stare at her blankly over her latest crazy conspiracy theory.
While Rouge, Amy and Knuckles did feel uncomfortable as the badger was half-right, at least with their Shadow's relation with evil aliens, they, Sun and Star only ended up completely speechless over what she just said.
"Where does she get all of these crazy theories from?" Knuckles whispered to his counterpart, half-spooked.
"Nobody knows, but half of time her theories are right," Boom-Knuckles shrugged. He shuddered over certain memories. "Like with the Luck Balance of the Universe, or the curse of the Cross-eyed Moose."
"...The Luck Balance of the Universe and curse of a Cross-eyed Moose?" The Guardian couldn't believe what was just said, his doubts for Sticks' loyalty only increasing. "Those are the most ridiculous things I've ever heard of!"
"Hey, they aren't ridiculous!" Sticks protested angrily, storming up to the teenage guardian. "If you ever came across curses and bad luck, you'd regret in ever saying that!"
Knuckles just scoffed. "Yeah, right. Have any of you fought against a giant water monster holding powerful connections with Chaos Energy that it took Sonic using the Chaos Emeralds to defeat it and save the world?"
"A giant water monster?" Boom-Knuckles' eyes widened incredulously, before he raised an eye-brow. "I'm surprised Speed-Ace even fought it. Sonic would just run away from water at any given chance."
"Okay, less talk about Sticks'...questionable theories and Chaos himself, can we please focus on finding our Sonic before Jerk-Shadow does something even more stupid?" Sun held up a hand, attempting to end the unnecessary and waste of time of a conversation.
"Shadow's insane and evil, but you're right: He IS a big jerk." Boom-Amy attempted to point out.
"True, but given how different this world is, I doubt this Shadow will be able to hold off Big Blue, let alone defeat him," Rouge held a sly grin. "Trust me, those two back at home spar all the time and they're pretty equal when it comes to strength and speed."
"Yeah, but I'm still so worried about him." Amy sighed, her facial features creasing with growing turmoil of trauma. Not just for herself, but for her dear Sonic.
For months, he has gone through such a terrible time ever since Eggman unleashed Dark Gaia, breaking the blue hedgehog's optimistic shield and finally destroyed his unwavering and resilient nature for the most part. For years Sonic's charismatic nature seemed to be unbreakable, just like his bond with the people he loved deeply inched into his heart and he could surpass against all odds with his strong benevolent personality and powerful determination.
All that changed just five months ago, and despite his recovery from his traumatic past, his usual life living mainly in the present has sent him spiraling repeatedly back in time to his previous mistakes, attempting to swallow him whole into the stomach of regrets that vowed to imprison the hero of Mobius. Since his confession of his fears and regrets, Amy wished to do more in order to bring him back to the light of the present, to see him return to his previous happier persona, to see his bright, jesting, warm and beautiful smile everyday once more.
Before any of them could focus more on their thoughts, a sudden blast of sounds filled the air close by, startling the group.
"What was that!?" Sun's eyes widened, bewildered on where the attack came from.
"Hey, guys!"
Hearing the familiar voice of a two-tailed fox cub, or...at least one of them, the two teams glanced up to find both Tails and Boom-Tails, the latter piloting his latest Tornado design, flying above them waving.
"We figured out where Speed-Ace and Shadow are!" Boom-Tails called out, he and his counterpart having quickly made adjustments to locate Sonic's location by having borrowed a sample of Boom-Sonic's quills earlier(much to the hedgehog's slight discomfort but obliged none the less) since their DNA was similar.
"They're over at the canyon over! We're picking up Sonic's speed waves as well as Shadow's alarming Chaos Energy!" Tails added, eyes narrowed in deep concern. "We're heading there right now!"
"Nice work, guys!" Sun praised, relieved and he wasn't the only one showing it.
"C'mon! Let's go save Speed-Ace and give Shadow a big whooping!" Boom-Amy boldly held up her hammer.
"If he so much hurts Sonic any further, he's gonna regret it!" Amy hissed, her hands clutching the handle of her own weapon so hard that her knuckles were starting to turn white.
Ironically, Boom-Knuckles held up two pieces of burnt toast with an overcooked piece of ham in the air with oozing melted cheese dribbled in his hand, a deep frown set into his muzzle. "Yeah, and I hope we can help in redoing my lunch, 'cause somehow my toasted ham and cheese sandwich is ruined!"
His mature counterpart's group all groaned, sweat drops large as life.
"We're dealing with a deadly robot and you're more concerned about your burnt lunch!?" Knuckles now really questioned his alternate self's intelligence.
Or rather the lack of thereof.
"Let's just go before Shadow turns Sonic more blue than he already is." Rouge sighed, roughly dragging Knuckles by the arm.
"Wha-hey! Rouge! Let go! I'm not some kind of rag doll!" The Master Emerald Guardian protested angrily.
"Let's...just get going." Sun shook his head, exasperation forming on his face.
Deciding not to argue with the orange hedgehog, the group hurried to follow the same direction as the two young foxes in hopes in saving Sonic before it was too late.
Amy could feel her insides scream with anxiety, her heart racing with fear mounting. But she wasn't the helpless eight year old little girl anymore. Ever the years, the thirteen year old has grown to become a fierce warrior to do justice, to aid her friends in saving the world many times. Her jade eyes darkening, determination renewed.
Her thoughts yearned to save the blue hedgehog that has saved her life more times than she could count. Not only she loved him deeply and still admittedly wanted to marry him, in the recent months she has come to accept that Sonic will never change. His heart longed to experience the freedom offered by the winds, to live his life with no bounds to hold him back, to go wherever he wanted while he was still young.
'Hang in there, Sonic...We're coming! I won't let anything terrible happen to your heart again.' While Amy knew that Sonic will continue fighting, and also wished to spend as much time with her, Tails and everybody else as possible, she also came to accept the one thing she failed to see until now.
Marriage or not, the pink hedgehog was just happy to be in his life and spend time with him no matter what, and help him heal from his mental wounds and misplaced guilt.
Sonic charged once more, flipping out of the way when Boom-Shadow teleported straight in front of him to land a single punch, only to axe-kick the latter in the face. Yet he ended up leaving himself open, the black hedgehog deflecting his attack by catching the teenage hero by the foot that left Sonic gasping in shock. The evil hedgehog spun repeatedly that left his opponent no room or hope of escape, tossing him once more. Boom-Shadow chuckled with a finishing move of a Homing Attack.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sonic was left helpless in the severe attacks that left him cripped back onto the unforgiving soil of the earth below, rocks and dirt spiraling upward while he laid on the ground.
Despite the world spinning momentarily with his vision blurred of briefly seeing multiple Boom-Shadow and environment, the fifteen year old shook his head while panting, his head swam with fatigue kicking in. Yet his desire to help save the Multiverse, reunite with his friends and stop all evil from gaining advantage, his resilience succeeded to regain his senses and glared hard at his rival's evil counterpart.
Now that he had paid attention to what this Shadow can do, it was time for Sonic to show this reality what he's really made of, and an idea formed in his mind. In their battle, he'd wanted to see what the ebony hedgehog was capable of doing and despite the blue hedgehog's injuries, this was nothing compared to his previous fights in the past.
"Hmph. Just as I thought, you are exactly like that fool, Sonic. Farewell, Speed-Ace. You're finished!" Boom-Shadow grinned evilly, powering up another Chaos Spear to kill Sonic.
Big mistake, for underestimating Sonic the Hedgehog, who was now all warmed up and ready to gain his victory with renewed strength he regained, his heart burning with compassion and vow to set things right.
"Not yet!" Sonic smirked, confidently. Quickly standing and ignoring his sore body and bruises, he spun into quickly using his Insta-Shield which deflected the attack and surprisingly enough, the cobalt teenager's defense was much stronger than the evil hedgehog's power, to the point where Boom-Shadow saw too late that his own attack was coming back straight for him!
"What!? AAAHH!" The ebony Mobian exclaimed, feeling a twinge of fear seep into his heart, that he jumped out of the way just in time to avoid his own attack impaling him, speeding everywhere in almost equal speed to the hero of Mobius.
Unfortunately, this left him open for Sonic, who narrowed his eyes once he lowered his shield, to quickly charge up with pure determination, to homing attack right at Boom-Shadow with the latter looking up and his red eyes widened in pure absolute shock before being attacked repeatedly by the hero of Mobius, screaming in agony as he couldn't find the right moment to defend himself or knock away his opponent.
'This is impossible! What IS he!? He's...stronger than...than the foolish Sonic of this world!' A horrified Boom-Shadow thought as he was being beaten by the even more speedy Sonic than he ever would with Boom-Sonic, meaning that, despite the height and change of appearance, he was unbelievably stronger than anticipated.
How could this be? This infuriated him, refusal to believe that someone, an alternate version of his most hateful enemy ever since encountering the blue hedgehog, had strength that surpassed his own, sweeping over his mind. It was this twinge of fear threatening to overcome his heart's rate, the acceleration made him lose focus beside attempting to protect himself.
By the time these thoughts rang into the black hedgehog's mind, a final strong kick from Sonic's foot collided into his chest that forced air out of lungs and was sent crashing into a boulder, shattering it with smaller pieces piling on top of him. Sonic landed safely and gasped in horror, realizing what he had done.
"Shadow!?" The blue hedgehog exclaimed, beginning to fear that he may have accidentally killed Boom-Shadow. His heart sank in growing guilt as he raced over to see if his opponent was alright, because evil or not, he was still Shadow's counterpart, no matter what universe or reality he lived in.
Oh, please, let him be okay...! If the ebony Mobian died now, Sonic would be living the rest of his days with guilt that he could never overcome. Far more worse than the time of Dari Gaia's premature awakening.
Before Sonic could quickly approach to dig through the rocks frantically while, blaming himself for over-doing it, because even though the nastier version of his rival, his friend, had kidnapped him with every intention of ending his and Boom-Sonic's lives, the cobalt teenager wasn't heartless, he jumped in fright when Boom-Shadow emerged with rocks flying everywhere, forcing the teenager to once again leap back.
'Whoa...He's almost as tough as Shads.' Sonic was stunned by how Boom-Shadow could easily recover, yet he mentally sighed in relief that the evil hedgehog was alright. "Man, talk about stubborn and full of surprises."
"Tch...I am superior in strength, I never tire out. You're just...like him. Far too kind and sympathetic," Boom-Shadow hissed, refusing to show how he had struggled against the cobalt speedster. "Yet, you are far stronger than he is, as it disgraces me to admit it."
"Geez, Shadow, what's with the drama? What did Blue Leader ever do to you to hate him so much? Eggman I can understand, since that creep is on everybody's hatred list, and unless you have a real good reason for being a nasty and cruel jerk, I don't see why you want to just kill everybody." The hero of Mobius was getting pretty frustrated with Boom-Shadow's attitude.
"Hmph! He's a disgrace of all hedgehog kind, and the universe in general is pathetically worthless."
Sonic gritted his teeth, anger boiling like lava waiting to erupt inside his chest. "The universe is not worthless! Seriously, you claim to be superior to everybody else, but all I see is an edge-lord who acts like a coward and takes pleasure to bully people just for your satisfaction!"
"At least I don't allow myself to be cuddled by your so called 'friends' needing attention all the time," The black hedgehog softly let out a growl, his red eyes pierching right into Sonic's emerald pupils. "Friendship is a weakness...They only weigh you down."
A sight like a haunted soul ready to enter his body and take over another for every evil intentions, leaving no mercy in the possessor's wake.
But it wasn't Boom-Shadow's words that caught Sonic off-guard. A soft gasp escaped the latter's lips, realization struck a chord deep within. The blue blur blinked. "Is that really it? You hate everybody because you can't trust them?"
As though being struck into the gut once again, Boom-Shadow's eyes widened. After a long moment of silence, their eyes trained on each other and silence swept over them.
Could it be that simple? Did this Shadow...end up betrayed, or has he ended up...in a similar tragic incident to have caused him to believe the world was not worth it...to give up on trusting anybody? Was there a version of...Boom-Eggman's cousin that died? Or was it for a different reason?
Carefully holding a gaze into Boom-Shadow's red orbs, easily noticing the look of sheer shock, denial, increased rage threatening to burst...fear and a glimpse of grief held back like a prisoner locked in a cage beneath it all.
Sonic's heart sank like a stone with a hope that he was wrong, his brows drawn together in a sympathetic concern.
"Sonic!/Speed-Ace!"
The combined voices of Tails and Boom-Tails suddenly interrupted the awkward conversation, causing Sonic and Boom-Shadow(before the latter could even get the chance to continue or Sonic even to keep asking his suspicions) to glance up to find, much to the former's relief and surprise, and the irritation of the latter, the goggled-fox cub's plane came into view, the two kits waving happily at them.
"Hey, Tails! Yellow Sky!" Sonic waved back, though he was hesitant on leaving his rival's dark counterpart on his own, but a quick glance at the black and red hedgehog who just turned his gaze away from him quickly made his mind up for him.
As soon as the Bi Plane made a landing, the two twin-tailed foxes hopped out before racing over to the blue hedgehog who already reached them, Tails crying out his big brother's name as the fifteen year old caught him in his arms. The two reunited brothers laughed in relief as Sonic spun around while holding his little brother in their eveloped and heart-warming embrace.
"Sonic, you're okay! I was really worried!" Tails exclaimed, tears leaking in the corner of his eyes after Sonic stopped spinning, but still held him close for their tender moment.
"You know me, li'l bro. Never a dull moment." Sonic responded, his heart hammering in sheer happiness that his best friend/little brother and his counterpart were safe and sound.
"Whoa! You beat Shadow?" Boom-Tails suddenly remarked, noticing the aforementioned black hedgehog's current state of injuries despite that he still stood strong, which the latter leered at him before turning away, scoffing. The two-tailed fox kit flinched, before looking away, twiddling his thumbs nervously, whistling casually.
"Sure did, at least for now. He's one tough cookie to crumble, though," The hero of Mobius shrugged, casting another uneasy but well-masked glance, holding a firm look and sarcasm strongly etched in his voice. "And he's definitely got less sugar and more sticky dough. Maybe an added coffee powder was put into it."
Tails tried not to laugh over his brother's comical comment over Boom-Shadow's attitude while the former's counterpart let out a nervous gulp.
"I really hate you." Boom-Shadow grunted, his glare only increasingly becoming more narrow.
"Feelin's mutural." Sonic scoffed, his arms crossed against his chest.
The words that were spoken was part of a lie, the blue hedgehog knew of. He spoke the truth, but he desperately wanted to know if his assumptions with Boom-Shadow's past were correct. Because clearly there must be a true reason for his evil desires to become superior out of strong vengeance.
Just then, Boom-Tails communicator watch beeped which quickly had him answer. "Hello?"
"Uh, Tails? Bud? Can you hear me?" Boom-Sonic's face appeared on the small screen...yet for a strange reason that everyone else, even Boom-Shadow who overheard and raised an eye-ridge, couldn't understand, his voice sounded very high-pitched.
"Sonic? What's wrong?" The two-tailed fox asked, worriedly.
"Why does he sound like he sucked in helium?" Sonic questioned, dumbfounded.
Yet there was a large pit forming in stomach, giving out warning signs that his counterpart was in trouble, and not just because of how ridiculously high the other hedgehog's voice was. Something was wrong...Very wrong.
"Speed-Ace!? Oh, man, you're alright! Did ya' manage to beat Shadow?" Boom-Sonic exclaimed, sounding utterly relieved to hear his counterpart safe and sound.
"Long story, but yeah. We'll about that later, right now, what's going on with you?" The peached-armed blue hedgehog replied, he and Tails leaning closer to get a better look at the other hedgehog.
*With Boom-Sonic*
"Well...let's just say that the two Eggheads and Jerk-Ego the Hedgy are the least of our problems," Boom-Sonic, his voice sounding normal in his perspective, voiced his irritation and deepest concerns.
The blue-armed hedgehog glanced over to his fellow prison inmates on the other side of the jar prison who were huddled up with Boom-Eggman curled up in a ball with Boom-Orbot and Boom-Cubot attempting to comfort him.
"Short version: I got caught by this weirdo in a hood who used some sort of magic rock that not only shrunk me like Amy's dolls, but did the same with our Egg-face and his bolt bots, and is using the other Eggman for whatever the creep wants with me. We're at Eggman's base right now...stuck inside a jar, mind you." The hedgehog continued, exasperated.
*With Sonic's group*
"Whaaaaaaaat!?" Sonic, Tails and Boom-Tails now shared horrified glances over this new revelation.
Boom-Shadow, overhearing the conversation unfolded, found himself twice as shocked, his eyes widening, suddenly knew part of the goal. The realization struck him a chord.
"That hooded figure..." He began, gaining attention from three of his enemies, bewildered. The black hedgehog hissed, fury overcoming his senses yet again. "...Even when I refused his proposal...HE USED ME! Without my acknowledgement!"
Their expressions turning to that of fear with confusion mixed over like a badly baked cake, Sonic and both versions of his little brother all felt their eyes widen. Someone had...spoken to Boom-Shadow and had plotted a kidnapping!?
Just when things couldn't get even worse, now they had a brand new enemy to deal with and to make things worse, neither of the trio knew that their friends were facing another familiar foe at the same time.
How are they going to handle this?
To be Continued!
A/N: Not exactly how I intended, but hopefully the next chapter will be the final part of the Sonic Boom-verse of the Arc before Sonic and his friends enter the next reality. I'm really sorry for the dragging of this saga, the few odd mistakes, and the lack of real good action, plus the lack of Shadow.
More will be revealed next time when I update this again. I will try and do so as soon as possible, but it will take a while. I deeply apologize for the waiting, everyone.
(1) Reference to the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" movie. Not one of my favorites as I've seen "Honey, I Blew up the Kid" first. *Sweat drops sheepishly*
(2) Reference to the original "Chip N' Dale: Rescue Rangers" TV series.
(3) A parody reference of the "Prince of Persia" franchise.
See you later!