It took 10 chapters for the adventure to begin, well, some adventures had already started... Thank you for waiting, here's the next chapter!
Inside Freedom HQ's Tails managed to wake up early trying to come up with a proper plan or what even should be the next step now that there were a bazillion Sonics along with duplicates of him and an entire set of Freedom Fighters down there waiting for something to do as well, this was pretty overwhelming considering that they risked the chance of getting spotted by the council, a very unpredictable factor that also played its part on Tails' mind.
"Are you okay?" a familiar voice asked from behind, Sally was also awake at the time.
"Uh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine" he said pretty normally.
"Uh-huh… what are you doing?"
"Nothing, just… trying to see what to do now. I thought you all were sleeping" he asked trying to get the conversation somewhere else.
"Heh, they still are but I… had some trouble sleeping, that's all" Sally replied still hiding the headaches she was having "And what have you gotten so far anyway?"
"Well, unless Eggman got instant supplies for the Death Egg and moved somewhere else then he should be where we left him in. And if Mecha Sally didn't move then she should also be in the same place… unless that the teleportation affected everyone and in that case then we have no way of knowing where she could be".
A sigh of frustration from the fox confirmed that this was a lot to take in. Suddenly, a figure began forming inside the lab with digital-like particles until finally revealing herself, instead of a casual transmission; Nicole chose to appear in person to give a message to Tails. Based on the clothing the lynx was wearing, Sally instantly realized that this was not the Nicole she knew.
"Excuse the suddenness of the arrival Tails but-" the moment she spotted Sally she became speechless, in shock, confused and also a sense of happiness at the same time, it was Sally, it was her best friend.
"No, Nicole, she's not our Sally… this dimension thing not only brought some Sonics".
"What?" Nicole asked still surprised.
"It's true, apparently a portal brought the Freedom Fighters from a complete different dimension and I doubt they're the only ones that had a partner when we did that, heh, I also have to deal with two other versions of me".
Nicole tried to think the implications of this and she did but watching Sally again was still beautiful.
"Nicole, I know how you must be feeling," Sally said trying to comfort her "But we can still save her, I know… What were you trying to say to Tails?"
"Right," the lynx tried to dismiss the thoughts "We have to keep this under wraps… really under wraps, you already know what may happen if they find out that the plan didn't worked out as planned, another Freedom Fighters doesn't mixes well".
"Is that Nicole?" a familiar voice asked from the entrance peeking out of it, it was Tails… the second Tails… the one without the goggles.
Nicole saw the two Tails with confusion looking back and forth before simply de-materializing out of the room.
"Wh- what… are you doing here? Was that Nicole or-"
"It's their Nicole, Tails, we're just planning where we're going," interrupted Sally "Apparently we're heading to the Death Egg, right?"
"It's more of an assumption but yeah, pretty much".
"Oh… wait- Sally has been to the Death Egg before!"
"You have?" asked Tails.
"Well… I did sneak in once, gathered some data and barely escaped with Metal Sonic hunting for me but we're talking about a completely different dimension, everyone knows that things change".
"Heh, how many differences can you spot between the two of us? After all, I deduced that different experiences and events for different versions of Sonic could certainly be a huge influence so we can try that".
After more small seconds of discussing they decided that that was going to be the plan, with a little tweaking and support from the others it could definitely work; now the thing that was left was preparing the team for the mission. For the Freedom Fighters they immediately set up the second it was announced that they were ready, after all, they all knew exactly what they were fighting for.
The newly-arrived Sonic and Tails chose to join just to go along for the ride and because neither of them had anything better to do. The smaller Sonic along with Tom were the two that felt uneasy, for Tom it was relatively easy to convince, he was mostly the fish out of water in the situation so having to ride with someone wasn't a bad idea, the name of 'Eggman' also catched his attention but shrugged it off. The idea of trying to find his Sonic was also a 'must-go'.
On the other side, the smaller Sonic was a bit harder to bring on board, last night Tails gave a quick summary of what they wanted to do and he wasn't heartless, of course, but for him returning to his dimension was more important he already had a mission back there and two siblings that should be waiting for him. Starting a side-quest to help some strangers was not what he needed right now.
"Can't you send me back to where I come from?" he asked to Tails.
"We could use the Star Post but we've had a hard history with it and we don't want more trouble with the council that the one we already had last time, the device I used to bring you here was nowhere to be found when I woke up".
Sonic lowered his head thinking through it.
"I can stay here and wait" was the response much to the shock of Tails.
"What?" the fox asked in confusion "Why not come and help us?"
"If this place is closest to what can get me back home then I'd rather be here when you finish, who knows? Maybe I'll catch you later".
With his insistence, they couldn't do much more and headed outside Freedom HQ back to the best base they had in the surface, the Sky Patrol, a name that apparently the other two Tails' really liked with the main Tails builder of it being very proud of his creation even more. After walking all the way back to where the ship had crashed they found that it was damaged of course but not entirely lost.
"I'm glad to see you all have returned" an image of Nicole appeared through the main computer "Did you figured out what-"
"Wow! Is that an artificial intelligence that chose a lynx as an avatar form?" asked the Tails with the goggles very excited about the topic "Traveling through dimensions is awesome! First there's a robot-dog and a ship that apparently I built and now a living A.I?!"
"Uh…" that was all Nicole had to say to express how she was feeling.
"We're in a different dimension Nicole," said Sally simplifying it "And we're not the only ones who got invited".
"Oh… where's Sonic then?"
"Here" the both Sonics in the room at the same time which was pretty awkward.
"We need to specify a difference between you two" Tails sighed.
"I may have a solution," said the Sonic with the scarf "We can use our codenames based on the media we come from of course, very simple, no big deal… You can call me Boom or Sonic Boom if you wish".
He stated with a huge smirk and closed eyes being proud of it unaware of the 'what-the-heck' stares he was receiving.
"And in that case then we can call you Archie" he finished talking to the other Sonic.
"Uh… and what about the three Tails?" asked Amy trying to roll with it.
"Tails Archie, Tails Boom and… hm, okay, the Tails that knows this world can be called Tails, you get the special treatment".
"Wait, where're you gettin' these nicknames from again?" asked Bunnie.
"Sonic, I don't think anyone here can break the fourth wall" stated… Tails Boom "And those aren't good names either, you know that, also this isn't the best moment to come up with witty nicknames, especially when we have something as cool as a living A.I".
"We… can leave that topic for another moment," said Sally trying to avoid the awkward and weird nickname thing "Tails… -sigh- Boom has a point, we have a mission to do, Nicole, I'll fill you in later".
The princess tried to summarize the plan quickly but also clearly and understandable to everyone –including Tom- as much as she could with some help from Tails about what they needed to know about the dimension.
"This plan sounds great and all," added Rotor "But have we forgotten that the Sky Patrol is currently damaged? We can't go practically anywhere with this stuck on the ground".
"About that…" Nicole said with a tone indicating pride "I was able to make some basic repairs during the night you were away which may be capable of getting us somewhere, I just don't recommend pushing it to its limits but we can turn this on".
"Whoa- whoa, before you do that… Where do I… strap on?" asked the odd one out in the room, Tom, not fully understanding the situation but watching it from the sidelines, sort of speaking.
"I'll take him" the walrus offered himself without issues escorting the human.
And now that everything was settled the mission was finally starting, the Sky Patrol would fly slowly but surely to the cold north where they expected to find at least the Death Egg in which they should get some sort of progress or information to help them. The wait would be long and despite they could send two Sonics to speed up the trip, they would be sending two cocky and impulsive personas into unknown territory, with the consensus being to not do that.
"Alright, just one question," said Sonic Archie "Why do you wear bandages and a scarf?"
Inside the Death Egg, Dr. Eggman was having a blast… internally, Sonic was still around and any little sign could set off the fact that was trying to trick him so now he was just limited to analyze the current footage of what happened when his white-out was activated, most of it the inside recordings showed generic and same-as-ever fights with Sonic against killer whales or against Mecha Sally before the cameras themselves got engulfed in the light as well only showing a clean room afterwards.
However, with the help of a few outside cameras, he was able to spot that fox doing something with a device before the light covered the recording once again leaving the area with nothing but snow. The angle of the camera wasn't the best but it was more than enough to get the full picture.
"This place is so boring" Sonic complained after being in the same room with nothing to do for quite a while.
"Of course you're still here" thought Eggman.
"And I don't even get it! Why does that robot looks like it really wants to kill me just with the stare but those two don't feel like they can even hurt a pigeon".
"Is he talking about us?" asked Orbot to Cubot chilling in another side of the room after overhearing it.
"Why do you have that many screens? If you want you could go outside by yourself and make some cardio… which I think you need- and didn't you told me that you were going to help-"
A sudden and menacing turn of head from Mecha Sally was enough to shut Sonic hopefully for more than two minutes.
"Good girl, I was about to do it myself," said Eggman with really showing the current mood he had "But-! If you do want some excitement then I have a proposition for ya, and I think it has something to do regarding your partner"
Sonic became immediately interested on the topic rushing to the main computer looking all over the screens to see if he spotted anything. Eggman heavily cleared his throat to catch the attention of the excited puppy, once that that goal was achieved, he began explaining his idea.
"Now, now, do you know what this is?" he asked showing the Tails footage from the best angle there was –blurry, but visible-. Sonic looked intensely at the picture for a very long time to figure it out which annoyed the doctor.
"Nopity, nope".
"Ah, excellent! Ho-ho, this is very simple task for someone like you, all you have to do is to bring him back to this lovely place".
"Uh-huh… for what? And I thought this was about my friend… also you need better footage because that one is as good as a bank surveillance camera".
Eggman sighed; tricking Sonic seemed easy at first but boy, did this version of Sonic really asked tons of questions.
"You can say that I- er… need his assistance and do not worry, I'm pretty sure that with his help we can find out how you ended up here as well as the whereabouts of your friend".
"Sweet!" he said before storming out of the room in a flash seemingly knowing where to go.
"Did he just left?" asked Cubot.
"That should keep him busy," commented Eggman getting out of the chair approaching another section of the room nearby the two bots "Now let's get on to the real business!"
"Are you going to resume the investigations with the other scientist boss?"
"Oh, that-"
He was interrupted when Sonic suddenly returned in the same way as he left.
"I don't think where I'm supposed to be going" he said quite embarrassed.
Eggman growled but of course he had to show him where he should be going, returning to the computer pinpointing two locations on the map, one that was where they were and the other one that was an area of Northamer* where Tails was expected to be along with showing him a better picture of Tails from one of his files and with that, he was now good to go once again.
"As I was saying," proceeded Eggman "Working with that scientist was charming but I can save that for later, now it's time for a change of pace! If I can take liberties with this dimension hopping then why not-"
Another gust of wind meant that Sonic returned… again which annoyed Eggman even more.
"Soo… when I find this guy do I ask him to come or..?" he said waving his hands around "If I just take him that would be rude".
"Can't you just carry him or whatever?! You figure it out!"
"Oh, um- okay! Now I'll just…" once again he left the room in an instant.
"As I was saying," Eggman looked at the door for a second anticipating Sonic returning again but it didn't happen "-With the dimension knowledge I can use its potential to get me something better than an army of robots… An army of Sonics, all of them doing my bidding!"
"Wouldn't it be better to bring more versions of yourself?" asked Cubot "Oh, maybe other versions of us! That would be fun!"
"Tempting, but no. That fox thinks he's better but oh-ho-ho! I want to beat him with his own rules and having one Dr. Eggman is more than enough, my genius is unique across all worlds! Another one would be unnecessary".
Orbot sighed.
"Then why did you send this Sonic to go for-"
"For a test of course!" he replied as if he was waiting for the question "He's naïve and easily tricked but I want to see how far I can take it. And it can get me rid of one of those pests, besides; I already have what I wanted from him… princess?"
Mecha Sally approached her master handing him something that she retrieved while the hedgehog was checking the screens.
It was one of Sonic's quills.
About those Sonic names… nope, I'm not proud. Don't have much to say here, hope you enjoyed!
*It's the equivalent of North America basically in the same spot, wanted to explain not in an author note but I couldn't find how to properly do it
See you soon!