Okay, I'm back, yay, huge thanks to everyone who's reading this fic I've been genuinely happy by the support I've had on FFN and AO3… Anyways let's see what this chapter has to give us
Albion, beautiful home of the echidna race with magnificent architecture and rich culture... at least that what it was like a week ago, now it was mostly destroyed, in ruins, barely recognizable minor some buildings still standing but still in poor shape all thanks to an attack from none other than Eggman. And despite the structures were there all the people that should have been here were also gone all because of a random dude who showed up at the right time with a twisted sense of justice.
And it was now the destination point for half of the Chaotix… and Sonic, the Sonic from another dimension that was exploring this place for the first time was also leading the "mission" with Knuckles giving advice or tourism if needed. The main problem with this was that pretty much no one there had any clue what to do or where to go, Espio, Vector and Mighty were there to follow and assist in whatever Sonic had in mind, Knuckles was more like guiding the hedgehog and being apathetic about the situation.
And then there was Sonic who was yet to figure out what to say, he wasn't definitely a leader.
"Heh, can't you guys lend me a hand on this?" Sonic asked to Espio refering to the detective aspect but the chameleon looked to his teammates with a sign of concern.
"Do we tell him?" Mighty asked with the other two quickly agreeing "Yeah, um, Sonic, we're not technically detectives you see…"
"Our last adventure may have been the closest we've done to actual detective-ness," added Vector "I don't know if that's how you know us in your dimension".
And just like that whatever idea he had in mind was thrown right overboard now standing there thinking on something else creating a very long and awkward silence making the echidna very inpatient… Maybe too inpatient to the point where he just violently brushed them off and walked away clearly showing his rage despite not facing them.
"I can go with Sonic guys," stated Mighty "You just…" he trailed off walking away taking Sonic with him leaving the obvious task to the other two who slowly followed Knuckles without getting too close to him.
The armadillo carried off the hedgehog with the two of them being very awfully quiet on their way into a building.
"I can't help but notice that you look a lot like me," Sonic stated very casually once they were inside "Like a-"
"What are you doing?" Mighty suddenly asked taking the hedgehog by surprise making him repeat the question "What are you doing? Why are we all here? You're apparently from another dimension and the first thing you"" want to do is to come to places you've never been in and helping a situation you've never heard of".
"And..?" Sonic asked confirmation of his question.
"What are you doing?"
Sonic began to think on it while placing his hands behind his head on a resting position.
"Well… Just helping one of my buddies… with something it looks like a big problem".
"It looks like? You don't even look like you care, you act so relaxed and treat this as if it was something casual… Even your position shows disinterest".
Sonic noticed this and immediately dropped it with an embarrassed smile. Mighty then placed one hand on his shoulder now going for a more approachable tone.
"Sonic, you're… Sonic and it looks like you're still willing to help even across dimensions but, detective or not detective, you can't track this, you may not have them in your world but that's how the Warp Ring works".
"Heh, You think I can leave my boy Knuckles like that? Ain't happening 'Dillo, maybe there's a way we're missing".
Mighty looked at him sighing but also with a smile, it was as if this Sonic was no different from the one they knew, same determination just expressed with some slight differences.
"So? What's next?"
"I would like to talk with Knux first".
Meanwhile when Knuckles left the group, he knew he was going to get followed so the first step was to immediately try and find an area where he could be alone for a moment, luckily, he reached one of the many docks of the now empty city sitting "peacefully" at the end of it and simply gazing into the horizon… remembering.
Remembering that last transmission he received from Julie-Su. She simply asked if Knuckles needed assistance on his way to Albion where a call for help was heard, he called Julie to inform her about this and she offered to go but Knuckles just refused, it was nothing, whatever it was it was certainly something he could handle and Julie-Su was at the moment guarding the Master Emerald, there was no need for her to come. It was only that one small decision that caused a major consequence. How was this fair? A few weeks ago when he was corrupted into becoming Enerjak his father had to give out his own life in order to bring him back to light and now his girlfriend was also gone just because he underestimated the situation. Why did the most important people in his life have to go away just because of something he did or didn't do?
Espio told him that it wasn't his fault but yet that just wasn't enough.
And now there was this Sonic, a random, out-of-nowhere, from another dimension that suddenly wanted to help him in this practically impossible task with such a carelessness and sort of apathy that it made him wonder more about him. How exactly was his dimension? He also said he has experience with dimension-hopping but he said that as if it was enough. And how did he suddenly land in Angel Island with no previous warning? Knuckles didn't cared about any of this before because the offer Sonic made sounded very appealing but now that feeling was gone, Sonic didn't care about this at all and he showed it.
Espio and Vector did spotted Knuckles on the dock but after considering it for even a second and looking at each other, they simply backed off, not because they didn't wanted to but because Knuckles just refused to listen during this state letting him cool down was eventually the best thing…
Unknowing to any of the heroes that were at the place, there was yet another individual roaming in Albion, an unwelcome and unlikely individual to be more precise and was also damaged… not hurt, damaged and seemingly struggling to get on his feet. Metal Sonic had landed in Albion and based on some other experiences we've seen, those that were at the Death Egg at the beginning of all of this had some sort of migraine so it wasn't much of a surprise for a robot to come out busted. His some-what damaged scanners picked up the signal of his number one enemy being in the same place, his fighting instincts kicked in and despite the damage he sustained going after Sonic the Hedgehog sounded like a much better price.
Not that he was any ready to fight but what matters now is that Metal Sonic is roaming in Albion where six people were currently running around unsure of what to do.
Our efficient crew in the Sky Patrol was also dealing with their own issues.
When Archie and Boom Tails touched in the slightest, a zap of electricity-like energy surged from it, the pain of it was measured on how long they lasted, Tails tried to prove something by gently tapping on one of the Tails –Boom to be precise- and also receive that same bolt meaning that whatever that was it was affecting all three Tails, now that they had that info it was only a matter of the two Sonics did it with the exact same results… with Boom Sonic getting a chuckle out of it causing him to do it again just for the laughs.
"Can you not-?" Archie complained accidentally touching Boom's hand in an attempt to shrug him off causing yet another chuckle from Boom. This was not going to be fun.
During these little experiments Nicole –outside the computer- tried to analyse what exactly was this surprising reaction and the fact that it only affected the counterparts was no coincidence either, she imagined that figuring out this would take some time but apparently it was rather a very simple process, as simple as taking a quite 'deep' scan the moment two of them touched to find out the peculiar way the body reacted.
It wasn't just your common electricity bolt, that's how it felt but not what it was. Far from it. An electric zap is, as everyone knows, a shock of electricity through your body but here, every time two same beings even remotely tapped each other…
"Do you know how people say you should not meet or touch your past or future-self?" asked Nicole beginning to explain it "And Tails explained how we all were brought by them… I suppose that something came wrong in the time-space co-"
"Can't you go to the point?" Boom Sonic asked with annoyance "If you say too much I won't pay attention".
"I think what Nicole says is that something went wrong when we came here," finished Archie Tails kinda bothered by Boom's reaction "But… still, why is that happening?"
"Fine, to put it simple… The pain you feel are your atoms breaking apart" Nicole answered straight to it with arms behind her back in such a casual manner that everyone was caught off-guard.
"What does that mean?" asked Sally.
"As I was saying-" the lynx proceeded hiding her discomfort with the interruption "And as Tails said, things didn't happen the way they were intended to, the portals that brought us here pulled out of our dimensions by force and our bodies aren't used to that type of thing so it's no surprise that this is happening,".
"But this hasn't happened before!" protested Tails "We've been through other dimensions… and other dimensions have come to us- Why would it happen?"
"It's just a hypothesis Tails," Nicole assured him "There may be more we don't know but… It's better for the doubles to not get too close, if the atoms keep falling apart then it'll probably…"
"-Reach a point where we'll… d-disappear?" Boom Tails completed the phrase finding a something that replaced the word 'die'.
"I think we can leave it where you guys can't go near one another" Sally intervened to pretty much close the conversation. They've had their answer and what to do, this type of thoughts were definitely not helpful when they were going to execute a very carefully-thought plan.
"Looks like you'll have to keep your distance" Archie Sonic mocked Boom.
"And looks like the only thing I'll need to do if you do something is to tap you" Boom cockily replied.
Sally gave Archie a stare that matches that of a mom with anger at her son disappointed on the choice of words.
"Not helping" she whispered.
Suddenly, another headache attacked her once again, it took a while, she even thought that wasn't a concern anymore but yet it returned, in public, and this time it was different, this time it was more than just a headache. It was painful throughout her whole body and for barely a second she saw some type of visions or memories where she saw herself destroying and terrorizing innocent villagers and… her friends? It was so quick that focusing on the pictures and making sense out of them was hard.
"Sally!" Nicole cried out trying to help her.
"What was that?" Boom Sonic asked.
"It's nothing," Sally replied "I'm… I'm fine, is probably this dimension".
She brushed it off casually but everyone else didn't, whether it was weird or worrisome. Sonic especially who had a concerned look to all of this despite seconds ago being as cocky as usual.
"Hey Tails," he said "We'll go home once we finish this mission, right?"
Tails lowered his head but he agreed with it, he didn't knew why any of this was happening but it definitely wasn't what they expected to happen but of course, voluntarily or not, hurting another set of Freedom Fighters was not something anyone would want
After Sonic and Mighty finished their discussion, they head off to find follow Espio and Vector into finding Knuckles like he previously stated and after a few seconds of wandering through the Albion ruins he found the two Chaotix members just hanging around next to a building like forty meters away from Knuckles seemingly talking about something.
"What happened?" asked Sonic "Where's Knux?"
"He's still at the dock" Espio clarified pointing at it.
"Are you sure you don't wanna wait here pal?" added Vector "He doesn't seems to like you that much".
"No one does it the first time around" the hedgehog replied cockily which again wasn't that helpful.
However, Sonic was ready to approach to Knuckles and maybe cheer him up something in the distance was heard, a sound of rocket on the distance becoming louder and louder causing everyone to entirely pay attention to it. And then from nowhere the figure of Metal Sonic slowly came flying straight into scene until he reached his main target grabbing Sonic by the neck without any warning continuing his flying getting further away from the main group with Sonic trying to process the situation.
Unfortunately this little flight was brought down by Metal's boosters which -expectedly- failed causing the two of them to stumbled badly into the ground thanks to the inertia they brought with themselves.
Sonic managed to get up quickly get up while the Chaotix were catching up to him.
"Looks like this inhabited town isn't as inhabited as we thought," he muttered to himself smiling "Hey! I don't know who you are and why you're here but whatever happens… just keep in mind you started it k?"
And we'll leave it right here. Sorry for the delay but many things have happened irl –and for the good part- which slowed it down… For now, I'll try to keep up, as for the moment… We got more info on a few things and on the next chapter we'll check in on some of the other events we've set up
See you soon!