Always glad to see you again! Enjoy the chapter.

Pacing and pacing. That's the only thing Archie Sonic could do back in the Sky Patrol at the moment.

The two Nicole's, after discussing between them, had decided to make a short switch. One of them would check up on the Secret Freedom Fighters and the other would stay to try and help repair the ship with her nanites –without a physical form-. This didn't mean that it would be easy for Prime Nicole, it's not like these nanites magically come out of her body, and the Sky Patrol wasn't made of nanites either, it was made out of metal like any other ship.

So right now, she wanted to see if she could help, the same way her counterpart was going to see if she could help on that side.

And despite everyone was helping, Sonic wasn't the kind of guy that would help in the construction. Just tell him when the construction's ready and he would take care of his part in the job. The other one who also wasn't helping in the repairs was Amy, who was at the moment tending to Tom's wounds, yes, during the whole attack to the Sky Patrol, it was Tom who came out pretty damaged out of it.

And by pretty damaged I mean just his right arm, luckily nothing else, but still enough. Amy had already covered the arm with bandages and insisted for him to rest for the moment.

"As I said -ow-, not good with robots," he said trying to cheer up the conversation "And maybe I should have used the little gift you said".

"Huh?" Amy wondered.

Tom pulled out the ring bag he had been carrying and showed it to Amy who wasn't shocked but rather puzzled about it.

"Rings?"

"Yeah, those… those are rings".

"Wait, what can these rings do in your universe?"

"Um, you throw it and a portal opens to the place you wanna go… that's it".

"It doesn't provide energy?"

"Not that I know of, wouldn't be surprised if it does" he replied with a light smile.

-X-

"Hey Sonic- Archie, can I ask you a question?" asked Boom Tails.

"Sure thing" Archie allowed.

"What has been the biggest thing you've guys fought?"

"Um… well I had to defeat a deity that lived inside the earth with the help of a good deity that, well, also lives inside the earth. What about you?"

The fox's reaction was clear that that wasn't the response he expected.

"People are living below the earth?"

"Eh, it's a simplification but pretty much".

"Well… we fought a giant snake once".

"Huh, that sounds neat".

"But it doesn't sound as cool as what you did".

"It doesn't matter if it's 'cool' or not, all you have to care is if it's fun… you've had fun adventures right?"

Boom Tails stopped to think about it for a minute.

"Well, I don't think that's an adventure," he said to himself loudly "Or that one… oh, I got it-!"

He stopped himself once he noticed that the hedgehog was not feeling well, Sonic seemed that he had a stomach ache; and a painful one at that, holding his belly and even grunting, after a few seconds, he began to slowly calm down gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" the fox asked.

"I… I'll listen to your stories later" he walked out leaving Tails confused as to what happened, he decided to find a space so he could be alone with his thoughts… Because that feeling wasn't anything new to him and it wasn't a pretty memory either, in fact, it scared him, because the first time it happened he dismissed it not paying enough attention but now that he knew what would happen it was even worse.

He would talk about this with Sally but she wasn't there and he didn't want to worry his Tails or the Tails from this dimension so his next choice was Amy who after a quick explanation wasn't happy either about the situation.

"What do you mean?" she asked "I thought that was over after we defeated Dark Gaia".

"Yeah, that makes two of us… I don't even know if this world has a Dark Gaia".

"Shouldn't we discuss it with the main Tails?"

Sonic made a facial gesture that Amy understood that he wasn't digging that idea.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"You know what happened the last time you kept this hidden?"

"Yeah but… I learned to control it!"

"Sonic, if this is happening again, it's happening for a reason, we're telling the others before it escalates".

Sonic agreed. It was for the best after all because not even he knew what had happened, he knew what could happen and this time, he was going to receive help before it was too late. The two of them explained the situation to the group with Boom Tails being their witness. But of course, if they wanted to explain everything to Prime Tails then they would have to also share some context for it.

"You turned into a what?!" said Boom Tails in shock.

"It was nothing special, just me but bigger" Sonic explained.

"And with claws," Amy added, "And spiky shoes, and with elastic arms… and fluffier-".

"Okay, okay, whatever, but it was still just me but with some extra muscles".

"But that was supposed to be gone with Dark Gaia!" exclaimed Archie Tails.

"Yes, I'm aware," Sonic said.

"I don't think we have anything like that…" Prime Tails explained "Or at least we haven't faced against anything remotely similar to what you've said. But I don't think I know why that could be happening… do you think it has something to do with the dimensions?"

"Um… maybe?" said Amy "I guess that's why we decided to share it".

Tails stopped to think for a second and headed for the main computer.

"Nicole, are you there?" he said but there was no response "Nicole?"

After a few seconds, Nicole showed but not the Nicole the fox was looking for.

"She can't respond at the moment, Tails, there is an ongoing attack by Eggman".

Tails wasn't prepared for this right now.

"What?"

Secret HQ

"Um, King?" called out Tangle looking at a hologram of New Mobotropolis "We have a situation here…"

"What the- is that the Death Egg?" asked Elias

"He's back again?" asked Larry "It hasn't been that long since the last time has it?"

"If that's the case then I'd say he has something new" commented Harvey.

"Do we go like before?" asked Leeta.

"Well, this time we're eight so it might be difficult to stay hidden," said Elias making Tangle try to hide her excitement knowing that there was officially an eighth member… And it took a minute for Elias to realize that there was one missing member who was out of commission at the moment and that that brought down the roster back to seven "Yes, we're doing it like last time".

-X-

"What? I thought it was refueling" Prime and Sonic were on the outsides of the city watching the giant ship getting closer and closer.

"Apparently it isn't anymore," added his partner "I don't even need to ask what it is, eyes and mustache, some things never change, eh?"

"And he's heading straight for the city…"

"Well, I'm assuming you give him enough headache on your own, two of us will give him the same amount if not enough. I've been in this situation before".

"And it's moving faster than what I remember…"

"Nothing we can't outrun".

Prime knew that the ship was heading for the city so the best move was to use that little advantage and he immediately dashed off into the city followed by Sonic. Prime noticed Rotor out in the open.

"Hey, Sonic!" Rotor called out first but Prime turned down the friendly introduction.

"Rotor, Eggman's coming," he said quite straightforward.

"What?"

"I don't know how, but the Death Egg is already seconds away from reaching the city, where's Team Freedom?"

"Should be around the city, I'll go gather them".

"Alright, Sonic… are you familiar with the Tornado?" Prime stated with Sonic replying with a grin.

While they were talking they noticed a large shadow begin to cover the surroundings and that's when they saw that the Death Egg had already arrived. Prime knew Tails wasn't here so if he wished to get to the ship above then he was going to have to fly the Tornado himself, not that that was a problem in any way of course… For any of the two Sonics that is, in fact, they decided that Sonic would pilot it while Prime would go on one of the wings of the biplane.

"Where are you going to enter from?"

"I'll make an entrance".

"Heh, I like it".

The Death Egg was pretty stationary which only added to the dread of the situation; many citizens were already outside simply waiting in anticipation –negative anticipation- for an attack to happen.

When Sally managed to wake up, she was strapped to a table in a really small and poorly illuminated room only lighted by like two bulbs and a bunch of screens, she tried to look around with her limited head movement to see exactly what kind of room she was in, and there wasn't anything that gave away what was going on. Nothing except a dark figure slowly emerging from the shadows, that figure being none other than Mecha Sally.

The robot walked past her and straight to the computers as if she wasn't there, however, Sally wanted to first say something to catch her attention.

"Hey there, what are you doing?"

Mecha Sally simply ignored her.

"Who are you? Are you Sally?"

That was a better question; she could see that the robot made a small pause –and maybe if she was organic she would have made a small breath-, however, she resumed her unknown task.

"You can say no if you want" she replied with a hint of sympathy.

And that was the best question, good enough to make her turn around and face her, with a stare that could kill anybody. Slowly approaching and holding Sally by the neck in an instant.

"I am Mecha Sally; you are nothing but an inferior version".

"So, -[ghk]-, you are Sally?" she said struggling "You're in there, are you?"

Mecha released her; she wasn't the first one to ask that question and she wasn't bothered to answer it so she instead decided to continue to ignore her.

"What about Nicole? Bunnie?"

Again, questions fell on deaf ears, which caused a sense of anger and sympathy on Sally.

"I guess you're truly lost in there… Eggman definitely has you… don't worry, we're going to-".

"I don't need saving," Mecha replied fully expecting that statement "You will understand in time".

Sally had, at this point, guessed what Mecha Sally was doing, but that last line definitely confirmed what the goal was here: It was robotization.

Hey there fellas! Another short chapter, I've been busy with the **academic** side but I'm still working on everything! My mind is flowing with ideas in regards to this story and I need time to arrange them properly so it's all good :D Also, also, I thought this was a good point to tend the chapter.

See you soon!