Hi everybody, we pick up exactly where we left off from!
New Mobotropolis, that's how the fox called it, for Wachowski, it felt like a name he would see in a comic book, he announced that he would walk around for a little bit, just to see the nearby surrounding area… That didn't exactly fall through as he did end up wandering more than he was expecting to and thanks to the night, there was no one around that would bother him giving the perfect sense of tranquility that this sightseeing required. The existence of this city gave him a lot of questions like who built this? How big is it? What was that big building in the middle of it? It certainly looked important.
And through this stroll, he came across a large area where small huts were located, quickly assuming that they were houses, like a small neighborhood, but what really caught his eye was the mail post in one of them. It was modeled after the head of Sonic himself along with the respective paint job, taking a closer look due to his curiosity he stumbled upon something way more captivating.
"You!" there was it, that one robot and the first being he had met in this new dimension, and how could he forget her?
When he woke up the first thing he felt was cold, an extremely harsh cold, one that he wasn't really prepared for, he was in the freezing north completely alone, dazed and confused running around trying to get somewhere and leaving the biome in a desperate attempt that only caused another of his electric bursts, this forced him to take shelter in whatever rock formation that was convenient to take a breather hoping that someone would eventually show up and after what felt like hours, someone did show up, a brown and blue robot with a menacing aura that he was accepting of because of how long he had waited.
Not a good outcome, this robot was not interested in a conversation, instead, it yanked him and took him from the freezing snow into the gray insides of some ship… In hindsight, the fact that he went along with this version of Eggman was kinda embarrassing… Now he was standing once again in front of that same robot again with a new sense of perspective. The robot that threw him into a containment machine to be used as a battery.
But next to it? The lynx with the purple cloth that he had also met back when he was accomplishing Eggman's little mission. She had been very kind and helpful regardless of how confused the two of them were with the situation and now the two were together.
"-And you…" he said after spotting the lynx, his stare returning to the robot and his confusion slowly turned into anger.
"Sonic," the lynx called out, getting his attention "Hello again".
"What is that doing here?" he replied, referring to the robot.
"Sonic… Sally-" she was ready to explain it but Sally stopped with a hand on her shoulder.
"Nicole," with a look, Sally indicated that she wanted to handle this, she began to approach Sonic which only caused him to take a few steps back with distrust and fear making her stop "I'm sorry," she said with her head low.
"Sorry? What do you mean?" his distrust slowly went to suspicion.
"What I did to you- what you went through-".
"You were working for Eggman…" he said, trying to piece it together.
"I know, and I know that I hurt you. I wouldn't… I don't blame you if you can't trust me but I am sorry".
The behavior shown by the robot was curious and her apology made Sonic stop to think for a second trying to make sense of the situation.
"I take it you've never met a Sally in your world," Nicole asked with the hedgehog shaking his head "It was Eggman who turned her into this… She isn't evil, she isn't even a robot".
Oh.
That was one heavy piece of information that the hedgehog was not prepared for, it cleared up a lot of things for sure and it put everything into another new perspective but at the same time… Eggman did this? The Eggman he faced in his world looked like any mad scientist with drones and eggs that would do anything he commanded to, and it wasn't any shock that an alternate dimension looked 'cooler' than his, he basically expected it due to all the media he usually consumed. But "she isn't even a robot" was what truly made him think of what the Eggman in this world was capable of and to what lengths he could go. He did have first-hand experience in it as well.
"I'm so sorry" was all he could say.
"It's alright" the chipmunk replied.
The mention of Eggman reminded him of what he had witnessed minutes ago, his ship flying around going somewhere before he had gotten sidetracked.
"We didn't beat him," said Sonic, catching the attention of the two of them "Eggman is still around".
"Or he never left," a fourth voice spoke up, they all turned to see that it was, –shocker– another of the Sonics, X to be precise. Just as Wachowski did, he had also gone to do some sightseeing, although he was only now catching up to the same sonic-shaped sign that had caught his interest as well as Sally and Nicole "I know Eggman, every time he disappears for a while it's because he's coming back bigger than the last time… announcing the glorious return of course".
Nicole and Sally looked at each other realizing that it wasn't too far-fetched.
"You're not… another Eggman assistant, are you?" X said again, with Wachowski sending him a disapproving look.
"Her name is…" the hedgehog said, trailing off to remember.
"Sally".
"-Eggman turned her into a robot!" he said, showing that he understood the situation; it was a small explanation but it was more than enough for X to understand it making him pause for a bit after this revelation.
"You know where Eggman is?" Nicole asked, steering the conversation away from that topic.
"Yeah, he was… flying… somewhere" Wachowski explained.
"The Death Egg" Sally muttered to herself with X looking confused at the name.
"The ship? But we destroyed it!" Wachowski inquired.
"Hardly," added Sally "A ship that size doesn't go out that easily. Your actions only depowered it causing it to go down, the remains are just outside the city and if you say he's back then it's because he's got something there that he needs".
Prime pulled Archie aside away from everyone, he understood that this Sonic was the one who brought with him the other Freedom Fighters which meant that the Metal Sally that he had left behind was probably of that dimension as well.
"So, you do know who the Freedom Fighters are," Prime asked-confirmed.
"Yeah, Sally, Rotor, Antoine, Bunnie- your Tails told us everything about what happened, we've been helping since we got here!"
Prime laid a faint smile.
"Yeah, you've helped" a sharp pain struck Archie with his arm showing some weird purple smoke effects that quickly vanished.
"Don't worry about it," he said after seeing Prime's worried face "We're not leaving until your Sally is safe… but I also have to make sure my Sally is. She, Antoine, and Bunnie got split up in the Death Egg".
This led to a deep silence between the two hedgehogs with Prime looking down in his thoughts that made Archie worry for a second, wondering what exactly he was thinking about.
"Follow me"
As they walked away, the three remaining hedgehogs watched them go wondering where exactly they were going and if they needed to follow as well which didn't look like it.
"It's about Sally if you ask me," Archie Tails asked, still admiring the little plane workshop they were in.
"Yeah, Sally," Boom interjected, quickly remembering her "I've never met any Sally in my world, you guys have anyone named Sally-?"
The two hedgehogs shook their heads, Boom continued.
"Hm, yeah… is this Sally a friend or..?" Boom's curiosity for this question had been in preparation ever since the context of the situation-mission was explained by Prime Tails all the way back when they had just arrived in this world. Sally this, Sally that, he was going to fight a robot and that's all that he needed to know, but he had just met another Sonic that had a history with this Sally when it didn't look like she was that popular with other versions of Sonic, so now he really had to know if it was something more. The two Tails gladly answered his question almost at the exact same time.
"Heh, not really".
"Like you wouldn't imagine".
The two foxes looked at each other in confusion and the three hedgehogs joined the awkward stares.
"Wait, your Sonic doesn't-?"
"No? He's… never been that kind of that guy, you know" Archie Tails explained, still taken back by the information.
"I would argue the opposite".
"So, this Sally…" Main Sonic pointed out "You're saying it's his-?" he trailed off not finishing that sentence.
"Yeah, she's his girlfriend… I thought you already knew that?"
Boom seemed to recoil at the discussion –that he started–, Main looked at Little Sonic looking for some sort of confirmation with the latter shrugging, it wasn't the most comfortable topic to talk about after all. Boom Sonic looked at the other two hedgehogs walking away and now his curiosity had only increased.
"You seem to be a peculiar person, Sticks," Nicole commented while doing some research on the machine "We've never met anyone… like you," she said, trying to be polite.
"I wouldn't trust anyone that looked like, talked like me, and had the same memories as me but wasn't me," the badger replied with arms crossed "I don't know how any of you can be so comfortable with that".
"I guess it is a weird feeling if you can't analyze the situation. Apart from Princess Blaze, we didn't know that many other dimensions existed, let alone with different versions of ourselves".
"Tails had his theories, remember?" Sally joined the conversation that Sticks couldn't participate "He always said that chaos control could possibly affect space-time or something like that".
"I still can't trust you," Sticks said to the robot with the two girls rolling their eyes, it was getting exhausting "You cannot convince me that you are secretly recording everything we're doing for Eggman… or something worse".
If Sally had a mouth –or lungs, even– she would be sighing right now, Nicole on the other hand, still had unanswered questions and she wasn't interested in Sticks' ramblings.
"Sally… Did Eggman do this?" she took Sally away from Sticks' immediate bubble to avoid her getting in the way.
"What?" she replied to the suddenness of the question.
"This body, was it him?"
"I… I don't know honestly, I fought the other Sally, the one we're trying to save and I lost, horribly. The next thing I know I'm trapped in this small room with weird equipment around me and Sally in front of me talking about 'perfection' and a whole lot of things I wasn't interested in listening to".
There was a pause.
"Did it- did it hurt?" the lynx asked, she imagined that that process, however it was, involved some sort of… body alterations, to put it lightly.
Sally didn't have any expectations on how it would go when she was strapped to the table, she was scared for sure and the end result wasn't excruciatingly painful but it wasn't a harmless ride either, she could actually feel her body changing, and… yes, it did hurt, especially when the process reached her head, where hadn't it been interrupted by the attack of the Death Egg, she was certain that the final results could have been much worse if not the same to the current situation. And they had come here to save a roboticized Sally! It would be quite ironic if they ended with the same scenario.
As for Nicole's question…
"I'm fine, don't worry about me," she tried to tone it down and switched the topic "Besides, I can control my limbs, although I do wish I could actually feel them moving you know?".
Nicole knew more than anyone how that felt, sure, her body had grown into something more closely to that of an organic but her era as a little handheld device was still a large part of her 'life' and even now there were things that were harder to categorize. To express. To feel. She then gently held Sally's hand looking into the digital light blue eyes.
"I feel you".
The sudden words took the chipmunk by surprise, unsure how to react, staring back at her before looking away at the machine.
"She couldn't even do that," she had switched the topic again now thinking about her counterpart "Being trapped in your own body? I can't imagine how-…"
"Alright, I fixed it" Sticks was once again part of the scene, but this time it was definitely a welcomed interruption as she had fixed the de-roboticizer… Wait what?
"What, you weren't expecting that?" the badger said.
Honestly, I'm not surprised, nice job Sticks… Both Nicole and Sally were –also– in disbelief and weren't exactly processing it with the lynx being the first of the two to actually inspect the device to confirm what Sticks was bluffing about, Sally also looking at her wondering exactly what she did during the short period of their discussion. Nicole was scanning, Sticks looked proud about it and Sally was just anticipating any answer.
"We can give it a try…" was Nicole's response and honestly Sally didn't know what to reply to that, she instead just looked at the badger with a what-did-you-just-do stare.
"You're welcome," she said.
And now the only thing that needed to be decided was if they were actually going to 'give it a try', if it was successful, then it would truly be the end of their mission, Sally would once and for all be free of the robotic constraints and everything was going to go back to normal. The fact that it failed previously and that a random badger that was acting antagonistic against Sally had magically fixed it, gave a feeling of uneasiness to actually try it, she kept looking back and forth between the lynx and the machine as if she was searching for some sort of validation, hesitating about it.
With an impossible sigh and one nod of the head, she gave the confirmation that, yes, Sally was up to it, all that was left was boot up the thing –which wasn't hard to figure out– and Nicole was also hesitating about how this would go but they were never going to figure it out by wondering if it could or not. Now, a repeat of the previous scene was happening although in a much more peaceful manner, now, it was Sally who willingly entered the device not expecting the interior to be so dark once the main lid fully closed.
Some button pushes, some weird sound effects, and some mild anxiety all lasted for very long seconds, and as soon as these sounds stopped, their breaths were as well.
"Nicole? Can you hear me? I think you can open this now"
"She talks?!" Sticks was surprised. Nicole didn't wait a second upon hearing this, she immediately opened the lid… and the result?
Successful. The lynx couldn't believe it and Sally was still examining her body and stretching around, it had actually worked… she jumped in for a hug, carefully, to not tackle her into the ground, and boy, did it feel good to hug as a hundred-percent organic being.
"Hold up one second!" Sticks called out "Aren't you that girl that was running around with those other two guys?"
"Antoine and Bunnie? Yes! You saw us in the Death Egg?"
"That's how it's called..? Anyways, I didn't know you had a robot form" Sally shut the badger off but this time with a hug. A hug that Sticks was not prepared for at the moment.
"Thank you… truly" Sally remarked.
"Thank you for what?" there was an awkward pause "Oh, you mean that? When you spend an absurd amount of time with Tails then you learn a few things about fixing something at the most convenient moment… In this case I only half-trust you".
They were going to let that slide, there were more important things to focus on at the moment. Like, what exactly had Sticks done to this intricate piece of technology.
"We need to return to the team," said Sally.
And that's it! Thank you everyone again for the support I'm receiving, feel free to enjoy and comment, I appreciate each and every favorite i get 3. See you soon!