Chapter 27
After running for a bit in the level of Windmill Isle, we eventually found the town we wanted, it being the lovely Apotos, which looked very pretty in real-life appearance. And the different people looked oddly similar in style to their in-game appearance, only with more realism to them.
"Ugh, look at the Emeralds. We're gonna need to find some way to get them back to what they were previously... I mean, what if something happens to Chaos?" Sonic asked, me gawking at that. Chaos... I really needed to check in with her and Tikal, but I couldn't do it with the Emeralds right now... so that meant I had to go for the rings on my person. I then focused with the one of dreams and connected my mind to Tikal's, me speaking to her with the ring.
"Tikal? I need to tell you something very important," I said, her sighing at me.
"I know already... I was watching along with Chaos the whole time from afar," she said, me gasping at that. "I'm not even going to bother asking you how you knew so much, but I can only suspect it has something to do with you being from the far past," she said, me sighing at that.
"I'll explain later, but I have a more important question. Is Chaos completely okay? Because Eggman broke the world apart and the Emeralds are without any power at all," I said, her sighing at me.
"She's uh... without the emeralds' powers, she's reverted into what she was before she gained them, her original Chao form," she said grimly, me being upset that my fears were confirmed to be true. "The only way to get her back to normal is to get at least one emerald back to how it was prior, but it's very difficult for me to find out when I can't use their... wait... how are you commuting with me from such a far distance?" Tikal asked, me smirking at her.
"That's something that must be kept secret, ESPECIALLY from Eggman. I have these 7 powerful rings that came from Shahra's world. Their strength is able to rival even the Master Emerald for just one of them, and also something called a Phantom Ruby," I said, her being shocked at that.
"Phantom Ruby?... You mean Vectron, right?" she asked, me being confused... but then I remembered. That was the original name of the Phantom Ruby during development.
"Yes, that," I said.
"It's supposedly an ancient gem that absolutely no one must know the location of... my tribe has one hidden away at the deepest parts of the Mystic Ruins, but it's surprisingly well-hidden. It will only emerge to the one that it senses has great potential for something to happen to them in the near future..." she said, me now knowing why Eggman had one. The prequel comics for the game Sonic Forces definitely depicted him seeing his future paradise. But I had to hope that she could secure its location further from Eggman.
"Tikal, trust me on this. I can tell you that in the very far future, one of these Vectron stones reveals itself to Eggman. So for the sake of keeping the world safe, I ask that you get some protection for the Mystic Ruins. If Eggman finds out about a piece of Vectron there too early, then the world would be his to freely rule," I said, her frowning at me.
"He was right. You know a lot, way more than anyone would... but as I said, I'll ask the question at a later date... for now, focus on trying to find out how to get the Emeralds back to what they were prior," she said, me nodding. I then ended the sequence after saying good luck and bye to see that the others in my group were getting some stuff done in the town, with Sonic and Light Gaia getting some ice cream from the ice cream man while Amy was trying on some new clothes in the clothing store. And Cosmo was simply asking around to see if anyone happened to know of a way off the place, which I overheard a citizen (the priest) saying that the only way of transport for Apotos was land or sea, since they didn't have planes. Though she was more than happy to get some clothes from Amy, since she and her were the same height during the three year break.
As for why my clothes didn't rip? I'd prepared for the instance and got some stretchable, armored clothing, courtesy of Commander Topaz and Agent Rouge. When asked why I'd need them, I said that it was in case I wanted to ask Tails to make a growth/shrink ray. It was a complete lie, through and through. I only asked them to give me the clothes so I wouldn't be without them during the moments I transform, as I had a feeling it would happen. But the event was pretty painful to experience.
"Mm... this chip whatever stuff tastes great!" Light Gaia smirked as I simply smiled at him.
"Well, when we get some food in our systems, I suggest we get to finding out how to escape this continent and try to find out how to start putting the planet back together," I suggested.
"And what do you mean by find out how to do it?" Amy asked with a frown, still upset at how I hid stuff from her.
"I mean that I know the areas we have to get to, but I do not know their locations on this world at all. Bear in mind, it's 6 thousand years plus ahead of my own timeline. So I don't know if this is even the former grounds of Spain, England, Germany, or Portugal from looks alone," I admitted, her sighing at that.
"I see... so what we need to do is find a mode of transport out of this place as well as a guide to let us know where to find the places to fix the planet," Amy said, me nodding at her.
"But for now, the only thing we can do is find out where our mode of transport could come from. With the planet broken into pieces, the only mode of feasible transport would be one of three options. One, get Silver to our location so he can fly us over with his psychic powers. Two, get Tails to assist with his plane, or three, get GUN's permission to have a flying craft delivered to us for use," I said, Amy frowning at that.
"Well, Silver's weird and I have mixed thoughts on GUN ever since the whole ARK fiasco was made public, so where's Tails?" Amy asked as I then sensed for him, seeing that Tails was actually in Apotos, but on the other side of town. And he looked to be surrounded by Eggman robots on all sides!
"I sense that Tails issue north by 2 kilometers, but he's getting into a scrape with some of Eggman's toys! So let's go smash them to bits!" I smirked.
"Heck yeah! I'm always game for breaking Eggman's toys! Coming along, Chip?" Sonic smirked, the little nymph looking confused at the name.
"Chip?" he asked in confusion.
"Less of a mouthful to say than Light Gaia, right? Chip rolls off the tongue way better," I smiled, him chuckling at that.
"Yeah, you're right! I guess I could have the nickname Chip! At least until we can finish off Dark Gaia and defeat whoever this Eggman guy is!" he smirked.
"Oh, he's certainly a guy, that's for sure. A guy that I really want to kick in the teeth," I frowned as we then rushed down the path and eventually found Tails at the end, who looked like he was getting pretty banged up by the robots, Sonic and our group rushing in and helping to stop the assault along with Amy using her hammer to smash the heads clean off the robots!
"Whew! That was a close shave! You okay, Tails?" Sonic asked, Tails looking at our group before smiling.
"Yeah, I'm fine... ya could've come at a faster time, though. I've been fighting them off for nearly 10 minutes straight! I have no idea why, though," Tails admitted as I saw his plane wasn't nearby. But I did still sense a great and powerful force that was coming from his pocket. Yeah, pocket. Ever since Tails had started to go through puberty, he opted to wear pants with a hole big enough for both of his tails in the back. Why? Because of something that happened to Mobians during puberty, especially males.
"You're getting a bit excited again, Tails," I said, him then frowning at me. Yeah, when Mobians got into puberty, they started to have their genitalia show much more often and out of nowhere, and Tails was out and hard right now, being hidden by the pants.
"You know I'm still reluctant to talk with you ever since the Mistress C incident, right?" he frowned, me sighing at him.
"I understand that I fucked up, but I've saved the world not on, not two, but four times over since then, one of them being back 4 thousand years ago because of my ancestor taking me back in time," I said, him looking confused at what I said. "Yeah, try and figure that one out with that smart head of yours... on second thought, think of something else, because we need to find out how to get the world back to normal after Eggman basically broke it to pieces," I said, him frowning and nodding.
"I think I can handle getting us to someone who would be more knowledgeable on the subject. His lab's located in Spagonia University," he smirked.
"Spagonia? Peh, an easy jog if the planet wasn't broken!" Sonic frowned.
"Don't worry, because I've gotten my Tornado upgraded to the best it's ever been!" he smirked as he then brought out a small folded cube before then pushing a button. And afterwards, the cube unfolded to reveal that it was actually a completely folded up version of the Tornado! And this one had a golden paint with Tails's signature tails as a decal and it being powered by something completely surpassing the Chaos Emeralds in strength!
"Is that a Super Emerald?! Where'd ya find that at, Tails?" Amy asked with intrigue.
"I found it when I was doing a research assignment with GUN. They found it when they were giving Rouge a mission to infiltrate a stronghold held by a group called the Jackal Squad. She managed to defeat them effortlessly before getting the Super Emerald from the base," Tails explained, me being very concerned at that. Jackal Squad... and Rouge had defeated them? I then had to use the power of the dream ring again just to see what happened from Rouge's thoughts. And after melding our brains, I then saw what she saw in that instance. The head of the Jackal Squad was named Zero and he had been defeated first as opposed to last, and Rouge said nothing to them, just telling them to turn tail and run, or they'd be getting a home in prison for war crimes. And Zero simply complied with no hesitation.
"What's that strange aura you have from time to time? It looks yellow, but you don't have an Emerald on you," Tails asked as I smiled at him.
"Something that I've had with me since the previous adventure. But I'd rather not say it out loud, or I risk Eggman listening into me," I said, him being confused as Sonic spoke next.
"She knew of what was going to happen next in the future, but the reason for that is even more secret. Eggman overheard her explaining it to Cosmo a bit after their wedding, and then we found out when Eggman attacked us in space before taking the emeralds from us in Super form," he explained. And Tails looked even more confused at that.
"How?"
"Let's just say that I had even more advanced tech in my timeline than you've ever seen," I said, him frowning at me.
"You mean a time machine?"
"No, more like a machine that could see far into the future. The only downside is that it could only view the events based on Sonic and only him," I said, Tails thinking for a bit before then going wide-eyed.
"Yeah... I think I know what you mean now. And yes, I think that should be secret," he said, me nodding at him. No way that Eggman would know what video games were. Tails then started up the plane and we all then boarded, as it had been extended to be a larger seating than the previous models. And shortly after, we were off in the skies flying over the broken planet!
"This feels great! I've never been in an open-seated plane before!" I smiled widely in excitement at the feeling.
"I could say the same thing!" Chip smirked widely at the feeling, needing to hold onto my arm so he could keep up with his tiny wings.
"It's been too long since I've been this high in the sky as well, not counting going Super! A great excuse to see the world, while also saving it! It's like a vacation and a mission at the same time!" Amy smiled in glee, her having changed her attired to a more black and blue dress with a black and white ribbon in her hair. But I did have to ask her a question.
"You made sure that this dress wouldn't break on you like before, right, Amy?" I asked, her frowning at me.
I made sure it was one size bigger than before, so yes," she smirked at me. And it was then that Cosmo spoke, her being very quiet since landing in Apotos.
"I can sense numerous small machines popping up from the ground. I think Eggman is hoping to wreck our cruise," Cosmo said with a frown.
"No problem for the Tornado Mark 3! Battle mode engaging!" Tails smirked as he pushed a button and the only part of the plane to change was that my seat specifically rose up and the seat gained a duo of wings. And after the thrusters turned on, we then flew faster as I then saw the robots appear. And each of them were the same as in the game, me proceeding to attack them with the gun and managing to get a perfect run the whole way through! And after 15 minutes of flight and fight, we then got the big guy coming in, it being piloted by none other than Eggman and two different robot lackeys.
"Hey-hey! Look at those two shapely robots!" Sonic joked, me smirking at how bad the joke was.
"Enough with the stupid jokes, Sonic! You're going to fall from the sky! And this time, you won't survive!" Eggman shouted as he then activated the weapons of the Egg Cauldron, me shooting at all the missiles and bombs fired from the bastard before then shooting a ton of firepower into the center, the giant robot then falling down from the sky and for Eggman and his two robots to emerge in the Egg Mobile and for them to growl.
"You will not interfere, you stupid third-breed!" Eggman shouted at me.
"See? Now you finally got it right! It only took 3 and a half years!" I shouted at him, which he responded by then shooting one more shot at me, which I then decided to show the power of the red ring, making him completely blinded as he then went out of control before firing the shot over the horizon and into the ocean!
"AUGH! Auto-Pilot! Turn on the Autopilot, Orbot!" Eggman shouted in pain. But then we heard music being played. A mixtape of Eggman singing his own theme song... it sounded awful. "That's the STEREO BUTTON! I SAID AUTOPILOT!" Eggman shouted as he then finally got the correct button pushed and I smirked at how stupid he was.
"That was funny as hell!" I smirked as we finally arrived on the outskirts of Spagonia, where Tails decided to park the Tornado 3 at the front of the area we needed to go to, that being Spagonia University of Science. He then pushed another button on the side of the Tornado 3 and the entire plane completely folded back into its cube form after all of us had disembarked.
"What would happen if someone was in this plane when it folded back up? Just out of curiosity?" Cosmo asked, Tails smiling at that.
"No worries. It will fail if it senses anything bigger in size than a dime in the machine. So that's why I make sure to never eat while flying. Oh, side note, don't ask to go to a drive-thru with this plane, because the answer is always no," Tails smirked.
"Dammit," I frowned... at the same time as Amy, us then doing Jynx shtick the whole way into the university, us managing to get up to Octuple Jinx before I won. "Hah! I won," I smirked at Amy, her sticking her tongue out at me.
"If I knew the word was Nontuple, I would've won," she smirked at me as we finally got to the professor's office, which was actually the principal's office of the place. And the assistant was there instead.
"Excuse me, sir, but we're hoping to meet with Professor Pickle. Do you know where he is?" Tails asked as he then sighed.
"Sadly, no. He was kidnapped roughly a week ago!" he said, the others being surprised, but I wasn't.
"Did you see who the kidnapper was?" I asked.
"Yeah! He had a big gut, and a giant mustache, and a whole group of robots!" he said.
"Bald head, tacky goggles, red shirt, black tights, possibly in an egg-shaped flying machine?" I asked.
"Y-Yes, exactly! He said he was going to take him back to his base, which is in Mazuri. I don't really know what might happen to him, so can I ask that you'd go rescue him?" the guy asked, me nodding at him.
"Yes, we'll do that fast!... Just one question. Do you know the exact location of Mazuri?" I asked, him nodding.
"It's right here," he said, pointing out that it was actually where the former country of Egypt was, right in its capital. "Be careful, okay? He's sure to have it heavily fortified! He kidnapped him because of something called the Gaia Manuscripts," the assistant said, me smirking at that.
"May I get your name before we head off?" I asked.
"I'm his assistant, Larry Cucumber," he said, me then doing a guffaw out of nowhere because of the absolute absurd name!
"What was that for?" Sonic asked in confusion.
"Hehe... back where I'm from, that was the name of the best character on a show called Veggietales... where vegetables could talk and taught about Christianity," I explained.
"Sounds stupid," Amy smiled.
"Well, he had a whole segment for the show called Silly Songs with Larry, so there is some truth to that. But it's sure as heck funny and relatable. Watched it all the time growing up," I smiled.
"I think we have a video of this show somewhere in the archives... if you can save Pickle, I'll give it to you," he said, me then feeling the slots going in my head before my eyes turned into lucky 7s!
"Jackpot! Let's go right away!" I smiled widely.
"I sure hope he's okay! If I were trapped for that long without any food, I don't know how long I'd last! I'd rather be dead!" Chip said in shock before then just playing dead, no ghost joke at all.
"I'm sure Eggman's feeding him. He isn't cruel enough to keep prisoners starved... when I was captured years ago by him and Metal Sonic, he did keep me fed, but it was salad, which I hate," she frowned.
"Bleck, agreed on that much, Rosy," I said, her then looking at me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
"How'd you know that was my... y'know what, never mind, already got the reason," she said with an annoyed smile as we then proceeded off to the outside, Tails then starting up the Tornado 3 and us then rushing off to the distance. We had a destination, and we could probably do a bit extra when we got there! Maybe we could get the first temple finished up with ease while saving Professor Pickle? I then decided to give an idea to my group specifically, using the dreams ring to speak to them.
"Guys, I'm going to say this much to you. Not only is Mazuri the location of Professor Pickle, but it's also the location for the first temple that we need to visit in order to restore power to the Chaos Emeralds. It can only work one at a time and only Chip's powers can help us do so... so, when we get there, we'll split up. I'll go with Chip and Amy to the temple while Tails, Sonic, and Cosmo go for Professor Pickle," I said.
"Got it," they said with their mouths... before we saw the sun set in the distance. And when that happened, all of our bodies became imbued with the darkness again, our bodies growing, and Tails being surprised at the sudden extra weight.
"Whoa! What's going on with you guys?" he asked, keeping a cool head, as I expected.
"When Eggman used the Chaos Emeralds to break the world into pieces, we turned into these forms. We basically became imbued with the powers of Dark Gaia itself. But even then, we aren't going crazy or evil. My guess, because each of us have a sense of resolve or willpower to prevent us from going crazy," I said, Chip gawking at that.
"I think I'm remembering something... I think I can remember that Dark Gaia's powers can strengthen anyone who can withstand it... but for those who don't, they basically become possessed with darkness... almost as if they become a negative personality of who they were before," Chip frowned, as I saw he was holding his fingers to his head.
"And the only cure for that is to flash the possessed people with light, such as a flash camera or a bright flashlight in their face," I explained.
"Wow, this adventure is already getting a bit too convoluted," Sonic admitted.
"That's how it always is when it comes to this stuff," I admitted.
"Hmm... y'know what? She's absolutely right," Amy giggled.