Chapter 31:
It made me concerned whenever I finally noticed that Metal Sonic didn't join us in going to save the world, but I did get rid of his kill codes and told him to hate Eggman, not kill him, so I had no fears about him being a bad person anymore. But I did still worry about what he might do in the future, especially after Eggman now knew about my ring powers...
Regardless, after a thrilling trip through the skies on my epic ride, we then suddenly felt the chills of the frozen north as we got closer to our destination. So, because of that, I gave the others some heat from the red ring, which was not only filled with powers of light, but also heat, as it was used in the fire djinn. When we finally touched down, we saw that the town was almost completely deserted, save for a small camp area that was exactly like it was in the past.
"Hard to imagine this place used to be one of the closest-knit communities in the entire world, where everyone knew everybody and got along," I gawked at the sight of the place, the buildings either being completely gone or very run-down.
"If from what the history books have said, this place was actually one of the last towns to get into the big war in the past, and it was from a country called America bombing an outpost filled with nuclear warheads owned by a company called Pepsi-Cola," Tails said as he looked at his Miles Electric machine.
"But what does that mean for this place? I mean, it looks like the only residents are a single family," Cream asked, us then asking around and getting our answer from the young girl, her looking adorable in realistic looks.
"Momma said that we live here because our ancestors were natives of this place, called Eskimos or something? And that they changed the name of this town to be more Eskimo-friendly before a big war happened? I dunno, you'd have to ask her for more details," she said with a small smile.
"Well, we do have one more question. Do you happen to know where there's a temple nearby, one that's connected to the Chaos Emeralds?" Rouge asked.
"A temple?... Hmmm... If I can recall correctly, there's one like that at a far-off glacier. But the road there is filled with these weird creatures that come out at night... you'd better get going as soon as you can before it reaches sunset," she said, me nodding at that as I saw that, as of current in this locale, it was roughly 5 PM. And since it was in Fall, that meant that we had barely 30 minutes until sunset in Alaska.
"We should head out, then. Which direction is this glacier at?" Sonic asked, the girl pointing to the north of the encampment.
"Down this path, right here. It used to be a trail that led directly to the temple, but then something bad happened a long time ago and the path got destroyed," she said.
"Thanks for this, little miss. We'll save this planet yet!" Sticks smirked as we then rushed off down the path, us running through the day stage effortlessly and getting rid of numerous Eggman robots... but shocking all of us was the fact that, even though we were running as fast as possible, we ended up reaching the temple exterior JUST as it reached nightfall, me and the original teams' forms changing almost immediately, which I could tell spooked Cream, but I simply petted her big ears and she sighed in relief.
"Sorry... I just felt a bit surprised when I saw that they changed to look bigger and... uh... scarier," Cream admitted.
"Don't remind us. We hate the fact that we're like this," Amy pouted.
"Same," I sighed... but then, we gawked at how a large and powerful force of Dark Gaia arrived in front of us and it was in the shape of the giant eel, which I could tell was just as dangerous as in the game.
"I think I have an idea of how to get past this," I said as I then used the powers of the blue ring to force the air around the eel to freeze completely, encasing it in ice. We then rushed forward and slashed at it until it completely dissipated, which made me surprised at how easy it was with so much help!
"Power of teamwork wins again!" Sticks smirked widely. We then went into the temple, and we saw that the interior of this temple was actually slightly different than the ones we were seeing prior, me seeing that it had some very ancient tents and discarded items on the ground that I gawked at.
"Dasani water bottles... Cabella's outdoor pitching tents... one of the oldest Haribo gummi bear packets I've ever seen? I think this might have been a secret base camp during the war from my timeline!" I said in surprise.
"It must've been for the corporations' side, since those three were some of the ones working together," Tails said as I then saw that there was one more thing... among the remains, there was a skeleton, me using the power of the ring of death to see... something that shocked me.
"Oh... my god... could it be?" I asked in shock when I sensed who it was.
"What is it?" Merlina asked as Sonic and Chip placed the next emerald in place, it being the cyan emerald, but I didn't care about that. The one right in front of me was one of my relatives, specifically my cousin, Fiona!
"It's my cousin! The last I saw her, she was only 6 years old! What's she doing here?" I asked as I then looking at Merlina and she looked at me with a smile.
"Unfortunately, we can't really bring her back to life with the purple ring," Merlina said, me then frowning as I tried to do something different. I combined the powers of the purple ring along with one of the Super Emeralds, specifically the rainbow one. And when I did, I gasped at how powered-up I felt! I immediately then touched the bones and, shocking everyone, the bones started to reform to normal, the organs, the muscles, skin, everything! And when it was finally done, we all saw that my cousin was back to normal, her being roughly 6 years older than I was in terms of looks.
"Oh my gosh... how?" Merlina asked as my cousin looked around her and looked shocked before then seeing me, then at her body... before then covering herself up in the ancient tent, which was very filthy.
"W-What's going on?! Where am I and why am I buck naked?!" she asked in fear as I then spoke.
"Fiona, don't you remember me?" I asked, her looking at me with her head poked out and looking confused.
"U-Uh... no, not really..." she said. "But I do recall the voice..."
"I don't blame you. I mean, you were only 6 when I get sent here to this timeline... it's me, Cheryl Martinez," I said, her then gawking at that and looking at me.
"A-Are you serious?... Is this real? This is our world in the future?" she asked, me nodding. "But what the hell is up with those Sonic characters with you?! And why do Cream and Tails look taller than before?! And-" she was about to ask before I shushed her and spoke to her with the dream ring.
"You never know when the Eggman is listening in, so please, just think your questions for now," I said, her gulping as I saw her lips quivering. "Okay, to answer your questions, the world in the future is almost exactly like the Sonic games of the main series, but with the storybook series and Rush being canon," I said, her nodding at that. "Cream and Tails look older because it's been over 4 years since I first arrived to this world, where Tails was 8 and Cream was 6. And as for why I'm able to speak in your mind, it's because of the rings on my body," I said, her then seeing them and being shocked at them.
"How?" she asked.
"I found them during the events of the Black Knight, which actually takes place 2000 years after a great war that happened to our world," I said, her gasping at that.
"I remember now! I was a prisoner of war from those horrible companies! And then, the world got absolutely coated in radioactivity from a bunch of atomic bombs! I died from the radiation along with the others in this place... but how did you get here?" she asked.
"Because of Meryl, who is one of our descendants from the Black Knight timeline, her being a wizard and transporting me to the future, before then sending me to her timeline so that we could stop Merlina and the cursed King Arthur," I explained.
"So weird... you promise that you'll protect me, right, Cheryl? I uh... I'm kinda freaking out right now," she admitted to me.
"I promise I will. And if I'm not around, you could ask one of my wives," I smirked.
"Huh? Wives? You married some of them?" she asked.
"Namely me, Cosmo, Elise, Blaze, Shahra, and Maria," Sticks smiled, which made her gawk.
"Maria?! Maria Robotnik?! She's alive?!" she asked.
"What's going on, miss Cheryl? Why does she know so much about us?" Cream asked.
"Ugh... I thought you said you heard everything," I said, her sighing at that.
"I didn't actually believe that... you mean that it's true?" she asked, me nodding.
"Anyways, Maria was turned into a robotic human because of the GUN agent that shot her putting her memory into a computer chip and then uploading it to her new body. And she's one of my wives... and yeah, all of them but Maria are pregnant," I said.
"Again, how?" she asked.
"Because of Shahra and fertility magic," Sticks smirked.
"That's so stupid... but I love it," she smirked.
"Uh, thanks?" Sticks asked.
"Let's get out of here, we have to go back and report to Professor Pickle after all," I said as we then proceeded out of the temple and we got onto our respective rides, with Fiona looking at my ride and then at me.
"So why do you have such awesome illusion powers with the green ring, why use that instead of the ruby, and uh... don't get mad, but why do you look like you do right now?" she asked after boarding my ride and me then explaining after we got off the ground.
"In the order asked, it's because of the green ring being extremely strong in illusion making, it can rival the ruby in illusory powers, and I look like this because, when I got sent through time to the start of the first Adventure, I was sent inside of the Master Emerald and my DNA got swapped and shared by myself, Chaos, and Tikal, making all three of us one third of our respective parts, which is why I can heal with water, I have Mobian parts, and why I have human parts along with the Mobian ones," I explained.
"So it was the Tikal and Chaos adventure, not the literal first adventure where Sonic went to Scrap Brain?" she asked, Sonic gulping at that.
"Ooogh, don't remind me of that! It was the absolute biggest test of my sanity. I didn't think I'd be able to get through and defeat Eggman back then, with all those spikes, sawblades, and fake platforms designed to drop me into a bunch of sharp garbage that would've impaled me!" Sonic admitted from the other ride, which was way less interesting than mine.
"But what about the rings? I mean, they protected you from any death, right? Just have one at all times and you're golden... right?" Fiona asked.
"What the hell are you talking about? What kinda stupid thing is that?" Sticks asked, me groaning at that and speaking to Fiona in her mind.
"That part is not at all in this adventure. It's more realistic and more likely for death, which is why I need to get the yellow emerald back online, just to prevent us from getting shot by Eggman's guns," I said with seriousness.
"Really? And you've been stopping Eggman for what reasons again?" Fiona asked.
"Do we really need to explain the reasons?" Cream asked with a small bit of sass.
"Yeah, I guess you're right... you're Cream the Rabbit, right?"
"Yes, I am. It's nice to meet you, Miss Fiona," Cream smirked.
"You may look older, but you still look friggin' adorable. Much better than staying 6 forever," she smirked, that making the others look at me in confusion.
"Wait... really? What does that mean?" Amy asked in confusion, me then talking to everyone in their minds.
"What she means is that absolutely every character stayed the same in terms of age and design for the entire franchise, with the only exception being Amy, who went from green and pink to red dress and shoes," I explained, which they all then frowned at.
"That's even stupider than that phone game you have. Seriously, what the hell kind of stupid person would make a game called Angry Birds? Of course, birds are angry, I had to deal with them all the time in Adabat!" Sticks frowned in annoyance.
"I would prefer the swearing to be kept to a minimum, please? After all, Cream's still here," I asked, them frowning at that.
"Don't worry, Cheryl. Momma said that I'm allowed to swear now, but only if it's required, like if Eggman does something truly despicable or against monsters, criminals, and nasty robots," Cream said, me smiling at that.
"She's raised you very well, Creamy," I smirked.
"Creamy? You're hitting on her? She's, like, 10, right?" Fiona asked.
"And in one year I'll be an adult for Rabbit Mobians," Cream smirked.
"Uh... fine, I guess?" Fiona said, me smirking at her as we then had a pleasant ride all the way back to Spagonia.
Meanwhile, back in a section of land called Easter Island, Eggman was already getting a lot of progress done with creating Eggmanland over the idiotic ruins of the lonely island.
"Ohohoho! I knew that this machine would be useful for something! Using the powers of the reviving Chaos Emeralds, I can have Dark Gaia's pieces come directly to me! And the best part, Cheryl and her stupid friends are completely unaware that with every emerald they restore, my prototype and Eggmanland become stronger and stronger! OHOHOHOHO!" Eggman laughed maniacally as Orbot and Cubot then laughed.
"Your skill at self-centeredness is very admirable, Doctor," Orbot said with a smirk.
"Hoo, doggy, will them Mobian varmints and that stupid third-breed be in fer a hootenanny of pain when they see your finished theme park of pain! I wanna see 'em fall off the coaster and into the oil vats below!" Cubot said with a cowbot accent, which wasn't his original chip, but Eggman couldn't be bothered to change it as he didn't have any new chips he could use for him.
"Silence!" Eggman said in annoyance as he then looked at the machine as it beeped slightly, him smirking widely. "Ah, they've managed to get the fourth emerald restored already? Then it's time to ramp up production to power level 4," Eggman smirked widely as Orbot then hit the buttons and the magnet system went to the fourth level, there only being 6 to work with, but only for one reason.
"And the best part, even if she has seen the future, there is no way in hell that she'll know that Eggmanland is right overtop the final temple! She'll be in for a hell of a surprise!" Eggman sneered widely.
"You said hell twice," Orbot frowned.
"I SAID SILENCE!" Eggman shouted at him as he then went to kick him, only getting a bruised foot in the process, but he certainly didn't show it. He'd become null to the pain he endured from the numerous explosions over the decade-long feud he'd had with Sonic, even though now his sights were on Cheryl Martinez. He needed to find something, anything that could get under her skin, but what?
"Hmm... maybe I should listen in a little bit on my little eye in the sky," Eggman smirked as he had his new personal satellite lock onto Cheryl as he overheard her speaking.
"So, this Battlebots thing you talk about... is it fun?" asked the badger, Sticks.
"Very fun! I mean, watching it is the best, but actually building the robot for combat takes a lot of work," Cheryl explained, Eggman frowning. What was this Battlebots thing? Was she referring to his robots? "You have to make sure the robot can move on its tires, get its weapon system working good, and you have to be able to pilot it with a remote-control so that it can obey your every command. It's kind of like RC cars, but with deadly steel spinning weapons on the robots," Cheryl explained.
This intrigued Doctor Eggman, so he decided to look up on the internet about what Battlebots was. And sure enough, it was something from before, where Cheryl had come from far into the past. That was no secret to Eggman, but he didn't know a thing about how Cheryl knew of him because of him being a game character. But seeing the primitive Battlebots designs of Gigabyte, Shatter!, MaDCaTter, Tombstone, and Hydra were actually intriguing to him.
"Oh, how far robot combat has evolved over the years," Eggman said to himself with a smirk. "Well, let's go ahead and do a little side project, then. She likes Battlebots so much, then I'll make a Battlebots competition so bad, that NO ONE will want to see them again!" Eggman smirked widely as he got to work. He had to make sure these new designs would be for the original Battlebots designs, but make them super bad and horrible to make everyone hate them...
But little did he know that there was a watching eye outside of his office, that was annoyed by that statement and knew that he couldn't let Eggman win. As he jetted off, he said one thing to himself.
"I must warn Cheryl that her favorite thing is to be threatened..." Metal Sonic spoke worriedly.