Chapter 39
The wedding of Knuckles and Priscilla went extremely well, especially when Priscilla had the flower girl being Blaze's daughter, Princess Spark (as she was born with electric powers as opposed to Blaze's fire) and her maid of honor was Tirsiak and among the bridesmaids were Elsa, Anna, Fengshue, me, Amy, Cosmo, and Sticks. Cream, unfortunately was unable to make it, as she had since given birth to her 12 children and had to stay with Vanilla and Tails temporarily to give them milk. And I was told by Cream that, as she had given birth to them on August 20th, they'd actually be able to be eating food by my birthday and, as such, they could also start learning how to talk.
Everyone else, however, that was able to make the wedding did, which included Sonic, Chip, and pretty much everyone that wasn't on GUN assignments, which unfortunately included Topaz and Shadow. Heck, even Big, Froggy, and Mighty came by to join in on the event, with Knuckles deciding that Mighty would be his best man and that the ring bearer would be Amy's son, Axel Rose. And when I told her that I suggested his name because of a band called Guns and Roses, she couldn't help but smile and shake her head.
"I knew you'd do something like that, and I don't care. Axel is such a cool name," she smiled at me.
Heck, even our newest members of the family of misfits decided to join in, and of the lot, I'd actually had decided to start pursuing Brittany, Annetta, and even Taffyta, mainly since Taffyta was an adult in Sugar Rush years and she was willing to experiment with me. And it actually ended up with me getting pregnant a second time by her, meaning that I was going to have another kid that was part me and part Sugar Rusher!
"I still can't believe that I managed to impregnate you. I mean, we're both females, so how was it possible?" she asked me.
"Don't ask me, you're the one that has both body parts," I said, pointing out to her that it was not a normal thing for human society. Yeah, Taffyta, along with all other Sugar Rushers, were hermaphrodites, meaning they had both body parts on them and were able to mate on their own if they wanted to, but they never really needed to.
"So does that mean that I can get impregnated through our intercourses?" Brittany asked me, which I shook my head no to.
"Only if I were to ask my genie friend, Shahra, to do so. But I'd like to wait until after my birthday before that happens," I smiled, which Brittany smiled at.
"I can't wait, honey bunny," she smiled at me. And as for Annetta, whenever she had sex with me, she told me that if I put my cum inside of her, it'd be enough to make a new Inkling, but it'd start off as being more of a hybrid of human and squid before it morphed into being what an Inkling looked like at age 8 and up.
"So they'd be a mixture of your humanoid appearance and your squid appearance until they turn 8 years old?" I asked her.
"It happens at a gradual pace, kind of like a tadpole turning into a frog. It starts with the infant stages, then they start growing more humanoid features like the face and limbs, then they start to learn how to use their ink, and then, when age 8 hits, they're finally able to morph between the two forms on a whim," Annetta explained to me. And just like with Brittany, I requested that we wait until after my birthday party happened.
Janet was still trying to get used to all the creatures on the planet being around her at once, which even included small things like flies and ants. But using some helpful therapy from Doctor Espio (yes, Espio was actually a therapist before he became a ninja on Team Chaotix) she was able to get better by the day.
And then, finally, it reached my most anticipated day of all time, that being my birthday, which was a day I was both excited and worried about. I was excited because I was told that EVERYONE was going to be joining in, including all the GUN agents, Omega, and even a surprise guest appearance from Meryl! But I was also worried, mainly because it felt too much like Generations. Regardless, I played along with the joke of Tails and Yacker (the white wisp that decided to live on Earth among at least three of every other kind of Wisp) telling me to meet up by the park of Station Square, me then going there and seeing a lot of food piled up and for all of the others to be there.
"Hey, guys, what's up?" I smiled, them then turning around to show me a quadruple decker cake that was as tall as Vector and with tons of party supplies all hiding behind them.
"SURPRISE! Happy birthday, Cheryl!" they all smiled at the same time, me smiling at them.
"Aw, guys, ya shouldn't have," I played along, mainly because it was kind of ruined by my kids, Cleon and Wolo, telling me about it when they were playing with some visiting Chao and Chaos.
"But we did, because you deserve it, especially after saving all Mobians from extinction," Tikal smiled at me.
"Ah, it wasn't a big deal. At least not compared to the fact I also rescued tons of different alien civilizations at the same time," I smiled.
"Right. Happy birthday, regardless. I happened to get you a present," Tikal said as she then showed me something that made me surprised. It was none other than the Phantom Ruby that I'd managed to get from the Phoenix, but made into a ring! "I wanted to ask if I could also be among your clique of wives... especially for the fact that-" she was about to say before I shushed her and took the ring and then kissed her on the lips.
"I accept, Tikal... it just seems like yesterday that we first met, all the way in the Mystic Ruins in that Master Emerald," I smiled at her.
"Yeah, that was an awkward meeting, especially when we learned we all got split three ways each," Chaos admitted with a smile of her own, being next to Cheese and Cream, all of her 12 kids happily enjoying the sweets at the table, which there were almost 30 total types to choose from. As for their names, they were all named after different sweet treats.
First, the boys, of which there were 5. There was Spice, Hershey, Choco, Lactose, and Crumb. As for the 7 girls, they were named Kit, Kat, Sprinkles, Cookie, Butter, Skittles, and Toffee. And each one looked unique and had different patterns on their fur to make them each look unmistakable from the other. So that made it easy... but they were also big eaters and I had to end up taking up a job in order to raise more money to take care of EVERYONE in the family, which I decided that, on top of my GUN assignments that paid at 50 grand a year, I'd also do some work as a deep-sea diver, which I teamed up with both the Inklings and Octolings in order to find different loot from sunken ships, and also, tons of debris from Eggman's mechs that we'd shot down over the years, which was how we learned his secrets on how to make robots. And thusly, know how to shut them down en masse of we ended up finding him again!
"I... I thank you, Cheryl," she smiled at me... and then, something happened. The moment I put the ring on, I gasped as... something happened. I felt some memories flash into my mind from when I was just a toddler!
"Mommy? What's that loud noise?" I asked as I exited the car from a freeway, back in my original timeline. And when I did, I saw that there was a giant robot that appeared and that my mother was inside the grips of none other than the Death Egg Robot! And she was then sent inside of the arm and was forced to be in a containment unit hidden inside of the robot! "MOMMY! LET HER GO!" I shouted, the giant robot then extending its giant claws out and grabbing me as well! I then let out a large cry for help before I saw a bright flash of purple light flash through the arm of the robot... and then, I woke up with a jolt!
"Whoa! Hoogh!" I gasped awake, which made the others look at me in shock.
"Cheryl? Is something wrong?" Sonic asked as I then felt the wind picking up. I then looked into the sky and gawked at how I saw the sights of the biggest bad yet.
"Guys... run," I said, everyone looking at me in confusion before looking in the sky and seeing what I saw. It was the Time Eater and he looked pissed! "RUN!" I shouted, everyone then doing so as we tried to run as fast as possible! But the only ones that were completely unaffected by the suction of the Time Eater were me and Janet!
"What's going on?!" she asked in shock as I then gasped when I saw that the children were being sucked into the different timelines as well by the Time Eater! I then rushed back as fast as I could and proceeded to summon the powers of the Phantom Ruby to turn into the Mystery Machine with wings to try and slam into the Time Eater, me managing to get him to get injured in the process and for a small singularity to happen in the process! And only when this happened did every last person get sucked up by the portals and the singularity was what pulled me and Janet into it, us shrieking in fear before we then were sent to a void of complete blankness... the only thing that was nearby was a set of ruins that I looked at in surprise, alongside a group of characters that were by the entrance.
"T-Tails! Wolo! Cleon! Sonic!" I shouted in shock when I saw that all three of them were trapped in time by the entrance to the ruins, me looking at it and seeing that it wasn't Green Hill Zone, thank God. Instead, it was... oh no... "Labyrinth Zone..." I growled angrily.
"Labyrinth Zone? What's that? And why are they frozen in place like this?" Janet asked when she poked Tails and nothing happened afterwards.
"This is definitely Eggman's doing, I can assure you of that," I frowned at her.
"You mean that secret you told me with telepathy? That this whole thing you've seen before? Did you know this was going to happen on your birthday?" she asked me.
"No, I did not. In the games, it happened on SONIC'S birthday, and his birthday is March 29th. And this place is not the same as it was in the games. It's supposed to be Green Hill Zone, the very start of Sonic's Adventures. But this time, it seems Eggman learned from the mistakes and knew to think bigger and badder. He decided to make us go through Labyrinth Zone instead, which is a whole slew of sunken ruins that are very easy to drown in," I frowned.
"Not a problem for us, then, right? You have your oxygen powers from the rings and emeralds, and I don't need air to breathe, and I'm completely waterproof," Janet smiled.
"No, not as easy. Look," I said as I showed that the Chaos Emeralds, even though they were still on my person, were drained of all their strengths. The only ones that hadn't been drained were the Super Emeralds and the World Rings, which did mean I could use my powers to make a bubble of air, but it wouldn't stop the rest of me from getting soaked or protected from spikes jabbing out of the floor... but then I remembered that I could also use them to turn myself solid as a rock!
"Okay, the emeralds can't be used, but I'm sure that if we ran through this level fast enough, we could probably rescue them and repair whatever damage Eggman and his pet, the Time Eater, did to this place," I said.
"Then let's get going! Gotta jet," she smiled as she then revved up her engine and we then both zoomed into the level at the same time, me then finding that I was sent into the Modern level and that Janet wasn't around, meaning she'd been sent to Classic.
"Okay, time to get through this maze of madness," I said, seeing the place looked like a large cavern with stalagmites and salactites everywhere, and that it was filled with pits over large flumes of water with spikes in the shallows. I then proceeded to run through the place, making sure to take out the digging robots along the way and to run over any water that I could, as I was now fast enough to do so. I did this and managed to make it to the very end of the level in a record-setting 2 minutes total. Why was it a record? Because no one had ever done so before, that's why!
I then flew through the Goal Ring at the end and, after doing so, I felt my form slam into the ground outside of the zone, followed shortly by Janet as well! And when we did so, we watched as the level's entrance magically regained all of its color and then, after that happened, Tails, Wolo, Cleon, and Sonic then managed to return back to their normal selves and looked around before then looking at me.
"Mommy! IT WAS SO SCARY!" both Cleon and Wolo cried as they ran to me and hugged me with tears in their eyes, me smiling and hugging them back as best I could, Sonic then shuddering after.
"It felt like I were caught in a dark limbo, unable to move at all... I never want to go through that again," Sonic admitted as he and Tails then looked at the entrance and then at me.
"Does this place look familiar to you? I think I've seen it before," Sonic asked me. And I nodded.
"This is Labyrinth Zone, one of your original locales when you first fought Eggman. Filled with a maze-like design and filled with water and spikes," I said, Sonic then gawking at that.
"I remember now! That place was almost the death of me because of how slow I was underwater! I almost got skewered by spike traps, like, ten times! It's why I trained myself how to curl into a ball to dash forward. It was before I knew how to boost," Sonic explained.
"It's so strange to be in this place... I want to go home, mommy," Cleon said to me, me smiling at her.
"I do too, Cleon. But this is going to need to be a detour for now. Look, some more people need our help," I said as I pointed to the next... three areas? I gawked at how they even included Sonic CD on the list of places to visit, it being the location of Stardust Speedway! As for Sonic 2 and 3? Sonic 2 was home to Metropolis Zone (UGH, my favorite, yay... I hate it so much) and Sonic 3, instead of being Sky Sanctuary, was Flying Battery.
And as for the different captured people in each area, Amy, Axel, Roxy, and Gamma were all trapped in Metropolis. Knuckles, Mighty, Charmy, and Priscilla were trapped at Flying Battery. And as for Stardust Speedway, it had Brittany, Yacker, Metal Sonic, and ROSY THE RASCAL! Yeah, Classic Amy Rose was also trapped in here!
"Who's this girl with the pink skirt and green shirt? I feel like I know her from way back when," Sonic asked when she looked at her. Yeah, the clothes were still colored but the skin and fur were not on all of them.
"Sonic, I'm going to blow your mind right now. That's Amy, from when you first met her," I said, Sonic then gawking before then looking at her and then at me, and then over to the older Amy.
"You're not joking right now, are you? I completely forgot about the fact she was there with me! All I remember is that metal Sonic kidnapped someone to lure me to Little Planet, and then Eggman tried to control time itself to rule the world... I never realised it was Amy!" Sonic gawked.
"Not Amy. She went by Rosy the Rascal during this phase of her life," I explained.
"I think we should focus on trying to rescue everyone before we do anything else. So, how about we get going and split into two groups?" Janet suggested.
"Right! I'm itching to get to going through these places," Sonic smiled as he was about to run off before I grabbed hold of him on his scruff, which he looked at me in surprise.
"Hey! What's up with you?" he complained.
"Sonic, we have to talk strategy. We have two little kids here with us and I am NOT letting them into any of these dangerous places. Until we can get at least one more of these groups back in action, only me and Janet will go into these places. I'm putting you in charge of watching Wolo and Cleon until that happens. After that, we'll alternate our groups from that point onward. Okay?" I said, him frowning at that.
"Fine, but hurry it up, please? I don't like being put in one place for too long," he groaned.
"Understood, we'll try to be as fast as possible. And by the way," Janet said before going to his face. "I don't like you, at all," she said, her then flying off in a huff before then entering Metropolis Zone, me looking at Sonic and frowning at him.
"I'll try to get a reason as to why when we get back, okay, Sonic?" I said, him nodding at that.
"Yeah... you do that," he said with a face that was best described as personal crisis. I then ran to Metroplis Zone and ran into the level feared by all.