Author's notes: Nothing new.

Chapter 57

Tails finishes wrapping a bandage around his injured tail as Mayhem works on cutting Sloth free from the electrical cables he's tangled up in.

"Why aren't you going back to that Sonic form?" asked Mayhem as he cut through several of the cables and the things hit the ground.

"I'm surrounded by electricity. I might be a fallen angel but I'm not immortal. And I don't want to become extra crispy hedgehog when I shrink down and they all hit me." said Sloth, moving his head just enough to glare at Mayhem with his one eye behind the helmet.

"Fair enough. Darksider angels get slaughtered by the dozens anyway by War." said Mayhem shrugging.

"And they deserve it. Let's not talk about my home universe, shall we?"

"Alright. Any idea on how many more cables I need to cut?"

"No."

"Well, your lead wings are probably the worst spot so I'll start there."

"They're not lead."

"They are when it comes to flight and water."

Sloth grumbles under his breath when it comes to that statement and just lets Mayhem continue to cut the cables off. Tails gets up and slowly walks over, scanning the cables over before looking at Mayhem.

"How are you not getting shocked?" asked Tails.

"Elemental immunity." replied Mayhem as he cut through some cables.

"That explains nothing."

"No but it's like asking an electricity dragon can they shut up."

"So, basically you can cancel out electrical effects on you."

"To a point."

Mayhem's fur suddenly puffs up and he turns and glares at Tails who whistles innocently as he hides a live cable behind his back.

"It doesn't mean you're free to experiment on what can shock me! I said I was immune to the electricity, it doesn't mean my fur is!" snapped Mayhem as he poked Tails in the chest.

"Oh come on, it was a joke!"

"We're in a war zone with the biggest target stuck in a bunch of electrical cables!"

"Oh right, like you're not going to get some payback for my joke." said Tails before his fur puffed up and Mayhem discarded the now dead cable, "I called it."

Mayhem fixed his fur and then went back to cutting the cables. Tails fixed his own fur as he went to check on the other two.

TD, still in doll form, groaned as he sat up.

"I feel like I just got hit by a sledgehammer." muttered TD as he rubbed his head.

"Considering our fall, you probably got hit by some bricks or something." said Tails as he gently picked up the doll.

"That makes it worse. That means I hit the bricks with my head."

"How do you feel otherwise?"

"Fine. I guess."

The small fox doll climbs onto Tails' head and goes limp up there, his gem turning a blue-green coloration as his beady eyes look sick.

"You don't look fine." said Tails noticing the small details.

"I'll be fine. Just let me rest a bit." replied TD as he sat on Tails' head.

Tails is silent before he goes to check on Frenzy. The black-furred fox is conscious but hasn't moved.

"Hey, you okay?" asked Tails noticing the fox's purple eyes being open.

"N-no...nerves...overloaded...tails ripped off..." replied Frenzy weakly.

"Those tails were connected to you via a spinal augmentation, weren't they?"

"Yes...ripped out...feedback...hurts..."

"Crap..." muttered Tails. He quickly spun around when he heard footsteps, grabbing a nearby piece of rebar for defense, but calmed down when he saw Shade.

Shade looked around at the destroyed buildings, the trapped Sloth, and the injuries on Tails as well as TD's condition and Frenzy's.

"How bad is it between the four of you?" asked Shade calmly.

"Well, I won't be flying for awhile. Infinite got me with some type of spear, TD's not feeling great, and Frenzy's suffering nerve feedback from having his cybernetic tails ripped off. Frenzy's Sonic is fine, aside from being trapped in a bunch of electrical cables." replied Tails.

"And Infinite?"

"Over there. Mayhem knocked him out." said Tails pointing to the still unconscious cybernetic Jackal against a wall behind them. Shade turns and looks at Infinite. He growls as he summons a double-barrel shotgun and advances towards the unconscious enemy. Shade glares down at Infinite and points the shotgun at the Jackal's head before he aims for the Phantom Ruby instead. He goes to pull the trigger before the gun gets pulled out of his grasp.

"Ah-ah-ah! I'm afraid I can't let you do that!" said Razor with a smile as he spun the shotgun by the trigger guard around one of his fingers.

"Are you kidding me?! The bastard is finally at his weakest point and we can finally finish him and you're telling me you're not going to allow us to finally be rid of him?!" exclaimed Shade in anger and disbelief, "What, is he needed for some future event or something?!"

Razor hums innocently and Shade's expression goes from barely contained rage to absoute shock.

"Oh my god, he is needed..."

"Yep! And-" began Razor before his finger hit the triggers just right and both barrels on the shotgun discharged into his mouth. He staggers back, dazed a moment, before he begins moving something around in his mouth before he spits out several bloodied shotgun pellets, "Ow, that- wait..."

He reached into his mouth and pulled out several razor-edged Chaos Emerald shavings out of his mouth.

"Ow. That actually hurt." said Razor as he looked at the shavings a moment and then looked back at Shade like they don't exist, "But yes, Infinite is needed for a future event. However, I'm not going to stop you from disarming him."

"What is there to disarm?! I take his arms off, and he can just get them replaced! They're cybernetics!" snapped Shade.

"The Ruby dumbass!"

Shade looks at Razor and then Infinite and face palms.

"I'm going to have a stroke being near you..." muttered Shade in exhaustion.

"Actually you're going to outlive-"

"SHUT UP!" snapped Shade in anger before he removed the Phantom Ruby from Infinite's chest.

"What about the others?" asked Tails as Shade looked at the Phantom Ruby.

"When the lockdown in the hangars occurred, I had everyone evacuate the ship and set it for a crash course for the base. We weren't going to get in otherwise." said Shade after calming down.

"And Mecha-Sally?"

"Under heavy guard and restrained. The only way she's getting loose is if she can bend that metal Admin Fun's stuff uses."

"Well, I certainly couldn't. And Infinite somehow got a hold of some to make a bola out of it." said Razor thinking.

"Did Infinite, or Snively, get a hold of that stuff in a large amount?"

Razor looks thoughtful as he balances on his tail.

"Nope! That was just salvaged from me having to chop off Mayhem's head to get it off his neck the first time!"

"Wait...HOW did they get it from the village?!"

"That would have been my doing." came a Sonic-like voice but also...NOT Sonic's.

Shade and Tails instantly get defensive as they turn to face the newcomer.

"Hey, hey! Easy! I'm not here to fight! Look, I don't know about everything going on but until recently, I was stuck in a bind where I was kinda forced to ruin a certain hedgehog's name but then recent events have forced me more into being a delivery boy behind the scenes for stuff. But since a certain freak of nature messed up the guy's plans, I'm now able to actually plan a way to get away." said a hedgehog with dull blue fur and quills, said quills being serrated and having noticeable fangs.

"And why should we trust you?" asked Shade narrowing his eyes at the hedgehog.

"Okay, yeah, I wanted to ruin Sonic's image, I don't like the guy but as things went on, I noticed how things got...more and more chaotic here and wanted to leave. Except the bastard wouldn't let me. Well, now I can tell you where he's heading. All I want, is to get off the planet now. Shit's too crazy for me."

"And just who are you?" asked Tails.

"...that's a good question. I'm not Sonic. And I'm not an evil clone. Just a rogue extra life. So, I don't have a name. Not really anyway. So...just call me Extra."

"And what do we get in return for helping you?"

"You get rid of Scourge."

A chill runs down Extra's spine and he slowly looks up at Mayhem who is towering over him, with a sinister tooth-filled smile on his face.

"I'm listening." said Mayhem in a terrifyingly calm voice.

"See?! This is what I'm talking about! This guy's too much for me!" wheezed Extra, his voice overcome with fear towards Mayhem.

"I think he's a bit much for everybody." muttered Tails.

"WHERE is Scourge?" asked Mayhem calmly as he put his glowing red claw under Extra's chin.

"He's heading back to a secret base in the northern wastes! There's really no need to threaten me. I just want my monitor back so I can go back inside and then someone to just launch it into space." said Extra shakily at having the claw so close.

"You act like we can defy gravity." said Shade.

"The Sonic I'm a rogue extra life to could."

"I CAN TOO!" said Razor, well more liked yelled.

"Go jump off something will you." muttered Shade.

"OKAY!"

Razor jumped to his feet and then launched himself into the air.

"Wait...how high can he jump?" asked Extra confused at the kangaroo/dragon just launching himself into the air.

"I have no idea and I don't want to know." grumbled Shade in annoyance.

"HEY SHADE! I'M JUMPING OFF THE AIRSHIP LIKE YOU WANTED ME TO!" came Razor's voice from way, way, way above them.

"HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU JUMPING OFF THE AIRSHIP?! IT FUCKING CRASHED!"

"I don't have to follow the rules of time to make a funny!"

"IT'S GETTING OLD YOU INSANE IDIOT!"

"No it's not!"

Shade stops trying to argue with the insane kangaroo/dragon and begins counting to ten to calm himself.

"Okay, say we help you. How do we know you won't come back to bother us again?" asked Shade to Extra after calming down from Razor's idiocy.

"Him." said Extra as he pointed a thumb at Mayhem.

"Beyond that?"

"Your world is falling apart. My monitor just happened to crash into it after cruising through space for several years. I'm not coming back after all the shit I've seen."

"And what are you going to be doing in the meantime?"

"Watching to make sure my monitor doesn't get destroyed."

"And say it does?"

"I'm dead. Unless Sonic breaks it. Well, mine anyway. Other Sonics? No idea. I just want out of this crazy place now."

"Oh don't worry, I'll be very careful of it." said Mayhem as he let Extra go.

"Like you were careful of his underwater base?"

Mayhem looks at Extra and bends down to being eye level.

"Be careful what you say. I'm still angry with Scourge for that whole event." said Mayhem, his voice laced with a calm venom.

"Well, you have his location now."

"Indeed I do. You're coming with me though." said Mayhem before he grabbed Extra by the arm and the two teleported away before Extra could protest.

"So...who is gonna cut me down now?" asked Sloth, his one eye showing annoyance at being stuck in cables still. At that moment, Razor landed and pulled out his chain-axe.

"I GOT IT! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" yelled Razor as he swung into cables.

"Wait, aren't you an Earth Dragon?" asked Tails before Razor lit up like a Christmas Tree as he hit the cables juuuuuuuust right. Shade, Tails, TD and Sloth all look away from the electrocuted kangaroo/dragon Hybrid before he got blasted back into a wall, smashing through it. Razor lands on his back, smoking heavily with his fur also puffed up. He quickly sits up.

"WHOOOOOOOO! WHAT A RUSH! LET'S DO IT AGAIN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" yelled Razor as he jumped to his feet. The eye on the chain-axe has an annoyed look on it as Razor grabs it and pulls it out of the mass of cables he had hit and rears it back. He goes to hit into the cables again but Sloth catches the axe as he pulls himself free of the cables.

"Good news. Your stunt drained all the electricity. The bad news..." began Sloth as he stood back to his full height.

"I DON'T GET TO BE A CHRISTMAS TREE AGAIN! WAAAAAAAAAAAH!" cried Razor.

"Oh thank goodness." muttered the chain-axe's eye in a eldritch voice.

"You can talk?" said Razor pulling the axe close and looking at the eye sternly. The eye glares at him in a "are you serious?" manner, "But you never said anything out loud before!"

"Because the author doesn't WANT me to because he doesn't know how to describe my voice!"

"No fourth wall breaks!"

"Oh but when you do it, it's fine! When I do it, I get in trouble for it!"

Razor keeps arguing with the chain-axe's daemonic occupant as Sloth shifts into his Sonic form.

"So, what now?" asked Tails.

"Frenzy's gonna have to go back to his lab to fix that injury, otherwise he won't be able to do much. That nerve feedback's going to interfere with everything he can do." said Slothic as he carefully picked up the black-furred fox.

"That just leaves me with the insane Kangaroo/Dragon Hybrid as the ones that help with the attack on what remains of Snively's base. With this current opening." said Shade.

"I could take Frenzy back." said Tails.

Slothic looked at him quizzically.

"My injury prevents me from getting away quickly. I have no operational ranged weapon. And TD's not feeling that great and is using my head as a bed to rest." said Tails as he looked up at the now sleeping fox doll on his head.

"He's right. We're out three heavies. That just leaves us with two if you and your Knuckles stay." said Shade looking at Slothic.

The one-eyed hedgehog thinks it over before handing Frenzy over to Tails and creating a purple portal.

"Head to the Knothole Bunker. You'll find his lab there. Avoid any combat." said Slothic to Tails and the biomechanical fox nods before heading through it. Once he's through it, the portal closes.

"Okay, now we-" began Shade as he grabbed the shotgun away from Razor.

"Wait." interrupted Slothic and Shade looks at him angrily, "The three foxes won't be gone long. Dimensional time differences."

"Fine." grumbled Shade as he reloaded the shotgun.

"Are you using normal or more Chaos Emerald shaving filled shells?" asked Razor calmly.

"Normal. Why?"

"Might help for what's to come."

"And you're not going to just say it, are you?"

"Nope!"

"I hate you so much."

"Just be prepared."

"HOW CAN I BE PREPARED WHEN YOU DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO BE PREPARED FOR!?"

"Oh just be on alert."

"THE SAME THING APPLIES THERE AS WELL YOU IDIOT!"

"Just be expect the unexpected! Geez! If I blab every little detail out, there's no surprise for the readers!"

"YET YOU SEE TO WANT TO ANYWAY SO WHAT'S STOPPING YOU?!"

"Me trying to reign it in a bit. Oh yeah, I have to go make a call!" said Razor pulling out a cellphone as he walked away.

"I wish I could kill him." muttered Shade anrily.

"If you did, you'd miss it." said Slothic with a chuckle.

"HOW WOULD I MISS THAT INSANE IDIOT?!"

"You wouldn't have such a heavy hitter."

"I hate that you're right about that."

Slothic's universe, Great Forest...

Tails exited the portal and found himself in an ash choked forest with the skies overhead being smog choked as well. He coughed as the air hit his biomechanical lungs.

"How do you live here?" wheezed Tails as he looked around, still holding Frenzy in his arms.

"Wasn't...this bad..." wheezed Frenzy through the pain.

Tails looked around the area before he spotted a Freedom Fighter coded sign that marked the way to what should be Knothole and followed it. After about an hour, he arrives in what was this world's Knothole, which is now just smoking ruins.

"Now where?" muttered Tails as he looked around the area. His ears suddenly went rigid as he heard mechanical footsteps approaching. He quickly hid Frenzy and TD behind some nearby ruins and hid in some nearby shadows. He watched as three heavily armored SWAT-Bots walked into the area. The robots towered over normal SWAT-Bots and had a heavy Gatling gun styled cannon on one arm while the other appeared to have Tesla Knuckle Bracers. Their armor had some small marks of damage but it looked more like wear and tear damage than actual combat damage. Tails hated the robotic vision mode he had but switched to it, trying to identify a weakness in the three giants before they located him or Frenzy and TD. However, his scans came up with nothing.

"How tough are these things?" muttered Tails quietly to himself as he moved into a better position to try to deal with the robots.

Meanwhile, Frenzy noticed the Heavy SWAT-Bots now in the area and slowly lifted one of his arms onto his chest and pressed a button on the gauntlet on his wrist, having some difficulty doing so due to the pain from having his cybernetic tails ripped off messing with his nervous system.

"No targets in priority one ruins." said one of the Heavy SWAT-Bots as it finished scanning the area.

"Move onto next location." said another one, this one having a more elite color scheme and looking more like it was built from a normal SWAT-Bot.

The three go to leave before Tails jumps onto the back of one, catching it off guard.

"Hey! No joyrides allowed!" said the robot in an annoyed yet monotone tone of voice as it tried to grabs Tails with its one hand.

Tails avoided the robotic hand trying to grab him as he ripped open the back of the robot's head and began ripping out wires.

"Warning! Unauthorized tampering!"

Tails kept ripping into the head's circuitry as the other turned and tried to get a lock on him but the flailing SWAT-Bot made them hold their fire. Tails soon ripped out an important looking core and looked at it before he threw it away and the SWAT-Bot went limp.

"Okay. One down, two to go." said Tails before...

"Head section of unit damaged. Activating secondary power unit." said the SWAT-Bot as it resumed trying to grab Tails.

"Wait! These things don't need their heads?!" yelled Tails in surprise.

"Head segment no longer required on Unit Orion-35C-3. Firing!" said the leader of the Heavy SWAT-Bot trio before it fired several rounds at the head of the SWAT-Bot Tails was hiding behind and the head exploded sending Tails flying back and onto the ground. He goes to get up before he notices a sharp pain in his torso and he looks down and sees a large piece of shrapnel from the destroyed head lodged in his side.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me..." said Tails as he looked at the shrapnel and then at the three Heavy SWAT-Bots aiming their weapons at him.

END CHAPTER

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