Spoilers from included and/or represented works abound. Please read this fiction carefully.
Silver dropped down and uprooted all the excess tree around the co., exposing them and revealing to them the broken sky. This shook the Boscage team, because they finally saw what's really happening to their world.
"My world! My forest! It's endangered!" Thorn panicked as the Boscage Maze is breaking down.
"Then help us save the multiverse! The hedgehog is destroying your world, and we're dealing with him!" Sonic added.
"Huh? Thorn, what's this blade?" Prim finally noticed the blade.
"Excalibur!" Sonic recognized the blade. "Merlina, drop me the gauntlet!"
"You've found the holy sword! Here, let me!" Merlina dropped the gauntlet.
Sonic quickly catched and equipped, and then he pulled the sword out. "Finally! After so long, I get to hold it again! I'm a knight!"
"Let me lift you all up." Silver used his psychokinesis to lift Boscage team up.
The Boscage team and even Birdie is brought up to the platform, where the New Yoke rebellion greeted.
"Welcome back, former enemy. I'm sorry for misusing the Prism, and I swear to be let alone after the restoration." Nine greeted Mangey. "But now, New Yoke is destroyed. The real imposter did it."
"Good thing you're all on our side." Rebel Rouge flew back up, carrying Rusty. "We're working with the wanderers to save not just all of Shatterverse, but also the entire multiverse. I recognize all of you, especially on the Grim."
Silver also brought the co. up to the platform. "Sonic, we go to the sea next... Sea what, though?"
"A sea what? Like a flooded version of the Green Hill?" Sonic wondered.
Tails, Classic Sonic and Knuckles shrugged.
"No Place." Rusty responded.
"That's right, No Place, as in the world. Inhabited by pirates." President Miles appeared as an AI.
Mangey is baffled at Miles, but Nine calmed him down.
"I'm similarly shocked when I first met this version, even though this is just artificial intellenge hologram." Nine introduced Miles to Boscage team. "He's President Miles, also from distant world. He's much older, and used to rule a prosperous kingdom until the mysterious hedgehog came by and impersonated his late Sonic."
"Oh, the deforestation." The hedgehog interrupted the whole coversation.
"Hey, you!" Sonic called the hedgehog out. "Ok, I'm repeating things, because you continued to be responsible for everything that's happening right now!"
"Forest pests... joining the ranks of my future victims?" The hedgehog quickly crushes the Boscage Maze.
"NO! Guys, boost!" The Team Superstars yelled.
The ship boosted and quickly made a getaway, right before Boscage explodes. All the debris is deflected by the force field, which is more than strong enough to handle the destruction of the Shatterspaces.
"Get to No Place, quick!" Eggman screamed.
The ship rushes to No Place, which is now well on its way to destruction.
"Pirate drowning! The sea is... arrrgh!" Knuckles the Dread is about to drown.
Black Rose, the new captain of the crew, had to help the heavyweight that is Dread. She called Sails Tails and Batten Rouge for help with him and the rest of the crew, who are drowning. Thankfully, the ship arrived just in time.
"Silver, do your magic! The Resistance members called on Silver, as the platform lifts down.
Cue the entire surviving crew lifted off the sea and into the ship. The hedgehog appeared as the projection.
"Brave move!" The hedgehog commented. "But I'm so fast!"
The ship quickly boosted its way straight to a rift and left, just right before the No Place exploded. Once again, the force field protected the entire ship.
"Argh!" Dread spits out water before wake up. "Ugh... where am I... Ye saved me..."
"Thanks goodness!" Black Rose is relieved.
"Another me, another Knuckles... even Tails too!" Amy greeted the crew. "Hello, pirates! Welcome to Superstars!"
"What? Extra... me?" Batten noticed Prime!Rouge.
"Nearly one-third of your crew have been drowned and then died to the explosion. I am very sorry to scan all that." Sage mourned all the members drowned.
"Yo ho!" Sails hi-fives with Mangey.
"Emergency paces, so you don't get to directly ssay goodbye to your world." Sonic called the crew. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. But I'm from a world from distant timeline. We're dealing with a multiversal hedgehog who impersonates me, who's using both the Phantom Ruby and the Paradox Prism."
"You have been involved with the Phantom Ruby." Miles added. "The Phantom Ruby however, you don't, so I'll explain. The Phantom Ruby is a red crystal capable of imposing edited illusions onto reality itself. But Metal Sonic from an alternative timeline got turned into Neo Metal, and overclocked the Ruby, revived Infinite of his timeline, and tried to get back on his Sonic. They both failed, so the overclocked Ruby ended up glitching in the world with the Paradox Prism."
"And when the alternate me was carrying the Prism, he found the overclocked Ruby. Both crystals reacted with one another, and the mysterious hedgehog came to be." Shadow added.
"Right. I was one of his many victims, and the me that you're talking to is... just an AI. In my flagship, Cyclone Supreme." Miles added. "I anticipated all that and tried Project Shadic, but he was one step ahead of me and my once-prosperous kingdom. Said hedgehog even went as far as to impersonate my Sonic, who died a hero killing my Eggman."
"And more recently, he shattered our world, as well as yours." Classic Tails added.
"The Prism conjunction reminds me of my extreme." Nine recalled. "back then, I went against all of you. Now, we fight alongside each other. Together."
"To save the... multiverse?" Batten wondered.
"Exactly." Sage ticked.
"That's all the Shatter people I wanted to recruit, and their mates as well." Miles approved. "Sonic, what are you holding?"
"The Exaclibur. I'm holding it with my own hand." Sonic revealed. "Merlina, I got the sword. How do I awaken it?"
"It's already awakened. But because you were victorious, it stopped speaking." Merlina replied. "It's like a normal sword, but still contain great powers."
"I am Lancelot? As in Sir Lancelot?" Shadow questioned. "Why do I look like him without some armors?"
Everyone laughed at the similarity, except Dread who's holding a mysterious scabbard by the time he's about to drown.
"What's this? Not a pirate's scabbard." Dread revealed the scabbard.
Merlina recognized it, and snatched the scabbard away. "It's mine now and then. Before, I used it to make sure the kingdom is eternal and beautiful forevermore. But, think about it, the Black Knight and Sir Sonic's words... I realized that it's better to live the kingdom's beauty till the end than to subject the kingdom to dark corruption just to make it immortal."
"Is that an excuse to stop saving the kingdom?" The hedgehog snitched.
"No!" Merlina sudders.
"What are you doing?!" Sonic called the hedgehog out. "You're so mean and petty and dangerous!"
"Sonic's right." Vector growls.
"He's right." Blaze agreed.
"Sonic's definitely right!" Chip defended Sonic. "The wizard was redeemed!"
"I'm using this scabbard to help Sir Sonic!" Merlina guarded the scabbard.
"Should've just scoffed at Sonic. Perhap even kill him before the round table empower him." The hedgehog disappeared. "Also, pirate suckers!"
"His mockery makes him evil me." Sonic dismissed.
"I agree." Knuckles agreed. "That's coming from someone whose naivety spell trouble for me and my friends."
"I agree with the real hedgehog, not the impersonator." Robotnik as well. "Right?"
"Yeah! At least I'm fine and child and... yo!" Eggman chuckled.
"I had the Phantom Ruby..." Infinite mumbled.
"Who's this guy?" Renegade Knucks asked.
"Some weird jackal." Catfish replied.
"His name is Infinite. No, really." Classic Knuckles responded.
"Help us! Please!" Zazz's voice rang through.
"Huh? Zazz? The real one?" Sonic heard it.
"The Zeti?" Eggman heard it as well.
The space suddenly shakes, seemingly as a result of the Phantom Ruby effect.
"Sonic! The Hyper Genesis Wave is about to be launched!" Zavok's voice rang through.
"Zavok!?" Sonic and Eggman caught off guard.
The effect caused the ship to lose control, leading to it spinning like crazy. Everyone onboard panicked as the ship flails around.
"Save me..." Black Doom's voice reached Shadow.
"No!" Shadow tripped down.
The effect becomes what's known as the Hyper Genesis Wave, which is the extreme version of the Super Genesis Wave, itself the supercharged Genesis Wave by the 7 Chaos Emeralds. The ship is struck by the wave, shattering it and spitting everyone and every crafts out, simultaneously destroying the AI. At the same time though, a Chaos Emerald got caught by Shadows. Realizing that everyone's about to die, Shadow did what he could...
"Chaos CONTROL!"
And so, all is teleported out, saved from the wave. But the multiverse is shattered, and the effect bleeds to other multiverses.
Two weeks later...
"Ugh..." Sonic woke up. "What... happened?"
A woman with mechanical, somewhat robotic lower half covered casually covered and also strapped the scabbard, and wears cropped black shirt covered in spectral aura of blue flames. Her feathery white scarf confused the real hedgehog, but the dark purple hair - now short and messy - yell-amber eyes and magic tattoos on her now-scarred face give a sense of familiarity.
"Merlina?" Sonic called the woman.
"Sir Sonic. We've been looking for you!" The woman hugged Sonic. "Here, I retrieved the sacred sword for you, and its... new handling."
The woman, may be actually Merlina herself, gave Sonic the sword, with a techy glove holding the handle. The glove doesn't seem to be of Eggman or Tails' design or technology.
"Thank you." Sonic fits the glove on. "Why did you changed so much? I only recognized you through your face. You strapped the scabbard to your pants. And you... even what going on with your face? Additionally, how long have we been?"
"Two weeks." Merlina revealed. "The Hyper Genesis Wave, caused by the mysterious hedgehog we're dealing with, would've annihilated us if Sir Lancelot didn't do the so-called 'Chaos Control' trick on us all. But we were still left with the after-effects, resulting in us falling down to this world. I suffered grievous injuries as a result, and survived mainly because of the scabbard. I was tended, rebuilt, and tuned, and all that and a style on the run later, I became more powerful and looked quite different. Our friends and co. got scarred and bled from the same after-effects, and had to get stronger and more survival. Some of them developed extra brutal style as well, and... then some."
"It's so complicated. Damn..." Sonic sighed. "You must've bled a ton."
"It's the engineers who used roboticization to rebuild me. I'm now a cyborg." Merlina added. "As I implied, I'm not the only one undergoing tuning and extras."
"We gotta go check-" Sonic was to run, but Tails returned with the old robot armor to show. "Tails, you're robot again."
"Dark Queen, I found out that this world is..." Tails reported... "Fused. Lots of other worlds' places grafted together. Rubbish's all over the place. Even the forest from Boscage is as if plucked into the greenery."
"Tails... we're in... a single, merged world?" Sonic figured it out.
"Yes. The hedgehog's one step closer to success." Tails confirmed. "The Hyper Genesis Wave has crumbled the entire multiverse into a single world."
"I have to find everyone!" Sonic accidentally blitzed through. "Huh? I'm much faster!" *back to the place* "What's this... glove? It's vibrating."
The glove exhibited vibration that seemingly numbed Sonic, but the real hedgehog tried to touch the ground with it. The hand phased through.
"I can even..." Sonic suddenly vibrated his body. "I can go through anything?"
A spin dash is enough to frag Sonic to a trash can filled with human body parts. The trash can exploded, spewing gibs and rotten blood.
"Ewww..." Merlina averted the view. "Disgusting."
"Yeah, that's gross." Sonic lands down. "I'm so much faster. I'm more... powerful."
Sonic takes the sword back, and was able to rapid slash with it. "I do everything even faster now." *Excalibur vibrates* "Wait, I can even transfer vibrations!"
The glove enveloped Sonic and the sword with light blue aura as the vibration ensues.
"A mysterious energy is resonating with your being, Sonic." Tails scanned Sonic. "Be careful!"
The glove stopped, and Sonic back to normal.
"How do the glove work?" Sonic then wear the sword on his back, behind his quill. "Gotta go find!"
The three rushed to the Angel Island, which Merlina reveals that's where the ship ended up. Thankfully, the full Team Superstars is alive... except the rest of the Resistance.
"We mourn the end of Resistance fools, who bravely fought for the better, whenever and whatever." Eggman, who's now wearing a camera for his left eye, mourned the members.
Yacker is crying at the remains of the ship, and the Wisps and the Avatar do a depressive salute for the mourning.
"Guys! Most of you are alive! Why are you so sad?" Sonic arrived at the scene.
"The post-rookie is the only surviving resistance to fight alongside us." Espio, who now have a prosthetic right arm. "We've confirmed all the other Resistance members have died in the fall to this merged world. Only Sage is completely unharmed, because she's our only AI left."
"The ship is destroyed and all the Resistance guys except the rookie fell to death!?"
The Avatar revealed themselves, with a Phantom Ruby grafted in their body, just like Infinite... and Infinite himself also showed with Phantom Ruby again.
"All of us except that cyber girl have sustained bloody wounds and injuries that necessitated repairs and reforms." Infinite explained. "This feels... familiar yet ironic..."
Classic Sonic, whose quill became messy and with now-rusted blood on his quill, hugged his modern counterpart.
"I've helped repair everyone. And what's wrong, Sonic?" The now-paraplegic Nine revealed.
To be continued...