Author's Note: Chapter 2 took much longer to write than I ever ever expected, mainly because I've been super busy in the real world. I sincerely apologize for that. Before you read, It thought I'd make sure that I say that a couple elements of this story were inspired by another fan fiction story. Specifically The Return Of Sonic X by BladeTheProtecter (published Apr 22, 2011). The author had a truly good point about one aspect of Sonic X's plot, and their idea for a story was just as good, but unfortunately the story got abandoned. I was so inspired by their idea that I decided to take just a part of it and incorporate it into this story. I hope you enjoy. Oh, and one more thing: in this chapter, I borrow one of the characters from the TV series Numb3rs, a show I admire greatly.
It was Thanksgiving. The Thorndyke family was hosting what was essentially a feast. It was a celebration of the friendships the family had made through the ages. It was the one true occasion every year where Chris' parents, Nelson and Lindsey, made sure to attend. After all, they figured, who works on Thanksgiving?
Chris's family had invited the families of Helen, Danny, and Frances. Topaz, an agent of the government, was also in attendance. Topaz had become good friends with the Thorndykes after her partner, Rouge the Bat, had returned to her home world with Sonic.
The dinner was excellent, for Ella had cooked it. She had spent the past two weeks planning the event and had made a huge deal about getting everything just right.
Chuck, Chris' grandfather, bit into a perfectly cooked turkey. "Mmmm," he said. "Ella, you have outdone yourself."
The others mumbled their agreement, mouths full of the succulent entrees. Ella smiled and said, "That's what you say nearly every time I cook for you."
Throughout the course of the meal, everyone talked and boasted about the latest that was happening.
"So," said Ella, "how is school for everybody?"
"It's pretty great, Ella." Danny replied. "Too bad Chris had to go to Sonic's world for nearly a year. Since he's missed a year, he has to completely redo all his courses for that year."
Chris's mother and father gave him a somewhat reproachful glance. All throughout Chris's time away, they had worried about him. Now that he was back, they never missed the opportunity to remind Chris of that fact.
"Yes Danny," Chris replied scornfully. "Thanks for letting me know."
To this everyone at the table chuckled. Danny shrugged and held his hands up innocently. "Hey, I'm sure getting to see Sonic again was totally worth it."
"You know Chris," Lindsey said, "you never really told us what you did in Sonic's world."
"Yeah!" Frances chimed in. "What was it like there?"
"Did you get to show him all the interesting inventions you were showing us before you left?" Helen asked, still chuckling.
Chris sighed. "Yeah, I know. I've been meaning to tell you—all of you…" His voice trailed off. But it's just too much! he thought.
Just then there was a ding!
Ella shot up right away. "That must be the pie I made for dessert! I will be right back!"
Mouths began to water as Ella spoke of the prospect of her famous pie.
Meanwhile, Chuck stroke his chin thoughtfully. "Chris, I've been meaning to tell you that recently I've made a few breakthrough calculations that if verified, it could open the door to a theory that could explain how Chaos Control worked."
Chris looked up, mildly interested. The power of Chaos was the least understood concept in human science, yet Sonic and his friends were living proof that the power of Chaos exists—or so most people thought. There was very small albeit vocal minority of people who refused to accept that Sonic the Hedgehog and Chaos were ever in existence. They argued that only a very powerful robot could achieve such high speeds and acquire such powerful energy, and the government had been trying to cover their own mistake by inventing the story of Sonic the Hedgehog and the power of Chaos energy.
Suddenly, there was another ding! This time it sounded different in tone. Everyone immediately recognized it as the doorbell.
This time it was Tanaka that shot up immediately, keen on performing his duties.
"I wonder who it is," Lindsey said. They had not been expecting another guest.
"It's rather strange to have a visitor come at this hour… on this day too!" Nelson agreed.
A few minutes passed.
"What's taking Tanaka so long to answer the door?" said Chris.
A minute later, Tanaka returned.
"Who was it?" asked Chris.
"Master Thorndyke," Tanaka began. He had always addressed Chris Master Thorndyke for as long as Chris could remember. Chris thought it sounded too formal—Tanaka was more a friend to him than just an impersonal butler. However, every time Chris had told Tanaka to call him otherwise, Tanaka never seemed to remember.
"Master Thorndyke, there is an agent of the government who wants to see your grandfather."
"Me?" Chuck asked incredulously.
Members of the table glanced in Topaz's direction when an agent of the government was mentioned. Topaz immediately put her hands up defensively, indicating she too had no idea why the government was here.
"Am I in trouble?" Chuck asked.
Tanaka frowned. "I do not know, Professor. I tried to invite him to come in, but he refused. He said he would only speak with Charles Thorndyke."
"Well, that's me," Chuck said, getting up. He walked briskly to the front door, Tanaka following.
At the door, Chuck was expecting meet a gruff and burly government agent. Instead, his eyes were greeted by a young face whose eyes showed a deep concern.
"Hello, I'm Charles Thorndyke."
The agent's face lit up as though he had been searching the world over for him.
"Good evening, my name is Don Eppes. I'm an agent for the government's bureau of investigations."
Chuck stiffened at those words. "Am I in trouble?"
Eppes exhaled sharply, then grinned warmly. "Maybe."
Chucked raised an eyebrow. "Do you want to come in?"
Inside, Eppes insisted they find a room where they could talk privately. His eyes moved around the house, absorbing everything. They headed upstairs, away from the ongoing feast, and entered an empty room.
"What's this about?" Chuck asked immediately.
Eppes turned to face Chuck, and his face grew solemn. "Professor," he began in a low voice, "are you aware of a government operation known as Project Homebound?"
Chuck frowned. "I am. I was involved in the operation. It was the plan to send Sonic the Hedgehog and everyone else from his world back to his world. Tails and I were essentially the only ones who figured out the technical aspects of it."
"Yes. Now, as a government agent I investigate cases of white-collar crime. It's usually cases like bank fraud, Ponzi schemes, forgeries—nothing violent."
"I'm aware of what white-collar crime is."
"A few months ago we were investigating a case of bank fraud. Someone had illegally withdrawn at least a hundred thousand dollars. When we searched the suspect's house, we found files relating to Project Homebound. Our suspect had been extensively researching Project Homebound. We even found several files about who you are, where you live, and a bunch more personal information."
"Are you saying that I have a stalker?" Chuck asked.
"No. What we found out is much more earth-shattering than a simple stalker. Tell me, Professor Thorndyke, who else was involved in Project Homebound?"
"There was a physicist from the National Science Institute by the name of Kim Bickley, who was researching how the presence of Sonic and his friends were affecting space and time in this world. If there was anything our world has ever found out that could be considered earth-shattering, the news she had delivered would certainly be it."
"And what was this earth-shattering news?"
"Well, she had recorded and published some observations which proved beyond a reasonable doubt that time itself was slowing down at a small but accelerating pace. She made calculations and predicted that if the time deceleration wasn't reversed as soon as possible, time itself would come to a stop. She made further mathematical observations which proved that the reason for the phenomenon was because there were two timelines that were melding together. She concluded that time was slowing due to the long-term presence of alien mass from the other timeline in this timeline."
"And that would be…"
"Sonic. Precisely. We were able to successfully reverse the damages through Project Homebound, by which we sent Sonic and his friends, along with Doctor Eggman and anything else that got sent to this world, home. In doing so, we essentially made it so that both timelines became independent universes."
"Professor, before going along with Project Homebound, did you verify Dr. Bickley's calculations to ensure that they were accurate?"
"Of course," replied Chuck in a tone that said What kind of question is that?
"Right, right," Eppes said, "you wouldn't want to send Sonic and his friends home prematurely by mistake, right?"
Eppes focused his eyes intently on Chuck as he said this. Chuck frowned at him, "Agent Eppes, is there something you are insinuating?"
Eppes closed his eyes. "Professor Thorndyke, what was originally a run-of-the-mill bank fraud case turned out to be a huge scheme to defraud the entire government." Eppes opened his eyes and focused intently on Chuck again.
Chuck was interested. "What kind of scheme?"
"Professor, I'm going to be blunt with you. I want to make sure that you were not involved in this scheme. I want to share top secret information with you. Normally, you would need a security clearance. If this information is told to the wrong people…"
"Agent," Chuck said emphatically, "I swear that I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."
The agent stared at Chuck for a short while, then finally deciding that it was okay to trust him, he continued: "Professor, do you know what Project Shadow is?"
Chuck raised his eyebrows. "Yes, I've come to be familiar with it."
"There was a prototype of Shadow that was built by a Gerald Robotnik. Gerald Robotnik is the grandfather of the same Doctor Eggman that came to this world from Sonic's."
"What? How do you know this?" Chuck inquired incredulously.
"Professor, do you know anyone who has successfully traveled to Sonic's world?"
Chuck hesitated, then said, "Yes, my grandson Christopher traveled there about a year ago."
"How long did he stay in the other universe?"
"Almost ten months," Chuck replied.
"And how long did Sonic the Hedgehog remain in this universe when he originally arrived?"
"Not long, actually, though it felt like forever. About… ten months. Wait a second." Chuck frowned deeply, as if something troubled him profoundly. "If the presence of Sonic in this world for ten months is enough to cause time to halt, then the presence of Chris in Sonic's world should have had the same effect, if not more pronounced—"
"Now wait a second, Professor," Eppes interrupted. "Like I told you, Dr. Eggman was originally born in this world. That means his alien mass was already in Sonic's world for years prior to coming to our world in the original Chaos Control incident. In fact, as I understand it, his alien mass is still there."
Chuck closed his eyes in deep thought for about a minute before suddenly snapping his head up with a look of absolute horror in his eyes.
"So that would mean our two worlds should still be merging. That should mean that time should have stopped by now. But it hasn't," Chuck said grimly. He suddenly remembered the day when Sonic and his friends left. Chris had caused the portal he and Tails had created to stop operating, and Chris and Sonic fled. They had been missing for more than a day—enough time to have caused time to allegedly stop, but it didn't stop then. How could he have been so foolish not to notice?
"The only way to explain this," Chuck said slowly, "is if Dr. Bickley was wrong in the original observations that time was slowing."
"Didn't you say you verified Dr. Bickley's calculations?" Eppes asked accusingly.
"We verified her calculations, but no one confirmed her original observations. Agent Eppes, you have to realize that we were under the threat of time stopping. With all due respect, we were so focused on fixing the situation that I suppose we just trusted her on some points. We had no idea we were extrapolating on false data!"
"Tell me Professor, what can cause the data to be false?"
"Well, I don't know. She may have had faulty equipment—"
"Professor Thorndyke, isn't it true that she could have fabricated the evidence that the two worlds were merging?"
"I suppose it's possible…"
With this, Agent Eppes stood up and offered his hand. "Thank you, Professor Thorndyke. That's all I needed to hear."
Chuck eyed the hand suspiciously. "Now wait just a minute. You can't just tell all this to me and expect me to just not do anything!" Chuck raised his voice. "If what you are saying is true, this means that Sonic and his friends might not have had to go back to their world in the first place, am I right?"
"Professor, this much is clear: the government is in possession of evidence which proves unequivocally that Dr. Kim Bickley intentionally and maliciously misappropriated government resources on Project Homebound by lying about the data. No, I suppose that Sonic and his friends did not have to go back to their own world after all. The government is suspecting that that was the motive behind her actions—she wanted to get rid of Sonic from this world."
"That's insane! She… she's crazy!"
"Professor, Dr. Bickley will be arrested and charged with defrauding the government as soon as possible," Eppes said curtly, then he turned and walked out the door.
Before going out of sight, he turned. "Have a good night," he said, and then he was gone.
Chuck stood there for a while, alone.
How on Earth am I going to tell Chris?