Author's note: As always, I would like to thank you, the reader, for sticking with me this far. The previous chapter was challenging to write. It is the first to feature someone who is truly evil (Doctor Eggman is like half-evil, and Shadow is simply misguided). It was difficult to find the right degree of evil. I want this story to be enjoyable by the same audience as the original Sonic X anime, so it would be inadvisable for me to feature a psychopathic serial killer that you might find on a more adult-themed show like Criminal Minds. Accordingly, I hope that Chris's close encounter with death in the last chapter was not more traumatizing than any of the other close calls we see in the anime.
I very much appreciate all of your reviews and comments. More than anything else, it is your words that motivate me into continuing this story, since I know that there is at least one person out there who is actually reading it and enjoying it. For being in that role, thank you. Thank you endlessly.
Oh, and I also discovered that the name of one of Chris's human friends is spelled Frances with an 'e', not Francis with an 'i'. I've gone back and fixed that across all of the past chapters. Apologies if that was off-putting (it would have been to me if I had known).
In Sonic's world, a little sassy robot named Bokkun was flying through the air. Held against his side was a messenger bag that normally carried an exploding video message from Doctor Eggman. This time was no different, but in addition to the video message, Bokkun also carried with him an envelope containing documents—those weren't meant to explode. Bokkun watched lazily as the terrain around him changed from grassy fields to tall, rocky mountains. Soon, however, a set of palm trees came into view, clashing with the mountainous terrain surrounding it. To an outside observer, these palm trees would have been a strange anomaly in its surrounding environment, but to the creatures that inhabited this world, they were a well-known symbol, for they marked the entrance to the workshop of Miles Prower.
"Hey Tails!" called Bokkun, alighting just before the opening of the workshop and extinguishing his jetpack. He had yet to make visual contact with the fox cub, but the garage door was open, indicating that he was indeed home. "Tails! I know you're in there! I have an important message from Doctor Eggman!"
There was no response, but this did not faze Bokkun, who strolled right into the workshop despite no invitation. After poking around a bit, he spotted Tails sitting in a chair at the back of the workshop, seemingly immersed in thought. In front of Tails was a set of schematic diagrams and books. His eyebrows were scrunched up, his eyes pointed upwards, and he played around with one of his tails, stroking it gently and hugging it close to his face. Bokkun struggled to resist snickering. In their world, playing with one's tail (or tails, in this case) was something that little children did, similar to how human children sometimes carry blankies. Bokkun knew, however, that he did not have enough time to make fun of him—Eggman had specifically mentioned that time was of the essence in the delivery of this message, and making fun of Tails would needlessly delay that and risk making the boss angry.
"Tails!" shouted Bokkun.
"AHH!" screamed Tails, who jumped up in surprise at the sound of Bokkun's shrill voice, letting go of his tail immediately. When he turned to look towards Bokkun, he jumped up a second time in fright and immediately dove back behind his chair to protect himself from the inevitable explosions that resulted from Bokkun's visits. There was a time when Bokkun would have been offended by this reaction, but nowadays, it was par for the course, and it even amused him slightly.
"That's not a very polite way to greet a visitor," sassed Bokkun, smirking. He reached into his messenger bag, pulled out a television screen—Tails tensed up immediately upon seeing it—and then pressed a button, turning it on. "Listen up, Tails, because Doctor Eggman has something he wants to say to you."
Before Tails could respond, the cackling voice of Doctor Eggman soon filled the room. "Hello, Tails. How have you been?"
"Just get to what you want to say," said Tails.
"Sheesh," said Eggman, "someone's cranky." (The messages were generally not prerecorded; instead, Bokkun's screens served as two-way communicators to allow Eggman to deliver messages in real time.)
"I'm not in the mood, today, Eggman," said Tails. "What do you want?"
"Come on, Tails," said Eggman with a hint of disappointment in his voice. "I know I'm smarter than you, but I'll grant that you're not dumb either. You know what I want."
Tails didn't say anything at first, considering Eggman for a moment, then finally nodded shortly and stepped out from behind the chair. "Yeah, Sonic's gone," he said. "He disappeared along with Shadow." His tails flitted back and forth in excitement—perhaps Eggman knew where he was!
As if reading Tails's mind, Eggman replied, "Unfortunately, I do not know where Shadow and Sonic are, other than that they are not on this planet. I do, however, have a theory. I think that Shadow and Sonic, in the course of their battle, found the Chaos emeralds and caused Chaos Control. You were the one who was keeping all the Chaos emeralds—are they still with you now?"
Tails gulped, his ears flopping down. "No, I gave them to Sonic."
Eggman shook his head and facepalmed. "That hedgehog is an idiot. I'm guessing he turned into Super Sonic and allowed Shadow to turn into Super Shadow too. I swear, the only thing he is good at is running fast and spinning into things to destroy them. He can't think more than one step ahead of the game."
Tails immediately got defensive. "Sonic's a lot smarter than you think! He would never do something to hurt others if he could avoid it. And he's managed to beat you like a million times!"
"Nevertheless," growled Eggman, "we have to figure out where they went. There are two possibilities: they could have gone somewhere into outer space, maybe on a different planet, or they could have gone to a completely different universe. I want to find Shadow, and you want to find Sonic, and both of us have knowledge we can share to benefit each other. How about we work together?" Eggman grinned mischievously.
"No way," said Tails, crossing his arms. "I'd never trust you!"
Eggman shook his head in disappointment. "That's too bad," he said, "because I just happen to have already built a device that can hop universes—it's how I sent that annoying brat you used to have with you back to his own world."
Tails widened his eyes. "You mean Chris."
"Yes, him," said Eggman. "To accomplish the feat, I used residual energy from the Master Emerald, which Knuckles has." Eggman smirked. "I suppose I could have tried to fool him into trusting me again, but now that I've done that half a dozen times, I wanted to try something new: convincing you to trust me."
Tails scowled at Eggman. "Well, it isn't gonna work!" he said.
"Oh, I think it will. See, there is a time difference between this universe and other universes. The universe where the brat was from—a year there is just a month here—which explains why he grew up to be 18 years old when we only aged six months. Sonic and Shadow have already been gone for six hours. You do the math."
The color in Tails's face drained. "3 days," he whispered.
"Yes, my foxy friend. In the worst case scenario, Sonic will have been all alone with Shadow in some random universe for 3 days now. Depending on the universe, that could be life threatening. What if the universe has no food or water? I don't want that for Shadow as much as you don't want that for Sonic. He is my top asset. Bokkun?"
The messenger robot, during the course of Tails' and Eggman's conversation, had drifted off and started to tinker around with some of the gadgets scattered throughout Tails' workshop. Upon hearing his named called out, Bokkun jumped backwards and dropped a multimeter he was playing around with, causing it to rattle on the floor loudly. "Yes, Doctor?" he said meekly.
"Give Tails the documents," ordered Eggman.
Bokkun ran over to his messenger bag and pulled out the orange envelope containing the documents, handing them over to Tails. When Tails opened the documents, he gasped.
"These are schematics of the machine you used to teleport Chris home!" cried Tails. He then frowned and looked at Eggman's face in the monitor accusingly. "Why didn't you give these to me when I asked for them a few weeks ago? I wanted to see whether you actually sent Chris home!"
"Because it didn't matter before," said Eggman. "It does now. Besides, my evil genius doesn't come cheap. You know what you have to do, Tails. Improve the designs using the Master Emerald, and I will provide the electrical and mechanical work you need."
"I can already see one place you can improve on," said Tails. "Why did you use the iron buffer on the O-ring instead of the steel one? Steel is stronger and can even handle the large energy flow that comes with Chaos Control."
Eggman grumbled. "I knew that already!"
This was a lie. In reality, Tails had just solved within seconds a mechanical problem he had been stumped on for the past few days. Eggman would never in his life admit this to Tails, but he knew deep down that Tails was actually vastly more intelligent than him, and as a result, he held a complicated sense of admiration for the fox cub. Tails was only eight years old, yet his craft in engineering was beyond prodigious. He was, however, still a child—one who was bullied in his younger days, no less. His naïveté and dependence on Sonic was, in the eyes of Eggman, his exploitable weakness.
"I'll leave you to finish it by the end of the day," said Eggman. "Remember, an hour here is twelve there. Use the Master Emerald to find the Chaos emeralds. Find the Chaos emeralds, find Shadow and Sonic, then use my machine to get there." Eggman grinned. "And this message will now self-destruct!"
On cue, Bokkun pressed a button on the screen, causing it to detonate immediately. Bokkun fired up his jetpack and escaped the blast without a scratch. Poor Tails, however, was caught in the epicenter. The explosion deafened his ears, producing a temporary ringing sound, and dark ash blackened his fur and left a layer of soot over that area of his workshop. The now-destroyed screen still smoldered, creating a thin cloud of smoke that covered the whole workshop.
Tails coughed. "I hate Eggman."
Outside, Bokkun giggled uncontrollably. The routine never got old. The look of surprise on Tails's face, the ash that then covered it—priceless. Priceless every time.
Bokkun was gliding over the mountains, but found it difficult to fly while laughing so hard, so he found a nearby tree to land on and continued his guffawing, rolling over with his back on the tree branch and thrashing his legs about happily. "Oh, I love my job," sighed Bokkun after a while.
"Good for you," said a female voice, a sinister voice, one that pierced through Bokkun's heart like a knife, ending his humorous mood immediately. Bokkun just laid there paralyzed in fear. That voice. That dumb, mortifying, manipulative voice. When he finally gathered up the courage to talk back, he screamed.
"GO AWAY, ROUGE!"
Rouge the Bat flew down from a higher branch of the tree and landed next to Bokkun. She feigned a look of hurt. "That's no way to talk to a friend," she said.
"You're not my friend!" yelled Bokkun. "And I don't care about anything that you do anymore. You can do whatever you want as long as you LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Oh, really?" teased Rouge. "I can do anything as long as I leave you alone?"
Bokkun said nothing, looking away, but the sweat glands that were built into his head betrayed his state of overwhelming nervousness.
"Does anything include this?" said Rouge. Bokkun did not even have to look at what Rouge was holding up. He already knew exactly what it was.
A pink, heart-shaped locket tied to a necklace. Rouge had stolen this particular locket from Bokkun at the beginning of the Metarex adventure and used it to blackmail Bokkun, manipulating him into doing things like drugging Eggman so that she could sneak into his base.
When Bokkun finally turned to look, his face flushed pink in unbearable embarrassment, but he continued to say nothing, determined not to let Rouge win this time. Rouge, for her part, smirked and sat with her back against the tree trunk at a slight distance from Bokkun. She held the locket in her hands, looking at it intently. After a few seconds of silence, she decided to break it open, revealing its compromising contents.
As soon as Bokkun heard the click of the locket opening, he sprung up and ran towards Rouge aggressively. "NO! Don't look inside! Anything but that! Give it back! Please, please, please!"
Rouge, however, predicted this response, and as soon as she opened the locket, she spread her wings and shot up onto a higher branch of the tree. After she was safely away from his sudden assault, the little messenger robot collapsed onto his lower branch and sobbed resignedly. Bokkun had tried so many times to steal the locket back from Rouge, but she was always too clever and too quick for him. He had simply given up.
Rouge smiled deviously and looked down into the opened locket. There stood a picture of Cream the Rabbit, smiling into the sun against the backdrop of the blue sky, with a field of daisies dazzling around her. "Wow,"said Rouge, "she is really pretty. I think it's cute that you have a crush on her. I wonder how she would feel if I—"
"OKAY!" screamed Bokkun. "Okay, you win! I'll do anything you ask. Please don't tell anyone."
Rouge closed the locket in one hand with a satisfying click!. "Attaboy," said Rouge. "Tell me, what did Doctor Eggman say to Tails?"
"Are you okay, Amy?" asked Cream.
The two were having a picnic out in a beautiful field of flowers on a hill. Amy was staring off into the distance, her eyes betraying her worried feelings. When Cream spoke, Amy jolted upwards, shaking her head and looking at her rabbit friend.
"I'm sorry, Cream. What were you saying?"
"I was talking about how my mother and I would still love it if you moved in with us," replied Cream, who hesitated for a few seconds, then said, "You're worried about Sonic, aren't you?"
Amy sighed. "Is it that obvious?" she asked meekly. "He only disappeared this morning, but I'm already a nervous wreck."
Cream smiled and put her hand on Amy's shoulder, embracing her gently. "Sonic always knows what to do," she said. "He'll make sure everything is going to be okay in the end! He hasn't ever been wrong about that. Right, Amy?"
Amy smiled, misty-eyed. She pulled in the rabbit into a warm, heartfelt hug. Over Cream's shoulder, she said, "I just can't help but worry. I just think, what if he's all alone in some strange universe with no people in it? What if… what if I never see…" Her voice trailed off, and Cream tightened her embrace.
Finally, Amy ended the hug and looked at Cream resolutely. "You're right!" she declared. "Sonic does crazy things sometimes, and sometimes I wonder why I ever liked him. But then he always comes back and reminds me that he is the smartest, the kindest, and the toughest hedgehog I know. He will come through, just like he has always."
Cream beamed. That's the Amy I know, she thought.
When they finished their picnic, they packed up their things and began to walk home together: down the hill, up the valley, and past the dirt road.
"Do you ever feel lonely sometimes?" asked Cream after a while.
Amy looked at Cream in surprise. This was not a question she was expecting out of the blue.
"I'm so sorry!" Cream said quickly. "I didn't mean— that was a rude question. I didn't mean to hurt—"
"Shhh," said Amy, laughing a little. Cream was undoubtedly the most polite creature she had ever had the pleasure to meet. She knew she meant well and didn't mean to be rude; it would take a lot for Cream to upset Amy. "It's true that I live alone," explained Amy, "and I guess I do feel lonely sometimes. But then I remember I have so many good friends like you and Sonic, and then I feel all better."
Cream smiled, blushing gently, and looked off into the distance. "Sometimes, I feel a little lonely too," she said. "I miss Ella and Tanaka a lot. And also Cosmo. And Chris's friends Frances, Danny, and Helen too. There are so many good friends I've met that I can't see anymore, and I miss them so much sometimes."
"I miss them too," said Amy, who smiled and also decided to look off into the distance.
"Look!" said Cream, pointing. "We're about to pass Sonic's house."
Amy looked in the direction Cream was pointing, and her heart leapt when she saw a familiar house come into view. Like he used to do in Chris's world, Sonic would usually spend much of his time napping on the top of his roof. The roof was noticeably empty at the moment, however, and this rekindled the feelings of worry that Amy previously had.
"That's odd," remarked Cream. "The door is still open. Do you think he forgot to close it?"
Amy frowned. That wasn't necessarily unusual for Sonic—he usually just speeds out the door to go on a run, and closing the door would be an extra step in the process that would slow him down. However, adding this on top of Sonic's disappearance made this a little worrisome.
"Maybe we should go check it out," proposed Amy, and the two turned off the main road to approach the Sonic residence.
When they got there, they didn't notice any signs of trouble. They decided to look inside the house, and everything was fairly neat, and it didn't look like the house had been intruded on or been disturbed. Nothing looked out of place. It was exactly as both girls remembered the house being the last time they visited.
Cream giggled. "He must've just forgotten to close the door."
Amy laughed too. "That's Sonic for you."
They were about to turn to go when out of the corner of her eye, Amy spotted something that she didn't notice before. "Wait a second, Cream. What's that?"
Cream looked in the direction Amy was pointing, and in the very back of the room on the countertop, she saw what looked like a bracelet. Because it was toward the back of the house, she couldn't really make out what it looked like, other than that it was a bracelet.
"Huh," said Cream innocently. "I didn't know Sonic wore bracelets."
"He doesn't," said Amy, frowning. She began to walk toward the countertop. Why would Sonic have a bracelet in his house? she thought. Who would leave that there?Was there… was there a girl? Who don't I know about?
Amy quickened her pace as her thoughts escalated into more serious hypotheticals, until suddenly she froze. She was close enough to the counter to get a good look at the bracelet, and as soon as she saw it in front of her, she stood paralyzed, heart racing.
"What is it, Amy?" asked Cream worriedly. "What's going on?"
Hands shaking, Amy reached out and gently picked up the bracelet. Cream gasped when she saw it. On a tattered band were several pale-colored seashells lined up in a ring. A few of the shells were damaged, with a few pieces chipped off, but for the most part, the bracelet looked all right.
"I made this," Amy whispered. "Back in Chris's world, when we visited the beach at the Thorndyke's villa. Sonic didn't want to come because he doesn't like water, and I overheard a couple saying that these seashells were special and that they would protect whoever was wearing them in the water. So I made a bracelet out of them for him."
Cream stared in awe. "It's beautiful, Amy."
"I… I thought it was destroyed," said Amy, tears forming. "Eggman showed up, and he brought along one of his robots. The robot crushed the bracelet. I was so mad. I spent the whole day making it for Sonic, and just like that, it was gone."
Amy wiped her face and began to lose her composure. "B-but Sonic f-found it, and he f-fixed it. All-all this time, it's been here. He's had it. He never forgot about it."
Amy gripped the bracelet tightly and held it closely to her chest. "Oh Sonic… I hope you're all right."
Sonic and Chris spent the next day catching up. After the events of the previous night, Sonic did not want to take any chances, so he tried not to let Chris out of his sight. This made for a great opportunity to just chat with him.
Chris showed Sonic his new designs for a Chaos emerald tracker, which Sonic gratefully applauded. Sonic told Chris about how his friends back home were doing. They were outside on the balcony of Chris's room in his parent's mansion. Sonic laid back along the railing of the balcony, while Chris sat in a chair. Below them was a swimming pool. When Chris first met Sonic, Sonic had accidentally fallen into the pool. Unable to swim, he might have drowned if Chris hadn't jumped into the pool and saved him.
Just after noon, the doorbell rang.
"That's strange," remarked Chris. "I don't think we were expecting anyone."
Sonic frowned. This might not be good.
"Either Ella or Tanaka usually answers the door," said Chris, "but given what happened last night, do you think we should go downstairs to back them up in case something bad happens?"
Sonic nodded. "Sounds good to me."
When the two came to the main stairwell that led to the front door, they saw Tanaka about to open it.
"Master Chris, did you invite a guest for this afternoon?" asked the butler.
"No, Tanaka," he replied. "I don't know who it is."
Tanaka frowned and entered a ready stance. "Do not worry, Master Chris. I will protect you in case there is any danger." With that, Tanaka opened the door and immediately jumped back, resuming his ready stance. "I prepared to defend the Thorndyke residence and all its inhabitants, at the cost of my own life if necessary!" shouted Tanaka.
Outside was a particularly shocked mailman.
Chris cringed in embarrassment, and Sonic looked away, covering his face with his hand.
"I, uh, just need you to sign for a package," said the mailman.
"We are not expecting any packages today!" said Tanaka.
"It says it's for…" The mailman turned the package over in order to read the label. "… Professor Charles Thorndyke?"
Again, Chris and Sonic cringed in embarrassment. There was an awkward silence for a few moments before a side door opened, revealing Chuck himself in his lab coat with perspiration lining his face.
"S-sorry…" Chuck panted. "Got here… as soon as I heard the doorbell… forgot to tell you guys… I had an order arriving today… elevator to the basement lab… broken, took the stairs here… needed a—whew, I shouldn't have built the lab so deep!"
The whole thing had been a false alarm. After many apologies were uttered, the mailman drove away in his van with a perplexed look.
Chris rubbed the back of his head meekly. "I guess we're all kind of on edge since our scare yesterday," he said.
Sonic felt guilt course through him. He felt responsible for putting Chris in danger last night, and he was determined not to let it happen again. He decided to change the subject. "So Chuck, what are you working on?"
Chuck beamed proudly. "Now that the Chaos emeralds are back in this world, we can use their practically limitless energy to power devices. Chris and I found a way to cause Chaos Control, which was how he sent himself to your world a few months ago."
Chris's face lit up. "Hey, you're right!" he said. "Our biggest stumbling block while building that machine was twofold: energy consumption and targeting the destination. For the energy consumption, we kind of just used the power grid, which was extremely expensive, and for the destination, I found a way to locate the energy signature of the Master Emerald in your world, which at the time still had a quantum alignment to our world. But now that the Chaos emeralds are back in this world, that neatly solves both problems: we can use the Chaos emeralds for energy and we can also use the Chaos emeralds' intrinsic connection with the Master Emerald to locate Sonic's world."
"And with some luck, we might even be able to get a message across," said Chuck. "Let Tails and the others know where you are." Chuck looked at Sonic intently. "How is Tails doing, by the way, Sonic?"
Sonic realized that unlike Chris, Chuck hadn't seen Tails in seven years. He was probably missing him. "He's the same old, same old," said Sonic, grinning.
Chuck smiled back, misty-eyed. "You always were like an older brother to him, Sonic," said Chuck. "He told me himself."
Sonic laughed. "We've been pals for a long time."
Chris smiled and looked off into the distance. "He's probably worried about you, isn't he? He and all the rest of your friends back in your world. This time, they didn't get sent here with you."
Sonic nodded and then shrugged, "I'm sure we'll find a way to see them again in no time."
Chris could not help but feel a momentary pang of guilt. Back when Sonic was last in Chris's world, Chris had prevented Sonic from returning to his own world through the portal that his friends used to get back. Instead, Chris had spent a day running away from home, and to his surprise, Sonic followed right by his side. He didn't want Sonic to leave. Before Sonic, he had been lonely, the only child of parents who were never around, and he feared that Sonic's departure would cause him to return to that lonely life. When Chris eventually asked Sonic whether he preferred to return to his own world or stay in Chris's world, Sonic claimed that he didn't have a preference. As long as he had space to run freely, he would be happy no matter where he was. Hearing that, it was incredibly tempting to ask Sonic to stay, but once he made the decision to let Sonic go, he never once regretted doing so. It had been selfish of him to run away with him in the first place, and it would have been selfish of him to force Sonic to stay. It would have forced Sonic to abandon some of his own best friends like Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Cream. Moreover, all of Sonic's friends themselves would be devastated not to have Sonic around anymore. It simply wouldn't have been fair. Why should Sonic stick around for him, a boy he barely knew for more than a year, over someone who was practically a little brother to him?
Now that Sonic was back, it seemed that things had come completely full circle: Sonic was now back in his world and fully able to stay forever, but at the expense of not having all his other friends around. It felt almost as if he really did ask Sonic to stay forever all those years ago. It didn't feel good.
"Sonic?" said Chris. "I want to help you make sure that you and Tails and all your other friends see each other again."
Sonic looked at Chris and regarded him carefully, then smiled. "Thanks, Chris."
At this point, Ella came into the room. When she noticed Sonic, she immediately approached him excitedly. "Sonic, how are you? It's been such a long time!" she cried, embracing the hedgehog in a tight hug.
"Y-yeah," said Sonic, struggling to breathe due to being squeezed. "It's been cool."
"And yet you haven't changed much at all!" Ella remarked.
"There's a time difference between our universes," Chris explained. "A year here is only a month there, so for Sonic, only about seven months have passed."
"No wonder!" said Ella, finally releasing Sonic. "I thought I might never see you or your friends again. I've still been collecting recipes, and if Amy or Cream ever stop by, I would like to give them my updated collection."
Sonic grinned. "They would love that for sure."
"There is a particular seafood medley that Tanaka's girlfriend really likes that I'm sure you would enjoy too," said Ella. "You just need to—"
"Hold up now," said Sonic, raising his hands. "Let's back this up here. Tanaka has a girlfriend?"
Everyone in the room laughed. "You have been gone for seven years," pointed out Tanaka. "I suppose a lot can happen in that time."
Sonic whistled appreciatively. "No kidding. Congrats, my friend."
Chris chuckled. "For us, this isn't anything new. They've been dating for over five years now. She's practically family at this point."
Chuck began coughing deliberately, muttering something like "which is why he should propose" between the coughs.
Tanaka blushed at Chuck's remark and shifted his glasses nervously. "She's, uh, coming here tomorrow for dinner. Sonic, I think you've met her before when you were here last time."
"Oh yeah? What's her name?"
"Her name is Topaz. She is a special agent for G.U.N."