Spoilers from included and/or represented works abound. Please read this fiction carefully.
The army arrived at the way to the 10th floor. Sonic phased by the gate, and was about to put his face to the biometrics. However...
"Sonic! Sonic! Are your allies ok?" The voice of Prime!Shadow rang on the head. "I'm warning you, other Sonic. If you want to save everything... kill Shatter. He's not only the one responsible for everything... if he's not stopped, he'll end up dooming all of existence. From beyond."
"Shadow the accented? Wait... I can hear you outside of dream worlds now." Sonic heard it. "What's about his name?"
"He goes by Shatter, but any attempt to confirm the real name would only lead to our torture." Prime!Shadow replied. "But... well, you will have to kill him at the end. Otherwise, he'll get his way no matter what, and all of existence will be shattered!"
"Uh... I'm not sure if Shatter is just an alias or it's the real name, but of course, we're on our way!" Sonic replied. "Oh, and did you talk to the so-called Yatsukahagi about their current whereabouts?"
"You mean Tai-Atziluth? They're in the test tubes on the higher floors!" Prime!Shadow revealed. "They were to be test subjects, just like... some expedition or something!"
"Wait... you mean... the Eastern Expedition that Habaki and Rindou mentioned!?" Sonic is shocked. "They're..."
"Go see for yourself. It'll only further prove Shatter is evil beyond measure." Prime!Shadow suggested. "And don't trust his friends either... They're actually brainwashed or corrupted into his friends."
"Even President Miles!? But he tried to protect his kingdom he built by himself and thrived! He even had Project Shadic!" Sonic recalled. "He was planning to work with you!"
"Yeah, but I'm afraid he's definitely brainwashed. He forgot about his now-fallen kingdom. He serves for Shatter now." Prime!Shadow sighed. "Avenge him and his project. Kill Shatter."
Not long after, the gate opened. Sonic then told everyone about the conversation he just had with Prime!Shadow, from the whereabouts of Yatsukahagi/Tai-Atziluth to the states of things (and Miles).
"President Miles... brainwashed by... Shatter?" The New Yoke resistance in disbelief.
"Guys... in test tubes like where we were!?" Habaki is shocked.
"We have to kill the mysterious hedgehog. He is responsible for the Hyper Genesis Wave!" Sonic added. "Let's go. We have a pretty long way."
The 10th floor is largely the same as the 9th floor, only more spacious and etched with some runes.
"Ok, this place is getting morrre omninous..." Black Rose sneaked on. "Ye be careful. There may be traps."
"The one thing we definitely share is the reason to fight." Robotnik declared. "Onwards to the 11th! Turn up to 11!" *bumps* "Huh? Already?"
"I and Nine navigated this floor for us all." Sage bowed.
"Good." Maria knocked the gate to the 11th floor. "Sonic, can you help us with the entrance?"
"Oh, right! I was looking through the runes... Seems like it can spawn some mooks." Sonic came back to track. "So I kicked some of them, and ran away with it. I come here to-"
"DIE!" The Roboticized Masters are chasing Sonic.
Sonic quickly phased and authorized, unlocking the gate and allowing the unified army to get through. A Vector Man, an Espio Man and a Charmy Man came by for chase, but the gate closed before they could fully pass through.
"Damn it! We're stuck!" Charmy Man threw a tantrum.
"Good." Habaki left the gate. "We're in the 11th. Keep going!"
The 12th was the same as the 11th, only with more runes and some engineering sites built in. The army left the Roboticized Masters from the 11th, and the hedgehog heard that.
"Ok, let me help you." The hedgehog (goes by 'Shatter') teleported to the scene and authorized with his biometrics, and it approved.
The gate opened, and the three Masters came to the 12th floor. By that point, the unified army has already gone to the 13th.
"Ugh, the maze." Espio Man gave up for now. "Time to ask where exactly they went."
"Ok, Tails, have you neutralized the demon pests?" The hedgehog teleported back, and asked about the Tai-Atziluth.
"I have. This, along with the two transcendent freaks leaving, purified the noises." Miles reported. "All that delayed the Dreamweaver experiment. And ruined the ritual in the process, meaning our subject last night became wasted!"
"I and the two bots have disposed of the scourge." Nightmare Rose reported. "The two bots should never be able to mess up again. They're literally learning from their mistakes."
"It's a good thing the potential bugs are all fixed." Miles gave a thumb-up. "Well, back to Tangle and Whisper..."
Two Grim robots appeared behind Miles, both imitating the lemur and the variable wolf themselves, respectively.
"Grim Tangle and Grim Whisper." The hedgehog glanced. "Pretty cool. You can use both."
Meaning, Scourge, whose entire body suffered third-degree burns, plus some fourth-degrees on limbs, easily dying. However, two lost hedgehogs arrived, and used a modified roboticization device to revive him.
"Ugh..." Scourge woke up in his new robian form. "Where... am... I..."
"You were dying from the electricity we detected." A female in pink fur revealed. "You're... Scourge?"
"Huh? You... know me?" Scourge is confused. "Why... am I... saved?"
"Turns out, you received third-degree burns, plus a bit of fourth-degree, and you were dying. According to the device we used earlier this morning." A male in green fur revealed. "We saved you by turning you into a robian. Because you were fighting against team Shatter. We're, too, and we had no choice but to save you."
"Volnutt!? I hope he's okay!" Scourge panicked. "I've become... a robian!?"
Scourge got up with his new body reminescent of Metal Sonic but with his own original color scheme.
"He's technically ok, but he's depressed. Volnutt's the one who saved us. To repay the favor as well as giving us the chance, we're consuming the serum the false Amy designed." The female revealed the dream serum. "We stole it, just like he did."
"Wait... who are you?" Scourge stepped back.
An yellow mongoose in some casual clothes, accompanied by a Magenta Wisp, appeared with a custom guitar. "Hello there. It's me, Mina MonGoose. This is Bowie, my partner. And here's my collaborators because I want to get back to my existence so bad!"
"Sonia." The female introduced her.
"Manic!" The male sits on a drum kit. "We're here because we've learned about team Shatter."
"My god, I had to contact Sally and Nicole!" Mina recalled. "I'm here because I was able to evade sights from all the Badniks!"
"You... oh, you're all... musical guys who just saved me." Scourge caught on. "And..."
"You're from Moebius, the reverse Mobius." Sonia recalled the files.
"Can we... help the Dreamweaver? Actually, if you didn't know, her name is Ariem." Scourge stood back up. "She told us army I got contact to... work together. Turns out, there's... versions of Sonic."
"Sonic!?" Sonia and Manic shocked. "Our brother..."
"Uh, I don't think my original brain is properly working anymore. I feel like my memory are only here right now because of the roboticization process." Scourge realized. "I need the dream serum. We need to consume it together."
"Well, then it's about time I drink this." Mina sighed, and then drank a serve of the dream serum.
Sonia and Manic then took the order and drink the serum, before dousing the remaining the serum onto Scourge's metal body. The metal instantly received the Dreamweaver's essence.
"Whatever the dream world it is, we can talk freely on there now." Mina then briefly riffs.
"Finally! Through the Cyber Dream, we can now freely talk through telepathy when awake!" Scourge got it. "Volnutt, I'm back! I got saved by roboticization!"
Meanwhile, in the 13th floor...
"Ok, here goes nothing..." Sonic phased through the gateway.
"Sonic!" Prime!Shadow intervened. "I found something!"
"Huh?" Sonic then authorized, allowing the army through. "Come."
"Everyone?" Prime!Shadow is able to talk to the unified army.
"Wait... the other me?" Shadow is surprised. "We can hear him now, even in waking world?"
"Cut to the chase. Today, I found my others. Turns out... I was... shattered." Prime!Shadow revealed. "All of these are my reflections. My worst images per space."
"You can't be serious." Sonic is horrified.
"Oh no..." Rebel Rouge is horrified.
"I was shattered by the reaction caused by the overclocked Ruby. It shattered the Prism. Again." Prime!Shadow continued. "It should've never happened. It shouldn't have."
"The Prism... was shattered again?" Prime!Rouge is shocked.
"Yes... I was the first victim. You're hearing me all this time right now because... this me is the Ghost-me." Actually, this is Ghost Shadow. "I'm the ultimate life-form. Me shattering into selves alone is dangerous. But the overclocked Phantom Ruby neither discriminated nor restrained. It reacted to the Paradox Prism in full. That must have released, or perhaps... created, the Shatter that you have to kill."
"What happened to the two crystals that created... Shatter?" Master Zik asked.
"I don't know most of you, but I know what happened to your worlds." Prime!Shadow replied. "Yes, the monster hedgehog and the worlds razing by Hyper Genesis Wave had the same catalyst. The Ruby and the Prism, both were used to-"
"Silence!" The voice of the hedgehog cut through.
"Move up the castle! Quick!" Prime!Shadow warned everyone.
"You know too much. I'll put you to the ghost zone again!" The hedgehog echoed.
"Quick!" Sonic went straight to the gateway.
Sonic phased through and authorized the 14th floor. The unified army entered the gateway and arrived. Then, the gateway shut.
"Well... how far have we moved up?" Ryu-5 running.
"According to background scans, each floor is 5 meters tall. So we're currently 65 metres above the ground." Sage reported. "We have passed 13 main floors and a 10-meter tall storage basement."
Soon enough, the army arrived at the gateway. Unbeknownst to them, two pairs are waiting on the 15th floor.
"Destroy them. Kill the fiends. Take back the gods." Nightmare Rose whispered. "Make sure they can't fight back anymore. Do you best, lest they get better of you."
"Ok, ma'am." Two armored zombies, as Roboticized Masters.
"Alright. This hallway feel... different." Sonic arrived at a really big room, even bigger than where Grim Tails was fought. "It leads to a room... A mixed room."
The room is filled with glitched vegetations, and has a dozen of sea fountains all over the place. The vegetations itself seems to be taken from the Green Hills' forests. Much of the structure are hybrid of metal and the Grim crystals. And finally, some puddles every once in a while.
"A literal mashup of Shatterspaces." Prime!Rouge looked around. "Hey, other us."
"The signatures of the Shatterspaces... it is possible that this is one of the many test facilities that the so-called Team Shatter have." Rusty Rose scanned. "Oh, and some... Eggforcers? Ew."
Amy Rose just shrugged, while Classic Charmy is frightened.
"I wonder how easily and throughly weapons are tested here." Espio knocked on a palm tree. "If the hedgehog wants to make sure his empire kick ass, he's better make sure there's some great torture tests lying around for all the mooks to undergo. Or at least some major prototypes that's designed for combat."
"So familiar, yet so strange..." Boom!Sticks sneaked in.
"I wish Gemerl and Cream would... Oh goodness..." Vector slumped down.
"I can cut down all those trees, no problem!" Habaki simply plucked a palm tree out with his bare hands. "With my own literal hands, to boot!"
Suddenly, Habaki and Rindou briefly felt some intense pain and agony, leading to them dropping down.
"I think the Phantom Ruby powers are countering the liberal and destructive usage!" Shadow called the couple.
"What in the hell..." Habaki got up. "Well, good thing I heals myself as always. Rindou too."
A laughter of a lemur echoed throughout the room.
"That voice... it's..." Sonic yelped.
"Oh no..." Tails stepped back.
The Avatar whipped their Wispons, and soon enough... *thuds*
"It's..." Knuckles panicked.
Two pairs have arrived. Two of them - a lemur with strong tail, and a whisper-wolf - armored in a system physically resembles Tangle and Whisper, but with the eyes of Metal Sonic. Accompanying them is two Grim robots of vaguely similar proportions and eerily exact abilities.
"Tangle and Whisper!" Amy pointed it out. "There's a two times two! Two are some Grim bots!"
"Roboticized Masters!" Dr. Wily panicked.
"You must be dreaming." Whisper echoed.
"Metal Virus... Masters! Oh no!" Zazz panicked.
"And we are going to kill you. Your existence isn't worth an idea!" Tangle saying something clearly out of her character.
"Good luck, Tangle Woman and Whisper Woman." Nightmare Rose, but now heard by psychic Silver. "Grim Tangle, Grim Whisper. Kill them."
"Nightmare Rose. She set those up." Silver found out. "Tangle Woman and Whisper Woman. Grim Tangle and Grim Whisper."
"Our grim reflection, go!" The Roboticized Masters targeted the army.
The Grims rushed to the army, and immediately started with a whack with lemur's tail and a volley of energy blasts. Grim Tangle is extremely quick and agile, quickly proving against the numeral superiority and skills that the members possess. Once again, Knight Arthur is knocked out of his own armor.
"Weapon equip! Power Gear!" Mega Man cycled through with Power Gear enabled, tending to overpower the tail of Grim Tangle.
Sonic used Speed Force to cover the reflex of lemur-bot, as well as calling the Wisps against Grim Whisper. Of course, the robo-wolf had to harness some Hyper-Go-On for itself, which is responded by the army using the different-colored Wisps.
"Everyone! Rally!"
Tangle Woman and Whisper Woman standing there, prepping for a strike with killing intent... something that really can get Sonic and co. all killed.
To be continued...
