Spoilers from included and/or represented works abound. Please read this fiction carefully.
Everyone ran with the path Sonic created. It's a long way but the team were able to traverse all the way through, taking nearly ten minutes of exhausting run and required assist.
"We're ashore." Sonic stopped. "There's so much... Grim pillars!"
"Well, that castle..." Nine looked up. "I regret it being mine. I never thought I would end up destroying the Shatterspaces until my Sonic and his friends..."
"The mysterious hedgehog clearly wants to do what you thought shouldn't. As in, destroy." Master Zik added. "And he's doing that and more to spit all of us."
"Oh, and I found this ring from consificated stuffs Shatter took. It's the only thing we stole." Zavok gave Sonic a magical ring. "It wishes the wearer good luck, unlimited."
"The ring! I recognize it!" Sonic snatched the ring. "Thank you so much!" *wears it* "Shahra?"
Sonic summoned Shahra, the genie of the ring.
"O Master of the ring, what is thy wish?"
"Shahra! I thought we lost you!" Sonic hugged Shahra, glad that she's still active. "Where did you go!? I'm so worried!"
"O Master... so much bad stuff went on..." Shahra crying. "That monster... he's even worse than Erazor Djinn!"
"Shahra, the hedgehog's far worse than Erazor, the genie who tried... the worlds?" Sonic is baffled. "Oh real god!"
"He tortured me and took the ring I came from. I was back, only to become a test subject." Shahra explained what the hedgehog did to her. "He treats me like a guinea pig, and worst of all, he look and sound like you, o Master..."
"Then pretty sure recruiting that lamp-genie is a fair game." Sonic commented. "We need all the help we could."
"That evil monster himself still has the lamp. It's in the castle made of strange pillars." Shahra pointed at the castle.
"Who are you? A genie?" Merlina spotted Shahra. "You are..."
"Both of you came from stories I got into. These are read already." Sonic patted Merlina. "Shahra the ring-genie, meet Merlina the Wizard."
"Oh. Sir Sonic gave me you, a... genie?" Merlina is nervous.
"I can give Master simple wishes. Anytime, at any rate." Shahra explained her powers. "What about yours?"
"I inherited the magics from my grandfather. And the scabbard strapped on me turns me into the Dark Queen." Said the Dark Queen herself.
"I never thought you've been bootstrapped into the Arabian stories." Chip watching the conversation.
"Yeah, I've been in a lot of worlds." Sonic replied. "Everyone, to the castle!"
The team accepted Shahra and moved to the castle, not realizing that a man with a spiky hair is watching. Meanwhile...
"What are you doing!?" Marine the Raccoon is in a cage. "Free me and leave me alone!"
"Unless you submit to me, NO!" The hedgehog threatened Marine. "You have to join me! Or you DIE!"
"I must live without you, evil doppelganger!" Marine objected. "Somebody help me!"
"Nobody will help you. Nobody." The hedgehog being so mean. "I am your savior. You need not anyone else, unless you want to be shattered."
"This isn't you, Sonic!" Marine called the hedgehog out.
"I am not Sonic. I AM A GOD." The hedgehog then tried to destroy Marine. "Goodbye, Marine the Rac-"
Alex Kidd tackled the cage and enlarge his fist to pluck out the bars. Marine is freed, and the hedgehog is infuriated.
"FUCK YOU!" The hedgehog tried to kill Alex, but Marine was able to distract him.
"Finally!" Mega Man felt the cubes weakened. "He's diverting his energy!"
Mega Man managed to break free, just as Alex and Marine escaped th grasp of the evil hedgehog.
"Mega! Let's go!" Alex in a getaway.
The three ran away, only to be immediately caught by the hedgehog.
"You're too slow. Literally." The hedgehog tried to finish off the three, but is blocked by a few mysterious robots.
Which gave the three the time to get away. In the meantime...
"I do not yet see any enemies on our way." Sage scanned.
"So where are they? Why did they hide? Are they scared?" Sonic is confused.
"They may be spying us, and can attack us at any time." Shadow explained. "Let's focus on the path right ahead, because it's our known way to go."
"Hello, you're almost in our domain."
"Huh? Who said that?" Sonic heard it.
"This voice... Nothing of it." Shadow dismissed.
"Sonic, this is our lord's new home. I'm so glad you came here to meet me and talk about lord!"
"What!?" Team Superstars on guard.
"Oh, you still don't accept the truth? You still... ugh, Sonic, are you even yourself?"
"Huh? Who are you?" Sonic questioned.
"I am Christopher Thorndyke. Your friend from Earth. It's been years since I last met you..."
"You've met a wrong Sonic." Sonic dismissed. "My timeline is way distant from yours, judging by my reaction to your... memories? Like... what?"
"You're saying that you... are not my Sonic? No oh no, that doesn't matter, you're still Sonic."
"Why are you serving the evil hedgehog!?" Knuckles questioned.
"He's like Sonic but cooler."
The voice is cut off, and then the team leaves this forest. A man with spiky hair stands before the whole.
"Huh? It's Christopher Thorndyke?!" Yacker gets suspicious. "Hold on... is he evil?"
"I don't know him! He must have been with yet another version of me!" Sonic facepalmed. "Hey, you there!"
"Several years have passed since you left me for real." The man, Christopher Thorndyke, mistook Sonic for his Sonic who befriended him years ago. "You must have undergone a lot, just like me."
"Including brainwashing... by evil me!?" Sonic is baffled.
"Hey! What do you want?!" Vector called Chris out.
"You and your friends and fellows... You've come to the right place." Chris continued. "You're standing before a crystalline castle, colossal in size and spacious underneath, where our lord-"
"You mean the evil monster?" Shahra to this point.
"You're basically saying that tormentor's home is hundreds of slabs of crystal." Merlina pointed it out.
"What's happened with you?" Shadow questioned. "And more importantly... Where's my Rouge? And Omega? And friends?"
"What happened to my friends?" Prime!Rouge called Chris out. "Have you disposed of them?"
"What have you done to this!? My home!?" Boom!Sonic yelled in front of Chris.
"Why would your goddamned 'lord' Shatter, the evil Sonic, do all these, and that, and this?" The Zeti called out about the mysterious hedgehog.
"Answer honestly, or we'll kick your ass!" Classic Knuckles groans.
"What?" Chris dismissively scoffed, subtly showing his true brainwashed state. "You want to get them back so bad?"
"And we're going to save the multiverse and restore everything back to normal!" Sonic declared.
"Good news!" Chris summoned monstrous copies hybrid between Chaos and Infinite. "You want the multiverse, all you have to do is..." *transforms* "...come and get us."
Chris has transformed into a not just complete, but enhanced version of Alf Layla wa-Layla, powered by Chaos Council tech and all seven World Rings together.
"What the hell!?" Shadow is shocked.
"I thought the lamp's fallen to the lava!" Sonic is baffled.
"Thanks to our lord, I got the World Rings and the power of the lamp... You can thank the Phantom Ruby." Chris as Alf Layla wa-Layla. "At first, this transformation was painful as hell. However, this one is complete unlike that dumbass genie, and now, that I returned to this form, I'm now used to it. Not to mention the technology the Chaos Council left which is now used by our lord."
"That's also why we met those freakin' Eggforcers before we even knew what they were." Classic Tails recalled. "Thanks New Yoke for providing us with the infos."
"O Master, I feel even worse now that we're dealing with the complete transformation... even cyborg!" Shahra, inside her Ring.
"The Djinn's power, combined with the World Rings and the Chaos Council system... I'm better than that dumbass genie, because at least the machinery can withstand all 7 World Rings without collection!" Chris targeted the whole team. "And I'll show you that I'm the lord's great general! My old friend Sonic, watch out!"
"I don't even know you until I see you before the castle!" Sonic smirked. "Stick together, and we go!"
"The Arabian Nights of the Grim shall judge you for all eternity!" Chris activated cooling to prepare for the World Rings. "Come on!"
"Wisp-er!" The team except Sonic took up a makeshift Wispon each.
The entire team diverted and strikes as groups with communication and the Wisps, and spin dashes are fair game. Chris make lines of fire (Darkness Slash) that erupted from the ground, which has to be dodged and Merlina has to freeze them. Sonic is the odd one out, using the sacred sword and the ring's Time Break and Speed Break instead.
"I know where the weak spot is." Sonic pointed at the 'heart' on the chest (specifically, under the skin of his chest). "I even touched that before. Beating the World Rings out, liter-"
Sonic avoided the burning purple orbs (Darkness Spark) and went to Merlina. "What?"
"Not so fast!" Chris blitzed aside and bombarded with the orbs, bombing the team.
"Everyone, dodge!" Boom!Sonic shouted.
Everybody managed to evade the orbs, but occasionally in this moment, knocked off from the resulting explosions.
"Watch out, olden hedgehog!" Chris targeted Classic Sonic.
Cue the fire trying to slash the little hedgehog, but the Avatar used the Phantom Ruby to block the line off, burning the cubes to protect the little guy. Infinite ambushed Chris and directly struck the 'heart', causing the latter great pain. Sonic took advantage of this moment and blitzed thanks to the glove, and rapidly strike it spot on, before capping with a...
"Infinite Mass Spin Dash!" Sonic did a post-relativistic spin dash on the 'heart', knocking four of the World Rings off Chris.
Cue a scream in agony, as Chris reverted back into a merely-cybernetically enhanced version of the incomplete transformarion Sonic recognized. The only difference besides the mechanical parts is Chris' spiky hair protruding on his head.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?" Chris is enraged. "Miracle is a forbidden word!"
Chris conjured a shitload of Spirit Blast times, casting hundreds of spiritual energy balls down to the party. Shadow turned himself into the werehog, and attacked the 'heart'; the others was able to strike him into holding down the monstrous being.
"Well... time to do a mix of storybooks!" Sonic picked up the Red, Purple and Green World Rings, of rage, sadness and hatred, respectively. "AAAAAHHH!"
The retrieved World Rings fused with the sword, causing Sonic to transform into a darker form adorned with magic rings... and the sword glowed with soul aura.
"Darkspine! Excalibur!" Sonic screamed.
The indigo fur and pale skin is then adorned with a familiar shining golden armor, leaving out his tail (as usual) and the glove which is phasing both forms into one through vibration propagating both power sets.
And soon enough, the Blue Blur blitzed, and all the balls are slashed.
"NO! HOW COULD YOU!?" Chris is horrified.
The new form appeared in front of the monstrous false genie, point the now-burning Excalibur. "If I were to name it, I'd call this... Darkspine Excalibur."
"Sonic... both forms together!?" Merlina and Shahra, both shocked.
"Fuck off, Sonic! You can't kill me!" Chris is frustrated. "My lord! Please-"
The Eggmen used Wispons to stun the false genie.
"It's over, Thorndyke. It's nice meeting you." Darkspine Excalibur Sonic rapidly sliced Chris into pieces.
The false genie exploded, killing him and leaving the other four World Rings. Sonic detransformed, clearly exhausted and flame extinguished.
"Sir Sonic, thanks goodness!" Merlina checked on Sonic.
Classic Sonic checked the four World Rings, and they pulsed in response, healing the whole team while keeping their upgrades.
"My eye is back!" Eggman, as the camera fell off.
"I can walk again!" Nine stepped down. "Wonderful!"
"Finally! I'm back to normal!" Chip left the Temples to show off his restored body.
"Good... that stranger has exploded." Sonic, with the detached three. "We now have all seven World Rings back."
President Miles walked by, clearly brainwashed and unaware of his efforts at aiding the team.
"President Miles!" The team spotted Miles.
Miles simply glanced dismissively. "That AI's rebellion put me in coma."
Miles simply left, leaving the team confused.
"In coma? What?" Sonic gets suspicious. "President Miles' not acting like himself in person..."
"Ugh... We both deal with those copies of copy." Infinite flew up alongside the Avatar to deal with the monsters. "The rest go ahead."
"Now with the World Rings, our journey is a bit easier." Sonic went ahead. "Let's get going."
The rest of the team followed, while a tribal variant of Knuckles is spying.
"No... they killed Mr. Thorndyke!"
"Knuckles, what's the deal?" The mysterious hedgehog called the tribal.
"Thorndyke summoned our Chaos pets, but the freakin' team... killed him." The tribal reported. "Oh, and I spotted a combination of two of that hedgehog's forms. A sword, a a mysterious glove, and three World Rings. I think the team then stole the other four."
"What!? Sonic can mix forms!?" The hedgehog is baffled.
"And Shadow... that lifeform is now a cross between a gargoyle and a werehog whenever transformed. He's exhibiting his Black Doom blood, and as a werehog also extended his arms! At least the werehog form is slower." The tribal continued. "As for the old rookie... he and Infinite's both got Phantom Rubies!"
"Unbelievable!" The hedgehog is frustrated. "They took advantage of the instability and managed to graft upgrades!"
"Their survival instincts endanger us." The tribal growled. "I'm going to get to Tails and meet up with you, pal."
"Knuckles, you can go back to my room now." The hedgehog replied. "In fact, I recommend you to return ASAP, because the team can beat you up once you're spotted. Be stealthy!"
To be continued...