Chapter 39: Reunion

"… Is that…?" Jewel asked.

"What in the world?!" Knuckles asked. "WHO IS THIS GUY?! WHY WAS HE IN THE MASTER EMERALD?!"

"Uh… Knuckles…"

"I… I DID IT!" Chris said. "Sonic! Everyone! I did it!"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW US?!" Knuckles asked.

"Knuckles… that is very clearly Chris…" Tails said. "But… he really does look a lot different…"

Sure enough, Chris was here, and he was a whole lot taller now. He pretty much towered over everyone else at this point.

"Well geez, what did you expect?" Chris said as he stepped forward. "It's been six whole years after all!"

"… HUH?!" Everyone shouted.

"Six years?! Did I miss something?!" Tangle asked.

"Yeah…? Why are you guys so surprised by all of this?" Chris asked.

"Chris… it's only been six months since we left your world." Tails explained.

"S-SIX MONTHS?!" Chris shouted. "So… that's why you guys don't look different at all…"

"Yeah…" Tails said. "We can talk about that later though…"

Cosmo, who was just plain confused by this whole situation, turned to Sonic for an answer.

"Sonic… who's that?" Cosmo asked.

Sonic grinned at the question. "A great friend."

Chris, who had just noticed Sonic's presence, smiled and walked over to him.

"Sonic…" Chris said. "I finally made it!"

"Knew you would!" Sonic said with a thumbs up.

"It… really is good to see you guys again… but…" Chris said, noticing the dead trees around them. "What…?"

At this moment though, Sonic collapsed.

"Sonic?!" Chris said.

"Whoa!" Tangle said before everyone rushed over.

"I knew he was acting weird… idiot…" Knuckles groaned out.

Tails quickly made his way over and checked his breathing and pulse.

"Don't worry, he's just passed out." Tails said.

"Idiot, he's been pushing himself too hard…" Tangle said.

"… Just what is going on around here?" Chris asked.

"We'll save it for later, let's get Sonic somewhere he can rest for now!" Tangle said.

Everyone agreed, and Tangle quickly picked the hedgehog up to take him to Vanilla's home.

"I'll glide down." Knuckles said. "Not enough room on the X-Tornado otherwise."

"Yeah, thanks." Tails said. "Let's go everyone!"

After a quick, yet cramped flight back to Vanilla's house, they set Sonic down to rest. While he was doing that, they decided to catch Chris up on what was going on.

"So, basically just before you showed up, a giant metal… thing attacked us. It took some crystal thing, and left. The trees started dying after that." Tangle quickly explained.

"And this girl here, Cosmo, was JUST about to explain to us just what is going on, cause we proved that we are Sonic's friends and in my case girlfriend!" Amy said, gesturing to Cosmo. "Riiiiiiiight?"

"Y-yes! Of course!" Cosmo said.

Everyone sweat dropped at Amy's insistence on being Sonic's boyfriend

"Let's start with the obvious question… just what was that thing?" Jewel asked.

Cosmo closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before looking to the group.

"The Metarex." Cosmo started.

"The Metarex are a group of invaders that have been terrorizing the entire Universe… their goal is to completely rule the entire universe and they won't let anything get in their way… That crystal they stole is called the Planet Egg, and that is their ultimate goal on each planet. It is the crystallization of your planet's life force… and without it, your planet will die. They… they've already taken so many… killed so many planets…"

"…Holy…" Tangle breathed out.

"I… ok… this is really bad…" Jewel said, looking really anxious.

"Alright, I just have one more question." Knuckles said. "Where do you come into all of this?"

"I'm… not sure I understand."

"What I mean is, how do we know you aren't working with them?" Knuckles asked.

Cosmo shot out of her chair.

"What?! I would never!" Cosmo said. "The Metarex are pure evil! Please, never associate me with them!"

"Still…"

"Hey, take it easy on her." Tangle said.

"They… they took everything from me…" Cosmo said. "My friends… my family… everything."

The girl then started to cry.

"I just… don't want anyone to go through what I did anymore!"

Tangle, who often believed she was a good judge of character, saw this and knew one thing deep down: This girl had been hurt pretty badly by those thing… she had no reason to doubt that she was telling the truth here.

So, she decided that ending the conversation for now would be the best for this poor girl.

"… Hey, you guys go and check on Sonic." Tangle said. "I'll… stay here and keep Cosmo company."

"Right… we'll do that." Amy said as she, Tails and Chris went up stairs.

"Come on, let's get some fresh air." Jewel said as they led Cosmo outside.

Knuckles walked outside shortly after. "I think I'll be heading out. Something's still bothering me…"

"Alright, see you later." Tangle said as Knuckles walked away.

He stopped though.

"Sorry about accusing you… just gotta make sure of every possibility." Knuckles said to Cosmo.

Cosmo didn't respond verbally, but nodded at his appology, before he continued to leave.

"Tangle…" Jewel said.

"Hey, don't worry!" Tangle said. "We'll figure something out!"

"Still... the planet…" Jewel said, looking around at all the dying trees.

Tangle frowned at this. Jewel really did love the beauty of the world… that's why she wanted to open a museum after all.

"Listen, this is us we're talking about! We're talking the group that has saved the planet how many times?" Tangle asked.

"… This is the entire universe though…" Jewel said. "What if… this is too big, even for you guys?"

"We'll figure it out!" Tangle said. "We're not gonna give up just because it's gonna be tough, are we?"

"Well said!" Chris said from the window.

"Hey! How's Sonic?"

"Well, considering the fact that he ran off already, pretty good!" Chris said with a laugh.

"Geez, really?" Tangle asked. "Can't sit down for a second, huh?"

"No, but that's just Sonic I guess!" Chris said.

They all shared a quick laugh.

"Well, come out here! We gotta catch up!" Tangle said.

"Right!" Chris said as he walked outside.

"So, other than the new height, what's new?" Tangle asked.

"Well, Grandpa's been kinda helping me to become a scientist." Chris explained.

This got Tails' attention, as he was now stepping outside as well.

"How is Chuck?" Tails asked.

"He's doing really well! Still going strong with his inventions… even built Helen her own car!"

"Helen? Uh, isn't she paralyzed from the waist down?" Tangle asked, to which Chris nodded. "How does she…?"

"In short, there's a lever that controls the car's speed." Chris explained. "The wheel is also smaller to let her steer it easily with one hand."

"Wow… that's actually really cool!" Tangle said.

"She never lets me drive though…" Chris laughed out. "Keeps saying that I suck at it."

"Wait, why would you…?" Tangle asked. "Wait… are you two…?"

Chris' face turned red at this. "W-we're just friends!"

"Uh huh… sure you are…" Tangle said.

She may have zero experience with this kind of thing, but even Tangle knew that Chris had fallen for the girl.

Tangle then looked over to Cosmo and saw her playing in the flowers with Cream.

"I'm glad that she cheered up a bit." Tangle said.

"Cream has that kind of effect on people." Jewel deduced.

"Yeah, you could say that."

"You know Tangle… I actually wanted to thank you." Chris suddenly said.

"Really? What for?" Tangle asked.

"Well, for leaving a copy of your log for me." Chris explained. "Whenever I felt down or discouraged, I would read through it a bit, and it would boost my spirits! Truth be told, I don't know if I would have finished the teleporter if it wasn't for that."

Tangle smiled at this. "Well, I'm glad I could help!"

"Still though… this whole situation is… well… messy." Chris said.

"It's true… the Chaos Emeralds are gone…" Cosmo said as she and Cream walked over.

Suddenly, Sonic appeared, speeding back to the group.

"Well, that shouldn't be too much of a problem!" He said. "All we gotta do is look for them!"

"… Uh… Sonic?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah?"

"… How?" Tangle asked. "And more importantly, why did you send them away in the first place?"

"Oh uh… well, see… I was fighting who I'm guessing might have been those guy's leader… or at least, someone really strong on their side." Sonic explained. "I was super… and super cocky, so I tried to have some fun with him… and it resulted in me getting in a tight spot with the emerald's time limit and uh… yeah."

"Oof… guess that's why you were so hurt huh?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah… it was the first time I couldn't really beat someone while I was super, and that sure is something…" Sonic said.

"Well, let's hope that it's the last time too!" Jewel said. "You really shouldn't play around against someone strong enough to push you to use the emeralds Sonic!"

"Yeah yeah… sorry…"

"Sonic…" Cosmo said. "My people… we've traveled the cosmos to try and find a way to defeat the Metarex… but we were attacked and destroyed… I am the only one left to carry on my people's will… so…"

"Hey don't worry!" Sonic said. "Like I said, all we have to do is go and find the Chaos Emeralds, put those jerks in their place, and get our Planet Egg back, right?"

"Oh how romantic!" Amy gushed. "A trip beyond the sky to find the Chaos Emeralds!"

"This sounds like it's going to be a great adventure!" Cream said.

"I'll help out too! It has to be fate that I showed up here at this time!" Chris said.

"YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!" Tangle said excitingly… before her face dropped. "Just… one problem…"

"What's that?" Tails asked

"You all forgot about my first question…" Tangle asked. "… How are we going into space?"

"Oh, don't worry! Just leave that to me!" Tails said.

Later

"I get that you plan on building a spaceship Tails… but won't that take months?" Tangle asked. "Even for you, this seems like a huge task…"

"Hehe, just you watch!" Tails confidently said as they descended the stairs in his workshop.

And with a flip of a switch, it all made sense why he was so confident.

"… WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!" Tangle shouted, her eyes practically popping out of her skull.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! I present to you, the Blue Typhoon!"

End of Chapter 41

So, I made an oopsie and didn't let you all know what the update schedule was going to be with this story last time, sorry bout that!

Originally, I WAS going to do it one chapter a week every Wednesday, heck I said so on twitter… after thinking about it, I decided to make it every other week on Wednesday.

Now, let's address the elephant: Chris. He is OLD! I DIDN'T DE-AGE HIM!

Listen, I understand why they did it in the show. It's a show meant for kids, and having a human kid hanging and helping Sonic and Crew would be good for that!… This is my story though, and in my story, that isn't gonna fly! I did this cause I thought it would be better and easier to write. This was literally the very first thing I decided on for Season 3, and I am not even joking.

Also, you should be happy to know that I have finished writing the ending of this story! … Not everything in between now and the end mind you, but I have the finale done (minus some edits I am sure to make between now and the release)!

Anyways, I am hoping that ending will give me the motivation to get the rest done quickly, cause good lord I can't wait for you all to see what I wrote for that.

So, I'll see you all in two weeks! Later!