Chaos on Earth: A Sonic X Rewrite

by Stardown

In this post-Forces semi-AU rewrite of Sonic X, an unprecedentedly phenomenal Chaos Control event sends Sonic and his friends to a whole new world. Together with their new human friend Chris Thorndyke, will they manage to stop Eggman from creating his Eggman Empire? Mix of first- and third-person POVs; very long chapters. (EMAILS ARE BACK, AND SO AM I! YIPPEE! :D)

53. Jailbreak

A/N: Part 7 is here! Thanks to OliviaGames1208 for helping out with this chapter! You're awesome as always! :)

Also, fun fact: The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest, one of the longest fanfictions ever written, has a whopping 28 chapters that are longer than Chaos on Earth chapter 39, which is the longest chapter I've ever written. The longest chapter of TSEWC is chapter 164, which is an incredible 100,912 words long! I can't fathom that length! XD

Now I'm curious about the chapter lengths of The Loud House Revamped XD

I would like to thank martyfenton03 for favoriting since my last chapter!

This chapter was finished on May 7, 2024, and originally posted on AO3 on June 10, 2024!

Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!

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9 Reviews

Monster King

Your wish is my command! Here is the next chapter!

danielman21

SatAM Robotnik is actually one of my inspirations for my version of Eggman, same with Games Eggman and Archie Eggman!

Super duper waffles (first review)

I'm really glad to hear you're still enjoying this story! :D

1. While Sonic and his friends have made guest appearances on various different YouTubers' videos, they haven't done any full collabs... yet! While none of them have appeared on Dhar Mann, Sonic has been in at least two different MrBeast videos.

2. Lindsey has only appeared in in-universe movies so far, but I did establish near the beginning of the story that she almost appeared in the Marvel movies.

3. As far as I know, Starship Soft only owns in-universe companies, but they do own Black & Decker as well as Whirlpool in this universe. They even have a special division that makes products for Mobians, such as headphones.

4. Lindsey was initially offered the role of the Scarlet Witch in Captain America: The Winter Soldier before it was decided that Elizabeth Olsen would play her, mostly because it would clash with Lindsey's busy schedule.

5. Sonic has seen Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man!

6. We all know Sonic and his friends have met the President and Jerome Wise, but politicians aside, Sonic has met a few different actors like Keanu Reeves and Tom Holland, as well as some music artists like Taylor Swift and Post Malone. As for his friends, Tails has met a few different entrepreneurs, and Amy has even gone to see a Taylor Swift concert!

7. I haven't given it that much thought yet, but the Julebu's former leader was in another gang before, and he rose in the ranks and eventually branched out and formed his own gang. Li Yan happens to be his successor, and since Li Yan knew a lot about the black market and how the underworld works, he became very successful and was respected as the leader of the Hong Kong branch of the Julebu, which is seen as the "original" Julebu. They eventually formed branches across several different major cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai, and there were even a few smaller branches across the west coast of the United States for overseas business.

8. As a matter of fact, he has! With the permission of Sonic himself and the Thorndyke estate, SEGA has started making Sonic games in this universe. However, the first game wasn't released until shortly after the events of Season 2, which means Sonic was sadly not around to see its initial release.

blazenight01

This is really good insight on what Chris' life without Sonic is like, both before he arrived and afterward. In fact, I can see the potential to explore it a bit more in another story. In the meantime, two stories I can recommend that have similar themes are "Blue Hedgehog Psychology" by Small Insect and "Amy's Surprise Return" by zman123; although the first is abandoned and the second is still in progress.

Five-Chosen (first review)

1: That's a good idea, but then that leaves one small problem: If they don't bring their house with them, then where will they conduct business in episode 71?

2 and 3: While I have similar (yet different) ideas for how the climax of Episode 67 will go, I read through your scenario and I think I may end up incorporating some of your ideas into another part of the story. I can't wait for you to see the result! And I agree, we should definitely see Blaze's side of the story. And just a heads-up: there will be more chapters than episodes in the Metarex Saga, so I'll have plenty of room for ideas.

4. Now that you and blazenight01 bring this up, having Chris potentially bullied for being a rich kid could be an interesting idea that I probably should have gone with from the beginning. Although, it's possible that it's the reason he didn't have friends until he met Sonic, or maybe he could be bullied because of Sonic.

Five-Chosen (second review)

It's actually a lot easier for me to figure out how Rouge got a hold of Bokkun's locket than it is for me to figure out how Bokkun got a crush on Cream and got her picture and put it in his locket.

Five-Chosen (third review)

That's a very good discovery that you pointed out, and if it really is risque, I can go back and update it if you want. It's cool that her name is possibly a reference to a street artist.

Super duper waffles (second review)

Sure, go for it! In fact, it would be an honor :D

I can't wait to read your story and see what you come up with!

CreativeKitty975

Same here, the scenes with Sonic and Chris were some of my favorites to write. I planned them several months ago, and I couldn't wait until when I would eventually get to write them!

I wanted to add Metal Sonic in this story because I know there were a lot of people who wanted a Sonic Heroes themed adventure in Sonic X, and even though my story strayed very far from the original concept I was planning for, I added Metal in there so I could keep some of the resemblance to Sonic Heroes, plus he's been playing an important role so far.

The scene with Chris' family is one of the things I salvaged from the original Homebound Saga. I really wanted to save it because I knew it was important, plus it offered some of the only true character development for Chris' parents. The other moment I salvaged from Episode 51 is when Sonic comforted Chris and told him that the moon is the same on both worlds.

This has been one of my favorite story arcs too! And fasten your seat belts, because here's part seven!

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Chapter 53
Original Episode
Operation Endgame Part 7: Jailbreak

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Area 99 – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

After spending just over an hour in the air, Topaz, Rouge, Shadow, and Omega felt the helicopter slowly descending as it made its final approach toward Area 99. Topaz had been quiet for most of the time after the phone call, while Shadow glanced from face to face in the cabin, before settling for looking down at the floor for the rest of the trip.

Topaz already couldn't wait for this mission to be over. It had barely gotten underway, and things were already falling apart. As if her colossal loss two days ago wasn't enough, the news she had just received was enough to make her wish she hadn't been sent on this mission in the first place.

"I wouldn't expect much," Topaz dryly said as she and her team disembarked from the helicopter once they landed. "I mean, I'll still ask around, but… yeah."

"You never know, hon," Rouge said, flying alongside her. "You can find glamorous treasures if you look in all the right places. Take it from me!"

A few armed personnel ran up to them before they could get very far.

"Clearance, please," one of them asked. Topaz and Rouge wasted no time showing their cards to the man, who inspected them carefully.

"You're good to go," he said, before looking back at Shadow and Omega. "But, uh, what about them?"

"They're new here," Rouge said. "They're with us. Is that gonna be a problem?"

The man blinked. "Hey, I don't make the rules," he said. "They need clearance to enter."

"Just go," Shadow said. "Omega and I will stay here."

"Now will that be a problem?" Rouge asked, winking at the man, who nervously shook his head.

"N-No," he said. "Just do what you need to do here. We've been expecting you, but we also have a very tight schedule, so just be fast in there."

"Come on, Rouge," Topaz called, not bothering to raise her voice.

"Coming, mother~" Rouge said in a sing-song voice as she followed the human. Topaz couldn't be bothered to make a retort, which was something the bat picked up on.

Over the next five minutes, Topaz and Rouge followed the Area 99 staff worker and the armed escorts across the base grounds toward what looked like a small building in the distance. The whole time, Rouge was looking around, taking in the sights. This was her first time there, although she knew that Topaz had been there once before.

"You're aware that you are not to utter a word of what you see or hear outside this base, correct?" the man asked.

"Yes, sir," Topaz said.

"Aye-aye!" Rouge responded in a more cheerful tone.

"And be sure to maintain your professionalism around here," the escort added. "This goes especially for you, Rouge. We shouldn't have to ask you twice."

Rouge nodded before following Topaz. She didn't like having to act completely serious, especially since it wasn't in her nature to not make smooth remarks in any given situation. But there were some missions and places that required her to keep her professional manner, not just in the way she acted, but in the way she spoke too. Oh well, she thought, it was only until she was back in the chopper.

When the two GUN agents stepped through the door and into the front lobby of Area 99, Topaz walked straight toward the receptionist behind the desk.

"Is General Wolfe here?" she asked.

"No, I'm sorry, he just left, uh…" he glanced at his phone. "…ten minutes ago. If you have something to tell him, then tell it to me and I'll see if I can pass it on next time I see him."

"Listen, we were supposed to be on the GUN Fort, right?" Topaz said. "It was supposed to take off in half an hour from now. But no, instead, it took off an hour early and no one bothered to tell us until after the fact."

"Ma'am, I can understand how you feel, but CLIP is just following orders," the secretary said. "And neither CLIP nor Area 99 have permission to disclose who gave us the order at this time."

Topaz looked like she was ready to say something else and give the secretary a piece of her mind, but she stopped herself in time and sighed.

"I'm very sorry for the inconvenience, but we can arrange a new flight for you both if you like."

"Sure…" Topaz said.

"All right then, I'll run it by Mr. Bainbridge," the secretary said as she got up and prepared to leave. "So why don't you wait here until I get back."

As she left the somewhat sterile lobby, Topaz sat down on the bench along the back wall with a sigh, and Rouge sat down next to her, crossing one leg over the other.

"This all smells like rotten egg," Rouge stated.

"I think it's more than that," Topaz said, and Rouge looked at her. "This is not Eggman's game. It's something more, I'm sure of it."

"Are you doing okay…?" Rouge asked. That was a question she rarely seemed to ask Topaz, since the human never seemed this down.

"I'll be fine," Topaz said, not looking up. "Just busy with everything lately."

"That's not what a little birdie told me," Rouge said knowingly, scooting closer to Topaz. "Spill it. What really happened?"

"Well…" Topaz took a deep breath, before slowly releasing it. "I don't care if it was an oversight from the higher-ups, I still feel responsible… for my platoon the other day. All those soldiers… That should never have happened."

"And that was your fault how again?" Rouge asked.

"Because I was responsible for every single one of those soldiers," Topaz said, her stress starting to show. "Three-quarters of them died on my watch. That's two hundred men, Rouge!"

"Let's back it up a bit," Rouge said. "Who sent you on the mission in the first place?"

"It was Commissioner Perrault himself," Topaz said in a low voice, and Rouge was thoughtful about this. "He didn't know about the Society's new robot, we didn't know, nobody knew. And it single-handedly killed two hundred people."

"Well, that can't be your fault," Rouge said matter-of-factly. "Like you just said, you had no idea it was even there in the first place."

"That's only half of it," Topaz said, looking at the bat. "We had to go that day because the tournament was on, and we all knew this organization was preoccupied with it. But the thing is, we didn't have enough EMP guns to go around and we couldn't wait any longer to make more. We should have waited for them to move out or something. But that decision wasn't mine to make, it was Perrault's, and honestly, I think it was very foolish of him."

Topaz took a shaky breath.

"Again, that should have never happened," she continued. "This wouldn't be the first time GUN made a foolish decision. Especially Division Alpha. They're said to be the worst division in the United States, but there are a lot of bi-laws that prevent them from reforming the way I want to see them reformed. And between that and the massacre, I've been seriously thinking about it, and I'm just about ready to throw in the towel and quit."

This was news to Rouge.

"Say that again? You're gonna quit GUN?" she asked in surprise, and Topaz shrugged. "Listen. I know this world's GUN is a lot different from my world's GUN, but it's got a lot of benefits, and they've gotten us closer to the Chaos Emeralds more times than I can count. Do you ever wonder what could happen next if you happen to stick around? Because if you decide to bail out now, you could miss a big opportunity."

"That's just pie in the sky…" Topaz said, gripping the tops of her legs as stress started to set in.

"Pardon?" Rouge said, leaving closer. "'Pie in the sky?' I heard a lot of Earth phrases, but after two years, that's a new one for me."

"It means what you're suggesting is unrealistic even if it sounds good," Topaz said half-heartedly.

"I've never seen you this down, hon," Rouge said. "Where's the pep in your step? Where's the gusto you had when we first met? You were all big and tough; in fact, you're the one who took me in to see the commissioner and get me into GUN. Best arrest I ever had. I wouldn't be here without you, y'know."

Topaz was thoughtful about all this, but she did not reply.

"Oh yeah, Topaz, did you happen to be promised a promotion?" Rouge asked out of the blue.

"Hm…" Topaz thought in interest. "As a matter of fact, Perrault did float the idea of promotions in the air. He still has yet to get back to me on that."

Unbeknownst to Topaz, Rouge was smirking when she heard that, but she immediately put on a straight face as the receptionist returned to the lobby.

"Okay, so I talked with Mr. Bainbridge, and he's personally arranging a chopper to take you to Dr. Robotnik's battle station along with an escort," the receptionist said. "He doesn't know why the GUN Fort was launched early either.

This was news to both of them.

"Okay, thanks," Topaz said casually as she stood up and prepared to leave. "Wow, even the head of Area 99 is in the dark," she said to Rouge once they were back outside.

"I guess you're right about sketchy things happening behind the scenes," Rouge said, before looking straight ahead, paying no mind to the soldiers escorting them toward the helicopter in the distance. "Anyway, Shadow must be worried sick."

"I didn't think he was that soft from the way you described him," Topaz said in mild surprise as she shielded her eyes from the sun.

"Nah, he's a tough cookie," Rouge said. "But yeah, new world, new places… a ton of uncertainties. It all comes down to how to handle it. But Shadow's kinda used to it, really. Not a lot seems to surprise him." She winked at Topaz. "Hang in there a little longer and see what happens. Who knows, you could be in for a pleasant surprise."

"Thanks, Rouge," Topaz said, even though she wasn't entirely sure what to expect, and what her friend was getting at.

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The Death Egg - Prison block – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

The hall of the prison block was eerily quiet, with the only sounds being the ambient hum of the Death Egg's systems and Tails and Amy's shoes against the reinforced metal floor as they proceeded at a brisk pace. While Tails held his Miles Electric upright, Amy scoped the hall for any sign of approaching robots.

"These halls just keep going," Amy remarked, shuddering at what must have been the hundredth Eggman emblem on the wall she passed by.

"Yeah…" Tails said, looking up from his tablet to make sure he didn't bump into anything. "It's a good thing I brought my tablet with me. I'm mapping out this floor of the Death Egg as we speak."

"Okay," Amy said. She opted to stick close to Tails to make sure nothing happened to him since he was busy, but also because the Phantom Ruby had a strong influence on everyone inside the battle station and both of them could see realistic illusions at any given time.

Tails opened every door he came across, and paused for a moment at each entrance to give his app enough time to calibrate and add the layout of the room into the digital map before he continued. He wanted the map to be as complete as it could possibly be, just in case he ever had to backtrack.

"You may wanna keep your hammer out and watch out for Phantom Ruby illusions," Tails said quietly as he closed another door.

"Got it," Amy replied, quickly summoning her signature weapon.

When Tails stopped in front of the next door and jiggled the handle, it didn't open for him.

"This one's locked," he said. "I could try picking the lock, but–"

"I can break it down for you," Amy suggested, holding her hammer ready.

"I know, but I don't think we have that kind of time, Amy," Tails said, glancing back at her. "Let's keep going."

Amy nodded and followed Tails, looking around for any robots or Phantom illusions.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we find more locked doors around here," Tails said, starting to ramble. "Eggman's pretty good at keeping things behind locked doors anyway. And now that I realize it… I haven't seen any robots around here anywhere. It's almost like Eggman wants us to–"

Amy suddenly let out a shriek and staggered backwards, almost bumping into Tails.

"Wh-Whoa!" Tails yelped, hopping out of the way just in time. "Wh-What did you see?"

"Robot spiders coming out of the vents," Amy said, her voice starting to shake a little.

"Oh…" Tails shuddered, nervously glancing around at his surroundings. "I don't like spiders either… Maybe we should move a little faster." Amy quickly nodded.

As they progressed, Tails gradually stopped opening every door he came across, because he didn't know if they would be worth his time. He wanted to backtrack and try the ones he missed, because he was a completionist, but he told himself to let it go. He was here to find Sonic. That was the whole reason he came all the way out here. And once Sonic was free, they were going to beat Eggman together.

"Get back," Amy tensely whispered as she took a few steps back, with her back to the wall near a four-way intersection.

"What is it?" Tails whispered back, before he could hear metallic footsteps coming their way from around the corner. Even though he knew Eggman's robots already knew he and Amy were there, he still felt the need to hide anyway.

So he ran back toward the nearest door and threw it open to find a computer bank room. Amy was just about to follow him in when she yelped again at something outside and ran into the room.

"More spiders," she said, nervously glancing at the vent, her voice a tone higher than usual. Tails followed her gaze.

"I see them too…" he said.

Amy blinked in surprise. "You do?"

"Yeah," Tails said, holding his tablet more firmly. "Those are Grabber Badniks. Either the Phantom Ruby's mist is getting stronger, or these things are real. We gotta be really careful from here on out."

Amy nodded before charging forward with her hammer and smashing the nearest Grabbers with her hammer. Tails stood in the doorway of the computer bank room because he didn't want to fight at the risk of damaging his Miles Electric.

His head whipped to the left as the other robots came into view. There were Crabmeats and many Egg Pawn variants that rounded the corner. Tails knew he had to fight now, and his Miles Electric was a little too big to slip into his Hammerspace.

"AHH!" Amy cried out from behind him. He looked back to see that one of the Grabbers had grabbed her and was gradually reeling her up toward the ceiling. "Letmegoletmegoletmego! Tails, help me! This is so creepy!"

"Hang on!" Tails called. He set his tablet down just inside the doorway of the room before executing a perfect homing attack, curling his entire body into a tight ball before slamming himself straight through the Grabber before it had a chance to explode. Amy landed expertly on the ground, holding her hammer ready.

"Just for that, I'm keeping my guard up!" Amy said as she swung her hammer through two more Grabbers. "Bet you can't get me twice!"

Amy was practically a machine as she made her way through the army of robots. Her hammer was making short work of the robots in her path. Tails went back to get his Miles Electric, but one of the lasers flew right past it, making him jump. That near miss was too close.

Tails whipped his namesakes into one of the Egg Pawns, and sparks flew as it split in half and landed on the ground in front of him. He hopped out of the way as an Egg Pawn swung its lance at the spot he had just been standing. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Amy's hammer go straight through one of the robots.

"They're mixing fake and real robots!" Amy called, ducking over a lance that whipped right past her head.

"Those are some pretty solid illusions," Tails said, looking directly at the Egg Pawn that passed through Amy's hammer. "They're not like the ones we saw earlier." He spun his tails, flying backwards out of the way of some heavy laser fire, before whipping his tails into a group of Motobugs. "I guess this means the Ruby is not unstable like I thought it was."

He landed, panting from his exertion, as he peered down the hall ahead of him as well as the one to his right. He was starting to get a bit frustrated, since there was no sign of a prison block anywhere. It was just metal hallways and abstract machinery everywhere.

He was just about to take a breath when the floor suddenly collapsed underneath him! With a yelp, he spun his tails and hovered in the air, before closing his eyes and shaking his head to clear his vision. When he opened his eyes, the floor was back to what it used to be.

"What is it?" Amy asked, noticing Tails' odd behavior once she found a lull in the fight.

"Phantom illusion," Tails said as he flew toward Amy. "I saw the floor collapsing from under me. Anyway, we can't stay here, I think the robots are here to stall us!"

"Now that you mention it, you're right…" Amy said, taking a step back from the Badniks. Tails flew toward her, his free hand stretched out toward her. She took it, and he flew them both down the hall.

"They're chasing us," Amy said, glancing back at the robots as they ran after the two heroes.

"I don't have time to fight them, I have to find Sonic!" Tails said with determination as he flew even faster, and Amy held onto his hand tighter as a result. "And as soon as we do that, we need to find the reactor and shut it down because I'm positive that's what's powering the Phantom Ruby." He glanced around at the hall ahead of them. "But I don't recall Eggman being able to extract mist from it though…"

"That is new," Amy agreed. "And since it's just mist, that might explain why the illusions don't last as long as they used to."

Tails nodded, before he gasped in realization.

"Amy, I think I figured out how the mist works!" he said. "It only works if we breathe it. So if we breathe enough of the mist, that's how the illusions appear."

"Wait, so does that mean we now have to hold our breath any time we're near the vents?" Amy asked, sounding slightly annoyed by this new development.

"I guess so, if you don't want the illusions to be too strong," Tails shrugged. "But either way, we're gonna keep seeing them from here on out. And I'm not saying that to scare you."

"No, I know," Amy responded. "Oh look, Tails, that hallway over there is darker than all the ones we just passed through."

Tails' eyes darted in the direction Amy was looking at. Instead of being a cold, metallic grey color, they were more of a bluish-gray hue.

"I wonder if this is the prison block," Tails said.

"It has to be," Amy said with determination. "This is what Gadget said it looked like when you helped him get Sonic out of here the last time."

"Oh yeah!" Tails said as he ran toward the block without a moment's hesitation. "Sonic! Sonic, are you here?" he called.

"What happened to being sneaky, Tails?" Amy asked as she followed him in.

"They already know we're here," Tails said as he started to slow down. "But still, we should probably keep our guard up, especially since this is definitely the prison block…"

Tails was right; there were electronically locked cells everywhere, with a transparent energy field in front of each cell. Amy shivered; not only was it eerie, but it felt colder in the prison block than it did in the other halls she and Tails had passed through.

The fox took his time looking in each cell, fully expecting to find Sonic in one of them. They seemed to go on forever; there were dozens of cells, perhaps even hundreds. However, Tails was getting dismayed with each empty cell he came across.

"Tails, c'mere!" Amy urgently whispered to the fox, which quickly made his way over to the adjacent hall where the pink hedgehog was standing between what appeared to be a few occupied cells. Tails let out a soft gasp as he saw Cream, Vanilla, Cheese, and Chocola, all housed in separate cells.

"Miss Amy! Mr. Tails!" Cream called, running up to the energy field and placing her hands against it, trying to get as close to them as she could.

"How did you get here…?" Amy asked in shock.

"Metal Sonic brought us here," Cream said, lowering her hands. "It's very boring here…"

"But… why?" Amy asked. "That doesn't make any sense."

"He didn't say a word to any of us," Vanilla explained from the cell next to Cream's cell. "He brought us outside and put us in these round capsules, and before he brought us here, he tranquilized us. And that's putting it lightly. And we were here when we woke up, so we don't know why we're here any more than you do."

"Electronic locks…" Tails mused as he inspected the keypad next to Vanilla's cell.

"Well, you won't be in there any longer," Amy said as she pulled out her hammer and held it ready to swing at the barrier in front of Cheese's cell. "Stand back!"

"Amy, wait!" Tails called, holding out his hands to try to stop her. Amy looked at Tails in confusion, her hammer paused mid-swing. "Amy, if you hit the field, it could sound the alarms and bring everyone running."

"But you were the one who said they already know we're here," Amy said, sounding a bit agitated that the mission wasn't as smooth as she thought.

"I know, but we don't need hundreds of robots on top of us right now, especially since we still haven't found Sonic," Tails told her. "There has to be a safer way to get everyone out."

Amy let out a sigh. "You're right," she said before putting away her hammer. "So what do we do?"

"I could try and find a way to hack into the cells, but I can't do it from here," Tails thought, glancing down at the Miles Electric in his hands. "So the most realistic option would be to find the main computer that controls the cells and unlock them from there. I could actually try hacking from there just in case Eggman tries to shut me out with a password, which, knowing him, he will."

"You two do what you need to do, I trust you completely," Vanilla told them, her voice slightly altered by the field separating her from freedom.

"We'll come back for you, I promise!" Amy called behind her as she followed Tails out of the passage.

"Good luck!" Cream called.

"Chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola echoed.

As they left, they passed by some more vacant prison cells. Amy shuddered as she picked up the pace to keep up with Tails, who was walking fast.

"This place goes on forever…" Amy said quietly.

"I know…" Tails said, opening his mapping program again. "I'm gonna have to map some more of the Death Egg. For all I know, the prison computer could be on a completely different floor."

"I hope not," Amy said, grimacing at the thought. "It took a lot just to get here."

"Hey Amy, I'm gonna be busy for a bit with the maps, so can you cover for me in case we run into more robots?" Tails asked.

Amy winked at him as she smiled with determination.

"You can count on me!"

---

The Great Basin – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

Knuckles was running in the direction of the Death Egg as fast as he could. Or so he assumed he was going the right way, but when he glanced at the radar on the comlink he was wearing, it confirmed he was. There were two blips on the radar together which he assumed were Tails and Amy. They didn't appear to be moving at the same rate they were when they were in the X-Tornado, but they were gradually moving east at a slower rate. Knuckles assumed that was the Death Egg's own movement, which meant they both made it there.

As Knuckles scaled and glided across the rocks, another thought hit him. When he did eventually locate the Death Egg, he wouldn't have a way to get up there. That was a major problem for him; he could glide, but he couldn't fly.

He told himself he could deal with that problem later as he kept running through the rocky desert. He kept thinking for nearly ten minutes until he became aware of the roar of engines from somewhere behind him. He knew it couldn't be the Death Egg, and he hoped it was not another vehicle trying to delay him or take the Chaos Emerald from him. But the engines were giving off a low rumble, which was a sign of a large craft flying his way.

When he looked behind him, he didn't have to look too hard to see what was coming his way. Squinting against the sun, he could see a massive flying fortress cruising in the same direction he was going in. It didn't seem to notice him, but he was immediately suspicious. Eggman always seemed to utilize flying fortresses, and this one looked too much like the first Egg Fort that Sonic told him about.

However, he relaxed when he noticed that it wasn't the Egg Fort or the Egg Carrier. It was colored white instead of maroon, and it bore GUN's emblem on its side instead of Eggman's. Eggman rarely disguised any of his ships. And now that he was looking at GUN's emblem, he remembered that GUN had a fleet of flying fortress of their own back home. They had all taken a heavy hit during the Phantom War, but as of the time he was sent to Earth, they were actively being rebuilt.

The flying fortress was also very high up in the air, and as it passed Knuckles, he figured he could try and hitch a ride so he could get to the Death Egg even faster, assuming that was where it was going. It was traveling much faster than he was, and even if he followed it, he would quickly run out of energy doing so. He wasn't worried about losing the blips on his radar ever since Tails expanded the comlinks' range.

As he ran forward, he searched for a few tall rocks he could use as leverage to get to the flying fortress. None of them were tall enough for his liking, but he was willing to at least give it a try.

He climbed the tallest rock he could find within a reasonable distance, and once he was at the top, he took a deep breath and leaped as high as he could toward the flying fortress. The downdraft generated by the ship's engines buffeted against him, but he broke into a glide and flew directly under the ship.

He felt himself losing upward and forward momentum, and he was barely about to fall back down, but he struck out with his fist, and the spikes on his gloves embedded into the ship's hull. Breathing a sigh of relief, he firmly anchored himself onto the ship with his other fist. The engine was extremely loud, but it was a small price to pay for getting a quick ride straight to the Death Egg.

---

The Death Egg - Upper level – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

Sonic and Chris were startled to see Neo Metal Sonic standing in the doorway of the room. Neither of them had heard him enter. His cold red digital eyes were full of hate.

Sonic stepped forward, his eyes locked on his robot doppelganger.

"I'll handle this," he said as he ran straight toward him. Predictably, Metal dodged with plenty of room to spare. He then shot forward right past Chris, causing him to flinch and stagger backward. He looked back to see Metal destroying the computer Sonic had been looking at, without a moment's hesitation.

"Whoa!" Chris exclaimed as the computer shorted out and chunks of the console flew everywhere.

"That was cold, I didn't know you guys were technophobes, and you're a robot!" Sonic exclaimed.

"I… don't think he wanted us looking at that…" he said, stepping closer to Sonic, all the while not taking his eyes off of Metal in shock.

"I figured," Sonic said with a shrug. "I saw everything I needed to see anywa– Yipe!"

The hedgehog barely had any time to move before Metal pinned him to the wall, holding his arms still so he couldn't move them.

"Run, Chris!" Sonic shouted, looking directly at the human boy. Chris hesitated for a second before he forced his legs to move, and he ran out of the room. He didn't know where to go, so he ran down the hall for about ten seconds before he heard a sudden bang and a crash coming from the room behind him. Chris was scared, and he wanted to find out what it was, but it was too risky to go back. That didn't stop him from standing still in the hall though.

He saw Sonic bursting out of the computer room and racing straight for him, but a fraction of a second later, he saw Metal in hot pursuit of him! Chris barely had any time to react before Sonic scooped him up into his arms without ever slowing down.

"We know too much, we gotta juice," Sonic told Chris as he rounded a corner. Metal did the same without losing speed.

"Did you do any damage to him?" Chris asked, holding onto Sonic and closing his eyes tight against the blinding wind he now had to endure from Sonic's speed.

"Not a scratch," Sonic said with a grimace. "I don't like what he's made of. And there's no way he should be here, 'cuz I don't remember seeing him back when Chaos Control happened."

Sonic kept racing aimlessly through the halls, but it didn't seem to matter where he went because Metal was right on their tails and quickly gaining ground on them.

And then he spoke.

"You both know too much," he stated. "You must undergo a mind wipe before you are detained."

"Nope, too many precious memories up here!" Sonic said, tapping his head as he set Chris down again.

"What are you doing?" Chris frantically asked, warily watching Metal as he approached.

But Sonic didn't answer; he was laser focused as he brutally kicked Metal back up the hall, then curled into a tight ball and spin-dashed the cover off a nearby vent that was low to the ground along the wall.

"Get in and stay in there until I shake off Metal Sonic," he firmly told Chris, before turning his attention back to his opponent.

"Neo Metal Sonic," the robot corrected. Sonic had a double take.

"What are you talking about? You don't look anything like Neo," Sonic said, seeing Chris out of the corner of his eye as the boy quickly crawled inside the vent.

"I am a hybrid of both my base and Neo forms," Metal explained as he charged back toward Sonic. "As the fourth incarnation of Dr. Robotnik's perfect lifeform, I have the appearance of my base form combined with the power of my Neo form."

With his jetpack on full blast, he pushed against Sonic, before rearing back a punch. Sonic caught it before they engaged in a flurry of rapid punches.

"So you were built here, huh?" Sonic said. "'Cuz I don't remember seeing you coming here with all of us."

Metal ducked under a sudden punch and returned a punch which was promptly blocked by the hedgehog.

"Even though I was built on this inferior planet, I am superior to all my predecessors," Metal said, dodging Sonic's attacks like it was instinct. "This makes me better than you twelve times over."

"Huh, how'd ya figure that out?" Sonic asked as he delivered a quick kick to Metal before spin-dashing at him, only to be blocked by the robot as he stood his ground.

"Inferior lifeforms like you cannot comprehend me," Metal said, glaring daggers into Sonic's eyes with his own LED ones.

"Hey, listen, I got a couple friends I have to meet up with, so d'ya mind putting off our little fight 'til later?" Sonic asked, before kicking Metal in the chest once again and watching him sail down the hall. "Cool, thanks."

As the robot crashed into the wall at the end of the hall, Sonic raced inside the vent. He didn't bother putting the cover back on because he knew he didn't have time for that.

"Yo, Chris! You still here?" he called.

"Yeah, I'm over here!" Chris faintly called from up ahead.

Sonic started to crawl through the vent toward the direction he heard Chris in, until he heard rapid metallic sounds reverberating off the walls of the vent behind him. He realized Metal had already entered the vent.

"That was fast!" Sonic remarked as he crawled even faster. "Chris, we gotta move, he's right behind us!"

Right as he said that, he suddenly saw a gaping hole in the vent opening directly underneath him. He blinked a few times as the vent returned to normal in his vision.

"Seriously, these illusions are getting old," he groaned as he kept moving. He spotted Chris up ahead and kept going faster until he caught up to him. "Hey, can you pick it up a bit?"

"I-I'm going as fast as I can!" Chris said. "Is he right behind us?"

"Yup! He is one persistent bot!"

"Uhh, wh-which way?! Which way?!" Chris suddenly said as he reached a four-way intersection.

"Right! Go right!" Sonic called, hoping that would ease the flustered human. Chris immediately crawled down the right passage, but to his surprise, Sonic did not follow him. Instead, he went to the left, the opposite direction he told Chris to go in. Chris was startled and a bit scared by this decision, but when he looked back, he saw that Metal was following Sonic.

Sonic had saved him.

Just as the two were about to disappear out of sight, there was a chime over the intercom.

"Attention Metal Sonic!" Eggman spoke, his voice echoing across the office level. "I have a new mission for you. Go to the Egg Carrier and destroy Beta. He has a Chaos Emerald, and he's using it to destroy all my robots there. And bring the Emerald to me when you're finished."

"My current objective is detaining Sonic and Christopher," Metal spoke, his crawling slowing down a little.

"Oh, they haven't gone unnoticed," Eggman said, and Sonic and Chris could hear the grin in his voice. "Leave them to me and destroy Beta immediately."

Metal hesitated for a moment before detecting the nearest vent cover he had passed along the way. The robot opened it from the inside and leaped down before flying out of sight.

Meanwhile, Chris couldn't see Sonic anywhere, and the vent was too tight for him to turn around. But he could tell that Metal was gone, so aside from the occasional hallucination, he was safe for now.

"Sonic?" Chris called. "Sonic, are you still here?" He didn't realize his voice was shaking.

"Chris!" Sonic called from outside the vent on the ground below. He stretched his arms out. "C'mon down, I'll catch you!"

However, Chris wasn't too keen on doing that a second time. One time was enough. He had spent so much of his time on the Death Egg in Sonic's arms or crawling around inside mist-filled air ducts. In fact, the Phantom mist was so strong now, he could start to see a slight red haze.

"Chris? Where ya going?" Sonic called.

Instead of jumping down like Sonic wanted, Chris backed up until he returned to the intersection, when was a bit more difficult than he imagined, and turned right and headed back down the incline in the direction he came from. He eventually made his way into the open air at ground level and stood up, right around the same time Sonic rounded the corner and saw him.

"Nerves got to you, huh?" Sonic asked as he took Chris' hand and helped him out.

"Yeah…" Chris said as he took the vent cover and tried to fasten it back into place.

"You can leave it, we don't have a lot of time," Sonic told him, but by the time he finished saying that, Chris already fastened the cover back on with a click.

"I got it," Chris said as he stood up and ran over to join Sonic, but the hedgehog was already starting to make his way back up the hall.

"You doing okay?" Sonic asked him as Chris caught up to him.

"I-I think so…" Chris said, his voice still shaking as the adrenalin kept coursing through his veins. "That felt like all those Poppy Playime Let's Plays…"

"Huh, I can see it," Sonic said with a shrug. "Never got into it, but I guess your generation's really into that, huh?"

"For some reason," Chris said nonchalantly. "I don't really like horror…"

"Yeah, same, and I'm a thrillseeker," Sonic said. "But yeah, I gotcha, too much is too much."

Chris nodded. "Uh, what were you gonna say before Metal Sonic showed up?" he asked.

Sonic thought for a moment. "Think I was talking about Eggman's new project," he said. "Chaos Roboticizer 2.0, I think it was called."

"No, you said something after that," Chris told him, glancing around in case there were more robots or illusions. "You said it's time for something, but you didn't say what it was."

Sonic shifted his gaze, and he looked uneasy, unsure of how to answer Chris' question, even though he was going to tell him before he was interrupted. He took a deep breath before letting it out.

"Y'know… it's been really fun getting to hang out with you and making all your dreams come true. I don't know why I was sent here of all places, but I'm pretty sure it was fate somehow, kinda like I was supposed to be here. I don't think really deep like that a lot, but… this kind of thing really gets me thinking. You wanted friends so bad all your life, I literally fell into your life that one night. You wanted to go out more and do things a lot of normal kids do, you made new friends and got to go on all kinds of adventures no other normal kid can say they ever went on. And not only that, but it's safe to say that thanks to me and all my friends, you got some human friends too. Flying in the X-Tornado, hunting for Chaos Emeralds, kicking Eggman's butt… it's been fun, Chris. It really has."

Chris blinked in surprise. "Wh-What are you trying to tell me?" he asked, caught off guard by Sonic's change of tone. The hedgehog slowed down, looking him directly in the eyes.

"I think you already know deep down, bud…" he said quietly. "This is something you've been running from for a really long time."

And then it hit Chris all at once. His heart skipped a beat as he felt a hint of dread in the pit of his stomach as he realized what it meant for him.

"Wait, does that mean you're leaving?" Chris asked, trying not to sound too alarmed. Sonic's expression was solemn.

"As much as I wanna believe in happy endings, I don't see any other way out of this," he said. "The Chaos Roboticizer's what got all of us here in the first place, and unless we do something about it, it's gonna be what gets us back home to Mobius too."

"Oh…"

The dread in Chris' chest intensified as he realized what Sonic was telling him was true. Sonic never lied to him, not even once. It was too soon. He couldn't go through this pain again. Chris started to feel desperate as his face went pale at this news.

"I-I'm not ready to say goodbye," Chris said, walking even faster out of stress. "Because if I do… I-I'm gonna be alone again and–"

"No you won't," Sonic told him. "You got Danny and Frances. Both of 'em are incredible friends with big hearts, and you guys hang out all the time. In fact, you and Danny have a lot in common with video games and wanting to be engineers. And Frances stood up to those bullies that tried to pick on you, and you returned the favor and stood up for her." Sonic smiled confidently at Chris. "And then there's Helen. When we're not going out on adventures together, I see you with her more times than I can count."

Chris was glad Sonic was looking around the hallways in front of them for more robots instead of at him, because he was blushing and trying to hold it back.

"W-Wait, what?" Chris sounded flustered. "I-I didn't know you knew all that about me and Helen!"

Sonic chuckled at Chris' reaction as he tried to look away from him.

"Admit it, you got a crush!" the hedgehog teased.

"S-Sonic…"

Sonic smirked as he eased up a bit. "Hey, I'm a bit more attentive than a lot of people think. I kinda had a bit of practice." His smile became more easygoing. "But yeah, trust me, you're not gonna be alone after me and all my friends are gone."

"I know, but…" Chris fidgeted, looking down at the floor as he walked. "I don't know how to say it, but you actually changed my whole life, and… I… honestly don't think I would have made all those friends without you."

"No one was made to run alone, Chris," Sonic told him. "You would have probably met someone eventually, but like I was saying earlier, maybe it was fate that I came here so you could make some new friends and fit in with society a bit more."

"Maybe…" Chris said. He didn't know if he could say much more because he felt like he could cry any minute. He knew Sonic didn't like tears, so he tried not to let it show in front of him.

"Oh hey, the elevators are right here!" Sonic said as he rounded the corner and saw the two elevators along the wall. Of course, the doors for the one on the right were lying flat on the floor, heavily dented from when he broke through them to escape the shaft.

"I didn't see any stairs anywhere… didn't really look for 'em either, but I kinda want to take the elevator down. But as much as I wanna take the shaft, I'm pretty sure your heart can't take any more of this," Sonic said. Chris made a small noise of agreement, too depressed to speak as Sonic pushed the button for the elevator on the left.

"Am I gonna see you again…?" Chris asked hesitantly, fearing the worst. His friends were about to leave forever, and once again, he wasn't ready to face reality. But to his surprise, Sonic gave him a confident smirk and a thumbs-up.

"Sure you will," he said. "Just because I'm going to another planet doesn't mean that's the end of the story. When you had to go to your cousin's place, that wasn't goodbye forever, was it?"

"N-No, but–"

"Then it's not the end this time either," Sonic added as the elevator doors slid open. Sonic stepped inside, with Chris right behind him.

"What floor were we on before?" Chris asked. He wanted to talk about anything to get his mind off the inevitable moment in his near future.

"Eh, don't remember if I gotta be honest," Sonic said, pressing a random button, and the elevator began to descend. He patted Chris' back, his smirk unwavering. "I had a lot of fun here on Earth. And I'm super glad I met you."

"Me too," Chris said, a smile forming through the tears that threatened to break free.

"It was really cool getting to explore a ton of new places and go on all those Emerald hunts. That time we all found a sunken ship and solved an ancient mystery was pretty cool."

"Yeah, and when you carried me that one time so I could see what it was like for you to run, I honestly never felt anything like that before, not even on the fastest roller coaster."

Sonic chuckled. "Well, that's what it's like every time I run. It's part of the reason I like to run in the first place."

"And the world tour we all went on too," Chris recalled, starting to calm down a bit. "Even though I used to do a lot of traveling with my family, I've never been around the world before like that."

The elevator chimed as it slowed to a stop, and the human and Mobian stepped through the doors.

"Huh, wonder who broke through that door," Sonic said as he saw the damaged doors of the other elevator. He looked up at Chris. "Your planet is way past cool, Chris. I know I say it a lot, but this place keeps finding new ways to surprise me. And speaking of surprises, you should come swing by Mobius sometime, you'll love it."

"Yeah, I know, because you and everyone told me about it, and to be honest, I really wanna go the more you talk about it."

"I promise I'll make a way for you to come see our planet," Sonic said firmly. "Hedgehog's honor. And you should bring your friends too!"

"I definitely will!" Chris said, sounding much better now. He didn't know how Sonic did it, but he always made things seem okay. Now he had hope to cling to.

They walked at a brisk pace through the facility, mysteriously not encountering any robots for the next two minutes, until Sonic's ears twitched.

"Hide! Hide!" he quickly told Chris as he hid behind a corner. Chris started to hear the approaching footsteps too, and they were moving fast.

"They don't sound metal like the others…" Chris realized.

"Which means they're organic," Sonic concluded, before he let out a small gasp. "Tails and Amy!"

Even though it was risky, he emerged from hiding within full view of his friends, who were just about to head down another hall. When they saw movement out of the corner of their eyes, they turned to see Sonic approaching them.

"Sonic!" they both exclaimed at the same time, running toward their hero.

"The one and only!" Sonic said with a big grin. "C'mon out, Chris!"

"Chris?!" Amy exclaimed. She had no idea Chris was there on the Death Egg. Chris emerged and made his way over toward his friends, and they all exchanged a big hug.

"I'll explain in a minute," Sonic told her when he noticed that Tails was hugging him tighter than usual. Looking down at him, he could see that he was trying to be brave, but his facade was quickly crumbling.

"Tails? You okay, bud?" Sonic asked.

"I was so worried about you, Sonic…" Tails said, not letting go of his big brother. "I didn't wanna see this happen to you again… but…"

Sonic noticed that Tails' voice was starting to shake, and he gently stroked the top of his head between his ears to help him feel at ease. Tails tried to look up at Sonic, but his eyes were getting a bit watery.

"I didn't sleep very well last night… I couldn't stop thinking about you… And I stayed up until three in the morning fixing the X-Tornado…"

"Aww, Tails, buddy…" Sonic gently hugged Tails and rubbed his back.

Everyone knew that Tails had taken it the hardest during the Phantom War when Infinite captured Sonic. The masked jackal had defeated Sonic like he was nothing, and even though Tails tried to fight back, he was heavily injured by Infinite and the robots that were there with him. In the months that followed, Tails took it personally, and he believed that there should have been more he could do to stop Sonic from being captured.

Even though he regained his childlike nature since the war ended, he didn't like thinking about the war very much. And now Eggman repeated that part of his history before his very eyes.

"I was worried too, Sonic…" Amy said quietly, glancing around to make sure there were no robots anywhere. "It was actually Tails' determination that led all of us to come out here in the middle of the night to save you. And it was one hundred percent worth it!"

"You were really brave," Chris said, looking down at Tails. His grip on Sonic was loosening now that he was starting to calm down a bit.

"You followed your gut," Sonic told him. "Wonder where you learned that from?" he teased, and Tails giggled before breaking the hug. But when he looked closer, he noticed an injury in Sonic's chest.

"Sonic… What happened to you? Did they hurt you?" he asked, his blue eyes wide in alarm.

"Just a bruise," Sonic shrugged. "Metal didn't want me escaping, but you know me, I escaped anyway. But I'm okay now, it had time to heal. Right now, I'm free and rarin' to go at Eggman."

"Oh yeah, Sonic, I saw the news," Tails suddenly announced, his namesakes now beginning to sway again like they usually did. They're saying that Eggman roboticized you! I didn't believe it for a second, though." He crossed his arms.

"Yeah, it'll take more than all this to make me a robot," Sonic bragged. "But anyway, now that we're all here, we got a lot to catch up on."

"I got some news too," Tails said, "but you go first."

"Yeah," Amy nodded in agreement, "like Chris, how'd you even get here?"

"I was kidnapped by Metal Sonic," Chris said. "I don't remember a lot about what happened, but I was playing video games, and then I suddenly got sleepy, and the next thing I knew, I was here." He looked around. "But no one ever told me why I'm here."

"We're thinking he was supposed to be a hostage," Sonic added.

"Speaking of hostages," Amy said, taking a step back, "we gotta rescue Cream, Miss Vanilla, and the Chao; they were brought here too!"

"Wait, what?!" Chris exclaimed.

"Also Metal Sonic?" Sonic asked, and Amy nodded firmly.

"We don't have a lot of time," Tails added, joining Amy. "We gotta save them as fast as possible!"

"Yeah, I promised we would come back for them!" Amy added as she took off down the hall. Her three friends followed right behind her as they weaved their way through the halls and various metal chambers. They passed by several doors that led to offices and maintenance rooms.

"This is how I know this is the real Tails," Sonic said, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Huh?" Tails sounded wary, looking back at Sonic. His tails dropped to the food in surprise. "What happened? Was… there a fake me?"

Sonic nodded. "I told him to tell me something only the real Tails would know, and he said your second favorite ice cream flavor was cookies 'n' creme, and there were like 130 apps on your tablet."

"Eggman doesn't know anything about me at all!" Tails laughed indignantly. "My second favorite ice cream flavor is Spagonian vanilla! Although, cookies 'n' creme is really good. And I have exactly 172 apps on the Miles Electric. I counted."

"I knew you would know the exact number," Sonic said with a grin.

"I would have gone with the secret code system we started using in the Phantom War, but that works too," Tails added.

"Y'know, I thought about it in hindsight, and I kinda kicked myself that I didn't think of it before, but it worked out in the end," Sonic said. "Ames, Tails, you guys know about the Phantom mist?

"You mean the stuff that makes fake spiders come out of the vents?" Amy asked with a shudder.

"Yep," Sonic nodded. "We had more than our fair share of them back there. But luckily, they don't seem to last long and they're probably here to catch us off guard. So let's stick together and keep our guard up at all times, and chances are only one of us will see any of the illusions."

"I also found out that the more mist you breathe, the stronger the illusions," Tails said.

"No wonder that illusion of water was strong…" Sonic shuddered.

"The illusions are a lot stronger when you're in the vents," Chris said.

"You were in the vents?" Amy asked out of curiosity.

"Yeah," Chris said, looking up. "That was the only way we could get out of the prison."

"But something doesn't add up," Tails thought as he matched Amy's pace ahead of him. "If you were kidnapped along with Cream and the others, then why were you kept separate from them? Eggman put you with Sonic instead."

"I'm not sure of that myself, bud," Sonic said. "But that's a really good question." He smirked. "It was a pretty big blunder on Egghead's part, that's for sure!"

---

The Egg Carrier – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

The sounds of Beta's carnage could be heard in the distance as Narasu and Browning made their way out of the lab. None of the GUN robots could stand a chance against Beta, but that didn't mean the members of the Society were safe barricading themselves in various rooms forever. However, their confidence had been rebuilt.

"They're smarter than they let on, so make sure you keep your distance," Narasu warned.

"I know, I'm the one who tinkered with them in my spare time," Browning replied as he made his way down the hall. He rolled his eyes. "Now I'm finding myself wishing I didn't put so much detail into their programming. I'm still shocked that none of them have the Loyanty Code, yet… here we are."

"Get back," Narasu cautioned, pulling Browning behind a corner just in time as a large swarm of about twenty Beetles came into view. However, hiding proved to be useless, because the robots spotted them anyway. They all opened fire on the two men, forcing them to run. They went in the same direction, which seemed to make it easier for the Beetles to chase them.

"Where are you, Beta?!" Browning called in frustration. He knew the robot couldn't have gone too far because he had just reactivated him. And in the scenario that the robot was too far away, it was no use hiding because it seemed like the GUN robots could easily track everyone down.

"We're gonna have to split up, it's the only way to make things better!" Narasu called.

But before Browning could respond, they heard a jet engine from behind them. They looked back just in time to see Beta destroying the Beetles, which it managed to do in less than fifteen seconds, averaging more than one that hit the floor each second.

"Run!" Browning urged Narasu, shaking him from his trance.

Both men were about to take off down the next hall when there was a sudden crushing down, and Beta was slammed into the wall right behind them. They turned to see Metal Sonic flying straight toward Beta, but the modified robot projected a small force field, nullifying his opponent's impact.

"Everyone back to the bridge, now!" Watcher demanded over the ship's intercom. At least Browning and Narasu wouldn't be running around aimlessly anymore.

The sounds of the fight got quieter and farther away as the two men kept running toward the bridge, thankfully not running into any more GUN robots. The ones they did encounter had already been reduced to sparking heaps of scrap metal.

About five minutes later, they descended the elevator onto the bridge, where they found the rest of the Society gathered. There was a pile of destroyed Hot Shots that had previously been occupying the bridge until Beta showed up, which wasn't there before when everyone fled earlier.

"This is bad," Dragg said in frustration as he kicked a piece of scrap metal aside. "Any help is good help right now."

"I already plan on barricading us up here," Watcher said, already making himself comfortable in the command chair. "This ain't our fight after all. We do get a good show at least."

"Beta is our robot, that I programmed," Browning firmly corrected. "Of course it's our fight."

"So what do we even do?" Dragg vented. "I mean, we can't just stay up here."

"I know," Narasu said as he made his way to one of the consoles. "Especially since Eggman just sent a new robot to destroy Beta."

"What?!" Watcher exclaimed. "Oh my– Why does Dr. Eggman always have to be one step ahead of me?! Always?! Lock down the ship on the double! Don't let Eggman's robots anywhere near me!"

"Watch it, Watcher," Browning firmly told him, finally breaking his facade. "We're in this together or not at all. This isn't about you."

"Are you telling me what to do?" Watcher asked, leaning forward in his seat as Narasu got to work locking down the ship. But it proved to be futile because Metal Sonic was fighting Beta so violently that he was able to easily break through several doors.

"I think the Chaos Emerald made you crazy," Browning said. "If I had known that your greed would overtake you like this, I would have done everything in my power to prevent you from going to the stadium the other day."

"Admit it, you wouldn't have gotten the Emerald without me," Watcher snarled. "Like I said before, and I will reiterate again, I was a prison warden, and I will absolutely not hesitate to be your prison warden if you step out of line."

"Who died and made you the Organizer?" Dragg snarked under his breath.

"Speaking of dying, if you really valued yourself so much, then you shouldn't have used the Emerald in the first place," Passer said. "Don't you remember what Eggman said?"

Watcher was silent after that. He didn't fancy the thought of dying, until he had a new thought.

"If I'm gonna die, at least I can rest assured that we're putting up a mighty good resistance against Eggman, and taking his tech," Watcher said quietly. "And besides, I'm not the only one going six feet under. You, Mr. Browning, you weren't so innocent either when you were with me and we used Chaos Control. And neither was the Thorndyke kid when he destroyed our base!"

"I wasn't the one who said Chaos Control, Howard," Browning said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah, but you were holding onto the Emerald too when we vanished," Watcher said.

"Speaking of Chris, what is our best course of action against him?" Li Yan asked. "He wasn't on our target list to begin with, and yet he's proving to be just as dangerous as the aliens."

"We'll figure that out later," Watcher said with a shrug, just as the ship started to receive an incoming transmission. "If it's the Organizer, I'll deal with it. You guys make sure the robot Sonic doesn't get up here."

Watcher flipped open a hidden compartment in the chair's right armrest and pressed a button. The Organizer's face appeared on one of the screens.

"The GUN Fort V3 is heading your way," he reported. "Do what you will with that information."

"Understood," Passer said. "I'll activate the cloaking device, then we'll pull out and let GUN duke it out with Eggman. And then when the smoke clears, we'll make our move."

"Heh, that's a plan I can get behind," Watcher said as Passer typed something on a keypad.

"Beta's still taking heavy damage," Dragg reported as he watched the monitor. "It's gonna be destroyed any minute, I can't contain them, they're destroying every door I close–"

"Whatever, just fly the ship, ship flyer!" Watcher snapped.

"At least we ourselves don't seem to be Eggman's main priority," Passer said, before his attention was diverted to something approaching their general direction from outside. "Welp, looks like GUN's here now."

"It can't be the GUN Fort already," Browning said in disbelief.

"Then look out the window if you don't believe me," Passer said with a deadpan look.

Sure enough, when everyone looked out the front window of the Egg Carrier as it gradually turned away from the Death Egg, they could see the white flying fortress cruising its way into the battlefield.

"Oh, now we're good and stuck," Watcher complained. "Cuz it's gonna take too long to charge the Egg Cannon again, and even if we do get a shot in on one target, the other's gonna take us down."

"Did you already forget we're cloaked?" Passer asked.

"You… you already cloaked us?" Watcher asked.

"Yes, what did you think I was doing earlier?" Passer followed up. "Yes, we're cloaked now, but that doesn't mean we're invincible to laser fire. It just means they can't see us out there."

"Are you quite finished?" the Organizer's voice spoke. In all the commotion, they had forgotten he was still on the overhead screen. His sudden voice got everyone's attention.

"Oh, you're still here," Watcher said.

"Watch your tone, Mr. Passer," the Organizer said in a low tone, and a chill ran down the former prison warden's spine. "And yes, I'm still here, watching you bicker with your comrades. Remember your common goal. Anyway, you'll be making your getaway as you planned, but I want you to activate the Valkyries and engage with the GUN Fort that way."

"How many of them?" Passer asked, looking up at the screen.

"All of them," the Organizer said. "Browning confirmed with me that the Valkyries have an autopilot system, but they need to lock onto a human-controlled Valkyrie in order to form a congruent group and attack targets more effectively. Watcher, I want you to be the human pilot."

"Me?" Watcher asked in surprise.

"Is your name Watcher?"

"But getting my hands dirty isn't even my thing! Besides, I'm still recovering from Chaos Control, and I could die so I need to–"

"Did I stutter?" the Organizer asked in a more firm tone. "I didn't recruit you to jeopardize the mission over your own greed. Get up and fly the Valkyrie. Now."

"But I'm not the one who reprogrammed the–" He paled. "Oh… You're serious, aren't you?"

"Wanna see how serious?"

To everyone's surprise, the Egg Carrier suddenly uncloaked, seemingly all on its own.

"Wha– We just uncloaked!" Passer exclaimed. "I didn't touch anythi– Whoa! Get down!"

Several lasers and missiles flew just wide of the bridge. It was apparent that they were just warning shots, because none of them landed any hits on the ship. And then, just like that, the ship cloaked again.

"Ever since you commandeered the ship, I gave Dr. Narasu to interface the ship directly to me, which means I have direct remote access to the ship's controls in case something goes wrong. Do you still think I'm bluffing, Watcher?"

Watcher sat in stunned silence for a moment, before he wordlessly got up and made his way off the bridge.

"That's what I thought," the Organizer said smugly.

For the next few minutes, Watcher ran through the ship toward the deck where the six Valkyries were parked. He could hear the sounds of Beta and Metal Sonic fighting in the distance, but he couldn't be bothered to be sneaky in case the fight were to make it his way. There were destroyed GUN robots everywhere that he had to be careful not to trip over.

He figured the sooner he got this over with, the better. If he were to die from the Chaos Emerald, it would be on his own terms. In fact, if it were possible, he wanted to find a way to cheat his own death and avoid the Chaos energy eating him from the inside. He wished Eggman was bluffing. He was the type to bluff. But now that he thought about it, he did have a slight feeling inside his chest that felt like the slightest touch of heartburn.

He spotted the Valkyries, which all appeared to be untouched by the carnage that was unfolding on the ship. Running toward the nearest one, he climbed inside, started the engine, and took off.

"All right, I'm in," Watcher spoke over the radio. "Now what?"

He glanced at his radar to see that the other Valkyries were gradually following him. They must have started up on their own.

However, as Watcher pulled the joystick to the right, he noticed that the ship did not move in that direction. Even when he activated the internal lights and radio, they didn't switch on. The controls were unresponsive, and the ship was flying completely on its own.

He started to panic as he fought with the controls even more, and he was getting closer and closer to the GUN Fort. In fact, he was sure he was outside the coverage of the Egg Carrier's cloaking field.

"What's happening? Why won't this stupid thing work with me?!" Watcher panicked.

"I'm sure you can hear me, Mr. Watcher?" the Organizer spoke over the radio all of a sudden.

"Help me!" Watcher exclaimed, his mind completely taken over by his desperation.

"I am helping you, out of your place in the Society, that is," the Organizer said. "As you can probably tell, not only did I ask Narasu to interface me with the Egg Carrier itself, but the Valkyries too."

"What's going on?" Watcher asked, sweat forming on his forehead.

"This is a full-team effort, Watcher. I'm getting tired of reiterating this point over and over. I won't let you take command of the whole operation on your own and jeopardize everything," the Organizer said. "If Sonic and Dr. Eggman overcome us, it won't be because of you. Maybe on the other side, you'll figure out who's in charge of restoring the status quo."

"L-Look, I'm sorry!" Watcher said as he was flown straight toward the Death Egg. "J-Just give me another chance, please! I learned my lesson! Just let me out of here!"

But the Organizer remained silent as the GUN Fort opened fire on the Valkyries. The lead Valkyrie happened to be their first target, and after a few seconds of relentless fire, the flying tank exploded in midair and plummeted toward the ground.

---

The Death Egg - Command room – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

The door to the command center slid open, and Eggman stepped through and sat down in his command chair. His excursion had taken longer than he had anticipated, but he was confident nonetheless.

He looked up at the dozen screens, showing various activities going on in and around the Death Egg. In the reactor, Orbot and Cubot were maintaining the core's systems, where five of the Chaos Emeralds were gathered. Another screen showed Sonic and his friends advancing through the hallways on one of the lower levels, and a third screen showed one of the many views outside the Death Egg, where chaos was ensuing on the Egg Carrier.

"I now have five Chaos Emeralds," Eggman proudly monologued. "Metal will being the one Beta has to me, and while my mission to obtain the one Knuckles has wasn't exactly a success, it wasn't a total loss. In fact, he's bringing it straight to me without a second thought." He chuckled under his breath. "I can't believe I'm already so close to my ultimate goal. The Eggman Empire is so much closer to realization than I could have possibly imagined. However…"

He squinted at a monitor, where Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Chris were running through one of the hallways at a quicker pace than before.

"This may end up being a problem in the long run. Decoe, Bocoe," he said, a grin forming. "It's time to unleash the Robians."

"Yes, Doctor!" both robots said at the same time.

"Orbot, Cubot," he spoke into his wristwatch. "Power up the Chaos Roboticizer. Operation Endgame is nearing completion at last!"

He let out a hearty bout of gleeful yet sinister laughter as he spun himself around in his chair. He could hardly contain his excitement that his plan was working so well.

---

The Death Egg - Hallway – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV

As Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Chris ran through the various hallways, they kept an eye out for the prison cells, all the while making sure they weren't being chased by Metal Sonic or any Badniks. Amy knew which direction the prison cells were in, so things were going smoothly so far.

"Is Metal Sonic still here?" Tails asked, his eyes darting around the hallway.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "Or rather, he was, but he had to dip 'cuz he had a mission on the Egg Carrier. Something to do with a Chaos Emerald."

"How many does Eggman have now?" Amy asked, her hammer ready in case of an ambush.

"At least five," Tails thought, pausing to make sure his estimate was correct. "If there's a Chaos Emerald on the Egg Carrier, that's number six, and the one that Knuckles has makes seven."

"Did you say the Egg Carrier?" Chris asked, surprised at this new development.

"Yeah, we saw it when we got here," Tails replied. "I don't know if Sonic told you this already, but the Society managed to commandeer it and they're probably using it to attack Eggman."

"Or– Or maybe they know we're in here, and they plan on taking us all down at once," Amy added, before shuddering at that thought.

"Well, they're about to have their own fun with Metal Sonic," Sonic said with a chuckle. "I got a feeling they won't be standing a chance against him!"

"If he's busy right now, then let's get everyone out of prison as fast as we can," Chris rallied.

"You're talkin' to the right hedgehog!" Sonic said with a grin. "Let's do it to it, team!"

A minute and three random Phantom Ruby illusions later, they came to a stop at a four-way junction in the hall. Amy looked to the right and Tails to the left to make sure there were no approaching robots.

"All clear," Tails reported, but when he looked up, Sonic was already standing on the other side of the hall.

Amy rolled her eyes, shaking her head at Sonic's tendency to jump the gun, before she crossed the hall, followed by Tails and Chris. Everyone was well used to Sonic's antics by this point.

"You guys see any other prisoners here?" the hedgehog asked everyone.

"No, it was just Cream, Miss Vanilla, Cheese, and Chocola," Tails said, keeping pace with his big brother. "And they were all in separate cells in the same hall."

"Okay, this hall looks familiar, so we're definitely getting close now!" Amy announced.

Tails looked up. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot I'm supposed to look for the prison block control room so I can unlock the cells, because they all have electronic locks and I don't wanna accidentally set off any alarms." Tails flinched at another Caterkiller illusion from the vent above him, before quickly regaining his composure and becoming more alert. "But… I don't know if it's in the prison block or on another floor entirely. So we might have to split up to cover more ground. But first, do all of you guys still have your comlinks?"

"About that… Mine was taken when I got here," Sonic said, glancing around the hall.

"Yeah, my comlink is gone too," Chris said.

"I still got mine," Amy said, holding up her comlink. "Which reminds me, I should have thought of this sooner, but I should have used my comlink to find where your comlinks are!"

"It wouldn't have worked if the comlinks were turned off, but that's… actually a great idea," Tails said, a grin forming. "I should do something about that as soon as we get home."

"Great!" Amy said with a smile of her own. "And I agree, we should definitely split up. Me and Sonic can be on one team and Tails and Chris can be on the other. That way one of us on each team will have a comlink, so we can stay in touch."

"Good idea," Tails said, moving closer to Chris as he prepared to depart.

"Sure," Sonic shrugged.

"Are you guys looking for the control room?" Amy asked Tails.

"Yup," Tails said with a nod. "When you guys get to where Cream and the others are, tell me what number cells they're in and I'll get them out."

"You can count on us!" Amy said with a Sonic-esque thumbs-up before she turned and proceeded down the hall, and Sonic ran alongside her.

"You took charge of things like a boss!" Sonic complimented.

"Thanks," Amy said, blushing a little. "Plus it helps that I'm super good at finding my way around places."

"Like when you pretty much have a new mall memorized as soon as you walk in the door," Sonic said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, kinda like that!" Amy giggled as they entered the prison block. "I'm just glad it paid off in the long run. Speaking of directions, they're not much farther now."

"Huh, sure are a lot of cells for someone who's not taking a lot of prisoners," Sonic noted, his eyes darting among the electronically locked cells. "Maybe they're for the Society, I don't know."

"Oh yeah, you never told me, what happened with you and the Society before you got here?" Amy asked, looking at Sonic.

"Okay, so for some reason, they all decided to tell me who they were, and I kid you not, I could see the steam coming out of their ears," Sonic said. "They hated my guts, you should've seen 'em! And they decided to let off some steam and shoot at me a bit, but I chased 'em onto the Egg Carrier, but then one of their stolen Eggman bots came out of nowhere and kicked my butt." He winced; he could still feel the bruises from his battle yesterday. "Don't know who brought me here though. Probably Metal. Didn't see him anywhere up until then, though.

"Miss Amy! Mr. Sonic!" Cream called from up ahead. Sonic had no idea he and Amy had arrived at Cream's cell already. All the hallways looked the same, but he was glad he could rely on Amy's flawless sense of direction.

"Cream!" Amy called as she ran toward her friend's cell, and Sonic caught up to her. The small bunny was especially excited to see that Sonic was free, and she was bouncing up and down.

"Chao chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola called from across the hall.

"How are you guys doing?" Sonic said with an easygoing smile.

"Well, it's been… interesting, to say the least," Vanilla said with a smile of her own, although Sonic got the impression it was forced.

"We're just waiting for Tails to find the control room and unlock the cells, then you guys are free to go," Sonic explained.

Cream suddenly gasped. "Mr. Chris is here too! I just remembered!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, he is," Sonic said, taking a step toward Cream's cell. "He was actually in the cell right next to me, but we found a way to escape together."

"Amy? Are you okay?" Cream asked, prompting Sonic to turn around. He saw her looking around in confusion, before her attention snapped back to normal.

"Huh? O-Oh, yeah, I'm okay, Cream," Amy said, still looking wary at what she must have seen. "Just something that's been happening around here since we got here." She didn't know how to explain it to Cream, even if she was able to understand it.

"What happened?" Cream asked her, sounding worried now. She wanted nothing more than to be outside for her friend now.

"There's been Phantom Ruby mist everywhere, and been giving us random illusions to try and scare us," Sonic explained. "So basically we're seeing things that aren't real."

"That sounds scary…" Cream said. "What did you see, Amy?"

Amy hesitated for a moment, debating if she should tell Cream. But the look in her friend's eyes told her she really wanted to know.

"It… might be a little scary…" she said, but Cream's stare was intense. "I just saw myself in a prison cell and there was water everywhere outside. It looked super real, but I knew deep down it wasn't real."

"Yikes…" Sonic shuddered. "Prison Island all over again, and Superior… Hope Eggman doesn't get any ideas for the future…"

"That is very strange," Vanilla said from the cell to the left of Cream's cell. "We haven't experienced anything like that in here since we woke up."

"And yet we experienced it when we were in prison," Sonic thought before his eyes widened. "Hold up… Maybe there's a chance Eggman wasn't letting it get in your cells, but he made sure the Phantom mist got in my cell just 'cuz he can."

"Then what made him want to put Chris next to you instead of with us?" Vanilla asked. "The Phantom Ruby is terrifying, so why would he want to expose a human child to its effects?"

"I honestly have no clue," Sonic shrugged. "My guess is because Chris really took after me and felt safe with me, and it was better than leaving him alone, but I'm just throwing guesses around."

Amy's comlink buzzed against her wrist, and she opened it and activated it.

"Hey, Tails! Did you find it?" she asked.

"Yup!" Tails responded from the other end. "What number cells are they in?"

"Um…" Amy looked at the number above the panel next to Cream's cell, then walked over and did the same with Vanilla, Cheese, and Chocola's cells. "D-32 to D-35."

"Thanks!" Tails cheerily said as he got to work. Seconds later, the electronic barriers in front of the four cells vanished.

"Yaaaay!" Cream cheered as she bounded out of her cell into the open hall, and she was followed shortly behind by Vanilla and the two Chao, and they all shared a hug. They hadn't been able to physically interact with each other for the past hour or two, which was way too long.

As Cream hugged Sonic and then Amy, Tails spoke again.

"I found your comlink by the way, Sonic," he said.

"Oh sweet, thanks!" Sonic replied with a smile, having heard Tails' voice over Amy's comlink.

"Also, I just noticed something weird…" he said.

"What's up?" Sonic asked.

"Um, four of the cell doors were already unlocked when I got here," Tails said, sounding more confused now. "I didn't hear anything about Eggman taking more prisoners."

"Huh, that's weird…" Sonic said.

"Maybe I'm just being paranoid and it's no big deal," Tails said. "Anyway, me and Chris are on our way back now."

"Okay, we'll stay here and wait for ya," Sonic said.

"Good luck!" Amy added.

Two minutes later, Tails and Chris rounded the corner and came running their way, holding Sonic's comlink. However, Cream didn't seem to notice, because she was looking at something else approaching them from the other end of the hall.

"Chao chao-chao!" Chocola called, pointing in that direction.

"Um… L-Look!" Cream exclaimed, not able to find the right words to say. Everyone else looked in the direction Cream was looking in, and they gasped at what they saw.

Storming up the hall toward them were Big, Vector, Espio, and Charmy.

Except they were all roboticized.

Amy covered her mouth in shock, and Cream stood and hid behind Amy in fright. Everyone else was especially surprised at their friends' sudden appearance.

"They're all Robians…" Amy breathed in disbelief.

"So this is where they went after the tournament…" Sonic realized as he slipped his comlink back onto his wrist.

His gaze met the four Robians as they continued marching toward him and his friends, and with little other choice, he, Tails, Amy, and Cream braced themselves for a fight.

---

A/N: That concludes part seven of Operation Endgame! Things are not looking good for the heroes at all...

This is a more emotionally charged chapter than some of my other ones, and I especially enjoyed writing the Sonic and Chris scenes as they were reminiscing while making their way through the prison. I would like to thank OliviaGames1208 again for helping with Tails' scenes as well as the reunion scene!

The scene where the Organizer gets rid of Watcher was a tricky one for me to write. I was debating with either having the GUN Fort shoot it down, or having it land in the middle of nowhere and lock itself once Watcher was outside so he couldn't fly it again, or having it fly into the Death Egg where Watcher would eventually be roboticized. I brought it up with Olivia, and she suggested it should blow up, so that's what happened here. However, to the best of my ability, I tried to have his fate open-ended.

Also, I'm not sure if one of the most top-secret military bases in the world would have anything like a front desk or a secretary, but I kinda just went with it here.

Also, this is the first time I'm having Robians appearing in any of my Sonic stories! If anyone here has read the Archie Sonic comics, since the Bem are not canon in my headcanon, Eggman can keep roboticizing people all he wants, although he doesn't heavily rely on it as much as he used to back in the day.

I don't think I said this before, but the Phantom Mist is a custom element I added to the Phantom Ruby, which is a mist-like substance that Eggman was able to draw out of the Phantom Ruby. It hasn't played a direct role thus far, but it's super annoying, not to mention scary since you never know what to expect!

Feel free to drop any reviews, suggestions, and constructive criticism you have!

Next time is part 8, where things get real fast. Don't miss it!