A/N: Sorry for any weird formatting on this chapter. Device kept auto correcting, and wouldn't save original format.
Part 1
Tikal sat at what was left of a plastic table, sipping tea. A green bird sat next to her eating a bagel. Blaze kept staring as Tikal motioned for her to take a seat.
The green bird raised a weary eyebrow at Blaze. "You ok?" His posture was on edge, as if expecting an attack.
Blaze sighed. "Yeah. It's just a lot to process." She looked at Tikal. "You sure this isn't just a ripple in the time stream."
"There are few if any absolute certainties in life. But it's the most likely explanation. The journal appears to be unaffected by time travel, and I have no memories of Green. Last time we changed something through time travel, I gained memories of 3 different timelines."
Blaze nodded. "Ok. I think I follow the logic. But how do we get Silver back?"
"Send Green back if I had to guess. Green and Silver switched places, so it stands to reason the reverse is possible. The issue is having them both transported at the same time."
"Why does that matter?" Green asked.
"Because we don't know if you'll change places with someone else instead."
A look of panic crossed both Blaze and Green's faces. "What!?"
"It's just a theory. It is possible you and Silver will naturally activate the machine at the same time. But the machine needs someone else on the other side to work correctly. Otherwise the sudden loss or introduction of your body could kill you and destroy the machine. Pressure difference, especially when introduced that quickly, is deadly."
"But if that's the case. Why didn't it kill me the first time?" Green said.
Tikal took a sip of tea. "I'm still trying to figure that out. Transporting the air around you is one possibility, that would make switching places safe for anyone. In that case you wouldn't even need someone to be on the other side, you'd still be safe." She pulled out a sketch book jotting down a few ideas and basic drawings. One was of Silver and Green. "Another is that you and Silver exert identical force on the air surrounding you. You have different shapes, but your powers might create a field that allows that."
Tikal thought for a few moments tapping a pen on the table. "Whatever the case, we know you and Silver switching places is safe for both of you. If the trip had killed him, you would almost certainly have met the same fate. Now we just need to get you both to switch again."
Green sighed. "How exactly do we do that?"
Tikal thought for a moment. She jotted down some possibilities.
Possible options
Message with others.
Green and Silver seem to have identical friends. Assumption: other me has same thought process. Name date and time for Silver and Green to use machine. Necessary timing is unknown.
Problems
No possible direct communication with the other side.
Machine power usage is unknown. Current machine charge/capacity unknown. Current possible number of trips unknown.
Tikal kept thinking. She checked the date for Silver's birth in her journal. "Green, when were you born? Er…when will you be born?"
"Yusta 5th? Why?"
Blaze's eyes went wide. "Whoa. That's one hell of a coincidence."
"Well, they are alternate versions of each other. It stands to reason" Silver would be born on 7564/3/5, Yusta 5th. "It's certainly convenient. And it's about 2 months from now. That's when we'll send you back."
Part 2
Sonic looked over a report on Knuckles. Chief Oran had given it to him after they'd finished a news interview. People had been asking why no one had seen Sonic, so a press conference helped reassure the public things were fine. He didn't want to scare people for no reason. As for the report, apparently Knuckles had broken Amy out of the Chaos Containment headquarters. Though, he didn't remember that happening. According to Oran and James he'd taken a serious hit to the head and been in a coma, which explained a bit, but something wasn't adding up.
He couldn't remember why, but he didn't trust Oran. James had been hesitant to answer any questions, and Ivo was nowhere to be found. Supposedly he was busy with some secret project, but 2 days without returning home was long even for him.
A few neighbors had talked about news releases about him being scarce. That made some sense, and using a robot to fill the void while Sonic was out of commission also made sense. But some of the stuff Knuckles had done didn't make sense.
He was strong, and that's about it. He didn't have the skill to sneak in past security. And even he wasn't strong enough to break through it without a lot of help. So either whoever helped him wasn't in the report for some reason, or something else was going on. Sonic looked over at James. "Hey, have we had any recent security concerns?"
"Not in the city. But some of the higher ups said you might need to know about some monster special ops have been dealing with. Your brother managed to contain it for the time being, but it sounds like they might need your help as well."
Sonic shook his head. "Look, I don't know what help I could be to Shadow. I'm nowhere near his speed. The only thing that could put me on that level would be a chaos emerald."
"What's a chaos emerald?" James asked.
Sonic thought for a moment. He knew the word, but for some reason, he couldn't explain what it was. "I…I'm not sure. It's like I should remember something but don't"
James shrugged. " Makes sense you'd have some memory things easy while you're adjusting and getting back to full strength. Not sure what it could do to you if anything goes wrong before then."
Sonic nodded. "Right. I'll track down Knuckles. Maybe I can figure out a way to capture him."
James grabbed Sonic's shoulder as he was about to run out. "Hold on. You face him without being ready and he could kill you. Focus on criminals who don't have super powers. You never know when some sadist will come out of the woodwork and start causing trouble, or a building catches fire, or something. Could be a chance to save some lives."
Sonic nodded. "Right. I'll run around and see how my legs feel. Keep me posted on any emergency calls."
"Can do."
Sonic headed out into the city. For some reason, he didn't feel right wearing his old uniform, so he didn't. His stamina didn't feel any worse than normal. In fact he might've been in the best shape of his life. He was running faster than ever. A coma should've deteriorated his body, but based on his watch's speedometer, he was about to hit 1000 km/hr.
The air felt great on his skin. He kept speeding up, faster and faster, pushing his body to the absolute limit. He was getting close to 1200 km/hr, so he slowed down and headed out of the city. If he succeeded, he didn't want anyone around. The shockwave of a sonic boom wasn't exactly safe for humans.
The skyscrapers gave way to houses, then wilderness. Sonic sped up, faster and faster. 900 km/hr, 1000, 1100, 1200, a massive shockwave burst around him. Sonic turned back behind him to see the white cloudlike image behind him forming.
Sonic slowed down, laughing to himself. He'd done it. He'd gone super sonic.
And…he'd also broken his watch. "Oops."
Part 3
Shadow couldn't believe his luck. That clown had led him to a chaos emerald. Tikal's device confirmed it. He'd turned it off just to stop the beeping. Now he just had to figure out what was going on with this Green guy.
He got to Tikal's front door and walked in. A large green bird sat next to Tikal and Blaze. "Hey Shadow, how are you doing? Or…Shadow…do you have my lard yet?"
Blaze facepalmed. Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Yep, definitely sounds like Silver."
Blaze looked between Shadow and Green. "This feels so weird."
Shadow tossed his chaos emerald to Tikal. "Found a chaos emerald, so that helps with our biggest problem. What about our second biggest?"
Tikal sighed. "We have a plan. Though we won't know if it will work until we try it."
Shadow thought for a moment. "You think Green's from a parallel universe. But how do we know there hasn't been a partial change to the time stream?"
"We don't know for certain. But last time I remembered both timelines, so the same should be true now, at least in theory. There also-"
Screech! The emergency alarm alert went off on everyone's watches. A message came through on every watch. "Chaos escaped! He's too much for us! We need backup now!."
Shadow was out the door before anyone had reacted. Tikal looked at Green. "Can you fly us there?"
Green nodded. "Yeah. Green Hill Island?"
Tikal headed out the door followed by Tikal and Blaze. He closed his eyes feeling the air flowing around him. Then he began moving his hands as a gust spun around the trio. The wind sped up getting stronger and stronger as the Green began to hover. Tikal and Blaze were in the air quickly. The air above them shot to the side, going below them and everyone blasted off through the sky.
Blaze and Tikal could barely keep track of what was going on around them. The moment they registered what had happened they were several hundred feet in the air above open water. They didn't feel any wind, in fact it was like they were surrounded by a bubble of solid air. They even had seats of air they could sit on.
A/N
Comment responses
momojifan: Thanks, glad you enjoy the story.
