Part 1
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Blaze looked at Shadow and Chaos, then back at Tikal. "Should we do something?"
"No." Blaze and Tikal looked at a woman wearing a gas mask. "Chaos is being contained by a hallucinogen, but we don't know if outside interference will break it out."
Tikal walked up to the woman. "Uh…I can seal Chaos in my necklace. At least, temporarily." She held up her necklace.
The woman looked at the necklace. Then at Tikal. "Wait…you're Tikal!" She shook her head. "I can fangirl later. I have enough gas to keep Chaos contained for another half hour, but it will take weeks to create a new set. How long can you seal it away?"
"I don't know." Tikal looked over at what was left of the master emerald. "My jewel was only designed to move Chaos to the master emerald."
Tikal walked up to Chaos. The creature didn't react as Tikal focused on the gem in her necklace. A thin vale surrounded Chaos, its body flickering as it seemed to fade in and out of reality.
The color of Chaos's body started returning to normal. Its eyes moved much faster than before, facing Tikal.
A shockwave blasted Tikal back. She crashed into the ground, her ears ringing from the roar Chaos gave off.
She picked herself up, but was grabbed by a goopy tentacle arm. Tikal struggled as she was pulled toward Chaos, its eyes growing brighter and brighter.
She tried using her necklace, but it didn't have any effect on the monster. Chaos pulled her within a few feet and burst into flames. "Stay away from her!" Blaze sent a gout of flame cutting the arm in 2.
A ring of fire rose around Chaos, scorching the ground below. The creature tried breaking through but jumped back howling in pain every time it hit the flames. Steam came off what looked like cuts in Chaos's body.
Chaos folded into itself, losing its shape in a glob of goop. The glob spun, getting skinnier and taller as it twisted into a spire.
Soon Chaos was taller than the fire. Blaze lifted her arms sending the flames higher, racing a Chaos to the sky. Chaos started to steam from the heat inside the circle, but the flames flickered a bit. Chaos quivered, and Blaze's legs began shaking. Both looked at their breaking point when the flames dropped.
Chaos shot out in a goopy mess. Blaze looked ready to collapse, gasping for breath. She closed her eyes, drawing the last of her strength. As she opened her eyes, red flames shot from her hands, heating up and turning blue. Chaos screamed as the flames kept getting hotter, turning white. Steam rose from the dirt below as blackened and burned. Then the dirt began to glow and melt. By now, Chaos had stopped screaming.
Blaze fell to the ground, her eyes closing. Tikal ran over to her. Blaze was still breathing, but she wasn't waking up. Tikal picked her up and carried her over to where Green had been. Green sat next to Shadow, who's eyes were glazed over. It looked like the hallucinogen would still be affecting him for a while.
The woman from earlier had carried Shadow over to Green. But neither Shadow nor Green were in any condition to fight, and a puddle of goop was reforming and coming toward the group.
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Part 2
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Sonic headed back to Chaos containment, stopping a few crimes and helping a few people along the way. He'd gotten 12 people out of the street before they were hit by cars. Which was helpful sure, but it was a little concerning for a problem like that to happen so many times in 1 day.
Sonic had also stopped some guys with super powers from beating up a kid in an alley, and turned them over to the police. The kid had a few bruises, but seemed fine otherwise. Sonic was just glad he'd gotten there in time.
Regular police didn't really have any way of dealing with thugs on that level. At least there weren't any real super villains causing trouble. Sonic wasn't sure he was back to full strength. And those guys made him struggle at his best.
Maybe he should ask Shadow to help him train some more. His older brother never seemed to struggle against anyone. Giant lizards that shot lightning, robot bunnies with laser eyes, that one ferret who caused an earthquake large enough for a tsunami.
Sonic got the feeling that Shadow's training in the military really made the difference, but Sonic didn't like the idea of being forced to kill someone. Even if it was probably necessary. He saved lives, he didn't take them.
When he got back to the lab, Dr. Robotnick was waiting for him. It was 5, so most people had already left for the day. Sonic waved to Robotnick. "Hey Doc! I-uh, may have broken my watch. You got any replacements?"
Robotnick looked over at 3 others wearing lab coats. They nodded and left the lab, leaving it completely empty aside from Sonic and Robotnick. Robotnick picked up a watch and handed it to Sonic. "Are you familiar with a yellow fox named Tails?"
Sonic put the watch on his wrist, messing around with it a little. "Tails. That name seems familiar, but I can't place it."
"Though you likely don't remember this. About a month ago you broke him out of a prison meant for some of the worst criminals in the world." Sonic wasn't sure how to react to the statement, so Robotnick continued. "Tails hasn't committed any serious crimes. Well, he did hack this facility's servers, but that was after being wrongfully detained."
Robotnick pulled up a screen showing Sonic's actions: leaving Chaos containment, breaking Tails out, breaking Amy out, fighting Metal Sonic, and protecting Knuckles, Amy, and Tails from a contingent of the military.
Sonic raised an eyebrow. "If this is all true, why don't I remember it?"
"Oran had your memory wiped. Though he likely didn't count on me having a back up ready for you…and Shadow getting ahold of this." Robotnick slid over a piece of paper with the presidential seal.
Upon compelling evidence. Evan Robotnick aka(Shadow the hedgehog) is given full jurisdiction over actions taken in regards to Sigfried Pholson aka(Specimen 343 and Sonic the hedgehog), Knuckles the echidna, Tails the fox, and Amy the hedgehog until further notice.
Sonic looked up from the page. "Who the heck is Sigfried Pholson?"
Robotnick waved Sonic's concerns off. "Oh, that's just your legal name."
Sonic shook off his confusion. "Ok, I need to ask about that later. But more importantly, does this mean what I think it does?"
Robotnick nodded. "You along with the others on that list are federal agents and have partial legal immunity. So unless Shadow, the president, or the legislature decide to, no one can arrest anyone on that list."
"What!? Knuckles is a serious threat to society. Why would he be on that list?"
"Short answer, we need his help to save the world. Have you ever heard of a creature called Chaos?"
Sonic shook his head, and Robotnick explained about a creature that had destroyed the future. He talked about Silver and Blaze traveling through time. He started talking about Tikal when a phone rang.
Robotnick picked up the phone. "Hello?-Ah, agent yellow.-Yes I'll send him right over. Thank you." He ended the call. "Well 343, would you mind heading to this location?" He handed Sonic a new watch showing directions on a map.
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Part 3
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"And…done." Tails looked over black disc shaped device. It contained all of Sonic's memories up to when left to obtain that chaos emerald for Knuckles. It could be activated remotely, on a timer, or by hand if someone was connected to it.
Tails didn't like the idea of rewriting someone's memories, even if it was just restoring what they'd lost. So he'd designed it as a second memory bank instead. Effectively it was like accessing your own memories normally, but you could tell they were from somewhere else. The device didn't pretend to be you, even if technically it wasn't pretending.
It was tricky working on a machine that worked with a brain. Sure both worked on electrical signals, but they were fundamentally different. Memories were easy enough, but personality, reasoning, self awareness, learning, none of those seemed to work in any device he'd ever come across. As advanced as the mechanical parts of Sonic's brain, surpassing biological brains in many ways, it couldn't adapt. It couldn't do anything new without some outside help.
And that was something Tails could provide. He picked up a phone and dialed. "Hey Doc. It's ready."
Tails talked with Robotnick for a few moments, hung up, and looked over at Sonic. "Wow, I think that's a new record." Tails handed Sonic the memory device. This should let you access all your memories up to when I saw you last.
Sonic took the drive. "So this will give me my memories back?"
"It's more like you can view them. It interfaces with the robotic part of your brain; you tell it what you want to see and it'll be similar to remembering something. Though it'd be more accurate to compare it to watching a movie from the viewpoint of a character. Just attach it to your head."
Sonic looked at the device for a few minutes before setting it down on Tails' desk. "This…is a lot to take in."
Tails shrugged. "Hey, if you don't want to use it, that's your choice. But don't you want your memories back?"
Sonic looked at the device, reaching out, but stopping short of grabbing it. He sighed. "I do. But messing around with my brain, even this way, kind of freaks me out."
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A/N:
Shadow's birth name is Evan, he just goes by Shadow because he likes the idea that shadows are the only things faster than light.
Comment responses:
@momojifan: Glad to know it's worth the wait, even if it's a long one again.