A/N: Here we go... The final chapter of the Operation Endgame Saga! Are you guys ready for this? Cuz I'm sure not!
Also, stay tuned, because I have a super long section at the end of the chapter, where I reveal my original plans for the Operation Endgame Saga!
I would like to thank jm10132000, charlesw2, and Zoruatrainer66 for favoriting and following since my last chapter!
Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!
9 Reviews
Monster King
Thanks! What has been your favorite part so far?
blazenight01
You're absolutely right; for example, as edgy of a game as Shadow the Hedgehog was, "It's like taking candy from a baby, which is fine by me" is super cheesy, and I wouldn't have it any other way XD
But anyway, that's reassuring to know.
Josiah Sommer
Not quite, the Time Suspension Phenomenon doesn't happen in this story because Earth and Mobius were never the same planet at one time in this continuity. That phenomenon was the result of them trying to merge back together, and I kinda found it to be a bit complicated. Both planets are still parallel to each other, though.
danielman21
Same... I don't wanna see them leave... I want them to be real so bad!
Five-Chosen
Even though I already planned out the ending of this arc long before I posted the last chapter, I really like your idea, and I can see it as an alternate ending to the Operation Endgame Saga. I may actually make it into its own story sometime.
Super duper waffles (first review)
Sure, go for it! Just a note that some of the smaller, non-plot specific elements might be subject to change in the event that I go back over and revise some of the chapters, but everything else will be kept intact.
1. Yes, humans have tried to get to Angel Island before, but upon Knuckles' request, the government has forbidden tourism on Angel Island. The government has sent a few officials to Angel Island, but they had to promise not to touch anything, and of course, they were under the watchful eye of Knuckles the whole time. It didn't stop the people from trying to fly drones up there, but several of them were smashed by Knuckles' fists. It is now considered illegal to trespass on the island.
2. I haven't really thought of what the Middle Ages were like yet, but the technology was closer to how it was in SatAM, combined with the tech of the 80s and 90s, plus the cities were smaller and the land that is currently the United Federation belonged to several smaller countries. This is subject to change as I develop Mobius more, which I may do in another fanfic after Chaos on Earth and its sequel.
3. Mobius does indeed have its own Olympics, and they started in Apotos roughly four hundred years ago. They are very similar to Earth's Olympics, and they too are held every four years. Sonic and friends have participated in them at least three times in Extreme Gear racing, which is one of the Olympic events.
4. I haven't really thought of dog breeds on Mobius, but the varieties are largely the same on Mobius as they are on Earth, but most of the time they are owned by humans. I would say the most popular breed is golden retrievers.
5. Sonic doesn't have his own Nintendo Switch, but Chris does let him play on his Switch from time to time while he's in school.
6. I'm not familiar with Life Is Strange, so I'm probably gonna say they haven't played it.
7. Sonic has played Persona 4, Persona 5, and Final Fantasy VII! He was about to pick up Final Fantasy XV before Operation Endgame happened.
8. While Sonic and friends don't actively use social media as much as humans do, they all have their own Google, Twitter, Discord, and Instagram accounts. They are all very careful who they accept friend requests from, and they have had to block people they thought were strange. Chuck also helps them out with social media.
Guest
Me too, I wanna hug him too! :'( He needs it so much right now!
Super duper waffles (second review)
I think it was actually confirmed in the Archie comics that Mobius is actually Earth in the distant future, so you're not far off at all. And you might be onto something that the other real-world planets exist in the Mobius dimension as well.
CreativeKitty975
I couldn't leave Chris as a robot forever! I mean... that's probably what Eggman wants, but that's not what Chris' friends want for him, and that's certainly not what Chris wants! I had a lot of fun writing that scene and thinking of all the possibilities.
They warm my heart too, which is why they are some of my favorite scenes to write :)
Here is the final chapter of the Operation Endgame Saga!
Chapter 56
Original Episode
Operation Endgame Saga Part 10: Welcome to the Endgame
The Death Egg – Outside – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
From her seat in one of several escape shuttles, Topaz looked out the window at the burning GUN Fort V3 as it was on a collision course for the ground. She for one was relieved that it appeared that most if not all of the GUN personnel aboard the flying fortress had made it out safely. Even so, it was quite a frantic sight.
She looked down at her lap again. Nearly everything that had gone wrong did go wrong, even though Rouge had told her things would work out eventually. She didn't see it happening. Now that they were without a GUN Fort, the only thing Topaz had going for her was that the number of casualties, if any, was drastically less than they were the other day, plus she herself managed to escape with her life intact for the second time that week.
She was going to have to reevaluate her life. She was approaching middle-age and two close calls in three days was definitely a wake-up call.
There was a sudden jolt as the escape shuttle touched down and bumped along the ground, but other than the sudden turbulence, it remained intact. Seconds later, the door slid open, which was her cue for her and the twenty other troopers inside to leave.
The first thing she did when she stepped outside was shield her eyes from the sun as she stared in shock and awe at the massive flying fortress in the distance. Within seconds, it went down in a blaze of glory, crashing into the ground with a tremendous explosion and burning on the spot in the rocky desert. And just beyond it was the Death Egg, which was rapidly moving away from her location. It had to be several miles away by now.
As she stood there, she quickly came to realize that she and her entire squad were only a liability in a fight that wasn't hers, but one that she was pulled into regardless. She gave it everything she could and still failed.
"Clear out," she called to everyone within earshot. "Everyone, clear out! Get away from the GUN Fort! It's a high-risk area and could explode any minute!"
As most of the soldiers backed away from the burning wreckage, Topaz prepared to call for reinforcements. However, as she did so, she spotted a robot flying down from the Death Egg toward the wreckage. It vaguely resembled Godzilla if he was more slender and a Mobian.
As she broke contact with HQ, she turned to give the robot her full attention and watched it to see what it would do. It seemed to be looking for something in particular.
And then it dawned on her in an instant.
"You five, group on me," Rouge said, pointing to the nearest five soldiers. "Ignore my previous command. That over there is an Eggman salvage robot, and if my memory serves me right, there's still a Chaos Emerald on board the ship."
"I didn't hear anything about an Emerald," one of the soldiers said.
"Rouge mentioned there being one inside Beta," Topaz briefly explained as she and her troops ran toward the GUN Fort. "Omega blew it up, but he didn't get the Emerald out of there, so that's what Eggman's after."
As Topaz approached the ship, she caught sight of the robot for a brief moment, but only for a second before it noticed her approach. It turned to her and breathed flames directly at her, but Topaz ducked for cover and rolled out of the way. Her troops fired at it, but no visible damage was done.
And then Topaz realized, not only did she now see the Chaos Emerald in its grasp, but the robot was none other than Vector the Crocodile!
Topaz was the closest to Vector, and she too fired at him, trying to at least knock the Emerald out of his grasp, but he had a good hold on it. Vector swooped down and swatted her to the ground with a swipe of his tail before he flew back up to the Death Egg.
If she had known it was Vector, she wouldn't have been so hasty for her and her troops to destroy it. Vector was one of Sonic's allies, and the hedgehog would probably have a few choice words for her if he happened to find out that GUN did Vector in.
She spotted another group of soldiers inspecting the burning GUN Fort. Smoke and flames rose high into the air as they searched for survivors, if any.
"Watch out, it could still be unstable," she called. "Reinforcements are on their way and they'll take care of things from here."
Just then she received a report on her shoulder-mounted radio.
"All Valkyrie units are terminated, I repeat, all Valkyrie units are terminated."
She had heard other explosions earlier, but she didn't realize that they were the Valkyries that had gone down along with the Egg Fort. The GUN Fort had already done a number to them, and she figured the Badniks swarming the Death Egg did the rest.
Speaking of the Badniks, she glanced back up to see all of them returning to the Death Egg where they had come from. Fortunately, the massive battle station was making its way away from her, which meant Topaz was in the clear for now. It also meant to Topaz that Eggman no longer considered GUN to be a threat.
Activating her radio once again, she contacted HQ.
"Topaz to HQ," she spoke. "The Society has destroyed the GUN Fort V3, over." Her report came in late, but she was caught up in getting her troops to safety and dealing with Vector, so she didn't get a chance to before.
She looked back up at the Death Egg. She didn't know what was going on in there, but whatever it was, it was certainly the climax.
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
Shadow had already exhausted his gun's magazine long ago on the Robians, so he had to use his swift reflexes and Chaos Spears to keep Big, Froggy, and Espio at bay. And if it wasn't bad enough, Charmy had now joined the fight, and he was somehow more annoying now than when he wasn't a Robian.
Even though the fight was four against one, Shadow did not back down, nor did he ever consider it. Despite the fact that they were once flesh-and-blood Mobians, that did not stop him from fighting them. They were holding onto the Chaos Emerald, and Shadow was determined to get it back from them.
Concentrating, Shadow summoned the physical manifestation of Chaos energy into the palm of his hand.
"Chaos Spear!"
He hurled the energy projectile straight at Big's chest, but it was quickly and completely dissolved within his massive core. At that exact moment, Froggy leaped off the wall onto his face. The metallic frog was just as annoying as, if not worse than Charmy.
With an agitated growl, Shadow ripped Froggy off his face, grabbed his tongue, and swung him into Espio, who was still holding the Chaos Emerald. The impact knocked the Robian chameleon off the wall. Without wasting another second, he lunged for the Emerald, but Espio easily rolled out of the way.
As soon as Shadow turned around, Charmy swooped down at him and kicked at him. Shadow immediately dodged and kicked him into Big. The crushing impact did some damage to both of them, but Big didn't seem to feel anything.
He launched another Chaos Spear at Espio, nearly hitting him, but it struck the Emerald he was holding, causing him to drop it. That was exactly what he had intended.
Before Espio could grab it, Shadow skated in and grabbed it before taking off for the command center where he knew Eggman would be waiting for him. But before he could get far, he was hit with a sudden laser blast to the back. He fell to the ground, dropping the Emerald. When he looked up, Big's massive laser cannon in his chest was retracting back into himself, and Charmy was flying away with the Emerald.
By now, Shadow had had enough. He immediately turned and fled the scene in search of Eggman, Emerald or no Emerald. Besides, Sonic and his friends were probably searching for the reactor too, and the more ground everyone could cover, the better.
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
With Metal Sonic slung over one shoulder, Eggman stepped through the door of the repair shop and laid him down on the work table in the center of the room. As he examined him, he didn't see any other sign that he was tampered with, at least not on the surface.
Next, he plugged several wires into the robot's head and chest. Once he connected the last wire, he activated the nearby computer and typed on the keypad directly beneath it. He studied the schematics that appeared, then zoomed in on the chest cavity and studied the lines of code that showed up.
"Interesting…" he thought. "It would seem he doesn't need the nano spider inside him to be effectively controlled by the Society. So this means it's entirely possible he could be remotely controlled from the Egg Carrier, but I highly doubt the Society are smart enough to outwit my superior intellect!"
Suddenly an error message appeared on the screen, indicating that the wires had been disconnected and the system was going into emergency shutdown due to an overload. Eggman spun around to see Metal ripping the wires out of himself before leaping to his feet.
"Metal, what are you– Gah!"
Metal bolted out of the rest of his restraints and flew across the repair shop, attacking everything and everyone randomly and indiscriminately. Eggman ducked as the robot soared over his head. Before he could do much else, he fled the lab.
"Get back here before I–" Eggman started to say, before he realized it was no use. "I would never allow my master creation to be controlled by a virus. It's virtually impossible for Metal Sonic to be infected anyway."
Gritting his teeth, he ran from the lab toward the command center. So that was a minor setback, but it was no big deal. It was nothing he couldn't handle.
One elevator ride later, he rushed into the command center, where several robots were overseeing Operation Endgame. Decoe and Bocoe were gathered there too.
Eggman sat down in the command chair, glanced up at the readouts on one of the overhead screens, and tapped a few buttons on the keyboard under a panel on the armrest.
"All available Badniks, converge on Sector 32D and destroy that treasonous Metal Sonic!" he shouted.
"Are you sure that is the wisest course of action, Doctor?" Bocoe asked.
"Of course!" Eggman said. "He's not even my 'main' Metal Sonic. He's back on Mobius where I left him."
"Doctor, there is urgent news," Decoe said. "The Egg Carrier is approaching us again, and the Egg Lasers are still charging so we cannot use them to shoot it down."
"So the Society is coming in for round two…" Eggman used. "And I just ordered all my remaining robots to detain Metal Sonic…"
"There is more," Bocoe added. "Christopher Thorndyke has been deroboticized–"
"What?!" Eggman exclaimed. "That's impossible!"
"However," Bocoe continued, "he is in critical condition, and is currently being taken to the hangar."
"He's of no concern to me…" Eggman said. "Not anymore. If he really is allergic to the roboticizer, I will have to reevaluate my studies. It may weaken the morale of the rodents as well. Still, it's impossible that he could be deroboticized, I took precautions against that happening!"
"Doctor," Decoe reported, turning to him from one of the screens. "Shadow the Hedgehog is approaching us as we speak."
Eggman gritted his teeth. His plan was being punctured full of holes with every passing minute. First Metal Sonic turned against him, then Chris was deroboticized for reasons he couldn't understand, then the Society was approaching him again, and now Shadow was coming to fight him.
"Curse those rodents…" he growled as he activated his wrist communicator. "Vector, you're the only robot I can spare lately. As soon as you return with the Emerald, investigate the Egg Carrier and make sure you leave no trace of the Society."
He hung up as he turned to leave the office.
"Now I have to prepare for the main event," he said as he stepped out, "earlier than I had anticipated."
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Sonic's POV
I was running as fast as I could through the Death Egg, but not too fast that I would lose sight of Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Vanilla, Cheese, and Chocola who were right behind me. Tails and Chris were on their way to the X-Tornado to get treated, and the rest of us were heading to the reactor to put an end to Eggman's plan once and for all. Deep down, I knew this was the end.
My ears twitched as I heard the intercom going off:
"All available Badniks, converge on Sector 32D and destroy that treasonous Metal Sonic!"
I had a second take for a moment, thinking he meant me, until I realized Eggman was actually talking about my robot doppelganger.
"Wait, what?" Knuckles asked in confusion, looking at the rest of us as if that would get him any answers. I shrugged; I was just as clueless as he was.
"But that doesn't make any sense," Amy said. "Metal is viciously loyal to Eggman, so I'm guessing something happened to him."
"I got nothing either," I replied with a shrug. "He's like… the fourth Metal Sonic that Eggman made, so he's definitely not the same as the one we know and loathe back home… although, it sure does feel like it."
"I hope we don't see him…" Cream said, looking around warily as she ensured her Chao remained close to her.
"Chao chao…" Cheese agreed.
"We'll keep an eye out for him," I told her, "but as far as I'm concerned, he's got his own problems to deal with."
"So Eggman has enough confidence this time that he can afford to destroy Metal Sonic and it won't slow him down?" Knuckles asked, before he paused. "Hold that thought… I'm picking up the Chaos Emeralds. They're on one of the lower levels, but I don't know which one yet."
"So we'll pop downstairs and see what's cookin', yeah?" I said.
But as soon as I started running forward, Metal Sonic rounded the corner and immediately pinned me against the wall by my arms, earning startled gasps from my friends.
"Look," he started to say, "I'm not gonna go on my usual spiel and say I'm the one true Sonic. I'm gonna cut to the chase. So let's be real, you and the other Mobians, and Eggman too, you guys are a threat to the status quo and must be eliminated like right now."
I blinked in surprise. Metal never acted like this, let alone spoke when he wasn't Neo Metal Sonic. Looking up at his eyes, they weren't displaying their usual cold maliciousness. In fact, he was starting to sound just like–
"Whoa, dude, you sure you don't have a screw loose?" I asked him.
As a retort, Metal lunged toward me and punched me to the ground. It didn't hurt me as much as it shocked me.
"Leave him alone!" Amy shouted. She pulled out her hammer and rushed toward Sonic, but he reached up and grabbed the handle without even so much as moving his body, effectively neutralizing her attack. Needless to say, she was frustrated and tried to pull it away.
"You will find that the Society's not as gentle as Eggman," Metal continued. "We oppose them too, and over time, we'll take you both out in one fell swoop."
"Buddy, you're talking like those Eggman wannabes!" I said in realization as I took a step back, still fully facing Metal.
"I already told you, leave Sonic alone!" With one mighty tug, she ripped her hammer out of Metal's grasp.
"Oh, you're not out of the woods either, Amy," Metal said, his head swiveling to face her. "As soon as I'm finished with Sonic, you're next."
"Do I get a say?" Knuckles called as he lunged for Metal. While his outstretched fist did considerable damage to the robot, he didn't seem to be fazed. He grabbed Metal, but the robot activated his jetpack, slamming him into the wall and creating an echidna-shaped dent in the metal surface.
"I am only one voice in the chorus of the Society," Metal continued. "You have sent humanity on a downward trend. You cost people their jobs, and in some cases, their freedom."
"We stand for freedom!" Amy retorted.
"Dude, this is seriously creeping me out…" I said, glaring at him. "It's super weird hearing all this coming from one of Eggman's robots."
"My body may be Eggman's, but my soul belongs to the Society," Metal said. "We only seek your removal for the benefit of mankind."
"You know all that is mumbo-jumbo to me, right?" I said, ready to push my way past him. "B'sides, we're kinda busy here and you're just getting in the way."
"Sonic, I know what he's talking about," Amy spoke up in a hushed voice, and I turned to look back to her. "Look at his eyes. They're just like the house appliances he fought, remember? He's being controlled by the Society!"
My eyes widened. "Oh, that makes a lot of sense!" I said.
"Guys, we don't have time for this!" Knuckles exclaimed. "We have to stop Eggman and get the Emeralds back. And if I don't see an elevator or stairwell any time soon, I'm this close to making my own way down."
"Then let's go!" Amy urged us all on.
"Them's fighting words!" I rallied as I quickly led my friends through the Death Egg's seemingly endless corridors.
"You doing okay so far, Miss Vanilla?" I heard Amy ask from behind me.
"Of course, Amy, I trust all of you completely," Vanilla responded between pants. Although she wasn't accustomed to running this much on a time crunch, she seemed to be able to keep up with us, and in turn, I made sure I wasn't running too fast for anyone. I did, however, make sure the coast was clear ahead of us.
"We'll make sure you stay safe in case things get rough," Amy promised.
"Me too, Mama, I'll help too!" Cream called with an adorable wave.
"Thank you both, dears," Vanilla responded as warmly as she could given the tenseness of the situation.
"Hey, y'know, we haven't seen any of those Phantom hallucinations in a while," Knuckles pointed out.
"Yeah, I noticed that too– Whoa!" Amy flinched and dove out of the way just in time as Metal quickly caught up to us with the aid of his jetpack.
"Only cowards run away," Metal said, giving us a condescending wag of his finger.
"That's my thing…!" I hissed in annoyance.
"Oh, we're not running away, not from our main goal at least," Knuckles responded without breaking his stride. "Besides, Eggman said he was gonna destroy you. Didn't you hear the announcement?"
"Oh, him? He doesn't know what he's up against," Metal responded, sounding a little too cocky even for me.
"So you guys stole a ship, big deal," I shrugged. "And then you stole all the GUN robots. So why'd they send you?"
"The doctor may have reprogrammed them to serve him once again, but Beta has overcome them. I am unsure of his fate, but I am quite sure of yours."
I blinked in surprise. Eggman reprogrammed all the GUN robots? That was news to me.
"Hey, uh, you might wanna take a quick peek behind you," I told Metal as the rest of my friends gathered next to me. Metal looked behind him to see what I had just seen. A huge swarm of Badniks was flowing directly toward Metal Sonic.
"That's our cue, gotta juice!" I called as I took off down the hall, with everyone else right behind me.
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
Having encountered very little resistance, Shadow made it into the Death Egg's conference room. He assumed all the Badniks were after Metal Sonic, which was a foolish move on Eggman's part in Shadow's eyes.
Not only were the various hallways empty, but so was the conference room, except for Bokkun, who was lounging in one of the chairs sipping apple juice from a juice box.
"What do you want…?" he asked, lowering the box.
"Tell me where the reactor is," Shadow bluntly told him, cutting right to the chase.
"I-I can't do that!" Bokkun suddenly panicked. "If I do, Eggman would ground me sooo hard, and I just wanna live and watch cartoons and eat candy and cake and–"
"Tell me!" Shadow snapped, taking a few steps closer. "It's not that hard!"
But he froze in his steps as he received a sudden surge of energy from what he assumed was the Phantom Ruby. Everything was so vivid and real. He could see and feel himself in the metallic and specially filtered environment around him, and he could practically reach out and touch the panoramic window which offered a spectacular view of Mobius below him. He could even hear her voice. It sounded just as lovely as it had over fifty years ago.
"Isn't it beautiful, Shadow? That's Planet Mobius. Grandpa has been talking so much about it lately, and as soon as I get well… I really want to take you there, and we can explore it together."
"Maria…"
Shadow merely blinked, and he found himself back in the situation room. He grabbed his head in confusion, frustration, and desperation.
"Maria…!" he lamented again.
Bokkun tilted his head in confusion. "Who're you talking to…?" he asked.
"He is dealing with an overdose of the Phantom Ruby's power," came the voice of Eggman as he stepped into the room behind Shadow. "Temporal, but a shock to the mind for sure."
Shadow turned to fully face Eggman, his expression set in a vengeful scowl.
"Listen, doctor, I will take that Phantom Ruby and shove it so far down your throat you won't be able to mouth off to anyone anymore," he vowed. "Seriously, you represent all the negativity of the human race in one oversized walking lump of flesh and bones."
"How flattering," Eggman said as he crossed the room to the other side of the conference table. "I have my own 'hate fan club.'"
He pulled a remote from his jacket pocket and pressed a button. Suddenly the entire back wall began to open up, revealing a large open space. There was a giant spider-like robot in the middle of the room.
"I've been waiting an especially long time for this," he said gleefully as he strode toward his robot. "Behold, my glorious Egg Spider! I already took the liberty of docking the Eggmobile inside because I knew one of you rodents would come fight me face to face directly. And just like everything else in Operation Endgame, I'm always prepared."
Without wasting another second, Shadow rushed toward Eggman as he finished climbing into his robot. However, he stopped when he noticed the Phantom Ruby in the back of the robot.
"Normally I would wait for our usual guest of honors," Eggman said as he activated his robot, "but I don't mind making an example out of you."
"It'll be the worst mistake you make," Shadow warned him.
"We'll see about that," Eggman grinned. He extended the Egg Spider's claws directly toward Shadow, but the hedgehog had no problem dodging.
"Luckily for me, I don't have to worry about the Phantom Ruby's influence," Eggman bragged, pointing to the goggles he always wore. "I have a neuro chip installed in my goggles that neutralizes its effect."
"Then you better make room in your throat for those too," Shadow said in a low tone before spin-dashing one of the robots' legs.
Eggman got a call on his wrist communicator, only briefly dividing his attention. He set his robot on autopilot as he took the call.
"Wonderful news, Doctor!" Orbot reported. "The seventh Chaos Emerald is finally here, and we have the Corona Corundum in place too!"
"You said it, it's excellent news!" Eggman said with a twisted grin. "Activate the Chaos Roboticizer."
It was clear that Shadow heard the call, because he tried to flee the room, only to find that the wall behind him had been sealed up once again, trapping him with Eggman.
"You threw away your chance of escape the moment you walked into the spider's den," Eggman taunted. "But seriously, there's no escaping. The walls are made of steel lased with tungsten."
"Didn't stop me before," Shadow smirked.
"Here you accuse me of bragging, but now look at you!" Eggman declared. "I see ego must run through the Robotnik family."
"I am not a Robotnik!" Shadow declared, turning to give Eggman his full attention. "I am Shadow! Shadow the Hedgehog!"
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Chris' POV
What must have felt like fifteen minutes later, Tails and I finally arrived at the hangar bay. It was completely vacant because all the robots had been ordered to destroy Metal Sonic for some weird reason. I didn't know why, but if it meant we wouldn't find ourselves under attack for a little while, I would take it.
I was still suffering from the direct effects of my allergic reaction. Not only was I visibly swollen on my face and arms, but my throat felt tight, and I was dealing with stomach cramps. I even felt like I could throw up soon if my reaction got any worse.
Tails set me down next to the plane before pulling the side compartment open. He wasted no time passing me an EpiPen and some water while he treated his own injuries from his first-aid kit.
"Chris, I want you to stay here in the X-Tornado while the rest of us fight Eggman, okay?" he told me as I carefully administered the EpiPen. I nodded in reply.
There was a sudden notice over the Death Egg's intercom, and we both instinctively looked up.
"The Chaos Roboticizer 2.0 is now active and entering charging stage. Final activation in five minutes."
Tails let out a small gasp, and my heart must have skipped a beat. Eggman's master plan was progressing much faster than I thought.
"Okay, I got an idea," Tails said after a moment as he put his first-aid kit away and sealed the compartment. "I don't know if I can stop the process, but I could at least try and reverse the polarity to see if that will do anything. And the Corona Corundum is probably in the Chaos Roboticizer already. So… the way I see it, I think causing Chaos Control is the only way to stop Eggman's plan."
"Okay," I said as I finished taking a sip of the water.
"This might be it…" Tails told me, his ears drooping slightly. I didn't like the way he said that. He looked up at me, directly into my eyes. "Stay inside the X-Tornado no matter what," he firmly told me.
"W-Wait, hold on, is- Is this… g-gonna be the last time we meet…?" I asked in disbelief as I started to climb into the plane.
"Not at all!" Tails said, quickly shaking his head as he opened the front canopy. "This is not the end, not on my watch."
I let out a grunt as I finished climbing over the ledge of the plane into the front seat. I hadn't sat there since I had pulled off my great Chaos Emerald heist last year. Tears started to form in my eyes as I sat there, realizing the implications of what Tails' words meant.
"I wanna admit…" Tails said, his ears and tails starting to droop a little more. "I don't like saying goodbye forever… just like Sonic. Because every time I make really good friends… I can't let go." He looked up at me from the ground below. "But we'll find a way to meet you again, and maybe you can build a portal to come visit us!"
"B-But I'm not as smart as you…!" I forced myself to say.
"Oh, don't worry, you don't have to be as smart as me!" Tails tried to comfort me. "Remember last year when I was building the portal for us to go home? I still have all the blueprints for that, they should be able to help you."
That was comforting, but there was something else too.
"O-Okay, but that portal needs a fake Chaos Emerald, a-and–"
"I made one from Earth parts no problem," Tails said matter-of-factly. "But just in case, I have instructions for those too, so you should have no problem with that."
Even through my tears, I could see that Tails was trying to hold it together too. We both looked at each other for a few seconds, and before I knew it, Tails had flown straight up to me and was now clinging to me in a tight hug. I was a bit surprised and taken off guard by that, but now that we were both sitting there hugging each other for dear life, the tears started flowing freely. I didn't want to let go of Tails no matter what. I could feel a drop of moisture fall onto my neck from where Tails was hugging me. Tails was crying too.
"Wh-Why c-can't I come w-with you…?" I asked. I was already on the third stage of grief.
"But... your friends and family would miss you..." Tails responded after a moment. "And... and Helen would miss you too."
Helen… I still had a very strong crush on her, but after all this time, I was still too shy to flat-out admit it. I could have mentally kicked myself. It had been a year already and I still couldn't bring myself to admit my feelings for her.
"Besides…" Tails said after sniffing, "someone needs to build the portal on your side of the planet. I can build one on Mobius, but in order to make it even stronger and longer lasting… you need to build one on your side too." He loosened his grip on me slightly before looking at me, and through his tears, a slight smile started to form on his muzzle. He placed his hands on my shoulders. "I know you can do it, Chris. It's– It'll be like a race to see who can finish the portal first!"
I was shaking. I didn't realize I was shaking right now, but I could feel my arms trembling as I realized I wasn't going to see Tails again for a long time, or Sonic, or any of my friends for that matter. I didn't want to lose any of them, but deep down, I knew he was right. In my state of denial, I had to admit Tails was right.
"I'll do it," I quietly vowed. "I-I'll build a portal and connect our planets forever. And then… w-we can all visit each other any time we want." I felt the tears coming on again. "H-Hopefully without anything bad happening to Earth or Mobius…"
Tails nodded before gently hugging me again.
"I-I don't know if I said this before…" I said, feeling a bit nervous all of a sudden to admit what I was about to say, "but y-you have been a really great friend… a-and the best little brother I could ever wish for…"
I felt Tails' namesakes wrapping themselves around me as he hugged me even more.
"J-Just between us two… I, um… I secretly looked up to you," he admitted, to my surprise. "Thank you s-so much for being our guide when we came here to Earth. And even if we're far away… friendship lasts forever."
I tried to hold back a sob as I let the small fox's words soak in. I could tell Tails was doing the same as well, and I even heard a small but high-pitched squeak coming from him as he tried to hold his sobs in. I couldn't bear to leave my closest friends no matter what.
"I programmed the X-Tornado to automatically take off in sixty seconds," he told me once he calmed down a bit. "You'll be safely off the Death Egg before Chaos Control happens. It's programmed to take you back to your house safely."
"T-Tell the others I said goodbye…" I said.
"You know what…?" Tails briefly let go of me and activated his comlink. "Hey Sonic…? Um... Ch-Chris is about to leave in less than a minute."
He positioned his arm so I could see his comlink, and I could see Sonic on the other end. He looked up at me, and I could also see his other friends with him.
"I'll be seein' ya, Chris!" Sonic called.
"Bye, Chris!" I could hear everyone call to me in the background.
"You've been super cool!" Knuckles added.
"Take good care of your family!" Amy added.
"We'll miss you!" Cream called.
"Chao-chao chao!"
"I-I'll miss you too…!" I choked out before looking down again.
"We'll meet again, I promise!" Sonic added.
"I gotta go now," Tails hurriedly said as he hung up the call with Sonic and forced himself to let go. "Good luck on the portal!"
"G-Good luck with Eggman!" I added as the canopy started to close on its own.
"Bye, Chris!" Tails called through his own tears.
"B-Bye, Tails!" I called back.
As I glanced down to make sure I was strapped in, the canopy sealed itself, and the engines roared to life. As the high-pitched whine rose in pitch and intensity, the tears streamed down my face to the point where they were now obscuring my vision, and my heart was pounding.
I was saying goodbye for real this time.
The plane turned itself around and slowly started to accelerate toward the open air outside. As it picked up speed, Tails flew after me for a second, waving goodbye, and I waved back the moment the X-Tornado went airborne. Once I flew out of the Death Egg, Tails was no longer in sight, and I closed my eyes tightly as the tears silently cascaded down like a waterfall.
Even though my friends were going home soon and I had to say goodbye, they had given me true hope that I would see them all again one day.
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
Metal Sonic was in hot pursuit of Sonic and his friends. He didn't seem to care that there was a huge swarm of Badniks at his heels with orders to destroy him. Destroying Sonic was all that mattered to him.
"You guys go ahead!" Sonic called to everyone. "I'll hold him off!"
"Right!" Cream responded. Even as she moved forward, she couldn't take her eyes off of Sonic as he ran toward his robot doppelganger and traded blows with him.
Metal tried to punch Sonic, but his fist connected with the wall instead, leaving a sizeable dent in its metallic surface. Having quickly ducked under Metal's fist, he tried to kick back at the robot, but he flew out of the way and punched Sonic. Sonic blocked the blow with his fist, wincing at the impact as the shock flowed up his arm.
This is more of Knuckles' thing… he thought.
However, when Sonic looked back at his friends, he could see Amy hesitating. She stood there in the hall, torn between helping him in the fight or racing toward the reactor with the rest of her friends.
"What are you doing? Keep going!" Sonic grunted as he struggled to hold Metal back so he wouldn't fly after them.
However, Knuckles didn't listen to Sonic and came storming back up the hall straight toward Metal Sonic. His head swiveled to face the echidna, but just as he was about to fly out of the way, Knuckles' fist connected with his body, sending him soaring down the hall. He flew a good hundred feet away, but he used his jets to regain his balance.
"Nice one, Knux!" Sonic cheered, fist-bumping his friendly rival. However, Knuckles misjudged the force of the fistbump, sending another shock up Sonic's arm.
"That'll put some distance between us," Knuckles said with a nod.
"Good call," Sonic winced, shaking his hand to try to alleviate the shock. "Now let's keep moving before he– uh oh…"
He looked up just in time to see Metal Sonic flying after them as fast as he could possibly go. He was just about to pick up Amy and run when a hand reached out and grabbed Metal out of the air. Everyone was stalled in the hall now, shocked at this turn of events.
Metal tried to break free from the hand with all his might, but he couldn't. Robian Big stepped into view from the adjacent hall, and as Metal tried to pull his hand off from around him, he was joined by Espio, Charmy, and several Badniks.
"We're gonna hafta pass on this show and keep moving!" Sonic called to his friends. "This is just a side show!"
"My destruction will only prove the Society right!" Metal protested as his enemies ran off and out of sight. "We will overcome and maintain the–"
His words died in his throat as he was blasted at point-blank range by the six Buzzbombers that were now hovering around him. They only fazed him slightly, but that distraction was all Big needed to literally rip him in half. Sparks flew everywhere as the Robian dropped the two halves of Metal on the ground. His red eyes vanished as a few more sparks popped out of his circuitry and landed harmlessly on the floor.
Now that Metal Sonic 4.0 was destroyed, the robots resumed their primary objective and pursued Sonic, even though he was far ahead of them by now.
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
Shadow and Eggman were still locked in combat, with neither of them having the advantage over the other. Shadow had only managed to land a handful of hits on Eggman's Egg Spider, but the doctor was dominating the fight with missiles, claws, Phantom Ruby illusions, and electric webs.
Unknown to either of them, Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Vanilla, and the two Chao happened to pass by the situation room when Sonic's ears twitched. He was picking up the sound of the fight on the other side of the back wall.
"Is that…?" Amy started to say as she too strained to listen. She flinched as something heavy slammed into the opposite wall in the room.
"Sounds like the party's gettin' started," Sonic said as he stepped into the room.
Knuckles joined him, and as he looked around, he saw a remote control lying on the table.
"Hey guys," he spoke, and the others joined him as he gestured to the remote. "I don't know about you guys, but this here looks like a plot device waiting to happen."
"A what…?" Sonic eyed the remote. "That's weird…"
"There's no way Eggman would just leave that here for us…" Amy said suspiciously, looking from the remote to Sonic and Knuckles. "…right?"
"Yeah, now that you mention it," Knuckles said with a shrug, still looking at the remote, "it definitely looks like a trap." Cream nodded her agreement.
Sonic immediately picked up the remote and held his thumb over the button. "Sounds like a challenge to me!" He saw everyone's shocked expressions and turned to look at them. "You know we're gonna fight Eggman sooner or later, so might as well nip it in the bud now! Besides, I'm kinda lookin' forward to this. Who's with me?"
"If it means cracking that Eggman wide open, then count me in!" Knuckles smirked, crashing his fists together.
"Me too!" Amy said, pulling out her hammer.
"Let's do it to it!" Sonic called, before looking back at Vanilla. "Oh yeah, Miss Vanilla? You may wanna stay back for a bit, cuz things are gonna get ugly."
"We'll come back for you," Amy told her as she joined the fight.
"I wish you the best of luck," Vanilla said with a nod as she took a step back. "Cream, what would you like to do, dear?"
"I want to help!" Cream said with determination in her eyes.
"Chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola echoed, mirroring Cream's expression.
"All right then, please be very careful," Vanilla told them sincerely.
"We will!" Cream said as Sonic pressed the button, opening the wall that separated him and his friends from Shadow and Eggman on the other side.
The sight before their eyes was nothing short of carnage. The walls were heavily dented and damaged, there was smoke and skid marks everywhere, and Amy was nearly struck by a stray laser that whipped past her head. She shuddered at the near hit, and a chill ran through her spine when she saw that the robot she and her friends were about to go up against was a spider.
The heroes wasted no time rushing toward the robot and hammering it with everything they had, one of them quite literally.
"What are you doing? I thought you were all going to the reactor!" Shadow called to Sonic.
"I thought so too, but I heard you guys were tussling, and if you know me, you know I don't sit out of a good old-fashioned tussle with the ol' Egghead!"
"I had everything under control before," Shadow said, still a bit salty about Sonic's sudden arrival.
"I beg to differ," Eggman said as he launched several missiles at Amy and Shadow, only for his robot to receive a punch to its abdomen courtesy of Knuckles. "If I recall correctly, I had you on the ropes."
"Until now!" Knuckles called, quickly dodging an electric web that was launched by the Egg Spider. It harmlessly embedded itself into the wall before electrocuting that section of the wall. Five seconds later, it vanished.
Another direct explosion ripped a hole in the back wall, revealing another adjacent room. Fortunately, it was not the room Vanilla was watching the fight from; the heroes were making sure none of the projectiles were headed her way.
"I'll bet you rodents haven't even realized I am merely a distraction!" Eggman crowed. "Didn't you hear the announcement a few minutes ago?"
"Yeah," Sonic said, home-attacking one of the robot's legs. "Gives me all the more reason to kick your butt so we can put an end to your plans."
"You of all people should know it's already too late, Sonic!"
"It's only too late when I stop running!" Sonic responded defiantly.
The fight was particularly destructive, and Sonic wasn't very good at fighting in close quarters, so taking on the Egg Spider was a challenge for him. Cream, Cheese, and Chocola were able to use their teamwork and strength to sever one of the Egg Spider's legs.
"I got one!" Cream cheered.
"Great job!" Amy exclaimed, grinning at her friend.
Two minutes later, more holes were blasted through the walls, as well as the ceiling and even the floor as a direct result of the fight's ferocity.
"You're getting awfully close to the reactor…" Eggman said. "Maybe we should take the fight elsewhere–"
"That's all I needed to hear," Shadow said as he skated out of the room and jumped through the floor.
"I like the sound of that, Shads," Sonic said with a grin as he raced after the black hedgehog, but before he could make it through the hole in the floor, Eggman quickly repositioned the Egg Spider above it.
"He may have gotten through, but I'll make sure you rodents won't slip through the cracks!" Eggman vowed.
With that, he manually activated the Phantom Ruby which he had incorporated into the Egg Spider. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, and the Chao all began to see various abstract illusions in their visions. While they were distracted, he followed up by launching several clusters of small bombs in their direction. Sonic was kept busy trying to make sure none of them hit his friends.
One such cluster exploded in the far corner of the room not far from where Vanilla was watching the fight. The blast radius was sizable, but still comparatively small.
"This isn't working…" Amy realized in a worried tone.
"Cream! Go protect your mother!" Knuckles called.
"O-Okay!" Cream said, shaking herself out of her Phantom hallucination and running back the way she had come.
"You're not making this easy this time, are you?" Amy said, hammering one of the bomb clusters back, only to have it explode on impact with her Piko Piko Hammer.
"I think you're beginning to see the point," Eggman said with a grin.
"You know Shadow's gonna shut down your little plan, right?" Sonic pointed out.
"Oh, I'm not too worried," Eggman said, holding up a finger to make his point. "The Chaos Roboticizer is equipped with a self-defense mechanism this time around. And I'm completely confident it will discourage you from ending Operation Endgame." He grinned as he cringed under one of Knuckles' punches. "The game will end when I say it ends and not before."
The Death Egg – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
A chill ran through Tails' spine as he entered the reactor where the Chaos Roboticizer was being housed. This was it… He knew the end to Eggman's plan was here and now, for better or for worse…
It only took him a cursory glance around the room before he spotted the seven Chaos Emeralds and the Corona Corundum resting in the slots that were designated for them. For once, he was glad the Badniks managed to take the Corundum, because it saved him a trip. He was going to take it with him anyway, because on the way to the reactor, he started forming a plan, and the Corundum would be his one shot to thwarting Eggman's plan.
Pulling a screwdriver out of Hammerspace, he got to work unscrewing one of the panels on the side of the roboticizer which he figured was the main one. However, the moment he got one of the screws out, a bolt of electricity shot out of the top of the Chaos Roboticizer and shocked him. He cried out and dropped the screwdriver onto the floor, where it rolled a few inches away from him. He was suddenly reminded of the time when he was shocked trying to get the Chaos Emeralds out of the first Chaos Roboticizer. It was just like that time, but somehow worse.
Tails gritted his teeth. He wasn't going to give up just because he was shocked by a single bolt of electricity.
As soon as he got the second screw out, he braced himself for another shock, and sure enough, it came. It didn't seem to hurt as much as the first one did because he expected it this time, but it was still quite painful, and he was sure it would incapacitate a human by now.
My friends are counting on me… Everyone's counting on me… I won't give up!
He happened to look up to see where the shocks were coming from. That was when he noticed a big red clock on the wall counting down from two and a half minutes. He was suddenly filled with a burst of panic and urgency. It wasn't going to be enough time!
Did I take too long saying goodbye to Chris...?
By the time he finished getting the panel off, he had been shocked four more times, and an agonizing thirty seconds had passed. He felt like he was starting to become delirious, and the room was starting to blur, but he still refused to give up.
Now that he had a clear view of the motherboard, his blue eyes darted across the many wires. Even though Eggman's technology confused him a bit, he was still able to make sense of which wire went where for the most part.
"I hope this works…" he said quietly, even though he was alone in the room.
Sticking his tongue out the side of his mouth for concentration, he started unplugging some of the wires and carefully connecting them to other ports, even as a few more shocks of electricity threatened to render him unconscious. But he had to do what he needed to do.
There was no time to put the cover back on once he finished, because Shadow burst through the room, with the Egg Spider right behind him. Tails was startled by other sudden entrance and took a step back, but he wasn't prepared for a fight.
"Tails, eject the Emeralds," Shadow curtly told him, still facing Eggman's newest robot.
"I can't!" Tails called. "I need them to make my plan work!"
"Just do it!"
"What are you doing?!" Eggman screamed. "I won't let you interfere! Not when I'm so close!"
Taking a deep breath, Tails hesitated for a moment before he reached for the button to disengage the Emeralds from the machine.
"You can't do that!" Eggman shouted, now starting to become crazed. "Once the machine is activated, the Emeralds are locked in! There's no going back from here!"
"I can make it work," Shadow said as he reached his hand out to the machine. The moment he touched the Emeralds, a siren sounded throughout the room, and a few dozen Badniks swarmed into the room.
"Where were you guys…?" Tails wondered to himself as he looked around at them. There was no reason why it should have taken the robots so long to have him surrounded when he was trying to break into the Chaos Roboticizer. It didn't make any logical sense to the prodigious fox.
There was a sudden yellow glow from next to him, and despite Eggman's claims, he looked over to see the Emeralds ripping themselves out of the machine, causing sparks to fly everywhere. In the next moment, they orbited Shadow, who started to hover in the air. His quills suddenly glowed a radiant pale-yellow color, forcing Tails to squint his eyes.
"So you think you still have a chance at stopping me by going super," Eggman said confidently. "Well, you're still too late! Even without the Emeralds, enough of their energy has already been fed into the machine to activate it anyway! It'll just be a smaller radius! As for you, Tails, you were very foolish to bring the Corona Corundum back to me. It'll amplify the energy in the machine and make up for the loss of the Emeralds, just you watch!"
However, Tails was smugly crossing his arms with a smirk, much like his role model.
"You don't know everything I'm gonna do," he said plainly.
"Nor do you know everything I'm gonna do!" Eggman declared. "Strange, isn't it?!"
"Say goodbye to your Death Egg, Doctor," Shadow said as he immediately placed his hand against the core of the machine. Chaos energy immediately flowed from his hand, completely destroying the central shaft. Not only did explosions ring out across the room, forcing Tails and Eggman to shield themselves, but parts of the central shaft closest to Shadow's hand began to melt.
Then, after Shadow made short work of most of the Badniks that were shooting at him, he took off from the room, right as Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy made their way into the reactor through the hole that Shadow and Eggman made.
"Aww, the fun's already started, and I can't go super?" Sonic pouted.
The sounds of sheer destruction rang out through the Death Egg as Super Shadow flew through its structure, in and out, like an electron, destroying it from the inside. Eggman didn't see it coming. Not even the Phantom Ruby seemed to have any effect on Shadow while he was super.
"Hey guys, get as far away from the machine as you can!" Sonic shouted to everyone.
Knuckles and Amy backed away into the adjacent room, taking care of any of the straggling Badniks.
"Doesn't this feel familiar, Egghead?" Sonic declared. "Corundums and roboticizers don't mix!"
"Yes they do!" Eggman cried out, his insanity clearly showing. "It's hedgehogs that don't mix with me!"
Shadow immediately made his way back into the room, and with a battle cry, he cast both of his inhibitor rings off his wrists to maximize his damage. They each landed on the floor about twenty feet apart from each other.
"Hey Shadow, before you go!" Knuckles called. "I know this feeling. Chaos Control is about to happen, we've been in this situation before!"
"What's your point?" Shadow asked, looking a bit impatient.
"Find Angel Island and use Chaos Control to bring it here," Knuckles quickly told him, "otherwise, it'll be left behind when Chaos Control happens to send us back home!"
With a nod, Shadow flew back through the Death Egg, causing more carnage in his wake, before emerging in the open air.
Although he had not seen Angel Island since he arrived on Earth, he was in his super state, which meant he had temporary access to both virtually limitless speed and power. Besides, it was hard to miss a floating island.
After flying at several times the speed of sound, he found Angel Island over the southern Atlantic Ocean roughly twenty seconds later, and put his hand against the base of the floating island.
"Chaos Control!"
In the blink of an eye, at least to everyone else, Shadow reappeared next to the Death Egg with Angel Island. It had taken him about ninety seconds to push the island there because everything else was frozen in time except for himself and the island.
Back on the Death Egg, Dr. Eggman could not have been more frantic, and his hench-bots were somehow even more so.
"Doctor!" Decoe called, sounding incredibly urgent. "The Egg Carrier has uncloaked! It is on a direct collision course for us!"
He was forced to squint as the core of the Chaos Roboticizer began to glow sharply, and he immediately recognized what was about to happen.
"Don't just stand there!" Eggman demanded. "Fire the Egg Lasers!"
"They are still charging!" Bocoe reported.
"Correction: Shadow has destroyed the pressurization chamber!" Decoe added. "We cannot fire them!"
Eggman clenched his fists and teeth.
"I hate that hedgehog!" he screamed. "I hate all the hedgehogs!"
Those were his last words on Planet Earth as a massive white field enveloped him, then his arch-enemies, then his henchbots. The Death Egg was next to go, followed by the Egg Carrier, and finally Angel Island.
Chaos Control was taking everything back to Mobius.
Back home where they belonged.
Utah – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
Topaz and the surviving GUN soldiers could see the blinding white light in the distance. Topaz had to squint because of its incredible glare that was hard to miss. everyone's eyes were trained on the glow, and Topaz could even sense her jaw dropping. She could not take her eyes off of it.
She had seen the X-Tornado fly out of the Death Egg roughly three minutes earlier. She didn't know who was inside or why it took off and left the scene. She didn't know if she would ever find out.
She noticed that the Chaos Control explosion was not as big this time around as it was last year. She didn't know why, since the other one was incredibly massive. This one was only half a mile wide; the other one had to be at least a whole mile wide. Fortunately for her, due to its smaller size, she and her entire squad were well outside the radius, which meant they wouldn't be caught up in it this time.
And then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone, along with the Death Egg, the crumbling Egg Carrier, and Angel Island which had inexplicably appeared on the scene. There were no sounds of lasers or explosions ringing out in the distance. Now everything was quiet once again. There wasn't even any smoke aside from that of the GUN Fort.
Once her initial shock died down, Topaz started to feel slightly emotional inside. The aliens had only been on Earth for roughly a year and a half, but it felt like a lot longer than that. Now everything had gone back to the way it was before they arrived, before Rouge became her close friend and teammate. She didn't know when or if she would see any of them again, but she appreciated them stopping by to shake up society for a bit.
Society…
She had received the broadcast that Rouge and Omega had recorded. It had been sent to GUN HQ, so she knew she was in for another briefing.
There was still someone out there. Someone who was acting as a puppet master for the Society.
"Topaz to HQ," she spoke into her radio. "A Chaos Control incident has occurred. I repeat, Chaos Control has occurred. We are in the clear. Over."
She looked up at her team who was still gathered and retrieving survivors from the wreckage of the GUN Fort.
"There's still a loose end out there, soldiers," she announced to the crowd, who looked up at her. "We've got work to do."
A/N: I'm not crying, you're crying :'(
At long last, that concludes the Operation Endgame Saga! This has been a wild ride for all of us, and I'm really happy to have finished this story at long last. It took at least four years by my estimate of on-and-off planning to get this arc into its current state, since I had a bunch of ideas for this story arc that I eventually had to scrap because I sadly wasn't able to make them work. I'll go into detail on those in just a few paragraphs. But first, some notes about this chapter!
The scene where Sonic joined the fight against Eggman was originally planned in Sonic's POV, but I didn't realize that it was supposed to be in his POV until I realized I had accidentally started writing it in third-person. Then I decided it was better for it to be in third-person since it would also focus on the other characters too.
I'm not sure if the climax feels like it was rushed, but if it is, I'll come up with ways to try to extend it whenever I get the time. I feel like I could have done better, but it is what it is, I guess.
Okay, the rest of this chapter's author notes are gonna be about my original plans for the Operation Endgame Saga, so check it out if you're interested :)
RAMBLING STARTS HERE.
I was originally going to adapt the Murasia Arc from episodes 47 and 48. I really tried hard to find a way to incorporate it into the story, but it didn't really make sense to me that there was an ancient civilization that had technology that exceeded modern technology. It was going to be a lead-in to what I called the Sonic Heroes Saga at the time. Even though the Murasia Arc was not canon in Sonic X except for Decoe and Bocoe deserting Eggman, which ended up being inconsequential, I would have made it canon in the original Operation Endgame Arc. Professor Atsumi / Cadberry would have been known as Jun Atsumi as per his eyecatch card.
The first chapter would have begun largely the same as episode 47, except Decoe and Bocoe were more serious about their mission to claim the map, and therefore they wouldn't stop by a strip club. The scene where they would have run into Atsumi in their mummy disguises was planned to be heavily altered for a reason that will make sense later. I didn't plan on how Knuckles would have met Atsumi in the past, since I was focusing on other aspects of the saga. Murasia itself was speculated to be related to the space station and moon incidents from the Shadow Saga, back when the end of the Chaos Competition Arc was planned to be the reveal of the Phantom Ruby.
The Seahawk was planned to vanish because Eggman only wanted Sonic and friends to go to Murasia, and Cream would have had a nightmare about Emerl. She wouldn't have been able to sleep for the rest of the night. Even though this sounds like what I had with Tails having a nightmare of Sonic in chapter 50, it's actually completely different. Also, the scene at the White House would have taken place at GUN HQ, thus diminishing the President's role in this story once again. Also, my notes called for me to work with Rouge's role more carefully in this episode.
As for the battle in episode 47, I had planned to rename Eggman's Giant-Makan battleship (I didn't come up with a name yet), and the reason he was using it was so he could preserve the Egg Carrier. Before it was repurposed, the GUN Fort V3's role was going to mirror its role from episode 47, and Eggman was going to show more shock than anger about its usage and reveal. Also, I didn't plan to have the X-Tornado join the battle with Eggman immediately because the crew would be busy dealing with Badniks on the ship. I also planned to change the entire scene where Tanaka tries to jump in after Chris when he tries to save Chris and gets hit in the head with a life preserver.
But I think the most important change I made in this chapter is when Atsumi says this to Chris and Chuck: "Do you believe... in illusions?"
During episode 48, I planned to exclude Ella since she added absolutely nothing to the episode. One of my preliminary notes called for Murasia to be a Phantom Ruby-cloaked Santa Rosa Island, where Eggman's first base was located. However, that wouldn't make much sense since the coordinates would be the same as Santa Rosa Island. The GUN Fort V3 pilots wouldn't blame Rouge for being a captive on the Egg Battleship just so they couldn't destroy it, but now that I think about it, GUN does sound like they could do that. As a result, the following Tanaka x Topaz scene would have possibly been omitted, since that ship felt like it was forced and came completely out of left field.
I would have used the Japanese name Harahirecon for the Murasia mineral instead of the English name Murasium, even though the English name made more sense. Eggman's threat to blow up the island was just a ruse to lure the group after him so he could reveal his master plan, and Chuck would have discovered that Atsumi had gone missing. The rest of the chapter would have followed the episode up to a point. Also, Mongroun and Mothmacin were both Phantom Ruby illusions.
Now here's where things get complicated. I have a few conflicting notes about what happens next. Soon after the X-Tornado flies into the artificial sky, Infinite makes his appearance, having worked behind the scenes with Eggman the whole time since the very beginning of Season 2. He fights Tails with his red cubes and Phantom Ruby powers. Later on, I decided to have Atsumi lure Chris away from the group, and then reveal him to be Infinite. I don't know if the Phantom Ruby can be used to cloak the user like that, but I was still winging it with its powers. I planned for him to feed on Chris' fear, and in fact, I have a direct quote from him: "Are you going to scream and cry for your mommy? Oh wait, she's too busy for you." Then Infinite would have kidnapped Sonic and taken him to the Death Egg which was hidden under the island, and instead of the volcano erupting, the Death Egg would rise out of the ground, and Infinite would have taken Sonic inside the Death Egg. But first, he had told Chris not to tell anyone about what happened with Sonic (even though that doesn't make sense to me now). I would then have revealed that not only was the island fake, but so was Professor Atsumi. They would wonder if Atsumi is not only not a real professor, but also he is not a real man. He never existed to begin with! And as a result of Infinite telling Chris not to tell his friends about Sonic, Chris would have been shell shocked, and it would take some persuasion from his friends to tell the truth about Sonic. Then everyone would take the X-Tornado back to the mainland because it's faster. Meanwhile on the Death Egg, Sonic is captured in a cell, and Eggman reveals Metal Sonic.
And then I revised the entire episode to remove Infinite, because I decided to repurpose him at the time. The scene with the X-Tornado under the artificial sky would instead have gone on normally, and I condensed the other scenes to have Atsumi lure Sonic out into the middle of nowhere, and turn into Neo Metal Sonic and take him to the Death Egg. The rest of the episode would have gone on like I planned. Oh, and Decoe and Bocoe wouldn't have defected at the end.
So you can start to see the foundation of the events leading up to chapter 50. I kept the Death Egg as well as Sonic being captured by Metal Sonic. I'd also like to note that all of this was planned before I decided to include the Society in the story. Essentially, they replaced Infinite.
As for the core of the Operation Endgame Saga, which consists of episodes 4-10 (chapters 50-56), I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with some of the details. I knew I wanted GUN to appear, but I made a note that a lot of it depended on what happened in the Chaos Competition Arc, since I had not fully planned that arc yet. I also made a note that I would need to study Sonic Heroes in order to work on this arc. I originally planned for Operation Endgame to go on for maybe 4-6 chapters, but I had no idea that it would go on for 10 whole chapters!
In the notes for chapter 47, I was planning on having Chris be out at a fancy diner with his parents and maybe his guardians too, but I eventually repurposed it into the party that Chris' parents planned to throw in chapter 48. Also, there was going to be a scene involving Topaz and a shifty soldier from Division Beta who had ties to CLIP, but I gave the soldier's role to Preston Wolfe instead.
Sam Speed and Metal Sonic's chase in chapter 48, Tails' nightmare in chapter 50, Helen calling the cops in chapter 51, and Shadow's arrival in chapter 52 were some of the first things I planned to include in the Operation Endgame Saga.
Chapter 51 originally called for me to deploy an Eggman robot to stall Knuckles, Tails, and Amy, but it also called for me to use the Society's Valkyries instead. I replaced them with Eggman's encounter with Knuckles, and the Badniks outside the Death Egg respectively. Also, it called for Sam Speed to go to Thorndyke Mansion after his run-in with Metal Sonic. Speaking of that, he was originally targeting Sam for his car's engine which contained parts Eggman needed for the Chaos Roboticizer 2.0.
In chapter 52, I was originally going to refer to Phantom Mist as Phantom Radiation, but it would have clashed with my concept of Chaos Radiation that was the catalyst of the Chaotix, Shadow, and Omega appearing on Earth. I also had Sonic clearly telling Chris it was time for him to say goodbye, instead of him getting interrupted by Metal Sonic sooner.
I was seriously planning to use SX-000's ideas to include an amnesiac Infinite in Operation endgame. He would have woken up on Angel Island around the time Shadow showed up, and he wouldn't have remembered many of the heroes, but he would have remembered having a hatred for Eggman. He would have boarded the Egg Carrier with all three members of Team Dark on it, and demanded them to take him to Eggman. Of course, Shadow in particular denied his request, citing his previous alliance with Eggman. I wasn't sure what else to with it, but I debated on having the Master Emerald restore his memory at some point. At the time, I was struggling if I wanted to have a vengeful Infinite, an amnesiac Infinite, or Infinite somehow trapped inside the Phantom Ruby. However, I may end up recycling some of these ideas for a standalone story, perhaps an alternate version of Operation Endgame at some point.
It took longer than I thought to plan the climax, but I was originally going to have Chris crying inside an escape pod as he is launched out of the Death Egg, and his friends are waving goodbye to him, just like with Shadow and Maria. That part was planned before Chris was getting turned into a robot. I was always going to end it with the Chaos Roboticizer 2.0 as well as Chaos Control at the end.
If I go back into Google Docs' version history and find even more notes, I'll post more updates here, but for now, that's all the original versions of the Operation Endgame Saga I have! Like I said, it was gonna be only 4-6 parts, but before I knew it, it turned into a 10-chapter monster!
RAMBLING ENDS HERE.
I've been waiting this whole time to do this, but I want to give a special shoutout to soberan 123 for their review which I responded to in chapter 47. They speculated that the Operation Endgame Saga was about Eggman bringing his entire army and Egg Fleet to Earth. Even though this wasn't the case here, I actually like the idea so much that I added it to my list of stories I want to write! Thanks again for your idea!
Even though this is the end of the Operation Endgame Saga, this is not the end of Chaos on Earth... yet! There are just three more chapters left in this story comprising of the Season 2 epilogue, where we tie up some loose ends in the story! I might make it to a million words, I might not... but we'll see! I might also go back and edit some of the previous chapters (again) to make them look even better (and longer) than before.
Next time is part one of the Season 2 epilogue, where Topaz tracks down the Organizer of the Society! Don't miss it!
