A/N: I know I'm a little late with this chapter, but I'm back with the first part of the two-part second interlude! It's a partial rewrite of episode 39, but I won't say much more than that.

I wanna thank you all so much for 400 reviews! I didn't think my story would get this much recognition, so I want to thank you all for leaving your thoughts on my story! It means so much and it encourages me to keep writing!

Also, I'm at well over 600k words. At this rate, I may make it into Shay Guy's list of longest fanfics, which contains all the fanfics that are at 800k words or longer.

Also, I still haven't seen Pokemon Abridged yet, but I do need to make time to see that.

I would like to thank BebeiaArts14, genesicgaogaigarvsgodgundam, Hotaru Shinpei, tl34lt12, and riku-soncazenosee for favoriting and following since my last chapter!

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


12 Reviews (10 get responses)

dbehi1

Do the Mario... That's something I haven't said since back when I was writing Super Mario Bros: The Novelized Comic! Not sure if I'll continue that, maybe I can rewrite it, but that's for another time.

Boss Teal

I know, I just copied the scene headers from a template I made and forgot to fix those scenes. Another user PMed me about it too, and I have since fixed it.

Super duper waffles

To answer your questions:

1: Station Square is located along the coast of southern California, about 100 miles north of Los Angeles. It's approximately where the city of Santa Barbara is.

2: I honestly hadn't given that much thought! However, I imagine the other nations would all band together and look for Eggman after the fall of the original Egg Fort in Season 1. They're probably not attacking Eggman because he's not a direct threat to them, but I would imagine they're supplying America aid to combat Eggman.

3: Yes, GUN is known as the Guardians of the United Nations on Earth, while they keep their original name Guardian Units of Nations on Mobius.

snake screamer

Thanks for the recommendations, I may try it out! I have a 1TB Windows 11 laptop that I got last October, so it should be able to support a powerful game like Sonic Frontiers.

That's true! That would explain how they can get footage of the fight between the two supersonic hedgehogs.

Yeah, Jerome is pretty much an S-tier criminal right now!

blazenight01

Yeah, we'll see!

Kraken

I actually didn't know that about corundums! Thanks for the fun trivia!

Sure, I would love to hear more ideas from you! Same goes with everyone else, I'm all ears to hear your ideas! If I really like them, you may see them in future chapters!

Five-Chosen (1st review)

Yeah, now that you mention it, they just kinda let him go without saying anything! Otherwise, they would have been like "Sure, he saved the world and all, but he still stole a Chaos Emerald and possibly committed other crimes, but we're still alive after Eggman's 24-hour ultimatum, so whatever, he's off the hook or something."

gregorian12

Somehow I never heard of the Egg Reverie Zone before, but it somehow sounds like Null Space, which is just as scary.

Five-Chosen (2nd review)

I know, but don't worry! The real Shadow will appear in this story sometime soon!

D.J. Scales

I could do something about that, but no promises. I do, however, know that a lot of people really wanted a Sonic Heroes adaptation. As for Unleashed, an alternate scenario would be if the Eclipse Cannon was real, but it was actually the Chaos Energy Cannon and Eggman could go right from Sonic Adventure 2 into Sonic Unleashed. However, it was have irreversibly catastrophic results on the planet.


Chapter 36
Episode 39
Home At Last! The Thorndykes' Fantastic Christmas!
The Best Christmas


Matt's apartment – Sat December 25, 9:33 AM – Third-person POV

It was Christmas morning, and everyone had just finished opening their Christmas presents. Now they were hanging out together in the living room, enjoying Ella's homemade eggnog.

Everyone got presents they had always been wanting. It wasn't a very big Christmas compared to last year, since everyone had to rush a bit to get gifts for everyone due to the mansion flooding. Nonetheless, it still managed to be a very special and extravagant Christmas thanks to the Thorndykes' wealth and love to go all out on things.

The heroes were feeling exhausted from the huge adventure they had over the past three days, especially Chris, who was feeling more than relieved to be back on Earth with his friends. He had been terrified about returning through Earth's atmosphere, and it was just as scary as Tails said it would be. It was rough on everyone, and Chris had thrown up several times on the way down, but he survived without any other incidents.

They landed in the desert in New Mexico in the late afternoon, and Tails had repaired the X-Tornado decently enough to fly everyone back to Matt's apartment. He had to solder the seat belts together, but at least they held for the entire duration of the trip. He promised himself he would repair them for real as soon as he could.

When everyone returned to Matt's apartment, it was like a celebration in itself. Sonic was pleasantly surprised to find that the government had cleared his name. Eyewitnesses who had evacuated from Superior had reported seeing Sonic and Shadow fighting, while other reports from Minneapolis detailed seeing two Sonics fighting in the streets. It almost wasn't enough to convince the government, except for some amateur phone footage that captured the moment when Shadow briefly showed Sonic his true form. That was the one critical piece of evidence that allowed the government to clear his name.

Sonic had again seen the President yesterday, and he apologized and exonerated him and his friends on behalf of the nation on national television. Sonic was a free hedgehog once again.

Rouge had gone her own separate way, and Knuckles decided to come with everyone to Matt's apartment because once again, he wasn't comfortable spending his time on Angel Island when the Master Emerald was missing.

As everyone else was finishing their eggnog, Ella and Matt were tossing the used wrapping paper in the trash. Chuck looked up from his phone with a look of intrigue.

"Huh," he mused.

"What's up?" Sonic asked him.

"Eggman says he's gonna launch rockets up to the moon to repair it…?" he said, now sounding a bit confused. "That doesn't sound like him."

"Yeah…" Tails said after taking another sip of his eggnog.

"That cannot be possible," Tanaka pointed. "Because the moon is so large, and it would take decades if not centuries to repair it. And until then, think of what could happen to the tides."

"Mm-hmm…" Tails said, sounding thoughtful.

Sonic, however, knew the truth. The Eclipse Cannon was an illusion, and so was the moon being fractured into pieces. However, when he was super, he realized he could see through the Phantom illusions to an extent, thanks to the power of the Chaos Emeralds. Even though Shadow and the ARK remained mostly visible to him, when he flew back toward his friends' shuttle, he briefly saw that the moon was in one piece; it had not been fractured at all. Even though he had told his friends this already, he wasn't sure if anyone else would believe him.

"Hey, you doin' okay over there, Knux?" Sonic asked Knuckles, who was leaning against the wall, deep in thought.

"I guess," Knuckles said. "I know I said I'd spend Christmas with you guys, but… you try going a night without your super speed and tell me how good you slept."

Sonic winced. "Ouch… Yeah, I get what you mean." He stood up. "But hey, don't sweat it! As soon as Christmas is done, we can all go look for it together."

Knuckles nodded. "I appreciate it," he said. "But it's not just that the Master Emerald is stolen, it's that Eggman is using it to make the Phantom Ruby even stronger. And there's no telling what he'll do next with it."

"Well, whatever happens, we'll kick his butt just like always!" Sonic said with a wink and thumbs-up.

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "We owe him one after everything he put us through. I can't wait to pay him back!" he said with a grin.

"That's the spirit!" Sonic said.

He looked over to see that Matt had a thoughtful expression as he sat back down.

"Hey Matt, you doing good?" he asked.

Matt looked up. "Are all your adventures like this?" he asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Pretty much, yeah." He flashed him a smile. "Tails said you were a big help a couple nights ago. He said you helped to get us to the Egg Carrier."

Tails eagerly nodded his confirmation, and Sonic extended his fist to him. "Good job, buddy!" he praised.

With a smile, Matt bumped his fist against Sonic's.

"Thanks," he said with a chuckle. "But yeah, you guys have no idea how worried we all were about Chris. Like, I thought we were all safe here, I thought Eggman… didn't know we are all here, and-"

"I-It's okay now," Chris tried to reassure him, but he too was still trying to process everything that happened and readjust to normal life after the big adventure he was swept up in.

"Did Shadow hurt you at all?" Matt asked Chris, repeating the same question Tails had asked him yesterday.

Chris inwardly shuddered at the memory of Shadow attacking him. He didn't know how to answer because he didn't want to worry his cousin. He was about to open his mouth when Amy stepped in.

"He's okay, don't worry about him," Amy said. "We took good care of him!"

Sonic nodded, and Chris mouthed "thank you" to Amy, making sure Matt couldn't see him.

"Okay, that's good," Matt said. "I was… pretty worried."

"Miss Ella, is it okay if we can go back home to Chris' house?" Cream asked as she carried her empty cup to the dishwasher.

"I'm not sure yet," Ella said as she helped the small bunny and Chao load the dishwasher. "I'm sorry, bambino."

"Gimme a sec," Sonic said as he zipped out of the apartment. Everyone else blinked in surprise, but a moment later, Ella figured out that he was going to see if their house was okay. It had been a month since they had to evacuate their grand mansion, and even though Matt's apartment was very homey for a futuristic high-rise apartment, everyone still felt homesick.

"So… uh…" Tails started to say, breaking the silence. "What do you guys think is gonna happen next?" he asked, speaking more to Amy and Knuckles than the rest of the room.

"I don't know," Chris said. Even though he had been up for a little while now, he still felt and sounded tired.

"It's okay," Tails said gently as he relaxed a bit on the couch. "Because as soon as we start to figure out what Eggman's next part of his plan is, we can let you guys know about it in detail."

Chris nodded. "Okay," he said.

"But yeah, it could be anything," Amy pointed out. "But if you ask me, I think the two events that Eggman is gonna try and redeem himself with is either the time we met Emerl or the whole Neo Metal Sonic thing."

"Emerl!" Cream cheered. "I know that Gemerl is a very good friend, but I miss Emerl too."

"We all do…" Amy said, thinking back to the time when they used to be friends with the Gizoid, and when Sonic was forced to destroy it because it had reverted back to its original destructive programming.

Chris had no idea what they were talking about, and he wanted to ask about it, but he didn't know where to start.

"Oh, there's another one I just remembered!" Tails said, sitting up on the couch. "Since we just fought Shadow, maybe there's a chance that Eggman can bring back the Black Arms again!" But his ears drooped as he realized that wasn't working out. "Actually, no… Shadow and the ARK are both gone, which means he's gonna be doing something different this time."

"Something big if Eggman needs all that energy," Knuckles spoke up.

"Yeah," Amy agreed.

"I guess I got nothing else, then," Tails said. "For all we know, it could be something new too."

"What if Dr. Eggman makes the Werehog come back?" Cream asked. Amy remembered being surprised that Sonic used to be able to turn into that thing whenever the moon came out.

"I don't think he can do that, even with the Phantom Ruby," Amy speculated. "I mean, he can use it to make pretty much anything, but…" She sat up a bit on the couch. "Look at it this way. If he can't simulate Chaos energy, then he can't simulate Gaia energy either."

"Good point," Tails responded. "Even with all the extra enhancements it has, it can't do that either."

"Just like with how you made a near-perfect replica of the Chaos Emerald we had," Chuck said, having listened to everyone until now. "It's like a battery, now that I think about it. Batteries do eventually run out of power. But the Chaos Emeralds seem to have nearly unlimited power. Even if the Phantom Ruby can make Chaos Emeralds, they're not going to have that unlimited power. They may look convincing, but in the end, they're just illusions."

"Exactly, Chuck!" Tails said, just as Sonic ran back into the room. He gave everyone a thumbs-up.

"Lookin' good!" he announced. "We just gotta get some furniture and you guys are all set!"

Everyone in the room was delighted to hear the news. There were cheers of joy and excitement that everyone could go back to their mansion in Station Square.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Ella said. "We can make the house look like new again! We can pick out some new furniture and make the house look like new!"

However, Sonic noticed that something was off about Matt's expression. He seemed to be happy for everyone before and listening to what everyone was saying, but something changed in him as soon as everyone got the news that they were returning home. It was nearly the same kind of look Chris had when he thought Sonic and his friends were going home.

"Hey, you okay there, Matt?" he quietly asked him, making sure no one else could hear. "You were doing pretty good up until now."

"Huh?" Matt looked up. "Oh, uh, yeah, I'm okay."

Sonic gave him a nod. "Okay, if you say so," he said. "But if you ever wanna talk, we're here to help you out, and that's a promise."

"Okay, that's good to know," Matt said before taking a deep breath, hesitant to say what he said next. "It's just… It's just that I haven't gotten this much excitement since I moved out here, and it was a little… different. Exciting even, if it weren't for it being scary."

"Well, then you hang out with the fastest thing alive, every day's an adventure," Sonic said with a grin.

Matt frowned.

"Matt…?" Sonic softly said.

"That's the thing," Matt said, trying not to let anyone else hear him. "Once you guys go, I'm just gonna go back to my old life."

Sonic was about to speak when Chris beat him to it.

"That's the same way I felt last spring," he noted as he came closer.

"When you thought everyone was gonna go home?" Matt asked. Chris nodded.

Sonic scooted closer to Matt. "Hey, it's not like we're goin' away forever!" he said. "We can always come back for a visit, ya know."

"Or," Amy added with a smile, "you can come back to Station Square with us."

"Yeah, come join us!" Tails piped up.

Matt let out a quiet sigh as he sat up, and Sonic was a bit worried that he was drowning in a pool of his own making.

"I mean… I do want to," he said, "but the reason I came out here was because college had everything I was looking for, and I also wanted to start life on my own terms. Yeah, I know, I can easily go work at Starship with my uncle, but it's just… big. And a bit intimidating. And I kinda wanted to start small. But… I was thinking last night… maybe living on my own and doing everything all by myself isn't everything."

Chuck nodded as he sat down on the other side of Matt.

"You know, it's very astute of you to be able to acknowledge this," he said. "A lot of people your age rush out there into the open world without a lot of careful planning and thought, and they can get stranded."

"I thought I did do a lot of planning, that's the thing," Matt said. "But I guess there's a lot more to it than just moving and college."

"Now, did you come out here because you wanted to, or because you felt like you needed to?" Chuck asked.

Matt thought for a moment.

"I guess I felt like I needed to, because everything was out here, and…"

"But you're not happy, are you?"

Matt slowly shook his head.

"Matt, listen. It's okay to live a little. You can afford to loosen up. You're still young. Of course you can still work if that's what makes you happy, but you can balance both work and play. All work and no play makes Matt a dull boy, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so…"

"It's up to you, Matt. Do you want to come with us to Station Square? If you don't want to, I understand, but our door is always open."

Matt thought for a long moment. One of the reasons he left California was because of the earthquakes, heat, and high taxes. But that was where he had lived for most of his life, and he had felt happy there otherwise. Here in Minnesota, everything was the opposite. It was cold, and even though he met Manuel in college, everything was still distant and unfamiliar with him. He was even unable to truly befriend his coworkers.

But as he thought about the decision before him, he realized it was better the devil he knew than the devil he didn't.

"Okay," Matt said, sounding a bit determined.

"Did you choose already?" Sonic asked curiously.

"I'm gonna do it," Matt said. "I'm going back to Station Square."

Tails and Cream immediately cheered, and everyone else smiled. Matt was finally opening up.

"When you guys came here, it really made me realize how much I missed you, and not just because adventure seems to follow you guys everywhere," Matt said. "It's because you've been the closest thing I had to real friends. And until now… I guess I was trying to be strong on my own this whole time."

Chuck smiled. "Matt… I think I can say this is the most open you've been about your emotions since you left for college. I know you want to be strong, and there's nothing wrong with being independent. Believe me, I was in a rush to be independent and start my business when I was a little younger than you. But you have to be reasonable with yourself, okay. You don't have to push yourself so hard."

"I know," Matt said. "I think it was just that… when Chris got kidnapped… it made me realize, one of the only people I was closest with could have been taken away from me just like that. And… it kept me up last night too, because… I… It's probably good for me to spend time with the people I care for, because… even if a job lasts forever, you guys won't."

"Way to go, buddy!" Sonic said, giving him a thumbs-up. "And yeah, as soon as you get back to Cali, you should totally go on adventures with us."

"Yeah, you're gonna love the X-Tornado!" Tails added. "I built it all by myself… with some help from Grandpa and Chris!"

The room was once again filled with happy chatter about what Matt would do once he returned to Station Square. They were almost unaware of Chuck's phone ringing.

"Hey Chuck, your phone's going off," Amy pointed out.

"Oh, thank you, Amy," Chuck said as he took his phone out of his labcoat pocket. He squinted at the display; the number was unfamiliar, but it was Station Square's area code. Regardless, he answered it.

Chuck had completely forgotten that he had left his phone on loudspeaker. A suddenly deep and gravelly voice came from it.

"Uh… Is this the Thorndyke residence?"

The humans didn't know who it was, but all the Mobians let out gasps of shock when they realized who it was.

"Yes it is," Chuck answered as professionally as he could. "This is Professor Chuck Thorndyke speaking. How can I help you?"

"I, uh… I gotta speak to Cream, it's important-"

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there," Chuck said. "First of all, we don't know who you are, and-"

"Wait, hear me out a sec!" the voice pleaded. "I know Sonic, I'm good friends with him. Is he there with you?"

"Yeah, I'm here, Vector!" Sonic said as he hopped off the couch and approached Chuck. The professor apprehensively gave the phone to him, feeling as confused as the other humans looked.

As Sonic was catching up, Knuckles looked at the rest of the room from where he had been leaning against the wall, silently listening to everyone.

"That's Vector the Crocodile," he said, sounding more excited than usual. "He's a detective, head of the Chaotix, he and I go way back."

"So does that mean the rest of the Chaotix made it here too?" Tails asked. He blinked. "How'd they even get here…?"

"Who are the Chaotix?" Chris asked.

"They're a detective agency back home," Tails explained, looking over at Chris. "Vector's the leader, and they also have Espio, Mighty, Charmy, and Ray. They, um… may seem a little clumsy sometimes, but they're pretty good at their job."

"Oh, okay," Chris said.

Nearly ten minutes later, Sonic finally finished his conversation with Vector and handed the phone to Cream.

"Okay, for some really weird reason that we'll probably get to the bottom of later," he said, "Only Espio and Charmy made it here. Mighty and Ray… didn't make it here. Something to do with radiation after Chaos Control when they all got sent here, didn't really understand any of that. He said the past month was pretty lonely."

"Wait, month?" Tails repeated in surprise. "But it's been like a year since…" He trailed off in thought.

"Hey Cream…?" Vector said after a moment. "Someone very special wants to say hi to you."

"Hm?" Cream was curious, and she listened for a moment before she and everyone else in the room heard a very familiar voice.

"Hello, Cream dear!"

At the sound of the gentle, sweet voice on the other end of the phone, Cream's eyes began to fill with tears.

"M… M-Mo- M-M-Mommy…!"

"Cream, my darling girl, I missed you so much! It's so good to hear your voice again!"

Cream couldn't help it as she sobbed freely, unable to form any words. Cheese was crying his eyes out too as he and Cream hugged each other.

Cream was only six years old, and she had been sent to a completely different planet against her will, separated from her own mother for what seemed like forever. But now she was finally hearing her mom's voice again a year and four months later.

"I had no idea…" Sonic said in hushed awe.

"Miss Vanilla is here…!" Tails said. Even he had a hard time processing everything that was happening.

Vanilla was doing her best to comfort Cream from the other end of the phone, while Amy gently hugged her best friend, gently rubbing her back and soothing her to help her calm down. It was such a wholesome and emotional reunion.

"Vector told me this planet we were sent to is called Earth," Vanilla said. "I don't know how it happened, but all that matters is I'm going to be with you again."

Even Vanilla's own voice was choked with emotion as she tried to hold it together.

"M-Mama…? I w-wanna see you…" Cream said, finally starting to calm down.

"Cream, dear, I want to be with you more than anything," Vanilla said with a hint of sadness. "But sadly, I don't have the money to fly out and see you right now. But I promise, I'll be waiting right here in Station Square for you when you and your friends return."

"Okay!" Cream said happily. "Mr. Sonic and all my friends have been taking very good care of me."

"You have been such a brave girl this past month, Cream," Vanilla gently said. "I am so, so proud of you."

"Thank you, Mommy!" Cream said.

She's saying it's been a month too, Tails thought. Why is everyone saying it's been only one month since we came here? We've been here for at least sixteen months.

"Oh, and Cheese? I have a little friend with me who wants to see you too."

"Chao?" Cheese asked as he flew closer to the phone in curiosity.

"Chao chao!" came another voice from the phone.

"CHAAOO!" Cheese exclaimed in pure delight, before crying all over again.

"Ch-Chocola… Y-You're here too…!" Cream said, her voice wavering, before she started crying too.

Everyone else was feeling emotional too at Cream's reunion with her mom and other Chao. No one else spoke; they were letting Cream have this moment for herself. However, they were chatting excitedly amongst themselves about everything that had developed in the past twenty minutes. Even Lily was joining in with chirps.

"Everyone, we need to go home right now!" Cream excitedly said after a few moments. "Mommy and Chocola are there, I wanna see them!"

"Chao chao chao!" Cheese agreed.

Matt was smiling now as he stood up. "Okay, now I'm definitely going back to Station Square," he said more resolutely. "Give me a few weeks to get everything ready and I'll be right behind you."

Sonic gave him a thumbs-up. "Sounds good to me!"

"How are you, Mama?" Cream asked.

"I'm doing very well, thank you," Vanilla warmly replied. Everyone could hear the smile in her voice. "Vector and the Chaotix have been taking very good care of me since we came here. And it's all right, dear, take your time. I'm not going anywhere."

"Okay!" Cream said, excitement seeping back into her voice.

No one would never in a million years have imagined that Cream's mom would show up on Earth, or that Matt would decide to return home to Station Square in that moment. But both of those things happened on the same day, within minutes of each other. Not to mention everyone were safe and sound back on Earth after their harrowing adventure in space.

It was the best Christmas they ever had.


A/N: And that concludes "Defective Detectives!" Much like the first interlude / my Episode 18 rewrite, there was only one scene I felt had the merit to be rewritten. Of course, I wanted to have Vanilla appear, but since everyone's in Minneapolis, I wanted to have the reunion between Vanilla and Cream over the phone. And I also wanted to include Chocola too! Chocola is a forgotten character, except for the IDW comics. And if you're wondering where Gemerl is, he is back on Mobius.

Also, this chapter was originally gonna be called "A Special Phone Call".

And with this chapter, Matt's story is officially done! He is my first major OC that I worked seriously with, and I will admit, he may still be a bit flawed and his personality needs work, which is why I wanted him to help Sonic and friends find the Egg Carrier, so that he could do something helpful in this arc.

Like I said in the last chapter, I had originally planned to replace Tanaka in this arc with Matt, before replacing him with Cream. This arc was the very first place I placed Matt in, because I tried to envision what my reaction would have been if I saw Shadow attacking Chris. That's how I added Matt onto the ARK. But then I realized, Matt wouldn't be any more helpful than Tanaka, and besides, Cream needed more time to shine.

The other major appearance I had initially planned for Matt was his debut in episode 7. It gave the party a real purpose, and I'm pleased with the circumstances I had come up with in that chapter. I wrote episode 24 to explain how the seventh Chaos Emerald wound up in the landfill, and it took a bit of planning, and it felt like I was a bit shaky when writing that chapter, but I'm pleased with how it came out for my first completely original story.

Also, this may sound a bit controversial, but when Matt was in the early stages of development, he would have been taking antidepressants due to his depression and stressful times in Minneapolis, and Sonic and Amy would have discovered them in his room in episode 34. However, I later removed it for two reasons: (1) I realized it would have been too heavy for this story, and (2) Matt's situation wasn't THAT bad.

Like I said in a previous chapter, Matt was originally planned to replace Chris in the Metarex Saga (back when I was "cloning" the Sonic cast). GUN would have picked up a signal coming from the farthest reaches of space (it was an SOS message that Cosmo sent on her way to Mobius), and they would recruit Matt. They couldn't recruit anyone else because having two of the same Mobian in one place would be catastrophic, and Chris would have been too young (I stopped his age at 12 for some dumb reason), so they had to send Matt, and he would need to keep in constant contact with them. (More on this when I get to the Metarex Saga.) All of this was because even I didn't want the Sonic cast to go home, and I didn't want Chris to be 18, but I still wanted to write the Metarex Saga anyway. However, one day, I stopped running away and decided to correct my course. The Mobians will go home and Chris will turn 18 like what happened in the original anime.

But yeah, Matt's story is officially done now, and if he does appear later on, he will be a minor character.

And if you're wondering when you'll see the rest of the Chaotix in full, you won't have to wait long! They'll be appearing again this season! I was a bit disappointed that they were in only one episode in Season 2, which is why I wanted them to appear more.

Next time: "[REDACTED]", the second half of the interlude, where [REDACTED] will [REDACTED], and we see the [REDACTED]! Don't miss it!