A/N: RIP Akira Toriyama, he was a genius and will be dearly missed. 68 is way too young to leave this world. He created several amazing franchises such as Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, and Chrono Trigger. In fact, if it weren't for him, Sonic wouldn't be what it is today, and we likely wouldn't have had several other amazing anime like One Piece and My Hero Academia. He was an incredible human being.
We also lost the creator of the Backyardigans in the same week. That was one of my favorite childhood shows, and I had many fond memories of it.
On a happier note... MARIO MOVIE SEQUEL LET'S GOOOOO! :D
I don't have much else to say, except enjoy the ride, this arc is gonna get wild!
I would like to thank L-0Space and Werdna213 for favoriting and following since my last chapter!
Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!
11 reviews
Monster King
You got it! Here's the next chapter!
danielman21
In an alternate universe, Cream did win the tournament! Since she and Cheese are overpowered and all, they definitely have what it takes to pull it off! XD
Super duper waffles
I had randomly thought about adding the Society into the story a while back because I saw an incredible amount of potential in them, even if they came from the Archie Sonic X comics, which are not as widely known as the anime. And even though the comics were lighthearted, I wanted to flesh out the Society to its fullest potential. And then eventually I thought of idea after idea for them, and even to this day I'm amazed at how well everything is coming together.
1: Americans would definitely be a bit surprised that Mobius has its own United Federation, considering most of Mobius' continents resemble a future-fantasy version of Europe and Japan more closely than the USA. However, more humans than Mobians live in the United Federation, which would probably lessen the surprise blow a bit.
2: Eggman would have a very difficult time recreating Sonic Unleashed, because not even the Phantom Ruby at its maximum power can simulate the full power of Dark Gaia, plus he can't use it to split the world apart like he did with the Chaos Energy Cannon. But to make things even harder, he wouldn't recreate Chip, which means Sonic and his friends would have to defeat Eggman and Dark Gaia with their own power.
3: I'm actually not sure if anyone would notice too many differences the Station Squares merged except for the casino, Twinkle Park, Emerald Coast, and the bridge.
4: If Eggman repeated the events of Sonic 1 after South Island is sent to Earth, then it would get very personal for Sonic, since that's where he and his friends live. He would have even greater determination to defeat Eggman than ever before.
soberan 123
That's a plan worthy of Operation Endgame! :D It would literally be the end of Earth as we know it if Eggman brought his entire army to Earth.
blazenight01
Yeah, that didn't make any sense that Eggman was born on Earth, because how would he have gone to Mobius? Same with Space Colony ARK, how would 1950s technology be able to create the Ultimate Lifeform? And they would have to know about Mobius since Shadow is a Mobian hedgehog, apparently created in Earth's orbit. The same argument can be made with the Chao colony that Tanaka discovered as a kid in episode 22. The two-world theory just doesn't make any sense to me.
And I agree, they should have made an attempt to adapt Sonic Heroes, or at least added Omega into the plot somewhere.
Thanks for your review! Here's chapter 1 of Operation Endgame!
Five-Chosen (first review)
I agree! Cream has been through an awful lot lately, but I can guarantee that chocolate and ice cream will cheer her up :)
Same here, I hope Shadow will show up too, because that would shake things up. (Wait, why am I saying that? I'm the one writing this story! XD) Sadly no, I don't have plans to adapt Archie Sonic X Issue 40, but that was a fun issue regardless. However, I could always work something out.
gregorian12
That's strange, because I've seen the Japanese version of episode 50 and I didn't see Big, the Chaotix, and the X-Tornado going through thee portal, nor does the wiki say anything about them appearing in the episode overall.
Five-Chosen (second review)
I always thought the two planes were separate, but I might be thinking about what I wrote all the way back in chapter 8. But yeah, you do have a point about the two planes being side-by-side.
Also, I never realized that was actually the Hyper Tornado that Chris was flying in the Metarex Saga! I always thought it was a separate plane built specifically for Chris.
Jenaku
Thank you! :D
That's a line Eggman definitely won't cross, even though he did shock Chris, Tails, and Amy in episode 5, but that was mostly because he was still salty from having the first Chaos Emerald taken from him by someone he didn't know. Now Chris is just another one of his enemies.
That's a good idea about giving Chris some armor. I could do something about that in the Metarex Saga.
CreativeKitty975
I think she'll be okay to keep fighting with her friends, because her friends are the ones who keep her going no matter what. Even if she falls, her friends give her the strength to get back up.
Thank you for your review as always! Here is the next chapter!
Five-Chosen (third review)
Yeah... it took me by surprise when I heard about Akira Toriyama's passing away. He was too young to go.
Chapter 47
Original Episode
The Curtain Rises
GUN Division Alpha HQ – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Hanging up his thirtieth phone call that day, Commissioner James Perrault let out a sigh. He had been regularly taking calls all day regarding the hunt for Dr. Eggman. The past week had been extremely busy for all six GUN divisions in the United States; however, there was no luck in finding the doctor anywhere. There had been a lot of stress on GUN, particularly Division Alpha, since the President himself reiterated once again that morning that finding Eggman was a national priority.
A knock on the door shook him from his thoughts.
"Come in," he called without looking up from his work.
The door opened, and a GUN captain entered the office and saluted.
"Sir, we have received a class one report from Patrol Unit Sigma," he stated. "While on their routine patrol, they detected signals in Nevada that match the ones from the Egg Carrier."
"Oh?" Perrault asked, sitting up. "So does this mean we found him at last?"
"I'm afraid not, sir," the captain said. "We learned that it was using some sort of cloaking device, but we used advanced radar location to uncover it. Upon closer examination, it appears to have been abandoned."
"But that's not like the doctor at all, is it?" Perrault pondered. "He always kept his flying fortress stowed away in the ocean. But Sigma found it on land in the middle of the desert." He paused a moment to reflect on his words. "Eggman has been acting different lately, so I guess this is just one more drop in the bucket… I want you and your division to monitor all activity on and around the Egg Carrier and report everything directly to me."
"Sir yes sir," the captain saluted before leaving the room, and the Alpha commissioner returned to work on his computer.
Eggman did not show up once during the tournament, and not only were some of his robots seen there in his place, but they were allowed to compete as well. He was able to confirm that Eggman was not involved in the espionage that went down at Diamond Stadium, although he was baffled as to what could have caused the scuffle in the storage room, as well as the sudden disappearance of the Chaotix who had been on location there.
This brought back recent memories of when the President issued a nationwide manhunt for Eggman after Sonic destroyed his Egg Fort and it landed in the ocean. They could not find his body anywhere, and the doctor eventually returned unscathed. Furthermore, Sonic destroyed one of his robots last year, and while Eggman was presumed dead once again, no one could ever find him, and he returned six months later in yet another flying fortress.
This time, however, his disappearance was not preceded by Sonic destroying any of his robots. This time, he went immediately into hiding the moment he flew the coop. This was different than the other times, and Perrault feared the doctor would return in a way no one could possibly expect. No one had seen head nor tail of him in nearly a whole month, and even the public was getting restless.
About twenty minutes later, his phone rang again. He had been expecting more phone calls all day, so this was no surprise to him. When he looked at the number, he saw that it was anonymous, but an app he had installed on his phone traced it directly to a government official, so he answered it.
"Commissioner Perrault speaking," he said.
"This is General Preston Wolfe of the Covert Lateral International Program," the voice on the other end spoke. Perrault's muscles tensed when he heard the name of the organization. "We have confirmed Patrol Unit Sigma's discovery of the Egg Carrier. We request that neither you nor any party involved with GUN engage with the Egg Carrier, because we have formulated a strategy to capture it ourselves and use it against Dr. Eggman."
"But it hasn't even been twenty minutes since we discovered it," Perrault pointed out. "How did you come up with a strategy so fast?"
Wolfe paused for a moment before replying.
"We have been planning for this event for a long time," he responded. "We have eyewitness reports from the public of the Egg Carrier being spotted over the Bigley Federal Correction Center at the time the doctor was released. It then vanished upon its departure. So therefore, we have made all kinds of plans for the day it was discovered, and this is the plan we settled on."
Perrault had his mouth open to interject, but he held his breath before releasing it.
"Very well," he said. "I'll inform my division to comply and not engage with the Egg Carrier."
As he hung up, he couldn't help but think that something wasn't right about all of this. What could CLIP be planning that would utilize the Egg Carrier? Why would they want it and prevent GUN from using it? He knew that CLIP operated from Area 99, but things weren't adding up.
Thorndyke Mansion - Outside – Mon March 20 – Chris' POV
"All right, one more time," Knuckles told me as we took fighting stances in the makeshift ring in the backyard near the tennis courts. "You're getting better, though. Just focus on your defense a bit more."
"Okay," I said, panting from my last round. "This is a lot harder than I thought."
"I know, but you're doing great!" Amy encouraged me from the sidelines.
"He's right, Chris," Tails added. "There are gonna be a lot of distractions no matter where you are, but as long as you're laser-focused, everything's gonna be a-okay." He gave me a thumbs-up for good measure.
Soon after I finished breakfast the morning after the tournament, I went out to the backyard with Knuckles, Tails and Amy to practice sparring lessons, while Sonic was out and about somewhere. He didn't say where he was going, but we all assumed he was on his usual morning run. Fortunately, I had the whole week off from school since it was spring break, so I had plenty of time to practice and train.
After about an hour, we were finally able to leave Diamond Stadium. There was so much traffic leaving the stadium that it caused more congestion than there had been on Saturday morning. The police were kept very busy directing traffic for a few hours. Although I was shaken from what happened with Emerl, I wasn't hurt, and neither was anyone in my family.
I had learned that my friends had unanimously agreed to train me, considering all the danger I had been in in the past. Also considering I almost fell to my death when I found the first Chaos Emerald, trapped inside the Citadel, brainwashed at school, corned by Eggman in Tingalin Villa, was held hostage in the Eggsterminator, absorbed by Chaos, and attacked by Shadow, I couldn't agree more that I needed help. Sure, my friends protected me whenever and however they could, but they thought that I should learn how to fight for myself since they couldn't always be around for me, and I realized they were right.
Normally Knuckles would have been back on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald like he usually was, but since Rouge was busy with GUN stuff and Eggman was out of the picture, he figured it was okay for him to swing by. He too knew this was important, because he seemed like he cared for me more than he wanted to admit, as evidenced by that fateful night Sonic went super and the future hung in the balance.
In the past, whenever I wasn't on my phone or laptop, I occasionally watched my friends spar in the backyard. Sometimes they used the X-Tornado for some of their training exercises, some of which involved using rings. It was always incredible watching them fight. It was like watching a Marvel movie play out in real life, especially since some of their exercises were amazingly complex.
However, it was a completely different experience now that I was the one in the sparring ring. I couldn't help but feel extremely disadvantaged, since even if I was an adult, I knew I wouldn't ever be anywhere near their agility level. Not only that, but I was still technically a kid.
It was also different than the training I went through during the tournament. Instead of a punching bag, I had real opponents, and they weren't taking it easy on me like the same way they were during the past few weeks.
Things were going a lot slower than they usually did when I watched my friends spar, and Knuckles was a bit too strong with me at first, but everyone was very patient with me, and Tails and Amy were doing their best to work with my strengths and weaknesses, which I greatly appreciated.
"All right, ready?" Knuckles asked me.
I nodded "Yeah."
I ran forward a split second before Knuckles did, once again underestimating his speed, despite him being the strongest member of the team. I tried to hop to the left to dodge him, but he clipped me with his fist, probably enough to leave a small bruise later. I turned back around to face him.
"Make sure you read his moves and work on your dodging, Chris," Tails called. I could tell the prodigious young fox was studying my own moves intently, and the few times I happened to glance in his direction, his gaze had never left me.
I nodded as I ran back, avoiding another punch from Knuckles, before running straight toward him again. He nearly grazed me with another punch, but I flexed my abdomen out of the way, taking a step back. I had dodged him twice in a row.
"I'm doing it!" I cheered.
"Don't let your guard down, Chris!" Amy warned, her hands cupped around her mouth.
My "fight" with Knuckles reminded me of when we went against each other during the tournament. This time, however, Knuckles was putting in an effort to fight. And I was probably a bit too ambitious yesterday, because today I found that I had probably bitten off more than I could chew. Knuckles was not only strong, but he was fast too, and the bruises I was starting to get proved it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cream flying out to the others. Cheese was right beside her as usual.
"Is everything going okay?" she asked as she landed next to Amy. I could tell that she was watching me, which put extra pressure on me to try and pass the first test in my sparring lessons.
"Yeah, he's doing a lot better than this morning," Amy said with a smile.
"When Knuckles is done, I wanna give it another go," I heard Tails say from behind me.
Out of nowhere, I felt a sudden sense of boldness. I could tell that Knuckles' punches were not as strong as when I had seen him fight for real before, and I held my hands out to try and block him. However, I greatly underestimated the force of his punch and was sent to the ground in a heartbeat. At least the spikes on his gloves didn't do anything to me.
"All right, time out!" Amy called, holding her hands in a T shape as everyone ran up to me.
"You okay?" Tails asked, being the first to reach me.
"Hope I didn't hit you too hard or anything," Knuckles said.
"Y-Yeah, I'm okay," I said, sitting up and squinting at the bright sunlight. "I'm feeling kinda bruised though…"
"But you're hurt…" Cream said in a worried tone, taking a step toward me.
"I'm okay, I'll get better," I told her. "But I'm honestly still not sure if I can fight like you guys…"
"Hey, you did pretty good," Knuckles said with a grin. "If you can at least dodge, you won't be completely defenseless."
"Yeah, plus he was taking it easy on you there," Amy added.
"I figured nothing too vigorous for warm-ups," Knuckles shrugged. "Though, I'm always ready to step it up a bit–"
I winced when I felt the bruises in my chest, arms, and sides as I shakily stood up.
"I-I'm okay," I said, looking at my five worried friends.
"Maybe we should take a break for now and get some lunch," Amy decided for all of us. Food did sound good about now. She looked up at me. "And we can keep going afterward and maybe work on your offense a bit more."
"Okay, that sounds good," I said, realizing I sounded a little worn-out.
"Knuckles is right, you did really well," Tails said with a smile. "I can tell you're getting there. Just a little more and you'll be a fighting pro!" I chuckled.
This was not the same kind of training I did before the tournament. This was completely different. Even though I was encouraged by their words, I knew that teaching me sparring lessons was going to take forever, especially since I was just a human. But it didn't seem to stop them from trying. I wondered if I really was getting stronger. Did they see something in me that I didn't? But then again, it had only been one day. I wondered if I was going to get truly stronger after a few weeks of this.
Los Angeles Federal Prison – Mon March 20 – Sonic's POV
"All right Sonic, you get five minutes," the warden told me as I took a seat in the chair in front of the glass panel. My eyes were locked on Jerome Wise' nervously shifting eyes as he sat across from me on the other side of the panel. Two guards stood by in case anything went wrong.
"Thanks, I'll make this quick. You know, the usual," I told the warden before returning my full focus on Jerome. The guard nodded.
Soon after we got home from the tournament, I suddenly remembered Jerome and how he got arrested in the middle of the event. I figured he was probably behind bars somewhere. It would still be a while until his sentence was handed to him, but I wanted to see if I could get any answers from him. So I penciled in a visit with him, and even though the wardens were a little reluctant, they agreed to let me talk to him mostly because of who I was, and also because I had prior contact with him before.
"'K, Jerome…" I began. "I wanna talk to you about a few things. You don't have to answer any of 'em. I'm not gonna force you to do anything you don't want."
As I expected, the former Chief of Staff didn't answer. He was fidgeting, and his gaze was everywhere but on me. I relaxed my composure.
"So tell me…" I leaned forward in my seat. "What made you wanna work with Eggman in the first place? Was it because he chose you? 'Cuz I kinda remember you sayin' something about that back when we saw you on the Egg Carrier."
Jerome hesitated for a moment before he took a breath. I held my own breath, knowing he was about to speak.
"Yes…" he finally said. "Yes, he did choose me. I still remember that phone call, he told me– He said there was something in me he liked. To this day I was racking my mind trying to think of what he could possibly see in me, but I was on the opposite party from the President, so that probably had something to do with it. Unless I'm wrong…"
"Okay…?" I said. All the political stuff was going over my head. "So, uh, why'd you stay with him if he kept messing with the government? And… and pretty much all of humanity's way of living?"
Jerome sighed. "'Cuz he was the one thing that stood between me and… here." He gestured to the confined room around him. "Look, I didn't care whether I was loyal to him or th– or, or not. I just wanted to stay free for as long as I could. But now… But now I'm here. And it's all his fault. Listen, I did not sign up for the tournament. He did. He signed me up knowing I would lose just so he could get rid of me. I knew this day was coming, but I wanted to draw it out for as long as possible, but…"
"Huh…" That was a lot for me to digest. It made sense in a twisted way. "So when you were with Eggman… Did you get to see any of his plans, his journals, anything?"
Jerome looked down. "A little bit," he said. "A lot of his plans were hidden away, and there was no way I was gonna hack them because I would have been busted faster. But one of them in particular stood out, and– and honestly, it scares me."
I looked intently into his eyes. "Tell me."
Jerome took a deep breath.
"Operation Endgame, it was called," he said. "There's someone named Metal Sonic involved, and there were so many complex plans and details about something or other about his 'ultimate attempt to establish the Eggman Empire.' Look, I don't know if they were revised since then, they probably were… but he plans to bring the whole country down and put it all in submission to him in less than three days from now."
A chill ran through my spine as he looked up at me.
"I don't know any more details than that," he finished.
"Huh…" I thought. Part of what he said resonated within me. It felt familiar in a way…
"Time's up, Sonic, let's go," the warden spoke from the doorway. I promptly got up out of my seat and turned to the doorway.
"All right, thanks Jerome," I nodded in his direction.
"You gotta stop him! I don't wanna find out what happens in three days if you don't," Jerome called from behind me.
"Trust me, I'll kick his butt to the moon and back like usual," I smirked before leaving the room.
After I thanked the warden for letting me speak to Jerome, and was guided out of the prison, I raced back north in the direction of home.
That was an interesting conversation to say the least. Eggman making an Operation Endgame sounded like it was probably the next step in his Operation Second Chance scheme he was doing. I did happen to fight Metal Sonic and stop Eggman from taking over the world in three days shortly after fighting Emerl. It easily fit in line with his repeating history plan.
My mind briefly went to what would happen if I thwarted this plan too. Would he use the Phantom Ruby to bring in the Black Arms next? Dark Gaia? The Zeti? There were so many possibilities.
However, as I replayed our conversation in my head, I couldn't help but start to think that Jerome was potentially hiding something from me. He did seem a bit shifty, but there was something more.
Area 99 – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Area 99 was bustling with more activity than they had seen in months, even exceeding all the activity they had experienced during the recent manhunt for Eggman.
Most of the personnel in the facility's military division, as well as several staff from the research and development division were collaborating on their biggest project yet: the renovation of a massive ship similar to the ones Eggman used to pilot. However, this one was painted white and bore GUN's emblem on its side. It featured a massive drill on the front, just like the doctor's original Egg Fort.
A man emerged from Area 99's main complex. He was Theodore Bainbridge, the head of the entire complex. He was adorned in medals, and his hands were clasped behind his back as he personally walked around, inspecting the ship. He was a man in his late 50s, and he had slowly graying hair and a thick mustache.
All around him was the sound of explosions and the near-constant drone of engines from the planes in the distance. He approached Nate Perez, who was in charge of the project. He was the new head of the R&D department of Area 99; he had taken over after Ray Browning resigned almost a year ago.
"Are you almost finished with the upgrades?" Bainbridge asked, looking up at the massive vessel.
"Yes sir," Perez responded, turning to face him from where he had been inspecting the outside of the ship. "We are currently checking hull integrity as well as all onboard weapons. We're well ahead of schedule, and I expect it to be fully battle-ready tomorrow night."
"Excellent work," Bainbridge said. He was about to say something else when a midair explosion hit particularly close to the facility.
"Okay, that was close," Perez said, taking a step back. "How long have these war games been going on, anyway? 'Cuz they were at it when I came into work today."
"Since early this morning," Bainbridge replied, watching as a pair of F-15s flew away from the vicinity of the base. "Although they really ramped it up since the Egg Carrier was discovered. These war games are planned to last until Eggman makes his presence known. We can't afford to be caught off guard again."
"No we can't," Perez agreed.
"All right, I'll leave you to it," Bainbridge said as he turned to head back inside. "Just wanted to see your progress."
As Perez nodded his acknowledgment, Bainbridge headed back inside the main building of Area 99. But as he headed back down the hall toward his office, he was met with several high-ranking Area 99 military staff and CLIP officials.
"So what was the estimate?" one of the CLIP captains asked him.
"Perez says tomorrow night," Bainbridge responded. "They're well ahead of schedule."
"Well, not according to the new orders we were given," the captain told him knowingly. "It has to be finished tonight."
Bainbridge was alarmed. "Wh… Why tonight? And why wasn't I told this directly?"
"I'm sorry, but that's strictly confidential," the captain said matter-of-factly. "It's been a long time coming that we found the original Egg Fort off the coast of Station Square and brought it here. You know we can't afford to take our time any longer, especially since we're now running the risk of being taken off guard by Eggman once again."
"But we just received the GUN Fort two months ago," Bainbridge told the group. "And besides, I'm the head of Area 99."
"Orders are orders," the staff member shrugged.
"Then I want to know who gave you these orders," Bainbridge said pointedly.
"That too is confidential," the captain said as he and his group started to leave. "So here's the deal. As soon as CLIP finishes with their operation on the Egg Carrier, the GUN Fort will be launched. And I fully respect your position as head of Area 99, but this is a CLIP operation, not an Area 99 operation. You were the one who signed a contract with CLIP so they could use Area 99 as a staging area after all."
As they left, Bainbridge was left frustrated. Not only were they right about that last fact, but he was getting suspicious. CLIP had always been sketchy, but something was not right behind the scenes. He didn't know who gave that order, but one thing was for sure: he had a lot of extra unneeded pressure.
Thorndyke Mansion – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Not too long after Chris' sparring session, everyone was gathered around the table for lunch. Today they were having homemade pizza that Cream helped her mom and Vanilla made. They made both pepperoni and Hawaiian pizza, and both were equally delectable. As they ate, everyone was talking about the day's plans.
Yesterday after Cream woke up from her nap, she was still feeling sad, but all it took was plenty of love and comfort from her friends, as well as Ella and Vanilla's strawberry shortcake and some ice cream to cheer her up again. She earned it, they said, since she was in fact the real winner of the Chaos Competition.
With the help of her friends, she had gotten over the demise of Emerl, and she was able to fully grasp that it was a Phantom Ruby illusion and not the real Emerl. He still felt real though, and he still reminded her of the real Emerl, which made her more anxious to return home so she could see Gemerl again.
But she wasn't sad now. If anything, she was excited that she was getting to help one of her friends get strong so he could protect himself! At first she had been worried about him getting hurt, but she grew to realize the necessity of his self-defense and wanted to do anything she could to help him.
Right as Ella was saying that she would go out grocery shopping later today, there was a sudden gust of wind and Sonic was standing there in the room with a slice of pizza.
"Did I miss anything?" he asked around a mouthful of Hawaiian pizza.
"Nope, you're just in time for lunch!" Amy told him. "Though, I'd appreciate it if you at least try and make an effort to not talk with your mouth full."
"Oh." He swallowed before sitting in the closest empty seat. "Sorry."
By now everyone was used to Sonic's relaxed and casual manners at mealtime. Even though Tanaka tried to teach him proper etiquette, Sonic always seemed to shrug it off. That wasn't saying he wasn't capable of good manners, though.
As soon as he took a seat and set his slice of pizza on the plate in front of him, his expression changed on a dime. Without hesitation, he launched into what he wanted to say.
"So, uh, I went down to LA for a bit to see Jerome in prison, I kinda wanted to talk to him since he got arrested and all, and well… I only had five minutes, but he spilled the beans."
"Really?" Chuck asked in intrigue.
Tails leaned forward in his seat. "What did he say, Sonic?" he asked.
As brief as he could, Sonic told the room everything he remembered Jerome telling him, from the reason why he worked with Eggman, to the doctor's upcoming plan.
"So he's really gonna go through with repeating that whole adventure?" Amy asked.
"Which one?" Cream asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"It was the one where we and Big teamed up to rescue Chocola and Froggy," Amy said, turning to her.
"Oh yeah!" Cream recalled.
"And Eggman still has the Phantom Ruby," Tails said. "Which means we all gotta be careful, because literally anything can happen now. Because in that same adventure, we had to deal with Metal Sonic and the whole Egg Fleet."
"Neo Metal Sonic," Knuckles corrected.
"Right," Tails nodded. "And if I recall correctly, Neo can shapeshift, which means he can turn into anyone he wants. But knowing Eggman's recent trends, he's probably gonna be another Phantom Ruby illusion."
"I can see it," Sonic nodded.
"About the Egg Fleet," Chris spoke up, "does this mean he's gonna build a whole bunch of ships since the Egg Carrier is real?"
"Good question, I don't know," Tails responded. "It took him as long as six months just to build the Egg Carrier, and he's only been gone for one month, so…"
"Probably not then," Chris thought, before a new idea hit him. "Or maybe he could make his own fleet using the Phantom Ruby!"
"Think people are gonna fall for the same trick twice?" Sonic asked.
Chris blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Like after the whole Egg Moon thing went down and the sun came out just like that, people are probably gonna start getting suspicious," Sonic explained. "Like, you don't see the moon just block the sun like that and then go away on its own a month later. That doesn't happen. So if people see a whole fleet coming out of nowhere and they know Eggman didn't have that kind of time, they'll probably think it's fake… after they finish panicking."
"Yeah, what he said," Tails said, nodding in Sonic's direction.
"Ah, okay," Chris said, now understanding what Sonic meant.
"So what's the plan?" Chuck asked the group, setting down his cup of dark coffee.
"Easy, we take the X-Tornado and look around for Eggman, maybe pick up a couple Chaos Emeralds as we go," Sonic stated.
"Sounds good to me," Tails shrugged.
"Yeah, I'm game," Amy added. Knuckles nodded his own agreement.
"Anyone else coming?" Sonic asked, looking around the table.
"I wanna come!" Cream volunteered, raising her hand.
"Chao chao!" Cheese agreed.
"Me too," Chris added after he finished his slice of pizza.
"But are you sure it won't be too dangerous for you?" Chuck asked them. "Considering the scale of Eggman's plan this time-"
"We'll be okay," Chris told him, looking right at him. "And besides, Sonic said he'll always protect us."
"You know it!" Sonic grinned. "If me 'n Knux ride outside the X-Tornado, then there's gonna be room for all of us, but if it gets too dangerous, then we're gonna have to take you guys back home," he told Chris and Cream.
"I understand, Mr. Sonic," Cream replied.
"I trust you'll take excellent care of my daughter as you always do," Vanilla said from the other end of the table.
"Always," Sonic nodded as he finished his pizza and reached for another slice.
Meanwhile, Chris was just excited to go on another adventure with his friends. Yes, he was aware of the prospect of danger, and if Eggman was going to be involved, that always made things scarier, but he had grown to trust his friends to protect him, even when things got rough. Sometimes things got out of their hands, but they had never gone too far because Sonic and his friends would always come through to save the day.
"What if we put the Emeralds first?" Amy asked. "Because right now we don't know where Eggman is, and if we find the Emeralds, chances are we'll find Eggman along the way." She shuddered. "Or maybe he'll find us…"
"Oh, we'll bump into him eventually, we always do," Sonic said. "And when that happens, we'll be ready."
"There should be an Emerald in the cockpit right now, actually," Tails recalled.
"So when are we leaving?" Chris asked.
"As soon as possible," Sonic said, his voice even. He paused, looking around the table. "Uh… after you guys finish up with lunch, of course."
Oregon – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Dr. Kai Narasu, Colonel Card Passer, and E-101 Beta Mk. III were flying above a forest in eastern Oregon in search of the Chaos Emeralds. The two Society men were flying Valkyries, while Beta flew alongside them.
They had been flying all night, and made the occasional food stop, but miraculously their identities were not uncovered, especially since there were other GUN divisions that still used Valkyries. Since they had been at it all night, they had to program a flight path, set their vehicles to autopilot, and sleep in the cockpit. That said, it had been quite uncomfortable.
Yesterday, ex-Area 99 employee Ray Browning had finished reprogramming Beta to detect not only Chaos Emeralds, but any form of technology that was utilized by Dr. Eggman. There was a single line of code in Beta's programming that was neutralized; known in Eggman's Egg Dome computers as the "Loyalty Code". This line of code would make the robot loyal to Eggman, and it was apparently nigh-impossible to overwrite, but with Narasu's help, Browning pulled it off. Now, Browning was able to write a form of that code to make Beta detect any other form of technology that utilized the Loyalty Code.
So far they had found a few artifacts that they had confirmed to be used by Eggman at one point, all of which utilized the Loyalty Code, but most of them were just destroyed Badniks from some of Sonic's many skirmishes. Of course, none of them provided any clues to Eggman's current whereabouts.
They had just finished searching the entire eastern half of Oregon and were about to cross the border into Washington State when Passer realized something.
"We… haven't found any Chaos Emeralds yet," he said.
"So?" Narasu asked. "Maybe there just aren't any Emeralds on this side of the country."
"It's not that," Passer told him. "Watcher said he was detecting Emeralds earlier. And right now Beta isn't even detecting its own Emerald!"
"What?" Narasu asked in shock. "It wasn't like this when we took off. So what happened?"
"I don't know," Passer said. "I wasn't the one who programmed it."
With a sigh, Narasu prepared to contact Society HQ. Under the Organizer's guidance, all the Valkries were set to a private radio channel, and they were programmed to neutralize all outside interferences, particularly radio communications from the government.
"Narasu to HQ, Beta is malfunctioning," he reported, regret in his voice.
"How so?" Watcher asked. It sounded like he was not in the mood to receive bad news.
"Passer says it can't detect any Emeralds, not even its own."
"Not even its own– Okay, why do there have to be problems already?" Watcher ranted. "This mission just started!" He sighed. "Fine, I'm gonna have Beta come back to base. You two continue the mission."
"With all due respect, we, uh, don't have anything else to scan for Emeralds with," Passer pointed out.
"Then may I suggest we take the one out of Beta and use that–"
"No," Watcher interjected, interrupting Narasu. "I need that Emerald to test whether our repairs are effective or not."
Narasu sighed. "Fair enough."
"But then how do you expect us to find the Emeralds if we don't even have one to track them with?" Passer asked.
"Unless you get the Organizer's blessing, you two are on your own as far as I'm concerned," Watcher said.
Narasu sighed. "Are… you okay, sir?" he asked.
"Of course I'm okay! It's just that I'm feeling out of it ever since I risked my neck getting this stupid thing."
"Then… Then I guess we have no choice but to turn around and come back if we can't track the Chaos Emerald," Narasu said dejectedly.
"…Fine," Watcher said. "But this is gonna be a major setback for all of us. And the worst part about it is you're right. We don't have a second Emerald."
Watcher and Narasu turned their Valkyries around and followed Beta back toward the Egg Dome, feeling lucky that most of the people below them thought their vehicles were just normal GUN Valkyries searching for Eggman.
"This is anticlimactic…" Passer groaned.
The desert – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Both compartments of the X-Tornado were quiet as its occupants flew through the desert of southeastern California. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Chocola, and Chris had been searching for any sign of Eggman or the Chaos Emeralds. However, there was no trace of either of them anywhere.
Even with their bad luck, they were at least able to enjoy the scenery that passed by below them. There were rocks and sand everywhere, as well as the occasional cactus and isolated roads that were few and far between. Chris knew enough about the desert that it was not forgiving to anyone unlucky enough to get lost in it.
"The sky is really pretty out here!" Cream remarked, looking out the canopy at the endless horizon.
"Yeah," Amy said with a smile from the seat in front of her. "I don't see any clouds."
It wasn't often that Chris went anywhere near the desert, so he was quietly taking in the sight from behind Tails' seat. The rocks eventually gave way to sand dunes, and the sky was a great contrast to the monotonous desert below. As the plane banked slowly to the left, he had to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun since it was especially bright today.
"See anything yet?" Amy asked after about a minute.
"Um…" Tails squinted at the radar. "Yup! I'm starting to see something on the radar. Somewhere east of us."
"That was fast!" Cream exclaimed.
"Yeah, especially since the Emeralds scatter around the world more often than not," Tails replied as he steered the plane toward the east.
"But we haven't really needed to leave the United States to find them," Amy noted. "I wonder why that is…?"
Tails shrugged. "Yeah… I thought of that myself, I'm not sure either."
"Is there gonna be turbulence?" Chris asked hesitantly, looking down at the ground as it moved rapidly below them.
"Nope," Tails replied. "The winds are calm in this part of the state."
"That's good," Chris said. He remembered when the plane would shake whenever they approached a Chaos Emerald. However, that stopped happening ever since the Master Emerald showed up on Earth, much to Chris' relief.
Tails gradually decreased the X-Tornado's forward speed, and when they were close enough to the ground, he converted it to X-Cyclone and brought it in for a gentle landing on a flat spot among the sand dunes. The plane's passengers were amazed at how smooth it was, considering they parked on uneven ground.
"So how far out are we…?" Amy asked, looking around where they had landed.
"Um, let me see…" Tails looked at the radar screen that he had recently programmed into the X-Tornado. "We're just outside of Yuma, Arizona, but we're still in California. Right near somewhere called Imperial Sand Dunes."
"Oh yeah, Grandpa used to go there before I was born," Chris recalled. "They have off-road racing there."
He was suddenly blasted with desert heat the moment Tails opened the X-Tornado's dual canopies.
"Oh, it's hot!" Cream remarked from the back. Clearly no one was expecting how hot the desert was going to be. She and Cheese jumped out of the plane, using their ears and wings respectively to slow their descent and land gracefully on the sand. Amy and Chris prepared to climb down the plane's retractable ladders that Tails had finally gotten around to implementing.
"If I knew we were going to the desert, I would have brought summer clothes," Chris said in hindsight as he carefully eased himself onto the ladder.
"You'll be fine, just roll up your sleeves!" Sonic told him as he jumped down from the left wing. "It's not like we're gonna be here all day."
"Yeah, especially since we can use the Emerald we have to find the other Emerald," Tails added.
"Plenty of room to run, though, I mean, I could be here all day," Sonic added. "Only reason I don't come out here a lot is 'cuz it's just too hot. Plus sand is kinda tricky to run on compared to the mountains. Those places are my jam. Speakin' of jam…!"
The hedgehog immediately took off running through the vast expanse of the desert, letting out a whoop of joy.
Knuckles rolled his eyes. "It was only a matter of time before he had to stretch his legs," he remarked.
"I mean, he does love his big open spaces," Amy added with a smile, looking in the direction Sonic went in. "And it always makes me happy to see him happy like this."
Chris was the last one to reach the bottom of the ladder and touch down on the sand. He made his way over to Tails, who was holding the yellow gem up and moving it around him at intervals.
"It's glowing pretty bright," he remarked before lowering it again. "I think it's coming from–"
"This way!" Knuckles stated before walking in a specific direction. "I can sense it."
"Wait for me!" Tails called before flying over to him. Chris caught up to them both before running ahead of them, searching anywhere for something that glowed brightly.
"Hey, be careful," Knuckles called to Chris. "There could be rattlesnakes here."
Amy and Cream heard this from the other side of the X-Tornado, where they were searching a different part of the desert. Cream became wary and stuck close to Amy, nervously looking around the ground near her.
"I don't like snakes either," Amy told her, "but it's okay 'cuz we'll look out for each other, right?"
"Right!" Cream nodded.
"Chao chao!" Cheese and Chocola agreed simultaneously.
After about a minute of searching, Knuckles started walking across the sand a little faster.
"You see it?" Chris asked, peering down at the sand ahead of him.
"Nope…" the echidna said as he finally started to slow down. "But the thing is, I still feel it, even closer than before, so I know we're going in the right direction. You know, it's probably underground. Leave it to me!"
Donning his Shovel Claws he pulled from Hammerspace, he expertly dove through the sand at a rate Chris would have not believed was possible if he didn't witness it firsthand. Knuckles was out of sight within seconds, but not without accidentally spraying sand all over Chris and Tails, who flinched and shielded their faces with a yelp.
Tails was able to shake the worst of the sand out of his fur; however, Chris was not so lucky, because Tails doing so got even more sand on him. He tried to pat it out of his clothes, but not all of it was coming out.
"S-Sorry about that," Tails chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "I forgot to remind you to bring a change of clothes."
"It's okay, really!" Chris said, patting his shirt some more. "Even though it's really annoying…"
"That's why I don't like going out in the desert too much," Tails admitted. "It's coarse and irritating and gets everywhere."
Chris chuckled. "Is that a Star Wars reference?" he asked.
"Yeah," Tails said with a laugh. The fox had been fascinated by Star Wars ever since Chris introduced it to him, and since then he had seen every movie and show on Disney+ in his downtime.
Suddenly a bright glow came up through the hole that Knuckles had disappeared through, forcing Tails and Chris to squint their eyes. The echidna popped his head out of the hole before carefully climbing out, holding a Chaos Emerald.
"You found it!" Chris remarked upon eyeing the glowing purple gemstone.
Knuckles shrugged. "It was no big deal."
"Yay, you found it!" Amy cheered as she, Cream, and the two Chao ran over to them.
"That was fast!" Cream added.
Chris looked from the yellow gem in Tails' hands to the purple gem in Knuckles' spiked mitts.
"And best of all, they're not reacting violently to each other," Chris remarked.
"They shouldn't," Knuckles said. "The Master Emerald is making sure of that. But yeah, I getcha, it was a real hassle dealing with them back then, when they made Chaos Beacons. They always brought Eggman running."
"And turbulence," Tails added.
"I'm glad we don't have to deal with any of that anymore," Chris said.
"Me too," Amy agreed.
"Now we only have five more to go!" Cream said happily as she followed Tails and Knuckles back toward the X-Tornado.
"Yup!" Amy added. "I don't know how many Eggman has, but there's also the one that disappeared after the tournament."
"Oh yeah, that one could be anywhere," Tails said. "But I know we can find it in no time. I got state-of-the-art tech when it comes to finding Chaos Emeralds."
"Hey… Sorry 'bout the sand, guys," Knuckles said, noting how dusty Chris' clothes were, and Tails' fur was not as pristine as it usually was.
"It's okay," Tails said. "It just means I can look forward to getting in the shower."
Chris followed everyone back to the plane, all the while obsessively patting the sand out of his shirt and pants.
"So do we wait for Sonic, or–"
"Hey! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Sonic called, interrupting Chris as he skidded to a stop right next to the group. However, doing so kicked up a wave of sand in their direction, coating everyone!
"Whoa, sorry guys!" Sonic apologized. "Didn't know that was gonna happen…"
"Not my dress…" Amy lamented once her initial shock died down. "Ugh, it's everywhere, in my quills and even my boots are full of sand…"
"Uh…" Sonic sweated nervously, knowing full well he was the cause of everyone's discomfort. "You guys wanna go back home real quick and get a shower in before we keep going?"
"Um…" Tails thought for a moment.
"Yes!" Amy instantly said. "Anything to get all this sand out of my fur!" Seeing the concerned look on Sonic's face, she added, "You didn't know, Sonic, it's okay."
"Actually, um…" Tails started to say, getting the attention of everyone. "Jerome Wise said Eggman is gonna take over the world in three days, and that doesn't leave us with a lot of time. I hate to say it, but… I mean, I kinda need to shower too… but we need all the time we can get to find all the Chaos Emeralds."
Sonic looked from one uneasy face to the next. They seemed to have a common sentiment, and Sonic let out a sigh, realizing Tails was right.
"Yeah… You got a point there, lil bro," he said. "Do you got a towel at least?"
"I do, actually," Tails said as he turned to open the X-Tornado's side compartment. "It's not perfect, but it's the best I got for now."
He pulled out the blue towel and tossed it to Sonic, who in turn gave it to Amy first, who was covered with the most sand.
"Okay, please clean yourselves up as much as you can before you get inside, because I don't really like the inside of my plane getting dirty," Tails said.
Even though it was March, it was a particularly hot day in the desert today, and everyone was sweating even though they had only been out in the desert heat for about ten minutes. About four minutes later, everyone got rid of as much sand as they could and made their way back in the plane.
"Gonna have to come back here sometime," Sonic said with a grin, looking around at the surrounding sand dunes. "So much room to run!"
"I'm not in any hurry to come back here," Amy said, "but I hope you have fun!"
"I'll bring back souvenirs!" Sonic quipped.
"But what is there you could bring back, Sonic?" Tails added with a laugh. "There's nothing but sand everywhere!"
"The world's a big place, you know I'll come back with something!" Sonic said, playing along.
"Maybe the desert is not so bad if we don't get sand everywhere," Cream said as she buckled herself in.
"Yeah," Chris said, running a hand through his hair and still feeling grains of sand coming out onto the floor. He hoped Tails wouldn't get too upset at him for getting a little sand in the plane.
Once everyone was inside, Sonic put the now completely soiled towel back in the compartment, shut the door, and hopped up onto the plane's wing. By now both canopies were completely sealed. He saw Knuckles standing on the opposite wing, so now they were ready to go.
Inside the X-Tornado, the air conditioner was on full blast in both compartments since it had been pushing 90 degrees outside. The energy to power it was coming directly from the Chaos Emerald in its slot, so Tails was not worried about using too much energy.
"Two down, five to go!" Amy cheered. "But hopefully we won't find any more of them in the desert. But you never know, which is all part of the adventure!"
"Yup!" Tails agreed, observing that Sonic really had rubbed off on Amy.
He switched the plane back into flight mode and took off, leaving the desert behind.
Somewhere – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Unknown to Sonic's team and even the government, their progress had not gone unnoticed…
A hidden hatch in the side of a mountain slid open, and a robot of some sort flew out of it. Quickly locating the coastline, it took off at an incredible speed. Only it knew where it was going.
GUN Division Alpha HQ – Mon March 20 – Third-person POV
Later that afternoon, a few high-ranking GUN officers from other divisions were gathered in Perrault's office, where a Samsung phone lay on his desk.
"This is the phone that Colonel Passer used at the time of his detention," Perrault explained. "We received it yesterday after the FBI raided his other home, and we have been given clearance to search it ourselves. I took a cursory look through it this morning, and I found hundreds of cloud files of paperwork regarding the GUN robots."
"How much of it did you look through?" one of the GUN officers asked.
"That was just a cursory look," Perrault responded. "I was busy taking phone calls all morning regarding the search for Dr. Eggman. I was hoping I could look through it in detail with the rest of you."
"That's fair," the officer said. "But… wasn't it foolhardy for him to leave all this paperwork on a public cloud like this?"
"It was a personal cloud," Perrault clarified. "But now that the FBI was able to hack into his phone, they now have direct access to his cloud. Of course, they searched his phone themselves before handing it off to us to search in detail, but the paperwork officially confirms that all the GUN robots were traced back to Mr. Wise, whom we know was traced back to Dr. Eggman, so this also confirms that arresting Passer was the right move on our part. Add to that the Society breaking him out of federal prison, and then confiscating all of Division Alpha's robots. That is no coincidence. If anything, it proves Passer is working with the Society."
"Sir, I am also led to believe that this confirms Mr. Wise was working with the Society too," another general said. "My evidence is that Eggman's Badniks were seen assisting the Society during the prison breakout. At that exact moment, Eggman was in Mayor Pinsky's office, and even if he wasn't, I know it couldn't have been him because assisting humans in any sort of endeavor is out of line for him. However, it does sound like something Jerome would do if he was involved with the Society."
"Hm…" Passer took a moment to think this over. "That's a very astute observation. It makes a lot of sense. I'll get the word out immediately, and we will take relevant action ourselves."
A/N: That concludes the first chapter of the Operation Endgame Saga! I know that not a lot happened in this chapter aside from setup, but I'm really excited to show you the future chapters in this arc!
Rewriting all the previous episodes of Sonic X has made me confident enough to write an original story featuring the cast. I felt like the Homebound Saga could be better, especially since it features the number one reason a lot of Sonic fans hate Chris, which is why I'm rewriting the whole thing from scratch.
I especially wanna know your input on how I'm doing with Chris and Sonic in particular this arc. They, along with Eggman, are my favorite characters to write.
Next time is Chapter 2, where the hunt for the Chaos Emeralds gets more intense! Don't miss it!
