A/N: Sorry this chapter's a little late, the day completely slipped away from me, plus VRChat, Rocket League, and Pinterest have not been helping XD But anyway, here's the next chapter! I can't believe we're already so close to the end of Season 2!
I saw that Super duper waffles posted two more chapters of Chaos on Earth Chronicles, but I haven't gotten to reading them yet since I've been busy lately, but I'll get right on those as soon as I can!
Also, for the spambots that keep asking me for payment for fanarts, if anyone is actually human and wants to make fanart for me, then I would like to ask that you please quote the first paragraph of my story (excluding author's notes) in my DM's to prove you're human. Although, I'll probably be able to tell right away who's human and who's not XD No Auto-Automations allowed in my DM's (nice try Eggman)!
I would like to thank diamondb32010, SymboitShadow, Novastar225, Kaigu-hunter, Swordfish333, and ayubayesha726 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
danielman21
Sorry the last chapter wasn't your cup of tea! Although, it was necessary to wrap up some loose ends on Earth after Operation Endgame. You might like this next chapter more though.
Monster King
Fear not, there will be a sequel coming very soon! Until then, I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying the story!
blazenight01
I agree, the Society's in a state of disarray now, but even if the Organizer says they have their orders, I'm pretty sure he doesn't believe his own words.
Guest
The Sonic cast haven't seen Naruto (yet), but they have seen Dragon Ball, and Sonic has been bingewatching One Piece in his free time.
Five-Chosen (first review)
Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification!
Super duper waffles (first review)
You're very welcome! Sorry I haven't read the next two chapters you posted, I've been very busy with Whumptober lately, but I plan to check them out as soon as I can!
1. Sonic has actually not seen any of the classic films yet! While he is aware of them, he doesn't think they're exactly his speed due to his fast-going nature.
2. Yes, people have tried to make creepypastas and fanfictions of Sonic in this world, but fortunately Chuck does his best to shield them from the stories because they might not take them so well. There are, however, some good stories that he was just about to let them see before Operation Endgame happened.
3. Sonic's PSA's cover similar topic to the ones in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, except he has also done some more realistic ones like don't drink and drive, always buckle your seat belt, etc.
4. In this universe, OK KO instead crossed over with Crash Bandicoot, and it was just as popular in this universe as "Let's Meet Sonic" was in the real world.
5. Amy's favorite Disney princess is Aurora, while Cream's is Cinderella.
6. Chris has yet to play a major JRPG, but during the six-year time skip he has been getting into Final Fantasy.
7. Only the humans and police who were at Blair Castle know about King Boom Boo and the Boos, but other than that, they have not reappeared since episode 19... yet...
8. I am actually not sure, but I can imagine Sonic watching DanTDM and Mayro.
Guest
Time to parrrr-tay! :D Here is the next chapter!
Five-Chosen (second review)
I've seen SonicSong182 before, so I know about Team Dimension :D
And I really like these ideas, especially the first one! I hadn't thought too hard about what to do with Silver between his introduction and the climax, but I do find myself looking more closely at the idea where Silver is gradually fading due to what happened in the future. It makes me wonder why something like that hasn't happened in '06.
Super duper waffles (second review)
Ooh! Can't wait to see that chapter whenever it comes out!
Five-Chosen (third review)
Perfect! The recipe book is exactly what episode 59 needs!
CreativeKitty975
I do want to admit, I too think I probably could have done more with the Society, particularly when it came to fleshing out their individual personalities. And I also looked forward to the Sonic and Eggman scenes more than the Society scenes, but I do think I was able to draw out most of the potential that the Society had. Whenever I go back and edit the chapters sometime, I could always give their personalities a facelift.
All in all, I'm glad you enjoyed the Operation Endgame Saga! This chapter will focus on Sonic and his friends, so stay tuned!
Super duper waffles (third review)
I wish you the best of luck in Whumptober! The best part about it is that you don't have to participate in all 31 days, even though I'm gonna try to do that myself.
Chapter 58
Original Episode
Season 2 Epilogue Part 2: No Place Like Home
Mobius – United Federation – GUN HQ – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
"Rouge, where on Mobius have you been these last two months? We needed you!"
"Let's be real, you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Even though GUN knew that Rouge had been sent to another location by Chaos Control, she had been gone for so long that her comrades had begun to assume the worst had happened to her. She was not one to simply abandon her missions without a good reason. The one time she did it, she was reprimanded, but she had definitely learned her lesson since then.
She was now sitting across the desk from GUN Commander Abraham Tower a few hours after she had returned to GUN's headquarters in Central City, the capital of the United Federation. Now that she was back in familiar territory, she could really notice how similar the United States was to it, from the infrastructure to the human majority. She still preferred the United Federation solely for its familiarity.
Regardless of what Rouge had just said to Tower, she began to tell him about Earth and everything she had experienced in her time there, from the moment GUN detained her in a warehouse in Silky Heights, to the moment she and Omega were crashing the Egg Carrier into the Death Egg.
"So Rouge, let me get this straight. Are you telling me that all of this happened in the span of a year and a half?" Tower asked sincerely in his deep voice.
Rouge nodded.
"But it's only been a month and a half here."
"Beats me," Rouge shrugged. "I can't say I'm a leading expert on time anomalies. I doubt any of us are."
"And then there's the fact that both Station Square and GUN exist on Earth," Tower continued.
"I got nothing on that either," Rouge said, leaning against her commander's desk. "It's probably just a parallel universe thing. Y'know, where some universes might be slightly different than others. Where some things that are fictional in some universes could be real in others. Or who knows, maybe we could be fictional! Ever think of that?"
Tower held his head in his hands. "You're hurting my brain…" he quietly admitted after a moment, before lowering his hands and looking at the bat again. "But yes, I do suppose there is much to learn about alternate universes like the one you were sent to. However, in your absence, we were dealing with something called the Metal Virus."
Rouge blinked. "Run that by me again?"
"We're still running tests on the few samples we were able to collect, but from what we gather, it's a liquid substance that looks exactly like molten steel, and anyone who comes in contact with it will turn into a robot. And anyone they touch will also turn into robots."
"Like a zombie apocalypse..." Rouge noted.
"Exactly," Tower confirmed, clasping his hands together on the desk. "Many of our soldiers were infected, but the Kingdom of Acorn has recently come up with an antidote to cure the rest of the infected. They anticipate the job will be done late next week. It's roughly 95% contained now, and Shadow and Omega helped us to detain Dr. Starline, who was the culprit behind all this. We believe he was taking after Dr. Eggman in some alarming ways. Right after this, both of them vanished a few hours before you got here."
Rouge closed her eyes as she silently processed all of this information.
"Sounds like I missed a lot," Rouge said at last, leaning back in her seat. "Oh, by any chance, have you seen Shadow or Omega since we got back?"
"Omega, yes," Tower said. "We found him in Hamlin, it's a small town fifty miles south-southwest of Central City an hour ago. We brought him back here shortly before you arrived. As for Shadow, he is still missing. Although, there are times when he goes off on his own, so perhaps this is normal for him. I'm not too worried."
"Hm, okay," Rouge said. She wondered if Shadow was going off by himself to reflect on everything that had happened. Whenever he wasn't involved in delivering justice to villains like Eggman or undertaking a mission with GUN, he would head off on his own somewhere to reflect on his memories and life.
"Oh! I just remembered something!" Rouge said. "There were at least five men, all humans, and I believe they were sent here to Mobius with the rest of us. I don't quite remember what any of them look like, but I do remember their names from the database."
"What about them?" Tower asked, not knowing what Rouge was getting at.
Over the next five minutes, Rouge told him everything she knew about the Society and their goals and abilities, only stopping whenever Tower asked her questions about them.
"We'll keep watch for them in case they ever show up," Tower said. "Thank you for bringing them to our attention."
"Actually," Rouge said, perking up a bit, "you know what? I think I may wanna try and find them myself. As far as I know, their leader isn't here, which means they're out on their own somewhere. So I figure they're gonna try to blend in with everyone. No one knows what they look like or what they did on Earth."
"I would probably do that too if I were them," Tower said. "But you just told me you don't remember what they look like either."
"I don't," Rouge said, a smirk playing across her face, "but I'm sure Omega does. He was there when we were collecting their data, remember?"
"But they could go undercover or change their identities," Tower mentioned.
"I know," Rouge said, her confidence not letting up.
"You seem very confident about this," Tower said, "considering how dangerous they were on Earth."
Rouge stood up and saluted. "I won't let you down, sir!"
Even though she had a new mission ahead of her, one that she took upon herself, she wanted to stop by her apartment and take a moment to ogle over the familiarity of her precious jewel collection at home. GUN always paid her handsomely, and she was sure her collection would only grow once she brought the Society to justice.
Imperial City – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
It took roughly two hours, but Dr. Eggman had finally returned to his central headquarters in Imperial City.
When he had returned to Mobius, he found himself about twenty miles outside his base, and his five hench-bots, Decoe, Bocoe, Orbot, Cubot, and Bokkun had all been sent to different parts of the planet. However, thanks to the advanced tracking system he equipped them with that most of his underlings didn't have, they were quickly located and shipped back to Imperial City over the next hour.
The first thing he did as soon as he returned to his base was broadcast a top-priority message across the entire Eggman Empire, letting his subjects know that he had returned from an unexpected excursion, and to begin supplying him with parts to construct a new base immediately.
Shortly after the message went out, he received word that there had been radiation surrounding his old base, but it vanished practically the moment Eggman and everyone else returned to Mobius. The doctor wondered if it had to do with Chaos Control, and if either the Master Emerald or the Corona Corundum had anything to do with it. Furthermore, there was no debris whatsoever in the immediate area surrounding Eggman's old base. Chaos Control had cleaned up everything well.
However, neither the Corona Corundum nor the Phantom Ruby had been accounted for. None of the robots could find them anywhere. Nevertheless, Eggman no longer considered either of them to be a priority. Right now, his priority was to build a new outpost and sync some of his plans from Earth with his Mobius plans. The outpost could wait for tonight, though. He was tired.
He pulled a USB flash drive from his suit and plugged it into his master computer. A menu appeared, and Eggman confirmed the process of transferring his Earth data onto the computer.
"I see that some facets of Earth technology seem to be compatible with Mobian technology," he mused to himself. "At least just the USBs. Universal serial bus, right? They really are universal!"
Right as that thought was crossing his mind, his wrist communicator buzzed against his wrist, and he saw the caller's name on his watch.
"Nephthys the Vulture," he said upon recognizing the name of one of his twelve Egg Bosses. He immediately answered it, and a holographic image of the Mobian vulture was projected a few feet above his watch.
"Welcome back, Doctor," she said warmly. "I know you just returned a few hours ago, and I hate to bother you with this, but I have a report regarding the other dimension you just came from."
"Yes?" Eggman asked, giving her his full attention.
"We found the Death Egg in the South Ocean," she said without missing a beat. "I would assume you built it on the other planet? Well, unfortunately, it seems to be in complete disarray. We also found the Egg Carrier a few miles away, also in the ocean, and it too was completely destroyed, beyond our repair. In fact, we didn't know it was the Egg Carrier at first, the destruction was so complete."
Eggman pondered this. He didn't have the highest hopes for their survival to begin with.
"Perhaps I should leave them as they are," he said. "GUN's going to pick through the remains anyway, and besides, I can simply build another Egg Carrier and Death Egg. But not now, I just got back."
"I and the other Egg Bosses made sure to send all information on both vessels directly to your main computer via the Eggnet," Nephthys reported, "so GUN will have nothing to salvage as far as data goes."
"Excellent work," Eggman said with a grin. "And on my end, I uploaded all the information I have from my personal flash drive, so between us, nothing was lost." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Now, what about Shadow the Hedgehog? Has he been found?"
Nepthys blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"
Eggman looked down. "Oh, that's right… He was on Earth for what amounted to a heartbeat, which means you had no idea he was gone."
"We didn't know he was gone," Nephthys confirmed.
"Regardless, I have one of his inhibitor rings. He removed them when he was in the process of destroying the Death Egg, and I found it not far from where I woke up."
"Which tells me he may be unconscious somewhere," Nephthys concluded.
"Perhaps," Eggman said. "Well, prepare a search party to find him. I can't have my rivals dying on me outside of my timetable."
"Oh, before I forget, Doctor, speaking of Shadow, something happened shortly before you returned, and it needs to be brought to your attention."
"Should I be concerned?" Eggman asked.
Nephthys filled him in on what had happened on Mobius over the last month regarding the Metal Virus, keeping it brief yet including as many details as she could.
"If I recall correctly, that was one of the schemes you were considering shortly before Chaos Control happened," Nephthys added.
"It was," Eggman said. "But where's Starline? Is he still running loose somewhere?"
"No, Doctor," Nephthys responded in an even tone. "He was detained by GUN a few days ago, but we discovered your nephew was working closely with him, and he is still at large. We haven't been able to find him."
"What?!" Eggman exclaimed. "But that's impossible! Even I'm not crazy enough to go anywhere near the United Federation's max-security prisons. I would assume Starline broke him out, but…" Eggman gritted his teeth, before letting out a sigh. "You know what, I'm not going to take action against Snively. He may have disrupted my timetable, but my presence alone should convince him to not usurp my power. This isn't the post-Great War scenario again."
"Your judgment is supreme, Doctor," Nephthys responded. "Which is why I trust he'll be brought to his knees before you in due time."
Eggman nodded.
"He may be my nephew, but it's far too soon for him to inherit the Eggman Empire," he commented, leaning against the nearby table. He glanced up at the screen where he was designing blueprints for a new outpost, but he didn't take his attention off of Nephthys. "I don't care how competent he claims to be. It's not called the 'Snively Empire.'"
"I have another status report," Nephthys said. "The Crimson Egg is nearing completion according to your specifications."
"Excellent," Eggman said with a grin. "First thing tomorrow, I'm flying out to personally inspect it. And, once I am fully recovered from the side effects of Chaos Control, I will use it to unleash the full power of the Eggman Empire on Sonic the Hedgehog and the Kingdom of Acorn!"
He burst out into hearty laughter, his voice echoing through the corridors of his Imperial City outpost.
Green Hill Zone – Tue March 21 – Third-person POV
That night, there had been a big welcome-back party at Castle Acorn in the grand city of New Mobotropolis. Sonic and all his friends were there, and they reunited with Sally Acorn and her older brother, King Elias. They also got to meet the former Freedom Fighters for the first time in a while.
Vector had a tearful reunion of his own when he and the Chaotix met up with Mighty and Ray again. They had missed them so much, and Vector had no idea how much he had been holding back the whole time he was on Earth.
Everyone was chatting together, and they all had so much fun, even if the party was hastily prepared the moment King Elias received word of Sonic's return. Everyone who had been sent to Earth, as well as those who remained on Mobius, traded stories of what happened on Mobius in the past two months, and on Earth in the past two years.
All three of the full-time Chaotix members had no idea how they were back on Mobius. Vector had convinced himself (and inadvertently Charmy) that it was all a dream. The last thing they remembered was fighting Scarlet Garcia in Diamond Stadium's storage room during the Chaos Competition. Now they were back on Mobius. They were left without answers until Sonic explained the whole thing to them. When Tails saw that they were back to their normal Mobian selves, he felt great excitement and relief that his plan worked. It had been a long time since he had a serious time crunch like that.
Sonic had told Sally and Elias about how he met Chris Thorndyke, and how he and Tails were planning to build portals to connect the two worlds. Elias had said that Chris was more than welcome to visit the kingdom at any time, even though less than fifteen percent of New Mobotropolis' population consisted of humans.
In return, Sally informed Sonic and his friends about what had happened on Mobius while they were gone, and judging by the tone of Sally's voice, things had gotten rough. The Metal Virus that Starline and Snively had unleashed was almost completely successful in roboticizing the world, and even the doctors' best treatments and quarantine methods seemed to fail. However, Rotor Walrus and Dr. Horatio Quack worked together to come up with a cure. It was an antivirus that reverse-infected those who were previously infected. It had taken a few weeks, but the Metal Virus was nearly completely eradicated, and Dr. Starline was taken into custody by GUN.
Even though Sonic wasn't there, it was proof that his heroics were contagious, and his influence had spread across the entire world and inspired people to run on their own two feet and think fast in difficult situations.
However, after several hours of food, fun, and games, it was already time for the party to end, and everyone eventually went their own separate ways. Besides, Sally said she had some royal duties to attend to before the next morning regarding the aftermath of the Metal Virus.
After saying goodbye for now, Knuckles returned to Angel Island to look after the Master Emerald. The rest of his friends took the train back to their homes in Green Hill Zone, and after they said good night to each other, they all walked to their respective homes.
"Well, that was sure fun," Sonic said contentedly as he walked through the front door, hands behind his head in a relaxed pose. He was followed closely behind by Tails, who was unable to suppress a yawn.
"Mhmm," the fox said quietly. "It's good to finally be back home."
Sonic really missed being able to run around in Green Hill and other familiar lands, and even though he didn't say that out loud, Tails knew him well enough to know that fact. Likewise, Sonic knew that Tails missed the Mobian-sized living quarters, because everything felt a little too big back on Earth. Of course, Tails had mentioned that fact more than a few times back on Earth when he was working on his own. It was also nice that they no longer needed to crane their necks up to look at humans every single day for a year and a half.
"It was cool getting to see everyone again," Sonic said as he flopped onto the couch. "Checking out other planets is cool... but nothing beats home sweet home."
Tails nodded enthusiastically.
"I know we just got back," he said, "but I wonder if Chris is doing okay."
"Well, knowing him, he'll want to get a portal up and running ASAP so he can come visit," Sonic said. "He knows we'll see him again, that's for sure."
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that!" Tails said, getting excited. "I gotta get to work on my own portal!"
Sonic chuckled. "You can work on it tomorrow, bud," he gently said, before glancing up at the clock on the wall. "It's already– whoa, 11:00 already?"
Tails was not expecting it to be that late either.
"Yeah, it's been a super long day…" Tails said, trying to hold back another yawn. "I can still work on blueprints for a bit before bed. I'm already getting a bunch of ideas. The last portal I built, I'm 95% sure it would have gotten us here, but I made a fake Chaos Emerald to power it. This time, though, I wanna see if I can make one without using any Chaos Emeralds, in case we have to use the real ones for something else, and also, I'm pretty sure fake ones don't have infinite power."
"I'll be here to help with anything you need," Sonic promised.
"Thanks, Sonic," Tails said with a smile as he turned to the stairs. "I'm gonna get some sleep now. Good night!"
"Night, Tails!"
Sonic lay down on the couch, then reached for his blanket and pulled it over him. As always, tomorrow was a new day and a new adventure, and he was there for it every step of the way.
A/N: And that concludes part two of the epilogue!
I actually had a bit of trouble with worldbuilding on Mobius, specifically, determining locations! I wanted to establish several different places on the planet with my next big fanfic project after Chaos on Earth in mind. In this particular instance, I know that the Kingdom of Acorn is supposed to be located on Westside Island according to the Post-SGW timeline, but in my headcanon, New Mobotropolis (the center of the kingdom) is located on South Island, even though Westside Island is one of its subjects. Robotropolis is also located on South Island in a different part. My version of South Island is quite a large place, about half the size of Australia, and Green Hill Zone is about three hours by car from New Mobotropolis.
I could go on about my headcanon, but I'll take it one step at a time as I go through the story, and as always, feel free to ask me questions about it!
I honestly can't believe that the next chapter will be the final chapter of Chaos on Earth. It's been quite a ride, and I can't think you guys enough for sticking with me for this long. It's gonna be posted on either Thursday or Friday, and then the first chapter of the Metarex Saga will be posted on the first Thursday of November, but in the meantime, I'll be participating in Whumptober during the month of October!
Next time is the third and last part of the epilogue, where we check up on Chris and see how he's doing after Operation Endgame! Don't miss it!
