Reactive Factory, Resort Island

Evening

"...What was supposed to be the happiest time of the year quickly turned into one of the most terrifying nightmares of the year instead when the newly built Reactive Factory on the eve of its grand opening suddenly became a site of disaster. That was just about fifteen minutes ago."

A local news reporter in damaged clothing is in the middle of doing his live report to the cameraman while the black smoke of Reactive Factory's remains in the distance are visible behind him and the mic picking up the sounds of sirens. Sweat running down the side of his face.

Pointing to the smoke behind him in the distance. "As you can see behind me, the fire services are still trying to put out the raging inferno. Even from this distance, I can still feel the intense heat from it. From what we can gather, it began when the grounds it was built on suddenly collapsed and that had caused the factory's power generator to explode. In addition, the crowd in attendance were attacked by both the floods and the debris that followed the formation of the faults formed in the earth."

A few yards from the reporter and his coverage stood a makeshift emergency site where a lot of people are being brought to when they are retrieved from the danger areas. Both alive and dead.

Sonic was no stranger to seeing the effects of a disaster site. Station Square during the Perfect Chaos Incident comes to mind yet even that pales to the sights he's seeing firsthand from this one. People with different degrees of burns and injuries being taken in, people missing some body parts being rushed off to receive urgent medical care and then there's the lifeless bodies being dragged in just to be stuffed into bags with some literally in pieces.

The casualties had died of various causes. People dying to the flood, people dying to the debris, people dying to the faults and the most tragic of the losses; people dying to a panicking crowd stampede. So far, they're up to 52 deaths and counting.

Sonic thought of the poor vixen child as among the lives lost. He clenched his gloved hands tightly. Trying to calm himself down but it's hard to calm down his whirlwind of emotions after what he had seen earlier. There's also this dull headache sensation he's been having lately that's not helping it either.

"I-I can't believe it…" Came the very distraught Boris Speechley, approaching Sonic with a paper in his hand. "This was t-to be o-our dream a-and it's gone!"

"I'm sure that you can start over and bring the dream to life ag—"

"We can't." Boris sadly shook his head. "This was our one chance to prove to the world we're not some footnote island but instead, this happens. All that work bringing ourselves back from our slums down the drain. We're not like Station Square where we have the funds to rebuild what was lost."

"You only lost a factory, not an entire city. What about the people affected here? What about them?"

"It's terrible what happened but—"

"But what exactly?" Sonic snapped his gaze at Boris and was uncharacteristically sharp with him. "It's not beneficial to you or your political career? If that's what you're getting at, go and resign from office then because the last thing these people need is a mayor who's a selfish one."

Like a fire on a dynamite's wick, Sonic had set a light on Boris' with his less than friendly attitude.

"You wait there just a damn minute you little blue punk!" Speechley's anger flares up at the hedgehog. "I have just seen one of my biggest investments go up in flames and you're standing there calling me selfish!? Me who has done so much for this whole island!?"

"You did so much alright… You "honestly" sold people houses before you decided that politics was a good venture to go into, you made certain troublesome people "disappear" and approved community projects when you're given a "nice slip" if you catch my drift."

"Those are such slanderous accusations coming from you!"

The heated commotion was attracting attention from other people around them.

"The saying "If the shoe fits, you wear it" is what the late Paine would say." Sonic retorted back, getting up in Boris' face. "And it's not slander to assume your administration is involved in some shady business given the funny business going on here like how you cover up people going missing or how you cover for that scumbag Mengele—"

"Tarek Mengele is a good man who did a lot for the island and I will not have you speaking ill of his name now when he's not here anymore!" Boris yelled in Sonic's face. More livid over the perceived disrespect towards a dead man's name.

Tarek Mengele is a good man? The same Tarek cutting open people and inserting implants against their will? In a better mood, it wouldn't bother Sonic as much but he already wasn't in a good mood as is and feeling a rush of negative emotions.

Then, he sees Boris suddenly being replaced with Slimy and seeing the interior of the manta ray ship; speaking in his weedy voice. "Tarek is a brilliant mind compared to simpletons like you!"

"He's nothing but a psychopath who dissects people for "science" in that underground lab under the factory and disposes of them like garbage whenever he's finished with them!" Sonic angrily yelled back at Slimy and grabbed him by the collar. "You're fine with his depravity as long as it benefits you! You had all those innocent people killed down there! You blackhearted scumbag!"

"We'll be heading on over to our new facility where our big experiment will be held and we only fed you that false info in case you try to pull a fast one or squeal on us." Slimy replied to a question that wasn't even asked. "Those stupid fools will be too busy cleaning up our mess to k—"

Sonic punches Slimy in the face and sends him to the floor. He'd then felt himself getting pulled off from him by both Knuckles and Shortfuse.

"Sonic, what's gotten into you!?" Knuckles questioned the hedgehog. The echidna held him back with Bunnie's help.

Sonic struggled against his friend's grip on him, wanting to get at Slimy. "That dirtbag over there is in league with Tarek!"

"Who, Boris?"

"Boris?"

Sonic blinked his eyes. Coming back to his senses, the smirking Slimy was replaced by a wide-eyed Boris with blood on the corner of his mouth being helped up to his feet by a shocked Sally Acorn and Bunnie.

Looking at him like he just had a freak out and that's exactly what had happened when he noticed other people nearby looked at him with mouths hanging agape.

"S-Sonic?" Sally asked cautiously. She couldn't believe what she just saw Sonic do.

"W-What happened?" Sonic looked around and saw other people close by looking at him with the same reaction. "What did I just do?"

"You seriously don't remember what you just did?" Knuckles said in disbelief. "You literally just assaulted Mayor Speechley in front of everyone and on camera no less."

"Camera?"

The echidna points over to a news crew with the news reporter and his cameraman at a loss for words. Only then did it dawn on Sonic on what he just did.

He just had an episode where he assaulted the Mayor of Radical City and they caught it on camera. While Slimy and them got away, he had unwittingly tarnished his team's good name to the whole of Resort Island with his outburst.


"...I don't know what exactly set off Sonic in that moment but after the assault and learning what we were up to, Speechley was less than pleased with us to put it very lightly. Blaming us for the factory's destruction and accusing us of accepting the invitation in bad faith. The civilians we had rescued were all quick to turn on us.

To them, it appeared like we had something to do with the disaster rather than the actions of Tarek and Slimy. To Mayor Speechley, it looked like Sonic was blaming a man who was conveniently killed in the explosion for what happened rather than owning up to it.

I-I think i-it's all my fault for letting those culprits get away from us and to add insult to injury, the location I got off from Jason isn't even a real place. Already on my first mission with them, I-I end up contributing to their bad reputation they now have with the people of Resort Island and no doubt the rest of the world.

The same people that used to adore us now want us off the island and go back to our country. If not for security being there to protect us, we'd have been lynched by the angry mob. Tails included.

Because of jurisdiction, Boris is not pressing any charges and other reasons too long to explain here. We're not held by the police and we're free to go since there's no conclusive evidence of our wrongdoings that could be located but there's also no evidence of our innocence either. Not after that secret lab facility is buried deep under the earth.

In the court of public opinion, we're all guilty in their eyes and Tarek Mengele died as a victim of our "recklessness"... Good going there Akira. You just had to put the life of a teammate before the mission and look where that got you. A big black stain on our name to show for it.

You brought shame to them all by letting those criminals get away and now they're paying the price for your own screw up. If only there is a way I can get a confession out of them to expose the true culprits responsible and clear their good name as well as redeeming your mistake...

End Log. Akira signing out."


December 3rd

Takeshi City Hotel, Resort Island

Early Morning

While they were finishing up packing their belongings, the TV was left running to provide some background noise.

Unfortunately, one of the channels ended up playing Informative Global News or I.G.N and the two news anchors were all over the incident with Sonic like flies to feces. Twisting it to their heart's content.

"...It's clear that we have just caught him letting the mask slip in that clip. When things don't go his way, he throws a fit like a child but what's new with the Blue Lawbreaker?"

The ever insufferably smug Adam Frosk was covering the incident with Sonic striking Boris Speechley in the face and reveling in making the blue hedgehog look like a poor role model. "I think Sonic was never actually good to begin with and that proves without a doubt that he is not somebody our children should be looking up to or be taking after. They would think it is cool to punch a public official in the face because their hero is seen doing it. He sets a bad example to the youth."

"Considering that his arch-nemesis Eggman had instigated the recent global conflict and how his group seems a little lacking in diversity, I believe there might be an unfortunate message being broadcast here with that assault..." The equally insufferable Anita Mercante employed weasel-speak to insinuate a racial angle from the assault. "Men like him have this male ego problem and if he didn't have this need to stroke his big ego, I reckon he'd just be some nobody who'd be charged with antisocial behavior."

She snidely adds; "He probably needs people like Eggman around for him to be the hero while his peers help indulge in his male power fantasy and make him feel like he's someone actually important. If he's such a "hero", why's he not doing something about the gender wage gap and other real social issues effecting regular people?"

Bunnie would change the channel after hearing enough of I.G.N's rhetoric. Always looking for a way to paint Sonic and them as the real contributors of society's problems.

With that news clip of Sonic quickly circulating, both Adam and Anita are having a grand time in twisting the incident into something more indicative of Sonic's falsehood than what it really is as if he already doesn't feel ashamed over his outburst.

She looked over to Sally who was busy trying to talk things out with Mayor Speechley on the phone but the man proved very belligerent and still salty over the events of yesterday. Seeing the royal chipmunk trying to keep her cool while reasoning with him.

"...We invited you and Sonic over because we thought it'd be a goodwill gesture but I was mistaken. All that you've brought me since coming here is disaster and a good friend of mine is now dead. Right when he's going to resign from his duties after the factory opens. I never got to truly thank him for what he's done to me."

Sally knows that Boris was used as a patsy for Tarek's shady activities and not knowing what he was actually up to but his unwillingness to hear her out wore on her patience with him. "I understand you're still taking his death pretty hard and no doubt you thought the world of him but it doesn't clear him of the suspicions we have about him. He might not have been the upstand—"

"Just like him, you're making out my deceased friend as some monster in the same vein as Robotnik yet you have nothing to back it up and the proof of his crimes are conveniently destroyed in the explosion. That he's responsible for all of those abductions and what have you." The Mayor said pointedly on the line. "Listen here Princess Acorn, I may not be the cleanest guy around but I expected better from you and your people than to make baseless accusations like that. He did more for this island than any of you ever did. What have your people ever done for us when we were all in the slumps?"

He'd hang up after that without giving her a chance to respond. Sally took a deep breath and slowly exhaled that same breath.

"I have severely underestimated how deep Tarek has his claws in that man…" She massaged her forehead with a big sigh, doing everything she can to not erupt in frustrated anger. "And a real fool for playing right into his hand."

"Come on, we were all made fools of by that bad man." Manic walked into the living room with his bag packed and ready to go. "We all assumed that schmoe Boris or Slimy were the ones calling the shots and he was just some weird eccentric dude."

"Should have known something was up when someone who's supposedly reclusive makes himself present for that opening and all we did is give him a fantastic way to make his exit while we end up with the blame. Who'd even look for a bullet in a bomb blast?"

"If our track record is anything to go by, we'll get 'em eventually. Just takes a little time. What with looking for a location and all."

"I hope you're right because this one isn't doing us any favors as long as the error stands." Sally thought of Sonic and Gadget when saying those words. Two names that instantly came to mind.

One left affected by the loss of lives and with mud on his name because of it. One left feeling awful and like he had made the worst first impression in the history of bad first impressions.


When they left the hotel and got escorted over to the airfield, crowds of unfriendly people were yelling all sorts obscenities at them while some threw trash at the visitors to express their utter disdain for the group. Vastly outnumbering the people who believe they are being scapegoated by the administration to avoid taking actual responsibility for the disaster thanks to I.G.N.

Sonic received the most vitriol from them with signs either calling him the Blue Homewrecker or something far more vulgar to where Bunnie had to shield Tails' eyes from because they're that offensive. Even sighting a few of his plushies tied to sticks being set on fire as an effigy to him.

He has become a pariah to the people of Resort Island with the adoration from before the explosion now turned to hated. Praise turned to condemnation and acceptance turned to rejection. Most of them don't want him around anymore.

They now all look at him in the same light as Julian Robotnik with how strongly they feel about him.


Central Freedom HQ, New Mobotropolis

Lunchtime

"Amamiya? Amamiya?"

Gadget slowly looks from his coding work in the workshop to face a concerned Nicole with a tired gaze.

"Is there something you need Nicole?"

"There is." The holo-lynx nodded. "You've been cooped up in here for a few hours now. Something on your mind?"

"No… There's nothing…" The wolf averts his gaze to look back at his wall of text codes. "I need to make further modifications to Whirlwind's computer software for improved optimization. Thank you for asking."

"Manic has told me you have been quiet all morning. Barely spoke with the others the whole time you were packing up and on the return flight to home." Nicole shook her head. "Pardon my bluntness but I think you're trying to avoid talking about it."

"What if I am? What of it?" Gadget responded neutrally to her. "It's my first field mission with you guys. I had them on the ropes but I let them go because I decided Miraju's life mattered more than apprehending the bad guys and I am now the wolf who single handedly tanked your team's reputation thanks to it. I jinxed you all..."

"Mistakes happen."

"There's mistakes and then there's screwing up royally. You guys have made mistakes but how many of you did it on your first mission?"

"It's no good beating yourself up over it. What's happened has happened and you have to live with it."

"Easy to say that when you're not there for it." Gadget dips his head. "I blew it and there's no two ways about it."

"I do not have to be there to know that you are taking it hard. It is not a mistake to choose the life of a teammate over the prize despite what the outcome might tell you after the fact." Nicole puts a gentle hand on his shoulder to turn him around and lift his chin to have him look at her; see the holo-lynx's beautiful eyes. "It's the mark of someone who'll prioritize the results but not at the expense of lives. We had some candidates who seemed promising but they showed how much they valued the ends over other people's wellbeing and that didn't sit well with us."

Pointing a finger at him for emphasis. "You on the other hand thought of your teammate's life above the end goal even if it was at the expense of the mission and that speaks volumes of your character. As long as you're willing to right your wrong about letting those people get away, there's still hope for you yet."

"You… You think so?"

"Yes. I think you can do it and when you do, this failure as you call it will be a footnote on your resume." Nicole smiled sweetly. So radiant that it washes away all negative emotions within its vicinity.

With those words and that smile, Gadget felt some weight lifted off his shoulders but not entirely. "...I take it you're speaking from personal experience?"

"I've been in the same rut as you were when people were rejecting me and letting that get to me. The worst will pass before it gets better as a friend of mine once said."

"That proves it."

"What proves it?"

"That you're as alive as we are. More than most people are." Gadget bashfully averts his gaze from her and cringing at his own response. Not believing he just said that.

The holo-lynx on the other hand giggled goodheartedly and took his compliment in stride. "That's so nice of you to say. Thank you."

Nodding his head and turning his face further away from Nicole some more when his cheeks felt warm. "Y-You're welcome."

"I'll leave you to your work. Matane Amamiya-san."

Nicole would dematerialise from the workshop and off somewhere that requires her attention. Gadget left taken aback by her suddenly using an honorific. Once the surprise wore off, he went back to working on the software for the Whirlwind S7 in the meantime with renewed enthusiasm.


At the base's main laboratory, Tails and Rotor were giving their report to Sally on what they could discern from Kirk's scientific notes. Although they came out empty-handed from Tarek's underground laboratory, Miraju's pictures from his spy camera managed to survive despite everything and were able to be studied even if it's an incomplete set of notes.

Johnny's team on top of searching for the now-deceased inside man had also interviewed other members of the stolen project but none of them could shed any more light on the case than what they already know.

"Assuming the papers Miraju didn't get to photograph from the briefcase contain the missing pieces to the formula, the math on this just simply isn't adding up." Rotor explained to Sally. "We tried different calculations and none of them can even produce the results to make cold fusion scientifically possible just shy of actually violating the scientific laws of our universe."

"We had the Kintobor Computer run simulations based on those notes and he couldn't figure out how Doctor Kirk had managed to crack the code on how to generate cold fusion the way he did." He showed Sally the result papers from the simulations which all came out negative or inconclusive.

If the Kintobor Computer gifted with the late Ovi Kintobor's incredible intelligence couldn't figure it out, then that brought her towards a new line of thinking.

Sally mulled over what she's been told and a new question on her mind. "If Kirk's own notes alone doesn't give us the means to create cold fusion, then how did he find a way to make it a reality? Would the power of the Chaos Emeralds be enough to kick start one?"

"Maybe but there's risks involved when trying to harness them for scientific purposes and if they were used, our trackers would have been able to track that container with ease." Tails held his chin and used the old noodle in his skull to think of a rational explanation for the abnormalities. "If I had to hazard a guess; those notes were once actual papers Kirk was using to figure out the solution to the problem and found one through other means. Discover an unknown source that can actually generate a cold fusion."

"Or perhaps the notes are simply a cover." Rotor theorised, having suspected it for a while but had no info to go off on. "The murder of James Kirk is a curveball they used to throw us off from what we should have been looking at. Make us assume it was because he'd have the knowledge on how to take it out."

Piecing together from the two's ruminations, a picture comes into focus for Sally Acorn.

Doctor Kirk must have found something so incredible that he realized the potential destructive power behind it to keep the method behind his breakthrough a secret from others and the notes are just breadcrumbs leading to dead-ends. Given that Slimy Wormtongue would possess some knowledge of the project himself, the fact Kirk was bringing over his briefcase full of notes on the day of the fateful heist and the improbable science behind cold fusion itself, that led Sally to one conclusion.

What's in the notes doesn't matter as much as what's not on them. The stolen cold fusion energy is merely a free bonus. He had found something that helped circumvent the cold fusion problem entirely and it's not with a Chaos Emerald but that just raises one important question; what exactly did he circumvent the problem with?

"Is it possible to identify what Kirk had used to generate a cold fusion?" She'd asked the brainy pair. Rotor shaking his head.

"Unless we have more clues to work with, it could be anything and the other members of the project don't know how Kirk did it because he never told them anything. We'd have to find where our thieves went off to and have a look. Problem is that we don't know what or where the new location is and neither did Jason when he fessed up."

"Just what we need. More questions..."

Sally was as fed up with the mystery as they were and the negative press from yesterday's incident isn't helping their moods either.

While it wasn't as bad as the reactions on Resort Island, a handful of people in New Mobotropolis aren't too pleased with them right now thanks to I.G.N's own smear job. Just this morning when Rotor went to a deli bar to get a sandwich, the reception he got from both the staff and customers there was an icy one.

Enough to where they deliberately marked up the price of his order.

"Tails? How's your Mecha Sonic theory going?" Sally asked the fox. Knowing he's been working hard on it and wanting to see what he can come up with.

"To keep it brief; this Mecha Sonic is not a refurbished or rebuilt Metallix model. That I am certain of." Rubbing the back of his neck with an uneasy expression. "This might actually be the original model that Sonic got turned into in 3235."

A chill rang through her body at that revelation; memories of the Mecha Sonic Incident came flooding back to her as memories of Mecha Sally. "...What led you to that conclusion?"

"When Sonic explained why he had attacked Boris and described his version of events, it sounded like he might have experienced some form of psychic link with his own twin likely due to the fact they share the same brain patterns of sorts I assume." Tails sighed through his teeth, aware of how his explanation sounds. "I… I know it sounds far-fetched but he did say he was seeing Slimy rather than Boris when he threw his punch."

"I'd normally be skeptical about something like this but from how vivid and detailed his account is plus the strangeness we're dealing with here, I'm willing to believe he really did have a mindlink with Mecha…" Sally wondered what had they gotten themselves into this time. "I wouldn't put it past Julian to have somehow saved a copy of his program on top of taking his schematics and was simply left forgotten for years until now."

"Not the first time a dead Robotnik's creation came back to cause problems for the present." Rotor humorlessly remarks.

"Except Gerald's made with good intentions while this one isn't. Just one blue piece of a jigsaw puzzle we're all trying to figure out on top of everything else."


The Robotropolis Ruins, Northamer

Afternoon

He wanted to be alone. To be away from everybody and self-reflect.

Sonic silently stared out at the contaminated ruins of the original Mobotropolis first founded by King Alexander Acorn and a relic of the First Robotnik War.

If not for the green shield covering the destroyed city and the radiation present, he'd have taken a wander through the abandoned metropolis. The site of his battle as Mecha Sonic against a roboticized Knuckles four years ago.

The blue hedgehog remembers exactly how it went.

A very harrowing experience of him feeling helpless within his own physical cage while a malevolent program mimicked his own personality was in control and using his body to harm his friends. A program that now exists independently from him. His own shadow given a steely face.

The only moment in his whole life where he told the friends to let him die out of guilt for the acts of harm the dominating software had committed. The incident that almost ruined him as he was charged with treason in the aftermath until he cleared his name when he brought in the culprit responsible for causing the mess. One of the most emotionally draining cases of him being framed for a crime bar none.

Unlike the Space Colony ARK where some good did come out of it with Shadow one of them, this one had no net positive for anyone involved except the Robotniks. Able to gain invaluable data from him to bring forth technological leaps with the Metallix Series including the upgrades to the Metal Sonics.

It was a situation that all began where he originally suggested the idea to roboticize himself with a chip to retain his freewill as a means to end the First Robotnik War much sooner than it eventually did. Something Sally and others soundly and rightfully rejected.

He has always viewed his own mecha madness as a punishment for trying to use Julian's own tech to defeat him in his severe act of hubris and creations such as the Silver Sonics serving as constant reminders in not letting ego or conceit overrule his better judgment. A lesson lived and learned.

"Figured you'd be here."

Knuckles. What does he want from him now?

The echidna came up to Sonic's left and glanced at the city ruins behind the green shield. "A blast from the past."

"You can say that one again." Sonic snarkily replied, not taking his eyes off the destroyed city. "Thought you'd be on your way home to Angel Island."

"That's what I would be doing but something recently caught my eye and I want to go investigate it."

"Then I won't keep you waiting from doing that."

"Alright." Knuckles crossed his arms and cut to the chase. "What's been going on with you lately? And don't say it's nothing because I'm not buying it."

Sonic scoffed at his echidna. "Blunt as always, huh?"

"Sonic…"

"I'm fine in case you're wondering Knux. Had a rough day yesterday and had a weird episode. Just another real woozy day in the office." Sonic replied in a clipped manner unlike him, clearly not in the form for that type of enquiry. "So what if I punched that guy in the face? He was more upset about losing the factory than the lives lost. Guy was asking for it."

"You punched him in front of the cameras and you have people saying you're setting a bad example or that you're out of control."

"So what? I have a complicated relationship with authority and I never cared what others thought of me."

"Except it's not just you who's getting negative press this time."

"...I'll give you that one. I do feel real bad for doing that to you guys."

"Eh. I never cared about what society thinks of me as but I know that for others, it's a problem when they're being given the cold shoulder treatment because of one fiasco."

"It's no fiasco Knuckles. Fiasco implies it's an accident but you know it was no accident. It was deliberate and we walked right into their trap."

"I've known you for years and what you said sounds wrong coming from you."

"Then enlighten me on why."

Sonic's rather curt response caught Knuckles for a loop there. "You're not usually one for taking things personally. There's being furious at someone for doing bad things and then there's that. Don't think I didn't notice the way you were acting back there."

"What about it? He and his pal Tarek burned their captives to death."

"I understand but when you were having your episode with Boris, there was that look in your eyes I haven't seen since Mecha Sally was no more. You were livid beyond reason."

"We all have those moments and you're one to be talking about being livid."

"Difference is that you're not known for exploding with anger. Short-tempered maybe but not to the point of decking someone in the face." Knuckles calmly countered his statement. "What happened is horrific. What is worrying is your reaction to it. When you raced into that bay, you were there to lay the hurt on Slimy and them if Mecha Sonic wasn't there. I think it's only a symptom of something that's been building inside of you for some time."

Sonic let off a harsh laugh. "Since when did you become my psychiatri—"

"Did you choose to punch Boris because he defended Tarek and seeing Slimy in your vision is only one part of it or is it the fact that Tarek wasn't there to eat your knuckle sandwich and it's infuriating to you?" Knuckles asked that piercing question. The shift in Sonic's posture gave away what he was thinking.

"...What he did is monstrously evil. He was having people of all ages abducted, cutting them open, experimenting on them and turning them into whatever he decides they should be. You saw his handiwork." Sonic closes his eyes and breathes through his nose. "Maybe it was Slimy's idea or his' but he had those cells built to burn those people to death to do away with his potential witnesses in case he got caught. All one hundred and twenty-one of them in one go. The additional body count from the explosion is just the cherry on top for him."

"That is bad but—"

"But what? We know what he's capable of and as long as he's still at large, no one will be safe."

"We don't know that."

"Oh come on Knuckles!" Sonic unexpectedly raised his voice. "You seriously think a guy who orchestrated the whole theft and running an Orwellian environment wouldn't have an exit plan ready? He's not a moron. He knew it was time to leave and Slimy is more than happy to assist. We can't let them get away with it. They must pay for what they've done."

Knuckles stared at him in wide-eyed startlement, not believing what his own ears were hearing just now. "Sonic… What's happening to you?"

"Doing what needs to be done. The world's a different place now and it's going somewhere I can't follow."

"Sounds more like you're obsessed with Tarek because he got away."

"Rich coming from you."

"You're as obsessed with him as Eggman is obsessed with you and I don't like it."

"IT'S NOT AN OBSESSION!" Sonic yelled at the echidna. "Slimy Wormtongue is dangerous but Tarek Mengele is more so because to him, the world is a cold and unforgiving place. That type of philosophy he likes to espouse and a stolen science project in his possession, that's a very dangerous combination. That is a person who wouldn't hesitate to do far worse things to other people."

"We don't know what his motives are or what he actually needs the project for."

"It's plain as day Knucklehead. He's a mad man and madmen have mad goals. For Eggman, it's the search for the ultimate power to rule over all. For him, it's the ultimate cleansing in the name of purification or whatever it is that loony seems to fancy. Stopping him at all costs is our priority even if we have to end him permanently should he be unwilling to come quietly."

Knuckles questioned him seriously. "Even if it means sacrificing your friends in order to put a stop to him? Listen to yourself and think what you're saying sounds like to everyone else."

Sonic stopped and mulled over the echidna's words. He has a point there.

"...Things change. Those six months changed everything. We've all changed." Sonic neutrally responded to him; looking back at the green shield. "When the world has changed, either you get with the times or you're the one getting left behind. I let the mess with Eggman get that out of hand and look where that got us."

"What ever happened to believing there's good in everyone?"

"Heh. I think young me has never met a guy like Tarek when he said those words and forgets that people like Julian exist. As long as he remains a free jackal, his victims will never be able to rest in peace."

Knuckles assured his ex-rival, sharing the hedgehog's conviction on capturing their elusive villain. "We'll get him. Just don't be in a hurry about it."

'Like how for six whole months, you and all of the others weren't in any hurry to look for me sooner while I was being tortured in the meantime after everything I have done for all of you guys? Only coming in to rescue me when you all needed my help to win the war…' The bitter and resentful voice inside Sonic's head spoke with such acidity behind the words while outwardly, he smiled and hummed in agreement. "Yeah. It's only a matter of time. We'll make it the worst Christmas of his life if we're lucky enou—AGH!"

Knuckles caught Sonic as the hedgehog clutched his head when an ache rang through the skull. That's what everyone else would see. From Sonic's point of view, he's seeing what looks to be some sort of laboratory that he doesn't recognise.

Sapphire in color, fitted with newer lab equipment on top of equipment that were brought over from the other lab and spacious in room size. He's seeing through Mecha Sonic's optics. He finds it surreal and fascinating seeing the world through a machine's perspective as it is disorienting with the way the link seems to work.

Across from him stood Slimy with his back turned and speaking to one of the lab assistants about something. Able to move his head and the zoom function of the camera optics to see more than what he could from the last mindlink; he took a scan of the mysterious laboratory he's in. Finding himself inside a booth where his twin would go to rest.

How is he even seeing any of this?


The lab assistant notices my movements, pointing at me. "Sir, the Mecha Sonic's online!"

Slimy turned around to face me with a confused look, going up to my booth and checking a panel that I couldn't see. "Mecha? Why are you online? Your services aren't being called for right now."

"I… I…" I drawled and heard my own voice coming out electronically, eyeing the green reptile in the white lab coat. "I do not know…"

If I'm really seeing what Mecha Sonic is seeing, then the green creep is expecting me to be behaving as him. Maybe I can get gather intelligence from her—

"Then return to your status mode at once." Slimy said to me sternly. Looking at me as though I'm a child who should be in bed at nine rather than be up playing some video games late in the night.

He turned around and started walking the other way when I spoke up again. "I… I want to ask you a question..."

The cousin of Grimer stops and turns around to face me with a tired face. "Fine. What is it you want to ask? And make it quick because I have work to do."

"How… Did I come to be?" I'd ask. I see Slimy raising a brow at that one.

"You don't know that?"

Disguising my inquiry for curiosity. "I do not know how I came to be from your point of view."

"...Hmph. Very well." The whisker one relented and crossed his arms; ready to spill me the deeds. "I did not create nor had any hand in coding your software originally. I had purchased an old data disk retrieved from Robotropolis belonging to the late and great Doctor Julian Robotnik on the black market where I happened to come across your program among the files."

"Files?" I pressed for further details.

"Yes. For a while, I had no clue what you were or what you belonged to until I was able to figure out what you are by looking through your metadata." He explained to me, gesturing to his lab assistant to go tend to his job elsewhere. "You are actually a backup copy created from a Roboticizer's Brain-Burn-Thru software that the almighty Julian had used to roboticized Sonic into the Mecha Sonic. The father of the modern Metallix Series."

That explains it without a shadow of a doubt and the knowledge left me feeling very uneasy knowing an electronic copy of my soul was just sitting around somewhere on some old disk found on the black market. Knowing that made me feel violated in ways words can't even describe and I can now properly sympathize on how Shadow feels when he sees those androids wearing his face. It's super messed up.

"As for your body, your program came with the design specs for it but it was a long time before I could build you one and had to keep your existence a secret from my handlers at G.U.N when I was captured by them..." His face twists into a snarling grimace when mentioning that to me. "Forced to work for them under their supervision and hating every second of it!"

He would take a breather and the mouth quirks up in a lopsided grin similarly to the way his cousin does it. "Fortunately, the ever generous and brilliant Doctor Mengele had offered me salvation from my oppressive gaolers. His great mind has helped make your rebirth possible. Give me a chance to prove myself."

Before I could ask why Mecha Sonic wore the look I had when I got roboticized, both Slimy and the place both suddenly dissolved from sight.


"Wha—what happened?" Sonic looked up to Knuckles all confused. Finding himself under one of the gliding echidna's arms rather than at the outskirts of the destroyed Mobotropolis.

"That's what I was going to ask you the same thing. You were having some kind of headache and then you zoned out on me for a few minutes."

"I think I just had another mindlink with Mecha Sonic and was able to chat to Grimer Wormtongue-At-Home for a bit this time at some lab."

"Well?"

"It's the same one you fought four years ago. Looks like Ol' Robuttnik made a copy of my program alongside my data and Whiskers got ahold of it from the black market."

Knuckles blinked in astonishment at the revelation, bringing both of them back down to the ground. "I didn't think it was possible for him to do that."

"Apparently that's the case."

"Did you get a location out of it?"

"The link ended before I even got to ask him that." Sonic touched ground again. "The next time it happens, I'll be sure to learn it and get used to the idea of actually seeing myself in second person if we ever have another rematch."

A thought occurred to Knuckles. "If you can see what he sees, wouldn't he also see what you can see? And he can control your body? Know what you know?"

"Assuming it's even a two-way street, I don't think we're in danger of him hijacking me anytime soon."

"I don't know. You hopping between bodies is already strange as it is."

"Coming from someone who's been to the afterlife and back? That's really something." Sonic remarked with a toothy grin. "And 'sides, we could use this to our advantage."

"If you can even control it."

"Please, I'm a hedgehog of miracles and I have you guys to help me pull off those miracles." Sonic winked with a smile; more resembling the Sonic that doesn't let a bad stumble get in his way. Just convincing enough to hide his own realization that a malignant program would have backdoor access to his head if it ever figured out what's going on.

"Whatever you say." Knuckles shrugs his shoulders as the pair walk together on the way back to New Mobotropolis. "So, what were you doing back there?"

"Catching up on old times. Remembering where we were years ago."

"You're thinking of him. Mecha Sonic."

"How can I not be thinking of him? He not only looks like me four years ago but even acts like me except much meaner. It's a whole different ball park from dealing with Metal Sonic."

"It's because he's not you but Mecha is. It was he who almost wiped out Knothole Village and humiliated you in the time he was around. You could never forget something like that."

"I know that he's a ghost from my own past. A chance for me to right a wrong from four years ago."

"You talk as if we still condemn you for what you did to us as Mecha Sonic."

"Everyone's got their demons. Mine just happens to be made of metal, circuitry, copper wiring and silicon..."


Author's Notes: Some questions have been answered and new questions have arisen.

Mostly dealing with the aftermath and the fallout of the disaster, we close up our time on Resort Island to begin the next part of the adventure. The seeds have been planted for the second act.

Originally, the mindlink between Sonic and Mecha Sonic was not an element I had planned to include in the story but remembering how Sonic The Hedgehog OVA handled the mindlink concept between Sonic and Hyper Metal Sonic; I realized there's some narrative potential behind it for this one. Add another layer to the rivalry and a handy narrative tool to boot.

Where is Slimy and the rest of them at? What are they up to? Will Sonic and his friends be able to salvage their good name after such a disastrous mission?

Keep on reading to find out. Leave your thoughts on this chapter in the reviews and let me know what you think.

Remember. If I.G.N says Team Dark aren't friends, it's probably as true as Mephiles telling you that Hulk Hogan really was considered for Metallica at one point. That's our PSA for the day and I'll see you all another time.