Disclaimer – I do not own any Sonic characters.

Sage, Orbot, and Cubot went to the tables, and Vanilla also went back, clearly very angry.

Jim was still shaken by what had just happened. "I'm… definitely glad he's gone now. I don't know why you would ever let someone like him join us, Fred…"

I knew that Jim was trying to blame me, so I quickly changed the subject. "So, thoughts on Cubot's new outfit?"

Jim almost called me out for it, but then realized that I would kick him out if he did that. Smart move.

Tails and Cream were very impressed by the new outfit. "Wow, it looks great on you!" "I really like it, Mr. Cubot!"

Vanilla, Sonic, and Blaze were having a different conversation. "I can't believe he would say such a terrible thing! So, how are we going to keep RD away from Cream?" "I'll use my superspeed to protect her! We can't let him do that to Cream, that's no good!" "Perhaps my fire abilities would come in handy. I'm not sure how, though."

That went on for quite a while. Eventually, Blaze realized that using some sort of fire shield could keep RD81 from getting to Cream.

Meanwhile, Jim had some questions for Sage. "Why did you come here? I thought you were working for Eggman."

"I became distraught by Father's treatment of the Flickies. It was only after seeing who he truly was that I realized I couldn't be truly a part of the Eggman Empire as Father had planned. So, while I continue to stay with him some of the time – he is my father, after all – I decided to help Sonic and join him as well. I quite enjoy these events, in fact. It is quite nice to get to know these people."

"Oh, I see. It must be hard to lead this… double life."

"No, Father is actually quite understanding. I believe he has "mellowed out", as they say, after the events on the Starfall Islands. He hasn't fought Sonic in quite a while, actually."

Then, yet another knock was heard at the door. It was Barry and Gadget.

"Oh, hello! Please, join us."

I knew who that was. ;) "So I see that Barry Benson is here. Why aren't you a bee anymore?"

"Oh, ha ha… close. My name is Barry the Quokka. Pleased to meet you!"

So, Barry Benson and Gadget joined us. Jim was somewhat confused.

"Wait, I thought Gadget was also the rookie that helped you during the war."

Sonic explained, "Oh, Sonic Forces didn't actually happen. There were some… creative liberties taken."

Jim now started conversing with Barry Benson. When will this end? "I know that you liked to check trash cans on the Mirage Express. After all of that, did you keep checking trash cans?"

"No, I realized that it maybe wasn't the best idea, ha ha… I remember that everyone made fun of me when I… told them… Besides, I don't really do detective stuff anymore."

"So, what do you do, then?"

"I just keep helping around the trains. I've never met someone nearly as famous again though… I'm glad I came here to meet everyone again!"

Someone was walking outside, hoping to be let in. It was someone unexpected. It was…

MARIA ROBOTNIK.

After hearing of this, Shadow went out to find out. When he saw who it was, his jaw started dropping uncontrollably. It went straight through the earth, out of the solar system, and started dropping so fast it tore a hole through space-time.

His jaw first went through Silver's future. Seeing this, Silver realized something was going on in the present and went there to investigate. Next, it went to Kirby's world. Upon seeing the rapidly-dropping jaw, Kirby's only response was, "Poyo?" Then, it went into the world of Teletubbies. Nobody there seemed to really care. Then, it went to the past. Classic Sonic noticed Shadow's jaw, and seemed somewhat confused. Classic Tails went over to cheer him up. And then, it went into my world. It entered and left so quickly that nobody noticed. Then, it went into Fortnite, and disrupted someone's #1 Victory Royale animation. Damn, that's rude… :( Then, Shadow's jaw reached the Skibidi Toilet universe. I'd rather not document any happenings there. Then, it went into Smash Bros and disrupted a fight between Sonic and Snake. "Sonic" spindashed into it, and Shadow's jaw zipped right back up to normal.

While Shadow was trying to process what had just happened, Silver showed up. Upon seeing that Maria was, in fact, alive, his jaw started dropping too. Silver's jaw then opened another hole in space-time, and went into Smash Bros immediately, disrupting the same fight between Sonic and Snake. "Sonic" spindashed into it, and Silver's jaw also returned to normal.

Suddenly... warping through space and time... Classic Sonic appears!

(Holy plot twists, Batman!)