SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: VELOCITY'S END

A fanfiction by Mythick Voices

Introduction (& about the story)

Timeline-wise, this story takes place shortly after Operation: Clean Sweep, wherein Dr. Eggman tried to counter the chaos factor of Sonic, altering space-time with the Genesis Wave. This event serves as the "flashpoint" from which the alternate reality of this story stems. Ultimately, Eggman fails to complete the Death Egg Mark 2 roboticization of Mobius Prime. The unstable new reality results in several dimensional shifts that ripple out across the universe. Key differences affect the membership of both the Suppression Squad and the Knothole Freedom Fighters, as well as the situation along the Black Arms/Zorda battlefront. This story is meant to be a sprawling, Avengers-level take on the Sonic multiverse and franchise, featuring a huge cast of characters from the games, comics, and TV series.

PROLOG

The sky above the Grand Forest was a vibrant wash of pastel blues and vivid purples. It looked like the freshly-painted mural of a delphinium garden still moist with oil. Beneath it, a gloriously green weald of ancient oaks and stately firs creaked gently in a crisp and vernal breeze. Erupting from within the sea of green, a glistening monolith of steel and glass, Dr. Ivo Kintobor's tower, scraped the sky. In its shadow was a meticulously well-manicured clearing, complete with carved stone benches and central fountain. Altogether, it was a utopian image of peace, tranquility, and harmony with nature.

A harmony disrupted when a large, dark shadow fell across the woods closest to the tower. Birds abandoned their perches on nearby branches. The local anti-mobian wildlife bounded away into the darkness of thickets, suddenly startled and afraid. Blue sky turned a menacing shade of yellow-green as thick, dark storm clouds gathered. Mobians below looked skyward, many trying to hold onto their bags, supplies, or garments of clothing as a strong wind blasted down out of the heavens. A loud, reverberating, robotic noise blared deep and long, and with it, the thunderclouds were split. From within the heart of the storm, a gigantic black airship emerged, multiple engines blazing with emerald fire. It positioned itself directly above Kintobor's tower. Then it charged the weapon.

Inside the tower, Ivo Kintobor tried frantically to absorb all of the data readouts on the monitors in front of him. His supercomputer, nicknamed Kintorin, informed him it could not accurately identify the ship now parked directly above his clinic, but detected a substantial buildup of energy, recommending the immediate activation of Kintobellum protocols. Like many survivors of the Genesis Wave, Kintobor was already on-edge, distrustful of what seemed a rare interval of peace. Fearing both the imminent return of old enemies as well as catastrophic planetary events occurring in the aftermath of a doomsday event, he would not take any chances. He activated the protocols, and within the span of a few seconds, commands were issued to all the tower's Sweep-bots, putting them into combat patrol mode.

The airship completed powering its weapon, and fired. For a moment or two, there was dead silence. Not even wind dared whisper through the grass. Next, a brilliant flash of bright green light arced down from a singular point in the airship and struck the tower, resulting in an explosion of crackling green lightning and ungrounded sparks. In that moment, the protective energy shield charged with defending the tower from the Suppression Squad sputtered and dissipated.

At this point, Dr. Kintobor's AI begged him to flee, repeatedly arguing that a successful tower defense against a superior and unknown opponent was a probabilistically nonexistent outcome. Bitter at having to flee his tower, Ivo finally relented, but just as he was about to flee, the two Globe Posts in the doctor's personal command center whirred to life, controlled by a force unseen. Kintobor gasped so loudly it could be heard above the wailing emergency klaxon. Then a portal opened, its perimeter a chaotic band of electric-gold blazing light, within which fluctuated a vortex of multi-dimensional color.

Ivo stared at the portal helplessly, begging his computer to shutdown all power systems to the tower. Because of the airship's energy beam, Kintorin was unable to reply. But it was too late. From out of the portal stepped a lemon-furred mobian fox, adorned in shiny ketchup-red jacket and spiked wristbands. His red boots squeaked when they made contact with the polished tile of the tower floor. The fox chuckled before looking up at Kintobor with a fiendish glimmer in his eye.

"I'd forgotten how clean you keep this place, professor," said Miles Prower, leader of the Suppression Squad. "It's been a while."

CHAPTER 1

According to mobians, "everybody lost something during The Wave". Though Sonic and Mega Man had jointly managed to infiltrate the Wave and reverse its effects with Chaotic Control, the influence of Eggman combined with the rebalancing forces of the universe resulted in a ripple effect that was still very much ongoing. If watching his multiverse collapse around him hadn't been difficult enough, the loss of Sally Acorn, Antoine and Bunnie D'Coolette had wounded Sonic deeply, to the extent that the heroic blue hedgehog became solemn and withdrawn in the days that followed. Then, when the decision was reached to disband the Knothole Freedom Fighters, it was the final nail in the speedster's emotional coffin. One day, he just laced up his red and white running shoes, and sped off without a word.

This left Tails and Amy Rose to reckon with what pieces remained of the shattered alliance of heroes. Following the universal reset, a burgeoning political situation had erupted, centered around the former Acorn court wizard, Ixis Naugus. During this time, Tails attempted to reach out across the cosmos and see which heroes still remained after the Wave while Amy attempted to track down Sonic's whereabouts.

Eventually, after following a trail of rumors and sightings for several days, Amy successfully tracked the speedster down to Feral Forest, where he had reportedly been in deep meditation by a waterfall without moving since his arrival. When the pink hedgehog found Sonic, she straightened out her red dress and ran her fingers through her hair, a habit acquired over years of quietly nursing a crush for the blue-quilled mobian. Even now, having aged herself forward with the Ring of Acorns, she still felt insecure and unworthy around Sonic. Always hoping to win over his affections, she'd studied his character, habits, and personality closely over the years, and now felt that, of his remaining allies, it was she who knew him best.

"Amy," Sonic said, eyes still closed where he sat upon a large stone in front of the waterfall. "I'm surprised."

Rose drew a sharp breath inward despite herself, cheeks pinkening slightly. "U-uh, surprised? That I came to find you?"

Sonic let out a slow, measured, breath, rose to his feet, turned, and opened his eyes. "I thought it'd be Miles," he admitted.

"Well… um… nope. It's me."

"You shouldn't have come…"

"Listen, Sonic…"

The blue hedgehog hopped off the stone upon which he'd been sitting moments before, walked several paces to the left across the grass, then knelt to admire a bushel of white-pink snapdragons that had blossomed there. "You know, I've been thinking," Sonic began. "All of this… all that's happened… all we've lost… it always starts with the Chaos Emeralds."

Amy released her grip on the haft of her hammer, allowing it to fall into the grass. "Yeah. I mean, that's usually the gist of it all."

"Ok, but why do they exist, Amy, if all they ever do is create conflict, war, and death for Mobius? Who created them, and for what purpose?"

The other hedgehog wondered for a minute. "But Sonic, the Chaos Emeralds help us too, don't they? Without them, you wouldn't have defeated the Universalamander. You saved Mobius from the ARK and Finalhazard using the Emeralds. It seems to me they exist to protect as much as they exist to destroy."

Sonic stopped admiring the flower, stood up, then looked at Amy with a grim expression. He tapped one red shoe upon the soil beneath his foot. For a second, Rose thought he might speed off again, leaving her in the literal dust of the forest. Instead, he said, "We use them to protect mobians, sure, but I wonder… what if it's the Emeralds that lure evil to them. I mean, if we heroes—and the instruments of our power—don't exist, then maybe the "anti" versions of ourselves cease to exist too. Balance."

Amy took a deep breath, and approached Sonic. He stood motionless until she was directly in front of him, then he put his hands on his hips. In days past, the difference in height between them had necessitated he look down upon her like a child. But now, there was scarcely more than a few inches between them. She reached out and took his right hand in her left. "I think evil is always gonna exist in a chaotic universe, Sonic. I think the reason we exist is to make sure that chaos doesn't get… well… too chaotic." She offered a sweet, reassuring smile. "That's what we stand for. That's what we fight for. For freedom. Freedom from a world ruined by chaotic forces."

"We're disbanded, Amy," Sonic countered, taking his hand back and crossing his arms across his chest. "Anyway, I've got to look for a way to revert Sally back to her original form. I can't give up on her, Amy. I can't."

"I understand," Rose replied, "but right now, we've got other serious concerns. Naugus is consolidating power back in Mobotropolis, and—"

"Amy," interrupted the blue mobian. "I appreciate you lugging your hammer all the way out here, but there's nothing I can do. The Emeralds were scattered after the Super Genesis Wave to who knows where."

"Tails and I have been working on that," the pink hedgehog chittered quickly. "He's been reaching out to all the heroes and alliances, and we're forming a new coalition to track them all back down again and—"

"Yeah, that all sounds great, it really does, but you don't need me. Not at least until I can become Super Sonic again. Right now, in my current state… it's just best you let me do what I'm doing."

"Which is exactly what?" Amy shot back, starting to grow cross with her crush. "Napping in front of waterfalls and petting flowers?"

"Like I said," Sonic repeated himself, "I'm working on figuring out how to save Sally. That needs all of my focus right now."

"Mobius needs all of your focus right now," Amy argued. "The Wave happened. Eggman was defeated. But—" she gestured with her arms around the clearing "—we're hardly out of the woods yet. There's still more hero work to be done, and you're our leader, Sonic!"

"Was your leader," the mobian said, with both a sadness and a bitterness in his tone. "Anyway, I'll come back. I promise. I just need… more time."

"How much time?" Amy asked exasperatedly.

Sonic simply shook his head. "I can't answer that. All I can tell you is that I'm going somewhere to see a question answered. Once answered, I'll return."

First came a sudden engine-like, high-pitched, squealing noise, then a crackle of electricity and a powerful draft of air. A blurry streak of blue simply leaked into the distant horizon like dripping navy paint. Amy Rose sighed deeply. "You know, there's this spectacular invention called a mobiphone that lets you call mobians long distance and ask them questions and stuff!" she yelled out angrily to the forest, and to whichever denizens might live within its shadows.

End of chapter one