A/N: Another chapter? Yep!

Chapter 4: Un-Shore About This

Now we have to go back into the past one more time. This should (I hope) be the last time we go back, so let's return to where we just broke off… but in another world.

The arm, as you may remember, forced its way out of the travel tube. As it grinded itself against the edges of the prison, it floated downwards, and fell into a dark hole, never to be seen again by Oswald and the Mad Doctor.

However, in the universe it fell into, all was still. It plopped onto a small sandy beach, the sun spreading its glitter upon the tumultuous waves. The tide rose up, and fell down. Slowly, the arm started disappearing into the waves. But before it could join the sea and leave this island, a dash of blue sped across the beach, picking up the arm and its note as it went. It ran across the beach at such a tremendous speed, that he was just a blur. Moving fast, curled up into a small ball and, as if in a challenge, dodged the rocks dotted around. Eventually, he stopped, unfurled and walked into a yellow warehouse.

"Hey, Tails, look! I got your message and I found this… well, thing. What is this?" said Sonic the Hedgehog.

Tails spun around from his computer, jumping off of his chair and coming to inspect the object. "Hmm…" he said, closely inspecting it. "You know, this is really weird-looking. Thanks for bringing it, Sonic." He looked up, and gestured for him to follow him. They started walking. "I know I didn't explain in detail about why I wanted this, 'cos I needed you to get it quick, but now I can show you what it is and why it's important. You'll get why."

Sonic replied, "Whatever you say, buddy. I mean, you are the tech whiz around here, you know better than I do."

Tails blushed a bit, and said, "Aw, thanks, Sonic. But anyway, come here." He pointed to the computer screen. Multiple things were open, all of them glowing red, as if trying to warn of some danger. "Remember how we were fighting Eggman, and we were trying to stop him taking out the Paradox Prism?"

Sonic looked slightly uncomfortable, and hurried,"Yeah… and then Shadow took the Prism into somewhere we don't know about, then we left, had some chilli dogs, and then fought–"

"Well, yeah. But I managed to obtain the frequency of the Paradox Prism before it disappeared. The readings on it are almost the exact same as this arm!"

"Wait, it's an arm?"

"Yep!"

"Oh… Well, erm, doesn't that mean it has the power to create realities as well?" enquired a curious Sonic.

"Well, as you explained to us after days of waiting, yes, it does. I just wish you'd told me there were other me's and you broke the Prism and created a multiverse and everything. I kinda wish I could have seen that." Tails looked down at the floor, and seemed quite sad.

Sonic walked up to Tails and patted him on the back. "Hey, buddy. It's ok. Maybe one day we can get back there. It does still exist, you know."

Tails sighed and said, "Someday." Sonic opened his mouth to explain that he had tried to tell him, but then they were interrupted by some other force on the beach that day… However he was too late and Tails continued explaining. "Now, anyway, the signal of this," he pointed to the arm,"is ALMOST the same but the thing is, it wasn't created by a theoretical scenario." Sonic stared at Tails for a few seconds. Tails added,"Like a paradox? It was made by something else. It seems to be a mixture of something I don't know… Wait a second…" Tails turned back to the arm. "There was a note attached to it. Where is that?"

"Ohhh. Um, was it blue?" asked Sonic.

"I don't know. Why, did you see it?"

"Yeah, I kept it in my hand so it would dry out when I found it and raced here." He looked for it on the floor, but realised it wasn't there. "Must have flown away from me. Hold on a sec."

He dashed out for a few seconds, and returned very quickly, item in hand. Sonic handed over the slightly smudged slip of paper in his hand, creases all over its face. Tails straightened it out, put it under one of the multiple machines in the warehouse, and waited. For a minute or two, the room was filled by the whirring of the mechanism in the machinery. Slowly, the paper came out from the other side of the printer-laminator mixed machine.

"What does it say?" asked Tails, as Sonic began reading the message.

"Dear Reader of This Message, thank you for taking your time to read my letter. You may not know me, but long ago, I was like you, remembered, a Toon that was popular– What's that meant to mean?"

"Just keep reading!" said Tails, eager to hear the rest of this mysterious letter.

"Ok. –and who was in multiple different shorts and cartoons. Then, I was lost to Universal, and was forgotten, my fame stolen by a mouse who I won't name. It was the day I became a forgotten Toon, the day when I lost my Heart. You Toons may not know what a heart is, but it is vital. A Heart is what separates you from being remembered or forgotten, and once you're forgotten, you become trapped in Wasteland, a place for all of those like me: Forgotten Disney Toons. Who's Disne–"

Tails gave him a look, and Sonic rapidly started reading again. " And the only way for me to leave is if you try to remember me. Attached is a picture, though hopefully the copy of me should come with this. I hope to see you and thank you (all) in person. Signed, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit."

Sonic looked up from the letter, and handed it over to Tails. They reread the letter two more times before finally, Tails concluded, "First thing we need to do: decode what this means. Half of this letter is really confusing, but I can understand some of it."

"Yeah, well, I kinda get how people would make media of us and our stories," spoke Sonic, "but the way, um, this 'Oswald' is saying it as… It's like we're figures for some company. And I know for a fact that all the adventures we've had are real. I mean, they are, right?"

Tails sighed, and said, "We have to try to make sense of this if we're ever going to–"

"Help the guy, right?"

"Yeah. This sounds urgent… plus, at the same time, we can try to figure out what this arm actually is. There must be more to it than we're seeing."

Sonic started, "Hmm. I think this might not be from our universe, or even our multiverse." Tails looked up at him and Sonic stopped, but he told him to continue. "If you think about it, that arm randomly appeared on the beach just today, which could mean that it was from an alternate reality, but that arm looks like nothing I saw in the Shatterspaces, and if there are other worlds out there, in their own universes, there must be tons of other heroes and villains, and this could be one of those heroes who needs help. I mean, who knows, maybe we are owned by a company – or maybe not, but we might be linked to other characters we don't know about. Maybe we've got friends we don't know about, and maybe this guy's one of them."

"Wow. That was really deep."

"Really? I was just stating what I thought."

"Well, it definitely has got me thinking…"

And so, for the next few countless days and nights, Tails and Sonic worked on discovering the true definition of this cryptic puzzle. They took the occasional breaks with their friends to relax and enjoy the sun and fresh air, but after that, they would stay cooped up in Tail's lab, working hard. The pair searched everywhere they could for more information, as Tails built more machines and scanned the paper through them, and Sonic repeatedly went to local forums online for any help, contacting anyone he knew. But barely any of it was worthwhile, and the rest about as useful as a drawing of a carrot.

So they took it up a notch, and started digging much harder and deeper. They were relentless now; every spare second was invested into this project which was deeper than they had ever dove into before. They (Well, mostly Tails. Sonic tried, but mainly supported.) started high level infrared scans, sending out shuttles tuned to the readings of the arm, and using the smartest and most capable AI's they had to find out more about this arm and the meaning of the letter.

And after maybe 5 months or so of perseverance, they finally got the break in the case they desperately needed. They called three of their four friends, though the last one would deny being a 'friend': Amy, Knuckles and Shadow (though he was extremely reluctant to see this 'train wreck', he eventually swayed at the chance to have some experimental coffee beans), but just their other friend, Rouge, was busy. On a bright sunny day, with the birds tweeting, a knock resonated inside the lab. Actually, the knock happened three times, and by the third knock there would have been a large dent in the door, were it not for Tail's resistance spray used on all surfaces inside and outside the lab. The door opened, and the trio were greeted with Sonic's face.

"Hey guys, glad (yawn) you could make it!"

"This had better be good. Not that it will be. I'm missing free tacos near that new shop that opened up, and they must know if it is good enough for the ultimate life form, for which they will need much luck," returned a slightly impatient Shadow.

"Yeah, I wanted to try 'em too! Though not really for criticism. I heard they've made this special recipe with the hottest flavour to exist! Can't wait to try it, so this had better be quick," Knuckles inputted. He peered closer at Sonic and added, "Also, are you ok? You look terrible."

"Knuckles is right, you DO look terrible. Sonic, did you remember to sleep?" asked Amy. She was almost constantly worried about Sonic, mostly due to the project he and Tails had been working on. "You should get some rest. Or maybe you need a break. We could all go and have some tacos together. It'll give you energy."

"Yeah!" cheered Knuckles and Shadow in agreement.

A grunt came from the back of the lab, as Sonic said, "Thanks Amy, but this is really important to (yawn) us. We're ready to go but we really want to show you guys first. It's been our biggest project yet." He stretched a bit, rubbed his eyes and stared drowsily back at them.

"Oh, well, if you say it's important, then I think we can wait, right guys?" Amy looked back to them in hope. Shadow opened his mouth in protest, but one small, sharp look from Amy re-tuned his words into, "I'm waiting."

Knuckles groaned, and said, "Ok, but I'd better not miss the 16 Spicy for this."

"Thanks, guys." Sonic gently smiled and welcomed them in. As they walked to Tails, who was busy welding something, Sonic caught them up with everything: about how they found the arm and how they found a slip of paper and had started research on all of this, and that they had finally come to a conclusion.

"So, what we've managed to discover is, firstly, we aren't directly related to the guy, but when the arm came from his world to ours, it created a path which linked his universe to ours. When multiple worlds of the same genre are connected, they create little clusters. Plus we found out we've worked with them to create games, but more on that in a sec." The others seemed confused.

"What are you talking about? You sound delirious," asked Shadow. Sonic ignored him and was about to continue when Tails turned around and signalled to him to stop.

Tails jumped in and continued, "Secondly, we (yawn) managed to send out a small pod through the frequency we scanned the arm for, and we found out there are thousands – and I mean thousands – of different universes out there. And thirdly… before I explain, we are our (moan) own selves, so… don't freak out, but… (yawn) Zzz… Zzz…"

"Um, I'm not sure you should be doing that. You could break that… thing? I think…" Knuckles said, pointing at the machine Tails was working on whilst talking, or rather, was working on whilst talking, as he was currently fast asleep, drool trickling out of the corner of his mouth.

"Oh, poor Tails. You two need some rest. You can explain later, Sonic." said Amy, walking towards the machine, and lifting Tails off his current bed, carrying him to his room. "Are you coming?"

Before Sonic could reply, he heard a voice behind him. Swivelling around, and feeling quite queasy, he could see Knuckles in his curious mood, saying, "Hold on, Amy, what's this butto–"

"NO!" shouted Sonic, his lungs aching as he spoke, but it was too late.

Shadow simply stared, distanced from them. He watched as a small, glowing dot appeared, before growing into a circle, with a bright blue ripple. He observed Knuckles' fist come off the button, and Sonic leaping too late (as usual) to try to stop him, slamming a large lever up on a clumsy collision with the wall. A beam came out from a ray attached to it, hitting the odd object on the platform beside what was obviously some sort of portal opening. And he watched something happen on the computer screen as the beam vanished, and as Tails, Sonic, Knuckles and Amy disappeared too.

Shadow crunched on some of the coffee beans as he thought. Should he leave them be? None of them would bug him for a long, long time. But, after a few seconds of careful consideration, he realised they might break everything there was here if they did something wrong over there.

So he quickly grabbed; some hypermagnets from Tail's lab; a jar of experimental coffee beans; the arm – which for some reason now looked like a splinter of a colourful crystal; and some of the extra engineered regulators Nine made for them in the Shatterspaces in a previous adventure. Stuffing it all in a bag, he grabbed his Chaos Emerald, jumped in, and ventured into depths unknown.