Sonic and the Freedom Fighters: Parallel Dimensions

Chapter 12: Visions

-Freedom Fighter Barracks-

"How's the decryption coming along, Nicole?" Sally asked to the computer, herself and the rest of the Freedom Fighters having gathered around the table to discuss Nicole's findings.

"Well, it appears that Venom added a rather complex encryption to the data. It's not necessarily difficult, just tedious to bypass. I had to do this overnight just to get it done in a reasonable timeframe." Nicole replied, her handheld form in the middle of the table as she finished off the decryption. "Regardless, the decryption should be finished just about... now." She continued, instantly displaying a number of files, some of which looked like blueprints for a device of some kind, one that resembled a large tower.

"Huh... Okay, so it looks like they're working on a machine." Sonic observed. "Only question is, what are they trying to get it to do?"

"I'm still going through the files myself to try and find an answer. There's a lot of information, but I keep finding references to 'dimensional energy transfer'. My guess is that they plan to use it to affect Blaze's world somehow, and presumably using the Sol Emeralds as a way to target it." Nicole replied.

"Venom was able to open a gateway to this dimension when she stole the Sol Emeralds. No doubt she'll try to transfer this machine using the same method... or at least, whatever this machine does." Blaze answered. Sally seemed lost in thought, but she quickly noticed something odd about the machine in the blueprints.

"Wait a minute... that thing looks familiar..." She muttered, getting a closer look at the blueprints before scrolling through one of the log entries that seemed to be related to the subject... and after a while, she noticed to words that made her blood run cold.

"'W-World Roboticizer?!'" Sally gasped. Sonic, Tails, Antoine, Bunnie and Rotor recoiled in shock, while the others tilted their heads in confusion and worry.

"Roboticizer? W-What's that?" Amy asked, clearly unsettled by the implications of the name. Sally took a moment to steady herself against the table.

"It's a horrible machine that Robotnik used in the past to enslave Mobians to his will. It traps a person inside and slowly converts them into a robot. Flesh and fur become steel and circuitry, your mind is overwritten and you become another of his mindless pawns." She replied, every word dripping with barely suppressed dread.

"T-That... I... I don't even have the words." Blazed gasped out, horrified by Sally's recounting of its effects, while Cream held onto the feline in sheer distress.

"I know. And if these logs tell the truth, they're building one strong enough to affect the entire world." Sally replied.

"B-But wait! T-There's no way they can power that thing with enough energy to actually use it... right?" Amy asked, clearly distressed and hoping for some good news from the discussion.

"I'm afraid they've already thought of a sufficient power source." Nicole reluctantly answered, highlighting a section on the blueprint that displayed various holes. "Look here. Ports for both the Chaos Emeralds and the Sol Emeralds. Which would mean that the Chaos Emeralds are their next targets."

"All the more reason we need to stop them and blow that thing to kingdom come!" Rotor replied, slamming his fist on the table.

"Wait a sec." Bunnie interrupted. "They already got the Sol Emeralds, don't they? So if that thing ain't gone off yet, then either they're still buildin' it..."

"Or they're still looking for the other set. Which gives us time to hunt them down and keep them out of their reach!" Amy cheered.

"Well, if they don't have the Chaos Emeralds yet, why don't we just leave them and focus our efforts on stopping them before they activate the machine?" Rotor wondered.

"Because we'd risk letting them take the Emeralds while we're distracted." Blaze replied.

"What do you mean by that?" Nicole asked.

"Your dimension and mine have a stronger connection to each other than most other dimensions do." The feline explained. "As such, the Chaos and Sol Emeralds share a similar link. If Eggman and Venom were to stimulate the Sol Emeralds enough, they could attract the Chaos Emeralds from wherever they are in the world, and then they'd have all the pieces necessary to enslave your world."

"Hold on! If ze Sol Emeralds can be used to attract ze Chaos Emeralds, then surely it must work ze other way around, oui?" Antoine inquired, leaving Blaze to think for a moment.

"It would, yes. The issue is, we'd need someone proficient in Chaos Energy manipulation to do that." She surmised.

"Hey, Sugah-Hog, can't you do that?" Bunnie asked as she turned to look at Sonic.

"Yeah, about that... I kinda don't know how." He confessed with a sheepish look on his face.

"What do you mean, 'you don't know how'?! You've been around them longer than any of us!" Sally exclaimed incredulously.

"Yeah, but I never had the time to learn the deeper stuff! Besides, you have a way better knack for it. Why don't you give it a shot?" Sonic retorted.

"B-But I don't know how to pull a completely different set of artefacts from one place to another!"

"Well then, our only options are Shadow, who I'm pretty sure is away on a mission, and Knuckles, who-"

"You rang?" The familiar voice of the echidna called from behind them, a golden portal quickly closing behind him and morphing into a small ring.

"Wha-?! When did you..? N-Never mind that, we need-" Sonic stammered, caught off-guard by the echidna's sudden arrival.

"I overheard. You need someone to invoke the Chaos Emeralds in order to attract the Emeralds from Blaze's world." He interjected, crossing his arms as he thought for a moment. "...I'll be honest, I'm not too sure how to get it to work... but I should at least be able to try."

"There's still one problem." Rotor pointed out. "We still need to find the Chaos Emeralds first. And without at least one of them to power up Tails's radar, our search options are limited. We have no way of figuring out where they are." This left everyone in the room wondering how to locate the Chaos Emeralds, until Sally spoke up.

"Actually... there might be one way." She replied. "Back when Sonic first told me about the Chaos Emeralds and the energy they possessed, I felt a strange pull from one of the Emeralds we already had. And when I concentrated on that feeling, I saw an image. I didn't think much of it at the time, but when we left, I noticed that we were in the exact same location that I saw before."

"Wait, so... you can see where the Emeralds are?!" Bunnie gasped in shock.

"Well, kind of. It feels more like... like I'm seeing through the Emerald, viewing its surroundings like they were my own." Sally explained to the group.

"Huh... does that sound familiar to you, Knux?" Sonic asked, turning to Knuckles.

"Hmm... can't say I've heard of it myself, but it might be a forgotten Chaos Power. But if Sally can use this power, it can greatly narrow our search." Knuckles replied.

"Uhh, aren't we forgetting something? We still need a Chaos Emerald to use this 'vision' power in the first place. Without one, we're still stuck with no way to find them fast enough." Rotor reminded the group, causing Sally to interject.

"Not exactly. We still have one option available to us... The Master Emerald."

-Eggman's Base-

Venom sat by herself in one of the base's programming rooms, the serpent currently in a mixture of frustration and focus as she ran simulation after simulation, attempting to predict the success of the World Roboticizer that was currently being built. Time after time, the results ended up the same - the machine would take too long to fire given the current rate at which they could extract the energy of the Sol Emeralds, and either the Sol Dimension would collapse in on this one, or the Freedom Fighters would stop them before it fired. They were running out of time, and they needed to find a way to resolve this problem, quickly.

"Hard at work still, I see." She heard Eggman's voice say to her, the doctor apparently having entered while she was engrossed in her simulations. "I thought you'd have been playing around with those experiments in your lab."

"The test subjects you sent me for Sol Energy infusion failed to deter those Freedom Fighters, and as a result my lab is completely destroyed and laying at the bottom of the ocean." She replied, not even bothering to look at him. "So production of the Sol Cores has been significantly diminished. And to make matters worse, I have a suspicion they were able to access sensitive information about our joint project."

"The World Roboticizer? But it's not yet finished! We haven't been able to siphon enough power from the Sol Emeralds to make it operational!" Eggman yelled in response.

"Problems that I expect you to remedy, and fast." Venom replied, standing up from her seat and trying to suppress the rage and frustration in her voice. "Speaking of which, how exactly is your hunt for the Chaos Emeralds coming along?"

"I've already sent a wave of scouts to try and find anything in the surrounding areas and in potential landing zones from their last known usage, but they've been unable to find anything. And even if we were to send some more robots out to retrieve them, we'll need to amplify their power with the Sol Energy we've extracted so far if we want to keep them out of the hands of those rodents... which we still need for later." Eggman explained.

"Provided you're able to make improvements to the extraction rate, we should have enough Sol Energy to spare on a small squadron." Venom responded. "Only this time... let's use it on something a little stronger than a mere Pawn."

-Angel Island-

Between Eggman joining forces with a new threat and gaining access to the Sol Emeralds, and the fate of Blaze's home dimension depending on the Freedom Fighters taking them back, Sally didn't think she would be seeing Angel Island again so soon. Yet here she was, ascending the steps of the shrine as Knuckles guided her towards the Master Emerald. And as she got closer, she could feel that familiar presence she felt around the Chaos Emeralds, albeit much stronger.

"You remember how you did it the last time, right?" Knuckles asked as he and Sally approached the Master Emerald.

"I think so. It was kind of by accident, but... I can feel the same kind of power within the Master Emerald. I think I just need to focus on it..." She replied. She stepped forward, closed her eyes and reached a hand out towards the Master Emerald. Already she began to feel a slight pull.

"The Master Emerald is a wellspring of Chaos Energy. It should be easy to focus on the Emeralds, and to keep that focus steady now that you know what to expect. Just stay calm and take it slow." The echidna explained. Nodding, the princess held her other arm out towards the Emerald and took slow, deep breaths. She did her best to follow the pull of the energy within, trying to remember how she did it last time, and within a few seconds she suddenly felt a sharp rush, as if being forcefully pulled forwards, followed by an image appearing clear in her mind, as if her eyes were still open. Sally let out a sharp gasp as the sensation took her by surprise, but she managed to hold onto the image she was seeing.

"Sal? You okay?!" She could hear Sonic's voice call out, remembering that she took her communicator with her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I... I think it worked. I can... see where one of the Emeralds is now!" She replied.

"Incroyable! My princess, what are you seeing?" Antoine's voice queried.

"It's... kind of like looking through a kaleidoscope..." She answered, noticing the image was distorted somewhat, as if looking through a transparent crystal. She moved her head around and noticed the image changed accordingly, giving her a better look at her surroundings. "But... there's a thick forest, and two waterfalls on either side of the Emerald. And... the forest floor is completely submerged in water."

"Got it. The Flooded Forest Zone, 40 miles southwest of Emerald Town." Nicole immediately announced, pinpointing the location on her map.

"Awesome! Okay, Sal, keep 'em coming!" Sonic cheered. Taking a deep breath, Sally continued, moving from Emerald to Emerald and describing their surroundings to the rest of the group, while Nicole continued to record every single detail she mentioned to narrow down the possible search locations. Before long, Nicole had managed to pinpoint the location of each Emerald, highlighting seven different locations at varying distances from Emerald Town.

"Okay, I've managed to narrow down the search locations to the ones highlighted. So long as we can find at least one Emerald in those locations, we should be capable of pinpointing the rest thanks to Tails's radar." Nicole announced, while Sally and Knuckles stepped back through the Warp Ring.

"Great! So all that's left is to assign a team to go out and gather them." Tails replied eagerly.

"Do we even need a team? Sonic can just head to the locations, grab them and get back in no time at all. And we can always send our strongest guys as back up if Eggman's robots show up." Rotor argued.

"True... but if Eggman and Venom send out more of those empowered Pawns, that could be a problem. We were only just able to overcome the handful from yesterday, and if we send too many of our heaviest hitters to deal with them, we'll leave our base defenceless..." Sally responded, pacing across the room for a few seconds... until Knuckles stepped forward.

"I'll go." He curtly stated, the others taken aback slightly by his willingness to volunteer.

"Knuckles? You sure? What about the Master Emerald?" Sonic asked.

"If Eggman's focusing on the Chaos Emeralds themselves, then Angel Island won't be a target. And on top of that, I also have a solution to the speed issue." He replied, pulling his Warp Ring back out. "This Warp Ring will get us to the locations we need to search in no time at all. If nothing else, it'll give us more time to search before Eggman catches on to us."

"I'll go with you. It's my fault that Eggman and Venom have the Sol Emeralds in the first place... The least I could do is help you find the Chaos Emeralds before they do." Silver offered as he stood up, Blaze casting him a sympathetic look.

"Silver..." She uttered.

"In that case, Tails will go with Knuckles as the navigator, along with Silver, Rotor and Amy for support." Sally decided.

"You sure that will be enough?" Sonic asked.

"It's as much as we can afford without leaving ourselves completely vulnerable to attack. Even then, finding the Emeralds should take no more than an hour." The princess replied.

"What about me, Miss Sally? I can help the others find the Emeralds, and it would mean you wouldn't have to worry about me getting in trouble if any of those strong robots show up." Cream offered, eager to help the team.

"Sorry, Cream, but we can't let Robotnik get his hands on even one of them, and if either you or Cheese gets captured, it could compromise the entire mission. Which is why I need you here to help us defend the town while they're away." Sally assured her as she crouched down to the rabbit's level. Cream looked a little disappointed, but ultimately nodded in agreement and went over to wish Amy good luck.

"Right then, no time to waste." Knuckles said as he opened a portal with his Warp Ring, leading his team through the portal.

"Remember, finding the Emeralds is your priority. Do not engage any of Robotnik's forces, especially empowered ones, unless it is an absolute necessity." Sally called out as they passed through the portal, and after a few seconds the portal closed. There was nothing left to do now but wait for updates on their progress...

-Eggman's Base-

Various robots had been taken to the hangar to undergo some immediate modifications. Mechanical arms moved around, attaching Sol Cores into the robots while tubes and wires were inserted, pumping the Cores with as much Sol Energy as they could afford to spare. All of this, overseen by Eggman from his control room as he typed some commands into his console.

"A squad of Egg Knights, some E-2000s... and an Egg Hammer unit. I'd say that should be worth about a few hundred empowered Egg Pawns." He muttered as he watched the upgrades take place, Venom standing closely behind him.

"The second they're ready, send them out. Even if they do encounter any opposition, they should be able to easily overpower them. I have a few projects of my own to see to." She ordered as she turned to leave, stopping for a brief moment at the doorway to look back at him. "And Robotnik? I believe I don't need to stress how important it is that those Emeralds be kept out of the hands of the Freedom Fighters. Try to ensure that your scouts don't come back empty-handed." She warned before leaving, Eggman giving an irritated growl before the door closed behind her and she returned to her workstation...

...leaving a small device attached to one of the consoles, out of view from the doctor as he continued his work.