A/N: I'm honestly blown away by all of your guys' support. I legit got 17 reviews, 9 favorites, 8 followers, and over 300 views in this past week alone! That is an unbelievable record! I know that 300 views may not seem like a lot, but excluding Whumptober, it's the most successful first week of any of my stories! On top of that, the voice actress and creator of Ask Tails, Alyssa Mireles, liked my promo tweet for the last chapter!

Seriously, from the bottom of my heart, I can't thank you guys enough. I'm honestly blown away by how much you guys are enjoying this story so far. I have never gotten so many emails in my life! XD If I exclude my own chapter upload email and the six spam PMs I got, I got a grand total of 20 emails in just the first 24 hours after I posted the first chapter! 16 of them were in the first 9 hours!

Just a heads up that episode 54 is going to be split into two chapters to give it more room to breathe, since the original episodes seemed like it was a bit rushed to me. Also I usually write down what I want to put in the author's notes in advance, and I apparently was going to say that this was going to be a shorter chapter, but as it turns out, it's over 18,000 words long! XD

Also, since I forgot to say this in the first chapter, this story is set after Sonic Frontiers!

I would like to thank jr1550434, Super duper waffles, CreativeKitty975, Channel 101 Productions, Cesia24, MiraculousDragonMaster, danielman21, LegendaryUbisoftDicMovieMaster, WasteMyTime247, soberan123, edvis93, and LivvyKitty1208 for favoriting and following since my last chapter!

Without further ado, let's move on to the reviews and what matters most: the story!


17 Reviews

Guest

I never heard of Class of '09 until just now, but after I read the comment on AO3 myself, I can easily see why it was offensive. Just deleted it, thanks for pointing it out to me!

toantakeri

1. Surprisingly, I haven't seen any of the TailsTube episodes yet, although I really do need to get to watching those. I can see a way to directly incorporate that into my headcanon, so as a result, Mighty and Ray most likely won't appear in this story. But I'm surprised that they lost touch with the Chaotix too. That could give me an idea for my next big story after this one.

2. I don't think Trip will appear in this fanfic either, nor have I thought of a way to carry her over into the Modern era (yet). But I do like your idea and I think I'll most likely use it in a future fanfic.

3. I do like that idea with Honey though! Since she's a famous clothes designer in the post-SGW universe, and by extension my headcanon, she's super busy these days.

Victor

Both of them are on my reading list, actually! I have Gotta Go Fast Again in my favorites, and even though I'm currently in the middle of two other long fanfics, I'll definitely get to those when I finish.

Guest

I haven't played SxSG yet, but now I kinda don't have to anymore since you just told me everything that happens :P

On that note, I'll take game spoilers over movie spoilers any day #PleaseDon'tSpoilTheSonic3Movie

danielman21

Cream talking to Cosmo about Chao was my favorite part of the last chapter too :)

nblind01

Same here! I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I am!

Vinay-kox01

BEGONE BOT!

Anon

Same here! Although since this is an adaptation of the third season of Sonic X, he'll be in space most of the time, but never say never!

Five-Chosen

Elementary, my dear Five-Chosen! ;)

I'm still in shock about how things perfectly lined up there! It's been six years in-universe and six years in real life since the story started!

1. I did happen to mainly pull from IDW Gemerl when I was writing him in my story, so it's good to know he's in-character!

2. That's actually a great idea! I have something similar planned for the near future, but it would be perfect for Chris to keep a travel log, so that he can document his own unique experiences, as well as his struggle from being away from Earth for so long, as well as other things that will become apparent as the story progresses.

gregorian12

A Traumatized Chris Warning has been issued for Angel Island! He needs care at all costs!

But yeah, poor Chris... he's gonna have a panic attack knowing his voice has completely changed.

Thank you very much! I wanted to do my best with both scenes since first impressions always matter.

I think it's a good thing I started and finished Chaos on Earth when I did, since it's perfect that the Metarex Saga is set after Sonic Frontiers. And yeah, Eggman can absolutely trust Sage to protect his empire in his absence.

CreativeKitty975

Awww! :) I've been looking forward to posting this story too! I've been waiting for so long for my creativity to return so I could keep writing!

I actually thought about Evil Cosmo too when I added the Sonic Sense in XD If I recall correctly, the Sonic Sense is inspired by not only Spider-Man's Spidey Senses, but also by a few frames of the opening cutscene of Sonic CD, where it looks like Sonic sneezes right before danger happens.

Normally Sonic shouldn't be able to bleed in his super form, but if you or anyone reading this has seen One Piece, when some of the bad guys used Haki on Luffy, he was able to feel true pain even though he's made of rubber.

Same here, I really wanna write more scenes with Cream and Cosmo together! I can definitely see how they're like sisters! :D

You won't have to wait long at all to see what is going through Chris' mind, that I promise.

Somehow I knew that 6 months passed after Sonic destroyed the Eggsterminator and 6 months passed in real life, but I had never pieced the two together until now! I had only planned on being gone for maybe 2 or 3 months at the most, but the six-month break was completely unintentional since I was only planning to restructure the first 13 chapters to fit my then-current style, but I kept slacking off and it took way too long, but maybe it worked out that way since it did end up being six months!

Here is the next chapter!

Super duper waffles

1. Eggman initially had more scrap metal than he knew what to do with in his fortress to make his robots, but when he started to run out, he resorted to illegal underwater mining.

2. I'm not sure, but Mobius' GUN is well over 100 years old, probably close to 200 at this point.

3. Extinct Earth animals don't exist on Mobius, but there is a species of dinosaur-like animals known as Terapods from SatAM that exist in the modern day. They are very rare though.

4. The only famous tales I can think of that exist on both Mobius and Earth are the Arabian Nights and King Arthur, hence Sonic and the Secret Rings / Sonic and the Black Knight.

5A. Gold was discovered in Cantonville first, but since more gold was found in Station Square, people tended to settle there more than Cantonville. (I don't remember if this clashes with how Station Square was founded though.)

5B. Earth's GUN is mostly tax-exempt since it operates on a global basis.

5C. CLIP was almost completely decommissioned as a result of Passer's reckless actions, but Remerson and the President after him took actions to save it.

6. Los Angeles has been experimenting with a trial run of their own S-Team unit following the success of Station Square's own S-Team while Sonic was on Earth.

7. Yes, Amy told everyone about it at the dinner table that night, and Ella and Chuck in particular were fascinated by Amy's findings.

8. Surprisingly, Sonic and his friends haven't met Gordon Ramsay while they were on Earth.

Bloodrick

Tails and Cosmo are indeed a set package! :D In fact, Tailsmo is one of my favorite Sonic ships!

Five-Chosen

I didn't even realize that! :O Also I'm lowkey interested in checking out the BIONICLE storyline, I never collected any of the sets since I got into LEGO almost 2 years after the theme was discontinued.

trash lord

Coincidentally, the Metarex Troopers and the Visorak were both introduced in 2005, even if they don't resemble one another.

Yeah :) But then those mean Metarex had to come and ruin this precious moment!

Absolutely, and not only would Chris be surprised that Eggman is now a father, but he would be wondering how that could possibly happen, until he learns that Eggman built Sage. Actually, this is not the first time Eggman is a father, since M and A.D.A.M. from the Archie Sonics are canon in my headcanon and they both refer to Eggman as Father.

I've never written with Sage before, so it's going to be interesting when I finally do get to use her.

Sluggy

Ooh, that's actually a great idea! I can totally see Deserd being a Bayleaf creation!

LivvyKitty1208

I always love to see your reactions to my story :)

The scene where Tails, Amy, and Cream were helping Cosmo to feel comfortable has been one of my favorites so far, and this was just the first chapter!

And yes, Chris is back! :D


Chapter 61
Episode 54
Typhoon


Angel Island – Chris' POV

Of all the weird things that ever happened to me during my adventures with Sonic, I would never have guessed that reverse puberty would ever be one of them. It was the strangest thing to ever happen to me, and I would never wish it on anyone, not even on my worst enemies.

I was completely overwhelmed, and I had no idea where to begin describing what was going on with my body or mind. First of all, I was not expecting to see all my friends all at once the moment I stepped out of the portal, and the excitement I had when I entered the portal should have been greatly magnified, except it was overcome by everything else I was feeling.

The moment I tried to say hi to them, I heard my voice.

My child voice.

I immediately cringed when I heard myself; did I always sound that awful?! And it wasn't just my voice, but when I looked down at myself, I appeared to have shrunk as well. Now my labcoat, as well as the rest of my clothes, had grown and were now too big to fit comfortably.

I didn't just look younger.

I was younger.

I felt younger, and worst of all, I sounded younger. The only thing that retained its adult state was my mind, since I was able to remember everything that happened before I stepped through the portal.

As a result of all of this, I had quickly gone into a state of shock, and I was completely unresponsive. Everything was overwhelming me too fast. I could hear vague voices calling to me in concern, but they seemed like they were very far away. I could see them, but I couldn't get a hold of myself and respond. I really wanted to talk to them, to say hi to them for the first time in what felt like forever, but that would mean dealing with my old kid voice again.

I hated it.

I hated myself.

This was not the way I wanted to meet my friends again.

"Chris, talk to us," I heard Amy's urgent voice telling me. "What's going on?"

"Is there something you're afraid of?" Cream innocently asked, looking up at me. I could finally get a bearing of my surroundings, but I still couldn't bring myself to respond.

"Maybe something happened during the teleportation process?" Tails guessed, glancing between me and whatever was behind me.

"That's the only thing I can figure out," Knuckles said. "But–"

And before I knew it, all my stress caught up with me in an instant, and I started hyperventilating.

"Chris…!" I heard Sonic say, and he approached me and gently placed his hand on my shoulder. "Chris, whatever happened, it's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay, Chris."

"Yeah, we're here for you, Chris," Tails softly told me.

My breathing started to slow somewhat, but I was still in the throes of a panic attack. I couldn't respond to the comfort my friends were offering me. I was so stressed out.

"No worries, buddy," Sonic said. "We're here to help you out. Whatever happened back there, we'll get you through… this…"

All of a sudden, his hand slipped from my shoulder, and he slumped down and collapsed onto the stone ground.

"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, and quickly caught him and laid him down on the ground. I desperately wanted to know what happened, but I still didn't feel comfortable talking out loud.

Maybe I didn't have to talk out loud in order to communicate with them…

And then I realized, my panic attack was starting to slow down, despite what just happened with Sonic. I still wasn't calm enough to collect myself, however.

Amy knelt down next to Sonic and felt his pulse, before she looked up at the rest of us. "He still has a strong heartbeat," she reported as Tails joined her.

"Okay, that's good," Tails breathed in relief. "He's probably worn out from the battle, but… that never happens."

I took a deep breath. I was scared and very embarrassed, but this couldn't go on forever.

"What… happened…?" I finally whispered, drawing everyone's attention back to me.

I wanna go back… I just got here, but I wanna go back now…

"I don't know…" Tails responded. "He doesn't normally get this tired in a fight, so I'm thinking something happened before he showed up."

"Why are you whispering, Chris…?" Knuckles asked in genuine curiosity. However, I remained silent. I was already blushing from embarrassment just from whispering, but it was still better than talking with my cringe kid voice, my voice that begged Sonic to save me many times before.

I wasn't the same kid I was before.

"Let's go back to Cream's house," Tails suggested, before he started walking toward what I assumed was a set of stone steps. "We can tell you everything there."

"Good idea," Amy said as she joined him. "Besides, I don't think I told you about our new guest yet."

Tails tilted his head. "Huh?"

Amy proceeded to tell him about something that I didn't pick up on, because I had zoned out. I took that moment to glance around me, and I saw a forest all around me, but I was standing somewhere high up, because I was around the same level as some of the treetops. Behind me was the Master Emerald, and I was startled at how big it was. It must have been the exit point of my portal.

I was on Angel Island.

In all the excitement and panic I had gone through, I had completely forgotten that the other end of the portal was situated at the Master Emerald shrine. When I flew the drone into the portal, I thought it was going to emerge somewhere, anywhere else on the planet, but now that I was here, it felt a bit convenient that not only would I arrive somewhere that was considered a restricted landscape, but all my friends would be there at the same time. I was probably looking into it too much.

"You good, Chris?" Knuckles called. I shook myself out of my trance and followed Knuckles. Cream looked up at me as she brought up the rear.

"You don't have to talk if you don't want to," she told me. "But it would be nice if you can tell us what's going on."

As helpful as my friends were, I felt very anxious about the whole situation. I expected myself to cooperate, but it felt like if I started speaking, I would sound very cringe and want to go hide behind the couch or something for the rest of the day. But at least I was able to join everyone as we made it down the surprisingly steep steps. I had to watch my step so I wouldn't fall forward.

With every step I took, I could feel my clothes sagging. Everything felt several sizes too big on me. The worst part of it was that my pants were sagging, and I didn't want to think about what would happen if I wasn't holding them up the whole time. I especially didn't want to lose my shoes since I felt like I was wearing clown shoes, they were that big on me.

We reached the bottom about thirty seconds later and began the trek across the island. Now I no longer had to worry about my shoes coming off. I had to be careful with every step I took, so I was moving slower than I usually would. On the bright side, no one was laughing at me, which I appreciated, despite how awkward I must have looked.

Eventually we stopped at a clearing, where a red biplane was parked. Even though I had never seen it before, I instinctively knew it belonged to Tails.

When I stopped in front of the plane, another thing I noticed was that the air was different on Mobius, and not just because it was thin from how high up we were. The air also seemed to be much cleaner than it was on Earth. It felt… right, in a way.

As Tails started the plane, Knuckles helped me into the back seat, and one of my shoes came off with very little effort because of how big it was. He reached down and handed it to me, and I quickly put it back on.

"We'll figure something out with your clothes," Amy told me, giving me a sympathetic look. I could only nod.

It was difficult for my friends to find accommodations for everyone, but Amy, Knuckles, and Cream would ride on the wings, and Knuckles would hold onto Sonic to make sure he stayed secure. It was a bit of a complicated setup, but once we were ready, Tails started the plane, and soon we were airborne.

As we flew across the landscape, I found myself looking down and admiring the beautiful moonlit scenery below us. It was quite surreal, like I was in the landscape of a video game. There were rolling hills and plateaus as far as the eye could see, and there were houses dotting the terrain.

When I glanced up, I saw that a good chunk of the moon had been blown out. And then I quickly realized that it was from when Dr. Eggman used the Eclipse Cannon on it a long time ago. I would have thought that such a reckless act would affect the tides, but somehow, Sonic had told me it didn't seem to affect them in any way. I didn't know if that meant the planet had its own way of regulating the tides.

And then I saw something that looked like it was out of the ordinary. There was a huge part of the forest below that was charred beyond recognition. The ground was blackened, over half the trees were gone, and there was a smoldering crater in the middle of it all.

I had so many questions.

And I didn't have the guts to ask any of them because I was inexplicably a kid again.

With my cringey kid voice.

I hate myself…


Cream's house – Third-person POV

One short flight later, Tails skillfully landed his plane in the flat patch of grass near Cream's house, and with Knuckles carrying Sonic, everyone made their way toward the front door of the house. Except for Chris, all of them had varying degrees of exhaustion from their fight earlier.

"I think Mama brought Gemerl inside," Cream noted upon seeing that her robot guardian wasn't there where she and Amy had left her.

"How bad was he damaged?" Tails asked.

"I'm not sure," Cream said after a moment.

"I'll take a look at him for myself, and depending on how it goes, he should be good as new by tomorrow morning."

"Okay!" Cream said with a smile as she grasped the doorknob and turned it. The first thing she saw was her mother and the mysterious girl in the living room.

"Hi, Mama! We're back!" she announced, before she looked at the plant girl in the adjacent chair. "Oh, you're up!"

"Welcome back, dear," Vanilla said warmly as the rest of her friends made their way inside.

The girl was alarmed to see that Sonic was unconscious, and she tensed up when she saw Knuckles carrying him. She grasped the hem of her dress and looked down as tears threatened to break free from her eyes. It wasn't the first time she had cried that night. She had been looking forward to talking to him, but now…

"Oh dear…" Vanilla said as she pushed herself up and approached the group. "Everyone seems to be getting hurt today."

"I know…" Amy said in an equally sad tone as Vanilla accepted Sonic from Knuckles. The motherly rabbit turned and gently carried her into her room, where she tucked him in bed.

When she emerged, everyone filled her in on the night's events except for Chris, who made his way into the bathroom. He left the door open since he didn't actually need to use it. Turning the light on, he took a look in the mirror at what his new old body looked like.

Except he couldn't hold his gaze and was forced to look away.

He literally didn't look a day over thirteen. Furthermore, his clothes were sagging a lot more than how they felt. Even when he held them in place so they wouldn't fall, he looked even more awkward then he felt.

His face was flushed, and he felt hot in embarrassment. Yet his friends honestly didn't seem to mind for some reason, although he owed them all an explanation for everything.

He glanced around the bathroom, and while it had a sink and bathtub like most bathrooms on Earth had, he was surprised that it also had a toilet. He recalled that Mobians never had to use the bathroom in the same way that humans did; their bodies dissolved waste products from the inside. But when he stepped forward and examined the toilet, it looked very different from Earth toilets. When he opened the lid, he saw that its inner mechanisms were different. If he had to guess, the toilet doubled as a garbage disposal system.

He closed the lid again and spent what felt like the next few minutes trying to collect himself in what was the first moment on Mobius he had that he was by himself. He wanted to talk to his friends, he really did, but not like this. He was too mortified to be seen with oversized clothes, especially around children. It felt wrong for him, but what choice did he have?

Only now did he remember he was wearing a belt. He reached down and tucked his shirt neatly into his pants before adjusting the belt as tight as it would go. It still wasn't as tight as he wanted it to be, but at least he didn't have to worry about awkwardly holding his pants up with one hand now.

"Mr. Chris?"

Making sure his pants were hitched up for what must have been the hundredth time that night, almost by habit by now, he looked to see Cream standing outside the doorway, with Cheese hovering next to her.

"Our new friend is ready to talk to us if you want to come listen," she invited.

"Okay," Chris summoned up the courage to whisper as he apprehensively followed her out of the bathroom, making sure to turn off the light first.

He paused for a moment before stepping into the living room and taking the closest adjacent seat, which happened to be in the house's small dining room, since the living room didn't have enough seats for everyone. Cream sat in the empty chair next to him and faced the living room, where Amy was sitting on the couch with Vanilla and the alien girl, while Knuckles leaned against the wall with his arms folded. Tails was sitting on the floor in the dining room tinkering with Gemerl's circuits with a screwdriver.

The girl nervously looked from one face to the next. While she could easily tell that everyone was worn out from the battle earlier, they all looked strangely excited for some reason. That was when she took full notice of the being in the dining room, the one who looked neither flora nor fauna.

"Um… if you don't mind me asking, um… wh-who is he…?" she spoke, her voice shaking a little.

Cream proudly stood up and spread her arms wide, a big smile on her face.

"This is my friend Chris from Planet Earth!" she introduced, before she giggled nervously. Chris smiled despite the attention momentarily being on him once again.

The girl looked thoughtful for a moment. "I never heard of Earth before," she said quietly, before looking down again. "I hope they don't get there…"

Tails' ears twitched, and he looked up from his work.

"I, um… know you didn't wanna talk earlier," he said, looking directly at the girl, "but Sonic's here now, so… is it okay if you can tell us what's going on?"

The girl took a deep breath.

"Y-Yes," she said. "I'm very sorry I didn't tell you earlier, it's just…" She glanced around the room, which was completely quiet except for the ticking of the clock on the wall. "M-Maybe I should start at the beginning," she said. "Okay… My name is Cosmo, and I'm… I'm a Seedrian, a flora species."

"I didn't know there were plant people too," Chris blurted before he could stop himself. Of course, he said that in a whisper, but to his surprise and dismay, Cosmo heard him anyway, and she looked a bit taken aback.

"Is… that a bad thing?" she asked hesitantly. Chris shook his head; he didn't mean for it to come off that way.

"S-Sorry…" he whispered as he sunk deeper into his oversized clothes. At least no one would have to see his blushing face anymore.

"It's nothing personal, he was just curious," Amy reassured her, and I nodded as Amy motioned for Cosmo to go on with her story.

"I saw the whole fight from here," Cosmo spoke. "My nightmare is coming true across the whole galaxy." She took a shaky breath. "They say the stars are going out one by one. This planet is just another star to the Metarex."

"I remember you mentioning the name 'Metarex' before," Amy recalled. Cosmo slowly nodded.

"Yes, the robotic monster you and your allies were fighting is part of an army of them called the Metarex. There are millions of them from what I hear, and they're all attacking and conquering planets across the universe. Many people… even m-my own race… tried to fight them before… but no one survives against them."

Cosmo paused for a moment, reflecting on her own words, before continuing.

"When they conquer planets, they steal their Planet Eggs," she explained.

"Oh, was that what that glowing thing was?" Amy said in realization.

"It was," Cosmo said. "They are like the hearts of planets. They are the crystallized form of a planet's life force. And the Metarex are stealing them, because they have no soul."

There was another moment of silence as everyone watched Cosmo, different thoughts running through their heads concerning all this.

"I don't know why they're doing this…" she said, her voice becoming increasingly strained with emotion. "Whole solar systems are dying because of them." She looked up. "Did… Did the ground look like it was dead?"

"Dead?" Amy repeated, before realization hit her and she leaned forward a bit. "Oh… I didn't think of it that way… Yeah, everything looked burned really bad, and the ground was dry and cracked, if that's what you're talking about."

"It is," Cosmo explained. "When they came here and stole this planet's Planet Egg… they killed this planet. Without it… I don't think it can ever go back to the way it was before."

"Hey, I hate to interrupt," Knuckles spoke up from next to the front door, "but how'd you know to come here and tell us all this?"

"Um, I don't know if you know this already…" Cosmo said, looking up at the echidna, "but the legend of Sonic the Hedgehog has spread throughout the universe. Everyone says he can control the seven lights, and great monsters have fallen before him. That's why I know deep down that he is the only hope to save the universe."

Tails lowered his screwdriver and looked up from his project as the room fell silent again.

"I'll tell Sonic everything you said as soon as he wakes up," he said solemnly. Cosmo sniffed as she tried her hardest to hold back tears.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "I-I don't know how I'm here right now. I… I thought I wasn't going to make it, because…" she paused, before closing her eyes. "I'm all alone…"

"It'll be okay, Cosmo," Cream said sympathetically from her seat in the dining room. "You're here now, and you have new friends."

"I appreciate that," she said, not making eye contact as tears started to form in her eyes. "B-But that's not what I meant. The Metarex… after they destroyed my home planet… they came for my family…"

A sob finally escaped from her as she buried her face in her hands.

"I… I-I… I'm the… l-last Seedrian alive…!"

Fully consumed by her grief, Cosmo was reduced to a sobbing mess. It only took less than three seconds for Amy to scoot off the couch and reach over to give her a hug. Cream ran over into the living room with Cheese and Chocola, and they joined the hug.

"Awww…" Cream said, not knowing how to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry…" Amy said softly.

Cosmo took a shaky breath, unable to calm down. It sounded like she had been holding onto this stress for quite a while, because this was the first time anyone had seen her cry this hard since she arrived.

"I don't want anyone to ever go through what I went through…!" they heard her say between sobs.

For about a minute or so, Amy, Cream, and the two Chao comforted Cosmo as she cried her heart out in the living room of the small house. Vanilla joined in, making sure the young plant girl felt safe and welcome. Tails got up and stood near them, while Knuckles looked on from the doorway. Chris, on the other hand, didn't move from his chair, simply watching the scene and trying to make sense of everything.

Cosmo whispered something to Vanilla that no one else was able to pick up, and the rabbit looked up from Cosmo and faced the room.

"All right, everyone, Cosmo told me that she would like to have some space to herself," she said.

"Okay," Amy said with a nod as she hopped off the couch. "Come on, Cream."

With a nod, Cream got off the couch, and led the way into the back of the house, followed by the two Chao. Amy beckoned Tails and Chris to come too, and they disappeared from sight. Knuckles started to follow them, but he stopped and slowly looked back at Cosmo.

"…I've been through that same ordeal myself," he said quietly, and Cosmo looked up in surprise. Knuckles turned to fully face her as he approached. "May I sit here?"

Cosmo had a blank expression, before she quickly shook herself out of it and nodded. The echidna sat on the section of the couch that was previously occupied by Amy.

"A year and a half ago, I was in a war," he began. "I was the leader of a resistance group, and we were fighting against a dictator who took over most of the planet. Now I was the last of my kind, the world's only echidna. All the other echidnas died of either war, or famine, or disease, or whatever else, leaving just me. I'm used to it, because being by myself is all I've known. It gives me time to reflect. So I was fighting in the war, and then I met Julie-Su. She was an echidna mercenary. And this shocked me, because I thought all the echidnas died out. I had no idea there had been another echidna on this planet the whole time. We ended up finding a connection, and… and we made a promise to continue the echidna tribe once the war was over… But then one day, the war took her from me, and I became the last of my kind again… for real this time."

Knuckles sounded unusually somber, and the room was quiet as Cosmo listened to him.

"I'm sorry…" was all she could say as she glanced down.

"Don't be," Knuckles said in the same soft tone. "What's past is past. I mean, I still think about it, and it still hurts… but I'm over it for the most part."

He leaned forward in his seat, slightly closer to Cosmo, his hands on his knees.

"I didn't tell you all this to get sympathy, but I felt I needed to tell you because I'm the last of my kind too. Trust me, I know what it's like to walk this world alone."

Cosmo blinked as she took all this information in, and she wiped away her tears on the sleeve of her dress. Something did not compute with her. These were animal people, her natural enemy, so she had been told. Why were they helping her and sympathizing with her, a plant person?

However, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that if Sonic was a hero she could rely on, then so were his friends, even if they were fauna. Maybe she could eventually learn to trust them more. And if Knuckles was the last of his kind too, then perhaps she might not feel so alone anymore.

It was a long road for her, and she needed to learn to take it one step at a time.


Cream's house – Chris' POV

On top of my embarrassment, I was now confused about everything that was going on. I didn't think things would get this complicated, and I hadn't even been on Mobius for a full hour. I could only hope this wasn't just the beginning of what I could expect during my time on Mobius.

Sure, I understood Cosmo's plight and emotions, but at the same time, I felt like I was left out of the loop for some reason. So I was grateful when Vanilla asked us to give Cosmo some space. It would give me a breath of fresh air I finally needed.

We passed the bathroom and followed Cream into her bedroom, which was neatly decorated. It definitely looked like the kind of bedroom I would expect a little girl to have, and now that I thought about it, it looked similar to the one Cream had back home on Earth. For modesty's sake, we left the door open, which was something I already knew to do.

"You can sit on the bed, Mr. Chris," Cream said sweetly, and I took her invitation and sat down as the others gathered around me. The room was quiet, but outside I could faintly hear Knuckles and Cosmo talking about something I couldn't pick up.

"I know you have a lot of questions," Amy started, "so we'll start at the beginning. Tails, since you were there in person, do you wanna go first?"

Tails nodded. "We were all fighting a giant robot earlier – I think that's what Cosmo called a 'Metarex' – and Sonic apparently used too much energy earlier, which is why he fainted," he explained.

"D-Did I come at a bad time?" I asked, and I was suddenly alarmed to hear my real voice coming out of my mouth. I blushed hard; they heard my cringey kid voice! In fact, I didn't know which was worse between that and the fact that they didn't react the way I thought they would when they heard it.

"Not at all!" Amy said with a bright smile. "In fact, it's really encouraging to have you here with us now."

"When I was flying us here, I was thinking the whole time, it's really impressive that it took you just six months to make the portal," Tails said, his name sakes wagging excitedly. "I'm actually shocked to see you here this fast!" He winked encouragingly at me, holding up a finger. "I knew you could do it!"

"Six months…?" I whispered, not daring to use my real voice, and Tails nodded enthusiastically. "No wonder no one looks any older here."

Tails chuckled. "Well, to be fair, we did look like this for the past thirty or so years, as long as I can remember," he said. I shrugged; I didn't know how that worked, but I figured I would just take his word for it.

"And you don't look any older either, Chris," Amy said, glancing me up and down. "But then again, it has only been six months."

"Actually, um… it's been six years," I corrected. "I'm… I'm actually nineteen now."

Everyone stood there shocked as they stared at me in disbelief. Their jaws dropped, and Tails in particular looked horrified. I felt my heart starting to sink.

"But you still look so young…!" Cream finally said, breaking the stunned silence.

"Yeah, you don't look a day over thirteen!" Amy added. "How did that happen?!"

"I can't believe we missed six birthdays!" Tails exclaimed, grabbing his head in shock. "I'm so sorry!"

I was about to speak when Amy beat me to it.

"Y'know, that would explain the oversized clothes," she commented. I nodded, still shocked about everything myself.

Tails looked up, recovering from his initial shock. "So what happened when you teleported?" he asked me.

I took a deep breath, debating if I should whisper or use my normal voice, but I decided to grin and bear it this time.

"I sent a drone in the portal to make sure it worked, and it did, but for some reason, the video showed everything going in super slow motion… I didn't think about that too much when I went in, but… I don't what happened to make me like this again…"

I looked down at my now-baggy pants, ashamed to look up again. I couldn't maintain my voice anymore, I was cringing so much.

"I'm… r-really embarrassed…" I admitted in a whisper.

"What's wrong?" I heard Cream ask. She didn't know what happened to me, and come to think of it, neither did anyone else. I had to tell them.

"M-My voice…" I croaked. My cheeks were a bright red as I blushed hard, and I had to look away from my friends. The air was cool outside, but the room had never felt hotter.

"I don't understand," Cream said. "You have a lovely voice, Mr. Chris."

"Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it," Amy assured me.

"Well, you did say you're nineteen now," Tails told them, "but what I don't get is how you shrunk in age. I mean… I know that six years passed on your world and six months passed here, but… I don't see how else it could have happened. And… And about your voice… I can see how shrinking in age would affect it, and you're probably not used to sounding like a kid again… And I think that explains why you're going to trauma." He paused for a moment, and I glanced back up. "Is that right?"

I nodded, and Tails did his best to offer me a gentle smile.

"Um… If you're worried about what we think about," he said softly, "don't be. We don't know what you sound like as an adult, so we're not bothered."

"Hey," Amy told me, gently patting my back as she sat down on the bed next to me, "you don't have to talk if it really makes you that uncomfortable. But we'll be right here in case you want to tell us something, I promise."

"Thank you…" I whispered. While I knew it was my actual voice from when I was thirteen, it didn't sound like it at the same time, which was another reason why I was so hesitant to talk to anyone.

"I'll be right back," Cream said as she stepped out of the room. Cheese and Chocola stayed in her room with us.

"No one's going to judge you," Amy reassured me, looking up at me. "In fact, they'll probably just see you like any other kid."

"But that's the thing, I'm not a kid," I said, my real voice cracking through just a little like sunlight through a storm. "…Not anymore…"

"Don't worry about it," Amy said with an easygoing smile. "You've always been mature all the same."

Tails nodded his own agreement.

"So how's your family doing?" Amy asked eagerly.

"Yeah, how's is Grandpa?" Tails added, almost too excitedly. "Did he make any new inventions lately?"

"They're doing good," I said quietly, almost managing to suppress a chuckle. "Grandpa's still making inventions and everything, but lately he's been really busy with stuff related to the portal. Mom and Dad are around a lot more now than they were back then."

"I'm really happy to hear that," Amy said with a smile. "I know you were really worried about them."

"Yeah…" I sighed. It was a rough patch in my life that I had finally overcome now. "Um… As soon as I can, I wanna go back in the portal and bring my other friends here too so they can see Mobius. I… I'm kinda not supposed to be here until tomorrow morning so we could all go together… I got a bit too excited," I said, suppressing a chuckle.

"Hey, it's okay," Tails said. "I don't blame you; I get really excited too whenever I finish my biggest projects."

"Oh, speaking of your friends, how's Helen? Are you and her a thing yet?" Amy asked excitedly.

I was just about to answer her when Tails' ears twitched at a distant sound, and he looked in the direction of the doorway. I followed his gaze to see Cream returning to us.

"Okay, Miss Cosmo says it's okay to come out now," she announced.

"Is she doing okay?" Tails asked as we got ready to leave the room.

"I hope so…" Cream said. "I'm worried about her…"

"We all are…" Amy said in an equally sad tone as she turned the light off behind us, "but I'll tell you what, we're gonna do our best to help her, just like we helped Chris."

"I'll do my best too!" Cream agreed as we made our way back into the living room.

When we stepped back into the room, I saw that Cosmo was the only one there, and she was sitting on the couch. Her eyes were closed, as if she was deep in thought. A wonderful aroma was coming from the kitchen, and I immediately knew that Vanilla was cooking something for us.

"Where did Knuckles go…?" Amy asked, looking around the room.

"He left a few minutes ago," Vanilla replied from the kitchen. "He said he had to return to the Master Emerald."

"And he didn't even say goodbye?" Amy rolled her eyes before letting out a sigh. "Well, that's Knuckles for you…"

The room was quiet after that, and while I could tell that Cosmo was still feeling uneasy and on edge over everything that had happened to her, and I couldn't blame her. Meanwhile, I felt like the elephant in the room with my baggy clothes and horribly cringe voice, so I took a seat in the dining room as far away from everyone as I could.

The only sounds were Vanilla preparing what smelled like vegetable soup from the kitchen, as well as the ticking of the clock on the wall, which I looked at. To my surprise, it was almost 11pm. I was used to being a night owl, especially during the last year I spent working on the portal, so I wasn't too tired yet.

"Hang on for just a little longer, Chris," Vanilla told me. "As soon as the soup's done, I'll go ahead and make you some new clothes. They'll be ready for you by morning."

I nodded my thanks, not wanting to risk speaking in front of anyone.

"Oh! Speaking of clothes," Amy said excitedly, "I was thinking, we should totally get you some new outfits tomorrow as well! You're gonna need plenty of different choices for as long as you're here, and then you can take them back with you whenever you go back to Earth."

"Okay," I whispered, a small smile forming. I had to admit, her enthusiasm and confidence were both contagious. Amy stepped back toward the hall where we had come from.

"I'm gonna check up on Sonic real quick, I'll be right back," she said quietly as she disappeared from sight.

I guess I have my tomorrow planned… I thought. I wasn't used to going clothes shopping with girls, because I usually went with Ella and more recently Mom to pick up my clothes for any occasion, and others were tailor-made for me, although those were for much rarer occasions. Meanwhile, I knew Amy was the type to shop until she dropped, so shopping with her would be a whole new experience for me. Regardless, I was grateful for the opportunity as well as her hospitality.

My eyes wandered to the living room, where Tails was once again working on fixing Gemerl. Only now did I have a good look at him, and his name didn't lie; he looked a lot like Emerl. I heard a lot about him from Cream and Vanilla, although this was my first time seeing him in person.

"How is Gemerl?" Cream asked as she sat in the living room and watched her friend work.

"It looks like the damage is worse than I thought, but I'm doing what I can with what I have here," Tails responded. He glanced up at the clock before returning to his work. "I know it's late, but I think I'm gonna take him to my workshop and work on him there overnight."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cosmo slowly leaning toward Tails.

"What's wrong with Chris?" she whispered, and I was surprised I could hear her from across the room.

Here we go again…

Tails leaned a little closer to Cosmo. "He came here through a portal, but for some reason, it made him younger, and he's struggling to adapt to his kid voice again."

"Oh…"

I was sure it was probably a lot for Cosmo to digest, on top of everything she was going through. I wanted to do something to help her, but I had my own problems to deal with.

I heard footsteps, and Amy made her way back into the living room.

"Sonic's awake," she called softly.

Cosmo immediately looked up in anticipation, before she crawled off the couch and followed Amy into the other room. Tails stood up and joined them, and so did Cream, leaving me alone once again.

Over the next several minutes, I could hear hushed voices in the other room as everyone tolf Sonic who Cosmo was and about the Metarex, which helped to break my thoughtful silence as I sat there waiting for my soup.

Why couldn't I just adapt to what used to be my normal voice? Even it was cringey, it was still my voice. And Tails was right earlier; no one ever heard my adult voice before, but I was way too self-conscious about it.

I knew I was the only one who could make myself adjust to my kid voice again. Even though I was a kid on the outside, I was still an adult on the inside. I could take care of this on my own.

…Or could I?

And it wasn't just my voice. My whole body felt weird compared to how it was over an hour ago, like it was missing some things. My skin was smoother and missing hair, and my face was completely clean-shaven. And while I may have had the same kind of flexibility I had six years ago, I didn't feel the same kind of youthfulness I had when I was thirteen. So in a way, Amy was right about me looking like any other kid, only I didn't have their energy anymore.

Eventually we all had a late dinner and enjoyed some of Vanilla's homemade chocolate chip cookies (I didn't realize how much I missed her cooking) before my friends had to head back to their homes for the night. Amy left first, and Sonic and Tails followed suit, carrying Gemerl with them. They promised they would stop by first thing tomorrow morning.

Now that the house was quiet again, Vanilla got to work setting up accommodations for both me and Cosmo which I noticed was somewhat difficult for her. I would sleep in Vanilla's room while she slept on the couch, and Cream offered for Cosmo to sleep in her room with her mom's permission. Vanilla allowed it, and Cosmo accepted.

Now that our accommodations were set, it remained to be seen if I would get any sleep that night. The first chance I got, I was going to return home to get my friends. I didn't want them worrying about me. But I couldn't shake the bad feeling that was forming in my stomach.

I had a feeling I was probably in too deep.


Angel Island – Third-person POV

Letting out a yawn, Knuckles touched back down on Angel Island and began his trek back to the Master Emerald. He had not expected this level of excitement tonight, and now he had a lot on his plate to deal with. Cosmo seemed to be feeling a little better after his talk with her, and Chris was still struggling with his new old body.

He had seen a drone emerge from seemingly nowhere earlier that night. He was just about to smash it with his fist when it disappeared again, back behind the Master Emerald. Now that he thought about it, that drone actually went inside the Master Emerald, and it must have belonged to Chris, because he emerged shortly afterward. He was probably using it as a test probe .

However, as Knuckles walked through the forest, he realized that something wasn't right about the air. This high up, there was almost always a constant breeze. But today, he wasn't feeling anything. He stopped in his tracks and held his arms out to feel the breeze on his furry arms, only it didn't come. The air was strangely stagnant. Furthermore, Angel Island was in the exact place he left it when he set out to the fight the Metarex warrior.

Is this what happened when the Planet Egg got removed?

He felt a sudden sense of panic and bolted forward, pushing his way through the undergrowth as he took the shortest route to the Master Emerald that he could find.

They BETTER not have touched the Master Emerald–

He let out a sign of relief when he saw that the familiar green glow on top of the altar was still there. He stopped and looked at it for a moment before he ascended the stone steps. He kept his gaze on its pristine surface, where he had seen it ripple for a moment before Chris stepped through. Yet he didn't see a portal appear. It was like he simply stepped out of the Master Emerald from the inside, like he had seen Tikal do in the past. No, there was nothing there but the Master Emerald. He did not feel any other kind of energy disturbance.

Speaking of disturbances, Knuckles sensed the presence of someone behind him. He whirled around just in time to see Rouge slipping down from the top of the shrine.

"Hey there, handsome," she greeted, although she wasn't as flirtatious as she usually was tonight.

"Oh, it's you," Knuckles said, too tired to come up with a comeback.

"Real talk, I'm not here for the Master Emerald this time," she said as she leaned against one of the shrine's ancient pillars, "buuuut I will say, I'm seriously tempted right now. No, I wanna say a little Flicky told me that all the Chaos Emeralds are gone."

Knuckles closes his eyes and crossed his arms as the familiar annoyance seeped in once again.

"Sonic thought it was a good idea to throw them all out in space somewhere," he sulked.

"He thought that was a good idea, huh?" Rouge said, not sounding impressed. "Doesn't he know how hard they are to find? Well… Lately they don't seem to be as hard to find in this age of Chaos energy scanners, but… it's outer space we're talking about."

"Yeah," Knuckles huffed, glancing at the ground. "I've had a long night. First the Metarex show up, then Chris, and now Cosmo."

Rouge smirked. "Hmm, I can tell you've had a fun night tonight. Lots of new faces, and a familiar one, and they all seem to be having it rough in one way or another."

Knuckles narrowed his eyes. "So you admit you were spying on us again, huh? Why doesn't this surprise me anymore?"

"Well, you know me," Rouge said, suppressing a chuckle, "I'm a treasure trove of information, it's almost as big as my jewel collection."

Knuckles facepalmed. Of course she had to brag about her collection tonight.

"Ring for your thoughts?" Knuckles asked, looking up again.

Rouge's smirk faded. "Well, to me, this sounds like the Phantom War all over again… but somehow it's much worse. And I don't know about you, but I can't rest easy knowing that all the Emeralds are up there in space where the Metarex can get their hands on them."

"Of course not, with you being a jewel thief and all," Knuckles stated.

"Now, Knuckles, there's a time and place for that," Rouge chided.

And then Knuckles realized what she was implying.

"So are you implying that we go out in space to find the Emeralds?" he asked, sounding unsure of himself, not to mention surprised at what was now coming out of his mouth.

"Well, hear me out," Rouge said, leaning against the pillar behind her. "I know the Kingdom of Acorn has been partnering with the United Federation to make spaceships back in the Phantom War, so if we ask nicely, maaayybe we can get a ride." She placed one hand on her hip. "Actually, I'm above asking nicely, but maybe we could go together and–"

"No way! I'm taken by the Master Emerald!" Knuckles blurted. A smirk played across Rouge's muzzle.

"Is that so…?" she said smoothly. "It's funny how you don't take it out to fancy restaurants with you. Seriously, treat a girl every once in a while."

Knuckles glanced away, trying to suppress a blush.

"I don't mean it that way and you know it…!" He glanced at the Master Emerald next to him. "The Master Emerald is my sacred duty, I don't have time for–"

But when he looked back at Rouge, she was gone. He didn't even feel the wind generated by the flapping of her wings. He let out an annoyed sigh.

"It's just like her to get the information she wants and take off, while I'm speaking no less…!" he spoke to no one in particular.

Now that he was alone again, he leaned against the giant green gem in the center of the altar and closed his eyes. He at least had his thoughts to keep him company, and they gradually returned to Chris and Cosmo.

He certainly didn't want to be in Chris' shoes, but his situation wasn't nearly as bad as what Cosmo was going through. She seemed so weak and frail, and she had lost literally everything. He was grateful that she was in the right hands.

He tried to suppress a yawn. He needed all the sleep he could get, because he was sure tomorrow was going to be a busy day, whatever it would bring.


Cream's house – Chris' POV

I nearly forgot where I was when I opened my eyes the next morning, until I realized that the bedroom I was in was not mine. As I slowly sat up, I realized how baggy my clothes felt, and only then did I remember that my body had regressed six years.

It wasn't a dream…

However, as my senses adjusted, I picked up the welcoming scent of pancakes and bacon. That was more than enough incentive for me to begin my day.

I slipped out of bed, almost forgetting that nearly all the furniture and appliances in the house looked smaller compared to Earth, because they were made for Mobian use. At least I didn't have to duck under the doorway, and it was further helped by the fact that I was physically smaller now.

I was just about to leave the room when I happened to see a neatly folded pile of clothes on the chair next to the bed. My heart skipped a beat; I instantly recognized them as the red shirt and blue pants I always loved to wear as a kid. To my surprise, it even included a clean pair of socks, underwear, and shoes. When I took a closer look, I saw that the sneakers looked almost exactly like my old ones that I had long since outgrown.

On top of the pile was a note from Vanilla, which said she hoped the clothes fit well and she made them to the best of her memory. I was surprised; her memory was really incredible since for her, it had been six months since she last saw me.

With feelings of nostalgia, gratefulness, and a little bit of embarrassment, I took my clothes to the bathroom to change. I never thought I would ever be wearing them again. I had outgrown my old outfit when I was 14, and although I had gotten a lot of new outfits since then, I always associated my red shirt and blue cargo pants with the time my alien friends spent on Earth.

Except this time, I was the alien now. Fortunately, now that I had time to myself, I realized that my situation was better than my friends' since I knew there were other humans on Mobius, whereas there weren't any Mobians on Earth. No one would ever know that I was an alien, unless someone were to ask for my information like an ID or address.

Did Mobian houses have addresses?

I slipped the last of my clothes on and took a moment to check myself out in the mirror. I looked exactly the way I did when I last saw Sonic on Earth. It was uncanny. And yet my mind was a lot more mature than I was at that age. I had learned and done so much in the last six years.

Turning off the light, I opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom. When I passed through the hall and into the living room, I saw that the others were already up. Vanilla and Cream were both cooking breakfast in the kitchen, while Cosmo sat in the living room, obviously deep in thought. She and Vanilla looked like they didn't get much sleep last night, while Cream looked just as energetic as ever.

"Good morning, dear," Vanilla said with a smile as she was frying some bacon on a pan.

"Good morning, Mr. Chris!" Cream called as she flipped a pancake on the griddle.

"How are your new clothes?" Vanilla asked.

"I really like them," I quietly said, suddenly feeling self-conscious of my voice again. "They're exactly like the ones I used to wear all the time. Thank you!"

"You're very welcome, Chris," Vanilla warmly responded.

I paused. "So you made all these?"

Vanilla nodded. "I was up for most of the night putting them together from memory," she said.

Wow… she must have a REALLY great memory…

"Even the shoes?"

Vanilla chuckled. "Those I bought from a store in the next town over, along with the rest of your clothes. I'm lucky they open very early, and I barely made it back before you woke up. I still remember you're a size 5 from all those years ago."

I chuckled nervously; she had a scary good memory. But more importantly, I was very grateful to her for going through all these lengths for me. But then I started to wonder, if I made it back to Earth and I grew back to normal size, either my clothes would restrict me from growing, or more realistically, they would rip off of me, and to be completely honest, I didn't want to think about that.

Chocola was still resting, while Cheese was helping with some odd jobs in the kitchen, as well as setting the dining room table. And since I still wasn't ready to talk to Cosmo since I knew she wanted space, I sat down in the dining room, taking in my surroundings and looking outside now that it was daytime. Now I could see Mobius in all its glory, at least from where I was sitting inside a friend's house.

I planned to return to Earth as soon as I could and get my three human friends; I knew they would be beneficial to helping us in whatever adventures I was being thrust into next.


Cream's house – Third-person POV

Over the next fifteen minutes, Sonic, Tails, and Amy arrived, just as they said they would before they left last night. Cream invited them over for breakfast, and Sonic wanted to check up on Cosmo.

To Cream's delight, Tails revealed that he had fully repaired Gemerl, and sure enough, the robot brought up the rear and stepped through the door, and Cream and Cheese ran over and gave him a big hug. They had missed their robot friend and guardian, and they were admittedly worried about him last night after his fight with the Metarex warrior.

The group of friends enjoyed a hearty breakfast together, and Vanilla was glad she made just enough food for everyone. Cosmo was quiet for the most part, barely speaking except to ask a few questions about the planet they were on and what it was like. Since Chris had never been there either, he was listening intently to the conversation. He couldn't lie; he was very excited.

As the conversation shifted to Chris and how he had been doing for the past six years, Sonic took note of how quiet Cosmo was. He knew she was hurting a lot right now, but deep down, he was determined to help her open up a bit more.

"Don't forget, we're going shopping today, Chris!" Amy cheerfully spoke up. "I'll be ready as soon as we finish cleaning up."

"Okay," Chris quietly said, once again cringing. He kept telling himself he would get used to it, especially since he spent more time in his kid body than he did in his adult body. But he didn't know if he really would.

"It won't do for you to have just one pair of clothes," Amy added with a wink in his direction. "Plus, this is a great opportunity to show you around Mobius a little bit. And Cosmo, you should come too, since this is your first time on Mobius too!"

A few minutes later, Chris swallowed the last of his pancakes and stacked his dishes on top of each other.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" he politely asked.

"That's all right dear, I can take care of the dishes myself," Vanilla replied from the kitchen. "But you can bring them in and I'll pop them into the dishwasher."

"Okay," Chris said as he carefully carried the dishes into the kitchen and placed them on the counter. Then he stepped through the door and out into the beautiful and tranquil front yard, where Cream and Cosmo were.

Cream was playing with Cheese and Chocola, while Cosmo was quietly standing there looking around. Even though Chris didn't know the full extent of the damage the Planet Egg's removal had done, everywhere he and Cosmo looked, it appeared to be untouched, despite the lack of wind and clouds. As a result, it was unusually humid.

Chris couldn't help but stand there in awe. Green Hill Zone was exactly as Sonic had described.

It truly lived up to its name, since there were rolling green hills everywhere, and the occasional palm tree that dotted the landscape among the other greenery. There were also checkered plateaus in the distance, along with loop-dee-loops that looked like they blended into the terrain, just like Sonic had told him about.

Speaking of the blue speedster, Chris was able to see a blue pass through one of the loops. Not even a second later, Sonic was standing in front of the house. The first person he saw was Cosmo, who seemed to notice him out of the corner of her eye but didn't say anything.

"You good, Cosmo?" Sonic asked her.

The Seedrian was quiet for a moment, before taking a deep breath and turning to face him. She had a sincere look in her eyes.

"Why… is everyone being so nice to me…?"

Sonic's features relaxed. It was clear he was not expecting that question, but at the very least, it was a sign that she was slowly starting to open up, or so he hoped. He offered her a smile, hoping it would calm her nerves.

"Simple," he responded confidently. "That's just who we are."

"B-But you're fauna," Cosmo spoke hesitantly, processing every word she said. "All of you are fauna. And fauna are responsible in part for… for the destruction of all Seedrian-kind." She looked down, holding one arm with her other. "At least… that's what I was told…"

"Sounds like a bunch of baloney if ya ask me," Sonic said, slowly pacing in the yard. "I don't know what all you went through before… before the Metarex… but I can guarantee you that not everyone's out to get you. Listen, you knew to come find me. The way you told us about it last night, it was like instinct. We never met until last night, but you trusted me with your life even though I'm a… uh… whatever a fauna is." He looked directly at her. "Say… How'd you find out about me, anyway?"

"Nearly everyone knows about you where I'm from," Cosmo spoke, her voice shaking a little. "Y-You're a legend…! In fact… some Seedrians even thought you were just a myth… But I know you're not, you defeated the Xorda! Everyone feared them… but you defeated them…!" Her eyes were closed, and she was speaking from her heart, starting to feel a bit more confident now.

"I heard everything you told me last night," Sonic said, stretching is arms and legs in anticipation. "There's no way I'm gonna stand still and let the Metarex get away with killing planets. I don't care why they're doing it, I'm gonna get up there and make sure they stop." He paused mid-rant. "Don't know if anyone told you yet, but you were super brave to come all the way out here to tell me all this."

"I… had no choice," Cosmo admitted, looking down again. "I didn't think the Metarex would come for us as soon as they did. We… We were all living on a colony ship, looking for a new planet to call home and find a way to defeat the Metarex… but nothing ever worked for us, a-and now…"

It was clear that she was thinking about her family again, and she looked like she could cry all over again. She was trying her hardest to hold it together. She wiped her tears away and earnestly looked up at Sonic.

"Th-This planet is beautiful," she told him. "I don't want to see the Metarex destroy it…!"

"Hey…" Sonic said softly, gently patting the Seedrian's back. She flinched in surprise for a moment, but immediately relaxed again. "No tears, everything's gonna be okay. They may have taken the Planet Egg, but they haven't taken my fighting spirit. I'll make the Metarex regret ever crossing paths with me!"

"But you don't have the Chaos Emeralds," Cosmo pointed out.

"Huh… You know about the Emeralds too?" Sonic asked in surprise, and Cosmo nodded. Sonic shrugged in response. "Don't need 'em. Sure, it would be nice to have 'em in a pinch, but I'm plenty strong on my own without the Emeralds." He started pacing in thought again. "I kinda let my guard down last night, so if you're wondering why I spent most of the night out cold… that's why. I needed the Emeralds to fight some robot monster, and he brought a whole bunch of ships with him. Oh yeah, he was fighting with a golden sword too."

Cosmo gasped. "That was Dark Oak…! Th-That was their leader you fought with!"

Sonic stopped mid-pace. He was thoughtful over this.

"Huh… Wasn't expecting them to bring out the big guns so early… Guess I was a bigger threat than they thought."

"Did he hurt you?" Cosmo cautiously asked.

"Not really," Sonic said with a shrug. "I get tired if I fight a lot when I go super. Me and this Dark Oak guy ended up fighting to a standstill, and well… it kinda used up all my energy." He paused to ponder his words carefully, before looking up thoughtfully at the sky. "He was the first opponent I couldn't beat in my super form."

Even though Sonic didn't tell her the whole story now, he didn't want her to worry about him any more than she was already. Besides, he had gotten all his energy back, along with his confidence.

His ears twitched at a sound, and he looked over to see the door opening. Tails stepped out of the house, followed by Amy, who closed the door behind them, and they made their way over to Sonic.

"Hey, guys!" Sonic said with a wave.

"You still doing okay after last night, Sonic?" Tails asked, looking up at his big brother.

"Yup, I feel good as new today!" Sonic said, flexing his arm muscles, a confident grin on his muzzle. "I'm feeling up to kicking some serious Metarex butt!"

"P-Please don't underestimate them," Cosmo told Sonic, sounding a bit fearful. "I… Y-You're the galaxy's only hope, but they'll see you as nothing more than another blade of grass to mow."

"He's not alone," Amy said in determination as she stepped forward, smiling confidently at Cosmo. "He's got me, Tails, Cream, and Knuckles, and Chris too. We're with him all the way!"

"Amy's right," Cream said she too walked forward and joined her friends. "We're a team!"

"Chao chao!" Cheese agreed.

However, Cosmo blinked in confusion. She had not seen them in action before, despite claiming last night that she saw the whole fight from the window. She only really saw the smoke from the fire as well as the sky being lit up by red lightning.

Sonic chuckled. "Trust me, you'll believe it when you see it. And besides, deep down, you know you already believe because you came here to tell us about the Metarex, right?"

Cosmo paused, her mouth opening slightly as she realized the hedgehog was right. She trusted him and his friends deep down, even if she didn't realize it at the time. Even if they were fauna, they were heroes.

But only one question remained now.

"Um… I just realized… we don't have a spaceship… so how are we supposed to go in space…?"

Sonic creased his brow. He didn't exactly think about that. But it was okay because Amy suddenly piped up.

"Tails has a spaceship!" she declared.

"The Blue Typhoon?" Tails asked, and Amy nodded. "Well…" He rubbed behind his head as he thought aloud. "I haven't used that since the Phantom War, and to be honest, I haven't really been maintaining it all that much since the war ended. However… it is the only vehicle that's gonna get us in space. It's gonna take a while to get it ready for takeoff, though."

"Then get the lead out of your shoes, 'cuz we got a universe to save!" Sonic declared, fist-pumping the air. "Outer space, here we come!"


Green Hill Zone – Third-person POV

Nearly forty minutes later, the group was making their way across the zone. Sonic was carrying Chris along the ground, while Tails flew across the grassy terrain in the Tornado with Cosmo, and Amy and Cream rode on the wing.

The south side of Green Hill Zone was not as populated as the rest of the zone, despite being close to the ocean. Its tranquil environment made for the perfect place for Sonic to get away to, as well as a more than suitable location for Tails to build his third workshop in. although it wasn't used as much as the ones he had at home and the Mystic Ruins. On the other hand, it was far bigger than his other two workshops.

When Tails landed on the small runway outside the workshop, he wasted no time jumping out of the plane. Cream hopped off the wing with Cheese and skillfully landed on the ground, and Amy helped Cosmo get down from her seat.

"C'mon, guys!" Tails excitedly called from the doorway of the workshop. The whole area was partially obscured by trees, a sign that the workshop's landscape hadn't been tended to in a while. However, the front door was fully uncovered, and the door was wide open as everyone made their way inside after Tails, who was already running through another doorway and down a flight of stairs.

"Hey, wait up, buddy!" Sonic called, and Amy chuckled. Usually it was the other way around, with Tails calling on Sonic to wait.

"How large is this spaceship?" Cosmo asked as she too started to head down the stairs.

Sonic winked at her. "You'll see," he said in a knowing tone.

The party of eight, including Cheese, made it to the bottom of the stairs and through another doorway, which opened up into what looked like a massive warehouse. Chris thought it resembled the inside of a Costco warehouse, except it had blue and yellow girders instead of orange and green ones.

"Okay, ready?" Tails called, an excited giggle emitting from him.

Without even waiting for an answer, he flicked a switch on the wall near the doorway, and the overhead lights activated, shining light across the entire room and illuminating a massive spaceship.

Being the only ones to never see the ship in person, Chris and Cosmo let out a gasp. Neither of them were prepared for how big it was. Even though Chris had seen pictures of it from when Tails showed him with his Miles Electric back on Earth, Cosmo had never seen it in any capacity before. It looked like it could comfortably fit the entire crew.

"I-It's… huge…!" Cosmo stammered. Tails chuckled at her and Chris' reaction to seeing the ship for the first time.

"This is the Blue Typhoon!" Tails proudly introduced. "984 feet from stem to stern, and it's equipped with state-of-the-art technology, and there's plenty of room inside for everyone, so it's gonna be perfect for long-term voyages!"

"Can't wait!" Sonic said with a grin, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

"Though… I never tried going on a long voyage in the Blue Typhoon, since I only used it when we were fighting in the Phantom War," Tails recalled. "It took a lot of heavy damage, but I was able to repair it. There might be a couple spots I missed, plus some of the tech could use some updating since it has been almost two years since then, but I can work on that later."

"I've been inside," Amy told Chris and Cosmo as she looked up at the massive vessel. "It's pretty big, sometimes a little easy to get lost in!" she added with a chuckle.

"We don't need to worry about that," Tails explained as he reached for a remote that was resting on a nearby shelf. "There are plenty of maps and signs inside so people will know where to go.

He pushed a button on the remote, and there was a small hissing sound coming from the section of the Typhoon that was closest to him. Cosmo flinched and took a step back. She felt a gentle hand on her back.

"It's all right," Amy quietly reassured her.

They watched as the side of the ship started to open up, and a ramp slowly descended out of the ship toward them. About eight seconds later, it made contact with the ground. Tails had been watching the process carefully.

"Okay, good, it's not rusty or anything…" he mused to himself before he looked up excitedly at his friends. "C'mon, I'll show you around!"

"I'm excited!" Cream said, doing a small dance of joy with Cheese before she followed Tails and the others up the ramp. "This will be my first time inside!"

"…Wait, I thought you all were inside before," Chris said in confusion, once again speaking quietly.

"Just Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles," Tails answered as he reached the top of the ramp first. "No one else has been inside yet… until now!"

When the rest of Tails' friends entered the ship, they found themselves in a spacious hangar. It was large enough to fit several planes the size of the Tornado, as well as dozens of boxes of supplies that they would need for the trip.

Over the next fifteen minutes, the little fox showed his friends around the ship and went into painstaking detail about each room he had designed and their specifications, including but not limited to sleeping quarters for everyone, a dining room, a kitchen, a few spare rooms, and of course, the engine room and bridge. Sonic told Tails that they could turn one of the rooms into a hangout room for everyone with a couch and TV where they could play video games in between planets, and Tails was on board with that idea. This raised Chris' interest of what kind of video games Mobius had.

"There are a couple reasons why we can't take off right away," Tails said soon after he showed everyone around the bridge. Cosmo was visibly worried about this news; even though she was in the safety of people who could turn out to be new friends the way they were going, she didn't feel safe on a dying planet.

"First of all, the engines need to be modified to operate in space," Tails spoke, eyes closed and a finger in the air as he rambled. "It's currently designed to be a low-altitude flying fortress, kind of like the Egg Fleet ships, but it can't go in space with its current specs, so that's gonna take some time to fix. Second, and more importantly, the Blue Typhoon is designed to be powered by the Chaos Emeralds, but… we don't exactly have them with us right now."

"Maybe we can use the Master Emerald," Chris suggested.

Tails took a moment to think about that, his tails swaying rhythmically and almost hypnotically, before he looked up.

"I can't think of a better power source," Tails admitted thoughtfully. "The only issue with that is asking Knuckles for permission."

"Yeah, I don't see another way either," Sonic said, glancing around the bridge. "Nothing that would get us out in space fast enough. Do you got your comlink with you?"

"Always!" Tails replied as he held up his arm with his comlink attached. He tapped a few buttons and waited.

As Chris leaned against the wall, he noticed that Tails had since expanded the range on his comlinks like he always said he wanted to. However, knowing Tails, he was sure that was not the only upgrade he gave his communication device.

"Knux always takes forever to answer," Sonic said, tapping his foot impatiently.

"It's only been twenty seconds, Sonic. Relax," Amy told him. She was thoroughly used to this kind of impatience from the blue hedgehog by now.

"Yo, Tails, what's up?" Knuckles spoke from the other end of the comlink.

"We're getting the Blur Typhoon ready for takeoff," Tails explained, "and it needs Chaos Emeralds to run, but since we don't have them, would it be fine with you if we use the Master Emerald instead?"

The echidna displayed a wide range of emotions the whole time Tails was speaking, but he appeared to try to hide the fact that he was somewhat caught off guard by his request. He thought about it, but by the tone of his voice, he didn't sound entirely sure.

"I… Well… Normally I don't do this, you guys know this by now, but since it's for the fate of the universe, I'll allow it. But on one condition."

"Yeah?" Tails asked.

"You better save some action for me."

"Okay, deal!" Tails said with a laugh, rubbing the back of his head.

"Cool, I'll be down in a moment," Knuckles responded. "Where do I meet you guys?"

"Uh, in the Typhoon hangar in South Green Hill Zone," Tails quickly answered.

"All right, give me like ten minutes. That is, if Rouge doesn't intercept me on my way there or anything."

"You'll be fine," Amy told him. "Just keep a careful eye around you at all times."

"No need to tell me twice," Knuckles said. "Plus I was meditating this morning, and there's something I have to tell you. It's important."

Tails blinked, and his namesakes stopped moving for a moment. "What is it?"

Knuckles paused for a moment. "I think it's better if I tell you when I get there. It's kind of a lot, and…" He said something that only Sonic seemed to pick up on, since he was the closest to Tails.

"Oh, okay," Tails responded, his voice a little lower than usual. "Anyway, stay safe out there!"

"Will do," Knuckles said before he hung up. Tails lowered his arm as he ended the call on his end.

Chris was honestly impressed with that transaction. That was a lot easier than he thought, considering how protective Knuckles was with the Master Emerald.

"While we wait," Tails said, turning to leave the bridge, "I'll get to work upgrading the reactor and engines. I feel like that's first priority before we can go anywhere. Because like I said, it's designed for low-altitude but not for space yet.

"Good luck with that, Tails!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up as the fox left the bridge.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we should get you some new clothes, Chris!" Amy said. "It won't do for you to have just one outfit, right?"

Chris shook his head, mentally preparing himself for his upcoming shopping trip.

"And not just you, we should gather everything we're ever gonna need for our journey," Amy stated. "We need to be prepared for anything!" She smiled at Cosmo. "And you should totally come along too, Cosmo!" she invited. "This is the last time we're gonna see Mobius for a while after all."

The faintest ghost of a smile crossed Cosmo's face.

"Okay," she said, looking at Amy. "It would be nice to see more of your planet."

"You wanna come too, Cream?" Amy asked, looking at her other friend.

"Yes please!" Cream responded with an enthusiastic nod.

"Chao chao!" Cheese added.

Amy couldn't control her excited smile, and Cream and Chris knew how much she loved her shopping sprees, and she always said they were a lot better when her friends came along. The more, the merrier, she liked to say.

"All right, let's get going!" Amy rallied as she led her friends off the bridge and toward the ship's hangar. "I know a spectacular mall in New Mobotropolis! You're gonna love it, guaranteed!"

"It's been a long time since we went there!" Cream said excitedly. She had a skip in her step, and Cheese shared her anticipation.

"Yeah, I know!" Amy agreed.

As Chris and the three girls made their way off the ship, Sonic ran down the stairs, sliding down the railing of the stairwell before zipping through the halls. Seconds later, he found Tails walking through one of the hallways on his way to the engine room

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic said as he caught up to Tails. "Kinda bored, anything I can help out with?"

But in all honesty, he didn't really know how to deal with technology, so anything Tails was about to do would have gone right over his head. He just wanted something to do.

"I'm gonna take a look at the engines and get them ready for space travel," Tails told him, "It shouldn't take too long since I made a lot of aircraft, but the Typhoon's gonna be a spacecraft now. And since we were in a few of Eggman's space shuttles before, I think I may have a rough idea of how to go about it… maybe…?" Tails shook his head before he looked up. "S-Sorry, I'm rambling again…"

"Heheh, you're good, little bud," Sonic said with a smile.

"O-Oh yeah, to answer your question, I'm not sure there's a lot you can do here, but there is something you can do. If you want, you can get the rooms ready for everyone while we wait for Knuckles."

Sonic nodded in approval. "Sounds good to me!" he said before sprinting down an adjacent hall.

Now that Sonic was gone, Tails continued on his way, and arrived at the engine room two minutes later. He flew across the room to save himself a few seconds, and landed next to the maintenance panel. Pulling out a screwdriver, he knelt down, unscrewed the panel, and studied the engines' inner workings. He quickly realized he was going to need some extra parts.

Over the next twenty minutes, he made some trips outside the ship and upstairs to get what he needed from the main workshop upstairs. It didn't have as many parts as his other two workshops, but he was still able to get what he needed.

He was quickly absorbed in his work, removing some parts from the engines, both outside and inside the ship, and replacing them with improved parts. He almost didn't feel his comlink buzzing against his wrist. Setting down his spanner, he opened his comlink and saw that Knuckles was contacting him.

"I made it to the workshop," Knuckles spoke first, and Tails could see him carrying the Master Emerald on his back. "Where are you at? I don't see you anywhere."

Tails chuckled. "Try looking under the workshop. And the Master Emerald won't fit in the stairwell, so you'll have to use the elevator."

Now that Knuckles had arrived, Tails set down his tools and ran out of the engine room, spinning his tails behind him for extra speed so he could meet Knuckles outside. Since he built the Typhoon, he knew his way around the ship like the back of his hand, so it didn't take him long at all to meet Knuckles outside. He was staring up in awe at the ship; he hadn't seen it since the war. The Master Emerald was resting on the ground next to him, and the echidna was keeping one hand on it the whole time.

"Hi," Tails said with a wave. "I'll take you straight to the reactor. I just finished getting it ready to support the Master Emerald."

"Cool," Knuckles said with a nod. He lifted the Master Emerald onto his back and followed Tails up the ramp and into the ship.

"Sorry to make you and the Master Emerald leave the island like this," Tails quietly said as he walked, "but there's not a lot we can do otherwise without the Emeralds."

"It's fine," Knuckles said with an assuring nod. "At least I'll still be able to keep a close eye on the Master Emerald regardless. Although it's a shame we can't take the island with us."

As they walked, he looked around in fascination at how carefully crafted the interior of the ship was. It was even bigger and better on the inside than it was on the outside.

"I don't know how you did it," Knuckles said. "I haven't been in here since the war, and yet it's just as impressive as it was the first time I set foot in here."

Tails chuckled. "It took me a whole year to build this," he explained. "I had a lot of time to tweak some things to make it perfect. So that's why I'm sure it's not gonna take too long for me to get it ready to fly in space."

The fox and the echidna both made it to the lowest level of the ship and passed through the main entrance of the engine room. It was one of the least colorful rooms of the ship; in fact, it was the only room that consisted mostly of shades of gray rather than white with yellow and blue highlights. Tails spun his namesakes and flew up a small flight of stairs to the computer at the balcony overlooking the room.

"Okay, Knuckles, place the Master Emerald into the slot in the middle of the room," Tails directed. "Hopefully it's big enough."

Knuckles did as Tails requested and placed the Master Emerald down onto the pedestal. There was a metallic click it successfully locked into place.

"It's perfect," Knuckles responded with a satisfied nod.

"Okay, that's good," Tails said with a nod as he then consulted the screen next to him. A field of data was projected in various forms, such as table charts, pie charts, bar charts, and line graphs. It may not have made much sense to the average human or Mobian, but it made perfect sense to the prodigious fox.

"Looking good!" Tails declared with a smile as he studied the readings that were rapidly coming through.

"All done with the setup!" Sonic called as he sped back into the ending room, before glancing over at Knuckles. "Yo, what's crackin', Knux?"

"Hey, Sonic," Knuckles said with a nod in the hedgehog's direction. "Just got done setting up the Master Emerald. I am feeling uneasy about leaving Angel Island like this, but what can you do?"

"Yeah, I getcha," Sonic said, leaning against the wall. "So where'd you end up setting it down?"

"In the ocean not far from here," Knuckles replied. "I had to channel the Master Emerald's power very carefully so it would drop the island gently and not end up causing a tsunami." He glanced up at Sonic and Tails. "Where is everybody? Is Chris here?"

"He's out shopping," Sonic said casually.

Knuckles blinked in surprise. "At a time like this?"

"Yeah, it's kind of important," Tails explained. "Chris only has one pair of clothes, and if something happens to them, he would be out of luck otherwise." He looked down at Knuckles. "Oh yeah, I just remembered, did you say you had something you wanted to tell us?"

"Yeah, I did," Knuckles said, before glancing at the Master Emerald. "When I returned to the Master Emerald last night, I wasn't detecting any form of energy around the altar, which is where Chris showed up. I was consulting the Master Emerald about it last night and this morning, and, um… I felt it tell me that the portal on Chris' end had closed." He closed his eyes.

"What?!" Tails explained, leaping out of his seat. "Are you saying he's trapped here?!"

"I don't know…" Knuckles quietly said, crossing his arms, before looking back up. "What we need to know is, what was his power source? What did he use to open the portal and make his way here?"

"Well…" Tails said, trying to take a deep breath to calm down a bit. "He used a fake Chaos Emerald, since I left the blueprints for that back on Earth. It just happened to work out that way…"

"Okay, that would explain a lot," Knuckles said, and Tails looked down at him. "They may look like normal Chaos Emeralds, but their power is only a fraction of a fraction of what a real Chaos Emerald is capable of. Look at Sonic here, when he was falling from Space Colony ARK, he was able to use Chaos Control with a fake to save himself, but what happened next? It shattered in his hands. A real one wouldn't shatter like that. So what I'm saying is, the fake Emerald lasted just long enough to get Chris through the portal before it shattered."

Taips looked like he was devastated. There was no way for Chris to go back home even if he wanted to.

"I… I don't know how to make it up to him. I basically dragged him into this mess…" he quietly admitted, ears and tails drooping. "I don't even know how to tell him this…!"

"You didn't drag him into anything, lil' bro," Sonic said, an easygoing smile on his face as he looked up at his friend on the balcony. "He wanted to come here, there was no way he could have possibly known that all this was happening. Everything's gonna work out, just like it did for us on Earth."

Tails thought carefully about Sonic's words for a moment. He was right; they managed to arrive home without the portal that Tails built on Earth, so maybe there was a possibility that he couldn't see of Chris making his way back to Earth without a portal. He still wanted to create a permanent portal system though, so they could freely travel between dimensions.

"Okay," Tails said, sounding considerably less stressed now. His pointy ears straightened up once more, and he took one more look at the readout on the holographic screen next to him.

"Amyway, the Master Emerald is locked in and good to go," he said. He climbed over the railing and flew himself down to the ground where his two friends were. "Now I need to take care of the engines. That's the most important step."

"Anything else before we get in the air?" Sonic asked.

"Um, as far as the ship itself goes, all the navigation and communication systems are in order, and so are the weapons and shields. They're exactly the way I left them last time. So when I'm almost ready for us to take off, we'll start the engines."

"Sounds like a plan!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up before he sped out of the engine room once more. Knuckles looked up from the doorway to the engine room before walking toward the Master Emerald.

"I'll stay here and monitor the Master Emerald," Knuckles stated.

"Okay," Tails said with a nod as he too turned to leave. "I'll call you if I need anything!"

"Will do," Knuckles responded from behind him.

Before he walked up the steps out of the reactor, Tails turned to examine the wires connecting the Master Emerald chamber to the reactor. After looking down at the base of the Master Emerald stand, as well as the various ports of the reactor that they were plugged into, he concluded that his work here was done. So with another wave to Knuckles, he flew up and out of the reactor.

But first, he made a quick detour into the reactor control room and took one more look at the reactor monitor screen. The Master Emerald's power was supplying a constant flow of power to the reactor, which in turn distributed it to the entire ship. There were several options on the screen to divert that power to the Sonic Driver, the engines, the weapons, and other components if need be, although Tails was sure he would be doing that from the bridge most likely.

As he walked up the hall and toward the stairs to return to the first floor, he activated his comlink and called Sonic.

"Hey Sonic," Tails spoke, "I kinda realized, we're gonna need to come up with a list of things to pack and bring with us, since we'll be in space for a long time."

"Sure," Sonic said. "I know we're gonna need plenty of food and water and some other stuff. What do you have in mind?"

"Well, um…" Tails thought for a second, counting on his fingers. "I know we'll also need clothes, at least for the girls and Chris; devices to contact each other, which we have already; and… and some other things. I'm pretty sure Amy's better at something like this than I am."

"Yeah, good thinking," Sonic said. "I know she just left, but you might still be able to call her."

"Yeah, I'm doing that right now," Tails responded. He hung up his call with Sonic and tapped a button on the tiny screen to speed-dial Amy.

"Hi, Tails!" Amy replied in a cheery tone. "What's up?"

"Hey, Amy," Tails said as he made his way into his mostly vacant bedroom. "Sorry if this is a bad time, but–

"Not at all!" Amy replied. "We're just waiting for the train right now. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, but… it just dawned on me that we're gonna have to pack a lot on this trip."

"Okay, let's see," Amy immediately responded, "food, water, clothing, tools, emergency rations, communication devices… um, radios, charging devices…"

Tails chuckled. "I knew you were the right person to call for this!"

"Well, I did have a lot of experience in those fields in the Phantom War," Amy said. "So I know a thing or two about prepping!"

"I'm writing these things down now," Tails said, sitting at his desk and jotting down everything Amy listed in a notepad.

"Need me to repeat them for you?" Amy asked.

"It's okay, I think I got it," Tails said as he finished writing the last item down and set down his pen. He was hit with a sudden pang of realization. "Oh, I just realized… I'm gonna have to add an entire plumbing system because the Typhoon wasn't designed with humans in mind. And I don't know how Seedrians work either!"

"I just realized that too," Amy said, having to speak up because of the sound of the crowd around her. "Which means we'll also need everyday things like toothbrushes, deodorant, sunscreen, a plunger, cleaning supplies…"

"The spray kind of deodorant?"

"Yeah, and the human kind too, in case Chris does decide to with us. We'll need both deodorants."

"Okay, I'm writing these down too," Tails responded in thought as he scribbled these things down in the notebook, maing sure his handwriting was neat and legible, which it usually was.

"You got everything?"

"Yep!" Tails responded as he looked up again. "But now there's another problem, a really big one?"

"Which is?"

"How are we possibly gonna get all these things here?"

"Oh, I'll think of something!" Amy responded, winking confidently at Tails through the screen. "Don't you worry about it!"

"Okay," Tails said, chuckling and rubbing behind his head as he looked at Amy through the screen. "How long do you think you'll be out?"

"Um… I don't know, maybe five or six hours?"

"Okay, because when you guys come back, I'm gonna need all hands on deck with getting the Typhoon ready."

"I'll be there before you know it!" Amy said, sounding just as cheerful as ever.

"Oh yeah," Tails said in realization, "You mentioned 'in case Chris comes with us'...?" His voice was low, like he was hesitant to say what he needed to say.

"Yeah…?" Amy sounded cautious now, and Tails could see that she was listening intently.

"Um, well… I have some bad news. I really don't know how to tell him this… but…"


Space – Third-person POV

A solitary Metarex unit was cruising in deep space between the stars and planets. Whether it was sent to harvest the Planet Egg from another designated planet, or if it was simply on patrol, only its commander knew.

Speaking of its commander, the Metarex's internal radio activated.

"Metarex Spike."

The sound of Dark Oak's voice prompted the Metarex to pause in its tracks, and it hovered there, using small thrust boosters built into its body to maintain its position.

"There is a small group of fauna on Mobius who is deemed a risk group," Oak told Spike. "They are preparing a spaceship for departure. They are not to leave the planet under any circumstances. You are to neutralize the group and their spaceship. The number of units is unclear, but they range between five and eleven. At least four of them are confirmed."

Spike accelerated forward again, before making a slight left turn and accelerating at full speed.

"Carrer has already departed, so you are the only unit in the Mobius System I can spare. You will be enough."

Spike calculated the distance it would take it to reach Mobius and projected a path to get there in the shortest time possible. The Metarex was now flying at roughly twenty times the speed of sound.

"I repeat, do not let them launch. This is a priority one order."


A/N: That concludes the first half of "Cosmic Crisis!" This was a super fun chapter for me to plan and write.

It was interesting exploring all the thing that would happen to Chris as a result of de-aging that weren't explored in the anime. I know I probably mentioned Chris' voice a bit too much, but he is absolutely traumatized here as a result. Also, I went in-depth with Cosmo's character here, and if TuanGaming is seeing this, I think you'll like what I added in the middle of the chapter :)

I added a bit of headcanon Forces lore as well when Knuckles was talking to Cosmo. I definitely wasn't going to have Knuckles not trust her, because that would make her feel a lot worse.

Originally the scene where Chris wakes up the next morning and they plan to use the Typhoon were going to be the same scene, but I decided it would be best to split it in two since the second half doesn't focus on Chris.

The last scene was originally going to take place in the Mystic Ruins, but I realized I couldn't do that. Station Square is a human-populated city, and it is located in either Northamer or Soumerca in my headcanon (I have yet to decide, but it's not on South Island). Mystic Ruins is accessible by train, which means it must also be located on the same landmass as Station Square. Furthermore, I really wanted Chris, Amy, Cream, and Cosmo to go to Mobotropolis, but that is located on Westside Island, and Green Hill is located on South Island. As a result, I was going to repurpose one of the zones from Sonic Chaos, Gigalopolis, into the capital city of South Island.

But then I came up with a new idea. Who said I had to abide one-to-one with established canon? And that's how I decided to make South Island a huge place, and put Mobotropolis on South Island, and repurpose Westside Island entirely. This also fixes a few problems I had during the planning phases of my next big Sonic story after this one.

Also, I don't usually make this kind of announcement, but it's come to my attention that I officially got my first hater recently! I'm not gonna name any names since I don't want anyone harassing him, but he said he hated "everything" about my fanfic (even though he couldn't name any specific moments). However, his main complaint was that Amy is "unrecognizable". To be fair, Amy is one of my more difficult characters to write, since I'm not very good at writing girly-girl characters, and she has largely moved on from chasing Sonic in the same way she did during the Dark Era of Sonic. Mostly I emulate how she's portrayed in various fanfictions I read, as well as the IDW comics. But looking back, I can see my hater's point when it comes to Amy's personality. I'm not "listening to my haters" because this is an issue I've already been aware of for a few years on my own; he's just been the first to be vocal about it.

So I want to ask you guys, what is your honest opinion of how I've been writing Amy so far? Is she too bland? What can I do to make her a better character? Or is she good the way she is?

And in case there's anyone here who's concerned that I'm starting to bend to haters, I already know to focus on the people who love and support me rather than those who hate me. I've had personal experience with people who haven't quite grasped this valuable lesson, to put it lightly. I know I won't be able to appeal to every single person who reads my fanfics, but that's okay because that opens the door for people to write their own fanfics the way they want to. Even though I most likely won't add every single idea I receive, I'm always willing to listen and respond to all opinions of my stories.

Now that that's out of the way, we have only one more chapter to go before we reach the end of my backlog (for now)! I guess this will motivate me to keep writing new chapters! In the meantime, I do have three other chapters of other stories that will begin to be uploaded after next week while you guys wait for chapter 4. It's always good for me to work on secondary projects to keep my mind fresh for my main project.

Next time is part two of "Cosmic Crisis", where everyone works hard to get the Typhoon ready for takeoff! Don't miss it!