A/N: Merry Christmas in advance to everyone who celebrates it! And I'm officially gonna see Sonic 3 tomorrow! It's the best Christmas present I could ever ask for! (Take that, Mufasa! XD)

This past week went by really quickly, and Thursday kinda snuck up on me this time. Also, my Tranquility and Order backlog runs out this week, so I may need to work on some of my side projects so I can keep updating on Thursdays to keep you guys busy while I work on more of T&O.

Also I don't know if anyone saw the ending notes in the last chapter, so I wanted to ask, what are your thoughts on how I've been writing Amy during the entire Chaos on Earth saga so far? Because I've been thinking that she might be a bit out of character; specifically, she seems to come off as bland since I'm not good at writing girly-girl personalities. I believe I know how to write her better, but it can be a bit difficult for me to execute.

I would like to thank 42milesperhour, TopGun1986, CDS Studio, RedFire905, Kaigu-hunter, yveltal1993, stardust902, Thearchdraftsman, KatalinaCipher1, Jenaku, and sman jones for favoriting and following since my last chapter!

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


15 Reviews

toantakeri

If Silver and Blaze had a third member, I can easily see it being Marine. Also, I somehow didn't know that Bark and Bean quit, so it could clash with them being the Hooligans in the Archie Sonic comics that I'm planning to adapt elements from in my headcanon. Also, most people don't seem to really know the word "jerboa", so Chris may think he is a weasel at first until Fang corrects him, if they ever meet.

danielman21

Even though Chris wishes it was under better circumstances, he's just glad to see everyone again.

Thanks for reading and reviewing!

soberan123

I haven't gotten to the Post-SGW comics quite yet (I'm just made it to issue 160 so I still have a ways to go), but now I'm intrigued to see what Cyberization is like in action! And now that you're describing it, this may be one of Eggman's most evil plans, since it's way worse than roboticization, not to mention more subtle! I may have to make it part of my headcanon...

Victor

There probably won't be a Black Arms Saga in this story, since it would take away from the rest of the Metarex Saga, plus the events of Shadow the Hedgehog already happened by this point in my headcanon.

I've seen Charriii5's gaming sins videos before, but not the Shadow one yet.

gregorian12

Thrash is not canon in my headcanon, since the echidnas had all died out before the events of Sonic 3 in my headcanon, but there was a small group of echidnas in hiding on the surface between then and Sonic Forces. I plan to explore this in more detail if I eventually do a Sonic Forces rewrite.

Oh, you have NO idea how hyped I am to rewrite episode 67! That's been the number one episode I'm looking forward to rewriting this whole story!

I like your headcanon idea! For my headcanon, Tails only got to use it once but it wasn't used to its fullest potential due to circumstances that I haven't thought out yet.

Thanks for reviewing! :D

Trash Lord

Hmmm... That sounds like something the Society would do, considering no one knows who they are now...

I was originally going to make the defeat of the Black Arms put Sonic on the galactic map, but as you pointed out, Shadow was the one who defeated them and not Sonic. As for Planet Wisp, although that would make the most logical sense, there are a few reasons why that wouldn't work: (1) It's established that Greengate is in another universe from Mobius, and by extension Planet Wisp; (2) If Cosmo did hear about what went on with Planet Wisp, then she would have had to hear about Eggman, and Cosmo had never heard of Eggman before meeting him; and (3) The Xorda are dangerous enough to be feared across the galaxy, while Eggman hasn't reached that honor yet.

While I did read the issue where Sonic destroyed the Quantum Dial, I haven't gotten to the part where they fought the Black Arms yet, and also this is part of my headcanon, which means I don't always follow every aspect of established canon to a T. However, I do plan to loosely adapt the Xorda story where Sonic destroys the Quantum Dial in a different fanfic.

Which part are you referring to? Because I don't think it was intentional, but if it was, I would honestly be amazed.

Guest

We're back to the Chris Trauma Show, and this time he has a guest: Cosmo!

Nuuuu not my Chris privileges! O_O

He'll be happy when he finds a way home XD But seriously, he'll have a few pockets here and there, but it could be a while before he is truly happy again, but who knows?

Bloodrick

Haven't thought about Chris using a blaster before, but that would actually be a great idea to have in the future, considering I don't remember him having one in the anime.

Five-Chosen

Huh... That's a lot to digest, in fact, this might be the longest review I've ever gotten!

I will admit, Chris knows an awful lot about mythology in your scenario as well as different anthropomorphic characters from various media. While it is a bit lengthy, I do like your idea, although there's a chance I might do something similar, yet different.

Sluggy

Thank you! I've been working hard on the world building with Cosmo, since we never got to learn much about her species, planet, or background.

And I didn't know it could have been the Cascadians that attacked the Seedrians; this whole time I thought it was an unidentified animal race.

Five-Chosen

I've heard of Detective Conan but I never saw it; but yeah, I caught that little reference after watching that scene a few times! And I didn't know Conan was made by TMS too! That is a nice little Easter egg they made there.

CreativeKitty975

I mean, Chris couldn't have seen it coming though XD But then again, he didn't see Whumptober coming either XD But don't worry, I won't go too hard on him after this, for now at least. There may be a little angst in the future though.

I think you'll like the little bit of world-building that I'm gonna do in this chapter :)

Oh, you know I have to include Rouge and the whole blackmailing subplot, it was funny every time it came up! XD And I do plan to add more Rouge moments in this story, so look forward to that!

You're not alone, I'm still adjusting to the new title too! The name "Tranquility and Order" comes from what the Metarex describes as their ideal universe in the original Japanese sub, especially toward the end.

Super duper waffles

1. That isn't something I thought of much, but so far it's probably gonna be in like with what was shown in the Archie Sonic comics, particularly when the Xorda invaded Earth and the primordial ooze formed into humans and Mobians. Since then the humans and Mobians used to not get along, with the humans thinking they were superior to the Mobians. Many wars were fought in ancient times thousands of years ago, but eventually a treaty was signed between the two species. It took two hundred more years, but the humans and Mobians finally got along and have lived in harmony ever since.

2. Captain Federation started during a nuclear meltdown, and the entire town he was living in had to evacuate. But because his car wouldn't start, he was the last to leave, as well as the only one to be consumed by the nuclear waste. But instead of killing him, it gave him superhuman strength. After a few weeks of testing his strength, he assumed the identity of Captain Federation. He was in his late 20s, and he had seen a lot of crime that was beyond the law enforcement's control, so he decided to aid them with his new identity. However, he's made a lot of enemies, particularly those who tried to infect themselves with the nuclear waste from the power plant so they could get his powers, but the government shut down the power plant and closed off the area to the public. (As a side note, when Chris eventually finds out about Captain Federation, he says he never would have guessed that Mobius has a Chernobyl-themed version of Captain America.)

3. Tacos and burritos certainly do exist on Mobius!

4. The UF pledge of allegiance is largely similar to the US pledge, where people pledge their allegiance to the flag and that they will do their duty to serve their country, whatever it may be.

5. The UF's politics are very similar to the US politics, in the fact that they have a President, a House of Representatives, a Senate, a Congress, and two major parties. I'm actually not sure what the major differences are though.

6. Mobius does indeed have its own classic Christmas movies! However, I can't think of any specific ones at the moment.

7. Various cities the Mobian Olympics were held in include Station Square, Westopolis, Central City, Capital City, New Mobotropolis, Chun-Nan, Spagonia, and of course, the Olympics' home city of Apotos.

8. Eggman has seen Joker, and the whole time while he thought certain parts of it were funny, he was also taking notes of what and what not to do as a supervillain.

Jenaku

Always love to keep things intense when it comes to writing battles!

Writing hurt/comfort is one of my strong points, so it's nice to see this scene paying off!

I knew I needed to add Gemerl since he lives with Cream and Vanilla, and he was inspired by his IDW appearances. Glad you enjoyed him! :D

Chris' reaction to shrinking in age was probably what I focused on the most when I was writing his scenes in the last chapter.

The scene where everyone comforted Cosmo and helped her to feel at home was one of my favorites too :)

There's more where that came from!

One of my readers helped me to realize that there haven't been enough scenes between Sonic and Cosmo in the original anime, but this one was the first of many!

It's amazing how no one ever mentioned the fate of Angel Island in the original anime!

Here's the next chapter!

Five-Chosen

Probably yeah, but Chris was wearing his old clothes to bed with him, so Vanilla didn't have them with her, plus they wouldn't exactly be clean.


Chapter 62
Episode 54B
Typhoon


New Mobotropolis – Chris' POV

On top of being devastated, I was now exhausted.

I held onto the handles of both bags that I had been carrying around, trying not to let my tears show in front of anyone. I had already done enough crying today. I was kicking myself because of my own foolish choices. Amy, Cream, and Cosmo didn't need to see me cry. I was an adult, I needed to learn how to handle these things on my own.

My spirit and eyes weren't the only parts of me that felt weak, however. My legs felt like jelly; I had never walked as long as I did today, not even when I was on important family trips or even adventuring with my friends. The four of us had gone to many different stores, buying all kinds of things that Amy knew we would need for our journey. In fact, she seemed like a natural at it, and I was impressed. My devastation aside, our shopping spree was tiring but admittedly fun. In fact, it almost made Cosmo forget about the impending crisis on the galaxy.

Cosmo and I were incredibly amazed at the scenery that New Mobotropolis had to offer. It was something straight out of a sci-fi movie. The buildings were futuristic, the roads had floating cars, and the cell phones I saw people holding were transparent, like they were holographic. This was a view that I would never get tired of seeing in a million years. In fact, I couldn't help but feel a little excited in that moment. I was in an alien city!

But that wasn't all. Amy and Cream were soaking in our excited reactions and eagerly pointing out to us different tourist attractions the city had to offer, but the cherry on top was when Amy revealed that New Mobotropolis was the capital city and administrative center of the Kingdom of Acorn. There was literal royalty!

However, none of us saw King Elias Acorn or his sister Sally, and I had to be honest when I admitted to Amy that I was a bit disappointed. With a laugh, Amy told me it was fine; the king was busy and New Mobotropolis was a big place. Besides, there was always next time.

When we got off the train, the first place we went to was the shopping district. While there was a parking lot, most people were walking from store to store. It was almost like an outdoor shopping mall, and it reminded me of Japan a bit.

As excited as Amy and Cream were to show me and Cosmo the sights of the city, we had to be fast today because the Typhoon had to take off soon, and they wanted to make sure we had everything we needed for our space voyage. However, Amy made a heartfelt promise to show us more of New Mobotropolis, as well as Mobius as a whole, when we got back. She also said we were gonna go with Sonic and Tails too, so I had that to look forward to at least. Visiting an alien planet was something I never knew I needed to include on my bucket list.

There were a lot of signs and public notices that told people to avoid panic-buying as a result of what was happening to the planet, and that their safety would come first above all else. I didn't know if King Acorn issued that decree, but I was sure he had his hands full trying to look into the situation while making sure the public remained calm.

We finally made our way into one of the city's several large-scale clothing stores. In fact, it was large enough to feature two sets of escalators. We spent a lot more time than I thought we would in there, since there were so many outfits to choose from. Fortunately there was a whole section for human outfits, and after almost an hour, I had picked out about twenty complete outfits, as well as clothes for various occasions, such as summer and winter gear as well as for formal occasions.

As I was in the changing room, I had overheard one of several calls that Amy had with Tails. This time, she was asking if the Typhoon had certain appliances on board. I didn't hear Tails' response, but I could tell that he insisted that Amy wasn't bothering him at all.

I wasn't the only one who was getting clothes today. Amy and Cream also picked out several outfits each; however; Cosmo was deceptively difficult to shop for. She told us Seedrian outfits are very carefully tailor-made, and they are made with materials that aren't commonly found on Mobius, and they were designed to repel dirt, not unlike Mobian clothes. Nonetheless, the girls managed to find her some top-dollar outfits that they were sure she would look beautiful in. Cosmo took a special interest in a red and yellow dress that Cream thought she would look pretty in.

I couldn't help but realize that many of the outfits we were buying from were branded "Honey Clothing". Amy told me they were some of the latest trends in Mobian fashion, and she is actually friends with Honey, they met before during a Chaos Emerald tournament. In fact, her signature red dress and boots were designed by Honey too.

As a matter of fact, when I looked over my outfits, which included a button-up shirt and at least two outfits that resembled the one I used to wear, I happened to notice that two of them were also made by Honey Clothing. I had no idea that Honey made clothes for humans too, but Amy explained that she was just starting to get into human clothes and they were taking off fast.

Another thing I noticed when we were in the clothing store was the music that played over the intercom. I couldn't recognize any of the songs that were playing, but there was no doubt that the performers were extremely talented. Amy explained to me that two of the songs that were performed were by Mina Mongoose and Hot Honey, the latter of which was Amy's favorite band.

Among all four of us, we had a grand total of roughly sixty different outfits. It took an agonizing ten minutes to pay for them all, and I couldn't help but feel incredibly guilty that I was costing Amy so much money, since she was the one who was paying for us. However, Amy reassured me it was no big deal at all because I was her friend.

Several employees helped us to load them into a floating shuttle that reminded me of a U-Haul van, which took another fifteen minutes, since all our outfits were placed in individual boxes to ensure safe travel. In the meantime, Cosmo and I picked out a few souvenirs to remember Mobius by while we were in space.

After we stopped at the food court for lunch, we bought several other appliances and amenities we knew we would need, and we loaded them into the shuttle too. When we had packed it with everything we wanted to buy, it took off for Green Hill Zone, and we eventually gathered on the platform waiting for our ride back to the Typhoon.

However, even though we engaged in small talk the whole time, I still couldn't get over the guilt and regret I felt the whole time we were in New Mobotropolis. It was even stronger now that we were about to board the train again, since the first few minutes of our train ride to New Mobotropolis was playing over and over in my head like a loop.


FLASHBACK

We had just sat down at a table with two booths. Amy had the window seat, and I sat next to her in the aisle. Cosmo was sitting across from Amy by the window, and Cream sat across from me with Cheese in her lap.

"Um… You okay, Amy…?" I asked, barely able to get my voice above a whisper after the train started moving. However, I realized that she didn't hear me because of the sound of everyone talking in the train, plus the train itself was loud.

"What was that?" Amy asked, leaning a bit closer to me to hear me better.

"Did… something happen earlier?" I asked. I had noticed that she looked a bit shellshocked and worried after her call with Tails. But looking at her now, she still had that same look, and on top of that, she looked nervous, like she was trying to muster up the words to tell me. I knew instinctively that this was bad news.

"So, uh… I have some really bad news for you, Chris."

Called it.

"You're gonna want to get comfortable here on Mobius, because… I'm really sorry to say this, but the portal closed."

I really called it.

I was stunned into speechlessness, and my eyes were wide. I could feel a sinking feeling deep in my chest at her words, which hit me harder than her hammer ever could.

"…Please tell me you're joking," I stammered. I couldn't look at either Cream or Cosmo ahead of me, but I could tell they were giving me concerned looks.

"I'm not joking, Chris," Amy said, her voice even. "Listen, Knuckles said he didn't pick up any kind of energy like he did when you got here. He said he was meditating all night, and he felt the Master Emerald tell him that the portal on your end closed."

Amy had told me everything I needed to hear. Even though Knuckles was gullible to other people's lies, he was never one to tell lies to anyone in return. And of course, he would never lie about anything like this. I could feel a hurricane of emotions deep in my gut, and it wasn't just sadness.

I felt devastation, because I took it as a fact that my portal would remain open forever because it was powered by a constant power source. I assumed that no power source on Earth could rival the power that a Chaos Emerald could put out.

I felt anger at myself for not seeing this possibility. I was sure no one wanted to turn off the portal at home. I knew we had a lot of haters and opposition against our portal project, but I could rest assured that only me and my friends and grandpa knew the code to the elevator that led to the underground workshop. There was no way it could have been confiscated this early.

But on top of it all, I felt regret. Regret for not waiting like we all agreed on last night. Regret that I stepped through that portal without a second thought of what might happen to me, or the portal itself.

I was well and truly trapped.

Trapped on an alien world, with no way to ever see my friends and family again.

Trapped in a body that was no longer mine.

Trapped with a voice that was no longer mine.

"C'mere, Chris…" I heard Amy say in a soothing voice as she gently pulled me into a hug. I had forgotten just how comforting her hugs felt, even if they were a little tight. But more importantly, I didn't realize I was starting to cry. I was 19 years old, I was too old to cry like a baby. And yet I could feel the tears slipping down my cheeks.

It only took a few seconds for Cream to slide out of her seat and join the hug along with Cheese. Cosmo sat there looking at me in concern and what I assumed was worry, but I couldn't look up now.

"We'll get you back home," Amy told me, a mixture of comfort and her usual determination in her voice. "Just like how Tails made a portal to get us back here, I know he can build one to get you back to Earth. In fact, even when we came back here, he was always talking about how he wants to connect our two worlds."

I let out a soft whimper, immediately regretting it because I sounded like a kid again.

"Maybe Mr. Sonic can use Chaos Control to get you back home," Cream suggested.

"That's a great idea," Amy said, looking at her friend. "Only problem is, we don't have any Chaos Emeralds."

"Oh… I forgot about that…" Cream realized, but then she looked up with determination. "But we can find them since we're going up in space."

"Yeah…" Amy said as she gently rubbed my back in slow circles. "We'll find the Chaos Emeralds."

If it wasn't for my own stupid actions… if it wasn't for me jumping the gun… I wouldn't have been here right now. I wouldn't have been this vulnerable, especially around people who were now younger than me.

END OF FLASHBACK


"Track 3 is now boarding," the intercom announced, shaking me out of my thoughts.

"That's us!" Amy declared as she stepped toward the train which was deboarding most of its passengers. Cream let out a quiet yawn as Cheese did the same from on top of her head, and the four of us stepped inside the train and found our seats. There seemed to be fewer people in our car this time, which would make talking easier.

After we all sat in our seats in the same order as before, we showed our tickets to the conductor, and a moment later, the train started to accelerate forward. We were soon on our way back to Green Hill.

"I'm excited to see space!" Cream said with a big smile. "There are so many pretty stars and planets up there!"

"Chao!" Cheese agreed.

"There sure are, Cream," Amy said, making sure her bags were still with her. "Y'know, this is gonna be our first time away from Mobius like this… if we don't count different dimensions, that is."

However, I briefly caught a dark look that passed over Cosmo when Cream mentioned the stars and planets. She was still rightfully upset about the Metarex's involvement in their demise, and as far as I knew, there didn't seem to be a way to reverse the damage that was done to the affected planets.

All of us were tired, but I was especially exhausted after today's excursion. I had never tried on so many clothes in my life. At least I would have some time to rest before I would return to the Typhoon and help Tails finish getting it ready for takeoff. And then I would need to unpack everything we packed onto the shuttle.

I just wanted today to end already…

Our table was rather quiet for a large portion of the hour-long journey back to Green Hill. Looking across from me, I could see that Cream and Cheese were drifting off to sleep, while Cosmo was idly gazing out the window. Next to me, Amy was sending a text to Tails, providing him a status update, I assumed. One of the things I noticed in New Mobotropolis was that all the phones were extremely high-tech. They featured translucent blue touchscreens that reminded me more or less like the scrolls from RWBY. They resembled a sheet of glass the size of a phone, except they had rounded corners.

And then I realized, I had never brought my comlink or phone to Mobius with me. I intentionally left my phone behind with the message ready to play for when my friends inevitably discovered it, which was something I was glad I did in hindsight. However, if I had known I would be trapped on Mobius indefinitely, I would have brought it with me, not that it would have been compatible with this world's technology and equivalent to the internet. And now that I thought about it, my comlink would have been extremely outdated too.

As I sat there looking out at the countryside, I noticed that the rolling hills and occasional cottage reminded me of the English countryside. It was a beautiful and breathtaking view that I found I couldn't get enough of. There was a lot of greenery everywhere, and it looked completely natural.

It wasn't until then that I started to feel a strong pain in my legs. It felt very different than the pain I had when I was walking for too long. I had the same kind of pain ever since I arrived on Mobius, but I had brushed it aside. In a way, it reminded me of… was it growing pains? Maybe it wasn't a big deal, maybe it was just me adjusting to my new body–

"There is so much to see on this planet, there's no end to it," Cosmo remarked, breaking the silence. Now that I thought about it, her voice was light and airy, and it had a touch of a British accent to it. It was very pleasant to listen to.

"I know," Amy said with a smile. She was clearly enjoying Cosmo's reaction to seeing Mobius for the first time. "It's a really incredible place, even I'm finding new stuff here and there." Her grin got wider as she eagerly leaned forward a bit. "Tell you what, as soon as we come back from space, I totally gotta show you the Chao Garden! You're gonna love it!"

Cosmo was confused. "Um… What are Chao again?" she asked.

Amy blinked in surprise. "Oh, you forgot?"

Cosmo slowly nodded. "Sorry..."

"Nope, it's okay! Remember Cheese and Chocola? They're both Chao," Amy explained.

"Oh, now I remember," Cosmo said. She looked like she felt silly for asking that question. "Cream told me already, but… I must have forgotten…"

Amy rested her arms on the table's surface. "On that note, I noticed you wandering off on your own a couple times today," she told her. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Cosmo looked up at Amy. "Oh, I'm okay. Sometimes I do that for some reason. Everyone always said I would go off into my own little world sometimes."

"Ah, okay," Amy said with an understanding smile. "And what is that world like?"

Cosmo looked thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know…" she said. "It's lots of different things, but… it's hard to put it all into words…"

She trailed off, before looking out the window for a moment. Just when I thought the ride would become silent again, she looked back up at Amy.

"The food here is amazing, Amy," she spoke up. "It's very different than when I used to eat on the ship."

"Oh?" Amy asked with intrigue as she looked up from her phone. "Now I'm curious, what do Seedrians eat?"

"A lot of things," Cosmo said somewhat trivially. "We make many different kinds of food with fruit, soil, and morning dew. Although, a lot of it was artificially simulated on the ship, but Aunt Chrysanthemum said it tasted just like the real thing."

"Soil?" I repeated.

"Yes," Cosmo said with a nod. "It tastes like the hamburgers we had at lunch, but more... I don't know, soft maybe? And now that I think about it, it may be possible for fauna to eat Seedrian soil."

"Okay, that's really fascinating!" Amy said encouragingly.

I, on the other hand, thought the idea of eating dirt was weird… but then again, Cosmo was a plant girl, so this was completely normal for her. If the Seedrians didn't face extinction and I was sent to her planet or colony ship instead, I knew I would inevitably face culture shock within minutes, and edible dirt was just the tip of the iceberg.

Over the rushing sound of the train, I could hear what sounded like a jet plane outside. I was surprised I could hear it this clearly, which meant it had to be loud.

"What is that…?" Cosmo asked, looking around outside for the source of the noise.

"It's probably a plane or something," I said, although I didn't know what it was myself.

"Yeah," Amy said with a shrug. "But it sounds like it's flying a bit low–"

And then we saw it. And it wasn't a jet plane. Or at least, it didn't look like any jet plane I had ever seen before. It seemed to sport two arms and two legs, and it was surrounded in a bright fireball as it descended parallel to the ground.

Definitely not a jet plane.

We heard a whimper and turned to look at Cosmo, who was staring in shock. Her breath was hitched, and her lips were quivering. She was having a panic attack right in front of us, which was a sign that she seemed to recognize the object.

"She's having a panic attack," I told Amy, who nodded.

"Hey, Cosmo, Cosmo," Amy tried to gently tell her, patting her arm. "It's gonna be okay. We made a promise that we're gonna stop the Metarex. We're not gonna let it hurt you or this planet."

Amy seemed to know exactly what to do, which was a lot more than I could say. I didn't know the first thing about comforting anyone who was in a panic attack, or was otherwise unconsolable. Helen was never like this; she was always cheerful and in bright spirits nearly every time I saw her.

"Huh… Wha–" Cream slowly woke up and looked over to see Cosmo taking very short and rapid breaths. She was having a very hard time controlling her breathing. Cream didn't need to ask what was going on; she seemed to already know.

"I-I-I…"

"Everything's going to be okay, Miss Cosmo," Cream said, gently holding onto her other arm so the Seedrian girl could have some support.

"I th-thought we were s-safe wh-when the other o-one left," Cosmo finally spoke. "Wh-What are the… What are the M-Metarex doing back here? They sh-shouldn't be back here…!"

"I don't know…" Amy said as she quickly activated her comlink, waiting no more than three seconds for Tails to pick up. "Tails, we got an emergency. We just saw another Metarex approaching Mobius!"

"What?!" Tails exclaimed. "Do you know if it's the same one from last night?"

"I don't know," Amy said, glancing outside the window, but she couldn't see it anywhere. She did, however, see an explosion that rocked the ground in the distance. Since the train we were in hovered an inch above the rails, it offered an amazingly smooth ride, so we didn't feel the shockwave.

"I just saw an explosion, I think it crash landed," Amy reported. I didn't realize until now that her voice was starting to shake too.

"Are you guys still on the train?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, we're on our way back though," Amy said.

"Okay, get back here as fast as you can! I'm gonna tell Sonic and Knuckles about this."

"Okay," Amy said as she hung up.

I glanced out the window too, but I couldn't see the Metarex anywhere, only smoke that rose from over the hilltops many miles away. All around us, people were gathering around the windows, and the Metarex and the explosion were the only things they seemed to be talking about. There was so much activity on the train that the conductor had to ask everyone over the intercom to sit back down. I could feel the tension and panic in the air.

Cosmo was still panicking, and Amy and Cream were both trying to comfort her, but I didn't know what to do. Even though I barely said anything to her before, I wanted to get her out of there as fast as I could, but the train could only move so fast. So I had to wait the remaining twenty-five minutes until we arrived at the Green Hill Zone station.

Twenty-five more agonizing minutes.


Green Hill Zone – Third-person POV

Having survived the rough crash landing through Mobius' atmosphere, Metarex Spike slowly picked itself up. Smoke was radiating off its metal body, but like all Metarex units, it was designed to withstand the harsh environment of planetary entry.

"Landing is successful. Armor integrity 100%," it stated as it stood to its full height of 69 feet. It looked up as Dark Oak contacted it over its built-in transmitter once again.

"The number of risk units to your directive has been revised," Dark Oak told Spike. "It now ranges between eight and eleven, up from five and eleven."

"Acknowledged," Spike responded.

"However, it remains to be seen if three of the units will board the ship, but do not cut any corners," Oak told him. "I will reiterate, they are all to be terminated immediately, whether they are leaving or not."

"Affirmative," Spike said as Oak broke contact. "Locating heat signatures."

Several digits flashed through its singular red eye's vision as it slowly swiveled its head around where it was standing. It didn't know if anyone had noticed its arrival yet, but the area around Spike was partially forested, with houses dotting the countryside here and there. Even if anyone did notice it, there was nothing they could do against it.

"Unable to detect heat signatures matching Seedrian DNA sample," it spoke. However, it paused before quickly moving its head toward a particular direction. "Rebel vessel located. Distance: 4 kilometers. Initiating prime directive."

It took two steps to turn itself to fully face the workshop. Then it raised its right arm with its fingers pointed directly at its target, before firing several searing lasers out of each finger. Seconds later, explosions rang out in the forest just beyond the workshop. Spike had missed its target.

"Planetary entry may have weakened my targeting systems. Recalibrating. Correcting aim. 8 degrees to the right. Target distance confirmed: 4 kilometers."

As it spoke to no one in particular, it moved its arm slightly to the right to compensate for misjudging the angle of its attack. However, right as it was about to open fire again, a blue streak sped through the plains and hurtled straight toward it, kicking it hard. Although it didn't fall over, it did jostle its aim enough to make it fire somewhere in the sky. It was apparent that Spike's failed attack had attracted unnecessary attention.

"Y'know, if you came any closer to us, you might actually hit your target next time!" Sonic taunted. "You know I'm the one you want, right?"

"You are not my prime directive," Spike said, not taking its gaze and aim off the distant workshop.

Seconds later, Knuckles ran onto the scene and took a flying leap toward Spike, fist stretched out to make a devastating blow. His fist made contact with Spike's leg, sending the Metarex warrior crashing onto the ground. However, it didn't seem to make any discernible damage at all.

"You wanna say that again, buddy?" Knuckles asked, crossing his arms. Although Spike wasn't focusing on Sonic and Knuckles, they were certainly focusing on it.

Even though it was down, Spike held up its left arm, and part of it extended and detached, forming a golden sword. Sonic blinked in surprise; he realized it looked alarmingly similar to the kind of golden sword he had seen Dark Oak using, and he knew he was already going to be in for a tough time.

Spike swung it sideways through the air close to Knuckles. It didn't seem to be aiming directly at the echidna, until he realized what the Metarex was trying to do. The sword sliced cleanly through a nearby tree, and it fell directly toward Knuckles. Standing his ground, he caught the tree, and he grunted under its suddenly unexpected weight.

"It's… j-just like the one from yesterday…!" he remarked before dropping the tree onto the ground next to him. "We can't beat it the normal way."

Sonic smirked. "That just means we gotta get creative!" he said.

As Knuckles was dealing with the tree, Spike activated hidden jets around its legs and feet, and it levitated itself back into a standing position. Then it grasped the sword firmly in both hands and pointed it straight down at the two Mobians.

"You disturb order," Spike told them. "Regardless of whether you leave the planet or remain here, you are designated for termination."

Sonic took a step closer to Knuckles. "We can't act cocky for once," he told him. "These guys are not like Eggman, we found that out ourselves last night."

"Yeah, you're right," Knuckles said, not taking his gaze off the Metarex's singular eye. "We gotta give it our all this time."


Green Hill Zone – Chris' POV

An agonizing half an hour after my friends and I spotted the Metarex entering the Mobian atmosphere, the train finally arrived at one of Green Hill Zone's several train stations. The zone was huge, and since it took a while for us to get there from Tails' lab, it was going to take us just as long to get back, and the sun was already starting to set.

Fortunately, it didn't take Amy long to flag down a taxi and pay for a ride back to Tails' workshop. It took us another twenty minutes to get there, and I knew that the longer we were away, the longer it would take for us to leave Mobius.

After we left the taxi, Amy, Cosmo, Cream, and I ran back toward the workshop. Due to my smaller stature, I couldn't run as fast as I could when I was an adult, yet I seemed to lack the same type of youthfulness I had when I was 13, so I was using a lot more energy running than I would have wanted. That was the only difference between me now and me when I was actually 13.

There was a lot of forest everywhere around us, and even though we couldn't see anything, I could definitely hear the sounds of fighting. Explosions rang in the air, and I could hear the occasional clash of metal. It couldn't have been more than a mile away.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"I think Sonic is fighting the Metarex," Amy responded, scanning the forest around us. "I can't see anything though."

Cosmo hadn't said a word since her panic attack. I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was still scared beyond belief that the Metarex came back, but Amy was holding her hand to make sure she didn't get left behind, and she was matching Cosmo's pace.

"Just a little more to go!" Cream called from ahead of us.

"C'mon, we gotta hurry!" Amy urged us. "I just hope the SIM truck made it here first."

"SIM truck?" I repeated.

"South Island Moving," Amy quickly explained.

"Kinda like U-Haul?" I asked, my interest piqued. I was surprised I didn't ask about it sooner.

"Uh-huh," Amy responded, her eyes laser-focused on the path ahead of us.

Even though this was the second time we were treading this path, I wasn't being carried by Sonic this time around, so I had to do all the running myself. I couldn't help but notice the ground was starting to become parched, and I could actually hear the grass cracking beneath us as we ran across it. It was an eerie feeling that I couldn't say I cared for.

I looked up to see Cream flying even farther out ahead of us, her ears keeping her aloft, and Cheese flying next to her. She turned around to face us.

"I see it!" she called.

"Chao chao!" Cheese copied.

"The Typhoon?" Amy called back. "Oh, there it is, I see it too!"

Sure enough, I could see Tails' spaceship elevated up to the surface, just like how Grandpa's lab could elevate to reveal the workshop underneath. Only this time, the main part of the lab has split into two sections and moved away from each other, so now there was open sky above the Typhoon. Now it was much easier to access, but it also meant it was now a sitting target for the Metarex.

It was easy for me to see why Amy wanted us to hurry.

As we approached, I could also see the SIM truck parked in front of the lab. I didn't see a cockpit, so I assumed it was a self-driving model. This also meant that we would have to do all the packing ourselves.

"Oh, thank goodness…" Amy breathed a sigh of relief once she saw the truck. "C'mon, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can get everything in the ship."

I was already worn out from running, and now I had to start packing? This was turning out to be quite a demanding first day on Mobius for me.

"I'm surprised the Metarex haven't seen the SIM truck yet," I noted.

"Don't jinx it!" Amy told me in a hushed tone, and my heart skipped a beat. Of course I didn't want to jinx anything, especially after she had spent all that money on supplies for our journey, and I didn't want to see her kindness and generosity go to waste like that.

"S-Sorry…!" I said, only now becoming self-aware of my voice as my adrenalin rush gradually started to die down.

"Hey Tails, we're back!" Amy reported. I glanced over to see that she had let go of Cosmo and was using her comlink.

"Hi, Amy! The SIM truck's outside now, so start loading the Typhoon and get everything out of there STAT," Tails told her. "We don't know how much time we have."

"I'm already on it!" Amy called back before turning to the rest of us. "You heard him, guys! Let's get going!"

"Oh, and Chris? Are you there?" I heard Tails ask. I was about to answer but Amy beat me to it.

"Yeah, he's right here," Amy responded. Deep down I was grateful, because I didn't want to use my kid voice more than I had to.

"As soon as you're back inside the ship, come see me on the bridge," Tails told me.

I looked back at my other friends, feeling a bit unsure of what to do.

"Um, are you gonna be okay working by yourselves?" I asked.

"Sure, you go on ahead!" Amy told me, waving me in the direction of the Typhoon. I nodded before breaking off from them and running toward the ship. Now that it was out in the open and fully visible, I once again found myself astonished that Tails planned and built all this. He never ceased to find ways to amaze me.

As I walked alongside the ship, I found the ramp and climbed up the inclined surface and into the ship. I told myself that I would have to get used to this, as much as I didn't want to. I was so glad I recorded my message for my friends at least, but there was no way I could possibly tell them that I wouldn't be able to return for an indefinite amount of time.

I remembered when Tails was guiding us around, showing us all the different rooms he had built and all the features he had incorporated into the ship. He claimed that making floor plans wasn't really his expertise, but the results showed otherwise. It was very well designed, and the interior stared some similarities to the X-Tornado as far as the design went. If I was going to live there for a while, then I figured I could get used it.

However, I realized that the more I walked through the ship, the more lost I found myself getting. The ship was massive; it was slightly longer than three football fields put end to end. There were a few signs to help me get around, but even they didn't seem to help; they only led me to places like the reactor and the bedrooms.

Three minutes after I entered the ship, the intercom crackled to life, startling me a bit.

"Hey Chris, make a right at the next hall," Tails told me. "I'll guide you up here to the bridge."

Grateful for his intervention, I walked at a faster pace and turned down the next hall. Over the next two minutes, he guided me down hall after hall, and the halls leading to the bridge started to look familiar to me. I picked up the pace and ran toward the elevator that led up to the bridge. Another minute later, I stepped onto the bridge, where I saw that Tails was the bridge's sole occupant. His ears and tails perked up, and he turned to look down at me from where he was sitting in the captain's seat.

"You made it!" he said with a big smile.

I suppressed a chuckle. "Only because you helped me," I said modestly. Tails rubbed the back of his head, a small blush forming on his muzzle.

"That reminds me, I need to put up more signs around here," he said, typing something on his keypad. "Since we're all gonna be living here for a while, it'll help us find our way around better."

I nodded. "So, um, what did you need me for?" I asked. It was hard to control my tone of voice when I was speaking as quietly as I did, and I immediately winced when I realized I sounded annoyed. However, I was relieved to see that Tails didn't take it that way.

"The navigation and hull integrity systems are almost done," he said, looking over his work at the computer. "They just need to finish being hooked up with the rest of the stations. Wanna help me finish calibrating them?"

"Okay," I said. "So what do I do?"

"Sit down at the station over there, and I'll send the information to you," he told me. I nodded and turned to the nearest station. There were four stations inside the bridge, excluding Tails' seat. As I sat down and studied the controls and the screens in front of me, I felt my heart beat just a little faster; I really felt like I was inside the Starship Enterprise!

"Okay, if the calibration works, we should both see the same data," he told me. "There's not much more to go, actually." He paused in thought. "No wait, I still have the rigging and hyperdrive, but I can always iron those out mid-flight."

"But other than that, we're ready?" I asked, daring to use my voice a little more now.

"Yup!" Tails said with an enthusiastic nod, before turning back to his work. "Okay, sending you the data now."

Over the next several minutes, Tails read out different sets of numbers and codes, and I repeated them back to him to make sure the stations were calibrated. He told me I had to do it for each station, which meant it would take me about twenty minutes by my estimate to calibrate the stations, roughly five for each station. While it was tricky, especially since some math had to be involved, it didn't seem nearly as hard as the time I tried complex math with Tails one time when I was twelve.

I heard an explosion outside, and while I was aware that there was a fight going on, I looked up from my work and tried to see if I could spot any sign of what was happening. Sure enough, I could see Sonic and Knuckles fighting a massive robot that looked like it came right out of Transformers.

"Is that a Metarex?" I asked, even though I already knew it was.

"Yeah, it is," Tails replied from the captain's seat. Looking up at him, I could see that his eyes were squinted, and he was trying to peer outside, and from the looks of it, he couldn't see anything either. "It's the second one we've had so far. I've been watching it every now and then. It doesn't look like it's taking any damage, though… And Sonic and Knuckles are giving it everything they have."

The sounds of Sonic and Knuckles' fruitless impacts against the Metarex's impregnable armor was muted by the canopy's alloy, but even so, I realized they were in a really bad spot, and so were we.

Even with the noise of the fight outside, the bridge was in a state of thoughtful silence.

"Hey Chris…?" I heard Tails say from behind me, and I looked up at him. "Knuckles told me about what happened with the portal."

My heart dropped for the second time that day, and I was once again reminded of my failures and carelessness. Tails looked me in the eyes.

"And… we really want you to come with us."

He sounded completely sincere when he said that, and the earnest look in his blue eyes proved it. Besides, I didn't have anywhere else to go on Mobius, and even if I did, I would rather stay with my friends, because I felt like I was at home with them, even if I was lightyears away from my own home.

"I..." was all I could manage to say at the moment. I wanted to say something more... a lot more... but I was worried that I would slip up and embarrass myself even more than I was with my voice.

I was truly grateful for his hospitality.

Even though Tails was smiling knowing that I would indeed accompany him and our other friends on our upcoming journey, his ears started to droop.

"Sorry about dragging you into all this…" he admitted, holding one arm with his other hand. "I really wanted things to be more peaceful when you got here… but…" His voice dropped. "…all this happened."

"It's okay," I told him, looking up at him and trying to offer him a smile back. "I'm actually really excited that I can finally help you out on your level now. In fact, working on this now… I feel like I'm doing something really big for you."

Tails chuckled modestly as I continued.

"And even though I can't fight like you and Sonic, I did learn how to fly from Grandpa, and he helped me to get a license. And, um… I hope it's okay, but I did practice flying the Tornado 2 and the X-Tornado, but don't worry, I made sure to take extra good care of them."

To my relief, Tails didn't look upset at all that I flew his planes. In fact, if anything, he looked intrigued and even excited that he had a fellow pilot, even though I wasn't sure I could call myself one. He immediately leaned over the armrest of his seat toward me, eager to learn more.

"You did? So now you know how to fly?! What'd you think?!" Tails asked, his tails fluffing out behind him in excitement.

"It was fun," I said with a shrug, "but to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of being the pilot. It's a lot tougher than it looks, but at least I know how to fly in a pinch."

"That's good!" Tails said with a thumbs-up. "Y'know, this is reminding me of all the times when me and Chuck worked on inventions together. This is just like back then!"

"Oh yeah!" I said, and I instinctively cringed at how high my voice suddenly got. I had to speak lower from now on. "And also, maybe we can come up with a bunch of ideas to make the ship even cooler since we're gonna be living here."

"I'm all ears if you have any ideas!" Tails said. "And not just you, but everyone else. Together, we can all make the Blue Typhoon perfect!"

"I'm actually interested to see what everyone's ideas are," I said, feeling my own anticipation growing.

"Mmhmm!" Tails said, nodding enthusiastically, before smiling down at me. "Y'know, I just noticed something."

"Yeah?"

"You're speaking a lot more now, even though you said you were uncomfortable earlier," Tails said, and there was no missing the look of pride he had in me.

I chuckled nervously, averting my gaze. "I… kinda have to grin and bear it, but… I'm still embarrassed doing it around a bunch of people..."

"It's okay," Tails said, relaxing his smile a bit so it was more easygoing. "We'll help you out. In the meantime, let's finish calibrating the– Whoa! Get down!"

I barely had time to look over, and I had even less time to drop under the station when a bright flash of light passed over us. It was followed by a muffled boom as an explosion hit somewhere off in the distance, and my heart skipped a beat.

"Are they shooting at us?!" I exclaimed as I warily crawled out from under the station.

"I don't know!" Tails said, sounding a bit flustered as he looked at the radar. "It might have been a stray. It passed within a hundred yards of us." He took a deep breath and let it out. "That was way too close. We have to finish setting up the ship right now."

"What about the rest of the stations?" I asked, glancing around the bridge.

"We can take care of those in space, getting out of here is our main focus," Tails said before he activated his comlink and held it up to his mouth. "Amy, we're running out of time, so we have to get ready to launch now."

"Right now?!" I heard Amy exclaim in shock.

"Soon," Tails clarified. "Not right now, but soon. Sorry about the confusion there, heheh… Anyway, can you get Knuckles and tell him to activate the Master Emerald?"

"Wait, wasn't he wearing his comlink when he called earlier?" Amy asked in confusion.

"Maybe?" Tails said, scratching his head, "but when I was with him in the reactor earlier, I didn't see him wearing it."

"Hey Cream?" Amy asked, and I had to strain to hear her. "Tails is gonna take off soon, so can you go ask Knuckles to start the Master Emerald?" There was a pause before I heard her voice again, clearer this time. "Okay, thanks! So Tails, how's the Typhoon coming along?"

"Me and Chris are getting some last-minute prep work done on the bridge," Tails said, hesitating a bit, probably figuring out how best to summarize the situation. He glanced down at the screen in front of him, his tails draped over his chair's armrests. "I already finished pumping all the water we'll need for drinking and hygiene. And don't worry, I made sure to pump all the salt out of it first. I also packed all the emergency meals I could find."

"We got lots of food too!" Amy replied. "Enough to feed all seven of us for a very long time!"

"Good to hear!" Tails said. "How are you guys doing with the shuttle, by the way?"

"Umm… It's kinda slower than I want," Amy said, and I could hear the regret and hint of annoyance in her voice. "At this rate, it could take another hour. We… got a lot more stuff than I thought."

As I was looking out the window, I could hear Tails let out a sigh from behind me.

"We don't have this kind of time anymore…" he said, and I looked back at him. "Chris, I think you should go back and help Amy again with the packing. I'll take care of the rest from here."

"Okay," I said, slipping myself out of the station. I broke into a jog as I left the bridge, knowing full well that every second truly mattered.


Green Hill Zone – Sonic's POV

The Metarex we were up against was similar to the one we fought yesterday, and yet it couldn't have been more different. It was a lot taller than the first one for starters, but it also seemed to be nimbler and faster, and the golden sword it was swinging at me and Knuckles kept us guessing what its next move was.

I leaped backwards out of the way as its sword cut through tree trunks like butter, sending hundreds of splinters everywhere. I did have to appreciate that this Metarex wasn't trying to burn down a forest at least, so I didn't have to deal with the constant smell of smoke today.

"Yo, Optimus Prime! You're gonna need a bigger mosquito racket!" I taunted, but I instantly ate my words when it lifted its free hand, pointed it out in front of itself, and fired red lasers out of its fingers like Spider-Man shooting webs. The lasers seared the ground everywhere it moved its hand, charring the entire land and taking dozens of trees with it. I was forced to jog back and give it a wide berth as one of the lasers almost touched me. I felt the heat from the laser in my fur, but at the very least, its hand was slow enough for me to dodge, even if it was a bit unpredictable.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Knuckles charging toward the Metarex warrior before delivering a powerful punch to its leg. It wasn't enough to knock it over, but it was forced to abort its attack and grab its sword with both hands again.

"I don't know about you, but this one's easier to hit than the one from yesterday," Knuckles called to me. "But somehow it's more reckless. That could give us the upper hand here!"

"True, but we still gotta be more careful," I answered back.

"Oh, absolutely," Knuckles said, not taking his gaze off the Metarex.

I was forced to suddenly leap back as the massive sword cut through where I had just been standing, taking out several more trees in the process. With every swing of its sword, the forest was getting smaller and smaller. I grit my teeth; I hated to see this much damage being done to the natural landscape and not have it be caused by Eggman.

"Hey, nice sword you got there," I called. "Use it to cut a steak or something!"

"You are the steak," the Metarex unit told me, and I shrugged. Obviously the Metarex had no sense of humor, not that I expected it to have any.

"Dude, Sonic! Isn't that controversial?" Knuckles asked me in an accusatory tone, raising an eyelid.

"Oh yeah, right! Sorry 'bout that," I said, realizing Knuckles' point. "I guess all that time I spent on Earth kinda rubbed off on me." While using animals as meat was seen as normal in human societies, it was frowned upon by us Mobians, who instead used beans that tasted exactly like meat. They were grown on plants all across Mobius, but they were most commonly grown on South Island and Westside Island.

"Don't sweat it," Knuckles said, before his gaze rested directly on Spike, and he took a step back. "Hey, it's doing something new."

"What's it doing?" I asked, running back toward Knuckles, all the while looking back up at Spike.

"Look at the holes in its chest, something's coming out" Knuckles said, adjusting his stance to be ready for what the Metarex was about to do. And we didn't have to wait very long, because not even two seconds later, I glanced up to see several metal objects slowly emerging from the fifteen holes in the center of the Metarex unit's chest.

"Trypophobe's worst nightmare…" I dryly quipped as the objects launched. Just as I thought, they were all missiles, but I noticed that their tips were sharp and pointed rather than rounded. They looked more like jet-propelled darts rather than missiles. I didn't know if they were like that by design, or if there was something more to them.

As it turned out, there was indeed something more to them. Several of the missiles struck the ground nearby, and to my shock, acid splashed out of the blast zone of each missile and coated the ground and trees in thick whitish-green acid. The grass instantly withered and dried up on impact, and I could hear the hissing sound of the acid as it ate at the tree trunks around me.

One missile hit close to me, and I let out a yelp and ran forward, barely dodging out of the way of the acid that struck right where I had been standing less than a second before.

"Don't let 'em touch you! They're full of acid!" I called to Knuckles, but I saw that he was already well aware of the situation. To punctuate my warning, I could hear the eerie sound of trees falling behind me. The acid had completely eaten through the trunks, leaving behind sheared stumps. One of them landed close to me, but I zipped to the top of a nearby hill, keeping my gaze fixed on the Metarex.

As I was making my way back, Knuckles used a falling tree as leverage to get closer to the robotic warrior, making sure to not touch any of the acid coating it, and he reared his fist back and struck it hard in the chest. It staggered backwards, but it quickly took a step back and regained its balance. It had clearly learned from the last time Knuckles punched it.

Only then did I realize I heard less than fifteen explosions, yet I could still hear the sound of burning fuel in the distance, and they were moving away from me. Looking up, I saw that they were flying straight toward the exposed Typhoon and the supply ship that was parked next to it.

The Metarex was merely distracting me while it was going after its real target.

I immediately turned and sped back toward the Typhoon, weaving my way around the hundreds of trees to try to get ahead of the missiles. Even though we were at least three miles away by my estimate, the missiles were incredibly fast even for me, which forced me to pour on even more speed. I curled into a ball and rapidly bounced myself from tree to tree, which allowed me to quickly gain ground.

However, the treetops were shrouding my vision, and I needed altitude fast. I vaulted myself off the ground and carefully hopped from tree to tree. Fortunately, the missiles hadn't left my vision, and I was still able to pursue them at their speed. The bad news was I could also see the Typhoon in the distance, and I was bridging the gap with it fast.

Summoning all my energy into my legs, I vaulted myself off the tree and soared directly toward the missiles. I landed on top of one of them, surprised that it didn't explode on impact under my weight. However, when I jumped to the next one and tried to kick it away, that was exactly what happened. Acid flew in all directions, and it rained down on the forest below. Even over the whoosh of the burning fuel from the missiles, I could hear the sizzling of the acid at work below me. I breathed a sigh of relief as I landed on top of the first missile. That was super scary.

I leaped off the missile again and carefully spin-dashed the other missiles, making sure to pull away at the last possible second before any acid could splash on me. I only uncurled from my ball form after the last missile was destroyed, and while in midair, I glanced at Tails inside the Blue Typhoon and flashed him a thumbs-up. He looked like he was shaken up; if I had waited a minute longer, there would no longer be any Blue Typhoon.

But as I landed back on the ground and raced back toward the responsible Metarex, I felt a searing pain in my arm. Looking down, I saw a whitish-green blob of acid on my arm. I had accidentally gotten some acid on me in my attempt to get rid of the missiles. It was only my adrenalin and sheer determination that kept me from screaming in agony. If I had to be honest, I couldn't see another way to get rid of the missiles, but it was better me than the whole ship, and besides, I could just get some treatment onboard after we took off.

The Metarex that Knuckles and I were up against was genuinely scary. It didn't seem to have any weak spots on it, since any time I knocked it down, it got right back up again. Not only that, but it didn't seem to have any dents either no matter how hard Knuckles and I hit it. In the back of my mind, I wondered if I could ask Tails if he wanted to salvage it for parts if we managed to beat it.

I hissed in pain as the acid spread further through my arm. I needed water or something to alleviate it, but I didn't know if that would work. Even if I did know how to treat an acid burn, I didn't have time to do that because if I did, then Knuckles would be left alone with the Metarex warrior, and he would be sure to lose.

As soon as I got back to the fight, I saw that the Metarex had razed enough of the forest to create a large clearing, which meant I didn't have to worry about any trees blocking my way anymore. But I felt a bit nervous deep down when I saw the blobs of acid on Knuckles' left leg and glove.

"Hang in there, Knux!" I called as soon as I tore through the clearing.

"It's burning like crazy," Knuckles told me through clenched teeth. "Don't let it touch you!"

Way ahead of you! I thought, but there was no way I was gonna say that out loud.

"I know!" I shouted back as I ran circles around the Metarex, which dwarfed me with its massive height. The Metarex warrior attempted to lower its sword straight down toward the ground so I would run straight into it, but I saw through its trick and ran wider circles around it. I smirked before running even faster, knowing there was no way it could lock onto me with its processors. And then, just like that, a sinkhole opened directly underneath it, causing it to fall in. It was now buried up to its chest.

Its head swiveled to face me.

"Immobility is no impairment," it told me before immediately launching fifteen more missiles from its chest, which was still exposed. I realized I didn't make the hole deep enough, which meant it could still easily attack us.

Knuckles and I ducked and dove under the missiles, which exploded on impact with the trees on the other side of the clearing. Acid flew everywhere, and my eyes widened when I saw the full scope of the damage. Steam was rising from the impact zones where the acid was, and there were clear holes in the tree trunks. There weren't even splinters in the bark, that's how clean the explosions were.

"That was a close one," I remarked. "Imagine what that could do to a ship!"

"No, Sonic, don't imagine it," Knuckles told me. Knuckles had a fair point, especially since we were about to take off into space, and if I hadn't stopped those missiles earlier, then nothing would be left to the imagination.

"Mr. Knuckles!" I heard a voice call from above the treetops, and over the sound of us fighting, it took my brain a moment to process who it was.

"Cream, no!" Knuckles shouted. "Get away from here!"

"Go back! It's too dangerous!" I called, finally spotting Cream flying about twenty feet above the tops of the trees. She seemed to be a speck from where I was standing.

"I know, but Mr. Tails is taking off now and he wants you to come and start the Master Emerald for him!" Cream clarified.

"Okay, but what about this thing?" Knuckles asked, looking back at the Metarex. "I can't just leave it alone!"

As if to punctuate Knuckles' warning, the Metarex moved its left arm and pointed it directly at Cream. Even though its entire lower half was embedded in the ground, it was like it was still fully mobile. I narrowed my eyes and bolted straight toward it at the speed of sound, and a shockwave exploded through the air as I ran. I tightened my fists before leaping into the air and spin-dashing the Metarex's hand, jostling its aim right as it opened fire. I was relieved that the lasers didn't hit Cream, but she let out a startled yelp and immediately flew back to the Typhoon as fast as her ears would allow her.

"She wasn't even part of this!" Knuckles exclaimed, thoroughly outraged. "That was completely unnecessary! And besides, I'm your opponent! Me!"

"Hey Knux, you go on ahead," I told him as I carefully eyed the Metarex warrior, which was not trying to aim at me once more. "I'll take it from here."

Knuckles looked at me in concern. "You sure?"

I nodded firmly. "I'm sure. Now go!"

With one last look back at the Metarex, Knuckles disappeared into the rapidly shrinking forest, leaving me to fight the warrior on my own.


The Blue Typhoon - Hangar – Chris' POV

Having left the Typhoon, I was hard at work helping Amy and Cosmo haul everything off the transport ship and into the cargo hold. Even though I hadn't seen the inside of the ship until now, I was honestly overwhelmed at how much we had purchased today. At the rate we were going, I was sure we wouldn't be able to finish on time, even though there were three of us working hard together.

Since I hadn't been working for as long as Amy and Cosmo, I had the most energy out of all of us, so I was able to work fast in getting the boxes and equipment out of the ship. Cosmo, on the other hand, was panting slightly as she lifted a heavy box off the ground and carried it toward the ramp that led down to the ground. She had to stop for a moment before continuing toward the cargo hold.

"Don't give up, Cosmo, we're almost there!" Amy encouraged her as she went back to get another box.

"I'm sorry," Cosmo said with a grunt as she navigated the box into the Typhoon. "It's been a very long time since I worked this hard with heavy objects."

"Well, teamwork makes the dream work!" Amy said with a wink in her direction. "And then we can relax once we take off. Oh, and also, we can think about how we can decorate our rooms!"

The faintest ghost of a smile played across Cosmo's face. "That sounds like fun," she admitted.

I was quiet the whole time while I listened to the girls' banter. I thought about joining in, but I wanted to focus on getting the job done as soon as possible, because there was always a chance that the Metarex that Sonic and Knuckles were fighting could set its sights on us and prevent us from taking off.

As I was on my way back to the ship to pick up another box, I looked up when I heard frantic breathing followed by a flapping sound, and I looked up to see Cream flying our way, panic evident on her face.

"Cream, what happened?" Amy asked, now looking worried. It got Cosmo and Cheese's attention too.

"Th-The Metarex…" she stammered as she hovered there several feet above us. "I-It almost shot me!"

I immediately felt a sense of dread in my gut. At the same time, Amy gasped, and Cosmo looked worried all of a sudden. Amy set down her box and approached the small rabbit.

"Cream, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" she asked.

Cream shook her head as Cheese immediately flew to her side. "N-No, b-but…"

"The Metarex don't take prisoners," Cosmo explained, and I looked at her as she stood near the entrance of the Blue Typhoon. "They will exterminate anyone who doesn't support them… even children like us."

Another chill ran through my spine. The way she said that… it sounded like she was told that, and she was pulling it from the deepest recesses of her memory, hoping she would never have to remember it again.

Amy's eyes were immediately creased in determination. "Right, as soon as we get everything inside, we're gonna make that Metarex pay! For now, let's try and carry more than one box at a time if we can, that'll get it done faster."

I nodded as I carried my boxes into the Typhoon and quickly returned to collect another stack. However, when I got back to the transport ship, I looked up when I heard a sudden crash. I ran over to see that Cosmo was looking down at the ground in dismay, and three boxes were lying on the ground in front of her. Luckily, none of their contents were spilled out.

"Are you okay, Cosmo?" Cream asked as she ran to Cosmo's side, being the closest to her of all of us.

"I-I think so," Cosmo said as she looked down at the boxes.

"I got it," I called, flinching at my own sudden loudness as I approached the boxes and scooped them up, quickly realizing that she had been trying to carry all three at the same time.

"Hey Cosmo, you don't have to overdo it," I heard Amy telling her. "Try and find a balance between fast and effective if you can."

Cosmo nodded. "Okay."

I made sure I had a sturdy handle on the boxes as I carried them toward the Typhoon's ramp that led into the hangar.

"Actually, I got an idea," I said, pausing at the bottom of the ramp, and the three girls and Chao looked at me. "Maybe we can do fireman's brigade; that way we can load all the boxes in a lot faster."

Any nodded firmly. "Good idea, Chris. You're the closest to the ship, so maybe you can stack the boxes for us."

"Okay," I said, "and Cream and Cosmo can be in the middle."

"I like that," Amy said with a nod.

"Me too," Cream said before turning back to the ship. "Let's do it, everyone!"

"Chao chao!" Cheese agreed.

And just like that, the five of us made quick work transferring the boxes from the SIM truck into Tails' ship. Amy grabbed boxes from inside the ship and passed them to Cream, who passed them to Cosmo, who passed them to me, who neatly stacked them inside the cargo hold. It helped that the SIM truck was parked very close to the ramp that led into the hold, which meant none of us had to walk too far.

In fact, I didn't realize how far we had come until I caught sight of Knuckles gliding toward us, and I stopped in my tracks with a large box still in my hands. He swooped over our heads and disappeared inside the ship, and while it wasn't any reason for me to stop working, especially since we all knew Knuckles was on his way, I couldn't help but notice that he was moving slower than usual, like he was worse for wear.

"Did something happen to him?" I asked. I wasn't surprised to see that he got hurt, but he looked like he was a different kind of hurt than what I would normally expect.

"I think the Metarex hurt him…" Cream noted, fueling the urgency I now noticed in Cosmo's expression.

Amy looked concerned when I glanced in her direction, and she nodded. "I'll take a look at him as soon as we're in the air," she stated, right as her comlink went off. She raised her wrist and activated it. "You doing okay, Tails?"

"Yeah, are you guys almost done?" I heard Tails say.

"Yup!" Amy replied. "We're over halfway done now, still plenty of boxes left but we found a way to get it done faster."

"Okay, that's good, because we don't have a lot of time left," Tails said. "Anyway, can you tell Chris to come down to the engine room please?"

"I heard," I told Amy right as she was about to open her mouth to relay Tails' message, and I ran up the ramp and into the ship. Before I made my way to the engine room, I made sure to stack the box I was holding onto the pile, frowning at how precarious it looked. The one thing I missed about my adult body was my adult strength, but at least we had Knuckles with us to help out with any heavy lifting jobs.

Fortunately, as I made my way through the winding corridors of the ship, I had a much easier time finding the engine room than the bridge, since I was already on the lowest level of the Typhoon. It only took me about a minute of walking this time.

I stepped into the engine room, but I didn't see any sign of Tails anywhere. The room's sole occupant was Knuckles, who was looking over the Master Emerald and didn't seem to notice me.

"Oh, sorry, I meant the control room above the balcony," I heard Tails' voice call to me. "I meant to be more specific." I looked up to see a balcony I hadn't noticed before during the tour. There were stairs leading up to the balcony, as well as a door and a large window next to it.

I made my way up the stairs and through the door, quickly finding myself in the control room that Tails had directed me to. There was a second door that led out into the main hallway, and several controls situated in front of the window I saw. Just to be safe, I closed the door, just in case the Master Emerald ever gave off any radiation, which was probably why the control room was set up the way it was. I realized, I never asked if the Master Emerald was radioactive. It was a thought that never crossed my mind before.

"Sorry to keep making you run around like this, Chris," Tails said apologetically, and I realized that his voice was coming from a headset that was resting on top of the console. Judging by its pointy ears, it was clearly built for Mobian use, and I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to put it on without constantly repositioning it. But I decided to give it a try anyway.

"It's okay, I like helping out," I said, immediately cringing. If I thought my kid voice was bad enough, it sounded way worse with headphones on. But I had to grin and bear it for the time being.

"Connecting the main engine to the flywheel," Tails said, right as a transparent LCD screen rose out of the dashboard in front of me. "Do you copy?"

The screen was mind-bogglingly complex, and I was barely able to make out several different options and components of the ship, but there was a button to confirm the action taken from the bridge.

"Yeah, so do I just press the confirm button?" I asked.

"Yeah, press that," Tails told me, and I tapped the button on the screen.

"Okay, it says it's connected," I said, eyes darting across the screen. "So do I connect the flywheel to the Master Emerald next?"

"Knuckles is already taking care of that," Tails reminded me. "The flywheel is underneath the Master Emerald platform, so that would make it a physical job."

"Oh, okay," I said, looking down at Knuckles as he did his work. "So now what?"

"Now's the fun part, we get to start the engine!" Tails said happily. "It might be a little loud though, and I don't know how loud it'll be since it's been a long time since I started the engines, so I just wanted to warn you first."

I stood there, not exactly knowing what kind of sound to expect. My heart started beating a bit faster as I stood up from my seat, glancing from the LCD monitor to Knuckles working below me. Then, about twenty seconds later, I heard a low rumble that startled me a bit. It was a little louder than I thought, but I figured it would be quieter in other parts of the space, and would ultimately be reduced to white noise once we got used to being in space.

A section near the back of the ship on the monitor glowed, and I assumed it indicated that it meant the engines were active. There were a number of readouts near it, including force and pressure, as well as a number of parameters that I didn't understand, but I was sure Tails did.

Just then I noticed an incredible glow coming from the engine room below me, and I scrambled to the window and looked down. Knuckles was extending his hands out to the Master Emerald, and while I couldn't hear him from the control room, I knew instinctively that he was chanting Tikal's prayer. Even though I couldn't hear him, I was left in a state of awe.

As Knuckles proceeded, the Master Emerald glowed even brighter, and I was forced to squint and look away. The ambient roar around me started to get louder as a low whine gradually rose in pitch. I forced myself to open my eyes and look at the screen to see if there was any change. Sure enough, several values that I assumed measured engine power were rapidly rising. I also happened to see a pair of massive turbines spinning in the back of the engine room.

"Okay, the engines are active!" I reported, squinting my eyes again.

"Yup, I can confirm that on my end," Tails responded. "I made a few upgrades to them so they can properly function in space. It worked in the simulations I ran, but now it's time to see if we can really fly in space! Oh yeah, one more thing, Chris. I'm about to take off, but I want you to read the meters and tell me if anything looks off."

"Okay," I said as I looked at the screen, grateful that the Master Emerald's glow quickly died down. The only problem was, I wasn't sure how to describe if something looked off since this was only my first time looking at this screen.

"Increasing thrust now!" Tails reported.

Immediately as he said that, the deep roar of the engines suddenly got louder, and the whine got even higher in pitch. I cautiously put my hands over my ears, which was tricky to do considering I was wearing Mobian headphones.

"It's okay, you don't have to cover your ears," Tails told me.

My heart skipped a beat. "W-Wait, h-how did you know I–"

Tails chuckled. "I got security cameras everywhere, in case any bad guys try to break into the ship. Anyway, there are lots of mufflers down in the engine room that cover up the full sound of the engines, since they can be very loud."

"O-Oh, okay," I said, lowering my hands and feeling a bit silly at myself. Since I was physically younger, I seemed to perceive sound a lot differently now, since the sound of the engines inside was only about as loud as when I was working with the X-Tornado back home, or so I figured. "Uh, pressure is at five million tons. How much do we need to take off?"

"If I recall correctly, it was almost twelve million," Tails said. "I'm gonna need to focus for a bit, but keep reading the meters for me."

"Okay," I said, looking back at the screen as the various meters and readouts continued to rise. As the pressure and engine thrust increased, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, and everything appeared stable. It remained that way for the next two minutes as I watched the screen in silence, gradually adjusting to the sound of the engines.

"11 million…" Tails mused. "11.2… 11.4… 11.6! It's time to launch!"

"Wait wait wait! Before you take off," I blurted, "did we get everything inside? And is everyone on board?"

"Yep!" Tails confirmed. "Well, actually, um… Cream told me she's gonna say goodbye to Miss Vanilla first, and Sonic is still fighting the Metarex, but other than that, we got everyone on board. And Amy and Cosmo finished loading everything on too; I made sure of that before I started the engines."

Seconds later, I could feel the ship slowly rising into the air, and I wasn't quite used to the motion. For a moment I thought I would have to hold onto something for balance, but the motion was so smooth that I found that I didn't need to. It was a strange sensation, one that I told myself I would need to get used to.

Roughly two minutes later by my estimate, we leveled off, and I felt that we stopped rising in altitude. I assumed that Tails was just getting us off the ground for now while he finished up with the preparations.

But then my heart froze when I realized something. Speaking of preparations, I wasn't really prepared for space travel at all! I had come down from space when Sonic and his friends rescued me from the illusionary Space Colony ARK, but I had never gone up in space before! I wanted to talk to Tails about it, but I knew I wouldn't get the time to ask since he was very busy.

I was stuck.


Cream's house - Third-person POV

Vanilla was sitting in her plush rocking chair, working on her latest knitting project. The house had been quiet since Cream and her friends had left for the Blue Typhoon that morning, so Vanilla had enough time to relax and destress since last night's excitement.

Although it wasn't just the house that was quiet. The air outside was unusually still as well, not to mention slightly dry. The early afternoon breeze that usually came through was no longer present, and there were no clouds in the sky. She knew all of these were a direct result of the Planet Egg's removal.

Her mind had been on Cosmo's wellbeing all day. She hadn't seen the poor girl smile ever since Cream brought her home, and after everything Cosmo had just been through, who could blame her? Yet Cream was determined to help her feel at home, and her friends had promised to help her defeat the Metarex and save the galaxy.

A gentle knock on the door roused Vanilla from her thoughts.

"Come in," she gently called.

The door opened, and Cream stepped inside with Cheese right behind her.

"Well hello there, Cream," Vanilla said with a warm smile, looking up from her knitting. Chocola flew over and greeted Cheese.

"Mama, I have a question," Cream said, taking a few steps closer to her. She looked like she was a little hesitant about what she was about to ask, but she brought herself to look up at her eyes. "Um… is it okay if me and Cheese go in space with everyone?"

"On the spaceship?" Vanilla asked, and Cream firmly nodded. "Hm… I don't know, that sounds incredibly dangerous…"

Cream looked a little sad, and she glanced down at the floor, ready to accept whatever her mother's answer was, but then Vanilla spoke again.

"All right, dear," she said with a smile. "Just make sure you're available if your friends need you for anything, all right?"

"I will, I promise," Cream said, looking Vanilla in the eyes. Vanilla scooped Cream up onto her lap and gently hugged her.

"I trust you," Vanilla quietly told her, "and I'll miss you very much, Cream. I'll always be thinking of you."

"Me too, Mama," Cream said, tears threatening to leak from her eyes. "I'll m-miss you too… and Chocola… and Gemerl…" She sniffed in a vain attempt to regain her composure, knowing full well that it would be many long months until she would see her mom again. "A-And I'll make sure to send you updates!"

"Thank you, sweetheart, I'll look forward to every one of them," Vanilla said, hugging Cream for a moment longer before setting her down. "You have fun now, all right?"

"I will!" Cream said with a bright smile as she ran back toward the front door, with Cheese fluttering right behind her. "Bye, Mama!"

It was tough, but the six-year-old rabbit wanted to be strong and not show her tears in front of her mother or anyone else as she flapped her ears and made her way back to the Typhoon.


Green Hill Zone - Sonic's POV

As my fight against the Metarex warrior dragged on, I realized that I was losing steam fast. My foe had since managed to pull himself out of the hole I had put him in, which meant he had full mobility once again.

Knuckles had been a huge asset to the fight, but now that he had been called off to start the Typhoon, his disappearance was making the fight that much harder. Since then, I was able to land a few hits on the Metarex, but it was taking absolutely no damage whatsoever, and I was starting to get a bit annoyed at its resilience.

There was a sudden rumbling sound from somewhere behind me, and in the briefest second, I turned my head to look. I could see a massive shape that I quickly recognized as the Blue Typhoon. I didn't think that Tails was taking off without me, and even now I wasn't nervous about that thought, but he was probably just getting it off the ground for now, and I could always leap inside from the ground if it was still hovering low enough.

When I turned back to the fight, I had just enough time to realize that my opponent was taking advantage of the distraction before I felt a sharp pain going down my side. The Metarex pulled its sword away, and I clutched my side in pain, quickly noticing the blood staining my blue fur, as well as the tip of the Metarex's golden sword. I ran back a few steps to avoid another hit.

"You will not leave this planet," the Metarex declared.

"Huh, didn't know you took up fortune-telling!" I quipped. "You may wanna learn a thing or two from Amy about that, 'cuz that prediction's a dud!"

The Metarex turned itself so that it fully faced me, and fired off fifteen more rockets from its chest which arced directly over my head and sped toward the Typhoon for the second time today. Tightening my fists and my resolve, I turned and sped back toward the Typhoon, easily cutting ahead of the missiles. The Metarex's tactic was already getting old, and I had to strategize on the spot to try to stop fifteen missiles once again without getting any more acid on me.

However, the Metarex warrior had an extra trick up its sleeve. I could hear a massive whoosh from behind me, and I whipped my head around to see that the moment it swung its sword, it made a horizontal air wave that was rushing toward me faster than I was running. My heart skipped a beat as I dropped to the ground, and not a moment too soon, for the air wave passed inches over my head a split second later, cutting through trees like they were paper and taking out a huge chunk of the forest. It was just like the kind of attack Eggman used against me and my friends when I fought his Egg Emperor, only more destructive.

The air wave dissipated seconds later, long before it reached the Typhoon, but when I looked up, the missiles were a lot farther away than I had bargained for. I had lost a considerable amount of time just dodging the Metarex's new attack.

Any physical contact with the missiles would cause them to instantly explode and rain acid everywhere, and I was alreaady feeling the stinging effects of the acid from earlier, so I had to come up with another way to take them out without physically getting involved.

As I ran, I quickly came up with a new idea. I blasted through the forest at just under the speed of sound and grabbed as many loose tree branches as I could find. Then I ran ahead of the missiles, scaled a tree, and threw the branches as hard as I could at the missiles as they passed by. Just like I planned, they exploded on impact, sending acid flying everywhere within a fifty-foot radius per missile. I was forced to jump back to avoid them, but fifteen direct hits later, every last missile was neutralized, no longer posing a threat to my friends.

I winced as I heard the acid eating holes in the trees and ground, knowing the forest was nearly completely gone. It couldn't be helped, but at least the Typhoon was safe. Looking up, I could hear several thundering footsteps as the Metarex made its way toward me.

"Pro tip, big guy," I called out to the Metarex, "don't touch our spaceship, especially if you're into destroying planets! It's been fun, but I gotta run!"

I turned back around and ran toward the ascending Typhoon before vaulting myself off the ground. I easily landed on top of the ship's hull before looking around for a way in.


The Blue Typhoon - Third-person POV

By now, Amy and Cosmo had finally finished loading every single box and container onto the ship, and they had managed to get back on board themselves by the time Tails took off. They were both exhausted from doing so much heavy lifting, and they were sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall as they caught their breath.

"I've never done so much work in my life," Cosmo panted, glancing up at the stacks around her. "Th-That was hard."

"Yeah," Amy said, before giving her friend an assuring smile. "But we did it! Now we just need to wait for Cream to come back and we can tidy up the boxes and make them look neater."

"Okay," Cosmo said, not expecting more work all of a sudden. But it wasn't like she was at it alone; in fact, she had help the whole time she was unloading the transport ship today.

"You'll be fine," Amy told Cosmo, sensing her initial anxiety. "It's not gonna take long at all because Chris did a fantastic job stacking all these boxes."

Since Cosmo hadn't been inside the ship until after the job was done, she hadn't noticed it before, but when she stood up and took a few steps back to looked around, she knew that Amy was right. The second half of the job wouldn't be nearly as bad as she thought.

Just then the intercom came to life and the hangar was filled with Tails' voice as he made an announcement across the ship.

"This is your captain speaking," he said, letting out a chuckle. "I'm not used to saying that, haha… Anyway, before we leave, we're gonna get the Sonic Driver ready and take care of this Metarex once and for all!"

Down in the engine room that overlooked the reactor, Chris stood by awaiting Tails' orders.

"Diverting energy to the Sonic Driver," Tails reported to Chris, who kept his eyes on the screen. A panel appeared with a single yes or no question: "Bridge is sending energy to the Sonic Driver. Confirm?" Chris tapped the yes button on the screen, and a meter on the left side began to rapidly fill with energy.

"Okay, just accepted the energy," Chris reported, watching the percentage go up. He couldn't take his eyes off the screen, since he was impatient knowing there was a gigantic Metarex warrior outside the ship right now. "I'm just wondering… how long does it take to fill?"

"Um, it depends, but usually it's around a minute," Tails replied, before he spoke over the intercom. "Okay Sonic, stand by for further orders!"

Outside the ship, Sonic, who was still searching for a way into the ship, didn't realize that the hangar door was still open. He was caught off guard by a mechanical sliding noise from the front of the ship. Two door-like panels slid away to either side and a massive cannon rose out of the front of the ship, aiming forward.

"How many rings are in the Sonic Driver?" Tails asked Chris from the bridge.

"Um, let me see…" Chris looked on the right side of the screen where the front of the ship was. He didn't see a number, so he tapped the section labeled Sonic Driver, and he was able to see dozens of different specifications, including its ring count. "…582…" He blinked in surprise. "That's a lot of rings."

"It is," Tails responded. "It takes exactly one hundred rings to fire the cannon at normal power."

"But wait, that means right now we can only fire it like five times, maybe six if we're lucky," Chris realized.

"I can always make more," Tails said matter-of-factly. "I figured out how they're made, so it's not a big deal. Thanks Chris, I'll take it from here!"

From behind his advanced control panel situated at the captain's seat, Tails typed something on the keyboard, beginning up a checklist. He had written instructions on how to operate the Sonic Driver, since this was only the second time he had ever used it outside of testing.

"Okay…" he mused to himself. "First I transfer energy from the engine chamber to the cannon's hammer…"

He typed a command and watched the monitor as it showed the ring count gradually depleting. It took almost forty seconds, which was a very long time considering the Metarex was practically unhindered outside, but at last, the combined energy of one hundred rings was transferred to the cannon's core.

"Next I pressurize the cannon rod's ring energy…" Tails said, a small grin forming. "I think I got it now. I can do the rest from memory."

Closing out the instructions on one of his screens, he tapped an option on the other that gradually increased the pressure of the Sonic Driver with the rings' energy. Then he activated his comlink.

"The Driver's almost ready, Sonic," he reported. "Run inside the barrel and get ready to spin as fast as you can."

"You got it, Tails!" Sonic said with a grin as he sped across the deck and jumped down inside the cannon, running all the way to the back.

Tails chuckled. "Are you in position?" he asked.

"Yup, you can fire when ready!" Sonic declared.

"Okay, Sonic," Tails said, giggling with anticipation. "Start your spin!"

As Sonic proceed to spin in place as fast as he possibly could on the platform at the back of the cannon, the Sonic Driver rapidly filled with energy, priming it for use. Tails opened another tab on his screen and activated the intercom.

"We're about to fire the Sonic Driver," he warned. "Brace for impact!"

Down in the cargo hold, Amy, Cosmo, and the newly-returned Cream and Cheese were all working together to make the piles neater at the time Tails' warning came through.

"Oh no…" Cosmo realized as she took a step back. "Does that mean it will knock over all the boxes we worked so hard to…?"

"I don't think so," Amy said confidently as she finished straightening one of the stacks. "Tails built this thing to take a lot of shock from the Sonic Driver. I barely even felt it the last time he used it!" She looked back at Cosmo and smiled. "So you should be fine, Cosmo."

"Okay," Cosmo said, searching for any sign of doubt in Amy's eyes and finding none.

With her hands on her hips, Amy looked back over the work that she and the other girls had done and smiled. "I think that's good enough for now. We did a great job! We can tidy it up a little bit later and settle in as soon as we leave Mobius."

"I'm so excited!" Cream cheered. "It's going to be like a brand new house!"

"Chao chao-chao!" Cheese echoed, flying in circles around Cream's head in excitement.

Cosmo, on the other hand, had a thoughtful smile when she heard all this. She was starting to get an idea…

Unknown to everyone on the ship except for Tails and Sonic, the Metarex warrior was charging straight toward them at an inconceivably fast speed, holding its sword out. Now that Sonic and Knuckles were no longer holding it back from its ultimate goal, it launched a third swarm of fifteen missiles straight at the front of the ship.

"Target locked on! Turning off safety!" Tails announced to no one in particular. Even though the stakes were high, he was having fun with this. He periodically glanced up at his screen to see the Metarex approaching. It was now less than a mile away, and the missiles it launched were even closer.

Looking back at the Sonic Driver operation window, he saw that Sonic was spinning at 100% velocity.

Perfect, Tails thought. He lifted a hidden cover underneath the left armrest of his captain's seat, revealing a big red button.

"Sonic Driver... Fire!"

He pressed that button without hesitation, immediately launching Sonic at several times the speed of sound toward the Metarex. There was a soft boom, followed by a tiny jolt from the ship. The shock absorbers had done their work well.

To Tails' relief, Sonic effortlessly crashed through the missiles. He was flying so fast that the acid was completely neutralized, none of it touched Sonic or the damaged forest below.

A split second later, Sonic crashed through the Metarex with devastating force, creating a burning hole in the warrior's chest. It collapsed onto its knees before exploding, sending flaming debris everywhere. Sonic, on the other hand, helplessly flew away, seemingly unhindered by his collision with the Metarex.

"Yes!" Tails cheered, pumping his fist in the air, before chuckling, realizing he was alone on the bridge. He quickly realized that retrieving Sonic would become a major issue at some point, especially if he had to use the Sonic Driver in space.

With a big grin knowing that he and Sonic won their first battle against the Metarex, he typed out several commands on his keyboard, and over the next two minutes, he retracted the Sonic Driver, fully rerouted the Typhoon's energy back to the engines, and opened the ship's atmospheric wings.

Next, he pivoted the screen away from him and took the controls with both hands. The Typhoon slowly began to accelerate forward, a little too fast considering he was flying at low altitude, but he slowed it down a bit. He was still a bit rusty, but he would have plenty of experience to relearn the controls, improvise, and tweak things if need be.

He flew the ship in the direction he had seen Sonic fly in, and sure enough, the hedgehog was speeding back toward the ship. Tails opened the bay door, allowing Sonic to jump back inside before he closed it again.

"We're about to leave the planet, so hang on tight!" Tails announced over the intercom.

Despite the dangers that he knew lay before him, the eight-year-old fox was super excited and proud of himself. He actually managed to defeat a Metarex! Plus, he and his friends were all traveling in outer space together, so there was going to be a lot to see while they looked for the Chaos Emeralds. And even though he knew there were even stronger Metarex, there was nothing he couldn't do with the power of teamwork and friendship.

As he rose through the different levels of the atmosphere, he could feel the incredible crushing pressure, and he grit his teeth as he navigated the controls, but he had designed the Blue Typhoon to factor in all kinds of gravitational changes. However, he didn't count on how strong Mobius' upper atmosphere was. He could only hope his friends were holding up better than he was.

It took about twenty minutes, longer than he anticipated, to make it into Mobius' upper atmosphere. When he looked up from the controls, his breath was literally taken away by what he saw.

He immediately reached for the intercom button.

"Guys! Everyone come up to the bridge! You have to see this!"

He couldn't take his eyes off of the sight that lay before him outside as his six friends all made their way up to the bridge over the next three minutes. Tails noticed that Sonic and Knuckles were both patched up; Amy had treated them both on the way up. All six of them had the same reaction as Tails when they saw their home planet of Mobius from above: mouths were hanging open, and eyes were wide.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Cream ran to the window at the front of the ship, fully taking in the sight. She was especially awed, the most out of all of them in fact, since she had never been up in space before, except for the time she traveled to the illusionary Space Colony ARK with her friends.

"Oh look, there's South Island!" she exclaimed, pointing to a specific part of the pristine blue and green planet.

"And there's Westside Island next to it, and way over there are Northamer and Soumerca!" Tails added.

"And waaaay over there southeast of South Island is Christmas Island where I was born," Sonic said, pointing to another part of the planet. "Y'know, I'll never get bored of seeing this."

"Even with the Planet Egg gone, it's still breathtaking," Amy remarked.

Chris and Cosmo were mostly silent, Chris because he was still a bit nervous to use his voice too much around everyone else, and Cosmo because she had seen this sight hundreds of times before.

"I remember seeing Mobius when we were on the ARK," Tails recalled.

"Yeah, me too," Amy said, "except this time we're going even higher!"

"Continents are different…" Chris said at last. "But also similar at the same time…?"

"I mean, yeah, this isn't Earth," Knuckles said, standing next to him at the window. "But I get what you mean. I kinda had the same reaction when I saw Earth when we were on the ARK."

"I don't feel heavy anymore," Cream spoke up, looking around the bridge. "What happened?"

"We're far enough away from the planet that we don't feel the pressure anymore," Tails explained, glancing at few of the readouts on the screen next to him. "The gravity regulator will take over from here."

"That's good," Cream said, returning her gaze to Mobius.

"Umm…" Cosmo said, suddenly sounding alarmed as she looked up at her acquaintances. "Why does the moon look like it was destroyed… and then artificially repaired?" Her eyes were shimmering in fear. "D-Did the Metarex do this too?"

"Huh? Ohhh, no, no," Sonic said, glancing up at the moon, which had thousands of chunks of moon rocks orbiting it from a disaster long ago. "That was from the Eclipse Cannon. Some guy named Dr. Eggman shot it to show us he wasn't bluffing. And then a whole bunch of countries got together and fixed it. It took like ten years, but now it's a full moon again."

Cosmo frowned, taking all of this into consideration. Whoever Doctor Eggman was, he sounded like an extreme threat, much like the Metarex. A different kind of threat to be sure, but still a threat.

And then she remembered what she had thought of earlier in the cargo hold, and it came to the forefront of her mind. She turned and looked up at Tails, feeling slightly uncertain of herself.

"Um…" she spoke up, and Tails looked down at her from his seat expectantly and in curiosity. "…Me and my friends were talking earlier, about decorating the ship, and…" She swallowed nervously, even though she had no reason to be nervous. It might have had to do with adjusting to being around fauna. "I-Is it okay if we can make a greenhouse room? Um… My colony ship had one, and…"

She trailed off, but she breathed a sigh of relief when Tails' expression brightened.

"Yes! That's a brilliant idea, Cosmo!" he exclaimed. "Something like that will definitely help with the natural oxygen and carbon dioxide balance inside the ship. I know I already have a built-in system for air balance, but having a natural way of doing that will be even better!" With an excited chuckle, he typed something on his keyboard. "Just added that to my to-do list! Thanks, Cosmo!"

Cosmo smiled faintly; she was used to feeling overlooked or misunderstood, but she had great satisfaction that her idea was considered and accepted.

While Tails and Cosmo were talking, Sonic took a few steps across the bridge until he was standing next to Chris.

"Hey, uh… mind if I talk to you real quick about something?" he asked.

Chris nodded before they both walked to the front of the bridge where no one else was standing. Sonic glanced back at the others for a moment before looking at Chris.

"So you've been having a hard time with your voice lately, huh?" Sonic said, trying to approach the subject as cautiously as he could. Chris almost immediately blushed in embarrassment, before slowly nodding. "You don't have to talk if you don't want, but, y'know… it'll help a lot if you can speak up every now and then."

Chris shook his head, looking down at the ground to hide his shame. "I-It's just… I'm 19 now, I'm not supposed to sound like this. B-Because for some reason, when I went through the portal… it made me like six years younger aand it changed my voice too. And not only that…"

Chris hesitated for a moment, but he was already in too deep. Besides, Sonic was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue. Chris took a deep breath and swallowed, allowing the floodgates to open and all his emotions that he had held back over the last twenty-four hours casdaded forth.

"N-Not only that… but I feel weird, like… my whole body feels different, was I always like this? Like… did I always sound this cringe? And also I'm dealing with some pretty bad growing pains since this morning. Maybe that's from the portal, but I don't know."

Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, I don't know what happened to you either, Chris," he admitted, rubbing behind his quills. "But I'll help you out. And it may take some time, but you'll get there. I know you'll get used to your old voice again in no time with a little practice!" He grinned. "And if it helps, none of us really know what you look or sound like as an adult, so it's really no big deal for us."

Sonic paused in confusion and pulled back his hand from his quills before examining the object that was now in his hand.

"Huh… How'd this get here…?" he mused.

"What is it?" Amy asked, having taken a few steps closer. Sonic turned back to look at her before opening his hand.

"Kinda looks like a computer chip," Sonic said.

"Wait, what?" Tails asked in surprise from the captain's seat, having overheard this. "Can you show me?"

All the attention was on Sonic now, but he didn't seem to mind thar much as he walked toward Tails and set the ship down on the console in front of Tails, who picked it up and examined it closely.

"I can't tell what it is," he said quietly, "but it's some kind of nanotechnology for sure. I have no idea how it got there or how long it's been there."

Cream and Cosmo were both concerned at this, but neither of them said anything. However, Knuckles asked the question that was at the forefront of both of their minds.

"Think it came from the Metarex we just fought?" he asked, leaning against the wall.

"I doubt it," Tails said with a shrug. He pulled an all-purpose utility tool out of Hammerspace, and Chris, who saw it, assumed it was the Mobian equivalent of a Swiss army knife. Tails flipped the tool's miniature magnifying glass upward and held it to the chip, and everyone watched quietly as he examined it closely. "There's a tiny light…" he said quietly, before his eyes widened slightly, and he looked up. "Guys, it's a listening device."

Gasps arose from the bridge.

"Wh-What?" Cream exclaimed.

"…How did it even get in there in the first place?" Amy asked, clearly upset. "It couldn't have just fallen in there."

"It didn't," Tails said as he glanced down at the tiny chip again. "This is Eggman tech, I recognize it anywhere."

Amy crossed her arms in annoyance. "So are you saying Eggman was spying on us… this whole time?! When did that even happen?!" She turned to look at Sonic. "Sonic, were you anywhere near Eggman lately? Or any of his robots?"

"Yeah, remember when I was knocked out cold last night?" Sonic asked the bridge. "I woke up at Eggman's base, and I'm guessing he might have slipped it in there before I woke up."

"Why?" Cream asked, looking at Sonic with a worried expression. "What did he want to hear?"

"Good question that I don't have the answers to, I'm afraid," Sonic said as he slowly paced back and forth on the bridge. "I'm pretty sure he didn't know about the Metarex at that time…" He closed his eyes in thought. "Unless…"

Tails sighed in frustration as he pushed the microchip aside. "So this means Eggman now knows everything about the Typhoon."

"More importantly," Knuckles spoke up, "he knows everything about the Metarex. This leaves nothing to guesswork."

"And if he knows this much already," Amy said, having calmed down a bit, "then don't be surprised if he decides to follow us."

Sonic chuckled as he made his way over to Tails' station. He picked up the chip with two fingers and then crushed it in the palm of his hand.

"This just means things are about to get interesting," he declared with a grin. "In fact, I'm gettin' excited!"


Eggman's base - Third-person POV

"Doctor Eggman," Orbot's voice reported through Eggman's holographic wrist communicator. "The bug you attached to Sonic has been terminated."

"It was only a matter of time," Eggman responded nonchalantly as he read the meters and made sure the Crimson Egg's fuel and energy supply was topped off. "But no matter. I heard everything I needed to hear."

It was early evening, and Eggman was making final preparations for departure. He had already loaded everything he needed onto the ship, including a year's worth of meals as well as various small projects and metal for building robots.

Eggman had finalized the Crimson Egg's blueprints toward the end of the Phantom War, but it was only recently completed for one of his grand schemes. Had the Metarex not invaded Earth, Eggman had planned to use the Crimson Egg to stage an invasion of Soumerca and mine it for precious minerals.

He had observed Sonic's battle from afar yesterday, and had learned that the Metarex that Sonic lost to was far more powerful than even his most powerful combat robots. If all of them were like that… Eggman shuddered to think about that possibility. He was somewhat alarmed that they were treading on his turf. If they were to rob Mobius of its life, then he would have no planet to rule over, and therefore no subjects to serve him in his Eggman Empire.

But it was no longer a matter of "if", because that was exactly what happened last night. As a result, Eggman couldn't sit idle when he was at risk of losing his planet. He had to do something about it.

As he was about to enter the ship himself, his AI daughter Sage appeared before him. She was newly-designed since Eggman's return to Mobius, and she was far better than her predecessors A.D.A.M. and Phage in every way.

"Hello, Father," Sage greeted, and Eggman turned to look at her. "Your master computer has been booted into absence mode for your extended departure. Should an enemy attack Imperial City, the computer will initiate a lockdown procedure and prepare maximum defenses. In the meantime, I will accompany you if you so desire."

"Excellent work, Sage," Eggman said, before his tone softened. "And as much as I would appreciate you joining me, it would be best if you stay here on Mobius, because I can't afford to permanently lose you. Not even I know the full extent of the Metarex's power."

Sage nodded, floating in pace before him in Cyber Space before she turned to leave. "I understand. Your concern is appreciated, Father. Your empire will be secure in your absence."

"Indeed it shall, and speaking of…" Eggman activated his communicator once again as Sage vanished. "Link me to the master computer."

A holographic menu appeared over his wrist, and Eggman swiped through a few options.

"Note to self, I need to make my communicator interface a little less cluttered," he mused. "I stimply have not had the time lately, but oh well."

Once he found the option he has been looking for a moment later, he cleared his throat.

"This is a direct order from Doctor Robotnik to the twelve regional Egg Bosses of Mobius," Eggman spoke in an authoritative tone. "As you may be aware, Mobius has been invaded by an alien race known as the Metarex. They have effectively killed the planet as we know it, and things are continuing to deteriorate. I am departing for the outer reaches of space to destroy the Metarex and get them to restore life to the planet. In my absence, your priority one order is to secure the Eggman Empire at all costs. Even with Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends gone, you still have GUN and the Kingdom of Acorn to deal with. You absolutely must not allow your territories to fall in my absence."

Eggman glanced across the cloudless sky, observing how the air had been alarmingly stagnant since last night. Even the smoke from his various factories rose straight up.

"I don't know when or if I'll return," he finished, "but rest assured that my master plan will involve my triumphant return either way. You have your orders, and I expect you all to serve your duty as you always have."

Smirking in satisfaction once he hung up the call, he turned and walked up the ramp for the final time. He took a moment to survey his handiwork from the inside of the Crimson Egg before he made his way up to the bridge, where Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun were already gathered.

Eggman sat down in his command chair, and over the next thirty minutes, they initiated the takeoff procedures and were soon leaving Mobius' atmosphere.

"Doctor, what is your strategy?" Decoe asked, to which Eggman grinned.

"Be ready for anything," he said. "If all the Metarex are as dangerous as the one Sonic destroyed today, then we will need more than brainpower to defeat them. Luckily, I have more than a few tricks up my sleeve to keep them guessing what my next move is. They will soon know the might of Dr. Eggman!"

He let out a bellowing laugh that reverberated across the bridge.


A/N: That concludes the second half of "Cosmic Crisis!" With that, the space race is officially on!

The first scene was originally planned to be in Third-person POV, but I changed it to Chris' POV when I saw that it mostly focused on Chris, and the next to last scene was originally in Chris' POV. Also, the flashback scene was completely improvised.

When I was working on the train scene, I was kinda laughing at my spur-of-the-moment idea that eating dirt is a cultural norm for Seedrians XD

Also, Chris getting growing pains was a last-minute addition that I didn't realize he would logically suffer until I was over halfway done working on this chapter. Or should I call them "shrinking pains"? Since he shrunk so fast, he should logically be in agony, but maybe I can find a way to reduce that.

I hope I wrote Sage properly because I never played or seen too many cutscenes of Sonic Frontiers; I went off her wiki page's personality section. However, I will eventually revise it once I do play/watch Frontiers. And I know she didn't appear much, but I feel like I would have a hard time directly incorporating her into the main story since she would be better off on Mobius protecting Eggman's territories.

After this chapter, it may be a few weeks until the next chapter because I haven't finished it yet, but I'll be updating some of my other stories and even possibly starting some new ones in the meantime, so look forward to that!

Next time is "H2 Whoa", where we explore what happens when we put lightning in a bottle for the second time in Sonic X! Don't miss it!