erutcarF

by Sora with an S

Silver shows up in time to stop the Paradox Prism from breaking all the way... but when they try to put it back together, it goes too far, and merges in timelines that split off long ago... (Crossover between all Sonic continuities)

22. Purple Chaos Emerald, Rejected

"…okay. I spy with my little eye –"

"Tree." Nicky answered immediately.

Manic slumped over, letting out a despairing groan.

"Maybe he wouldn't have guessed that if you hadn't spied 'tree' the last three times." Sonia quipped.

"Have a little mercy, dudes and sises." Manic moaned. "This is my first time playing!"

Nicky, who had been kicking his feet out aimlessly, paused and looked up at Manic. "You've never played I Spy before? What games do you play?"

"Yeah, Farrell wasn't really a… 'game' kind of guy." Manic muttered, straightening up. "Well, I mean, he was, but those games were more like 'distract the mark', 'lift the wallet', and 'pick the lock' – get what I'm saying?"

When Nicky didn't immediately respond, Manic turned to look down at the younger hedgehog. Nicky was staring at Manic, his wide eyes twinged with fear.

"You're a thief?" Nicky blurted out.

Manic winced.

"Oh, don't worry about Manic." Sonia interjected, her hands moving over each other as she steered the van around a large boulder in the path they were driving along. "He doesn't steal from people he likes." She paused, thinking for a moment. "Much. Anymore."

"For the last time, I'm sorry." Manic said, somewhat testily. "But seriously, how was I supposed to know that 'ancient relic' orb thing was really a time bomb?"

"The countdown timer should have been a bit of a clue." Sonia said snootily, thrusting her nose into the air with a hmph!

Nicky's mum had always warned him to be careful around strangers – how they could be dangerous criminals, out to hurt him! But… Manic didn't seem dangerous. Maybe his mum wasn't thinking about people like Manic when she was warning him? Without him really thinking about it, the tension drained from Nicky's shoulders.

Manic sighed. "Look," he said to Nicky "Farrell wasn't… a good guy. But he was a good guy, y'know? 'coulda just tossed me out like trash, but he didn't. He took me in, raised me."

"Raised you to be a thief." Sonia pointed out.

Manic shrugged. "It's the only way he knew. 'sides, better him finding me than Robotnik, right?"

"Yeah… I guess." Sonia conceded with a reluctant sigh.

Nicky blinked. "Who's Robotnik?" He asked, genuinely puzzled.

For a moment, the only sounds were of the van's engine, humming along as the van bounced along the dirt trail.

Then Sonia slammed on the breaks, and as one both triplets turned to Nicky with faces stretched out with shock.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'WHO'S ROBOTNIK'?!" They screamed in perfect harmony.

(In the back of the van, Silver's unsecured body slammed into the front of the alcove he was trying to sleep in, though luckily for him his pillow cushioned the blow.)

Sonia's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "He's ruled the kingdom with an iron fist for longer than you've been alive!"

"He's got everyone locked down so bad you can't even play music without bein' arrested!" Manic protested.

"Forget music, if you even look at Robotnik funny the SWATbots will take you away." Sonia shivered. "And then it's off to the roboticizer…"

"O-oh…" Nicky pressed himself back into the chair, feeling intensity of the two triplet's emotions like they were a physical force pushing against him.

"N-no," he stammered "th-that doesn't sound like anyone I know. A-and if there was, S-Sonic would…!"

"We know Sonic would fight him." Sonia interrupted in a huff. "He was doing that even before we found each other!"

"There's a world out there without Robotnik?" Manic said to himself, his eyes unfocused. The very idea seemed to have knocked him into something of a daze. "Bro, you have no idea how mad jealous I am right now."

"We… we have problems too!" Nicky pressed, finding himself with the mad urge to find something wrong with the world he knew. "T-there's this mad scientist named Eggman, and he…"

And he what? Interrupted the local Iron Man Competition? Gave weird weapons to Anton so that the bully would harass Sonic? Kidnapped Amy, Tania and his dad? All that stuff was bad, but was it anything like what Sonia and Manic were saying?

Sonia blinked, looking down at Nicky's distressed face. "Hey, hey." She said, with a soothing voice well-practiced on the kids at Sanctuary. "Not having that monster around is a good thing, okay? It's not something to be ashamed of."

"B-but you guys…" Nicky sniffed, his eyes watery.

Manic shook his head violently, smacking the side of it to force his eyes back into focus. "Oh, don't worry about us, bro." He gave a mischievous grin. "We'll take Ro-butt-nik down. We have a prophecy and everything!"

Nicky blinked. "A prophecy?" This was the second time they'd mentioned that, wasn't it?

Manic and Sonia shared a grin.

Sonia keyed the van's engine, but somehow the startup hum of the van's engine seemed… almost melodic.

As the van lurched forwards, the afternoon sun peaked through the surrounding hills, reflecting brightly off of the pair's medallions.

Sonia started to sing first: Triplets born, the throne awaits;

Manic was next: a seer warns of a deadly fate.

The two continued to alternate lines. When speaking the two had rough, almost nasally voices – but now their voices seemed to resonate with the notes, anything that would interfere with the harmony pushed away.

Give up your children; separate.

Bide your time – lie in wait!

With a wailing guitar and an upbeat tempo, the song might have been considered 'energetic' – but it was being sung a cappella (without instruments), softly and somewhat slowly. Like this, the song seemed… sombre. Not sad, but…

Sonic Undergrouuuuuund. Sonic Undergrouuuuuuund.

Even singing the chorus in unison didn't lift the mood.

They made a vow, their mother would be found.

With the chorus done, Sonia took up the first line of the next verse:

The children grow, learn what's right.

Manic stood up in his chair, heedless of the motion of the van as he pointed off into the distance:

Leaders of the Freedom Fight!

Sonia shook her head at her brother's antics, but she smiled all the same.

They seek their mother – she knows they do.

Is it time? If she only knew!

The pair of triplets launched into the chorus again…

---

Far above the surface of the ocean, another engine roared far louder than the van's one.

"I long for my children, but I have to wait." Aleena sung softly to herself, hands clutched tightly around each other. "To act too soon could seal their fate."

"What was that?" Bernadette shouted over the wind.

Aleena sighed, as the far-distant song finished its last chorus. "Nothing for which you need be concerned."

Bernadette turned her head, her eyes suspicious, but somebody else interrupted before she could press on with her questioning.

"Alright everyone, I need you to keep your eyes peeled!"

Paulie's grin was so wide that Aleena could tell that it was there, even though she was sitting in the seat behind him. Jules and Bernadette, true to their word, were kneeling down on the wings; clinging tightly to the leading edge with both hands.

"What for?" Bernadette shouted.

"For South Island, of course!" Paulie shaded his eyes with a hand and search the horizon. "No telling where it's gotten to by now!"

Jules's robotic neck whirr'd softly as he looked over at Paulie. "With all the glitching, you mean?"

As if to emphasise his words, the Tornado's outline spasmed for a moment, snapping back into place with only tiny details different.

"Huh?" Paulie blinked, confused, before snapping his fingers. "Oh, right! That! No. Oh, well, I suppose it could be doing that? But what I meant is that South Island is a floating island."

Jules and Bernadette exchanged shocked looks. "Like Angel Island?" Bernadette demanded.

"Couldn't say," Paulie scratched his head "never having heard of no Angel Island…"

Aleena hadn't either, but she was familiar with the Floating Island that Knuckles lived on. "They desire to know if the island itself flies through the air, untethered to gravity."

"Flies?" Paulie echoed back, incredulous. "No no no. South Island floats. On the water, I mean. Running deliveries there is a right pain when the currents keep pushing it every which way, let me tell you!"

The other three hedgehogs all stared at Paulie for a moment.

"Does it have something to do with the Chaos Emeralds?" Bernadette guessed.

"That's what the legends say." Paulie confirmed with a shrug. "Mind, those legends say that South Island's movin' around is what gives the emeralds their power, so I'd take 'em with a grain of salt."

Bernadette frowned, but accepted the explanation with a reluctant nod. She turned to her husband. "Dear, I seem to remember that my eyes had a zoom function, back before the Bem restored me."

Restored? Aleena wondered. Had Bernadette's eyes been replaced with artificial prosthetics, then flesh again?

Jules shrugged. "Well, girls always have better eyesight than boys, don't they?"

"Huh?" Paulie scratched his head again. Aleena agreed with his confusion, if perhaps not the inelegant way of expressing it.

"Only at night, dear." Bernadette rolled her eyes. "And the sun won't set for a while yet."

"Yes, that's the problem." Jules shaded his eyes much as Paulie had just before. "All that sunlight reflecting off the water is shining right in my…" He trailed off.

Aleena swallowed, excitement and fear both churning together deep in her soul. "Have you sighted our goal?"

"Okay." Jules's synthesised voice sounded distinctly like he would be gritting his teeth if he still had any. "I've got good news and bad news."

"Good news first!" Paulie cheerfully requested, before anyone else could say anything.

Jules pointed down at the water's surface, where the sunlight was reflected. "Well, I can see an island from here. Rocky mountains, lush forests…" Jules trailed off, his next words said in disbelief. "Green checker-board grass?"

"That's it!" Paulie whooped, happily shaking a fist in the air.

"And the bad news?" Bernadette asked, biting half of her bottom lip in worry.

Jules's finger lifted up to point at the sun.

No.

Aleena squinted her eyes, trying to see through the blinding light.

Jules was pointing at the dozens of dark specs in front of the sun, hiding in the light.

"That's the Egg Fleet." Jules growled.

"Oh, no you don't!" Paulie shouted, a furious glint in his eyes.

He gripped the plane's steering wheel tightly and swung the whole aircraft around, facing into the sun. Jules and Bernadette both let out shouts of alarm as they were swung around, nearly causing them to fall into the ocean far, far below.

"Now is really not the time, Eggman!" Paulie grunted, shoving the biplane's throttle forward as far as it would go.

---

Back in the van, the last vestiges of the melody were still hanging in their air.

Nicky's eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he excitedly clapped his hands together as fast as he could.

"Thank you! Thank you!" Manic bowed. "I'll be here all week!"

The van ran over a small rock in the road, causing the van to suddenly shake. Manic stumbled, loosing his footing on his chair –

– but without looking, Sonia grabbed one of his flailing arms, holding her brother steady with unnatural ease. "Now now, Manic." She teased. "Sit down before you hurt yourself."

Manic felt the blood rush to his cheeks – the cream skin there easily showing the blush – and mumbled something incoherent as he sat back down.

He thought he'd looked cool…

Nicky had stopped clapping when Manic had started to fall, hands clasped to his mouth in fright, but now that the older hedgehog was safe he let out a relieved sigh. Straightening back up again, he asked the question that the song just now had placed in his head. "So, um… you guys are looking for your mother?"

"Sure are, dude." Manic confirmed, seat belt clicking into place. "The Oracle says that when the four of us are together – Mom, Sis, Sonic and me –"

"Sonic and I." Sonia corrected absentmindedly.

Manic turned away from Sonia so that she wouldn't see him roll his eyes. "– we'll form this 'Council of Four', and, like, wreck Robotnik so bad they'd feel it in Tashistan."

"Wow…" Nicky breathed, his eyes sparkling.

They're so cool!

"What's your family like, Nicky?" Sonia asked.

"M-me?" The sparkles abruptly disappeared from Nicky's eyes, and he nervously twiddled his thumbs. "U-um, well, there's my mum and dad… and my sister Tania… and… andmygirlfriendamy…!"

He blurted the last part out in a rush, but Sonia's ears pricked up the hot goss perfectly. "Ooooh, a girlfriend already? Aren't you a little young for that, mister?" She said, teasingly.

Without realising it, Sonia had shifted into full-on big sister mode.

Nicky's cheeks burned bright red, and he started to curl up into himself (though his seat belt stopped him from embracing his hedgehog heritage and going full ball). He tried to defend himself, but all that came out of his mouth was a frantic babble that nobody could understand.

"Woah, woah dude! Chill!" Manic intervened, waving his arms in warding motions. "It's okay if you have a girl you like, okay? Sonia's just teasing!"

Nicky's pouted, tears forming in the corners of his eyes. "She likes me too!" He protested. "And she's pretty, and she can read fortunes, and she cares about everyone…!"

Nicky huffed and puffed, having apparently run out of things to say. He mumbled something under his breath.

"Uh, what was that bro?" Manic leaned over to hear better.

Nicky looked up. His jaw worked up and down for a moment. "…b-but… she likes…"

Suddenly, Manic remembered what Nicky had shouted at Shadow, when Shadow had accused Nicky of (somehow) being Sonic in disguise.

He'd said that Amy liked Sonic better then him.

"Oh, bro. That's rough." Manic patted Nicky on the back. "Usually a girl liking Sonic lasts only until they meet him."

"Manic." Sonia said, a warning note in her voice.
"What? It's true!" Manic protested, only to be met with a quick glare from his sister before she returned to watching the van's path along the ground.

Manic sighed. "Totally earned digs at my bro aside, you can't let a thing like that get you down, bro!"

Nicky's tear-filled eyes looked up. "R-really?!"

"Yeah bro!" Manic thumped his chest. "Tell ya what. We'll help you out!"

Nicky blinked. "Y-you will?"

"Sure." Sonia agreed easily, despite it not having been her idea. "I know he's our brother and all, but Sonic really gets a swelled head sometimes. A sweet kid like you would be a much better catch for any girl!"

Nicky tried to think of a response to that, but before he could say anything his seat belt was suddenly pulling tight into his chest as Sonia suddenly slammed on the breaks.

A loud thunk from behind them told them that Silver's pillow hadn't saved him this time, and had just been slammed into the side of his alcove and was now fully awake again. He groaned as he rubbed his much-abused head.

"Woah!" Manic flailed his arms for a second. "Sis, what gives?"

"We ran out of road." Sonia frowned.

Nicky peeked up over the dashboard as best he could, and saw that Sonia was right – the green checker-board grass in front of them gave way to sandy beach, the waves lapping gently at its edge.

"Oh." Nicky realised. "We must have hit the edge of the island."

"We're on an island?" Manic yelped. "Oh man – we're not gonna get off of here with just the van. Usually we steal a transport from butt-nik for something like this."

The painful brightness of the sunlight lessened. "Oh, that's better. Thanks, whoever tinted the window."

"Manic?" Sonia's said, her voice strangled with worry. "The window isn't tinted."

Manic frowned. "Uh, it isn't? Then where'd the sun…. Go…."

Nicky looked up, and felt his stomach drop.

High in the skies above them, mighty red battleships blotted out the sun. Soaring aloft on massive rocket engines, they spouted giant cannons with barrels far taller than Nicky was. On all of their sides was a logo of a moustached man grinning madly.

Without a word, Sonia slammed the van into reverse, and floored the accelerator.

---

"What is the meaning of this?!" Eggman demanded angrily as he stomped onto the bridge, wringing soapy water out of his moustache.

"Sorry to disturb your shower, boss –" Orbot began.

"Especially 'cause o' how badly you needed one!" Cubot added in.

"– but we have a possible Hedgehog Alert." Orbot hurriedly finished, shoving Cubot out of the way of Eggman's angry glare.

The holographic projectors built into the ceiling (now standard across the Empire) powered up, and Sage's projection flickered into being, floating in the air at Eggman's eye level.

Now that she was no longer directly connected to the ancient (and Ancient) network on the Starfall Islands, Sage's avatar was no longer choked black and red from cyber-corruption, but was instead a steady, pure white.

"South Island's path will pass under the Egg Fleet's in twelve minutes, Father." Sage began to explain.

"Our long-range sensors have identified a vehicle which has been recorded by one of your counterparts as belonging to a particular band of insurgents, whose largest incident instigator is your own personal nemesis." Orbot joined in, hands clasped nervously together.

"Yeah, and we've spotted one of Sonic's cars, too!" Cubot oversimplified, as usual completely oblivious to the fact that Orbot had just said that.

Eggman listened as he reached the command chair (which was, of course, an Egg Mobile docked into the ship – and no, that wasn't pessimism! It was caution borne of hard-won experience!). Making one quick check that his outfit was somewhat presentable, he sat down and pulled up the sensor feeds that Sage was referring to.

Ugh, what an ugly van. There was no way Sonic would ever ride in something like that willingly. He hated riding in enclosed vehicles. The speed-freak loved the feeling of the wind in his quills far too much.

That's it! It's that blasted van! 8 roared in his head. That's them! It's the hedgehogs! Destroy them!

"What?" Eggman's moustache rustled with the force of his sceptical frown.

Sage was visibly taken aback. "The data you had me index from your alternate selves. It lists –" She started to explain.

"Oh no, not you, Sage dear." Eggman reassured. "8 just felt like he had to butt in, is all."

Ugh. This whole thing about being identified by numbers is too confusing. 9 groaned. Nobody's going to know who's talking to who!

Oh, oh, oh! We should get name-tags! 11 squealed excitedly. I'll go first! 'Hello, my name is…'

Eggman growled with annoyance, trying to push past the distractions.

Turning his alternate selves into voices in his head had seemed like such a great idea at the time…

"Just… just send some Flappers in." Eggman pinched his nose. "See what we're dealing with."

"I simulated a 96% chance that that would be your response." Sage nodded. "And so I took the liberty of launching them already. ETA: one minute."

Eggman grinned widely. That's my girl!

Beh. Family. I see you haven't learned yet that it's not worth the effort. Pre-SGW spat.

"You shut your blasted mouth!" Eggman shouted, visibly startling Sage. But Eggman kept his eyes focused on a blank stretch of wall, imagining the sneering face of his counterpart on it.

Oh, there is… entertainment to be had, certainly. SatAM sneered. But anything you do not control is an unaccounted for variable in your plans, and sooner or later the joke will have run it's course!

Eggman stood up, still staring hatefully at that blank patch of wall. Bocoe, who was vaguely in the direction of his glare, hurriedly scurried out of the way to go hide behind Decoe.

"Listen here you pathetic excuse for a villain!" Eggman snarled. "Talk that way about Sage again and I'll rip your heart out and eat it in front of you!"

Several of the assorted robots in the room shot startled looks at each other, but Sage had access to the records of the threats (promises) he'd made during that disastrous expedition to Lost Hex, and Cubot and Orbot were the ones who had made said records in the first place; so those three didn't react beyond a suppressed wince from the nincom-bots and a concerned look from Sage.

You can't hurt us you eggs-cruciating imbecile, we're the same person! Virgin snapped back. Even more so than everyone else, thanks to that eggs-tra stunt you pulled with the ruby!

(Tee hee hee, Virgin. One of his other selves chortled in the back of his head.)

Pathetic, am I?! SatAM growled, low and dangerous. I've ruled this whole planet for ten years, and yet you lost that within six months!

"Big deal!" Eggman snorted. "You conquered the world when Sonic was five years old. I did that when the infuriating hedgehog could actually fight back!"

Eggman paused, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Spinning around, he found Infinite standing just inside the room, hands clenched into fists, his one visible eye staring intently at Eggman.

"What?" Eggman snapped.

Infinite's gloves creaked and his hands shook with the force of his clench, but after a moment he abruptly broke eye contact with a quiet tch.

You know, this is so much easier to keep track of with those name tags on. X commented randomly.

I know, right? Boom replied, giddy with glee. I knew using the glitter pens was a great idea!

"Father…" Sage's hologram floated into his field of view, reaching out towards him hesitantly.

Blinking, Eggman suddenly realised what a scene he was making. How very unprofessional for a genius of his calibre! Coughing, he sat back down in his chair and faced the controls again.

The eyes of Sage's avatar held badly-concealed worry, but even so she held out a hand, palm facing outward. A holographic 'screen' opened up in front of her, one showing a much more detailed video feed of the hideous van from the long-range scanners. As Eggman watched, the badnik filming the video flew out in front of the van and panned down, so that the occupants could be seen.

It's them! Underground roared. Sonia and Manic and… His mental voice trailed off. Who's that third hedgehog? He's the right colour, but…

Oh ho ho! Well, if it isn't Nicky! Manga chortled. I wonder what he's doing here? Well, never mind. Wherever Nicky is, Sonic won't be far behind!

"And just who are they, hmm?" Eggman frowned.

Nicky? Oh, he's just some kid. Manga said dismissively. But every time he's in trouble, Sonic shows up! Ho ho! Someday I'll get my hands on his power, and then my empire will be unstoppable!

Who are… does Sonic not have siblings in your world?! Underground demanded.

"Siblings?!" Eggman yelped. "No no no no, heavens forbid!"

Well, unless you counted Tails. With how close those two were, they were practically attached at the hip. And, of course, if you didn't already know who Shadow and Silver were, you'd be forgiven for thinking they were cousins or something of Sonic's. They'd certainly given him enough collective ulcers to be family, that was for sure.

…come to think of it, Shadow's hedgehog DNA had to have come from somewhere, and Silver had to be descended from somebody –

Gah! There was a new nightmare to add to the rotation. Ugh.

"Bwa-ha-ha-ha!" Scratch crowed like a rooster from his console near the front of the ship. "Want Grounder and I to go get 'em, Doctor?"

"Oh! We could trap 'em in a giant pit!" Grounder bounced up and down on his treads with excitement.

"Seal 'em in a tunnel with some dynamite!" Scratch rubbed his metal hands together with sinister glee.

"Hit 'em with a giant flyswatter!" Grounder shook his drill-hands in the air.

"Shrink 'em down and stick 'em in a jam jar!" Scratch caught a fist with his other hand.

"Poison every chilli-dog in da area!"

"Trap 'em inside reality TV!"

Slowly, Eggman turned to focus on that same blank patch of wall. "Is this seriously the kind of thing you got up to?"

They have to work one of these days, don't they?! AoStH insisted, somehow audibly grinding his teeth with frustration despite currently existing only as a disembodied voice.

Eggman shook his head furiously, dragging his thoughts back on track with a surge of willpower. "Let's try something more… traditional first."

Eggman rubbed his hands together, stretched his fingers out, then started furiously typing away at his controls. "Launch the Egg Chasers!" He barked, and the various assistant robots hurried to obey. "Bring the Egg Carrier to the front of the formation!"

Technically it was the Egg Carrier 4, but who was counting.

Eggman finished typing and grinned, lifting his hands from the controls and touching his fingers together. "Family or not, let's see how they like a traditional Eggman hello." He grinned, the light shining off his spectacles.

---

"Drive, Sis, drive! Put the pedal to the metal!" Manic urged frantically.

"The pedal is on the metal!" Sonia snapped, taking her foot off the accelerator for just a second to spin the van around and power off, now facing the direction of travel. "What on Mobius were those ships?! The Fortress of Altitude needed a Chaos Emerald to power it, and there were more ships there than there are Chaos Emeralds!"

Nicky looked behind him nervously, but the van didn't have a rear window and he couldn't see anything. He squirmed in his seat, making little whimpering noises of fear.

"What's going on?" Silver shambled his way up to the front of the van.

"Dude, there are these huge flying ship things that look like fish!" Manic turned around and pointed up and back at where he'd seen them.

Silver groaned. "The Egg Fleet? Oh no…"

"Egg Fleet?" Nicky yelped. That didn't…

…actually, now that he thought about it, Eggman loved building giant machines shaped like animals. It's just that he usually only attacked with one at a time.

"Wait, this is that 'Eggman' guy's doing?" Manic yelped.

"Yep." Silver said with a long-suffering sigh. His body started to glow a soft cyan, and he floated off of the floor and up to the window on the roof of the van.

Suddenly his eyes went wide. "Right!"

Sonia jerked the steering wheel, and the van lurched to one side just in time to have two laser beams slice through the space the van had just occupied.

"Egg Chasers!" Silver cursed. "Quick, how do you get this window open…?"

Manic unbuckled himself, leaping over his chair to go help Silver. "It's this switch here, you just…"

With a hiss, the window flipped up on a hinge, just in time to see the Egg Chasers fly overhead. They hovered about 20 meters in front of the van, facing towards it, flying backwards just as fast as the van was driving forwards.

An Egg Chaser was basically an Egg Pawn with a giant jetpack and a pair of laser cannons instead of arms. There were three of them, flying in formation, meaning six barrels of laser death overall. Each of the six started to glow brightly as they charged up.

Silver wasn't having that.

Gritting his teeth, he reached out with both hands and focused as hard as he could. The Egg Chasers on the left and right glowed cyan, and abruptly slammed into the centre one, all three exploding in a massive fireball that washed over the two of them.

Manic's eyes went wide. "Dude."

The moment was somewhat ruined by another six Chasers flying up to take the place of the destroyed ones: three in front and three behind.

Silver let out a noise of panic, spinning back and forth to try and figure out which trio to focus on. Manic looked panicked for a moment too, before snapping his fingers. He dived back into the van for a second, unfolding a pair of blaster cannons each about the length of his arms and the width of his fists.

"You, like, take the rear dude!" Manic swung the cannons forward. "I'll take the front!"

"Where did you get those?!" Silver yelped.

"Stole 'em from butt-nik, where else?" Manic aimed and pulled both triggers, sending a flurry of bright plasma bolts out in front of the van. Manic wasn't the most accurate shot, but he didn't need to be – the spray of the cannons saturated everything in front of him, blasting the badniks out of the sky. The van swayed under the two of them as Sonia swerved around the flaming wrecks as they fell.

The Egg Chasers behind the van charged up their own cannons, headless of the destruction of their comrades, but Silver just turned and clapped his hands together – crushing the three together into a ball of twisted metal that existed for only a brief moment before exploding, cracking the glass dome that served as the van's top window.

"Sorry!" Silver cried, like he was actually afraid Manic was going to yell at him for that.

Manic shook his head, laughing. "Dude!"

The sounds of powerful rocket engines interrupted their session of male bonding.

No more Egg Chasers flew in – but the robot now flying up behind the van was as wide as three Chasers had been, flying in formation. It resembled a massive hermit crab, it's 'shell' purple and its face yellow. On either side of its body, it had two grey spiked 'hands' shaped like upside-down bowls. Two powerful rocket engines on its back propelled it through the air as it growled with synthetic malice down at the van.

Silver went even paler than his normal colour. He hadn't seen one of these since the Interstellar Amusement Park! "Big Chaser!" He cried, hands glowing cyan with psychokinetic power.

The Big Chaser looked left for a moment as its hand on that side glowed the same colour. It let out a growl, moving its body around in an attempt to swing its arm, but to no avail.

Manic let go of the guns (they didn't swivel all the way around) – to go stare at Silver's handiwork. "Whoa, dude. Is there, like, anything you can't hold?"

The Big Chaser's eyes left its stuck 'hand' to lock onto Silver's own eyes, boring into them with hateful intensity.

"Heh heh…" Silver laughed nervously, sweat dripping from his forehead. "Um…"

The rocket engines from behind the Big Chaser roared, and the entire robot span around like a twister. The sound of breaking glass rang out, and Silver's hold on it shattered. Silver gasped with pain, grabbing onto his head with one hand as he flinched back.

The Big Chaser swung back its massive 'fist'.

Manic's eyes went wide. "Oh man. Duck, dude!" He grabbed Silver and dived back down into the van.

Sonia looked back from the driver's seat. "What's going –"

The entire van bucked, as with a sudden crunch the rear of the van was crumpled in on itself like tinfoil. The floor suddenly became a wall and then the ceiling as the van bounced and rolled sideways.

The Big Chaser watched in satisfaction as the van skidded and rolled across the checker-patterned grass, off to the edge of the path towards a ravine. Just as it reached the edge, a spluttering cyan aura enveloped the van, and it stopped, teetering, on the edge…

Rolling its eyes, the super badnik flew up to the van and wound up for another punch.

Just as it was swinging around, the cyan aura vanished – and the bent and twisted back door of the van burst open, kicked from within. A motorcycle's engine roared, and Sonia and Nicky flew out of the doors on Sonia's bike. Manic was right behind them on his hoverboa – sorry, his Extreme Gear, Silver held awkwardly in a bridal carry.

The Big Chaser twisted around, but the four hedgehogs were already passing underneath it, heading off in the same direction the van had been trying to escape in.

For a moment, Manic looked back at the smoking wreck of the van, pain in his eyes. "Oh man… all our stuff…"

"We can get new stuff!" Sonia yelled, fighting to be heard over the roar of her bike's engine. "I am not getting myself a new brother!"

The Big Chaser scowled, turning around and chasing after the escaping hedgehogs atop its roaring rocket engines.

Keeping one hand on the bike's handlebars, Sonia raised her other hand up to her pendant. With a flash of magical light, the medallion dissolved into a ball of energy then reformed in her hands as a keyboard. Twisting her body around, Sonia aimed the keyboard at the Big Chaser like it was a rifle.

The Big Chaser squinted down in confusion, until the small hole in the keyboard's facing side started glowing a soft plasma blue.

The Big Chaser roared, shielding its eyes with its 'hands', as Sonia's keyboard barked out blaster bolt after blaster bolt at it. But the bolts just splashed out against the thick armour plating on its hands, leaving nothing but scorch marks.

Sonia lowered her keyboard with a pained grimace. "Well, so much for that idea."

"L-l-leeeeeeffftt!" Nicky screamed out, and Sonia twisted back around again just in time to see the twist in the road Nicky was trying to warn her about. Abruptly twisting her handlebars, Sonia swung the motorcycle left, so low to the ground that they would be kissing soil if they moved just a little bit further down. Its wheels churning up the dirt, the motorbike just barely made the turn; wheels leaving the ground for a moment as they briefly mounted the canyon wall.

Manic's turn wasn't anywhere near as dramatic – he just bent his knees and let his Extreme Gear climb the wall without fear, letting the naturally curving wall do the job of turning for him.

"Silver, man, you know what this thing is, right?" Manic yelped. "How do we stop it? This thing is stealthbot levels of tough!"

"Ugh…" Silver clutched his head, his body glitching for a long moment. "I… can't…" He glitched again. "Oh, ugh, right! You have to trick it into slamming into something! Like a wall!"

Silver was ashamed to admit that he'd only seen those particular chases from a distance – the Interstellar Amusement Park had been huge, and he and Blaze had only met up with Sonic and Tails a couple of times.

Sonia glanced behind herself, and winced as she saw the Big Chaser make the same turn that had nearly crashed Manic and her without issue. Getting it to slam into something wouldn't be easy.

"What about a wall slamming into it?" Sonia asked instead, looking back at Manic.

But Manic shook his head. "Sorry Sis, but I can't play the drums on a hover – on an Extreme Gear, can I? 'sides, my medallion is all outta juice."

The magical medallions the triplets wore were powered by the harmony – both metaphorical and literal – between the three of them. The key word there being three. Without Sonic to add to the harmony, their medallions just didn't have enough charge for any major magic.

The Big Chaser's rocket engines roared again, the super badnik quickly gaining on them. Nicky yelped in fright, and Sonia furiously twisted the accelerator, trying to coax just a little more speed out of her bike…

As the Big Chaser wound up for another swing, Sonia received salvation from a most unexpected place – a red and black treadmill randomly placed on the grass.

Sonia let out a startled yelp as her bike suddenly zoomed forwards, far faster than it'd ever gone before. The bike wobbled dangerously as she fought to keep it upright, but it had been launched well clear.

Manic let out his own cry of surprise as his Extreme Gear passed over the Dash Panel, launching him forwards just like it did his sister. The swinging 'fist' of the Big Chaser passed so close that Manic could swear it brushed his quills, but even so, it missed.

Still in Manic's bridal carry, Silver twisted around so that he could see behind them. The Big Chaser was getting ready to charge them again, but there was something else behind it…

Silver's whole face brightened immediately. "Egg Walkers!"

"What?!" Manic risked a quick glance behind himself. A dozen or so ostrich-like robots were furiously running after them, missile launchers attached to their sides. "Dude! That's a problem! Why do you sound happy?!"

Silver let out a grin, hands glowing cyan once again. "Because it's not a problem for me!"

Salvos of missiles were sent streaming into the sky, curving around in wide arcs to target the hedgehogs. Closer and closer they came, overtaking the Big Chaser…

Which is when Silver grabbed them all with his psychokinesis, and threw them backwards.

The Big Chaser let out an electronic roar of pain as it was hit with the redirected explosives, once, thrice, six times…! Its flight wobbled, and abruptly it slammed into the ground, blocking the path off all the Egg Walkers behind it. More explosions followed as the Egg Walkers ran straight into the Big Chaser at full speed, smashing themselves apart.

Their bodies lit up from the explosions and their quills buffeted by the wind, the four hedgehogs were silent for a moment.

Then Manic broke the silence. "Duuuuuude." He said, his mouth stretched out in a massive grin.

Sonia sighed, and her keyboard dissolved back into her medallion. "We better get going." She said, turning to face forwards again. "The sooner we can shake Eggman the better."

Silver and Manic also turned to face forwards, looking up at the path as it lead upwards over a gently sloping hill, the sun shining brightly overhead.

Which meant that only Nicky saw the Big Chaser emerge out of the smoke.

"Look ooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuttttttttt!" He screamed, but it was too late.

The Big Chaser was covered in soot and scorch marks. One of the rockets on its back was spluttering, and its right arm was missing altogether – the area where it had been blasted off still sparking as loose wires jangled up against each other.

But it could still fly. And its robotic eyes still held synthetic determination and fury.

It's surviving 'fist' slammed into the ground, shattering the very earth beneath them. The wheels of Sonia's bike fully left the ground as the ground cracked open underneath her, sending both her and Nicky tumbling across the grass. Manic didn't escape either, as the ground shattered with such fury that it rose up and knocked his Extreme Gear out from underneath him.

The spot on its side where its arm had been still sparking wildly, the Big Chaser lifted itself out of its self-made crater – dipping to one side for a moment as one of its rockets spluttered out for a moment. But that didn't stop it from continuing to advance on the prone hedgehogs skidding to a halt across the grass. To add insult to injury, several more Egg Chasers flew in from behind the Big Chaser to aim their barrels at the three targets.

The Big Chaser paused for a moment to re-check its data. Yes, there were three hedgehogs on the ground before it. And its mission parameters were to eliminate three hedgehogs.

But, during the chase just now, hadn't there been four hedgehogs…?

A light breeze blew around the road, in a rough circle.

Then the breeze got stronger. And tighter. Dust and dirt flying upwards and obscuring everyone's sight.

But even the dust couldn't hide the sight of a blue blur zooming around and around in a gently tightening spiral.

The Big Chaser and Egg Chasers spun around, trying to lock on to a target their sensors couldn't quite pinpoint.

"You must be new around here."

The Big Chaser quickly spun around, finding one blue hedgehog perched on its shoulder, the same side as its missing arm. There was a serious look in his eyes, a frown on his face, and a sparking mechanical part of some kind in his hands that was quickly tossed over his shoulder.

The Big Chaser's optics automatically locked onto the discarded part. Analysing… component identified as fuel regulator from badnik model 'Egg Chaser'.

"I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I sort things out."

Slowly, comically, all of the Egg Chasers tilted over, their jetpacks spluttering, and crashed to the ground in a rapid series of bangs and crashes.

The Big Chaser barely had time to process what was happening before Sonic ran up, jumped, spun into a ball of spikes and hurled himself at the Big Chaser.

It staggered backwards, its armour lightly dented but unbroken. Sonic fell down to the ground in a crouch, hissing as he shook a hand in pain. "Just my luck – you're one of those badniks who's been toughened up enough to take a Spin Attack!"

"Sonic!"

Sonic looked back, seeing three more hedgehogs groggily getting to their feet. "Yeah, that's my name." He said, his eyes distrustful. "Who are you lot, then?"

---

"No!"

thump

"No! No! No!"

thump thump thump

Assorted robotic assistants swapped looks as their glorious leader… yelled in frustration and started pounding the arm of his chair.

"Presence of Sonic the Hedgehog confirmed." Sage observed emotionlessly. Unlike the other AIs in the room, she paid her father's tantrum no mind – her avatar's eyes remaining glued on the video projected on the main screen. The feed was from a Flapper that was circling high overhead, and it showed three hedgehogs getting to their feet while Sonic and a Big Chaser stood off.

"Direction of approach: unknown. Time of arrival: unknown." Sage narrowed her avatar's eyes. "It as though he simply… appeared."

Oh ho ho ho! I told you, didn't I? Manga taunted. That Sonic shows up whenever Nicky's in trouble?

Eggman growled, giving his armrest another solid whack for good measure, uncaring about the pain already flaring up in his fist. "If you don't have anything useful to say, zip it! Cubot! Orbot! Send in more badniks! I want Sonic buried in steel!"

"But doctor –" Bocoe answered instead.

"– won't you need those robots for your attack on the city?" Decoe finished.

"If Sonic's out of my way, the rest of the world is only a matter of time!" Eggman snapped. "Now do what I say!"

"Yes, Doctor!" Bocoe and Decoe both snapped off frantic salutes, their entire bodies vibrating like struck rubber bands with the force. The two of them practically threw themselves at their keyboards, typing out orders as fast as their mechanical fingers would allow.

Eggman sat back down with a sigh. "Some assistants." He grumbled to himself quietly.

Oh, like you're one to talk! X snarked back at him. At least my assistants don't present a tripping hazard!

Ha! Listen here, you lazy, low-IQ loafs! AoStH bragged. Only one amongst us had the brilliance to devise assistants that could actually aid in the annihilation of that annoying animal!

The other Eggmen were silent for a moment.

Is he seriously bragging about creating Scratch and Grounder? Post-SGW sounded like he'd squinting if he currently had eyes. Those two failures?!

Only I'm allowed to call those two failures, you cheap imitation! AoStH retorted hotly.

Having apparently satisfied herself crunching numbers, Sage's avatar turned away from the main screen. "Father –" she started, before her virtual child-like body froze.

"Temporal disturbance detected in lower decks." Sage said. Before, her voice had held undertones of concern, buried under the heavily synthesised nature of her voice. But now it was back to being a perfect monotone – all business.

"What?!" Eggman leaned forwards, hurriedly pulling up the relevant data feeds on his own screen.

"Metal Sonic is engaging." Sage reported, her holographic eyes unfocused. "He will not ask for assistance. But he will require it. Infinite," said jackal looked up at the mention of his name "you must come, now."

Infinite didn't get a chance to respond to this abrupt demand, because Sage's avatar suddenly flickered its way over to him, and then the floor suddenly opened up underneath him; both virtual avatar and physical minion disappearing down into the lower decks.

Cubot's head twisted around a full 180 degrees as he peered down the hole. "So, uh; do we just have trapdoors everywhere on this ship…?"

"Boss, should we perhaps not lend young Sage our assistance?" Orbot suggested.

Eggman snorted, satisfied with what he was reading, and pushed himself back in his chair. "Unlike you nincom-bots, Sage can take care of herself. Meanwhile, we have a hedgehog to crush!"

Oh, please. Paramount scoffed. As if that miserable little rodent would go down to mere badniks! They don't have enough vibe, enough pizzazz!

Pizzazz? Underground echoed back blankly.

He's like a wad of gum stuck to the bottom of our shoes! Paramount continued. A sticky, blue, gross little wad of grossness that we stepped in! We're not getting that gum off our shoes with normal tools! Oh no! We need special gear for this gum!

Full disclosure, this guy lost me when he started talking about shoes. Boom added, completely unnecessarily.

"Hmmm…" Eggman considered. "Perhaps it is time for me to take a personal hand in things…"

"But boss!" Cubot pulled himself upright again and spun his body around to face Eggman… which, considering that his head was still facing behind him, ended with him still facing the wrong way. "Everything's been so busy lately, ya haven't had any time to make any new fancy mech suits!"

"Ugh, don't remind me." Eggman groaned. "I'll have to settle for an old favourite."

A clanking noise made Eggman look up from his screen to see Decoe had walked over to him, holding out a fanned-out face-down deck of cards.

Slightly confused, Eggman pulled out a card from the deck and flipped it over.

Slowly, an eerie grin spread out across his face.

---

"Uh…" Silver stared in groggy confusion, one hand trying to pull bits of grass out of his quills. "You okay, Sonic?"

Even setting aside the weird accent Sonic seemed to have picked up, Silver had never seen Sonic this… on-guard before. That suspicious gaze and guarded voice…

…that was something he would have expected out of Shadow.

Manic sat up and shook his head furiously. "What kind of question is that, bro?! It's us! Sonia and Manic, your bro and sis!"

"Oh, for…!" Sonic ducked under a swing from the Big Chaser's remaining 'hand', dashing out and around the Big Chaser, causing it to spin around in circles as it tried to stay facing him. "This trick again?! I told Metamorphia, and I'll tell you as well! I. Don't. Have. Any. Brothers!"

He punctuated his last few words with assorted Spin Jumps against the Big Chaser, hoping to shake something loose – to no avail.

"I don't have any sisters either!" He added, his eyes and voice both very cross. "No family at all, got it!"

"Sonic!" Silver cried, aghast at the blunt dismissal.

"Wow, bro." Manic snarked. "Tell us how you really feel."

Robotnik had tried the old 'fake family member' trick on them too. Manic didn't think that was reason to doubt everybody who said they were related.

"This Sonic must be from a world where he never met us." Sonia realised. She cupped her hands to her mouth and started to shout. "Sonic, I know it seems crazy, but we really are –!"

The roar of rocket engines heralded more Egg Chasers flying in, this time staying up higher where Sonic couldn't jump at them.

Sonic settled back on the ground, leaning back slightly with his balled fists at his sides. "Rats! Robotnik's found two brain cells to rub together!"

"Actually, bro, it's some guy named Eggman." Manic interjected.

Silver looked confused. "Huh?"

"He could be called 'The great and wonderful Dumpty Face' for all I care! Somebody's trying to kill me with robots!" Sonic yelped in annoyance, jumping back as lasers started to carve into the ground where he had just been.

Silver floated up into the air, engulfed in a cyan aura, and stretched out a hand towards the Egg Chasers. "Um, I don't think I've explained this well…" He said, before having to shake off a sudden glitching fit.

Sonic let out a yelp as the Big Chaser suddenly rocketed forward, its remaining 'fist' winding up for a haymaker against Silver. Disappearing into a blur of motion, Sonic jumped up and tackled Silver out of the way just in time to see the Big Chaser's bowl-shaped 'fist' go sailing right through where Silver had just been floating.

"Darn right you haven't explained this well, you haven't explained anything at all!" Sonic admonished Silver, before relaxing just a hair. "Dunno what you were trying to do there, but I don't think big ugly there liked it." He set Silver down on the ground. "So I guess you can't be all that bad. Still, I'll be keeping an eye on you!"

The Egg Chasers were lining up now, projecting a wall of laser breams down into the ground underneath them. Then, as one, they started to rotate upwards, the wall of laser death sweeping across the ground towards the hedgehogs.

Sonia and Manic yelped, hurriedly picking up their vehicles of choice, mounting them, and speeding off. Silver flew off with all the speed he could manage, and Sonic ended up bringing up the rear of their odd procession, feet blurring into circles as he watched the advancing wall of energy.

"Where's Nicky?" Sonia shouted.

Silver suddenly realised that the group was missing a member, spinning around to look for him.

"Dunno who that is, but if they have any sense they'll hide until the badniks are gone!" Sonic shouted. "Keep going, we can look for them later!"

"We're not going to make it!" Silver yelped in fright, sparing a look back behind himself. His already-glowing hands glowed brighter, preparing for desperate action…!

But just as the lasers would wash over the four, Sonic jumped.

In-between the deadly beams and the other three hedgehogs, Sonic spun in place… and just for that one crucial moment, a white barrier appeared around Sonic, blocking the beam from going any further.

Then the moment and beam both passed, and Sonic dropped back down into a run, shouting "Move it or lose it!"

Another set of Dash Panels shot the four forwards fast enough that the assorted Chasers fell behind, just for a moment.

"What was that?!" Sonia shouted before Silver could.

"It's my super-special Insta-shield move!" Sonic bragged somewhat absentmindedly, still shooting looks behind them. "Genius, I know, but we can sing my praises later; when we're not being chased by badniks!"

A memory bubbled up in Silver's brain – something he'd seen the younger version of Sonic do, during that whole mess with the Time Eater. He hadn't ever seen the older version of Sonic use that trick, so… Did… did that mean that this Sonic was a younger version?

"Well, at least this Sonic acts normal." Manic said, sourly.

"Yeah, it was so weird how nice that other version was." Sonia agreed, which nearly made Silver stumble in mid-air.

---

"Amy." Tania said, her voice completely serious. "Have I ever mentioned you're my favourite person in the whole wide world ever?"

Amy immediately saw where this was going. "You can't have my Extreme Gear, Tania."

"What?" Tania did her best to look innocent. "I wasn't… going to ask that. I just wanted to know… if I could borrow it sometime?"

"I don't know…" Amy drew out. "What would your parents say?"

"Oh!" Tania frantically waved the question off with the hand that wasn't holding tight to Amy's waist. "Well, they've probably forgotten all about the rocket-powered skateboard by now, right?"

"Extreme Gear are very special, Tania!" Mina interjected, while Amy was busy working out 'rocket-powered skateboard' in her head. "Tails is the only person who makes them, outside of the Battle Bird Armada!"

Tania's eyes widened, and she let out a cry of pure childish glee. "You mean I could get one if I ask Tails?!"

"Er…" Mina floundered.

Amy, meanwhile, was giving Mina a confused look. "No he isn't?" She tapped her feet on the board she and Tania were currently riding. "I bought my first Gear from Robotnik Corp."

The rapid splash splash splash splash splash splash of Mina's feet running across the water suddenly halted. The mongoose pinwheeled her arms as she pitched forwards and skipped off the surface of the water, once, twice…!

Letting out her own little cry of panic, Amy swerved around on Pink Rose, managing to lean over and grab Mina's flailing arm before she could plunge completely into the sea. "Are you okay?!" She cried frantically, her Gear slowing to a stop.

"Am I okay?!" Mina spluttered, pausing for a moment to cough up seawater. "You just said you're riding a Gear that Eggman made!"

"Well, yeah?" Amy blinked, tilting her head in confusion. "He makes good boards at reasonable prices!"

Tania frowned, staring at a random point in the ocean as she thought. "So I could get an Extreme Gear if I asked Tails or Eggman…?"

"No!" Both of the older girls blurted out.

Tania pouted. "Why not?" She demanded childishly.

Amy looked frantically at Mina for help. Mina, still dripping wet, gestured frantically at Amy's own Gear, as though to say 'First, explain that to me!'.

"Um." Amy floundered. When Cream got an idea like this in her head, the best thing to do was… distract her! "How about this, Tania. Once we get back to West Side Island, I'll… er…" Come on, Amy, think! "…introduce you to Breeze?"

Both Mina and Tania looked at Amy blankly.

"…Breeze is a magical car who helps young girls race." Amy explained, somewhat awkwardly.

Mina and Tania, in perfect unison, slowly blinked.

Amy squirmed a bit. "He and I raced together when I was younger, but eventually I got too big for him; so he went to sleep until another young girl needed his help…"

An expression of pure joy slowly spread itself all over Tania's face like an explosion filmed in slow-motion, the corners of her mouth reaching so high on her face her whole body seemed to stretch upwards from the sheer force.

Mina, on the other hand, went limp; letting her feet dangle in the ocean below. Her blank gaze just stared blankly off into the middle distance.

Amy glitched into another one of her versions that wore the same white and red dress. Shaking her head, she pulled Mina fully out of the water and up onto the board with her.

"Do you think you could paddle us forwards?" Amy asked, trying to get them back on-track. "I don't think the board can carry all three of us and accelerate."

This seemed to snap Mina out of her funk, but it did so by causing her to look down at her soaking wet legs with a grimace, gingerly rubbing one with the hand that wasn't holding onto Amy. "Um, I guess? My legs are pretty sore after running all the way out here…"

"I told you not to run the whole way between islands!" Amy scolded her. "There's a reason Sonic owns a plane, you know!"

booooooooooooom

The three girls stumbled, as the sound of a far-distant explosion hit them like a physical blow, blowing their fur and spikes around in a sudden wind that sent the sea below them into frothing waves.

Amy looked up at their destination… and saw smoke rising from South Island, still far off in the distance.

Without another word, Mina sat down on the back of Amy's Extreme Gear, and started kicking against the water at super speed. The three girls resumed their trek across the sea, zooming towards whatever awaited them there.

---

Sonic let out a curse as the 'fist' of the Big Chaser came down yet again, missing the group by centimetres. The shaking ground didn't bother Silver (flying with psychokinesis) or Manic (flying on his Extreme Gear), but both Sonic and Sonia were bounced high into the air.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH –!" Sonia screamed, struggling to keep her bike upright.

As she tumbled through the air, she briefly spun around, her eyes meeting Sonic's. He looked up at her, down at her bike, and then… shrugged and tucked into a roll so that when he hit the ground he immediately uncurled and started running again.

"SONIC HEDGEHOG!" Sonia screeched, her bike bouncing up on its front tyre, briefly doing a wheelie on its front wheel before falling back down onto its back tyre.

"You missed the 'the'." Sonic quipped.

"I COULD HAVE FALLEN!" Sonia shouted back, even as the four reached a Jump Panel that sent them soaring over yet another ravine and safely to the path on the other side. The Big Chaser lived up to its name, spluttering and smoking and never faltering in its ruthless pursuit.

"Yeah, but you didn't." Sonic dismissed. "What, you want me to hold your darn hand? Is this just going to be something that happens with every pink-spined hedgehog girl I meet?"

"I don't think I like this Sonic…" Silver mumbled to Manic.

A side path joined up with the main path the four were following, allowing another set of Egg Walkers to join in on the chase. Even as the Big Chaser got ready for another surge forwards, the Walkers launched more missiles.

Silver spun around, now flying backwards. "Again?! Eggman, don't you ever learn?!" He stretched out his fingers. "It's no use!"

A cyan aura enveloped all of the missiles, as Silver seized them in his psychokinesis… but as he got ready to throw them back, the missiles suddenly exploded; the unexpected booms and collective shockwaves catching Silver off guard and tossing him back through the air. "Argh!"

"I gotcha!" Manic leaned back on his Extreme Gear, 'breaking' in midair so that he could slow down and catch Silver back into a bridal carry.

"You were saying?" Sonic said drily.

Silver grumbled something inaudible.

Manic cursed. "If I had five minutes and a screwdriver, I'd show that 'bot a thing or two…!"

"Wishes and horses, kid." Sonic said unsympathetically. "Finesse isn't going to get us anywhere. Hey, cyan guy!"

"Silver." Silver grumbled.

"Silver guy!" Sonic plowed ahead, causing Silver's head to droop. "How hard can you throw stuff?"

The Big Chaser let out another synthetic roar, charging forward again. But its charge was interrupted as the assorted Egg Walkers behind it suddenly started glowing, and abruptly surged forwards to slam themselves into the back of the Chaser, causing it to stumble in its charge.

"Pretty hard." Silver's teeth were grit in determination.

"Okay then, prove it!" Sonic tucked down into a ball again, spinning rapidly in place and quickly falling behind the group.

But not for long, because Silver's psychokinesis quickly picked up up and turned him around – a ball of spikes spinning in midair, glowing cyan.

"TAKE –" Silver flung one arm all the way back, as through he was throwing with his hands and not with his brain "– THIS!"

Sonic's spin sped up even further, to the point where his spines all blurred together into a dull blue sphere, whirring furiously. With a mighty heave of Silver's arm – dripping with psychokinetic power like a handful of cyan jello – Sonic was shot forward like a cork from a bottle, right into the face of the Big Chaser.

The face crumpled inwards immediately, but for a moment it looked like the main body might hold up. But Sonic's spin hadn't slowed down, and his spines ground away at the metal armour, sparks showering down to the grass below. The dent Sonic's impact had knocked into the badnik suddenly collapsed inwards further, then again as the armour gave way under the strain. With a final third surge, Sonic pierced through the main body of the Big Chaser and out the other side, soaring into the distance; the Super Badnik exploding a second after he was clear.

The other three hedgehogs braced themselves as the shockwave hit them, blowing around their quills and the grass under their feet. They waited nervously for Sonic to reappear, Silver nervously fretting and wondering if he shouldn't have thrown Sonic quite that hard.

Manic caught Sonia's eye as the two slowed to a stop. He rolled his own eyes and held up three fingers.

Two.

One.

And right on cue, Sonic reappeared in a gust of wind, rubbing a brand-new lump on his head. "Me and my big mouth." He groused sourly.

"Sorry!" Silver frantically apologised, hands laced together in a pleading gesture.

"You will be." A booming voice promised over a megaphone.

The four hedgehogs looked up.

Falling down atop of pillar of fire was a giant mech. It had no legs, instead having a giant rocket thruster underneath its torso. Its massive round shoulders had spikes, and its 'fists' were solid, vaguely triangular blocks of metal. The whole thing was coloured in an eye-straining array of blue, black, red and white.

Plunging down into the ravine next to their current path, the mech brought both 'fists' down on the ground before and after where the hedgehogs were. The impact easily broke through the land bridge, leaving nothing but a plunging descent on all four sides of the thin strip of ground that remained.

"Huh…" Sonic squinted at the mech. "That reminds me of those stupid mechs that Robotnik used to use, back before his dumb 'rebrand'…"

"What are you talking about?" Sonia asked. "Robotnik's too much of a coward to try and fight directly! That's why he's always sending Sleet and Dingo after us!"

"Eggman…" Silver growled, levitating up out of Manic's hold again.

"That's right!" The megaphone boomed again.

The 'mouth guard' of the robot retracted down, letting the hedgehogs see the Egg Mobile docked into the head of the robot. The Egg Mobile's transparent canopy in turn retracted, and Eggman stood up out of his chair to smirk down at them.

"Surprised?" He bragged. "Nega may have helped with the design, but the Egg King is still one of mine. I couldn't just leave it after you miserable rodent destroyed it! Now it's back; and ready to finally crush you!"

"Yo, that dude is Eggman?" Manic squinted up. "Dude may dress sharper, but he's still just as ugly as Robotnik."

"'Dress'…?" Sonic tilted his head. Suddenly, his eyes widened, and he looked down at the red jacket Eggman was wearing. The jacket he recognised. "Robotnik?!"

"What?" Manic blinked, turning to Sonic. "No, dude, weren't you listening? Robotnik and Eggman are –"

"The same person!" Eggman's amplified voice boomed, annoyed.

"I was trying to tell you guys…" Silver said in a small voice, index fingers sheepishly tapping together.

"What?!" Three hedgehogs in various states of shock and surprise turned to yell at Silver.

"Hmph!" Eggman scoffed. "You can blame the Paradox Prism for all the confusion. Some worlds it put in a Robotnik, some an Eggman."

Eggman sat down, the Egg Mobile's canopy sliding back into place and the 'mouth guard' of the Egg King sliding up to protect its pilot.

"I was born Ivo Robotnik, but today?" It was harder to see Eggman through the glass, but you'd need to be blind to miss that grin. "Today, you have the pleasure of being crushed by the greatest genius the world has ever seen, Doctor Eggman!"

"What?!" "No way, dude!" Sonia and Manic shouted in disbelief.

"But Nicky said that Eggman was just some dude makin' a big pain of himself!" Manic protested. "Not an evil tyrant, like Robotnik!"

Eggman scowled. "The failure of some of my alternates to become a threat doesn't matter. You won't ever see any of them again. You're stuck dealing with me now."

Sonic had been silent for a moment, staring intently up at Eggman. But now, he had a vicious grin to match the one Eggman had. "So, multiple worlds, is it? Now things are starting to make sense. But changing your name didn't make you any smarter, doc. You already said that that mech lost to me."

Sonic curled into a ball and started spinning in place. Silver caught Sonic's drift, his hands glowing cyan as he picked Sonic up, ready to repeat their take-down of the Big Chaser.

"I did, didn't I?" Eggman's amplified voice didn't sound at all worried. "Nega and I might have designed this together, but it's a single seater. Now, why do you think that is?"

Before Sonic, Manic or Sonia could complain that they had no idea who 'Nega' was, the sound of more rocket engines erupted from behind them. They spun around to find a second Egg King hovering down into position behind them, pink where the first one was red, and an Eggrobo in the pilot's seat.

The 'mouth guard' of the second Egg King dropped, exposing a large hole in the mech's 'neck'. From that hole shot a powerful laser that traced a line of explosions across the ground, sending Silver and Sonic flying with cries of startled pain.

"It's because we built one each." Eggman slammed the 'fists' of his mech together. "One to fight Blaze, one to fight you."

Down swung a 'fist' from Eggman's Egg King, the force cratering the ground. There was no blue blur dashing out of the way, no cyan glow. For a moment, the only thing moving was the dust cloud settling.

Eggman blinked. "Wait, did I actually get him?"

"Eeeeeegghghhhh!"

With a scream of exertion, the 'fist' of Eggman's Egg King was lifted up and thrown back, the whole mech sent reeling backwards. (Lacking any feet to brace itself with). Standing underneath, her face red and dripping with sweat, was Sonia – her hands still raised above her head and her feet pressed into the earth. Crouched down underneath their impromptu metal ceiling, Sonic and Silver scurried out of the new crater.

"You JERK!" Sonia screeched. "You got dirt in my boots!"

"What?!" Eggman shouted in disbelief. He then shouted in alarm as something hard smacked against the canopy of his Egg Mobile, cracking the glass. Were those… drum sticks?!

"Sounds like you got two mechs for two 'hogs, man." Manic said, pulling out another pair of sticks from behind his back.

"Too bad you can't count though, 'cause there's four of us here!" Sonia growled, pulling her feet out of the soil.

Eggman growled. "Speed-type, power-type, and technique-type?! Sonic, your family runs the full spectrum of annoying!"

Both Egg Kings slammed a 'fist' down, sending giant shockwaves from the edges of the land-strip in towards the middle… but a cyan aura enveloped the two triplets and yanked them clear of the shockwaves.

"My bike!" Sonia wailed, seeing her beloved motorcycle sent sailing through the air by the attack, crashing into a nearby hill.

"You've got bigger things to worry about than your bike, girl!" Sonic hopped up onto the arm of one of the Egg Kings, running up its arm with a furious expression on his face.

"Uh uh uh!" Eggman tutted, pulling a lever. Several large barrels dropped down from the Egg King's shoulders to roll down the same arm Sonic was running up.

Seeing the obstacle rolling down towards him, Sonic was forced to dive clear or be flattened. "Rolling barrels?! What are you, some kind of gorilla?!" Sonic groused.

"That's Doctor Gorilla to you!" Eggman shouted, swinging his mech's 'fists' around for another round of pummelling.

Silver, Sonia and Manic on the other hand found themselves the focus of the other Egg King, the one piloted by an Eggrobo.

"This is so totally not righteous!" Manic shouted, running away from another line of explosions the Egg King's laser traced across the ground.

"Manic!" Sonia yelled, her hands cupped around her mouth. "You need to bring it down with your magic! Bury it under rocks!"

Diving frantically to one side to avoid another laser attack, Manic rolled to his feet, grabbed his medallion, and furiously shook it at his sister. "No can do, sis!" He shouted. "All outta juice, remember?!"

Sonia grimaced, grabbing her own pendent. It let out a single measly spark of magical power, but didn't turn into a keyboard. She was out too.

"Leave it to me!" Silver cried. Raising both hands, two massive chunks of earth and soil ripped themselves out of the ground. "Fighting things like this is nothing new to –!"

The Eggrobo couldn't emote, but it still somehow managed to look annoyed. Its Egg King lifted both 'fists' up, bringing them down on Silver's projectiles and smashing them back into the ground.

"– me?" Silver squeaked. His glowing cyan body frantically shot upwards, just missing the shockwaves as they passed mere centimetres under him. Like a bizarre Mexican Wave, Sonia and Manic shot up after him, also yanked skywards by Silver's power.

Sonic growled deep in his throat. The shockwaves produced by the pounding fists and the explosions produced from the lasers forced him to keep track of what the mechs were doing in order to dodge… but with two of them on both sides he was forced to split his attention, meaning he was spending too much time dodging and not enough time attacking.

"They've got me penned in!" He pounded the ground with a fist in frustration.

"Got us penned in, you mean!" Sonia corrected him.

"Yeah, sure, I suppose you lot are still here." Sonic grumbled.

"Nowhere to run, Sonic!" The light glinted ominously off of Eggman's glasses. "Now, at long last, I've finally got you!"

---

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Bernadette screamed, her knuckles turning white with the force of her death-grip on the plane's wing (not that you could tell through her gloves).

"I ain't got no time to waste on Eggman's shenanigans!" Paulie declared, eyes laser focused ahead of him. "I got kids to fetch and deliveries to make!"

"So your plan is to just charge at Eggman?!" Bernadette screamed.

"Aw, Eggman's no big deal!" Paulie laughed.

"You're crazy!"

Based purely on tone alone, Aleena had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly who 'Eggman' was, and wondered if she shouldn't perhaps be agreeing with Bernadette.

Either Jules didn't agree with his wife, or he didn't think he could convince Paulie to change his course, because he didn't lend his voice to his wife's efforts. He kept his head on a swivel – er, more so than usual, anyway – scanning the rapidly approaching fleet back and forth. After a moment, he pointed slightly to the left of the plane's heading.

"Egg Carrier!" He shouted, pointing to one of the ships in the fleet.

Aleena squinted in the direction indicated. Lacking Jules's cybernetic eyes, all she could make out at this distance was a vague blot, the sun still shining bright behind it.

"'Egg Carrier'? Huh." Paulie tilted his head. "Why's it called that?"

"Because it's a carrier!" Jules hissed, pulling back from the edge of the wing. "It's launching fighter planes!"

Aleena's eyes went wide. Leaning forwards, she grabbed Paulie's shoulder from behind. "If he speaks true –"

"'If'?" Julies echoed, slightly miffed.

"– then we lack the power to prevail in this battle!" Aleena plowed on. "To continue on this course can only be described as madness!"

"Aw, don't worry!" Paulie, to Aleena's horror, turned around in his seat to flash her a smile and a thumbs up. "I used to be in the Air Force, ya know!"

"Look out!" Aleena and Bernadette screamed in unison.

Paulie blinked, and turned back around to find a wing of robotic fighter planes swooping down towards him.

With a frantic yelp, Paulie yanked the steering yoke back, causing the Tornado to climb sharply. Aleena could see and hear several small black objects rush under the plane, and her heart climbed into her throat.

"So, that's how it is, huh?!" Paulie sounded much like a man at a bar assuming a sloppy boxing stance while telling someone else to 'put 'em up!'. "Okay then, eat this!"

As the robot fighter planes came back around for another pass, Paulie twisted the Tornado around to meet them. With a painfully loud rat-at-tat that seemed to rattle the inside of her ears, Paulie answered their gunfire with some of his own.

Aleena, who was more used to the much quieter zap zap zap of blasters, covered her ears to try and protect herself from the harsh noise.

She had to let go, however, as a glitching fit sent a violent shiver through her whole body.

"Are you kidding me…" Bernadette said in a disbelieving tone, so softly that Aleena nearly didn't hear her over the roar of the wind.

Aleena blinked, and looked up to see what had Bernadette so aghast.

Bernadette slowly turned back to face Paulie. "You didn't hit a single one of them?!" She angrily thrust a finger out to point at the fighter wing, now banking around for a third attack run.

Paulie scratched one stubble-ridden cheek sheepishly. "Ah, well… I suppose now's too late to mention that I was just a test pilot?"

"Yes!" Bernadette screamed. "Yes, it is very much too late to mention that!"

Paulie looked down at his controls, watching as a glitching fit slightly rearranged them. "Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, why does this plane even have weapons at all? I don't remember it having them before…"

Bernadette let out a noise like a kettle about to boil.

Jules let out a robotic-sounding sigh, leaving one hand… well, clamped, over the leading edge of the wing, while with his other hand he reached back for his own legs. Just like with the Chaos Emerald before, a hidden storage component opened up – but this time what he pulled out was a pair of blaster pistols.

"Catch!" He yelled, tossing both pistols through the air.

Despite the rush of wind and the motion of the plane, his aim was true; and Bernadette caught the pistol thrown to her with casual ease. Aleena, on the other hand, yelped as she struggled not to drop the pistol thrown to her; having not been expecting it at all.

"I really hope you're a better shot than this guy, Aleena." Jules deadpanned.

"I'll get 'em this time!" Paulie objected hotly.

As it happened, Aleena was in fact a decent shot with a blaster. She'd been forced to be – after fifteen years of helping the Resistance out from the shadows. Robotnik had made sure to cripple her magic early in his coup by targeting every family member of hers that he could. Only she and her newborn children had escaped the purge, and only with the advance warning of the Oracle.

It had been a very long fifteen years. Hiding in the shadows, knowing that each new person who saw her face was one more person who could sell her out to Robotnik, voluntarily or otherwise. Roboticizer victims couldn't remember their lives from before – in her world, at least, she realised the caveat with a jolt of fear – but Robotnik was always happy to… experiment.

There was a zap zap zap as Bernadette and Jules opened fire (Jules had apparently reformed one arm into a blaster rifle somehow), hitting two of the enemy planes and sending them spiralling down to the ocean before, belching smoke. Paulie threw the plane into a steep dive to avoid another spray of bullets from the robotic planes, and Aleena had to grab at her cloak as it fluttered around in the wind.

As the fabric flapped, a solid object sealed tightly inside one of its many hidden pockets slammed into her wrist.

Aleena closed her eyes for just a moment, doing her best to push away the surge of emotions that were tied up with that object. I love my children, but I have to wait. To act too soon could seal their fate. She reminded herself, opening her eyes and taking aim with her borrowed blaster.

It felt wrong in her hands.

Fifteen years, and they still felt wrong.

Zap zap zap! Rat-at-tat! Paulie, for all that he was a terrible shot, seemed to be a deft hand on the yoke, because even with ruthless, robotic intelligence the enemy planes' shots went wide.

"I got one!" Paulie cheered.

"Jules has shot down four already." Bernadette said flatly. "And I've gotten three."

"Do I at least get points for style?" Paulie audibly pouted.

Aleena closed one eye, took careful aim, and fired. One of the enemy planes caught the bolt right where the cockpit would be on a manned plane, and exploded in a violent fireball of combusting airplane fuel.

Paulie stiffened, caught off-guard by how easily Aleena had downed one of their opponents. Then he leaned forwards, a manic energy in his movements. "I'm not gonna have the lowest score! You'll see!"

"Kindly keep in mind that these events are not, in fact, those of a game." Aleena admonished sternly, lining up her next shot. "Our lives, and perhaps even those of our children, hang in the balance."

"Aw, don't be such a downer!" Paulie laughed. "See, we've taken out a bunch already, so we only have, er…" He squinted, trying to count the other planes still in the sky. "One… four… seven…"

With the load sound of tearing metal and fabric, Aleena felt several rounds of bullets punch through the plane's undercarriage.

"There's more planes now than when we started." Jules said, matter-of-factly. "The carrier's launching them faster than we can shoot them down."

The bottom fell out of Aleena's stomach.

Whereas before Paulie's excitement and naive optimism had seemed to smother all other emotions, abruptly, that positivity had been overwhelmed by the reality of the situation. They were surrounded by enemies that knew neither fear nor pain. With a sinking feeling, Aleena looked behind them – there were more planes lurking there, waiting to tear them to shreds should they try to flee.

The lump in her cloak seemed almost to vibrate for a moment, burning hot with intensity. Like it was begging her to use it.

I love my children, but –

Bernadette let out a panicked shout as she rolled over frantically, bullets punching holes through the wing where she had just been lying.

– but I…

Jules let out a little shout, standing up on the wing to swing his arm-blaster around, firing bolts off as fast as he could.

"Not again!" He roared, and beneath the synthetic distortion of his mechanical voice-box could be heard the determined will of a living person. "Sonic's not losing his parents. Not again!"

He didn't flinch, even as a stray bullet shallowly glanced off of his back, leaving a dent in the metal and sending a show of sparks flying.

I have to…

"Hey, Joe, if you're watching; would really appreciate a helping hand from on high about now." Paulie muttered, at a volume Aleena was sure she was not supposed to hear.

Aleena opened her eyes wide, looking around her. On all sides were the robotic planes, circling around like vultures who knew that dinner would come shortly if they were but patient. Far beneath them was the island were her children – the subject of fifteen years of pain and fear and dread and hope and determination. The idea that they were so close seemed to stick out in her mind, despite the fact that she had been closer than this many times previously.

To…

The plane shook violently as something exploded underneath them. Was it a near miss? Was it a hit? With the ringing in her ears, Aleena could not tell.

"Come on girl, you can handle this!" Paulie slapped the dashboard frantically, but it was no use – Aleena could feel the plan start to pitch forwards alarmingly, with nothing but the endless blue of the ocean below them.

I…

Like a firecracker stuffed into a box, the object in her cloak burst out of the pocket she'd sealed it away in, dumping itself onto her hands and revealing itself to be a silver-white medallion.

Aleena could feel the weight and the heat of it, even though her gloves.

But that was nothing compared to the sound of her children's frantic heartbeats that she could hear through it.

Feeling numb, Aleena stood up – uncaring of the wind as it tried to rip her out of her seat and send her spiralling away into the empty sky.

Fifteen years of careful planning had been ruined.

So what?

She had never once spoken to her children, but even so, she knew what they would say.

I don't have to wait anymore!

She dropped the blaster pistol and grabbed the medallion tightly, watching as it dissolved into light…

---

The Egg Kings had doubled their tempo, pressing their advantage as hard as they could. Their solid metal 'fists' were pounding away at the strip of ground their victims were trapped upon like drummers beating their instruments. Sonic could look after himself, but Silver had his hands full keeping Sonia and Manic out of harm's way.

"Lift us up to its head!" Sonia shouted out a suggestion, as Silver yanked her out of the way of a descending metal 'fist'. "We can take out its controls!"

"I'm trying!" Silver answered back, spinning around frantically as he tried to watch all directions at once. "Those fists keep aiming for us every time I try and get us higher…!"

"Enough of this, Robotnik!" Sonic roared, leaping up high. Kicking off with his feet, he bounced between the descending fists of Eggman's mech and the one piloted by an Eggrobo. "I'm sick of playing your stupid games!"

"That's Eggman to you!" Eggman retorted, fearless even as Sonic soared down towards his cockpit.

Sonic watched as more of those metal barrels from before emerged from the Egg King's shoulders, but instead of rolling down the arms they instead flew up towards Sonic, a pair of massive purple lightning bolts projected out from their underneath to form a rough triangle.

Sonic grimaced. "Uh-oh."

"Nggghhhh!" He cried out in pain. His dive towards Eggman faltered as he spasmed, and he landed short of his goal on the mech's 'collar'. His muscles still twitching with the charge, Sonic slid down the front of the Egg King and back down to the ground.

"It's your name for me, the least you could do is use it!" Eggman added.

Another dozen of the metal barrels floated out of his Egg King's shoulders, even as the Eggrobo's King kept pounding shockwaves into the dirt.

Silver swallowed. "The bolts don't reach directly under them! Stay between the beams and you'll be okay!"

"That works for me, but what are the rest of you going to do, pixel brain?!" Sonic snapped.

The barrels all flew down low, keeping the gap between their beams small. They flew in one after the other, but their positions across the ground were irregular. It was possible to stay between the beams as the barrels rushed overhead, but…

Silver grit his teeth, pulling the floating forms of Manic and Sonia close to his body.

He couldn't afford to make a single mistake here.

The first barrel came in left. The one after it was to the right, so Silver dashed to the right to stay underneath it. The one after that one was in the middle. Right. Left. Left. Middle. Left. Right. Right…!

"Behind you!" The two triplets screamed together.

He'd forgotten about the second Egg King.

There was a sudden rush of wind, and a blue blur tackling the other hedgehogs out of the way of a line of laser-triggered explosions. Rolling as one uncoordinated mass, the four collapsed down in a pile of spines just in time to miss the final flying barrel.

"Something's got to give, and fast." Sonic growled, jumping to his feet. "Or else the thing that's going to give is gonna be us."

"I thought you didn't have time to hold my hand?" Sonia snarked, pulling herself out from under the bottom of the pile.

She honestly expected him to snark right back at her, and so was caught off guard when he didn't respond for a moment. "Er, Sonic…?"

He was facing away from the others, eyes still locked on the robots looming above them, so they nearly missed his next words.

"I'm not losing someone else to Robotnik's dumb schemes." Sonic's fists clenched tightly. "…never again."

Sonia, Manic and Silver all stared. None of them had ever seen Sonic like this. Coming to within a hands-breath of admitting…

"You're not going to lose anyone, Sonic." Silver said, the promise coming easily to him.

The Egg Kings raised their 'fists', ready to resume the battle in earnest.

"Oh yeah?" Sonic snarled, glancing over his shoulder with a sour expression. "And how're you going to manage that?"

"Same way we do anything, bro." Manic said.

"Together." Sonia lifted up her medallion up to eye-level.

And like a spark bursting out into a flame, the two triplets felt the magic returning to their medallions.

Sonia's medallion burst into light, reforming in front of her as her keyboard. Not the shoulder-slung version from earlier – this one was wider and placed on a stand horizontally in front of her.

Manic's medallion likewise zapped itself out from around his neck, once around his body and then reformed on the ground as a drum kit. Smirking, he spun his drum sticks around his hands before snapping them into a ready position.

And – high above their heads, Aleena's medallion reformed into an old-fashioned radio mike on a long silver stand.

"Mother?!" Sonia and Manic gasped in unison.

Aleena was still high above their heads, but they could see her standing right next to them. Just like how they were still down here, but she could see them up with her, standing on nothing at all.

Aleena turned her head slightly to offer a smile to the empty sky behind her – which was also where Sonia and Manic were standing.

Then she turned back to face the sky in front of her, seeing Eggman's Egg King there despite it actually being far below her.

Sonia and Manic looked over at Sonic… who just raised an eyebrow at them. Right. If he never met them, he wouldn't know about his medallion.

Sonia set her keyboard to mimic the cords of an electric guitar. Her fingers danced across the keys, doing her best to fill in for her brother's missing instrument.

Aleena gripped her microphone tightly. You know, every world will have its end.

Have its end. Sonia and Manic echoed.

I'm here, to prove it all to you.

---

Mid-conversation, Merlina suddenly stopped talking.

"Is something wrong?" Nimue tilted her head.

Merlina frowned. "I… do not know?"

---

The sky seemed to darken, but it wasn't because the light was being extinguished. Right now, the earth and sky were both part of the same stage – and as the lights dimmed for the audience, spotlights were focusing their attention to the performers. Beams of light cut through the sudden unnatural darkness, illuminating the Tornado from below.

"How is she doing that?!" Jules asked, somewhat stunned.

"Shoot now, ask questions later!" Bernadette sighted down another robot plane and put three blaster bolts into its midsection. "Quick, while the badniks are just as confused as we are!"

I am, who you don't think I am (think I am).

All wrapped up in your evil plan!

Paulie closed his eyes and bopped his head to the beat. "I prefer my music a bit slower than this, but you can tell she's really putting her heart all into it!" He smiled.

"FLY THE PLANE!" Jules and Bernadette both screamed at him, causing Paulie's to blink his eyes open and remember that he was supposed to be pulling them out of their tailspin.

"What's going on?" Silver spun around. Both Egg Kings were shielding their 'faces' with their arms, temporarily blinded by several spotlights that were shining directly into their cockpits.

"No idea." Sonic freely admitted. "But anything that causes problems for Robotnik is a good thing for us! Well, almost anything anyway." He added under his breath.

"You don't think that's weird?!" Silver gestured to their surroundings. Aleena (not that Silver knew her name) could be seen performing with Sonia and Manic on the much-abused grass – and on the wings of the Tornado, and on top of one of the Egg Fleet ships! It was like one of those music videos he'd seen sometimes in this era, where several different scenes of the band interleaved with each other!

"You want to talk about weird?" Sonic put his hands on his hips. "Ask Amy about the time she and Tekno had to talk the year 1930 into not happening a second time. Now come on!"

"What?" Silver responded uncomprehendingly, but floated after Sonic regardless.

I can taste the day (taste the day), savour night (savour night).

Aleena put her heart and soul into the words, both of her hands clamped in a death-grip around her microphone's stand. She'd closed her eyes initially, but now she opened them again – a passionate fire burning from within. She glowered down (which was also up) at the Egg Kings threatening her children.

Spells beyond you, as I watch you crawl!

Do we dare to fight (dare to fight), evil's might (evil's might)?!

We'll be the last ones standing in a flash of light!

"Gah!" Eggman fumbled around blindly on his control panel. He didn't use this option terribly often, so he couldn't remember where it was on muscle memory alone… there! He flicked a switch, activating the tinting on the Egg Mobile's canopy. Now that he didn't have that obnoxious light blinding him, he could figure out what exactly was going on here!

Queen Aleena?! Underground roared. No! Not now! Not when I'm so close…!

"Not when I'm so close, you mean!" Eggman barked. "Now, tell me how to stop this infernal racket!"

If I knew that, those infernal hedgehogs wouldn't be a problem anymore, believe me! Underground growled. Nothing I've done has ever been able to interrupt the song once it's started! That's why I worked so hard to split the triplets up and keep them away from their mother!

If Eggman had been drinking anything, it would have sprayed out in front of him right now. "That woman is Sonic's MOTHER?!"

Most interesting… Pre-SGW let out a little chuckle. It seems that the Paradox Prism starts in the present and works backwards… much like a Genesis Wave…

Sonic has parents?! X asked suspiciously.

Obviously, you simpleton! Paramount sounded like he wanted to slap his counterpart in the back of the head. Has your grasp on biology regressed to the days of Greek Philosophy?! Do you believe that rodent was spawned from sea foam, a test from the gods to try us?!

Sure feels like it, some days… Boom mumbled.

"Shut up, all of you!" Eggman slammed his control panel, growling. Then he started flipping switches and twirling dials. "I'm increasing the effective radius of the T.D.E.! Let's see that hedgehog try and beat me when I up the power five-fold!"

Deep inside the heart of the Egg Kings, a cylindrical device roughly the size of a fridge started humming much more loudly than before. It started to vibrate in place so fast that their edges blurred. Already covering the area of the battle, the sphere of the T.D.E.'s influence expanded about 70%, forcing the hills around them to freeze in place, denying their ability to glitch.

My eyes (my eyes) are filled with curiosity.

You think (you think) that you have power over me.

"Huh." Tania tilted her head to one side, watching the performance. "Reminds me a little of Sonic's guitar playing…"

"What does?" Mina asked, still slightly out of breath, as the three finally pulled ashore.

"I doubt that's it." Amy was back to her minidress version again. "Sonic's been too embarrassed to play ever since Mark started passing around those bootleg CDs of him playing in Dreamboat Express."

"Dreamboat…?" Mina stared at Amy like she'd grown a second head.

"You know, you really need ways of expressing utter disbelief other than doing that thing where you blindly echo back what I said in confusion." Amy put her hands on her hips, cross.

Tania cupped a hand to one ear. Despite the fact that she could see the band just over there, the sound was… "It's coming from this way!" She declared boldly, charging towards the hills in front of them.

"Tania, wait!" Mina rubbed her much-abused legs, trying to get some feeling back into them.

"Tania!" Amy echoed. "Don't run off! You could be accosted by ruffians, thugs! Or even worse, door-to-door salesmen!"

The two older girls set off after their junior, realising as they came to the crest of the first hill that they could just now start to hear the music that Tania had heard on the beach…

In this life (this life), there's no room for you and me!

Aleena's gaze burrowed deeply into Eggman as she sang her lines. There was no hate in her eyes… but there was disdain and contempt aplenty.

"Hmm." Paulie said.

"'Hmm' what?" Bernadette asked over the barking of her blaster.

"Well, the thing is, I don't think I can get us safely to the ground with all those other planes out to get us, see?" Paulie said, rubbing his chin with one hand.

"We're not going to give up." Jules stated firmly, putting another bolt of plasma into another robot plane.

"Nah, obviously not." Paulie waved the idea off. "Buuuut, I might have to get a bit crazy to pull this off."

"Do not do that." Jules and Bernadette flatly rejected at the exact same time.

"Already doing it!" Paulie laughed, pushing the control yoke all the way in.

Jules and Bernadette both yelped, having to stop their shooting to grab onto the Tornado's wings to avoid falling off, as the plane went into a steep dive.

RoboPlane #0247 saw this happening. It was easy with the plane highlighted by the spotlight. Unwilling to let its target escape, #0247 dived after them.

Aleena lifted one hand off of her mic stand and clenched it. The spotlight highlighting the Tornado from below split up into many different spotlights, one of which shone directly into #0247's primary optical sensor, it's 'eye'.

#0247 did not panic – its programming was not that complex. It calculated out the path that the Tornado would take in relation to its own trajectory, and calculated that it would have a fatal shot lined up in 3… 2… 1…

Then #0247 collided with the other fighter planes, all of home had dived down after the Tornado at the same time, following the same path, and all of whom had been blinded by spotlights.

"Here we go!" Paulie gripped the steering yoke tightly, pulling back as the blast of the exploding fighter planes washed over them from above. The bullet-hole-ridden wings creaked loudly, straining with the force, but the nose did at last pull up.

The Tornado bounced off the surface of the water, once, twice, then skidded and slowed to a halt. Just before it could start to sink, it slid gently onto the beach.

"I win!" Paulie pumped a fist.

Her hands shaking slightly, Bernadette pulled herself to her feet. "You got an assist from Aleena." She said, still breathing heavily. "Half points."

Paulie crossed his arms and frowned. "Y'know, I'm really starting to think we should have agreed on the rules before we started…"

Throughout all of that, death-defying plunge and all; Aleena, Sonia and Manic had never stopped singing.

So, turn away or face this day with me (face the day with me)!

"Arrrg! Enough of this!" Eggman slammed down two levers on his control panel. His Egg King's 'mouth guard' retracted, exposing the powerful laser cannon. Across from him, he could see his Eggrobo copying the move.

"Hey! Robotnik!"

Eggman's eyes snapped over to where Sonic was standing – easily visible as a spot of blue on a background of green (and quite a bit of brown, where the fighting had torn up the earth). Said hedgehog was jumping up and down, waving both arms in the air.

"I'd ask if you thought you could catch me, Robotnik, but with that big dumb mouth of yours the only thing you'll be catching is flies!" Sonic punctuated his jeer with an angry shake of his fist.

"Arrrgh!" Eggman growled furiously, gripping his control sticks far too tightly. "It's Eggman!"

The two lasers shot out, much faster than before, and the explosions they caused much larger.

But Sonic just grinned.

A moment before the explosions reach him, Sonic shot off like a bullet. The explosions were too high to jump over and too wide to go around – but that didn't seem to stop him. He ran from one end of the grass strip to the other, explosions chasing him the whole way… then jumped right off the end.

"What?!" Eggman blinked. The lasers cut off as human and robot mech pilots tried to figure out what Sonic thought he was doing.

Sonic grinned.

And then started glowing cyan.

Under the cover of the spotlights and the sound of music, Silver had floated over to the side of Eggman's Egg King, out of his line of sight. And now Sonic was in his psychokinetic grip, curling up and starting to spin.

"No, no, no!" Eggman pulled hard on his control sticks, turning his mech around and raising both 'fists'. The Eggrobo's Egg King was further away, so it just started charging its laser again. "All weapons, full power!"

Then Silver threw Sonic up. But not at Eggman's cockpit – at a trajectory that would have him pass in front of it.

"Ha! You missed!" Eggman crowed, aiming both fists at where Sonic would land. "And now you're finished!"

Then, just as Sonic reached the peak of his ballistic arc, just high enough to be eye-to-eye with Eggman, Sonic uncurled, the motion giving him just that little bit extra air time.

"I am rubber, you are glue." Sonic wagged his finger.

Eggman stared, caught off guard by the schoolyard comeback. "What?"

"Bounces off me," Sonic started to fall, letting Eggman see the other Egg King across from him – specifically, the laser cannon that was about to fire "and sticks to you!"

Eggman's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "No!"

With me (face the day with me)!

The Eggrobo fired.

It missed Sonic, who was falling, so it hit the target that had been behind him – Eggman's Egg King. The laser did to the metal armour what it had done to the grass below, and super-heated it so much and so quickly that it exploded, blowing up in a huge blast of fire, smoke, and raining debris.

Sonic bent his knees as he landed, absorbing the impact both through them and the softness of the earth, freshly churned up from all the explosions. This left him standing right next to Sonia and Manic as their song wound down, their instruments turning back into their medallions.

The magic that let the band stand together while apart faded as the sound did, and Aleena could offer nothing but a teary, desperate attempt at a reassuring smile before she faded with it.

"Mother…!" The two triplets cried, reaching out for her, but she was already gone.

"Cry later." Sonic told them bluntly. "We still got one big ugly bot to take out, remember?" He gestured at the other Egg King, the Eggrobo that was piloting it staring gobsmacked at the flaming wreck where his creator used to be.

Sonia put a hand on Manic's shoulder, and the two shared a sad look together.

Silver floated over to the other three. "Um, did Eggman actually…?" His eyes flickered back and forth between the other hedgehogs and the destroyed Egg King (which was now slowly falling back into the valley it had been floating over).

"You… you…!"

A coughing voice answered Silver's question.

The Egg Mobile was covered in soot, and its engines were coughing and spluttering, but it still managed to rise up out of the wreck of the Egg King. Eggman's furious expression was visible even through the soot, the red of his face so bright it shone through the dirty canopy.

Sonic let out a sigh, tapping a foot against the ground in annoyance. "And so the mighty Robotnik bravely runs away yet again."

"You got lucky this time, rodent." Eggman seethed.

"I 'get lucky' every time, you maniac." Sonic rebutted. "And if it happens every time, well, I don't think it's luck anymore. But hey," he glowered "you're the genius. You tell me."

Eggman ground his teeth together. "I'll be back!" He promised. "And next time, I'll –"

A blaster bolt glanced off his canopy with a pew, causing Eggman to flinch back and cover his face with his arms.

Manic's sad expression had been swapped out for a furious one, and the small blaster pistol in his hand was still smoking slightly. "Clear out, butt-nik!" Manic growled, firing off another two bolts. "You're majorly bringing the vibe down!"

Eggman opened his mouth to retort, but as another blaster bolt whizzed over his head he thought better of it. Shooting one last glare down at Manic in particular, the Egg Mobile rose up into the air and flew off in the direction of the Egg Fleet ships.

Sonia looked down at Manic's blaster in confusion. "When did you pick that up?"

"Snatched it from that vixen who was hanging around that other 'hog from before." Manic lowered the gun, still glaring after Eggman even as he receded into the distance. "Remember? The guy who said he was an evil Sonic or something?"

"Wait, what?" Sonic's head snapped around to focus on Manic. "This poser didn't go around calling himself king, did he?"

Sonia thought back. "Actually, I think he might have."

"Woah, bro." Manic tore his gaze away from Eggman to blink at Sonic. "You met that green loser too?"

"Green?" Sonic frowned. "No, the guy I met was blue. Came from some kind of 'mirror' Zone."

"Man, there can't be two evil Sonics obsessed with being royalty…" Manic paused. "…can there?"

"Three if you include that fat Sonic we saw in that other world." Sonia muttered. "With those mean versions of us, remember?"

Manic made a face. "Not sure I'd count those guys as 'evil'." He pounded a fist into a palm. "'specially not after we knocked some sense into 'em."

Silver watched this conversation play out, utterly lost. He counted on his fingers: one, two, three.

"How many evil versions of Sonic can there be?" He stared at his raised digits.

---

Metal Sonic paused in his current task, wondering why he had the utterly impossible urge to sneeze. A laser that passed just in front of his nose triggered an interrupt in his combat protocols that put his CPU back into the fight at hand.

---

Cinos did not feel the urge to sneeze, mostly because he didn't currently exist. In fact, depending on your personal philosophy regarding time travel, one could argue he'd never properly existed in the first place.

---

"Too many, that's how many." Sonic scowled, trying hard not to think about a certain golden psychopath.

A loud clunk noise was all the warning they got. The four hedgehogs spun around to find the Eggrobo charging the Egg King's laser again, fury in its electronic eyes. Despite what Sonic had warned about, they'd all taken their eyes off of it.

Sonic rev'd his legs up, preparing to do… something drastic, while Manic frantically turned his medallion back into a drum kit. Silver's hands started to glow brightly…

But they were all too slow. The Eggrobo's finger slammed down on the fire button, its expressionless face still somehow conveying triumph…

Which is when a red and yellow hammer slammed into the back of the Egg King's 'head', knocking the whole mech forwards and sending the laser down into the crevasse below.

It was a cutesy, squeaky and overall quite unassuming noise.

If you had to give a name to it, one would probably call that sound 'Piko'.

"GET AWAY FROM MY SONIC, YOU BIG JERK!"

A furious ball of pink spines and anger by the name of Amy Rose bore down on the hapless robot like a bolt from the sky, another hammer already appearing in her hand as she rode in on her Extreme Gear. She'd glitched again (before entering the T.D.E.'s field), and was back to the red-and-white dress that seemed to be her most common outfit.

Even as the Eggrobo frantically tried to get its bearings, the transparent canopy around it completely shattered, Amy was already bearing down on it with a fire in her eyes that burned far hotter than any weapon of the Egg King.

(The two other girls on the board with her were squealing – Mina in panic, Tania with delight – but Amy tuned both of them out.)

"Who the heck is that?" Sonic shielded his gaze with a hand.

"Amy?!" Silver blurted out.

Sonic spun around to face Silver. "Amy?! Are you nuts?! That's not…" He paused, and turned around for another look. "Wait, that is Amy! What's she doing in a stupid dress like that?!"

"Oh, so that's Amy?" Manic whistled, watching as Amy ruthlessly swung her hammer at the poor Eggrobo. "Heh. I can see why Nicky's head over heels!"

"Nicky?" Sonic asked, suspiciously.

"But before we say hello, how about we stoke the tension a bit?" Manic ignored Sonic, twirling his drumsticks around his hands, before catching them and holding them straight. "Drum roll, please." He smirked, and started to play.

The Eggrobo was twisting around in its chair, frantically dodging the cutesy and adorable weapon of mass compaction as Amy swung away with reckless abandon. The fury in her eyes was so great, she nearly missed it as the ground rumbled ominously underneath.

The Egg King was a flying mech, but it was a flying mech that was designed to hover at a set distance from the ground. So when the ground suddenly opened up underneath it, the Eggrobo in the pilot seat didn't have time to do much more than slump over, resigned to its fate, before the entire mech plummeted down. Once the mech was about chest deep in the earth, the fissure closed up again, crushing it like an empty soft drink can.

"Woah…" Silver breathed, staring down at the crushed remains with wide eyes – unintentionally mirroring Manic's reaction from earlier.

Sonic's eyes, however, were annoyed. "You couldn't have done that earlier?" He glowered.

"And ruin the sick beats of that tune?" Manic scoffed, his drums becoming his medallion once more. "No way man!"

"Sonic!"

Said hedgehog frantically dived to the side, just barely avoiding a flying tackle-hug from Amy. Tania and Mina, unused to balancing on an Extreme Gear, wobbled in place for a moment before falling off (fortunately onto the dirt platform).

"Knock it off, Amy!" Sonic said, crossly. At this point his was physically holding her at bay while she tried to get in and hug him. "I can't believe you're back to this again!"

"But Sooooonnnniiccc, I was so worried about you!" Amy whined, pouting. "Can't I at least –"

"No!" Sonic sharply cut her off.

Amy turned her pout to face you. "Rats." She muttered, abandoning her overly worried act with a sigh.

Then a violent spasm of her colours and outline heralded another glitching fit, which cleared up leaving Amy visually the same as before, but…

Sonic blinked. "What the heck was that?"

Silver, Tania and Mina grunted, all suffering glitching fits of their own. All around them and even under their feet, the hills of Green Hill Zone stretched and contorted, a suburban town briefly visible before settling back into checker-patterned grass… the hills in different places from before. Freed from the influence of Eggman's T.D.E.'s, the hills were once again free to fight with their alternate selves for supremacy.

"And that!" Sonic took a step back, looking at the ground beneath his shoes like he expected it to drop out from under him.

"Oh, right." Manic sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. "We were going to do something about that, weren't we?"

"Was it just me, or did Robotnik… Eggman… whichever; did it sound to you guys like they knew what was going on?" Sonia asked Manic, Silver and Sonic.

Sonic scoffed, finding himself on more familiar ground. "'course he knew what's going on. This whole mess is probably his fault!"

Silver narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the back of Sonic's head… before letting out a long sigh and deciding it wasn't worth the effort to correct him.

Sonia sighed. "Well, for now, we need Chaos Emeralds."

"Oh, here's one!" Amy smiled, pulling out the purple Chaos Emerald.

Whoosh

Amy blinked several times, the wind blowing her quills in front of her face as Sonic frantically ran all the way to the far end of the dirt platform.

"Are you crazy?!" Sonic shouted, the distance blunting his volume a bit, but still leaving the vibe of outraged disbelief very easy to pick up. "You know what those do to me!"

Amy blinked, slowly. "…turn you into Super Sonic?"
"Exactly!" Sonic leaned back, over the edge of the platform, seemingly trying to get just that little further away from the emerald. "Don't you think we have enough problems?! You think we need that maniac running around?!"

"Yeah, you should probably put that away." Sonia folded her arms, in a tone of voice that made it clear that it wasn't really a suggestion. "If what happened to Dingo is anything to go by, we don't want the emeralds turning Sonic into anything." Right behind her, Manic nodded firmly.

Amy stared at the other hedgehogs for a moment, then turned to Mina. "What?"

"Oh, like I now know what's going on?" Mina said, somewhat bitterly.

Seeking some kind of sign that the world hadn't suddenly gone crazy, Amy caught Silver's eye, but the time-traveller shrugged helplessly, just as lost as she was. Slowly, like she expected them to suddenly say it was all a prank, Amy put the Chaos Emerald back where she'd taken it out from.

Sonic scowled, but slowly walked back to rejoin the group, scowling at Amy's hands the whole way.

"Honestly…" Sonic grit his teeth, his whole body tense. "You of all people should know better than that, Amy!"

"Know better than what?" Amy repeated, still completely lost.

Sonic folded his arms. "Is that stupid dress cutting off the blood-flow to your brain?! There's no way you can actually be this thick!" He gnashed his teeth. "Heck, you've even got your quills down again – are you getting ready for another funeral, Amy?! Or did you forget how to brush, too?!"

Amy stared at Sonic, eyes wide.

Then she hiccuped, and great big tears began to pool in the corners of her eyes.

Manic and Sonia both smacked a palm over their faces.

"Oi, what are you getting all teary-eyed for?" Sonic blinked, taking a step back. "I haven't said anything worth crying over, yet! Seriously, what's up with –"

And it was at this point that Tania swung her copy of Amy's hammer up, over her head, and dropped it down on his toes.

"Gghhh!" Sonic's mouth stretched out into something almost like a smile, if not for the painful wobble it was bent into.

"Stop being mean." Tania told him sternly, putting her hands on her hips.

Slowly, Sonic's head turned to look Tania in the eyes.

"Girl, you haven't seen me be mean yet." He promised through gritted teeth.

"You made Amy cry!" Tania pointed up at Amy, who was vibrating slightly with the force of the tears she was trying to hold in.

"I don't know why she's suddenly so sensitive, but that's her problem, not –"

Tania picked her hammer up and hoisted it over her head again.

Sonic shut his mouth, fuming.

"Now apologise!" Tania demanded childishly.

For a moment, it looked like Sonic might elect to take the hammer to the toes again. But eventually he looked Amy in the eyes again.

"Sorry I called you stupid." Sonic ground out, with all the genuine sincerity of imitation butter. He held his hand out for Amy to take.

Amy grabbed Sonic's hand, and loudly blew her nose on his glove.

Taking his hand back, Sonic glared at his glove, now dripping wet, and then down at Tania. "Happy now?" He hissed.

Without acknowledging Sonic, Tania spun around to face Silver, Manic and Sonia. "Hey there!" She said, with a beaming smile. "I'm Tania!"

"S-silver." Silver introduced himself, a bit shaken after watching Tania's dressing-down.

"I've heard of you guys but I don't think we've ever met, so… Mina Mongoose." Mina introduced herself to the three hedgehogs. "I love your music, by the way!" She added, with somewhat strained cheer.

"Huh?" Manic blinked. "Oh, uh, yeah! Wicked, wasn't it?"

"Could have used a few more instruments, and a real guitar, but other than that it was great!" Mina added.

While Manic slumped over, Sonia blinked. "Oh, are you a musician too?"

"Sure am!" Mina's smile started to lose its stress, becoming more genuine. "I'm Mina Mongoose, songstress and speedster!" She quickly ran around the trio to demonstrate, leaving a dust trail behind her.

This earned Mina a sharp look of suspicion from Sonic, but wide-eyed looks of panic from Manic and Sonia, who for some reason shot worried looks at Mina's shoes.

"You didn't get that speed from drinking some weird potion, did you?" Sonia asked frantically.

Mina stopped, her face becoming confused again. "Um, no? A wizard did it."

"Oh." Manic thought about that for a second. "That's… probably safe, right?"

"Not really…" Mina sighed, slumping over.

Amy glitched, changing into her younger version in the green shirt. She shook her head, lightly slapping her cheeks to focus herself.

Amy shot one last hurt look at Sonic, before turning to Sonia and Manic, finding it within herself to put on a cheerful face: "Hello! I'm Amy Rose!"

Sonia and Manic shared a look.

"Hey, Amy." Manic said, his cheer only slightly forced. "I'm Manic!"

"I'm Sonia." Sonia finished the introductions. "We heard you're interested in our brother?"

"Huh?" Amy blinked.

"For the last stinkin' time, I'm not your brother!" Sonic snapped. "I –"

Tania dropped her hammer on his toes again.

"Ghhh! Stop that!" Sonic shouted at Tania, grabbing the hammer and tossing it away.

Tania just folded her arms, returning his glare in equal measure.

Mina and Amy turned to Sonic, gobsmacked. "You have siblings?!"

"No!" Sonic ground his teeth. "All my folks are gone! Vanished! Kaput! Not even Robotnik could find 'em, and believe you me, he looked even harder than I did!"

Sonic paused, blinking, apparently surprised by the words that had come out of his own mouth.

Tania's expression softened, just a bit, but she still scoffed at him.

"Stupid." She said. "Family's not about who's related to you. It's about who loves you."

Sonic's mouth worked up and down for a moment. He was clearly trying to retort to what Tania had said, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

"…Sonic?" Amy asked.

That seemed to be the last straw for Sonic. Tearing his gaze away, he span around and sprinted for the edge of the platform, jumping clear as he vanished into a rush of wind and a cloud of dust.

"Sonic!" Amy stamped a foot. "Ugh. Why does he always have to run off like that?!"

The other hedgehogs (and mongoose) swapped dismayed looks.

Silver let out a long, tired sigh. "I'll float everyone down…"

As he got started on that, Manic and Sonia moved slightly apart from the others.

"Looks like another near-miss with Mom, huh sis?" Manic said, bitterly.

Sonia put her hand around her brother's shoulders. "We'll find her eventually." She tried to be reassuring, but she didn't sound much more optimistic than Manic did.

"Oh, it's my dad! Hi dad!" Tania waved as she was floated up, beaming at a figure just climbing into view on a nearby hilltop.

"It's just always like this, right?" Manic complained. "We come so close to finding her, and then we turn our backs for, like, a whole minute; and she's gone."

"Hey, Tania! There you are!" Paulie's laughter echoed around the hills.

"I… know it feels like Mother is avoiding us, but we both know she's just worried about the prophecy." Sonia tried again.

"When'd you get here?" Tania called.

"Waitin' for the right time, I get it." Manic kicked at a clump of dirt. "But why couldn't the right time be now, though?"

"We flew in, just now!" Paulie called back, turning to help someone else up the hill.

Sonia didn't respond to Manic's worries… because she shared them too. Working to a script without knowing how many acts there were… it felt some days like their story would never end.

That they'd never find their mother.

"Oh, yeah!" Paulie called, straightening up. "Is there a Sonia and Manic here? Their mum is looking for them!"

For a moment, the words didn't parse.

Then the two triplets slowly turned around.

Coming into view from the other side of the hill, her white dress now stained slightly with dirt and grass and her crown nowhere to be seen, was Queen Aleena Hedgehog. The mother that Sonia and Manic had searched for all this time.

The two stared for a long moment, then both took a running leap off of the platform without waiting for Silver; proving once and for all for everyone to see that they were, in fact, Sonic's siblings.

Sonia grabbed Manic's legs, spinning them around so that she was on bottom; using her strength to absorb the impact of landing. Without missing a beat, the two immediately started sprinting up the hill. Their faces were slick with desperate sweat, like their mother would outright evaporate if they so much as blinked.

Aleena saw them coming. Her mouth hovered open, unable to find the words. Eventually, she just swallowed.

"Hello, my children."

When they met, it was with tears and cries of joy and hugs so tight that it felt like they never could end.

Paulie leaned back on the balls of his feel, a big smile on his face. "Well, would you look at that."

A tug on his sleeve made him blink and look down. "Oh, hi Amy!"

"Sorry, but did you say you flew in?" Amy asked, jogging up and down on her tip-toes.

"Sure did!" Paulie confirmed cheerfully. "I can give you a ride, but I might need to take multiple trips… and maybe patch over the holes in the wings…"

Amy shook her head, frantically. "No time for that! We have to go! We have to warn everybody!"

At this point, Jules and Bernadette also reached the top of the hill – seeing Aleena hugging and being hugged by two kids (hers, they assumed), and Paulie talking to… wait, was that Amy…? Why was she…? No, nevermind! The two searched around from their higher vantage point.

"I see Silver." Jules said, somewhat flatly.

"But no sign of Sonic…" Bernadette fretted.

"Wuf."

Bernadette blinked, looking down.

At her feet was a golden retriever – a purely animal Mobini, rather than a human-like Mobian. Their name, according to the tag on his collar, was "Ozzy".

In his mouth, being dragged behind him, was a long tablecloth. Resting on it was, weirdly enough, a pair of slobber-covered storybooks, and a young blue hedgehog boy with glasses on: eyes closed, dead to the world.

"Oh, Nicky! There you are!" Tania walked over. "You missed all the action again, sleepy head!"

At the sound of his sister's voice, Nicky's eyes slowly started to blink open, staring up at the sky above.

"…Nicky…?" Bernadette asked, tilting her head slowly. Yes, Paulie had said that was his son's name, hadn't he? But she hadn't expected him to look so much like…

And to have that name…

"Warn everybody about what, Amy?" Paulie scratched his head.

---

You imbecile! You absolutely blew it! Underground shouted angrily.

Two giant robots and you still couldn't squash him! Virgin added his own unwanted commentary.

Eggman growled as he stalked the halls of his flagship. (His Egg Mobile's engine had failed shortly after landing, so he would have to walk while he was waiting on an Egg Pawn to go fetch him a replacement.) Any badnik unfortunate enough to be caught in the hallways with him took one look at their creator's stormy expression and practically dived out of the way.

Why don't we just shoot him with that giant cannon? Paramount suggested.

Are you stupid?! Silver is down there! Try something like that and you'll find that beam turning around like it remembered it left the stove on! Pre-SGW spat.

And wasn't that a pretty image. Eggman knew that Silver's powers weren't to be taken lightly – even after Sonic and Shadow had fallen, Silver had been able to somewhat hold his own against Infinite – even with the jackal at full power. Probably because both of their powers were inherently mental or something. Eggman didn't really care beyond it being a pain in his neck.

So while he'd never seen the psychokinetic pull a stunt like that, Eggman could easily picture him pulling it off. No. He'd make sure the time traveller was out of the picture before using the Egg-bliterator Cannon again.

…heh heh heh heh. A previously silent voice chuckled darkly.

Eggman glanced sharply upwards, imagining that the sound came from up there. "What's so funny?!"

The hedgehog was right about one thing. The new voice taunted. It wasn't luck that let him win today.

Eggman growled, then looked down and started furiously stomping his way forwards. "He can't outrun the odds forever!"

You know full well he can! The new voice snapped. Not unless you do whatever it takes to win.

Oooh. SatAM cooed. I do like the sound of that.

"What are you yammering on about?!" Eggman grit his teeth.

Simple. Sonic cannot save the planet… if there is no planet to save.

Eggman paused, just for a moment.

Then he redoubled his stride. "Absolutely ridiculous! How am I supposed to rule the planet if I destroy it?! It just makes no sense!"

The new voice started to let out dark chuckles once again.

Looks like we forgot the name tag for this one. X said, quietly and grimly.

Eggman strode down the halls, doing his best to shut out the noises that Fleetway was making.

Striding into the command room again, Eggman immediately started shouting commands. "All ships, set out! We're heading out!"

As his various assistant robots hurried to comply, Eggman found a chair to sit in, and glowered.

---

Amy glitched into one of her red dress versions. "Eggman's not settling for just conquering an island! He's trying for the mainland again!"

She held up a piece of paper in one hand, waving it frantically. "He's going to attack Station Square!"

---

AN: Merry Christmas. (I probably should have cut this chapter in two.)

If you're wondering what Metal Sonic is fighting, that's the subject of next chapter.

I was lucky enough to catch an advance screening of the third Paramount movie, so next time Shadow appears, his Paramount version will join the rotation! As for the characters in the post-credits scene, well… that'll have to wait until we know literally anything about them (other than that they look fantastic).

In the show itself Aleena didn't have a medallion, but it was implied that they'd be used by the royal family for thousands of years, so…

I tried to walk the line between Fleetway Sonic being an absolute jerk, and having him be true to character. How'd I do? (If this is your introduction to him, then yeah, he does kinda act like that… but he's used to people who just let his name-calling just slide off their backs.)