Considering just how fast Sonic was, it wasn't taking him long to round up any allies he planned on bringing along on their multiversal journey and catching them up to speed on this Phantom Infinite situation. During the down time between his trips, Guts made himself useful and helped Sonic's friends clean up the mess Eggman had made of the amusement; something that was made a little bit easier thanks to his magic which he used to levitate debris.
Among those that Sonic had brought back was Team Chaotix, of which Charmy Bee attempted to make conversation with Guts while he was busy working.
"So you're like…from another universe that's different from here," Charmy asked, managing to flip a dented hot-dog stand back into place.
"That is correct, yes," Guts responded, short and to the point as he used his magic to levitate the remains of the broken roller coaster cars into a pile.
"And…have you met other me's?" Charmy asked, wings buzzing a little bit in excitement.
"I have," Guts replied shortly again.
"Well come oooon, tell me what they were like!"
"No,"
That wasn't the answer Charmy wanted to hear. "Aww why not?" he whined.
"Because you're not prepared to hear the answers. Trust me, you're not," Guts answered, having still not even looked at the bee.
"Uh…what do ya mean by that?" Charmy asked scratching his head under his helmet.
Vector and Espio, who up to now had been putting the prize booth back in order, overheard the conversation and decided to finally chime in.
"Stop bugging him Charmy! If he's been around the multiverse for such a long time I think he knows what he's talking about!" Vector yelled.
"Indeed. If he says to let this be, you should," Espio added.
"Uuuugh fiiiine," Charmy grumbled a bit as he flew off to another part of the park to continue cleanup.
During this down time, Silver the Hedgehog was assisting Guts in moving the roller coaster cars with his psychokinesis. Guts had not said much to him during the whole time, and since Sonic had caught him up to speed on Guts' harrowing situation, he decided to attempt to give him some comfort.
"Hey…Sonic told me about where you came from…what Phantom Infinite did to your world," Silver began, earning a bit of an intense side glare from Guts. "A-And I know it's a sore subject but um…I've seen my own world in the future in various stages of destruction before, but even then…I wish I could say I understood everything you were going through, but truth be told, I was born into that. I can't imagine what seeing it happen in real time did to you. So, I guess I just wanted to say I'm sorry. You and everyone in your universe…you deserved better,"
Guts' expression softened a little bit at that. "I appreciate that. Truly. It is just…I have a hard time reconciling this. I trained in the art of magic for a long time. It is something that takes years of intense training and an inhuman amount of patience to study, much less master. Yet when it counted the most, I could not keep my universe safe. So why is it that I, the failure, survived while everyone else did not?"
At least Silver now had an explanation as to the levitation feats that he had seen Guts perform, and for the powers Sonic had told him Guts displayed earlier. "You couldn't have been prepared for that. Heck…who would guess someday out of the clear blue sky some ungodly multiversal power would just pop in with no explanation, completely unprovoked and…well…do what he did? You survived to help keep this from continuing. The fault doesn't lie with you, it lies with Phantom Infinite, and him alone. Remember that,"
"I will have an easier time believing that when Phantom Infinite is dust," Guts said grimly as he finished piling up the last of the wreckage.
Guts wished he had the time to do more to repair the damage the fight with Phantom Infinite caused, but it was only a matter of time before Sonic made his final trip back with the final ally of his to bring on the trip. Thus far Sonic had brought back Silver, Blaze, Team Chaotix and Team Dark. In addition to Tails and everyone who'd faced off against Phantom Infinite earlier, Guts wasn't sure who else he could be bringing along. After all, even though Eggman was accompanying them (albeit against his will), he did not pose the only threat to their home, somebody would still need to remain behind to keep everyone safe in Sonic and his friends' absence.
As Guts had this on his mind, he felt a rush of wind fly up against his fur, signaling Sonic's return. With him, to Guts' surprise, he'd brought along a slightly distressed-looking Vanilla the Rabbit, whose hair and ears had been completely blown back due to the speed Sonic carried her.
"And last stop in record time!" Sonic celebrated by fist pumping the air.
"G-Goodness, I will never understand how you can do this all the time Sonic," Vanilla said, nearly out of breath. She became a bit more self-conscious when she realized she'd caught the gaze of Guts and proceeded to fix her hair and long ears back into place and walked over to greet him.
"Oh hello! You must be the gentleman that helped to save my daughters' Chao earlier. You don't know how much Cheese means to her, I can't possibly thank you enough for your help!" Vanilla said with a smile.
Despite his best efforts not to, Guts blushed a bit. He cleared his throat before he spoke to better compose himself "M-Mmm…truthfully it was more Sonic's doing than mine,"
"Aaaah taking some credit's not gonna kill ya," Sonic said waving his hand a bit dismissively. "If you didn't show up, I wouldn't have gotten an opening to really attack him. Guess Infinite must really hate your guts if the sound of your voice was enough to get under his skin,"
"Well, the feeling is very mutual, I assure you," Guts said crossing his arms a little bit. "So, miss Vanilla is the last one you're bringing along?"
Immediately after Guts finished that sentence Cream rushed over to her mother's side and hugged her leg, earning her a headpat from Vanilla and causing Sonic to smile at the both of them. "Yeah. Since we don't know how long this is gonna take, Cream wanted her mom to come so they're not separated for too long,"
"That's alright isn't it mister Guts?" Cream asked Guts while staring at him with her big brown eyes awaiting his approval.
"Chao chao chao chao chao?" Cheese also seemingly asked while doing much of the same as Cream.
"Of course it is. I would not even consider separating mother and daughter," Guts answered, nodding.
"You're very kind mister Guts. We'll try not to be a bother," Vanilla gave Guts another smile.
The panda sorcerer could feel his face heat up a bit more and he stumbled over his words a little bit. "P-Perish the thought ma'am,"
Vanilla giggled a little and went off with Cream to join up with the rest of the group. As Guts composed himself once more, he caught a glimpse of Sonic giving him a very knowing smirk. "…Wipe that smile off of your face,"
"Heheh, is somebody crushing? ~" Sonic asked, his smirk only growing wider.
"Mmph. Silence," Guts grumbled with annoyance "Back to the task at hand. You're certain your world can manage without you and your friends here for the time being?"
Sonic pointed behind him with his thumb. "Heh, don't sweat it. I've got Tangle, Whisper and Lanolin holding down the fort while we're gone. Since the ol' moustache monkey's gonna be with us, any trouble they get they'll be able to deal with fine, I'm sure…and speaking of…" Sonic dashed off again over to the lamppost that a very grouchy Eggman was leaning up against as Knuckles and Team Dark stood guard over him. "Hey guys. Egghead behaving?"
"He tried weaseling out of this a couple times, but I know better than to trust what comes out of his mouth," Knuckles said putting his gloved fist to his chest, looking proud of himself.
"And it only took like three times for that to sink in. Congratulations," Rouge added with a sarcastic smile.
"M-Mph…shut up," Knuckles did not have much resembling a response to that, causing him to blush in embarrassment.
"Rrrgh…if you furry little wretches are done here, I suppose the sooner we depart the better," Eggman bitterly grumbled.
"Juuuust a minute Doctor. Shadow is still busy trying to convince Omega not to separate your head from the rest of your body," Rouge motioned her head to Shadow who was conversing with Omega off to their left.
Everybody knew that trying to get Omega to operate on a team that had Doctor Eggman among its ranks was a herculean task, but if anybody would be able to maybe talk some form of sense into him, it would be Shadow. The black hedgehog looked up at Omega with crossed arms, slightly annoyed that this was taking so long. "Omega, I'm more than aware of your grievances with the Doctor, but to put it simply there are bigger things at play here than the two of you,"
"THE DESTRUCTION OF DOCTOR EGGMAN AND ALL EGGMAN-CONSTRUCTED UNITS IS MY PRIME DIRECTIVE," Omega parroted the same phrase he'd repeated many times during this conversation.
"I know it is," Shadow grumbled through gritted teeth. "But you know what the Doctor is capable of, we can't just leave him here,"
"IF THAT IS THE CASE, WHAT PURPOSE DOES MY PRESENCE SERVE? YOU ARE AWARE THAT MYSELF PLUS EGGMAN IN AN ENCLOSED SPACE FOR AN ELONGATED PERIOD OF TIME IS AN EQUATION FOR TURBULENCE," Omega countered.
"Because frankly Omega…" Shadow stopped for a moment to again consider the magnitude of their situation. "We need all the help that we can get. If Phantom Infinite has his way, all of existence will be wiped out,"
"WOULD SAID WIPING OF EXISTENCE INCLUDE THE DEATH OF DOCTOR EGGMAN?"
"For the love of…" Shadow rubbed one of his temples. "Yes, but it would also include you, Rouge, and me. That is an outcome you would rather avoid is it not?"
Omega stayed quiet for a moment, his head moving upward slightly to look at Rouge, and then back down to Shadow "…THIS IS CORRECT,"
"Then put your prime directive on hold for the time being. Once this is over, you can resume plotting the Doctor's demise as much as you want. Until then, your focus should be on Phantom Infinite,"
Once again, Omega fell to silence for a few seconds before his eyes briefly flashed yellow. "TEMPORARY PRIME OBJECTIVE: DESTROY PHANTOM INFINITE,"
Shadow then glanced in Sonic's direction and gave him a quick nod, indicating to him that Omega was good to go. Sonic nodded back. "Alright, looks like we're ready to rock and roll!" he said before heading back to the center of the park to meet up with Guts along with everybody else.
Once everyone was together, Guts stood in front of them, his hands behind his caped back as he prepared to debrief. "Everyone's present. Good," he began to speak and pace back and forth. "Now…multiverse travel doesn't quite work the way you'd think it would. You can't just open a portal and be in another universe by going through it like a door. Nooo, that would just make my mission all too easy," Guts frowned. "It is more like…a journey from point A to point B that feels like it has actual distance. Meaning once we depart, you likely will not be coming back here for a while,"
"We would not be here right now if we hadn't made our peace with that fact. We'll live," Blaze said with a look of determination on her face.
"I just…want to emphasize one more thing," Guts said, turning his back to them and looking at the sky. "As this is the multiverse we are speaking of, it means the amount of realities out there are literally limitless. Some might just be defined by relatively minor changes in the grand scheme of things. Like…Tails having three tails instead of two for instance,"
"That's a weird thought. But I'm happy with just two thanks," Tails said pulling his two tails to the front and gently hugging them.
"My point being-" Guts continued. "As the possibilities are infinite, that means there is every chance we could run into some very disturbing universes on our journey, wrought from possibilities that you do not even wish to consider as possible. And once we board my ship, I can't afford to potentially lose track of Infinite just to return you here. If this sounds like something any of you can't handle, this is your last chance to just go home. I won't judge you if that is what you decide,"
Guts held his stance for a moment, waiting to potentially hear the footsteps of at least one or more of the party walking away. When he didn't hear any, he turned his head to find to his surprise that nobody had moved.
"Yeah, you're not getting rid of us that easy," Sonic said with a smirk.
"No way! How would we be able to just sit at home knowing what Phantom Infinite is doing out there? We wouldn't be able to live with ourselves!" Amy added.
"Besides, we've gotta give that purple jerk payback for earlier!" Knuckles shouted, banging his fists together.
"Mmph…admittedly I would not be able to build the Eggman empire if all of creation is destroyed" Eggman egocentrically turned up his nose and put a hand to his chest. "And it is unlikely you would be able to accomplish your mission without MY genius, so I suppose I should lend my aid,"
"Of course you manage to make this about you somehow," Espio said with a deadpan expression, earning a scowl from Eggman.
"Hm…I suppose I should have expected as much from all of you," Guts said, a small smile forming. "Very well then. We depart,"
"Um…just one thing," Blaze said raising a finger. "You mentioned we would be taking a ship but…I see no ship. Should it not have arrived by now?"
"Ah, yes, that. Now that you mention it…" Guts pulled back his glove, revealing the electronic watch once again and pressing another button on it. "My navigator arrived with it about 10 minutes ago actually,"
After he said that, the party was shocked to see in the sky above them, an enormous mass that appeared to have somehow blended in with its surroundings began to decloak and lower toward the ground, Eggman now inwardly kicking himself for not realizing the ship's stealth measures were the reason he could not see it when he was tracking the Emeralds earlier. When they got a better view of it, they were even more surprised to find that it was in the form of an aircraft many of them were all too familiar with.
Now at ground level was none other than Doctor Eggman's signature aircraft, the Egg Carrier. The only notable difference between this ship and the version they knew was that this one's color scheme was black and white much like Guts' fur.
Out of everybody though, none was more surprised than Eggman himself. "Huh, wha…this is mine!" Eggman shouted in misplaced anger, pointing at the ship. "Did you steal this from your world's…me?!"
"You might have been the one to design it and integrate the capabilities that allow for multiversal travel, for some nefarious purposes no doubt," Guts narrowed his eyes. "But Infinite destroyed you along with the rest of the world. What good would it be to a dead man?"
Reminded of his own mortality at that, Eggman was about to retaliate, but stopped. "…Fair enough…but HA! I told you without my genius this would be impossible!" he gloated.
"Ugh, never going to hear the end of that now," Rouge groaned a little bit.
"ANYWAY-" Guts said with a bit of annoyed harshness to get everyone's attention again. "Now, this ship serves as a force for good. Thus, I decided it needed a more fitting name. So, I figured just as I am out exploring the farthest reaches of the multiverse just as Captain Nemo explored the deepest depths of the ocean, I decided in that spirit to name it the 'Nautilus!'"
"Huh. You're a 20,000 Leagues fan. I should have guessed," Tails said with a bit of a chuckle.
"Oh, how could anybody not be?" Guts said with a much bigger smile than any of them had seen from him the entire time. He quickly became self-conscious though and managed to contain himself. He then diverted his attention back to his watch and spoke into it. "You're clear to open the door NICOLE,"
The sound of the Nautilus' pneumatics could be heard as the main door on the side of the vessel opened and deployed a ramp leading down to the ground. Seconds later, a brown, female lynx wearing a white naval navigator uniform could be seen stepping out of the door with a big, friendly smile on her face.
"Gosh, quite the party we've got here now Guts!" She said as she made her way down the ramp and right up to Sonic. "Put er' there friend!" She said as she held her hand out for him to shake.
Sonic smiled back at her and attempted to shake her hand, only for his hand to phase right through her own and for static around her hand to form. "Woah!" Sonic said, recoiling a little bit in surprise.
"Heheh. Gets em' every time," the lynx said now with a smug expression.
"I'm sorry about…her," Guts said, facepalming, before gesturing his hand toward the hologram. "This is NICOLE. She's an artificial intelligence that basically runs the ship and serves as its navigator. The form you're looking at right now is a hologram she's projecting,"
"Which means I can do baaaasically anything!" NICOLE said as her hologram then proceeded to remove her head and kick it around her like a soccer ball. Her head eventually floated next to Rouge and proceeded to conjure a holographic saxophone from nowhere and play a smooth, almost seductive tune with it.
"Uh…loving your energy hun, but this is…a bit strange," Rouge said, now thoroughly weirded out.
"Hehehe…sorry," Nicole apologized as her head vanished and reappeared on her body again. "We just don't get very many passengers on the Nautilus so I'm just a liiiiiittle bit excited," she giggled.
Shadow, meanwhile, was not amused and shot an annoyed glance at Guts. "THIS is our navigation A.I.?" he asked in disbelief.
"Her competence will speak for itself, I promise," Guts said, exhaling a bit through his nose.
"You won't find a better navigator this side of the multiverse that's for sure!...and that's not a boast, just a statement of fact, I am literally a machine. Now then-" NICOLE then disappeared and reappeared next to the door of the Nautilus. "Ladies first! ~" she said with a smile, gesturing to the door.
As everyone made their way into the Nautilus (ladies first as NICOLE had said), Shadow lagged behind the rest of the group a bit. He stared up at the Nautilus, lost thinking about everything Guts said about the nature of the multiverse. Of course, he'd seen occurrences of similar things happen before with instances of time travel, but with the arrival of Phantom Infinite and his panda pursuer, the concept careened into reality screaming.
Meaning, if everything was as Guts says and that the possibilities were unending, then surely there would be a world where-
"Hey Shadow! You're zoning out a little bit, you good?" Sonic asked loudly, peeking his head out the door after having walked in and ripping Shadow away from his thoughts.
Having snapped back to reality, Shadow shook his head a bit and realized he was the only one left outside. "Mm…I'm fine," he said as he went inside the ship with everyone else.
"And HERE is where the magic happens! ~" NICOLE led the team into the ship's command center. All along the walls were all the controls that helped the ship take flight along with very wide windows so one could see just about everything on the outside. The thing that took everyone's attention right away though was the seven-sided electronic console in the middle of the room, each side having one of the seven Chaos Emeralds from Guts' world embedded in it. Their power was channeled right to the middle of the console which had a glowing orb of pure chaos energy that would periodically change color with a reinforced glass tube incasing it.
"Woah…this sure beats the heck outta my computer," Vector said in awe of the machine.
Guts then sat in the single chair at the console, draping his cape over his shoulder and lap. "Thankfully the Phantom Ruby in Phantom Infinite's chest has made it very difficult for him to hide from NICOLE's radar. It leaves behind an unmistakable energy trail that we can track even between realities,"
"So, he's left Phantom Ruby footprints wherever he goes. So where does his trail lead?" Tails asked.
Guts glanced over at NICOLE, who in response gave a quick salute "I'm all over it captain!" She said as she conjured a holographic keyboard and screen in front of her and typed on it, going on to sprout two extra pairs of arms to go faster.
"Eheeeee, thaaaat's not weird," Silver said, smiling but wincing a little.
"Aaaaaand, beep, boop!" NICOLE said with glee as her extra arms vanished and she made the final press on her holo-board. The holo-screen then loaded up a radar that homed in on a blinking dot over in the far right corner. "It looks like he's heading towaaaard…universe designated 'SATAM-94'!" she exclaimed snapping her fingers.
Almost right away the party noticed the frown that formed on Guts' face. "Uh, is that bad? You don't look happy," Charmy pointed out.
"For the time being I'll just say…usually denizens of universes with the 'SATAM' designation have quite a lot on their plate as it is, and Phantom Infinite is the absolute last thing they need," Guts replied with a grim tone, shaking his head. "Nevertheless, that is our destination. NICOLE, set course for 'SATAM-94', on the double,"
"Right-O! Everyone sit down, we're goin' up!" NICOLE said as she began typing on her holo-keyboard again and everyone quickly took their seats. The ship began to whir to life with all the various controls and switches started to move on their own. Everybody could feel the ship rising back up into the air, and once it had reached a height of around 700 feet, it stopped, simply staying there hovering in mid-air. "Alright Guts, we're clear to disembark!"
"Good," he responded taking a deep breath. "And…here we go," He then pressed the big red button in front of the glass tube on the console containing all the chaos energy harnessed from the emeralds. The entire ship shook as everybody could see from the command center's window that the entire front of the ship opened, revealing a glowing, recessed space in it; its eerie green glow growing brighter and brighter as the device in it charged.
"Hey, isn't that where the Egg Carrier's big stinkin' laser usually is?" Sonic asked, pointing outside.
"It used to be. Now though-" As if on cue, the laser fired, stopping only a few hundred feet away from the ship, ripping open an enormous, swirling green portal in the middle of the sky, big enough for the ship to fly through. "…It does that,"
"Wooooooah!" Tails stood up in his seat, entranced by the portal's sheer size.
"Well…I must say, my variant has outdone himself," Eggman said, impressed as he pulled his glasses down a bit.
"This portal right here leads to the space between worlds that we will be traveling through to our destination. The zone that links all realities: the Cosmic Interstate." Guts said, positioning his hand over a sideways-positioned lever on the console. "Ready for takeoff in 3…2…"
"Um…mister guts?"
Guts paused when he heard the gentle voice of Cream speak up from her seat and looked over in her direction, puzzled.
"I just um…Cheese wanted to know if he could do the countdown," she clarified, looking up at Cheese who was laying belly-first on her head.
Guts just shut his eyes and he laughed to himself a little bit. "Yes, Cheese can do the countdown,"
"Yay!" Cream said as she lightly clapped her hands. "Go ahead Cheese!"
Cheese then stood up on his feet and began. "Chao…Chao…Chao...CHAO CHAO CHAO!" he shouted, pumping his tiny little arm into the air.
"Heh, yeah you go Cheese," Amy giggled.
At that, Guts pushed the lever forward. The ship rumbled once again as the thrusters of the ship propelled it into the portal, the ship vanishing from sight completely with the portal closing behind it.
I realize there is a lot of setup involved with this concept, but by next time I should be able to get to some actual multiversal shenanigans so look forward to that. Maybe the next chapters will be just as long as these two, maybe not, we'll just have to see.
Anyhow, something I guess felt should go without saying but I still feel I should address: This NICOLE's obviously not the same one we saw in any of the comics or SATAM, as personality wise she is very different and much sillier as you can probably see.
I haven't really gotten much feedback just yet, but I'm interested to hear what everybody has to say about…well everything here lol. Anyway, thank you for reading.