Chapter 4: Into the Spider-Verse

Ever since that weird shockwave, Sonic had been on the lookout for the cause alongside his younger self (who he'd started calling Mini-Me, Mini-Sonic to everyone else).

While he didn't know where that crazy energy came from. As far as he could tell, the effects had only caused good things, such as knocking out Eggman's robots and freeing his friends.

He also couldn't complain about it interrupting his rematch with Perfect Chaos. Anything to get him away from having to jump around a flooded city and reduce his chances of falling in the water was good in his book.

Really, the only downside he'd found so far was that the shockwave took out Tails and Lil'Tails electronics, but between the two brainiacs, they'd worked out how to fix things quickly enough, so Sonic wasn't too bothered (the Tails might be, but so far they'd seemed more curious than upset).

So definitely good things, especially all his friends being freed at once. Everyone met up to compare notes, and while no one had any clue about the source of the energy, they were all willing to keep an eye out for the rest of the Chaos Emeralds.

"Because of course, you can't just have a normal birthday. That just wouldn't be you, right Sonic?" said Amy, sending him a smile as she made sure Cream and Cheese were okay, and cooing over how cute Mini-Me was.

Mini-Me, in the meantime, was both flustered by all the attention he was getting from that girl he'd rescued one time, and slightly miffed she was now taller than him.

"You know me, never a dull moment," Sonic agreed with a grin.

"I didn't even get a bite of cake," Vector complained.

"Me neither," whined Charmy, drooping in midair.

"Calm yourselves. If we are truly outside of time, then once we return everything should be as it was, including the cake," Espio assured his teammates, making the two of them cheer.

"That's good to hear," Knuckles agreed. "That means no one will get a chance to steal the Master Emerald while I'm gone… right, Rouge?" he added, sending the bat a warning look.

Rouge clutched at imaginary pearls at the accusation. "Who me? I would never," she said in clearly fake sincerity.

"Rouge!" Knuckles growled.

"Oh calm down, I did promise a truce when I accepted my invitation, no one wants to rain on a birthday," Rouge said with a teasing smirk. She then glanced around at the assembled group, and added, "Though I'm extra disappointed now that Shadow never showed. He might have come in handy solving this mess."

"Shadow was invited to the party?" asked Sonic. Given it was a surprise party, he'd not been privy to the guest list.

"Invited him myself," Rouge said. "But he was running late doing a little errand. Still, I'm sure he would have shown up eventually if he knows what's good for him," the last part was said in a threatening mutter.

Sonic briefly felt sorry for what awaited Shadow if he was a no-show.

"There's still a chance he's here somewhere," Tails offered.

"Yeah, I bet no one invites Metal Sonic to any parties, but he's here," said Lil'Tails, not knowing who Shadow was, but still wanting to help.

Rouge nodded thoughtfully upon hearing that. "In that case, I'd better go look for him."

"Watch your back in this place," Knuckles said as she left.

Rouge paused and sent a flirty smirk in the echidna's direction. "Is that concern I hear, handsome?"

Knuckles was immediately flustered. "What? No- I- Not like that! There's still a monster running around is all!"

"I see, so if anything happens you'll rescue me, right?" Rouge teased.

Knuckles scoffed at the suggestion. "As if you'd even need rescuing."

"Right answer," Rouge said as she flew away.

While that bit of banter was playing out, Amy had been doing a headcount. "Has anyone seen Blaze?" she asked in concern when she realized they were one short.

"I did," Cream said, raising her hand into the air. Then she pointed off into the distance. "Miss Blaze said she thought she saw Mister Silver over that way and she went to find him."

"Think I saw him too as I was checking things out," Sonic agreed. "Guess that the monster could even reach his time, and it pulled him in here too. Hopefully, Blaze will get him up to speed."

"That's great if he was," Amy agreed. Then, realizing how that sounded, quickly amended, "Well, not that Silver got sucked in here by that monster, but if he did, then it's not too late to invite him to the party. He's the only one we couldn't get a message to. I mean, I tried leaving a time capsule for him, but there was really no way to know if he'd find it. I hope he does eventually. I left supplies in it for him too."

"The more the merrier," Sonic agreed.

"We definitely should try to find him and Blaze sooner or later," Tails said thoughtfully. "With their combined insight on time traveling and dimension traveling, they could really help us figure out how to get things back to normal."

"So our goals right now are to find the Emeralds, find Silver and Blaze, and keep an eye out for Shadow if he's here," Sonic summed up for all of them.

"Well if it's finding people you need, the Chaotix Detective Agency is on the case," Vector offered, as he and his teammates broke off to search.

"Uh, Big Sonic?" said Lil'Tails hesitantly.

Sonic turned to look at him and saw Mini-Me giving him a look that spoke volumes.

"Oh, right, you don't know who they are," Sonic said. "Well, Shadow and Silver are both hedgehogs that look just like me if you ask Amy."

"That was one time!" Amy squawked in offense.

"One time each," Tails added, and laughed as Amy gave him a little swat for it.

"Mistake a few hedgehogs for Sonic from behind and you're suddenly marked for life," Amy grumbled.

Sonic snickered at their antics. "Shadow really does look a lot like us, just all black and red instead of blue. And Silver's silver and his quills stick up on his head like a maple leaf," he said, elaborating to Mini-Me and Lil'Tails. "And Blaze is a purple cat."

"Don't just leave it at that, what if Big is here somewhere," Amy scolded him.

(In a different part of White Space, Big sneezed and nearly dropped his fishing pole in the water.)

"Oh, right," Sonic said. "Big's another friend who's a purple cat, but he's, ya know, BIG, and he's always got his friend Froggy with him. Blaze meanwhile is just a little taller than Amy, and dresses like a princess."

(Off in the distance, Big sneezed again, and this time he did drop his pole. Fortunately, Shadow had been Doom Surfing passed him at the time, on his way to find Maria and the counterparts. The black hedgehog snatched the pole out of the water and tossed it back to the cat as he shot by.)

Mini-Me gave him a thumbs up at the descriptions, and Lil'Tails nodded. "Got it, we'll keep an eye out," the latter said.

Sonic gave them a thumbs-up back. "Then with all of us looking, we'll be done in no time."

And with that, they all disbursed to search the White Space for friends and answers.

Thankfully, once he started looking, it didn't take long for Sonic to find two of his objectives in one.

"I found you, Shadow!" he called the second he caught sight of the black hedgehog in the distance, and if he wasn't mistaken, Shadow had a Chaos Emerald on him too.

"The blue hedgehog… of all places…" Shadow grumbled back.

With a burst of speed, Sonic shot over to him, "You have something I nee- wait, what?" he started to say, but broke off when he realized Shadow wasn't alone.

A second Shadow stood sullenly behind him, alongside another Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.

The other Sonic's eyes lit up at the sight of him. "Holy identity crisis, Batman! It's the other me! Guys! Guys! It's other me!" he said, bouncing and pointing excitedly. He then bolted over to stand right in front of Sonic. "I have so many questions! First, can we be friends? Second, how do you keep your quills so sleek? Third, how fast can you go? Fourth-"

"Wait, I have questions too!" Tails (but not the Tails he knew or his younger self) cut in, running over to stand beside his Sonic. "Are you friends with other me? How did you meet? What's his best invention? Where-"

"I have just one question," the unfamiliar Knuckles interrupted, pushing his hands on their faces to shove himself between the other two. "Where is the other version of myself and can I fight him?"

"Knuckles, that's two questions," New Tails protested with New Knuckles' hand in his face.

"Then I have two questions, which are still far fewer than yours," New Knuckles replied.

New Sonic and Tails clearly got tired of New Knuckles' hands in their faces, and with a quick side-eye to each other, they both took a large step out of his reach, making the echidna fall flat on his face without them to lean on. With a growl he immediately pushed himself back to his feet and tackled them both, starting an impromptu wrestling match.

New Shadow just remained silent. It didn't seem like he had any questions or was all that interested in what was going on. (Sonic didn't miss how the others were sneaking concerned glances at him for being so quiet even as they rough-housed.)

Sonic could only blink as all this happened at once, before turning to the Shadow he knew. "Make some new friends, Faker?"

"More like annoying tag-a-longs, Faker," Shadow sniped back.

"Aw, do you two have nicknames for each other?" New Sonic asked, pulling free of the wrestling match and seeming to miss the insult in the word.

"Just the one," Sonic replied. He then took a moment to examine the four newcomers more closely.

New Sonic definitely wasn't another past self of his. His quills had never been as fluffy as that, and there had never been a point where his arms had been as blue as the rest of him. New Tails was even fluffier than even Lil'Tails despite being older than him, which was a feat Sonic didn't think possible. Knuckles would have been teased mercilessly if he was ever that fuzzy. And don't even get him started on a fluffy Shadow. The jokes would be endless if he wasn't half-certain the other hedgehog would murder him.

So not past versions of him and the others. Very unlikely to be future versions given the four of them read as 'kids' to him. So where did they come from?

"Soooo, going to introduce us?" Sonic asked Shadow in hopes of an explanation.

It backfired when New Knuckles cocked his head and asked, "Does that mean our visage is unfamiliar to you?"

New Sonic looked shocked and New Tails looked heartbroken.

"No, no, of course, I know you two are a Tails and Knuckles, but not my Tails and Knuckles," Sonic said quickly, waving his hands to calm them down. He then pointed at New Sonic and added, "And you definitely aren't my younger self, that's for sure."

"Oh yeah, how do you know?" asked New Sonic curiously.

"Well…" Sonic said as he heard rapidly approaching footsteps behind him. Perfect timing. "That's 'cause he's already here."

At that moment, Mini-Me arrived on the scene and skidded to a stop in front of them, and put his hands on his hips.

Sonic relished in the fact that Shadow looked absolutely horrified to realize he was now stuck in the presence of three Sonics!

"Everyone, meet my younger self," Sonic said. "Mini-Me, this is Shadow, the guy I told you about, and as for the rest, I'm still waiting on an explanation."

Mini-Me looked at them all and gave a friendly wave. New Sonic waved back enthusiastically. ('Wanna be friends?' New Sonic mouthed and mimed to him, and Mini-Me nodded in reply.)

"Oh, sorry, we're from another dimension," New Tails said, finally giving him that explanation. "Your Shadow came to our world, and then we followed him when he tried to leave."

"Are you stuck here?" asked Sonic, slightly concerned.

His asking seemed to be the first time that question occurred to any of them, and they exchanged a troubled look. "It is difficult to say," New Knuckles replied. "The portal we arrived through closed behind us, and thus far we have not seen it reopen."

"I mean, maybe we can use a ring?" offered New Sonic, scratching the back of his head.

New Tails pulled out his version of the Miles Electric and frowned. "I dunno guys. Rings aren't really made to handle time anomalies. We could end up anywhere in time or space if we tried to go back. Not to mention the state we'd be in when we get there."

"Like what?" asked New Sonic.

"Like we could have our body parts scrambled, or we could turn inside out, or come out of it either super old or literal babies. I don't know about you, but I don't want any of that to happen," New Tails said.

"Yeah, agreed," said Sonic, making a disgusted face.

"I too wish to avoid that," agreed Knuckles.

The three of them glanced in New Shadow's direction as if waiting for his opinion, but New Shadow just sorta shrugged and said nothing.

Taking that as an agreement, New Sonic said, "So a definite no on the turning inside-out plan, got it." His expression then grew worried. "Then… yeah… how are we going to get home?" he wondered aloud.

New Tails and New Knuckles looked similarly concerned.

New Shadow didn't seem to care.

Sensing the kids could use a distraction, Sonic changed the subject. "Well, as long as you're here, how about some nicknames for you four."

"Why must we be the ones to be given the names of nick?" asked New Knuckles dubiously.

"Because I can't just keep calling you 'New Knuckles' in my head, and all my friends here are going to be calling me and Mini-Me Sonic, and we were here first," Sonic replied.

New Knuckles seemed to think that over for a minute, and then shrugged. "Fair enough."

"Oh, oh, let me do it, I'm great at nicknames!" New Sonic said, bouncing in place eagerly. "I nicknamed, like, the whole town. I've got a lot of practice."

"Well, alright then, go for it," Sonic said, and Mini-Me gave a thumbs up.

"Why mess with perfection, you're looking at Green Hill's one and only Blue Justice," New Sonic said proudly, posing like a superhero.

Sonic had to smother a laugh. Even if he seemed to be older than Mini-Me, this version of him was definitely still a kid, and that just made Sonic want to tease him.

"I see, good name, Blue. Easy to remember," he said with a smirk.

Mini-Me saw what he was doing and snickered into his hands.

New Sonic, now Blue, looked thrown off at this. "What no, Blue Justice! You can't just call me Blue, that'd be like just calling him Stripes!" he protested, pointing at New Shadow.

"That's a good name too, okay, Blue and Stripes," Sonic said, a teasing grin on his face.

He then turned to see Stripes' reaction to the nickname and really began to understand the concern the Fuzzy Brigade was showing towards him. He would expect a version of Shadow would at least glare at him or Blue for accidental the nickname, but the kid didn't even react.

"But that's so simple!" Blue whined like that was a travesty.

Sonic shrugged. "Could be worse. Shadow and I usually just call each other Faker."

Ah, there's the Shadow glare he was expecting. Just from his Shadow though, Stripes didn't even look his way.

Blue, meanwhile, just stared at him, then looked over at New Tails and New Knuckles. "Am I really like this?" he asked, exasperated.

New Tails hesitated. "Uh, well, you know-"

"Yes," said New Knuckles with all the bluntness of a brick wall to the face. "You can be incredibly annoying."

Blue sent him a deadpan look. "You know this naming scheme just makes you Red, right," he pointed out.

The newly dubbed Red shrugged. "I am red. I do not see the problem."

"Wow, you really are great at naming things," Sonic said to rub salt in the wound.

Blue looked at him utterly betrayed, and Mini-Me couldn't stop laughing.

New Tails hummed thoughtfully. "Yellow doesn't really roll off the tongue, so I can just be Miles for now," he offered.

"If you're alright with that," Sonic said gamely. He knew his version of Tails hated his real name. Mini-Me stopped laughing and looked over at him as well.

"I'm fine with it," Miles said. "I got a better last name now, so it doesn't suck so bad."

"Oh, did Blue finally convince you to change your last name to 'The Hedgehog?" Sonic had to ask. He'd spent years trying to convince his Tails to do the same.

"What?" squawked Miles in bewilderment, and that got Blue to laugh.

"No, but that would be hilarious," Blue snickered.

"'The Echidna' is also a possibility," offered Red to Miles, totally serious.

Sonic snickered as well, but as he was wondering what new last name Miles could have gotten Mini-Me tugged on his arm to alert him to the fact that during their discussion Shadow had started to walk away.

"Wait, hold on Shadow," Sonic said, speeding over to block his path. "I need that Chaos Emerald you have."

Shadow glowered at him. "Unfortunately for you, I still require it."

"Come on, Shadow, the best way to get us and these kids home is to beat that giant monster that took us here. And we need all seven emeralds if we're going to do it," Sonic said, trying to convince him despite his stubborn nature.

"If I must, I will give you the emerald later, but for now I have business to take care of," Shadow said dismissively. "Until then, the emerald stays with me."

Typical Shadow. Can never do things the easy way. "What do you even need the emerald for anyway?" Sonic had to ask. If he had to beat Shadow to take the emerald, he would, but he'd rather not in front of the kids. Who knows, maybe he had a good reason to keep it.

Shadow gave him that look he always had when he thought Sonic was being particularly stupid, then jabbed one finger straight up into the sky.

The others turned their attention to where he was pointing and looked up.

Floating above them was a large sphere surrounded by rotating rings, and, most disturbingly, several massive eyeballs attached to the rings that were staring down in their general direction.

Okay, that might be a good reason. At least it was if he thought it was. Still…

"Huh, was… that always there?" Sonic had to ask, shocked he'd never noticed it before.

"Okay, who let the Eye of Sauron have an upgrade?" asked Blue, sounding freaked out.

Mini-Me shuddered when one of the revolving eyes blinked in their direction.

Stripes didn't spare it a glance, too focused on his feet.

"What is that thing?" Miles asked, aghast.

"And can I fight it?" asked Red, sounding far too eager.

"Black Doom," Shadow said as if that was explanation enough.

Apparently, it was from Blue's comment of, "Now there's a bad guy name." To which Mini-Me nodded in agreement.

"But didn't you destroy him, Shadow?" Sonic asked with a frown.

"Yes, and now what's left of him is taking advantage of this temporal distortion in an attempt to return and have his revenge," Shadow replied.

"And you need the Chaos Emerald to stop him," Sonic concluded, thinking this new information over. Then with a nod, he said, "Alright, I'll leave the emerald to you for now. Think you're fast enough to finish this before I need it."

Shadow shot him a dirty look. "I've always been faster than you."

"Oh yeah, prove it," Sonic shot back.

At that moment, a new portal ringed with the time monster's dark flames appeared before them as if in response to their challenge.

All it took was a quick glance between Sonic and Shadow before both took off through the portal to put their money where their mouth was.

As the taller two counterparts took off, Tails watched them go in bewilderment. "So wait, that freaky time monster that wants to destroy us is just letting them race?"

The smaller version of Sonic didn't seem to see a problem with this, as he playfully nudged Sonic and Shadow, before taking off for the portal as well.

Sonic sent Shadow a shrug. "When in Rome," he said and shot off with a flash of blue electricity.

Shadow stared after them, but it seemed not even he could back down from the challenge, and he followed behind a second later.

Tails watched them go and was relieved Shadow reacted at all. The black hedgehog had been super quiet and spacy ever since they'd left Maria behind. Not that he'd ever been chatty in the first place, but he wasn't so sullen and silent before. He was clearly upset about something, and they'd been trying to give him time, but he didn't seem to be snapping out of it. Weird as it was, hopefully, this race would help get him out of his funk.

Beside him, Knuckles crowed with laughter. "Ha-HA! A tournament of champions! Come, Fox, we must join in as well!"

"Knuckles, wait-" Tails started to say, but the echidna was already racing towards the portal.

Tails sighed. It would probably be best if not all of them participated in the race just in case it was a trap. But try telling that to his overly competitive big brothers.

Fortunately, before Knuckles could jump in, a dark shape flashed overhead, and a slim figure landed between him and the portal.

"Now hold on there, handsome," the newcomer, a bat in a black catsuit with a heart-shaped breastplate, said in a teasing voice. "You don't want to get in the middle of that. Trust me. Shadow's been dying for a rematch for ages."

Impervious to the honeyed words, Knuckles was as blunt as ever when he replied, "I do not trust you, no matter how correct you are on my handsomeness. Who are you?"

The bat put a hand to her chest in mock hurt at his words. "Aw, you don't remember little ol' me? And after all the good times we've shared."

Was… she flirting with Knuckles? And Knuckles, in typical fashion, had no clue.

Tails intervened before his brother could put his foot in his mouth. "Uh, we're not the versions of us you know. We're from another dimension, and I guess we just haven't met you yet. Who are you?"

"Well, that explains why you two are even cuter than you normally are," cooed the bat as she reached out to pinch each of them on the cheek, making Tails blush and Knuckles recoil.

"What is that? Some kind of attack?" Knuckles asked, bringing up his fists.

"No, Knuckles, she's just being… friendly," Tails said, still fighting his blush.

At that assurance, Knuckles calmed down. "Ah, in that case, allow me to be friendly as well," he said, reaching out for a handshake.

Despite Tails' frantic head shaking that she not do it, the bat reached out and took Knuckles' hand without hesitation, and smirked as she said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Rouge the Bat."

"Knuckles the Echidna, though I have been bestowed with the nickname of Red while in this empty abyss," Knuckles replied, no doubt squeezing the life out of her hand as he shook it.

"M-Miles Wachowski, people normally call me Tails, but you can use Miles if that's less confusing," Tails replied in awe that the bat was taking the handshake without even a flinch.

"Pleasure," Rouge said as she was finally released. "Now, let's find the best seat in the house to watch those hedgehogs duke it out, shall we?"

With that, she flapped her wings and rose into the air to fly through the portal. Tails did the same with his tails and Knuckles followed on foot.

"Psst, are you okay?" Tails had to ask once they were high enough Knuckles wouldn't hear.

Rouge hummed in dissatisfaction and held up her hand to look at it. "No, not at all. I think he broke a nail."

The respect Tails already had only grew hearing that. She must really be tough if that's all she was worried about.

Still, he had a sinking feeling that this race was a bad idea.

He just hoped for once he wasn't right.

A/N Yeah, I went with the tride and true 'Blue' 'Red' and 'Stripes' I've seen as nicknames in other fics. It was mostly for the banter between Modern and Movie Sonics. I thought it would be too funny to pass up. But here it is, they've finally met the Game versions of Sonic. Poor Game Shadow, there is no escape for him. Movie Shadow, meanwhile, has been set back to the state he was in when he was just wandering aimlessly through Tokyo. He's not in a good headspace right now.

Also, the bit where Modern Sonic encourages Movie Tails to change his last name to 'The Hedgehog' is based on a comic by Overgrown Graveyard on Tumblr.

sssssss

Modern Sonic: I'm surprised you didn't glomp Mini-Me when you saw him.

Amy: I don't do that to EVERY hedgehog. And we have all of them accounted for now, right? No one else I would mistake as you from behind.

Movie Sonic, Movie Shadow in the distance, and Mephiles inside his seal: Ah-choo!

sssssss

Movie Team Sonic: Hey guys, is Shadow being kinda quiet to you?

Modern Sonic: He seems normal to me.

Movie Shadow internally: 'Hello darkness my old friend~'

sssssss

POV: Modern Sonic then Movie Tails

Nicknames

Modern Sonic: Taller Sonic

Classic Sonic: Mini-Me, Mini Sonic

Movie Sonic: New Sonic, Blue

Classic Tails: Lil'Tails

Movie Tails: New Tails, Miles

Movie Knuckles: New Knuckles, Red

Movie Shadow: New Shadow, Stripes