Sonic X: Back To Earth.
Author's note: Chapter 3, and more surprises on the way! Happy reading!
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. The rights of the franchise and all Sonic characters and media belong to Sega, Sonic Team and other connected companies. I only own the OCs.
The Mutagen Saga.
Chapter 3: Reunions.
"Sonic!?" Chris exclaimed in disbelief, and no small amount of hope and happiness upon seeing his best friend standing before him. Same as always, and not having changed in the past three years, or rather, in Sonic's case, only three months.
Sonic, being the first to recover from the shock and despite not knowing what was going on or why his friend was still the twelve year old kid he remembered, smiled brightly and greeted. "Hey, it's great to see ya, buddy!"
"Sonic...It is you!" The de-aged boy cried out happily. He thought that he would never see the blue hedgehog again. To think that in the current mysterious crisis, Sonic had come back in Earth's time in need!
Unable to help himself, Chris then hugged Sonic a bit too excitedly and a bit tightly. Sonic cried out in surprise with a gasp, before the hug softened up a bit making him realize that his human best friend remembered from the last time and didn't want to cause him to lose air. Smiling once more, Sonic hugged him back, and while no one even noticed, tiny traces of tears leaked from the teenager's eyes, threatening to grow and fall free.
After a moment or two, the two reunited friends let go with smiles, and Sonic giving Chris a thumbs up with a smirk.
"Hi there, Chris!" Tails, recovering his own shock, raced over and stood by his big brother's right. "What's up?"
"Tails." Chris muttered, blinking in surprise while Helen wheeled herself over.
"Sonic. Tails. It's good to see you!" Helen greeted happily.
"Hiya, Helen. Haven't seen you in a while." Sonic replied, as his little brother also greeted her.
"I can't believe you're actually here! How did you get back?" Chris asked, unable to hold back his excitement.
"Good question. One minute, me, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge were trying to stop Eggman's latest scheme which, uh, pretty much resulted in ending up coming back here, and then the next thing I knew, things went crazy and I woke up in the field where I used to hang out in when we were first here. I have no idea how long I was out cold." Sonic explained awkwardly with a shrug.
"Eggman didn't try and use the Chaos Emeralds again, did he?" The de-aged boy asked, concerned.
"No, I had the Emeralds. Mind if we explain back at your place? The situation's a lot worse than we thought." Sonic requested.
"Yeah, it's probably a good idea. I got a feeling that the strange purple fog that covered the city has something to do with what's happened to all of us and we're most of us are kids again." Chris nodded in agreement, yet what he said only confused the two companions.
"Huh? What purple fog?" The teenage hero asked, blinking.
"Wait...if Eggman wasn't behind the fog, then what was it?" The former twenty-one year old asked, now puzzled himself. This only made Sonic and the two-tailed fox share a confused glance.
It wasn't until Tails muttered. "Looks like something unusual was happening here at the same time as we were trying to stop Eggman."
"As if we don't already have our hands full. Not only that, if we're here, and so are Knuckles and Rouge and everybody else, then the first phase of Eggman's scheme worked since he's back too. We've gotta stop him and solve the mystery before it's too late!" Sonic narrowed his eyes.
While the four friends were talking, the rest of the crowd stared in shock, with the little girl whispering to her de-aged mother. "Who are they? They look like a blue hedgehog and a cute two-tailed fox."
Her mother, now sixteen years old herself, stared on as she instantly recognized the two and softly exclaimed in relief. "It's Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails! They're back!"
Deciding to continue this conversation at home, and Chris apologizing to the crowd as well as the owner who, stunned and utterly amazed to see the return of Sonic and Tails, let them leave with no charge for the meal Chris and Helen had before the four of them left the restaurant as outside, many people who have been affected by the mysterious substance that de-aged most of them including the police who were just as baffled at this before noticing the return of the cobalt hero and his two-tailed fox companion and were just as shocked and thrilled.
After briefly explaining what was going on and Sonic reassuring the crowd that he and his friend will handle Eggman as well as the unusual situation, one officer offered them a lift back to the Thorndyke manor. Sonic of course decided to run there and wait for them while Tails, Chris and Helen accepted the ride, with the de-aged boy asking if one of the other other police officers could take his car back home for him, offering him his keys.
In the meantime, Sonic raced past the stunned crowd while being careful, through the familiar streets of Station Square which looked mostly the same since the last time he was here, even in his top speed he noticed a few changes, such as new shops that had opened, and while some of the buildings were damaged, quite possibly from his unexpected return no thanks to Eggman's Porthole and Omega wrecking which caused it to malfunction and such, it looked like the city had some upgrades over the past nine years.
"Man, things sure changed here on this planet. But some things are the same. It's only been nine months back at home, but I can actually feel like it has been years here." Sonic said to himself, performing some acrobatic stunts just for the fun of it, running up the buildings and jumping over from roof to roof.
In retrospect, the blue hedgehog did miss being on Earth despite that he had been so relieved to finally be back home after so long. Thinking of that however made him think back to how this new mess started, and as he jumped, he glanced over the city and could see the tale-signs of his world's continent that was also brought here this time, his village and own city and Angel Island across the ocean and linked onto this continent. His heart sank as the situation was much more dire than ever.
He knew that Knuckles and Rouge were here somewhere, and no doubt Eggman and his robots were as well, probably already planning on invading the city once the evil scientist recovered to find those files on Shadow's origins. But it made Sonic wonder if some of his people were accidentally brought here too...even Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, even the Chaotix due to what happened. Were they even still alive? Then there was the unusual voice...was it really Cosmo? How would humanity and his people react if they saw each other by accident? A sense of dread filled him over the possiblity of trouble brewing.
"Think I'd better check up on the village in the morning first thing. Who knows what's gonna happen now. But how can my island get back home when it's so big?" Sonic muttered, landing before Spin Jumping down and landed safely on the road and raced the rest of the way on ground level.
Yet unaware to the teenage hedgehog, high above another building a bit up ahead, a portal opens up in a rift of time and space, before Shadow stepped through with his eyes closed and stopped once he sensed that he made it to his destination. As the portal closed behind him, the Ultimate Lifeform slowly opened his crimson eyes, taking in the sight of Station Square before him. It didn't take the black hedgehog long to figure out where he was.
"So that rock alien was right. I really am back in the human world. It hasn't changed." Shadow said to himself, even though he hadn't taken time to check his surroundings when Eggman had released him from his slumbering prison. Nor did he care. All that mattered was that he was back, and while he had been created on the ARK, this place...he remembered gazing at it in his early days with Maria, who longed to see the planet and feel the winds against her skin, to smell the flowers, to experience life on Earth itself.
She never got the chance, because of not only her illness, but also that...fated day when she lost her life. Maria had been the only true friend and family Shadow ever had, and her death effected him badly, as did to Professor Gerald Robotnik who had lost his mind and plotted revenge against humanity.
While he was glad to have all of his memories back, there was one that always haunted him, and would do so forever if he didn't do something and learn his place in the universe. One of Maria being shot by those vile human soldiers who had the nerve to shoot one of their own people. The girl who had been his closest and only friend helping him escape and begged him to help protect the world, and protect humanity.
"Maria..." Shadow whispered over the memory of Maria's death that rang into his mind again. He squeezed his eyes shut in the unusual pang that was hanging in his chest. The ache of loss and sadness. Feelings that...he couldn't possibly be having, but he did.
Quickly shaking away those thoughts and feelings, the black hedgehog sighed and glared down at the road only to blink when something caught his eye. A blue streak that raced down across the streets which, now that he got a better look, had windows slightly cracked or completely shattered, but not because of the blur that appeared suddenly before vanishing down the road. The blue blur...Shadow knew what, or rather, who it was.
"Him again. What's that faker doing here?" Shadow grunted in annoyance, not having expected to see Sonic the Hedgehog on Earth, which meant that the blue hero's friends were here as well. Shaking his head, the black hedgehog muttered. "I don't have time for him or his friends, and I definitely don't have time for humans. I need to find answers."
Just then, something in the distance of the forest and towards the mountains caught his attention. When Shadow gazed at it, he could see a lingering disturbance of a mixture of purple and multi-coloured fog that was almost completely gone, fading away like it was never there.
"Curious. What's this about? Only one way to know." He muttered to himself as curiosity got the better of him. Deciding that maybe that would lead him to a clue on his place and that he didn't have any other leads, Shadow jumped and leaped to follow the source of whatever it was that Sonic didn't even notice.
Back at Cream's house as everyone inside were unaware that their entire continent was also transported to Earth, they were all sprawled on the floor unconscious after an unexpected event. Eventually, after what felt like forever, one by one, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, Vector, Espio and Charmy all began waking up, groaning and disoriented.
"W-what happened?" Amy asked, dazed as she slowly pushed herself up, then, seeing her best friend/little sister next to her waking up, almost immediately went to help her sit up. "Cream! Cheese! Are you two alright?"
"I think so..." Cream replied, a bit tired but otherwise alright.
"Chao, chao..." Cheese murmured.
Amy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
She then looked around and asked the others, "Mrs. Vanilla? Vector? Espio? Charmy? Are you okay?"
"Mama?" Cream asked, worriedly for her mother.
"I'm alright. Thank goodness you're all alright." Vanilla replied.
Vector groaned, more disoriented than anyone else, placing a hand onto his head. "I haven't been a trip like that since I tried to make the space ship go faster."
"What just happened?" Espio asked, a bit groggily as he placed hand onto his head as well, sitting up and winced at the splitting headache.
Charmy, still on his back and feeling something quite heavy lying on top of him, looked to be the most dizzy, because his eyes were swirling around as he said randomly. "Am I in heaven?"
"No, you're still ali-huh?" The purple chameleon paused in mid-sentence as he noticed something quite different and shocking on top of his youngest friend and co-worker. Soon enough, Vector, Amy, Cream, Cheese and Vanilla, noticing Espio's silence, looked to see what made him stop talking.
What they saw made them gasp in shock, confusion, dumbfoundment(at least in Vector's case), and disbelief. The plant Tails had been taking care of for three months was gone. In it's place...was a familiar green-haired alien girl lying on top of the young bee, still slightly glowing before the aura around her dimmed and faded away. Everyone's eyes widened, some of them wondering if they were dreaming, all of them unable to believe what they were seeing since it wasn't even possible.
"Could it be?" Amy asked, shocked and unable to believe it.
"...Cosmo!?" Cream softly exclaimed.
"Chao!?" Cheese squealed in shock.
True to what they were seeing, the plant had somehow changed shaped during the unusual event, and had revived the very Seedrian no one thought they would ever see again. The girl lying on top of Charmy who, shaking his head to snap himself back to reality, gaped in shock and confusion at the alien girl lying on top of him.
"No way!" The youngest detective exclaimed, his eyes wide in disbelief.
Then, Cosmo began to groan as she began to stir awake to which Amy and Cream, along with Vanilla, raced over and carefully helped their restored friend up and off of Charmy, the pink hedgehog gently holding her by one arm.
"...Where am I?" Cosmo softly asked, somewhat dazed and confused, as though she had been on a rough ride and merely unconscious instead of being dead.
"Cosmo? Is it really you?" Amy asked, hoping that this wasn't a dream even though she thought that it was.
The revived alien girl, becoming more awake, gazed at the pink hedgehog and almost immediately recognized her. "Amy?"
"Cosmo! You're okay! You're really here!" Cream, being the first to realize that this was real, happily exclaimed and hugged her friend along with Cheese who cheered happily.
"C-Cream? Cheese?" Cosmo cried out, startled until realization sank in and she softly gasped in surprise and shock. "I'm...alive..."
Now convinced that this was real, Amy teared up in joy as she then joined in the reunion, crying happily. "Cosmo! It really is you!"
"We really missed you!" Cream added.
Despite a bit confused on this, Cosmo, seeing that she was indeed back and among with her dear friends, couldn't help but tear up as well and did her best to hug the two girls and the little Chao as well. "Amy, Cream. I missed you so much, too."
"Welcome back, Cosmo, dear. We all missed you." Vanilla smiled happily, tearing up at the heart-warming reunion with her daughter and her friends.
"Hey, I wanna hug Cosmo too!" Charmy piped up, and instantly joined in, laughing happily which the girls allowed, while Espio and Vector remained shocked and almost speechless.
"She has been revived..." Espio muttered, his eyes wide in disbelief, then realization hit. "Whatever has happened with the light outside must have reacted with Cosmo's plant and has revived her."
"Not that I'm not happy to see Cosmo again, but how did this happen?" Vector asked with a sweat drop. He didn't see this coming.
The reunion went on for a little while before Amy and the others reluctantly ended it, most of them still smiling at their revived friend as she said. "I can't believe it. This is the best thing that's happened all day."
"Tails will be so happy to see you again, Cosmo. He's been so sad after you had to go away." Cream added, thinking about how Tails would react when he saw that the girl he loved was back and having been the flower of the seed Sonic found and given the two-tailed fox for the whole time.
"I know." Cosmo nodded, with a sad and guilt-ridden expression. "I could see it from the afterlife for a long time. It was today that I discovered something was very wrong, and requested Sonic to go to Tails."
"So it was you who told him that?" Amy asked, surprised. To think that Cosmo had told Sonic to see Tails as a spirit, none of them knowing that the flower had been slowly growing that would revive the Seedrian back into her original form.
"How'd you do it?" Charmy asked, curiously.
"Even as a spirit, I was able to somehow link my spirit to Sonic's mind, after he had the vision of something that will change the fate of both your world and the human world, which I'm afraid, if I am right and I managed to speak to Sonic who should be at the human city he is familiar with, is where we are now." Cosmo explained gravely.
"HUH!?" Everyone else exclaimed in shock and disbelief.
"Say what? How can that be!?" Amy asked. "We're still in Cream's house...unless..."
Realization hitting her and most of the others hard while Cream and Cheese both looked very worried, and Charmy, not being the brightest of the group, looked very confusion, they all almost immediately raced outside with Cosmo behind, and Charmy being left behind.
"Hey! Where are you going? Wait for me!" The young bee cried out, flying over to follow his friends.
When they reached outside, nothing seemed out of the ordinary as the villagers, who had noticed something unusual happen and unaware of what happened, just went back inside their homes to continue their daily lives. But when Vector ordered Charmy to fly higher to see if Cosmo was right or not, and both Cream and her mother flew up with the bee, all three of them gasped in shock as they saw in the distance was the familiar continent with a large city that was none other than Station Square.
"Oh no!" Cream cried in shock.
"Oh, dear!" Vanilla exclaimed in shock.
"Whoa...Cosmo's right. We're really back on Earth...or did that place end up here in our world?" Charmy muttered, blinking with uncertainty.
Hearing what the trio said, Amy, Vector and Espio were stunned in shock, while Cosmo clasped her hands together in great worry.
"I was right. We have arrived in the human world. The two planets are merging." Cosmo muttered gravely, shocking the others.
"Wait...you're not saying that...!?" Amy trailed off, fearfully as memories of what happened nine months ago, or in Earth's case, nine years ago, instantly came back into her mind.
Cosmo nodded. "Time is still flowing, but only Sonic can save it as well as both worlds before it is too late."
Even with the return of Cosmo, it appears Eggman has done something far worse than what Rouge had informed Sonic and everyone else. Which made Amy worry about Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge and wondered if they were alright and safe.
What was going to happen now?
Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the city, Knuckles was wandering around looking for any signs of his friends or at least Eggman, hoping to scramble the latter the moment he saw that evil idiotic scientist who got him into this mess. The red echidna was frustrated and angry. Just when Sonic had actually come up with a plan that would've worked, Eggman's stupid out of control robot had to go and wreck things up and now gotten him and everyone else back on Earth and like the first time, separated. Except this time he was on his own.
"That's just great. Why do I always get roped into these situations? I knew something was going to happen today." Knuckles grumbled. Here he was back stuck on Earth, looking for his missing friends and enemies when he could've been on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald to prevent it from being stolen.
And for once, Sonic had the Chaos Emeralds with him, yet even that didn't help.
"When I see Eggman again, he's really in for it!" The guardian growled, clenching his fist.
Nearing the city and hoping to find a forest to spend the night since he was never comfortable in the human enviroment, or any city enviroment for that matter, Knuckles paused to a stop on a hill and noticed something alarming. The city lights weren't on, and even from the distance some of the buildings looked a bit damaged. Shocked by the sight, the red echidna then noticed something even more disturbing; unusual substance like fog that lingered from earlier seeped deep into the soil before fading away, causing a glow and then there was silence.
"What was that?" Knuckles muttered. Feeling that something was wrong, he looked back up at the city as he felt uncertain on whether the Porthole and the mixture of Chaos Control was behind this or not, and whether Eggman was already plotting his evil scheme for the Shadow Android army.
Deciding that the only people that would know what was going on would be Chris and Chuck, as much as he hated to admit it, but he needed help, Knuckles jumped off the edge and landed safely before making his way towards the city, unaware that as the substance seeped deeper into the ground, it began to cover a lone little worm which, wriggling in discomfort over the stuff, began to slowly mutate and grow. Very slowly.
Back at Chris' abandoned lab, the force of the Porthole and his own invention going haywire had knocked Kai out cold, because the insane scientist was sprawled on the cold metal floor as the Mutagen had hit him before he even reached the door and rendered him unconscious. After what felt like forever, the former member of the S.O.N.I.C.X finally began to stir, before groaning as he pushed himself up.
"Oooooh...my head." Kai complained, placing a hand onto his head which had one heck of a headache. But as he did, a clinging noise filled his earing, and strangely enough, his body felt very strange...metallic even. This immediately made him more alert as he, in confusion and alarm, glanced at his hand and found to his horror that it has changed.
No longer was it flesh and blood like a nomal human hand. In it's place was a metal, robotic clawed hand. Feeling fear course through his body, demanding what has happened, Kai immediately stood up and wobbled in the process, before going to the nearest glass that could make him see his reflection. What he saw increased the horror he was feeling.
Most of his body had been replaced by metal, with pieces of a desk sticking out on his shoulders and legs, ripping through his shirt, coat and the thighs of his pants, one half of his hair was it's normal black, the other half had aged by nine years and turned grey, his right hand and right side of his face remained unchanged even though there were more wrinkls on the latter part, while his left hand was metal, and the left side of his face was robotic as well, his left eye replaced by a metal eye that was red and glowing.
This made him scream in pure horror and dismay, which echoed from the lab to outside across Station Square despite that everyone was facing their own problems due to his actions.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Kai couldn't believe what has happened to him, as he backed away in fear. "NO! NO! NO! This was not how it should have been! What has happened to me!? My body! I've-I've-I've become a cyborg! This is a disaster!"
As he began crying his eyes, er, eye, out over the horrible transformation he was suffering and not what he had in mind, ranting on how his scheming plot for revenge against humanity had gone horribly wrong, a buzzing noise was heard behind him which made him stop. Flinching and stopped crying, Kai felt a sense of dread and different fear flow as he slowly turned around before jumping in fright, letting out a girly scream.
Standing there in the middle and in front of the Porthole that had lost power and badly damaged, was a giant house fly about the size of a large dog, parts of it's body also metal and it was buzzing at him. Kai quickly came to realize that the Mutagen had not only not do what he had intended and that had caused him to transform, but it also caused insects to grow and mutate as well.
"Uh...N-nice Fly...N-nice, sweet, adorable, giant Fly...!" Kai squeaked, backing away slowly, quivering in terror. In his head, he was thinking. 'Oh, I wish I could fly outta here...with a jet pack or something!'
As though his wish was granted, his back suddenly opened up due to his new robotic body which made the crazed scientist wince slightly in pain before a power jet emerged and formed, then began to power up, much to his confusion. Before he could even figure out what was going on, the jet suddenly shot him up into the air so fast that he had no idea how it was happening.
"AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" Kai squealed, flying straight towards the ceiling...
CRASH!
And through it until he ended up outside while grunting in pain at an even bigger headache before spiraling up and down and around, getting dizzy as he went.
"Stop the ride! Stop the ride! Stop and don't make me fall!" The transformed man cried out, his remaining human eye spinning. To his surprise as though under his command, the jet pack stopped and simply let him hover without turning off, even though his head was still spinning. "This is not my day..."
Shaking his head to regain his senses, Kai looked around before looking down and flinched that he was a good 200 feet up high in the air, ranting on he didn't like being his high. But then he noticed something down below. People on the streets and to his surprise, his vision suddenly zoomed in due to his robotitized eye and saw, to his shock and bewilderment, most of the people all looked nine years younger and they were all in a state of confusion. Definitely not what he had in mind.
"Oh, come on! Humanity's supposed to look older, not younger!" Kai ranted childishly, growling in frustration. "That stupid Porthole must've went haywire and reversed my Mutagen's effects which also affected me when it wasn't supposed to, and had caused a fly to turn into a giant!"
To make things worse, the very same fly he managed to unwittingly escape from appeared and began to approach him. Kai flinched in fear just as the giant insect made it's way towards him.
"NO! STOP!" Kai screamed, holding out his robotic hand which he didn't even notice had a red bulb imprinted on the palm as it began to blink. To his surprise, the Fly whizzed as it's own robotic eyes glowed before it stopped, simply hovering a couple of feet in front of him.
It did nothing else as he stared at it, as though waiting for his orders.
Raising an eyebrow as a crazy idea formed in his mind, the mad scientist, feeling his fear dim, then commanded in a firm-ish tone. "Spin around."
The Fly spun around like an obedient dog, before he told it to stop again, which it did. Realization then quickly hit him as, while this wasn't what he had in mind, this could work to his advantage.
"Hmmm...well, it didn't go according to plan, and I wasn't meant to be affected, but perhaps this will be better than I thought. Okay, so most of the humanity have de-aged because of the reversed links of the Porthole, mutating my Mutagen into mutating other life-forms under my command as they are now linked to me, but maybe I can work this out." Kai theorized to himself, grinning evilly as his already insane mind became even more insane.
Chuckling darkly to himself with this new plan, he continued. "Yes. Yes, this is much better. With my new form and all wild-life under my command now, I can rule the Earth and be more successful than that idiotic Dr. Eggman ever was with his robots. I can make humanity bow before me! To do that, I need to show them my new power, but keep my presence undetected until the time is right."
Kai then looked out of the desert and grinned wickedly as he knew the first phase of his goal.
"Perhaps a little giant Earthworm will prologue my true terror, and then the people will blame Chris Thorndyke who cannot do a thing, as, if he too was affected, he is nothing more than a child again now, and soon I will take over the entire world! AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" He then laughed manically, only to stop when he quickly remembered where he was and looked down again, sweat dropping as people began to look up when they heard his laugh echo.
Gulping nervously, Kai turned to his new 'pet' and laughed more softly and sheepishly. "Urm...Perhaps we should go somewhere more private, my friend. Shall we?"
The Fly didn't say anything, but it did obey him as Kai flew off somewhere to find a new hideout for him to hide, with his new servant close behind.
Meanwhile, in the forest, Rouge, having woken up a little while ago and found herself lost, had searched around for any sign of Knuckles, Sonic and Tails, or at least Eggman and his robots before deciding to rest for a bit and with a huff, she sat on a log with her arms crossed, very annoyed with her situation.
"Here I go, doing Sonic and his friends a favor by warning them of Eggman's latest scheme, and then that stupid portal thing had to suck all of us in and I end all on my own without any of them. Nerve of those men leaving a woman companion behind. Ugh!" The bat thief grunted in frustration.
It didn't help her mood that she was nowhere near a proper place for a girl like her, and while she did like nature, she prefered flashy things and shiny items. "I wish I could've landed in a city instead. This forest, which is familiar to me, is about to ruin my make-up and outfit."
Three months of peace and quiet apart from Eggman causing trouble every second day or week, and now this happened, all due to said evil doctor who just didn't know when to quit. Rouge did have a pretty good idea that she landed somewhere on Earth, which meant that so had the others, and while them bring dragged here wasn't part of Eggman's plan, the first part did, in a way, succeed. The very thought of that man using the files of Shadow to create an robotic army of the late black hedgehog who had sacrificed himself twice, first time rendered him losing his memories and everyone thought he had died...
The second time, he had died for real...it ached the usually cocky and tricky thief's heart. Deep down, Rouge had respected Shadow as a very close friend. They had their differences, but she found that she didn't argue with him as much as she would with Knuckles, who was unfortunately still gullible and plus the two had a love-hate relationship. She knew that Shadow's death affected not just her, but everyone else's as well along with Cosmo's death.
The deaths of two friends...if anything, it shattered parts of Sonic deep inside, and she could see it. The failure to save Cosmo, and the ultimate sacrifice of Shadow who had saved Sonic's life to prevent him from suffering the same fate, as the black hedgehog knew that the universe still needed the blue hedgehog who had everything the Ultimate Lifeform no longer had.
"Why couldn't he just stick to a normal robot army instead? I really hate that Eggman." Rouge groaned, sitting her chin in her palms.
Just then, a faint hiss of something strange filled her ears and when she looked up, her eyes widened in confusion as the purple mist she didn't even notice before flowed before sinking into the ground and into the trees, making the white bat to stand up curiously.
"Looks like things aren't normal here either. What is that ugly purple stuff?" She wondered aloud.
Unaware to her, laser red eyes belonging to a robot locked onto her, and at the same time, Shadow, having reached the area to find the answer to the mysterious substance as well, stopped halfway from the clearing and was admittedly surprised to see another familiar face belonging to Rouge. His crimson eyes widened at the sight of his old comrade. But he did see a pair of robotic eyes aimed at her and his own narrowed.
Wasting no time just as the robot hidden in the shadows of the trees opened fire, Shadow raced over and scooped up the albino bat who, not having time to figure out what was going on, yelped in frightened surprise as she was being carried bridal style before being wisked out of the way from the firing zone. The black and red hedgehog in his own speed via his skate-shoes hidden himself and the stunned Rouge in the other side of the trees before gently setting the latter down against one. She stared up at him in utter shock, disbelief, relief and confusion, and half-wondered if she was dreaming, feeling a sense of deja vu.
"Stay here. I will handle this." Shadow whispered.
"...Shadow!?" Rouge blurted out, covering her mouth with her hands, unable to believe it. For the second time since the last time she discovered him, the bat thief couldn't believe that Shadow the Hedgehog, having thought dead for the second time, was really still alive.
Shadow wasted no time before racing back towards the field and raced around the forest, avoiding the flying ammo from the robot which, coming out of the clearing, was Omega who shouted aloud. "Must eliminate all Eggman robots!"
"Hmph. A rogue robot who can't tell a difference between machine and organic life-forms? Pathetic." The black hedgehog scoffed, before racing around and gave Omega hard punch without the rogue machine even noticing. This caused Omega to stumble back a little before locking his sensors on the Ultimate Lifeform who flipped back and landed safely on the ground.
All the while Rouge watched in complete confusion, wondering if Shadow had actually been here on Earth all this time since he used Chaos Control, and hoped that he hasn't lost his memories again. Unless Eggman already got a head start, but it couldn't be. The black hedgehog had saved her life from Omega, who obviously still was against Eggman. Suddenly having a slight idea and not wanting either one to end up destroying each other, the bat jumped out from her hiding and before Shadow and Omega could engage in a fight...
"Hey, hold up!" She shouted, causing both Shadow and Omega to freeze in their tracks and ultimately glanced at her, a bit annoyed over the interruption. "Instead of destroying each other over a slight misunderstanding, why don't you two tell me each of your stories, huh?"
Despite the urge to disobey, Shadow and Omega shared a glare before looking away, the former folding his arms angrily while the latter scanned around for any signs of Eggman and his robots but found none.
Ten minutes later...
"Now I get what's going on. Apart from what I've seen, you're mad at Eggman for sealing you up in that closest because since his attitude got on your nerves, right?" Rouge spoke up to Omega once she heard both sides. She then turned her attention to Shadow who was glaring at a tree, his back turned to her. "And you...you were stuck on an alien planet and some rock-alien sent you back here to Earth so you could find your place...is that it?"
Shadow didn't respond, but he did sigh. He had hoped to find answers on his own without interruptions, and while he had to admit he was glad to see Rouge again, but it annoyed him to no end that his task was going to take longer than he originally planned. Plus hearing from what Rouge told him, it left him feeling very uneasy.
"Is it true that, because everyone else thinks I'm dead, Dr. Eggman is going to use the files of Professor Gerald Robotnik's research and my creation to create an android army of me?" The black hedgehog questioned instead.
Rouge looked away slightly, just as uncomfortable. It was a huge relief that the real Shadow had been alive all this time, but the knowledge of letting him know of what was going on left her just as uneasy.
"Yep. That's the main reason why we ended up here. It wasn't part of Sonic's plan to stop him, since we originally were going to shut that thing and wreck it before Eggman would use it." She replied, turning her gaze to Omega and continued to her old comrade. "Of course, it didn't help that Omega here went on rampage trying to get rid of his creator."
"I take offensive over your comment." Omega spoke, sounding quite annoyed.
"Well, even if he's a robot, can't say I blame him for wanting to eliminate that stupid idiot. It's embarrassing that he is related to the professor and...Maria." Shadow shrugged nonchalantly, whispering the last part of the sentence to himself. He then grunted angrily. "Still, I refuse to let Dr. Eggman use those files to create a robot army of me just because of my absence and his ridiculous plot."
This gave Rouge another idea as she smirked, approaching Shadow and pulled him closer to her and Omega, the black hedgehog muttering a confused murmur before she placed Shadow's hand above Omega's, and then placed her hand on top.
"Well, since we're all against Eggman and Sonic and his team are out there somewhere doing the same thing, it's settled. Now you two make up so we can start looking for Eggman, together!" Rouge declared, smirking in almost excitement. "Starting today, this makes us a team!"
Shadow could only stare in bewilderment, before sighing while thinking to himself, finding himself teamed up with Rouge again, this time with a rogue robot by their side. 'Here we go again.'
For the three of them, this was the beginning of a brand new team.
Worried about Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge, Amy, Cream, Cheese, Cosmo, Vanilla, Vector(who found that he wasn't sneezing as much as this morning), Espio and Charmy all headed towards Eggman's base, finding the building damaged, finding the X Tornado thankfully still intact, but as the Chaotix investigated the place while the girls and the Chao waited outside, Amy peered through a pair of binoculars to see if what Cream, her mother and Charmy saw earlier was true. It was difficult since it was dark, but she recognized the shape of the buildings.
"It is Station Square. But are we back on Earth, or was Chris' continent brought to our world?" Amy wondered, lowering the item from her eyes as she gazed over the horizon worriedly.
"This is the human world." Cosmo replied knowingly, and worriedly, causing the others to turn to her. "I don't remember much how I could link with Sonic's mind, but he is on that continent, and could see yours from the mountains."
"So Sonic's over there?" Cream asked, a bit shocked.
Cosmo nodded. "Yes, and possibly even Tails, Knuckles and Rouge."
"Great, that means Eggman's there too if the Chaotix can't find them in the base." Amy sighed.
What worried them the most was that it wasn't just them being dragged here or a few parts of their world being brought here after Sonic used the Chaos Emeralds to defeat Eggman on their first time on Earth. Their whole continent was brought here now as well, which meant that things were about to get even worse and as a whole, Sonic's plan to shut down the Porthole to stop Eggman from returning to this planet failed.
How will their people react if they saw the humans who would end up seeing them if they weren't careful? That very thought made the pink hedgehog feel a bit nauseous. Even worse, what if Eggman was already looking into the files or had already found them and was working on those Shadow Androids? The real Shadow was one of Sonic's toughest opponents, but to have a whole army of the black hedgehog to face? The blue hedgehog might actually lose for real.
What has gone wrong this time? Did the evil doctor actually managed to steal the Chaos Emeralds from Sonic? Did he and the others get captured? So many thoughts and theories raced through her mind, and the more they did, the more she grew worried. No, she didn't care if she was putting herself at risk. Sonic needed her, and since they were all stuck on Earth again anyway, she had to help.
By the time she made up her mind, Vector, Espio and Charmy came back, their faces either grim or annoyed or disappointed.
"Bad news; Sonic and the others aren't there, and that bad man Eggman's disappeared too." Charmy announced, sighing.
"And the Porthole Eggman's used is busted. The whole place is a mess." Vector added.
"It's clear that whatever has happened caused the Porthole to go out of control, and that Eggman, Sonic and the others were transported somewhere else, hopefully somewhere here on Earth but on the other continent." Espio continued.
No sooner had he finished, Amy stormed past them and approached the X Tornado, climbing into it and settled herself into the pilot seat, much to everyone else's confusion.
"Amy, dear?" Vanilla asked, puzzled and worried.
"Amy, wait!" Cream cried out, as she quickly realized what her best friend was about to do.
"Whaddya think you're doing?" Vector demanded.
"If Cosmo's right, Sonic, Tails and the others are on the human continent and they need us, and so will Chris and everybody else. That means Eggman's there already too, and we have to stop him in case Sonic can't." Amy declared boldly with determination, setting up the controls to make her flight.
"You mean you're gonna fly Tails' plane?" Charmy asked, shocked.
"Well, how else can we find them? Besides, I've flown one before to rescue Sonic, remember?" She pointed out, not willing to change her mind this time.
"I'm going with you. I know I haven't been back for long, but I cannot stand by and wait." Cosmo declared, hovering up to the plane and took a seat behind her friend.
Cream, feeling the need to go as well, turned to her mother and asked. "Mama, may I go with Amy and Cosmo?"
"Of course, Cream. Just be very careful and come back home safely." Vanilla replied, knowing that despite that her daughter was still very young and she was worried about her safety, Cream knew from right and wrong and would always do the right thing. Plus she would be safe with her friends.
"Wait a minute, what about us?" Charmy protested, pointing at himself, Espio and Vector.
"Yeah, we're going too!" Vector declared. "There's no way Eggman's gonna be getting away with this!"
"You guys do realize that we can't all fit into the plane, right?" Espio pointed out. "There's only three seats."
Amy shrugged apologetically, "Sorry, guys. But we'll make sure to tell Chris and Chuck to see if they can help you with your problem. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll come back if we have to rent a boat."
With that thought, Cosmo helped Cream and Cheese into the backseat before Amy, doing her best to memorize what Tails would do after a few times she rode with him, and thankfully managed to close the hatch and get the plane started.
"I hope you will all be safe." Vanilla waved. "Come back soon."
"We will, Mama." Cream promised as she and Cheese waved back at her mother.
Without further ado despite both Vector and Charmy disappointed that they couldn't come with, Amy powered up the X Tornado while everyone else stepped aside to a safe distance and once she got into flight, she, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese took off into the sky and straight towards Station Square to begin their search for Sonic and the others as well as meeting up with Chris and his family, along with other familiar faces.
"Guess we'll be waiting for a while." Charmy remarked, his hands behind his head.
"You know, it's funny. Ever since we got here, I actually feel a lot better than I did this morning. I wonder if that light cured me or something?" Vector spoke up, thoughtfully. This was met by confused expressions by Vanilla, Charmy and Espio who, when the young bee looked at him, only shrugged.
"Maybe you just needed Earth Air?" Charmy randomly guessed.
Espio thought more deeply and suggested. "Or perhaps Eggman's Porthole caused the Chaos Emeralds to react and not only brought us here, but the Emeralds' healing powers had something to do with mostly fixing up Vector's condition. However, we can't be certain until we meet with Chris and his grandfather."
This lead to more questions that none of them had answers to, but as such, none of them were fully aware of the Mutagen inside Vector's body that was mutating even slower either, along with the mutated Mutagen along with what else has happened.
From the distance of the mountains, in a cave that overlooked most of the city, the transformed Kai and his new giant Fly-Pet were close to the desert as he held out his robotic arm experimentally with the little red light glowing.
"Now then, let's see if another giant insect can give humanity a taste of my power." Kai muttered to hismelf, before bellowing as lord-ly as possible. "Earthworm of the Desert! If you have grown and mutated under my Mutagen, I, Dr. Kai Narasu, command you to rise and terrorize all those who oppose me! Cause destruction and fear upon humanity!"
The red light glowed brightly, and while Kai winced a little, a laser beam shot out across the mountain and into the desert, sinking into the ground where the mutagen had sank, going deep into the earth and hitting the little worm which wriggled in pain, before it began to grow and increase. It then transformed into half-giant robot, half-giant worm, letting out a roar as it towered it's home.
Then, under Kai's command, it began to wriggle and slither towards Station Square, to carry out it's task.
As he waited for Tails, Chris and Helen to get to the mansion, Sonic had perched himself onto the roof of the guest-house garage like he usually did during his time here on Earth, gazing up at the night sky. While he was optimistic in solving the problem, the fact that he was back along with some of his friends, one entire continent of his home world, and worse, Eggman were all back here made him want to kick himself. The blue hedgehog couldn't believe this had happened.
He failed again. Sonic had failed to stop his nemesis from gaining the first part of his goal, failed to prevent the evil scientist and himself along with everyone from being transported to this world. Now they were all trapped on Earth, the Chaos Emeralds had scattered again, he had no idea who the voice was even if it sounded like Cosmo, her ghost ensuring him that Time can be saved as can both worlds. But what did she mean by things were about to change forever?
If it was her, why was she speaking to him now? Why did she instruct him to speak with Tails?
"I don't get it. I thought things would be back to normal forever and Earth wouldn't get involved anymore. Things are gonna change forever...? What does it mean? Am I gonna spend the rest of my life here? Is my entire continent doomed to be trapped here on this planet? What's gonna happen?" Sonic muttered to himself.
To think that his nice, peaceful day had come to a shattering end, no thanks to Eggman's worst evil plot, which if Sonic didn't find him soon, both worlds were in grave danger of Eggman's Shadow Android Army invading, and the blue hedgehog knew that the real Shadow had been tough. Even with his speed, he knew that the Chaos Emeralds were his only hope in stopping them. It doesn't help that Knuckles and Rouge were missing, and he had a feeling that due to his continent being dragged here, so had Amy, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, the Chaotix...his neighborhood and everybody else.
It took Humanity a whole year to get used to him and his friends, and there had been ups and downs due to Eggman's actions. Sonic shuddered to think what would happen if both his people and the people on Earth actually met. That will cause heaps of problems, if not...if not a war for safety and peace...or maybe even dominion.
Sonic sighed to calm down and not think of such a terrible scenario. "Guess I'll just have to convince everyone on my island to stay put so that there wouldn't be any problems. Sure it's okay for me and my friends to come here since we're familiar with Earth, but humanity had nine whole years of peace and quiet without that stupid fathead. It's his fault that this happened."
This made him think of the other problem. The unusual purple fog that Chris talked about, one that made most of humanity de-age by nine years, as though years haven't passed, but only months like back at home. There was no way the Porthole or the Chaos Emeralds had caused that to happen. It must have triggered while Sonic and his friends were dealing with Eggman before Omega shot at the machine and caused it to malfunction and operate.
Could it be that there was another enemy behind all this? It did make sense in Sonic's opinion. Question is, was it a human enemy who was just as crazy as Eggman? Or was it a silent alien invasion?
"Looks like I've got my hands full while I'm here. That's nothing new." Sonic shrugged, deciding to go with the flow like he always did, smirking once more. "Long as I don't give up, everything will be okay. Nothing to worry to about. Me and the gang will save both worlds and Time and stop every bad guy along the way!"
"I see you haven't changed a bit, Sonic." A familiar man's voice spoke from below, causing the teenage hedgehog to look down and found to his delight and surprise, was Chuck Thorndyke, Chris's grandfather and Tails' mentor-like friend, who had also gone through the de-aging process.
"Hey, old timer. Long time no see!" Sonic greeted with a smile, standing up before leaping down onto the ground safely to meet with his friend.
"Given the time difference, I suddenly feel like it hasn't been years at all. It looks like everything Chris said when he came home three years ago was true." Chuck replied with a chuckle, staring down at the young hedgehog. "I suppose it's only been months since you've last seen him."
"Yep. Though I still kinda don't get the whole dimensional time difference thing, but hey, it doesn't make much of a difference." Sonic replied, admitting. "When I first got back here a little while ago, I was expecting to see Chris all grown up."
"You met up with him? Where is he, and where are your friends? What has happened?" Chuck asked, suddenly worried, perhaps even more so than before given the unusual events that happened here, which was understandable.
Sonic shrugged. "He, Tails and Helen are on their way here from the Restaraunt we met up in. I'll explain more when they get here, but long story short, Eggman tried to come back here with another evil plot to take over my world and we tried to stop him with Knuckles and Rouge...and well, things didn't go according to plan, no thanks to a robot that wouldn't listen to him and actually wanted to fill Eggman with holes that woulda made him into swiss cheese."
"He wouldn't have anything to do with the substance that spread out across the city, would he?" The elderly man questioned.
"Nope. I only found out about it from Chris. And, well...there's another huge problem. See, Eggman tried to use his own Porthole, which the robot he called Omega damaged, and it reacted with the Chaos Emeralds I had with me, swallowing us in and from what I can see, my entire continent from my planet here too, so Amy, Cream, Cheese, Mrs. Vanilla and almost everybody on the island and even Angel Island got teleported here to. On top of that, the Chaos Emeralds got spread out across Earth again." The blue hedgehog nervously explained, scratching his head as he did.
"WHAT!?" Chuck exclaimed in shock, horror and no small amount of anger which made Sonic flinch and hold his hands up in surrender with a sweat drop. "Sonic, do you realize what this means!?"
"I-I know! But there's still time to save Time and the two worlds!" Sonic quickly continued, waving his hands to get his friend to calm down. "Not sure why, but a voice of another friend told me that we can still save all three! Just find the Chaos Emeralds all over again, stop Eggman and figure this out! From what I heard, Time itself is still flowing!"
"Well, that explains why the clocks are still moving, but that's not the point. You know it's far too dangerous for you and your friends, and part of your home to remain here on Earth." Chuck warned, scowling.
That made Sonic look down in guilt, rubbing his arms as he felt the goosebumps of such an extremely dangerous outcome. "I'm sorry. It's all my fault."
Seeing how he had made the young hedgehog uneasy despite the point, Chuck sighed to calm down. "Don't blame yourself, Sonic. We all know that Dr. Eggman is quite determined to make his goal a reality. I'm sorry for yelling at you. With this situation and now what has happened to you, it has ruined such a peaceful day."
"Heh, tell me about it." Sonic softly chuckled with a sad smile. "I was enjoying my day running and relaxing when this crazy dream, and a voice telling me to meet up with Tails made it a bit out of whack. Then the little picnic we had with Amy, Cream and Cheese was interrupted when Tails' new portable-scan thingy found out Egghead's new invention and Rouge having found out what his plan was this time."
"Speaking of this voice, you said it was from another friend. What made you listen to it?" The old scientist asked, curiously.
Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. It just felt very important. Plus, I was worried about Tails since he, well...not sure if Chris told ya yet, but-"
Before he could finish, the ground suddenly shook violently which almost caused Sonic and Chuck to lose their balance as they cried out in alarm. The quakes then stopped, which made them both glance around while trying to figure out what was going on now. This was soon followed by a metallic roar echoing in the air and not so far distance.
"What's that!?" Sonic exclaimed nervously, half-wondering if Eggman was already using a giant robot to terrorize the city.
Chuck was the first to spot it, and his eyes widened in pure shock. He let out a horrified gasp, exclaiming. "What on Earth!?"
When Sonic looked to see what his older friend was looking at, he too let out a gasp of shock as from the distance, slowly approaching, though not towards the mansion, but towards Station Square, was a giant half-robotic worm that still looked organic and from the looks of things, it looked like it was about to cause terrible destruction.
"A giant worm? That doesn't look anything like Eggman's robots." Sonic remarked with a raised eyebrow and a sweat drop. "It's too alive even if it's got metal on it. Looks disgusting."
"And it looks like it's about to destroy the city if nothing's done soon!" Chuck exclaimed, which not even a second after he finished talking, Sonic, knowing immediately what to do, raced off in high-speed towards the city once more, almost knocking the elder man over.
Seeing that the blue hedgehog was ready for action, Chuck blinked before sighing with a smile. "He hasn't changed at all. If anyone can save us, it's him."
He could only hope that Chris and Helen would be alright. So much for his grandson's proposal night.
As Sonic raced through the city, his mind was racing with rapid thoughts as with the threat of a giant worm about to wreck the city, Tails, Chris and Helen along with everybody else were in grave danger. He had to save them before it was too late.
'Hang in there, guys! I'm coming!' Sonic thought to himself, narrowing his eyes while looking forward for another battle.
What Sonic didn't know was that this was the true beginning of the biggest change of everybody's lives.
A/N: The rest of the reunion will be in the next chapter. Sorry that I had to cut it short and I hope I did okay with it.
See you later!