Sonic X: Back To Earth.
Author's note: A new chapter of Sonic X: Back To Earth is finally here! Sorry for the long wait, but I believe we are getting closer to the conclusion of the Mutagen Saga and move onward to the Saga-in-between before we begin the next major Saga! Here we go!
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 16: Five Teams to One Team!
For a long while, the four teams that had members of Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, Amy, Cosmo and Cream and Cheese, Chris, Danny and Francies, and Shadow, Rouge, Omega and now Topaz, just had a staring contest as the other three teams were still in great surprise to see the Ultimate Lifeform alive and well, and while some were wary over Sonic's near-look-alike, the others like the de-aged Thorndyke were so relieved to see the black hedgehog back and safe. Even as Tails stood protectively in front of Cosmo despite that the Metarex were gone, the two-tailed fox cub couldn't deny that he was relieved as well.
"Shadow...it's...it's really you...!" Chris murmured, wondering if he was having some kind of dream. The first time he saw Shadow alive was when the latter saved him and Sonic, but at the time the Ultimate Lifeform had lost his memories. He felt tears begin to form in his eyes.
"It's been a while. How long has it been?" Shadow greeted in his usual demeanor. Though he did feel a bit uncomfortable when the human boy, who was much more closer to Sonic, shed silent tears before the former twenty-one year old wiped them away, so the black hedgehog pretended to not notice, and apparently his blue rival tried to do the same as the teenage hedgehog's expression was hard to read.
"'Bout three months back at home, and in Earth's case, nine years have passed since you and me saved it." Sonic replied, folding his arms, not at all fazed at his rival's usual attitude. "Glad to see that your memories are still intact this time."
"Huh?" Topaz, still being left out of the loop, turned to Rouge and asked. "Shadow lost his memories before?"
"Long story. Let's just say that Shadow had a huge bump on the head until he and Sonic saved the universe months back." Rouge briefed.
"Hey, Rouge! Where've you been? What are you doing with Shadow, and that robot that caused this mess along with Eggman in the first place!?" Knuckles, still shocked to see Shadow alive, and secretly relieved that Rouge was alright, but wouldn't admit it, demanded as he wanted to know why the bat thief was with the two worst enemies and Topaz.
The albino bat frowned as she folded her arms at the red echidna's rudeness. "Nice to see you too. I'll have you know that yeah I'm aware that Omega did cause that accident, but you know well that he only wanted to take down Eggman."
"It's still robot! You'd better get away from that thing instantly!" The guardian of the Master Emerald snapped.
"Aw, were you that worried about me, Knuckie? For a tough guy, you certainly a big ol' softie on the inside." Rouge said slyly with a teasing smirk, which only aggravated Knuckles to the point that the vains in his head squeezed but his muzzle was turning a dark hue of pink.
"In your dreams, you crazy bat!" Knuckles growled, clutching his fists tightly, before Danny, Amy, and Francies held him back.
"You will stop arguing!?" Amy snapped as she and the two de-aged humans struggled to hold him back.
"Lemme at 'em!" The struggling red echidna shouted, which only made almost everyone else sweat drop in annoyance.
"Here we go again..." Sonic remarked dryly, knowing the full history of Knuckles and Rouge having an awkward love-hate relationship. He then turned to Topaz and smiled gratefully. "By the way, Topaz. Thanks for helping out Chris, but-huh?"
It wasn't until the blue hedgehog finally noticed that the human agent wasn't wearing her usual uniform and asked. "What happened to you?"
"Topaz, please don't tell me GUN caught on that you, Danny and Francies helped me escape?" Chris pleaded despite that even he and the others saw and realized that it this was the case.
Topaz sighed, and nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. Commander Tower has completely lost his mind to the unusual fog, and now he's bent on taking over the world."
"The three of us found her about to be dumped in the Frog Forest and knocked them out. But don't worry, they're just out cold and have no clue on where we are. But they've been chasing us quite a bit." Rouge added while gesturing at herself and her teammates.
"That makes a whole lotta sense. Not only Tower's after me because he wants to control me as his own property and soldier, going after Amy and the others just because they're among my friends, and that you let Chris go since you know he was innocent, but seeing Shadow here, I'm gonna take a really good guess and say that GUN wants him gone for good." The cobalt young hero frowned with a serious expression, turning to the aforementioned black hedgehog who frowned back.
"I'm impressed, faker. You have successfully made the correct assumptions even though we have yet to tell you what we know." Shadow remarked.
Sonic smirked. "Those guys have been chasing us while we have a date with Dr. Eggman and stop him before he launches that attack of his tomorrow, we'll beat 'im and get to the bottom on how to save both worlds and turn everything back to normal."
"Sonic the Hedgehog and allies with him must not interfere! We will annihilate Dr. Eggman! You are nothing more than a distraction!" Omega warned and ready to take aim at the group who flinched, before Sonic quickly stood in front of Amy's group, Tails and the de-aged humans alongside Knuckles who glared back. "You have four of the Chaos Emeralds. Team Dark will reclaim them."
"How does that robot know about the Chaos Emeralds?" Cosmo asked, worriedly.
"Like all of Eggman's robots, I guess Omega has a Chaos energy detector." Tails theoretically guessed, narrowing his eyes despite that he was nervous on fighting a robot that was on Rouge and Shadow's side.
"Butt out, buddy! We're gonna find the rest of those Emeralds and stop Eggman's plans! But if you want to beat 'im yourself, you're gonna have to wait!" Amy glared angrily at the rogue robot, her Piko Piko Hammer ready.
"Negative! You will not get in the way!" Omega argued. "You will be destroyed!"
The blue hedgehog didn't like where this was going and immediately stood protectively in front of his self-proclaimed girlfriend as he didn't want any of his friends to get hurt.
"You wanna go through her, you'll have to go through me!" Sonic declared, preparing himself to fight. "Sure, I felt sorry for you for being stuffed into that closest and wanted to vent on Eggman, but I won't let you hurt my friends!"
Shadow scowled darkly as he stood up in front of his allies, declaring. "Omega is a valuable ally, hedgehog. To get to him, you will face me in a date to die for."
Sonic frowned deeply, "I had a feeling you'd say that, faker. Some things never change."
The black hedgehog smirked somewhat evilly as he chuckled. "You haven't lost your courage, I see. Very well, if I win this fight, you and your friends will hand over your Chaos Emeralds and leave Dr. Eggman to us. If you win, you can have ours."
"Huh!?" The rest of the heroes gasped in shock, and were even more so when the Ultimate Lifeform then held out the green Emerald from his quills.
"He has the fifth Chaos Emerald!" Cosmo exclaimed in disbelief.
"No way!" Tails gasped.
"I can't believe it!" Amy cried out.
"That means there's only two more left to be found!" Francies realized.
"Yeah, well, this is our lucky day! Let's snatch that Emerald!" Knuckles declared, gritting his teeth.
Rouge though smirked. "Sorry, Knuckles. Finders keepers!"
"Why you...!" The red echidna growled, already furious over this.
"Not again..." Chris groaned in dismay as he, Danny, Francies, Topaz, Cosmo, Tails, Cream and Cheese attempted to stay well out of it even though they weren't happy with this result of the reunion.
The blue hedgehog in the meantime narrowed his emerald green eyes before deciding. "Fine, but just so you know, Shadow, we're running out of time and we need those Chaos Emeralds to stop time from being destroyed! If we don't stop the merge of the worlds and get back home, time will stop forever."
"Very well. Let us begin." The Ultimate Lifeform declared as he and Sonic stood ready. "Are you ready to battle for your life?"
"I'm ready to protect everyone, never mind my own life." Sonic responded.
The two hedgehogs then charged and landed a fast and powerful punch each, and then did a series of serious fast kicks and shoving before Shadow attempted to use his Spin Attack. Sonic did the same and the two clashed while unleashing sparks of slight electricity of equal power before being forced back and landed in a distance. Sonic then charged to land an axe-kick, but Shadow caught him by the foot and tossed him up into the air as the blue hedgehog screamed in alarm. The black hedgehog then leaped and made to attack again, but Sonic quickly recovered and blocked it.
"Lemme at him!" Knuckles shouted, preparing to help Sonic, only to be kicked in the face by Rouge and knocked to the ground. Shouting in pain, he then stood up and glared up at his own rival. "Hey! Stay out of this, Rouge!"
"Sorry, hon, but I really like Shadow and Omega. Can't have you help out Sonic to fight them." Rouge warned in annoyance.
"If that's the way you want it!" The red echidna growled, landing a punch into the white bat's stomach, which she quickly recovered despite grunting in pain, before they to fought with several punches and kicks.
Rouge even did her drill kick even as Knuckles did a spinning punch the two colliding against each other, and to make things worse Omega took this chance to charge at the rest of the group.
"Humans to stay out of the way, the rest of you will not destroy Dr. Eggman before me!" Omega warned, opening fire which forced the group cry out in alarm as Topaz pulled Chris and his team out of the way.
"Look out!" Tails screamed, shoving Cosmo out of the way as he and Amy, who did the same with Cream and Cheese, moved quickly to dodge the attacks. The two-tailed fox gazed at the young Seedrian girl he loved so much as he asked worriedly. "Are you okay, Cosmo?"
"Y-yes, I'm fine." Cosmo replied, blushing before gasping and cried out. "Tails, look out! Behind you!"
"Huh!?" The two-tailed fox quickly looked over his shoulder and yelped as Omega was advancing on them. Fear struck hard before he remembered how far he, Sonic and Knuckles had come, all of their battles together along with the rest of their friends, from their previous adventures to this one. Narrowing his eyes as he began to feel more confidence and courage within him than ever before, the desire to do what Sonic had always done, Tails stood up before charging and surprisingly did a strong head-butt on the robot who stumbled back with a sound that was like a cry of pain and alarm.
That surprised Team Rose, Team Chris and even Topaz.
"Stay away from my friends, you stupid robot! I'm not gonna lose any of them again! Especially Cosmo and Sonic!" Tails declared, and flew up high into the air as Omega then rapid fired lasers at him despite the others' screams to look out. The young kit then spun his namesakes hard and landed several kicks before using Sonic's skills of Spin Attacks. Even as Omega was thrown back, the robot returned the favor by charging and whacked the fox hard, as he screamed and hit the ground hard.
This was noticed by Sonic who gasped in horror to see his best friend/little brother actually fight the robot that caused this mess due to wanting to kill Eggman. "Tails!"
Unfortunately, this distracted him from Shadow who used this opportunity to strike. The black hedgehog spun a powerful kick right into his rival's stomach which sent him painfully flying. Sonic was sent backwards grunting and wincing before he crashed onto the ground himself, sliding until he hit a tree with his back and slumped there for a moment, much to the rest of his friends' horror. Knuckles saw this and made to punch Rouge out of the way to help Sonic and Tails, but his rival picked him up and flew up high into the air.
"Hey! Rouge! Put be down!" Knuckles protested as he flailed as much as possible to escape.
While this was going on and the remaining heroes could only watch as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles fought Shadow, Rouge and Omega, unaware of the group was that the figure who spied on both Team Sonic and Team Rose earlier with the red eyes appeared through the thickness of the trees, and if one looked more closely, they could see that it was a silhouette of a hedgehog wearing a cloak. The eyes this time looked more like a hedgehog as well.
"Very shortly, Sonic the Hedgehog. Very shortly, we will meet face to face." The mysterious hedgehog whispered in a monotone before slinking back into the trees and waited for the right time to make his presence known.
"That's it! I don't care if Rouge and Shadow helped us out before, this is just wrong!" Amy growled, and charged to help her 'boyfriend' and other two friends.
"Amy, wait!" Chris, Francies, Danny, and Cream all screamed out, and quickly they and Topaz along with Cosmo who hurried over to Tails stopped the pink hedgehog from getting herself hurt. Still, when they saw Shadow about to fire his Chaos Spear as Sonic who began to push himself up, they were all horrified before Chris, fearing that the blue hedgehog was about to get killed, rushed in to save him and ignored the others' protests to stay back.
While Cosmo hurriedly pulled Tails(who was surprised to see this) out of the way from Omega's firing line, much to the robot's surprise and was relieved that the fox was alright, the young Thorndyke thought quickly and used his grapple hooks on another tree branch and swung himself as hard, high and fast as he could.
"I'm afraid your adventure has come to an end, my friend." Shadow warned darkly, yellow energy forming in his hands.
"Heard that one before. I can still take you on!" Sonic grunted, wincing as he felt like he was in for bruises for a week.
The black hedgehog smirked before firing his attack. "Chaos Spear!"
"SONIC!" Chris screamed out, getting the two hedgehogs' attentions and to their surprise, the de-aged boy swung in and scooped up Sonic by the waist with his free arm and narrowly avoided the Chaos Spear attack which knocked down the tree where it crashed onto the ground. "Gotcha!"
"Whoa...!" The blue hedgehog murmured almost blankly, not having expected his human best friend to save him like this. Feeling a bit of deja vu only with the X Tornado, the teenage hero felt a bit embarrassed to be rescued but at the same time appreciated it gratefully. Plus it has been days since he and the de-aged boy had been together.
The two then swung upward and surprisingly landed on a larger tree branch where the young Thorndyke unhooked his hooks from the other branch and he gently set the cobalt teenager next to him.
"You okay, Sonic?" Chris asked worriedly.
"Yeah. Thanks a bunch, Chris. That was great! The way how you used those grapple hooks was amazing!" Sonic praised, smirking as he winked at his friend, giving him a thumbs up.
His friend just smiled with a light blush, before they both gazed down at Shadow who glared hard, and black hedgehog warned. "Stay out of this, Christopher! Sonic is to fight me!"
"Gladly!" Sonic responded quickly, and jumped back down while doing his Spin Attack in mid-air to which Shadow jumped and blocked it with his own and the two kept on at it with several punches and kicks and even grasped each other's fists in a shoving contest, attempting to overpower one another.
In the meantime, Tails returned to his battle after telling Cosmo to stand back and charged at Omega, using flight to bash into the robot once more while Rouge had the guts to drop Knuckles. But to her annoyance the red echidna quickly flipped and landed in a crouch. Grinning, the guardian of the Master Emerald raced away when the white bat attempted to drill kick at him again only to have her face punched in with his fist and she cried out both in pain and in anger.
"You spoiled my make-up! You're gonna pay for ruining my face!" Rouge roared, and by the pure anger on said face, Knuckles flinched in fright with a sweat drop once he realized his mistake.
"Uh oh..." The red echidna muttered worriedly to himself.
He was then forced to dodge more of his rival's attacks as the bat thief wanted her revenge(and more Chaos Emeralds) which forced Knuckles to block most of her attacks but ended up on the short end of the stick.
"Must destroy Miles "Tails" Prower! Do not interfere!" Omega shouted, firing more lasers at the two-tailed fox who yelped and tried to dodge the attacks before he used Sonic's Spin Dash skill once more, knocking down the robot and even bashing it's head to the point in causing the machine to hit a tree.
"We're just trying to save the worlds! Why can't we talk about this without fighting?" Tails protested, panting hard as this had been the hardest battle he had ever faced on his own.
He didn't get an answer as Omega was about to fire again, leaving the two-tailed fox without much of a further choice but to finish this off as hard as he could. So as quickly as he could, Tails charged before delivering a punch on the head and a kick on the laser-cannon arm which rendered his opponent defendless and then knocked it out. The young cub landed on the ground, panting in exhaustion before he nearly collapsed himself.
"Tails!" Cosmo screamed out, hurrying over as she, Cream and the others hurried over. "Are you alright?"
"Chao, chao?" Cheese murmured worriedly.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine. Boy, that robot was really tough. I'm so used to fighting them in the X Tornado." Tails admitted, battered and a bit bruised but somewhat pleased that he actually won.
While they were relieved that he was okay, the rest of the group, even Chris who climbed back down and backed off as Sonic and Knuckles were still fighting Shadow and Rouge, with Cream muttering worriedly. "I wish they would stop fighting. This isn't right."
"Me too. You would think that Shadow would've learned by now after saving Sonic's life more than twice." Amy hissed angrily, really wanting to join in to help Sonic, more than ever.
"Somehow I don't think it will end until either one wins. But this is getting too ridiculous at a time like this." Topaz muttered, getting even more concerned and worried.
Sonic eventually broke free from the wrestling match by kneeing Shadow in the stomach, the latter grunting in pain over this and had no chance with defending himself when the blue hedgehog quickly spun tightly and knocked him further back, hitting a large rock cliff with dust and dirt flying everywhere...just as the Chaotix came around the corner and came to a stop when they saw what was going on and flinched.
"What's going on here?" Vector asked, flabbergasted to see Team Sonic and Team Dark fighting each other, with Teams Rose and Chris along with Topaz watching on worriedly.
"It seems to be a battle and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles appear to be winning." Espio remarked with a wide-eyed expression and a sweat-drop.
"Well, if you ask me, it serves that dumb robot right for making a mess." Charmy grumbled when he saw that Omega was already down and out.
Unaware of the three detectives' arrival, Sonic glared hard as he stood ready to fight even more just in case. "Ready to give up, Shads?"
"I refuse to admit defeat...and don't call me Shads...!" Shadow hissed darkly.
Finally having enough of this, even as Knuckles had knocked down Rouge who unlike the black hedgehog, just laid there and panted which made the red echidna see that she had enough and he backed off, Amy growled furiously and charged to end the battle even though it as clear that Sonic had won. In fact, Team Sonic had already won the battle all together.
"THAT'S ENOUGH! I'LL KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO YOU, SHADOW!" The angry pink hedgehog roared as she jumped high into the air, her hammer having enlarged almost as big as her, much to everyone's shock as they saw her charge.
"AHHHH! Amy, wait!" Sonic screamed out, now terrified and screamed louder in panic, fearing that his pink friend was going to hit him. So he ran back to safety while Shadow, his eyes widening at the fearsome look on the pink hedgehog girl's fury, stood before leaping away himself.
Unfortunately Amy still charged with her hammer high up, and unknowingly aimed right at Vector, Espio and Charmy who all panicked and screamed in fear, sweating profusely.
"Amy, stop!" Franices screamed out as she and everyone else saw what was about to happen.
BANG! CLUNG! BAM!
Realizing this too late, Amy had already bashed and smacked the poor Chaotix to the pulp in a cloud of dust while the trio screamed in fear and pain as they tried to escape the pink hedgehog's misguided wrath until she finally snapped out of it and stopped, landing on the ground and gasped in horror when she saw what she had done. The green crocodile, purple chameleon and young bee laid there on the ground, now all bandaged up with bruises and bumps all over their bodies, groaning in agony. Everyone else saw this, most of them cringed in shock and sympathy.
"Uh oh..." Amy muttered in now growing guilt.
"It's official...girls hit harder than most guys do..." Vector announced painfully.
"Oh my gosh...I'm really sorry Vector, Espio and Charmy!" The pink hedgehog cried out frantically and apologetically. "I was aiming at Shadow! I didn't mean to hit any of you!"
"Amy, as much as I really care about you as a friend, you really should stay out of battles like this. Besides, I already beaten Shadow." Sonic carefully scolded his self-proclaimed girlfriend.
Amy now pouted as she pointed out, folding her arms. "Well, it wouldn't have happened if Shadow didn't threaten us like the way he did!"
"Actually, it was Knuckles who started it." Rouge pointed out while standing up painfully.
"Me!?" Knuckles shouted, outraged. "That robot's the one that got us in this mess in the first place!"
"I hear ya!" Charmy immediately agreed, only for Vector and Espio to clamp his mouth shut to avoid any more confrontations from happening.
By then Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Omega who was also recovering, Shadow who did it more calmly but feeling his patience running thin quickly, and the Chaotix came into a full on argument while Sonic, Tails, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese, Chris, Danny, Francies and Topaz watched their friends helplessly before the blue hedgehog finally had it with this.
"Okay, now I've had it." Sonic muttered angrily, before he jumped onto a rock that towered everyone and let out a really big and loud whistle which echoed through out the field and even parts of the Frog Forest.
This almost instantly made everyone shut up as they gazed at the cobalt hero who demanded. "That's enough, all of ya's! Look, I know that we all have our reasons for being here right now, but please, guys, listen up! The more we argue and fight, the quicker our two planets are merging and time stopping! Not only that, the fog is rapidly changing people and animals' lives into either de-aging them or turning them into monsters, and Eggman's gonna launch his attack by releasing that Egg fleet of his tomorrow night, and the culprit who caused the fog and framed Chris is still out there."
"Sonic's right, you guys. I know we all have our differences, but if we don't all pull together, Eggman and whoever's caused the fog will win and we can't afford to fight each other. The only way to save the worlds is we all team up together and work together." Chris agreed, stepping up as the mature-side of him took over once more.
"Not only that, but Eggman's sent out robotic copies of himself to slow us down. I don't know what his actual big game is, but we're running out of time. The real Eggman's up there somewhere and unless he and the main culprit behind humanity getting younger and all of the Earth animals transforming into monsters are stopped, we're all done for." Sonic continued, gazing up at the sky as to his and everyone else's dismay the sun was already beginning to set. He turned back to the people down below and concluded. "Please, don't let the bad guys win, I'm begging you. All I ask is to help stop them, because for once in my life, this isn't the kind of thing I can do alone. We have to stop the merge, or else everything we've done to protect everyone would be for nothing."
The blue hedgehog looked at the silent crowd before Tails spoke up. "They're right. It's time we all worked together again. Let's put our differences aside and focus on stopping Eggman and save the worlds."
"I hate to say it, but Sonic, Chris and Tails are right. We've wasted enough time as it is." Knuckles agreed, his arms folded to his chest.
"Right, and we'll do our best to help out." Chris nodded, determined to help and save the worlds once and for all.
"I'm with you guys all the way." Danny declared firmly.
"Me too." Francies added.
"We've made it this far, and with Shadow's Chaos Emerald, we've only got two more to find." Amy added. "We're gonna teach Eggman a real lesson and save the worlds! You have my support, Sonic!"
"We have saved the Galaxy from the Metarex, I believe now we can save the time and the worlds together again." Cosmo added with a nod.
"I know that everything will be okay as long as we're together." Cream agreed happily, glad that the fighting between friends and allies was over, and Cheese chirped in agreement.
"...Fine. I suppose there's no other choice at this point." Shadow grudgingly agreed.
"There's no way Eggman's off the hook. We're in." Rouge nodded in agreement.
Even Omega for once was in agreement. "Affirmative. Time has been wasted enough. Dr. Eggman must be eradicated!"
"I'm going too. If we stop Eggman and whover has caused this fog, it should disappear and everything will return to normal. Even the minds of the Commander and the people who have become twisted and possessed by it." Topaz saluted like a true soldier that she was, now following Sonic as her new temporarily leader.
"Actually, we do have an idea who's caused the Mutagen fog and that guy's none other than Narasu." Vector spoke up, surprising everyone else except for Espio and Charmy as they gazed at the Chaotix. "Our mystery client's been sending us on mission after mission and telling us that the guy and Eggman have gone into even more crazy lines. Heck, Narasu is the only guy that's causing me to feel wrong in my insides."
The Chaotix then explained everything to the other teams on what they knew of so far and how far they've gotten. They even explained that Vector's condition was getting worse.
Everyone except for Shadow and Omega gasped in shock over this, which explained the situation.
"So Narasu was the one who snuck into my old lab and changed the porthole's functions to unleash a new version of the Mutagen." Chris realized in horror, lowering his gaze in guilt.
Sonic felt just as guilty, lowering his gaze as he began to feel that it was all his fault. If he had been more careful all those months ago back at home, then they wouldn't come to Earth or cause all of the horrible things that had happened. Even though he wouldn't have met Chris and Shadow would've still been locked up, Narasu wouldn't have lost his mind and caused Vector to become infected with both the original Mutagen and now the fog which was the new form of the stuff. The blue hedgehog squeezed his eyes shut to stop himself from screaming out in frustration, knowing that he and his friends and allies had to save both worlds and stop Eggman and Narasu before it was too late.
"Then we'll have to stop Eggman first and then find Narasu. That guy's got a lot to answer and we still need the last two Chaos Emeralds." Sonic decided, jumping down to the ground.
"Actually, there's only one left to find." Espio surprisingly announced, confusing the group as Charmy then took ruffled into Vector's gloves despite the crocodile's protests and held out the purple Chaos Emerald.
"Ta-da!" The young Bee proclaimed proudly.
Teams Sonic, Rose, Chris and Dark were all greatly surprised by this discovery as the cobalt teenager exclaimed in awe. "No way!"
"I can't believe it! They've found the sixth Chaos Emerald!" Tails exclaimed in disbelief.
"Six Chaos Emeralds in two days...now I know I'm dreaming." Knuckles shook his head, unable to believe their luck.
Rouge blinked in surprise as well. "It never was this quick to find six of them, let alone just even two in the same week."
"One Chaos Emerald left, but we only have one day left too." Amy muttered worriedly, gazing at her 'boyfriend' in concern. "Sonic, I'm really worried that we might be able to find it and stop both Eggman and Narasu in time."
"We've got to. I won't let time be destroyed and I'm not gonna let that Rusca creep inside my dreams tell me what to do. There's no way we gonna make his wish in merging the worlds come true." Sonic declared stubbornly.
"Huh? Rusca?" Chris asked, surprised that his blue hedgehog best friend even mentioned the mysterious red hedgehog's name.
"Who's Rusca?" Charmy asked, puzzled.
"That's the name of the weird hedgehog I've seen in my nightmares. The one who looks like Shadow." The blue hedgehog answered, which he was suddenly then grasped by the arm by the aforementioned Ultimate Lifeform, causing the teenager to grunt. "Ow! Hey, let go!"
"You have been having these visions of this hedgehog who looks like me?" Shadow demanded.
"Yeah...Wait, you too?" Sonic asked back, shocked when he heard this. Was there a connection with Rusca now harassing the black hedgehog?
"Since we've seen those murals in the Ocean Palace, I had a vision of this mysterious hedgehog and...it somehow makes sense on how and why I was created." Shadow replied, becoming more and more uneasy. "First tell me, when did you start having these visions?"
Sonic, still shocked and feeling nauseous and everyone else who heard what the black hedgehog said felt even more uneasy, yanked his arm free and explained. "Since before Cosmo told me in another dream to check on Tails. I didn't know who that guy was at the time and I didn't like how he kept on saying that the merge must be complete. Then when I was knocked after the two of us and Knuckles beat Eggman's giant robot in Station Square, I had another dream where he was buddies or something with this human guy who called him Rusca. He also warned us about some monster coming back or whatever."
Sonic and his friends then explained everything they learned to which Chris, Francies and Danny did the same and finally Shadow's group did. Once everyone was done with the quick briefings of everything they knew of so far, all of them were horrified by the results.
"I think it makes kind of sense." Tails finally spoke up, making everyone gaze at him. "The murals told us how the two worlds were recreated in the first place, and a hedgehog that's like Sonic may have been left behind after seemingly sacrificing himself and died as a result. Years later going back to 60 years ago, Professor Gerald Robotnik may have found Rusca's remains that might have still had the Chaos Energy to create Shadow."
"So that's why Shadow can connect with the Chaos Emeralds because of Rusca's skeleton remains and DNA." Chris realized.
"And potentially with human blood to create mine, it makes sense that...I am a clone hybrid of both a hedgehog from the other world as well as a human." The black hedgehog murmured, lowering his gaze, extremely troubled and frankly, no one could blame him. Not even Sonic, Vector, Charmy or Knuckles.
"So then, if Rusca's the one behind in the worlds splitting up after a deadly war and defeating a giant monster, why does he keep on wanting me to merge the worlds and destroy time?" Sonic asked, becoming more and more petrified over this.
He then suddenly remembered what Cosmo told him and the others last night before they entered Casino City.
"I was told that the prophecy that had two futures; one to which if you hadn't gone to stop Dr. Eggman from using the porthole despite what that robot you mentioned had gone, he would have caused a catastrophic event that would have had time collapse in an instant, that a 'man's mutating creation' would have caused humanity to die almost instantly, and everyone in your world would have ceased to exist." The young seedrian explained.
"In the other prophecy, even if the merge would be delayed and time would still move, the portals between worlds would also cause time to go backwards by years to match that of the world where the 'chosen one' has created for all evolved animals to live peacefully eons ago, the one who has defeated the monster created by negativity of anger and hate that was within the one who used false Emeralds and was taken over by those feelings completely, creating an evil being who sought destruction. But the chosen one who has destroyed the monster had be left behind because he had to sacrifice himself to split the worlds, knowing that only a true chosen one who would share their powers with their closest allies would be able to survive and restore everything, but via a difficult choice."
"It's also said that should anyone attempt to try and use their own blood to get revenge on their own people, the portals, their own mutating creation and negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds would effect the creator, and bring out the dark anger they continued to live with for years and not being able to move on, or having desires that were never meant to be and not accepting the reality of not getting what they want and twist them into their own desires until those feelings are absorbed and transform that person into a monster and only the positive feelings of the true chosen one and their friends would stop them."
"Then the legend is true...it was Rusca who split our worlds apart and that's why Shadow looks a lot like him. But..." The blue hedgehog, for the first time in his life, found it suddenly hard to breathe. "What does Rusca want with me!? Has he turned evil as a ghost and trying to mess with my head to destroy everything, after Black Narcissus forced me to use the fake Chaos Emeralds when he hurt Chris and Cosmo!? Does he want me to bring out the monster that almost got recreated through me!?"
All of his friends and allies gazed at Sonic in shock and growing concern, and were shocked when they saw tears began to form in his emerald green eyes. The cobalt teenager spun around and covered his face with his gloved hand, feeling utterly ashamed with himself, the horrible memories of almost going completely dark returning, and the knowledge of Rusca becoming a twisted spirit in wanting to use him for great evil terrified him so much that he never felt so scared in his life and struggled not to cry.
"Sonic..." Amy whispered, becoming tearful with worry and guilt for her boyfriend feeling so terrible right now.
Sonic shook his head. "Maybe it wasn't him who stopped that evil giant hedgehog. Maybe it was his twin brother or something and stopped him. Or maybe it's the other way around...either way, I think Rusca or his twin or somebody who resembled to him wants to use me to make history repeat itself and destroy both time and our worlds...! That's why I'm having these dreams, and he just used my nightmares of when Dark Oak swallowed me to make me give into anger!"
Not a single person watching Sonic the Hedgehog, the usually cocky, very confident, optimistic, brave, kind, caring, carefree and happy-go-lucky super fast hero look and feel guilty, could say anything to make him feel better as they could only gaze on with empathy and sympathy.
"Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked worriedly.
"Actually, not really...I hate to admit...but I'm scared." The blue hedgehog confessed, lowering his hand from his face and hugged himself. "I don't trust that Rusca guy, and we really don't have time for this. I'm really sorry, guys. I just want everybody to be okay, everything to go back to normal and go home."
'And maybe have time to attend Chris' wedding if he invites me and the others.' He added silently to himself.
Chris sighed, feeling responsible for not having destroyed the porthole even though it would've caused more problems with Eggman, but either way, things were really messed up and the de-aged boy felt guilty that his hedgehog best friend blamed himself for this mess. So the young Thorndyke approached the teenager and bend down, hugging him, surprising Sonic who looked up at his human friend.
"I'm really sorry, Sonic. I wish I'd destroyed the porthole before any of this happened. Even if we would have to build another one to get you and the others back home, at least Narasu wouldn't have used it to create the Mutagen Fog...But it's okay to be scared sometimes. You don't have to face those fears alone. Isn't that what you told me nine years ago?" Chris told him with as much comfort as he could offer.
"Chris is right, Sonic. Like we said, we're here for you." Tails added as he approached and hugged his surrogate older brother as well, joined by Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese, while Knuckles patted the blue hedgehog on the shoulder, and Francies and Danny came over as well, with Charmy joining on the hug, Espio nodding, and Vector ruffling the cobalt teenager's head, making Sonic chuckle a little with a bit of protest.
"It might look bad now, but we've always pulled through. Trying to act not scared is really silly. You helped us all the time, my sweet Sonic. Let us help you now." Amy said comfortingly, for once not going overboard with her hugs, but she did nuzzle her face into her 'boyfriend's' chest.
"We're all your friends, Sonic. It's gonna be okay." Cream added, with Cheese hugging Sonic's face which made the blue hedgehog chuckle for being tickled and for the affection.
Seeing that they were right as the others nodded in agreement with comforting smiles, Sonic smiled warmly, feeling very emotional even though he wasn't known to be all mushy, usually being the cool attitude kind of guy with a free spirit, it was no secret that he loved all of his friends so much that he would sacrifice himself to protect them. So he did his best to hug them back, only able to do so with Tails, Chris, and Amy while allowing Cream and Cheese, Cosmo, Francies, Danny and Charmy to hug him, and Knuckles, Espio and Vector to huddle and smirk.
"Thanks, guys. Have I ever told ya's that you're the best?" Sonic finally responded, really feeling like the luckiest hedgehog in the universe. His friends just smiled and continued to be around him, all glad that he was recovering and feeling better.
Behind the four teams, Topaz and Rouge both smiled at the heart-warming scene while Omega just stood there and Shadow just scoffed while looked away with his arms folded, secretly feeling a bit jealous. Years ago, he lost the only friend he ever had and his relationship with his two companions was awkward, but he did still care about them. Sonic on the other hand had so many friends, having been through so much in risking his own life to protect them and others from people like Eggman or the Metarex.
"Aw, isn't that sweet?" Rouge remarked, one hand on her hip.
"It sure is." Topaz agreed.
"This does not compute." Omega stated in what sounded like a tone of exasperation, making both the white bat and the black hedgehog to roll their eyes while the former GUN soldier just sweat dropped with a dull look.
By then, Sonic and his friends reluctantly moved away as he told them. "Sorry for feeling down. I...really needed to hear what you all said."
"Things have been totally crazy, so it's not your fault." Charmy pointed out. "Eggman has dibs on the blame."
"Yeah, he and Narasu are gonna pay for-UGH!" Vector suddenly grunted in pain when he suddenly felt the same agonizing jolt from earlier, this time being much more intense and unbearable, ending up bending on one knee and placed a hand to his head, much to everyone else's alarm.
"Vector!?" Espio exclaimed worriedly.
"Vector, what's wrong!?" Sonic cried out in alarm.
"Oough...M-My head..." The green crocodile groaned, feeling dizzy and his vision darkening once more, the mixed Mutagen within him becoming even worse, now more than ever before.
"Is Vector gonna be alright?" Cream asked, scared for the detective's health and safety.
Omega, sensing the mutagen's status become worse, exclaimed with a bleeping noise. "Alert! The original and upgraded Mutagens increasing! Stand back! It is taking control of his body and mind!"
"WHAT!?" Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Chris, Danny, Espio and Charmy all exclaimed in pure horror while Amy, Cosmo, Francies and Cream all gasped, Cheese squealed in fear and alarm, Rouge and Topaz looked horrified and even Shadow looked purely shocked about this.
"What do we do!?" Amy exclaimed worriedly.
The blue hedgehog, the purple chameleon and the two de-aged boys along with the two-tailed fox tried to comfort Vector who continued to groan in agony until, to their and everyone else's further alarm and concern, it became a growl like an Earth-Crocodile. As the group gently asked Vector if he was alright, when he snapped his eyes open, they all gasped and leaned back when they saw that his natural eyes were gone, replaced with the same look that Espio and Charmy noticed earlier.
"Uh-oh...!" Charmy murmured worriedly with a sweat drop.
"Why are his eyes like that?" Francies asked, shakily.
"It's the same look that's on the animals affected by the Mutagen!" Tails exclaimed.
"Hey, Vector, snap out of it!" Sonic shouted quickly, hoping that his voice would get through.
However, this time nothing seemed to get through as both of Vector's arms now enlarged themselves that he uncontrollably smacked almost everyone aside, causing them to scream out and hit the ground hard, while Cream and Cheese were pulled back by Cosmo and Francies. Everyone gasped when they saw their detective friend growling and glow in the same red and purple aura as before. Shadow, Rouge, Omega and Topaz made to approach the others even though the black hedgehog intended on hitting Vector to knock sense into him, but shockingly the Chaotix Leader's tail grew and smacked the Ultimate Lifeform and robot aside, while shoving the white bat and GUN agent aside.
"This is terrible! It's like Vector has been controlled!" Cosmo exclaimed in horror.
"Yeah, it's like the same thing that's happened to the animals and Commander Tower is happening to him now!" Knuckles grunted in realization, wincing at the hard hit and landing.
"We've gotta do something to get him back to his senses!" Chris cried out, as he and Danny helped Tails and Amy to stand.
"Maybe a Hammer might do?" Charmy unhelpfully suggested.
"Way ahead of you, Charmy! I'll knock sense into Vector!" Amy declared, once again bringing out her hammer and charged, much to everyone else's shock.
"Wait, Amy!" Chris and Tails exclaimed.
"Are you crazy!? That's not gonna work!" Knuckles grunted, charging to stop the pink hedgehog.
"No, Amy!" Sonic exclaimed, racing over quickly.
Vector in his possessed state gazed at the charging pink hedgehog and extended his massive arm, grabbing hold of her hammer and crushing the main part of it, stopping Amy in her tracks as she was struggling to pull it free only to be left with just the handle. Gasping in horror, she cried out as the green crocodile made to grab her.
"NO!" The blue hedgehog shouted, shoving his self-proclaimed girlfriend aside only to be grabbed by both of his possessed friend's hands and was lifted off the ground to the crocodile's height of level. Sonic grunted as he was held tightly, struggling, wiggling and squirming to free himself.
"No! Sonic!" Amy screamed out in dismay, her heart aching as she felt a flash of deja vu, the utter guilt of how she almost lost him coming back to her, the memories of when he sacrificed himself to push her away when Dark Oak had used that water jet to push Sonic into his enormous plant-dragon like monster's mouth and swallowed him whole alive came flooding in her mind.
"Vector, let him go!" Espio shouted in command as he and Charmy were shocked that their leader and best friend was no longer in the right state of mind.
"Hang on, Sonic!" Tails exclaimed as he, Knuckles, and even Chris and Danny charged to stop Vector, snap him out of it and save Sonic who was being squeezed tightly while the said crocodile grinned evilly in his possessed-Mutagen state.
But Vector saw them coming and used his tail to whack them all back and even as Shadow used a Spin Attack, the former shifted to hold the trapped Sonic in left hand and blocked the black hedgehog with his right hand which was effective, before smacking the Ultimate Lifeform back and forcing him to crash into his team who cried out and hit the ground hard.
"V-Vector, stop!" Sonic grunted, horrified on what was happening and what the Mutagen had gone now to his friend. "Please, snap out of it!"
Espio and Charmy then charged and leaped onto their friend's back while narrowly avoiding the crocodile's tail and held on tightly despite that Vector attempted to shack them off.
"That's enough, Vector!" Espio ordered.
"Wake up, boss!" Charmy shouted, and then came to a desperate idea before pointing his stinger right near the taller detective's upper tail was. "This might sting a little...!"
When the purple chameleon saw what the young bee was about to do, before he could stop the youngster, Charmy aimed as hard as he could and struck his stinger right into Vector's butt, stinging him. This did the trick as Vector felt the pain, his eyes flashing back to normal and watering in comical agony.
"YAAAAAAAOOOOW!" Vector screamed, his arms returning to their normal size as he let go of Sonic who dropped to the ground and accidentally knocked his two best friends back as Espio and Charmy yelped before hitting the ground hard, and the green crocodile jumped high while holding his sore backside with both hands and landed back on the ground, rubbing it while feeling disorientated, nauseous and groggy.
Everyone watched on before seeing that the detective was back to normal, at least for now, but still kept their distance despite that he was their friend. Amy in the meantime hurried over to Sonic and hugged him, crying, and almost making him fall over.
"Ow! Take it easy, Amy..." Sonic winced, holding his friend back but he still gave her a gentle hug to comfort his self-proclaimed girlfriend.
"Oh, Sonic! I'm so sorry! It's all my fault...!" Amy sobbed.
"Ames, it's fine. Don't cry." The blue hedgehog whispered, having felt the deja vu like she did, but at the same time he knew that it didn't happen again. At least the being eaten part.
"Oooogh...What happened? Why is everybody scattered around and why does everything hurt?" Vector asked, as everyone else slowly stood up and approached.
"The Mutagen has taken control over you and you grabbed Sonic when he and Amy attempted to knock you back to your senses. It was Charmy who did so with his stinger." Espio explained grimly.
"What!?" The green crocodile exclaimed, horrified over what just happened and even worse, he couldn't even remember it.
"Sorry, boss. Couldn't think of anything else to get you back to normal." Charmy apologetically rubbed the back of his head.
"Are you okay, Vector?" Cream asked, worriedly.
"Chao, Chao?" Cheese murmured with the same feeling as his friend.
"How do you feel?" Tails asked, carefully.
"Ow...not only the stinger hurts, I feel like somebody somehow put water in my brain and tried to drown it..." The green crocodile groaned, shaking his head.
"This is bad. If the Mutagen inside Vector's acting like this, then I have a bad feeling it's only a matter of time before he ends up the same situation as before." Knuckles warned gravely.
Sonic softly gasped as memories of when the previous Mutagen instantly made Vector grow into a giant came back, before remembering how he returned to normal in the first place and turned to Omega.
"Will the Aspirin work to dull Vector's pain?" Sonic asked urgently.
"Negative. The fused Mutagen is immune to normal prescription." Omega reported, much to everyone's dismay.
Shadow frowned deeply. "I don't understand how Vector would grow into a giant, but if I were to guess, the new Mutagen inside him also has a mind control of sorts, the same with the creatures that were transformed by the fog."
"And the fog affected everybody except for you guys, so Vector's the only one since he already had the previous Mutagen that's still inside him. So the aspirin was only temporarily." Chris theorized.
"I wish there was something we can do to help Vector." Cosmo muttered worriedly, her hands clasped together as she feared that things were only getting worse.
"Guess we'll have to keep an eye on Vector when we stop Eggman's Egg Fleet and then make Narasu tell us how to cure everybody and stop the fog." The blue hedgehog declared, narrowing his eyes as he clutched his fists. "That guy's gonna pay for this."
"How will that help in stopping the merge? It would take too long for him to reveal it and he may not help us." Topaz pointed out, folding her arms.
"I'm afraid there is no stopping the merge of the two worlds." An unfamiliar voice yet that sounded familiar to Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and even Shadow who along with everybody else, became alarmed when they heard it. "But there is still time to save Time itself and others."
"It's that voice again!" Tails cried out, becoming frightened as he and everyone else looked around for the source of the voice.
"Hey, who's there!?" Knuckles demanded.
"I know that voice...it's more clearer now..." Sonic realized, a feeling of dread forming in his stomach before he called out while standing on his guard. "Come on out, whoever you are! Show yourself!"
While everyone stood on their guard with Cream and Cheese standing close to Amy and Cosmo, frightened while Tails, Sonic and Knuckles stood in front of them to protect the girls and Chao, as well as Chris, Danny and Francies. They then heard strange invisble steps and looked to where the exit of the Frog Forest was. To their shock and horror, a being at the same height as Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge and Espio emerged; a red-brown hedgehog in a silver cloak, medieval boots and having the exact same appearance as Shadow, the exact same hedgehog the Ultimate Lifeform and the blue hedgehog saw in their visions.
"I-is that-!?" Chris cut himself off in disbelief.
"Who is that?" Topaz asked, unfamiliar with this new hedgehog.
"Sonic...is that who I think it is?" Tails asked, shakily.
"It can't be...!" Sonic uttered shakily, his eyes shrinking back as his heart plummeted into his stomach in fear.
"You...!" Shadow hissed, narrowing his red eyes which were identical to that of the hedgehog before them.
"Sonic the Hedgehog. We meet at last." The red-brown hedgehog greeted in a monotone voice, stopping half way from the group who stared back in disbelief.
The blue hedgehog narrowed his emerald green eyes as he glared at the evil hedgehog that had haunted him for weeks now. "...Rusca. So you are real. Or are you back from the dead or something? Or am I dreaming again?"
"I am not alive, and you are not dreaming. This is only a spiritual form I was able to come in to speak with you and your friends, chosen one." Rusca the Hedgehog corrected.
"Who are you? What is your purpose?" Shadow demanded, taking a step forward.
"And more importantly, what do you want with me?" Sonic added angrily, also taking a couple steps forward. "If this is about you using me to destroy time and merge the worlds together, forget it! I'm not going to become evil like you! You kept on trying to brainwash me through my nightmares, not answering my questions, and I'm not sure if it's you or somebody like or even a relative that caused both worlds to become split up in the first place, but if you want a fight, then I'm gonna stop you!"
Rusca gazed at the two living male hedgehogs and shook his head. "Your judgement may be true, your heart and soul pure as the light of the Chaos Emeralds, but you misunderstand, young hedgehog. The merge must be complete."
"But why!?" Sonic snapped, furiously. "Are you trying to make everybody never age ever again and die if Time is stopped forever!? If we don't find the Chaos Emeralds, stop the fog and sent the parts of our planet and all of us including our people back home, everything will be messed up and it's too late! The worlds can't be brought together! We have to go back! As long as we're here, everybody's in danger!"
"That's right! It's too dangerous for all of us to remain on Earth for a very long time because it will cause time to stop and the worlds to merge every time Sonic or Shadow or both of them use Chaos Control." Tails added in agreement.
"Keep your hands away from Sonic, or you're gonna be sorry, buster!" Amy warned angrily as everyone else, even Cream and Cheese, stood up.
"Suspicious red Shadow-look-alike must be destroyed! An enemy of Sonic the Hedgehog and attempts to destroy both worlds will not live!" Omega declared, taking aim of the lasers at Rusca who stood calmly.
"You all misunderstand. It is too late to stop the merge now. Only the merge can save you all." Rusca told them, with a hint of exasperation.
"You're lying!" Knuckles growled. "What makes you think we'll believe you!?"
The Shadow-look-alike closed his eyes. "I had known that neither of you would believe me. Nor would Sonic would understand that the time for the union and reunion has come."
"You're still not making any sense, buddy! Just admit it that you wanna make Sonic stop Time when he ain't gonna do it even in a million years!" Vector grunted, and Espio and Charmy both nodded in agreement.
"Why do you want Sonic to merge the worlds and destroy Time? Why are you even here?" Chris demanded, standing protectively in front of the blue hedgehog who whispered his name in concern.
"It is not what I want, young man." Rusca told him calmly. "It has been foretold for many generations. Long after my sacrifice. Time is running short, especially for your friend Vector the Crocodile, as the human Dr. Kai Narasu is bound to the true darkness that is about to return. If you wish to know the truth, follow me to the Mystic Castle beyond this forest. It is the path you must cross to stop the fleet of those machines."
"How do we know this isn't some kind of trap?" Francies asked, suspiciously.
"Believe what you will, child. All will be revealed." Rusca answered, turning to Sonic who still looked at him with disdain and fear in his eyes. "Sonic, I had hoped the previous vision of my past would help you see that I am not a threat to you or those you hold dear in your heart. Yet I knew that I had to test your inner power. Come, there's not much time."
Before Sonic and anybody else could get more answers out of him, Rusca began to walk away to the path where the Egg Fleet was and vanished due to being a ghost, even as Shadow growled.
"Get back here!" The black hedgehog demanded, firing Chaos Spear at his look-alike, but his attack only went through and hit several trees instead, frustrating him. "Blast!"
"Well, that guy sure likes to make riddles, huh?" Rouge remarked, narrowing her eyes.
"The words of Rusca the Hedgehog does not compute." Omega agreed.
"So, what do we do now?" Danny asked, worriedly.
"He said we should follow him to the Mystic Castle. I'm not sure if we should." Cosmo responded worriedly. "At the same time, I can't help but feel like he knows about the prophecy as well."
"I'm not so sure about this, but for some reason, maybe he isn't bad." Tails said, gazing at the blue hedgehog in concern.
"This is hard. Just...just who is he?" Sonic muttered uncomfortably, shifting a little. "I don't wanna go through like what the Metarex tried to do to me all over again. Once was enough."
"This is really starting to give me a headache. First the fog, then the merging, now this? What on Earth is going on?" Topaz complained, placing a hand to her face.
"Maybe that guy wanted to test Sonic before asking him for help to save the worlds?" Charmy asked cluelessly.
Before anyone else could respond to the youngest detective's claims, the walkie-talkie rang once more and Vector, while still feeling the effects of the Mutagen possessing him, almost immediately answered.
"Are you out of the Frog Forest yet? Time is running out!" The mysterious client spoke, which even though most of the group didn't know who it was, Sonic suddenly narrowed his eyes in suspicion over the voice.
"Yeah, we're out and we're still following the Egg Fleet you told us to." Vector answered.
"We will get there as soon as we can." Espio added with determination and vow.
"Excellent. To get to the Egg Fleet, you must pass through the Mystic Castle in order to reach it. It is very mysterious out there. Be on your guard." The client replied.
"Nothing more mysterious than a castle in the middle of the forest that could be haunted with a ghost that's trying to make things more difficult." The green crocodile grumbled dryly.
The caller sounded like he was grumbling himself and replied. "I dare hope you are sarcastic with that one. Anyway, be careful." Then the call dropped once more.
"Uh, who was that guy that called you?" Chris asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"Dunno. All we know is that it's somebody who knows a lot about Eggman and Narasu and we've been ordered to stop them both. That's why we're after the Egg Fleet too." Vector replied awkwardly, before admitting. "At the same time, I have a hunch on this guy's identity."
"Well, that makes the both of us, 'cause this guy you're following orders from sounds too familiar to me." Sonic stated, before shaking his head. "But we don't have much time left. If the Mystic Castle really is where we need to go, then we have no choice but to do what both your client and Rusca told us to do."
"Sonic, are you sure it's a good idea?" Amy asked, worriedly and fearfully. "I don't like this."
"Me neither, but I can't think of any other way to get through this." The blue hedgehog sighed, feeling just as uncomfortable as his friends, but looked up ahead and narrowed his eyes. "Either way, if we have to, we'll figure something out to stop him and save the worlds."
Taking the lead by a couple of steps, Sonic declared. "From here on out, we're all going to stop the bad guys, get rid of this fog, cure Vector and everybody else effected by the Mutagen, and save both worlds and Time! Let's go!"
Despite that things had become more dangerous and serious, the rest of the group knew that he was right and all cheered battle cries, before the originally five teams, now formed into one huge team like all previous times, all hurried to their next destination as the second day was coming to an end as the early signs of dusk approached. What will Sonic and all of his friends and allies find in the Mystic Castle as they reached towards their goal was anybody's guess.
Speaking of guessing, while Sonic was thinking about what Rusca really wanted, he also couldn't help but think about the mysterious caller. 'If it was Rusca that split the two worlds apart in the first place, then what does he really want with me? And that client the Chaotix are following...could it really be...but how?'
Meanwhile, back in the main Fortress of the Egg Fleet, the seemingly real Eggman tossed the really upset Bokkun inside a small cell as the small messenger robot yelped and landed hard on the metal floor.
"Ow! Why'd you go do that? I gave you that message to Sonic, didn't I?" Bokkun asked angrily and whined. "And all I asked for was for something to eat!"
"If you want to eat, go chew on some metal for all I care. You, Decoe and Bocoe are all fired!" 'Eggman' growled back in sheer annoyance, before slamming the doors shut and locking them, as he then stomped away, leaving Bokkun trapped inside.
The small black robot glared back and childishly stomped his feet while flailing his arms with balled fists. "You're not even the real Eggman, you crazy, shape-shifting imposter!"
Behind him, Decoe and Bocoe, also imprisoned, were playing a game of cards in sheer boredom and despair since they too ended up locked up since the previous defeat in Station Square by Sonic, Tails and Knuckles yesterday.
"Got any A's?" The yellow robot asked.
"Go Fish." The grey robot replied, before sighing. "To think that we came back to Earth to find blueprints for Dr. Eggman to create an army of Shadow to get rid of Sonic, and saving the Egg Fleet for later."
"I know, and the worst part is, the real Dr. Eggman didn't even let the Egg Fleet loose." Decoe whined in agreement.
"Shhhh! I told you dunce bots to keep it down, or else you'll blow my cover!" A familiar voice hissed angrily from the middle of the dark room a few feet away. "If those fools don't hurry up, we're all doomed!"
The three robots gazed at the shadowy silhouette in the shadows and all whispered in apologetic union. "Sorry, doctor."
Emerging from the shadows as he approached the dim light they had in the cell, revealed to be none other than the real Dr. Eggman, who held an angry, annoyed, yet terrified, worried and hopeful expression on his face.
"Our only hope is those Chaotix detectives as well as Sonic and their friends to find my Egg Fleet and stop that crazy Dr. Narasu before it's too late." Eggman continued, as he was holding a walkie-talkie identical to the one that, unbeknownst to the heroes, Vector, Espio and Charmy had.
While outside of the cell and walking up to the control room, the fake Eggman morphed and took shape into that of Narasu himself, and grinned wickedly while, gazing out of the window with Fulgar landing beside him, the twisted and insane scientist patting his giant Fly on the head.
"Pretty soon, Sonic and all of his cohorts will be destroyed, and the worlds will be mine to rule. Then all who have become affected by my Mutagen will obey me! Bwahahahahahaha! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Narasu laughed manically which echoed through out the entire giant Fortress.
Will Sonic and his friends learn the truth and stop the enemies in time? What will become of Earth and Sonic's world? Will Vector be cured?
It was only a matter of time and the Sonic Heroes had only one more day left before it's too late.
A/N: More answers will be revealed in the next chapter, as all of the teams are now together, but face the ghost of Rusca. What will Sonic and his friends learn from him? Is he really a foe, or perhaps an ally? I'll try and update this story again soon, but we'll see what happens and sorry that this chapter wasn't all that great.
I'll try my best to make the rest of the Mutagen Saga as best as I can as we're nearing the end of it.
See you later!