Streak of Hope: A Sonic X Story

A short note to everyone at the TSC: Hi everyone! I'm glad to see that this forum is still here. After not being here for so long, I was afraid it might have disappeared by now. Anyways, I'm back. I've written a story and I am simultaneously publishing it here and on fanfiction.

If any of you are on Xbox Live, my gamertag is "TheLordsbeacon". I'm going to try my best to be here more often. Oh, and if you send me a friend request on Xbox Live, please send a message saying that you are from this forum. I get friend requests from random people and I have no idea where I'm supposed to know them.

-A small update. I got a message saying that my post was too long. I'm going to have to break this story into Chapters. Lol.

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Streak of Hope: A Sonic X Story

Prologue: Why I wrote it.

-If sections like these bore you, I recommend skipping it and coming back if you are still interested.

-I wrote this because I like Sonic X a lot. In fact it is my favorite out of all the different versions of Sonic… Also, there was an objectively untapped potential to the Sonic X universe. I like many other people were a little confused when the show was over because it felt like a melting pot of several interesting ideas, but with few of them ever being developed.

-I also added/changed the origin stories of some characters because I thought it enriched the lore and added to the understanding of the characters themselves.

-I have been working on this since I published my last story in 2011. It took much longer than I would have liked it to but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

Scene 1

Knuckles Destiny


Knuckles felt a sense of purpose for the first time in his life as Tikal walked him around the modern ruins of the once great echidna race. Tikal held the torch to lead the way through the cavernous depths.

Tikal: This is the thrown room and city market place where everybody would go about his or her daily lives

Knuckles: The king used to rule among the common folk?

Tikal snickered at his surprise "Yes he did. My Dad used to love being among the people. This big open area was the main stretch of town. All of those large wholes in the walls on both sides of us used to be where the people lived and worked."

Knuckles looked around in wonder as the torch lit up the ancient caverns on both sides. You could tell that they were echidna made formations in the rock because they stretched up for 8 stories like the floors of an apartment building but with only openings and no railings. The kings chair and throne were at the very end of the long room.

Knuckles: Was this place always underground?

Tikal: Yes but it wasn't quite as deep underground in the past. We used to walk up a small flight of steps over there to go outside. Now, these ruins are buried a few thousand feet underground.

Knuckles: When are we?

Tikal: This is an undisclosed time, but we come here to make sure there can be no interference from the outside world. Come here Knuckles!

Knuckles focus shifted from the caves around him to Tikal who was standing in front of a large round basin with water flowing from somewhere in the darkness of the ceiling. Knuckles walked up to Tikal and they both looked down at the clear water below them.

Knuckles: How is this possible?

Tikal: This whole place is still powered by the master emerald but power is kept to a minimal to keep anyone from tracing the flow of energy here.

Tikal proceeded to take the gem out of her gold headband and placed it into a small slot on the side of the basin. The whole place began lighting up from the entrance to the kings thrown. Knuckles gasped in wonder.

Tikal: Knuckles, you are more than just the last remaining echidna left on mobias. You come from a rich cultural heritage. But, we also, need your help.

Knuckles, once again distracted by now fully lit room focused his attention on Tikal.

Knuckles: My help?

Tikal: Yes.

There was a pause as Tikal decided where to begin. "You know the story of how our race was ended by Perfect Chaos."?

Knuckles: Yes.

Tikal: That story is not entirely true.

Knuckles: What?!

Tikal: What nobody else on earth or mobias knows, is that I pleaded with Chaos afterwards to do something to save our race. I was so heartbroken; I begged it to take my life also. Without my father and my people to be with, my misery was complete. Chaos, moved to compassion, vowed to never destroy a race again. He took me back in time and let me choose 10 echidnas to spare so we could repopulate our race. We didn't succeed in saving our race but we did manage to save the world.

Knuckles: Why that's ridiculous! Why couldn't it just go back and stop the whole thing from happening? Why couldn't…

Tikal put her finger on his lip to stop him from talking. "He couldn't, because changing a timeline involves risk so great that it can create a temporal paradox that destroys the entire universe! No, Chaos did what he could.

"This is why I brought you here Knuckles, to explain to you what your real purpose is"…. Tikal touched the water in the basin and to Knuckles surprise, an image formed in the water and change according to Tikal's narration. "After our race was destroyed, Chaos helped me to rebuild our race. It wasn't without its drawbacks. My father disagreed with many of the suggestions of Chaos and at times threatened to kill him if he didn't restore things to the way they were. I kept the peace between the two but the hardest part was all of the assignments we were given to travel through time with the help of Chaos to prevent certain events from destroying our universe.

Knuckles: Why haven't you ever told me Tikal?!

Tikal: In time, you will wish that I hadn't told you… Do you remember feeling drawn to the master emeralds energy? Do you remember the long naps you used to take next to it, feeling safe, and comfortable?

Knuckles: Yes.

Tikal: That wasn't an accident. Not only was our race sincere in our worship of God, we became intimately connected to the chaos emeralds in a way that no other race ever has.

Knuckles: What are you trying to say Tikal?

Tikal: The power that God grants us through the chaos emeralds is a responsibility to keep this world from falling apart. All of those times you spent napping by the chaos emerald, will eventually be used by you to save the world…When you are given an assignment by chaos, we will summon you from those times you weren't doing anything by the master emerald and leave a holographic projection of you there while you go and save the universe from complete annihilation!

Knuckles: Are you serious?! What about you?

Tikal: I have used up almost every spare moment of my life Knuckles, as well as all the surviving members of my family to keep the past safe. All of us died saving the world, except you Knuckles. We are the reason you are standing here right now. You would be shocked at how many times mobias has come close to complete destruction.

Knuckles: And you need me to make sure there are no anomalies in our timeline?

Tikal: Why yes! Each one of use is given a period of about a thousand years to watch over and nurture. In your case, we need more. You see we haven't found the ultra mobian in any of our timelines. It has to be in yours Knuckles.

Knuckles sighed. "You referring to the prophesy of the super mobian that will bring peace to all of mobias and balance to the chaos emeralds?"

Tikal: Yes.

Knuckles sighed. "Unfortunately I have an idea of who that might be".

Scene 2

Sonics Vision


Sonic was slowly floating into a cave. The cave seemed to go on forever. However, Sonic could see a tiny light at the very end. An eerie feeling loomed in the air, as was often the case in a dream. Sonic knew he was asleep, but could not wake himself up. He was being pulled into the cave slowly by a mysterious force. He couldn't move his legs. Sonic could see himself from the front. He had a glazed and expressionless look on his face. Both of his arms were straight down by his sides. Sonics eyes were as black as the cave; except for his pupils…they were blindingly bright. The only other lights in the cave were small torches, which were dispersed about 20 feet from each other. Sonic could only see the light emanating from his pupils until a lantern approached. The lantern illuminated his blue expressionless face once again. Sonic knew this dream all too well.

Sonic found himself in the past when he lived on earth with Chris and all of his friends. Sonic had Chris hug him from behind while he ran at supersonic speeds. They laughed together as the air was rushing by them like a jet turbine. They reached Chris's grandmothers house within a matter of minutes (a 200 mile jog for Sonic). When they reached their destination, Chris's grandmother came out with arms wide open. "Chris!" They embraced and said each other's hellos, before Chris turned back to Sonic.

Sonic: Well, I better get home now, I think Tails wanted to show me something he made today.

Chris walked over and knelt down so he could be at eye level with Sonic. Sonic smiled at Chris and put his hand on his shoulder.

Sonic: So, what time should I pick you up?

Chris stared and smiled at Sonic for a few seconds before he reached out and embraced Sonic in his arms. It was the first time Chris hugged Sonic. Sonic was surprised at first, but then wrapped his arms around Chris. Chris abruptly broke the hug with Sonic.

Chris: Uhh, Sorry Sonic. I didn't mean to embarrass you like that. I,,,I don't know what came over me.

Sonic: Why? What's the matter?

Chris: Tails told me. As a rule, you don't like to show your emotions.

Sonic: Tails was right!

Chris lowered his head with shame, but Sonic lifted it with his thumb and forefinger.

Sonic: Hay pal. That rule does not apply with my friends. I consider both you and Tails my best friends, and when it comes to my best friends, I don't hold back.

Sonic grabbed Chris's head by his hands and kissed him on his forehead.

Sonic: I'll pick you up in 3 hours. If you are going to take anything home from your grandmother's house, make sure you put it in your duffle bag by the time I get back.

Suddenly Sonic disappeared in a flash of wind, leaving Chris with an astonished look on his face.

Chris's face and everything else slowly washed itself in light, until the light from the torch faded. Sonic found himself floating in the cave again. The light from the lantern signified an intimate moment with Chris from Sonics past. There was nothing but blackness again, but the next memory was approaching. Sonic slowly turned his head to the other side of the cave towards the next memory lantern. The light got brighter and brighter, until Sonics world was washed in light again.

This time Sonic found himself at the grocery store waiting for everybody else. Chris's grandfather pulled up in his car with the top down as Tails, and Chris were laughing and joking together. When the car stopped, Tails flew up onto Chris's shoulders and wrapped his legs around his neck. Tails grabbed both of Chris's hands as he flew up into the air, pulling Chris up with him over the car doors and onto the parking lot. They were both laughing out loud as they landed.

The sun only added to the warm feelings of love and friendship that permeated the air. The parking lot was relatively empty because of their special privileges to the grocery store on Monday. Sonic and friends could hardly go anywhere without a crowd. Their celebrity status grew so big that the government set aside a certain times of day when Sonic and friends could go grocery shopping alone on Monday.

Sonic: Hay, I've never seen you lift someone that big into the air Tails. Let's see if you can pull both of your best friends into the air at the same time. Chris was holding onto Tail's shoes as he looked up at Tail's face. Tail's looked down to meet with Chris's eyes. They smiled at each other. They both knew how much it meant for Sonic to admit in public that they were his best friends.

Chris knelt down by Sonic and lifted Tail's off of his shoulders.

Chris: Hop on Sonic!

Sonic smiled and leapt up onto Chris's back, wrapping his legs around Chris's neck. Then, Chris lifted Tails up onto Sonics' back, so that Tails could wrap his legs around Sonics' neck. Both Sonic and Chris could feel the rush of wind from Tail's tails as they whirled around like a helicopter. All three of them giggled and laughed as Tails easily lifted both of them into the air.

Sonic had to yell through all the wind so that Chris, and Tails could hear him. "That's my buddy! He's been working out with those tails!

Chuck got out of the car and laughed at the site of all three of them struggling to keep each other in the air as they made their way to the grocery store.

The light of the dream dwindled as the next memory lantern washed over Sonic, he found himself in yet another memory. This memory took place not long after the last one.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails were all strapped against a wall while Chuck ran tests on all of them to learn more about Mobian physiology. Chuck was the only scientist that Sonic and the gang let run tests on them.

Sonic: I still don't see what good this will do.

Chris: It will help us know how to help you Sonic in case anything ever happened to you. Besides, the government agreed to let you all live here as long as Grandpa Chuck agreed to share information about you.

Knuckles: What do they need information about us for? We're no threat to them.

Chris: I know that and you know that Knuckles but let's just say that our government is jittery when it comes to national security. They like to know everything they can to protect us.

Sonic: This is absurd. We don't need anything like this on mobias. On mobias, your actions prove whether or not you are trustworthy. The only reason they would do this is if they didn't trust us.

Chris: I know Sonic, but please do this for us. The government can really make it difficult on us if they wanted to.

Sonic sighed. "Alright. If it's for you Chris, I will do it."

Tails: Besides, this might be interesting Sonic. I never thought of actually measuring our strength, or speed.

Grandpa Chuck came by and unlocked the metal clamps that held everyone's arms to the wall but left their feet clamped on the ground.

Chuck: Ok everyone. Here is some breakfast, a banana for everyone to eat. I need each of you to keep up your strength. Besides, it will be interesting to see how your systems assimilate potassium into your blood streams.

Knuckles: A bana what?

Chris: It's a banana. It's a fruit that we grow here. You peel it like this and eat the inside of it.

As Chris demonstrated how to peel the banana and eat it, each of them awkwardly followed his instructions. Tails broke off a piece and slowly ate it. Knuckles squashed the banana in his hands when he gripped it to peel off the top. Sonic peeled the top off, sniffed it, then took a long look at the giant fan Grandpa Chuck set up in his lab to keep all of them cool while the air conditioning system got replaced.

Sonic took the banana and nonchalantly threw it into the fan. The guts of the banana sprayed out onto all of them. They all awkwardly looked over each other and the banana goop that covered each of them. When the moment of silence passed, they all laughed out loud uncontrollably.

Chuck walked up to them to find out what all the commotion was about, "Well, I guess you all are as ready as your going to be".

Tails: We're ready Chuck!

Knuckles: Wait, I have an itch on my foot!

Knuckles raised his foot up breaking the metal strap holding his foot from the cement floor while he scratched it with his hand.

Chris looked over at Knuckles in awe while Grandpa Chuck stood in shock at the discovery of Knuckles strength.

Chuck pressed a button on his pad and a door opened in front of Knuckles. A long metal rod rose from the ground in front of Knuckles. "Knuckles. I want you to bend and mold this piece of mettle the best that you can."

Knuckles picked up the bar, bent it half several times, then with both ends between his hands, proceeded to squeeze the metal together into a ball without much effort.

After Knuckles squeezed the metal between his hands as much as he could he threw it down on the ground in front of Grandpa Chuck with a loud thud. The metal was glowing red from the pressure it just took from the force of Knuckles hands.

Sonic: Is there something wrong? Is it my turn yet?

Chuck looked over at Sonic, "Sonic, that bar was pure Osmium." Sonic frowned, "So?" "That bar weighed just over a ton. Chris and I couldn't even lift that bar let alone bend it!"

Sonic: That is to be expected. Me, Knuckles and Shadow are super mobians. Some mobians are born with certain, abilities. The ones that are, are honored among my people.

Chuck: Hmmm. If I were to guess right now, you Sonic are probably strong enough to pick a car up and throw it over your head. Knuckles here could probably do the same with a Semi!

Sonic: That's ridiculous! Old red face here isn't stronger than I am. He would like to think that he is!

Knuckles: Ha! Is it so hard to believe that I am better at something than you, hedgehog?

Sonic: Let me have one of those rods, I'll prove him wrong.

Chuck pressed another button on his remote and another rod lifted up from the ground for Sonic. Sonic picked up the bar with a big smirk on his face. However, the smirk soon disappeared as Sonic struggled to perform the same task as Knuckles. He managed to bend the bar a few, but couldn't bend it again. Sonic struggled with all his might until there was a loud crack as the bar snapped in half.

Chuck: Amazing! You mobians are not only faster than us; you're much stronger. It must be something about the molecular density in your skin, muscles, and fur!

Sonic: What about my fur?

Chuck: I brushed up against the quills on your back accidentally while I was getting a sample. I thought I would have stabbed my hand, but it was soft to the touch!

Sonic blushed a little from the remark. It was an intimately kind gesture to complement the softness of a mobians fur.

Chuck: Maybe if I ran more tests I could determine the source of this strength and why your fur can withstand so much and still feel soft.

Chuck started to tapping on his pad to record the results until he realized that Chris was laying lying over on the floor unconscious. "Chris!"

Chuck dropped his equipment as he made his way over to Chris. Both Sonic and Knuckles ripped the metal clamps that kept their feet stuck to the ground with ease and ran over to Chris. Tails yelled, "Someone let me out! I need to see if Chris is ok!" Tails may have had super tails, but he didn't have super strength. Knuckles ran over and tore the metal from his shoes to free him and they both ran over to see Chris.

Sonic: Chris! Chris! Are you ok?

Chris slowly lifted himself from the ground and sat looking up at Sonic on his knees.

Chris: Uh. Ya, I think so Sonic. A piece of the metal bar you broke in half hit me in the head.

Chuck: Let me see that! Oh, you got a pretty good hit in the head Chris. We should get you to the hospital just in case there is a concussion.

Sonic looked at Chuck horrified. "You mean you humans are really that delicate?" Sonic turned back to Chris.

Sonic: I promise you Chris, I will never let anything happen to you again.

Tails smiled at Chris. "Do you know how important a promise is to a mobian Chris?"

Before Chris could answer, Sonic picked him off of his feet. "I will take him to the emergency room. He sounds like he is fine but I just want to be sure he is alright." After Sonics words, he took off in a flash of blue.

The light from the lantern suddenly faded and Sonic found himself back in the same cave. Each lantern had one of Sonics most treasured memories. The light at the end of the tunnel signified anything but a treasured memory. In fact, it contained Sonics worst nightmare. It was much closer now. Sonic could hear himself screaming and wailing in the background. He tried with all of his might to wake himself up, but he couldn't. The inevitable was coming. Sonic floated up to a door with a perfectly square window on it. The light from the window was blinding Sonic, but he couldn't look away. Suddenly the door slid open and Sonic floated into the light.

Sonic found himself back on Mobias years after they defeated the Meterex, when Chris was living with Sonic.

Tails: So Chris, when are you going to meet up with Dr. Eggman?

Chris: This evening.

Sonic: I still don't see why you feel he can be trusted Chris. I wish you would stay away from him.

Chris: I know, but I see some good in him Sonic. You remember that he helped us defeat the Meterex? He also sent me home later when I had no way of getting home remember?

Sonic: Yes, yes. Well personally I think he had a hidden motive in sending you home Chris.

Chris: And, I haven't forgotten what he did all those years ago to my city and its people. I just think that Eggman is a good man deep down. He had a bad childhood, that's all.

Sonic smiled at Chris and jokingly bumped him with his fist in the stomach… "Ya, well, I think that big heart of yours is going to get you into trouble someday.

Chris: Wait there Sonic. I forgot some research notes from home. I'll just run and get them.

Sonic smiled as he watched Chris turn back to his house on Mobias. They just left Chris's house and were only about 20 meters from it.

"I won't be long," said Chris as he turned back and smiled at Sonic. Suddenly Chris slammed into something. It jolted Chris severely enough to push him backwards onto his rump.

Chris: Wha? What was that?

Chris looked in front of him and there was nothing there.

"Chris! Are you ok?" Sonic came running over to Chris to help him up but he was knocked back just like Chris was. Chris got up and started to walk towards Sonic but he bumped into the same invisible barrier. Both Sonic and Chris looked at each other with concerned and confused look. Sonic sprang up and put his hands up to feel for what blocked him. When he came within 10 feet of Chris, he heard Eggman's voice boom out through a speaker.

Eggman: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! It's just too easy to fool you, you stupid hedgehog!

Chris: Eggman! What is the meaning of this? What are you doing?

Eggman: I think you already know what this is about Chris!

Suddenly Tails came running out around a bush. "SONIC! SONIC!" Tails ran up to Sonic and stopped to catch his breath.

Sonic: What is it Tails?

Tails: Sonic! The chaos emeralds are missing from the lab!

Chris: No! Why would you do that Eggman! You have come so far! Why would you just throw away our friendship like that?

Tails looked at Chris with confusion. "Eggman? Where is Eggman? I don't see him"

Eggman: That's because you twerps need to look up to see me.

Everybody looked up but still did not see anything. Then, the air and trees above them seemed to distort as a giant robot de-cloaked. It was one of the biggest Robots Sonic and friends ever saw. It stood about 50 meters tall. Shockingly, the robot was almost a perfect likeness to Sonic himself!

Then Sonic realized with horror that the robot was standing on one foot with the other hovering about 10 meters above Chris. Dr. Robotnik was in a glass compartment towards the top of robot.

Sonic: EGGMAN! THIS ISN'T FUNNY! IF THIS IS YOUR IDEA OF A JOKE!

Eggman: I'M AFRAID NOT MY LITTLE BLUE FRIEND! You see, I was actually starting to warm up to your little human friend here! He made me feel like I had some good in me! HAHAHAHAHA! WELL! Lets just say that I managed to scare myself! Well, I came to realize that this might be the ONLY way to defeat you Sonic! I have tried and tried throughout the years, but it occurred to me…maybe I'm going about it the wrong way! Maybe I have to destroy you from the inside out! Maybe I'll just take away you're greatest friend!

Sonic: EGGMAN NO!

Sonic spun into a ball and whipped at the robot with all of his might. The impacts from Sonic slamming into the robot could be heard for miles around. But nothing happened with all of Sonics efforts. The robot and force field between him and Chris wouldn't even budge.

Eggman: HAHAHAHAHAH! You stupid hedgehog! I betrayed Chris and stole the access codes to Tails lab! All the chaos emeralds are installed in my latest robot! You like it? I call it Spinner! I designed him after you Sonic! He can roll into a ball and roll over any buildings that stand in his way! But of course, as you can see, he can walk too!

Sonic: EGGMAAAANNN!

Chris: Dr. Robotnic! NO!

At that, Eggman raised the robots foot another 2 meters higher.

Chris looked Sonic and Tails both in the eyes and smiled… "I love both of you" A large metallic foot in the likeness of Sonics sneaker landed on top of Chris with an earth shattering thud. The shield deactivated just in time for all of Chris's blood to splash out onto Sonics hands.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" It was the first time that Tails ever saw Sonic cry. Tears were pouring out of his eyes like a leaky faucet. Tails stood there with both of his little hands clasped over his mouth in shock. Tails had to look away from Sonic at something else, anything! He couldn't stand to see Sonic feel so much pain. What he turned his gaze on was even worse, the remains of Chris.

Tails threw up at the sight, weeping bitterly.

Sonic: I'M SO SORRY CHRIS! I WASN'T FAST ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU!

Sonic looked at Chris's blood on his hands while weeping… "I'M SORRY CHRIS, I WASN'T FAST ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU!" Shortly afterward, he heard another voice echo throughout his head. It was Tail's voice.

Scene 3

Getting It Together


Tails: Sonic! Sonic! Sonic wake up!

Sonic suddenly snapped up by the campfire.

Tails: Sonic! It's ok! You were just dreaming!

Sonic was staring at his hands the same way he was staring at them in the dream. He was breathing heavily. He stared at his hands for a few moments, and then started to sob into them.

Sonic: Oh, Tails! I was dreaming about his death again!

Tails sat down next to Sonic and put his arm around him. "Are you gonna be ok Sonic?"

Sonic: Ya! Hmmm! Ya, I will Tails. I just need to catch my breath is all.

Tails rubbed Sonic on the back to comfort him. After Sonic regained his composition, he grabbed Tails with his one arm to give him a hug from the side. After a few intimate moments together, Sonic got up and strolled out to the opening of the cave to look out onto the horizon of the strange landscape of Earth and Mobias mixed together. It was mid-day, or so everyone thought. Nobody could really tell what time of day it was anymore since it was always dark. Eggman made sure of that. He changed the rotation of the planet so that earth wouldn't rotate anymore, and then made almost every human move to the dark side of the planet.

Earth and Mobias had been merging for almost 20 years after Chris's death. All of the buildings from Chris's world were overrun with the trees and vegetation and the snow of Mobias. In fact, the area looked like an uninhabited ancient city. Unfortunately, millions of Humans lived there in fear and squalor. They spent most of their lives running from Eggman and his government.

It was a cold clear night and the stars were so bright, you could see the cloud of stars that made up the Milky Way. It was always cold on the dark side of the planet and most people had to pay Eggman to receive any warmth from his planetary warming system. The cities that paid the most in taxes were rewarded with the most heat and food. You could always tell which cities were the poorest because there was always snow there. Sonic always liked to stay near the city where him, Chris and all his friends used to live. Sonic had not been here in years and It was a reminder to him of better days. The layer of ice on the buildings in the city glistened in the moonlight. Suddenly, a loud explosion could be heard off in the distance. Sonic turned to Tails as their eyes met.

Mobias and earth were merging together in a way where trees, mountains, and buildings from earth would come together with similar objects from mobias. A building from earth would suddenly come to exist in the same place and time as a mountain from mobias. The result was always a loud, booming explosion. It was happening so often now all over the planet, that everyone almost became immune to it.

Sonic looked away from Tails, back towards the mouth of the cave.

Tails: Sonic?

Sonic: Yes Tails?

Tails: I have never asked you this before, and I hope you don't take offense.

Sonic looked back at Tails. "You can ask me anything you want pal."

Tails: I know Chris meant a lot to you, and to all of us. But why has it affected you for so long? I mean, it was 20 years ago!

Sonic looked away from Tails and out onto the starry horizon. "You know Tails, I have often ask myself the same question. To be honest, I'm not sure. Of course, he was my best friend." Sonic looked back at Tails. "Of course you can imagine how you would feel if you lost me right?"

Tails lowered his head and swallowed. He was horrified at the idea of loosing Sonic. It took Tails a few seconds to regain his composure from the ghastly idea to continue to question Sonic… "Yes, but 20 years Sonic?"

Sonics' eyes softened as he stared out into the milky white night. "All I know Tails, is that when Chris died, something in me died too." Sonic lifted his hands again like he did in his dream to look at them… "I don't even have the will to run anymore Tails."

This wasn't something Tails didn't know. Sonic and Tails have spent the last 20 years running and hiding from Eggman. Tails held anger towards Sonic for the past 5 years because Tail's intellect had developed to the point where he was now an even match with Eggman. Unfortunately, Tails had been using all of his energy and intellect to keep Sonic alive. Occasionally Sonic would help out some humans and fellow mobians, but it never lasted long. Sonic would eventually fall right back into the same debilitating depression. It really was a wonder that Tails put up with Sonic at all.

Tails: What about me Sonic? Don't you consider me you're best friend?

Sonic looked at Tails with admiration. This was a fox that did everything for him and he had the markings to prove it. His fir was all frozen, dirty, and mangled. Eggman had also cut one of the tips of his tails off so he couldn't fly anymore. Finally, he was so skinny from starvation that his ribs were showing. "Of course you are Tails! And believe me, if it weren't for you, I would have completely lost my mind by now!"

There was a long awkward pause before Sonic started speaking again… "How about if I get you some food Tails. I haven't done that for you in a long time."

Tails's tails perked up. "Really Sonic? I am pretty hungry!"

Sonic: Or course you are! Look at you! You're ribs are showing! I need to get some meat on those bones again!

Tails smiled at Sonic as he warmed his hands by the fire. Sonic looked around to see what he could find. There were mostly woods below and an old abandoned grocery store at the foot of the hill. Sonics attention came to be focused on the grocery store because he could see light emanating from it. Artificial light was a rarity during these times. Nobody was allowed to have as much as even a flashlight if the proper taxes were not paid to Eggman. Sonic strained to focus on the activity since they were so high up on the hill. Sonic could make out that there were some large high powered lamps set up to light up the area. The grocery store was half destroyed. The remaining half had large holes in the roof with some of the isles grown over with Mobian vegetation. The large lamps lit up the overgrown parking lot and power had been restored to the remaining portion of the old grocery store.

Sonic whispered… "Hey, Tails. Put out that fire!" Tails looked up at Sonic with surprise but didn't question him. He ran over to the bucket of water they used together and poured it all over the fire.

Sonic: Something is going on down there, Tails. Let's go check it out!

Sonic zipped from shrub to shrub on his way down the hill until he reached a safe distance where he could see the activity at the grocery store. Tails stumbled down the hill and caught up with Sonic a few minutes later.

Tails peaked from behind Sonic with an innocent look in his eyes. Tails might have been over 40 years old now, but by mobian years, he was still a kid. Mobians lived at least 8 times longer than humans did and they matured slowly.

Tails whispered back at Sonic with anger. "Sonic! Look at what those soldiers are doing to those poor people!"

There were human soldiers carrying assault rifles patrolling 29 humans and 1 mobian cat. Their hands were bound behind their backs and they were sitting on the floor up against one of the grocery store isles. Only about half the grocery store was standing, and there was no wall on the front of it. The inside of the grocery store was completely exposed to the outside. The damage was probably due to one of Eggmans robots terrorizing the city within the past few months. Eggmans men were terrorizing the group with questions about their homes and family. The head soldier came walking toward the group with a spotlight in his hand. He gestured for the other soldiers to calm down.

Tails whispered… "Well at least someone is looking out for them".

Sonic whispered back… "I wouldn't be so sure."

Head Soldier: WHERE DO YOU LIVE! MY MEN HAVE BEEN QUESTIONING YOU FOR THE PAST HOUR AND I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU GROVELING PIPSQUEEKS!

Sonic whispered to Tails, "Tails! It's one of Eggmans tax posts!

Head Soldier: EGGMAN SENT ME HEAR TO COLLECT TAXES FROM EACH AND EVERY RESIDENT IN THIS CITY! YOU PEOPLE HAVEN'T CONTRIBUTED ANYTHING TO THE EMPIRE FOR MONTHS.

The soldier calmed his voice for effect and pointed at the prisoners with his pace stick. "You each know the rules. Every month, we all need to do our part to support the empire. "

A little girl wearing nothing but rags yelled out.. "But we don't have ANYTHING!"

The head soldier turned, and scowled as he walked towards the girl. "SHUT YOUR MOUTH! There are no excuses in the Eggman Empire!

Eggman had special rules when it came to taxing the poor. They were all gathered up in groups and terrorized until one of them either paid with their own home, or betrayed each other with the location of one of the others homes. The last and most horrifying rule of all was that if nobody betrayed anybody else with their last possessions', then one in the group would pay with their life.

The mobian cat growled before she spoke, "Leave her alone!"

The Soldier was leaning down towards girl until the cat spoke. Then he turned his head and walked towards the mobian.

Head Soldier: Well, Well, Well. The kitty has an attitude!

He leaned down to look the cat in the eye and pointed at her with his stick. "And what is a mobian doing out here anyway. You know that it is illegal for you to be here among humans. You know little kitty, I hear cat tastes pretty good. How would you like to pay for these slackers release by providing me and my buds with dinner tonight?"

A deep growl could be heard from the mobian cat as the soldier drew his hand back to lash her in the face with his stick. When the stick came into contact with her face, she lashed out with her claw. Before anybody knew it, the stick was in 4 pieces.

Tails and Sonic could see the red grow in the soldiers face as he examined the tiny stick that remained in his hand. The soldier stood up, walked over to his rifle and pointed it at the mobian cat.

Sonic whispered to Tails, "I can't let this happen Tails". Sonic was about to exit the bushes to come to the prisoners rescue, but Tails came diving out of nowhere and tackled Sonic to the ground.

Shocked, Sonic looked back at Tails with an alarmed disposition. "Tails, what are you doing?"

Tails: Shhhh! Quite Sonic! He is coming!

Sonic was in the middle of asking who, when Shadow flew right over them in his Super Shadow form. A gunshot rang out in the middle of the night. Tails was on top of Sonic as they looked up to find Shadow holding his fist in front of the mobian cats face. He had caught the bullet that the soldier just shot at the furry creature.

Head Soldier: WHAT ARE YOU DOING! EGGMAN GAVE ME AUTHORITY TO TAKE CARE OF THIS WITH ANY MEANS NECESSARY!

Glowing in his Super form Shadow flew right up to the soldier to look him directly into the eye.

Shadow: I don't want to see another one of your disgusting mobian meals at dinner with Eggman tonight. How would you feel if a human was served at dinner? We have located this cat's parents, and we are going to return her to them.

Shadow looked around at the other prisoners before he turned back to address the soldier again. Then he pointed at the soldiers face with his glowing hand, "Nobody dies tonight. Take their clothes if you have to, but I don't want to hear about another incident with you!" After Shadow finished speaking, he flew off into the night, northward towards Eggman's Imperial city.

Tails picked himself up off of Sonic as soon as Shadow disappeared into the distance. If Shadow had flown any closer to Sonic, the chaos emeralds would have illuminated him and turned him into Super Sonic. Of course, Sonic could have fought Shadow in his super form, but that would have just meant a battle to the death. If they had done that, they would have destroyed the nearby city with all of its inhabitants.

Sonic: Thanks buddy.

Tails: No problem Sonic!

Sonic: Now what do you say we save these humans from loosing the clothes off of their backs!

Tails: Let's go!

Sonic and Tails each got off of the ground and knelt down to peak from behind the bushes and assess the situation. Sonic looked around before he whispered to Tails. "Here is what we are going to do pal. We will tie the soldiers up to that flagpole up front, then we will get enough food for everyone to eat from the part of the grocery store that still works." Sonic stopped his speech when he saw the soldier point his gun at the mobian cat again…. "Change of plans Tails, I'm going to make these guys run home!"

Head Soldier: Too bad Shadow isn't anywhere around to save you now little kitty. I haven't eaten any beef in a long time and I'm in the mood for cat meat tonight!

As the soldier pushed the trigger his gun suddenly thrust itself up to shoot harmlessly into the sky.

Head Soldier: What just happened!

He looked at his gun and at his surroundings to search for anything suspicious. After he seemed satisfied that nothing was around to keep him from shooting, he aimed at the cat again. When he pulled the trigger his gun thrust up into the air again!

Head Soldier: WHAT'S GOING ON!

Anybody could tell that he was visibly flustered now. He was breathing heavily and turned around in a panic to look at his surroundings. In an angry panic, he called his other soldiers to him and ordered them to form a shooting squad at the entire group. Some of the soldiers were reluctant at first to follow his orders but he threatened them with their family's safety and eventually got them all to aim their weapons at every human and mobian there, 30 in all.

Head Soldier: On the count of 3, I want you all to pull the trigger at the same time! 1,,,,, 2,,,,,3!

All the soldiers' guns disappeared out of their hands before they could pull their triggers.

Sonic: Looking for these?

The soldiers turned around to find Sonic standing in front of a large pile of assault riffles. Before anyone could move they watched Sonic leap 30 feet into the air in a spin. Then he came crashing to the ground on top of the pile of weapons with an earth-shattering thud. The assault weapons exploded in all directions into several broken pieces underneath Sonics sneakers.

Head Soldier: YOU!

Sonic: Ya me! I know who I am, who are you?

Head Soldier: You are that Hedgehog that Eggman has been looking for! You are in big trouble!

The soldier reached down into one of his pockets.

Sonic: Looking for this?

When the officer looked up, he saw Sonic holding his hand held radio.

Head Soldier: YOU, YOU ARE GOING TO BE SORRY!

He reached into his jacket and took out a pistol and aimed it at Sonic. A gust of wind blew his hair in all directions as he pulled the trigger at Sonic. The gun only clicked with no discharge.

Sonic waged his finger at the soldier, and then held up his pistol clip with his other hand. "Now that was disrespectful my friend." Sonic took the clip and flipped the bullets out of the clip with his thumb.

Head Soldier: YOU LOUSY HEDGEHOG! EGGMAN WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS…HE IS GOING TO…

Sonic interrupted as he was speaking to hold up the soldier's belt from his pants.

Sonic: Ehh, keep your pants on. Eggman will find out about this eventually.

At that moment the soldier's pants fell down to the ground and everyone around him laughed out loud. Anybody could tell that the man's pride was shattered, as his face turned blood red.

Sonic: I tell you what little man. I'm going to give you till the count of three to get yourself and all of your men out of here…. 1….

The soldier screamed at the hedgehog at the top of his lungs. "2….." The soldier continued to confront Sonic as he counted… Sonic sighed and picked up one of the bullets he flipped onto the ground and held it in his right hand while still holding the clip in his left… "You know, I can throw this at you faster than your gun can shoot it." The soldier became silent. Sonic then crushed the metal clip with his left hand and took one step at the soldier while yelling… "Run squirrel… Get!" The soldier and his men took off running into the night.

Sonic: And don't let me catch you looking back or I'll take your shoes too!

Some of the prisoners cheered in approval as the soldiers staggered off into the night.

Sonic made a move towards the people tied against the freezer but half of them shrieked in fear. Knowing that they feared him, Sonic motioned for Tails to set them free.

Sonic: I know most of you are afraid of me, and I wouldn't blame you.

As soon as Tails untied the prisoners bonds, most of them took off running into the night. Sonic looked at the scarce few remaining.

Sonic: No doubt, those of you who stayed behind know my past.

Some of them shook their head in approval. The mobian cat revealed her feral smile. The little girl in rags was hiding behind her.

Sonic: You humans remember the good deeds I did for your planet when I lived on earth all those years ago.

Sonic looked to the mobian cat.

Sonic: And you, well, you know that more than they do.

Tails: Wait Sonic. What about the Soldiers? They will let Eggman know what has happened here as soon as they get to the next outpost.

Sonic: Ehh. I took out all of the outpost communications equipment for 70 miles. It will be two days before they can get to a transmitter. I left them rations every 10 miles.

Tails: When did you do all that Sonic?

Sonic smiled at Tails. Tails realized right away what happened and sighed.

Tails: Wow Sonic! I think you just get faster with age!

A brave teenage boy abruptly yelled out at Sonic, startling everyone around him. "HOW COULD YOU SONIC? HOW COULD YOU HAVE KILLED ALL OF THOSE PEOPLE! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?"

Sonic: Hmmm. Well my young friend, the short answer is, it wasn't me.

Anybody could see that the teenage boy was trying as hard as he could to contain his anger.

Sonic: I tell you all what. I will tell you everything. I just need you and everybody else to help me build a campfire over there first. You are all going to eat well tonight.

Tails looked up at Sonic with surprise. Tails was the only one Sonic ever trusted with his life story, and now Sonic was going to let everyone know. Tails wasn't angry about it. In fact, quite the opposite was true. Tails knew that Sonic was taking a big step away from his depression by opening up to the world.

A tear streamed down Tails' furry face, "I'm proud of you Sonic."

Sonic rubbed his friend on the head. "Common you, lets gather some firewood".

Scene 4

The campfire

The firelight cast a warm glow on everyone's smiling faces as they ate well for the first time in months. It didn't take long for Sonic to loosen up the party with a few jokes and some funny stories. Everyone was talking and enjoying him or herself as they ate all of the delicious food that Sonic cooked for them. Everybody ate his or her fill except for Tails who was still devouring the chicken that Sonic roasted for him. Tails had not eaten in over a week. When Tails had finally finished eating, he snuggled up next to Sonic and fell asleep on his lap. Sonic was warming his hands over the fire until Tails came to him, then he started stroking Tails' furry head. Laughter and warm conversation could be heard for miles around as the people conversed with each other and Sonic. Sonic even found a black man named Charles who was a friend of Chris's at school. Sonic was delighted to hear that somebody replaced him as Chris's friend when he had to leave Chris all those years ago.

However, the teenage boy that spoke up earlier wasn't enjoying himself in the slightest. He was sitting on a log, staring at Sonic. He was enduring this time with him. Sonic ignored the boy for the time being while he finished eating his chilidog that he found at the grocery store. After Sonic finished eating he looked around at his surroundings with a puzzled look.

Sonic: Does this place look familiar to any of you?

Teenage Boy: So let's have it hedgehog! Why don't you explain to everyone how you are not a murderer, when everyone here clearly saw you in the act?

Everyone was silent. Sonic could tell that some people were shaking. The little girl was still hiding behind the mobian cat.

Sonic: What is your name kid?

Teenage Boy: Ozzy.

Sonic: Ok, Ozzy. I will explain everything.

Sonic looked over at Chris's old friend from school

Sonic: You all deserve to know what happened to me.

Sonic paused to gather his strength before he started telling his story.

Sonic: Most of you remember me when I lived here on earth with Chris Thordyke.

Sonic motioned towards the mobian cat. "The mobians knew me from when I was a boy. They know without a doubt that I could not kill anybody.

Ozzy shook his head while listening to Sonic. "Are you out of your mind hedgehog? We, all saw you when you…"

Sonic: You humans saw me terrorize and murder. My fellow mobians have not. Dr. Eggman keeps all mobians within the empire. Most of my fellow mobians have not seen what Eggman has done to you humans and your cities.

Ozzy: For the last time, we saw you kill innocent civilians. You yourself just admitted to it!

Sonic: What you saw Ozzy, was a robot designed to look exactly like me. I know; I have seen it many times. Eggman has used it personally to kill almost all of my friends.

Ozzy was still skeptical, but his anger died had down significantly.

Charles: Then where have you been Sonic? Why haven't you saved us before? Why aren't you saving these two planets right now?

Sonic lowered his head in shame.

Sonic: It all started when Eggman used his robot to kill Chris, my best friend. After Chris died, I lost all hope. I hid, like a coward Ozzy.

Sonic looked towards Ozzy. "Surely you must know what that feels like, to run from Eggman? Feeling sick to your stomach with hopelessness and fear? Ozzy gazed at Sonic for a moment before he responded.

Ozzy: Ya, I know what it feels like. I lost everyone I loved because of Eggman.

Sonic: Then we both know each other better then we think. I have lost all my friends, except for Tails here.

Tails was now sound asleep in Sonics lap. Sonic looked down at Tails with admiration and petted him on the head. Charles scratched his head in confusion.

Charles: Yes, but, why would you run for 20 years? Even I have taken stances against Eggmans soldiers within that time. How could you NOT take a stand?

Sonic: To understand my answer, first you must understand how close Chris and I were. I lived with Chris Thorndyke on your planet, I'd say about…25 years ago. This much you know. However, after we were forced to leave, I went back for Chris after 5 years on mobias.

The mobian cat was intrigued. "Really? Why did you go back for him after 5 short years?"

Sonic: Because time isn't the same on mobias as it is on earth. One year on mobias is several years on earth. I came to realize that Chris was probably an old man back on earth after 5 years. I, I couldn't stand the idea of loosing him. I broke the rules and brought him back here to mobias.

Everybody started whispering to each other, discussing Sonics revelation. After Sonic started to speak again, the noise died down.

Sonic: So yes, it was I who started this whole process. I am the reason why earth and mobias are merging together right now. But, when I brought Chris back here, he had a kid's body again. Chris and all of us had a good time together for the next several months. But after parts of Earth started appearing here on Mobias, Chris felt that he had to go home. He wanted to go home to prevent a tragedy. You see, Chris became a genius scientist like Tails here. He believed that his presence here on Mobias would eventually bring Earth here. His theory was that eventually Earth and Mobias would be completely merged, causing time to stop. He also believed that if the merging process was not balanced, that both worlds could eventually explode. Chris attempted to leave in secret several times.

Sonic straightened his back to strengthen his next statement.

Sonic: I stopped him.

The group seemed to gasp in unison.

Ozzy: If it weren't for you, none of this would have happened!

Sonic took a deep breath and sighed.

Sonic: I know Ozzy. It is hard for me to explain how close we were. We were best friends. If I had let Chris go back, it was likely that he would have died on his world.

"Why would he have died?" inquired the mobian cat.

Sonic: Whenever he returns to his world, he reverts to the age he should be on Earth. If he returned, he could have been 90 years old, and died instantly. After I made it clear to him that I would not let him sacrifice himself to save both worlds, his only option was to start working on a way to safely merge both worlds together. He worked with Tails for months to come up with a plan to save both planets. After a while, they realized that the quantum physics were to complex, even for them. They needed help. Chris, being the kind hearted kid he was, believed that he could elicit the help of Eggman. He felt that Eggman had some good in him. So, they worked together for a time to stabilize both planets. If they would have succeeded, then Chris could have lived here without the two worlds merging together.

Ozzy: That still doesn't explain much.

Sonic: Well, Dr. Eggman turned on Chris, killed him, and seized control of mobias. As soon as cities from earth started appearing here on mobias, Eggman seized control of them too. He has 2 tools of mass destruction at his disposal. The first, Ozzy has seen. It is a giant robot that looks just like me. The second is Shadow the hedgehog. Eggman must have put Shadow through a lot to die his fur bright blue like mine. I saw Shadow destroy most of Chicago myself. Eggman used his giant Sonic robot to destroy your very own Station Square.

Sonic turned to Ozzy. "No offense Ozzy, but did you believe that I could change my size?"

Ozzy was much calmer now as he answered, "We hardly know anything about you mobians. Plus, look what you can do! You are faster, and stronger then any of us humans! You all seem to have strange powers of some kind! Nobody around here understands you!"

Sonic smiled at Ozzy. "This is true Ozzy. We mobians don't even understand, until we get to know each other."

Ozzy: What do you mean?

Sonic: Some mobians are considered super mobians, like me. I can run at nearly limitless speeds, I'm much stronger than any human, and can withstand large impacts. Some mobians have nearly limitless powers, and yet others have none.

Charles: I miss him Sonic. I miss Chris.

Sonic lowered his head in sadness.

Sonic: I know. Chris's death was the straw that broke my back. But that was not all that Eggman did to me. After running for 5 years, Eggman finally trapped me. He strapped his machines to my brain, and forced me to live through all the destruction he brought to this world through his robots eyes. Sometimes he strapped a camera onto Shadow, and I had to live through all of his murderous deeds.

Sonic looked up with a stern look on his face while he continued his story.

Sonic: I lived a dream for 5 years. Eggman wanted me to think that I killed all of those people. He forced me see and live so much of it, I actually started to believe that it was my fault. I didn't know the difference between a dream and reality anymore. But worst of all, he made me relive my best friends death far to many times than I care to count.

Tails, seemingly sensing Sonics pain, woke up and snuggled up beside him to comfort him. Sonic looked down at Tails and put his arm around Tails's shoulder.

Sonic: My friend Tails here and Knuckles devised a plan to rescue me and succeeded at great cost. Tails and I made it, but Knuckles was killed. After they busted me out, Tails had to rehabilitate me so I could function normally again. I felt like Eggman was playing a game with his machine to make me think I had been rescued, but was still in his dungeon. I have been recuperating ever since. Or, at least I have been trying to recuperate.

Sonics' sad tale stunned the crowd. Everybody looked in amazement at Sonic as the sound of the crackling fire eventually consumed the awkward silence that preceded it.

Sonic looked slightly distracted as he regained his composure and looked at Ozzy.

Sonic: Speaking of mysteries Ozzy, we mobians find you humans pretty mysterious too.

Ozzy: In what way?

Sonic: You humans look up to us and wish you could have our mobian powers. Powers are taken for granted by mobians. You could have all the super powers in the universe, but it doesn't do you much good if you don't learn quickly from your mistakes.

Charles: What are you saying Sonic?

Sonic: We mobians live much longer lives than you do. We could live for almost 1000 years. But, we mature much slower than you humans do. I am still considered a teenager by your human standards. Tails here is still a kid. 20 years of running from Eggman isn't much by mobian standards if you think about it. Maturity is the most revered trait among us mobians. This may sound crazy to you, but we look up to you humans for it.

Charles: Really?

Sonic: Really.

Sonic paused to consider his words, and then continued.

Sonic: Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that we are dumb. There is a big difference between knowledge and wisdom. You humans have the most amazing ability to see the good in another human and make peace with each other! Us mobians? Ha! If we ever get into an argument, we would be brawling for years on end. We are very emotional.

Sonic looked down at the ground to reminisce for a moment. "Chris was the wisest person I ever knew. Most people thought he was just a spoiled rich kid. But they didn't know him like I did."

Charles: Like we did.

Sonic looked up at Charles and smiled at him. Sonic paused to take a breath, and then slapped his knees with his hands.

Sonic: So. That is my story. You are the first people I have told besides Tails here.

Sonic rubbed Tail's back as he looked up at Sonic with admiration.

Sonic motioned towards the mobian cat and the human girl.

Sonic: What about you two? How did you end up together? Eggman forbids all contact between humans and mobians.

The mobian cat revealed a feral smile as she spoke. "My name is Christie. This is my human friend Ashley."

Sonic: Nice to meat you little Ashley.

Ashley hid behind Christie in fear.

Christie: You will have to excuse my little friend here. She lost her whole family to Dr. Robotnics' Sonic lookalike robot. She is still terrified of you.

Sonic sighed, "I understand."

Christie: I am a mobian guard.

Sonic: Really? What information has been saved from Eggman?

Charles: Mobian guard?

Tails: Humans don't have an exact equivalent. It is kind of like a prophet, but they are also someone who is charged with keeping all of mobias's history intact.

Sonic turned towards Christie again.

Sonic: The question is, how much mobian history is left after Eggman came to destroy it all.

Christie: Not much unfortunately. My family could chose only one book to save. We had to choose something that would save the essence of who were as a people.

Tails: Which book?

Christie: The Mobian Letter.

Charles: What's that?

Christie: Humans don't really have anything exactly like it. It is kind of like your Bible. The difference is, the prophecies come true every 5 years or so, like clockwork.

Christie's fangs glistened in the light of the fire as she smiled directly at Sonic.

Christie: Want to know which prophecy comes true next?

Sonic shrugged at the prospect. He knew that the prophecy spoke of a hedgehog similar to himself. Many citizens of mobias revered Sonic as a sort of religious figure because of it.

Sonic moved to quickly change the subject.

Sonic: That's good Christie, but how did you and Ashley meet?

Christie: Alison was only seven years old when I found her. I was sneaking around in one of the last remaining human libraries, which of course was kept hidden from Eggman for years. At least, it was hidden until the day I met Alison. I couldn't afford to be detected by any human, but I was so engrossed in one of their books that I lost track of what was going on around me, until Alison found me. Alison, being the sweat little girl that she is, introduced herself to me. She didn't seem to care that most humans were made to believe by Eggman that mobians were evil. At first I was going to run, but then Eggman came crashing through the roof with one of his giant robots, the one that looked like Sonic. Well, the humans there were helpless. The ceiling came crashing down. I felt sorry for her and grabbed her.

Christie shrugged from the painful memory.

Christie: It was a 20-foot leap to get onto the roof of the building. I was of course the only one there who was able to jump that high. No other human survived, including little Ashley's parents.

Christie paused for a moment to catch her breath, "My parents knew that the best way to hide information from Eggman was in poverty. And so, Ashley and me have been together ever since."

Sonic was so heartbroken by the story, that he had to hold back his tears. There was a long pause before anybody spoke again.

Sonic: I am sorry. I am so sorry to every one of you here. I have been through a horrifying experience but sometimes I fail to realize that I am not the only one. I WILL defeat Eggman and bring balance back between these two worlds. Or, I'll die trying.

There were a few awkward moments of silence before somebody spoke.

Ozzy: You were going to tell us about the next prophecy to come true for mobias.

Sonic leaned back on his elbows and stretched out his legs. He sighed and gave a disapproving look at Tails. Tails smiled and squinted his eyes cutely. He knew that Sonic was hopping that Christie would forget to tell the story.

Christie: Well. Legend tells us of a Hedgehog, much like Sonic who will race to the rescue against great evil.

Everyone on mobias knows that Sonic here is our protector.

Charles: Protector?

Christie: Hmm, maybe I can compare him to…no, that wouldn't work. I know, there was a God in your human texts that took on human form to die for all. Sonic here isn't exactly like that. You see, for us God gave us the chaos emeralds. The emeralds themselves have the power of God inside them. He lends his power to several mobians, but to one mobian every 1000 years to protect, and if necessary, die for the mobian race.

Christie looked over to Sonic with her cat smile. "Right now, that person is Sonic."

Ozzy: But how can you be sure?

Tails: According to the texts, there is only one mobian that can turn super in the presence of all the emeralds

Charles: But, what about Shadow?

Christie: I have to admit; every mobian guard I know has not been able to explain that discrepancy.

Annoyed, Sonic shifted his weight to sit up and lean on one elbow so he could see everyone.

Sonic: Can't we talk about something else?

There was an awkward pause as everyone looked over to Sonic.

Tails: You have to excuse my friend here. This is an uncomfortable subject for him. Many mobians revere him as a savior like figure and…

Sonic: And, I'm just a mobian like you. Don't get my wrong, I'm better at everything than everybody, but they expect perfection out of me…

Tails: According to the mobian letter.

Tails started snorting through his words while he tried to keep himself from laughing.

Tails: According to the letter… He has to be an example for all. He needs to be an example of how everyone should behave.

At that point Tails started laughing out loud. Christie started to laugh too. Nobody else laughed because they didn't know Sonic like they did… Sonic was irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes rude. Sonic crossed his arms in protest but managed a quaint smile.

Christie continued. "According to the text, there would be three mobian protectors. The first one died over a thousand years ago. For reasons unknown, nobody remembers his name. Our historians haven't found much about him, but they have been able to piece together enough data to determine that he looked a lot like Shadow." She pointed at Sonic, "Sonic here is our current protector, and the text even speaks of a future protector."

An un-named boy from the crowd spoke out, "who will that be?"

Christie: The text does not speak of who it will be and what he will look like. It only mentions that he will be able to move things with his mind.

Charles: So what is this prophesy about Sonic here?

Christie: Well, if the prophecy comes true, Sonic here will sacrifice him self and everybody else to save us.

Charles: What does that mean?

Christie smiled at Charlie, "Nobody knows." She paused to consider her thoughts for a moment before continuing, "I can tell you though, that killing someone is the hardest thing for a mobian to do. I can't imagine anything more painful than being somehow forced to kill someone, especially someone you love."

Christie continued on with the fragmented stories for ten minutes before she passively mentioned that the Hedgehog would have dreams. Sonic sat up with interest and held up his hand to stop her.

Sonic: Wait, wait, wait. I don't remember that part of the story. Back up to the part about the dreams. What kind of dreams?

Christie had a perplexed look in her eyes as she looked over at Sonic.

Christie: Sure Sonic. Like I said, my family and I have been tasked with keeping the stories alive. It is a detail many mobians might not know. The hedgehog will know that he is the chosen hedgehog with his dreams. Lets see, he will have dreams about the past, and the future.

Christie paused in thought trying to remember the rest. "Ah yes and his dreams will mix together to reveal details about his past as well as mixed places." She continued on with the story but Tails could tell that Sonic was lost in thought while staring at the fire. "He will then right most of what is wrong, and restore balance and order to all of Mobias."

Sonic stood up and paced back and forth with his thumb and forefinger on his chin. "Mixed places."

Tails: What is it Sonic?

Sonic stopped for a second to look at Tails, then continued pacing.

Christie: Sonic?

Sonic paced back and forth for a few more seconds before he stopped and pointed at Tails.

Sonic: That's it!

Tails: What's it Sonic?

Sonic: Mixed places! Remember the dream with Chris that I have been having for the past 15 years?

Tails: Of course, you have told me many times.

Sonic: Whenever I dream about the day of Chris's death, I always dream of the old supermarket that we used to shop at for groceries. Then it skips ahead to when Chris lived with us on mobias!

Tails: Yes. Chris died on mobias.

Sonic stopped in his tracks and looked over at the nearby grocery store. Earth has been intersecting with mobias since he died. This is the grocery store Tails!

Tails got up to look at the grocery store above all the people sitting at the campfire.

Tails: Wow! Your right Sonic! It was hard to recognize with all the destruction and rubble around here.

Sonic: Mixed places. Which means!

At that moment Sonic walked over to a drop in the parking lot. There was a lot of growth, but the yellow lines for the parking spaces could still be faintly seen beneath it all.

Sonic: Tails! This big drop in the parking lot!

Tails: Ya, it looks like a small hill Sonic.

Sonic: Tails, why would there be a hill in the middle of a parking lot?

Sonic started running around the campsite in a giant oval. Nobody could tell what he was doing at first, but then everyone could tell that he was revealing a perfectly vertical indention in the parking lot. The parking lot was perfectly flat, except for a great indention where the campfire and all the people were.

Tails could see that Sonic was trembling as he slowly walked back to the campsite.

Sonic: Everybody, get out.

Tails: Sonic what's wrong?

Tails saw that same pain stricken depression in Sonics face that he had been helping him to battle for the past 10 years. His heart sank. Sonic had made so much progress in the past year, and now it seemed like the last 10 seconds knocked him back to where he had started.

Sonic: This is where he died Tails!

All of the humans there and the mobian cat looked at each other with confusion.

Tails: Who Sonic?

Sonic: Chris! This is where Eggmans giant robotic foot came crashing down on him!

Everybody there got up and started looking around where they were standing. Some of them realized that the indention in the ground was a footprint and others did not. Sonics face was twisted with sadness for almost 10 seconds. His sadness then turned to red-hot anger.

Tails knew why Sonic was angry. Robotnic had pretended all of these years to know where Chris's tomb was and built a statue of himself on it within his city. Robotnic built the statue as a final insult to Sonic. Now Sonic knew that he was lying the entire time. In Sonics eyes, the lie was an even worse insult.

Sonic: EVERYBODY GET OUT! CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU'RE STANDING ON TOP OF HIM!

Everybody there stared at Sonic with shock and disbelief.

Sonic looked up at everybody, knowing what he had just done. Anybody could plainly see the pain in Sonics eyes. Nobody had ever seen a pained look from Sonic except for Chris and Tails.

Sonic stared back at everybody, horrified at how he had just yelled at everyone. Then, without warning, Sonic blasted off into the night. Tails could see that Sonic was headed in the direction of the Eggman Empire.

Tails: SONIC WAIT!

Tails ran up to everyone and looked up at them as he addressed them… "I can assure you all, he did not mean to yell at you." Everybody was still looking at each other in disbelief as Tails ran off in Sonics direction. Tails' calls for Sonic became more and more distant as he ran off into the night.

Tails' heart was beating as he ran through the mobian foliage that populated the human city. Branches were flying by him as he ran as fast as he could. Tails was worried about Sonic. He did not want Sonic to be caught by Eggman again. If Eggman captured Sonic this time, Tails was the only one that could save him. Eggman had already killed off every other mobian that dared resist him. Tails was exhausted. He finally had some food in him, but the food was still being digested in his stomach. He was still malnourished. His running became slower and slower as he began to loose consciousness. "Soooniic." Tail's cries for Sonic became weaker and weaker as his breathing became labored. Tails ran out of strength. He stopped next to a tree to catch his breath. His vision blurred as he passed out. He was barely conscious, but he was aware enough to know that he had been caught before falling over. It was a face that he had not seen in years.

Tails: Is. Is it really you? You are supposed to be dead!

Tails fainted in his red arms.

Scene 5

The Eggman Empire

The world around Sonic was a blur as he kept a steady pace of 665 miles per hour. He wasn't traveling anywhere near his maximum speed because he was being mindful of any people that might be in the forest. Sonic could easily plow through any rocks or trees that stood in his way, but it also meant he could easily kill anybody that was standing in his way. Nobody except Shadow really knew what it was like to have his incredible ability. Not only could Sonic run faster than anything, but he could think faster as well. In other words, avoiding a bullet from a gun was as easy to Sonic as it was for a human to avoid a lazily thrown gallon of milk.

Sonic could go even faster and avoid every plant, human, and mobian in the forest, but he had a special plan. The human outpost that Sonic left rations for the soldiers was only a few miles away. Sonic knew that the human soldiers that he scared away back at the campsite were just about to reach their food and water. A smirk grew on Sonics face as started counting down from 10, "9, 8…..

Head Soldier: Come on everyone. I see water bottles, and rations waiting for us at that outpost.

Even though they were all exhausted, they started jogging a little faster with the new motivation.

As they ran, a subordinate solder found enough breath to ask a question.

Subordinate Soldier: This is a small outpost. Is there anyone here?

The head solder instinctively shook his head as he ran. "No, this is only a small communications outpost. It is only used in case of emergency."

Subordinate Soldier: Like our emergency

The head soldier barely managed to laugh as he ran towards the food and water. Before they all got within 10 feet of the outpost, a massive explosion sent them flying back several yards before landing on their backs.

Sonic looked back and laughed out loud as he continued his journey towards the Eggman Empire. He had broken the sound barrier as he plowed through the outpost. "Ehh, they can do without food or water for another few hours" Sonic thought to himself.

The sky above, and the foliage in the forest, blended into a vortex of green, brown, and black as Sonic continued to accelerate. Sonic decided to top his speed off for now at mach 2 until he made it out of the forest. As he emerged out of the forrest, he accelerated his speed even more. Sonic was traveling through miles of desert and city now. The Eggman Empire technically was 1000's of miles from where Sonic was now, but this is where civilization started. 100's of human cities populated the desert landscape. Any human, who was considered useful, or rich, was allowed to live in these cities.

The sun slowly came up over the horizon as Sonic entered the bright side of the planet. It wasn't long before Sonic reached the Capital City of the Empire. He stopped and hid behind a nearby building to scope out the situation. There was some kind of massive energy shield that Sonic had never seen before covering the entire city. He watched as 3 mobians made their way up to the entrance to the city, only to be stopped by 2 large robotic guards.

Robot Guard: What is your business in the Eggman Empire today fellow mobian?

Mobian citizen: You idiots! Eggman sent me out here to gather flowers for the new formula he was working on. Didn't Eggman tell you?

Robot Guard: You may enter.

The guard pressed a button on a nearby consol to open the door just inside the shield. The mobian passed through the shield and went through the door before it quickly shut behind her.

Sonic smiled. Nobody else could see it, but Sonic could. Sonic saw the shield fluctuate for a brief second from the top down when the mobian girl entered the city. "I know I can't pass through the door" Sonic thought. Dr. Robotnic had sensors between the doors that were specifically installed to detect Sonic. The wall was around the city was still 30 feet tall since the last time he was there. The main difference was the force field. "For all of Eggheads genius, he is still pretty dumb when it comes to my speed," Sonic stated out loud to himself. Sonic held his top speed back from the world ever since he was born. Nobody, including Eggman knew how fast Sonic could go.

Sonic: All I have to do is time the jump with the rotation of the shield when someone enters the city.

The guard conversed with the next person for a minute before pressing the button to let him in. Sonic took off as the inhabitant touched the shield. It was all happening in slow motion from Sonics point of view. The shield was completely down. However, when Sonic approached he could see the generator activating again from the top of a tall spire standing in the middle of the city. The shield was slowly coming down in Sonics eyes as he jumped over the 30 ft wall and landed on the other side with a half second to spare.

"Ha!", Sonic laughed out loud. "Egghead might be smart, but he's not as quick as me", Sonic thought to himself. The entire city was surrounded by a thick metallic wall that Sonic could easily tell was painted to look like the rest of the buildings in the Eggman Empire. He looked up at the 30 foot wall and saw a brief shimmer of the energy shield protecting the entire city. The sound of thousands of Mobians could be heard in the distant night air. "Wait, why is it night in here?", Sonic said out loud to himself. Sonic could tell that the stars were an image produced by Eggman somehow.

"What are you hiding Eggman?", Sonic thought to himself. Sonic made a huge cloud of dust as he landed on the cobblestone streets of the Eggman Empire. Coughing, he zipped up to a building to get a good vantage point on what was going on in the city. All of the mobians were celebrating.

Sonic stopped to look around at all of the mobian architecture. In the peace filled days of Sonics era, most mobians kept little stone homes in the country. There were only a few thousand mobians on mobias in Sonics heyday, so there were never any mobian cities. Sonic marveled at the architecture of the first mobian city that Eggman let them build for themselves. He thought back to his days on earth and tried to compare it the all the cities he saw there. He decided that it was like the island of Mykonos but with Mexican overtones. All of the buildings were painted an off white with a cubist style that enchanted anyone who laid eyes upon it. Even though it looked much like Mykonos on earth, there were several large differences. The mobians made their little cube houses stack on each other up to 10 stories. There was a large cobblestone street through the middle of the city that was at least 500 feet wide. There were several narrow streets all around the rest of the city, which were dispersed among all of the mobian homes. All of the major entrances to Main Street had rounded intersections with giant fire pits in the middle. Every building on the main street had interconnected porticos.

"Why is it that Eggman still lets mobians keep mobian style houses?" Sonic mumbled out loud to himself. It wasn't long before Sonic was greeted with a stunning yet horrific answer to his question.

The mobians had several huge campfires all the way up Main Street with huge statues of Dr. Robotnic being erected on platforms in the middle of them. It wasn't the statues that horrified Sonic; it was who was erecting them. They were mobians, and hundreds of them.

Mobians would be the last creatures on the planet to celebrate Eggman. They would fight to the death, and yet, they were all celebrating around giant statues of Eggman!

"What's going on?" Sonic said out loud to himself.

He looked around to see anything else unusual. The only other strange sight that Sonic could see were lamps running on electric power running down every side street. Mobians ussualy only use candle light, or solar lights in their cities. Mobians loved to see the stars, yet the bright and harsh artificial light drowned out the sky.

Anger started to burn inside Sonic until he saw something that made him forget all that. He could recognize that pink fur anywhere. In the dim firelight he could see a hooded figure reaching out with pink arms to receive a bag of groceries from a porcupine like mobian.

"It can't be!", Sonic thought to himself. The hooded figure took the groceries and walked out of the dim light of the campfire celebrations into the bright artificially lit back alleys of the Eggman Empire. Sonic zipped around unseen to follow the shadowy figure until she got to a place that Sonic could tell was her home.

"Look at these flowers. It has to be her!", Sonic thought to himself. As she walked up to her porch to put the key into her wooden door, Sonic zipped up behind her. Sonic smiled as he tapped her shoulder. Amy took off her hood so she could see who it was while she turned around.

Sonic smiled at her as her eyes met his. Yet, Sonics joy quickly turned to dismay as he saw her expression turn from joy to utter panic. Amy screamed at the top of her lungs in fear as she bumped against her wooden door with her back.

"Shh, Amy! It's me! Don't you know who I am?"

Sonic waived his arms and put his finger to his lips to shush her, but it was to no avail. She kept screaming at the top of her lungs. Sonic took off in a flash to escape the impending crowd that was to follow.

Sonic looked back for an instant as he ran at a steady 400 miles per hour through the back alleys of the city. When he looked ahead he came to a complete stop at an unexpected flash of light from a city lamppost. He was dazed and confused for a few seconds before he could get a bearing on his surroundings. To his horror, the last memory was talking to Tails in the cave 2 hours earlier! Sonic began to talk too himself…

"Where am I? Is this, Eggman Empire?" Sonics legs started to shake. He was afraid that Eggman was playing with his mind again in one of his machines. Sonics breathing became labored as he dropped down to one knee. Dread settled over Sonic as he realized that he was having another panic attack after all of the progress he had made with Tails in his recovery.

"Am I still strapped to Eggmans machine?", Sonic asked, trembling. The blood started pumping in Sonic so fast, he had tunnel vision. Visions and voices from Sonics horrific time connected to Dr. Robotnics mind machine started to flow through Sonics mind. The tunnel vision coincided with the image of him running twice the speed of sound to Chris's rescue. Sonics dream of floating down a stone hallway of memories towards Chris's death was superimposed over the blur of images. He began to hear events of Chris's death in his head…

"I am sorry friend, but I am convinced that this is the only way to FINALLY establish the Eggman empire!"

Chris: Dr. Robotnic! NO!

The vortex of scenery flying past Sonic started to fade as he floated towards the door of light at the end of the hallway. His heart was beating so fast that anybody who didn't know Sonic would mistake as a loud purr.

Sonic could hear the sound wave behind him catching up to his ears as he reached towards the large stone door of light. Stars began to steak towards Sonic as he reached for the door.

Sonic: I'M SORRY CHRIS! I WASN'T FAST ENOUGH TO SAVE YOU!

The memory of Chris's death brought him down to his hands & knees. Sonic could feel himself starting to pass out. His vision darkened until he only saw Tails smiling at him from a distant memory. Tails took Sonic by the chin and looked into his eyes.

Tails: Remember what the mobian prophet told you Sonic. 'The great Creator above will always be with you,' and so will I. Sonic could feel Tail's furry tails and arms wrap around him as he would when Tails would start loving on him.

The memory calmed his spirit and nerves.

Sonic: You can do this Sonic! You're not alone!

He held onto the good memories of Tails & Chris as he slowly caught his breath. His vision slowly returned as he picked himself up off of the ground, holding his knees for support.

It wasn't long before some voices caught Sonics attention. Sonic's hedgehog ear twitched in the direction of the noise. It was a crowd of mobians gathering around Amy's house a few miles away. Sonic was intrigued by the commotion but he was more interested in how he got here & what the evil Doctor was up to.

Sonics last memory was looking out from the cave 2 hours ago talking to Tails about Chris & his dream. He remembered seeing the parking lot & grocery story at the bottom of the mountain. Sonic looked around & could tell he was in the mobian part of the Eggman Empire. Dr. Robotnic kept all mobians within his city because a few of them had special powers or abilities. "And we can't have anyone with power allowed to have freedom," Sonic said to himself. Eggman wouldn't accommodate the mobians, so they had to build their own city. Sonic admired the architecture as he looked around.

He could tell that he was in the suburban part of the mobian city. Sonic could faintly see smoke rising from the fires that Sonic saw earlier. He didn't remember what the smoke came from but it did look eerily familiar to him as he looked back where he came from.

Sonic looked around & he could see that there were no mobians around. "Everyone must be where that smoke is," Sonic thought to himself. It was of no concern to Sonic. He knew that mobians liked to celebrate special occasions with large campfires. Although, he could not fathom what the special occasion might be. This was no special date for the mobians.

The Empire was a large round hill with the Eggmans capital palaced on top. It was several miles in diameter. Just below Eggmans gigantic palace was his machine cities, twisted & bizarre looking as ever. The mobians were only allotted a small piece of land at the bottom of city. The smog pollution carried itself down the hill & ended up right over the mobians section of the city. However, the mobians came up with technology to clear up most of the pollution.

Sonic sniffed the air. It wasn't quite the fresh air that most mobians preferred. "It kind of smells like those diesel trucks that humans used to drive on earth," Sonic thought.

Sonic sniffed in the direction of the smell & he could see the layer of smog rolling down the hill until it reached the giant air purifiers marking the mobian section of the city. His gaze landed on Eggmans palace. "I'm going to find out what's going on," Sonic said out loud to himself. A cloud of dust was all that remained in Sonics place as he flashed up the hill.

Eggmans voice sounded distant and muffled from the other side of the door.

Eggman: WHAT DO YOU WANT!

Human Guard: Uhh! Dr. Robotnic! There has been a disturbance!

Eggman: MUST YOU ALWAYS BOTHER ME WHEN I'M TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS?

Human Guard: I'm sorry Sire! It was just more serious and unexpected this time.

"This place is huge!" Sonic thought to himself as he looked around. The architecture was somewhat medieval looking with giant pillars stretching 200 feet into the darkness above. The ceiling was so high; you could not tell where it ended. The only lighting in the room was from torches attached several feet in the air on the sides of the pillars.

Sonic zipped up behind one of the pillars about 100 feet away to get a better view. The human guard had armor on that looked medieval. However, with a closer look, he could tell that the armor was a high tech suit only made to look royal and medieval. Sonic never saw the suit before, but he immediately knew what it was for. The man was made up to look royal because he served Dr. Robotnic in person. The electronics in his suit was to protect him from any mobians with super powers.

There were never many humans with super powers on Sonics planet, but he found it to be an intriguing notion. When Sonic lived with Chris on earth many years ago, he enjoyed reading Chris's comics together with Chris. They would read & talk for hours about his comics. Sonic thought to himself that he was much faster than the Flash, with the strength of Captain America. Knuckles had the strength of the Hulk, & of course, Sonic was Superman when he had all 7 chaos emeralds. Sonic smiled at the good memory but it soon faded when the locks started clacking open behind Eggmans door.

Eggman swung the door open and peered down at the human guard with his dark spectacles.

Eggman: WHAT IS IT THIS TIME!

The human guard saluted Eggman while he seemed to keep himself from gagging on something.

Human Guard: There was a disturbance in the mobian section of the city & Captain Cliff activated the memory beacons!

Eggman sighed. "CAPTAIN CLIFF AGAIN? MUST HE BE SO CAUTIOUS? DOESN'T HE KNOW THAT USING THOSE AT THE WRONG TIME CAN CONFUSE THE MOBIANS AND WEAKEN THE MEMORY ALTERATION PROCESS?! THE PEOPLE MIGHT START REMEMBERING THEIR FORMER LIVES IF THEY SEE SOMETHING THAT JOGS THEIR MEMORY!

Human Guard: I, I didn't know sir!

Eggman: GET HIM UP HERE! IT'S TIME I MET THE FOOL!

Human Guard: YES SIR! Right away sir!

The guard saluted Dr. Eggman and ran off towards a door that had to be 2000 feet away. The Dr. sighed and walked away towards a different door only a few hundred feet from Sonic. As soon as the door closed behind him, Sonic zipped up to the massive open doors that Eggman came from. There was a red carpet coming out of the door all the way to the exit at the end of the sanctuary where the guard walked out. The room that Eggman walked out of had a red carpet that led up hundreds of stairs up to a thrown. Sonic could faintly see a silver knob on the seat where the thrown was. The seat was a fancy toilet.

"He's got a bathroom the size of a basketball court and he still stunk up the whole room!" Sonic mumbled to himself.

Rolling his eyes, he waived his hand in front of his nose as he walked away from Eggmans stinky bathroom towards the room that Eggman entered in.

Sonic gently opened the door to let himself in, then closed it behind him. He could hear Eggmans voice echoing through the giant room behind him but the first thing that caught his attention wasn't just the size of the room when he turned around, it was the giant statue of Sonic himself in the center of the room. It stood at least 50 meters tall. The height of the roof could not be determined in the previous room but a starry opening not only revealed the height of the room in the castle, but also illuminated the entire statue and room in a soft blue light. The roundness of the room was marked with pillars around the oculus at the ceiling. The stars and moon could be seen through the opening at the top. Sonic found himself staring at the stars & moon above. Something about them did not seem right to Sonic. Then he looked straight again as Shadow entered the room from the other end. The doors echoed throughout the chamber as they slammed behind him.

Shadow: Dr. Robotnic. All the beacons have been planted in the old New York & Chicago cities in the Northern continent.

Eggman: EXCELLENT! SOON EVERYTHING LIVING ON THIS PLANET WILL BE HAPPY TO SERVE ME, AND WON'T EVEN KNOW WHY! COME HERE OLD FRIEND!

They shared a long awkward pause as they looked up at the statue of Sonic together.

Shadow: Do you ever miss him?

Eggman put his hands on his hips and peered up at the statue with his round spectacles.

Eggman: I ACTUALLY MISS HIM A GREAT DEAL! HE PROVIDED A CHALLENGE TO ME! YOU SEE, A GUY LIKE ME NEEDS TO BE CHALLENGED IN ORDER TO STAY SHARP.

There was another long awkward pause, as they both seemed to look down at Sonics shoes.

"What are they looking at?" Sonic thought to himself.

Shadow: Do you ever miss... him?

Eggman looked over at Shadow with a concerned look on his face.

EGGMAN: YOU CERTAINTLY ARE CURIOUS TODAY AREN'T YOU SHADOW? MAYBE I BETTER TAKE A LOOK AT YOUR PROGRAMMING TO MAKE SURE YOU AREN'T COMING DOWN WITH A VIRUS!

Shadow: I'm fine. All systems check out.

EGGMAN: STILL. YOU SHOULDN'T BE CONCERNED WITH MATTERS HAVING TO DO WITH ANYONES FEELINGS, LET ALONE MINE!

At that moment, the sound of the doors slamming open echoed throughout the entire room. Two guards came in, forcibly escorting another by the arms.

Eggman acknowledged the other guards as they brought the third guard before him.

EGGMAN: YOU SEE SHADOW, MY OLD FRIEND, MY FEELINGS DIED WITH HIM! The Dr. pointed at the base of the statue. "YOU MY DEAR SHADOW, SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAD ANY FEELINGS! Pointing at the guard in the custody of the other guards the Dr. said, "THIS IS CAPTAIN CLIFF. HE PREMATURALY ACTIVATED THE MEMORY BEACONS HERE IN THE CITY 3 TIMES. AND, YOU KNOW THE RULES SHADOW. THREE STRIKES AND YOUR OUT! NOW, I WANT YOU TO PROVE TO ME THAT YOU ARE STILL THE HEARTLESS HEDGEHOG THAT I NEED BY MY SIDE! NOW, YOU WILL EITHER PURMANANTLY MAIME THIS MAN OR I WILL HAVE HIM EXECUTED IN THE CRUELEST MANOR IMAGINABLE!"

Shadow looked into Eggmans eyes long and hard, as if to see if he was serious. It was easy to tell that Eggman looked angry, but there was no discernible emotion in Shadows face. When Shadow could see that Eggman was serious, he motioned the guards to bring Captain Cliff before him. Captain Cliff stumbled over towards Shadow and fell to his knees before him.

Captain Cliff: Please don't hurt me sir! I promise I won't do it again!

The captain looked over towards Eggman, "Please! Demote me! Anything but this!" But Dr. Robotnic kept a stern and determined look on his face.

After a few moments of silence, Shadow place his hand on the captain's shoulder.

Shadow: If you do not go through this, Eggman will have you killed. I'll make you a deal. I will give you a sporting chance. I won't use my speed against you. I will stand right here on this spot.

The shaking captain looked confused.

Captain Cliff: But, then you won't have a chance. I mean, I'm 6 foot 5 inches. Your like, 3 feet tall and you can't weigh much.

Shadow: Then you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

The captain peered at Shadow with a look of confusion.

Shadow: I'll let you take the first blow.

There was no discernable emotion on Shadows face, but the captain's confused look soon turned into a smile.

The captain looked over to Dr. Robotnic to gauge his emotions on the matter.

Captain Cliff: And if I win the challenge, I get to go free, without punishment?

Shadow: Those have always been Eggmans rules.

Captain Cliff: Ha! I accept your challenge little hedgehog!

Sonic put his hand on his forehead. He was about to comb it through his fur out of habit but kept himself from doing so, because it might have made a noise. "Oh no," Sonic whispered to himself. Sonic knew all to well that humans were no match for mobians, let alone super mobians like Sonic, and Shadow.

Sonic remembered when Tails and Chris's grandfather compared Sonics physiology with Chris's to discover the scientific differences between them. It was a little embarrassing for Sonic to get scanned with machines for hours, but it made Tails and Chris's grandfather happy, and that was all that mattered to Sonic.

The scientific banter between the little fox and the old man put him to sleep. When he woke up, he was horrified to find out how weak humans were compared to his race. Sonic knew his fur was soft to the touch, but he took it for granted that it could adapt on a molecular level to survive heavy impacts, fire, ice, and even the vacuum of space. Chris on the other hand, would perish with only a slight change in his environment. Sonic could easily lift a car… It would just squish Chris. The science had something to do with Sonics super mobian muscle density. Sonic became much more protective of Chris and all of humanity the day he learned how fragile they were.

Now, much to Sonics horror, Dr. Eggman seemed to be throwing out all human precaution and was willingly trying to hurt another human with someone from his own race!

A plethora of ideas flew through his head at that moment… "I have to prevent this. No, I don't know how I got here. I should find Tails first and make a plan. But there isn't any time. But what if I'm captured? Then nobody has any hope. You can stop this Sonic!"

But while Sonic debated with himself, the fight between Shadow and the captain already began.

The captain first tried to walk over to Shadow and pick him up. He was surprised to find out that he could not pick him up. After he gave up the struggle to pick up Shadow, he stepped back in surprise. A few moments went by before he took a hard swing at Shadow with his right arm. Shadow held up his hand to his side and blocked it without effort. Anybody could see that there was panic in the captain's eyes now as he assessed his opponent.

He stepped back several feet, and then took off at a full on run towards Shadow. The captain put all his weight and strength into the most vicious kick he could muster. Shadow put out his hand like a stop sign and absorbed the full weight of the kick without effort. Captain Cliff stumbled over Shadow and fell flat on his face. Shadow walked over to the hurt captain and grabbed his foot with his hand. Without any noticeable effort or emotion, Shadow swung the entire man with one hand from the position he was in; over Shadows head and slammed him on his back. Any fight or strength the man had left in him was diminished with one full body blow against the pavement.

Shadow looked up at Dr. Robotnic once more so as to discern whether or not he was serious about his earlier threat to reprogram him if he didn't follow through. After Shadow could see that the Dr. was dead serious, he grabbed the captains foot between both of his hands, and crushed it as easily as a human could squash a bag of potato chips. Captain Cliff screamed out in agony.

The devastating crunching noise broke Sonics inner assessment of the situation and he bit a knuckle on his fist to choke back the tears. He couldn't help but feel overwhelmed with dread and disgust at what he had become; a cowering hedgehog crippled with fear and guilt.

The man continued screaming as he was dragged out of the room by the guards. "YOU SEE MY FRIEND. I DON'T MISS ANYONE ANYMORE. Eggman pointed at the statue of Sonic. "THERE WASN'T ANY CHALLENGE WITHOUT HIM! I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO PRODE HIM INTO COMING OUT OF HIDING ALL THESE YEARS, AND HE STILL COWERS AND HIDES WITH HIS FOX FRIEND! WELL, I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS SHADOW! I'VE ALREADY KILLED HIS BEST FRIEND. NOW I'M GOING TO KILL HIS OTHER BEST FRIEND; THE ONLY FRIEND HE HAS LEFT!"

Sonics pulled his face away from his hands as soon as Eggman mentioned Tails.

"THEN NOBODY IS GOING TO STOP ME AND MY PLAN! ALL THOSE YEARS OF TORTURING SONICS BRAIN HAS PAID OFF MY DEAR SHADOW! BY TOMMOROW MY MEMORY BEACONS WILL HAVE PROGRAMMED EVERY MOBIAN ON THIS PLANET. THEY WILL BELIEVE I AM THEIR MIGHTY KING, AND THAT HUMANS HAVE MURDERED MOST OF THEIR FAMILIES. I WILL START A WAR ON THIS PLANET THAT WILL END EVERYONES LIVES, AS WE KNOW IT!

Eggman pointed up at the hole in the ceiling where the stars were shining through. WHEN I'M FINISHED, WE WON'T NEED THIS FAKE DAY AND NIGHT CYCLE! WE WILL START LIFE OVER MY FRIEND! THIS WORLD WILL BE ANYTHING I MAKE IT!"

Sonics sadness began to boil into anger.

Eggman turned away from the statue and looked directly down at Shadow to strengthen his point. "IF THAT DOESN'T BRING OUT THAT BLASTED HEDGEHOG, NOTHING WILL! I WILL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO KILL HIM!

Shadow: So do you want me to gather all of the chaos emeralds?

Eggman: GATHER THEM! GATHER THEM ALL! I HAVE USED THEM AS BAIT FOR THAT HEDGEHOG LONG ENOUGH!

Shadow bowed to Eggman and walked out of the main entrance. Nothing was left in the room except Sonic, Eggman, the statue, and a large pool of blood where Shadow maimed Captain Cliff. Sonic fists were clenching in anger as he wiped his eyes just to make sure there were no more tears there. Sonic made his way around the room unseen towards the front of the statue where Eggman was. He was about to show himself to Eggman when he caught a site that made him stop dead in his tracks.

At the front of the statue, Sonic could see what Eggman and Shadow were pointing at earlier. The statue had Sonic holding a foot over a gravestone that read "Chris Thorndyke. Eggman's only friend, murdered by Sonic himself."

The sight of the inscription brought all the memories of the past two hours come rushing back. Visions began flashing through his head of every memory the memory beacons erased, from the discovery of Chris's grave at the campfire until Sonics unexpected confrontation with Amy. When Sonic came to, the anger began to build in him. He became angrier than he had ever been before. Each realization of what Eggman did and planned to do only compounded the rage within him. But, the realization of Eggmans deception is what brought Sonics fury to a crazed psychotic level.

Eggman not only insulted Chris's memory and Sonics honor by placing a giant statue of Sonic holding his foot over Chris, he lied to everyone about the location of his grave! And with pieces of Earth and mobias mixing together in different places all over the globe, it was next to impossible to determine previous earth or mobian locations.

There was dead silence in the room as Eggman sighed and turned toward Sonics statue to contemplate his evil plans that lay ahead. Suddenly the room exploded with noise, dust, and debris in every direction. The ground shook and explosions could be heard everywhere. Eggman screamed out in shock from the unexpected outburst. As the dust began to settle, Eggman could see that the statue of Sonic lay in pieces in front of him. An unimaginably evil smile grew on Eggmans face. It was as if his very mustache curled up as an extension of the grin.

All of the residents of the Eggman Empire screamed out in unison at the loud noise that shook the city. All of the humans and mobians in the city exited their houses to find out what the source of the explosions were. They gazed on in awe at the site that lay before them. All of the city lights were knocked out and there was a large hole in the cities main gate. What confused them the most was that there was daylight shining in through the main gate while the moon and star shone above them in the sky.

Sonic backtracked his steps at a slow and steady 700 miles per hour. He didn't want to risk a faster speed because it might create a wind wake that could be felt if he past by any of Eggmans soldiers. Then, as he cleared Eggmans Empire, he quickly broke the sound barrier and picked up speed. The day gave way to night as Sonic made his way towards the dark side of the planet. There was also a noticeable drop in temperature as he made his way towards old Chicago. When Sonic made it back to camp, the humans there were startled by his sudden arrival.

Sonic: Have any of you seen my buddy Tails?

Charles: He ran after you there into the jungle right after you left.

Charles pointed towards the jungle.

Sonic: Thanks Charles.

The ground was snowy. It didn't take long for Sonic to find Tails' little footprints. He followed them until they stopped at some different footprints. Sonic could tell that they were too small and wide to be human footprints but they were pretty big by mobian standards. "These remind me of Knuckles shoe prints," Sonic muttered to himself. "But they can't be his prints." Sonic was gripped with fear by the thought that his last friend had been taken from him.

He traced the prints to a foot of a cave. Sonic stared at the cave and an erie feeling of déjà vu washed over him. "Something seems familiar about this." Sonic couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew that he has seen the cave before.

A realization struck Sonic like a bolt of lightning. The horror of the idea made him tremble where he stood. "This….. This is the cave from my dream!"

Scene 6

Sonics Date with Destiny

Sonic started to tremble as he slowly made his way into the cave. He was gripped with fear by the idea that this was all an illusion, and that he might be still connected to Eggmans mind machine. He couldn't see much of anything. It was pitch black. After a few moments of looking around Sonic could make out the entrance to the cave on one side but only a tiny orange light in the distance on the other side. Sonic zipped forward towards the faint orange light and found the source to be a round hole in the ground. There were several lanterns lining the hole. The bottom was so far down that he could not see it. There were several ancient mobian inscriptions spiraling down the hole and a ladder on Sonics opposite side embedded into the stone all the way to the bottom. The hole was 6 feet in diameter and Sonic figured it was plenty big enough for him to miss anybody climbing down the ladder.

Sonic lept into the air into a ball and fell straight down the hole. It took almost 30 seconds to fall all the way to the bottom and the ground shook where he landed. Sonic looked up at the sight in front of him and he started to panic. It was the tunnel from his recurring dream. The lanterns were placed exactly where they were in his dream and the large circular door where he always saw Chris's death waited at the end. The symbol on the door looked like a generic drawing of a hedgehog balled up into a homing attack.

Sonics heart was palpating so fast, he felt like he was going to pass out. Every instinct in his body told him to leave the cave and make a run for it but he didn't. The thought of his buddy Tails in danger kept him walking forward at a slow pace. His breathing was slow and labored from the anxiety. He stopped to catch his breath for a moment then stepped forward passing another large ancient mobian symbol on the ground without knowing it. A wind and a light emanated from the symbol and it lifted Sonic a few inches into the air. The light seemed to pull Sonic forward like a tractor beam towards the door. The light from the symbols on the floor kept Sonics body from moving. The light from the symbols on the walls kept Sonic from moving his feet. The symbols lit up in unison as they moved Sonic towards the door at the end of the cave. After the Sonic passed the symbols, the lights died out and they looked like normal hieroglyphs again.

Sonic: This can't be! This is impossible!

One by one, Sonic re-lived each memory as he passed the lanterns on the walls. Sonic was straining all of his muscles to get himself to wake up, like he did in his dreams. But it felt more real to him than he had ever felt when he was dreaming. There were also new details, like the lights from the floor, and the lamps seemed to cast an otherworldly glow as he approached them, forcing him to relive his best and worst memories.

Sonic screamed. "COOOOME OOOOOON! WAAAAKE UUUUP!" He approached the door at the end of the cave and the final memory. A glow more intense than he had ever seen emanated from the symbol on the door. Once again, he relived the worst parts of Chris's death over and over as images of his death and the door slowly opening alternately flashed in his mind.

The images and pain of Chris's death dropped Sonic on his hands and knees as the beams of light cut off, releasing their hold on him. Several tears pored out of his eyes onto the dirt ground as he worked to gather himself. Sonic dried his tears with the skin on his arm and rubbed his hand through the fur on his head. He took two deep breaths to give himself strength and slowly looked up. What he saw made him yell out in frustration and jump onto his feet.

Sonic: WHAT IS ALL OF THIS! WHATS GOING ON HERE!

There were several humans in a large room with relatively clean clothes on along with Tikal the Echidna, Tails and Knuckles. The cave was large and open. There were several lanterns to light it up along with several entrances/exits all around.

Sonic angrily walked up to Knuckles and picked him up under his arms. "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN, AND WHY ARE YOU HERE! Tails ran up to Sonic.

Tails: Sonic! It's ok! We can explain everything!

Knuckles did not move a muscle, despite the show of aggression from his friend. Sonic, shocked by the maturity and restraint shown by Knuckles gently placed him back on his feet. Knuckles never showed signs of maturity to Sonic before. He was the easiest person he knew to intimidate. Sonic placed his hands on Knuckles shoulders and looked at the ground.

Sonic: Why are you here to see me like this.

Sonic wiped the last tear from his eye and looked directly into Knuckles eyes.

Sonic: Nobody sees me like this! Nobody is supposed to, except for Tails and Chris!

Knuckles eyes were saddened as he placed his giant gloved hands on Sonics shoulders. Tikal the Echidna walked up to stand next to Knuckles and face Sonic.

Tikal: Uhh, Sonic. I know none of this makes sense, and you have a lot of questions, but we don't have much time. Sonic looked at Knuckles with a mix of confusion and doubt. Knuckles nodded his head in approval at Sonic as a sign to listen to her.

A human in the room that Sonic did not recognize began to speak. She began to recite orders to help with some plan that she had to stop Eggman and help restore balance. Sonic had his face covered with his hand while the human spoke and eventually put his other hand up in the air so as to stop her from speaking.

Sonic: Look. I don't know what's going on here but I'm not helping anyone unless I hear it from this echidna here.

Sonic pointed at Tikal.

Sonic: And I don't want to hear about how much time we have! I want all of my questions answered! Besides, these three are the only ones I know I can trust right now.

Knuckles face grew into a faint smirk as he looked at Sonic. Tikal looked over at the humans and back at Sonic like she was being polite enough to make sure that the human wasn't going to object.

Tikal: Sonic. I'll do my best to satisfy your curiosity quickly, because the fate of this world depends on you. Our human friends here are all that remain of earth's world leaders.

Sonic: You don't look like any earth authorities that I remember. You're all too young.

The human girl began to speak again. "My name is Christine, president of the United States. This here is Lucas, President of France, Sofia of Spain, Jake of England, Arseny of Russia, and Tanaka of Japan. There are also a few that couldn't make it here tonight. We were told that our late friends in China and India have been recently killed in one of Robotniks attacks. We are sure we will find out who their new leaders are soon enough.

We are young because we are either descendants or friends of previous world leaders. You see, when a current leader knows they are going to die soon, they pass on one of these coins to us to continue their legacy."

Christine held up a coin with no currency value on it, only the last living president of the United States. "When Eggman decides to attack, all of us here knows that he has a full proof plan for victory. Nobody has ever been able to defeat him. So, they pass on this coin with their countries last elected leader to someone they trust and we pick up where they left off." Christine looked around at the rag tag group of humans from all over the world. Some of them were barely old enough to be able to legally drive.

Christine cracked a wry smile, "Well, we do our best to fill our predecessors shoes anyway."

Sonic turned to Tikal, "What are you doing here? I've seen you before, on earth decades ago."

Tikal: It is a long story but just know that echidnas have been tasked with the safe keeping of the chaos emeralds, along with the master emerald. Me and Knuckles here, are the only ones left of our race.

Tikal pointed her head in the direction of earths last leaders, "they have a plan to bring Eggman down. However, I would like to show your friend Tails here all the data we have so far and a possible alternative plan if the first one doesn't work."

Christine and all of the human leaders began crying out in revolt at the suggestion but Sonic soon stopped them by pounding his fist into his hand. The force of the shock wave was enough to pound everyone's chest within 20 feet of Sonic.

Sonic: I won't help anyone, unless my friend Tails here is given access to all of your data. I know he looks like a child to you humans, but he has an intellect that your greatest scientists couldn't hope to compare to.

Tails smiled up at Sonic lovingly.

Christine looked over at a man in a white lab coat behind them, "Dr. Albert, go give this Fox access to what he wants."

Dr. Albert gave a short bow in response and motioned for Tails to follow him. Tails ran out from behind Sonic and joined the scientist. They disappeared behind an automated door with computers inside.

Scene 7

What's the plan Tails?

The room was adorned with various computer equipment and testing devices. There was a huge computer monitor embedded in the wall at the end of the room about 3 meters in width with a large console to input data into it at the base. Tails wheeled over a chair to elevate himself to the console and stood on it.

Tails: Are all of the sensors and cameras in this place hooked up to this terminal?

Dr. Albert: Yes.

Tails: Thank you.

Tails started typing on the keyboard at about an average of 160 words per minute. Tails quickly broke through the firewall and hacked the security system.

Dr. Albert: Wait, what are you doing?

Tails: I disabled the security system in this complex because it is the only way to keep Eggman from seeing and hearing what we are planning.

Dr. Albert: You mean Eggman hacked our system already?

Tails waved his head yes. "Yep, and he already knows that we are here in this cave. Luckily, he doesn't know where this cave is."

Dr. Albert: We need to get out of here and let the others know!

Tails stopped typing and turned around in the chair to face the human scientist. "Dr. Robotnic is always a step ahead. The only way to get a step ahead of him is to use your head." Tails turned around in the chair to face the monitor again. "Just give me a few minutes to look through your data, then we can worry about Eggman spying on us. We may not get another opportunity to use a console like this to plan an attack."

Albert was visibly torn on whether or not he should listen to this child like fox or run out and warn everyone about Eggman. However his concerns about the competency of the fox soon waned because he recognized the equation that Tails was calculating. "Wait, you will need help with that. It took us weeks to figure out…" but before he could finish his sentence Tails had already solved the equation and achieved more than he had in months. His eyes widened as he watched the puzzle unravel before him.

Tails sighed, "It's a well conceived plan you humans have but it won't work."

Tails: Wait. What's this capsule that Chris Thorndyk was working on! Where is it?

The scientist pulled it out of his pocket in a small box with a clasp on it. Tails opened the box and admired the sight before him. It was a high tech piece of equipment shaped almost exactly like a pill that you swallow. A mystical glow emanated from it and seemed to shimmer different colors in response to the environment around it. Tails teared up at the sight.

Tails: Chris told me that he was working on something big… Something he couldn't tell me about yet because he was afraid that Eggman would find out soon. I never knew what it was and always just assumed that Eggman got a hold of it. I'm glad to see that it ended up in your hands doctor.

Dr. Albert: We never could figure out what it does. We have had the worlds top scientists study it for decades and they never could decipher it's programming.

Tails: Why? Is it encoded?

Dr Albert: It is, but we eventually figured out the language. It's the complexity of the code itself that baffled us.

Tails turned around to face the doctor again with a visibly pained look in his eyes. "Chris Thorndyke was a good friend of mine, killed by Dr. Robotnik.

Dr. Albert: I'm sorry.

Tails: It's alright doctor. The pain of a lost loved one never completely goes away. What you probably don't know is that Chris Thorndyke became the greatest scientific mind of either mobias or earth.

The Dr. was intrigued. "Greater than Dr. Robtnik? Greater than, um, you?" Tails smiled at the scientists' assessment of his intellect.

Tails: You flatter me doctor. I don't know if I am smarter than Robotnik. I haven't really had the time to find out the past 5 years. What I do know is that Chris became far smarter and wiser than even Eggman. It is probably why Eggman took Chris's life. Do you have a pair of pliers doctor?

Albert went over to the tool bench, picked one up and handed it to Tails.

Tails: It's time we find out what Chris was planning.

Dr Albert: Are you sure that's a good idea? We don't have much time.

Tails: Believe me doctor; this time couldn't be better spent. It could be our only hope.

Albert looked up at the monitor, oblivious as to the meaning of most of the equations that Tails worked through. Then Tails started calculating through equations that no human could solve for years. However, he did understand the results of the equations, and the results stunned the Doctor. Dr Albert walked over to Tails and fell on his knees before Tails.

Tails turned around in the chair, surprised to see the full-grown man bury his face into his tiny sneakers, sobbing.

Dr Albert: Please tell me it isn't true Tails. Please!

Tails gently reached down, gently rubbed the mans hair with his gloved hand and used his good tail to reach around and lift his chin.

Tails: I'm afraid it is true doctor. These two worlds are going to intersect with each other and both will be completely destroyed.

Dr. Albert: I have a family and kids! I've worked my entire life to build a better world for them! Now none of it matters!

Tails: There is hope doctor.

Albert raised his teary gaze to meet Tails'. "There is?"

"It's going to take me, Sonic, and…" Tails reached down for the small pill like device and enclosed it in it's case again, "…the help of a long lost friend."

Dr. Albert: What do we do?

Tails: You are going to have to trust me doctor.

Dr. Albert nodded, "I do."

Tails: Ok, the humans out there aren't going to understand if we tell them there has been a change in plans. So, we are going to have to make them think we are carrying out their original plan while secretly performing ours.

Dr. Albert: Ok.

Tails: Here is the plan…

Scene 8

It's going to take all of us

Christine: I don't see why you have to blow up any of Eggmans facilities. Just sneak in and take each emerald.

Sonic rubbed his hand over his face in disgust, "Would you please let me finish please?"

Christine: I'm not sure we will have time for it.

Tikal: It's alright Christine. I know it might not make sense to you now, but this is how Sonic does things.

Sonic: Not only that, but Dr. Egghead will know that we have taken the emeralds whether I sneak in or not.

Christine: How could you possibly know that?

Sonic: Trust me, he'll know. I just need to pick up each emerald as fast as possible.

When Tails came out on the shoulders of Dr. Albert, Sonic was suprised. Tails only rode on the shoulders of people he really trusted, and his trust wasn't easy to earn.

Tails: If you excuse me Christie, I need to borrow Sonic for a little while. Please continue to plan everything out with Knuckles and Takal.

Christie profusely objected as Sonic and Takal went into the lab with Tails and Dr. Ablert.

Takal: Knuckles; please continue the plan with Christine.

Knuckles wasn't fond of the idea of dealing with a pushy world leader by himself. He wasn't very good with politics but he nodded his head in approval.

The Secret Plan:

Tails: Sonic. This world is going to end. You are going to have to take your role as the ultimate mobian protector if we are to survive.

Tikal: We know he is the current mobian protector but what makes you think that he is the ultimate mobian protector?

Sonic: You have told me that I am the mobian protector and I need to do my duty to protect mobias. You all might be surprised to hear me say this, but I know that. I have always known it. The chaos emeralds only react to Shadow and me.

Tikal raised her eyebrow with curiosity. "Shadow? Who is that?"

Dr. Albert: And what is the Ultimate Mobian Protector?

Tails: Mobian legend tells us of three mobian protectors that will restore balance back to mobias. One of those is greater than the others. He is the glue that holds it all together.

Tikal: How do you know that he is the ultimate mobian protector?

Sonic: He will tell you but answer my question first. I've been waiting for 10 minutes for you to answer it.

Tikal sighed. "Well, I guess, it's ok for you to know because you won't remember it when it's over. But, you've all got to promise me that you won't tell a soul what I'm about to tell you.

Everyone seemed to waive his or her head in some fashion.

Tikal: Alright. Echidnas are tasked with keeping the chaos powers balanced. Knuckles and I are all that is left of our race. Well, technically only Knuckles. You see, I was born in the past and died thousands of years ago. We are the only ones given the ability to time travel, and I'm in charge of this time period with Sonic here as our protector.

Sonic: Your kidding.

Tikal: No, and you can see why this is such a heavily kept secret. If someone like Eggman were to get a hold of this knowledge, every time period throughout mobias's history could be in danger. Like every mobian, an echidna's lifespan is 1000 years. Each one is tasked with a specific time period. In the past, one echidna would watch over the events of their allotted time span, usually their own.

Tikal looked out the window at Knuckles with a saddened look in her eyes, "Unfortunately, our race is diminished and each of us is tasked with more than our own lifetime's worth of events. So much so, that almost every waking moment of our lives can be taken up with time travelling and keeping our world afloat. I am currently training Knuckles here to take my place should anything happen to me."

Sonic: So let me get this straight, you could have stopped this whole thing from happening and you didn't?

Tikal: Remember Sonic; our job is to please the will of the creator. He watches over us, and tasks us with keeping the chaos powers balanced. We've run the simulations, and the chaos emeralds were violently opposed to stopping Eggman from ruling this world.

Sonic: So, Chaos, wanted Eggman to rule? Why?!

Tikal: I don't know, but I can tell you Sonic, that the emeralds almost destroyed the planet when we presented the simulation of stopping Eggman to them. We've never seen such a violent response.

Dr. Albert: If you don't mind me asking, why don't you just go back in time to the beginning and ask the creator yourself?

Tikal smiled. "Every echidna that is ever trained asks that question. Let's just say that whenever anyone has tried, they have never returned.

Tails: Sonic. Look at what Chris was working on.

Sonic stepped forward with wonder and awe as Tails opened the small case with the pill shaped device glowing inside.

Tails: Take this and hold it tightly.

Sonic took the device and stroked it with reverence.

Tails: I've done the calculations and found that it absorbs kinetic as well as several other forms of energy. I'm not exactly sure what it does but I think it will save us. Chris left us some instructions, letting us know that this is to be used, if everything goes wrong. I would say that almost everything has gone wrong for quite some time now.

Sonic: How fast would I have to run?

Tails teared up for a moment before answering. "It would be enough energy to destroy the planet.

Sonic slapped the device back in Tail's hand. "NO. I'M NOT DOING THAT! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER WAY."

Tails: Sonic, I've done the calculations, this world is doomed anyway, this IS the only way!

Sonic: I'm not going to hurt people like that! We are going with Christine's plan.

Sonic stormed out of the room.

Dr. Albert: Why won't he listen to you Tails?

Tails squeezed the device in his hands as he worked hard to choke back the tears.

Takal: It is the first and second commandments from our God.

Dr. Albert: What are those?

Takal: 1. Never harm another being, and 2. A promise is everything.

Knuckles walked into the room shortly after Sonic walked out. "Whew, I'm so glad Sonic took over. I HATE politics."

Tikal: According to our beliefs, there will be three mobian protectors to bring order to chaos again. The first was a hedgehog that will not be named. All memory of his existence was erased. The second is Sonic. The last will not be born for hundreds of years.

Knuckles seemed to ruminate to himself for a second, then lean over to Tikal's ear and whispered "Silver?" Visibly annoyed, Tikal shushed Knuckles.

Tails: This world is going to end within hours. Sonic is going to have to push himself beyond his ability, and beyond all of his moral sensibilities.

The room got quite.

Takal: The ultimate mobian protector will have two best friends. Two friends that he would lay down his life for…the other mobian protectors will only have one. Legend also has it that he will destroy this world in order to save it. It's always been a passage that baffled us.

Tails looked over at Takal: Sonic has Chris and me.

Takal's eye's widened at the realization. "Then he really IS the chosen one?!"

Tails: I always knew he was. Look, they are probably waiting for us to come out, so this is what we are going to do…

The Cover Plan:

Christine: So we agreed then that once you are powered up, you will release all of the captive mobians from the city. Are you sure Tails can restore their memory?

Sonic ignored the question and paused carefully to consider his next questions.

Sonic: Something still bothers me. I'm not sure what it is but there is a piece missing from all of this.

A deep voice echoed "It is probably me" as Shadow walked into the room.

"You!" Takal exclaimed as her, Tails, Dr. Albert, and Knuckles walked out of the lab.

Sonic zipped at a blazing speed to punch Shadow in the face but he teleported to the other side of the room with the chaos emerald that he had in his hand. Sonic caused a minor cave collapse above his head as he punched through the rock wall that was supposed to be Shadow. All of the humans in the room backed away so as not to get hurt from the falling boulders. Sonic quickly busted through the pile of rocks on top of him, and stood with his fists clenched staring directly at Shadow.

Shadow held out his hand before Sonic made his next move. "Hear me out."

Sonic: There is nothing I want to hear from you, you murderer!

Shadow: I know hedgehog. I know. But we both know that your friends could end up hurt if we fight here.

Sonics anger did not wane. "What do you want Shadow?!"

Shadow: You don't have any reason to believe me, but I'm here to help.

Tikal: How is it that YOU are here?

Christine: What are you talking about?

Shadow: The echidna here knows that I was born almost 1000 years ago and I was once a mobian protector like you.

Tikal: But, I saw you die!

Shadow: I did, but Maria and her grandfather recovered my body and injected me with nanites. Professor Gerald Robotnic rebuilt my brain with nano technology.

Tikal: And you remember everything?!

Shadow: Nope. I don't remember my previous life, but Maria told me all about it. You see, Maria couldn't let me go, and she didn't care if I didn't remember her. In fact, she was supposed to help me regain my memories and mobianity, but died before the process was complete. Maria's kindness would have helped put me back in touch with my feelings again and the nanite brain would have subsided as my real brain grew back. But she died, and with her, my mobianity too.

Sonic: So, your half hedgehog, half machine. A freak!

Shadow looked over at Sonic, appearing only slightly annoyed.

Tikal: This can't be!

Christine: That's it! No more mobian mumbo jumbo! We need to talk business hedgehog.

Sonic: Why should I believe you faker?

Shadow looked back and forth between the human world leaders and Sonic before he began speaking. "The plan is for you to gather all of the chaos emeralds. But Dr. Robotnic has them spread out across different continents and islands. We know you cannot swim so you will have to keep your speed up to hydroplane across the ocean.

Dismayed, Sonic held up his finger, "Wait, you humans let HIM in on this plan too?"

Christine: This would not have been possible without him. He found us and let us know the locations of all seven chaos emeralds. With him, we have formulated a plan for you to transform into your super form and take on Eggman himself…

Shadow started walking towards Sonic.

Christine: Shadow! What are you doing?!

Shadow: It's alright Christine.

As soon as he got to Sonic, he stopped about a foot from him so he could talk face to face.

Shadow: I know you don't have any reason to trust me hedgehog, but hear me out.

It took every fiber of Sonics being to not knock Shadows block off.

Shadow: After, Chris died; did you not have thoughts of killing Dr. Eggman? We both know that these kinds of thoughts are sinful for any mobian to have.

Sonic still looked unconvinced.

Shadow: I would have done it myself, except…

Sonic: Except what?!

Shadow: I made a promise Sonic. I promised Eggman that I would serve him after he freed me from cryo-stasis all those years ago. I only knew of Dr. Eggmans ancestor, and did not expect this man to be evil.

Sonics posture softened slightly at Shadows words. He knew how important a promise was to a mobian. "But you killed innocent people! There is no excuse for that!"

Shadow: After Chris's death, I felt so much pain, I felt that killing innocent people would destroy the last remnants of mobianity from me and leave me with only my machine brain. But, it had the opposite effect. My brain cells started growing back faster than ever. By the time my natural brain took over half of the nano technology in my head, I realized that I made a mistake. I realized that I had failed Maria in my promise to help humanity.

Shadow paused in silence for a few moments. His face was expressionless as always, but to Sonics shock, a tear started to well up in his eye.

Shadow: I didn't want to feel anything anymore, but I have made it far worse than ever before. After a few attempts to take my own life, I realized that I am practically indestructible, like you hedgehog. I want to take Eggman down for good. He deserves a life of solitude in a mobian prison for his crimes and I intend to see him there.

Shadow took Sonics hand and placed his chaos emerald into it. He looked sternly into Sonics eyes. "Please make things right Hedgehog. I cannot take a life serving Eggman anymore. Now if you excuse me, I need to get back to Eggman. He will suspect something is wrong if I am late." In a flash, Shadow skied off through one of the openings of the cave.

Amazed at the first emotions he had ever witnessed from Shadow, Sonic stared at the emerald he held in his hands for a few moments before he continued planning Eggmans downfall with earth's leaders. It wasn't the emerald that convinced Sonic of Shadows sincerity. It was the look in his eyes.

Scene 8

It's going to take all of us

Christine: I don't see why you have to blow up any of Eggmans facilities. Just sneak in and take each emerald.

Sonic rubbed his hand over his face in disgust, "Would you please let me finish please?"

Christine: I'm not sure we will have time for it.

Tikal: It's alright Christine. I know it might not make sense to you now, but this is how Sonic does things.

Sonic: Not only that, but Dr. Egghead will know that we have taken the emeralds whether I sneak in or not.

Christine: How could you possibly know that?

Sonic: Trust me, he'll know. I just need to pick up each emerald as fast as possible.

When Tails came out on the shoulders of Dr. Albert, Sonic was suprised. Tails only rode on the shoulders of people he really trusted, and his trust wasn't easy to earn.

Tails: If you excuse me Christie, I need to borrow Sonic for a little while. Please continue to plan everything out with Knuckles and Takal.

Christie profusely objected as Sonic and Takal went into the lab with Tails and Dr. Ablert.

Takal: Knuckles; please continue the plan with Christine.

Knuckles wasn't fond of the idea of dealing with a pushy world leader by himself. He wasn't very good with politics but he nodded his head in approval.

The Secret Plan:

Tails: Sonic. This world is going to end. You are going to have to take your role as the ultimate mobian protector if we are to survive.

Tikal: We know he is the current mobian protector but what makes you think that he is the ultimate mobian protector?

Sonic: You have told me that I am the mobian protector and I need to do my duty to protect mobias. You all might be surprised to hear me say this, but I know that. I have always known it. The chaos emeralds only react to Shadow and me.

Tikal raised her eyebrow with curiosity. "Shadow? Who is that?"

Dr. Albert: And what is the Ultimate Mobian Protector?

Tails: Mobian legend tells us of three mobian protectors that will restore balance back to mobias. One of those is greater than the others. He is the glue that holds it all together.

Tikal: How do you know that he is the ultimate mobian protector?

Sonic: He will tell you but answer my question first. I've been waiting for 10 minutes for you to answer it.

Tikal sighed. "Well, I guess, it's ok for you to know because you won't remember it when it's over. But, you've all got to promise me that you won't tell a soul what I'm about to tell you.

Everyone seemed to waive his or her head in some fashion.

Tikal: Alright. Echidnas are tasked with keeping the chaos powers balanced. Knuckles and I are all that is left of our race. Well, technically only Knuckles. You see, I was born in the past and died thousands of years ago. We are the only ones given the ability to time travel, and I'm in charge of this time period with Sonic here as our protector.

Sonic: Your kidding.

Tikal: No, and you can see why this is such a heavily kept secret. If someone like Eggman were to get a hold of this knowledge, every time period throughout mobias's history could be in danger. Like every mobian, an echidna's lifespan is 1000 years. Each one is tasked with a specific time period. In the past, one echidna would watch over the events of their allotted time span, usually their own.

Tikal looked out the window at Knuckles with a saddened look in her eyes, "Unfortunately, our race is diminished and each of us is tasked with more than our own lifetime's worth of events. So much so, that almost every waking moment of our lives can be taken up with time travelling and keeping our world afloat. I am currently training Knuckles here to take my place should anything happen to me."

Sonic: So let me get this straight, you could have stopped this whole thing from happening and you didn't?

Tikal: Remember Sonic; our job is to please the will of the creator. He watches over us, and tasks us with keeping the chaos powers balanced. We've run the simulations, and the chaos emeralds were violently opposed to stopping Eggman from ruling this world.

Sonic: So, Chaos, wanted Eggman to rule? Why?!

Tikal: I don't know, but I can tell you Sonic, that the emeralds almost destroyed the planet when we presented the simulation of stopping Eggman to them. We've never seen such a violent response.

Dr. Albert: If you don't mind me asking, why don't you just go back in time to the beginning and ask the creator yourself?

Tikal smiled. "Every echidna that is ever trained asks that question. Let's just say that whenever anyone has tried, they have never returned.

Tails: Sonic. Look at what Chris was working on.

Sonic stepped forward with wonder and awe as Tails opened the small case with the pill shaped device glowing inside.

Tails: Take this and hold it tightly.

Sonic took the device and stroked it with reverence.

Tails: I've done the calculations and found that it absorbs kinetic as well as several other forms of energy. I'm not exactly sure what it does but I think it will save us. Chris left us some instructions, letting us know that this is to be used, if everything goes wrong. I would say that almost everything has gone wrong for quite some time now.

Sonic: How fast would I have to run?

Tails teared up for a moment before answering. "It would be enough energy to destroy the planet.

Sonic slapped the device back in Tail's hand. "NO. I'M NOT DOING THAT! YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO FIND ANOTHER WAY."

Tails: Sonic, I've done the calculations, this world is doomed anyway, this IS the only way!

Sonic: I'm not going to hurt people like that! We are going with Christine's plan.

Sonic stormed out of the room.

Dr. Albert: Why won't he listen to you Tails?

Tails squeezed the device in his hands as he worked hard to choke back the tears.

Takal: It is the first and second commandments from our God.

Dr. Albert: What are those?

Takal: 1. Never harm another being, and 2. A promise is everything.

Knuckles walked into the room shortly after Sonic walked out. "Whew, I'm so glad Sonic took over. I HATE politics."

Tikal: According to our beliefs, there will be three mobian protectors to bring order to chaos again. The first was a hedgehog that will not be named. All memory of his existence was erased. The second is Sonic. The last will not be born for hundreds of years.

Knuckles seemed to ruminate to himself for a second, then lean over to Tikal's ear and whispered "Silver?" Visibly annoyed, Tikal shushed Knuckles.

Tails: This world is going to end within hours. Sonic is going to have to push himself beyond his ability, and beyond all of his moral sensibilities.

The room got quite.

Takal: The ultimate mobian protector will have two best friends. Two friends that he would lay down his life for…the other mobian protectors will only have one. Legend also has it that he will destroy this world in order to save it. It's always been a passage that baffled us.

Tails looked over at Takal: Sonic has Chris and me.

Takal's eye's widened at the realization. "Then he really IS the chosen one?!"

Tails: I always knew he was. Look, they are probably waiting for us to come out, so this is what we are going to do…

The Cover Plan:

Christine: So we agreed then that once you are powered up, you will release all of the captive mobians from the city. Are you sure Tails can restore their memory?

Sonic ignored the question and paused carefully to consider his next questions.

Sonic: Something still bothers me. I'm not sure what it is but there is a piece missing from all of this.

A deep voice echoed "It is probably me" as Shadow walked into the room.

"You!" Takal exclaimed as her, Tails, Dr. Albert, and Knuckles walked out of the lab.

Sonic zipped at a blazing speed to punch Shadow in the face but he teleported to the other side of the room with the chaos emerald that he had in his hand. Sonic caused a minor cave collapse above his head as he punched through the rock wall that was supposed to be Shadow. All of the humans in the room backed away so as not to get hurt from the falling boulders. Sonic quickly busted through the pile of rocks on top of him, and stood with his fists clenched staring directly at Shadow.

Shadow held out his hand before Sonic made his next move. "Hear me out."

Sonic: There is nothing I want to hear from you, you murderer!

Shadow: I know hedgehog. I know. But we both know that your friends could end up hurt if we fight here.

Sonics anger did not wane. "What do you want Shadow?!"

Shadow: You don't have any reason to believe me, but I'm here to help.

Tikal: How is it that YOU are here?

Christine: What are you talking about?

Shadow: The echidna here knows that I was born almost 1000 years ago and I was once a mobian protector like you.

Tikal: But, I saw you die!

Shadow: I did, but Maria and her grandfather recovered my body and injected me with nanites. Professor Gerald Robotnic rebuilt my brain with nano technology.

Tikal: And you remember everything?!

Shadow: Nope. I don't remember my previous life, but Maria told me all about it. You see, Maria couldn't let me go, and she didn't care if I didn't remember her. In fact, she was supposed to help me regain my memories and mobianity, but died before the process was complete. Maria's kindness would have helped put me back in touch with my feelings again and the nanite brain would have subsided as my real brain grew back. But she died, and with her, my mobianity too.

Sonic: So, your half hedgehog, half machine. A freak!

Shadow looked over at Sonic, appearing only slightly annoyed.

Tikal: This can't be!

Christine: That's it! No more mobian mumbo jumbo! We need to talk business hedgehog.

Sonic: Why should I believe you faker?

Shadow looked back and forth between the human world leaders and Sonic before he began speaking. "The plan is for you to gather all of the chaos emeralds. But Dr. Robotnic has them spread out across different continents and islands. We know you cannot swim so you will have to keep your speed up to hydroplane across the ocean.

Dismayed, Sonic held up his finger, "Wait, you humans let HIM in on this plan too?"

Christine: This would not have been possible without him. He found us and let us know the locations of all seven chaos emeralds. With him, we have formulated a plan for you to transform into your super form and take on Eggman himself…

Shadow started walking towards Sonic.

Christine: Shadow! What are you doing?!

Shadow: It's alright Christine.

As soon as he got to Sonic, he stopped about a foot from him so he could talk face to face.

Shadow: I know you don't have any reason to trust me hedgehog, but hear me out.

It took every fiber of Sonics being to not knock Shadows block off.

Shadow: After, Chris died; did you not have thoughts of killing Dr. Eggman? We both know that these kinds of thoughts are sinful for any mobian to have.

Sonic still looked unconvinced.

Shadow: I would have done it myself, except…

Sonic: Except what?!

Shadow: I made a promise Sonic. I promised Eggman that I would serve him after he freed me from cryo-stasis all those years ago. I only knew of Dr. Eggmans ancestor, and did not expect this man to be evil.

Sonics posture softened slightly at Shadows words. He knew how important a promise was to a mobian. "But you killed innocent people! There is no excuse for that!"

Shadow: After Chris's death, I felt so much pain, I felt that killing innocent people would destroy the last remnants of mobianity from me and leave me with only my machine brain. But, it had the opposite effect. My brain cells started growing back faster than ever. By the time my natural brain took over half of the nano technology in my head, I realized that I made a mistake. I realized that I had failed Maria in my promise to help humanity.

Shadow paused in silence for a few moments. His face was expressionless as always, but to Sonics shock, a tear started to well up in his eye.

Shadow: I didn't want to feel anything anymore, but I have made it far worse than ever before. After a few attempts to take my own life, I realized that I am practically indestructible, like you hedgehog. I want to take Eggman down for good. He deserves a life of solitude in a mobian prison for his crimes and I intend to see him there.

Shadow took Sonics hand and placed his chaos emerald into it. He looked sternly into Sonics eyes. "Please make things right Hedgehog. I cannot take a life serving Eggman anymore. Now if you excuse me, I need to get back to Eggman. He will suspect something is wrong if I am late." In a flash, Shadow skied off through one of the openings of the cave.

Amazed at the first emotions he had ever witnessed from Shadow, Sonic stared at the emerald he held in his hands for a few moments before he continued planning Eggmans downfall with earth's leaders. It wasn't the emerald that convinced Sonic of Shadows sincerity. It was the look in his eyes.

Scene 9

Revelations

As everybody was discussing the plan for defeating Eggman in the background, Knuckles took Tikal to one of the entrances of the cave. Tikal seemed to be hyperventilating. Knuckles grabbed her by the shoulders, "What is it Tikal?!" Tikal looked up at Knuckles teary eyed. Shadow is the reason that we separated both worlds.

Knuckles: You mean earth and mobias?

Tikal did her best to lean over so nobody else could hear her talk except Knuckles. "Yes. A long time ago, both worlds were together. The chaos emeralds chose protectors to keep peace in our day and they would be born with powers. The chaos emeralds chose mobian and human people to have powers back then. But it was soon discovered that humanity could not be trusted and their hearts were full of sin. Mobians however were found blameless with our two commandments. A war broke out between mobians and humans that the world had never seen. A Persons powers could not be taken away, once gifted by the chaos emeralds. So when those humans with super powers lived their 1000 year life spans, no new ones were gifted to humans, only to mobians. Human lifespans were decreased to about 100 years and all super abilities were given to mobians from that time on.

As fascinated as Knuckles was, he took a short look around to make sure nobody was watching or listening to them as he got another lesson from his new teacher.

Tikal: However, the first mobian protector was that Shadow guy that was here earlier. He was the sweetest, cuddliest mobian you ever met. He was always around to help when you needed him. But, we transported his best friend away to safety to make sure she was safe and so his enemies would think that she died in the explosion. Shadow, as he is called now, thought she was dead. He was so emotionally distraught; he killed a human over it.

Knuckles gasped. A mobian had never killed before.

Knuckles: Did anyone see him do it?

Tikal: No but we found him over the dead body with bloody hands.

Knuckles: Than how do you know he did it?

Tikal: He was the only one around, and the look on his face was one of pure rage.

Knuckles: Wow! What happened then?

Tikal: We used the Chaos emeralds' to separate mobias into separate worlds. We then used the master emerald to try and strip Shadow of his powers, but it only managed to kill him, or so we thought. Now we know that Marias grandfather tried to repair him. All memory of Shadow was erased from everybody, but somehow Gerald Robotnic managed to retain the memory of the event.

Knuckles: How is that even possible?

Tikal: When the chaos emeralds assigned all superpowers to mobians, we found out that an equal amount of ability had to be leveraged to humans.

Knuckles: So humans have powers too?

Tikal: No. Yes. Well, not physical ones. The most pure hearted of newborn humans were granted super intelligence, the most dangerous of all superpowers. But we figured, at least they can't hurt each other this way.

Knuckles: That's the Robotnic Family isn't it? That is why they are so smart!

Tikal: Yes. And now Shadow is back.

Tikal sighed. "My whole life, father told me to never dabble in the history of Shadow…To never attempt to combine both worlds again. We spent thousands of years keeping both worlds apart. To know now that everything my family ever fought for may has been wrong…It's just too much to bear."

Knuckles took one arm around her and brought her closer to him while they sat on some rocks. "Sometimes you will have to break one promise in order to keep another…Hay, what do you say we hear this grand plan of theirs?"

With that Tikal smiled gently and got up to walk over to the rest of the group.

Scene 10

Hard Choices

Sonic was sitting on a rock near the cave entrance. Christine was busy equipping a special headset made just for Sonic while Tails was changing the shoes and socks on Sonics feet. The humans developed a new pair of shoes for Sonic that would help him withstand greater impacts than the ones he already had on. Tails had to help with some last minute design/material changes because the originals would have fallen apart within a mile at Sonics speeds. The radio was designed to cancel out wind noises up to mach 10 so they could communicate with him.

Christine: Don't you want some gloves for that fox?

Tails considered the question for a moment before he responded, "Oh no. Mobians are different than humans. Our skin produces a natural antibacterial agent. Our feet can actually smell pretty good. Unless, we don't shampoo and condition in over a month, then they can smell worse than…"

Christine held up her hand and sighed, "I don't want to know." She walked away afterwards to confer with some of the other worlds leaders.

Sonic smiled at Tails.

Sonic: Do you ever notice how humans look down at us like we are lowly, dirty animals.

Tails: Ya I know. You have to remember though Sonic, their only experience with our races come from those creatures on earth. I've studied them, and those are some pretty dirty and unintelligent creatures.

Sonic: You mean those foxes and hedgehogs they have on earth? I know what you mean. They ARE kinda dumb. But humans should know that we take showers and live in houses just like they do.

Sonic looked down at his little buddy with admiration and stroked the fur on top of his head. "Well, we used to live in houses and take showers anyway. These humans were nice enough to let use their portable shower today. We should be thankful for that, and your fur hasn't felt this soft in years buddy."

Tails smiled up at his friend. "Well, I'm all done here. I helped re-construct your shoes with advanced materials from mobias with Dr. Alberts and Christies help. In fact, these are the best shoes I've ever made for you. They can withstand any force and support you up to any velocity.

Sonic: They are comfy too. Well let's go hear this grand plan of theirs.

When Tails finished helping Sonic, they walked over to the human leaders and a giant holographic globe. Christine pointed at the locations marked on a rotating globe. "Now according to Shadows information, these are the locations of the chaos emeralds. Eggman has been using them as bait for you all these years in the hopes that he would catch you again. They are wide open and on display for everyone to see in various public displays and lighthouses. By the time you get to each one, Shadow should already have disabled the security systems designed to catch you.

The young US president looked down at her watch. "It's about time hedgehog. We set up a small racing strip, complete with a starting line just outside the cave." They all started to make their way to the starting line outside the cave.

Christine: We will need you to run your fastest today hedgehog!

Tails tried to contain his chuckle to himself but Christine still took notice. "What's so funny little fox?"

Tails: With respect madam president, Asking Sonic to run his fastest is like asking Superman to punch his hardest. Not even I know Sonics top speed. Sonic will make the judgment himself.

The cave went silent except for the sound of everybody's footsteps on the gravel. Sonic jokingly messed up Tails's furry head with his hand. Sonic was proud of Tails for standing up to the politician.

The group made it to the starting line they drew up for Sonic as he started stretching. The cave exit emptied out into a steep ravine with walls on each side. There was plenty of room between both walls but the path in front of them clearly stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Christine: This is it hedgehog, we are staking everything on you. If you fail today, Robotnic may have dominion over this world forever.

Tails made his way to Sonic who was positioning himself to jet off into the night as he often did on the starting line of his videogames.

Tails: Good luck my good friend. Always remember how much I care for you.

A tear came to Tails eye as he pulled Sonics' head down low enough to kiss it.

Sonic: What's wrong little buddy?

Tails sniffed and wiped the tear from his furry face. "Nothing. There is something up here that I have to get before you leave." Tails started walking in front of Sonic to a small red X marked on the dirt about 15 feet in front of the starting line.

Sonic: Your starting to scare me little buddy.

When tails reached the red X on the ground he turned around and faced Sonic with a tear soaked furry face. Tails then proceeded to open his fist in front of him, revealing the small pill shaped gadget that Chris invented.

Sonic: Something is not right.

Sonic started to walk up to Tails but a large thunderous boom cracked through the night air. Tails instantly disappeared in front of Sonic as a large red shoe in the likeness of Sonics foot de-cloaked in front of him.

His best friends blood splashed out onto his gloves. Shocked at what just happened Sonic raised his bloody hands to look at them. He had to see his hands to prove to himself it was real. Still in disbelief, Sonic stared at his hands a while longer before he realized that time stopped.

Looking up he saw the glowing pill shaped object that Chris invented slowly floating with a projection of Tails himself walking towards Sonic. Sonic briefly looked around to see everyone and everything frozen in place except for the projection of Tails walking towards him. Tails stopped right in front of Sonic and his voice started playing through the capsule.

Tails: My good friend. As you were planning to take back mobias with president Christine, I found out what this object was. It is a time capsule. It absorbs all the energy around it to create a quantum field that can penetrate the fourth dimension itself. The projection smiled at Sonic, in layman's terms, time travel.

Tails got teary eyed as he started to speak again. You will have to travel faster than the speed of light to make this thing work. It takes practically limitless energy to reach the velocity needed to create the field through which you can travel through time.

That means you will have to travel so fast, you will have to destroy everyone and everything on this planet, and maybe even our sun for this to work.

Tails tears were streaming down his cheeks now. "I've done the calculations Sonic. There is no other way to do this. You really are the chosen one. This planet and everyone on it will only survive another ten hours, maybe less." The Tails projection pointed up at the robot behind them.

"Shadow is up there with Eggman right now betraying him. Eggman thinks he has the Chaos emeralds installed in this robot…Shadow put in fake emeralds. You won't have any problem destroying it."

If my calculations are correct, it will take all of the quantum energy that this capsule ever absorbed up to this point to freeze time long enough for you to see this recording. Tails paused in the recording briefly before wiping his eyes and speaking again…

"Even though you never talk about your faith in God, I know how seriously you take him and the two mobian commandments…'Never harm another being, and a promise is everything'. You will have to promise me right now that you will do what I ask…You must go against every fiber of your mobian being and kill everyone on this planet. You MUST activate this time capsule. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with Chris's device so I think I set it to take you back some time before this whole thing started.

I gave my life for this Sonic. Don't look back. Today, you have to see how fast you can really go. You have to do the impossible and defeat yourself…I love you."

The Tails projection went through Sonic, almost like he was going to be hugged as the glowing capsule floated into Sonics hand and deactivated. Everything around Sonic started moving again.

Dust billowed out from the large robotic foot in front of Sonic had made it's way to the crowd behind him. The group of earth leaders and mobians started coughing on all of the dust.

Eggmans Voice started booming out from the speakers of the large robot. "YOU STUPID BLUE HEDGEHOG! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD DESTROY MY STATUE AND GET AWAY WITH IT?! TODAY I'M GOING TO DEFEAT YOU AND YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE BAND OF RESISTANCE ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

Sonic clutched the Time capsule in his hand and started grunting and puffing as the anger started to well up inside him.

"THIS IS GOING TO BE THE DAY THAT I FINALLY DEFEAT YOU! THERE WILL BE NOBODY TO STOP ME FROM RULING THIS WORLD FOREVER! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

Sonics' breathing and grunting became so loud that it slowly turned into a deafening scream.

Sonic: aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Sonic dug his foot into the ground harder than he ever had before, then took off with so much force, it literally destroyed both legs of Eggmans robot and blew everybody behind him back several feet. The upper torso of the robot landed on the ground with a powerful thud.

Eggmans legs were broken from the hard fall.

Eggman: WHAT! WHAT HAPPENED?! I HAVE THE CHAOS EMERALDS INSTALLED! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Shadow: No. What's impossible is for you to hurt anyone, ever again.

Eggman looked over to Shadow in pain.

Shadow had one of the fake chaos emeralds in his hand and crushed it in front of Eggman…A feat that was impossible for any human.

Eggman: You! YOU BETRAYED ME!

Scene 11

This Is The End

Everything was flashing by Sonic at Mach 4 and he was accelerating fast. Nobody knew how fast Sonic could really go, not even Sonic. He was so fast; he barely needed to break a sweat whenever someone challenged him to a race. Usually, Sonic toyed with his competition to make them think they had a chance against him, much as he did with Sam Speed on earth all of those years ago.

What Sonic did know was that he could reach Mach 10 without much effort. However, if he was going to come even close to the speed of light, he was going to need the chaos emeralds. Sonic knew the location of all of the chaos emeralds thanks to the information given to him by Shadow and Christine.

Each emerald was in an exposed location, like lighthouses and tall mountains on various continents. Sonic would be able to see the emerald coming for miles. The plan was for Sonic to reach each emerald and make use of some of their power to give him explosive bursts of speed.

All of this Sonic knew. What scared Sonic was what would happen to the people around him once he reached hypersonic speeds. The air around him would become compressed and he would seriously injure whatever and whomever was around him. At higher speeds, the air in front of him would become plasma and he would definitely destroy everything in his path.

The thought of even injuring someone was horrifying enough to Sonic, let alone killing them. However, Tails calculated that the merging worlds would have no more than 10 hours, maybe less, before they were completely destroyed. The merge rate would exponentially increase until both planets occupied the same space at the same time, and the planet would explode. Tails spoke on the matter, and Sonic trusted him. Sonic would have no choice but to destroy the world, in order to save it.

Sonic could see the first chaos emerald in the distance. It was in a lighthouse on the edge of the water. An eerie purple light emanated from the emerald at the top of the lighthouse. Sonic was hydroplaning over the ocean and was coming close to reaching Mach 5 as he approached land. There was just enough clearance for him to jump off of the first bit of land he stepped foot on, and crash though the glass of the lighthouse to nab the emerald.

As soon as he touched the purple emerald, it gave him a burst of energy, which propelled him past mach 5 and the entire lighthouse exploded below him from the force of the shockwave. There was no turning back now. If there were anybody in that house, they would have died. Tears started to well up in Sonics eyes at the idea that he may have hurt someone but before he could think about it much he noticed something terrible in front of him. The planet started rumbling and breaking apart. Buildings and entire mountains were cracking apart from the two planets colliding together.

Everything was almost frozen in time from Sonics perspective but he could tell that the collisions of the two planets were speeding up. He could see people falling to their death from tall buildings and whole cities being swallowed up by ground beneath them…the end was near. Sonic didn't have a lot of time. This gave him a newfound concentration on the task that lay before him. He had 6 more emeralds to find, and he had to find them, fast.

While speeding his way though the dying city, Sonic jumped off boulders and falling debris. The next emerald was on top of a mountain in the middle of the Pamarious province on mobius, or Europe as it was called on Earth. The mountain was splitting in half. If the emerald fell, it could be lost forever. It took Sonic mere minutes to make it to the mountain and he could see the shining yellow beacon that was the yellow chaos emerald.

Sonic did his best to avoid people as he blasted through the city but he knew he couldn't go around the city, unless he was willing to slow his momentum in order to do it. Sonic jumped and skipped off the rooftops of buildings to avoid hurting people, but he knew in his heart that he left behind a wake of destruction hurling glass and concrete onto the fleeing people below.

Sonic calculated in his head the best place to jump off of in order to obtain the second emerald and it was one of the tallest buildings in the city. He scanned his eyes left and right desperate to find something, anything else to make the jump but he knew there wasn't. He couldn't slow down his momentum, so he jumped with so much force, the building crumbled to the ground beneath him as he jumped several miles through the air to catch the second chaos emerald.

He spin dashed though the room at the top of the mountain that the chaos emerald was held in and flew several miles past it, literally jumping over the mountain. The second chaos emerald propelled him to mach 10 with little effort on Sonics part. The third and fourth emeralds resided in what used to be Romania and Kazakhtan. It would take minutes to reach each country for Sonic as each emerald would more than double his speed. Romania didn't look like the dimensional shift had touched it yet. It looked peaceful compared to the French and Italian cities that Sonic just came from. However, by the time he reached Kazakhstan, the dimensional shift had already reaped massive destruction and it continued on into China.

Sonic was more focused than he had ever been in his life. When he got the temptation to let his mind wander, he tried to think of better times, back when before earth and mobias were colliding. As he reached the 5th chaos emerald in a Chinese city, the dimensional shift between earth and mobias was in full affect. There was almost nothing left to the city. Sonic could see cracks so deep; lava could be seen below the surface.

Sonic had to jump from floating rock to floating rock to keep up his momentum and sometimes he had to smash through them. As he smashed though a building sized boulder, he allowed his thoughts to wander back to when grandpa Chuck and Chris were trying to figure out why his furry quills were so strong…

Grandpa Chuck: Why this is amazing! The molecular structure of your cells is beyond anything we have seen in a living thing here on earth! Hmmm. Can you pick off a quill and hand it to me Sonic?

Sonic looked at Chris with confusion in his eyes.

Chris: Don't worry Sonic; I think I know what he wants to test.

Sonic sighed and picked a piece of fur off of his head and handed it to Chuck. Chuck picked up the hair and placed it between to industrial strength grips to hold the hair horizontally. A mechanical arm came down with a pair of large cable cutters. The machine struggled to cut the hair...So much so, that a grinding sound could be heard and the cable cutters broke from the pressure. When the smoke cleared, the quill was still unscathed.

Chuck: Incredible!

Chris smiled and reached down to Sonic and scratched him on top of his head. The scratch felt good to Sonic.

Chris: And yet, his fur still feels soft.

Chuck puzzled over the computer, trying to make sense of what he saw.

Sonic smiled as he thought about the cherished memory but was snapped back into the moment as He approached the Chinese city of Datong. Datong was completely destroyed. Fires and lava were rising from cracks in the earth as large chunks of the city were flung into the air by the explosive force of the earth below it. It almost looked like a dream to Sonic as time came to a standstill and he jumped his way through the debris once again to make it through the city so he could reach the top of the next mountain. And so it continued, each stone was shining like a beacon on some of the tallest mountains.

The wake of destruction that Sonic left continued across Beijing, North Korea and clipped Japan before he headed out into the North Pacific Ocean. Sonic had about 5 minutes of hydroplaning before he reached station square in North America. The last emerald was in the Rocky Mountains. When Sonic reached the last Emerald, he transformed into Super Sonic and the explosion of velocity literally destroyed Pinnacle Mountain.

Sonic was now flying through the air at Mach 440,000, almost half the speed of light. It wasn't enough. In order to go faster, he would have to use his legs as Super Sonic. Tears started to stream down Sonics face as he realized what he would have to do. Sonic would not only wreak havoc in each city he stepped foot in, he would obliterate it, leaving craters several miles wide. It would look like a row of nukes went off in a straight line with each pass.

Sonic tried with all of his might to focus on the task ahead of him, telling himself that everyone was going to die anyway. But he couldn't bear it. His concentration started to waver. The hedgehog couldn't bring himself to do it. The thought of quitting was poisoning his thoughts, but then he started to think of Chris, Tails and all of the friends he lost. He started thinking about all of the times Eggman got the best of him over the past 20 years, and all the nightmares of sins he didn't commit.

"This cannot be. I won't let him win…not again. Sonic gathered all of his hopes, fears, love, and anger, and let it flow through him. A scream came emanating out of Sonics mouth and it got louder as he made himself touch down on the planet. As Sonic suspected, as soon as his feet hit the ground running, it caused the destruction of everything around him for miles.

He felt a strange sense of surprise as he starting running as Super Sonic. He never ran as Super Sonic before. He never needed to because he could fly as Super Sonic with more speed then was necessary. Now that he was running in super form, he felt a spring in his step that he never felt before. His speed was roughly half the speed of light and yet he felt like he was barely jogging.

With a mischievous grin that only Sonic could muster, he took off, accelerating faster than he ever had before. Sonic was easily approaching the speed of light but he could feel the earth give way beneath him…He would have to run on fresh ground, or else he risked splitting the earth in half if he kept running the same path. Tails was right, there was no way around it, he would to set foot on every square inch of the planet, completely destroying everything. Putting the death and destruction that he was causing out of his mind, he veered off of his original path and started running over new paths across the earth's surface.

He was crossing the entire planet almost twice a second now, destroying everything with the power of a thousand nukes each time.

Eggman looked at the destruction going on around him. He could see a bright light approaching from a distance as each new path Sonic crossed created nuke like explosions.

Shadow had left to join the others to await their doom, so Eggman called over to the two robots.

Eggman: HAY! YOU TWO! PICK ME UP AND TAKE ME TO THE ROBOT CONTROL CONSOLE!

Decoe and Bocoe both came over to lift Robotnic up by his arms. Eggmain grunted in pain from his broken legs. The two robots sat him on his chair while he furiously started typing on the keyboard.

Decoe: Boss! What's going on!

Eggman: THAT'S WHAT I'M TRYING TO FIND OUT YOU DIMWIT!

After he examined the data from his sensor network around the planet, he slowly realized what was happening.

Bocoe: Boss?

Eggman: It's the end of the world Bocoe. BUT! AT LEAST I CAN GIVE A GOING AWAY PRESENT!

The two robots looked at each other.

Decoe: Do you know what the boss is talking about?

Bocoe: No. Do you?

An evil smile appeared on Eggmans face as he hit the transmit button.

Sonic could feel himself and the time capsule absorb a foreign energy. It was weak, almost like a transmission. However, before Sonic could think about it too long, he realized something else that made his heart sink…He was collapsing the earths crust with each step he took. In order to keep himself from flying off the surface of the planet, he had to make himself heavier and heavier as Super Sonic. The trips around the planet were getting shorter because the planet was shrinking.

This was it. If Sonic was going to reach the speed of light, it would have to be now before there wasn't a planet left to run on. From space, it would have looked like the planet was collapsing in on itself. Sonic started running with all of his might as the planet shrunk down to the size of the moon beneath Sonics sneakers. Sonic aimed himself at the sun and jumped off of mobias with all of his might.

A streak of light exploded across space and both planets were obliterated from the force of Sonics push off. The streak of light flew right through the sun and the shockwave destroyed several other star systems in the Milky Way galaxy. Sonic screamed as the stars streaked by in a vortex of light with no end. He did it. He broke the light barrier.

Chris's time capsel powered itself up and sucked all of the energy from Sonic, the collapsed stars, and even the chaos emeralds within a few seconds. The force of the collection was so violent, it brought Sonic to a halt. Everything was still and quite as Sonics body was floating through space. Sonic was dead.

Scene 12

A New Beginning

As Sonics dead body floated through space, the energy from the time capsule exploded into the surrounding space destroying nearly half of the Milky Way galaxy. When the explosion came to an end, it started imploding back on itself. When Sonic realized he was alive, he could see the vortex of light again, except backwards. After a while, he started to notice that everything was happening in reverse. The planets and solar systems that he destroyed were healing themselves. He flew backwards through the sun and landed on earth again running backwards.

Sonic felt like an observer as he watched what he did to the earth in reverse. Explosions were reversing themselves; cities were putting themselves back together. After a few minutes, it started to dawn on Sonic what was happening. Sonic opened his hand and noticed Chris's device was glowing white. The time capsule was taking him back in time.

Events were playing themselves out in reverse and it was only accelerating. As time went on, not even Sonic could see everything that was happening. Everything became brighter and brighter until he was blinded by the light. At once, everything became silent.

Sonic looked around him to get his bearings. He was on mobias, and the world was whole again!

He opened his hand to see the time capsule sparking. It looked like it was busted. Even so, he could still feel one last massive bust of energy build up in it. This time it felt different. He felt like the energy around him was being drawn to him like a magnet.

When Sonic looked up he could see Robotnik's Sonic robot with it's foot hovering over Chris Thorndyke.

Somehow, Sonic instinctively knew what to do with the last bit of energy in the time capsule. He clutched the capsule in his hand, and used the magnet like energy to rip the chaos emeralds out of Eggman's robot. Now he knew that the time capsule used the chaos emeralds to somehow focus it's energy.

The chaos emeralds violently tore holes in the giant robot where they exited and converged on Sonic. It didn't take long for Sonic to turn into Super Sonic.

As the giant robot foot came down on Chris Sonic flew up just far enough to catch it. Chris looked up to see Sonic grinning while holding the giant foot up with one hand.

Eggman: WHAT!

Sonic: Hay Egghead! Time to flip your omelet!

Sonic threw the robot into the air, flipping it one full time before it landed face first on the ground. Shortly thereafter, he tore through the giant robot like it was tinfoil, sending explosions in every direction.

Out of the balls of flames came Sonic-holding Eggman by the collar of his uniform. Sonic violently threw the doctor to the ground and flew down to him with his foot holding down his head on the side of his face.

Sonic: If you ever think about hurting my friends again, I will own you!

Sonics face was flushed with anger while he pressed down on the doctor with his foot.

Sonic: Promise me you will never do that again!

After a pause, Sonic started pushing down harder on Eggman.

Sonic: You know I can make my self as heavy or light as I want when I'm like this!

It was hard to tell for sure but it sounded like a bone softly snapped while it started to cave from the pressure.

Chris: Sonic!

Sonic looked over at Chris and Tails. They were standing there with looks of horror on their faces.

Sonic's breathing slowed and his anger slowly left him. After a few seconds, he took his foot off of Eggman and helped him up. Eggman had black marks on his clothes from being singed by the explosion. Sonic floated up to him to look him at eye level.

Sonic: I don't want to see you for at least a week. Don't ever think about hurting my friends again. Go. Get out of my site.

Eggman, as shocked as he was, nodded and started walking away; only turning around for a second to tell Chris, "For what it's worth, I was hoping I would loose today."

After Eggman left, Chaos control lit up the sky. Out of the light came Sonic in his normal blue form.

Tails: Sonic? What happened to you?

Sonic: It's a long story buddy. It's a story I don't plan to ever let happen again.

Sonic held out his hand to show Chris the fried circuitry that was his time capsule. Chris gasped.

Chris: Is that?

Sonic: It sure is buddy. We wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for you.

Sonic walked over and put the time capsule in his hand. When the object touched Chris's hand, he jolted in pain from an electric shock. Sonic placed his hand on Chris to help him up but he started jittering from the shock also.

Tails ran up help them and he too was hit by a shock, only it sent Tails flying back. When Tails came to, he realized something. He remembered everything from the past 20 years of the alternate timeline!

Tails gasped in amazement as he looked around to see the world not in a decrepit state. Then he remembered that Sonic and Chris were both still being electrocuted. Tails hurried over and grabbed his Miles Electric pad. Tails ran as close as he could to Chris and Sonic without getting shocked and took readings.

Tails: Eggman! I can recognize your programming anywhere!

Tails hurriedly typed away at the pad and hit the send button to block the signal coming from the time capsule.

Sonic and Chris both got up off the ground shaking their heads.

Chris: Whoa! What happened?

Tails: It was Eggman! He hacked your time capsule Chris and put in a feedback loop that used what little energy that was left in it.

Chris: Wha…What time capsule?

Tails looked puzzlingly at Chris.

Tails: The one you invented to save the world?

Chris laughed. "Sorry Tails. I don't know what you're talking about. With that, Tails's face fell.

Tails: Oh no. Quick! Sonic! What is the last thing you remember?

Sonic laughed. "The last thing I remember is giving Chris back his time capsule." Tails eyes widened.

Tails: Oh no. That means…Chris! What's the last thing you remember?

Chris: The last thing I remember is crying while you guys were leaving Earth to go back to Mobias! It sure is great to see you guys!

A tear welled up in Tail's eye.

Sonic: What is it buddy?

Tails: It was Eggman.

Sonic: What! What did Eggman do?

Tails: That wasn't just a feedback loop. It transferred memories to each person that touched it!

Sonic: What does that mean?

Tails: It means that the capsule transferred several years of Chris's memory to you when you touched him with the capsule. The longer you were in contact with him, the more it stole. And when I touched you, it transferred them to me! You two were still in contact when I was thrown back. Sonic! Do you have any of Chris's memories?

Sonic: Come to think about it, I do. Sonic look up at his friend Chris with admiration, I can remember how heartbroken he felt when I we first left for mobias all those years ago. I can remember about 2 years after we left.

Sonic looked over at Tails, "What do you remember". Tails looked up at Sonic. "I remember the 78 years of Chris's life after that!

Sonic: Why? Why did Eggman do this!?

Tails: I'm guessing his motivations were in part revenge, and because he knew that Chris surpassed him in intelligence.

Chris: What's wrong guys? What is it that I am not remembering? And why am I on mobias? Where's my family?

Sonic motioned for Chris to kneel down in front of him so they could be at eye level. "You've forgotten the last 80 years my friend. Your family has long since past on."

Chris: But, how? I'm still a kid?

Sonic: When you come here, you live in mobian years. You age much slower. I went back to get you before you died. You were an old man on earth.

Chris looked toward Tails smiling at first, thinking it was a practical joke. However, after he realized that they were both serious, tears started welling up in his eyes. "You mean, I've forgotten most of my life, and my family is gone?" Sonic put his hand on Chris's shoulder. "I'm afraid so pal."

Chris took off running, crying and screaming. Sonic zipped in front of him and motioned him to come down to his level again. When Chris knelt down in front of Sonic, Sonic embraced him in a heart-melting hug. Sonic sniffed while the tears fell. "We are your family now pal."

Chris embraced Sonic and squeezed him as hard as he could.

Tails was wiping the tears from his eyes watching the two hug it out when he noticed out of the corner of his eye some red fur moving. Tails walked up to Sonic and placed his hand on him, "I'm going to check something out." Sonic didn't respond but Tails knew he heard him.

Tails walked over to the entrance of the cave where he saw the movement.

Knuckles looked over to where Tikal was sitting to comfort her. "What's the matter?" Tikal looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "It was written, when we find the chosen one, he is the one who will direct the flow of the future."

Knuckles: What's wrong with that? As much as I hate to admit it, the hedgehog doesn't have bad judgment.

Tikal: He also gets to decide whether or not we keep the two worlds separated.

Knuckles looked above her when the idea hit him. "Ahhh. That means he will want Chris to stay, and he will want to merge the two worlds again!"

Tikal sniffed, "Which means, me and you are going to be traveling through time trying to undo everything my father and his ancestors did to separate them. When we see him again, we will have to lie to him to keep it a secret!"

Knuckles: Is he dead set against merging the two worlds again?

Tikal looked up at him. "You have no idea. He fought his whole life to separate the two worlds. He will never agree to it!"

Knuckles: Don't worry. We can do it.

Tikal: It took most of our Tribe to protect the world from evil the last 2000 years and separate the two worlds. Trust me, you and I will not be enough!

At that moment Tails walked in. "In that case, let the rest of the Sonic team in on the secret. We will be your tribe from here on out!"

Tikal looked up shocked. "How much did you hear? What do you know about us?"

Tails: Thanks to the Eggman of the future, I know everything you told us in the alternate timeline as well as what I just heard.

Tikal: How is that possible?!

Tails: It's a long story. Needless to say, you and I both know that Sonic would want in too.

Knuckles was a little annoyed. He was recently tasked with saving the world, and every bit as Sonic did, if not more, and now Sonic team was going to be in on it.

Tikal looked up at Knuckles. "He's right. With them, we might stand a chance at merging the two worlds together again." Knuckles sighed.

Tikal: What's the matter Knuckles? You will still be in charge of all things time travel. It is our tribe's responsibility.

A smile crept across Knuckle's face. "I get to tell Sonic what to do? I like it already!"

Tikal: If we do this, it will be quite the juggling act. She glanced over at Tails. "We won't always need you and the Sonic team, but we will need to call upon you sometimes. The worst thing that could happen is if Eggmain found out about us. We don't want to raise suspicions.

Tails walked over to Tikal and offered his hand to lift her off of the rock that she was sitting on. Tikal took his hand and stood up to Tails.

Tails: We can't take Chris back to earth. He will die. You both know that Knuckles is the last of his kind and he won't be able to do everything alone.

Knuckles: Agreed.

Tikal: Agreed.

Tails walked over to the edge of the cave and looked out upon Sonic and Chris. Someone had brought a chair out for Chris to sit on and Sonic's head and muzzle was nestled between Chris's and shoulder and chin. They were locked in a perpetual hug as Sonic rubbed Chris's back to try and make him feel better.

Tails: Agreed.

The End