Location: Mobius – Green Hill Zone
(BGM)
“YEEEAAAHOOOO!!!!!” Sonic shouted with excitement and glee as he sprinted through another one the naturally formed loops of the Green Hill zone, then vaulted over a 20 meter wide chasm. He landed into a safety roll, then dashed off at break neck speed to catch up with Shadow.
“Alright where are you Shadow?” Sonic said, the wind blowing in his face. His eyes darted left and right for any sign of his dark counterpart. He ran out of the forest into a meadow, then his eyes widened when he saw Shadow standing right out in the middle of the meadow.
“There you are!” Sonic shouted.
“What took you so long faker?” Shadow snarked at him. Shadow then sped off in another direction in a black and red streak.
“Why you.” Sonic growled as he skidded to a stop and then burst off in Shadow's direction.
Shadow rapidly parkoured over various rocks and boulders, and continued to speed off towards a loop in the distance. He looked behind him to see if Sonic was following him. He didn't see any sign of his blue counterpart.
“Hmph. He probably fell asleep under a tree or something. Lazy bastard.” Shadow snarked.
“Ahem.” Shadow heard a voice next to him.
Shadow gasped in surprise, he looked to his left to see Sonic, running backwards next to him, arms crossed. Shadow smirked, impressed that he's been able to keep up for this long.
“Heh, not bad, I was starting to think you were out of shape, somehow”
“Pfft HA!” Sonic boasted, taken aback when Shadow said 'out of shape' “You kiddin' me? This just feels like a walk in the park.”
“Hmph, don't get to cocky, kid!” Then Shadow spun around and swept Sonic off his feet with a sweep kick.
“Wha-Whoa! Hey!” Sonic shouted as he was swept off his feet and tumbled across the ground. Shadow then sped ahead of Sonic who continued to tumble behind him.
Sonic flipped back onto his feet still running, pissed that Shadow was toying with him again.
“Dammit! Shadow, you'll regret that!” He swung his arms behind him, causing his speed to instantly triple, causing a blue wind cone to surround him. This allowed him to rapidly catch up with Shadow, soon enough he was on Shadow's tail. “Ya think that would slow me down huh?” Sonic boasted.
The two were closing in on a loop. Shadow looked behind him and saw Sonic catching up. He smirked before instantly speeding ahead and ran through the loop in mere seconds. Sonic readied himself to dash through the loop.
“Alright, here we go!!” He swung his arms behind him again, this time quadrupling his speed, creating a sonic boom behind him. He was about to run through the loop, when suddenly a bright flash of light appeared in front of him.
“Dah! What the heck!?” He covered his face from the blinding light. When the light dissipated he saw a familiar white figure in front of him.
(BGM end)
“Wha! Watch out!” Sonic panicked, trying to stop, but his immense momentum carried him forward.
“Wha? DaCH!!” The figure shouted as Sonic crashed into him. They both rolled forward in a ball, their momentum was great enough to go through the entire loop without losing speed. They exited the loop still rolling for a few meters before finally coming to a stop. The two hedgehogs groaned with pain after their little stunt.
“Owwwwwww.” Sonic groaned, his back and sides ached from crashing into that interloper.
“Why don't ya watch where you're goin'!” Sonic protested to the unknown person, getting back on his feet.
“Oww. Sorry, I didn't think I would appear right in front of you.” The person replied. Sonic looked up and saw it was someone he knew all too well. It was Silver the Hedgehog, Sonic's friend/rival from the future.
“Silver!?” Said a surprised Sonic.
“Sonic!?” Silver said back. “Man I never thought you'd be the first person I'd run into.”
“And I never thought I'd run into you.” Sonic went over and offered a hand to him, which Silver gladly took.
“Good to see ya buddy.” Sonic gave him a pat on the shoulder. Silver was honestly surprised that Sonic was so happy to see him.
“Heh, uh, yeah..good to see ya too.” Silver rubbed the back of his head nervously.
“So, why'd you come back from the future all of a sudden?” Sonic asked. Silver's smile instantly faded.
“The future's falling apart again.” He said with worry. Sonic's smile also faded.
“What?! What are you talking about?” Sonic asked, worry building in his voice.
“I can't really explain it. I mean first I think things are all well and fine, and then suddenly things start going wrong.” Silver explained. Sonic thought for a second.
“Well, can you tell me some of the things that happened?” Sonic asked.
“Well first thing is that people started to disappear into the void, next thing is the world itself started to fall apart, like it was fading away from time and space.” Silver explained. Sonic nodded in affirmation.
“Wait a minute, if everybody in the future disappeared, then why didn't you?” Sonic asked.
“I'm still confused about that too. The reason I'm here in the first place is because of this portal that mysteriously appeared.
“Portal?” Sonic raised an eyebrow at his explanation.
“Yeah, and there was this mysterious voice in my head telling me to go into it.”
Sonic scratched his head for a minute, trying to make sense of everything that Silver told him.
“Well, we better go tell Shadow, before anything else happens.” Sonic decided.
“Yeah, he should know what to do! Say, speaking of which, where is he?” Silver said, wondering how Shadow was doing at this time.
“I was actually following him until you showed up. Show off didn't even bother to come back.” Sonic snarked.
“And what makes you say that?”
“GAH!!!” The two hedgehogs jumped when they heard Shadow behind them.
“Sh-Shadow!? How long have you been standing there?!” Sonic protested.
“Long enough.” Shadow countered. He turned to Silver.
“I didn't think I would be seeing you again.” Shadow said to him.
“What up Shadow?” Silver said enthusiastically, offering a fist bump. Shadow smiled and returned the fist bump.
“I take it you've heard everything I said?” Silver asked. Shadow nodded in confirmation.
“This really proves problematic. This is just like back with Solaris threatening to destroy all of time and space.” Shadow explained.
“But it can't Solaris again, can it?” Sonic speculated.
“Probably not, but we should expect someone like him to be behind all this. It takes someone with near godlike powers to do something like this.” Shadow explained.
“Why don't we talk about this at my place, it's getting late now.” Sonic said, point back to the crimson sun setting on the horizon.
“Yeah, not to mention I'm starving.” Silver added.
“Alright, fair enough.” Shadow replied. The three hedgehogs began to head back to emerald town. As they walked Sonic gave Silver a friendly nudge.
“Hey, it's good to have you back man.” Sonic smiled at him. Silver blushed in embarrassment.
“Heh, It's great to have friends like you two back in the past.” Silver replied warmly. Shadow looked back at the two hedgehogs as they began chatting. He smiled a little bit.
“A year ago they were bitter enemies. Now look at them . They're like brothers.” Shadow thought, heart-warmed by the friendship they've formed. He will never express these feelings to them, but the feeling warmed his heart nonetheless.
But meanwhile, in the shadow of a nearby tree. An evil presence was watching them, through a pair of red bloodshot eyes. He looked at the trio with a seething hate. Just the sight of them did not even amount to one-one millionth of the hate he had for all life in general.
The amorphous shadow being then detached it self from the shadow of the tree he was hiding in, stretching the shadow of the tree as he exited. He then proceeded to follow the hedgehogs back to emerald town, keeping his distance so that he wouldn't be noticed.
“Hate……..that's only feeling I have for you three……..and the entire universe will suffer for the trouble you caused me.” The being seethed.
Meanwhile Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic's sidekick and eternal companion, was in his lab working on a schematic for a new and improved version of the X-Tornado. He speculated that this new version would remove several flaws that the previous versions had, as well as having completely new features and capabilities added to it.
“I'm certain this new X-Tornado will be my magnum opus.” Tails said to himself.
“I'm pretty sure this new model will surprise Eggman's mustache off.” Tail snickered at his own statement.
He finished drawing the last few dimensions of the left wing thruster before sitting back in his chair.
“Whew! That's the left thruster done.” He wiped some sweat off his forehead. He looked back at the main schematic for the new model. “Sigh….Fifty Eight more parts to go.” Tails sighed when he realized he still has a ton of drafting left to do.He looked at the shelf above his desk. He saw a framed picture of him, Sonic, and Knuckles, all in front of the master emerald. He continued looking at the various pictures from his past adventures with his friends. He saw his human friend Chris, Amy, Cream, even Silver, as well as several other friends. His heart was warmed at the sight of all of his past memories. However his smile faded and his heart sunk when he looked at the potted flower at the end of the shelf. His mind flashed back to that of a certain plant girl who he had feelings for. He wanted to say her name, but…..for some reason…..he couldn't.
“Three years huh?” Tails said to himself. He sighed, trying to push the sad memory out of his head.
“It's just a memory, nothing more.” He decided to get back to work on his schematics.
Location: Eggman’s base.
Somewhere else on Mobius lay a facility, with robots patrolling the electric fence that surrounded the perimeter of a mechanical fortress. The center of the facility lay a tower, with an insignia resembling the face of one of Sonic’s enemies, Eggman.
Eggman slumped in his chair with a face filled with sheer boredom. It’s been over a year ever since he saw his arch nemesis Sonic the Hedgehog, or any of his friends. While he had a plan in the works, it unfortunately was in development hell.
“Siiiiiiiiigh Is this what life has come down to? Sitting and waiting for my defeat?” Eggman brooded over the memories of the numerous times he’s lost to Sonic and his friends. It’s happened so many times that he’s come to expect it.
Two robots entered the room, one was a tall and slim yellow humanoid, while the other was a short, stout, purple humanoid. They were known as Decoe and Bocoe.
“Umm….Doctor….” Decoe said hesitantly.
“Just spit it out you two, tell me what’s delayed this time.” Eggman said nonchalantly, expecting the worse news.
“Uhh...well um…..phase 2 of the plan is only 18% complete from 15% last week.” Bocoe said looking at the tablet displaying the results. Eggman let out a frustrated sigh.
“And….?” Eggman groaned.
“Well...the drone maintenance system has been riddled with unfixed bugs.” Boeco added. This didn’t help eggman’s mood at all.
“Grrrr!!” Eggman got up with a frustrated grunt and began pacing the room. Decoe and Bocoe looked at each other, unsure of what to say.
“What do we tell him Decoe?” Boeco whispered.
“I don’t know! He’s so depressed right now anything could set him off.” Decoe whispered back nervously.
“Well...maybe say something that will cheer him up!” Boeco suggested.
“Like what? There haven’t been any new developments at all. We haven’t even located the chaos emeralds.” Bocoe said checking his tablet.
The two took a few seconds to rack their memory circuits for an idea. Eventually, a light bulb lit up inside their heads. (Literally)
“Hey Doctor….” Decoe lifted a finger. Eggman stopped and looked at them. Decoe hesitated, but Bocoe continued speaking.
“-do you happen to remember that strange artifact that you just wrote off as ‘garbage’ that you found a few days ago?” This managed to get Eggman’s interest.
“What about it?” Eggman questioned them.
“Don’t you think you should look at it some more instead of just putting it in the maximum-security chamber?” Decoe asked Eggman, obviously confused as to why Eggman show so much disinterest in the artifact he found.
“What difference does it make!?” Eggman shouted at them, causing the two robots to fall silent.
“It’s all gonna end the same anyways. Even if I managed to get a hold of the chaos emeralds, Sonic and his band of misfits always find a way to ruin my plans.” Eggman sulked. He continued pacing the room back and forth. Decoe and Bocoe were even more confused than before. It wasn’t like Eggman to lose hope. If there was one thing that Eggman had, it was persistence. He never gave up despite his failures and humiliations.
“So…..are you saying you’re giving up doctor?” Decoe asked him. Eggman held his head in frustration, trying to calm down.
“I honestly don’t know. I’m starting to wonder if any of my conquests to conquer the world had any chance of succeeding in the first place.” Eggman said, letting the humiliation of his countless failed plans sink in. He slumped back in his chair and started stroking his mustache.
“It’ll take a miracle…..something out of this WORLD to lift my spirits again.” Eggman sulked.
BWWWOOOOM BWWWOOOOM BWWWOOOOM!!!!
Suddenly, the emergency alarm went off, turning the entire room red.
“Grrr what is it now?” Eggman man still maintained a nonchalant tone despite the blaring alarm.“Has another critical malfunction occurred in the maintenance chamber?”
Decoe and Bocoe looked at their tablets.
“Um...no doctor. It’s that artifact you found.” Bocoe responded. This managed to peak Eggman’s interest.
“What’s going on with it?” Eggman asked. Then the automated emergency system spoke.
“WARNING, UNKNOWN ARTIFACT ENERGY READINGS AT CRITICAL LEVELS.”
This made Eggman sit up in his chair.
“I’m going to see this for myself.” He stated. He made his way to the maximum security chamber. He made it to the chamber’s entrance, which opened up to a massive enclosed room, save for a small glowing shard in the middle.
Eggman took a step out into the empty space. However just before his foot fell down, a hexagonal platform caught his foot. He continued walked as more hexagonal platforms created a path for him, the one’s behind him disappearing.
He made it to the middle of the chamber which held a glowing red shard, that was emanating an ominous black aura from it. It was suspended in mid air by two modules on it’s top and bottom.
Eggman waved his hand, which brought up a holographic information screen. Indeed he saw that the energy levels were definitely rising. The shard’s aura was getting bigger and bigger by the second.
“Doctor! What should we do?” Decoe spoke to him through a COM link.
“We have no idea what that thing does! It could destroy the entire base!” Boeco worryingly added
Eggman looked at the shard, with it’s pulsating black aura growing slowly. A grin grew upon Eggman’s face. For he saw something in this artifact that he failed to see before. He let out a sinister chuckle.
“It looks like things are about to get a little……. interesting.” He said. Decoe and Bocoe looked at each other in confusion.
Eggman continued looking at the glowing shard, eager to see what this artifact had in store for him.
(BGM)
Back at Sonic's house, the three hedgehogs were discussing their course of action against this new threat. Sonic had whipped up some microwavable Chilidogs for himself and Silver. Silver, who had not eaten ever since this whole thing started, gladly wolfed down the chilidogs.
“Sheesh, you must've been really hungry.” Sonic remarked. Silver wiped some chili sauce off his mouth.
“You bet, but man is that spicy! How can you eat that all the time?” Silver asked.
“I can handle the spiciness and you can't” Sonic smirked.
“I sure can!” Silver protested, eying Sonic's chilidogs. There was a brief moment of silence.
“You gonna eat that?” Sonic responded by taking a huge bite out of his Chilidog.
“Aw…...” Silver said disappointingly.
(BGM end)
“Stay focused you two, this isn't a heartwarming reunion here.” Shadow lectured the two.
“We need to figure out who's behind this whole thing.”
“Alright alright Shadow sheesh.” Sonic complained nonchalantly.
“Don't give me that faker! You're acting like this is just childs play! “ Shadow lectured him.
“I save the world all the time, so this is nothing new.” Sonic shrugged.
“Right, I forgot how cocky you can be.” Silver remarked.
“That's enough! Let's get back on track!” Shadow stated.
“Let's start with what we know.” Sonic and Silver finally decided to listen.
“We know that something that's going to happen in the present is going to destroy the future.” Shadow went over everything they know about this incident.
“We currently don't know what’s causing this, so our first priority is to find out who or what is behind this.” Shadow explained further.
“How about we ask Eggman. He's bound to have answers.” Sonic speculated.
“Bad idea.” Shadow replied quickly.
“What!? Why not?!” Sonic protested.
“We don't want to provoke him into doing something dastardly or stupid.” Shadow explained.
“We know how well that went last time it happened.”
“Uh heh heh, right.” Sonic chuckled.
“Now back on track.” Shadow continued. He looked to Silver.
“Kid, you have any ideas?” Silver was a little irritated when he called him 'kid'.
“Who're you calling kid?” Silver remarked.
“The fact that you nearly killed Sonic over a lie that Mephiles told you.” Shadow stated.
Silver fell silent, remembering his less than stellar actions nearly a year ago.
“Right….don't remind me.” Silver reminisced.
“Anyways, we don't really have many leads. I was actually thinking of paying old man Eggman a visit to ask him a few questions.” Silver gave his take on the situation.
“But like I said, it's a bad idea.” Shadow said again.
“You're probably right. But Eggman is the only person who could possibly know anything about this.” Silver replied.
“That is a good point.” Shadow remarked. “But he's been silent for a long time now. He could be planning something big as we speak.”
“Well what are our other options?” Sonic asked. The three thought for a few seconds.
“You think it's the Black Arms?” Sonic asked.
“The who?” Silver questioned.
“It's a long story. But I think I put them well out of commission.” Shadow explained. They thought for a few more seconds.
"SighWelp I'm out of ideas." Sonic slumped back on the couch.
"Silver, you're the one who saw everything that happened, can you tell us anything else?" Sonic asked further.
Silver scratched his chin as he thought, trying to remember any other details he left out. He then gasped as he remembered something.
"Oh yeah! I remember hearing a voice in my head as I went through the portal!" Silver remembered. Sonic and Shadow continued paying attention. "It was only one word, but it ringed in my head."
"What was the word?" Shadow asked.
"..........Cyclone" Sonic's ear immediately perked up when Silver said that word.
"Are you serious?!" Sonic leaned forward towards Silver.
"Uh yeah. You mean you've heard it to?" Silver replied.
"Not just that. I also had a dream before that. It was saying things to me." Sonic explained to them.
"And you neglected to bring this up earlier?" Shadow prodded him.
"I didn't have a chance to. Oh! Also I saw a person......it was a girl, she had purple hair." Sonic explained further. Shadow and Silver were perplexed at his explanation.
"Do you know who this girl is?" Silver asked. Sonic shook his head in response.
"So this dream rattles off a bunch of words and shows you a person you don't even know? Just what the hell is going here?" Shadow said with annoyance in his voice at how complicated this has become.
"Well excuse me, I just told you what I saw!" Sonic retorted.
"Guy's come on! We need to figure out what's going on before this threat kicks down our front door!" Silver said.
The second Silver finished his sentence, the sound of an explosion outside rocked the house, throwing the three off balance.
“Whoa!! What was that!?” Sonic yelled, his heart racing from the sudden explosion.
“Don't know, lets find out.” Shadow said calmly, readying himself for what's about to come. “Sonic, bring the Chaos emeralds.”
“Right!” Sonic dashed to a cabinet in the corner of his living room, and brought out the seven glowing gemstones.
“Seriously!? You've been hiding them here?!” Silver questioned, confused as to why Eggman hasn't snatched them yet.
“Yeah, I know right? I'm surprised Eggman hasn't snatched them yet.” Sonic smirked.
"Catch!" He tossed one of the Chaos emeralds to Silver.
“Whoa!” He almost dropped the emerald as he caught it.
“I'll take two, you take the rest.” Shadow said. Sonic tossed two of the emeralds to him. They put the emeralds away (In god knows where, since they've been able to pull it right out of their buts at times) They all heard the sound of another explosion outside.
“Let's go!” Sonic said to the others.
“Right!” Shadow and Silver both replied. They all ran outside, where the townspeople were panicking from the chaos that suddenly turned up out of nowhere. Several trees were uprooted, houses were on fire, and dust covered the entire town
“HELP!! SOMEBODY HELP!!” A mobian civilian cried out running to them. Silver ran up to him.
“What's going on?” Silver asked.
“Th-There are these black creatures coming from town square! They're destroying everything!” The civilian replied frantically. The three hedgehogs looked at each other.
“Well it's definitely not Eggman.” Sonic added.
“Let's head there immediately.” Shadow pointed to town square which lay in the middle of the town. The other two nodded.
“You get to safety, we'll take care of this.” Silver told the civilian. The civilian nodded and ran off to find someplace safe
(BGM)
The three started to head towards town square. They all saw smoke coming from the center of town. Shadow looked around to see glowing claw marks among the destruction. He also felt an ominous and malevolent presence, slowly getting stronger as they headed toward town square.
“Hey Shadow. Doesn't this feel familiar?” Silver asked, who was getting similar vibes as Shadow.
“You feel it too?” Sonic asked, who also had the same feeling.
“Yeah. You're right.” Shadow replied.
“This feels too familiar.” However he was cut short when he sensed something about to pounce on them.
“Watch out!” Shadow shouted, as a group of four legged creatures jumped out in front of them. They were lizard like monsters with black skin with glowing red veins. They had spikes going along their back's and their tails had serrated spikes at the tips. Their teeth and claws were all glowing white, and their head seemingly had no eyes, or at least no visible ones. The creatures leered at the three hedgehogs, ready to attack them. The three hedgehogs got ready to fight.
“I'm guessing these guys are what crashed our party?” Sonic asked, ready to .
“I would believe so.” Shadow replied, clenching his fist, causing lightning to crackle off his arm.
“You think you can still handle this buddy?” Sonic asked Silver.
“Pfft! You serious? If I can go up against the likes of you two, then these will be a piece of cake.” Silver replied confidently, he activated his psychic powers, causing him to glow cyan.
Sonic smirked with confidence. He cracked his knuckles, ready to slug the first one that moves in the face.
“Heh, that's all I needed to hear.”
Then one of the creatures leapt into the air, ready to pounce on them. However almost immediately, Sonic leapt towards the creature at a blinding speed, slammed into it's torso, spun it around rapidly and slammed back down into the ground, all in a matter of two seconds.
“Heh, not done yet!” Then he slammed down into the downed creature with a spin attack, killing the creature instantly. The creature imploded into several red whisps that dissipated into thin air. Sonic got back up, ready to face the next one.
“Who's next?” Sonic snarked. Shadow and Silver rocketed past Sonic to face the other creatures.
Silver avoided a strike from one of the creatures, then threw several pieces of debris at it with his psychokinesis, knocking it off balance. Then he jumped up, avoiding another one of the creature's laser breath. Then he raised his palm, and then slammed it into the ground, letting out a shockwave which stunned the two monsters.
“Take this!” Silver shouted as he grabbed them both with his psychokinesis, and slammed them into each other and then threw them into the others.
Shadow flash stepped away from one's attack, reappeared above it then smashed it into the ground with an axe kick. Then he flash stepped again to right in front of one's face and sent it reeling back on two legs with a flip kick. Then he saw he was about to be flanked by three of the creatures from behind.
He remained calm, then in a split second, he flash stepped and smashed one to the ground, the flashed back to the one reeling back and struck it again, then he struck the second one in the head, dislocating it's jaw, then struck the one reeling back again, then he blasted the third creature in half with a chaos spear, then finally he pierced through the final creature's chest, grabbing the energy core inside it.
“Dead on!” Shadow shouted as he ripped the energy core out of the creature's chest, flipped back onto the ground and then crushed the core in his hand as the creatures' corpses imploded into red whisps.
Sonic rapidly rushed around the creatures, barraging them with blows from all sides. He ducked under an attack from one of the creatures, then struck another one to the side, then defeated five of them at once with a rapid series of punches.
Then he noticed two of them about to fire at him with their laser breath. He then dashed to the side, narrowly avoiding them. Then he jumped up and spin dashed into the ground between them, knocking them into the air.
“Hey Silver!” Sonic called out.
“Huh?” Silver turned to him.
“Play ball!” Sonic then kicked the two creatures towards Silver. Silver anticipated Sonic's move, then he lifted a giant piece of debris into the air and then crushed the two creatures underneath it.
The three hedgehogs continued to fight the creatures relentlessly, however no matter how many they defeated, more came to replace the ones they defeated. The three stood back to back, panting heavily as the battle continued on.
“Pant Pant How many are there?” Sonic asked.
“They just keep on comin’” Shadow, realized that no matter how many they defeated, more just took their place.
“They must be coming from a source, we destroy that and they should go away.” He theorized.
“Okay, but one question, where is this source?” Silver asked.
“Don’t know, but were gonna have to fight through them to find it.” Shadow replied, expecting a hard fight ahead of them. Sonic was about to lunge at the monsters again, but he stopped when he saw something digging through the ground behind the hoard of monsters.
“What the..?” Sonic said in confusion. Then suddenly, a red-figure burst out of the ground underneath one of the monsters, launching it upwards with an upward punch. Sonic and the others looked up and saw it was Knuckles.
“Knuckles!” Sonic shouted, relieved to see him.
“Ha, don’t think I’d let you have all the fun!” Knuckles smiled back before finishing the creature off with a downward strike, slamming the monster into the ground. Then he grabbed the two on both his sides by their heads, slammed them into each other and then went into a spin attack holding both of the creatures by their heads, slamming them into the other monsters behind him while yelling crazily. "DoorARARARARARA!!!!"
“Whoa...are all of your friends like this?” Silver asked Sonic, surprised at Knuckles ferocity.
“Heh, nah, you should see Amy.” Sonic replied. Knuckles landed in front of the three.
“What shakin’ Knux?” Sonic offered him a fist bump.
“It was getting a little boring up there at angel island, so I stopped for a visit.” Knuckles smiled, returning the fist bump.
“Shadow.” He greeted Shadow. Shadow nodded in response. Knuckles eyes turned to Silver.
“Who’s this guy?” Knuckles asked.
“I-” Silver was about to say something, but he was cut off by Sonic.
“He’s an old friend.” Sonic interrupted.
“I can speak for myself thank you.” Silver said sarcastically.
“We can leave the introductions for later, you three go and destroy the source” Knuckles told the three.
“You think you can handle it?” Shadow asked. Knuckles turned around to see another hoard of monsters approaching. Knuckles casually counted them. He stopped at nine.
“Pffft! It’s a walk in the park.” Knuckles bragged.
“Good, we’re counting on you.” Sonic replied. Knuckles grinned with confidence and he ran off to fend off the remaining monsters.
“Let’s go. We need to finish this as soon as possible.” Shadow said.
“Right!” Sonic cracked his knuckles. Silver nodded in agreement. The three sped off towards town square.
(BGM end)
(BGM)
At the town square, a large black and red fleshy growth was spawning the black and red monsters that were destroying the town. At the same time, it has captured several of the town’s residents, and assimilating them into it’s black fleshy mass. They all moaned in pain, as red veins began gouging into them. At the center of it was a beating heart like core, which was oozing the black substance all over the place.
A tall figure stood in front of the core, eyeing the core’s progress. He wore a black cloak which obscured his face, however it looked like he was wearing black and red armor underneath. Then he noticed the core’s pulsating ceased. The color of the mobian citizens had completely drained out, turning them almost monochrome.
“Hmph, this batch is finished.” He said in a dark, spiteful voice. He waved his hand, which commanded the black ooze to release the captives. The mobians were released from the black growth, falling to the ground like used husks.
The mysterious figure eyed the black mass, deciding if has gathered enough energy yet. Then he swung his arm to the left, summoning a floating red eye. He turned to the eye, and knelt on the ground, as if he were addressing a superior.
“Master, the assimilation core is nearly filled. All that’s left is to activate ” The figure spoke to the eye. Then the eye responded in a dark guttural language.
“Master, I assure you nothing will stand in our way toward universal assimilation. It will be done.” He replied. The eye continued to talk to him some more before finally dissipating into nothing. The figure stood back up and walked back in front of the core.
“It’s only a matter of time……..” He said, eyeing the bulging heart at the center of the black growth with an evil visage. However, he was interrupted when he sensed a presence behind him.
“SONIC BLAST!” He turned to see a blue bullet of energy streaking towards him. He narrowly jumped away from the projectile, causing it to hit the ground beneath him. He landed back on his feet, growling with anger at the sudden intervention.
Sonic, Shadow, and Silver were standing outside the center of town square, facing the dark mysterious figure. The dark figure stood up, eyeing the three hedgehogs, waiting for them to make a move, however, his attention remained on Sonic in the middle. He glared at him with malevolent contempt. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver looked at the dark figure, waiting for him to speak, or make a move.
“Who is that?” Silver asked, getting a bad feeling in his gut from this mysterious figure.
“Shadow?” He turned to Shadow, thinking that he would know something about this person.
Shadow shook his head. “Never seen this guy.”
Silver’s eyes widened in shock. “What do you think of it Sonic?” Silver said turning to Sonic. Sonic and the Dark figure exchanged a long stare with each other. For some reason, Sonic felt something familiar about this person, even though he couldn’t remember if he had seen this person at all. Yet the feeling that he had seen this person before was unsettling to him.
“Hmph! I have no idea who this guy is. But one thing's for certain, he messed with the wrong hedgehog’s home.” Sonic said confidently, cracking his knuckles. He began slowly walking towards the figure. Shadow and Silver walked behind him. The hooded figure remained stationary as the three hedgehogs walked towards him. He threw his cloak back showing his black armor underneath.
“So you are the three who the master was talking about.” The figure said to the three hedgehogs.
“Who’s this ‘master’ you’re talking about?” Shadow questioned him.
“And more importantly, what are you doing to everybody here!?” Silver questioned him angrily. The figure uncrossed his armored arms and began advancing towards them.
“Hmph! You inferior creatures are in no position to ask questions.” He talked down to them in a condescending tone.
“Your world is to be assimilated. There is nothing you can do to stop it.” The person talked down to them. The three remained vigilant, and were not intimidated by the person’s words.
“Ha! That’s not very nice. You waltz into our house, throw a party, and you don’t even tell us why? That’s low man!” Sonic himself remained cocky and defiant towards the dark figure.
The dark figure growled silently in annoyance of Sonic’s taunting. However, he still maintained a calm yet sinister tone with the three hedgehogs.
“You fools have no idea what you’re going against.” The figure explained to them. The three hedgehogs quickly exchanged glances at each other, confused as to what he was saying.The figure began slowly advancing towards the three hedgehogs. The three stood their ground.
“If you continue to stand in my way, the consequences for your world will be dire. So I believe it would be wise if you get on your knees immediately and beg for forgiveness.” The figure pointed at them, commanding them to kneel. Sonic couldn’t help but feel aggravated that this person who he knows nothing about, is telling them what to do.
“And if we don’t?” Shadow replied callously. The figure let out a sinister chuckle at Shadows reply. Then he bent his knees slightly, as if he was preparing to leap towards them.
“In that case….”
Suddenly the figure sped towards the three at blinding speed. Sonic read the figure’s move and rushed towards the figure. Sonic and Dark figure clashed with their hands locked, try to push each other back.
“Pant Pant Who are you!?” Sonic asked through clenched teeth. The feeling that Sonic knew this person grew even stronger. Sonic tried to push him back, but soon realized that the figure was noticeably stronger than him, causing him to lean back as the figure’s armor dug into Sonic’s hands painfully.
The figure leaned in closer to Sonic, and spoke into his ear. “......your worst nightmare.”
Suddenly Sonic saw visions of people dying, robots gunning people down, and buildings on fire, all in red. Sonic’s eyes dilated, he began hyperventilating, and his limbs began trembling. His strength began to wane, and the dark figure began to overpower him.
“Sonic what’re you doing!?” Shadow yelled to him, confused as to why sonic wasn’t doing anything.
“Get out of there!” Silver also yelled. Sonic couldn’t regain his focus for the horrific visions were still playing in his head. Convinced that Sonic wasn’t going to do anything, Shadow threw a chaos spear at the figure. The figure quickly broke away from Sonic to dodge the incoming chaos spear, but the energy bolt grazed him on the shoulder.
“Silver!” Shadow called to Silver to make his move. Silver then lifted a large piece of sheet metal from the debris using his psychokinesis and then threw it around the masked figure and bent it to restrain him.
“Grrrr!! You little-!” The figure angrily struggled to break free of his restrains
Sonic staggered backwards from the shock of the hallucinations he just witnessed. Silver helped him back on his feet.
“You alright?” Silver asked.
“Pant Yeah. I have no idea what happened though” Sonic replied, still recovering from the shock that he just went through.
“Well buck up, things are about to get worse.” Shadow steeled himself.
The figure burst out of his restrains with ease, causing shrapnel to scatter everywhere. The black figure grunted angrily. He assumed a fighting stance, intending to charge at them.
“If you insolent lower creatures are going to stand in my way, then my only option is to send you all to hell!” The figure shouted maliciously.
Sonic had already recovered, and instantly took a fighting stance.
“I don’t know what your deal is buddy…..” Sonic readied himself to charge. “....but whatever it is, I DON’T LIKE IT!!!” Sonic charged the figure rapidly. The dark figure did the same. The two rushed towards each other at blinding speed. They finally clashed, their forearms pushing against another. They briefly exchanged a fierce glance at each other before pushing away from each other. Sonic charged at the figure again, winding up a punch to his opponent's face. The figure read Sonic’s move and quickly dodged to the left, then he threw a backhanded strike to Sonic, who ducked under the blow. They exchanged rapid kicks and punches for straight five seconds.
Sonic leaned to the side avoiding a punch from the figure, however in bullet time, he noticed something about this figure. He couldn’t help but feel perplexed. He used his speed to break away from the figure, and then sped around the figure and attacked from behind.
However the figure was able to read Sonic’s move and then caught Sonic’s punch without looking at him. Sonic flinched in shock at the figure’s level of skill. The figure threw a side kick at Sonic, but Sonic side stepped the attack, and shoulder checked the figure using his speed.
“Grrraah!!” The figure exclaimed as he stumbled backwards, Sonic then flashed stepped multiple times, hitting the figure from all sides.
“Heh! Who’s the inferior one now!?” Sonic taunted him as he continued rushing around him barraging him from all sides.
“Why you little!!!” The figure said angrily. Sonic was about to strike him again, but the figure flash stepped away from Sonic’s attack.
“What the-!?” Sonic exclaimed. The figure appeared behind Sonic and attacked. However, Sonic noticed the figure’s move and threw a punch of his own. However, Sonic’s punch went right through the figure.
“What!?” Sonic exclaimed, realizing he had attacked an after-image. He sensed the figure behind him, and he leaned to the side, avoid the figure’s side kick. However he again sensed something familiar about the figure, just looking at the figure’s fighting style. However Sonic’s curiosity caused him to lower his guard, and the figure was able to deliver a powerful punch to Sonic’s gut.
“Gah!!” Sonic exclaimed as his breath was knocked out of him. Then the figure knocked him back with a reverse roundhouse kick.
“Waaaah!!!” Sonic shouted as he flew back and smashed into a nearby wall. Sonic struggled to get back on his feet after the last blow he took. He also was still perplexed by the fact that something about this figure was familiar.
“Silver! Let’s take him!” Shadow began rapidly advancing toward the dark figure.
“Right!” Silver shot into the air using his levitation. Shadow charged at the figure preparing to strike. The person turned to see Shadow rapidly closing in on him.
“It is pointless to resist!” The figure suddenly vanished from Shadow’s sight. Shadow gasped in shock, when he sensed the figure right behind him.
“Shadow! Behind you!!” Silver shouted to Shadow. However before Shadow could turn to face him, he was already met with a fist to his face.
“GRRRAAH!!!” Shadow felt the figure’s fist dig into his face. He staggered backwards. The black warrior then attempted to follow up with a powerful spin kick. But Shadow ducked under it, avoided another kick from the warrior, then retaliated with series of spin kicks. None of them connected, and the dark figure smashed Shadow into the ground with an elbow strike.
“Hmph, is this all that the ‘ultimate life form’ has to offer?” The figure said mockingly.
“Hey!” A voice from above shouted. The figure looked up and saw Silver levitating in the air with several large pieces of debris floating around him.
“Take this!!” Silver swung his hands toward the figure, causing the pieces of debris to rocket downwards towards the figure.
However, the warrior wasn’t phased. He avoided the projectiles and then started leaping on the incoming pieces of debris to close in on Silver. Silver looked at the figure in shock of his incredible fighting ability.
“Oh man. Who is this guy!?” Silver said. The figure rapidly closed the distance by jumping in on the incoming debris. Silver avoided a kick from the warrior, then circled around him and threw a psycho kinetically charged punch to the figure’s head. But the figure avoided Silver’s attack just by tilting his head to the side. He then proceeded to grab Silver’s arm and throw him down to the ground.
“Whoa!!” Silver tumbled towards the ground. He managed to stop himself from hitting the ground with levitation. But then the figure appeared next to him and smashed him into the ground with an Axe kick.
Sonic charged at the figure, further enraged that the figure was beating on his friends.
“You son of a-!!!” Sonic ripped into his spin dash attack. The figure put his hands out, and stopped Sonic’s spin attack. Sparks flew off the warrior’s gauntlets as he pushed against Sonic’s attack.
“Weak, very weak!” The figured mocked him, then his hands because gathering dark energy into his hands. After a few seconds, his hands erupted in a burst of energy, canceling Sonic’s attack. Sonic stumbled back, shocked that the figure was able to cancel out his spin dash.
“Crap! Is there any way to even hurt this guy!?” Sonic struggled to regain his balance. Then the black figure vanished from his sight again. Sonic didn’t even have time to react as the hooded warrior drove his foot into Sonic’s back.
“GAAH!!!” Sonic cried out, his spine roaring with pain. The figure wasn’t done yet. He continued to barrage Sonic with attacks. He didn’t leave Sonic any time to put his guard up. The figure began laughing with sadistic glee as he continued to wail on Sonic.
“He he he..Ha Ha HA! HA HAHAHAHA!!!” His laughter grew maniacal as he punched Sonic up into the air.
“NOW DIE!!!” the figure leapt into the air, and then drove Sonic into the ground with a dive stomp.
Sonic felt all of his body explode into pain as the figure crushed him underneath his foot. He struggled to breath as the figure continued to drive his heel into Sonic’s chest. The figure went back to his stoic yet sinister demeanor.
“Who…….who the hell are you!?” Sonic grunted defiantly at the figure, struggling to speak in between breaths. In response, figure drove Sonic deeper into the ground with a burst of black energy from his foot.
“DAHH!!!”
“Who am I?” The figure boasted.
“I’m everything you’ll never be!”
Sonic couldn’t muster up any more words to spit back in the warrior’s face. The figure continued crushing Sonic underneath his foot.
“You feel it don’t you?” The figure continued. Sonic managed to open one of his eyes and look at him.
“You feel our similarities?”
Sonic opened his eyes in shock at the notion that his hunch was right. His fighting style was almost identical to his own. The way he maneuvered, the way he attacked, was shockingly similar to his own. But…..How?
“What….grh! What are you saying!?” Sonic struggled to get his words out of his gut. The figure only stared at him through his metallic mask.
“Such a shame, that my predecessors turned out to be so pathetically weak!” The figure condescendingly mocked him.
“NOW DI-”
The figure was cut off, as he was blasted away by a blue energy blast from his left. Sonic went blank at the shock that he was almost about to die. He looked to his left, what he saw lifted his spirits. It was Tails, wearing some sort of advanced arm cannon on his right arm.
“Sonic!!” Tail yelled to him, he flew over to his side.
“Tails! Get away this guy is dangerous!” Sonic told his friend.
“Not a chance! You’re my best friend! I’m not going anywhere if this guy is gonna hurt you!” Tails boasted proudly. Sonic was both surprised and inspired by Tails’s bravado, and couldn’t help but smile. The dark figure recovered from the blow Tails dealt to him, even more enraged than before.
“Another pest to take care of eh?” The figure talked down to Tails.
“You’ll regret interfering with me boy!” The figure then rushed towards Tails.
Tails read his move and, using his arm cannon, shot a grenade at the figure. The grenade exploded into an electrical wave that paralyzed the figure in his tracks. Tails took advantage of this, and rushed towards the figure. His arm cannon transformed into a large gauntlet, which glowed with blue energy.
“Take this!!” Tails shouted as he drove his charged up gauntlet into the warrior’s chest, causing the figure to slide back a considerable distance. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver watched him. Even Shadow was impressed at Tail’s fighting ability.
Tails knew he pushed him back, but he also knew judging from the impact, that he didn’t do much damage to his armor.
“pant You’re right Sonic, this guy isn’t normal.” Tails remarked.
The figure recovered from Tails blow, he was both irritated and surprised at Tail’s fighting ability.
“You’ll regret doing that boy!” The figure rushed towards Tails once again.
Tails took the initiative and transformed his gauntlet back into an arm gun. He then launched a salvo of laser blasts from his cannon
The warrior dodged the laser blasts while rapidly closing in on Tails. Tails kept firing trying to get a good shot on the warrior, but the figure proved to be too fast to hit.
“Who is this guy?” Tails said
“He’s moving almost like you Sonic!” The figure managed to close the distance between them and knocked Tail’s arm cannon away, throwing Tails off balance.
“Insolent boy! Begone!” The figure threw an energy charged strike at Tails.
However, before the attack hit Tails, it was stopped by Silver, who managed to recover just in time to save Tails.
“You alright?” Silver asked, trying his hardest to keep his psychic shield up. Tails nodded in reassurance. However the figure readied another charged attack. Silver looked back and he knew that his attack would break his shield.
“H’ooo man.” Silver said, bracing himself for the attack.
However, before figure could attack, a spiked fist came out of the ground below him and punched him in the jaw.
“DRRRAHHH!!” The figure cried out as he flew into the air.
“Take this!!” The red fighter then sent the figure flying into the ground with another attack.
“Knuckles!” Sonic said, another wave relief flew over them all. Knuckles landed back on the ground.
“Hey thanks man!” Silver said lowering his shield.
“Heh, no problem...er...what was your name again?” Knuckles asked.
“Uh...it’s Silv-” Silver was interrupted when their opponent suddenly appeared in front of Knuckles and grabbed him by the neck.
“GAH! cough AKC!” Knuckles struggled to break free of the warrior’s grip.
“I’ve had enough interruptions for one day.” The figure frustratedly said, tightening his grip on Knuckles.
“Just for that...I’ll dispatch you first!” The figure readied a burst of energy in his hand.
“Hey!!” Sonic cried out. The figure looked to his left, and was met with a kinetically charged punch to his face. The figure flew backwards and slammed into the pulsating black mass behind him. Knuckles got back up, rubbing his sore neck.
“cough Thanks.” Knuckles thanked him.
“No prob. But were far from do- Gah!” Sonic fell to his knees, his left side throbbing with pain.
“You alright?” Tails rushed to his side and helped him stand.
“I’m fine.” Sonic reassured him, his hand on his side, still throbbing with pain. “Just a nick.” The five friends faced the giant black mass, ready to face the dark warrior once again.
The warrior emerged from the dust. However his hood was off now, and it revealed his head. He was wearing an armored mask adorned with various red markings. However his most glaring feature was his black swept-back hair, highly reminiscent of Sonic’s blue quills. The entire group looked at the figure with cautious anticipation.
“What the hell?” Knuckles remarked curiously.
“Sonic, who is this guy?” Tails asked him. Sonic tried search his mind for an answer, but he came up empty. But he pushed the thought aside, this guy is threatening his home and friends, and that is something he won’t stand for.
“Doesn’t matter, this guy’s going down, no matter what!” Sonic shouted. The five stood together, ready to face their adversary.
The figure brushed himself off, his movements were filled with suppressed rage. He obviously was getting frustrated at their resistance.
“This universe is filled with foolish naivety.” The figure spoke, his rage and power building.
“Fools like yourselves, who claim to fight for justice, for peace. Your ideals are nothing when it come to what the universe really needs.” The figure ranted. He slowly walked towards the group, who were ready to react to any move he had.
“You gonna keep ranting? Or are we gonna finish this?” Sonic taunted him. With that said, the warrior assumed his fighting stance, and let out a battle cry, causing his black and red aura to explode. The group got ready to fight. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all activated their respective battle auras, Tails and Knuckles got ready to fight as well.
The figure and the heroes of Mobius stood still for a good few seconds. However just as they were about to charge at each other. The black mass behind the dark warrior suddenly erupted.
“What the hell!?” Sonic exclaimed.
“What happened!?” Silver asked.
Tails looked quickly at the holographic screen on his arm cannon.
“Oh man! The energy levels are going crazy in that thing!” He said reading the numbers on the screen.
“But why!?” Shadow asked.
The warrior stared at the pulsating black mass.
“What…..what have you done!!?” The figure angrily questioned them, enraged that his work has been sabotaged. The mass started to glow brighter and brighter, and began to pulsate at a much faster and unstable rate.
“We have no idea what that thing is gonna do. We should run!” Tails examined.
“But what about the town!” Silver asked frantically.
“No time! We need to go! NOW!!” Shadow said. However before the group could move, the black mass imploded and then collapsed into a small singularity, pulling everything nearby in.
Everybody was knocked off their feet. Large pieces of debris flew into the miniature black hole. The group struggled to hold on to whatever was firmly placed into the ground.
“Waaaa! What’s going on! Whoa!!!” Silver lost his grip, and he flew backwards towards the singularity, only to be caught by Knuckles.
“Get a hold of yourself, er, whoever you are!”
“THE NAMES SILVER!! MEMORIZE IT ALREADY!!” Silver angrily shouted at him.
Sonic struggled to hang on to something while the gravitational force pulled at his feet.
“Damn! Tails! How to do we stop this thing!?” Sonic asked amidst the chaos that was going on. Tails was holding on with his grappling hook from his arm cannon.
“I don’t know! I don’t even know what that thing is!!” Tails said, unable to think during the chaos around him. Sonic was at a loss for words, he had to do something or something horrible would definitely happen. But suddenly while he was struggling to hold on, he felt a hand grip his ankle.
“What the-?” He looked back and saw the black figure dangling from his leg.
“Don’t think you’ve escaped me!!” His hands held tightly onto Sonic’s ankle.
“Why you! Screw off!!” Sonic proceeded to kick him directly on the head. But the warrior still held on nonetheless. He continued kicking the warrior in the head, but the warrior’s grip didn’t falter one bit.
“You pest!!” The figure snapped, and applied a surge of dark energy directly to Sonic’s leg.
“GAAAAHHH!!” Sonic cried out in pain as the figure fried his leg.
“Sonic!” Shadow shouted to him. Sonic looked up and saw Shadow with a chaos spear in his hand.
“DUCK!!” Shadow launched the chaos spear directly towards Sonic. Without thinking, Sonic instinctively jolted his head down.
“What the-!?” The warrior was cut off when Shadow’s chaos spear flew straight over Sonic’s head and hit him squarely between the eyes.
“GYAA!” The figure lost his grip on Sonic, and flew straight into the glowing singularity behind him. Sonic looked back up at Shadow, and gave him a quick smirk. Shadow returned the gesture with a smirk as well.
But their troubles were not over.
“Whoa!!” Sonic exclaimed as the pillar he was holding onto began to give away. This caused the chaos emeralds to fall out of his pack.
“NO!!!” Sonic reached back to try and catch one. But this caused him to lose his grip on the pillar.
“WHAAAAA!!!” Sonic cried out as he flew backwards into the singularity behind him.
“SONIC!!!!” Tails cried out, despairing that his friend is gone. However he lost his grip, and he too flew into the singularity.
“AHHHHH!!!” Tails cried out.
“TAILS NO!!” Knuckles yelled.
“Watch out!!” Silver yelled, a large piece of debris hit them, causing them to fly towards the singularity.
“Watch it!” Shadow managed to grab Knuckles arm as he flew past him.
“Hang on!!” Shadow’s arms strained against the gravitational force of the singularity.
“I don’t think there’s gonna be anything to hold on to!” Silver cried out. However the chaos emerald Silver was holding fell out of his bag.
“Oh crap!” Silver managed to barely catch it with his psychokinesis. However the sudden jolt of movement from him managed to cause Shadow to lose his grip.
“Wha-DAMMIT!!!” Shadow cried out as he, Knuckles, and Silver all fell into the black hole. The black mass proceeded to glow brighter and brighter, and pulsate much faster. Then finally, it exploded into a giant white dome of light, which shined as far as the trees outside of town.
Despite the giant explosion, the town was left mostly unharmed, however, it’s inhabitants were gone, and the black fleshy growth in the center has vanished. As for Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Tails, and Knuckles, they were sent off to a place unknown.
To Be Continued