I’m a writer, mostly. Currently everything here is Sonic related, but I do have other things in the works. Some of my old stuff is still up on Fanfiction.com, if anyone is interested. Though I don’t hang out there anymore. I do make some digital art when I feel the need, so I don’t need a commission or anything. Please don’t ask.
Sonic was the first one to wake up and discovered Tom sitting in a nearby chair, actually awake this time. Maddie was gone, but he could smell food cooking in the kitchen.
Tom smiled, when the little hedgehog spotted him, but held a finger to his lips and indicated that he should remain quiet, as Knuckles was still sleeping. “Feeling better?” He whispered and Sonic nodded, offering his own smile in return. “Good.” He stated, carefully getting to his feet and held out his arms to help the little guy off the bed. But Sonic shook his head and leaned back against the headboard to watch over his brother until he woke. “Alright.” Tom said, his tone almost proud. “I’ll leave you to it then. If you need anything, just call for help. Okay?”
Sonic nodded again, allowing the man to leave the room, as he settled down to wait. Closing his eyes and raising his noise into the air, trying to identify what Maddie was cooking, just from the smell. But he didn’t recognize anything this time, which only excited him more. There were so many amazing human food things that he couldn’t wait to try them all.
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An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Sonic found himself standing in a vast, shadowy forest, unable to remember how he’d gotten there. All around him the trees towered like ominous guardians, their branches reaching out like grasping limbs, their gnarled bark twisted into shapes that resembled faces.
The air was so thick with his own panic that he could barely breathe. The unsettling silence was like a presence all its own, making any tiny sound feel like a monster coming from the darkness. Then he heard a distant sound. A cry that sent chills down his spine.
It was Longclaw.
Read the Rest here. Enjoy
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Sonic was feeling too twitchy to sleep, so he got up to go to the mess hall, only to stop two steps in when he realized that he didn’t feel like eating either. That’s when he knew something had to be done and decided to go to Ace’s workshop instead, hoping to snag a few minutes of the fox’s time. However, he hadn’t even stepped past his dorm door before he found himself interrupted.
At first, he wasn’t sure what he was hearing, it had been so long. But then he realized it was laughter. And it was coming from Knox’s room, of all places. Curiosity truly had her claws in him at that point, and he quietly crept to look through the slightly open door. Though the image of Knox genuinely laughing inside was both a pleasant and a downright weird sight to behold, it was the person he was sharing the moment with that truly surprised him.
“I remember that.” Shorn proclaimed humorously, sitting casually on the floor, where he was able to stretch his mechanical legs in a manner that was clearly more comfortable for him. However, it appeared that he was currently more concerned about his face, as he had reached up to rub his right check, like it suddenly hurt. “You hit me so hard I heard my bones creek.”
Knox managed to compose himself, though he still appeared thoroughly amused. “Had to beat the stupid out of you somehow. Never did get it all though.” This earned him a sour glare of disapproval, though it seemed Shorn had no intention of taking it personally, as he instead found himself looking at the floor, remembering the past with a wistful expression.
“You know, back then – I didn’t think we’d ever get along.” He admitted, almost sadly, and Knox appeared to agree, though he didn’t voice it. “Amber did though.” He added after a moment. “She was convinced we would one day beat each other to a pulp and come back best friends.”
“She’s a smart girl.” Knox noted, looking up with a suddenly serious expression. “I hope you don’t intend to leave her behind again.”
Shorn winched slightly at that, before turning to meet the echidna’s stare. “No.” He said simply. “I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on that and – while I may never be able to give her what she really wants, I’ve realized I need her more than I was willing to admit.”
Knox appeared to consider that a moment, before smiling and turning away from the harsh eye contact. “I never thought I’d see the day that you actually grew up.”
“Hey.” Shorn barked as if insulted, though his expression didn’t match. “I could say the same about you. I don’t think there was ever another living creature that could match your pure stubbornness.” He paused a moment, considering his words, before waving the topic away. “You know what, never mind, you haven’t changed at all.”
For this, he received a pillow to the face, which was thrown with such force it actually knocked him over and, at first, it appeared the hedgehog was going to throw it back in retaliation. However, he stopped, upon noticing the way Knox had disengaged, instead he just sat staring at his hands.
“I never got to thank you.” He said suddenly and though Sonic didn’t know what he was referring to, it was clear that Shorn did. As he casually waved the statement away and got to his feet, walking over to the corner, where he could examine the echidna artifacts Knox had collected.
“It was probably for the best I let you take the credit anyway. Can you imagine the size of my ego if I had been the ‘world’s hero’?”
Knox did not appear to consider this act of kindness something to fawn about. “Honestly, you knew how much I hate crowds. I have half a mind to just tell the people you were the Jetstream and throw you to the wolves.” Shorn turned back to smile at his friend, however it was a painful looking thing. Clearly, he didn’t take the echidna’s threat lightly. “Even so, we never would have won, had you not been there. I – wouldn’t be here now, if you hadn’t been there.”
A short silence fell between them, but Shorn was quick to dismiss it again. “I owed you.” He stated, his tone suddenly sad and painful, however before he could explain, Knox interrupted.
“What – you mean this?” He tapped his metal eye, and the hedgehog blinked, clearly startled.
“Wait – you knew?”
“Did I know it was you? No.” Knox chuckled, before looking away. “But that’s the thing about losing your sight. The last thing you see is burned into your mind.” He admitted somberly. “Every day I’ve recalled that moment, and – while I’ll be the first to admit Nova is the best at what she does, even she can’t change the course of a speeding bullet.”
Sonic felt his jaw hit the floor. ‘The luckiest mistake in history.’
It took a minute for the conversation to pick back up as Shorn appeared to be trying to recover from being called out. Though eventually he just turned away, clearly uncomfortable. “I tried.” He finally whispered into the silence. “Really, I did. I just – couldn’t get enough speed.”
Knox looked confused and so was Sonic at that point, thankfully the echidna requested an explanation and Shorn sighed, before sitting on the spare bed, clenching and unclenching his hands, as if trying to distract himself with a physical sensation. “It wasn’t really another dimension. It was more like a pocket space, where only time existed. But it didn’t follow the rules that we’re used to. When I stood still, it was like time did too. I was always scared that I would break time itself if I ever stopped moving.” He was clearly finding it hard to rationalize the concept in a way that others might understand. Obviously, there was a lot more to it than what he was capable of explaining. “But – when I ran, that’s when things got interesting. And I got closer and closer to touching the real world.” He sighed loudly and rubbed at his head. “The only problem was, there was never enough space to reach the speeds that I needed.”
“Ah, I see.” Knox spoke up. “That explains why you could only appear to us inside the Empire. It’s the only island around with enough open land to run.”
“Ironic, huh.” Shorn muttered sourly. Clearly annoyed with the fact that he had been forced to consider the place that had enslaved and destroyed him as his ‘home turf’. The room was lulled into silence again, as the two of them struggled to restart the conversation. But eventually Knox spoke up.
“I’m sorry.” Shorn lifted his head, obviously confused as to why he was receiving an apology when he felt he had been the one in the wrong. “I left you behind.” The echidna finally continued, leaning over his knees in an uncomfortably defeated manner. “After Yegger went down, I searched every inch of The Vale for you. I never wanted to believe you were really dead. But –”
“You had more pressing concerns.” Shorn finished with a knowing little smirk. “You had newly freed slaves to relocate. A city to build. Not to mention a kid.” He laughed, as if recalling a fond memory. “I was there with you for a time, that little fox really gave you a run for your money.”
Knox immediately groaned and rubbed at his head, like it might explode at any second. “You have no idea.”
Shorn laughed again, the tone slowly regaining a genuineness it had begun to lose. “Honestly, I don’t know where you found the patience for that.” Knox seemed to consider this a moment, before he looked up at his friend and smiled.
“Actually, more often than not, I found myself thinking – ‘what would you have done’.”
The hedgehog let out a little sound of disbelief. “Seriously?”
“You were always better with the kids. I just scared them.”
“No, you – eh” Shorn found his words drifting away before he could say them. “True.” He finally admitted and they both chuckled at the memory. “But he turned out pretty well, despite everything.” He pointed out, before grinning mischievously. “With you as his brother, he’s just lucky he isn’t ferial.” He had to defend himself again, as another pillow took him straight to the floor.
“I am not that bad.” Knox growled, as the hedgehog laughed again and sat back up, looking a bit winded this time.
“Maybe.” Shorn agreed thoughtfully. “But he definitely inherited your stubbornness. He’s just more subtle about it.”
Knox chuckled, nodding in agreement and the two old friends fell into a comfortable silence, seemingly in their own world, lost in memories and reflections. “Do you ever miss it?” Knox asked suddenly, breaking the silence. “The old days, I mean. Before everything changed.”
Shorn sighed, his expression turning wistful. “Sometimes. But then I remember all the pain and suffering we went through. I’m reminded of why we fought for this change in the first place. It isn’t exactly what we wanted. And we lost a lot more than we were willing to, to get here. But – we’re here.”
Knox nodded, understanding completely. “Never thought we’d live to see it.” A smile tugged at Shorn’s lips, and he made a noise of agreement. “It’s beautiful.”
“It is.” Shorn agreed quietly. “But we’re not done yet.”
“Yeah, I know.” Knox complained and the hedgehog’s grin faded a little, as he looked up at his friend again.
“You think – we’ll live to see the next one?” The silence that fell between them was defining. They both knew what that question really meant. Would the virus hold out? Did they have enough time?
“Nova told me something, the day we defeated Yegger. In a lot of ways – it’s kept me going all this time.” Knox spoke up after a minute and lifted his eyes until their gazes met. “You don’t have time to die. We have a future to build.”
…
Sonic found himself sitting on the railing wall, just watching the darkness shift around them. Without the toxic anti-electronic cloud, they were finally able to moor ship to the edge of the island. Where they waited, while Ace made some new tech thing from the Cloud Hawk’s supplies, that would hopefully allow them to actually test the Aparoid shield, without having to kill themselves doing it.
He had hoped to talk to the fox about the Shard and maybe how he might go about fixing the Shatter Verses and finally getting back to his own world, with his own friends. But – he couldn’t really decide how to bring it up. Their world was in far greater danger than any of the others, it was imperative that they find a way to fix it first, or it may not even survive the universe being put back together.
And the fastest way to do that would be the reconstructed Paradox Prism. If they got all the pieces together, then fixing their world would be as simple as just putting the thought into action. But – that was the same plan Sonic had to fix his home.
Could they do both? What if the answer was ‘no’?
“Hey.” Sonic nearly jumped off the ship before turning around to see that it was Shorn and managed to restart his heart.
“What’s up?” He proclaimed, only to receive an odd, knowing look from his counterpart, that made him feel like his thoughts had been painted on a billboard.
“I need to tell you something.” He said at last, his tone quiet and serious, prompting Sonic to hop off the wall. But Shorn still looked around, as if to make sure they were alone, before pushing Sonic further into the shadows.
“What is it?” He demanded worriedly, only to receive another question.
“What’s your plan?” Shorn asked and Sonic blinked.
“What do you mean?
“To fix your – mess?” Shorn asked, clearly trying to be gentle about it, but there was really no easy way to point out the fact that Sonic had basically broken the universe.
“Oh.” He murmured, rubbing his shoulder nervously. “Honestly, all I got at this point is put the pieces of the Prism back together and hope for the best.”
“I take it you’re not very close to doing that?” He guessed and Sonic winced but shook his head. Heck, he couldn’t even touch a Shard without teleporting himself somewhere, how was he supposed to put them back together? “It’s you.” Shorn said quietly and Sonic looked up, confused.
“Huh.”
“I don’t know how exactly. But you are the most important piece of this puzzle.”
“What do you mean?” Sonic asked, but the other guy just went quiet for a moment, staring at him like he was suddenly recalling an unpleasant memory.
“When The Prism was shattered. There was a ripple effect.” He explained. “For some reason, it attacked all of the other versions of you. It removed them completely from the other world’s timelines.”
“Is that what happened to you?” Sonic whispered in horror. Thinking for a second that he’d been the one responsible for Shorn’s imprisonment.
“No. It couldn’t reach me, so I was spared, and it seems, so was my timeline. But –” He looked up at the sky, his shoulders falling slightly. “My world was not.”
Looking around himself, Sonic’s breath caught in his throat, as he realized what that meant. “That’s how it happened. That’s what broke the planet?”
“Yes.” Shorn whispered, looking back at him solemnly. “Everyone just assumed it was the Aparoids. But they were only a biproduct. It was the impact of that ripple that broke our Shard and our world.”
“A biproduct?” Sonic repeated. “You’re telling me that the trouble all those things have caused was just a – a biproduct of something bigger?”
“Yes.” Shorn said, before rubbing at his face tiredly and chuckled to himself. “Actually, it was Yegger who first discovered that. He tried to contain the virus by spreading it out and – putting it inside living people.” Sonic stepped back and made a face as that set in, realizing now what the roboticization was meant to be and why it acted as a virus of its own.
Here he’d thought that little detail couldn’t have possibly gotten more disturbing than it already was.
“As long as the people hold onto most of its power, it can’t spread any farther. Otherwise, it would have consumed our world.” Shorn explained, before taking notice of Sonic’s face and gave him a deflated little smile. “I know, I don’t like admitting it either. But Yegger did what he could to save our world. Even if it wasn’t pretty.”
“Good grief. This really is a different dimension isn’t it.” Sonic muttered and the other hedgehog laughed.
“The point is. Our world is falling apart at its seams.” Shorn insisted, suddenly serious again. “If I know you, like I know I do, then you want to save everyone.”
“Yes.” Sonic declared instantly and Shorn smiled again, but it was sad.
“Then you need to hurry. Because we’re running out of time.”
As if to prove this statement, that was when a sudden commotion erupted on the deck and Ace appeared, looking completely panicked. “Captain! Knox!” He yelled to the ship and Sonic and Shorn rushed over to see what was happening.
“What’s wrong?” Sonic demanded, only for his earpiece to suddenly erupt with static and he had to pull it out before it exploded. Shorn and Ace quickly had to copy him. Then everything just started to go wrong. And it all started when Ace’s workshop exploded.
Sonic started out of his sleep, his neck immediately informing him that it did not approve of the chair he had chosen to take his nap in. But remembering why he was there; he was quick to check on the two beds which were still occupied by the still forms of Knox and Shorn. Both of whom were now hooked up to a respective life source.
“Easy.” Amber whispered gently and he turned to find that she was the one who had woken him and for a good reason too, as she lovingly offered him a plate with not one, but two chili dogs. “I hope I got it right.” She said, actually blushing slightly as Sonic just continued to stare at the food of the gods she’d miraculously made appear. Before finally taking the plate like it was the most precious piece of glass in the universe.
The shock ended there, as he could no longer hold himself back and promptly stuffed one whole into his mouth and proceeded to have a mental overload. Before savoring the second, bite by bite.
“Does – that mean it’s good?” She asked, but all he could do was nod vigorously, his ability to do anything else currently shut down, in favor of chili dog ecstasy. Amber giggled at his reaction, but let him eat in peace from there, as she returned to Shorn’s side to check that he was still breathing.
Though his six power sources had been taken away, and his head was now wrapped in bandages, he’d managed to keep on ticking. Ace even verified that Nova had hit her mark. The chip had been destroyed, and she’d even managed to do it without taking his eye. As apparently the thing had been attached to the inside of his skull, thus, she had been able to simply pick it off, like a bug, leaving only a small hole behind and everything else unharmed.
After finishing his lunch and coming back down from the high, Sonic walked over to stand with Amber, noticing that she was holding Shorn’s hand, gently stroking it, as his fingers twitched periodically. According to Ace, this was likely a tic he’d picked up from moving so quickly for so long. Though, from time to time he would also squeeze her hand back, a sign that he had also retained most of his motor functions.
“Thank you.” She whispered and Sonic turned to find that she was crying, though it was clear that they were tears of joy. “Thank you for bringing him back to us.”
Sonic smiled before answering. “You don’t need to thank me. Doing good things is kind of a hobby of mine.” She laughed slightly, though she never took her eyes off Shorn’s face.
“That sounds like you.” Sonic picked up on something in her voice, like she hadn’t just been talking about him. Though there was something else there, something he often felt from Amy. Pure love.
“May I ask?” He stated, wondering if he should, but she turned to look at him and nodded, despite him not finishing the question. “Were you two – together?” Honestly, it was weird putting it into words for, in a way, he was also talking about himself.
“I’m not sure if that’s the right way to put it.” Amber admitted quietly, turning back to look at Shorn again. “He fought so hard for freedom that it would have been wrong to ask him to give it up and settle down with me. Instead, I took on a different role. If he was change then I was the constant. I would always be there – when he needed a home.”
He smiled softly, realizing Amy had slowly grown to represent that same thing for him. He’d just been moving too fast to really sit down and appreciate how much it actually meant to him.
“Hey!” Ace suddenly called out behind them, and they both turned around to find that Knox had opened his eyes. However, instead of allowing the fox to assess him he sat bolt upright. “Admiral, you’re in no condition to be getting up.” Ace complained, fighting with everything he had to force him back down but, even if the kid hadn’t been sporting his own bruises and bandages, he was no match for this echidna on a mission.
“Where’s Nova?” He insisted, moving to get off the table despite the fact that Amber and Sonic had joined Ace’s failing attempt to push him back. But it was like the guy didn’t even notice they were there, instead the only thing that actually kept him from running off was the fact that he hadn’t built up enough back up energy to move properly.
“She’s fine. We can call her. Now lay back down.” Ace ordered actually getting into Knox’s lap to push against him, but even this wasn’t accomplishing much, the only reason he stopped struggling at all was to avoid hurting the kid. However, it was clear that he simply wasn’t going to let anyone stop him.
“I’ll take him up.” Sonic finally offered, realizing that at the rate they were going, things would just get worse. It was time for a little compromise. Of course, they all looked at him, like he’d just declared himself king of the moon, however all he had to do was smile and they were forced to relent.
Removing himself from Knox’s lap, Ace did not look happy but trusted Sonic to look after his big brother, while he stayed to care for their other patient. And so, Sonic moved to get under Knox’s arm and led him slowly from the room. Out on the deck, the echidna took a deep breath of fresh air. Clearly, he did not approve of being cooped up in a tiny space, where he was poked and prodded.
“How’s he doing?” He asked quietly, as they made their way to the other door and back into the ship.
“Shorn?” Sonic stated with a smile, taking note of the echidna’s tone, which betrayed his casual deminer. Clearly, he was more concerned than he was willing to let on. “As far as I can tell, he’s fine. But he is really lucky we had the Green Emerald.”
Knox nodded in response to that, though he seemed too tired to ask any further questions, so they just traveled in silence for a bit. Until they reached the stairs, and the Admiral glared at them like they were his new personal arch enemy.
“I got ya.” Sonic promised, tightening his grip on his friend and received a little smile, before Knox reached out with his free hand to brace himself against the railing, doing everything he could to help with the climbing process.
It took a while and it got a little hairy at times, but they eventually made it to the top and onto the bridge. Nova was calmly standing, her hands behind her back, as she stood guard over the ship. Then she turned and smiled at them, before casually walking over to her table and picked up the gun she had used to save Shorn. Her hands not even so much as twitching as she did so.
“I gotta admit. I’m starting to see why you like this thing so much. I may have Ace make me one.”
It was only with this statement that Sonic realized the weapon she held was actually Knox’s rail gun. However, the echidna was clearly not interested in this, as he carefully removed his arm from Sonic’s shoulders and, despite still looking a little unsteady on his feet, he walked over to her. Only to gently push the gun away, so he could see her and the tremendous amount of healing and growth she’d managed to accomplish in just one day.
“I’m sure he’d be delighted.” He barely whispered, obviously indifferent to the conversation. Instead, he just tenderly cupped her face with one hand, then the other and finally leaned in to kiss her.
For a moment, Nova seemed shocked, but then she returned the affection, quickly getting over the fact that this was the first time that Knox had initiated.
After a minute she stepped back in order to look at him too, causing her eyes to fill with tears, as she reached up to hold his face. “There you are.” She announced, like she hadn’t seen him in years.
With that, she jumped into her arms, holding him so tightly he looked like he might have lost the ability to breathe for a moment, as she wrapped her wings around them both and just cried into his neck.
Eventually Knox opened his eye and looked toward Sonic, still standing in the doorway and smiled. He didn’t need to say it the words were clear – ‘thank you’.
Nodding, the hedgehog decided that he wasn’t needed anymore and quietly exited the room and closed the door behind him, smiling to himself before he headed back down the stairs. Only to run into Maverik on his way up.
“Whoa, where ya going?” He insisted, stopping the raccoon before he got any stupid ideas.
“Captain asked that I check on the surface. I’m here to report.” He announced, making the hedgehog wince slightly and considered, for just a second, letting the guy up, but quickly decided against it.
“Captains’ – busy. What’s your report?” Maverik looked confused for a second but eventually decided to roll with it.
“That green cloud is gone.” He announced and Sonic blinked.
“What?”
“Yeah. Looks like Ace was right. Somehow, Shorn was the one controlling it.”
…
“But why would he do that?” Amber asked, as they all sat around in the medical bay, discussing this new turn of events.
“I’m not sure.” Ace admitted. “But you don’t let off something that potent without a damn good reason.”
“Maybe we should investigate?” Maverik suggested, however the more seasoned crew members disagreed, knowing better than to run off on their own and expect their Captain to be forgiving.
“I can tell you.” A new voice added to the conversation, causing everyone to freeze, before turning to the bed, where Shorn watched them with a little grin.
Unsurprisingly it was Amber that recovered first. “You’re awake.’ She proclaimed, tears already falling again, as she practically jumped into his arms, causing the poor hedgehog to wince violently from the pain. However, this didn’t stop him from hugging her back, his body language showing just how much he’d missed physical contact.
“Hey, good timing.” Sonic joked and his double smiled.
“It’s my specialty.” He bragged though he was still speaking a little too slowly, as he tried to become accustomed to the idea that he was no longer moving a million times faster than the rest of the world.
Reluctantly, he let go when Amber pulled back again, seemingly recalling that her friend wasn’t really in the best condition for all this rough housing. “How do you feel?” She asked worriedly, but he just reached up to touch her hair, distracted by his own thoughts. “Shorn?” She said a bit more seriously and he snapped out of it.
“Sorry.” He muttered, though it was hard to say if he meant it. Clearly, he just wanted to experience life again, to see, hear and touch all the things he’d been missing out on during his imprisonment. In the end, Amber understood and smiled warmly, not at all bothered by his little touches. However, she did insist on an answer to her question. “Oh – yeah, I – I think I’m okay.” He said, examining his hand as he moved it around. “A little – slow.”
The room was quiet for a moment, before everyone burst into laughter.
“Yeah, you’ll get used to that.” Ace proclaimed, prompting the hedgehog to look at him next, his thoughts running away with him again.
“Ace – right?” He asked a little nervous. But it was reasonable that he wouldn’t know. Even if he had been hanging around the crew all that time, they would have been moving so slowly that it would have been nearly impossible for him to understand what they were saying.
“That’s me. It’s – it’s nice to finally meet you.” The fox declared, looking unusually bashful. “Knox told me all about you. I – I admit, you were kind of my hero.”
Shorn laughed at that, though it was good natured. “Well, Ace. I feel the same. I wouldn’t be here now, if it weren’t for you. So – thanks.”
The kid proceeded to light up like he’d just swallowed a baby sun, causing Sonic to worry that he was about to bombard the poor guy with science talk. But they were all spared this fate, when the door opened and in walked Nova, with Knox following a second later. Having found a cane to help him get around.
“Well then, look who’s finally decided to join us.” Nova proclaimed, causing Shorn to lean back into a lazy slouch, a smirk plastered on his face.
“What’s up, No?” Immediately, the Captain prickled and descended on the hedgehog like a demon from hell.
“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” She raged uncharacteristically, which just proved how strong their friendship had been, back in the day.
“Honestly, I’ve lost count.” He admitted shamelessly, only for her to whack him across the head. “Ow! I see your bedside manners are as strong as ever.”
Nova just huffed and folded her arms so she wouldn’t be tempted to hit him again. Allowing Knox to walk up this time, which brought the room to a quiet standstill, as the two life-long rivals stared each other down.
It was Shorn who broke the silence first. “Nice eye.”
Immediately Knox looked annoyed. “Can we send him back now?” He proclaimed and everyone laughed again. However, it quickly died away, when Shorn suddenly stopped and grabbed his head, swaying slightly, like he was about to pass out.
“Hey, easy.” Ace ordered, immediately rushing to the computer that was in charge of providing the external power source Shorn was surviving on at the moment. “Try not to push yourself too hard. This is enough to keep you alive, but you gotta keep your heartrate regulated.”
“Noted.” Shorn muttered, still fighting off the wooziness.
“I see.” Nova interrupted, causing everyone to look over and find that she’d been talking with Maverik in the background. Who it seemed had finally gotten around to giving his report about the absence of the green cloud, for the Captain’s next victim was once again Shorn. “You created that mist?”
“I wouldn’t say I ‘created’ it.” He admitted, scratching at his ear. “But I did turn it on.”
“Why?”
“I needed to protect the Shard. After this one blew up the universe and damaged my container.” He hooked a thumb at Sonic. “All kinds of unsavory things were starting to detect it.”
“Ooo – yeah. Sorry about that.” Sonic muttered sheepishly.
“Wait – what?” Amber piped up in confusion. “That doesn’t make sense. The fog was reported years ago, it hasn’t even been a week since we found Sonic.”
Shorn considered that a moment before grinning at Sonic knowingly. “Funny thing. Time passes differently in the other Shatter Verses and our world seems to be running particularly fast.”
“Yeah, I noticed that too.” Ace spoke up. “For one, Sonic mentioned that we are considerably older than any other version of us he’s met.”
“That’s true.” Sonic muttered. “What do you think is causing it?”
“I’d say it has something to do with that.” Knox motioned to the large machine that was currently holding the tiny piece of that world’s Shard. Which was in itself already a smaller broken piece of the Paradox Prism.
“You have no idea.” Shorn spoke up again, suddenly rather serious. “My little dimensional bubble gave me a pretty good look at the process. We’re traveling through time so quickly its causing – damage. It’s tearing our reality apart.”
Sonic’s head was spinning and his ears ringing when he came too, though he was able to quickly recall what he’d been doing, before the world had exploded. Prompting the hedgehog to fight with his body to get back on his feet only to find that he was too late.
Somehow, despite being right next to the machine when it had imploded, Amber was still conscious, though she was also seriously hurt, however, Ace was not so lucky. He was just on the ground, not moving, while Knox stood over him, now struggling with the newly materialized Shorn, who was now determined to follow the control chip’s programing and destroy them all.
Thankfully, while Shorn undoubtedly had speed on his side, Knox had him by the arms, thus they were locked together, allowing the echidna’s superior strength to win out. But it was clear he could not hold on for long. As Shorn’s body was slowly turning from blue to gold, as the Chaos Emeralds built up power.
“Get them out of here.” Knox called, his feet sliding across the ground, as Shorn’s speed hammered against him. Sonic didn’t need to be told twice, and rushed over to pull Ace into his arms, while Nova flew down to pick up Amber.
“No, I wanna stay. I wanna help him.” She complained, clearly out of it, so her Captain wasn’t about to let her stick around, thus they were both quickly transported back to the docks and onto the Angel, where they were left in the care of Atlas and Maverik. While Sonic took Nova into his arms this time and rushed them back to the battle.
Of course, despite only a few minutes having passed, things were already worse. Knox had lost his hold and was now just fighting to keep Shorn from going after his injured crewmates. However, this was easier said than done, as the hedgehog was still running on the combined energy output of six Chaos Emerald’s, something even a Guardian couldn’t handle easily.
But now that Sonic was back on the scene, they had a better chance, as he quickly started running interference. Zipping around, to mess with Shorn’s obsessive attention to destruction however, even distracted, the guy was just too fast for Knox to get a good hit on and without his pure stopping power, the two hedgehogs just ended up running circles around each other.
“This isn’t working.” Nova insisted, staying back as she knew she would just be in the way. However, her mind was running at full tilt, analyzing the situation to devise a plan of action. “We need to get those Emeralds away from him.”
“I’m open to suggestions.” Sonic quailed, zipping about in short intervals, doing everything he could not to get caught. As he was pretty sure he wouldn’t stand a chance against Shorn’s metal limbs.
“Get him running.” She came up with saying it in such a way that there was actually more to the plan. But Sonic knew better than to ask for more details, as Shorn was very much aware of what was happening around him. So, instead he just went all out with his most annoying traits.
“Oops. Sorry. My bad. Totally my fault.” He proclaimed, every time he bumped into the other hedgehog or got in his way. Slowly building up the resentment until finally his programming decided the blue pest needed to be delt with first, then they were off. Racing across the continent, neck-and-neck, which Shorn continuously trying to kill him.
“You’re being a real killjoy, you know that?” Sonic complained, after he’d been knocked straight into the wall of an already unstable building, which collapsed as he shot back to his feet and kept up with the race.
Unfortunately, with six Chaos Emeralds on his side, Shorn was always going to be faster than him. Not to mention, Sonic simply couldn’t risk getting up to full speed so, he had to use the environment to his advantage. Thankfully, turning and getting creative were things that Shorn’s legs were just not built to do, as he was constantly hitting walls or missing chances.
“Yeah, that happens when your only training consists of a straight treadmill.” Sonic called back at his racing companion and was not surprised that he didn’t get an answer but hoped the mind underneath was able to hear him. “Ya gotta just let go. Have fun with it.” He instructed with a smile, knowing full well that any version of Eggman would completely neglect something so unscientific. What he never understood was that ‘fun’ was not only inspirational it was pure potential.
Of course, Shorn’s programing didn’t understand this, so it instead decided on a different method of attack and just built up some Chaos balls to throw at him. “Yip.” Sonic proclaimed, quickly changing his course, to not get caught up in the explosion that took out nearly a whole block of dilapidated buildings. “Not quite what I had in mind. But hey, you do you.” He announced, as the other hedgehog caught up to him again and started another charge.
Within a minute, the two of them had leveled about half the remaining city with their ‘fun’ which was not really Sonic’s intention, but it at least looked better than Yegger’s ugly excuse for décor. Even so, he decided the destruction was getting a little out of hand. So, hoping that Nova and Knox had had enough time to implement their plan, he turned the race back toward The Hole, making sure to take a straight line this time, so his double could catch up again.
“Having fun Shorn?” He called but received no response, of course that wasn’t the plan, Sonic just needed to keep all of the guy’s attention squarely on him. As a result, Shorn didn’t even see the sudden burst of red power or the swoop of shadow that lifted Sonic straight off the ground, so he wouldn’t be in the line of fire, when Knox’s punch hit its target. Sending the hedgehog flying across the ground and through the metal wall of some random building.
“Oo.” Sonic muttered, winching sympathetically as Nova set him on his feet again. “That was a little harsh, don’t ya think?” Of course, he was aware that Knox could have done a lot worse, if he’d gone all out. But still.
Neither had the time to respond however, as they were already rushing toward the building, prompting Sonic to help Knox get there faster. Which was helpful, as Shorn was already getting up again though he wasn’t moving nearly as gracefully as he had before. And Knox wasn’t about to let this opportunity go.
Using the momentum from Sonic’s speed, he hit the ground and jumped into the air. Propelling himself at Shorn, as he built up more energy. However, this time, his focus was clearly on something else, causing the power in his body to transform from its normal red to solid green.
Though it was just a shard, the Master Emerald was just that – their Master. So, when he brought the power down Shorn could do nothing about it, as the Chaos Emeralds finally exited his body and simply dispersed in all directions.
Of course, this had a pretty immediate effect on Shorn. Who instantly lost all the gold that had been soaking into his quills and finally collapsed. Knox, however, still had too much momentum for his landing to be that easy and he instead crashed into a pile of robot bodies, where he stayed, unmoving, until Sonic rushed to his side.
“Knuckles.” He called out, quickly digging him out of the metal pieces only to pull back when he realized just how injured the echidna was. He was now bleeding profusely from several places, where Shorn’s metal spines had gotten the better of him and his roboticized parts now had huge gaping holes, that were not sucking in energy to heal. However, that energy was also the only thing keeping him alive.
“Still – Knox.” He managed to correct him, though it didn’t really look like he even knew he was talking anymore, let alone aware of what he was saying. Instead, he just stared off into the distance, his eyes glowing with an unusual bright neon green. However, that light was swiftly fading away, as his body grew still, and his eyes started to close.
“No, no not yet.” Sonic insisted, quickly slapping his friend’s face, fighting to keep him awake. Knowing he had to get him back to the Angel and fast.
But, as he got Knox’s arm over his shoulder, and prepared to run them both to the ship, he found that something was in the way. “Shorn?” He asked hopefully as the other hedgehog stood between them and the exit. However, it was clear from the dead look in his eyes that that damn chip was still in control. Even if the body it was commanding was currently out of power and probably dying as well.
Unfortunately, Sonic didn’t get the chance to make any further attempt at reaching him. As Shorn channeled what little energy he had left into his legs and shot toward them at top speed. But the attack simply never landed. Instead, there was a crack of thunder and Shorn found himself tripped and sliding across the ground as one of his legs suddenly gave out.
Blinking owlishly at this turn of events, Sonic turned to find the cause. It was Nova. However, in her hand was something he never thought he’d see. A gun.
“That’s my girl.” Knox whispered proudly, still struggling to stay awake as he clearly wanted to see this. Of course, Sonic could only stare, his mouth falling further and further toward the ground.
Though he could see her hand still shaking slightly, Nova had had the accuracy needed to hit Shorn at his top speed and, not only that, but she’d hit her mark too. Which was so impressive it boarded on impossible. Of course, her shot had only taken the guy’s leg out from under him and, considering it was made of the same marital as Knox’s arms, they weren’t at all surprised that the hedgehog was soon back on his feet, the metal already repairing itself. Though his attention was now turned to Nova this time. Then something weird happened.
He stopped
Sonic felt his friend tense at his side, clearly realizing what was happening and Sonic too recalled Nova telling him about a tiny sliver of control. Something he had saved and something he would never be able to use again, but he was using it now, trying to give Nova her shot.
“You can do it.” Knox whispered, clinging onto Sonic’s shoulders, trying to get himself up, but it didn’t do him any good. His body simply wouldn’t respond anymore. “You know where it is.”
Sonic still kept his full attention on Nova, cringing as her hand shook again. Clearly struggling with a lot of inner demons that weren’t allowing her to pull the trigger and, as a result, her time ran out and Shorn’s controlled moment was lost. And so, with his leg healed, he shot toward her on a collision course.
“NO!” Knox screamed, trying to get to her. But his presence wasn’t needed. Only his voice. As her hand immediately steadied, then she took aim and fired.
“Well.” Tom declared as he entered the house again, having done all that he could for the window. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much. While he did possess a number of skills, in a number of areas, making glass wasn’t among them. As a result, the two broken windows were now creating an uncomfortable crosswind in the living room, that was officially sucking out all of the heat. “I hate to say it Maddie, but I think we need to call someone in for this one.” He stated worriedly, as they both looked down at the two little aliens happily sipping on their hot drinks and talking amongst themselves.
“Oh – boy.” His wife muttered, seeing the same problem he had. While clothing and hats were enough to hide them from a distance, if anyone got close enough to really get a good look, there would be little they could do to convince them that what they were seeing was just a mask or something.
When he started to regain consciousness again, all Sonic was aware of was the rhythmic crunch of dirt from someone walking, then there was a smell of leather and a soft touch against his cheek. Until finally the motion of the walk made him realize that he was being carried.
“I want off this ride.” He muttered to himself, as his head and stomach were really not liking this whole ‘being alive’ thing.
“I’ll drop you if you want.” A voice complained back. Though the support never wavered.
“Knuckles?”
“Still Knox.” The voice corrected. “Sorry to disappoint.”
Sonic smiled at their slowly developing personal banter and finally opened his eyes to find they were walking through the mini city of buildings within Yegger’s bubble of safety. “What – happened?” He murmured, struggling not to throw up on his friend’s jacket.
“You nearly killed yourself.” Knox spat. “And me.” Despite that last part Sonic could tell he’d only added it, in an attempt to hide just how scared he had been for his friend.
“Aw, you do care?” Sonic quailed with a goofy grin and hugged him around the neck. Only to receive a right deadly glare from the echidna’s mechanical eye.
“Don’t make me hurt you.”
He let go if only because he’d rather not be dropped. “So – uh – what happened?” He asked again, hoping for further details this time.
“You tell me?” Knox countered. “You never said a damn thing about your ball of magic blowing up.”
“Say what?” Sonic stuttered, prompting his friend to finally stop walking and turn around so they could see Yegger’s main building. Only – it was no longer there. Just the first few floors showed any sign of structural survival while the rest appeared as if it had just blown its top and collapsed in on itself. “Oh – oops.”
Knox just scoffed and turned back to continue walking. “Let’s hope there wasn’t anything in there we’ll need later.” Sonic just chuckled sheepishly and let himself relax again, enjoying the feel of the jacket’s fur lining against his face. He nearly fell asleep again, before noticing something about Knox’s stride was off.
Opening his eyes, he looked down and realized his friend was leaving a trail of blood. “You’re hurt.” He declared, trying to push himself up, but was having a hard time finding the strength to do so. “Put me down.”
“Shut up.”
Sonic glowered at him sourly and tried again to get away, but he had an energy output akin to that of a newborn kitten and Knox wasn’t about to give up anytime soon. Thankfully, this was about the time a loud woosh sounded overhead and they stopped to look at the sky and found it was Amber. It didn’t take her long to land and rush over to them.
“Are you two okay?” She proclaimed, nearly in a full-on panic.
“No. He’s hurt.” Sonic insisted, pointing down at his stubborn excuse for a ride, prompting the echidna to glare at him again. Then, in one swift motion, he just pulled his arms away, causing Sonic to hit the ground with a painful exchange of words, where he remained, just watching the sky spin like a top and trying to keep his lunch down.
He heard Amber fusing over them both, but it was otherwise uneventful until Nova and Ace arrived, at which point the Captain hovered over him, with an unimpressed expression.
“What did you do this time?” She nagged prompting the hedgehog to open his mouth in defense of his honorable sacrifice, only to recall what exactly he had done and sat bolt upright. Of course, his body did not approve of this at all, and he quickly had to rush off to the side, so as to empty his stomach and, at last, he felt a little better.
Nova was still calmly waiting for his answer when he got back, so he quickly started the story. “I saw Shorn.” Everyone stopped what they were doing to give him their full attention. “And I know how to help him – I think. We have to get the Heart; I think it’s reacting with the Chaos Emeralds and that’s what’s keeping him trapped.”
They all blinked, before Ace stood up and spoke. “Emerald’s’? As in plural?”
“Unfortunately.” Sonic answered. “He has the other six.”
“Six?” Ace repeated, actually stumbling back a little, as that set in and rubbed at his head in disbelief. “Well that certainly explains a lot.”
“Yeah, but he probably can’t separate from them. I’d imagine he would have tried by now.” Sonic guessed, for that would certainly be the first thing he would attempt. “But we don’t need to worry about them. It’s just the Heart?”
“Heart?” Ace asked.
“The Aparoid Heart.” Knox explained further, before folding his arms in an irritated manner. “The problem is, with him moving so fast, we have no way to reach him.” Sonic quickly lifted a finger and corrected that.
“Actually, we figured that out too. He’s hanging around here somewhere, staying close. So, once we figure out how to do this, he’ll slow down and after that, my speed should be enough to make contact with him again.”
“Should?” Nova repeated, her glare was the kind of thing that would make even monsters nervous. “I can’t help but notice that your ‘plans’ tend to involve explosions.” She turned her glare toward the place where Yegger’s headquarters had stood, less than an hour before, then back to Sonic, who honestly couldn’t really argue about that.
“Yeah, I admit, I didn’t know that would happen. The last time wasn’t nearly as – flashy.” He admitted, causing Nova to narrow her eyes even further.
“Captain.” Knox spoke up, as he walked over to stand with her, his limp was still present, though he’d gotten a bandage for the gash on his leg. “I agree, he’s reckless. But even I can’t deny that he gets the job done. And – we don’t really have much of a choice, he’s the only one fast enough.”
She promptly grumped again and folded her arms to glare at something. “I hate it when you’re right.”
Knox just laughed before turning back to Sonic. “Alright. Tell us what happened.” With that, Sonic sat them all down and explained everything, in as much detail as possible. Trying to be as accurate as he could when describing the speeds at which he needed to reach, what Shorn had looked like, particularly the contraption on his back that had housed the Heart. As well as what they might need to expect for their next attempt at saving him. By the end, Ace had several pages of notes and drawings. And was already in full on think-mode. Though he revealed to have something else on his mind.
“He said he was in another dimension?” Sonic considered that question a minute, kind of startled that he hadn’t noticed that strange choice of words himself.
“Yeah, why?”
Ace was quiet for a moment, before speaking up again. “It just seems odd to me that this world is the only one you’ve visited that had another version of you. But, if Shorn is inhabiting another dimension entirely, that would explain why he’s able to exist alongside you.”
Sonic hummed to himself about that but ultimately shrugged. “I just figured I had to run into myself at some point during all this craziness.”
“You don’t get it.” Ace insisted sternly. “He said that his dimension was affected by the Prism you shattered. That would mean he existed before the Shatter Spaces.”
“So –” Sonic drew out the word, struggling to understand.
“So, if I’m right. He’s not in another dimension, per-say. He’s in the space between them. That’s why he knew about the Prism and you. Which means – matching his speed isn’t what made the connection, or at least – it wasn’t the only reason.” He looked down at Sonic’s shoes, before going on. “It’s the Prism energy.”
Looking at his kicks as well, Sonic hummed again. “Okay – then you’re saying?” He asked, still not sure where the fox was going with this. But Ace just smiled broadly. A look in his eyes that everyone clearly recognized.
“I know what we have to do.”
…
It took some serious finagling to finally get back to the Angel, but they managed and upon his feet touching the deck, Ace pretty much teleported into his workshop. While everyone else took up their own tasks. Nova and Knox made a point of moving the ship to a better position, Amber continued to fly over the city, keeping an eye out for anything strange and Sonic found himself following after Ace.
He wasn’t surprised that the fox didn’t even notice he was present. Once the kid was in his zone, it would take nothing short of the end of the world to bring him back to reality. So, Sonic just poked around, waiting for the point that Ace would start asking questions. It wouldn’t be too much longer.
As a result, he ended up finding a familiar looking picture on one wall, that he hadn’t noticed before. But it was the same one from the bridge, showing the crew standing with their freshly commissioned ship, ready to take on new adventures and a new life.
Again, Sonic’s attention was brought to that empty space. Where it seemed, everyone had unconsciously refused to stand, as if someone was already there. He found himself smiling, as he realized they had been right. Though they couldn’t see him, Shorn had been at their side the whole time, keeping his family safe in his own special way.
“Good to know.” He whispered, feeling a slight wind in his quills that shouldn’t have been present.
“Sonic?” Ace’s voice brought him back and he quickly walked over to the desk where the kid had a number of books open. Clearly, he’d been studying them long before now though. “I think I found the Prism Shard you’ve been looking for.” With that, he lifted one of the books and turned it around, to show off the image there. A smallish crystalline stone, this time in a purplish gray hue, though the shiny, multi-colored way it was shining was a dead give-away that Ace was right.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Sonic admitted, reading over some of the text, only to start, when a familiar name popped up. “Wait – the Aparoid Heart?”
“Yeah, apparently this is what Yegger used to make the Aparoids in the first place.” Ace explained, putting his book back, while Sonic rubbed at his head sourly.
“Oh, that’s just great.” He complained, before something else hit him. “Wait, does that mean Shorn has the Shard?”
“A piece of it, yes.”
Sonic winced painfully. “Then Yegger broke it – again.” He had to sit after that one. “That can’t be good for the Universe.”
“No. In fact, I’m willing the bet that was the catalyst that broke our planet.” Ace muttered angrily.
“I’m starting to wonder if this Yegger was really a genius, or just really good at hiding his stupidity.”
“A little of both, I’d wager.”
Sonic chuckled at that and leaned against the table. “So, any idea where we might find the Shard now?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Ace admitted, giving his friend a sympathetic smile. “It’s in the name.” He motioned at the book again. “At the heart of the Aparoids.”
Sonic promptly facepalmed. “Wonderful.” They both went quiet and looked up, when the intercom beeped. “Brace.” Knox ordered and a second later the whole ship whined, as it knocked against something and Ace ended up grabbing onto Sonic, as he started sliding across the floor. Allowing his boots to hold them both in place, until the rocking and rolling was over. Then they both rushed out onto the deck to see what had happened.
“Oh.” Sonic proclaimed in shock. When they found they’d entered some kind of metal cave, that appeared to have been an old landing zone. Thankfully, it was cut off from the upper parts of the city, and therefore the green gas, so none of their machines were suffering the ill effects. “That works.”
“Whoa.” Ace quailed next to him and he turned to see what the kid was staring at, only to find that there was a huge ship already in the dock. The damn thing had taken up so much space that even the tiny Angel had needed to swap some paint to get in. “The Cloud Hawk.”
“Say what?” Sonic asked and the fox shook off his amazement.
“The Cloud Hawk. It was Knox’s ship when – well –” He looked away and rubbed his arm a bit, like he was ashamed he’d been so caught up in the wonder of it all.
“And you should be able to find anything you might need on her.” Knox spoke overhead, before landing on the deck with them. “I assume you’re going to need – supplies, to make whatever it is your making?” He suggested and the fox lit up again, though he was clearly trying to keep himself in check, something Knox didn’t let slide. “Ace.” He complained and the kid winched slightly. “I never blamed the ship.” He pointed out and leaned down to be eye to eye with his little brother. “Besides, I’ve been saving her for you.”
“What?” Ace breathed, looking like he was about to pass out, prompting Sonic to step up behind him, just in case.
“I have no use for it. But you could do anything you put your mind to with the tech on this ship. So –” Knox stood up straight and waved a hand at The Cloud Hawk, to emphasize his point. “She’s yours.”
In that moment Ace moved so fast even Sonic had misplaced him for a second and that speed ended up turning to pure, bulldozing power, as he nearly knocked Knox right off his feet, with the force of his hug. It was only thanks to the Admiral’s training that he was able to save them both, but this did nothing to affect his smile.
“Easy there, ya little Vermin.” He whispered, hugging the fox back, who chuckled through his tears.
“Porcupine.” He muttered into his brother’s jacket and Sonic found that he was nearly ready to cry himself, just watching them.
“Alright.” Knox interrupted, before he started to display any real emotion and shooed Ace away. “Off with you now. We don’t have a lot of time.” He declared, finally kicking the kid off the ship, to do his job. “And don’t go crazy. You can snoop later.” The echidna yelled after him, only to receive a rather questionable affirmative, causing the poor guy to rub his eye in annoyance. “Would you mind going with him?” He sighed tiredly, and Sonic laughed, but threw him a salute and raced off after the fox.
…
It took several hours, various pit stops to the Angel and many, many reminders to keep his mind on task, for Ace to finally come up with a physical representation of his plan.
“Ta Da.” He quailed, finally showing it off, only for Sonic to raise an eyebrow at the device that mostly looked like a smaller version of the orb he’d recently used to contact Shorn.
“A hamster ball? That’s your big plan?” He received a scathing look for that and smiled.
“For your information this is all we’re going to need. No point in wasting resources just to make it fancy.” Ace used air quotes around the last word, before turning back to his task and Sonic felt a little pang of pride in his chest. It was so nice to see a version of Tails that would stand up for himself, even in little moments of harmless poking. “The only thing we need now, is a second one.”
“Say what?”
Ace turned back to him again. “Yeah, one for you, one for Shorn.”
“Oh goodie. Can’t wait to see what damage two of us might cause.”
“Relax. I’ve recalibrated it and, if I’m right, we actually won’t need that much energy.”
“Good to know. But if I get too much speed, without that energy to buffer me, I might be teleported out of this world? I’d rather not risk that, if we can help it.”
“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem either. You won’t even need to reach top speed.” Sonic made a noise, showing he was impressed, realizing the little guy had thought of everything. All that was left was to hope his idea worked.
Having watched the process the last time, Sonic was able to assist in making the second wheel, thus they managed to finish the project within another two hours. And so, the only thing left to do was to move the thing.
Nova refused to risk it exploding again and taking out her ship so, they had to go topside. And, since the cloud of electronically adverse gas was still floating around, as the sudden collapse of Yegger’s headquarters had distracted Ace away from locating the source, they would need to take it under the shield, just so it would work.
Thankfully, Knox was there to carry one for them. While the rest had to haul the other around on a sled.
“What did you make this thing out of? Rock?” Sonic complained about an hour later. When they were still only halfway there.
“Fluxstone.” Ace proclaimed proudly earning a glare from the others, but he didn’t notice. “It’s notoriously difficult to reshape Fluxstone, you know. The fact that I was able to make something like this, is –”
“Ace.” Knox stated warningly and the fox looked around at the crew’s annoyed faces, before grinning sheepishly. Thus, they continued their trip in relative silence and finally found a spot that would allow them to start the machines. Of course, by then, Sonic was completely winded and needed to take a break, before even making an attempt at running.
“I could really go for a chili dog.” He announced his eyes closed and dreaming up an image of a chili dog the size of their ship. Of course, this was about as close as he would get to his favorite snack as the crew didn’t bother packing around such perishable foods.
“Don’t push it.” Nova countered and the hedgehog sighed, before getting back on his feet to find that the machine had been set up. With the two wheels having been placed as close as they could get to one another, actually causing the orbs to merge in the center, like some kind of 3D version of a Venn Diagram.
“Alright, this one is yours.” Ace instructed pointing him toward the left one while carefully drawing an arrow inside the one on the right. So Shorn would know which way he had to run.
“Cool.” Sonic quailed. “Now to get the message to –” He was interrupted when a sudden burst of wind passed through the area, causing everyone to look around wildly. “Never mind.” He finished with a smile.
“Shorn?” Amber asked the air quietly, reaching out a hand, hoping to touch him through the dimensional barrier but nothing happened. As Shorn wasn’t about to risk hurting any of them by making contact, especially not this close to his freedom.
“Alright. Let’s do this thing.” Sonic proclaimed, hyping himself up and, in the process, getting everyone else excited as well. Walking over to his ball, he realized there was no door, but Ace quietly informed him how to get in. So, making sure to be completely visible, in order to act as an example for Shorn, he walked back a few paces and crouched into his runner’s stance, before sprinting straight at the side of the orb, not stopping until he passed right through the wall of energy and was inside.
“Okay.” He stated, then waited a minute with everyone else, until they were certain Shorn had had enough time to do the same. Then Ace gave the signal and Sonic started picking up the speed.
Almost immediately, the ball started to admit bursts of electricity, as Prism Energy built up inside, quickly transmitting it to the other orb, causing it to begin turning as well. Making sure not to move too fast, as he didn’t want to overload it, Sonic kept his eyes firmly locked on the other ball, until little flickers of movement began appearing and he smiled.
“He’s here, Ace. I see him.” He called out with a smile prompting the fox to hit a few buttons and start the actual process, causing a dull hum to be emitted from the point in which the two circles collided.
“Son-c.” He looked back at the second orb, when he heard that and found Shorn’s mostly corporeal form running toward him. Though he was clearly trying to get his attention.
“I hear you.” Sonic called out.
“You n – warn – em.”
“Warn them?” Sonic guessed, trying to risk a little more speed so he could understand better. But the process was already underway, there was no stopping it now. He couldn’t gain speed or stop it anymore. Like the ball had taken on a mind of its own, and he was now forced to be its hamster, regardless of what he wanted. In the end, all he could do was trust in his friends, as it became clear that Shorn was experiencing something similar. For he was struggling to get back to his usual speed, instead, forced to go slower and slower, until he was nearly completely visible.
At this point, it became clear that Shorn too was starting to accumulate a build-up of that strange multicolored energy from the Paradox Prism. However, it seemed repelled by something, remaining just barely unable to make contact with him. As if the dimension was doing everything in its power to keep him from escaping.
But Shorn was a fighter, he refused to give up and just kept pushing against the wall. His sure force of will turning into a power all its own prompting Sonic to match him. Determined to stand at his side until they had won.
At some point he realized he could almost feel Shorn’s presence, as one ran faster and other slowed down inch by inch, getting closer and closer to the same speed until, finally, they were on the same wavelength and the dimensional walls snapped together with such force, they were torn apart by the impact.
Instantly, the build of Prism energy exploded only to be sucked into the center circle instead of being allowed to spread and destroy the area again. Only, it had its claws into something else this time and was determined to keep its prize.
Shorn suddenly let out a scream of pain but managed to keep up his pace as the energies pulled at his body. Then, within just a fraction of a millisecond, it was over. The center circle was suddenly inhabited by a grayish purple shard of crystal and Shorn was as real and as present as anyone else in the world.
Finally, able to slow down again, Sonic stopped and refused course a bit, trying to slow the other ball down, as it was clear Shorn was too exhausted to do so on his own. However, when everything stopped turning, it became clear that something was wrong.
“Sonic.” Shorn whispered, barely managing to lift his head, but Sonic still saw the light leave his eyes and a hollow, robotic tone enter his voice. “The chip.” He managed to say, and Sonic felt his heart skip a beat, as Amber rushed in to help.
“Wait, Amy don’t!” He yelled, trying to escape the orb to get to her, but he hadn’t built up enough speed. He was stuck. Though not for long, as the other ball suddenly imploded, taking his out in the process.
“I don’t believe it.” Knox whispered, carefully getting to his feet, all the while staring blankly at the other hedgehog, only for it to suddenly vanish again. “Wait!” He screamed, reaching out for him. “Shorn!”
“You know him?” Sonic proclaimed in shock, but Knox was too busy running over to the place where the hedgehog had stood, looking around wildly.
“Shorn, come back. Please.” He begged but slowly gave up, as it seemed the guy wasn’t going to return. Leading Sonic to walk up and place a hand on his shoulder, causing the echidna to jump and look back at him. Eventually recalling where he was, his body clenched up, as he suddenly displayed some uncharacteristic anger and lashed out at the shield wall with a burst of red chaos energy, leaving a massive hole in the thing. However, it quickly heeled over again. “Damn it.” He screamed in frustration, prompting Sonic to reel him in.
“Hey, calm down. We’re too far from the Angel you shouldn’t be using your energy like that.” He insisted, holding onto his friend as he forced himself to relax. Taking several deep breaths, before finally returning to a neutral stance. Though he kept his fists clenched so hard, Sonic could hear the metal whining.
“He’s been here this whole time?” He whispered to himself painfully. “We left him behind?”
“Knox.” Sonic barked seriously, finally getting the echidna to look at him again and he gripped his friend’s shoulder a little tighter. “You didn’t know. It wasn’t your fault.” This appeared to finally bring him back to reality, though, if it had been anyone other than Sonic speaking the words, it probably wouldn’t have worked.
“I need to find the crew.” Knox spoke up looking more defeated than Sonic had ever seen him. “We need to find out what’s going on here.”
“You got it.” Sonic agreed quietly, but they didn’t move for another minute, as Knox looked around them again.
“Just wait here, I’ll be back.” He spoke to the air, though it was hard to tell if he was speaking to Shorn or himself.
…
They didn’t say a word, as they walked back to the place where they had first communicated with the Angel, as that was likely to be the best meeting place. Though, eventually Sonic got so worried for his friend, that he had to break the silence.
“You gonna be okay?” This caused the echidna to look up from the ground, which he’d been staring at the whole time.
“How did we miss this? Why didn’t he approach us?” He complained, clearly struggling to understand.
“I’m sure he had his reasons.” Sonic attempted, only for Knox to look back at him.
“Any idea what that might be?” He asked causing the hedgehog to blink, as the guy had honestly never put so much weight on his answers before. So, Sonic made sure to think it over carefully, wanting to really consider every angle.
“Honestly, I’m not sure.” He said at last. “I mean, I won’t deny I can be a bit of a recluse, at times. I like my space. But I always come home. This – this doesn’t feel like something I would do.”
“Then – there’s an outside factor?” Knox suggested and Sonic shrugged, leaving the two to go quiet again as they thought that over. “I don’t think he was being controlled.” He muttered, mostly to himself. “When I was under the chip’s influence, I didn’t act natural at all. I was robotic at best. Not to mention, I attacked anything that moved. He seemed to only be trying to get our attention.”
“Yeah.” Sonic agreed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “And his speed. That was – weird.”
Knox turned back to him. “How so?”
“Did you see his stance, when he was moving, I don’t think he was actually running at all. He wasn’t in the right position for it and when he was standing, it was – blurry. Like he just couldn’t hold still.”
This left the two in silence again, but they didn’t get any more time to consider the mystery. As a loud animal cry pulled their attention to the sky and they found Amber and Birdie flying in a circle overhead, eventually heading off in a specific direction and they followed.
“There they are?” Ace called out, when they ran around a dilapidated building to find him and Nova waiting, both looking very relieved. However, the Captain’s mood quickly changed, as she zeroed in on Sonic.
“I thought I made it clear that we were in this together!” She spoke, her voice calm but deadly, causing Sonic to remember his little act of defiance and realized that he was in big trouble. “You’re lucky we’re not on the ship. I’d have you thrown in the brig.”
“Captain, we have more – pressing concerns.” Knox interrupted and it seemed his tone alone was enough to have her completely forget about her former anger.
“What happened?” She demanded but suddenly the echidna was unable to explain further. As he was distracted by Amber joining the group again, causing the pink hedgehog to pause when he just stared at her solemnly. “Knox!” Nova commanded and her mate winced, before looking back at her. Which was clearly not something the crew was used to seeing from him, as they all immediately tensed up.
“He’s here.” He finally whispered, struggling to get the words out. “Shorn.” Immediately, everyone went quiet, like time itself had just stopped and they couldn’t even breathe for a minute. It was Amber that broke the spell first.
“No.” She insisted, walking up to him her whole body shaking. “He’s – he’s dead.”
“He’s not.” Knox countered, his tone soft and kind. “He’s here. I saw him.”
Amber froze for a second, before it seemed like her emotions began to return, one at a time. However, the first to get through – was anger. “Don’t you dare.” She screamed. “He’s gone. You – you weren’t there.” She insisted, the anger dissipating just as quickly as it had arrived, each of her words growing fainter and harder for her to say, as she just shook her head over and over again. Then her eyes filled with tears and her body tensed with pain. “He’s dead – I – I saw – I saw it.”
Knox, to his credit, didn’t take her actions to heart and just slowly inched closer, until he had her in his arms and she finally broke, crying into his chest so hard that her voice cracked. And Sonic felt himself wanting to go to her as well. But something stopped him. Despite being closer than family, neither Nova nor Ace made a move to join either. Like they understood that this was something only Knox could do.
And it was clear, just from the way that he held her, that they indeed had a connection that the others didn’t. Their time together, training and the pain of their shared loss had translated to a much deeper bond, something more akin to a brother and sister.
“Then it’s true. He’s really alive?” Sonic looked over, as Ace spoke, noting that Nova was paying attention as well.
“Looks that way. What do you know about him?”
Ace went quiet. Before eventually shrugging. “I never met him. But –”
“He was a good friend.” Nova finished, when it seemed the fox couldn’t find his words. “His loss was hard on all of us.” She looked back at Amber, who was still holding onto Knox, like she was afraid she’d disappear if she didn’t. But when the Captain turned back to Sonic her expression was strong again. “What happened?”
“Nothing too spectacular, really. He just – showed up.”
“Did he say anything?”
“No. We only saw him for a second.”
“And where did he go?” Sonic deflated a little at that and only managed to shrug. Causing Nova and Ace to sigh. “I see.”
“Dang it. If we had the Angel, I could scan for him.” Ace complained, pulling his little handheld from a pocket, only to glare at the screen which was clearly not working. Then he looked at the green fog around them. “Maybe I could find a way to disperse this cloud.” He said, more as a question than with any real confidence. “But, without finding the source, it wouldn’t do much good.”
He had a point there, though the Vale wasn’t exactly lively, it still had enough wind to have blown the mist away long ago. Indicating there was a consent replenishing supply somewhere.
“Captain?” Amber spoke up at last and everyone turned to acknowledge her, as she finally pulled away from Knox but still held onto his arm for support. “Permission to search?” She said, her voice jittery causing Nova to soften, before she too walked over to hug the girl.
“Of course we will. We’re not leaving without him.” Amber made a sound like she was about to cry again but managed to keep it together as she hugged Nova back, then pulled away, allowing Birdie to support her, as they turned back to the task of planning. “Alright. First things first. Where did you see him?”
“By The Hole.” Knox said, indicating the general direction. “And, what’s more – he’s the Jetstream.” Nova looked at him sharply and Ace appeared too shocked to speak.
“You’re certain?” She asked and Knox nodded.
“It was exactly what I saw before. I just didn’t realize it was him, until he’d stopped moving.”
“How is that possible?” Amber piped up. “He never had that kind of power before?”
“No – but neither did I, until –” Knox held up a hand to indicate his arms and this clearly caused some pieces to fall into place for the rest of the crew.
“Wait –” Sonic put in and everyone turned to him. “He wasn’t fast?”
“I wouldn’t say that.” Nova answered, but Amber finished.
“He was the fastest member of the resistance. But he never had that kind of speed.” She explained, causing Sonic to start, unable to really wrap his mind around that one.
“But – he’s me?” They all blinked, seemingly trying just as hard to understand all of this.
“How did you get your power anyway?” Nova suddenly asked, leaving Sonic to open his mouth, only to close it again, as there wasn’t much to say.
“I – was born with it.” He said simply. “So were you.” He pointed to Knox, causing the echidna to blink, and everyone looked at him curiously. “Okay – different dimension, different rules, I guess.” He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck sourly.
“Then – Yegger did something to him?” Amber asked, bringing the topic back to the problem at hand.
“Most likely. But it isn’t like mine, it’s – something else.” Knox explained, folding his arms to look grumpy again. Clearly something about this revelation was bringing out more of his Knuckles side.
“Any ideas what it could be?” Nova asked Ace, who jumped as his thoughts were interrupted.
“I’d need to see him first. Though – I wouldn’t be surprised if Yegger tried to make him into a weapon, like Knox. However, if he was really moving as fast as you say he was, then the transmission signals needed to control him would be too slow.”
“Then – he’s free?” Amber asked hopefully.
“As long as he’s moving.” Ace emphasized. “However, the only thing I can think of that would allow him to reach those kinds of speeds would be a Chaos Emerald. Maybe even more than one.”
“I didn’t sense anything.” Knox pointed out.
“Again, if he’s moving that fast, you likely wouldn’t be able to.” The echidna decided that that was a good point.
“Uh – weird time to bring this up, but –” Sonic said, raising a finger to interrupt. “I can control Chaos Energy.”
“WHAT?” They all proclaimed in shock. Causing the hedgehog to grin sheepishly. Clearly, he should have mentioned that before.
“That’s impossible.” Amber insisted sternly. “Knox is the only one who’s ever been able to do that. And only because he’s a Guardian.”
“Hold on.” Ace shot back, coming to his rescue. “Just because we’ve never seen it before, doesn’t mean it’s ‘impossible’.”
“Agreed.” Knox added, which brought Amber back from her argumentative state, as his word clearly held a lot of sway over such a topic. “How?” He asked, turning back to Sonic, who could only shrug.
“Again – I just kind a – can.” He received a grumpy look for that one.
“You’re really not helping.” The echidna complained and Sonic chuckled but offered his apologies anyway.
“Alright.” Nova spoke up then, her tone indicating it was time for everyone to shut up and listen to their Captain. “We’re never going to get anywhere standing here guessing. We need to find him.” They all nodded in agreement, so she started handing out tasks. “Ace, I want you to find out where this fog is coming from and stop it, Amber and I will take the skies, you two keep searching the ground. We meet back at The Hole every two hours. If you’re even a minute late, I’m sending a search party. So don’t be that idiot.”
…
Sonic was too distracted, trying to keep an eye on Ace’s form flying in the distance to notice when Knox stopped in front of him again and he was left to rub his reoffended nose.
“Stop worrying.” The echidna commanded, but Sonic held his ground.
“Are you sure he should be out there on his own? What if he’s attacked?”
“He’ll deal with it.” Knox countered simply and walked off again.
“But none of his gear is gonna work.”
“Relax. I’ve trained him since he was a kid, he may not be as dedicated as Amber, but he can still hold his own.”
Sonic stopped in his tracks, trying to comprehend that. “Wait – you got Tails out of his workshop – to train? How?”
Knox chuckled, clearly understanding that statement all too well. “Easy. I didn’t give him a choice.” It was Sonic’s turn to laugh, deciding that it was kind of fun talking with another person that understood the struggles of older brothering. Though, that didn’t mean he wasn’t still worried. However, in the end, he had to put it on the back burner, as they had arrived at The Hole again. Only to find something new had been added to the scenery.
The Aparoid wall now had several small punctures on the surface that had not been there before, like someone had been using the thing to vent their anger. Though none of them were as large as the one Knox had momentarily made in his short bout of anger, unlike his these were not being repaired.
“Well, that’s – odd.” Sonic murmured, reaching over to touch the edge of one only to pull away quickly and had to jump around a bit to keep from screaming. Prompting Knox to rush over and hold him still so as to see what had happened. Thankfully, there was no Aparoid infection, or even any real damage, the thing had simply been so hot that he’d burned himself.
Silently, the two put some pieces together and looked back at the ground, where roughly the same thing had happened upon their first meeting with Shorn. Where he’d left a burned path in the earth, due to his insane speed.
“Good, he’s still around then.” Knox whispered.
“I thought this guy was on our side?” The hedgehog muttered sourly, wincing as he continued to fuss over his fingers.
“That’s hard to determine.” He answered. “I would think he’d be trying to contact us, if he was.” With this, he moved to step over the rubble that cluttered the area around The Hole. Heading further into Yegger’s main headquarters and Sonic quickly followed behind.
“Maybe he can’t.” He suggested. All the while looking around the new area, which had fared much better than its surroundings, in fact, the only true damage looked to have been caused during the war, as the shield that encompassed it had spared the place from succumbing to the effects of time. Even the green fog wasn’t as thick.
“Then our best bet is to find out what Yegger did to him.” Knox stated, his stride quick as he didn’t seem to want to be there any longer than he had to. So, Sonic decided to pitch in and rushed over to get under his friend’s arm and, before the echidna could even complain, they were running over the stretch of land at near top speed.
Knox, to his credit, only tensed for a second before forcing himself to relax again so as not to be a burden. Thus, allowing them to zip through the area and into the largest building, in a matter of seconds.
Upon entering though, Sonic came to a screeching stop as he found that the inside was somewhat recognizable. As it had been built to resemble The Master Emerald’s shine, though it was a complete restoration, with none of the normal wear and ruin that Sonic was used to. However, it had also been made from metal this time, which gave it an eerie, unnatural ambiance.
Of course, there was one thing missing and that was the giant green gem itself, which had clearly taken all of the city’s power with it. Leaving behind only a massive black hole, where it had once been.
Looking over at his friend, Sonic found the echidna was studying the twisted monument to his people’s purpose with a rather unemotional expression. Before he simply looked away and headed for a set of stairs leading to the upper floors.
Sonic followed him for a bit, however he ultimately had to ask. “Did – you ever try putting it back together?”
“I destroyed it. There’s no putting it back together.” Knox countered, which seemed like a weird answer to Sonic and made him reconsider the obvious differences in their universes again, as well as the simple fact that this version of Knuckles had been removed from his island, where he might have learned some of this important information.
“Not necessarily.” He insisted, rushing over to walk beside his friend. “Knuckles repaired it before. A few times in fact.”
That got Knox’s attention, as he slowly stopped walking and turned back to study the altar before looking at Sonic again. “How?”
The hedgehog rubbed at his quills sheepishly. “Well – I don’t really know how he did it. Honestly, I’m not even sure if he knows. I just know that – he did.”
The echidna considered that for a moment, before looking around at the walls of the building, which featured some oddly placed holes. Exit routes for the shards of the giant emerald that had once been shattered inside.
“You can sense the Chaos Emeralds, right?” Sonic whispered and Knox slowly turned back to him, before nodding and the hedgehog smiled. “That’s all you need then.” He said excitedly, however his friend remained quiet and thoughtful, causing Sonic’s grin to fade. “I mean – if you want. No one’s saying you have to repair it.”
For another second, Knox just looked at the floor. Then, without a word, he turned back to the stairs and continued upward, leaving Sonic to wonder if he’d done something wrong. So, for a couple of minutes, they just continued in silence, until he just couldn’t take it anymore.
“Sorry – I didn’t mean to –”
“No.” Knox interrupted without looking back. “It’s nothing you did. I just – never considered that before.” Finally, he stopped walking and just studied the floor once again. “I can’t help but wonder – if that’s the reason our planet hasn’t been able to recover.” He whispered, seemingly more to himself than Sonic. “It was meant to keep the Chaos energies of our world in check. Not just the Emeralds.”
Sonic blinked at that, as this was something he hadn’t actually been aware of. “Would it – fix everything?” He asked allowing Knox a moment to consider the possibilities. However, he eventually shook his head.
“No, the damage was too severe. But –” He thought it over for another minute before finally turning to look at Sonic again. “That’s what the Fluxstone is. It’s crystallized Chaos energy. In other words, it’s the planet’s way of cauterizing its wounds. It’s trying to heal itself. It just doesn’t have enough – guidance.”
Sonic perked up at that and smiled again. “Then – The Master Emerald could only help.”
“It –” Knox began again, turning to look at the altar once more. “It couldn’t hurt to try.”
“Sweet. Game plan in play.” Sonic proclaimed, before rushing over to get under Knox’s arm again. “So, let’s get out of this spooky place and get to it then. Where are we going?”
The echidna barely had a moment to point, before they were off again, climbing floor, after floor, after floor at breakneck speeds, making Sonic groan at the sear amount of unused space, clearly only built for posterity.
“Here.” Knox called out and Sonic hit the brakes, bringing them to a screeching stop outside a large room filled with long dead computers and massive machines. All of which gave Sonic the ‘ich’ vibe something awful.
Again, Knox showed off his cool and just walked right in like he owned the place, strolling up to what appeared to be the main computer and dusting off the control board, to reveal a panel, which he placed his hand against, calling up just a little bit of his red energy to turn it on.
It took a minute, but it did eventually come to life, prompting Knox to reach into his jacket, pulling out some kind of metal mask, that appeared to be made of the same material as his arms. Taking a breath, as if to prepare himself for something unpleasant, he placed it over his muzzle causing the thing to lock into place with an electronic snap.
“What’s that for?” Sonic whispered worriedly, but instead of answering him, Knox turned back to the giant screen.
“Computer. Acknowledge.” He commanded the mask causing his voice to take on an uncomfortably echoed and hollow tone. “Command Prompt; Full Access. Code; S43L1D.”
“Acknowledged.” The computer spoke up and flicked to life, causing the room lights to turn on and a number of other machines to start as well. “Admiral Sheild Full Access.”
Sonic hummed, nodding in agreement. “I’m impressed.”
“Sometimes it helps to be a mad man’s right hand.” Knox admitted, leaning over the keyboard to begin navigating the computer’s files, though he clearly didn’t know what he was looking for. “Computer. Bring up any files on Blue Hedgehog, Underground Leader, or Speed Experiments.”
The machine considered that a moment, obviously struggling due to a shortage of power, but managed, eventually pulling up a video log, that started playing immediately. Only for the sound alone to cause Knox to turn it off, as it showed a young, extremely injured hedgehog, trapped in a large green tube. Screaming from some intense pain.
“Son of a bitch.” Knox complained, closing the tab completely. “He always did like watching those.” He muttered and Sonic cringed but didn’t respond as his friend continued searching through the files, eventually bringing one up, that was just a reasonably harmless page of words.
However, it was soon accompanied by an image that showed the same hedgehog from before, though he was now much older, sporting scars where his injuries had once been. And his legs had been completely replaced by the same tech as Knox’s arms, though, this time, they had been designed solely for speed instead of power. To the point that his feet were shaped closer to that of runner’s stilts.
“Gees.” Sonic muttered to himself suddenly feeling twitchy, prompting Knox to close the images as well and just read the text, allowing them both to find that this one had been something called Project Sword. And was supposed to be the partner of Project Shield.
Like Knox, he’d been reliant on a power source, though Sonic didn’t recognize this one, only being mentioned under the name of ‘Aparoid Heart’. However, it seemed this alone had not achieved the results Yegger had wanted and so, he had added a Chaos Emerald to the mix. Only to be completely flabbergasted by the pure power he’d achieved. So – naturally – he added another, then another – and another.
Eventually, he’d lost complete control of the project, and it had simply ‘self-destructed’, thus, ending the page with a strange note, that the creature was now moving at such a speed, it could no longer make contact with their dimension. There had been no attempt made to rescue the project, or any notes left to suggest Yegger had even tried.
“Damn it.” Knox breathed, stepping back to remove his mask. A process that was clearly much harder than putting the thing on, but he managed.
“That explains a lot.” Sonic pointed out, looking back over the pages, and found that all seven Chaos Emeralds had been used for that horrible experiment. Something that Yegger really should have been smart enough not to risk. After all the Emeralds were notoriously hostile against other forms of energy and he had combined both them and the Aparoid Heart, something that was apparently on par with the Master Emerald.
Eventually Knox shook himself out of it and started pacing around the room, trying to think over their options, leaving Sonic with the computer. Though he found himself quickly wanting to look away, as there were a number of other things that he could have spent his whole life never seeing.
Shorn’s files were actually pretty sparce, considering he’d disappeared. However, being paired with Knox’s Project Code, there were several files and images of him as a result. None of which were pleasant. One in particular, showed him strapped to a table, a bar shoved into his mouth to keep his head from moving, as – something was inserted into his skull.
Finally Sonic pulled his eyes away and felt his heart hammering in his chest, both out of horror and pure anger that someone that done this to his friends. Only to jump, when Knox touched his shoulder. Though he didn’t need to ask what was wrong, he just had to look at the screen and quickly moved to just shut the whole thing down. Only for Sonic to grab his wrist, when he saw something else.
“Wait.” He insisted and pointed out another picture at the very end of the list, which showed neither Knox nor Shorn. Instead – it was a baby fox.
Clearly unable to fight the curiosity himself, Knox clicked on it, though the file wasn’t very big, it did detail a future plan for something called Project Sentinel. Which was supposed to be the third head of something called Cerberus, the other two being Project Shield and Project Sword. Apparently, the Sentinel had included plans for the partial robotization of unique two-tailed fox, though this time it was to focus on the child’s tails and – his eyes.
Sonic found himself quickly looking away from the disturbing computerized image of Ace with two robotic red eyes instead of his own and couldn’t help the shiver that traveled down his spine, even after Knox had closed the file again.
“A drone.” The echidna whispered mostly to himself. “A flying eye in the sky.” He explained, clearly just as uneasy about this discovery. Though it seemed that he had also solved some long-answered question. Likely ‘why’ he had found a baby fox in Yegger’s possession in the first place. However, It was hard to read his feelings on the rest of the matter, as it seemed he was just – shutting down.
“You okay?” Sonic asked, even though he already knew the answer was ‘no’, but his voice did seem to bring his friend back a little. As he reached up to rub at his face, taking a few deep breaths to steady himself.
“I hate this place.” He said robotically and it became pretty clear that he simply could not stay there any longer. He’d go insane if they did. So, Sonic took the initiative to shut down the computer all together, to at least give them some form of peace.
However, when he took his friend by the arm, intending to lead them out, a sudden unexpected wind picked up, stopping them in their tracks. Before something zipped through the space with so much speed that they were both thrown back into a wall.
“Ow.” Sonic complained sourly. Though Knox ignored him, quickly getting back to his feet.
“Shorn?” He yelled into the empty room. “Shorn, show yourself. Talk to us.” He begged, taking a few more steps forward, only to be knocked back again. This time it was so violent that he left a hole in the wall.
“Knuckles. You okay?” Sonic proclaimed, rushing to his side, pushing the rubble away to help him out again.
“Still Knox.” He answered sourly, touching his head only to find that it was bleeding. Despite this, he still got back up, however he didn’t try talking to the force of nature, recognizing that it wouldn’t do any good. So, testing a theory, he just walked toward the door again, only for the wind to pick up, forcing him to quickly back away or risk being attacked. “Damn it, whose side are you on?”
“There must be something here he wants us to see.” Sonic suggested, looking around the room. Only to notice Knox staring at him thoughtfully.
“You said before that you saw – Shadow? Maybe it works the same way with Shorn. Do you think you could run fast enough to see him? Maybe give him a message?”
Sonic cringed. “Yeah – about that. I’m pretty sure if I get up to that speed, I’ll accidently transport myself to another Shatter Space.” Knox blinked at that; but didn’t interrupt. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to come back here and, even if I could, it’ll probably take a while.”
He didn’t need to mention how stupid that would be. Not only was there no guarantee of it working, but Knox would then be left alone, unable to contact the crew, as he fought with an old friend he couldn’t communicate with or even see. However, it seemed that that old friend had a plan of his own. For Sonic’s attention was suddenly caught by a strange effect on one side of the room and for barely a fraction of a second, he saw him again.
Shorn
By the time he’d blinked it was gone again, leaving him wondering if he’d just hallucinated the whole thing. He decided that, in this situation, doubting himself would only waste more time.
“Hey.” Knox complained when he carefully stepped further into the room, slowly at first, waiting to see if Shorn would attack him again, but relaxed when nothing happened and rushed over to the device the other hedgehog had been standing beside.
“I know what this is.” Sonic whispered to himself recognizing the machine immediately. “The Chaos Council had one.”
“What are you going on about?” Knox demanded, but Sonic was too distracted to answer. As he zipped over to the control panel.
“Can you power this?” He asked, realizing pretty quickly that the machine was as dead as all the rest of the building.
“Why?”
“I have an idea. Though it may have some – unexpected repercussions.” Sonic admitted sheepishly, causing the echidna to raise a skeptical eyebrow at him.
“Such as?”
“Well, the last time I tried this, I, kind a, maybe, sort of – knocked out New Yoke’s entire power grid.” He proclaimed with a sheepish smile, causing his friend to blink. Though Sonic was quick to continue, before he lost the echidna’s support. “But! I also wasn’t teleported. So –” He let the rest of that sentence hang in the air and, eventually Knox just sighed and walked over to place his hand against the machine’s panel, activating it the same way he had the computer, causing the wall to open up and reveal the stress testing simulator. “Awesome.” Sonic quailed. Looking at the screen until he saw an image of a ball and pressed it.
Within a minute the whole thing had reconfigured itself into what basically amounted to a high-tech hamster wheel, prompting Sonic to head for the entrance. It took a minute to figure the whole thing out as he hadn’t gotten in on his own the last time, but eventually he was ready.
“Okay. Hopely this works. But you should take cover.” He stated, making sure Knox understood that he was serious and received a nod. Though it was clear the echidna would have preferred more of an explanation, he again just put his trust in the fact that Sonic knew what he was doing, and reached down to activate the machine, before rushing away to find something to put between him and Sonic’s crazy plan.
The ball quickly rose into the air, held up by its two magnetic bracers. Allowing for zero drag, as he started running around the inside, picking up more and more speed, until the world started to blur around him and he caught a quick glimpse of a shadowy form, prompting him to hit the gas. Racing to get closer to it.
“Shadow.” He called out, hoping his rival could hear. “Just stay where you are. I’ll fix everything, I promise.” He didn’t get a response, but did get a view of the other hedgehog glaring at him. Which was normal, so he wasn’t sure whether that meant anything. Of course, he didn’t get the chance to consider it further as he started to feel that same strange dimensional energy building around him and cringed, hoping he was right, and the ball would allow him to remain in that world.
In the end, he wasn’t teleported away however, like before, the orb kept all of that strange power contained within. And with no way to be released into the universe, all it could do was build and build, the faster he went, until he felt like he was running through walls and walls of saran wrap. It didn’t take long before he was feeling woozy again, but he kept up his speed and went even farther, nearly hitting his limit, before something finally happened.
At first, he didn’t even notice, but, when he did, he nearly jumped out of his skin. It was only through some divine intervention that he didn’t trip over himself and lose all of his speed thus, allowing him to maintain pace with the older version of himself, casually running at his side.
“Shorn?” He asked and his double turned to smile at him.
“Nice to finally meet you?” He answered calmly, though his voice was weirdly out of sync, like he was struggling to find the correct speed to speak, in order to be understood. But it appeared he’d gotten a lot of practice at it, as he was doing pretty good.
“Alright. I don’t know how long I can maintain this.” Sonic interrupted, feeling incredibly rude, but knew he couldn’t waste a second of this opportunity. “What’s the plan?”
“The Heart.” Shorn said, clearly keeping his words simple, so it would be easier for Sonic to understand him and hooked a thumb over his shoulder, prompting Sonic to take a peek. However, all he could see were his quills until it hit him that they were made of metal, indicating there was a containment device, like Knox’s, in his back.
“Okay.” Sonic proclaimed, rushing back up to maintain his speed, actually starting to feel winded by the intensity of it all. “How do we get it out?”
“You.” Sonic started slightly at that, looking back at his counterpart in confusion. Forcing him to explain. “When you broke the Prism, it e-e-e-effected – my d-d-dimensionn-n-n –”
“Shorn.” Sonic yelled, as his words started to become garbled, and he fought to run faster.
“The Green Emerald.” Shorn finally called back to him. And that was when it hit him. Yegger had used all seven Emeralds for his disastrous experiment. Yet, despite that they had the green one.
“That’s how you were able to slow down enough for us to see you?” Sonic guessed, though he’d lost his speed again due to his distraction and he had to quickly get back. “But how – how do we get the rest?” It was starting to get hard to talk, his lungs were on fire. Making it impossible for him to actually understand what Shorn was saying so he instead made a motion with his hands, insisting that Sonic forget that question and pointed at his back again.
“The Heart?” Sonic repeated. “That’s the only thing that’s causing this?” He asked and received a thumbs up for his guess. “Okay.” He called back, struggling to breathe. “Just stay with us. I’m sure Ace can figure it out.”
“Wait – there’s –” Shorn’s voice suddenly broke through again, but only for a second, before it once again transformed into something akin to a fast-forwarding song. And Sonic was unable to understand, prompting him to pick up the speed again. Trying as hard as he could to get back to the level he needed, but he just didn’t have anything left. On top of that, he could feel the dimensional energies around him breaking down, there was about to be another blast, and he couldn’t hold it back any longer.
“I’m sorry.” He called out to the void, barely even able to make out Shorn’s form anymore. “Just trust me. I’ll get you out. I promise.” With that, he finally had to stop and when he did everything went white.
After another hour or so of playing dodge the crystal, they finally seemed to exit the frozen minefield and came out into a large area that was actually somewhat lit. If only because it was surrounded by a nasty green cloud layer, which reflected the lights within it.
“Is that it?” Sonic asked skeptically.
“What’s left of it.” Knox stated, leaning against a wall to fold his arms and watch the Empire come closer. “A lot of the resources were stripped during the building of Sky Reach.”
“At least it managed to do some good in the world. I guess.” Sonic muttered, though, admittedly, he wasn’t sure how he felt about that revelation, and it appeared that Knox didn’t either. “I’m still not seeing any bots though.”
Knox nodded but didn’t respond, instead looking over when Nova returned to their little bubble of light. “Ace isn’t picking up anything either.” She revealed, walking over to stand with her mate. And folded her arms to glare at the gaseous cloud. “I don’t like this.”
“I agree, it’s not ideal. But we can’t just turn back now.” Sonic proclaimed, only for her to scoff.
“Oh, to hell I can’t. I’d take this ship all the way back to the city, if I didn’t think my crew would revolt.” She countered, causing Knox to chuckle.
“Gees Captain. Tell us how you really feel.” He stated, earning a death glare for his trouble.
“Alright then. I’ll just –”
“No!” Both Knox and Nova barked as one.
“You didn’t even let me finish.” Sonic complained with a pout. But, at the same time, it felt nice knowing they cared enough not to just let him run in all by himself. However, he was feeling inspired and was determined to make himself useful. So, if they wanted to tell him what to do, they’d just have to catch him first.
He heard Knox yell and felt the echidna make a swipe at him. But Sonic was already jumping over the railing, before they could make any further moves, as his shoes quickly formed little platforms for him to race across the sky on and within a minute he’d reached the smog cloud. However, just when he got a view of the wasteland of crumbled buildings on the inside – he fell.
Panicking, he tried to get his feet back under him. Only to notice that his shoes were blinking oddly. As the little pieces of tech Nine had given him, struggled to regain power. “Oh no.” He proclaimed, looking around at the cloud realizing it had to be the cause. And quickly started trying his hand at swimming through the air.
Of course, he’d never been good at such things, he couldn’t even swim when there was water. And thus, all he could do was watch, as the edge of the floating island flew past, without him being any closer to landing on it.
“Well, I really should have thought this over more.” He complained, folding his arms in annoyance, as he just continued to fall and fall. Wondering if he would eventually smack into the core or would he just never stop falling?
He didn’t get to find out, as something slammed into him a moment later, with enough force that he was sent flying right into the side of the landmass and bounced off again. But, before he could get too far away, he was snatched back from the air, allowing him to look up and grin sheepishly at his friend.
“I hope that was worth the embarrassment.” Knox proclaimed sourly, before whipping Sonic up to cling to the wall himself, so he could use his free hand to activate his commlink. “I got him, Captain.” He winced when the thing just squealed at him, prompting him to look around at the fog that was blocking their view of the Angel. And, most likely, her view of them. With a sigh, he tore his earpiece out, so it would stop squawking in his ear and glared at the hedgehog. “Climb.”
Sonic didn’t need to be told twice, and he didn’t want to risk the echidna throwing him back out into space himself. So, the two of them carefully ascended the rockface, Knox obviously doing much better than him, but he was no slouch and managed to keep up, until they had reached the top.
Immediately they checked their surroundings for any threat but found the place relatively peaceful, even if it was really creepy. The buildings had all been made of pure metal so, their rusted-out husks had taken on twisted and disturbing shapes and the piles and piles of robot bodies certainly didn’t help. However, plenty of emergency lights were still working. So, at the very least, they didn’t have to walk around in the dark.
Sonic pulled his attention away from the sight, as Knox started fiddling with the head of a robot, eventually getting its flashlight eyes to turn on so he could face it toward the sky and started a series of short and long flashes toward the general direction they had left the Angel’s Light. It took a few minutes of adjusting his position and trying again, before they finally got a response, in the form of a blue light blinking back toward them.
“What are they saying?” Sonic asked, suddenly wishing he’d paid attention when Tails had tried to teach him Morse Code.
“They can’t enter the cloud. Their controls keep going down.” His friend explained, looking grumpy and prompting Sonic to eye the sickly green mist around them.
“Was this here – before?”
“It was reported a few years ago. We’re just not sure where it’s coming from.” Knox answered distractedly, as he continued to communicate with the ship. “They’re gonna find a safe place to hover and fly down.” He went on, studying the blinking light for a moment more, before going on. “We’re on reconnaissance.” With that, he threw the head away and kicked it, causing the lights to blink out again.
“Cool – my plan worked then.” Sonic crowed earning a glare in return, but he defended himself. “Hey, if I hadn’t jumped in like I did, we would have sailed right into the cloud and plummeted from the sky. So – you’re welcome.”
“True. But it doesn’t count if you were just a lucky moron.”
“Hey.” Sonic complained, getting in his face. “For your information, it was instinct.”
“Right. You’re an instinctive moron. I’ll keep that in mind.” Knox waved him away as he walked off, leaving the hedgehog simmering in annoyance. But eventually he rushed after his friend, as they made their way through the rubble of the once great, if evil, city.
…
“Good grief. And I thought The Vale was creepy.” Sonic complained jumping back when he rounded a corner, only to come face to face with the rusted inner skeleton of a robot, frozen in its attack position.
“Huh.” Was Knox’s only response and Sonic glared at him, realizing he wasn’t being listened to. Only for the echidna to stop and put his hands on his hips, in consideration. “That’s weird.”
“What?”
“There are way too many bodies here.” He explained kicking a robot to emphasize his point. “Yeah, Yegger had a big army, but they were all stripped. These guys are new.”
“You said there were hidden bot makers.” Sonic pointed out, prompting Knox to rub his chin thoughtfully.
“Yes, but there was no reason for all of them to come here.” With this he walked over and picked up the lower half of a robot. “And look at this damage, they weren’t just taken out. They were massacred.”
“Okay. Not helping my nerves any.” Sonic proclaimed, eyeing the area critically, as he inched over to stand closer to his friend. Only for Knox to wince and touch his mechanical eye.
“Oh, come on.” He complained, as the mist started to effect it as well. However, it appeared to still be working, he just couldn’t use anything more complicated than the seeing function. A true testament to Ace’s skill.
“What about your – body?” Sonic asked squeamishly. Not only did he not wish to continue exploring such a place without Knox’s power at their disposal. But the last thing they needed was his life force shutting down.
Seemingly thinking about the same thing, Knox gave up on his eye and tested his hands instead. Ensuring that everything was working as it should. Only to look confused.
Well, he had a point there. If the cloud was taking out machines, or at least anything that relied heavily on overly complicated electronics. It should have had a devastating effect on Knox. Yet he was fine.
“That means whatever this fog is, it was made by Yegger.” Knox explained, letting his hands fall again, as he examined the cloud and Sonic twitched.
“What makes you say that?”
“He was many things, but suicidal was not one of them. I was his front-line defense he would have never risked me shutting down.”
Again – good point.
“You don’t think he’s –” Knox looked at him as Sonic left that question unspoken. Before finally shaking his head.
“No. He’s dead. I made sure of that myself.”
“Maybe. But, if he’s anything like Eggman, he could have found a way.” Sonic pointed out, leaving the echidna to consider that for a moment, as he looked around at the fallen city, eventually speaking up again.
“Even if he did survive. He’d have never gone so long without trying to restore his empire.” He said mostly to himself. Before turning and walking toward the massive structure in the center of everything. “Something else is pulling the strings here, it just wants us to think it’s Yegger.”
Sonic followed his friend without another word. Deciding not to point out the fact that he may have been denying the obvious, simply because he didn’t want to face the possibility that the mad man was behind it. So, it was up to him to keep it in mind.
They kept going in silence, all the while keeping their heads on a swivel, but nothing ever moved, despite the shadows constantly playing tricks with their eyes. However, the environment did eventually start to change, and Sonic began to notice the blackened spikes of Aparoid corrosion, that slowly grew thicker and thicker as they neared Yegger’s headquarters.
Thankfully, the infection was no longer active. But it certainly didn’t help the creep factor any. And Sonic found himself so distracted with not stepping on it, he ended up running right into Knox’s back, when he suddenly stopped walking. Rubbing his nose, the hedgehog glowered at his friend, before looking up to find that they had arrived.
“So – that’s the shield I take it?” He asked, examining the mostly transparent wall, that simmered in a spectrum of off colors. Like oil on water. Honestly, he’d expected something a lot flashier. But the massive hole that currently took up the area in front of them was impressive enough. “Is that where you got through?”
“Yeah.” Knox said simply, reaching over to touch the edges of the glasslike shatter pattern, then tested his hand for infection, there wasn’t any. “Well – guess it’s your turn.” He said, turning to Sonic again. “What do you think?”
The hedgehog considered the wall a bit, running further along to get a better view of an area that wasn’t already broken. “It honestly doesn’t look that impressive.” He admitted as he returned, and Knox scoffed.
“That’s what we thought too.”
“Alrighty then.” Sonic proclaimed, jumping from foot to foot, as he hyped himself up, then rushed back down the road to the end of the continent, wanting to give himself as much space as he could, before leaning down to brace himself into a runner’s stance. Taking a few deep breaths, before finally going all out. Within a fraction of a second, he was back at the shield however – he didn’t make the trip alone.
“Sonic! It’s gone. Everything’s gone.”
He hit the brakes when the voice practically screamed in his ear and managed to pull up before hitting the wall, only to find himself hyperventilating. “Shadow?” He whispered, looking around for the other hedgehog. But again, there was nothing. Only, this time, he couldn’t write it off as a hallucination, Amber had seen it too. Which meant that whatever Shadow was trying to tell him was important.
So – what was gone? What did he mean by everything?
“Sonic?” A new voice caused him to jump away, despite the fact that it had been quiet and calm. But he quickly realized it was only Knox and lifted a hand to touch his chest. Where he could feel that his heart was thumping at an erratically dangerous pace. “Sonic – breathe.” Knox ordered and he did as he was told.
It took a few minutes for him to recover, but Knox stayed with him, making sure that he maintained measured breaths, and didn’t do anything stupid. Like trying to pretend he was alright, when he clearly wasn’t.
“He’s trying to tell me something.” Sonic whispered to himself, looking around again, as if he expected Shadow to just be there. But he wasn’t.
“Who?”
“Shadow.” Knox raised an eyebrow at the name, clearly not recognizing it, but didn’t push for answers. Instead choosing to just believe that Sonic wasn’t crazy, which helped more than anything else. “He said everything was gone.” Sonic whispered, raising a hand to his mouth, trying to keep himself from panicking again. “What does that mean? Our home my – my friends?”
Knox considered this a moment but clearly had no answers. Causing Sonic to start looking around wildly. “I need to talk to him. I need to find out. But – how is he doing it? What’s the –” He paused in his rant and looked down at his shoes. “Trick?” He finished. Then flew back around to address Knox, causing the echidna to jump away slightly. “Speed! It only happens when I get up to full speed.”
“Okay. Calm down.” Knox insisted, reaching out to grab Sonic with both hands, so he couldn’t escape him. “What happens?”
“I – I don’t know.” Sonic admitted, realizing where this was going.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t go testing it, until you do.”
“But –” Sonic attempted to complain, only to stop himself, as he met his friend’s eyes and looked back up at the shield, that he had promised he would at least attempt to break. What would happen if he generated the speed needed to do that? Would it destroy him, like it had the Jetstream? Or – would he be transported to another Shatter Verse?
Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be the first time. He hadn’t been able to figure out until now how he’d gotten to No Place. The only thing he’d been doing at the time was running, and apparently that was all that was needed. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up abandoning this world. Just as he had New Yoke, The Boss Cage, and No Place. He couldn’t risk it.
“Sonic?” Knox spoke up again, and the hedgehog realized he’d been quiet for a while. Likely not even hearing his friend trying to communicate.
“I’m sorry.” He whispered. Reaching up to rub at his arm and folded in on himself a little. “I thought I could do it. I thought I could help you, but –”
He had honestly expected Knox to look angry. After all, they had come all that way, to a place none of them ever wanted to see again. All because Sonic had declared he could bust through that shield, only to give up without even trying.
However, looking back up at his friend, he found that this wasn’t the case. Yeah, he was confused, with not enough data to put the pieces together, that was reasonable. But he wasn’t mad, he wasn’t even mildly upset, instead, he just nodded. Accepting, without question, that there was a good reason.
But, as he stood back at his full height and seemed to think about asking for answers, something flashed behind him, pulling Sonic’s attention to it. Immediately causing Knox to catch on and fall into a fighter’s stance, looking around for what it had been.
“Show yourself.” He demanded, but nothing happened. If Sonic hadn’t seen it himself, he would have believed they were still alone. However, he was almost certain he knew what it was.
“Hey – Knox?” He said, watching the area closely for another sign, but he didn’t get a chance to finish his question. As he caught sight of the thing headed straight for them and had to quickly get both him and Knox out of the way.
“What the hell?” The echidna whispered mostly to himself, as they came to a roiling stop thus, giving them a clear view of the living creature running across the ground so fast that it actually left a line of blackened earth where they had been standing.
“Well, pal. I think we just found your Jetstream.” Sonic declared, patting his friend’s head. As the creature came to a sudden stop several feet away, allowing them to finally get a good look at it. “And – it’s me.”
Sonic felt his fur standing on end, as he stood on the deck watching the darkness slither past the ship like some kind of sentient creature. Refusing to allow him any view of what lay beyond the edges of blue light.
And now he understood why Fluxstone was so important to this task, as its glow was the only source of light that could penetrate the dark. Which was why the quiet that accompanied it felt so unnerving. It was like he could feel the danger all around him, yet nothing was happening. As a result, he threw a punch when something finally did enter his little bubble of light, only to be stopped short, as Knox grabbed his hand.
“Sorry.” Sonic offered, transforming his stress into a sheepish smile. “I admit, when you talked about this place, I was prepared for just about anything. But – this was not on the list.”
“The first time is always the worst.”
“How many times is this for you?” Sonic asked, watching as the echidna walked up beside him, his eyes locked on the darkness as he considered the question, though eventually he just shrugged.
“I couldn’t even tell you, at one point I spent over a year in here.”
Sonic cringed. “Gees, that doesn’t sound fun.”
“It wasn’t. But it was still better than some of the other things Yegger had me do.”
The hedgehog thought that over for a moment, recalling the story of his time as the mad man’s shield. Undoubtedly, returning to the place where it had all happened would play havoc with his emotions. “Are you sure you wanna go back?” He asked at last, and his friend sighed.
“No. But – it’s also something I’ve needed to face for a long time now.” He admitted, before turning to Sonic. “Thank you. Before you showed up, I’m not sure I could have.”
Sonic managed to smile, suddenly realizing why Knox had chosen to talk about his past before. He’d rationalized it with the truth of needing to prepare him. But it was more than that, he’d needed to prepare himself.
“So –” Sonic murmured. “Roug – Nova told me about –” He couldn’t finish, when he noticed something in his friend’s eyes die a little. “Sorry, sorry. I shouldn’t have –”
“It’s alright.” Knox interrupted, though his voice was quiet and hollow. “I like to tell myself that – it was for the best.” That was clearly a lie, but Sonic didn’t point it out. “As you know, the robotization is more like a virus.” He continued lifting his hand to look at it. Something he did a lot. “They’ve learned that it can be passed onto our children. It spreads even faster for them.” He dropped his hand and looked at Sonic as the hedgehog just kind of stood there, trying to take that in. “It’s why we haven’t tried again. And – to be honest, I didn’t think I deserved a second chance.”
Sonic blinked and studied the echidna a little closer, realizing something in that moment, something his brain seemed to have been connecting the pieces for. “And – Nova?” He asked and Knox looked at him from the corner of his eye, before turning back to the darkness.
“I – didn’t deserve her either.” He admitted, though his tone seemed almost humorous, like he was only now starting to realize just how stupid he’d been for never giving back to the person he clearly loved.
“You know what I think.” Sonic muttered, reaching out to punch him in the shoulder, though it only left his own hand hurting. “You’ve been punished enough. Too much. I think you’re owed a refund.”
Knox considered that for a moment, before smiling to himself. “Nova tells me that all the time.” He stated and Sonic chuckled.
“She’s smart. You should try listening to her. Besides – she picked you for a reason, you know.”
“She always told me it was because I was rare. She likes rare things.” Knox proclaimed as if he were merely ordering dinner at a restaurant and Sonic started violently, before bursting into laughter.
“You two have a complicated relationship.” He announced, causing the echidna to slowly laugh with him.
“Should have known I’d find you two goofing off.” They both turned to look into the shadows, as none other than Nova herself slowly walked up, her eyes shining slightly as her natural night vision guided her to them. A small smile graced her lips, making Sonic wonder how much of that she’d overheard. Considering this was Rouge the Bat – probably all of it.
“Goofing off?” Knox grumped deeply insulted. While Sonic just leaned against his shoulder and smirked in agreement.
“We also do Birthdays, Christmas and Arbor Day.” He proclaimed, prompting the Echidna to glare at him, before throwing his palm out to send the hedgehog skidding across the floor. Forcing him to pick up some speed to stay in the ring of light, but it was worth it, as he looked up to find he’d actually gotten a giggle from Nova.
And not only that, he got to watch as she sauntered over to stop Knox from finishing the hedgehog off, by grabbing his muzzle and giving him a short but passionate kiss.
Sonic forced down his laugh, as Knox’s stood there, completely flabbergasted by this sudden turn of events. Thus, allowing Nova to softly pat his face and saunter off into the darkness again, to continue her rounds.
It took a little bit of time for Knox to recover, but Sonic stayed with him and stayed quiet, giving his friend enough room to really take in what had just happened. However, the creepy, yet seemingly empty darkness all around them eventually forced the hedgehog to ask.
“Am I wrong to have expected Aparoids?”
Knox was quiet for another moment, before looking up to consider the area as well. “It wouldn’t be uncommon. But they prefer not to be here either.” He explained calmly. “The Vale was Yegger’s way of keeping everyone dependent on his power. Even the Aparoids.”
“Ah, that explains –” Sonic didn’t get the chance to finish, as a large something sudden floated into the light and Knox reached over to grab him around the shoulders, allowing his boots to brace them both against the floor, as the Angel swerved to avoid it. But even her superior reflexes couldn’t get them away completely unscathed.
Even though they only barely scratched the thing, it still broke from the impact, leaving pieces of itself all over the deck and allowing Sonic to see that it had been a crystal. Not unlike the large purple ones from before, though without a land mass to form from, they had instead bunched up into large thorny balls.
“Time to work.” Knox insisted, rushing over to kick one of the pieces back into the darkness.
“Wait, should we be touching them?” Sonic panicked, only for the echidna to continue with his task, without fear.
“They’re dormant, so long as they don’t find a source of energy.” The hedgehog nodded and took his friend’s word for it, as he started racing around the deck, sending the little pieces of crystal back over the edge of the ship. And by the time they were done, the Angel had slowed its course considerably and was carefully navigating the massive field of crystal bombs. Which started showing off their variety, as the light hit them.
Though they all seemed to have taken on the same general shape, their size varied from tiny to rivaling that of small islands. Not to mention they were all actively moving, and therefore crashing into each other, leaving all kinds of floating debris that needed to be avoided. Forcing the Angel to rely mostly on its back up thrusters to make little adjustments in the right directions.
But there was a small silver lining, as the shiny surfaces of the crystals reflected the ship’s lights, effectively allowing them a better view of what they were doing. However, even this didn’t spare them from gathering a good collection of dents and scratches, as the field of shards just grew denser and denser, the further they traveled. Keeping Sonic and Knox busy, as they punted pieces back into the shadows.
Ace’s voice was an almost constant noise in their ears as he called out dangers on his scanner, while Amber kept herself busy with the shields, that would rise and fall to defend them against a clash that might have destroyed the ship otherwise.
“Why doesn’t she just keep them up?” Sonic found himself asking as he tossed another shard over the edge and turned back to find Knox having a little fun with another. Using it like a soccer ball, before kicking it off into the distance.
“We need to save all the power we can.” He explained, massaging his left shoulder, which was clearly starting to bother him again. “The last thing we want is to roll up on the Empire with nothing.”
“Right.” Sonic murmured before looking down at his hands when his fingertips started going numb. Thankfully, he hadn’t been infected. However, his gloves were now sporting a layer of frost. In fact, the whole ship was starting to look a little wintery, as The Vale appeared to not only block out light, but any outside warmth.
“So how far is the Empire anyway?” He added, rushing in to continue their task, when yet another shard bomb left its pieces all over their deck. However, Knox didn’t get the chance to answer, as the Angel was forced to make a quick turn that left Sonic to slide across the floor into him.
However, when they got back up to see what the issue was, it was to find that a dark mass of earth was floating by. Having not been seen, due to its unreflective surface. But, because they had gotten so close, the light allowed Sonic to see part of the stone structure that had been built upon it. Instantly he recognized what it was, even if less than half the thing was still standing.
The Master Emerald’s shine
“Whoa.” He murmured, looking over as Knox took note of it as well. An understandable melancholy descending on him as he reached out and gently touched the earth before it was out of reach again, disappearing back into the void, as if it had never existed.
After that, they continued their job in silence, as several ruins and pieces of the once beautiful island drifted by, until a lull in the chaos allowed Sonic to stand with his friend again. “I’m sorry.” He offered and Knox looked at him from the corner of his eye. “I know how much that island meant to Knuckles. It’s his home. It’s all he had left of his people. He’d give his life to defend it and never think twice.”
“Yes.” Knox admitted, watching as another piece drifted overhead. “If nothing had changed, I would have spent my whole life there. Guarding the Emerald.” He explained simply, however he appeared to be considering his words quite thoroughly. “But – knowing what I know now, having experienced the freedom I fought so hard for, I don’t think I could have done it. I wouldn’t have been strong enough to give this up.”
Sonic blinked and felt his mouth fall open, prompting Knox to look back at him. Raising his eyebrow at the expression. “Wow.” The hedgehog finally responded and smiled. “I know you’re not Knuckles, but – still. I never thought I’d hear him admit to that.”
Knox just smiled back. “Maybe you weren’t listening hard enough.” He suggested and Sonic laughed.
“Yeah, I’m bad at that.” He admitted good-naturedly and met his friend’s eyes firmly. “But I’m gonna change. When I get them back, I’m gonna support them like they’ve always supported me. I –” He chuckled to himself. “I’m gonna slow down.”
The echidna’s smile slowly formed into something genuine and true. And he held out his first for a bump. “Good.” Was all he said, as Sonic returned the gesture.
“Goofing off again, I see.” A voice said from the darkness again and they turned to find Nova walking back into their light to check on the condition of her ship. Though she looked rather irritated about something.
“Hey Cap. What brings you to our humble clean up?” Sonic spoke up, causing her to pause and raise an eyebrow, clearly unsure if she approved of being addressed in such a way but she didn’t respond. Instead turning back to Knox.
“I can’t help but notice we’re rather alone out here.” She stated and the echidna nodded. Causing Sonic to look between them a few times.
“Okay – what’s the problem with that? He said the Aparoids were –”
“It’s not the Aparoids we expected.” Knox corrected him, but didn’t explain further, leaving Sonic rather nervous.
“What aren’t you two telling me?” He finally demanded and Knox sighed, folding his arms before finally enlightening him.
“We’re nearly to the Empire we should have run across Yegger’s robots by now. They don’t exactly play well with intruders.”
Sonic blinked at that, before looking out at the darkness. Noting that, despite all the shifting of the crystalline structures, it was unusually peaceful. “Maybe they went offline? It has been nearly 20 years.” Knox and Nova just looked at each other, unconvinced of that. “Oooor – maybe someone else took them out. We can’t be the first to come in here.”
“That’s true.” Nova stated causally. “Pirates and Scavengers are always drifting through. But still – Yegger had a number of hidden bot makers that we simply never found. If someone managed to take them all out –” She let the rest of her words go unspoken, as they didn’t need to be told what that meant. For, if that was the case, then that someone was far more dangerous than even Yegger.
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