Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Lost Memories, Reborn Evil ❯ Foolish Spiky Thing ( Chapter 9 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Lost Memories, Reborn Evil

Sholay

Gah! MUST-REFRAIN-FROM-DELETING-FIRST-SIX-CHAPTERS!!!! Must edit SOON!

Yeah… just needed to get that out there, ok…please move on, nothing to see here, just ignore the raving author in the corner XD… And after yet another long, long break, I'm back updating as infrequently as ever, but still alive and plugging right along, against all odds! XD

Summary of story thus far: Sonic is traveling with his brother and sister: Manic and Sonia, when he suddenly as a dream about an alternate past. This past includes all his adventures with the freedom fighters up until the incident on the ARK when they were swept into a black hole. Now, Sonic must retrieve the chaos emeralds before Robotnik does, or the world may be destroyed.

Reviewer notes are at the end!

Enjoy!

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

Chapter 9: “Foolish Spiky Thing”

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

“My God...”

Sonia's voice faltered and fell away to a long silence that stretched over the small group of mobians.

It was something she'd only ever heard about. Whispered fears her foster parents had voiced when they thought no one was listening. Everyone knew that Robotnik had conquered Mobotropolis; everyone knew he'd been the cause of the Queen's mysterious disappearance… and everyone knew what happened to those outspoken mobians who went missing after demonstrating on the streets…

…But all that was easily overlooked… All ignorable when you lived in your own little bubble, blocking out the greater world for your own, false, fragile world. Sonia knew, and knew well how easy it was to do this, as she herself had been one of those blind, foolish people not so long ago…

But not even Bartleby could have buried his head deep enough into the ground to ignore this.

An army.

An army of Robots.

Row upon row of massive, metal monsters mocked her and her brothers as they shone like beacons in the flickering street lights.

`They herald the coming of the devil…' Sonic thought grimly. `If I ever doubted the return of Robotnik's memory before, I certainly don't now. There is no way the Butt-nik from this universe could have created such an advanced robotic army… it's something only the genius scientist from before could have done.' Suddenly, the sense of urgency became much clearer to Sonic. `We have to leave. I need to get those chaos emeralds now.'

He looked over to see Scarlett telling Sonia and Manic how this army of Robots had literally been erected in a matter of days, while Bathin the ferret lay at her feet, sleeping fitfully. Scarlett told them how it had come as a huge surprise to everyone in Robotropolis when Robotnik suddenly and unexplainably turned the entire city from one large roboticizer into a military base.

“It's like he's preparing for a war, ya know?” Scarlett said in her southern accent.

“Ok, ok, no time. Can you get back from here?” Sonic interposed himself into the conversation and sent a pointed stare at Scarlett. Sonia gave him an exasperated look which he ignored.

“Um, well… I can't just carry him through tha' city.” Scarlett looked at Sonic and he let out a low growl of frustration. She was right; it would attract too much attention. Plus, he gave Scarlett a cursory look; she didn't look like she could carry the unconscious ferret on her own.

“Fine.” He said eventually. “Lead the way.”

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

Taking the back alleys, the small group had eventually come to Scarlett's house, located in the back of a bar. Dropping off the two tag-alongs, the three triplets were once again left to their own devices.

“Alright Sonic. That's it.” Sonia grabbed her older brother by the arm and roughly dragged him into a back alley, Manic following silently. Sonic made a short sound of protest but gave in. Safely under the cover of darkness, Sonia spun Sonic around so his back was against the wall and leaned in. “I can't take this anymore. You're acting ridiculous. You showed us how your appearance has changed, but won't tell us why. You're acting bossy, domineering and downright rude, but won't tell us why. I'm sick of it. You're going to spill everything. Now.”

Sonic, his fallen hood hanging around his shoulders, drew back at the sheer assertion in Sonia's voice. There was no room for argument in her tone.

`…Well…' Sonic thought. `I'll just have to make some.'

“No.” He said.

Sonia drew back as though struck.

“No… No?! What sort of an answer is that… `No'?! This isn't a game Sonic, secrets may seem like a fun idea to you, but believe me—”

“I know this isn't a game.” Sonic's voice, low and intense, split through Sonia's words and she fell silent. “You think I thought it was a game when Uncle Chuck was dragged off and roboticized? You think I thought it was a game when I nearly kidnapped you and Manic and told you who we were? You really think so? I risk my life every day to help these mobians. I never considered their lives to be a game.”

There was a heavy silence in the wake of Sonic's words. Manic was looking at Sonic with wide eyes, but Sonia's expression changed from flabbergasted to furious.

“Excuse me?” She cried. “Excuse me? You think you're the only one taking risks here? I left my entire life behind to follow you on a whim! I had a home, a family, a future—!”

“And if you regret leaving it you can always go back.” Sonic said dispassionately.

Sonia's rage tripled, hands balling into fists at her sides.

“Why you—!!”

“Guys! Guys! Stop it! We can't be doing this now!” Manic suddenly came between Sonia and Sonic, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “Remember where we are, think about it! We can't get into this here. Let's leave the city, then you two can have at it however you want. Got it?” Manic looked between his siblings, who, after a few seconds, both nodded tersely. “Good.” Manic nodded. “Because honestly, I think you have some explaining to do too.” And he gave Sonic a pointed look.

Sonic stayed silent, but his mind was racing. `Should I tell them? Will they believe me? Will it put them in danger… or—'

Just then a blaring, screeching alarm ripped through the air, piecing into their ears. Sonic, Sonia and Manic all covered their ears as the blaring sound echoed through the metal city. Suddenly a loud, mechanic voice began droning loudly over the din.

`Attention! Attention all citizens! Robotropolis has been breached in sector 3, the city is on immediate and complete lockdown. No one will be allowed to enter or leave the city save authorized personnel. All citizens are asked to please return to your homes. Return to you homes immediately. Anyone caught infracting upon the mandate will be immediately roboticized. No exceptions. The state is conducting a search of all residential areas. The perpetrators are suspected to be armed and dangerous. Be on your guard. Again, all citizens must return to their homes immediately.'

`Dammit, what happened? Did they see us come in?' Sonic looked around wildly as Manic and Sonia both got wide-eyed, fearful looks on their faces. They looked at him for guidance.

Sonic's heart sank horribly as the heavy grating sound of metal locks came from the area where they'd entered the city. They were locked in; there was no way out. Sonic looked back at his younger siblings and they stared at each other in helpless silence.

The sound of wailing sirens got louder.

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

`Curse them. Curse him, that blasted hedgehog. What was he thinking, going into the city? He's asking for a death sentence.'

Shadow ran through the forest, anger and agitation clear in his jerky, uneven strides. In the folds of his white scarf was tucked the tiny blackbird he'd picked up earlier, but he paid it no mind as he zipped through the dense foliage, deep in thought.

`He will be caught in the city. That's for sure. It's ridiculous, how he would let himself be swayed so easily by a couple of mobians. Ever the fool, Blue Hedgehog, don't you realize what you're giving up in your misguided efforts to save the few in the stead of many? Don't you realize what it would mean if the power of the chaos emeralds got into the hands of Robotnik'

`Don't you realize what the true power of the chaos emeralds is?'

When Shadow had awaken in the new world, he hadn't any memories of his former self. Confused and alone, he'd wandered this strange, dying world in search of who he was. Trapped in an ageless body, he never aged a day in all the years he wandered. It didn't take long for Shadow to learn of the war between the Mobians and Robotnik; he learned of the once prosperous Mobotropolis, and how it had been desecrated and twisted in this vile, barren world: where the trees grew stunted and weak and the grass faded into cold wasteland.

It also hadn't taken Shadow long to learn that his odd… abilities, were rather rare.

He was fast. Inexplicably fast, just on his feet. But one day, Shadow had bought himself a pair of old roller skates, and he's speed had become unparalleled.

At first, he'd offered his aid to the mobians, searching, as a lost child does, his true use in the world. But his appearance had deterred them: with black fur and slanted eyes of blood red, mobians had turned away from him in fear or disgust. And slowly, Shadow had grown cold toward the world that shunned him.

In his long searches for self-fulfillment, Shadow had come across a strange, glowing, green gem lying on the ground. And, bending down, he'd picked it up.

Visions—Memories: Pain, anger, love betrayal—

—friendship, respect, life—

…Death.

In that split second moment, Shadow had remembered everything.

He didn't know how he survived the fall off the ARK, but he suspected it had something to do with this gem—a chaos emerald—the one he held in his had: the one he'd never let out of his sight in the past universe.

The one he'd died holding.

Shadow supposed it was some divine intervention which had given him this second chance and left it at that. He had a mission to do and now he would do it.

For a year, Shadow had worked silently underground, participating in rebellions, aiding in attempted coups, fighting alongside the freedom fighters… but all was in vain. There was just no way to combat the frightening power of Robotnik's roboticizer.

Frustrated after too many failed rebellions and fallen comrades, Shadow had taken a more direct approach. Deciding to infiltrate the system personally, he'd picked various prominent cities in Robotnik's control, and basically destroyed every last machine in them. It had slowed Robotnik down significantly, but not enough to make a huge dent in the crazy man's plans.

Then one day, a miracle happened.

Shadow had been casually walking in the woods one morning when he was suddenly and violently assaulted by a half-mobian: one who had only undergone the roboticization procedure half-way and had been driven crazy by stress of having two conflicting dominant minds in their head, one of the mobian, and the other of the robot.

Screaming and swearing wildly, the half-mobian had tried to strangle Shadow. Not to be taken down so easily, Shadow had fought back and, in a surprising twist, the chaos emerald had fallen from his pack, directly into the view of the half-mobian. The creature, in fascination, had picked up the jewel and stared directly into its green depths.

The result had been astonishing. The creature had shrieked, falling backward with heartbreaking screams of agony, the jewel falling from a boneless hand. Then suddenly, the cries had stopped. Shadow had watched the prone figure warily, cautious of any renewed effort to kill him. But then, the most amazing thing had happened, the creature had opened its eyes… and they'd been the shining blue of a mobian, not the apathetic red of a robot. One by one, the metal pieces, once grafted onto the mobian's skin, now fell away like a snake shedding its skin. And in its place had been a normal mobian's. Restored.

After that revelation, Shadow had tried this healing trick on other roboticized creatures, only to find that it only worked on half-mobians who had lost their mind, of which there were very few.

But the wheels in Shadow's mind had been set in motion. If one chaos emerald could reverse the effects of a half-roboticization… what could two do? Three? Seven? The results could be monumental… miraculous. Every single roboticized Mobian could be restored.

It became Shadow's singular goal to find the chaos emeralds.

When searching all four corners of Mobius yielded no results, Shadow began looking for information by hacking into Robotnik's personal computer files.

It was then that he'd learned about the former Queen Aleena and her three children.

Amazing that such an important point could have eluded Shadow for so long. The existence of Sonic in this world… and the blue hedgehog was the number one enemy of the state, no less.

Prince Sonic. The title seemed absurdly ridiculous, even to Shadow, who hadn't known the other hedgehog for very long.

By then though, Shadow had long since realized that he was the only one who had the retained memories of the other dimension. He'd tracked down Sonic and observed the hedgehog for days on end. Viewing, in slight disdain, how the once proud blue hedgehog had deteriorated into a gluttonous, egotistical, idiotic being.

If he'd thought the green chaos emerald would have restored Sonic's memories, he would have shoved the jewel into the hedgehog's hand in a second. But he knew this incident had been specific to him. He knew this because he'd seen Robotnik himself handle the white chaos emerald without any flash of memory in his eyes.

…It was probably also prudent to mention that Shadow's subsequent attempts to steal said emerald had fallen through, even being the inane fool Robotnik was, he'd had sufficient technology that make stealing the emerald impossible.

So Shadow had waited. Waited in hiding for the moment when the true Sonic would awaken and lead him to where the Chaos Emeralds were hidden.

But Robotnik had awoken first, and immediately started his creation of the robot army, sending the vile creation, Metal Sonic, to gather the emeralds.

Then finally, finally, when Sonic had awoken… he had to go and do something as idiotic as sneaking into Robotropolis.

The fool.

Well, it didn't matter. If the hedgehog had not made the mistake in taking his cloak off in front of his siblings then they would escape Robotropolis. Shadow was fairly certain.

But if Sonic had shown his appearance…

`Blast it.'

Sonic or no Sonic, Shadow would find the emeralds by tracking the passage of Metal Sonic. With the help of his new, enhanced skates—with his regained knowledge, Shadow no longer had need of ordinary roller blades—Shadow could catch up to Metal Sonic easily. Maybe, being constricted to merely following the heap of trash, he wouldn't reach the emeralds first, but he would bloody well stop anyone else from misusing them.

A sudden, low rumbling approaching on his left had Shadow skidding to a stop then jumping backward, high into the branches of a nearby tree. The edges of his white scarf fluttered downward and Shadow tugged it up, flipping it around his shoulder and out of view. He waited.

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

“Tails, c'mon, we've been driving around on this contraption for hours! Why can't we just ditch it somewhere?”

“Aw, Knuckles, you're such a scaredy-cat! My motorcycle can drive faster than both of us can walk!”

“Isn't it running out of gas by now?”

“Nope! I always use my own version of gasoline, none of that common, gritty stuff for my baby; it's pure, clean, efficiency all the way!”

“Tails you and your contraptions are going to be the death of me someday. You know that, right?”

“Hah ha!”

Tails and Knuckles sped by on a narrow, winding path through the woods. Knuckles was hanging onto Tails for dear life as Tails put ever more pressure on the gas pedal, taking the turns at mind boggling speeds.

“Tails, you're going to break the sound barrier at this rate!” Knuckles yelled toward the kitsune.

“That's the point! If we ever want to catch up to Sonic then we have to hurry.” Tails called back and, as an afterthought, added “And could you stop digging your claws into my sides, it'll ruin my coat!”

After many long hours of traveling, even Tails was beginning to feel the wear of driving endlessly. And so, they slowed down near a fork in the road to take a short breather.

“How long do you think this thing will hold up?” Knuckles asked, nodding at the motorcycle as he perched on a rock.

“Long enough to get us to Almany… or what used to be Almany at least.” Tails said from his position on the ground. The kitsune stretched his tails out and swished them up and down in obvious relish.

“Long enough to get us to the ruins then.” Knuckles pondered. “We'll have to walk from there.” He watched Tails for a few seconds, noting the kitsune's movement. “You must be relived: to finally have those ties off.” He said speculatively.

“Yeah…” Tails sighed, giving his tails an extra flick, separating them as far as they would go. “It was awful… having to live so long pretending I was someone else. What about you? Where have you been all these years; alone on that floating Island of yours?”

“Hmm,” A small smile crossed Knuckles' face. “Well… you're partly right. I have been on Angel Island. But not alone. Not this time.”

“Oh?” Tails sat straight and looked at Knuckles. “What happened? Who is it?”

“My great-grandfather Athair… In the original timeline I have no idea what happened to him… but he's here now…” Knuckles laughed. “A bossier guy you've never met! And to think, I used to always go along with whatever he said. He nearly had a heart attack when I woke up one day and told him I was leaving the Island. `The fates will not forgive you for your grave error!' I think those were his words.”

Tails gave Knuckles a rueful grin. “I know what you mean; I used to go around with the ties on my tails all the time without complaining. My mom freaked when I told her I wanted to take them off.”

“You have a mother now....?” Knuckles mused, giving Tails a side-long look; he knew well how much the young kitsune had desired parents in the other time.

Tails shook his head. “Adoptive mother. Parents died before I can remember.” Tails paused. “They're just like real parents to me though… I'm glad, at least… that I got the chance to experience having them…” Tails said the last part softly; shoving is toes into the dirt.

“Hmm…” Knuckles looked upward, he wasn't sure what to say to the kid.

“Why did your great-grandfather want you to stay on the island?” Tail asked then, changing the topic.

“Guard the Emerald.” Knuckles answered blandly, looking at the back of his glove.

“Emerald?” Tails echoed. “It's still there?”

“Yup. Though they call it a Chaos Emerald now; still the same Master Emerald in my view though.”

“I… see…” Tails hesitated. “So if you're not guarding it…”

“Oh I got Chomps on it—my pet Dinosaur.” Knuckles grinned. “He wont let anyone past. Plus I hid the Emerald underground. Besides, it's not like you guys would be able to survive out here without my help!” The grin turned into a smirk.

Tails smiled softly. “… Just like old times, huh? Now all we need is Sonic.”

“Yeah…” Knuckles looked down. “I wonder… if anyone else from the old time made it through?”

“You mean like Rouge and the Chaotix?” Tails asked.

“Yes.” Knuckles said; his eyes got a faraway look to them. “…And someone else as well…”

“… Oh…” Tails grew quiet. “You mean…”

“Shadow.”

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

Shadow watched Tails and Knuckles resting at the fork in the road with a thoughtful look on his face. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but had a pretty good idea of where they were heading.

It would do no good. There was no way they'd catch up to Metal Sonic in time.

But there was something else they could do…

“Hey.” Shadow spoke in a quiet, gruff voice. “Hey you, bird, can you speak?”

A small bundle of feathers poked up from around his scarf, and a pair of golden eyes blinked widely up at him.

“Master wishes to speak to Suzu?” The bird said in a high, chirpy voice. “Oh Master! Master! Finally you speak to poor, humble Suzu! Suzu was wondering if Master would ever address him! Suzu is so happy, so, so happy!”

The bird's incessant chatter was getting on Shadow's nerves so he interrupted it. “Yes, whatever. Suzu, you said your name was, right?”

The bird nodded, a rapid bobbing of the head, like a mini jackhammer. “Yes, yes, Suzu it is, Master! Suzu is at your service for saving him from the evil shiny! Suzu will forever be—”

“Stop talking.” Shadow said. The bird fell silent. ``Evil shiny'?' Shadow wondered. `Silly bird must be talking about the robot.' “Now, I want you to do something for me.”

“Anything!” Suzu chirped. “Suzu will do whatever the Master wants!”

“Good. Now you see those two Mobians down there? I want you to…”

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

“Alright Tails, I think we should head back out on that moving deathtrap of yours.” Knuckles said reluctantly, pulling himself to his feet.

Tails jumped up eagerly. “Great! I thought you were going to try and chicken out or something—”

“Mister, Mister!”

Tails and Knuckles both started when a third voice called out from the trees around them. The two mobians tensed up, but when a small black bird appeared from the foliage and flew up to them, they relaxed.

“Hey, it's a cute little bird!” Tails cried gleefully. “Hey there little bird!”

“Hello, Mister! Mister is named `Tails' right, right?” Tails nodded to the little bird, which immediately flew over to Knuckles stopping right in front of his face. Knuckles drew back, surprised at the bird's closeness. “And you, Mister!” The bird continued excitedly. “You is Mister `Knuckles', yes, yes?” Slowly Knuckles nodded, wary of the little feather duster. He raised a hand to bat the little creature away.

“Suzu is so glad!” The bird chirped loudly and flew upward. “Suzu was afraid he'd get his instructions wrong; but Suzu got the mobians right! Yes, Suzu did! Now all Suzu has to do is deliver the message!”

“Umm, ok…” Knuckles said slowly as Tails grinned hugely and reached out to pet the bird. The bird flew down to the touch immediately, humming happily under Tails' ministrations. “What's your message, bird?”

“Oh, oh, Suzu knows! Suzu knows!” The bird looked up with bright, golden eyes and nodded. “Suzu was supposed to say that a `Blue Hedgehog is calling the aid of two friends: One fox with two tails called `Tails' and one red, spiky thing called `Knuckles'.”

“Spiky Thing?” Knuckles expression was not amused, but Tails interrupted before Knuckles could say anything more.

“Aid? Sonic needs our help? Why? Where is he?”

“Umm…” The bird paused, as though wondering how to answer the question, then it said. “The message that the Blue Hedgehog sends is that he is in the city called `Robotropolis' with two siblings: one sister and one brother. The Blue Hedgehog fears the `One Who Loves Eggs' has found them and asks that two friends: a fox and a spiky thing, will come to his aid.” The Bird suddenly flew away from Tails' hand. “Ok! Suzu has delivered his message! Suzu's job is all done! Suzu is going back now to master! Bye, bye!”

“Hey wait!” Tails called. “Where is Sonic?”

“Blue Hedgehog is in place with many, big, shiny evil things where the `Egg-man' stays!” The bird cried before disappearing.

“Shiny evil things?” Tails looked bemused.

“Where the Egg-man stays.” Knuckles added. “It must be Robotropolis.”

“But… how did Sonic know where to sent Suzu to contact us?” Tails asked.

“More than that.” Knuckles' eyes were narrowed suspiciously. “Who's this `Master' of his?”

Tails was silent for awhile, then looked back at Knuckles.

“What do you think we should do?”

“Well, as I see it there are two choices now.” Knuckles brought up one finger. “One, we assume this message is a fake sent to divert us off the plan and ignore it.” He put up another finger. “Two, we backtrack; and lose at least a day of travel to check out this tip.”

“If it's fake…” Tails said.

“We may never reach the emeralds before Robotnik does.” Knuckles said.

“But if it's true…”

“Then if we don't go, Sonic might not make it out.” Knuckles said gravely.

Tails nodded. His mind was made up.

“Let's go to Robotropolis.” Tails headed to the bike and Knuckles groaned.

“Honestly Tails, couldn't you have just driven a more normal method of transportation?”

“Oh, and you're one to talk, Mr. `I-live-on-a-floating-island', huh?”

“That is beside the point!”

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

Shadow was kneeling on one knee, watching the motorcycle disappear off in the distance toward Robotropolis.

“That was close, Suzu. You nearly ruined the entire thing with your little slip.” He said to the bundle in his scarf.

“Suzu will do better next time! Suzu had a hard time remembering all Master's lines about Blue Hedgehogs and Spiky things! Suzu is very, very sorry!”

“…” Shadow sighed through his nose. “Very well. Don't let it happen again.”

“Yes Master! Master is very nice, forgiving Suzu with such grace! Master is such a nice Master! Suzu is so very happy to have such a nice Master!”

Shadow sighed again, this time bringing a gloved hand to rub at the spot between his eyes. Honestly, first this bird had been as silent as the grave, now it wouldn't stop talking for a second. Shadow was beginning to question his motives in bringing the annoying ball of feathers along.

After a moment, Shadow gathered his thoughts and focused in on his goal. Looking around, he could faintly see the chaos trail he'd been following thus far. Clearly, Metal Sonic had the white Chaos Emerald in his possession. And as long as the passage of the emerald hadn't been more than a few days, Shadow could spot the wispy, glowing trail of chaos energy that was left in the wake of a passing emerald. It was Shadow's gift, and his curse; his ability to track and use chaos energy. It was the reason he'd been imprisoned and experimented on at the ARK for so long…

Shadow shook his head. This was not the time for such thoughts. Besides, that was an entire different timeline, not even remotely similar to this one. He should not dwell on such insignificant things. Now was the time for the present. And the present entailed some sense of urgency on his part.

Shadow sped off again, following a trail only he could see, into the rapidly waning sunlight.

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

“Ssst! Hey you! Yes, you three! Come in here, come quick!”

Sonic, Manic and Sonia spun around, seeing a hand appear from past an old, rickety wooden door deep within the dark recesses of the alley. The hand beckoned them, then disappeared past the threshold. After sharing a glance between them, the triplets followed, Sonic quickly tugging up the hood over his head.

One by one, they entered the dark room. Squinting in the meagre light, their eyes slowly adjusted.

“Whoa,” Manic intoned.

They were in the back of a club. They were standing in a storage area, dimly lit with a red bulb while deep music pulsed from a door leading to the main dancing room.

“Hey, hey, you three, you're the sons and daughter ofQueen Aleena, are you not?” The voice—which they could now see originated from an aging rat—asked.

“Hey,” Sonia was unsettled. “You can't expect us to just—”

“Yes, we are.” Sonic override her, ignoring her resulting look of irritation.

“Oh, we are blessed! Finally the gods smile down upon us, the Princes and Princess have returned to Mobius!” The rate wheezed, raising his hands in supplication.

“Shh, old man, we don't want this news to go public, you hear?” Manic hissed.

“Yes, yes, how foolish I grow in my many years. Indeed, you wish to be kept secret. Which is why you are here! Yes, you will dress as my hired waiters.” He looked at Sonic and Manic.

“Then what about me?” Sonia pointed to herself.

“Well…” The old rat looked at her appraisingly. “You would make a fine young dancer. If I may say.”

“You may not!” Sonia said hotly, as her brothers sniggered on the side. “I will be a waiter too.”

Minutes later, the Sonia and Manic had put on their costumes, but Sonic, who had been delaying in taking off his cloak and goggles, was still in the bathroom. Suddenly there came the sound of a heavy pounding on the door. Sonic, his cloak pulled tight around him, peered around the door.

Sonia, garbed in a white waitress uniform, opened the door then jumped back with a squeak as five robots barged past her into the room.

“This is a required questioning of all occupants in this residence. Do not resist. Failure to adhere to protocol will result in immediate roboticization. Four occupants have been established in this residence. Questioning will commence.”

Sonic gasped as one of the robots immediately turned and sped toward him. He didn't have time to even jump back before the robot was in front of him.

“Resident number Oh-Four. Identify yourself. Do not attempt to lie to the detectors.”

“Uh…uh… My name is…” Sonic hesitated, but had no choice. He had to lie. “Rex.”

“…” The mechanisms in the robot whirred as they analyzed the information. A bright light from a scanner flashed over Sonic's eyes and he waited with baited breath.

“Subject—Rex—has not been found in database. Is the subject from outside the city.” The robot asked, though there was no questioning tone in its false voice.

“I'm here from the neighbouring city of Mane.” Sonic breathed; barely able to believe that the robot had missed his lie. How was that possible?

“Understood.” Again the light flashed over Sonic's eyes and with a jolt of realization, Sonic realized what was happening.

The goggles! The goggles Knuckles had given him, they were somehow preventing the scanner from picking up his lie. And the cloak too—Sonic fingered the odd material—it was furry, which must be confusing the artificial intelligence of the robot. The robot couldn't tell he was hiding his body!

“Subject has been identified. Has the subject Rex seen in the vicinity a dark blue hedgehog with green eyes and long spikes.”

`They know.' Sonic was suddenly sweating. `Robotnik knows.' Sonic realized then that Robotnik as not searching for Sonia or Manic… indeed they weren't even really even a threat anymore. No, Robotnik was searching for him, Sonic. The Sonic from the other time. Before he'd changed he'd had brown eyes and lighter blue spikes. Now all that had changed.

“No.” Sonic said, with wide eyes. “I haven't seen anyone matching that description.”

“Understood.”

Just then there came a loud alarm from on of the robots on the other side of the room. Sonic looked around the robot in front of him in dismay as he saw Manic and Sonia grabbed and restrained. They reached for their pendants, but two quick shots from a robot's tranquilizer made them slump, unconscious in the robots' grasp.

“The falsifying subjects have been restrained. They are aware of information regarding the priority enemy: `blue hedgehog'. They will be taken to Doctor Robotnik immediately.”

Sonic mind was running a mile a minute. He'd shown Sonia and Manic what he looked like… So they'd known. He should have followed Knuckles' advice. He should have never taken his clock off and shown Manic and Sonia his changed appearance. They'd gotten caught because of his stupidity.

Intent on stopping the robots from taking away his siblings, Sonic rushed the robots and tackled one, knocking it away from Sonia, who crumbled to the ground. He threw open a panel in the robot's chest and ripped out a handful of wires. The robot fizzed and crackled, then died.

But Sonic's back was turned to the other robots and there was no way he could've fought all five at once. He leapt up, spinning, but when at three simultaneous stunning rays came at him at once, Sonic was unable to avoid them all.

His last conscious thought was how stupid a decision it had been to go to Robotropolis.

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

End Chapter

O-o.o.O.o.o.O.o.o.-O

Whoo! (sighs) Wow, that was intense. A huge move in the plot (finally!), action, drama and a cliff-hanger. Hope you all enjoyed!

Kiki Akuma: Hey! Thanks for the review! Actually, I did make Tails' name `Prowler' on purpose XD It awesome that you noticed! I wanted to show that, in spite of the time change, there're still some significant similarities between the two universes. Hope you liked the chapter!

Chibi-Cougar: Hi! Thank you for reviewing! I'm sorry it took so long to update, but I've been kinda stuck with this story for awhile. I've found a foothold now, but I'm still not sure how often I'll be able to update. Anyway, I really hope you're still following this and I also hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Kinda-Mayvelle: Hey! Lookie, lookie! Another update! Betcha didn't see that coming huh? XD I'm glad you liked the in-depth view of the time change from Tail's point of view. I hope you liked the Shadow introspection in this chapter!

To those at MediaMiner:

mania_the_hedgehog: (grin) Hey! It's been awhile hasn't it? I wonder though; if you're still following this, would you consider switching to my Fanfiction(dot)net account to follow this story? It's become increasingly difficult to update on mediaminer and I'm seriously considering discontinuing the fic on that site…

Adio!

Sholay