The End of the Beginning

Time and space had collapsed. The only thing left was a multicolor strobing void of nothingness, twisted into unrecognizable colors that one might have trouble naming. Hurtling through this void was a massive mechanical construct, the core of its power reshaping reality itself into this parody of existence. Its pilot claimed to be the greatest scientific genius in the world, and his technology had finally cemented that claim by eliminating all competition. In hot pursuit were three golden streaks and one burning meteor.

Dr. Robotnik's mechanical monstrosity would bring him around to view the three hedgehogs and one cat who had just caught up to him, allowing him to boisterously laugh in their faces, "Bwahaha! You're too late, Sonic! Even you and your friends' super forms can't best my Egg Hydra! Not fast enough to stop me before you're all reduced to sub primordial ooze!"

Sonic the hedgehog laughed loud enough that it could be heard over the din of the metallic hydra's roaring jet engines, "Do you even know who you're talking to, Eggman? Old age must be hitting your memory hard if you think we're not gonna be fast enough!"

"Silence you overgrown rodent!" he slammed a gloved fist on the control board, "I am Dr. Ivo Robotnik! The greatest mind the world has ever known! All of space and time will bend to my will, and the world will be remade in my image!"

"Does he always gloat this much?" Silver focused his telekinesis to create a barrier, right before a barrage of missiles hit the super-powered speedsters. At their velocity, the smoke from the explosions passed by in an instant.

Sonic rushed forwards headlong into a laser blast that would vaporize anyone who touched it, casually kicking it back towards the hydra head that fired it with not a scratch on his red sneaker, "Oh yeah! He says some really wild stuff if you keep egging him on! Perfect way to distract him."

"Just be sure you don't lose your focus alongside the doctor," Shadow chided, summoning a golden spear of chaos energy which was hurled at one of the flailing mechanical appendages.

A salvo of fireballs followed soon after, Blaze's powers amplified by her own set of mystical gemstones. The Egg Hydra roared in defiance as its energy shields lowered, jets roaring as it tried to maintain some distance. "He has a point, this strategy is going to take too long! Shadow and I can handle offense, but-"

"We can change it up!" Sonic shouted over a wide laser beam sweep. All four of the super team had to swerve to avoid it, temporarily separating them, before they regrouped as the Egg Hydra's heads cooled down.

"Blaze and I will split up and make an opening," the ultimate life form began to turn towards his left, the otherworldly princess turning right.

"That leaves you and me, Sonic! Let's get in close!" The two hedgehogs sped up, all of them starting to converge on the Egg Hydra's position.

"Perfect! Always been a more hands on guy anyway. Silver, grab me with your psychic powers!"

"Got it!" Telekinesis gripped Sonic's sides as he started to spin, faster than he could without his super form. Shadow and Blaze circled around each side of Eggman's metallic monster, heads on the hydra turning their attention towards the two. Silver teleported himself and Sonic - much more easily thanks to the chaos emeralds' power - in close to the underbelly, swiftly swinging the other hedgehog around like a superspeed buzzsaw. Vital components were sliced up by Sonic's spinning quills, soon shorn off until the heads of the hydra rolled. Armor plating and roaring robot heads soon fell into the technicolor void and out of existence.

"What?! When did they-?!" Eggman had ended up preoccupied fending off the flanking assault. Since he was the only combatant who wasn't invincible he needed to keep track of his machine's damage. Damage that was now irreparable. The decapitated hydra's jet engines picked up as much speed as they could, attempting to flee long enough for reality to collapse around the doctor's super-powered enemies.

"Come on! Let's do this!" Sonic popped out of his spin, forming up with the rest of his team. The three hedgehogs plus one cat spun around each other as they picked up speed, creating a great spiral force of energy. If wind still existed in this reality, it would be howling around them as they pursued the fleeing egg-craft. Its pilot howled in anguish - as if he was the one being struck - when all four of them rammed into the dimensional core. The positive energy from the chaos and sol emeralds overwhelmed the device, jump-starting existence back to what it should be. The physical force and momentum subsequently sent Dr. Eggman flying off into the distance, the ejected Egg Mobile soon disappearing over the horizon.


On a sunny hillside, a young fox slowly opened his eyes, surrounded by his friends who had fallen in similar positions. Knuckles and Amy Rose were next to get to their feet, a blue and yellow Chao gently shaking his rabbit companion awake. Since Rouge was accompanied by a much more heavy-handed robot, her awakening was more akin to shaking a soda can to make it explode, and explode she did. Omega would have gotten an earful if the E-series robot had ears, and not auditory sensors as he was inclined to point out.

No one quite remembered their exact experience once the time-space continuum collapsed into a disco dimension, save for the four who harnessed their hopes and friendship into super powerful chaos (and sol) energy. The same four who were now returning to the grassy knoll everyone else had passed out on. They touched down on the grass as their super and burning forms faded, 14 emeralds soon levitating around their group in circles. "We're alive!" Tails cheered as he scurried to his feet. He rushed up to hug his best friend in the whole world, but a pink blur beat him to it.

"You're alive!" Amy threw her arms around Sonic, giggling in glee as her time-and-again savior didn't slip away from the embrace. Instead, he let out several pained grunts as she squeezed him.

"Ooof, augh, Amy, my ribs!" Sonic groaned in pain, "Agh, I got hit by missiles, let go!"

"Ohmygosh! I'm so sorry!" She immediately stepped back from the blue hedgehog's side, "We need to get you to a hospital right away!"

"Haha, nah, I was just messin' with ya. Nothin' can hurt me when I'm Super Sonic," the blue blur stood up straight and laughed, even after he got a punch in the arm. He was thankful, really. Had this happened a few years ago, he'd probably be on the receiving end of her piko piko hammer instead. She couldn't stay mad at Sonic for long, anyway. Now that the status of his ribs was without question, Tails took his chance to hug Sonic, chuckling as his older brother ruffled his hair.

"You guys really did it!" The kit backed up as the rest of their companions started making their way over to the group. Cream rushed up to Blaze's side - Cheese hot on her heels - to mirror the running hug Amy had given just now, a warm smile spreading across the cat's lips.

"We did. Excellent work out there, you three," Blaze turned to her comrades, "I couldn't have asked for a better team."

"It's only natural," the ultimate life form quipped, a rare smirk on his face.

"Yeah! Didn't even need to stop to gather rings this time!" Sonic flashed the group a thumbs up, which Silver returned. After having spent so long alone in his bad future, being part of a group was a thrilling experience. It made him feel tingly inside, even after the battle's adrenaline had faded.

"Quantity of Eggman robots to be destroyed was much lower than previously promised," E-123 Omega's robotic voice box was never quite at the right volume. As such, the robot could easily command presence in any conversation, "Disappointment is immeasurable."

"The Egg Hydra had to deploy from somewhere," Shadow soon broke off from the gathering, "Omega, we'll sweep the area, and clean up the trash the doctor left laying around."

"This unit will eradicate the entire base single-handedly!" The robot's hefty frame made the crowd part as he trundled past, "Guns and missiles are more than enough to wipe out Eggman's robots, even operating at 50% capacity!" Bat wings flapped and Rouge soon soared over top of the group after her two teammates.

"I swear, I can never take you boys anywhere," she turned to wave to the rest of the group, "Pardon our manners, but duty calls. Well, at least those two. As for me, I better get to Angel Island before someone puts their grubby mitts on the Master Emerald."

"You what?!" Knuckles broke through what was left of the crowd in a sprint, unable to reach the same heights the thieving bat had. "That's my line! You better not lay a finger on the Master Emerald!" The echidna shouted much louder than Rouge could cackle, shaking a fist in the air at her, "Do you hear me?! Rouge!"

Cream tugged on the hem of her friend's red dress to grab her attention, "Miss Amy? Cheese and I need to go check to make sure mother and Chocola are ok. I'm sure Gemerl protected them, but I want to make sure. Could you please go see if Mister Big is alright?"

A gasp left Amy's lips, a gloved hand quickly covering her mouth. Her eyes went wide with worry, "Oh no! I hope he didn't lose Froggy when time and space collapsed! I'll go make sure they're ok. Uh, bye Sonic! Tails, Blaze, Silver, buh-bye now!" The two girls (plus Cheese) waved goodbye as they headed off from the hill, a wistful sigh leaving the princess.

"Perhaps I should be thinking on how I could return to my own dimension," Blaze's musings were interrupted by an ever-helpful two-tailed fox.

"Blaze, that's easy!" He gestured to the sol emeralds still floating in a circle around her, "I still have the craft Sonic and I used when we returned home from your dimension. I can modify it so it uses the sol emeralds instead of the chaos emeralds."

She blinked in surprise, nearly floored by the young fox's ingenuity, "Really? But does that mean you and Sonic won't be able to travel back to my world?" Her wrist was grabbed, it was hard to contain his enthusiasm when he had his next project laid out before him.

"I've got the blueprints, so I can build another one for us. That way, we can all come visit each other when we need to," Tails explained loudly, pulling along the fiery feline.

Silver kicked a rock with his foot - instead of grabbing it telepathically, the hilltop was soon devoid of everyone else but him and Sonic, "Aw man. Those goodbyes went by so fast! I didn't even get a hug."

"Hah! Hey, that's just how it goes around here," a reassuring pat on the back would have to suffice, Sonic grinning at the other hedgehog. He plucked one of the chaos emeralds - still floating above them - and held it up, and his time-traveling companion would do the same, "If it's all the same, that might mean it's time to get you home, too. Get you back to that brighter future you were fighting for."

"Of course. We defeated Eggman and saved time and space itself!" He smiled warmly at the blue blur, "I'm certain that my future has been restored, too. I'll make sure I keep fighting to keep it safe!"

"That's the spirit!" Sonic crossed arms with Silver as they held up their chaos emeralds, shouting as they focused on "Chaos Control!" A small portal through time opened up above their heads, the chaos emeralds wobbling in their grasp, the seven gems levitating back into the circle. "Hey, Silver? I know you don't want to upset the timelines and change things for the worse, but I'm sure things will be fine if you wanted to just stop back to hang out sometime," a cheeky smirk crossed his lips, "Maybe we can show you how to use an Extreme Gear, or see who can smash the most badniks!"

"Oh you bet you'll see me again! After I made such great friends back here, I want to see you all again," a thumbs-up was flashed, "I promise this isn't goodbye forever, Sonic! I'll do my part in the future, and when I'm needed in the past." Sonic returned the thumbs-up before his friend leapt into the portal, sent forward in time to his home. The chaos emeralds spun above his head faster now, before suddenly the wind picked up. Each emerald shot off in a different direction as a divine wind separated them once more, their duty fulfilled until the next time they would be needed.

"Whew! That's a wrap!" A nearby tree would soon be used for Sonic to catch some 'z's underneath its boughs. After saving the world yet again, he could certainly use a nap. Even as he closed his eyes, his thoughts raced with excitement for what adventures tomorrow would bring.

Edit
Pub: 30 Aug 2022 00:50 UTC
Edit: 30 Aug 2022 01:37 UTC
Views: 128