Disclaimer: We do not own any characters from this story. They are owned by Sega, DiC, and their Affiliates.
__________________________
Vanished into thin air ... Ben was gone and Jerry, BJ’s (as Jerry so loved to call him) brother didn't believe anything the tabloids were
saying. Turned into Sonic the Hedgehog ... yeah right and aglets really do have a sinister purpose, topically
applied fluoride really is detectable by satellite and the vaccines are in fact a cover for mind bending and
controlling serums. The things people would believe now a days.
Jerry had traveled to his brothers’ hometown, his sister and cousin insisting he dragged them along.
Despite how annoying they could be, he just couldn’t say no to them.
"So where do you suggests we start looking bro?" Serena, his sister asked as they rode the bus that
went towards Ben’s house.
"I’d suggest his house, preferably his room, there has to be some clues as to what happened to him in
there. A journal entry, something on his computer, ANYTHING."
"What if the tabloids were telling the truth? You saw those pics of that Kyle kid? Why would they lie?"
Jerry responded by raising an eyebrow and giving his sister a sly look. "For the same reason people write
fiction and fantasy ... it sells. Anyway, if this had really happened don't you think Mom and Dad
would have said something?"
"Oh yes," Carol, the duo’s cousin, piped in "I can just image that. ‘Not to alarm you but your brother has
turned into a talking, bipedal hedgehog.’"
"Unless they were in on it, you know as some sort of bizarre gift," Serena added.
"Right, the next thing you're going to tell me is they really work for the Illuminati or perhaps Area 51 and on
top of it all were in on the Kennedy assassination."
Other passengers were now staring at the trio and Jerry knew he had to bring order before the got themselves
kicked off of the bus. He hushed them and started to speak in a whisper. "Okay, I know we all have differing
opinions on this but arguing isn't going to get us anywhere. Let's just keep it calm until we have some evidence
to indicate something *then* we can go on about the conspiracy stuff and accusation okay?"
The girls nodded their heads in unison. The bus soon arrived at the stop closest to Ben’s house and the
trio disembarked and made their way to his house.
Jerry nervously approached and rang the doorbell, hoping for a response.
"Just one question." Carol asked. "Haven’t the police already have gone through his room, talked to
Aunt Bernice and Uncle Jacob for anything they known, and searched the entire city and morgue for him?"
"And," Began Serena. "If Ben really did turn into Sonic The Hedgehog, do you think they’d ever begin
to get on the right track? They'd think mom and dad had done something horrible to him, find no evidence,
then Terra had done something to him, find no evidence, then move onto his next best friend, and so on,
still not finding a clue what had happened to him, and finally declare they didn't have a clue where he was,
and wait for someone he loved to slip up and ‘prove’ they had killed him and dumped his body in the
foundation of a new office building."
"You're still going on about that stupid-"
"Sis, Cuz." Jerry dared interrupt.
"Yes?" They barked together annoyed.
"The door's not even locked." Jerry just pushed on the door a little, and it swung open effortlessly.
"I don't like this, this screams thieves." Carol stayed where she was while Serena and Jerry peeked
inside.
The lad pointed at the floor. "The knob doesn't seemed screwed with, just didn't seemed to be locked, besides
this place had an old key and lock door, if it was forced open, the key would be on the floor of the entryway...
look, nothing."
Carol wanted to retort that but found she couldn't, what burglar would go to the trouble of picking up a key
when he wanted in and out of the house as fast as possible?
"Fine, in we go." She said though the other two were already in.
It looked like the police had indeed already been here. Several key items had been taken, Ben's computer, his
journal, even some of his posted notes. "This stinks!" Serena stamped her foot.
"How mature." Carol muttered but truthfully this was getting on her nerves too. Here they were, hoping to be
detectives of some sort and find their brother’s location like in the novellas. And it seemed the police had already
thought of everything they would think of that would be worthwhile. Maybe Ben’s parents had gotten it back
afterwards? She hoped so.
"Well, soda’s still in here." Jerry commented looking in the fridge. "Guess he wasn’t going on any sort of planned trip."
"Which only tells us he didn't elope with Jane, Terra will be thrilled." Serena said thinking of Ben's
Of-Course-I-Am-His-Girlfriend and real Ben's Girlfriend.
"We could always go to a fortune teller, it fits with what Serena would buy." Carol rolled her eyes.
"I am not that naive!" Serena protested. "What are the chances I’d go to a fortune teller?"
* * *
Down town in the ‘weird’ district of the city, a lass with Spanish features dressed as a gypsy behind a crystal ball
checked the kook-coo clock on the wall. Lead by Serena they should have been here by now, her partner
said it was a 96% chance of likely hood. At least she could take a break from her grim task. A few vacationing
people from Jamaica came into the shop a minute later.
"Yo dude, tell us our fortune."
Ugh. Tikal really hated these spur of the moment ones her partner dumped on her. She looked into
her crystal ball and said. "I see a future for you in avian."
"Don't ya mean ‘Aviation’?"
"No, Avian, I'm quite sure."
* * *
"So, what do we do then?", Jerry asked, "If we don’t go there, then where...?"
"I got an idea! Maybe we could check out the path through town he usually runs," Carol said.
Carol knew Ben better than Ben’s own siblings. Both were into Track & Field and they often
raced each other through the ‘course’ as Ben called it.
"Yeah, that might be a good idea. It does run through the uptown area, right?", Serena said.
"Yep. Come on, let’s go before it gets too dark."
* * *
"So... what are we looking for anyway?" Jerry asked.
"I’m not sure, but we’ll know it when we find it," Serena said.
"I hate it when people say that! It means I won’t know what to expect!"
"But, not knowing what to expect makes life so much more fun," Carol replied.
"Hey!" Serena pointed to the sky at four colorful birds, each a different color and pattern,
flocking above them, chirping in their own language.
"Don't those look like the birdies from the Sonic Games? What are they again? Flickies?"
Carol punched her in the arm lightly. "Don't even start this time."
-Above them-
"Mon, Redd, this sure ain't the vacation I though we'd be getting now." Said Greenie, each one
finding it impossible to refer to themselves by their birth names no matter how hard they tried.
"Yea mon." Redd responded. "But at least Violet and Bluie get back to the islands faster than
expected right?"
"Don'tcha even go there!" Violet chirped in protest. But Redd was right, at least now they got to
back to the Islands, and stay on vacation as long as they wished, even if it wasn't Jamaica. But Violet
found the idea of Flickie Island more and more pleasant the more she thought about it. Bluie made a
similar comment.
"Hey mon!" Chirped Redd. They had just passed over a building a swirling gate was in front of them,
they all passed through almost on instinct. "Here we go now!"
-Back Down Below-
The Trio walked for what seemed like hours along the Path that Ben had Ran every day since Middle
School. Suddenly, someone ran right by them... He looked familiar...
"Wait... BEN?", Carol said, as she saw the person’s face as he turned a corner. The three looked at each
other, and then came to the same conclusion.
"Ben!" Jerry yelled to the mysterious man that looked just like his brother. The man did not respond.
"Well, what are we waiting for, go after him!" Carol yelled.
The trio chased after what they though was Ben, calling his name several times, never once getting a response.
They were near out of breath when ‘Ben’ ran into a dead-end alley between an ice cream store and goodwill
place.
"Why would he go down an alley?" Jerry asked.
"Maybe he doesn’t want us to meet him down there, it is getting dark after all!" Serena muttered.
"Very funny," Carol said.
"Enough you two!" Jerry said.
They crept up to the alley. Jerry was feeling very nervous. Something was definitely wrong and his heart was
pounding and his stomach was starting to hurt. Easy there Jerry, there's a logical, rational explanation
for this. You just need to go around that corner and into the alley and ask Ben what the
deuse he's doing. Jerry was about to peer around when he stopped himself. I said you just need too ...
all right already, I'm looking around, see this is me looking into the alley at... there was no one in
the alley. The wall at the end of it was too tall for anyone to jump over and there were no convenient
fire escapes to pull down and climb up.
"Where the hell did he go?" Carol asked.
"Language please," Jerry yiped back.
"Oh come on, it's not like you're a stranger to bad words and," Jerry's glare stopped her.
"Well, that settles it Ben is Batman," Serena said.
"Excuse me?" Jerry said, rolling his eyes.
"Well, there was nowhere to climb, and nowhere else to go. What other explanation is there?
Unless he teleported out using," Carol seemed fixated on something in the alley. She ran down
it, Jerry following close behind.
"It's some sort of shiny ring. Do you think Ben dropped it?"
"There's something else a couple of pendants ... look at that," Ben said as he bent down to pick up one that
appealed to him the most. It was a crystal shaped like... a drum set? What the hell?
Serena was picking up an other crystal, it shimmered in the twilight. This one was shaped like a keyboard.
Jerry couldn't help but put the pendant in his hands around his neck. He didn't know why he did it.
Was it a impulse? He didn’t know. Right now, he was fixated on the flashback like flood of memories entering
his mind. It wasn’t painful but it was frightening.
The name Manic kept repeating in his mind. He suddenly remembered stealing, that was the one thing
reoccurring theme. He loved stealing, in fact, he saw no problem with stealing this nice shiny Amulet,
it would make Rings jealous. The raccoon and he had a sort of friendship that first started when they were
both stealing weapons or borrowing weapons as Rings had termed it from some of Eggman’s robots
ohhh yes, he'd love this little gem. There was more, much more. The term brother no longer applied just
to Ben, it also replied to ... Sonic, what the hell? Why did these memories feel so natural, so... right? Jerry
did his best to shake it off, trying to ignore a suddenly warm on his face, arms and torso; as though he'd
stepped into a nice warm bath. Carol and Serena appeared in some sort of trance and was that fur growing
on their faces? Why did it feel so right? Why were alternate names Tiara and Sonia respectively repeating in
his head. What was happening to him? Why did he seemingly suddenly know how to play the drums?
He never thought of himself a musical talent but now it felt as natural to him as eating or sleeping and as fun as
stealing. "Carol? Wait, why did I call you that? Arg, fight it Jerry, fight it! Tiara, I mean Carol, can you hear me?"
Jerry desperately yelled. His face and torso were now itchy, but he was more concerned about the two before him.
Was the same thing happening to them? Was this some sort of spell? No, more likely a drug, or a dream.
But why did it feel so right and tempting? Who or what was doing this?
Carol had blinked at the simple fake gold ring on the dirty alleyway ground. There had to be a million reasons
why she should pick it up. However, none of those mattered, she pictured herself having it in her hair,
and it couldn't have been prettier. She did pick it up, and did place it in her hair, pulling through like a
ponytail.
She'd sworn he heard a faint digital ‘jingle’ the moment she finished putting it through her hair. She
wondered why her cousins weren't saying anything about her picking up a strange object and putting it in her
hair. But it wasn't like anyone knew rings, better than her, her dad had invited the dang things. Her cousin
might had more use of them, but that didn't mean he knew how they worked. Carol blinked, what was that
all about? Did she just have a daydream? And why was she itching all over? Did that ring have anthrax on it
or something? Her fur was the same light blue as always, just like her dad's, and she didn't see anything there.
However a calming effect flowed from the top of her head to her sneakers, relaxing her, she saw her kleptomaniac
and pampered cousins both were looking rather odd. Serena looked just out of it, and Jerry was spouting gibberish
and jumping at shadows. They had come all this way looking for the load mouth speedster himself, and
now they lost it? Oh brother. Carol rolled her eyes.
It was feeling a tad hot for this time of year and she took off her jacket, leaving her in just her tube top above
the waist and her ring hair brace.
Serena's eyes were locked the moment she noticed the pendant, it was just so pretty, okay it was tacky and
weird, but the design was just so elegant. Plus Jerry and Carol didn't seem to be worried taking a few
trinkets on themselves so why should she worry? Putting it around her neck, she remembered all the jewelry she
used to put on regularly, before she had lost access to her collection of knickknacks in a very fast and unpleasant
way. At least she had been able to keep the skill with the piano.
Her fur was dark violet instead of its bright magenta in this evening light, and her current cloths didn't accent
it at all! Of course her brother's green fur and their cousin's blue fur, well, nothing she wore was exactly pretty to
begin with! And these generic cloths were way too lose on her as it was, why had Manic insisted on them wearing
such loose things, all of them?
The Relations looked about. Serena’s violet eyes meeting the brown eyes of Jerry, which met the green eyes of Carol,
which met back with Serena’s eyes.
Small tails poked out from their spines, and their heads were still shaped as much like a hedgehog as all other
Mobian Hedgehogs, one of the more plentiful Mobian species.
Of Course, Sonia thought, After all, we are from a Royal Family.
Manic’s mind was mostly on what more he could steal.
Tiara sighed. Her Cousins were so weird. The only one she could understand was Sonic, and they haven’t seen
him in a few months.
Suddenly, a familiar sight to the Trio appeared before them. A Giant Spinning Ring.
"Hey, think Sonic went in there, guys?", Tiara asked.
"I... guess so...", Sonia said, unsure.
Manic Grinned, "Even if he didn’t, there’ll probably be a Chaos Emerald or something else shiny in there!
Like a Time Stone or a Chaos Ring!"
The girls rolled their eyes. Manic.... They thought.
The Three leapt into the Spinning Ring. As soon as all three hedgehogs entered the Ring, it vanished.
* * *
As the Trio was sent spiraling through the warp zone in between the rings, Manic lost most of his outfit, but
then ended up with an Orange vest, and his shoes changed into red sneakers. A Bandanna appeared around his
forehead, not really doing much to fix his messy spines, and an Earring appeared in his right ear.
Sonia’s outfit changed into a nicely fitting purple dress, and her shoes turned into Purple Leg Boots, and matching
arm gloves appeared as well.
Tiara’s Outfit only needed to be shrunk down and then modified in the shoes, as they became a design similar (yet not
identical) to Manic’s.
Soon, the group saw the end of the tunnel coming up....
* * *
The sight the three found before them was not pretty or very healthy. Steel walls, ceilings and floors.
Double reinforced door. And a conga line of Robotnik's Mark Two through Four SWAT Bots!
All with weapons raised and glowing.
-Short and very far distance away-
"That is what you get for splitting your attention ‘Tikal.’" The figure scolded.
-Back with certain death-
Thankfully they still had the fundamental flaw of all the SWAT bot designs, they were way too tall, and
thus had a minimum range on their weapon. None of the three hedgehogs said anything, they didn't have time to,
all they knew was that it was either break or die time! It took one second for Sonia and Manic to bring out their
weapons, it took half a second for Tiara to use her partner ring, she had to buy those precious few moments.
Tossing it around the arm of a random SWAT bot she exploited the clumsy design and tore them down in a
domino effect. Which would them alive just until the bot shook it off, they got up, and this time shot them
without any fanfare.
Sonia's synthesizer doubled as a blaster and she used it to it's full potential shooting down the bots before
they could get back up, however, the face was there were too many, and she was one hedgehog with
one weapon, and these bots were getting up quick. Manic brought them more time as his drum set produced a
few tremors knocking the machines off their feet again before their gyros could adjust.
While this could have resulted in their end, the figure had spent his entire existence erasing things only to
have them remade again by his sister. Thus, he saw no real value in the existence of things, and didn't
believe other beings of his level had any true value in the existence of others either.
Thus, instead of letting the blood bath begin as it surely wood have, believing these re-creations of
Tikal’s to be expendable to her, and she would just make more. However, animals had an affinity
to members of their own species, or adopted species at this rate. And Cyber Tails was still fifty
minutes away from the base Eggman had chosen to hold the emerald at. He needed a distraction
until the Doppelganger arrived to deal with their guests (he had no intention of revealing himself).
Thus, a video window powered up next to their intruders side, and they managed to somehow see
it before zipping by. Speaking in Eggman’s voice he said. "Choose hedgehog, your siblings or the
emerald, you only have time for one."
The three hedgehog were backing up against a wall, they were quickly running out of tricks, Manic’s
tremors might open the doorway, but it would likely bring the rest of the place down on top of them.
However, it would bring it down on the machines too. At least they could take out a few of Robotnik’s
toys along the way. Manic guessed what his sister and cousin were thinking, and got ready to literally
bring the house down, when the doorway behind the bots got punched in after a number of jackhammer
blows. It fell down with a thud. The limited AI machines stupidly turned around to gage the new threat. A blue
hedgehog and a red echidna.
"Knuckles!" Sonia called out to her one time crush.
"Sonia! You're back!" Knuckles returned.
"Less chat more bat!" Tiara screamed using her partner ring again this time to ram her front legs into a bot's
torso sending it flat over.
"Can do!" Knuckles charged, Knuckles’ arms spinning like rotor blades.
Sonic skipped delivering one of his normal lines and sped around the legs of the over sized droids, sowing
the seeds of confusion before going into a spin attack and chopping the bots to pieces.
"Hey save some for me!" Knuckles demanded, powerful punches smashing into the machines on one side and out
the other.
Eggman watched the battle take a turn for the worst, how had the hedgehog known where his hell spawn siblings
were? His benefactor had said their meddler would never have been able to alert or guide them in time! No! He
could risk losing his only chaos emerald at this point. He clicked on his radio. "Cyber Tails, change in priorities.
When at base do not engage the enemy, transport emerald to preset location."
Cyber Tails looked at his two opponents who he had been ‘fighting with.’ "Sorry," it mocked in a copy of Tails’
voice. "But I'm in a hurry!" The doppelganger turned its rotor blades at full pace and turned on its jet anklets
for added speed as its priority sub routines came into play, heading straight to its master’s base.
Several giant piles of scrap metal later, the four hedgehogs and one echidna stood about sweat down their
faces and sucking wind except for Sonic who was breathing sharply through his nose.
"I never saw," Knuckles breathed. "Robotnik keep so many of those cookie cutter robots in one spot before."
"Must have dumped a huge stock pile here for the Emerald's sake." Sonic thought aloud.
Sonia and Manic recalled their weapons, while Tiara pulled her partner ring off the disconnected neck of a
SWAT bot MK IV.
"Brother?" Sonia asked, looking at Sonic carefully. "Is it really you?"
Ben started at the question, none of the other, ‘new arrivals’ had ever asked any of them something like that
before.
"You've been gone for so long." Sonia continued. "We didn't know if we'd see you again, mom and dad wouldn't
say a word about where you were."
"Sis... Yeah, it’s me."
Tiara rubbed her eyebrows, overjoyed to see her cousin as well, but being stone cold reserved. "And your baby
sister chose to believe anything anyone would tell her about you."
Sonia glared at Tiara but made no other retort.
"And as for-- say, where is he anyway?", Sonic said, looking for Manic.
"I don't have anything to steal you stupid bush rat!" Knuckles bopped the hedge' on the top of the
head from behind without turning around.
Manic moaned. "I could always steal the M---"
Sonic warned "I wouldn’t do that."
Sonia couldn't hold it anymore, with the danger averted for the minute, her eyes misted over and almost tackled
Sonic, hugging him fiercely. Manic made his own smile, but not wanting to lose his 'cool dude' image by hugging
his brother (for as long as other people were watching of course).
"Everyone began saying you were dead, that mom and dad killed you, that one of your girlfriends killed
you, that someone killed you, I was so scared!"
Tiara smirked to herself, So miss high and mighty is mortal after all.
Ben laughed, he didn't know why but he laughed.
Sonia was surprised and looked into his eyes. "Sonic? What's wrong?"
"It's just . . . I guess it has been a long time."
Outside, a broken down looking Egg-o-Matic flew in, and looked like it was about to blow. Two figures left from it as
the machine went careening out of control and exploded a short bit away.
The two figures ran into the complex. It was easy to follow the trail of destruction to the five some's location. Once
inside the base...
"Sonic!", the elder of the two shouted.
"He always did know how to ruin a Kodak moment." Tiara commented, still staying out of the emotion scene.
When it came to socializing, Tiara had always preferred to comment and observe rather than interact.
Hey, I’m not the only one with bad timing!", Mighty shouted at the girl. Strangely, it didn’t sound like he was really
angry, which he felt he should have been... At the same time, the smaller figure hid behind Mighty’s larger frame.
Knuckles began to clear some of the destroyed bots in their the group’s path before looking back at Tiara.
"I don't think the wall is going to fall over if you stop leaning against it so help already."
"The great Knuckles asking for help?"
"If you don't want to talk to, catch up with, and actually make USE of the chance of being with your
family, then HELP!" Knuckles, had spent a childhood away from those loved, he hated people who took
family for granted...like Tiara did.
"Don’t be too hard on her Knuckles. Tiara didn’t live close to the rest of her family," Mighty said, coming to
the girl’s defense.
Where did that come from? Tim wondered aloud.
Mighty walked over to Knuckles to help him move the debris...
"So did I." Knuckles said devoid of spite and simply a matter of fact.
"Yes, and we all know what a PERFECT family man you are...", Mighty said, also matter of factly. He then remembered something, and sent Knuckles flying into the wall a few feet away, "By the way, that was for the potshot back at the Altar."
"...Oww..... Okay, so I won’t do it again...", Knuckles groaned.
The young Fox looked left and right for someone to hide behind. He wasn’t quick enough...
"Umm... Mighty, who’s your new friend anyway?," Manic asked, "I thought you usually hang out with Ray."
Mighty paled. "Uhh... Well... You know that really rich human family that you guys helped that lived in Station
Square?"
Sonic blinked, "You mean the Thorndykes? What about them?"
Ben knew for a fact they had been here before he arrived. And he was the first one. As far as he knew.
Still hugging Sonic, Sonia blinked too, this was all new for her.
"Well... You see... Umm...", Mighty tried to think of a tactful way to say this.
Knuckles got impatient as he peeled himself off the wall Mighty had knocked him into, "Spill it already!"
"Okay, you want me to be blunt? Fine. That’s Chris. Cyber Tails killed his family, and he was mortally
wounded, then Tikal came around and transformed him using some ancient mystic Echidna Powers or something.
Happy?", Mighty said, flustered at Knuckles.
Even Tiara was shocked out of her indifferent demeanor from this!
Chris nodded, "Yeah. It’s me, Sonic."
"The kid’s been through a lot. Everyone in his family was killed in front of him."
"Everyone?" Knuckles was shot.
"Mom, Dad, Mr. Tanaka, Uncle Sam, and Grandpa...", Chris said.
"This. . . this-isn’t-how-it’s-supposed-to-happen!" Ben couldn't take it. Sonia actually stepped back from
her brother. "We're the good guys! We're supposed to walk away from these things without a scratch!"
"...This isn’t a Videogame, Sonic. This is real life. I thought your little adventure with Bark and Bean taught
you that," Mighty said, referring to the time Sonic ran off in search of his mother.
"Yea . . . everything still turned out alright in the end!" Ben meekly protested, hating this, what kind of hero
was he? Wasn't he supposed to everywhere there was trouble related to egg face?
"Anyway... It’s my fault... If I wasn’t toying with the robot distraction of the day, I probably would have noticed
Cyber Tails attacking the Thorndykes," Mighty said.
Chris didn’t know what to say... It’s true that Mighty was in the Area, but... would him being there really have
made any difference? No. He probably would have gotten killed too. That beam was made from pure Chaos
Energy...
"CYBER-Tails?" Knuckles being the one who finally noticed the reference.
Tiara walked to the door way, looking out both sides, scaring a maid bot that ran away screaming if it had a
voice box. "Am I the only one who remembers we're inside still one of Robotnik's club houses?"
"No." Knuckles said, "I did," He crossed his arms. "But forgive me if I think beating Eggman into yolk
can wait a moment."
Normally Knux wasn't the type to say this sort of thing, but if there was thing he did consider sacred
besides that glowing piece of rock, it was family.
"That’s what it called itself," Chris said, "We fought it outside before we got here... It got away
with the Green Chaos Emerald... Which he took from my mom."
"So that's what Eggman meant." Sonic sighed.
Blue Mist started to surround Chris’ fist, "It’s not fair... Eggman had to take everything from me.
My friends, my family, and even my life..."
Mighty Blinked, Mist?
"Say, isn’t that similar to what you do with your punches?", Mighty said to Knuckles, indicating
the Mist rising off of Chris’s balled up fist.
"It's an old chaos technique, change the temp of the air around you, easy to learn, almost impossible to
master. . . . how long ago was this?"
"...It was only a few days ago."
"That fast?" Knuckles couldn't believe what he had just heard.
"I think we’ll need to train him so he doesn’t end up freezing himself, or breaking doors down
when he tries to open them, Knux."
"Good Idea."
Ben also realized something dangerous. He came here looking for the emerald that Eggman stolen.
Only to find it had been taken in cold blood, by a Tails version of Metal Sonic! Had to choose between
the emerald or those who could or could not be his siblings and cuz as new selves. And after all that...
What did he have to show for it? Oh no, Kyle! If that thing is like Metal Sonic... Please let him be alright!
Sonic had always lived his life high paced, and once detested those who couldn't keep up that pace, but
this, was too much too fast! Emerald gone! Chris' family dead! Chris now a fox! Brother, sister, cousin, here. Is
it really them? Robot that looks like Tails. Tails might be in danger or dead. Wait! Tikal? Too much, too much,
too much!
Mighty noticed his friend’s mental state, "Oh boy. Sonic’s taking this worse than I thought he would..."
Mighty walked up to Sonic, "Sonic... We may not be able to do anything about this, but we can do our
best to prevent it from happening to anyone else!"
Sonic snapped out of it, "Yeah. You’re right, Might. We can’t let Eggman win."
"...By the way, I found out something else from Tikal too... But we’ll have to talk about it alone, when the
others aren’t around."
"What do you... Oh. THAT."
Tiara walked up to Mighty, "So, are we going to leave or not?"
"Geeze, you’re more impatient than Sonic!", Mighty quipped.
"HEY!"
Manic grinned, "Say, Bro?"
"Yeah?"
"...Why don’t we play a song, just to see how much we’ll have to practice later. Sonic Underground is still
one of the Top Bands in Mobius, after all."
Tiara gave Mighty a look that clearly said ‘It IS?’ Mighty shrugged.
"...Yeah, I guess it couldn’t hurt..."
Mighty grinned, "Which gives me an idea..."
"What idea?" Tiara HAD to hear this.
"What about a concert between the Chaotix and Sonic Underground, maybe even with Mina Mongoose?
People will love it! Eggman will hate it!" Mighty explained.
"You sound exactly like Vector." Tiara stated. Then she kissed him on the lips. It was like a title wave rammed
into Tim's head! For a moment he was scared he was forgetting, but no, he still knew who Tim was, but he
remembered Tiara! He remembered HER! Not the character, not the name, but being with her! That tomboy
attitude! That witty sarcasm! That deceptively bright mind! He remembered it all! As if he had lived it! He had
met her in passing after his escape from Eggman Island. And met her again after the near disaster on Carnival
Island with Metal Sonic red!
That was when they had started going out. Tiara saw the shock on his face and pulled him along, "Come
on, let's watch the door so some of Robotnik’s toys don’t sneak up on the three tone-deaf ones while they
mangle the art form."
Sonic called his pendant to transform, he didn't really use it much after getting it, and he just wanted a more
hands on means of taking out machines and enemies. Sonia and Manic did the same. Ben eyed them, could
they be? Could they really be? He -had- to ask them. Even if their memories had been revised there still had be
something that could tell him if they were who he hoped and feared they were.
Of course, none of the three needed to ask which song they were going to play. They could tell from each
other's expressions.
Sonic: There’s something missing, something’s not quite right, and I can feel it calling to me every night.
Sonia: A little voice inside, tells me someone is out there, and I must never give up, searching everywhere.
All: Someday!
Sonic: We are going to be together!
All: Someday!
Sonic: Life will be so much better!
All: Someday!
Sonic: We will build a bond no one can break!
All: Someday!
Sonic: No more dark clouds above!
All: Someday!
Sonic: United in the light of love!
All: Someday!
Sonic: The story can only end one way! We'll be together someday!
All: Someday!
(Guitar Solo)
All: Someday!
Sonic: We are going to be together!
All: Someday!
Sonic: Life will be so much better!
All: Someday!
Sonic: We will build a bound no one can break!
All: Someday!
Sonic: No more dark clouds above!
All: Someday
Sonic: United in the light of love!
All: Someday!
Sonic: This story can only end one way! We'll all be together someday!!!
All: Someday!
Sonic: Someday! Be together someday!
If there was one thing Knuckles had always agree with Eggman on, he hated Sonic’s guitar!
Tim on the other hand loved what he was hearing.
As for Chris, this was the first time he had ever found out about Sonic’s Singing career. He had
to admit that Sonic was pretty good.
Eggman's voice came over the load speakers through the base. "Indeed this tale has only one
possible ending, and you ARE all about to be united, IN DEATH!" A soul voice stated. "Self-Destruct System
Activated. 15 Eggmen. 14 Eggmen. 13 Eggmen."
The trio recalled in instruments in a flash.
Sonic took hold of Sonia and Manic and ran leaving a fire trail behind him. Tim reach for Tiara but
Knuckles beat him to it tossing him Chris instead. Knuckles didn't have time to argue anything. "He
lighter! Me stronger! Run run run!"
Mighty wanted to retort about that, but he didn’t have the time.
"Six Eggmen, five Eggmen."
A egg-o-matic hovered out of the base and flew away in a warp. A figure still inside the
command center vanished into thin nothingness.
Sonic with his siblings in tow just barely missed the falling solid steel door. Knuckles on the other hand
went through it with one fist holding Tiara with the other. Mighty followed close behind with Chris in both
his arms. "Two Eggmen, One Eggman. No-" The compound blew up.
The shock wave of fire and debris(sp) scorched Mighty's back shell, leaving it charcoal black, and
flying through the air several dozen yards. Mighty didn't know what hurt worse. The blast on his back,
curling into a ball after the blast or hitting the ground with the burnt shell after rolling into the ball
after the blast. Maybe all were agony and he should call it even!
At least Chris got out with only a few dozen bruises from behind inside Mighty's shell during the blast.
A loud slap resounded in the area. Tiara had slapped Knuckles, and was telling him how she can already
run.
A few hours later after making a radio call to Tails to make sure he was alright, Mighty was on his belly in a
hospital bed. His back completely covered in bandages.
"You just have to be the center of attention don't you?", Tiara mocked.
"Lay off me." Mighty moaned.
"If I laid on you right now, you'd break in two."
Tim was silent for a minute.
"Where's Sonic?"
"He said something about wanting to talk to Sonia and Manic personally," Explained Chris. He looked at Tiara.
"He wanted to talk to you too."
"What about?"
"He wouldn't say."
"Didn't you have something tell him, Mighty?" Tiara asked.
"It'll wait, with hope."
"If you say so . . . oh and kid? Keep him away from any cell phones and TV reports until that shell of his
heals."
"You got it!"
Tiara walked out.
"So what did you want to talk about bro?" Manic asked, the four some were up on the roof of
the hospital, the sun setting and the stars slowly beginning to come out. Not that there weren't a
million things each of them wanted to talk about at the moment.
Tim had taken Ben's ‘family’ coming to him with a strange indifference. But Ben did wonder
how Kyle would take it. But there was something Ben had to know, above everything that
had happened to day. Although he didn't know if there was an answer he'd like.
Ben had no idea how these rewritten memories worked. But some of the things Sonia had
said... Heck, some of the things Tiara had said. . . . Gotta ask.
He looked Sonia in the eyes. "What was it mom said before I went out, jog, er, racing that day
we last saw each other?"
Sonia wondered about the question, but finally said. "If you're going to be buying games for a
dead system, at least make sure they still work. And she wondered how you managed to find
any time to play video games with all the running you do!"
"I guess with all that free space you'd have plenty of storage room." Tiara said without shame.
"Serena it's you! It IS you!" Ben hugged her, and Sonia yelped!
"Serena?! Whose that?" Ben stopped, and just looked at her. "Er, nothin', forget I said anything,
I just, really AM glade to have you back sis, all of you." He looked at Manic and Tiara
as well. Jerry. Carol. I love you both.
Knuckles observed this from another rooftop (his acute sense good for more than just emerald
hunting), did Sonic's bizarre behavior have a connection to his dreams? Of people he knew, but
with different names? And those with the same names he didn't know? Knuckles didn't know,
and he didn't like it.
Sonic continued. "M-Manic, S-Sonia, er..." Ben felt his first wave. He knew Tiara. He knew her
from the never-released game, Sonic X-Treme. But now, he knew her, the daughter of Uncle Chuck.
The tomboy Mobian. So very much like Carol. "Tiara. I wantcha all to know, I love you all. Each of you.
No matter what happens, I just wanted all of you to know that."
"Sonic, Maurice" Sonia said hugging him back. "If there's one thing we'd never forget... Is that we love you
too."
"Yea." Sonic/Ben replied. "I guess you're right."