Chapter Text
Even after the past and alternate versions of him left, the party lasted a while longer, and Sonic was having a great time.
As he left Amy to try and tease more spoilers out of Silver (so far they've gotten vague mentions of tangled whispers, and apparently hot cocoa would be important) to get another chili dog, he passed close enough to Rouge, Omega, and Shadow to overhear their conversation.
"Looks like you made it to the party after all," Rouge was teasing him. "Good, plotting your punishment for flaking would have been exhausting."
Shadow scoffed.
"DO NOT SCOFF AT HER, WE ARE ALL YOUR FRIENDS!" Omega scolded him. "YOU SAID SO YOURSELF! MARIA SAID YOU ADMITTED EVEN SONIC WAS YOUR FRIEND!"
Like a record scratch moment in a movie, the party suddenly went silent as several heads snapped in Team Dark's direction, and Sonic couldn't help but gape at hearing that.
He had actually said that?
Shadow didn't dignify their attention with a response and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" asked Rouge.
"You wanted me to make an appearance, so I did," said Shadow, not looking back. "I'm done here. There are more important things to do."
Omega seemed to agree. "IT IS TRUE! I SHOULD RESUME MY HUNT FOR DR. EGGMAN! IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN BEING IN A COLLAPSING TIME ANOMALY TO STOP HIM!"
Rouge sighed, but let them go. "As long as that makes you happy," she said.
Shadow froze upon hearing that, and Sonic felt bad for him. As fun as their latest adventure had been for him personally, he knew that for Shadow, it had poked at a lot of his sore spots. Sonic was honestly shocked the other hedgehog had stuck around for this long.
Remembering his promise to his younger self to try and be a better friend, Sonic took the opportunity to dart over to Shadow.
"Hey, Shadow, leaving so soon," he said, pretending he hadn't heard what Omega had just blabbed (impossible, Omega is very loud).
Shadow shot him a look that told him he wouldn't put up with his nonsense even if it was his birthday, and if he said anything, there was a Chaos Spear with his name on it, and not as a birthday gift.
"That's a shame," Sonic said nonchalantly. "I was hoping for one last race before you left. Unless you're cool with me beating you last time."
Shadow's scowl deepened, and he took the bait. "I was distracted," he snapped. "In a fair race, I'd win without question."
"Oh yeah, prove it," Sonic taunted. "First one to Station Square and back wins?"
Shadow just got into the ready position. Probably glad to have an excuse to get away from all the staring, however briefly.
Sonic grinned and crouched beside him.
Their friends caught on to what was happening and crowded around as Rouge fluttered over to stand in front of them and raised a napkin like a flag.
"Ready, set, GO!" she said, bringing the napkin down.
And with one last challenging look at each other, they were off.
As the ground beat against his feet and wind swept through his quills and his 'friendly' rival raced beside him, Sonic couldn't help his beaming grin.
Best birthday ever.
Randall knew something was wrong when he heard Rachel answer her phone with, "This is about those darn aliens, isn't it?"
That sinking feeling only continued when Rachel scoffed at whatever was said in response. "Because when was the last time you called me just to call me? …Uh-huh… Uhhhh-HUH! … That's what I thought… Yeah, you better stay on, I ain't heard from you in ages… Whatever, hey, the little fox one got any new goodies for me? … Oh, he does? He's my favorite, tell him I said that… You got a new what? And how much trouble is he? … Mmm-hmm, we'll see how long that lasts."
Rachel rolled her eyes at whatever was said before holding the phone out to her husband, "It's for you."
With dread pooling in his stomach, Randall accepted the phone with a wary "Hello?"
Like something out of a nightmare, Tom's voice cheerfully greeted him, "Heeey, Randall, remember that… friendly bit of 'advice' Maddie and I gave you."
Randall felt a cold sweat drip down his neck as he remembered that 'advice'. It had started as a gentle, almost teasing 'Just so you know-' sort of thing where they told him that if he dared try anything to hurt their children again, he'd pay for it dearly. Randall had initially laughed it off, but the 'advice' was then punctuated by Maddie conversationally giving an incredibly in-depth description of the steps she took to neuter dogs, all while Tom sat beside her and polished his guns while he casually asked for further details ("It's Montana, there's bears," Tom had said when asked why he had them, as if Randall didn't know they kept tranquilizer darts to use on bears).
Needless to say, the message was received.
"Uh, yeah, I remember. Good talk," Randall said slowly, wondering what he could have done to need a reminder.
Maddie then came on the line. "Well, that 'advice' goes double for Commander Walters. Also, we're adopting Shadow. He's ours now. Do us a favor and pass that on," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Also, tell them to expand our budget; we have a new mouth to feed, and might consider expanding the house."
Randall didn't know what Commander Walters did or who Shadow was, but was too afraid to ask. "I… will do that."
He then handed the phone back to Rachel so she could converse with her sister, and began planning exactly how to pass the warning on and emphasize the importance of following it. Because if someone screwed up, he did not want blame to fall on him.
Over in Green Hills, Montana, Maddie and Tom slapped a quick high five for successfully threatening their brother-in-law, and then Tom went to join their four boys for their Godzilla movie marathon (followed by a Star Wars marathon, and then a Keanu Reeves marathon, and then a romcom marathon at Knuckles' insistence) while Maddie caught Rachel up in more detail, and asked how Jojo was doing.
Meanwhile, at a secret GUN base, Commander Walters felt a chill run down his spine. He quickly pulled up his Olive Garden app and placed an order to go. He had the feeling he was going to need a lot of endless breadsticks and pasta bowls.
In a different time that was slowly evolving into a different world, Sonic sat atop the loop-de-loop of Green Hill Zone, just watching the stars and enjoying being home.
He heard the tell-tale swishing sound of spinning tails and looked up to see his little brother come up to join him. It was past his bedtime, but after the adventure they'd just had, he'd let it slide.
"Sonic, look, I finished it," Tails said, holding his newly built Miles Electric.
Sonic grinned and gestured in amazement.
"Thanks, those blueprints Big Me gave me were great!" Tails continued as he started fiddling with his new toy. "I can use this to do all kinds of things. Like, look!"
He spun it around so Sonic could see a bunch of gibberish and squiggly lines on the screen. Sonic tried to make sense of it, but quickly gave up and shrugged.
"It's a record of our timeline and the one we visited, look," said Tails, pointing at how the lines were starting to branch off from each other. "This is our timeline, and this is the one Big Us are from. That Silver guy was right, we are starting to make our time into another dimension. Soon we'll be like this," he pointed to another line, separate from theirs. "This is the timeline from that fuzzy dimension. When our timeline makes enough changes, we'll be a separate line like them, too."
Sonic nodded; he understood most of that. The visuals helped.
"And once it's fully separate, we might be able to cross dimensions and visit them like Princess Blaze does," said Tails.
That got Sonic's attention, and he hopped to his feet and bounced eagerly.
"You're right. It'd be nice to see them again," Tails agreed. "And we should probably keep an eye on Big-Us's timeline. I overheard Silver imply you might go back there someday when they're in trouble."
Sonic nodded in agreement. If they needed his help, he'd be there. Then tilted his head in askance.
"Hmm, hard to say," said Tails. "I guess the best way to split our time off faster is to do things differently. But since we don't totally know what they did, we won't know what to do that's not the same."
Thankfully, Sonic had a good idea of what to do, and it showed in his confidence.
"You have an idea?" asked Tails in surprise. "What is it?"
Sonic turned and pointed up at the sky.
Tails followed his gaze and squinted. Up against the full moon, one could vaguely see a dark speck floating there.
"The ARK?" Tails asked. "Where they said that Shadow guy was from? You wanna go wake him up early?"
Sonic nodded. He'd told his counterpart he wanted to try and be Shadow's friend. This was one way to do so.
Tails hummed thoughtfully. "We'll have to be careful, Charmy said Shadow did some bad stuff when he first woke up. It'll take some convincing to get him to be nice."
Sonic just puffed out his chest and took that as a challenge.
Seeing he was still all for this plan, Tails shrugged. "At least let me sabotage the big space laser on the ARK before we find him. That way, he can't use it before we can talk to him. And it's gonna take some hacking to figure out where he's sleeping. At least we know who has him."
Sonic made finger guns.
"Yeah, GUN," said Tails. He then brightened, warming up to the idea fast. "Hey! This plan means I can build a rocket! That'll be so cool!"
Sonic nodded and gave a thumbs-up.
"What are you guys doing up there?" came a shout from the base of the loop-de-loop, and they looked down to see Mighty, Ray (Sonic saw those two's missing posters in the future, he hoped they were okay. He resolved to keep a closer eye on them here on out.), and Amy standing below them.
"It's really late," Mighty added, having been the first one to shout.
"Are you guys star-gazing?" asked Ray.
"I can do some astrology readings if you like," offered Amy.
"No, we're making plans to break into a bunch of government facilities," Tails called back.
Sonic rolled his eyes fondly. His little buddy hadn't even tried to lie.
Hearing that, their friends below them exchanged a look and shrugged.
"Want us to help?" asked Amy.
Sonic and Tails exchanged their own glance at the offer, and Tails replied, "Sure!"
The trio below shared grins and hurried to get to the top of the loop-de-loop to start their planning.
With all of them helping out, neither GUN nor Shadow would know what hit them.
"More Impressive Hedgehog!"
Shadow looked up from where he was playing against Sonic at Super Smash Brothers on the living room couch.
"Seriously, you're still doing that, Knuckles?" Sonic complained next to him. "I am literally sitting right here."
Shadow took advantage of his distraction to use his Megaman to push Sonic's Mario off a platform and win the match.
"DUDE!" Sonic squawked.
But Shadow was already putting down the controller and giving Knuckles his full attention. "What?" he asked.
"It has come to my attention that chronologically speaking, I am no longer the eldest," Knuckles said as if this were something grim. "Therefore, I challenge you to battle for the role."
Shadow and Sonic had identical looks of confusion at that logic. Knuckles finding some excuse to challenge Shadow to a battle was expected. He still hadn't gotten to fight him all out, and had been coming up with reason after reason for them to duke it out to no avail, but none before had been as bizarre as this.
Tails, meanwhile, looked up from where he was reading next to them on the couch. "Knuckles, that's not how age works," the fox protested.
But Knuckles would not be dissuaded. "We fight until first blood!" he declared.
The reasons Knuckles had yet to fight Shadow the way he wanted to, AKA, Tom and Maddie, who had been in the next room, quickly rushed in upon hearing that.
"No, no blood!" Tom scolded.
"No hitting your brothers until they bleed. No sparring without supervision," Maddie agreed.
"I could take him," Shadow said with a shrug.
"You could never take me," Knuckles said, cracking his knuckles. "Echidna Warriors are not taken."
"Okay, let's calm down before the house gets destroyed again," Sonic said, trying to de-escalate the situation.
"Besides, even if Shadow has been around for fifty years, are we sure those years even count towards his age?" asked Tails.
The rising tension in the room paused as they all stopped to look at him.
Tails grew a bit flustered to be at the center of attention, but continued, "I mean, yes, fifty years is a long time, but Shadow was unconscious and didn't age for any of it. So while he's chronologically as old as Tom, he's not that way mentally or physically."
"Wha- hey!" Tom protested at the slight on his age. "I'm not that old."
"But almost," Sonic teased his dad, earning him an exasperated look.
"Then how old is he mentally and physically?" asked Knuckles. To be honest, he really was just trying to have an excuse to fight Shadow all out, but he actually did still wanted to remain the eldest of his siblings.
Shadow opened his mouth to answer, and then paused as he realized it was a more complicated question than anyone realized.
"I… don't know," he admitted. "I had amnesia after my meteor crashed to Earth. I don't know how old I was when it happened, and I only have a few years' worth of memories at most."
The others exchanged a glance, and Shadow scowled as he realized what he might have just implied. "I am not the youngest!" he insisted.
"Good, the fox has much more training to do before he could face you alone in battle-" said Knuckles.
"I'm not gonna fight Shadow!" Tails protested, interrupting him.
"-But that still brings into question your place in the family hierarchy," Knuckles finished.
Shadow frowned, while he didn't care about that nearly as much as Knuckles clearly did, it did bother him just a little bit.
"I have a suggestion," Sonic cut in.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Let's just go with the obvious and say we're twins," Sonic said with a shrug. "I mean, people are gonna think that anyway, and we look like we're the same age. So, twins?"
"I mean, yeah, when you two showed up together, that was my first thought," Maddie admitted.
"The fact that you look so similar to each other does indicate some form of familial connection," Tails added.
"He is correct. When we were in the white void, we saw that neither the pink hedgehog nor the white one bore as striking a resemblance as the two of you did," agreed Knuckles.
"So then it's not just a 'they're both hedgehogs' thing," said Tom, thoughtfully.
"Soooo…?" asked Sonic, and they all waited to hear Shadow's decision on the matter.
Shadow considered it, and then shot Sonic a look. "I'm the older twin," he said firmly.
Sonic whooped with joy hearing that. "Welcome to life as a middle child," he said with a grin. "I'll show you the ropes. Best part is that you get to be the annoying sibling."
Shadow rolled his eyes, started a new match of their game, and promptly pushed Mario off the platform again.
"Hey!" Sonic complained, grabbing his controller to fight back.
"Looks like he's already a natural," Tom said with a chuckle as he and Maddie returned to what they were doing before.
"Also, I refuse to be a part of any team called 'Team Sonic'," Shadow said as he and Sonic exchanged combos.
"I refuse as well," said Knuckles as he left the room, slumped in disappointment that he once again hadn't been able to have a no-holds-barred fight with Shadow (sparring with adult supervision just wasn't the same).
"It is a bit on the nose," Tails admitted, going back to his book.
Sonic rolled his eyes, but stayed focused on his game. "Okay, fine, we'll workshop the name. Just as soon as I kick Shadow's butt."
"In your dreams," Shadow replied with a smirk.
All was right in the Wachowski household.
The younger and older Drs. Eggman lay sprawled in the white void, having once again failed to find an exit.
"What time is it?" asked the younger one.
"It's the exact same time as when you asked earlier, and it will be the exact same time as when you ask later. There is no time here!" the older one shouted in exasperation.
"Let me just say this was a brilliant plan that you came up with," the younger Eggman said snidely.
"Don't be too self-righteous," the older Eggman responded. "It'll be your plan pretty soon."
The younger doctor scowled and grumbled. "I'm going to dedicate the rest of my life to forgetting it."
"I heard that!" snapped the older one.
"Do we ever win?" asked the younger.
"That depends on your definition of 'win'," said the elder.
"Beating Sonic," said the younger Eggman.
"Oh, well, then no," said the older Eggman.
The younger Eggman drooped. "That doesn't give me much hope. Maybe I'll go back and get my teaching degree."
The older Eggman perked up a bit. "That's not a bad idea. I've always enjoyed telling people what to do."
The younger Eggman rolled his eyes. "And if that doesn't pan out, are there any good memories to look forward to?" he asked.
"Not much," the older doctor said. "But you do get to throw Sonic out of a space station and send him crashing to Earth a couple of times. That was fun."
"And he survives that?" asked the younger, aghast.
"He gets help," said a new voice, making both of them jump. That was not the dulcet tones of their shared voice. That voice was totally new.
They wheeled around to see another Eggman standing there. Though fat, he was not as egg-shaped as the other two, and his red suit was covered in soot like he'd just lost a fight with a chimney, and most strangely, his eyes clearly visible.
The new Eggman's eyes flicked around at the void with an unimpressed stare. "Is this really the afterlife?" he asked, gesturing grandly. "An estimated ten thousand religions in the world and not a single one of them got it right."
"You're not dead, idiot," the older Eggman deadpanned. "You've been sucked into a void beyond time."
"And the difference is?" asked the new Eggman with a shrug.
"He's got you there," said the younger Eggman with a chuckle.
The elder sent his younger counterpart a dirty look. "The difference is that we can leave this place… supposedly… once we find an exit."
"We can even escape death? Intriguing," said the new Eggman, pulling out a blue quill and licking it even though it shocked him.
Seeing the quill and recognizing its power, the younger Eggman's eyes widened behind his glasses. "You!" he shouted and pointed accusingly.
"Me!" the new Eggman replied, clearly not knowing what he was being blamed for but going with it anyway.
"You're the Eggman for that Sonic with the weird electrical powers!" the younger Eggman said.
"Oh, in that case, oui, ce serait moi," said the new Eggman. "And yes, I speak French."
"Where have you been! You're an entire evil scheme and devastating defeat late!" the older Eggman scolded. "Your Sonic turned our entire plan on its head and left us outnumbered! We could have used you to actually win for once!"
"Oh, sorry," said the new Eggman in a mocking tone that showed he was really not sorry at all, and bending down like he was talking to a toddler. "I was too busy binge watching the latest season of La Última Pasión to hang out with what sounds like a pair of sore losers!" He held his fingers up in an L on his forehead as he said the last bit.
"You lost too, if you're here thinking you're dead," the younger Eggman pointed out with his hands on his hips.
"I'll have you know I actually won my fight. I'm here for a different reason that I'm not going to tell you," said the new Eggman with his nose in the air.
"You won? Against Sonic?" asked the other two Eggmen in shock.
"Considering our last confrontation had me running off with what I wanted from him, him captured, and leaving his charming little family to be arrested by GUN, yup," said the new doctor evasively, popping the p on the last word.
The other two Eggmen exchanged a knowing look. They could tell what he was leaving out. He'd managed to briefly get the upper hand before his evil plan somehow went horribly wrong. It had happened to the two of them more times than they could count.
"In any case," said the new Eggman, pulling his goggles off his forehead and over his eyes. "If there's a way out of this lazy Robert Rauschenberg painting, then I'm going to find it. I've got a syco-friend waiting for me back home, and he owes me a latte."
The new Eggman then turned around in stiff robotic motions, complete with "Bzzzz, bzzzz," sound effects from his mouth, and walked away from them.
Stumped at what else to do, the other two Eggmen exchanged a shrug and followed behind them.
Unpleasant as they were to work with, between the genius of all three of them they were sure to figure a way out of this void.
… Eventually.
If they don't all kill each other first.
Sonic stared up at the pink hedgehog who had just saved his life from an army of metallic Sonic look-alikes, his eyes wide with recognition. "It's you!" he gasped.
The pink hedgehog, who just had to be the version of Amy Rose for his dimension, cocked her head and looked confused. "It's me?" she questioned, probably expecting a different reaction from the stranger she'd just saved.
There were so many things Sonic could say at that moment. So many questions he could ask, and yet what came out of his mouth was, "Is it true that if hedgehogs hug, that means they have to get married?"
Amy just stared at him, bewilderment and a bit of a blush appearing on her face. "Wait, what?" she asked.
Sonic slapped himself on the forehead.
Why did he say that? Maybe he should just stick to 'Meow.'
Shadow wasn't sure what to make of the two children who found him.
When he'd been put in stasis, he expected his eventual awakening to be because someone found Professor Robotnik's notes. Given the man's mental state towards the end of his life, only the truly greedy and power-hungry would read such a thing and seek him out. Someone whose wicked intentions would be easy to manipulate to his advantage, and allow him to grant Maria her revenge.
The moment his eyes reopened for the first time in fifty years, he knew what role he had to play. "My name is Shadow. And since you were so kind to release me, my master, I will grant you one wish," he said like he was a genie freshly freed from its bottle while standing dramatically atop his former prison.
But instead of a greedy would-be despot, Shadow looked down and realized he had been brought out of stasis by a young, seemingly mute, blue hedgehog and an even younger little fox with two tails.
Odd, but with their youth, Shadow could still manipulate them.
The two children exchanged a glance, as if amused at his words, before the blue hedgehog smiled up at him and held his arms open as if asking for a hug, and the little fox eagerly said, "You look cool. Will you be our friend?"
Shadow stared at them for the sheer innocence of their wish.
This had not been what he'd expected at all, but he'd promised one wish, and it would be suspicious if he backed out now. Besides, it would likely be the children's final wish of their lives, and he could always sneak away from them later if things don't work out in his favor.
And so he said, "... Sure."
Both children cheered (though the hedgehog did so silently) and slapped high fives before dragging Shadow out of the (surprisingly wrecked) GUN prison into an impromptu game of tag.
What followed was the two seeming determined to give Shadow a world tour, dragging him to see places he and Maria had only dreamed about going, and introducing him to what seemed like all their friends as well as just about every other person on the planet.
The whole experience left Shadow… conflicted.
Maria… he'd promised her revenge, he'd promised, but… it was getting harder and harder to find the desire to keep that promise as his two new 'friends' seemed to to be doing everything in their power to endear themselves to him just as much as they tried to annoy him. And throughout it, they were unknowingly showing him how beautiful the world was. As beautiful Maria had insisted it would be before her final moments forced her to change her mind.
(... She did change her mind… didn't she…? Her last request… was for revenge… right?)
He'd tried to sneak away multiple times once he realized he couldn't manipulate Sonic or Tails to further his plans, but somehow the two always seemed to find him and drag him off on another adventure.
It would have been easy to simply dispose of them and carry on but… something always held him back. Perhaps the fact that he knew they meant no harm.
(Maria wouldn't want him to hurt children, even for revenge. All she really wanted was for everyone to be…)
And so every day was another adventure. Another race around a new fantastic part of the world with Sonic and Tails, and often accompanied by their other friends Amy, Mighty, and Ray.
"Where are you taking me now?" Shadow asked as Sonic once again pulled him towards the Tornado, Tails already in the driver's seat, ready for takeoff (whose bright idea to give that kit a pilot's licence, Shadow didn't know).
Sonic just smiled back at him, before hopping up to sit on the Tornado's wing and patted the space beside him, asking him to join.
"Come on, Shadow, this will be great!" Tails promised as he made his final flight check, not bothering to answer his question.
Shadow sighed and moved to sit on the wing next to Sonic. If he tried to run, they'd just drag him back again.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going now?" he asked.
Sonic grinned and punched his fists together.
Shadow was still getting used to the little gestures Sonic used to communicate, and wasn't sure what that one meant.
"We're taking you to visit a friend of ours," Tails explained as the Tornado's propeller began spinning.
"Haven't I met all your friends?" Shadow had to ask. How many friends could two children have?
"Not this one. You haven't met Knuckles yet," said Tails.
Well, a name like that explained Sonic punching his fists.
"And we haven't met him before because…?" Shadow asked.
"Because his home is kinda remote and we'll have to travel up a bit to reach it," said Tails. He then glanced at Shadow and added. "Also, he'll probably try to pick a fight with you as soon as you see him. Just humor him, that's how he says hello."
Sonic nodded and rubbed his stomach gingerly, as if nursing a bruise.
As Shadow absorbed that tidbit of information, the Tornado took off, and he'd be able to find out about this friend in person soon enough.
As they flew, Shadow watched as Sonic waved to any birds they saw as they flew by, and Tails stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on getting them there safely.
Deep down, he had to wonder if this was what having little brothers was like.
(Maria would have liked them.)
… When the time came, he'd make sure they were safe on the ARK with him when he destroyed the world…
… If he could ever bring himself to do it.
Sonic wandered over to Silver between Dodon Pa's wacky races.
"So did you ever find my birthday invitation?" he asked conversationally.
"It was your birthday recently?" Silver asked, looking totally clueless. "I was invited?"
Well, if that didn't prove he wasn't the same Silver as the one at the party, Sonic didn't know what would.
"I left you an invitation in a time capsule!" Amy called over from where she was strategizing with her own team.
"Oh, I didn't find it!" Silver called back, clearly resolving to keep an eye out for the time capsule in the future.
Amy shared a knowing look with Sonic. "I'm going to pester Dodon Pa for whatever he used to call you here," was all she said. "We can keep in touch better that way."
"I'd love that," Silver said, before turning back to Sonic. "Sorry that I missed your birthday," he added.
Sonic, knowing full well he hadn't, kept quiet about that fact and instead said, "Yeah, too bad. It was right up your alley. Eggman attacked us with a time-traveling monster called the Time Eater. I got to meet my past self and a version of me from another dimension."
"Whoa!" said Silver, looking impressed. "Sounds like a heck of a party. And is that why Eggman looked like he got mauled by a gorilla that one time after being gone so long?"
Sonic knew what he meant. Eggman's next appearance after his birthday had him showing up sporting a broken nose and split lip, and overall looking disheveled.
"It was, and probably," said Sonic with a shrug. "But I'm sure you'll make it to the next one."
"In your dreams, Sonic," Silver said snidely.
There was a beat as Sonic just stood there blinking at his comment, wondering where that came from.
"Did I do it right this time?" Silver asked with a bright smile.
Finally remembering their past failed attempt at trash-talking, Sonic laughed. "No, but keep trying. You'll get it eventually."
"In your dreams, Sonic," Silver called again as Sonic walked away.
Sonic just laughed harder.
Team Hooligans had to blink when their boss (for as long as he paid them) finally returned from wherever he'd been.
"Whoa, Boss, did you get in a fight with someone?" Fang the Hunter asked when he saw him.
"Like a feral cat?" asked Bean the Dynamite brightly.
Bark the Polar Bear said nothing, but his arms were crossed, and his expression was judging.
"I don't want to talk about it," Dr. Eggman grumbled, looking like someone tried to claw his face off. "And make a note for the future, anytime I intend to make a plan that involves teaming up with any alternate versions of myself, talk me out of it."
"Yeah, sure," Fang said with no intention to follow that order.
"And start a global search," Dr. Eggman ordered. "I want the location of a person, possibly a GUN agent, by the name of Stone provided to be within the hour."
"Okay, but why?" Bean asked.
Dr. Eggman huffed. "Because I need to verify if his coffee is really all that great. My future self and I have a bet going over whether or not my alternate self just has terrible taste."
Team Hooligans exchanged a glance, wondering what the heck he was even talking about, but they weren't being paid to ask and decided that would be a future-them problem.
For now, they had an agent to find.
It had been a long six months in captivity, but throughout it, Sonic never gave up hope.
Even with him not being able to run. Even as Eggman's forces took over the world. Even when Infinite taunted him with visions of terrible things happening to his friends, he never broke.
He couldn't, he knew he still had things to look forward to.
It was funny, for all Silver had tried to keep quiet about things to come at his last birthday party, those few things he let slip were the very things Sonic needed to know to get through this.
Heh, 'an Infinite amount of problems still to solve,' was right, he saw what Silver did there.
But there was still more to see. He still hadn't seen Silver go Super, he didn't know what he meant about tangles or whispers, or why he should be wary of trains, or why dreams or cocoa were still important. This may cause the industrial future Silver described, but he had said they stopped it from happening so that another bad future would take its place, and that they would stop that one, too.
They would win, he would get out of here, and as much as he hated doing it, he just had to wait.
Then, finally, he was free. A rookie from the Resistance came to help him out, and together they got out of there.
He thought that would be the most unbelievable thing that happened today, at least until Tails showed up at Resistance HQ with two blue and very familiar figures beside him.
After assuring Tails he was alright, he turned his attention to them.
"It's been generations since I've seen you," he said with a grin. "You two okay?"
"We're good, heard your world needed some help," said Blue, and Mini-Me gave him a thumbs up beside him.
Sonic grinned and matched the thumbs up with his own. "We'll have to catch up when this is over. First, we've got an Egg to beat."
Even as Tails reported that Eggman had some big plan to stop them, Sonic wasn't worried.
With three versions of him in this fight, there was no way they could lose.
No matter what time or dimension you were in, Sonic the Hedgehog would always save the day.