*Everyone reading this story laughs as an aspiring, story-writing Mobian fox with lead-black fur falls out of the side of a massive gelatinous cube. He gets up with slime dripping off of him*

DEAR HEAVENS ABOVE! WAS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE WRITER'S BLOCK!? I had to wait three months trying to give genesis to the third chapter of this little tale that I weave! I mean, three is my favorite number, but that doesn't mean that I want that much three! Seriously, I would rather play an even buggier than normal version of Sonic 2006 from start to finish in one session than get sucked back into that void that halts creativity! Say, that actually sounds somewhat similar to my plot line...

Anyways, do not fool yourself into believing that I put this story into hiatus on a whim, dear friend. I was working hard on getting this one simple transition chapter up, such that I actually wrote, typed, and penned at least TEN DRAFTS trying to get this here in a way that I desired. OCD, why must you inhibit me so?

Anyways, as a chapter, this one is a bit on the fluctuating side when it comes to whether or not I enjoy it... Regardless, I am glad that it is out of the way so that I can start implementing ideas that I am more prepared to talk about. This chapter may warrant a rework in the future, though...

Also, I would like to point out that between informative English classes and my intense studies into a book series that I've been reading, I am trying to improve my writing capabilities. I'm not certain as to whether or not it worked, however... In fact, all of those rules of language bouncing around my head may have been a factor in this chapter's lateness... Oh, well. Enjoy your reading material, you mortal weakli-I MEAN- pal.

Pressing Matters Pertaining to the Time Eaten Subject –Professor Gerald Robotnik's Personal Log –Entry #1940

Today, my beloved granddaughter was able to watch the glorious arrival of the Black Comet; a once in a lifetime experience to see such a thing from outer space, I'm sure. I so very much that I was unable to be at her side as it emerged from the great unknown, but I had more... pressing matters to attend to. Dr. Joukowski, a researcher on the ARK and Maria's voluntary nurse, will hopefully take care of her as she travels to the viewing platforms. I am concerned somewhat, though. I would normally trust that woman with my own life and then some, but she has been a bit taciturn and unfocused since the loss of her husband. I pray my decision to keep her in her position does not come back to bite me.

I suppose that Joukowski isn't to be blamed for her actions, though. She's simply being afflicted by the same blight that has infected nearly all of the 4th deck of the ARK: Dr. Burneu. Why is he a problem? Simply because almost every scientist aboard my space colony wants to study him, that's why. He has become something of a victimized celebrity amongst my cohorts… Honestly, people; just because protocol forces us to put him away in a cell until the next supply ship docks with the colony does not mean that we may liken him to a caged lab rat! Not that I myself am not curious as to what kind of information he may have found within the Emerald's confines, but if he says that he knows nothing more than what he told us, then he should be permitted to have some peace rather than be treated like an alien species. We scientists shall explore that somewhat disturbing bridge if we come to it.

While on the topic of disturbing, the minor poll that I took on Burneu's behalf has unveiled a sad truth. It appears that my initial assumption that my staff's memories returned shortly after that careless man's return was entirely false; there is not a single person on the ARK who claims to have known him prior to two days ago when he first re-emerged from Limbo, not even the ones who have spent hours upon hours speaking to him. It seems that being Time Eaten for any span of time will annihilate your life, and end all of your relationships… But if this is the case, why in the world do I remember him? I have spent so very much time personally experimenting with the Chaos Emerald, but I cannot find any suitable answers. Perhaps I should instead try my hand at consulting those old Pachacamacian scrolls that were shipped up to the ARK from the Dusty Desert; after all, they were our original source when we made the Time Eaten Theory and would likely...

I must cut this short; Maria just walked into my study and informed me that Joukowski did not arrive to pick her up from the viewing deck as I had asked. Blast that woman! She volunteered to assist my granddaughter when I cannot, and she knows that she is to prioritize Maria over her research into reverse-kinetics when I deem necessary! Or did she go to visit Burneu again? I told her she was banned from seeing him! She had better have a good reason prepared once I've taken Maria to the nearest medical ward for her treatments, because if not, she will regret being under my employment!

The Southern Isle Straight; 12˚ North; Somewhere Between the United Federation and Carnival Island…

Dr. Eggman looked over his shoulder for the twenty-seventh time that day. "Still nothing there…" he muttered to himself. How long had he been flying over this absurd straight? One hour? No, certainly not; it must have been at least three.

'Should've kept a record of time,' he told himself. But no, Eggman knew that he had to focus on navigating to whatever was left of the Egg Heart Zone before the Egg-O-Matic ran out of reserve power. Of course, he couldn't see anything this far out in open water, but he knew exactly where he was going. Using his immense genius, he had managed to chart a path as his escape vehicle had plummeted towards the planet, and he was indeed going to stick to it.

A gust of wind brushed by and the vehicle slowed briefly as Eggman's head whipped around yet again. He saw nothing there, just as before, and the mad doctor gave a hefty sigh of relief. Sonic had apparently not sustained his super form after the collision with the Titan Gamma's arm cannon, but even so, the thought of being hunted down by a chaos-empowered being was unnerving to Eggman, especially when the only robots he had with him were his servant bots.

Cubot took note of this and scrutinized his creator. "You okay there, Doc? You look more paranoid than—" Cubot abruptly lost his normal voice and transitioned into pirate speak due to an excess of sea salt in his mainframe. "—a galley bein' plundered by Blackbeard, arrrrrr."

"Yes, Cubot," Eggman rubbed his hand against his temple. "I am indeed quite paranoid. How very observant of you." Eggman gave a husky sigh. Why did Cubot have to activate his voice chip now? The silence had been so relaxing…

"Why fer?" The pirate bot asked simply. "Yers not gettin' seasick on your crew, ares ya, Cap'n?"

"No, my friend," the doctor spat sarcastically. "I've only got a simple image stuck in my head: one where a golden version of my greatest nemesis flies out of nowhere at the speed of light and mercilessly uses my own Egg-o-Matic and some excess Chaos Energy to fry me into an omelet for some sharks! Certainly nothing paranoia-inducing or sea-sickening about that, now is there?"

"Well, that thar's not a bit odd…" Cubot said as he shot out a spark and reverted to his previous manner of speech. "I mean…Sonic doesn't really seem like the kind of guy who'd do that sort of thing…"

"Don't mind the good doctor, Cubot," Orbot interjected with that smart glowing mouth of his. "Why, he's just trying his best to demonize the one person he hates most in the world. It's nothing new."

Eggman turned a shade of red just a bit lighter than that of Orbot and shook a menacing fist in the red sphere's synthetic face. "Tsk. I'll SHOW YOU demonizing in a moment if you don't shut your clap-trap, Orbot!" he grumbled angrily. "Besides, what do you know about Sonic anyhow? He deserves to be demonized!"

Orbot didn't miss a beat in his reply. "I, sir, am the finished product of your Servant Lackey/Analysis Gatherer project. If you will be so kind as to remember, you built me specifically for the purpose of understanding Sonic's weaknesses. I do declare that you would not require all of your harebrained schemes if you would simply consult me on what to do for once, as was my intended purpose." Orbot seemed to both regret and enjoy saying that last part.

Eggman pushed himself nose to neon with Orbot, dropping the speed of their transportation to a snail's pace. "NEVER QUESTION MY GENIUS, YOU LAZY BOLTSACK! You dare to even suggest—no, to even think that you are more capable of coming up with an idea for defeating Sonic than the Dr. Eggman himself? Nothing but a fool's misguided ideology, I say!"

"I never said that I could do things better than you! I was simply implying that my analyses on the information at hand could—!"

"And, as usual, your analysis is COMPLETELY WRONG."

"Wha—!? Why… why would youinsult me like that!? You made me specifically to—"

Whilst his master and partner argued, Cubot turned away and covered his robotic ears for some peace and quiet. He stood at the rear end of the Egg-O-Matic and gazed across the open ocean and watched the patterns of rippling waves shoot over the water. The doctor and Orbot began to push harder against one another behind him, but he couldn't hear a single thing.

How pretty, he thought to himself in his normal voice. If only everything could look as nice as that… that would be a pretty cool way for things to work… That's what Dr. Eggman told me he wants to do after he finally wins. Once the entire world belongs to him, he'll make it as nice and happy as possible. Cubot clenched his head harder as if in deep thought. I guess the doctor is right, though; Sonic would have to be a pretty terrible person to want to stop him from doing that…

Cubot heard the mad scientist explode with rage in response to some snide remark from Orbot; the man's yell was so deafeningly loud that it pierced through Cubot's rubbery hands and hit his metal eardrums. "You can't even find your way around a wrench without me, you rebellious little excuse for a flashlight! Dare to insult the name of Eggman once again, AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS!"

"I don't mind being talked down to," Orbot seemed to be angry enough to yell back in Eggman's face. "But I do not take kindly to being yelled at. I mean, you claim that you are the world's most brilliant living mind, but you need a servant robot—ergo me—to help you put your shoes on in the mornings…and your shoes are connected to your pants! I have nightmares!"

Cubot turned the volume on his ears down to 1% and looked out into the sea again. Wow, Orbot sure got mad fast. Oh well; they're just being silly. Orbot knows how to walk around a wrench, and the doctor only ever made him do the pants thing once. Cubot sighed lightly, and produced his favorite coffee mug from his chassis. He saw it was (somehow) full of his favorite latte, and drank it down merrily. (Please do disregard the fact that Cubot has neither throat nor stomach)

Out on the waters of the straight, Cubot swore that he saw a flash of sparkling lights twinkle. Say, what's that shiny thing over there? "Uuh, doctor…?" he said. "You might wanna…"

"A blubbery lardball like you could never defeat Sonic alone!" Orbot interrupted, now seething with legitimate anger. "You've enlisted the help of more deadly monsters than anyone can remember, and you still fail! You've had more bases and badniks than anyone cares to name, and you still lose! You've pointed several giant lasers at the planet with no one to stop you except for a rash Mobian teenager and his pals, but after all of that, no one on the planet even considers you a threat! And that's because you can't even make a machine that won't explode as soon as it gets put into a combat situation!"

Cubot looked to see the bright sparkling growing closer. It certainly wasn't a figment of his robot imagination, no sir. "Orbot," Cubot said to the elder geometric mechanism. "You should really look at thi—"

"I'm a failure!?" Eggman interposed. The fat scientist began to jerk around the little space that the Egg-o-matic had, which made it wobble around above the water. "What does that make you!? A failure of a failure, that's what! You have nothing in this world without me! I am your master! I am your creator! I am your god! I swear if I ever hear such insubordination out of you again, I'll dismantle you—with or without a tool kit to help! Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"OI! BOTH YE LANDLUBBERS BEST CEASE YER SENSELESS ARGYIN' AND TURN YER ATTENTION O'ER T' T' STERN, ER OI'LL STRING BOTH O' YE UP BY YER IN-TESH-TINES!" Cubot looked ready to break his mug over either of his red-clad accomplices' heads.

"CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE BUSY!?" Both of them shouted back, turning their heads to the yellow bot. Then they blinked in unison as they each spotted the glimmer of light Cubot had tried to tell them about. Eggman panicked a bit, scrambled forward, knocked Cubot and coffee into the pilot's seat, and leaned far over the edge of the hovercraft.

"What in the blazes is that!?" he yelled, sweat forming around his neck. Orbot observed from over Eggman's shoulder with a somewhat fearful expression on his face. The red ball was not only concerned about the light, but he had just realized that everything he had said to Eggman was incredibly… inappropriate for a servant to say to his master.

The light began to seem so bright across the water that it hurt Orbot's sight receptors. Eggman, wearing strong sunglasses, ignored the glare. As opposed to the robot minion, who averted his gaze, Eggman did stare intently and yet nervously at the shine. Just then, he realized something frightening, and a cold sweat formed upon his neck.

"IT'S HEADED STRAIGHT FOR UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUS!" Everything happened fluidly, like a step-by-step process was being carried out. First, Eggman ducked down, covering Cubot and leaving Orbot exposed. Next, the shine came all too fast from across the horizon, kicking up a trail of rushing water as if it were some twisted ethereal torpedo and leaving an oddly menacing rainbow mist in its wake. Then, as the aweing blaze came within just a few feet of the Egg-o-Matic, Orbot turned his head and beheld a storm of illuminated ocean barreling onto him.

Then the light stopped; halted dead in its warpath. The small sideways tsunami stalled with it. When it seemed, for a second, that nothing would happen, Orbot almost called an all clear. Eggman almost stopped holding his breath. Cubot almost began to try and recover the coffee from Eggman's well-worn seat cushion through means best left unmentioned. Almost…

Before Orbot even made a sound, a blue crystal shard pierced his robotic exoskeleton and tore at his voice chip, rendering him mute. More came afterwards, flying through from where the light had been and rending him cord by cord with unnatural accuracy. Orbot was tossed gently whilst many of those delicate wires of his were pulled and severed one after another. He attempted to give his robotic equivalent of a scream, to no avail, and finally rolled like a bowling ball past Eggman's gut towards the floor of the Egg-o-Matic, with all of his motion and support stands torn so badly to shreds that he lost the ability to keep himself upright.

Due to Eggman's brilliant software design, Orbot's minor cuts alone seemed to burn with the heat of miniscule, intense flames. The pain from any larger wounds could have been compared to medieval torture. Orbot, a smidge thankful for his lack of an active voice chip, violently yet silently cursed the name of Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik for having given him a pain simulation subroutine.

The scientist in question stood on his own two feet after a wait that had seemed like forever. He looked around, and found, to his dismay, that his tried-and-true transport had been cut in several places. It had been damaged, was torn to near shreds, and was certainly the last machine he wanted to add to his list of 'things to be repaired'. A scream came from the floor beneath him.

"OH MY—HOLY JEEZ! ORBOT!" Cubot freaked out, seeing his partner torn to shreds on the floor of the craft. Cubot essentially received the same feeling from this sight as a young child would upon seeing his or her brother or sister lying severely injured in a hospital bed. "DOC, YOU GOTTA DO SOMETHING! ORBOT'S BEEN TURNED INTO SCRAP METAL!"

Speaking of things I don't want to repair… Eggman looked down and saw Cubot lying with a silent Orbot. His smaller robots, the scientist knew, were made to handle being broken by blunt force so that they could easily reassemble themselves, but they were not resistant against being shredded. Orbot seemed to fight, though, as he kept flickering on and off, one of his eyes cracked wide open like an egg. The creator almost pitied the servant robot.

"Boss… Please…" the yellow robot said sadly and looked up at his maker. Little flickers from Cubot's glowing eyes purported to be tears. "Fix him… I need you to… I can't do anything without him…he…" Cubot's heartache was as genuine as a child who had seen just his brother get horrendously mauled (Mygrane: For some reason, I seem to think that this analogy is funny enough to give it a second shot).

"Move." Eggman said placidly. "Let me see him." Serves you right for getting smart with me, you lazy, oversized marble… It was then that, through all of the yelling and insults, the Doctor realized that his strategies were as Orbot had implied. Inefficient. Unsatisfactory. Comically stupid, on occasion. Perhaps a new approach to world dominion was in order. But what? What tactics would work so ineffably that not even Sonic could stop them? Eggman filed the thought away for later, and the rotund genius' mind reluctantly delved no further on the topic as he realized that he had an underling to repair.

Cubot did as the master commanded, hovering backwards. Eggman knelt down and retrieved tools from the inside of the Egg-o-Matic. It was a simple matter, as Eggman saw it. A few severed wires were nothing that his custom repair equipment couldn't handle. Best to start with the voice chip; Orbot will know best what is wrong with him, but he can't tell me if he can't speak, he thought. The chip was exposed from a cut, and Orbot's circuit structure meant that repairing it would be easier than would normally be. The Doctor took a thin, silvery device that resembled an advanced cross between a screwdriver and a laser pointer and used it run a pointless-looking red light across Orbot. The device whined loudly. After a few ostensibly random twists of the doctor's hand, his lackey's voice chip seemed to magically reattach.

Eggman's voice was soothing and kind, as if he were a medical doctor operating on a flesh-and-blood patient. "How do you feel, Orbot? Tell me now, can you hear me? Are you having any difficulty processing logic?"

"Are your scanners working right?" Cubot asked in a panicky high-pitched voice. "Quick, how many hairs are in the Boss's mustache?"

Orbot groaned and gave off a ping to signal that he had begun a scan.

"You dunce!" Eggman whispered angrily. "Don't make him waste his battery! If his energy source was punctured, then he won't be able to function for much longer." A question occurred to the doctor as he berated his fully functioning servant; what in the world had hit Orbot and his beloved craft anyhow? And why—out of all of the waters surrounding the Southern Archipelago—had it attacked them in particular?

"I detect… a ring matrix failure…and chaos…" Orbot moaned wearily.

"Ring matrix failure!?" Eggman shouted. The ring matrix was a power source he had invented a while ago. Based off of his grandfather's Chaos Drive designs, the ring matrix would allow Eggman's more energy-inefficient machinery designs to function for incredibly prolonged periods of time. One machine that exemplified this well was the Egg-o-Matic, and the 'connect to every other machine that you can craft and have controls already set in place for it' feature that came with the vehicle. Ring matrices made excellent sources of power for Eggman's most reliable craft, but if the one that was currently installed failed, then he would be up a river without a paddle (In this case, up the Southern Isle Straight).

Eggman ignored Orbot's remaining cuts, jumped up, and looked far over the tail end of the Egg-o-Matic. As had been claimed by Orbot, sitting within the very center of the craft laid a gash that streaked through the outer hull. A blue crystal shard could be seen between the tear. Eggman gasped twice, first because he realized that the gem would have cut open his power source, and second because he realized exactly what that gem was. A fragment of a chaos emerald! But HOW!?

A small flash came just as Eggman asked himself the question. The shard, small though it may be, was not something to be stuck within that particular power source. A chaos emerald mixed with a ring matrix does nothing more than ask for trouble. Eggman had learned that the hard way in the past, and he suddenly wished he was anywhere other than where he was at that point in time.

A shimmer flicked across Eggman's goggles, and he flinched. A shiver ran down his spine (more of a spasm of wobbling lard, in reality). Had… had he seen a face in this small piece of the Emerald!?

A high-pitched whine sounded all of a sudden, and before Eggman could react, an electrical explosion struck out from the matrix and the fragment and threw Eggman head-first into the pilot's chair. The blast began propelling the entire Egg-o-Matic and all of the gemstones that had hit it far across the Southern Isle Straight in an ever ludicrous 'Team Rocket's blasting off again!' sort of fashion, completed by a trail formed of blue lightning.

Sonic and Tails' House; Around 6:00 PM; Emerald Town…

Three hedgehogs and a fox. Three twelve year-olds and a twenty year-old. Blue, Yellow, Pink, and Green. Whatever one would think of this congregation, it would not appear to be an odd quartet amongst Mobians… Until one spoke to them and heard the story of how they had met each other, what with swirling vortexes, no identities, and feigning unconsciousness whilst eavesdropping, among other things… It had been an amazing feat of calm and control (mostly on Sonia's part as Sonic and Tails had been wigging out while Manic had received a comical slap in the face by two spinning fluffy fox tails), but eventually the rather uncontrolled circumstances had ben quelled. The last thing that happened within the walls of that lab was Tails' placing of the Emerald in a containment unit—in case of another horrid outburst.

The four of them trekked up the old concrete stairwell leading out of the basement, Tails having insisted that the impending conversations not take place in his laboratory. Like the basement workshop, the stairs were concrete and dull gray, implying that the house had been built a long time ago, in the olden days of Emerald Town when Mobians who had built it were often renowned for their stonemasonry. The stones produced a thumping sort of clamor as Sonic, Tails, Sonia, and Manic walked with their large feet away from the fox's hall of machines.

"All right guys—Manic and Sonia," Sonic said, leading the pack and now nearing the door to the first floor of his house. Just as Manic had requested, Sonic had asked—demanded—the names of the two younger hedgehogs, thus he now knew what to refer to them as. "We're going to sit down at the kitchen table and get acquainted. After that, well, Tails and I will have to decide what to do with you." He turned around and finally swung the door at the height of the stairs open, walking into the aforementioned kitchen of the house.

The kitchen that they walked into was one of quaint design, carrying polished wood flooring and white-tiled walls. Cabinets hung from the ceiling, following the path of a convenient counter-top. Sink, dishwasher, stove, toaster, and many other appliances graced this as it wrapped its way around to meet with the fridge. On the walls of the room were several entrances leading to other parts of the house, such as the living room and a foyer. On the ceiling was a simple ceiling fan with brown, polished fan blades, currently not in motion. No feature rose grander, however, than a massive, rectangular, polished mahogany wood table that took up nearly half of whatever room was left in the large kitchen. It seated six, but would easily accommodate eight if someone dragged out some extra chairs. Despite the table being more costly than anything else in the kitchen, Sonic had purchased it under the pretense of having more room for more chili dogs; the Mobian hero felt that the price was well worth it.

The hedgehog had initially wanted to interrogate Manic and Sonia after the way they had caught he and Tails off guard, but as soon as Manic and Sonia caught sight of the hero of Planet Mobius, they seemed to recoil as if they had caught sight of something very surreal, which put the hero back in control of the situation at hand. "Have a seat," he said. "Let's all get acquainted and… all that stuff that fancy people do when their meeting people they don't know," and he gestured to his prized dining area. Sonic himself went to the kitchen refrigerator and removed a can of Chao Soda. Funny, what happened to that twenty-four pack of Chaos Cola bottles that I bought a week ago?, he thoughtand then sat himself at the farthest end of the table from where they had come in. Tails wasted no time in claiming the seat at his bro's side as the new 'guests', Sonia and Manic, took the chairs opposite their hosts'.

"Sweet deal," the fastest thing alive proclaimed, which was his personal way of starting a meeting. "Now, I don't know exactly what's going on here, but I do know that you two are kind of invading my house." He expected an answer but, realizing that the two were doing nothing but staring at him in a way that made him almost as uncomfortable as Amy did whenever she was around, he added, "I'm not saying you guys are in trouble, I'm just saying that you better not have come through that portal to get my autograph." The two younger hedgehogs said nothing, but they did continue to gawk at Sonic.

"Hello? Why are you guys not saying anything? You looked pretty ready to make conversation back inside of Tails' lab…" It occurred to Sonic that the daylight shining through the kitchen windows might have forced them to stop talking, like vampires or something. I certainly hope that my random otherworldly sibs aren't vampires, he thought as he clicked open the soda and took a swig of it.

"It's just…" Sonia began as the pop fizzed.

"…you're just…" Manic continued.

"Awesome?" asked Sonic. " Awe-Inspiring? Too cool for my own good? Epic with a side of speed?"

"You're just so old." Manic emphasized, not actually being impressed by Sonic's appearance but referring to the difference in age. The last time he had seen Sonic, the blue hedgehog was twelve, like he and Sonia were (unbeknownst to Manic, Tails was also twelve, though the fox was tall for a Mobian his age which had made him assume that the fox was his elder).

With what Manic had said, Tails nearly fell to the ground laughing, managing only to stop himself from face-planting when his two tails rotated and defied gravity. The fox decided that if there was one thing Manic should be admired for, it was his sense of humor. It didn't occur to him that Manic might have been completely serious.

"What do you mean, 'old'?" Sonic grumbled angrily as the fox reseated. Tails' little hover trick had earned him a curious look from Sonia. Little did she know that he could not only levitate but fly with his twin tails as well, a trick he'd learned at a young age.

"Well, the last time I saw you, you were the same age as us…" Sonia said to her now much older brother, unpeeling her eyes from the flying fox.

"Last time I saw you two was never," Sonic countered. Manic and Sonia were actually not surprised by this whatsoever, having already heard him make this claim whilst they had feigned unconsciousness ("It was Manic's idea!" Sonia had claimed).

It was depressing that their own brother had no idea who they were, but the fact that Sonic was eight years older than they were left room to doubt the idea of the blue hedgehog they saw before them actually being their brother; massive portals and holes in logic such as that indicated that alternate dimensions or some mumbo-jumbo like that was involved with this whole confusing and chaotic ordeal. Sure, that explanation conflicted slightly with what Mephiles had told them, but who in the right mind would assume the destructive demon to be trustworthy?

Manic, in order to get confusion and chaos out of the way, moved to introduce himself with some of his old street rat flair, but was cut off by Sonia. "I," began the ex-aristocrat in a stuffy and overly dramatic fashion, hand moving over her heart, "am Lady Sonia Hedgehog of house Windermere, daughter of Queen Aleena and Princess of Mobius—where I come from, anyways," she ended quickly, realizing that her little spout of acting and throwing around of titles had earned her strange, disinterested looks from Sonic and Tails. She said 'where I come from' under the assumption that everyone else had reached the conclusion of alternate dimensions being a factor in these weird occurrences.

"Can I just say that that all sounded so fake?" quipped Sonic, and Sonia flinched backwards as he pronounced this opinion. Sonic leaned forward, looking thoroughly amused, and said "I mean, come on. My stuffy twin princess sister from another dimension? That's about as convincing as a guy's body being made of metal or a dude who can run faster than I can or something stupid like that." He turned his attention to Manic. "So if she's the princess, then who are you?"

The drummer shrugged in a very lax fashion and leaned further into his chair. "I'm just Manic, man. I drum." A single drumstick treated the table to a light beat that Manic figured wouldn't damage its expensive surface.

Sonic, legitimately impressed with Manic's response, snapped his fingers and looked back to his sister. "See? Now THAT'S how you introduce yourself! Cool..." Sonia, for all of her booksmarts, looked legitimately confused. Manic just smiled as if he knew some secret Sonia didn't when it came to charisma.

Out of the corner of his large Mobian eyes, Sonic saw Tails' strange expression. The look that Tails wore was one of suspicion, most likely being held because he had attributed Manic and Sonia with the fear-inducing lightning storm earlier… especially Manic and his hair. "So where are you from, Sonia and Manic?" asked the sidekick with tone matching his expression.

"A city called Robotropolis…" Sonia began. Sonic, in response to the location given, held up his hands in a halt signal.

"Now hold on just a sec'," he said. "I have visited Metropolis, Casinopolis, and I once went on a snowboarding vacation in the White Acropolis in Soleanna, but I haven't ever heard of an actual place called Robotropolis. And there's hardly any city on Mobius that I haven't visited." This claim put forward that Sonia's little backstory already had holes in it even though it had only been thus far developed with four words.

"Well, that further proves it!" Tails exclaimed. "You guys are from some other dimension; it's just as I theorized." Everyone aside from the fox sweat-dropped, as each of the hedgehogs had already made that conclusion in their heads. It was a 'No dip, Sherlock' kind of moment.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you also say that we might be from the future or something like that?" Sonia inquired genuinely.

"Well, if you had travelled here from the future, odds are that you would've known that you were traveling through time and you probably would've told us so," Tails explained. "But if it's alternative dimensional travel, that can tend to be a lot more random and unfocused. It could have very well happened to you while you weren't paying attention."

Sonic followed up on Tails' reasoning by saying, "The question is, 'what is it that you guys are doing here?' Or are you just lost with the whole dimension thing?

Manic shrugged. "Wish we knew. I mean, Sonia, Sonic and I—our Sonic, I mean—we've done the whole travelling to different worlds before. But this time was way different…"

"How so?" asked Tails, very interested to hear Manic's take on multiple dimensions, a subject that was difficult to research.

And thus came a long-winded explanation from the combined forces of Sonia and Manic, recounting the events of the Black Limbo (the mention of which immediately made Tails feel a lot sorrier for the pair than he had initially been when he had found out that they shared blood with his adoptive brother). Eventually, the tale wound its way back around into a recap of Manic and Sonia's life. Sonic and Tails sat and managed to listen through a brief retelling of how Manic and Sonia and the Sonic Hedgehog whom they had lived with had been dethroned, separated at birth by the tyrannical overthrow of their mother by Dr. Robotnik. You know, the whole 'Triplets born, the throne awaits; A seer warns of a deadly fate; Give up your children, separate; Bide your time, lie in wait!' shtick.

This story, despite being a recap, took nearly the entire day. Throughout the retelling, many little outbursts of sidetracked conversation managed to come about, such as how Sonic had burst out laughing at the naming of Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik as 'Robuttnik' ("Dude, I wish I'd have thought of that!"), or how Tails had fought off tears when he heard of how the royal triplets lost their foster parents to roboticization; family held a large amount of importance in Tails' book. When all was said and done, the sun was prepared to set and

"This whole thing is pretty messed up," Tails admitted as the sun strived for dusk, now almost ready to set. The fox kit, now fully convinced that Manic and Sonia were from an alternative version of reality thanks to the difference between the history that they had spoken of and the history he remembered. "But why would you guys have been randomly taken out of your world without any real reason?"

"Not even that creepy Mephiles guy could tell us that," Manic shrugged meekly.

"You know, Tails? I bet it all has to do with what Dr. Eggman did to the Chaos Emeralds," Sonic deduced.

"Yeah, probably," Tails agreed. "Speaking of which, Sonic, we really should make sure that we start repairing as many of them as we can before Eggman has a chance to recover from your last fight with him." Tails noticed that Sonia and Manic seemed a little left out of the loop, and explained, "Dr. Eggman is what we call our Dr. Robotnik here; he hasn't been able to take over the world yet because Sonic always stops him. He's honestly not as much of a threat as you made out the dictator from your universe, though—he's more of a wannabe mad scientist king."

"Gee, sounds like we got the short of the stick…" Manic sighed. Next to him, however, Sonia wasn't caring much for Dr. Robotnik, as she had picked out a much more pressing matter between what Tails had just explained to her.

"Did you say that the Chaos Emeralds needed to be 'repaired'?" asked the spiny princess.

"Yep," the mechanical genius simply responded. "After a big showdown between Sonic and the Doctor, all seven of the Chaos Emeralds got totally broken into pieces." The younger hedgehogs both felt the beginnings of a large amount panic begin to well up inside of them as Tails continued. "After it happened, they all got scattered across the continent. We only managed to get our hands on one." From what seemed to be thin air, Miles Prower pulled out his advanced custom handheld Miles Electric CPU, and set it to display a now-portable version of the map he had shown to Sonic back in the basement. It now showed some pinging areas over the major cities within the United Federation, where Tails had calculated that the Emeralds were. Sonia's eyes went wide as she realized that each of the Emeralds were effectively scattered across the entire northwestern hemisphere of Mobius, implying that collecting the remaining Emeralds would take more than a few days, even for Sonic.

Sonia blinked once and only once with her prettied up eyes as the screen of the CPU received an unfaltering stare. "Say, Manic? Whenever the Oracle of Delphius used to send us to alternative realities, wasn't it normally to help someone in need?" Manic shook his head a slow' yes' whilst giving the Miles Electric's geographical map. Looking at it, he saw a continent that looked like the one Robotropolis had sat upon, but noticeably geographically different. The map testified successfully to the idea of reality not being the same as Manic had once known.

Sonic, who had been steadily enjoying the flavor of Chao Soda, brought his can down upon the table, leaned forward and scrutinized his sister with one eye (One eye, two pupils). "Just what are you saying, 'sis'? Is there something we aren't getting here? Just what kind of 'help' are we in need of?"

"Back where we came from, there was an incident where a single Chaos Emerald got broken in halves." The aforementioned event was brought about when two of Robotnik's doofus mercenary lackeys became sick of working for the fat man and consequently tried their hands at overthrowing the Doctor's tyrannical power with an Emerald. The end result had not been good; as a matter of fact, breaking a single Chaos Emerald had initiated an emerald green lightning fueled, worldwide apocalypse.

Unfortunately, before Sonia could further elaborate upon her connection of broken emeralds to the end of the world, a violent knock—too loud to be made by anyone with a sense of restraint—snapped from the living room and made the entire group nearly jump from their seats. 'Snap' would have been an accurate term for the sound, as it had been more like the noise of a large plank of wood being split apart as opposed to the rapping noise one should hear when someone else is trying to receive permission to enter one's home. After the interruption of the sound, Manic and Sonia could hear the sounds of Flickies chirping from the distant outdoors as well as the crashing waves of the Emerald Coast—a long beach strand that bordered Emerald Town and Station Square. It made viable the idea that someone had opened Sonic's front door without permission.

"Oh, give me a break," Sonic said as the foreign noise froze the conversation's progress like the mountains of White Park Zone. He pushed his half-finished soft drink to the side and flattened his head against the table. "Tails, was that what I think it was?"

A relatively gruff and burly voice, one that neither Sonia nor Manic recognized but Sonic and Tails had heard on several occasions, came through what was presumably an open front door. "Oh, crud; I'm gonna have to pay for that," It muttered loudly before calling out, "Um, hello!? Sonic? Are you home man?"

Sonic glanced sideways to see that the fox had perfectly mimicked his own reaction to that sound and that voice, complete with the Miles Electric taking the place of his own Chao Soda. "Yes," moaned Tails. "That is exactly who you think it is—and yes, he did exactly what you think he did."

Getting up with a grumble from where he was sitting, Sonic made a purposeful stride at about 50 miles per hour and then exited the kitchen through an open doorway—there was no door in that doorway—which led to his living room and his front door. Manic and Sonia couldn't see where he was going, however, as the entryway was on the south wall while they were facing the west, such that they could only catch sight of the living room's carpet and couch. "Who is that supposed to be?" asked Manic to the remaining fox, referring to whoever the person outside was.

Tails didn't need to answer, as the red-hot, angry voice of Sonic flew in, plainly audible from the room that the blue blur had entered. "Seriously, Knuckles? Again? You broke down my front door! Again!" Sonic being angry at a friend was a bit out-of-character for him, but the quick-footed hedgehog had short patience and a quick temper. Breaking his property and home would be one of few things that warrant Sonic losing his cool.

Sonia's ears especially perked up at the name Knuckles. He was an echidna, she knew—a rare and dying-out species of Mobian who lived upon a floating island, protecting Chaos Emeralds from those who would misuse them. Once upon a time, Knuckles had helped halt the very Chaos Emerald Calamity that Sonia had been prepared to speak of before the door's breaking had interrupted her, and in doing so, the Emerald guardian had saved her from a fate worse than death. Even if Sonia was in some alternate world where people were older than normal, she would have loved to see him. Especially if he had a hunky voice like the one she had just heard…

"Hey, look. I'm sorry, okay?" the voice of the guardian of the greatest gemstone on Mobius returned. Although he was trying to acknowledge his mistake, he was still gruff and came off as unfriendly when he went about speaking. "I've been walking to your house from the Holy Summit for the past two hours just so I could tell you something important, and I guess that all that travelling must have made your little house rules slip my mind is all."

"SLIP YOUR MIND?!" Sonic yelled, sounding exasperated on top of temperamental. "Knucklehead, this is the eighth time that this has happened! Tails and I keep telling you not to knock with your fists; just kick the door or head-butt it or something. Just don't hit my wooden front door with the same fists that you use to smash through boulders!"

"Why don't you just get a stronger door so that this doesn't happen again?" suggested Knuckles with equal anger. Tails face-palmed in front of the hedgehog twins, thinking, How can anyone be so stupid as to suggest that?

"Are you nuts, Knux? I can't just go up to a hardware store and ask for a titanium door for my living room!" Sonic knew that from experience; he had done exactly as he had described last time Amy had tried to force him into a commitment, and he had been shot down. "Besides, I've seen you break open Eggman's robots before, so that wouldn't even make much of a difference."

"Whatever!" Knuckles dismissed an issue for once in his life. "I'll pay for the door! Just please let me in! There's something I need to tell them!"

"Fine!" Sonic gave up, though every iota of his entire spiky hide was telling him to turn his old rival back to the ancient mountain that the guardian had recently colonized. "Go to the kitchen while I get a screen or something to stop bugs from getting in through that door."

It was only a few seconds later that—at Sonic's request—a burly, red-furred Knuckles the Echidna, age 21, sauntered into the room with the opposite of a spring in his step. More like a tight-wound coil that would let him jump furiously upon the first person who opened their mouth. That person was Sonia, but she did not say a word to light the firecracker colored monotreme's volatile fuse; rather, her mouth hung open as she took in his appearance. She had been expecting a difference, but she was still relatively blown away by the way that his powerful—and angry—aura that she had known him for combined with his increased muscle mass. She also took notice of a very large and ancient looking scroll that was strapped to Knuckles' back, which more than likely contained some information that he wanted to share.

Sonic dashed back into the kitchen, having come from a shed in the backyard. He held a roll of flexible material that matched the color of his fur under his arms—the same covering that a contractor would use to cover up a hole. He had a pondering look upon his face, and asked Knuckles a single, short question. "Wait a minute, Knux. You said you needed to 'tell them something'…

"Yeah? So?" Knuckles was short and to the point.

"Well, who did you mean by 'them'?"

"Them, of course," said the strength-gifted newcomer amongst the Mobians, pointing a mitten-covered glove at the young hedgehog children presumed to be from another dimension. "Manic and Sonia," he said. "It's nice to meet you again."

Now, right about now, the question that ought to be doing an Irish jig upon your cranium right now should be something along the lines of "How in the name o' corn-flavored cough syrup does Knuckkels know who Manic an' Sonia be when Sonic did'un have no clue?" Is that how you country yodels talk, or am I mistaken? Ha! Never mind; I kid, I kid!

In all seriousness, though, this chapter displeases me. Majorly, that is because I had a lot of stress flow through me trying to force it-as opposed to having fun with writing it. But I feel that I've got some good plot points that could knock the socks off a hypertrophic squirrel... assuming that it was wearing socks, that is... anyways, I will not let a single somewhat un-satisfactory swaddle of script such as this sucker stop my writing attempts.

Ah, speaking of chapters, I think that I am going to halve the chapter size for a little while. I figure that if I increase my update rate, it will help with promoting this story. To be perfectly fair, I kind of post them two by two anyways- why not just post one every once in a while. The only actual downside of this is that I will probably only add Gerald's Personal Log every other chapter, because I don't want to advance that thing too fast.

Either way, thank you for the support, especially considering that you have read through -what is it?-about eighteen thousand words for my sake. Review if you feel the need to capitalize upon all of that reading that you've done, please! And if that's not enough for you, leave a review because my birthday is in a couple days as of the posting of this chapter. Happy preemptive birthday to me!

Auf Wiedersehen und bis spater!

-MasterMygrane

Oh, I suppose that I ought to clarify this: MasterMygrane is my alternative moniker that I may use should 'Mygrane' be unavailable, as well as my (currently empty) deviantart profile name. It has nothing to do with anything other than that. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I've some slime to cleanse from my person...