Jump 097: Sonic the Hedgehog Classic

Jump 097: Sonic the Hedgehog Classic

Location: The Little Planet
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+1000] Bad Future, The Eaten Time

[Free]      For The Love Of Money
[Free]      What A Weasel
[300/2000]  Bonus Stage
[700/2000]  Guardian Of The Master Emerald
[1300/2000] Power Enriched By The Heart
[1400/2000] Fly High, Gentlemen
[Free]      Smooth Criminal
[1700/2000] The Blessing Of The Little Planet
[2000/2000] A Forbidden Treasure

The Egg Council, aboard the Death Egg in orbit, the four of them looking down on the planet that they'd conquered. Facing his alternate selves - his optimistic past, his future failure and future success - the scientist reflected that it was nice to be able to finally hold an intelligent conversation. Each of them had an army, and his gathering and utilizing the time stones meant that he was able to not only freely travel between time periods but actually begin merging them together - which led to a blitzkrieg across the planet and its conquest. They were even able to abuse paradoxes to have their machine armies multiply their numbers.

Sure, there were some minor complications from breaking time itself, but overall it seemed to be going pretty well. Even that pest of a hedgehog and his sidekicks had been converted to robots, the pièce de résistance to their conquest. The Egg Empire truly had conquered Mobius for all time.

"There seems to be a problem," commented one of them. The one from the victorious future - whose robots had grown rusty and their weapons dull, complacent in victory. "We've picked up someone fighting back."

"I thought we'd dealt with everyone unwilling to live under us. No matter, send in the badniks, not even the hedgehog lasted against all of them at once," answered his past.

"I already took the liberty," answered his other future. "The problem is that we're picking him up in multiple time periods. All of them, in fact."

He rubbed his chin. He of the present truly needed to label his alternate selves better in his mind; surely they had already done so as well. "That seems curious. Did this one not bother to fight us in the distant past, only stepping up because Sonic didn't? No matter, we eliminate his past, erase his future..."

Bad Future shook his head and held up a hand, interrupting him. "Which of course was my first thought, except he survived the initial attack, and now he's everywhere. Which doesn't make sense, but... well, see for yourself." With a wave of his hand, holographic screens popped up. An individual in gold armor, a sword in one hand and a bulky rifle in the other, carving his way through armies.

All three of the others adjusted their glasses. "Strange... the sword, sure, I could see it, but where did he get that weapon? What even is it?" As one, they shrugged, and he continued, "Is it plasma? Certainly not MY technology. Did he create it himself? He seems to have it in all time periods. Doesn't seem to damage the animal within, but certainly does a number on the badnik's shell..."

As one, they looked up at the sound of a muffled explosion in the distance. Another screen popped up, this one aboard the Death Egg. "Hold on. No. How would he even have gotten up here? That doesn't even make sense-" Another explosion, as they watched him carving his way through the corridors, his gun destroying bulkheads, his sword carving into obstacles and opponents alike. "-and to hell with this, we need to throw everything at him, RIGHT NOW."

The screen cut to a dozen assorted metal-clad Sonics, Tailses, and Knuckleses charging at him as one, and they watched in disbelief as he nimbly dodged the attacks, redirecting them into each other, carefully disabling them without doing any apparent lasting damage. Past Eggman gaped, then looked at the other three. "Have none of you ever encountered him before?! This seems incredibly unlikely!" As one, they shook their head, and gaped as he seemed to be everywhere on every screen. "This is insane. Are these feeds live? This should be impossible!"

"Forget whether it's impossible, we need to prepare to fight him directly-"

A polite rapping sounded at the door to the Egg Council.

As one, every single version of the fighter turned to the cameras that were watching - over a hundred of them - and simultaneously spoke in a cacophonous chorus. "Little egg, little egg... LET ME IN."