Sonic AltVerse 0-1

=== Crossover ===

	Sonic wandered into a club as things had been a bit down recently. He hasn't been to this club before, but he visits new places sometimes as certain level of anonymity is afforded to to him being fast and going places where no one will recognize him. He ordered a drink at the main bar and after a few minutes took a few swigs.
	He looked around, a lot of unfamiliar faces, but something seemed a little off to him. He heard the types of songs which were playing, and noticed there were hardly any ladies in the club. He realized then that he wasn't really in a place he wanted to be, so he got up to leave. But, as he did so, something wasn't right, he stumbled, and made his way instead to the bathroom. There, he collapsed on the floor, and as he faded out, he heard what sounded like Eggman's voice echo in his mind "Not so fast are you now, eh, Sonic?!"
	He briefly regained consciousness laid over a toilet; held down by a heavy weight and tree-trunk like arms; he was unable to break free as they had their way with him. Afterwards he heard sobbing, as the person above him said, "Sorry, little hedgehog, I saw you laying there like that was unable to hold myself back." The person then backed off and collapsed on the floor in front of the sinks.

	As Sonic looked at the floor in his paralysis and shock, he saw something. A little square green jewel, which reminded him of one of the Sol Emeralds. He desperately reached out and grabbed the jewel, and a phrase was muttered as if by an outside force, "Chaos Control". Things flashed white in the release of energy and he again lost consciousness.

	When he awoke, he was on a medical bed. He had the room to himself, and there were cookies nearby. His rear-end still kind of hurt, as a painful reminder of what had happened. Someone had left cookies for him, which were at least a nice addition. They were freshly baked and with chocolate chips, the mild smell of baking filling the air.

	Not long after, he heard someone entering the room. At first he saw a robot, and he said to the robot, mildly confused, "Orbot? Is that you? You look different." The robot looked at him, unsure what to make of the question. The robot had a monocle-like eyepiece which he adjusted, but looked otherwise like a differently colored version of Orbot, with quadruped legs in place of a levitating half-orb.
	The other figure emerged from behind the curtain, and it was one of the last people Sonic hoped to see right now: It was Eggman. He looked about the same as normal, but his suit was clearly made of fabric, rather than its usual rubber-like texture with valves and ports.

	Eggman said to Sonic, "No, this is Dekkun; He is my medical robot and he treated, your, errm, extensive rectal lacerations. How did this happen? This isn't something any of my robots should have done." Sonic responded, "Well, it isn't really something I want to talk about right now, this is a much more, personal, sort of damage." Dekkun then says discretely to Eggman, "The damage appears to be due to anal penetration by a large feline." Eggman says, "Well, Oh! Get well soon. Oh yeah, Sara made the cookies; feel free to ask her if you need anything."
	Sonic responded, "Sara?" Eggman looked confused, "You know, Sara, my wife.", "I wasn't aware you were married.", "We met around the time I was working on Metal Sonic." Sonic asked, "Before or after kidnapping Amy on Little Planet?"
	"What? No, I was too busy with Sara and trying to get Metal Sonic working and never made it to little planet before it disappeared; and was unable to locate it after this. Amy is a bit of a thorn in my side, but I haven't had much of a reason to try to take her captive. The more distance I keep between me and her the better."
	Sonic says, "Yeah, tell me about it. She has been chasing me around for years, never wanting to give me time to be myself; A hedgehog's gotta be free you know." Eggman says, "Well, anyways, I sent Bokkun to inform Tails where you are."
	Sonic got up, and looked around. He didn't recognize the facility. It looked like Eggman's usual style, but the design was a little softer and cleaner than usual. There were the normal steel bulkheads, but they had colors which matched the walls, and a mild pastel color scheme rather than more military-themed color-schemes Eggman usually prefers.
	Sonic wandered along to see a lady in a kitchen baking some things. She looked almost human, apart from her large upright ears and long tail and a few other Mobian features. As she worked, her tail waved around, and her tail twitched and her ear turned when she heard Sonic approach.
	She looked at him and said to him, "I hope you are feeling better. Me and Ivo were worried about you after having found you in the forest." A young girl had been standing by the woman, and came over to him and said, "Hello, mister Sonic. I like seeing you, but you are always so busy with daddy." The girl looked also mostly human, but she also had ears on top of her head, pointy teeth, and vertical slit pupils.
	Sonic looked mildly confused, and the woman said to him, "I am sure you have met Runia before; She is me and Ivo's daughter." He then reached out and patted her on the head, noting her features. Sara spoke, "Some of our ancestral features re-emerged in her, but most of her ancestry is human. It can be tough in the world not being entirely one thing or another. It is easier to be accepted among Mobians, but humans often feel rather uneasy around those of us who are almost, but not exactly, like them. But, Ivo was different, he understands better the plight of those who are different."
	Sonic responded, "So, you are Sara I take it?"
	The woman then just stopped what she was doing, and looked at him with a concerned expression, "Yes. You know me."

	Tails then came in and ran up to Sonic, "Sonic! I missed you!" Sonic began to say "Oh, hey Tails." but before he could finish, Tails ran up and embraced him, and then then began kissing him. Sonic pushed Tails off, responding, "Tails?! What are you doing?!" Sara then broke in, saying to Tails, "Please forgive Sonic, he has been through a lot and hasn't quite been himself today. I will ask Ivo to check him over some more and see if maybe something has happened to his memory." Tails began crying, saying, "Sonic? I am so sorry. You are always in my heart, please come back to us!" Sara said to Sonic, "This may all seem a bit sudden, but please try to be considerate of her feelings.", Sonic then said quietly, "Her?", and Sara responded quietly, "Yes. Her name is Millie, and she is your fiance, in case you have forgotten this as well. She has been worried a lot about you as you have been missing for nearly a week."

	Sonic checked back with Eggman, who ran some more tests. "I see some residual effects of benzodiazepines, but nothing here that really seems sufficient to explain your apparent memory loss. Maybe try to take it easy for a while."
	Sonic walks out of the room, and Tails grabs his hand and rubs against his arm before stepping back. With some hesitation, Sonic says, "So, we really are together, right. If so, I guess it is OK." Tails then embraces him, and Sonic uses the opportunity to cop a feel; nothing seemed out of place, and so the story seems to check out. Tails backed off slightly, saying to him, "Not here; We can save that for later." Sonic then asked quietly, "So, you were always this way; female I mean.", "Yes... What else would I be?"; "In the version of things I remember, you were a guy."; "Well, no, but I could try to role-play one if that is what you are feeling into."; "No, that's OK."

Sonic and Tails then left and returned home, or at least what Tails said was home. They were apparently living together, but nothing looked familiar to Sonic, like a life he apparently lived but could not remember. He then had some quality time with Tails, even if this seemed a little awkward to him. He then went out to look around some and try to clear his mind.
	She looked like the Tails he knew, but was also different somehow. She smelt different, and felt different; the way she spoke and acted was not like the person he remembered.

	Wandering around, he encountered some hostile-looking robots, "Finally! Something familiar around here." As he ran along, he noticed that there were no rings, and the robots were not so easily broken. His attempts might knock a robot over slightly, but it quickly rights itself and nothing he does seems to do much damage to them.

	Shadow came out, saying to him, "What the hell are you doing? These aren't like Eggman's Robots; We don't make these things out of cardboard boxes for your misguided sense of entertainment or something."

	A moment later, Amy came out. She was dressed a bit differently than usual, wearing a dark crimson skirt which hung down flat against her legs and was wearing large black rings on her wrists. She was swinging her hammer around casually, rather than summoning it mostly when needed for an attack. Likewise, instead of her usual red shoes, she was wearing tall black leather boots. There were some sockets on her skirt similar to those on Eggman's battle suit, likewise with some cables visible running from the sockets to her back and tightly secured against her clothing, and she had a large green jewel mounted to her chest in a socket with some of the cables emerging from it. On her back between her shoulders is a largish metal box with cables running into it and a slight glow with faintly visible sparkles. It appears to be mounted to the back of her shirt, but he isn't entirely sure.

	She said, "Heeey, Sonic!", and then proceeded to lift up her skirt in his direction, and suggestively rubbed and fondled herself before saying, "I know you want this! But. You know what? You can't have it!" During this time, Shadow snuck around behind Sonic, and threw a bag over his head and they dragged him off to their base.

	Sonic then found himself restrained in a room. The room was poorly lit, and he was strapped down to some sort of medical chair. Its construction was similar to that of a dentists chair but with restraints on the arms and legs, and was hinged such that it could be reclined or reconfigured into a gurney.
	After a little while, Amy entered, and Sonic said to her, "Amy?! Please let me go!" Amy responded, "Quiet, at least for right now. Maybe I lied, just a little, but to be honest it is something I want as well. Here, let me give you a little something." She then walked up and shoved a pill into his mouth, added some water, and forced him to swallow.
	She then bent down and began kissing him, and he was unable to resist or fight back. After a few moments of this, she then began to crawl on top of him, and fiddled with the levers to change the position of the chair into a more comfortable position.
	She continued to make out with him, and as she did so he began to feel a bit flushed; something didn't feel right, but his inhibitions began to fade a little.
	She straddled him, and lifted her skirt over him. Beyond his control, he rose to the occasion. She said, "That's a good boy." as she positioned herself over him and used her hands to direct him into her. She then rode him, tightly gripping his shoulders. She would rise up, and each time she thrust herself down against him, he could see her breasts bounding beneath her shirt. As much as he didn't want to, he also couldn't stop, like everything was happening on automatic. As she pressed herself tightly against him, clenching tightly around him with her thighs, he felt himself release inside of her, and he couldn't deny that the experience was at least in some sense pleasurable.
	Unlike the Amy he remembered, this Amy had crazy eyes and a much more stern and militaristic demeanor, but at this moment she looked a little more satisfied and leaned down and kissed him, looking at him with the more caring and love-struck eyes of the Amy he remembered. He remembered the Amy from his world, and in this moment could feel how she felt for him, now wishing he could return to her rather than always running away. Amy then sat there for a moment, leaning against him with a tranquil expression, before getting off and cleaning herself up, and with her expression starting to return to how she looked before.
	She then said quietly to him, "You better not tell Shadow or Maria about this, if you do, I will not let you off again so easily."
	She then started to loosen his restraints and said, "Wait until I have gone out of the room, then make it look like you managed to break free of the restraints on your own. Run free and don't look back."

	Sonic then manages to get away and head back to Tails' place, before collapsing at the door, fading out as he hears Tails saying "Sonic? What's wrong?!". He awakens to familiar faces, Tails looking concerned, and Eggman and Dekkun having made a house-call and running more tests. Eggman said discretely, "You had a bit of a party last night it seems." Sonic responded, "It wasn't by choice, I was captured and forced to comply by Amy." Eggman, "Yes, I understand. I figured as much, please be careful out there." Sonic, "I ran into some robots, but I was unable to destroy them, and there were no rings or power-ups around.", "Well, you see, I built my robots for you, they are meant to be broken. Likewise for the rings and items; Someone had to put them there. Maria, however, doesn't have quite the same sentiment, and builds her guard robots a bit more durable."
	"Maria?", "Yes, my cousin. She was seriously wounded in the evacuation of the Space Colony Ark. As she held on for life, my grandfather, Gerald, subjected her to an experimental Roboticization treatment under development by his assistant Charles the Hedgehog. In the process, she was transformed into a cyborg, with much of her body now robotic, and while still alive she wasn't quite the same after this. She was cold and angry, and has spent much of her life working to overthrow GUN. Shadow soon joined her cause, and Amy was recruited fairly recently but quickly rose up through the ranks, now second only to Shadow."
	Sonic responded, "In the version of events I remember, Maria had died in the evacuation, and it was you who had devoted your life to overthrowing GUN."
	Eggman, "Well, I had been on her side early on, knowing full well some of the atrocities GUN has been responsible for; both to our family, and for the large scale genocide perpetrated against the Mobians in the Acorn War. When I met Sara though, things changed. She is the daughter of the former president of the United Federation, and herself part Mobian, and she was able to help me establish a more diplomatic relationship with them and was able to help negotiate an end to some of GUN's more genocidal policies. This put me at odds with Maria, and since then things have been a bit more tense with her."
	Sonic asks, "Acorn War?", and Eggman responds, "At one time there was a country known as Acorn with Mobotropolis as its capital. Much of the population was Mobian, with humans as a minority. When I was younger, Maria and I fled the UF and later fought alongside Acorn in a war against a neigboring aggressor. This nation, however, was able to appeal to the UF and to GUN, and from this point onwards Acorn faced a crushing defeat. As retribution, much of the population of Acorn was rounded up and exterminated at the hands of GUN, with Mobians having been seen by most of the human military leaders as vermin. After the war, those who survived formed isolated communities and have lived in the shadows; slowly emerging again as the war begins to fade from memory."
	"Maria was not so forgiving, having her seen her life at multiple times torn apart at the hands of GUN; First aboard Ark, and then with the destruction of Acorn. In the aftermath, she helped protect and hide many of the remaining Mobians, forming her own personal army. Likewise, the roboticization process which saved her life is frequently used to help save others."
	Sonic, "Yeah, this is not, exactly, how I remember things going down..." Eggman continues, "You should be greatful though, as without her actions you and Tails would probably would not be here today; we can just mourn for those we could not save."
	Sonic begins to be a bit skeptical, him clearly remembering a world where things went at least a little differently, but he keeps it to himself still lacking a good explanation for how it is that Tails is now female, and the awkwardness of getting loved up on by someone who had until recently mostly just been his nerdy sidekick.

	Bokkun then arrives, "Sir, Vanilla reports that Sonic has been captured by Amy and Shadow and is being held at Maria's base." Eggman, "This is old news, as you can see, Sonic is right here.", Bokkun continues, "No, it isn't quite so simple. Sonic made an escape attempt some time last night, but Amy was able to recapture him and he is still being held there. Here is some footage from earlier this morning." Bokkun pulls a tablet from his bag, and on the tablet is the medical table, with another Sonic restrained on it. He is drugged and looks as if he has been beaten. In this state, he mutters to himself, "Millie, please forgive me!", at which Amy walks over and hits him.
	Tails begins to tear up, as if realizing the Sonic she has been with the past few days was not her Sonic, but rather an impostor. Eggman has this thought as well, and restrains Sonic as Dekkun pulls a machine out of a bag. The machine scans Sonic, as Dekkun also takes a blood sample. Dekkun reports back, "Well, biologically and anatomically at least, this is Sonic. He is not a robot, and he is not a replicant." Dekkun pulls some more machines from his bag, and continues to analyze the sample, and continues, "However, his Chaos signature and medical profile don't exactly match the expected values." Eggman begins to release Sonic, realizing already the conclusion. Dekkun continues, "By all evidence, he is Sonic, however, he is not /our/ Sonic. He appears to have used Chaos Control to come here from an alternate universe; I will presume that the other Sonic is probably the one native to our world."
	The group then begins organizing a plan for how to go about rescuing the other Sonic and how to go about getting him back to his home universe.
	Eggman says, "I didn't realize it at the time, but when we found you, I also found this." He then pulls the small green emerald from his pocket and analyzes it with his glasses, and continues "I will presume this is how you got here. Is this what Chaos Emeralds look like in your world?" Sonic responds, "No, I thought it was a Sol Emerald.", "No, it is not a Sol Emerald either, it is something different. But, I think we can use this to get you back to where you came from." Eggman then assembles a machine and adds the emerald to it, saying to Sonic, "After we get our Sonic back, you can use this machine to return from where you left."

	They then go and break into Maria's base. Along the way they are blocked by Bunnie. She enters the room, still half robot, with a beam cannon equipped as an arm, looking well prepared for a fight. Tails pleads with her, "We don't need to do this; we were friends once; I just want my Sonic back." Vanilla also emerges and pleads with Bunnie, "Hey, sis, you know keeping him prisoner isn't right; I just came from talking with auntie Maria about this matter. Please step aside."
	Bunnie recognizes Tails' pain, and in sympathy decides to step aside. She shows confusion on seeing the other Sonic, and Eggman says, "Don't mind him, he is just here from another timeline."
	Vanilla joins the group, and Sonic asks her, "Auntie?", and she responds, "Well, yes. Me and Bunnie are also members of the Robotnik family; Maria is our aunt and Gerald was our great-grandfather.", "But, you are also Mobian?", "Well, we are mixed, yes. You can't always tell what someone is just by looking at them."

	They enter the room where the other Sonic is being held, and Shadow looks at them rather confused. Eggman says, "You know, this isn't cool; just give us Sonic and we will be on our way, we're sure Maria will understand." Shadow doesn't buy in, and prepares for a fight. Maria's voice then echoes over a loudspeaker, "Shadow, stand down, this fight is unnecessary." Shadow then answers back, "Very Well." and backs away from the table.
	An alternate version of Amy then grabs Sonic off to the side behind some machinery, and says to him, "Well, it is nice seeing you again, too bad we couldn't have met under more favorable conditions, maybe then we could have enjoyed our time together a little more."
	Sonic asks, "What is the meaning of all this?" She responds, "Well, at the time, I had already captured the other Sonic, but I didn't tell the others for, well, personal reasons; but then I had a problem of how to explain it to Maria that I had been keeping him locked up without telling her. So, I planted a little jewel, and set a few things up, and you came along, giving my past self the opportunity to perform a little, substitution."
	"You were responsible?!", "Well, yes, I knew the times and I knew the places, I just had to put the means within your reach. I once waited for you on Little Planet, but you never arrived; however, while I was there, another means presented itself.", "The time stones?", "Yes, I just had to harness their energy, and synthesize some replicas. However, even with them in my possession, a limitation to their use presented itself.", "You can't change things in your own past.", "Yes, try as I may, I couldn't change anything as to how I, myself, arrived at that point in time space. However, if I bring in someone from the outside, then from that point forward I am more free to act, as their history doesn't depend on my own, and I am more free to model the flow of time."
	Amy continues, "Another version of myself had tried to change her past, to bring the other Sonic back after he had died in her care; but this series of events had led to a disasterous result." Sonic, "Somehow it is as if I already know, by trying to travel back in time and to save that version of me by using the roboticizer, you then created a paradox which resulted in the black sand." Amy, "Yes, but in a strike of luck this anomaly had corrected itself, erasing that whole timeline from existence, and allowing this version of the timeline to emerge in its place."

	Sonic, "What about, the, /other parts/." Amy, "Well, I got what I wanted." She then rubs her belly and smiles at him, he looks and sees that it is bigger than before. Amy continues, "Even if you leave, in a way, we are still together. Even if you try to erase our moments together, it will not work; the result of our union is sealed in history. My other self is hopeful, but doesn't yet know the outcome of this series of events; but I have already seen our children and grandchildren and the generations to follow. You have already met one of them, even if not in the best of circumstances."
	Amy then lifts her hands and puts them on his. Sonic notices that she is wearing gloves with big blue circles on them, having a strange sense that he has seen gloves like this before. He says to her, "Silver?", and she responds, "Yes". She then leans over kisses him; after which she closes her hand and disappears.
	Sonic then returns to the others. The other Amy had been protesting the other Sonic's release, but ultimately conceded that this is what Maria wanted.

	Sonic, now knowing of the future, looked at her and smiled. She then calmed down somewhat and became a little more cheerful that at least one of the Sonic's had acknowledged her. He started trying to lift his hand to point, but his hand ghosted and he found he was unable to do so, so he left it at that.

	Maria then came down from her office on another floor. She looked as if the years had not treated her well, but otherwise had a relaxed expression. She looked a bit older, with visible wrinkles and graying hair. She had metal arms which look as if they have seen a lot of use and battle damage over the years. She was wearing a faded blue dress with a mildly noticeable floral pattern, and had metal feet which looked otherwise like human feet, and was wearing thick sandles made of vulcanized rubber.
	As she entered the room, Shadow went over and stood by her side, him living his life as her loyal companion. She looks over and is disturbed after seeing the poor condition of the other Sonic up-close, and then says, "We have no reason to be fighting amongst ourselves. We may not all agree, but there is a greater enemy more deserving of our attention." She looks at Eggman, and her expression saddens slightly. She continues, "Remember our friends and family who have been lost at the hands of GUN: Our grandfather, Gerald; Charles Hedgehog, without whom some of us would not be here today, many of our friends who had fled Acorn during the fall of Mobotropolis; and so many others. Why, Ivo, do you continue refuse to stand with us in the fight against those who have caused us so much pain?" Eggman responds, "Not everyone is bad; What good is there in fighting an endless war for sake of a few bad actors? Those who had led the extermination are now in prison for their crimes, and mobians and humans now coexist relatively peacefully.", "But they, and us by extension, are still outcasts within human society.", "But Sara's father was part mobian and he was able to be elected president; Do you think he would have approved of the extermination of his ancestral homeland? Would anyone have voted for him if they all felt he should have been exterminated among them as well? He was like us, and able to work for change from within the system."


	After arriving back at Tails' house, they laid down the other Sonic, and he received immediate medical attention from Eggman and Dekkun. Tails looked at him and smiled, before returning his attention to the other Sonic.
	Dekkun continued analysis, and said to Eggman, "Sir, the molecular signature on the benzodiazepines matches those found in the other Sonic; it is within a high level of probability that both originated from the same batch." Eggman, "Interesting, what do you think is the likelihood that it was from identical batches in each universe?", "Extremely unlikely, sir."

	After this, Sonic used the machine Eggman had built, and with a flash found himself back in the bathroom to the club. The toilet was broken, and the walls to the stall had been bent outwards.


	The person, now revealed to be Big the Cat, then backed off, collapsing to the floor and crying, both over the loss of Froggy and his guilt over what he has done to one of his friends. He hadn't been quite the same after losing Froggy in the fight with Perfect Chaos.
	He continued, and Big said to himself, "Oh, Froggy, how do I miss you. The times we had, why did I have to lose you?"

	Sonic walked over to Big, and said to him, "Its OK man, head home." as he put his hand on Big's shoulder. As he did so, a ghost trail appeared from the sink heading towards Big, and then a frog materialized in mid air and landed in Big's lap. Big explained "Froggy!", then looked mildly confused, before saying "Come on, little Froggy, let's go home!".
	As he had planed to do initially, Sonic was able to walk out of the club, everything the same as it had been when he left; the drink he had ordered still on the bar, and the same people still dancing on the dance floor.

	He then returned home, and his version of Amy then ran out to greet him exclaiming "Sonic!" and hugging him. As she did so, he leaned over and kissed her, and she looked blissful, as he was in this moment seemingly acknowledging what she had been hoping for all these years. He reached down and grabbed her, and she initially seemed a little shocked, but she decided to accept it.


=== Amy and Little Planet ===


	Many years prior, Amy had a prediction that she would encounter her future on Little Planet. She ventured to Never Lake and waited. As expected, Little Planet appeared, but no one was around; and after waiting a number of days she was tempted to leave.

	As she was considering leaving, she saw sparkles raining down in the grass near where she was sitting. She started grabing them up, and then found she had a small handful of them. Realizing her time there was almost up without ever finding what she was looking for, she put her fist up to her face and started to cry in frustration. As she lowered her hand, she found herself and a lot of her camping supplies and tent now in a field on the planet overlooking the lake, though in a state of disarray due to whatever had brought them there. She then reorganized organized the campsite, but then realized that she was stuck there and had gone through most of her supply of food. She then went exploring, finding seeds and berries, testing and tasting them in an attempt to identify what was safe to eat, while still keeping a watch out for the one she was destined to meet.

	As she waited there, she saw trails, like ghostly shadows of the person she was waiting for. She saw him fighting ghostly robots, which would release seeds which would, unlike the apparitions, slowly turn from ghostly plants into ones she could touch. She then began to gather seeds from the plants, and follow the shadows.

	She saw the shadow hit a signpost and then run and disappear. Trying to do similar, she hit the post and ran as fast as she could, but couldn't seem to get going fast enough. She then hit a sled which flung her forwards at a high speed, which was seemingly enough. She then found herself somewhere different, but could see the one she was following. This time, things were different; he was no longer a ghostly apparition, he was actually here. The robots were here as well, but she could pretty quickly dispatch them with her hammer. She ran, trying to catch up with the elusive person, now revealed to be Sonic.

	As she caught up with him, he looked at her, confused, and as she ran towards him he then ran off. She then found a metal box projecting an image of a metal version of him, which she smashed in frustration. After she caught up with him again, now frustrated and feeling a bit starved, she rushed forwards and tried to grab him, but as she grabed on to him he broke apart and turned into a cloud of smoke. Where he was standing though, she found several large jewels, which were something which remained solid after he was gone. She picked up the jewels, and then after swinging around one of the poles found herself back by her camp.

	She rested, and ate food, and got back at it, trying to talk to him but with similar effect; seemingly any direct interaction causing him to return to being smoke. But, in doing so, she managed to amass a pile of seven jewels, after which any more he was carrying would disappear along with him.

	She put the stones in a blanket and then carried them with her. She reached for a smoke trail again, but this time, it became real. She then tried to catch up with him by bringing things from the smoke world into hers, but as she would run past they would return to their form as animated smoke. She was able to grab Sonics wrist and yank him into her reality, him looking around perplexed as his world was seemingly melting into smoke and he was being held in place by a rather frustrated looking Amy who from his perspective had just materialized out of thin air and was now holding his arm. She could also see Metal Sonic capturing another version of herself, and the confused Sonic looks back and forth, torn between two worlds and not sure what to make of this. He struggles, and she lets go, him chasing after the other version of her and returning back to his world of smoke.

	A few other times, she was able to briefly join their world, often only finding glimpses of Metal Sonic. She was able to cross over and ran into Eggman, who was assembling some machinery with the help of robots.
	She approached him, and he took notice of her. He said to her, "Amy? How did you get out of your cage? No matter, can't really have you roaming around freely, now can I." Metal Sonic approaches her and tries to grab her, but she doesn't want to deal with this. She lifts her hand towards him and Metal Sonic is propelled backwards, hitting a wall and then poofing into a cloud of smoke. Eggman looks bewildered and flies off in his Eggmobile. As he does so, the scenery and all the robots and machinery begin to break down and return to being smoke.
	This whole place to her has become an unending series of bad dreams, the shiny stones seemingly the only things she has there which are real, allowing her to roam freely from place to place, but everything seems to come back to this one spot; An empty grassy field surrounded by dense vegetation.

	She returns back to her camp, making a fire to lite up her campsite in a world which has now gone some time from being a scenic view over a lake to being somewhere inside an empty black void. The world isn't completely dark, as there is a faint glow from the various areas, and a faint pulsing light surrounding the planet in the darkness.

	How long has she been there? She starts to forget, not keeping count of the days. After the sky went dark, she no longer knows when it is day or night. The planet tries to remember, briefly showing glimpses of various locations in the sky, before returning to the starless night sky of the void. Her tent is now in tatters, and her original supplies have long since exhausted.
	She misses having a real bed, as she has been sleeping on a bed made of flower stalks and vines. She misses having real food, resorting to seeds and berries and fruit. She wants to eat meat freely, but has a hard time bringing herself to taking the lives of the animals there, and even when she tries they too are often illusions made of smoke.

	Feeling rather disappointed and discouraged in this lonely place, she wrapped herself in a blanket while holding the stones and wished she were back home.

	At this moment, she found herself back on the grass on the shores of Never Lake, with her past self still sitting on the blanket and wishfully up at Little Planet. Amy thinks to herself "Oh how naive she is, If only I can tell her maybe she at least can be spared from all this?!".
	She goes over by her past self, who seems unable to percieve her. She yells and waves at her, but is unable to get her attention. As she walks past her past self, part of her blanket brushes against her past self's tent.

	At the point of contact, the blanket starts to unravel and leak sparkles, burning up much like a lit fuse, and Amy then has a sudden sense of fear that if she doesn't get away from there right away she could be next, and it isn't her past self which will turn to smoke this time.

	She then quickly drops her blanket and runs away. As the blanket hits the ground and the other Amy leans over and touches it, the burning blanket now starting to cross within her field of perception. It then starts rapidly burning up and raining down as a shower of sparkles and releasing a big cloud of smoke in the process. The other Amy takes notice, and begins grabbing up the sparkles from the disintigrated parts of the blanket up off of the ground. The past Amy then cries and disappears taking the rest of her camp with her as if she had never been there.

	Amy returns home, and finds that luckily there are no longer any ill effects from touching things, and she has missed having a house well stocked with food. Back from her trip, she still has the stones, and she begins to investigate their properties.
	Her life mostly returns to normal, with no one believing the story of her experience, as from her perspective she was only gone for a few days.

	After seeing the helplessness of her other self, she focused much more intensively on her combat skills and stealth. Summoning her hammer at whim, and getting into and out of places undetected.


=== Amy Joins Up ===

	Some time after her experience on Little Planet she goes to Station Square intending to move there.
	While looking around the town, she encounters Sonic and Millie-Tails making out on a park bench. She doesn't know how long they have been there, but they appear to be having a good time amongst themselves. Tails smiles and giggles at Sonic, who likes to lightheartedly joke around. Sonic catches a glimpse of her but doesn't pay much attention to her, as her mind wanders back to her time chasing after his ghostly apparitions.
	She goes up to to them being a bit annoyed, and Sonic looks at her confused as from his perspective he had never seen her before. Sonic and Tails then run off, stopping down the street a ways as Tails was disturbed by this. They talk about it some, and Sonic reassures Tails, who then starts giggling some. They then head back to Tails' place.

	Amy proceeds to sit on the bench, and after a while meets and starts up a conversation with Vanilla, who eventually reveals that she is part of a group fighting for mobian rights and invites Amy to go along. After some hesitation, she agrees to it, and meets Maria and Shadow there, who had been organizing the group mostly as a means to recruite new members, with Vanilla mostly serving as a social face and to pre-screen those who may be sympathetic to their cause, while still coming off as a nice friendly and relatable person, which was a role that Maria and Shadow couldn't pull off nearly as well.

	Amy figured out their aims pretty quickly, but went along with it anyways. She initially served indirectly under Bunnie; but with her determination and combat skills quickly gained a high position of authority within their group.
	She would complete what missions were given to her, quickly, effectively, and by any means necessary.

	Not every mission was a success though. Amy was assigned a target with few details given. She was to take out otherwise unremarkable human woman; No obvious political or scientific standing, no clear reason given for why they wanted her dead.
	She infiltrated their mansion complex, making her way to the kitchen. There, a heavy-set maid was cooking, and then went to check on something in another room. The task was simple enough, she was to spike the food with a neurotoxin. Its results would go mostly unnoticed, the woman would become drowsy and would then pass away as she slept. The toxin was specially designed to be keyed to her genetic sequence, leaving the rest of the family uneffected.

	As she was about to go through with it, someone had stopped her. An elderly man came up to Amy and said to her, "I know why you are here, and I was sent here to ask of you to reconsider.", "What, by who?", "By you, or at least a version of you. All I can really say to that is that things will not turn out well for you if you go through with this.", "What reason do I have to believe you?", "He then lifts his sleeve to reveal one of her stones strapped to his wrist with some cables comming off and going up his arm from a more advanced version of a socket she had been working on.", "I know you should recognize this."
	He took her into another room, where the family was sitting, including a slightly younger version of the old man. The family could not see either him or Amy. A child was with them, and was seemingly upset and went to the woman, who said to him, "There, there, Christopher, mommy is here for you."
	The man says to Amy, "Chris needs his mom, and in time you will have a need both of them." Amy asks, "Who is she, exactly?", and the man responds, "Lindsey Thorndyke; Or at least that is her name now. Who she is, is a well kept secret. You were sent here, mostly because Maria fears what could happen if this came out publicly, and would rather have her eliminated. I am here to tell you though that doing so will not lead to a favorable outcome, and there are other ways to keep her hidden.", "But, what is her secret?", "She is the elder daughter of Ivo Robotnik, one whose existence has been kept hidden from him. She is a relic of the past, and if her existence becomes known, it is feared that Dr. Snively may attempt to use her as leverage against the movement."
	He then checks something on his arm, and says to her, "We must get going now. Our time here is almost up." Amy asks, "Who are you?", "In time, I will be an ally, but for now you can simply call me Chuck." He then backs off and disappears into a cloud of smoke, and as he does Amy starts to become visible to the family. They begin to look in her direction, not quite sure what they are to make of the moving and slowly forming distorion in their living room. She runs off and jumps and phases right through a wall, managing to get out of view before she begins to visibly materialize; albeit with a partially formed image of her running off having been captured on a security camera.
	When running, she stumbles and hits against a wall on the outside of the premisis, her realizing she has now become completely solid, and she no longer has enough energy to go back into stealth mode. She then uses the less graceful strategy of running and swinging her hammer into the ground to propel herself into a leap over the fence.
	As she escapes, she hears the alarm system for the mansion complex going active, and security personel then begin a search of the premisis.

	After getting back to base, Amy reports indirectly that the mission was compromised and that someone was waiting there to stop her, but without going into some of the other details. Maria then suspects that someone may already know of the secret and their plans may have been leaked. Maria then decides to lay low on the matter to better assess the situation.

	Amy's stealth ability was based on discovering that the time stones could be used to alter the phase angle of matter around them. An angle of 15-20 degrees would typically turn an object transparent or invisible, and 25-30 degrees could make an object non-solid. If you can phase a person 15-degrees one way, and the wall 15 degrees the other, then at the point they collide they will pass through each other; While a person at 15 degrees will still be solid to the ground underneath their feet if the ground remains at 0 degrees.
	Pushing an object to 90 degrees would make it unable to interact with normal matter, causing it to fall into the ground under the force of gravity (this being about the only force which still applies to it).
	Pushing a phase angle beyond 90 degrees tends to result in crazy or destructive properties, with a 180 degree angle things will anihilate on contact.
	Similarly, excerting a torque on the stone via a rotating magnetic field would cause a corresponding change in the phase of nearby matter. This could then be created using field coils and driving a 3-phase signal at several kHz, which could be accomplished using the driver circuit from an electric motor.
	Due to the special properties required, the coils were created by weaving a number of turns of magnet wire through a large number of paperclips and twist-ties held together with a generous helping of metalized epoxy.
	She doesn't like to admit it, but there is a certain cleverness in Eggman's engineering style, able to find the special properties of everyday materials. Who else, she things, when trying to help her design a cloaking devise, would start by pouring out a box of paper clips onto a table, and then stacking and visualizing how the fields will transfer between them.
	But, at the same time, she remembers how easy his robots typically are to defeat. Then again, many of them are built using a wood skeleton held together with hot-glue; the outer chasis often being made out of wood or cardboard and contact laminant. Many are built more to be more impressive-looking in numbers than actually difficult to defeat.
	Then she has a moment of doubt, realizing that about the only thing standing between her and anihilation is the specific magnetic proprties of a mass of paperclips gobbed together with glue. In places where Eggman was involved, this basically means hot-gluing all the wiring and hot gluing the housing as well. What if, in an intense mission, the time-stone gets hot enough to melt the glue bonds holding it into place, or there is a structural problem with some of the 3D printed platic parts? Well, these are things she doesn't really like to consider.


== Long Ago ==

	In a time long ago, there was a young adult male by the name of Ivo Kinto. He lived with his mother, Bertha Kinto, in subsidized housing in Station Square. His father had left them, as there was only so much he could handle of Bertha's heavy drinking, poor temperment, and paranoia.
	Ivo was working on being an amatuer scientist, trying to live up to the memory of his grandfather Gerald, who had died in prison some years earlier after having been accused of treason during his time working for the UF Government. Bertha had not taken Gerald's death well, and this had contributed some to her drinking problem.
	At the time, Ivo had a girlfriend named Mary Fair, who he spent time with when he wasn't working on building robots. Unlike him, she didn't quite see the appeal of the robots, though things did get serious between them a few times.
	For him, building the hardware wasn't that difficult, as he had access to a nearby scrapyard. From there, he was able to scavenge up a good supply of motors and scrap-metal, and had a lathe and milling machine which he had managed to cobble together from random junk.
	Making an AI for the robots was a little harder though, as while normal processors and software could do a lot of the heavy lifting in operating the robots and processing commands, they were still lacking something. He observed that, even small animals, while not able to do much cognitively, were able to demonstrate abilities that AI could not, to understand their surroundings and respond in a way appropriate to what was happening.
	He did a little experiment, capturing a squirrel and partially integrating it with the AI of a robot. Its sensory experience became that of the robot, and its desires for movement were fed back into the AI. A mostly non-invasive mechanism was used to both scan and stimulate neurons, allowing its mind to be virtually integrated with an artificial neural net, which was in turn connected to conventional code and signal processing. A life support system was used which supplies oxygen and nutrients via IV while also filtering out waste via dialysis, allowing the animal to be kept in place without needing to eat or excerete waste (its body largely encased in a shell made of open-cell urethane foam). Over time, it would atrophy and die, but this wasn't seen as a critical issue.

	In the first tests, the squirrel's mind dominated over the AI, and the squirrel-controlled robot went into a panic over its new-found situation amd the relative trauma it underwent. Ivo was then able to fine-tune the AI, to pacify the captured animal and supress its emotions. With the animals' emotions sufficiently suppressed, the AI with its more regular and insistent patterns was able to take over. Its mind might try to fight back, but its machine parts would always return to the task at hand, and eventually the animal's mind will start to give in and become one with the machine.
	Feeling rather pleased with himself, Ivo brought Mary over, and explained to her much of the technology involved, including showing some pictures of the squirrel laying unconscious in is foam prison with IV lines going into its limbs, and wires going into the rubberized cap which was glued to its head. He then proceeded to carry on a brief conversation with the robot, explaining that while it is the machine doing the speaking, it is the animal which is responsible for comprehending these thoughts, and to convert these thoughts into the desired behavior.
	Mary, however, was much less optimistic, as he had by this action crossed the line from merely being a bit nerdy, to being, as she had seen it, someone a bit more greusome and cruel. After this point, things fell apart, and Ivo didn't really see or hear from her after this.

	Ivo home situation continued to deteriorate, and he then went to move in with his older cousin Maria Robotnik and her servant Shadow, who was off living in Mobotropolis within the Kingdom of Acorn. There Ivo befriended a mobian known as Charles the Hedgehog, who had been an assistant to Gerald Robotnik. Maria had been living with him as, after their return to Earth, he continued working on trying to devise a cure to NIDS.
	While Charles wasn't able to devise a cure, he was able to devise a workaround, which was a process known as Roboticization. While the neurons couldn't be repaired, many of them could be replaced, with the machine able to use nanomachines to rebuild parts of the body with artificial replacements. While basically functional, the machines were difficult to control precisely, and would often replace large areas with artifical replacements.
	Charles had begun testing the process on animals, and was able to get the process to work, usually, without resulting in the death of the animal. He kept cages of roboticized animals around for observation, monitoring them for ill effects. He also had been investigating biological cures for NIDS, and while these were not effective as such, they were effective at reducing the adverse side effects of the roboticization process.
	Over time, Maria's situation continued to deteriorate, and he was forced to use it on her. Maria survived, but because by this point she had suffered extensive damage to her nervous system, much of her body ended up being roboticized. She was alive, but bitter, that maybe had Gerald still been alive, he may have been able to come up with a less drastic cure. After Maria, the process was also applied to Maria's half-mobian niece, Bunnie Rabbot, who had also inherited the condition.

	Ivo also became friends with another Hedgehog named Jules, who was Charles' younger brother. They were both about the same age, and Jules was part of the Royal Guard, serving for the protection Acorn's royal family.
	In time, Ivo was able to get a position as Charles' assistant as a Royal Scientist, and they continued research with both roboticiaztion and with the development of robots for defense. He decided to take on the name Robotnik as a call-back to Gerald, and because this name had a lot more prestige among the people of Acorn the relatively no-name status of Kinto.
	Ivo then began investigating the combination of roboticized animals with artifically-constructed robots, realizing this could offer a lot of the same advantages as an organic wetware but with fewer of its inherent drawbacks.

	It carried on like this for a good number of years. Jules and his wife Alina had a son named Sonic, and the royal family had Princess Sally around the same time.
	Ivo also watched over Sonic while Jules was away, and Sonic grew up to be rebellious and impatient; Likewise, Ivo had developed special shoes for Sonic that allowed him to run at high speeds without suffering physical harm from doing so. To keep the young hedgehog preoccupied, he began building special coarses for him, with cheaply built robots that Sonic could break without hurting himself. As Sonic became more adept, Ivo made them progressively more difficult, and together they created his Eggman persona.

	At that time, Acorn went to war with their neighbors, and GUN got involved on the other side. Acorn was overpowered and deafeated.
	Many within GUNs leadership saw the mobians as an inferior species, and after capturing the royal family, began a mass extermination of the mobian population. Ivo and Maria managed to escape, taking Sonic and many of the other mobians with them. Charles, Jules, and Alina were captured and presumably executed.
	Many of the surviving mobians were sick or injured, and Maria elected to have roboticiation used to save their lives. Sonic, however, was not so understanding of the situation, and viewed this explanation more as an excuse to begin turning his people into cyborgs and seemingly lifeless robots.

	Sonic then set off on his own, and wasn't seen by them again for several years. When Sonic came back, Ivo, or now his Eggman persona, had fortified the area and set up a small army or robots as a way to deter GUN, and if they did invade, as a way to lead them off course as to where Maria and the rest of the mobian population has been hiding. Sonic instead proceeded to destroy many of the robots himself, starting in the areas around Green Hill. The GUN forces secretly followed behind Sonic, thinking he would lead them right to the stronghold of the Mobian Freedom Movement, but were ultimately disappointed as the series of areas and heavy fortification ultimately led to a whole lot of nothing. When GUN tried to capture Eggman at the end, they were disappoited to find that what they captured was merely a robot built to look like him.

	Eggman had then begun a project to build a robot mimic of Sonic aptly known as Metal Sonic, intended partly as a weapon to use against GUN, but was unable to complete it.


=== Eggman met Sara ===

	Sara had been around town one day, off doing some clothes shopping. Seeing as how she was part mobian, she was approached by Vanilla and eventually asked to come to one of their meetings. Sara wasn't all that interested, but lacked much better to do, so decided to go along.
	There, she was surrounded by mostly by mobians and half-mobians, with Eggman and Maria as seemingly the only humans present. Eggman and Sara took a liking to each other each initially unaware of who the other was.
	Maria then did a presentation about the war between GUN and Acorn and the extermination of Acorn's population, presented mostly in the style of slides and pictures.
	Sara was initially skeptical, having not heard about any of this, and her father being after all the acting president of the UF. She went and mentioned this to her father, who was initially also skeptical. Things changed, however, when he pulled up the records and found that much of the information was blacked out, and what fragmentary information he had did seem to line up with Maria's report.
	Their acting president, himself partly of mobian descent, was horrified by the revelation. Similarly, when looking up the records of those who had been captured, he found that all were marked as deceased, as well as most of the members of the Robotnik family line who had been living in UF territory at that time.
	The president then established a special group to begin covertly investigating the matter (independent of other parts of the UF), both within the UF, and to see if it is possible "The Movement" could be fabricating the details.
	The teams report seemed to confirm the story, as well as them presenting pictures showing that the towns and cities of Acorn were abandoned and mostly reduced to rubble.

	Eggman, with the help of Sara and the president, was able to use some of this to help bring public attention to the extermination of the people Acorn, and got many of those responsible stripped of their power.
	Maria, however, wasn't so easily satisfied, seeing the removal of a few generals as more of a token measure unable to measure up to the devestation which had been inflicted.

	Later on, Eggman and Sara were married.