To see Sonic tear through the verdant hills of Eggman’s Island was something to see. Those thin legs and equipped feet carried him over the grass, scaling the ramps, weaving through the trees, and sometimes into tunnels where his signature Spin Jump fit him through the roller coaster-esque curves and rocketing out back into a run.

For Sonic, he ran as easily as he breathed, but it was by no means as simple. Whether he’s been that fast his entire life or he merely got there is a mystery, but along with the speed came a mindset that would make such speed impossible. The rush was enough for Sonic, but the amount of effort it requires to be aware of his surroundings was an additional game. Obstacles, opponents, and pitfalls served as challenges to supplement the rush. He would occasionally take in the sights, but more the most part, he showed focus in his running that betrayed how normally laid-back he is.

Occasionally robots, beloved for their old-school roots and how fun it is to hear the ‘pop!’ of their defeat, would present somewhat feeble attempts to stop Sonic in his tracks. A Spin Jump would easily separate or break any robot apart. Every time, among the smoke, a furry woodland creature would lie dazed from its previous prison in the robot.

Sonic spotted a glint out of the corner of his eye. He stopped in front of a tree bearing a not-too-subtle coconut-shaped camera, turned around, bent over, and smacked his rear at the camera before moving on, laughing.

The one looking through the camera, secure in his observation room, growled at the image. “That cocky little hedgehog. I will not have my chances of taking over this, hm, real world thwarted by his likes! It’s about time he was taught a lesson in humility and respecting my power and genius.” The good Dr. Eggman turned in his chair and got up, walking over to another monitor. “Fortunately… heh heh heh… I’ve got just the assistance in bringing that nuisance down! Enjoy your blast from the past, Sonic, because I’m about to blast you to history! Welcome to the real world, you rat…”

On the monitor was a table depicting the amount of power that had already been leeched from the Chaos Emeralds, and how much energy was being siphoned into… another source.

The leeching of the Chaos Emeralds was brought to an abrupt halt once the final bug had been removed. Back at the IDR, another reading was taken to an exact degree of the Chaos Emerald output. Sure enough, they were operating at full potential. However, the IDR people just couldn’t help but to wonder about just where all that taken energy has gone. They had a vague idea where and for what purpose, but the direct use was still up to the imagination.



            As Sonic ran on, Eggman’s fortress towered further over him. The ornament of Eggman’s head perched on top of the fortress seemed to cast a more patronizing gaze down on the approaching hero. Sonic looked up at it and made faces until he noticed a new challenger standing guard at the large double-doors of the fortress.

“Well!” Sonic beheld the figure in front of him. “If you’re here, then I must be close to the big egg himself!”

The figure clenched his fist, the movement causing a mechanical whirring. Metal Sonic stared at his flesh counterpart with his lifeless red lights. “Yes. However, it is a point you shall never reach.” It was a typical thing for Metal Sonic to say, being a self-proclaimed rival of Sonic. Metal Sonic is a robot created by Dr. Eggman to match the real Sonic in every way. Metal Sonic’s roots dug deep into the history of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, all the way to Sonic CD, a game released for a short-lived Sega system and for the PC. Metal Sonic lived up to his name in being a robotic version of Sonic. His body was a darker shade of blue and his features, like shoes, were more rounded out and smoother, and hands, which were claw-like fingers instead of large gloves. Instead of a flesh-colored spot on his stomach, Metal Sonic’s abdomen had a crater-shaped hole that may have served some purpose or could have purely been for cosmetic purposes. Metal Sonic’s eyes were entirely black except for crimson lights that brimmed with a cold malice. Since his outset, Metal Sonic had been dormant until an appearance in Sonic Adventure 2 and becoming the ultimate villain in Sonic Heroes. None of that seemed to apply now. However Metal Sonic came to be, he was the servant of Dr. Eggman but still a force to be reckoned with.

Sonic thumbed his nose toward Metal Sonic, “Yeah, you say that now. I’ve been itching for a real scrap ever since I got here!”

Metal Sonic threw his arms back and the jets on his back activated, propelling the robotic hedgehog forward. Sonic grinned at his first real fight and made his own dash forward. As they neared collision, Metal Sonic drew a fist back. Sonic saw an opportunity to humiliate Metal Sonic so he hopped up and rolled up. He charged Metal Sonic as a whirling ball. Metal Sonic made a “humph” noise and thrust his fist forward.

The audience for this fight was all confident in the outcome. Even the kids in a singular college dorm, even the ones who did not like video games, all thought they knew what was going to happen. Kate, in particular, could just see Sonic bowling Metal Sonic over much to the latter’s dismay and embarrassment.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Metal Sonic’s fist collided with the whirling Sonic and in a surreal display, Sonic stopped spinning and took the hit hard. Metal Sonic’s fist had dug into Sonic’s back. The whole world seemed to gasp in surprise and horror. Sonic launched a distance away before flipping over and managing to land on his feet, skid, then regain balance again.

“Have you…” Sonic’s eyes bulged when he couldn’t keep talking. He coughed hard and only the most astute could see droplets of blood hit the ground. “Have you been working out?” Sonic finished his demand of his opponent without letting his glaring mortality skip a beat.

“No.” Metal Sonic said simply, “The power of chaos runs through me. There is no possible way for you do defeat me.”

Sonic scoffed, “A robot made in my image that uses the power of chaos? Hah, I’ve dealt with that and worse.”

For a little bit of trivia, Sonic clashed with another robotic doppelganger called ‘Mecha Sonic’ in the game Sonic and Knuckles. Mecha Sonic used the Master Emerald, a life-sized gem with the power to negate the effects of the seven Chaos Emeralds, to fight. Sonic knows that if he defeated Mecha Sonic like that, he can defeat Metal Sonic who allegedly can’t assume a Super form.

“That never happened.” Metal Sonic coldly muttered, “That was in a video game, in which you were meant to be able to win. This is now, this is real, and the reality is that you’re only option is to die!!.”

“Who cares?” The flesh hedgehog snapped back, condensing a speech cited a few weeks ago into two words.

“You should.” Metal Sonic said simply, matching two words for two words. This time, his dash was a must faster one. He shot forward with enough force that he reached Sonic’s spot in no time and drove his fist into the space Sonic took up. Sonic was barely able to find the time and ability to dodge.

“Man!” Sonic shouted in frustration. He hopped back, but kept finding himself needing to back up repeatedly from the fists of Metal Sonic.

‘I can’t keep dodging,’ Sonic thought, grinding his teeth. He looked back and saw he was about to be backed up against the double doors.

“Space – and time – is almost up!” Metal Sonic gloated.

“Don’t think so!” Sonic jumped higher and kicked off the doors. He sailed over Metal Sonic as the robot craned its neck to watch. Sonic smiled broadly as his feat, but soon saw there was no cause for celebration.

As soon as Sonic had kicked off, Metal Sonic acted. Not as much as he saw Sonic’s actions coming, but he was quick enough to act accordingly as soon as he noticed what Sonic was doing. He made a jet-boosted leap upward and smashed his head into Sonic’s stomach. Sonic emitted what could have been described as a yelp and a gulp. Metal Sonic dropped straight down while Sonic hit the ground at an angle. It was met with an un-glorifying ‘thud!’ softened by the grass.

Metal Sonic stood over the flesh hedgehog imposingly, “Do you get it now? The gift that Dr. Eggman received is too great to be contested. He has passed it down to me. Though I may not be the strongest now, I am still enough to defeat you… and that’s enough for me.”

Sonic placed a palm on the ground and lifted himself up, “So… you get an upgrade and you think that makes you better than me? You’ve done nothing but prove you only rely on others for things you should do yourself. People who are defined by other people can never reach their full potential! … Wait, Eggman was the one to receive this ‘gift?’ Who gave it to him?”

That was a good question.

“Pretty soon,” Metal sonic held a hand out and clenched it menacingly, “you won’t be able to care.”

With a shout of “Die!!” Metal Sonic drove his hand toward Sonic. Just as the world reacted to Sonic’s first hit, it seemed the world stopped and covered its eyes so as to not see Sonic’s fate. The lack of screaming and undue suffering made the world slowly look to see if the result had changed.

In fact, it was Metal Sonic who was heard. Rather than celebration, he seemed to be grunting in effort. In fact, an unexpected struggle was heard. When the world finally looked back, they beheld a result that had never been foreseen.

Metal Sonic was frozen in place, at least at first glance. The whole scene revealed what some had hoped. What stood between Metal Sonic’s fist and Sonic was a benevolent lavender glow. Metal Sonic was trying to force this glow back so he could finish his crushing blow to Sonic, but the holder of the glow wouldn’t let him.

Now that the basics were down, the world could gather its mind and finally register the scene fully. The lavender glow was a type of light-based that had a gray tube hilt, and the holder of the sword and the one who had just saved Sonic was none other than Captain Gamer, in the flesh.

“It’s him!!” Echoed many voices worldwide. Morale was massively boosted, and suddenly the encounter did not seem so bleak.

Metal Sonic looked up at the alleged hero with a mixture of shock and confusion, or at least as much as a robot without a changing face could show. Captain Gamer’s expression was a great grimace of effort. If Metal Sonic had a hard time trying to get through the sword, then Gamer must have had a hard time keeping the defense up. With a grunt of relieving effort, Gamer moved the sword, causing Metal Sonic, who has lost his momentum long ago, to merely thud his hand to the ground. Taking advantage of the moment, Gamer used the momentum from the withdraw to draw his sword back, then swiftly delivered a blow to Metal Sonic’s midsection in the style one would wield a baseball bat. Metal Sonic never saw the hit coming. He would have been backed against the double doors had his momentum not allowed him to just tear a Metal Sonic-shaped hole near the bottom of the doors.

Gamer exhaled in relief that Metal Sonic was indisposed. His shifted his hold of the sword and shook out his dominant right hand with a little bit of a whine. Even the condescending Calahan Graham would agree that Gamer’s wrist had to be sore from the block.

Sonic saw Metal Sonic disappear through his impromptu entrace, then picked himself up to greet the young man who had saved his tail. “You’re… Captain Gamer!”

Gamer was surprised at being addressed. “You know who I am?”

“Who doesn’t know who you are?” Sonic responded rhetorically, showing respect that had been hard-earned at a previous time.

Sonic, Gamer, and anybody else who was caught up in the moment were brought back to earth by a mechanical whizzing followed by metal-on-metal footfalls. Directly between the hedgehog and the cobalt-clad young Man, Metal Sonic’s eyes lit up in the distant shadows. They approached and the rest of Metal Sonic faded into the light. Metal Sonic stopped and held up two clenched fists. “I will not be ignored!!” Gamer gave a yelp of surprise and took a step back.

“What is up with this guy??” Sonic betrayed his way of speaking with his hard stare over toward Metal Sonic. Normally Sonic is depicted as winning and easygoing, but in this case it was the bad guy coming out on top and making a fool of the hero. Sonic drew his hand across his mouth and wiped it on his side. The effect of such discolored that area of his side an unsightly purple and his glove an odd pink. The sight of pink gloves was one that the world had wished they were never treated to again.

Gamer’s expression changed from the shocked and off-guard bearing of his teeth to a stiff lip, an expression that showed he was still off guard from Metal Sonic’s return, but still standing for an imminent fight. “I heard him. He has some sort of unfair advantage over you… something that Eggman also has! I’ll bet that was the case when Mario was fighting DK!”

“So you actually know something?”

“Uhh… not… really. All I know is that you could probably take Metal Sonic by yourself, but if you want to be in top form for Eggman…” Gamer paused, the full effect of what he was getting into registering. It did not completely discourage him. “A little help won’t hurt!”

Sonic thought, “So… we’re going to show that creep the super power of TEAMWORK?”

The moment was odd. The first time Gamer appeared to help Mario, Mario had put up a strong resistance. For all Mario knew, he was right in refusing help from what appeared to be any given video game fan. It was great to believe in one’s abilities, but that came more in the form of applying for a job, approaching that potential significant other across the room, or any other effort that was mind over matter. Simply put, any given video game fan was most likely unable, in the most physical of senses, to provide any help for taming a wild ape or fighting off a dangerous robot. Perhaps it was when Gamer proved important (perhaps a better term would be ‘not useless’) in the fight against DK and even Metal Sonic that lead the more heroic Sonic to accept help from Gamer.

The infamy of Sonic’s line was lost on Gamer and he balled his fist, “You bet!”

“Futile effort, at best.” Metal Sonic’s growl shook up the moment of confidence, “The power of chaos is infinitely more powerful in the real world than ever depicted fictionally. No amount of opponents will matter!”

“Ready?” Sonic hissed to Gamer.

Gamer appeared to be sweating the situation, but shook his head and took a strong step forward. “Born ready!” he returned.

As if on cue, Metal Sonic started a dash. Gamer leapt away from Sonic, for he knew that Metal Sonic, at the current, would want revenge against the one who kept him from accomplishing his goal that seemed so close. In other words, Gamer was going to take the hate from Sonic.

“Die!” Metal Sonic shouted out and lunged for Gamer. Gamer twisted out of the way, or at least he tried to. Metal Sonic rotated around Gamer and shot his fist into the surprised young man’s stomach. Gamer keeled over, prompting Metal Sonic to adopt a superior stance and begin cackling. Metal Sonic hadn’t counted on Gamer leaping back up so soon. Gamer used the momentum to strike Metal Sonic again with the light-based weapon’s lavender bream. Metal Sonic was pushed forward.

“Come on…” Gamer stood strong, but a little weakness in his limbs still showed from the hit he took, “this is the power of chaos? Or are you just getting reckless? I think you’re getting reckless and it’s causing you to be weak.” The sight of Gamer was an odd one. He spoke with clarity and composure, but his words were through his teeth and on top of a figure shivering with momentary fatigue.

Metal Sonic growled, “You… never call me weak! I have the ultimate power and you are a juvenile who does not know his place! I shall show you how over your head you are when you no longer have a head!!!” The metallic hedgehog propelled forward.

“You’re wrong!” Gamer called over Metal Sonic’s propulsion jets, “There is a greater power that I believe in no matter how poorly represented or ‘corny’ it gets branded!” Gamer shot a look to Sonic, “That’s right, it’s time for me to show you the super power of TEAMWORK! Game Card, Mario Jump!!”

Gamer made a foreign set of motions. He first reached at the previously neglected computer on his left wrist. From it he slipped his fingers over a small object and took the object out. The black object was in a shape like a trapezoid on top of a square. It was rectangular except for the topmost edged which slightly angled inward. He slammed the small object into the computer on his wrist and paused to let some effect take hold. As soon as Metal Sonic was close enough, Gamer gave a mighty leap. Based on the action-inspired call mentioning a ‘Mario Jump,’ Captain Gamer’s leaping ability did much resemble a jump of Mario’s caliber.

Having encountered something similar to this with Sonic, Metal Sonic made a jump of his own to counter. Gamer had been sailing fine, but suddenly he growled and seemed to cough with a pain in his stomach. Thankfully he didn’t suffer as much as Sonic had and was only in pain. He grasped his hand over where he had been hit before and his jump came up short. Metal Sonic passed Gamer in the air and looked down as the cobalt hero landed and kneeled. With a chuckle of supereiority, Metal Sonic worked his jets to hit the ground in front of the hurting Gamer. Metal Sonic’s jets then began to flare up, and he began to point himself for a charge into Gamer. A sound that was like a whirring caught his attention. He looked back.

All Metal Sonic saw was a large blurry blue ball. He soon realized that it was Sonic, preparing a signature Spin Dash! Metal Sonic knew that the speed Sonic built up was too much even for a robot endowed with the power of chaos. No sooner had he moved to make dodge in mid-air had Sonic finished his charge and bowled forward with unparalleled force. Metal Sonic was fast, granted, but after all, his nemesis was called ‘Sonic’ for a reason. Sonic shot forward with too much speed to even comprehend.

The blue bullet of a hedgehog slammed into the robot like a wrecking ball. The initial hit was enough to smash the evil robot inward and rain metal and bolts. Metal Sonic’s fall took a sour angle and when he landed, his structural integrity was too weak to stay together, so upon impact on the ground, Metal Sonic seemed to burst. All his major attachments remained – his limbs and head were still attached to his body – but many bolts and little sheets of metal just popped right off.

Sonic landed on the opposite side of Metal Sonic’s wreckage as Gamer was. It took him a few second to cross over to Gamer. “We did it!” Sonic declared, and the two hit their fists to each others in a display of comradely companionship.

Gamer’s fist retreated when his visor buzzed with life. A cursor raced across the surface and printed out “Link established. Coding Game Card.” Immediately after, Gamer opened his clenched fist and a new black object had been hidden within. He looked at it and gave a very Sonic-like grin.

“Care to race to Eggman?” the young man asked. Sonic had absolutely no answer for that due to the absurdity of the proposition. Then again, it was previously ridiculous to think that Captain Gamer could match Mario in jumping prowess. “Game Card, Sonic Run!” he followed up and slammed the new object into the wrist-borne computer as well.

All of these ‘Game Cards’ and weird objects were really boggling Sonic’s mind, and no doubt the minds of the world’s watchers. Captain Gamer only pushed the confusion by shouting “Too slow!” and suddenly disappearing. A trail of upturned grass traced a path from Gamer’s standing position to the double doors, more specifically the opening Metal Sonic unwillingly made.

Sonic emitted an completely bamboozled mouth noise. Putting two and two together, he realized that not only had Gamer showed Mario’s jumping prowess, but now he displayed the hedgehog’s own running ability! Not to be shown up, Sonic disappeared just as fast, a matching trail of upturned grass leading into Eggman’s fortress.



Sonic was shortly at Gamer’s side, even though the latter was still running at an accelerated rate. “You sure are taking it slow if you really can run like me.” The Hedgehog called playfully out over the rushing speed wind.

“I can’t help it! Everything becomes like a tunnel of light when I go too fast! Don’t you have that problem?”

“Nuh-uh!” Responded Sonic immediately, “While we have time to talk, I think you have some explaining to do! A lot of people are wandering how you’re able to jump like Mario… and now they’ll be wondering how you can run like me! That wouldn’t spoil too much, would it?”

It was a question that Gamer must have been prepared for and anticipating. While still maintaining the speed of the running, he stuck out his left arm and pulled up the sleeve to get the best view of that wrist-borne computer that he had been interacting with. “This is they key.” He began, indicating the computer. “I call it the Gamer Station. It may not look like much, but it knows me. It can tell if I’m hurt or even hungry. It can even alter me!”

“What, you mean that thing- that Gamer Station can make it so you don’t feel hungry any more?” Sonic glanced at the deceptively small device.

“N-no! Well, maybe. Bad example, anyway. I don’t mean it like that. When I earned Mario’s respect, I gained the ability to jump like him. The Gamer Station saw that. Afterward, the Gamer Station told me that it wasn’t a good idea to keep it on all the time. I wasn’t sure why not, but it had another option. It took that information that I got from Mario and…. I guess, ‘took it out’ of me and put it into… this! Think fast!”

Sonic looked in time to see something tossed in his direction. It was a black object with a narrowing top just like the ones Gamer brandished earlier. He then remembered hearing about a ‘Mario Jump’ earlier and saw how the markings on the object he held would indicate a Mario Jump. Gamer spoke again when Sonic got a good look.

“I call that a Game Card. The Gamer Station put the ability to jump like Mario into that thing. It’s an ability that I call the Mario Jump… so what you have there is the Mario Jump Game Card!”

Once more, Sonic flashed back and remembered Gamer calling out, ‘Game Card, Sonic Run!’ He replied, smiling, “… And now you’re using a Sonic Run Game Card to run like me after I gave it to you by having you earn my respect!”

Gamer received the Game Card as it was tossed back. “Yes! I’ve even set it up where all new information from here on out gets automatically converted into a Game Card. In case I get something I don’t want to use, at least right away.”

“So let me get this straight…” Sonic adopted a thoughtful gesture despite still tearing through the hallways at amazing speeds. “You deal with me or with Mario, and when you earn your wings with one of us, you get our power. That power gets put into a Game Card. You put those Game Cards into that Gamer Station, and the Gamer Station makes it so you now have that power! That sounds like the mechanics to an actual game! Not the type of game you’d find me in, but still, a game.”

“You… think I could be in my own game?”

Thankfully for Sonic, the hallway’s end in an elevator lift caused enough of an interruption of pace so that he didn’t have to give an answer to the question. Awkwardly, they both filed into the lift and a button-push sent them downward.

“Okay,” Sonic began again as soon as tapping his foot got old after a few seconds, “that all explains the running and the jumping, but what about that weapon?” He needlessly cupped his hands as if holding a hilt in them.

Gamer gave the same pause of comprehension and held forward the light-based weapon he had used earlier. “This? That’s actually something different to do with the Gamer Station. Watch.” A few button presses on the Gamer Station and the light-based weapon lost said light, leaving only a metallic hilt. The hilt then seemed to, for the lack of a better term, be deconstructed until all that remained was a green wire frame outline. This wire frame, much like the ones set forth from Gamer’s so-called Reset ability, retreated into the hand of the arm that the Gamer Station clung to. “Okay, now…” with a few nimble presses, a new Game Card had been ejected and poised over the appropriate opening. “Game Card, Beam Sword!” The Game Card slid into the Gamer Station, prompting white light to eject, pause in air, take form, and deposit the metallic hilt into Gamer’s hand again. A click on the hilt returned the lavender body of the weapon.

Two and two made four in Sonic’s head. “Wait a moment! You’re telling me that this thing can store things too!?”

As Gamer once again put away the weapon, he explained. “I was just as surprised. I’ve actually had this for a while… it was just there. I wanted to take this to help Mario that time before, but I don’t have a sling or anything. When I made a Game Card of the Mario Jump, that gave me hope for this one again. Sure enough, after some fiddling around…” The weapon shrunk back into the Gamer Station, “I was able to get it in there… some how. By the way, it looks a lot like the Beam Sword from the Super Smash Bros. games, so that’s what I’m calling it! The thing can’t cut, though… it’s more like a beam bat.”

With a suspiciously pleasant ding-dong! The lift reached the bottom floor and opened up.

“Just on cue now that you’re done, huh?” Sonic observed. The doors opened to hallways lined with lights, carpets, and ornaments in Eggman’s image. This is the hallway leading up to the final encounter if Sonic ever saw one. Feeling the pressure of the room, Sonic stepped out of the lift and called back to Gamer, “Hey, Gamer, can I count on you?”

Gamer stepped out next to Sonic rubbing the back of his head, “Excuse me?”

Sonic folded his arms and looked down the hallway, “There’s probably a lot going on about you… and with you. A lot about you is unknown, and I mean a lot. To me, none of that really matters. All I want to know is… can I count on you?”

For a good chunk of seconds, Gamer seemed to slip in and out of understanding what Sonic was talking about. In the end, he decided to at least answer the question, “Right here, right now, of course!!”

True to his word, that was enough for Sonic. “… Then let’s never give up the fight!” With those odd words, he built up speed down the hallway. Gamer followed suit once he noticed.



Of course all spectators were elated that Sonic had been saved, that the first and only hope of stopping Eggman had been preserved, and a certain Captain had actually been able to bring any degree of logic into his abilities. Kate Gaines had been one of the people to shout “It’s him!” despite the crowd of people. Now that this chapter of the incident had come to a close, all the other students took the time to give Kate looks. “Beam Sword,” Kate repeated to herself under scrutiny, worlds away, “Game Card… Gamer Station…” She had a feeling that those phrases would soon become search engine fodder.

“It looks like your boyfriend showed up after all.” A male’s voice from the crowded room teased.

The voice returned Kate to Earth. “Whatever,” was all she could come up with. ‘Boyfriend’, really.



The doors to a large metal-walled room burst open from Sonic’s and Gamer’s team charge. The room was pitch-black to the two heroes except for a spotlight that bathed a certain doctor in light. He sat in his Egg Walker, an invention that hailed from the game Sonic Adventure 2. It was a round gray machine with a black bottom riddled with blue windows and yellow/black lines. Two large metallic legs were attached to this main body’s orb and were reminiscent of a large bird’s or a dinosaur’s leg. Eggman himself fit his name, as his most prominent feature was his large, egg-shaped form. His limbs were much too thin, but since he was a digitally realized being, it could work. His bottom half was fit into pitch black pants that ended with equally black boots and his top half clothed in a red jacket with long sleeves leading to a pair of gloves. His head seemed to grow right off his shoulders. Though the head was bald, a brush-like orange mustache reached to either side. His eyes his behind a pair of glasses and on top of his head sat a pair of goggles. He fit perfectly the look of the bugs that were draining the Chaos Emeralds.

“Dr. Eggman!” Sonic called out.

“Who did you expect… An old man in a skull?” Eggman chuckled, “It’s about time you got here, Sonic… I was bored! Although, I never really accommodated for two. Assuming your friend doesn’t trip over his own feet and crack his skull on the floor!” Gamer scratched the back of his head while Eggman enjoyed a laugh, “Oh well, with the power I have at my disposal, I could accommodate for all opposing forces in the world! After all, the Eggman Army is all but complete and ready to flood the world!”

“Eggman Army?” the blue hedgehog demanded back. “You keep flapping your nose about an army, but I never see one!”

Eggman laughed; maybe out of Sonic’s cheek, or perhaps he just felt evil, “Yes, a dormant army, all filled to the brim with the power I took from the Chaos Emeralds! I shall start by leveling one city, and then demand the world is mine. If there is no compliance, I will continue to unleash my forces until I get what I want, or there is nobody left to stop me. Observe! Eh, who is that fellow with the admittedly spiffy choice of facial hair that you were talking with earlier?”

Sonic paused, realizing Eggman was addressing him, “Uhm… You mean Mario?”

“That’s right!” Eggman trumpeted, “I think I shall target him first! Don’t need any more heroes to stand in my way.”

Eggman pressed some buttons in his Egg Walker and a window opened up from one of the walls. Sonic and Gamer gaped at what was on the other side. It was a room full of robots of varying design such as killer bees, piranhas, crabs, caterpillars, and more. The robots were lines up in rows, but how many rows could not be determined, because the room extended past how far the windows allowed one to see.

“Whoa!” Sonic gasped, and then demanded, “How’d you build so many robots, Eggman?”

“That’s for me to know, and you to never know!” Eggman wagged a finger, “Now then, watch!” He pressed more buttons, and shortly every robot sprung to life, running or flying out of viewing range.

Sonic once again demanded, “Where are they going, Eggman?”

Eggman chuckled eerily, “Why, to pay Mario a visit! While they take care of that plumber I’ll take the liberty of dealing with you two myself! I’ll beat you until you’re as black and blue as your friend there!”

“Hey!” Gamer called up. He seemed to search for a follow-up just so his line wasn’t just that one indignant yelp; “This is a cobalt shirt! I’ll bet you mix up black and navy blue a whole lot, too!”

Eggman growled, “I hope your bite is a lot worse than your bark, boy. Now marvel at my majesty!”

Eggman’s walker leapt into the air, and jets activated. Unlike the jets that appeared in Sonic Adventure 2, these jets were able to at least keep Eggman from losing height. As he floated, the legs of the walker retracted inward and in their place, a large ball with a checkerboard pattern with brown and tan squares fell out.

Sonic and Gamer stood speechless Gamer was not in awe or horror. Rather, he chortled a bit and eventually burst into laughter. “You’ve… you’ve got to be kidding me! This is the absolutely first failed attempt you ever tried! How will it work now!?”

“Uh, Gamer. From what we’ve heard, I wouldn’t…” Sonic started, but Gamer waved a hand in his face.

“Oh come on! Even you should recognize this as the easiest boss fight from the first game! We’ll have this wrapped up in no time!”

“Laugh all you want now.” Eggman called, and then his Egg Walker receded into the shadows.

All the lights in the room came on, revealing a large, empty area with plenty more windows. The doors that Sonic and Gamer had run through were blocked off by steel slabs that had slammed down from above. The object of most interest, however, was what was in the center. It was a large human-shape robot that looked like it didn’t have a right hand. Eggman’s flying walker hovered into where the right hand should be, and seemed to attach to the arm. After that, it seemed the chair Eggman sat in traveled along a path to where the head was. Eggman was now in front of the controls for the large robot, which swung the wrecking ball around in a reckless manner while Eggman’s laugh of superiority flooded the area while quashing any remains of Gamer’s previous laugs.

One could swear that whatever was visible of Gamer’s face flushed into pale while Sonic adopted his own shocked stance. He knew what was coming but he really couldn’t be fully prepared. “You really ought to leave the presumptuous confidence to me… Apparently I actually know when to turn it on.”

In no less tense of a stance, Gamer looked to Sonic, “Maybe I should have been expecting something like that. He does have that unfair advantage, after all.”

Noticing the morale plummeting, Sonic nudged Gamer and gave a thumbs-up. “… And you’re the equalizing factor, remember?”

Gamer seemed taken back by Sonic’s show of confidence in light of his poor judgment, but ended up returning the confidence with his own thumbs-up. Gamer was mentally back in the game.

“Any last words!?” Eggman bellowed triumphantly.

“Nope!” Sonic flashed his trademarked smile, which spoke a thousand words, “But I believe Gamer has quite the library of catch phrases. Care to take it away?”

Gamer nodded toward Sonic, and then held his Beam Sword back and ready to strike, “It’s game time!”

Eggman took it as the fight-starting phrase it was and pushed his loaded machine forward. Jumping the gun, he threw back the wrecking ball, and then thrust it over, forcing Sonic and Gamer to jump to either side while the wrecking ball crushed the space they used to occupy. The ground caved in, revealed a volcanic river underneath the floor. “Man!” Sonic groaned, “At first he just flailed that thing around, but now he’s armed to bear!”

“The bigger they are…!” Gamer said. He was cut off by the need to express the lasting pain in his stomach from Metal Sonic’s fist.

“The harder they will crush you! Say hello to the Egg Wrecker, boys.” Eggman finished the hanging sentence, and swung the wrecking ball again, this time sweeping much closer to Sonic. “I will not relent until you are smears!”

Sonic made a pre-emptive leap out of the way of the wrecking ball after giving Gamer a sign to take advantage of the singling out. Gamer acknowledged and brandished his Beam Sword, approaching Eggman. The evil doctor chuckled to himself, then immediately pulled the wrecking ball away from Sonic and changed up targets to Gamer.

“Watch it!” Sonic cautioned, but it didn’t seem Gamer was affected at all by the change of events.

Right before the wrecking ball reached Gamer, Gamer’s run increased in speed tenfold. In seconds he was a little to the right of where he used to be.

“What!?” Eggman bellowed, “Not another fast annoyance!”

“Watch it.” Gamer called up.

Before Eggman could understand what the young man meant, Sonic had leapt up while Eggman, had been distracted and performed his signature Homing Attack into the Egg Wrecker’s head. The Egg Wrecker stumbled back, only to do so into Gamer’s incoming strike. His Beam Sword smashed into the head. Eggman pulled the thrusters on the Egg Wrecker, jettisoning back and out of the way.

“YOU…!” The rotund scientist began, but just choked on his words. “I’ll utterly annihilate you both!!”

As he said that, the left arm struck out and a matching wrecking ball now presented itself.

            “Oh, man!” Sonic grumbled, “Looks like we have our work cut out for us now, eh, Gamer?” The Egg Wrecker, in what appeared to be a show of juvenile tantrum, slammed the ground. Sonic shrugged, “Are we frustrating you, Eggman?”

Unfortunately, the slamming was no show of anger. Despite logic and physics, when Eggman struck the ground, a shock wave emanated. The white wave of force headed straight for Sonic and Gamer. “Apparently not! Get back!” Sonic and Gamer both shifted back from the shock wave until it died out.

“Lights out!!” Eggman announced as he threw the thrusters again and this time the Egg Wrecker leapt into the air. It shot both wrecking balls out into the ground to create more shock waves, and then followed its globular members to the ground to stomp out another shock wave. Sonic ran out of the way of it all and noticed he was the only one.

Gamer, on the other hand, knew the physics of shock waves well and used the Mario Jump, still applied from before, to simply not be on the ground when the shock waves struck. Gamer rose as the Egg Wrecker fell, and then Gamer descended. The Egg Wrecker could barely recover from disorientation when Gamer had his Beam Sword ready and gave the head of the Egg Wrecker a good hit. He landed in front of the Egg Wrecker and watch it stumble back a lot like how Metal Sonic had before. The Egg Wrecker dug its feet in and regained posture. Its chest opened up to reveal a rack of missiles. “Uh oh.” Was what Gamer could get out before the missiles began their coordinated assault.

There seemed to be no end to the white-blue missiles as they launched and shelled the floor in a dotted path to Gamer. The target noticed this trend and made any arbitrary dive just to avoid a head-on collision. A sweat trailed behind Gamer as he worked the Sonic Run to dash, dive, and duck every missile he could. In all fairness, Gamer was just aware of his peril and didn’t care to hide it. After all, who would keep their cool in the face of stampeding explosives? Gamer’s luck ran dry when the Egg Wrecker opted to fire a missile at where Gamer was heading after a particular jump. Whether the missile had plastered Gamer head-on or the ground in front of him was shrouded in smoke.

Sonic muttered “Ouch,” as he saw the missile forced Gamer back, and stepped aside when Gamer landed where the blue hedgehog used to be. Sonic amusedly watched Gamer stand up.

Gamer winced, brushed soot off his clothes, and then responded, “At least I got him once.” Apparently he refused to acknowledge his abdominal pain.

“Hee hee!” Eggman chuckled from his perch in his large robot, “Ready for more explosive action? No? Too bad!”

The two wrecking balls on the Egg Wrecker’s fists launched out and flew by the two heroes. “He missed!” Sonic proclaimed, “Let’s get him while the time is right!” Sonic and Gamer moved to attack Eggman, but then saw that the chains that the Egg Wrecker’s wrecking balls were attached to stopped, then began to retract into the Egg Wrecker’s arms. It was a trick!

The wrecking balls landed right behind Sonic and Gamer, causing them to fall forward due to the shake in the ground the impact created. “Remember these?” Eggman gloated, and then opened the missile hatch, not even letting a response come before launching them.

Kneeled and with a pain in his stomach and with missiles coming at him, Gamer acted with pure, doomed instinct. He swiped his Beam Sword at one of the missiles. Call it a very big coincidence, but he struck it at just the right place and angle that the missile spun all the way around and flew right back at Eggman. Eggman gave an undignified wail as the missile smashed into his viewing window and made the Egg Wrecker fall back, bringing the wrecking balls back into their slots, as well.

“Pretty sweet, Gamer!” Sonic hit a fist into his palm, “He didn’t expect his own missile to come back at him! Usually I go Super when I do things like that, but whatever works, eh?”

“Yeh… yeah.” Gamer couldn’t help but monotone, still trying to understand what he just did.

Sonic saw some of the left over missiles approach, and ran toward the Egg Wrecker. Eggman hadn’t regained his bearings, so he hadn’t a counter attack planned for it. “Hey, Eggman! I hope you like the number ‘three!’”

“Eh?” Eggman grunted, and then could only watch as Sonic made a mad spin and ricocheted off the Egg Wrecker. After that hit Eggman growled, but was quickly put back into fear when he saw the last two of the missiles he launched had homed in on Sonic, but had no room to pull up and continue chase; they were going to run in to Eggman.

As the Egg Wrecker faced undo suffering, Sonic landed next to Gamer and stretched out. “You know, I don’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed when Eggman makes machines with these kinds of flaws.”

“No complaints here.” Gamer breathed a bit heavily and couldn’t help placing a hand on his stomach.

Sonic eyed those actions, “Gamer… are you okay? Maybe you should let me handle the rest of this?”

“No way! I’m seeing this through!”

“All right… just don’t get yourself in too much danger again, okay?

“I’ll try.”

After a while of explosions and evil shouts of surprise and rage, the Egg Wrecker presented itself in very bad shape. “What’s the matter?” Sonic taunted, “One crack to many on your shell, Eggman?”

The Egg Wrecker seemed to tremble, but Eggman’s voice showed that it was with laughter. It was a low and slow variation of his voice that gave no indication of the comically animated villain being fought thus far. “You silly little fools and your hero games. I almost hoped I would never have to use this, but you leave me no choice. Initiate… the secret weapon!”

There was a pause, probably Eggman flipping switches or pulling levers or something, but the effects of whatever he was doing was very soon seen. The Egg Wrecker smashed its wrecking balls for hands together in a show of intimidation and power. Some hatch around the Egg Wrecker opened up and released a ring of smoke that surrounded the Egg Wrecker.

Sonic did not know whether he should be concerned. He looked to Gamer to see if he could see anything. Gamer noticed the look, gave his own look back, and shrugged. The smoke around the Egg Wrecker broke, and one of the Egg Wrecker’s wrecking balls charged through, too fast for anybody to see. It collided with Sonic and Gamer head-on.

“What was that!?” Sonic demanded, picking himself up painfully. The smoke around the Egg Wrecker cleared, and the machine took a curious stance. It moved like a brand new robot, but it still looked junked up from the various hits it took before. “Something isn’t right, here, Gamer.”

Gamer hadn’t started to pick himself up. Only when Sonic had called out a second time did Gamer make an attempt to lift himself. “I’m fine!!” the teen insisted harshly and impatiently. Apparently his own mortality was a fragile subject.

Giving no consideration to Gamer’s frailty, the Egg Wrecker stomped forward, propelled by small jets. “No more Mr. Nice Evil Genius!” Eggman proclaimed. He struck how his wrecking balls again.

“We’ve got to split up!” Sonic proclaimed.

The wrecking balls hit the floor as Sonic and Gamer broke into runs. The wrecking balls were dragged around, chasing the two heroes. They ran around the Egg Wrecker ceaselessly, but found no opening to attack. Gamer took a glance from the road in front of him, for it required looking directly in front when one ran at a train’s pace, and looked at the Egg Wrecker. As if in slow motion, he spotted something on the front of the Egg Wrecker. It was hidden inside a decorative Eggman face, but he knew what he was looking for once he saw it. It was a pair of computer chips, one in each eye of the ornament. Gamer didn’t know anything specific, but he did know that those chips needed to go. With a flick of his wrist, his Beam Sword disappeared. A compartment on the Gamer Station, his wrist-worn computer, opened up and deposited a new Game Card into his hand.

“Game Card… Super Scope!” Gamer back-flipped out of the radius of the spinning wrecking balls, and slammed the Game Card into the Gamer Station. As soon as he did, though, his flying feet faltered, and he stumbled. His trailing wrecking ball caught up, and he was hit from behind.

“No!!” Sonic cried, but growled at being unable to do anything about what just happened.

Gamer stayed still for a tense few seconds, but his hand weakly came up to catch a new weapon that he had summoned before he took the hit. This new weapon appeared to be a telescope with two bar-like handles. The ‘Super Scope’ spun through the air, landing with both handles down. Gamer gripped both handles, left hand on the closer one and right on the farther one, while the back of the super scope rested on his left shoulder. “I thought to myself that to be well-rounded, I would need a ranged attack! If I’m going to use a weapon from Super Smash Brothers, I might as well use two! This is the Super Scope!”

The evil scientist turned around and took a look for as to why one of the bugs he was trying to squash had stopped moving. “Oh, look! The little boy has himself a cork gun! Care to have a stand-off? Hee hee…”

Behind Eggman, Sonic stopped. He observed the scene, but knew that Eggman was watching him and could easily start chasing him with one of the wrecking balls again if he made a move. Eggman lifted an arm, most likely to launch a chained wrecking ball at Gamer. Gamer seemed to take careful aim, as well. He slowly went from his stomach to his knees to a wobbly stance, keeping the Super Scope aimed at the same spot.

Gamer exhaled, and then stared Eggman down, “Game over!” The Super Scope began to glow.

“Fire!!” Eggman shouted confidently, and launched one of the wrecking balls, which careened toward Gamer at crushing speed.

Gamer, however, stood his ground. The Super Scope kept charging in its way. Sonic didn’t know why Gamer didn’t just move. He saw Gamer’s expression of determination, or at least the lower half of it. The human hero did not intend on moving. Finally, the charging ended, and a ball of volatile energy rested at the end of the Super Scope’s barrel. “Charged Shot!” Gamer called, then let the shot fly. It zoomed past the wrecking ball and kept going.

Sonic cupped his hands, “Okay, now get out of the way!” Unfortunately, it was in vain. Even he could not have avoided the wrecking ball at that speed and distance. The wrecking ball charged, and bowled Gamer over, though it seemed to stop right when it sent the blow.

“Eh?” Eggman looked at some screens, “Well, shoot. I ran out of chain! Oh well, gotcha anyway! Ha-ha!!”

“GAMER!!” Sonic called, but did not get a response. Gamer had fallen back. Had the wrecking ball kept its momentum, surely Gamer would not have stayed in one piece.

Though Gamer was down, his last act still glowed brilliantly. While Eggman laughed evilly, the charged shot from the Super Scope kept going. Eggman looked down at the approaching ball of energy, and immediately saw where it was going. “W-wait… not there!”

The Super Scope’s charged shot pummeled the Egg Wrecker right where the ornamental Eggman face sat. The ornament burst, and the twin chips flew into the air, then were reduced to ash by the explosion. Eggman shouted in defeat as the Egg Wrecker reverted back to how it was before the ‘secret weapon’ had been applied, as derelict as a machine could get. The Egg Walker slumped over.

Sonic scowled, “Of course! You’re no worse than Metal Sonic! I thought you were better than that, Eggman!” The blue hero jogged to the Egg Wrecker, “I’ve been waiting for this moment a loooong time, you bad egg!” Sonic pushed off the ground, balled up, and launched himself into the Egg Wrecker’s head. This last impact toppled the robot, which lead to a series of internal explosions, and the complete decimation of the Egg Wrecker. Eggman, in his intact Egg Carrier, was sent skyward. The rotund doctor smashed into a computer, which also blew up. Eggman sailed through the roof and kept going, a glint in the sky signifying his disappearance into the horizon. “Good riddance to bad gas!” Sonic saluted the hole in the roof.

Unfortunately, celebrations did not last long as the computer, with whatever screen was left, displayed a large ‘WARNING.’ Sirens sounded, and red lights shown. The entire base rumbled. Shortly, a timer appeared in every monitor in the base.

“Couldn’t be a grand encounter without a great escape, eh?” Came a somewhat agonized voice. Sonic whirled around and saw Gamer clutching an arm.

“Gamer!!” Sonic beamed, but then looked concerned, “I thought you agreed not to put yourself in danger any more!”

Gamer looked off, “You think I wanted to do that in my right mind!? Ow, ow…” Gamer clutched his arm. “I guess being a super hero has its bad moments with the good…”

“At least you’ve got that established. We’ve got to go!” Sonic cut into the selfish suffering and looked in the direction of the door, and then his face fell. “Oh, no!”

The door was there, but the floor was not. The battle against the Egg Wrecker had punched holes in the floor. There was no decent ground to beat a retreat on, and it would have been a very hot swim to the other side.

Gamer looked forward. For the first time his pain was bumped down in priority and he stood, albeit hunched, before the holes in the floor. “C’mon, work for me… Reset!!” He drove a fist toward the floor but ended up spreading his hands when he actually made contact. Gamer’s Reset ability had not changed since the last time he has used it to replace a fallen wall. The wire frames searched the area for irregularity and stuck to the holes in the floor. From the bottom up, mystery clouds gathered and hardened to fill out the floor. In short order the floor had been restored to make the flat plane it had been originally. The debris from the original floor remained.

Sonic whistled, “That was tight! Now we can go!” The blue hedgehog looked for Gamer, but saw nobody. His head swung around and he twirled for any sight of Gamer. Sonic called out for Gamer to no avail. In fashion befitting a super hero, Gamer made his unchecked exit. The fortress shook with a self-destructing tremor. Sonic knew he had to act quickly if he wanted to get out. He decided that Gamer found his own way out.

Sonic used Gamer’s last act and confidently pounded the ground over Gamer’s fillings to reach the exit out.



The run back to where the transport hopefully still sat was an uneventful one, at least in the terms that Sonic wasn’t faced with anything that couldn’t be solved with a quick move. He ran out the doors, rather, through the Metal Sonic-shaped hole. He looked and saw not even a scrap of metal where the robotic doppelganger had fallen. ‘No time to think,’ he thought, ‘if I don’t hurry, I could take those other guys with me!’

Chad Grey was running in the same direction. He was a little ahead of Sonic, but the blue blur closed that gap quickly. He then picked up Grey by the collar and kept running, Grey in tow. “What’s up?”

“Sonic!” Grey gasped, “I caught it all! Everybody around the world saw the victory! You and Captain Gamer showed fantastic team work!”

Sonic raised a skeptical eyebrow, “Um… thanks.” The landing site was reached within a couple of minutes, with only half of which remaining before the fortress went up in smoke with a wide blast radius. Sonic ran up the ramp and closed the door in a fell swoop. “Start the engines!” He demanded of the driver. He had already checked that all the crew was safely inside the transport. The transport started up, and then rose through the trees. Barely after reaching official air space, the base began to melt down in segments starting where the Egg Wrecker battle had taken place, and ending with the outermost towers. The explosions were large and ended quickly. The helicopter trembled insignificantly.

When the transport was comfortably in the air, Grey switched the public output for news footage to the camera on the tripod used earlier. “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce that the day has been saved. Surely, Sonic deserved a rank of ‘A’ for this performance!” Sonic, more filled with pride than camera shyness, smiled and gave a thumbs-up to the camera. “Sonic only deserve part of the credit, though. We were treated to the return of Captain Gamer! Even though his amateur status was blatant, he deserves an honorable mention. This is Chad Grey… reporting.” He flipped a switch and the camera was turned off. Grey exhaled, and flopped onto a seat opposite Sonic.

Sonic scratched his head, “You know… I had my suspicions about you… but I guess the way you acted with Mario and me was just a fluke.” Grey opened his mouth to respond, but the mention of the plumber sparked a memory in Sonic. The blue hedgehog leapt right up, and looked at nothing in particular, “MARIO!!”



Outside Mario’s house, the news transport landed. Sonic leapt out as soon as the door opened, “I hope I’m not too late!” He jogged down the same dirt path and saw destroyed robots litter the path. Well, at least Mario wasn’t completely taken by surprise. The trashed robots increased as Sonic ran to the door. It was slightly ajar. Sonic steeled his nerves for whatever he may find. He opened the door, and gaped at what he saw.

Mario sat on a couch, using a pile of scrapped robots as a foot rest. The mustachioed plumber was sipping a cup of beverage when Sonic came in, and watched the hedgehog’s entry.

“I watched the news.” Mario explained, taking another sip of his drink. “I got a fair warning. Those robots stomp just like goombas!”

Sonic broke a sweat at the in-stride attitude, and rubbed his hand through his quills nervously, having been so worried before.



For Kate, watching her favorite heroes, old and new, save the day so much felt more akin to watching a game or a movie. It was so surreal, but at the same time so exciting that these things were actually happening. She did feel kind of guilty that she didn’t feel so concerned for the heroes, especially after Gamer had played the human punching bag from Metal Sonic and the Egg Wrecker, but it had felt like suspense before the big finish, and by all means, it was. After all, Gamer seemed fine enough afterward.

In the following days, a series of trials ensued. They were all televised, and reported by none other than Chad Grey, who had been on a Digital Reality binge ever since he covered the Sonic story. In the trials, Digital Reality was back to square one in credibility. One such occasion of danger was one thing, but another? Just how many times would the world be in peril at the hands of Digital Reality? The world leaders appealed to the Professor himself to quit while ahead, except this time they exercised more tact. It was inspiring that the world leaders were being more compassionate.

In the end, Shane Barr once again stepped up. He did not blame the world leaders for the way they felt, but encouraged them to let the possible breakthroughs of Digital Reality outweigh the perils. Surprisingly, the appeal to the part of the human condition that accepted and hoped for new and exciting things worked. That and Barr forced the world leaders’ hands when a bureaucratic hiccup allowed him to secure some of the IDR’s stock and buy more off of the world leaders. He had actually purchased enough to be able to sit in the panel of sponsors. He had no say above any other member, but he still held significant power by being in there. Even though Barr was apparently a man of morals and respect, that didn’t stop him from ruthlessly pursuing opportunity that fell within legal and moral bounds.

The Professor didn’t have to say anything. Barr had said and done everything necessary to secure the IDR’s funding and protection from a mostly unfounded negative reputation. After working so hard to start the IDR, keep morale up in the IDR, troubleshoot all problems, and generally being the primary power source for the IDR’s progress, the opportunity to sit back and watch somebody else take all the effort was met with a suspicious optimism. It was very flattering that not only Barr took so much interest in Digital Reality, but stood up for the product and spoke with his dollar as well as his word, when most see the need to only speak with one. At the same time, Barr’s participation begs the question of why he cares so much. Though not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, a person caring so much, especially the owner to corporation, came out of nowhere. Did Barr have an ulterior motive to this or was he really just an exceptional man?

Keeping in the theme of letting things be, the Professor decided, for his health, that Barr was a nice man with a genuine interest. There were many thoughts to entertain as far as who Barr truly could be or what he wants from Digital Reality, but Barr seemed to be a realistic man, despite the mission statement of his corporation. Nope, this time the Professor was content with just looking ahead to what the future of the IDR held.