I'M BACK! BOOM BABY! I bet you thought I was gone. But have no fear everyone, I AM HERE! And I am giving you the treat you've been waiting for, the Season 2 Finale. That's right, you finally get to see this portion of the story end. I've been giving this a lot of thought, and I think you'll enjoy this. And now, without further ado, let's get this party started.
Ghost Hill
The Chaos Council's giant aircraft appears. Eggforcers are lined up together. Doctor Babble presses keys on his keypad, along with a few other members. Mr. Dr. Eggman looks down at his 'henchmen'.
"Crush everything in your path until you find the Shards!"
The Eggforcers and the two ally aircrafts swarm down onto the landscape. They all walk, thumping the land as they do so. Sonic and Shadow watch over them.
Sonic sighs. "Don't you just hate this part? The buildup? Shadow and Sonic versus unbeatable odds, with the fate of the world at stake. Like, let's just get on with it already! Hey, I'm not gonna be the one who pulls a hammy."
"What about them?" Shadow said, referring to Nine and Rory. "We can't just leave him alone with the Prism Shards."
"Uh, yes we can. Seeing as Nine's the only one who can put them back together, and, y'know, fix reality? Plus, we need Rory to guard him in case something happens. You really don't trust them, do you?"
"No." Shadow bluntly responds.
"Of course you don't. You don't trust anyone. You wanna stay here and babysit? Fine. Knock yourself out. I'm gonna go buy us some time." He jumps down, with Shadow looking on grimacing, then also jumps down.
While Sonic and Shadow take on the Chaos Council outside the mountain, Nine continues to assemble the Paradox Prism, with Rory guarding the exit. Nnie began rotating the blue shard in different angles. It is then inserted into the prism with a flash.
"Nice work Nine." Rory congratulated his best/only friend.
"Thanks. Two more, then home for the last Shard." Nine declared.
"Then we can have the world we deserve." Rory nodded.
Nine crawls over to the red shard in the box, picks it up and crawls towards the Prism, constantly rotating it. Once he tries to put it inside the Prism, it shimmers, vibrates rapidly and explodes. The explosion's wave carries on outside the cave. "Whoa. That was one crazy wave. What do you think happened, Rory?" Nine asked but was met with silence. He turned around to look, but he found that Rory wasn't there, or the unconscious Ryder. "Rory?" Nine started to get nervous. Either this was some sick prank, or the Paradox Prism is actually eating people up. "Rory!"
"Who's Rory Tails?"
Nine looked back in shock and saw Ryder completely conscious next to the blueprint. "Ryder? You're awake?"
Ryder groans and grabs his head. "Yeah. Weird, I remember facing Eggman in this cave but... not much else. I must've passed out. What happened here Tails?"
"Tails? I'm not Tails. You know my name's Ni-. Wait, are you?"
"What's going on? Where is everyone? And why am I still here?" Ryder turns and sees the blueprint of the incomplete Paradox Prism. He furrows his eyes before widening them and slowly turning his head to Nine. "I didn't just pass out... Did I?"
"You're the first." Nine realized as he moved his tails and Shard.
"No! Wait, don-!" Ryder ran to try to stop Nine, but another wave hit him and he disappeared, causing Rory and the unconscious Ryder to reappear before him.
"He... He almost destroyed us both." Rory breathed heavily.
"Are you okay?" Nine asks, worried.
"Yeah. I think I am. Though we're gonna have to be careful with this thing."
Nine looks down. He begins to have second thoughts. "Maybe... maybe we shouldn't do this." Nine wondered.
"What?"
"We don't know what the Prism could do to you. And with you tethered to it-" Nine was starting to tear up when Rory interrupted him.
"Hey." Rory grabs Nine's shoulders and takes a knee. "We both knew the risks when we went into this. And now we're so close. This is everything we've been hoping for. Don't bail on me now. Besides, it'll take more than a little jolt to get rid of me."
"That sounds like something Rex would say." Nine commented
"Well, did Rex have superspeed and overpowered charisma.?" Rory asks.
"Heh. No." Nine chuckles a bit.
"Then don't worry about it. I'm always gonna be here for you Nine. I promise." Rory pulls Nine into a hug and hears his breath hitch before slowly embracing the hug.
"Nine? You guys okay?" Sonic's voice appeared on the regulator. Nine pulled out of the hug and talked.
"Yeah, this is a little trickier than I thought."
"What happened? Reality was flippin' out over here!"
"Like I said, this is a challenge. You're gonna have to buy us some more time."
"No problem, buddy!" Sonic then hanged up.
"No time to waste. So ready to get back at it?" Rory asks Nine, who nods and turns back to the Prism.
Soon enough, Nine almost completes the assembly of the Paradox Prism, but Eggforcers breach into the temple and attack him and Rory. Nine starts firing back at them while Rory fights them head on.
"Sonic!" Nine calls Sonic.
"Nine? You two okay?" Sonic asked from the other line.
While battling Eggforcers, Nine responds. "No! The Eggforcers have breached the temple."
"Hang on, I'm coming." Sonic hung up.
Rory kept fighting while hoping for Sonic's assistance. Just after dodging a saw attack from an Eggforcer, he jump-kicked it away and skidded to the ground. He then saw Ryder groaning as he awoke. "Oh, nice of you to join us again?"
"Ugh. What happened? Are we winning?" Ryder asked as he was suddenly pulled by Rory to avoid enemy fire.
"No time to chat. Long story short, we got the Shards and the Council is trying to destroy us." Rory reported as he got back to fighting. "Can you fight right now?"
"Not really," Ryder regrettably told him. He was still drained from his fight with Rex. "But I'll do what I can."
The two then fought together, though Ryder lacks in strength, he makes up for with his tactical intellect.
Soon, they hear an explosion coming from the entrance, and Sonic's screams as he gets uncontrollably thrown in, tumbling down and landing flat on his face. He looks on while Nine, Rory and Ryder continue battling the Eggforcers. As soon as they're all defeated, Sonic confronts them.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine." Nine said before he and Rory walked back to the Paradox Prism and started thinking.
Ryder and Sonic see the nearly rebuilt Prism and become excited and step by the others.
"You're nearly done! Nine, I saw it. Green Hill was back! So were my friends! Can you..."
"The Prism is only partially complete. I need you to buy me more time." Nine told him.
"We'll do what we can." Ryder nodded before suddenly, the temple rumbled, causing them to brace themselves. From outside, the enemy continued firing at the temple.
"Nine... we're losing. The Chaos Council is using Shard energy to make themselves tougher than ever. Maybe Ryder and I can do the same." Sonic wondered.
"Uh...?" Rory and Nine turned to each other with questioning looks.
"He's right. You said it before. we're full of Shard energy. If you give us more energy, we should be able to handle it!" Ryder said.
"In theory, it's possible. But given the myriad configurations and the commensurate spectrum of transmutational possibilities..." Nine thought as the Hedgehogs saw the blocked entrance start to crumble.
"Uh. Same stuff less words!" Sonic said.
"It's dangerous. Too little energy, you'll lose. Too much..." Rory explained to them.
"And we pop off like fireworks. I get it, but this is it. It's the only option. 'Cause unless we can be more, y'know, us, we lose." Sonic told him.
Nine nods and shows off his tails. Nine reconfigures all the shards with lasers while Ryder and Sonic are waiting, on the brink of getting hit by weaponry.
"Aren't you gonna fight too?" Ryder asks his counterpart.
"Eh, I'd rather not. Besides, who's gonna protect Nine if you fail?" Rory declined.
"Uhh, any time now!" Sonic called out.
"Almost there. Whatever you do, just don't move." Nine warned him.
"Don't move?!" Ryder and Sonic both yell at once.
Nine retracts the shard energy from the Prism and transfers it to them, while simultaneously on the other side the missiles home towards him. In slow motion, the Hedgehogs are hit by the Shard's power just before the missiles get to them. The weapons stop and the temple rumbles. Suddenly, Ryder and Sonic, with a green glow, take out some Eggforcers, leaving Nine stunned. Sonic re-appears with a rainbow-colored outline, showcasing his new look.]
"Whoa. Now this is speed! Nine, you've really outdone yourself." Sonic congratulated him.
"Yeah. I feel like I have more power than ever before." Ryder checked himself out, and was really impressed by his aura, though it was strange that the yellow in it is more glaring than the others.
Sonic defeats three more Eggforcers, showing three different copies of his punch.
"I should probably check on Shadow." Sonic warps to a copy on his left, impersonating himself. "Great idea!" He then defeats two more Eggforcers, and then four more in quick succession and leaves the cave.'
Ryder sighs. "He's totally gonna be doing that all day. I'll be back in a flash, gentlemen." He speeds off to find Sonic.
"Ha-ha! Now that's how it's done!" Sonic warps, impersonating Shadow. "Meh. Not bad." He does it again in an angry tone. "Oh, like you could do better?" Ryder then slaps the back of Sonic's head. "Ow!"
"Focus!"
Dr. Done-It's aircraft confronts them. "Dodge this, marmot." Done-it laughed maniacally as he fired bullets at them.
"Rude." Sonic said.
"Let's show 'em who's boss." Ryder smirks
They whip up a Tornado, scooping the broken Eggforcers in the air before they get thrown at Dr. Done-It's windshield, along with the rest of the aircraft. The force causes Dr. Done-It to scream as he tries to control it, but it crashes into the ground.
"Ha! I knew that would work." Sonic said.
"No, you didn't." Ryder retorted.
"Did so!"
"Whatever. Race you to Shadow?"
"Way ahead of you." Sonic and Ryder jump off the mountain and run to Shadow's aid. They see him fighting Dr. Deep and Babble.
"Hey, Shadow! Sorry to keep you waiting!" Sonic shouted.
Ryder attacks Babble while Sonic attacks Sonic, then they go back and forth, attacking both enemy robots in rapid succession, high-fiving each other in mid-air before continuing. Sonic lifts and tosses Dr. Babble's robot out of sight.
"Ugh. Don't you know it's rude to..." Deep said but got kicked by Ryder's shard-powered leg and was thrown out.
Sonic meets Shadow, who is downed and struggling to get up.
"How..."
"Got a power-up to save yer butt. You're welcome."
Shadow looks at him unamused.
Ryder speeds to them. "This is awesome. I've never gone that fast. I feel like I'm gonna explode!" He drops to the grass and sighs, content. "This is the life."
The cannons whir and rotate up into the sky.
"It's aiming away from us?!" Sonic warps again. "That doesn't make any sense." And again. "Maybe they know when they're beat." and again. "These guys? Please. If you believe that you're even dumber than you look."
"Finally a Sonic I can agree with." Shadow and Ryder say in sync.
The cannons fire lasers in the sky. Sonic and Shadow watch on, with Mr. Dr. Eggman grinning in excitement. The lasers generate the Prismatic Titan, a giant clone of Dr. Eggman with a glowing outline and bright pink mustache. "Behold, the pinnacle of all creation!" The Titan descends onto the landscape.
"It's official. I've seen it all." Sonic commented.
"Agreed. Is that a giant Eggman? How do they even know what he looks like?" Ryder wondered.
The Titan lands with an enormous rumble. It walks towards the Temple.
"Whatever it is, it's heading for the Temple." They all run after the Titan.
"I got this!" Ryder jumps up to the Titan's head, but it easily palms him away, dropping him helplessly to the ground as it continues onward. "I was wroooooooooong!!!!" The Titan advanced, destroying a loop-de-loop with one chop, leaving Sonic fearing the worst and reaching out for it.
"No!" Sonic yelled.
"Sonic, don't! You can't save anything unless you protect the shards!" Shadow told him.
Sonic leaves him and gets up to the Titan, landing on its hand and running up the arm before Homing Attacking its metallic head every time he says a word.
"Why... won't... you... go... down?!" The Titan flicks a finger at Sonic, tossing him back to the ground again. Just then, Shadow and Ryder appear.
"Sonic! Protect the Shards!" Ryder told him, and as he and Shadow approach the Titan, it powers up and unleashes a beam, knocking them off.
"Shadow! Ryder!" Sonic dreads them. The Titan turns and walks in the other direction. Sonic goes to the temple once again. "Nine!" He arrives at the Temple and confronts Nine and Rory. "Guys! My power-up, it's not enough! There's a giant..."
"Prismatic Titan. Yes! Attack on Titan comes to life. We got it." Rory commented
The Titan pulls out some rocks to widen the gaping hole.
"How do we beat it?"
"Uh... You and the Titan should operate within the same spectral frequency." Nine scans the Titan's head, and compares its frequency to Sonic's on the screen. "If I offset your frequency..."
"Nine! What do we do? What do we do?"
"We don't know exactly! But, if you hit him where it hurts, I think we can make him go boom!" Rory told him.
"And if he doesn't?"
"Well, it's been a slice. A slice of reality, that is." Nine joked as he reconfigured the shards in the Paradox Prism. He charges a green beam of light at Sonic, causing him to grunt as the charging increases. Nine stops with a worried look as Sonic's upgrade is complete. His quills are crowned with a pink flame, and its attire glows turquoise with crackles around him. Sonic opens his eyes, which glow pink, and with brave anger, turns towards the Titan, which throws off another rock. The Titans goggles glow turquoise and opens its glowing mouth to load up a beam attack.
"Now!" Rory and Nine called out.
The upgraded Sonic takes off and Peels out towards the Titan. A few seconds later, the beam attack is unleashed from the Titan at Sonic. Sonic spin jumps towards the Titan and makes it inside the Titan's mouth. The Titan falls off the temple, with Sonic continuing to peel out with all his might. Just as Nine runs out to the top of the temple with a gadget, the Titan crashes to the ground with a large rumble. The shockwave causes Rory, Nine and Mr. Dr. Eggman to flinch. The Titan is no longer visible, while Sonic stands with his palm to the ground. The upgrade wears off then. Sonic runs up to the temple and makes his way to the two.
"Sonic! You did it!" Nine said.
"We did it. Did you complete the Prism?" Sonic notices the world hasn't changed. "Then why hasn't it worked?" He becomes annoyed as he walks to the Paradox Prism with Nine and Rory following with strange looks on their faces. "I don't get it. I thought this would work!"
Ryder zooms to them. "You did it guys! Have you completed the Prism?"
"They did, but nothing happened." Sonic told him.
"Because it's not complete yet." Rory mentioned matter-of-factly.
"Excuse me?" Ryder asked his counterpart.
"There's still one Shard missing." Nine explained.
"What?" Sonic asked this time.
"Of Course. The last Shard is in the Grim." Nine points to the gap between the Shards.
"Okay... Probably could've mentioned that earlier and saved us the trip there and back."
"And back? The only reason we're here at all is because I needed to use the Prism's impression as a blueprint. To see which pieces went where. Now that all but the last one is in place, we can rebuild it to make the Grim into what we've always wanted." Nine celebrated.
"Yeah... to rebuild Green Hill." Sonic said, trying to get them back on track but was worried..
"Green Hill? We're not remaking your old world. We're building a better one. The perfect world in Grim. Our clean slate." Nine said.
"Why does the slate have to be clean? I liked the old slate! It was our home!" Sonic argued.
"It was never my home. Plus, it's gone." Nine reminded him.
"I think you can get it back."
"You're wrong about that. We need to build a new home."
"And besides, why would we even want it back? What's past is past." Rory asks.
"Because it's our home. It's where we belong." Ryder replied.
"Not anymore." Rory said.
Sonic: Come on, little buddy...
Nine angrily smacks away Sonic's outstretched hand. "Stop calling me that! You just assumed I'd go along with you no matter what. Did you even consider what I wanted?!"
"I assumed that after everything we've been through, you'd see things the way I do. Just like the real Tails would."
"I AM real!" Nine threatens Sonic with a laser, then turns his back on him, upset. "Just not your real friend. What did you think would happen to us when you brought your friends back?" Nine asks, referring to himself and Rory
"We're all in this together, and I really think you'd grow to love them as much as I do!"
Nine angrily turns to him and threatens him. "And that's exactly your problem! You just jump into situations with no idea about the outcome." Nine then prepares to fire
"Wait!" Ryder cries out. He attempts to run to stop him, but he suddenly feels drained. He drops to the floor, groaning, and turns his head and sees Rory firing a beam, draining his energy.
"Ryder!" Sonic tried to stop Rory, but then started to get drained as well.
"Sorry. I'm curious about the energy that can defeat a prismatic Titan. That's something worth keeping."
Ryder struggles to reach Rory to stop him. "Please. We just want our world back."
Rory walks up to Ryder and kneels in front of him. "It's not your world anymore. It never was. And even if it was, despite what it says in Dragon Ball Z, you shouldn't mess with reality to get whatever you want back." He stands up and walks away to absorb energy from the prism and opening a portal to the Grim with it. Once he does, Nine carries all the Shards.
"How do you know about that?" Rory stops in his tracks when he hears Ryder say that.
"What?"
"Your homeworld is empty. No internet or anyone to make manga. So how. Do. You. Know about Dragon Ball Z?" Ryder asked as he tried to crawl towards him.
Rory chuckles a bit. "Ah. You caught on to that. Well, let me answer that with another question. You and Sonic are able to exist outside and walk between the Shatterverses right? Then how is it that there are so many counterparts of you Ryder. It's simple." Rory turns and kneels in front of the struggling Ryder again. "The Prism wasn't the only thing that Shattered that day."
Ryder's eyes widened. What? What does he mean? I was Shattered? But that doesn't make any sense!
"Allow me to explain. You see that ghost?" He points behind him to the ghost guarding the Paradox Prism. "When he tried to use Chaos Control, he hesitated, allowing himself to be hit just when the Paradox Prism shattered. And when this happened mid-teleportation, it allowed him to be in an excited state that allowed the Shard Energy to pass right through him. When that happened, he was broken between dimensions. Thus, we were born. He is all that remains of the true Ryder. Don't you get it? You're not the real Ryder. You're simply a piece of what used to be. A doppelganger." This news shook Ryder and Sonic to their cores.
Ryder shaked his head in denial. "No. That can't be true. Doppelgangers don't have memories of Green Hill. You couldn't know any of this. You have no proof of-"
"A mozzarella sandwich." Rory interrupted him.
"What?" Ryder looked up at Rory. That phrase seemed familiar. Wait a minute... that's-
"Whenever Tails was sad, you would cook him his favorite sandwich. I know that because I remember it too."
"No..."
"Yes. You see, after the Shattering, you were meant to be a ghost. You were born to be a ghost, just like Tails, Amy and the others. But on the trip, there was a compilation."
Flashback
Sonic and five colored beams flew through a rift that would take them to the Void.
"When we were created, we each had a piece of Shard Energy, and each held a fraction of Ryder's speed. I held 40%, you had 30%, Ricky had 15%, Rex had 10%, and Metal-Bone Ryder had 5%. Before we could enter the Void though, Sonic bumped into you." Rory narrated.
Past Sonic flew across the rift and soon bumped into Ryder, who would then bump off course and his beam would soon collapse, freeing him.
"This action caused you to be free. That's why our ghost doesn't talk like the others. And when the rest of us were sent to our native worlds, we were each stripped of the Shard Energy required to survive, causing them to naturally go into your body. I was different though."
The grey beam got hit by the rock Shadow bumped into, waking Past Rory up from inside the beam. He then saw the Purple Chaos floating and jumped and tried to get it. He managed to catch himself on a large rock, and kept bumping into a bunch of rocks like a pinball, eventually hitting and snatching the Chaos Emerald.
"I woke up thanks to Shadow, and when I did, I found and retrieved the Chaos Emerald. I tried to use it to escape but instead..."
"Chaos Control!" Past Rory (who looks exactly like Ryder) yelled as he held on tight to the Emerald. Though when he was about to teleport, he went through the portal with a large blue wave going behind him.
"When I used Chaos Control at the same time as when I went through the portal, it triggered a time warp, sending me three years into the past of the Grim."
"Three years?" Ryder said, shocked. Of course. That must be how Shadow saw two Rorys. The one he saw go through the portal was from the past.
"Yes. And though I was meant to be stripped of my memories of my past life, and integrated into my world's history, the Grim has no history due to being so barren. This made me have to keep the Shard Energy just to survive. After eventually tracking down the Grim Shard, I honed my skills, discovered the energy within me. And when the time finally came, I used it to travel between worlds, to find a new home."
Past Rory (who now looks older and has shorter hair) absorbed energy from the Grim Shard inside the cave and used it to open a portal to the Void. He walked through and soon reached Boscage Maze. He saw the people and recognized them as the doppelgangers of his friends. He got excited and was going to introduce himself, but saw Ricky walking in to join them and petting Mangey. He realized that with that doppelganger, he would never truly belong, so he tried again. He went to No-Place, and the result was the same thanks to Metal-Bone. Then he went to New Yoke. He found Nine's lab and entered. He smiled. He saw Nine alone typing on his computer, programming his robot legs. He thought he might've had a chance. But when he tried to go inside, he saw the younger, fleshy Rex walk up next to him and gave him a noogie. He saw them both laugh and realized that he didn't belong here either. "But since our counterparts existed in every Shatter Space but this one, I realized there was no point. I was unnecessary to this universe. I learned who I truly was, a mistake of the Shatterverse."
Flashback End
"I tried everything I could think of to undo this. I even tried interfering with my past, only to fail. I just stayed in the Grim alone... until Nine showed up. He was alone too. He showed me that there was meaning to my existence. My purpose isn't to help save your world, it's to give Nine his. And I can do that... with these." He took the satchel from Ryder.
"What are you doing?!" Ryder asked.
"Chaos Emeralds have the power to create. Everytime we used our super forms, we were unstoppable. So if I can infuse the power of the Chaos Emeralds into me, permanently, I will be able to make any dream a reality. I will become a god, and I will shape the Grim into the world we deserve... unfortunately for you, I can't afford to have you there to stop me." He put the satchel on and then channeled some of the energy he stole from Sonic and Ryder into a second portal, but behind it was only a black void. "When Shadow's Chaos Emerald fell into the void, it decayed, never to be seen again. And now... neither will you." He grabbed Ryder by the scarf.
"Wait, no!" Ryder grabbed Rory's arm to try to stop him to no avail. He was too weakened.
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to escape this place. You're too much of a threat. And if I have to admit it... you remind me too much of what I lost."
"Please." Ryder was held over the horizontal portal.
"Goodbye Ryder." Rory let go, and simply watched in slow-motion as Ryder fell. Ryder waved his arms to try to grab something, anything that can save him, but he fails to reach anything. All he can see are the shocked faces of Nine and Sonic and the stoic face of Rory as he falls into the abyss. As soon as he finally falls into the portal, it closes behind him, banishing him forever.
"NO!!!" Sonic cried out.
"Let's go, Nine." Rory's words shook Nine out of his faze and he walked towards the portal, carrying all the shards, before stopping at the last stride.
Sonic coughs and becomes upset. "Wait, we can make this work Nine. Trust me!"
Nine scoffs. "Trust you? The only person I can trust is Rory." Rory and Nine then walk into the portal with all the shards, which closes behind him. Shadow lividly glares at Sonic, who, severely heartbroken and embarrassed to himself, puts his face into his palms. He just lost his only friend left. He failed to save his world, and Rory and Nine have now betrayed them. This was the worst day of his life.
Oh my god, that was so shocking. Ryder is dead (maybe), Rory wants to be a Chaos god and just revealed to be a piece of Ryder. Now nothing stands in Rory and Nine's way of taking the Paradox Prism and Chaos Emeralds for themselves. What happens now? Find out next time on Sonic Prime: Shattered Hedgehog!