Chaos Hearts
Chapter 4 - Game On
World - Game Central Station
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related fanchars are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
Kingdom Hearts is (c) Disney & Square Enix. Related elements belong to their respective companies.
The Legend of Zelda, Mario, etc are (c) Nintendo
Pac-Man is (c) Bandai-Namco
Other characters & items belong to their respective companies.
"Switch on the sky and the stars glow for you.
Go see the world 'cause it’s all so brand new.
Don't close your eyes 'cause your future's ready to shine.
It's just a matter of time, before we learn how to fly!
Welcome to the rhythm of the night!
There's something in the air you can't deny!" - When Can I See You Again, Owl City
Thinking of you, wherever you are...
In Traverse Town, Lucky was informed that Master Yen Sid was the one who secured his transport to this new world. Travis and Gator, on Yen Sid's behalf, arrived to train Lucky to wield his keyblade, so that he can protect the worlds while the other keyblade masters deal with the looming threat of a Keyblade War.
After defeating a newly-darkness empowered Zeke and Zim, Gator brought Lucky's group to Neverland via Winston the Moogle's ship, the Galestrom. Once there, Gator convinced Captian Hook to help train Lucky in combat, but the pirate had his own plans for his trainees. Meanwhile, Peter Pan came across Zeke and Zim tied up and freed them, soon to regret it as they unleashed Heartless upon Neverland. As Lucky teamed with Pan to try and catch Zeke, Hook tried to take the opportunity to take out his nemesis, only to be defeated.
Zeke and Zim encountered Garland, whose future self traveled through time to imbue them with dark power and set them on their path. Finding present-day Garland, Zeke and Zim pledged themselves to his service in exchange for passage off Neverland. Garland needs three sources of power; one of light, one of darkness and one of chaos. Combined, he plans to use them to create a new power; Chaos Hearts!
In the land of Hyrule, Zeke and Zim sought the Triforce to grant Garland a source of light. Teaming up with Link, Lucky and co. fought the Evil King Ganondorf, who also sought the Triforce and was powered by a piece of it; the Triforce of Power. With the aid of Princess Zelda, they sealed Ganondorf away, putting the Triforce out of Zeke's reach.
Now, let us journey to a new world...
As the Galestrom flew in the realm between worlds, something began to seem strange about the space around the ship. It began to feel darker...almost like a flat blackness. Yet somehow not dark. "We're flying through...something..." Winston murmured, looking around. "Did you get us lost?" Lucky gulped. Everyone looked out the windshield and saw...a triangle? Something triangular, to be sure. It pointed at them, but then slowly turned away, moving aside. "...What the heck was that?" Tails asked. Whisk pointed ahead. "Look out...asteroids!!" she cried. Winston squinted to see them. It appeared to be...the outline of an asteroid? In fact a couple. The triangle suddenly turned to the "asteroids" and fired a tiny laser at them, causing them to break down into smaller asteroids! "Oh, sweet Christmas, they're solid!" the moogle yelped, grabbing the controls and weaving the ship to avoid them! "What kind of crazy asteroid field is this!?" Lucky shouted as the ship tilted desperately to dodge the incoming asteroid fragments. Little did they know that, somehow, they were inside a giant arcade cabinet, and from outside their ship appeared as flat and triangular as the other triangular ship. There were too many asteroids coming at them, and soon the gummi ship was struck, sending them bouncing into another asteroid and spiraling out of control! "Mayday!! Mayday!! D-do we have a distress signal on this thing!?" Lucky shouted. "It's Gummi! We're lucky it flies!!" Whisk retorted as the group all held on tight. The ship tumbled to the edge of the screen, and into what appeared to be a sort of landing station. "Perfect! We're saved... Huh?" Winston murmured. As they looked for a place to land, they were suddenly sucked into a high-speed transport...the power cable of the arcade cabinet. Shrieking as the ship was propelled through it at high speed, the group collapsed in a heap as the ship was ejected, landing in a vast open space with several exit points, all leading to even more arcade cabinets...not that they had any idea about that. Shakily standing back up, they looked outside to see various people gradually entering from these different exit points. There was such diversity, creatures and beings of all shapes, sizes and types. Some cute, some fierce, some heroic and some downright evil-looking, all mingling together as though it were totally normal. "...Where in the worlds are we?" Tails murmured. They could hear a PA announcement overhead. "Welcome to Game Central Station! The arcade is now closed; Feel free to mingle as you wish!"
As they exited the ship to look around, an odd blue fellow in a police uniform appeared nearby and poked Lucky with a baton. "This spaceship yours? You know you can't park that here." he said with a serious tone. Lucky started to babble. "I, err... didn't..." he murmured. "You guys just flew in from Asteroids? Funny, I thought their plug was pulled. What were colorful characters like you doing in there? Not going Turbo, are ya?" he asked, producing a clipboard and looking like he was going to write a ticket or something. Tails ran up with a nervous expression. "Terribly sorry, officer, it was all a big mistake. We'll have our ship out of here just as soon as we fix it up!" he stammered. The officer glanced at Tails with a look of surprise. "Ahh... Well if you vouch for these guys, I guess I'll let you all off with a warning. As a Surge Protector, though, I'll be sure to check back on your progress at regular intervals. You'd better be putting effort into fixing up that ship!" he said before heading on his way. "...Surge Protector? What kind of strange world have we landed in, kupo?" Winston murmured. "I dunno but he seems to respect Tails..." Whisk said with a puzzled look. "Don't look at me, I've never been here." Tails shrugged, "Fix the ship, Winston. We're gonna look around." he added. As the trio headed into the station, Winston sighed. "Wanna come, Winston? No, no, someone has to fix up the ship, kupo..." the moogle babbled in a sarcastic tone. Lucky and Whisk gasped as they looked around them, walking through the area. So many varied creatures, and exits seeming to lead to various worlds. "Look at those destinations... Tapper... Street Fighter... Hero's Duty... Paperboy... Sugar Rush..." Lucky murmured, "They don't sound like places. Are we sure this isn't a big theater?" A boy on a bike suddenly whizzed past them, newspapers in his basket, and pedaled into the Paperboy gate. "I'm getting a sense of what this place is..." Tails murmured. "Yeah? What? ...Is that a T-REX!?" Whisk babbled, glancing behind them. Lucky glanced back. Yeah, T-Rex... but it seemed remarkably calm and uninterested in eating anybody. "It's like... All these guys are just people...even if they look like monsters..." Lucky observed. Some odd white paddles passed them by, knocking a small box back and forth. "...If I didn't know any better, I'd say we just walked by Pong..." Lucky mumbled. "...I think we did." Tails stated. "What are you saying?" Whisk asked, "That this is some kind of...world of video game characters?" she wondered. Tails nodded. "Potentially. Didn't those asteroids seem strange?" he stated. Lucky gasped. "But...but...HOW? How could this even happen? It doesn't make any sense!" he stammered. Just then, he walked smack into a zombie, and witnessed its head fall off as a result! "MEEE-YOOOW!!!" Lucky shrieked as the zombie picked his head back up. "Argh, watch it... Even zombie don't regenerate outside zombie's game you know!" he grunted, shuffling by. Lucky shivered, glancing around slowly. "...We're in a video game world... How'd we get here? How do we get out?" he stammered. Tails chuckled. "Your keyblade can find the pathways between worlds for us. It probably let us in here without us realizing it." he stated.
They were still reeling from these revelations when they spotted a familiar blue spiky form ahead. White gloves. Read sneakers. It was unmistakable. "Sonic! It's Sonic!" Lucky shouted, starting towards him. Sonic's ears twitched at hearing his name called. "It's not my Sonic, Lucky..." Tails babbled, slipping on his black cloak and trying to hide his face. Whisk was also running up to meet Sonic. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" she said. Sonic glanced at Lucky and Whisk curiously. "...Do I know you? ...Hey, Tails, what's with the getup?" he asked, seeing the fox's twin tails poke out of his cloak. "Rats, my disguise has failed me..." he babbled, "I'm, uh... I'm Tails from another...game. Yeah." he said. Sonic scratched his head. "What? Has another Sonic game been plugged into the arcade? Oh, great, I've seen Pac-Man deal with this. Everybody mixed them up, it was a nightmare to be Pac 1 and Pac 2..." he murmured. Tails chuckled softly. "Ah, well... I have it on good authority that this is just a temporary stop for us..." he said. Sonic sighed. "Alright, whatevs. Guess I'll give ya the tour, since you are technically my little buddy...sorta." he smirked, "So, this is our station, nonstop travel to any game in the arcade! You know that jazz. You can visit other games when the arcade is closed but avoid dying outside your game, 'cuz that's a permanent game over! Here in this arcade we call it 'going Turbo' when you try and jump to another game during arcade business hours. There's a little story behind that, but how 'bout the rundown of what game worlds you can visit?" he asked. Lucky was scarcely keeping up with all this, looking around casually until his eyes fixed on something. Something with the unmistakable symbol of the heartless upon it. It looked like some kind of hovering robot, a strafer heartless. It turned and started to head into a game called "Fix-It Felix Jr." Lucky pointed and stammered. "G-guys... Heartless! Going in there!" he said. Whisk and Tails glanced. "Huh? Well, I guess we know now why your keyblade led us here." Whisk said. Sonic looked as well. "What's a heartless?" he asked. Tails frowned. "Let's just say it'll do worse than just going Turbo if we don't stop it." he said as he, Lucky and Whisk headed for Fix-It Felix. Sonic sped ahead of them. "I should give 'ol Felix a heads up, then! C'mon, guys! Hurry up!" he shouted, racing into the game. "What kinda game gets a title like 'Fix-It Felix' anyway?" Whisk asked. "I'm guessing stuff breaks easily in there?" Lucky shrugged. They'd soon find out as they found their way to the train-like vehicle that would carry them from the station, through the power cable and into the arcade cabinet...
Zeke was standing over a diminutive man in a blue uniform, a gold hammer attached to his belt and the letters "FF" upon his hat. Zim was still shorter than him, but doing his best to intimidate the man with a threatening glare. "Uhhh, w-what can I do ya for, fellas?" the man asked nervously. Zeke looked around calmly. "This place looks awfully peaceful. You wouldn't happen to know where we could find some chaos, hm?" he asked. "Yeah! Talk!" Zim snapped. The man flinched a little, glancing as the train-like vehicle was arriving at the small station. "Oh, my land, more of them..." he muttered, "Look there...there's no chaos here! If there was, I would fix it! C-cuz I'm Fix-it Felix Jr...you know..." he babbled. Zeke looked back to see Lucky, Whisk, Sonic and Tails headed their way. "Sonic? ...Oh, now I see..." he muttered. Zim grunted. "Huh? See what? Bah! Sonic!! I'm gonna smash him for Lord Zavok!!" he shouted. Tails sighed as the group closed in on them. "Again, not your Sonic either... What are you two doing in a video game world anyway?" he asked. Zim stomped angrily. "Don't try to confuse us with games! You're goin' down!" he shouted. "You okay, Felix?" Sonic asked. "I can't say I know what's going on..." Felix muttered. While all this was going on, a pile of bricks across the way started to rustle. A hulking man with messy hair, tatty red shirt and overalls, and giant hands rose from under the bricks and stretched. "Bricks are especially bricky today... What's all the yelling?" he mumbled sleepily, looking around. The large man started to clumsily bound his way toward them, and Lucky's mouth went agape when he saw him. "Th-that guy's humongous!" he stammered. "We just saw a T-Rex. Chill, Lucky." Whisk sighed. "Oh, hey, Ralph..." Felix waved. Ralph stood up straight, using his large hands to fix a crick in his back while he glanced down at Felix. "Hey, buddy. What's goin' on here?" he asked. Zeke smirked as he looked over the new arrival. "Hmm, you'll do..." he said while Sonic was calmly holding Zim back by his forehead, the small Zeti trying to tackle the hedgehog but failing to gain any ground. "Are you helping or what, Zeke!?" he grunted. Zeke turned to Ralph and raised his hand. "Let's see what happens when I give you a good dose of darkness..." he chuckled. A dark energy surrounded Ralph's head, and he started to act woozy. "Whoa...gettin' cloudy here... Who...turned out the light?" he babbled, lightly swinging his arms as he stumbled about. "Easy there, Ralph! Are you glitching? I can fix it!" Felix stammered, chasing after him. Lucky watched in puzzlement. "What's happening? Is Zeke doing this?" he mumbled. Suddenly, Ralph stood up again, his eyes glowing yellow. "Rrrraaaaaaaahhh!! I'm gonna WRECK it!!" he shouted in a rage! Zeke then picked up Zim and started to fly away. "Have fun with your little dose of chaos here, I've got bigger chaos to catch!" he cackled, flying to the station! Everyone jumped back as Ralph pounded his fists hard into the ground, leaving imprints in the dirt! Felix gulped. "Well, new guys, let me introduce... Wreck-it Ralph..." he said nervously. Lucky materialized his keyblade and whimpered. "Hi, Ralph. I'm thinking of changing my name to Un-lucky..." he said.
Ralph was snarling, and did not look like he'd listen to reason. "Ohhh, what am I supposed to do? We haven't had a glitch in decades! Remember your debug training, Felix!" the little guy said, wringing his hat in his hands as Ralph decided to stomp towards the nearby skyscraper! "Ahh! Hold up, Ralph! C'mon, Tails, help me hold him back!" Sonic shouted, speeding into Ralph's path. "Uhh... Sure, you can boss me around like I'm your actual sidekick, why not..." Tails grumbled, grabbing his shield and rushing to help Sonic. As Ralph slammed his fists toward them, Tails tried to block with his shield, but it broke and he fell backward! "I know! Deep freeze!" Whisk cried, casting Blizzard Ralph's way. He shivered a bit but powered through, and swatted Sonic away as he tried to homing attack him. "You're gettin' wrecked! Arrrrghh!!" Ralph shouted, pulling back his fist to punch at the building. "Ha! He'll wear himself out punching a brick wall!" Lucky sighed. "Uh, oh..." Felix gulped. With a great slam, Ralph punched a huge hole in the building, earning panicked screams from the residents inside. "Exit the building in an orderly fashion! Ralph's, uhh... havin' a li'l temper tantrum at the moment, hehe..." Felix babbled. Lucky stopped to help Tails up on his way to where Ralph was busy wrecking the building. "C-can we even do anything against this guy?" he asked. Sonic sped over to Felix. "The name of the game is fixing, so hop to it, Fix-it Felix!" he suggested. "Well, alright, but I don't think winning the game will fix a bug in his brain..." he said, holding his hammer and racing to the hole in the wall. It just took a couple taps to fix pieces of the damage Ralph caused. "Grr, stop that fixin'!" Ralph grunted, turning towards Felix. However, Lucky dashed into his path, blocking his huge fist with the keyblade! "Aaaahh!! Urrrgh!!" he grunted, pushing back against Ralph's mighty fist. The keyblade wouldn't break like Tails' shield, but Lucky couldn't hold him back. "Hang in there, kid!" Sonic shouted, leaping up to bonk Ralph on the head! He stumbled back a little, creating another hole in the wall as he fell into it! "Aaaaarrgh!!" he yelled, bursting out and flailing his arms! Lucky frantically backed away, trying to avoid his fists. "E-enough!! Snap out of it!!" he yelled, pointing his keyblade up at Ralph and loosing a beam from it that struck Ralph in the face, knocking him flat on his back! "...Lucky!!" Whisk cried, making him stop hiding his face in fear and gasp. "D-did I do that?" Lucky babbled. Ralph slowly sat up, rubbing his head. "Ugh... What happened? What's this taste in my mouth? Why am I cold?" he shivered, looking around. He saw the damage to the building and gulped. "Hoboy... I feel like somethin' messed with my code just now. Just what I need. As if I'm not hated around here enough..." he sighed. "It's not your fault, Ralph." Sonic told him. "Sure! I'll explain everything!" Felix shouted as he was busily fixing the building. Ralph let out a sigh. "It's just me bein' the bad guy one more time... What else is new? Uhh, thanks for helpin' me get my head on straight, you guys. I dunno what you did, but it beats bein' bugged out." he chuckled. Tails sighed. "Yeah, sure... Hey, I wonder if Felix can fix this?" he asked about his shield. "Probably not. It's not from this world..." Lucky shrugged.
The group couldn't stick around, they had to go after Zeke and Zim. Sonic accompanied them as they left the Fix-it Felix game. "So, uh... What's the story with that shield?" Sonic asked as he watched Tails try to fix it himself. "...Things aren't the same between me and my Sonic. I can't depend on him all the time. I've needed to rely on my tech more, to keep myself safe..." he said. Sonic looked at him sympathetically. "Whoa, is that the future of our series? Sorry, bro..." he murmured. Tails rolled his eyes. "I'm not your bro... Um, err... Think of it as a spin off." he babbled. Sonic patted his head. "Tails is always my bro. No matter what." he smiled. As they walked into Game Central Station, Lucky looked around with a frown. "Where'd Zeke go?" he sighed. A big yellow ball suddenly came toward them, its big mouth flapping open and closed like it was planning to eat them. "Meee-yow!! Don't bite me!!" Lucky gasped, jumping back. "Yo, Pac-Man." Sonic waved. An orange ghost floated beside Pac-Man. "Sonic! We've been looking for you." the ghost said. "Wow, Sonic knows everyone..." Whisk murmured. Pac-Man started to speak in a language that sounded like "Wakka wakka" over and over. "He says that he saw Dr. Eggman get attacked by a couple strangers." the ghost translated. "That sounds like Zeke and Zim all right." Tails said. Pac-Man continued, and the ghost translated. "Naturally Eggman didn't take abuse too well, and it seems like he's gone a little nuts. Last seen, he was headed to the other end of Game Central Station, that way... You might wanna talk him down, Sonic." he suggested. "Talk Eggman down? Yeah, right..." Lucky scoffed. "Thanks, Pac-Man, and you too, Clyde. I'll look into it!" Sonic said with a sigh. Clyde nodded. "Best of luck. Remember, Bad Anon is there if he needs it..." the ghost stated. Lucky watched Pac-Man and Clyde leave with a shrug. "Okaaaay... Let's get moving then!" he said, following after Sonic as they headed for the area Eggman was last seen...
They soon found a commotion outside a particular game's entrance. Several characters were looking to get in, but a Surge Protector was holding them back. The colorful cast was somewhat familiar to Lucky... princesses and turtles and guys in overalls. He glanced up to see the name of the game. "Mario Kart..." he mumbled. Whisk groaned. "Looks more like heartless kart..." she mumbled. Zim was blocking the entrance, and had a number of heartless on wheels at his side. They looked built for ramming, and certainly fit in with the digital gaming world. They were magnum loaders, but to Sonic they just looked like glorified motobugs. "Lemme through officer, I got this!" he grinned. "I wouldn't go in there! Those critters aren't normal game enemies!" the Surge Protector warned. Tails stood back. "My shield's still busted... I hope you guys can handle this without me!" he murmured. Lucky materialized his keyblade and ran ahead with Whisk following. "We've got Sonic with us! What could go wrong?" he chuckled. "Plenty could go wrong for you! Like MORE heartless!" Zim cackled, summoning some soldiers to ride atop the magnum loaders! As the heartless charged at them, Lucky braced for a sudden impact, only to see a familiar yellow ball dive in front of him and give the heartless a good chomp, clearing his immediate path! "Pac-Man? How'd he catch up so fast?" Lucky murmured, looking to see this Pac-Man stand up. "Wait, he's got arms and legs!" Whisk babbled. "Ah, Pac 2! Good timing!" Sonic shouted as he leapt from soldier to soldier, knocking them off their rides swiftly. With Sonic and Pac-Man joining the fight, a frustrated Zim decided to run into Mario Kart and catch up with Zeke. "I think those two have this covered... Let's catch up with Eggman and Zeke." Lucky suggested. They motioned for Tails to follow, and attacked only the heartless in their path as they made their way to the game's entrance. The others waiting behind the Surge Protector were getting into the fighting spirit, too, dashing past him to attack the heartless! "Oh, fine... As if I could keep those Mushroom Kingdom thrill racers from any action..." the Surge Protector mumbled. "Man, I feel like we're missing a good show back there..." Lucky sighed as he hopped into the tram that would take them to the Mario Kart game. "Are we missing the point if Lucky doesn't fight the heartless?" Whisk asked. Tails shook his head. "Better to stop them at their source...Zeke." he pointed out. He was right, Game Central Station was absolutely filled with heroes to beat back the heartless. They were needed where Zeke and Zim were.
They arrived on a fairly simple race track, the Mario Circuit. Just beyond the starting line, they could see Zeke, with Zim rushing to join him. He was holding up a Chaos Emerald while Dr. Eggman hovered in an Egg Mobile in front of him, looking quite flustered. "Yooou!! Give me back that emerald! I was going to use its power to strengthen my weapons and...and conquer the whole arcade!!" he cackled. Sonic ran in behind Lucky's group and heard Eggman's plan. "Oh, great... He's goin' Turbo." he groaned as Pac-Man raced in to catch up. Zeke flapped up out of Lucky's reach and chuckled. "I was looking for a power of Chaos...what better than a Chaos Emerald?" he stated. "Hey, let's stay and watch Eggman smash them!" Zim snickered. Lucky stuck out his tongue. "Why would he smash us? You took his emerald!" he teased. Sonic stepped forward, knowing he had to talk Eggman down. "Hey, doc... About this plan... I know it might be frustrating being programmed to lose to me all the time, but you know you're still important, don't you?" he stated. Eggman growled. "Important for what? Inflating your massive ego?! It's time gamers learned who was always meant to be the real hero! ...True story, look it up. But whatever, I don't need the Chaos Emerald to delete your code!!" he shouted, dark energy surrounding him! It seemed to transform his Egg Mobile a bit, adding a menacing laser to the front! "Farewell, hedgehog!" he cackled, only to have his aim messed up when someone leapt up and kicked the laser aside with both feet! "Yahoo!!" As Eggman spun out a bit, who should land at Sonic's side but Mario himself! Pac-Man also stood at their side, and Tails let out an impressed hum. "Well... Sonic, Mario and Pac-Man teaming up... Are we even needed?" he asked. Whisk shrugged. "Maybe I should look for popcorn." she chuckled. This turn of events seemed to annoy Zeke. "Really? You're gonna hesitate over a plumber!? Fine, I'll help you out, yeesh..." he said, summoning a number of strafers, magnum loaders, soldiers...and a black fungus heartless or two, probably just because it was the Mushroom Kingdom. Lucky frowned. "Now we're needed. Happy, Tails?" he grumbled. "No... I still haven't finished fixing my shield, haven't had time..." the fox gulped. "Well, what would you do before you built that thing?" Whisk asked him, rushing in to help Lucky fight. Tails looked at his busted shield thoughtfully, and looked at Sonic fighting off a soldier. "Yeah... We were a team once, weren't we?" he mumbled, and dashed in Sonic's direction. However, a giant robotic leg crashed into his path! The Egg Mobile was pulsing with dark energy, and had used it to grow into a giant, weaponized spider! "Ho ho ho ho! Say hello to the Arachnoegg!!" he laughed. "It's been done!" Lucky shouted. Eggman scratched his head. "Really? ... How about I add a pincer and make it a Super Crabmeat?" Sonic shrugged and tapped his foot. "Whatever, just pick something. And don't step on my friend!" he said, running to Tails' side to make sure he was okay.
Zim and Zeke backed up, their heartless blocking the path to them. Mario and Pac-Man weren't too bothered by them, though, leaping into action! Whisk decided to join them, leaving Lucky torn between the heartless and Eggman. "Gaaah... Maybe Sonic can stop Eggman without me..." he stammered, heading over to take out some heartless, too. Mario tried to jump onto a black fungus, but bounced off as it formed a protective barrier around itself. "Look out, Mario! That's like a poison mushroom!" Whisk warned as sure enough, poisonous gas started to spew from the evil mushroom. Mario gulped, but then started to spin rapidly in place, using his Mario tornado technique to blow the gas away! "Well... how does that even work?" Lucky babbled. The nervous mushroom tried to wobble away as its shield faded, but Lucky was quick to strike and take it out! Meanwhile, Tails found himself flying Sonic over the thrashing legs and newly added pincer of his transforming machine. "It's been a while since I did this; were you always this heavy, Sonic??" he grunted. Sonic laughed. "If you think this is tough, try lifting Eggman!" he snickered. Eggman growled and added guns to the sides of his Egg Mobile. "This darkness is amazing...it can do anything...even obliterate Sonic the hedgehog!!" he cackled, firing missiles their way! "Look out!" Tails gasped, tossing Sonic out of the way and flying up as the missiles came at him! Sonic then went into a homing attack and smacked the missiles back one by one, only to see Eggman block with the machine's giant pincer! "Ha ha! You can't beat me now, hero!" he taunted. During this, Pac-Man was taking some time to throw fruit at the strafers, knocking them over while Lucky took the opportunity to strike them with his keyblade! "Hey! How'd you get fruit past the surge protectors??" Sonic shouted from where he was battling Eggman. Pac-Man just shrugged. Meanwhile, Whisk was carrying Mario above some magnum loaders. "Bomber 1, we're in position, ready to drop the payload!" she smirked. "Let's-a go!" Mario nodded as she dropped him! He flipped in the air and came down hard, ground-pounding onto the magnum loaders and smashing them to digital bits! "Why did we think we could take Mario and yellow-ball-guy?" Zim groaned. "Patience, let's see how Eggman fares..." Zeke sighed. Tails managed to fly Sonic up and enable him to whack the Egg Mobile with a spin attack, but Eggman was unfazed. "You can't penetrate the darkness with little jump-attacks! It's over, Sonic!" he sneered, grabbing the hedgehog in his pincer as he dropped from his attack on the cockpit! Sonic yelped in pain as Eggman began to squeeze. "Once you die here, you're finished...game over!" he snickered. Tails landed on the cockpit and started to swat Eggman with his twin tails in retaliation. "You let him go! L-leave my best friend alone!!" he cried. Another pincer suddenly emerged and grasped Tails, pulling him away from Eggman! "Best friend? You're not even the same Tails from our game!" he laughed. Lucky saw what was happening and gasped. "Tails... Hang on!!" he cried, rushing over to their aid. Eggman saw him coming and smirked. "What are you gonna do? You need help getting hits on the minions over there!" he taunted. "Pfft, well you're just a big target! Hiyaaaa!!" Eggman moved his pincers to block Lucky's strike, but he was counting on that, and swiftly slashed at the hinges of each pincer! The keyblade smashed the darkness-born attachments with ease, freeing Sonic and Tails! "What!? That doesn't make any sense... Well, I can still create more!" he sneered. "Oh, yeah? Just try to keep up with us!" Sonic grinned. The three of them went on the move in different directions, Sonic dashing around the machine to confuse Eggman, Lucky slashing at its legs to throw it off-balance, and Tails flying back up to the cockpit! "What!? You!!" Eggman gasped. "You know, Eggman... You should really strap in!" Tails chuckled, grabbing the doctor's arms and pulling him right out of the cockpit! "Hey!! Let me go! Unhand me you second-rate sidekick!" he yelled, flailing in Tails' arms as the fox strained to carry him. "Ugh! Sonic wasn't kidding! He's HEAVY!!" he gasped. Lucky then flung his keyblade at the cockpit as Sonic ran back for cover, and the machine exploded in a flash of lights as the darkness was banished, allowing the true Egg Mobile to collapse onto the ground in a heap! All that was left now was Zeke...
Eggman looked around as Tails dropped him on the ground. Sonic offered a hand to help the doctor to his feet. "Feel any better after that vent, doc?" he asked. Eggman could barely look at him. "I... I'm sorry, Sonic... All my jealousy over your popularity... it seemed to fill my code with darkness..." he sighed. The other Mario Kart characters were making their way onto the track now, as well as Felix and Ralph, who hurried over to Sonic and Eggman. "Everything okay?" Felix asked. "Ahh, fell off the wagon, eh, Eggman? What do they say now, one game at a time? Right?" Ralph said, patting his back. Eggman nodded. "Back to Bad Anon for me... Guess I can go with Bowser..." he muttered. Meanwhile, Mario, Pac-Man and Lucky's group were closing in on Zeke. "Whatever. We have the Chaos Emerald!" he declared. Just then, a corridor of darkness opened behind him and Garland stepped out. "Hm... The feline with the key. Seems we are fated to clash." he said, stopping Lucky in his tracks. "You're the one pulling Zeke and Zim's strings! What is it you want?" he asked. Garland ignored him and took the Chaos Emerald from Zeke's hand. He then squeezed and shattered it to pieces, much to everyone's shock! "Our detection of chaos energy was fooled by this pale imitation. It's a falsehood, a lie... Nothing in this so-called world can serve my purposes... Nothing here serves any purpose at all..." Garland sneered. Lucky gritted his teeth. "Don't you dare say that!" he shouted, "This world may be made up of data...or something...but the people here still feel things. They still hurt, they still laugh, they still dream... They all have hearts, so there's no way they can be useless!" he declared. Tails glanced at Sonic, his own hand resting on his heart. "He's right... real or not, I feel it... their hearts aren't fake..." Tails murmured. Zim scoffed. "Heart schmart, still useless..." he grunted. Garland nodded, and started toward the corridor of darkness. "Hearts are weak things. I will cure them of that weakness when I complete Chaos Hearts..." he mused, disappearing into the corridor followed by Zeke and Zim. The villains gone, everyone breathed a light sigh of relief. "Now that was a real method-acting kinda bad guy, eh?" Ralph chuckled. "Where'd they go?" Sonic wondered. Lucky shrugged. "No idea but I think we'll have to deal with him again sometime..." he sighed. "Eh, bring him on! Nice speech by the way, Lucky. Very sappy!" Whisk chuckled. "...What's that supposed to mean?" Lucky stammered, glancing at her with a light blush.
Sonic, Ralph and Felix stopped by the Galestrom to see Lucky and co. off. Sonic gave Tails a little hug to say goodbye. "Don't forget me, little buddy. Maybe when you find your Sonic, things will start feeling normal again." he smiled. Tails nodded. "Thanks for all your help..." he smiled. Ralph was admiring the Gummi ship from a distance, worried he might wreck it again. "That's quite a ship, there. Must be a wild game you're from." he chuckled. Winston shook hands with Felix. "Thanks for the fix assist, kupo..." he said, Felix having briefly lent his hammer to help finish repairs. "Shucks, it's nothin! Just glad to help!" he said, tipping his hat. Ready to leave, Lucky, Whisk, Tails and Winston got aboard the ship. "Now what?" Lucky asked. His keyblade suddenly flashed, and a small wormhole opened up in the pathway to Asteroids. Winston shrugged. "Buckle in!" he stated, sitting at the controls and starting the ship up. As Sonic, Ralph and Felix watched, the ship turned to the wormhole and blasted off through it! Now they found themselves back in the normal space between worlds. Lucky was soon rubbing his chin, pondering things. "Just what is Zeke's boss after? Feels like this whole thing is bigger than us..." he murmured. "I'm sure it'll be fine, especially if we can find Tails' Sonic to help us." Whisk said, "...but where can he be?" No one seemed sure about that, and Tails himself was busy thinking over something else. "That game world was so strange. Heroes and villains living together like fighting one another is just a job... Good guys and bad guys kinda being friends off the clock... There's a weird sort of harmony there, which was only disrupted when Zeke started messing around... Don't you think it's weird?" he asked. "Don't think about it, kupo." Winston shrugged. Lucky glanced at Tails and nodded. "Yeaaah, I'll admit seeing Eggman say he's sorry to Sonic was pretty weird. But who knows...maybe all bad guys are like that deep in their heart. Kind of like Ralph... He's a bad guy, but, he's not a bad...guy." he chuckled. "Do you even know what you're trying to say, Lucky?" Whisk giggled, "What happened to your great speech-giving skills?" she teased. Lucky stuck out his tongue. "Maybe you're just not smart enough to get me!" he teased back. "I don't think that's it." Tails said, laughing along with Whisk.
As the Gummi ship soared through the sky for a few hours, Lucky suddenly jumped. "Gaah!! What day is it, anyway!?" he stammered. Tails looked at them funny. "Why? I didn't know we were on a clock..." he mumbled. Whisk's eyes went wide too. "Ohh, you're right, Lucky! We might be late!" she said, stepping over to Winston at the pilot's seat. "Late for what??" Tails stammered, "What aren't you telling me? I thought we were a team..." he babbled. Whisk muttered something to Winston and the moogle nodded. "Okay, kupo. Setting course back to home...well, your home." he stated. Whisk chuckled softly. "Cool, this is the first time I really remembered something important!" she cheered. Lucky saw the puzzled expression on Tails' face and smiled. "Hey, we have a plus one... You can come with us, Tails, hehe!" he chuckled. Tails scratched his head. "Plus one? Are you going to tell me where we're going??" he asked. Lucky was smiling as he strapped himself in for the upcoming warp. "Our fellow experiment is getting married. He's kinda like my big bro... So, Whisk and I have gotta be there for Punchy!" he said cheerfully. Winston nodded and went to engage the warp gummi. Our heroes were off on a detour back home. Surely it would be a good opportunity for a rest, right?
To be continued in: Sonic GeneX: the Series - Episodes 7-8: Musical Matrimony!
