Sunshine looks around as he wanders through the small forest, fields, and lavender patches that make up the terrain of the island he was stuck on. Unable to physically interact with his surroundings, he drifts aimlessly from landmark to landmark. From the flooded ruins in the middle of a large lake and long abandoned stone huts, to the empty fields and broken down husks of ancient robots that had been reclaimed by nature, looking for anything that could aid Starlight on his journey or return his body back to it's normal state.
The hedgehog turns to head back to the patch of lavender in the forest where he had first found himself trapped to wait for Starlight to return, only to stop in his tracks as the ground begins to shake and a loud rumble fills the air as six enormous towers burst from the ground one by one to loom ominously above the surrounding landscape.
"That can't be good...I need to find, Starlight" Sunshine thinks to himself before bolting off to search the island for his husband.
Sunshine stands frozen in surprise for a moment, blinking in confusion as he takes in his suddenly new surroundings. What had just happened? A moment ago he had been making his way up one of the enormous towers that had sprouted forth from the ground and now he was suddenly standing in a seemingly endless red void, feeling like he was being pulled along toward an unknown goal. He decided to follow the strange force wherever it was trying to guide him since it might be his only lead to figure out what was going on and how to get out of this place.
He didn't know how long he had been walking or how far he had gone when he finally spotted Tails, Knuckles, and Amy together ahead of him. The hedgehog sprinted to them, only to stop dead in his tracks when he discovered what his friends were gathered around.
It was Starlight.
The normally bright and energetic hedgehog stood ridged and still, static and unblinking like a statue staring into space.
"Sonic...? What happened to him? Where are we?"
Sunshine questions as he joins up with the rest of the group, hoping that at least one of them would be able to give him some answers about their current situation and about what was wrong with his husband.
"He must have taken on so much cyber energy that it corrupted him. He's stuck between realities because he took on our corruption to save us..." Tails replies sadly as Sunshine looks down at his own body, realizing that he had regained his corporeal form along with all of their friends.
"Sonic no!" Amy gasps, hands covering her mouth and tears filling her eyes "We have to fix this!" The pink hedgehog cries out while Sunshine places a hand on his husband's cheek, feeling a fuzzy static sensation coming off of him like an old TV screen.
"You have to return to cyberspace, quickly!" Sage's voice finally catches the hedgehog's attention as she speaks to her creator, small hands placed on the side of the scientist's hovercraft.
"What? Why? I just got out!" The human replies to his AI daughter. How long had the two of them been there?
"Because you'll be destroyed if you're still here when it gets out!" She says fearfully, concerned for her father's safety.
"When what gets ou-?" Eggman begins to ask, only to be interrupted by a rumbling roar that seemed to fill the sky, followed by an equally powerful voice:
"Since time immemorial I have languished here. The locks are broken. Now I shall tear down the walls between dimensions and consume all!"
"Oh no you don't! This is my world to conquer! I'll mobilize the Eggfleet and blow you right out of the sky!" Eggman shouts at the unseen entity, shaking his fist at the sky.
"It won't be enough! It defeated the Ancients and their advanced technology, your weaponry wouldn't stand a chance against that kind of power! My simulations show a success rate of zero percent! Please let me fulfill my function, let me protect you!" Sage warns him, begging the doctor to flee to safety.
"Starlight worked too hard for us to give up now! There has to be a way to push back the corruption and bring him back to us! Restoring our physical forms is what did this to him, maybe us going back into cyberspace will reverse the affects of the corruption?" Sunshine theorizes, his hand now resting on the blue hedgehog's shoulder.
"That might work, even if only enough to restore his consciousness. We have to try something, sitting here doing nothing and awaiting our demise won't solve anything" Tails says, holding his hands out for his friends to take. Sunshine nods and takes one of the fox's hands in his own while Knuckles takes his other hand and Amy closes the circle by taking the echidna's and the fox's outstretched hands.
"Anything for Sonic!" "We're even after all this!" Amy and Knuckles state in unison as all four of them shut their eyes and focus on fighting back Starlight's corruption. Their bodies begin to flicker and fade out again as the corruption starts to vanish from the blue hedgehog's body, restoring his mental and physical state, although some of the corruption still remained. All of them except for Sunshine. While Amy, Tails, and Knuckles were now returned to their cyber hologram stat while Sunshine's body remained in his normal form. "Sonic, are you okay? Did it work?" He questions, pulling his husband into a tight embrace.
"I'm fine now thanks to all of you guys. Thank you" The blue hedgehog grins at his partner and their friends.
"This is our chance! I never simulated a scenario where Sonic and his friends helped since you never authorized me to even consider the possibility!" Sage pipes up excitedly as she addresses her creator.
"I still don't want to..." Eggman grumbles angrily, arms crossed as he looks past his creation to glare at the group of Mobians. "Please, father! This might be our only chance to succeed!" The AI girl pleads desperately.
"Fine...ahem, I hereby temporarily induct the lot of you into the Eggman Empire and order you to save us all! This is not an alliance, understand?" The man huffs.
"Sure, if you say so" Sunshine rolls his eyes while Starlight grins smugly at his longtime enemy "Whatever you say, Dr.Ego-man" The blue hedgehog laughs.
"Sage, you stay with me to help me bypass the Ancient's security systems and access their database so we can try and figure out just what exactly this creature is and possibly how to defeat or contain it" Eggman orders his creation.
"As you command, father!" Sage nods "But first I must speak to Sonic and his friends, there is something important that must be addressed before we proceed with the plan" She says, turning to the Mobians "Of my millions of calculations, there was one so remote and unlikely I did not consider it as a viable option. However, as things stand, it could be the scenario to save us all"
"Well we've beaten the odds more times than we can count! What's the plan?" Starlight asks, still as optimistic and cheerful as ever despite his lingering cyber corruption.
"I can stabilize your corruption for a brief time by transferring a portion of it to your partner and guide you both on how to convert that corruption into power that you will use to end this conflict and save father" Sage explains.
"And save the world too, right?" Sunshine questions, amused and somewhat endeared by the AI's dedication to her father.
"It is his world to conquer, so yes" Sage replies matter of factly, causing the two hedgehogs to sigh and shake their heads.
"Wait a minute, hold on. Isn't there another way to do this that doesn't involve Sunshine being corrupted too? I don't want to put him through that, especially after what it did to me" Starlight interrupts, concerned for his husband's well-being.
"I'll be fine, love. You took on the full brunt of it for us, the least I can do is take on some of that burden and fight at your side. Please let me do this with you" Sunshine assures the other hedgehog "I want to be there for you. You don't have to do this alone, we're a team"
"You're right, let's do this together" Starlight grins at his spouse, taking his hand and squeezing it firmly. "Ready when you are!" Sunshine smiles back at him.
Sage floats down to hover in front of the couple, a ball of glitching white light appearing in her hands. She shuts her eyes and the ball of light splits in two before surging forward into the two hedgehogs, causing searing pain to shoot through their bodies as some of Starlight's cyber corruption spreads into his husband. Sunshine stumbles and falls onto his knees, one hand clamped over his mouth and the other clutching at his middle as a wave of nausea washes over him. The feeling soon passes, leaving both of them dizzy and disoriented as they catch their breath to steady themselves.
Sunshine feels a static sensation running up and down his back in a soothing motion, he smiles a bit when he realizes that it was Amy attempting to comfort him by rubbing his back to the best of her capability "Thanks, Amy...you guys are the best, y'know that? I mean it" He says, slowly standing up and helping Starlight to his feet.
"Alright, I know it's been rough since we all came here and things are still pretty confusing, but I need you guys to just follow my lead" Starlight says, looking to Amy, Tails, and Knuckles "I need you three to find the Chaos Emeralds while Sunny and I take care of this corruption, okay?"
"Alright, we trust you two" Amy nods with an assuring smile. "You can count on us!" Tails chimes in. "This'll be a piece of cake!" Knuckles boasts.
"We must hurry! There isn't much time before the threat arrives, follow me!" Sage warns, motioning for the married couple to come with her as the other three Mobians split up to find the Chaos Emeralds "I will return to assist you after I complete my current objective, father" The AI assures her creator before heading towards the first tower with Sunshine and Starlight in tow.
"Be careful...my dear daughter" Eggman mutters softly, watching his digital child leave.
