"Kuch…" gasped Silver as he fell from the portal. "What was that?" He looked over his shoulder. Crack was nowhere to be seen. He stood up still feeling bit dizzy. He traveled thru many portals, but this was the first time it felt so long and wrong. Like it was twisted in some way. "I hope Crack is okay." He leaned against a wooden wall. It seemed he landed in some village, but thankfully no one noticed his strange entrance.

He peeked out, seeing most inhabitants look like him, just being bit taller. 'They seem to be friendly,' he thought, seeing happy Walrus family walking down the street. Suddenly he heard screams and explosions. "Is someone attacking this place?!" He didn't wait and flew up to see.

"Greetings villagers, Dr. Eggman is back to conquer this place!" It was the notorious evil genius, standing in his egg-mobile and robotics ladybugs and wasps were flying around him, shooting lasers.

"Stop it, Eggman!" shouted Silver, flying few meters in front of him.

"Who the heck are you? Some new super hero? Get lost and let professionals do the job." Eggman had no interest in fighting with him. "Shoo, shoo."

"He is right, you can get hurt!" called him an old monkey.

"We can wait for true heroes! Get out of there!"

Silver made sour smile.

"You heard them, so don't stand in my way of destruction." Eggman pressed joysticks of his vehicle, ready to move.

"Well, sorry, I don't know about professional heroes, but I know how to deal with these pesky robots on my own!" He made smirk and the dozen of robots was engulfed in a light blue aura, immediately shorted.

"What?! Like seriously! No way!" Eggman was angry. "No way you could take them down faster than that meddlesome hedgehog!"

"Hedgehog?" Silver put the robots into one pile.

"There is cooler hedgehog than Sonic?" asked one citizen the other.

"He sure looks cool," answered the one back.

Eggman heard that and immediately had a plan. He yelled in a panic: "Oh no! I sure hope you won't become the hero of this village! That way I would never conquer it! Retreat!" With this, he flew away. Silver looked bit confused. That sure was unexpected from him.

People below him were cheering him and waving at him. Silver flew down. "Are you alright?" he asked them.

"Fin~~e," answered goat girl.

"You are our hero!" stated Walrus mother.

"You are so cool," said her son.

"Please be our hero!" asked another villager.

Silver wanted to answer something, but the crowd got thicker and closer. He flew up. "Thank you, I'm glad you are okay and no problem. Anyone would do the same."

"He is so modest!"

"Now if you excuse me," he flew away.

"He is surely going to fight another criminal."

"He is so brave."

Once Silver was off, Sonic and his team got there.

"Hey, Eggface, it's time to— lunch break?" his eyes fell on the pile of robots. "What gives? We got the word Eggman is attacking. What happened?"

"You are too slow," said mouse major. "Eggman's robots were beaten by a silver hedgehog. All at once. He was faster than you."

"Faster! No one is faster than me!" He pointed at himself.

"Where did he go?" asked Tails.

"He flew away to fight another criminal no less," major turned away and headed somewhere else.

"Now that's interesting. I wonder who he was?" asked Amy.

"Whoever it was, he smells fishy."

Knuckles sniffed around. "I don't smell any fish."

"Maybe it's evil secret agent from twisted dimension ready to lullaby us to a false sense of security to throw marshmallow heated in the toaster at us!" yelled Sticks one of her crazy theory, and no one was paying much attention to it.

"Hey, he can be a good guy too, let's not be pessimistic," noted Amy.

"And what about the green dude on a skateboard? That was Eggman's robot."

"Didn't major said he was silver?" asked Knuckles.

"Sonic is talking about the multi-robot we have fought," reminded him it Tails.

"I don't remember fighting a multi-colored silver robot. Heck, I don't remember what I had tomorrow for a dinner."

His teammates only shook their heads.

"I suggest to wait and see who this silver hedgehog is," ended the discussion, Amy.

Sonic was mumbling something silently. He will show that weird hedgehog who is the coolest here.

[Bygone Island – forest]

'So I ended up in the parallel word again. At least this one isn't destroyed.' He looked around as he landed on small glade inside of the forest. "It sure is peaceful here." He stretched himself and then he took his Double-Down-ing Dowsing-rods (TM) and activated them. At first, they were moving like usually, but then a puff of smoke rose from them and a weird sound was heard. "Don't tell me!?"

He tried to make it work by slightly hitting it, but they were dead. "That's the last thing I need!" He sat on a stump and looked at his portable Genesis portal generator. The battery has shown he can use it only once. "This way I can't contact the professor to fix it. I could return and go back here, but who knows how long it would take and if I would be able to return to this exact moment. Professor mentioned the portals are unstable." He sighed. "Villagers mentioned Sonic and since Eggman is here, so must be Tails!" He happy jumped. "He can fix this! He is a mechanical genius after all."

"I wouldn't count on that," said familiar voice.

"Eggman!" Silver shouted as the man walked from the edge of the forest.

"At your service, my friend."

"We are not friends!"

"Really, so what about neighbors? Is that good enough? And what about long-distance relatives? Still not good enough, huh? And what about internet acquaintance?" He looked like he is seriously thinking about it.

Silver looked surprised. "What do you want? Your robots won't scare me!"

Eggman looked bit sad. "Oh come on, it's such nice day. Let's not fight."

"You attacked a village a few minutes ago."

"Oh, that, that's just the part of daily routine. I'm saving bigger robots for Friday evenings." Now was Silver sure this Eggman has few loose screws. "But back to you. I heard you mention something about Tails."

"So what?"

He put arms behind his back. "I don't know where you heard he is a mechanical genius, but it must have been wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"That pipsqueak can't plug the toaster without firemen waiting in front of his house! Village's major forbid him entering the village while holding anything electrical. He is otherwise walking disaster!"

Silver had to admit, it can be possible. After all the Tails from Zilver's word was a normal mechanic, so this one can be really bad with it.

"But it's your lucky day!" Eggman interrupted his thoughts. "I just happen to be the man for the job." He walked closer to Silver, putting in his palm a business card.

"Eggman Industries?"

"Yes, I can make anything from crackers to mechanical toys, killer robots, and doom day's devices. Order more than three pieces and packing and postage is free of the charge," said doctor jolly. Silver had no answer. "So let's go," he picked Silver under his armpit and soon they arrived at the door of his evil lair. "Do you like it? I designed it myself."

The building was tall and located at magma field. Interior was full of gray color and Eggman took him in his resting area connected to his lab. He finally released Silver and he sat on a gray couch. He looked around to see tall lamp next to it in a corner, one shelf built in a wall, coffee table in front of the sofa and two small robots. One was yellow and had a square shape while the other one was red with cubic shape.

"How was the destruction?" asked the yellow robot named Cubot.

"Silence, fool," doctor barked at him. "Don't mind him, his CPU is one big mess since Tails looked at him," explained Eggman to Silver while red robot looked like he is frowning. "I'm such a doofus, I forgot to ask your name." He bent a bit in a gallant manner, "My name is doctor Eggman, but call me just doctor Eggman."

"I'm Silver the hedgehog," they shook hands.

"Silver? That's so nice name. It's really fitting this place. So with what tech you have a problem, my friend?"

Silver was still unsure if he can trust him, but he probably had no other choice. "It's this Double-Down-ing Dowsing-rods (TM)." He called it from his glove.

"(TM)?" Eggman picked it.

"Yeah, it's..."

"Brilliant! It's brilliant! Using (TM) makes it more… official! Better! Only true genius can come up with such awesome naming!" Silver only slightly smiled. He didn't doubt about professor Schlemmer's intelligence, it's just his personality. "So what's this device good for?" He held both pieces in his hands.

"They are searching devices for Bits; solid A.I."

"Solid A.I.? Tell me more!" he sat next to hedgehog.

"Bits are three holographic hedgehogs entirely made of computer data. They had this… strange accident and got lost. So far I have found two of them, but the last one is somewhere here."

"Fascinating. A computer program that can exist in a real world without any hardware. No worries my furry friend, doctor Eggman is on the case!" He stood up and took the device to his lab.

"Sandwich?" asked Orbot, offering Silver a tray with a plate.

"Thank you," he picked it.

"He sure is a good guy," commented it Cubot. "Dr. Eggman never say thank you. He is such meanie."

"Don't say that. He is our inventor after all," corrected him Orbot.

"So is he mean inventor?"

"No, he is just our inventor," corrected him once more Orbot. The yellow robot looked at his partner rather sad.

[After some time]

"Here it is. Good as new!" Eggman gave Silver his gadget back.

"Thank you, I guess you are not so bad after all."

"It's nice to meet understanding hedgehog once in a while," Eggman adjusted his mustache. "Have a nice trip."

Silver headed to find the last blue A.I. hedgehog.

"But doctor Eggman, helping someone in their needs is not very evil, isn't it?" noted Orbot.

"Of course not, you fool! I did it to keep him away!" He headed to further corner of his lab. "I have a master plan."

"The power on your wrist..." sang Cubot, getting an annoyed look from his companion. Eggman ignored him. He walked toward the opposite end of the lab, he pressed some buttons on the touch panel and floor near him opened and a tube containing robot emerged from the hole.

"Behold my newest invention! Heavy Metal Sonic!"

The robot was smaller than Sonic, had star-like quills with yellow tips, upper parts of limbs looked more robust and his color scheme was more black. "Can you see my genius? The perfect aerodynamics? The art of states weaponry hidden in his body? It can fly from 0 to-"

"Isn't it the robot that crash landed in your breakfast three days ago?" asked Cubot.

Eggman's mustache went down. The robot was right. "Oh, can it! I perfected him!"

"By faxing?" added Orbot, crossing his arms.

"I used evil fax! Enough! Get ready! This day we will destroy that annoying pin cushion!" He clicked his wrist device and the new robot activated. He stepped down off the pedestal and knelt before the doctor. Eggman evilly laughed.

[Tail's house]

"Hey, get back here!" young two tailed fox shouted at a small robot, that was running away from him knocking everything in its path. "Not my darlings!" he shouted as the robot hit the table so hard it knocked down two hammers. He caught them in the last moment. "My poor babies! Are you alright?" he asked the hammers. "Hey!" he shouted at the robot, that was now sitting under the roof on a beam. "Get down here, now!"

"What's up, Tails?" asked him his best buddy Sonic that just arrived.

"Hi, Sonic, it's just this buddy robot. A week ago it started to malfunction all of sudden and it won't stop no matter how many times I check the code." He put the hammers at their place. "And now it learned to run from me and climbed up there." He pointed at the robot that was now slightly kicking with its legs and made happy sounding noise.

"I'll get it," blue hedgehog smirked and in a flash, he was next to him with the robot in his hand. The robot tried to free itself.

"Bad robot," called it Tails and took it.

"What's it saying?"

The robot was making two beeping sounds.

"I have decoded it as a binary code, let's see." He put the robot on the table, where he stayed despite its previous escapes. "Hmm," young fox took the yellow tablet with two antennas and read the analysis. "It said – Bummer and BBL."

"BBL? Some kind of barbeque or something?"

"Don't know. Most of it doesn't make sense. And I didn't even program any function like that." He put the tablet back. "It's sure is mysterious."

"Don't worry, you will get it."

Suddenly their communicator beeped. "Sonic, Dr. Eggman is attacking the village," reported Amy.

"I'm on it!" responded Sonic. "The silver jerk-hog won't outrun me this time!" He rushed to the village with his buddy right behind him. The small robot was looking at them before it jumped down and followed them.