Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Alrighty then, seems like the new version is going over well so far, which is… honestly a really nice surprise. That just makes me want to keep things going all the more, so yeah, let's keep the ball rolling. Starting off, here's the redone version of the fourth chapter!

NOTE:

-All of the characters or universes featured in this fic belong to their respective owners. Umbra the Hedgehog belongs to me.

-Aurora the Hedgehog is featured here with the express permission of her creator, Elizabeth Anspach, a.k.a: E-vay. For anyone who hasn't, make sure to check out her Tumblr page; it's really awesome.

Multi-Dimensional Melee!

"Ooooookay…"

Sonic, Amy, Tails and Knuckles didn't know what to make of the scene currently before them.

Having followed some strange voice into a portal, the four had found themselves in what seemed like some kind of big, old storage room, except there were some crudely put-together installations there, including a number of chairs and tables, as well as what looked like some bits of surveillance equipment, which looked a little worse for wear but appeared to be relatively functional regardless. This had been swiftly followed by the arrival of five people who they didn't recognize at all, not to mention that they all seemed just as lost as they themselves were.

"Where are we?" The black hedgehog immediately asked, looking around in confusion after apparently getting over his previous shock.

The pink rabbit quickly followed suit, looking at the strange characters all around her. "Who are you guys?"

"What are you?" The armored figure seemed just as confused.

The second the robot managed to stand back up after his rough landing, he immediately drew a weapon on everyone else to defend himself: some kind of saber with a green laser blade.

"And most importantly…" The blue rabbit's face was beaming, much to the shock and confusion of most everyone else. "…where can I get an awesome sword like that?!"

The only one who wasn't taken aback was the pink rabbit, who found herself facepalming at this. "Not the time, Yang…"

"Seriously? Are you even looking at it, Yin?" He started drooling, his eyes never straying from the weapon. "It's a laser sword! A laser sword!"

She brought her hand down and shot him a deadpan look. "Really? We're going to do the Chung Pow Kitties thing again?"

"No, that was totally different—"

Their argument was cut off by a loud whistle, which brought their attention over to the black hedgehog. "Hey, Buster and Babs! Time out!"

"Whatever you're talking about…" As the robot spoke, he put his arm down. "…there are more important things to focus on."

"You're right."

This response from an unfamiliar voice immediately got everyone's attention, and they turned to the apparent source, the robot raising his arm again to point his sword at whoever its owner was. As Sonic and his friends stood up tall to get a good look, they were just as surprised as the others when they saw not one, but two figures standing on the other end of the weapon.

"Wait, please!"

"We're the good guys!"

One of them looked fairly normal; she was a pink hedgehog, only slightly taller than Amy. She had three front quills in the style of hair bangs, as well as six quills on the back of her head, four of which curved downwards while the remaining two curved upwards. She was wearing what looked like a deep pink sleeveless shirt and a long-sleeved light yellow bolero with green accents, along with a pair of light green shorts, a light coral belt and stockings, and a pair of pink-and-white sneakers with green cuffs, which also matched the ones on her gloves.

The other, however, was much more striking by comparison; he looked like a robotic echidna head inside of a clear glass orb, and what seemed like his dreadlocks also appeared to double as tentacles, each of which ended in a small clamp.

"No way…" The latter was a shocker for Knuckles in particular.

The former, meanwhile, immediately grabbed Sonic and Amy's attention. Once they had a good look at her, they both ended up asking the exact same question.

"…Who are you?"

The robot put his arm down again, his sword powering off as he did. "Talk. Now."

"Of course." The cyborg echidna head replied quickly. "My name is Dimitri, and this is Aurora. From what we can gather, you probably don't know us, but we definitely know you." He diverted his attention away from Sonic's group of friends, and when he noticed the rest of the people who had been gathered in the room, he suddenly seemed a little more hesitant to continue. "Well… most of you. I know this is probably very confusing, but I swear to you, we're telling the truth. We brought you here because…"

Everyone looked at him, waiting to hear the rest of what he wanted to say, but it never came.

Seeing his difficulty in getting the next bit out, his companion picked up from there. "We need your help."

"With what?" The armored figure's question came right away.

Aurora turned to look at Dimitri, who nodded as best as a head supported by tentacles possibly could, and she took a deep breath before answering.

"…We have to save our reality."

Much like Sonic and Amy had done, the twin rabbits replied in unison. "Say what?"

"I know it's going to sound unbelievable. Trust me, when they explained it to me, I didn't know what to think." Aurora tried her best not to come off as crazy. "But like Dimitri said, it's all true. They showed me everything."

The black hedgehog raised a hand. "Aurora, right? Who is this 'they' you're talking about?"

"There's no one else here but the two of you." The armored figure agreed with him.

Suddenly, they all heard another unfamiliar voice. "Actually, I've been here all along. You just couldn't see me." This time, however, it seemed to come from all around them.

Naturally, this caught them by surprise.

"What the heck was that?" Sonic immediately asked.

Dimitri, however, was completely unfazed. "Omni-Viewer! They're already on edge after being taken out of nowhere! This isn't going to help things!"

"Sorry, sorry." The voice spoke again. "I just didn't want to overwhelm or terrify them after everything that's happened."

As these words were being said, one of the many monitors in the room began to light up, right around the spot where Aurora and Dimitri were standing. The image being projected was that of a face, seemingly formed out of deviations on the surface of the screen, and its lip movements matched up exactly with what was being said.

"Uhh… Omni?" He turned to Aurora, who was pointing at the group, and that in turn got him to look at them.

It was right at that moment that he realized exactly what he had just done, despite his efforts to avoid it.

Yin was left completely flabbergasted. "Who…?"

"…Wha…?" Yang wasn't far behind.

The black hedgehog looked just as lost as them. "…Huh?"

Most everyone else, meanwhile, looked either utterly shocked or just very confused.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's too late for that already." That didn't stop Aurora from pointing it out, however.

Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Dimitri tried to continue. "Everyone, let me introduce you to the Omni-Viewer."

"But he'll take Omni for short." Aurora interjected, which seemed to amuse the Omni-Viewer. "His Sonic used to call him that all the time."

There it is again. "His Sonic." Amy immediately caught on to that. That Scourge guy from before said something about "my Knuckles" too.

Dimitri picked up from there. "He's the reason we're all gathered here. It's hard to explain, but he's…"

"…some kind of sentient energy field!" Tails spoke at the same time the cyborg was finishing his sentence, apparently having recovered enough to start talking again, and he was very enthusiastic about this discovery. "That's incredible! I didn't even think something like that was possible!"

The Omni-Viewer had a smile on his screen, surprisingly. "Well, Tails, a lot of things that don't seem normal are just common here in the Special Zone."

"Whoa, whoa, hang on!" Sonic immediately replied. "This is a Special Zone?"

Knuckles looked around again. "It looks a little too… normal to be a Special Zone."

"Believe me, it doesn't look this normal when we're outside, guys." Aurora was just as quick as Sonic.

Dimitri nodded again. "Indeed, Aurora. Right now, we're in the Land of the Dark, and this is Haven." Then he turned to look at Knuckles in particular. "I hope that at least you're familiar with it, Guardian."

"Why would I be?" Knuckles turned to him, raising an eyebrow as he did.

This only served to confuse Dimitri. "…Because this is Angel Island."

Right on cue, Sonic and his group of friends also turned to him as Knuckles' eyes widened.

"What?!" That was their collective response.

The others, however, looked like they had no idea what was going on, although the black hedgehog did seem slightly unnerved.

While Aurora and the Omni-Viewer flinched at the four's reaction, Dimitri did his best to remain composed. "I guess your Angel Island doesn't have a—"

That was all he could say before Knuckles made a beeline for the nearest exit, not even saying another word.

"Hey, Knuckles! Hold up!" Sonic followed suit not long after.

The Omni-Viewer seemed distressed at seeing the hedgehog leaving the room, but Aurora soon caught his notice when she looked at him.

"It's okay, Omni. I'll bring them back." And with that, she left the room to chase after them.

Once she was gone, Tails quickly broke the silence before it even had a chance to settle. "I think you guys have a lot to explain right now."

The robot nodded. "And not just to them."

The Omni-Viewer then glanced at Dimitri, who stayed silent for a moment before offering a very brief answer.

"…Indeed."

Meanwhile…

"No way…"

Having gotten far away from what Dimitri had described as "Haven" by this point, Sonic and Knuckles found themselves standing in front of, much to their shock, a familiar location: the shrine of the Master Emerald.

"It's… it's here." Knuckles' focus was set squarely on the shrine. "It's different, but… it really is Angel Island. The different locations, the shrine, the Master Emerald… it's all here."

Sonic, meanwhile, was too busy staring at the sky. "And we really are in a Special Zone."

Everywhere he turned, there was something strange that caught his notice. A multicolored sky that almost seemed to change tones every time he blinked. Multiple suns, stars, moons, and even planets, all spread around the skies in ways that he couldn't figure out. Random bits of debris floating around without any sense of direction. Physics apparently shifting all around the place in whatever direction they felt like without any rhyme or reason.

"No way something this trippy is anything but a Special Zone."

Knuckles nodded. "And that can only mean one thing."

Right as he turned his head to look at Sonic, he noticed the hedgehog doing the exact same thing to him.

"Those guys really were telling the truth." The two came to the exact same conclusion.

Then they were surprised by a familiar voice. "Well, of course we were."

Sure enough, the two immediately turned their attention to the source, and they saw Aurora standing nearby, just looking at them in what was probably the least threatening manner that anyone they knew had ever mustered up.

"None of us would lie to you like that. We really do need your help." Likewise, her tone of voice came off as very genuine. "Time is still running and we don't have a lot of options right now. Me and the guys were just lucky we were able to get together and bring you and all the others here."

Knuckles quickly asked her a question. "Who are those people?"

"Actually… I was hoping to ask them that myself." Aurora sheepishly admitted. "We definitely wanted to get the four of you, but I have no idea where the rest of them came from."

Sonic shrugged with a smirk. "Well, better ask 'em quickly then." Then he pointed at her. "Aurora, right?"

She nodded in response. "That's right."

"I like that name. Got a nice ring to it." Sonic switched the pointer finger for a trademark thumbs-up. "Lead the way, Aurora. I wanna get the skinny on this whole thing."

Much to Knuckles' surprise, Aurora replied with a similar gesture; she snapped her fingers and pointed at Sonic while making the finger gun gesture with both hands. "You got it."

"Heh, snazzy." Clearly, he found it pretty amusing.

Aurora began to head away, and before Knuckles could say anything, Sonic grabbed his arm.

"Come on, Knux. We gotta move."

With that, he ran in pursuit of the pink hedgehog with his friend in tow.

Nice girl. She seems pretty cool, and she's definitely got style and plenty of pizzazz. As he effortlessly caught up with her, he had a good, long look at her overall features. There's something weird about her, though. We've never met before, but she almost seems… familiar somehow…

It wasn't long before Aurora made her way back to Haven with Sonic and Knuckles in tow. The trio found most of the group sitting down on the floor, while the two more human-looking figures were still standing up tall; it was like they were waiting to listen to a story. Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer, meanwhile, were just looking at them like they were expecting their arrival right at that very moment.

"Thank you for bringing them back, Aurora." The Omni-Viewer smiled at her.

Aurora nodded and smiled back at him. "Of course, Omni."

"Knuckles?" Dimitri called out, which got the echidna's attention. "I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but… I hope you'll believe us now that you've seen it for yourself."

Knuckles looked down and sighed. "…I don't know what's going on, but you've told us nothing but the truth so far." Then he looked at the cyborg echidna again. "I've been tricked by bad people before, so don't make me regret trusting you."

"Thank you so much… Guardian." Despite being almost completely mechanical, Dimitri's voice made it clear that he'd be shedding tears right at that moment if he could.

Sonic smirked at that before looking to the others. "And now that we got that outta the way, anyone else wanna know what's goin' on, or is that just me?"

"Right!" Amy nodded before looking at Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer. "First of all, who was that Scourge guy that attacked us on Angel Island?"

Tails quickly followed suit. "How did he get to Angel Island?"

"Why did he want the Master Emerald?" Knuckles asked as he went to join them. "And how was he able to make its power work for him?"

Dimitri nodded at them. "It's a long and complicated story, but to sum it up as best as I can…" He then looked at Sonic. "…he is you, Sonic."

"Whoa, what?!" Needless to say, this took him by surprise.

Dimitri raised two of his tentacles defensively. "I know it must sound bizarre, but Scourge is an evil version of you from an alternate universe."

Right as he was saying that, everyone noticed that the Omni-Viewer's screen began to show scenes that they could only assume were meant to illustrate the description. They could see someone who looked exactly like Sonic, except he was wearing a black leather jacket and boots, along with some sunglasses.

"Oh." Before anyone could blink, Sonic quickly zipped over to where his friends were, taking a seat right between Amy and Tails. "Alright, you got my attention. Keep goin'."

"Of course." As Dimitri's explanation continued, the Omni-Viewer's screen kept up with everything he said. "At one point, he was just what you'd expect. He was just the evil Sonic from a parallel dimension where everything was the exact opposite of what was considered 'normal' in my dimension. He was the leader of his own gang, who took it upon themselves to conquer their world and make things as they wanted them to be, but in reality, he wasn't as tough as he liked to believe or much to be afraid of." He sighed once more. "That all changed the day he and Rouge the Bat tried to steal the Master Emerald and ended up fighting Knuckles' father Locke, who was once a Guardian just like his son."

As he watched the hedgehog getting on top of the Master Emerald and harnessing its power, Knuckles was at a loss for words. I… I have a father in that world? And he guarded the Master Emerald like I did?

"He didn't exactly get what he wanted, but in a way, I guess he still came out a winner." The group saw the aforementioned Locke punching the hedgehog right in the chest and forcing him off the emerald, which immediately gave way to him showing up again and proclaiming himself as "a real scourge" to both Rouge and Locke, finally looking like the one Sonic and his friends had encountered back on their own Angel Island. "He became more than just an evil double, and he embraced the change to such a degree that he returned to his own world to force it on everything and everyone there."

The Omni-Viewer played multiple scenes of Scourge doing as Dimitri had described, which made more than a few of them cringe with fear.

"Holy mother of Foo…" Yin's eyes had widened so much that they practically took over her entire face.

Yang wasn't too far behind, either. "That guy seriously needs a hobby."

"I suppose he thought taking over entire worlds would be a good one." Dimitri kept on going. "After beating down every regional warlord in his own world and naming himself king, he tried to do the same with mine. It was just sheer good fortune that my Sonic was able to bring him down, but after that, he just completely disappeared from the map until recently."

Once the explanation finally ended, the Omni-Viewer's face came into view once more.

"That's when some strange activity started turning up in my universe, in the world outside of the Special Zone." He wasted no time in picking up from where Dimitri had left off. "Are you familiar with a monster called Chaos?"

Sonic and his friends immediately recognized the name.

"Yeah, he was our enemy once, but only because he was full of rage and negative energy from the Chaos Emeralds." Tails was the only one who answered him, though. "After we beat him, he became something like an ally. He appeared once during an adventure we had, and he seemed to be on our side… I think."

That seemed to surprise him. "Your Chaos was… not evil?"

"Wait, yours was evil?" The black hedgehog asked him.

Once again, his screen began to show different static images, but this time, he actually spoke as it did.

"He was, yes. Thousands of years ago, my Chaos was once a prosecutor of the Drakon Empire, a race of alien fish, and he was mutated into a water monster when he was exposed to Chaos energy." The images were then replaced by actual video footage. "He was released not too long ago by one of Dr. Robotnik's henchmen, and he went on a rampage as he searched for the Chaos Emeralds. Despite my Knuckles dispersing them all over the world, Chaos was able to gather them up and used them to transform into his most powerful form: Perfect Chaos."

The last frame, which depicted said form, raised Amy's eyebrow. "That… doesn't really look like Perfect Chaos."

"Well, I suppose that's yet another difference between your Chaos and mine." The Omni-Viewer's clip show continued up until a certain point. "But right as he was about to spread his influence all over the world, he just… disappeared."

"Hey, wait a second." Sonic quickly stood up, something apparently having caught his notice. "Run that again."

He complied, and as Perfect Chaos disappeared from the scene, the hedgehog's eyes widened slightly when he noticed how he disappeared.

"That… that was a Warp Ring!"

Dimitri seemed surprised at that. "You have Warp Rings in your universe too?"

"Yeah, not a whole lot, but we've seen 'em a few times." Sonic answered him quickly. "That Scourge guy had one on him too. It's how he got away with the Master Emerald."

The image on the Omni-Viewer's screen changed again. "Yours wasn't the only one. I tried to track down the origin of the ring, but all I got at first was a couple of different worlds that had also had their Master Emeralds stolen, much like yours." After displaying the worlds in question, his face showed up once more. "Eventually, I stumbled upon Dimitri's universe. Apparently, that was the starting point of the Warp Ring's travels."

"I was alone here when he showed up." Suddenly, Dimitri lowered his head with what almost seemed like a sad look on his face. "Knuckles had left to answer a distress call from our people, and the ones who were guarding our Master Emerald were… teleported somewhere else." He raised it up again after taking a moment to compose himself. "When he told me what had happened, we worked together to bring Angel Island here, to his Special Zone, in the hopes that it and the Master Emerald would be safe."

After staying quiet the whole time, the robot finally asked a question of his own. "How did you move an entire island from one universe to another?"

"When Dimitri agreed to hear me out, I connected myself to Haven's systems much like he had done." As if to prove his point, his face suddenly appeared on all of the monitors in the room. "Despite all my power, as Tails had mentioned before, I am still essentially a sentient energy field. Thankfully, it made the task very easy, but before I could teleport the island to my Special Zone, we still needed something more to tap into. Something analogous to my ability to transport things in and out of it, but dissimilar enough that finding and analyzing their similarities and differences would allow us to make it all come together."

Dimitri walked over to a different monitor. "Thank the Ancient Walkers we happened upon what we needed by mere chance." Then he used one of his tentacles to point to an object placed right above the monitor. "The Guiding Star Gem that my Knuckles lost when he was attacked by Scourge and the mercenary group he had joined up with, the Destructix. On its own, it has the power to teleport someone from one place to another, but combining it with the Omni-Viewer's great power and his own ability to open gateways between his Special Zone and the world beyond was what we needed to bring Angel Island here."

"It was… taxing, but we succeeded. After we made it here, I used most of my remaining power to close off the Special Zone from any kind of outside access. We can open portals from this side, but no one can enter or leave this place in any other way now. It was the best way to keep this Master Emerald safe."

"And why are these… emeralds so important?" The armored figure also had a question to ask.

Aurora, who by this point had already taken a seat at Tails' other side, looked at the two of them curiously. Apparently, even she didn't know that part.

"In each world, it seems the Master Emerald has a different sort of origin to it." The Omni-Viewer did his best to explain. "In my universe, it is one of the seven Chaos Emeralds that the Drakon Empire created in order to store the Chaos energy they discovered, and it is the biggest and most important out of them."

Dimitri looked at Sonic and Knuckles. "The one that you saw outside was created thanks to a combination of the power of fourteen green Chaos Emeralds."

"I don't know everything about mine, but it's said to have been created by the gods, and it has special powers that neutralize the energy of the Chaos Emeralds." Knuckles made his own observation.

"Despite all of these dissimilar origins, they do have something in common. They're all sources of infinite energy, and if Dimitri's word is to be believed, they could be used to supercharge a Warp Ring."

Suddenly, the cyborg seemed sad again. "…It's how Julie-Su and Saffron were taken away."

"I'm… sorry for your loss, my friend." For a moment, the Omni-Viewer's voice was full of sympathy.

Dimitri took a moment to compose himself again before continuing. "But the point we were trying to make is that, from what we've been able to ascertain, Scourge seems to be using a supercharged Warp Ring to jump to multiple worlds and steal each of their Master Emeralds." His slightly casual tone gave way to something much more serious. "Whatever he plans to do with a collection of unlimited power sources, it can't be anything good."

The armored figure followed his previous question up with another one. "How does that equal your reality being in danger?"

"Good question. Somehow, he appears to be either intentionally or accidentally choosing specific points where his actions would completely destabilize the events that he ends up involving himself with." Once again, the Omni-Viewer's screen illustrated exactly what was being described. "The integrity of time and space is being increasingly fractured with every single emerald he steals. If he keeps this going—"

"Let me take a wild guess." The black hedgehog spoke up again. "Our entire reality will collapse and disappear into nothingness. Is that right?"

"You are correct."

Aurora raised a hand. "But… why did he come to my world? We don't even have one of those where I come from!"

"He probably didn't know that until you and your family made it clear to him." Dimitri offered his thoughts on the matter. "But all the same, I can't thank you enough for offering to help us, Aurora."

She smiled at him in return. "After seeing that sad look on your face, how could I say no?" She followed this up with a chuckle and a confident smirk. "Besides, my family already saved one world lots of times. How hard can it be to save lots of worlds in one go?"

This got an amused chuckle out of Sonic.

"And out of a whole bunch of universes, you probably found the four of us because our Master Emerald was Scourge's latest target." Amy finally spoke up again after a lot of thought.

"That's right, Amy." The Omni-Viewer quickly confirmed her thoughts. "Although I suppose it's just lucky that you also come from a world that has already had experiences with different dimensions before."

Sonic finally sat down again. "Right. Two-for-one deal, huh, guys?"

"Okay, I think I get all of that, but I still have one more question." Everyone's attention was focused on Yin after she made a comment of her own. "What does that have to do with the rest of us?"

Yang suddenly turned to her, a surprised look stuck on his face. "Wait, did Little Miss I-Wish-There-Was-Something-I-Could-Do-To-Make-The-World-A-Better-Place just ask why this is any of her business?" He took out what appeared to be a bamboo sword and pointed it at her, although it seemed to be in a bit of a teasing manner. "Who are you and what did you do with my sister?"

"Not what I meant, Yang!" She snapped at him before bringing her focus back to the others. "If there's anything I can do to help, I'll help, but… we don't come from any of your worlds." She then pointed at Sonic and his friends, Aurora still sitting next to them. "I get how you brought them into this, but how did we get involved?"

The robot nodded. "Or us." Since he was standing right next to the armored figure, he didn't feel like he needed to point at him.

"I wish I could tell you, but… I have no idea what brought the rest of you here." The Omni-Viewer seemed genuinely confused, much to everyone's surprise. "I'm truly sorry."

"Oh." Yang turned to Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer, a huge smile plastered on his face. "Well, in that case, when do we get to kick that guy's butt?"

Somehow, that looked like it had caught the two off-guard.

"You… want to get involved?" Dimitri asked him. "Because we will understand if you don't really want to. There's plenty of space on Angel Island for you and your sister."

Yang snickered at that. "And miss a chance to karate-kick him in the pants and save the world? Are you kidding?" He took a few swings with his weapon. "We're the good guys! It's what we do!"

This actually got a laugh out of Yin. "He likes to fight."

"I like to fight!" Suddenly, his sword started to glow, some kind of magic power emanating from it.

This got a smile out of the Omni-Viewer. "I can't thank you enough for your selflessness, my friends. We'll be glad to have you on our side." He turned his attention to the others. "But I won't speak for the three of you. Will you also help us stop Scourge?"

Right as it looked like they were going to answer him, Sonic raised a hand.

"Hey, quick question before you get to that." They all turned their attention to him, along with everyone else.

"What is it, Sonic?"

"Not gonna lie, this is an interesting group we've got. I'm pretty sure we're gonna make it." He gestured in Aurora's direction with his head. "But me and Aurora here were talking just a while ago, and I think we're all gonna need names." He then crossed his arms. "Not really sure 'hey, you!' is gonna cut it with this many people. What d'you guys think?"

Aurora nodded at that. "It'd probably make things easier in the long run."

"I agree." Dimitri nodded before looking expectantly at the ones he didn't know.

The armored figure spoke up first.

"I am… the Guyver." For whatever reason, he seemed a little reluctant before he finished that sentence.

Next came the two rabbits.

"I'm Yin!"

"I'm Yang!"

Their next line was said in unison. "And we're Level 2 Woo Foo Knights!"

"Plus, I'm a Clown-Fu Master." Yang made one more comment. "Oh, yeah, that's right. You heard me."

Yin sighed at that. "Right. That too."

Following that, the robot gave a brief response.

"…Zero."

And finally, the only one left was the black hedgehog.

"I'm… Umbra. Umbra the Hedgehog." Much like the Guyver, his answer came off as a little reluctant.

Sonic gave them a thumbs-up. "Cool." Then he used it to point at himself. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."

"My name is Amy Rose." She waved at them.

Tails offered a calm smile. "Everyone calls me Tails."

"I'm Knuckles the Echidna." He crossed his arms. "Just call me Knuckles."

With that out of the way, Zero quickly turned his attention back to Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer. "Keep going."

"Of course." Dimitri wasted no time in answering him. "Like I told Yin and Yang, if you want to stay behind, we will not hold it against you."

The Omni-Viewer quickly picked up from there. "As far as we know, you were drafted here without your knowledge or consent. We could really use your help, but… we will understand if you don't want to be involved in this any more than you already are."

"Understood." Zero turned to the others. "What are you going to do?"

The Guyver brought a fist up to his chest. "I'm going to help."

"Me too." Umbra quickly followed. "It's not like I have a place to return to anyway."

Zero immediately looked at Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer again. "You can count on all of us."

"Great!" The Omni-Viewer seemed just as ecstatic as he was with Yin and Yang.

Sonic and Aurora suddenly made the exact same comment. "Cool. So what do we do now?" The second they noticed that, they both laughed at it, which raised Amy's eyebrow.

"I'm glad you asked." Dimitri quickly answered them. "Thanks to Aurora, we have one more piece of equipment that we can combine with the Guiding Star Gem and the Omni-Viewer's powers." Having said that, he used one of his tentacles to bring their attention to a small, flat white metal box that had been integrated into the console, which had a red button on top of it. "Unlike the others, this one truly is made specifically to travel between multiple dimensions, not just different parts of a world or two worlds in the same universe."

Sonic turned to her and gave her a thumbs-up. "Nice job!"

"Hey, what can I say?" This got a smile out of her. "I'm just a girl who's lucky enough to have a godfather that owns a portal gun."

The Omni-Viewer seemed pretty amused. "And for that, we are both fortunate and grateful to you." Then he got a little more serious as he focused on everyone. "I can interface with it and reach out to different worlds much more easily so we can track down Scourge and stop him, but with the amount of power I expended bringing all of you here and stopping anyone from following, I've only got enough energy left for a few more portals."

"We were hoping to solve that by gaining a power source that might recharge his energy reserves." Dimitri picked up from there, looking at Sonic's group for a moment. "Aurora's portal gun will allow him to open a gateway without exerting himself too much, which is how we rescued you, but it still takes some of his power, so he can't do it indefinitely, and because he closed off the Special Zone in order to protect us, it can't do it on its own."

"Why not use the Master Emerald?" Zero asked him. "You said it was a source of infinite energy, didn't you?"

Knuckles was the one who offered an answer this time. "It's also the only thing that keeps this place afloat. If we take it away from the shrine, the whole island will fall from its orbit."

"Correct." The Omni-Viewer also commented on it. "And in a place as wildly unpredictable as the Special Zone, there's no telling what would happen to it."

Yin and Yang ended up asking the same thing. "Well, what else is there?"

"The Chaos Emeralds." Umbra immediately took a guess. "Their power isn't infinite, but they're close enough to the Master Emerald that they should be just as good."

Dimitri nodded at that. "Indeed, but my Chaos Emeralds are on my version of the Special Zone, and as you saw before, the ones from this universe disappeared along with Perfect Chaos."

"Pretty sure my world doesn't have those either." Aurora also chipped in.

"Which leaves us with only one option." The Omni-Viewer looked at them all for a moment before continuing. "We have to try to procure them from some other world."

"Well, let's try ours then." Sonic rapidly offered a suggestion, which earned him everyone's full attention. "They're always scattered all over these days. Right now, it's the best option we might have outside of hoping that any other worlds haven't been hit by that Scourge guy." He shrugged with a grin. "Besides, we just came from there. If Omni's really low on juice, a return trip's gotta be easier than looking for another world, right?"

Amy was confused by this. "What about those things that were going to attack us?"

"Grublins." Suddenly, the blue hedgehog got a lot more serious. "Yeah, they're not from our world, and I wanna know why and how they were there. Whatever's going on right now, it's gotta be big if those guys showed up." Then he gave his friends a look. "Look, these guys need me to go, so I'm going. I'm gonna hit the ground running and I'm not gonna stop for anything. Are you with me on this?"

The three of them looked at each other reluctantly at first, but after giving it some thought, they turned to him and nodded.

"We're with you all the way, Sonic." Tails spoke for the group in this case.

That got a smile out of him. "Heh, cool. Thanks, guys." He looked at Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer. "Alright, you heard 'em. Let's get this party started!"

"Very well then." The Omni-Viewer turned his focus elsewhere. "Aurora, if you could."

"You got it, Omni." Aurora walked over to the console before giving the others an apologetic look. "Sorry, guys, but I have to stay here to help them for now. Until Omni's firing on all cylinders again, it'll be best for someone to control the portal gun manually, and I think Dimitri could use someone with fingers." Suddenly, her eyes widened slightly, as if she had just realized what she said, and she looked at Dimitri. "No offense."

The cyborg shook his head. "None taken. I appreciate the help, Aurora."

With a sigh of relief, she turned to the others again. "We'll hold the fort here, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Sonic gave her another thumbs-up.

And with that, Aurora pushed the red button, and a portal much like the one he and the others had jumped into appeared in front of the entire group.

"Okay, guys, it's now or never." Amy raised her Piko Piko Hammer and pointed it at the portal. "Let's go save our reality!"

With nothing but a nod, Sonic was the first to jump in. The others were quick to follow suit, leaving Aurora alone with Dimitri and the Omni-Viewer once more as it disappeared.

"This is going to work." Dimitri offered her some encouraging words.

The Omni-Viewer did the same. "We're all going to make it work."

Aurora just nodded before giving a very brief response.

"I know."

Okay, here we are. This right here took a lot of work. It's one of the single biggest changes from the original version, and I had to give myself a major refresher course on everything involved just to make sure I got it all exactly right. I just hope I've done a good enough job that you'll keep on reading, and even if that's not the case, I want to thank you in advance for showing any kind of interest at all after all the effort that was poured into this.

Just like before, I really hope you feel like the alterations made on this chapter have been worthwhile. Review, if you please, and let me know what you think. I welcome any and all feedback, good or bad, so long as you keep it civil.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.