Chapter One: Beginning Anew

DISCLAIMER: I claim NONE of the characters in this story! They solely belong to their rightful owners/creators!

Sheer strength from one hero can show a lot. Together, however, it's an unstoppable force. When you see a hero do what he thinks is right, do you honor him? Or do you doubt him immediately? People may thinks of some heroes as vigilantes. After the recent events, no one thinks this, unless they want to be beaten to a pulp by the closest pedestrian. As demoralizing as it was, no matter how much suffering happened, the heroes of various dimensions came together in their final hour to defeat the nefarious Dr. Eggman. After much sacrifice, destruction, and horror, our heroes laid siege to Eggmanland. The carnage spread quickly, and it took a quick turn for the worst when Lurk, the demented father of Thule, used the power of chaos control and fast forwarded to December 21st, 2012, the so-called day the world will see its end. In the midst of it all, Sonic had to act fast. Through the dreaded experience, Sonic kept on going, not letting a single thought cross his mind, he did what he had to do.

1 Month Ago

"We're pulling back to the city! PULL BACK NOW!!'' shouted Shadow.

The heroes and military personnel ran past him, heading back to the rocky shore. "Omega! Pick Richards up and get a head start!'' Shadow ordered. Omega picked up the corpse of General Richards and shot off into the sky, which was blood red, sparking with orange lightening.

Shadow lowered his visor, leaping over the heroes and landing in a group of metal clones. He grabbed the handle of his sword. He quickly swung it around, which also released a wave of chaos energy, cutting through all the robots that surrounded him. "Keep moving!'' exclaimed the Ultimate Life Form.

A horde of rockets came at him. Toph stood in front of him. She grabbed the metal ground, raising it up and shooting it forward. The metal wall slammed through the robots with ease. The heroes quickly ran past him. The door to the shore could be seen. A Pave Low helicopter was coming in to assist. A metal sonic clone fired a rocket at it. The rocket hit the underbelly of the massive chopper, blowing towards a building on the right side. The chopper started to fire its rockets wildly at the building. The building began to weaken from the onslaught of rockets. At it's weakest point, the chopper crashed into with extreme force. The heroes were right underneath it as it began to tip over. The huge silhouette massed over them. Shadow stepped in. A quick light shined, his armor began to stretch. Shadow removed his helmet, fully turning into his Werehog form. Shadow stretched his arms up, stopping the building from falling further. "GET…GOING!'' he shouted, in agony from holding the massive building up.

The heroes quickly ran out to the rocky shore where a horde of helicopters were waiting for them. Shadow quickly looked to the entrance with a disgruntled, sweating face. Shadow quickly, with all his strength, pushed the building back, smacking against another behind it. Shadow turned back to his hedgehog form, grabbing his helmet, and putting it on. In New York city, Amy quickly got dressed and ran outside. As soon as she came out, a huge fireball smashed down into the ocean, releasing a huge wave of water and steam into the air. An F-22 crashed right into a building to the far right. Soldiers ran around the area, panicking or looking for somewhere to cover themselves from all the chaos. Amy looked up to see Lurk flying over, followed by Mecha Weresonic. Amy looked to the street on the right, seeing Sonic landing, then dashing forward.

"Sonic!'' she shouted in her head.

The group of Ospreys landed, the heroes quickly got off. "Take Richards over there Omega!'' Shadow pointed to a nearby medical tent.

Amy walked over to him. Shadow removed his helmet. Amy had a sad feeling in the pit of her stomach, Sonic was going to do it again. Shadow lowered his head, ready to speak, but in a fit of sorrow, Amy hugged him, crying her heart out. Shadow patted her back gently, comforting the girl who was about to lose the one she loved yet again. Lurk's black blood oozed from his chest. Mecha smirked with envy. Mecha removed the sword, immediately making Lurk turn to dust. Sonic suddenly appeared in front of him. The powerful items began to grow apart from each other, then charged right into Sonic, resulting in a bright light.

From the ground, the heroes made their way through the treacherous city as it began to fall apart. An egg titan landed in front of Dawn, cutting her, May, and Max off from the group in front. The massive robot lifted its fist up. Dawn quickly moved out of the way, her Piplup tried to run, but the egg titan put its massive leg in the penguin Pokemon's way. "No! Piplup!'' cried Dawn. To her amazement, Ash ran by her and quickly grabbed Piplup in his arms, rolling forward to dodge the robot's massive fist from crushing him. Dawn was much appealed by Ash's brave act. "Pikachu! Volt tackle!'' Ash exclaimed. The electric type Pokemon charged toward the egg titan from behind, leaping forward in fury of lightening, right through the chest, causing it to explode.

Ash walked through the cloud of smoke when it began to die down, putting down Piplup so it could reunite with it's owner. "You alright Dawn?" Ash asked with a smile, as Pikachu leaped up on his shoulder. Dawn put Piplup down, nothing but smiling happily, forming tears of joy. "Uhhh, is everything okay?" he asked again.

He couldn't say another word, Dawn hugged him graciously. "Ohhh, thank you so much Ash!" she said excitedly. She broke apart and quickly kissed him on the cheek, even making the sound when she did it! Dawn broke apart, running over to comfort her Piplup, leaving a shocked Ash Ketchum behind her.

Ultimate Sonic and Ultimate Demon Mecha squared off. Sonic crashed into the ground, ripping the concrete apart. Mecha fired his chaos cannon, letting loose the ferocious blast. Sonic created a shield around himself, blocking it, but exploding in a great ball of light. Mecha landed in front of him, grabbed him by the face and flung him forward, through the front window of a bus, and out the back.

"YOU SHOULD'VE LISTENED! Look at all the chaos we created! This world only sees it's true heroes as lifesavers! They don't admire YOU! They don't even CARE about you!'' Mecha exclaimed.

Sonic teleported behind him and gave him a blast of chaos energy. The powerful mixed colors in the beam shoved Mecha against a building, blowing a hole in it soon afterward. Mecha dislodged himself from the wall. Sonic quickly tackled him into it, continuously punching him in the face. Mecha smacked his hands away, then fired his chaos cannon directly into Sonic's gut, launching Sonic across the street and blasting through the building. Mecha landed behind him. Sonic grabbed Mecha and tossed him up to a building, blowing a section of it away. Sonic fired his immense number of chaos spears from his fingertips, blowing apart chunks of the building and others. Mecha fired his chaos cannon. The beam hit Sonic, with him still in it. The deadly blast ripped through building after building. The beam finally exploded in a bright light. Mecha teleported to the scene. The building on the right was leaning against the building on the left side of the street.

"Are you still afraid? Afraid you'll make the wrong choice?" Mecha taunted and laughed hysterically.

A sudden cracking noise got his attention. The building leaning, snapped and fell down on Mecha with a bang. Sonic hopped off the chunk of building, looking at it from the ground. A window pane dropped out, Mecha limped out.

"You've outdone yourself Sonic!'' Mecha chuckled.

"You once said my choices corrupted me…now look at you.'' Sonic replied.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, doesn't it?" Mecha said, firing his cannon.

The blue blur launched up into the air, as did Mecha. The cracking of red lightening, burning boulders from the sky. "AFTER SO MANY YEARS…IT ENDS HERE!!'' shouted Mecha.

"Generation after generation will later remember this day…as the one…THEY COULD'VE STOPPED!!'' yelled Mecha.

And you…THE ONE TO BLAME!!!'' he continued.

"YOU'VE POISONED MY MIND FOR THE LAST TIME!! THIS ENDS NOW!'' Sonic thundered. With his fists glowing pure blue, Sonic empowered himself with all his power. Mecha did the same, empowering dark demonic red chaos energy in his palms. The group of heroes turned down a ravaged street, seeing Times Square up ahead. An echoing boom was seen in the sky, the giant light began to simmer down, two entities crashed into Times Square, the heroes quickly made their way to the scene.

Sonic stood up over Mecha's dying body. "D-destruction…p-p-pain…eternal…s-suffering! All things you can't take back!"

Sonic only glared at his long time foe.

"Y-you…can't defeat…m-m-me! I'm y-you!" Mecha stuttered through his injuries.

"Yeah, you may be me. Have my skills, attributes, my strength…my face. But it's like I said before…you lack ONE thing.'' Sonic said, gripping the Blade of Destruction tightly.

"I…am…the ultimate! What do you have…that I-I don't?!" Mecha exclaimed with confusion. Sonic shut his eyes for a moment. He then opened them, driving the sword deep into Mecha's power source, making him gasp and choke. Sonic inched up to his face, "A heart.'' he said. Sonic removed the blade from his body, Mecha's body soon began to melt, until there was nothing left.

"Amy…I chose you. It's the only way.'' Sonic told her.

"NO! I WILL NOT!! I can't do it!" she screamed, pounding her fists against Sonic's chest while she cried into his shoulder.

Sonic shut his eyes in disbelief. The worried looks of all the other heroes, made him saddened about what he must do. The sword floated into Amy's grip. Amy jerked the sword back, then…lunged it forward.

Sonic dropped to the ground, with the Destroyer device appearing behind him. He was in Eggmanland. He shot a bema upward, blowing the roof open. The blue beam formed into a gigantic barrier that stood protective in front of the city. Fifteen seconds on the clock. Sonic flew forward, blasting through every available door in front of him. "EGGMAN!!!'' shouted Sonic's distant voice. Eggman stopped in his tracks, looking behind him. In matter of seconds, the bomb detonated. Sonic blasted through the blast door, dropping in front of Eggman, weakened to the point of death. The humongous wall of fire swarmed down the hall towards Eggman. The bright burning fire reflected in his eyes.

Seattle, Washington, Present Day, 7:30 pm

Amy's eyes suddenly snapped open when she heard her name being called. "Amy? Amy, are you okay?" asked Cream.

It was the day of the party, two months after the end of the 2nd Dimensional War. After all that chaos and dread, you'd expect happiness and love. Of course there's love, but to the heroes personally, no happiness is present. A selfless sacrifice by Sonic has once again left some of our heroes wandering their lives, questioning if Sonic made it out alive, somehow. That word. It gave them a reason to forget about Sonic, but how could they? After all that he's done?

"I'm fine, Cream.'' Amy replied softly.

"How's the baby?" asked Cream.

Amy looked over in the baby carrier placed next to her, Alicia sleeping away. "She's fine. Too bad she'll never meet her father.'' Amy said, bringing back the painful memories.

Cream rested a hand on her shoulder. "It's been two months Cream, and…I…I still ache for him.'' Amy whimpered lowing her head, and piercing her eyes closed to hide her tears.

Painstaking. It was all that was left. Sonic made his choice to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One. His only reason? For him, he knew it was worth a chance. On one of the balconies, Shadow stood alone, looking at the moon. He felt stiffened wearing his tuxedo, he never wore one. Shadow wasn't one to get dress for everything, it wasn't for him, but this one called for it. "Shadow?" said a sly voice.

Shadow looked over his shoulder, his eyes widened a bit. Rouge the Bat stood before him, wearing a purple dress, her stretched white gloves that went up to her elbow, and her dress revealed a bit of her right leg. She was quite slimming in Shadow's mind. Shadow looked back across the city.

"You still worried?" she said, walking up the balcony, standing by his side.

"No. it's just that…everything I've been fighting for all these years…it's over. Eggman's finally gone!'' Shadow replied.

"I still have a feeling something's wrong. Is it Richards?" Rouge asked. Shadow remained silent at this.

Shadow had his ups and downs with the General, but he was still a great friend. He felt discomfort in his mind and belly talking about such a subject.

"He was a great leader. He made the right moves and lead with fierce determination. I just wonder…if I'm going to get the job for it. There's no way I deserve it.'' Shadow explained, turning his head to her.

"No…Shadow.'' Rouge said.

"It's best that I just accept it. They need a leader. Kuki's not going to like it…and you…'' he trailed off.

Rouge kept a straight face, but it changed when he was about to make his next move. "Sorry, Rouge.'' Shadow said, walking away. Rouge reached out and grabbed his wrist. Shadow turned around to her. Rouge marched up to him and planted her lips on his. She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, while Shadow, slowly wrapped his around her waist.

"AANG!!'' shouted Katara.

The two broke apart quickly, Shadow being the first to run downstairs, leaving Rouge to stand still with a shy look and blushing face.

Amy and Cream ran up to Katara, her back turned to them. "What's wrong Katara?" asked Amy.

"Katara? Why'd you scream?" asked Aang, stopping behind her.

Katara turned around, revealing what she held in her hands. The group gasped in utter amazement. The transformation device was in her hands. The blue glowing button black as the night sky.

"W-where did you find it?" asked Aang.

"Sonya ran up to me, holding it!" Katara answered.

Katara turned around and kneeled down to her daughter. "Who gave this to you?" she asked.

"I don't know mommy! I didn't know who he was! He had this thingy over his head!'' she defended herself.

The group sighed with disbelief. Should they automatically take this as proof for Sonic's existence? Is he truly back? Off in the background, a light shined on the Space Needle, signaling the disappearance of our hero that he made his two answers to the Ring of Rebirth. Sonic…is gone. He no longer has his memory anymore. The Ring will give him a new life to live…as he prepares for new challenges.

THE AFTERMATH CHRONICLES:

WAKING THE SAVIOR

BOOK I