Chapter 95

Sonic slashed away at the pod, but before he could land a hit, Ivan hit a button on the pod that made a shield go over his seat. No matter what Sonic did, he couldn't make a scratch on the shield. A laser shot out of the Yin and Yang symbol on the pod. Sonic was knocked back, but used his flytrap like a grappling hook to latch its teeth onto the pod and pull him back. It latched on by the literal skin of its teeth, barely saving Sonic from falling away into the void below.

Sonic pulled himself forward, and latched onto the Infinity Consumer. His eye was all Ivan could see through the shield glass, as Sonic furrowed his eyebrow. Sonic took one of his many fists, and punched Ivan's shield. That made a crack!

Then, Buck, Knuckles, Tails and Pico all jumped onto the shield and started attacking it. Ivan screamed, before he activated some sort of rocket on the pod, making him and the Infinity Consumer blast backwards into the time vortex.

Sonic and the others found they couldn't keep latching on at this velocity. Everyone else fell off and onto separate platforms of Mobius that the storm must have taken here. Sonic had one hand latching onto the crack between the cockpit and the Infinity Consumer. But he could feel his claws slipping off, tearing the Infinity Consumer a little.

The Infinity Consumer roared, and flung Sonic off. He went flying out of the time vortex' gravitational pull. But he luckily landed on a platform and jumped off of it, falling down onto a small totem pole from Green Hill Zone. He balanced on it like a grind rail, and hopped from piece of ground to piece of ground.

The others, swallowing their fears, also hopped between the pieces of loose ground towards the Infinity Consumer. The Infinity Consumer teleported its hands through portals, and tried to smash the five heroes. But they avoided it. Sonja and Ramona tried to keep up with the others, even though they knew they could get killed. If they found an opportunity to help, they'd do it.

"You wretched abominations!" Ivan shouted as Sonic Homing Attacked the cockpit shield, leaving a sizable dent. "What are you?"

Pico stomped down onto the cockpit shield, also leaving a dent. Knuckles shot out a green laser from his eyes, which made the shield melt a little. Tails flew towards it and ground it up with his tails. Sonja then headbutted the shield, causing minimal damage... but enough to break the shield completely! Ivan was defenseless!

But the Infinity Consumer wasn't giving up. It shot many homing shot drills towards Sonic and the others. "Sonic! Watch out! It looks like a homing shot!" Sonja cried as she dodged the drills. Then, she remembered something. When Miles shot the rockets towards them, and she guided them back at him.

Sonja flew towards all of the drills, gathering their autonomous attention. Sonic looked at her, and instantly knew what she was trying as she flew behind the Infinity Consumer. The Infinity Consumer raised up its arm, and the drills cut through its arm, making the arm fall out of the vortex. The drills dissipated.

Then, the Infinity Consumer shot out a Time Break attack, where time would slow down. Everybody slowed down with the Time Break, but one of them continued at, albeit normal running speed for others. Sonic. Sonic Spindashed towards the Infinity Consumer, taking out a sizable chunk of ethereal being, which resulted in a scream from the Infinity Consumer.

The Time Break wore off, and everybody else, including Sonja and Ramona continued moving at normal speed. They joined Sonic on the cockpit, where they all charged up one massive attack. And then, they released it all on Ivan directly. Ramona looked at Sonic and smiled.

Everything went white.

As the white cleared, everyone found themselves in White Space. A calming wind blew in the distance. Bricks from the temple lay strewn on the ground. Sonic looked at his hands. Back to normal! Gloves and all! His arms were now skinny and tan again.

Looking to everyone else, it seemed they had all turned back from Primordial to Mobian. Ramona wasn't anywhere to be found. They were all lying on the ground. But so was Ivan, in a broken pod and the hourglass stone on the ground in front of him, shattered in two halves. "No..." Ivan coughed, weakly. His form had deteriorated into what looked like a blank stitched up doll with empty eye sockets. "How could I lose?" He looked up at Sonic, and laughed.

"I guess our little game has come to an end, hasn't it, blue hedgehog?" He asked.

Sonic didn't respond. He just looked down at Ivan in pity. Ivan coughed again. "I see... you don't really want to talk. I understand..." Ivan smiled. "I guess it's time I let you and your friends go. You're free. You win, Sonic."

"Yes I do!" Sonic exclaimed, as everyone else got to their feet. "So let me go!"

"Yes, yes... of course..." Ivan sighed. He snapped his finger, and opened two portals. One white, and another black. "You can choose one of these two portals. You see, if you leave this place and go back to your own time, your new friends cannot follow. They will all be stripped away from you and back into their own time periods..."

This came to everyone's shock. "Sonja, Pico, Buck... you will not see them ever again. However, if you stay... you can live out the rest of your natural born days with them, albeit in an ever changing timestream. Once you choose, you can never go back. So choose wisely. White portal to stay, and black portal to leave."

Sonic looked back at all his new friends. He couldn't leave them behind... they all meant so much to him. But he couldn't leave Mobius without a hero.

White portal to stay. Black portal to leave.

To stay, go to Chapter 96

To leave, go to Chapter 97