Chapter 59: Home Sweet Chaos What Is This?!

Sudden freefall. Years of ingrained reflexes let Sonic land smoothly on the balls of his feet, the now once again blue hedgehog immediately transforming his downward momentum by throwing himself forward into a roll through the dirt. He came to stand a few metres away, slightly ungracefully stumbling to a stop but at least upright.

And unhurt. In total, Sonic now felt weak, dizzy, was in pain from every bone of his body and utterly exhausted...but healthy and whole. He blinked, glancing over to where Shadow had landed after their abrupt descent. The Ultimate Lifeform had managed a somewhat smoother landing thanks to his hoverskates, but still moved gingerly now that he was on the ground, which let Sonic come to the conclusion that the black hedgehog had to feel pretty much the same.

Huh. Usually when we de-power from our super forms with the Chaos Emeralds, it leaves us just fine and with an extra dose of energy to go, Sonic mused, and winced again as another bruised muscle that he didn't even know he possessed announced its presence painfully. Guess the Master Emerald doesn't quite work the same way, then.

But Shadow was walking towards him now, and even if he looked just as banged up as Sonic, black and red fur matted from sweat, blood and dirt, quills bent and torn, limbs bleeding from cuts and a bruise gracing his muzzle while more had to be hidden beneath his pelt, he was whole and conscious and alive and that was all that ever had mattered.

Around them, the battlefield was still a mess of unconscious bodies, wreckage and either dead or fleeing animals, the fine rain coating everything with a sheen of wetness and making visibility even worse. They were in a small crater, directly beneath the epicentre of the blast, and Sonic guessed there would be little time left until someone still conscious would inevitably make their way towards them.

Shadow stopped a couple of paces in front of him. The Chaos Emerald they had been looking for ever since they arrived here was lying next to his feet, still half-encased in the carcass of the former dark king. Shadow made no motion to pick it up, but instead placed a hand on his hip, his expression tired, but a small spark still glowing in his eyes.

"Well, I guess this means I'm not going to be your official owner much longer," he said, "But for now, I can't help but notice that you're still wearing that collar around your neck, so..." he said, and then let the edge of his mouth turn into a weary, but wicked smirk. "For the last time. Heel, pet."

"Dude, you are so full of yourself -!" began Sonic with crossed arms, but then couldn't even be mad at his own body when it propelled him over to Shadow in a heart beat, digging his fingers into black shoulders and feeling the other cradling his head in return.

The kiss they shared back in their mortal bodies was different, tasted of blood and sweat and hurt where their lips had been split, their embrace cold and wet where the rain had soaked them, but they were still in this world to give it, so to Sonic, that was merely the sweet taste of victory. After what seemed like far too short a while they broke apart, fingers that had roamed down through black and blue fur, carefully skirting around wounds and bruises, found each other, loosely interlocking. Shadow finally bent down and picked the Chaos Emerald from the destroyed corpse with his free hand. He wiped off the last trails of a dark liquid that might have been the king's blood with an expression of thinly veiled disgust, as if it were an insult to the purity of the stone. But when it was clean, only rain water now running down its sides, for a moment he simply gazed at the gem like a familiar and beloved treasure, and Sonic could only guess how soothing the source of Chaos power had to be for the Ultimate Lifeform, who had given so much over the past few days and had to withstand with so little.

"Feels good, huh?" Sonic asked with a quiet smile.

"...yes," Shadow replied, looking a bit embarrassed, even if his answer, perhaps intentionally, didn't indicate quite exactly what he was referring to. Instead, he grabbed Sonic's hand more tightly now, raising the Emerald in front of the blue hedgehog with a more earnest expression.

"Anyway. It's time, Sonic."

"Right..." Sonic replied, casting one last look around their small ground zero. All soldiers in the immediate vicinity had fainted or fled, and at the edges of the battlefield, Queen Aleena's and King Max' reserves were now marching, but...leaderless and terrified or not, there were still the remnants of Black Doom's army and its generals around. And Scourge lying unconsciously somewhere on the battle field. And Manic, who needed help to sort out his new life. And Silver, who was maybe clueless as to what to do.

"Sonic." Shadow's voice cut through his thoughts, and when the black hedgehog looked at him, the hero of Mobius wondered whether his thoughts had perhaps been written on his face.

"We saved this world, Sonic," Shadow said quietly. "Let that be enough."

Maybe you just need someone to stop you sometimes.

That was something he had said to Shadow some time ago, wasn't it? a voice in Sonic's head asked.

Well, he thought, perhaps that applies both ways...

The collared hedgehog turned his head again. By now he thought he could see the first outlines of people running toward them, stumbling through the rain. Noises had started up again, sounding like there were still some fights here and there. And Tails. Tails is also still somewhere, something in his head reminded him. And you haven't said goodbye to Knuckles or Lara-Su, and you should see whether Sally is okay, and you still owe Rutan a raspberry, and you should double-check and make sure Drago gets his just deserts -

Then he looked back at Shadow, who was still holding his hand and holding out the Emerald for him.

"Let's go home, Sonic."

And the blue hedgehog wondered whether in situations like this, it had ever been quite so easy for him to make a decision and smile.

He put his hand on top of the white Chaos Emerald.

Shadow's eyes met his, for a moment his gaze saying again more than his words, but when he spoke, of course his tone was neutral again.

"Very well. I haven't had much experience with this, but I suggest we simply think of the same places we wanted to go to when we did this the first time. You ready?"

"Sure," Sonic nodded. "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's-"

"Oh, very funny," Shadow cut him off. "Take it seriously this time, okay?"

"Spoilsport," Sonic stuck a tongue out, but then nodded. In truth, he actually was more than nervous. What if this didn't work? What if they ended up someplace else even worse? What if-? They both took a breath. And then, there were only two single words that Shadow felt like he had been waiting to say forever...

"Chaos Control!"

xxx

"Aaaaah!"

It had started as a strange buzzing from below. Tails' sensitive ears had picked it up, even before he could have opened the Chaos containment unit holding Sonic and Shadow to see what was wrong with the black hedgehog now, but the latter thankfully had recovered quickly after his initial tumble. By now, both of them had already moved away from the main console in tbeir glass prison as far as they could, staring at the humming, blinking desk with deep suspicion.

"Knave, what is going on here?" The black hedgehog rasped as soon as as Tails had noticed it, too. "Your devil's box is making a racket."

"I, uh..." The two-tailed kit stammered, looking at his own invention with wide eyes, "It's, it's the scanner of the Chaos-field, but- " he stared at the now ever more wildly oscillating gauges, the digital numbers climbing far higher than he knew they should - "this isn't normal, the predictions never said that-"

And then he was cut off by his own scream, because at this point the console erupted into blazing flames.

xxx

It had been the End of the World.

It had been the Apocalypse in Progress. It had been the Days of Fury, the Final Judgement, Armageddon, Ragnarök and the Second Coming all rolled into one.

And then, with something as gentle as a little flash briefly lighting up in one of the endless meadows of Windy Valley, the light rippling out like waves in a pond and washing over a world that had been dying, it all simply...

passed.

And when one blue and one black hedgehog stumbled out of that very same flash only a moment later, nothing seemed to have ever changed at all.

"Woah!" Sonic commented, taking one, two steps to steady himself from the disembodied sense of movement that Chaos Control always brought with it. Shadow, who was far more used to this mode of transport, merely permitted himself a small smile at the way the more inexperienced hedgehog had to shake his head and then looked around him, blinking at first, but then with an ever more widely growing grin.

"Shadow!" he turned around, and the Ultimate Lifeform couldn't help but feel as if, once again, all traces of hardship of their previous adventure simply fell off him the moment Sonic laid eyes on him and seemed to smile even more radiantly than before.

"It worked! This is Windy Valley!" Sonic called, excitedly. "Shadow, we're home!"

"Hm. It would seem so," the black hedgehog said, also permitting himself a small smile as he glanced around. He vaguely knew where Windy Valley was supposed to be in relation to the cities he knew, but he generally preferred urban surroundings to the more rural countryside, so the landscape wasn't anything he recognized. But the Chaos field felt welcoming and familiar, so he was also hoping that they could actually have arrived back in their own dimension and everything was as it was supposed to be. The weather was the same as when they had left in any case, a clear, cool afternoon of a summer's day with the sun shining, a light breeze wafting through the swaying grass at their feet, making it impossible to tell how much time had passed since their departure, if any at all.

"We should still check whether everything's in order, though," he said, briefly tossing the Emerald he had held onto this time into the air.

"Um. Seems fine to me," Sonic pointed out, stepping over to Shadow's side again. The black hedgehog shrugged.

"At a first glance, yes. But even if this is our world, we have no idea at what point in time we have arrived or what has happened in our absence. I suggest checking in with the others before we do anything else."

"...okay," Sonic said, cocking his head in contemplation. "Makes sense. How about you take that Emerald and Chaos Control to Night Babylon to see how Rouge is doing, and I run over to Tails' place and radio Knuckles from there? Then we can all meet back in the Mystic Ruins."

"Fine," Shadow said, nodding, catching the Emerald again. Looked over at Sonic next to him. And then, without even saying anything, both of them found themselves locked in a kiss within a second, hands grasping, hips pressing against each other, Sonic running his muzzle against Shadow's neck and the black hedgehog burying his fingers in the fur of his former slave's head, all of it simply expressing their sudden, fierce joy and relief at being home, at being safe, at still feeling each other alive in their arms. Shadow had the sudden urge to simply tackle Sonic here and now, force him down into the soft grass, run his hands over every part of that deliciously ticklish blue body that now no one could take away from him any more, see how much resistance Sonic would even be able to put up despite potentially still being sore...

But then they still broke apart, the collared hedgehog somewhat breathless and slyly smiling at Shadow in a way that indicated he could read exactly what kind of thoughts were going on the other's head, but also not worried at all by the way he let himself be held, simply relaxed and pliant in his former owner's grip. Shadow gave a small snort.

Of course. Heroics and world saving first. And he knows I will let him.

The black hedgehog pressed a last, almost chaste kiss on top of the other's forehead and released him.

"Alright, then. Run on to the Mystic Ruins. I'll meet you there," he said, and then, just because he could, once again hooked a propriertory finger underneath the collared hero's choker, forcing him close and giving his hedgehog a dark smirk.

"And Sonic? Don't be late."

"Why, Shadow," Sonic replied smoothly, glancing up at the other through half-lidded eyes and trailing a finger down the other's chest, "Not worried that I'll beat you there even without an Emerald?"

Shadow's eyes briefly gleamed. "Challenge accepted," he said, simultaneously letting go of the other's restraint, Sonic straightening up again and then, one shout of "Chaos Control!" and one sonic boom cut through the air almost simultaneously.

xxx

"Tails!"

Knuckles was screaming mindlessly, sprinting toward the edge of his own island at breakneck speed. The floating isle was falling, threatening to drop from the sky like a meteor the second the Chaos field of the planet became too distorted and the Master Emerald's power would not be enough to hold it. It was hard to run, the ground beneath his feet lurching and rolling, like an earthquake in the sky. But Knuckles could see the edge of the island approaching, knew he needed to hurl himself off it and dive straight down to Tails' house beneath, get him out, get, oh gods, Sonic and Shadow out before the Island of Angels fell and crushed them all to death, not that it would even matter if the world ended now, but he couldn't, he simply couldn't-

But before the Guardian of Angel Island could even finish that horrible train of thought, he was already distracted by a searingly bright flash suddenly erupting from the sky and blinding him, which unfortunately also let him crash straight ahead into a very unhappy palmtree.

xxx

Sonic was running. And finally, not running from anything, but towards something – a small house on the edge of a cliff, to be precise, with walls that had been painted bright yellow one sunny afternoon, a house that always slightly smelled of engine grease and electricity, a house that had a runway and a lab underground and a fridge stocked with soda and, so much more importantly, a small kid brother that was already waiting for him to come back..

Sonic couldn't help but grin, greedily breathing the fresh air free of the smells of any battlefields that now seemed so far away, watching the familiar landscapes woosh past him as he closed in on the Mystic Ruins as the wind of his own speed dried his fur. Everywhere around him there were sounds he knew and places he loved rushing past, letting his grin spread and his heart pump with the pure joy of being back, in a world full of freedom, void of the barren, blood-soaked, wtf-zombie-infested plain of Black Doom's castle, a world where wars had been replaced by endlessly boring diplomacy, a world...full of his friends...

And even with a body that was still banged up beyond belief, Sonic ran faster than before, a hero of Mobius that simply couldn't wait to be home.

xxx

Rouge had been staring out of the window, but not really seeing anything. She knew the time until the world was ending would soon be up and she really needed to get back to Tails' place, otherwise it could very well soon be too late. Forever.

The alcohol she had wanted to bring was standing in a bag on the spotless counter, just waiting for her to pick it up and fly back after she had finished the cleaning here. Finished the cleaning while waiting for Tails to complete the project or the world to end. Absent-mindedly, she glanced down at her hands leaning on the counter, as if not really knowing what the polishing rag was even doing in one of them. What meaning was there, your club being spotless when the world would implode...when it wasn't fair, when you were still so young and you had worked so hard to be where you were and there was still so much you had still wanted to do...!

But she had barely been able to move. She felt like she was back on Prison Island, trapped in a vault with the Chaos Emeralds, waiting as her last seconds of life ran out until the entire island would explode. Utterly defeated. Only able to sit in a corner and wait for the end when all other options had run out long ago.

Only this time there would be no Shadow the Hedgehog coming to save her. And so, she had only been able to stare outside at the empty street and the greenish twilight, and listening to the distant quakes that seemed to be getting worse by the minute, the careful facade of the mature spy, club owner and treasure huntress crumbling away just for a moment, and all that was left was a 21-year-old girl who once had had to grow up much too fast and much too lonely and when faced with waiting for her death wondered why there was nobody she felt she could hold close as it came.

Until there had suddenly been a flash and a wave of light cascading across the sky.

Rouge blinked. At first it took her several moments to even realize what was happening. The daylight...was suddenly normal again. The sky was blue. In the distant streets she could hear a commotion starting, surprised shouts and car horns, getting louder as perhaps one, two minutes ticked by, the bat still trying to shake off the paralysis that had taken over her thoughts during the last few moments.

Until there was a second flash outside. And when she then saw Shadow standing on the street, looking straight at her through the window with such a familiar gaze and holding the Emerald, the very Emerald they had been seeking in such desperation for so long, Rouge actually started to cry.

xxx

Sonic came to a screeching halt in front of Tails' house, mostly because of the looming shadow of Angel Island straight above.

Ooookay. That definitely wasn't there when I left, the hedgehog thought.

In truth, he also had no idea and little interest as to whether he actually had been faster than Shadow getting here or not, the last few miles of his jog having been completed at an almost leisurely pace. It had been too nice to simply enjoy the familiar run, void of any pressing concerns...except for one. Sonic knew it could probably be classified as simple paranoia, but even with everything else so far suggesting that yes, this was his homeworld, this was the Mobius he had left, there simply was a voice in his head that wouldn't shut up, constantly asking whether he was really sure this was it, whether by some cruel twist of fate he hadn't been thrown into another alternate dimension, one that only on the surface looked deceptively similar to his own – or whether it actually had been years since he left here, because time worked differently in parallel worlds and now Angel Island straight above Tails' house wasn't helping-

Sonic the Hedgehog, I hereby forbid you from ever watching the Syfy channel again.

The hero of Mobius took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. There really only was one way to find out and dispel his fears. He glanced around the front yard of the house surreptitiously, could feel a bit of the tension leaving his body as he recognized the same failed attempts at a flower patch that Tails invariably half-heartedly began every year and then lost interest in two weeks afterwards. The garden tools that had been lying around when he had left the house to bug Shadow for that thrice-damned Emerald hunt over a week ago were still there, indicating that it really, really should be the same house, and not much time could have passed, otherwise this simply wouldn't be fair.

Confidence somewhat restored, Sonic resolutely strode up the few stone steps to the front door, raising his hand to turn the handle – and then promtply nearly collided with closed wood.

"Ow! What the – I thought Tails never locked his door?" Sonic rattled the handle one more time, but the result was the same. Locked.

"Tails?" Sonic called the name of his kid brother more loudly, giving the wood two raps. They had never bothered to install a door bell simply because the house was so far out of the way. Now this turned out to be a bit of a problem.

Strange...

Sonic hopped off the stairs, and, frowning, made his way alongside the house, planning to peer into the windows instead. Despite nearly living here, the blue hedgehog actually didn't own a key, but, as said, that had never been a problem until now. The hero of Mobius came to a stop next to the window of the living room/workshop, cupping his hands around his face to peer inside.

"Tails...?"

And then nearly yelped when suddenly his collar was roughly yanked from behind.

"What the hell are you doing outside?!"

"Agh!"

Sonic's hands flew to the collar around his neck instantly, trying to protect himself from getting strangled. He had almost forgotten that he was still wearing the thing after he had already envisioned himself home and safe, but now, all of the alarm bells were already ringing in his head again. He twisted his head around to see his captor, fully prepared to fight anyone who dared to ruin his day now after all that he had been through already – but then he froze.

Mostly because he could see that the one who had captured him this time wasn't an enemy, but instead someone he had already known and fought alongside for years.

"...Knuckles?"

The word had slipped past Sonic's lips before he could stop it, but as soon as he had said it, he already knew it hadn't been a mistake. Because he could see that this was indeed Knuckles, and really the Knuckles that he knew. Close up, the collared hedgehog could even see the tiny scar on the echidna's cheek that Metal Sonic's claws had left there when they fought him two years ago. And the one dreadlock slightly shorter than the others, burnt off by the flames of Iblis. And, of course, the used-looking but modern boxing gloves the guardian wore, a far cry from the old leather ones of the echidna prince from the other dimension, even if their grip was just as strong. The stare in Knuckles' eyes seemed familiar, too, the usual annoyance when he saw Sonic, sure, but also a familiarity, indicating the other knew precisely who he was and had so for a long time.

Which of course then definitely meant that being manhandled like this was completely unacceptable. Sonic snapped himself out of his inspection of the other and tried again to wrest himself free.

"Knuckles! What the hell? Let me go!"

The echidna for one moment appeared to be taken aback, but then purple eyes abruptly narrowed. Sonic now also noticed that there was a bump with a slightly bleeding gash on the echidna's forehead and his friend was panting with exhaustion as if he had just ran a marathon.

"Yeah, no way. Even if the world isn't ending any longer, you are supposed to be locked up."

This was followed by a slight flash of panic, as paranoia reared its wide-eyed head in Sonic's mind again, accompanied by the thoughts of 'wait what, why isn't he letting me go, is this the wrong dimension after all, but it couldn't be, it wouldn't be fair if it isn't, it - !'

Sonic took another deep breath and when he spoke next, made sure his voice was as calm and collected and reasonable as possible.

"Knuckles, either you let me go right now or I swear by the Emeralds I'm going to make you eat your own spines."

There was a bit of a pause.

Then:

"...wait. That actually sounded like you. Sonic?"

xxx

Shadow couldn't help but give a relieved, almost childlike grin as he channelled the Emerald's energy for a Chaos Control and it came so easily, spacetime folding around him like a familiar cloak as he twisted himself through the barriers between universal coordinates like a bird taking flight. In less than a second, he alighted effortlessly in the middle of the Night Babylon street he lived on, knowing that in this part of town there would hardly be anyone about before night fell anyway. A tension he hadn't even realized he held melted away as his eyes fell on the familiar sight of Club Rouge, the dark, two-storey, purple-coloured building with the bats-and-hearts theme for its neon signs just as he had left it. Next, however, his gaze wandered down to fall into the window facing the bar on the ground floor, where a white face was looking out at him with suddenly so wide turquoise eyes – and already the next second there was a form exploding out of the door and he was suddenly being embraced in a hug like a storm by Rouge, a gesture that would have been so much more fitting for a certain pink hedgehog.

But then, almost immediately, none of this seemed to matter anymore. This wasn't the duchess that had looked like his friend, this was his friend, and he could smell her usual, expensive perfume, feel her almost-too-tight catsuit press against him, until he slowly, almost tentatively returned her embrace, a gesture neither of them had ever attempted before. But now, holding her, he could actually hear her...crying?

"You found it! Oh, Shadow, you found the Emerald!"

There was only an ever so little increase in the flatness of Shadow's stare.

"...figures that would be what you'd care about."

And he hugged her back anyway.

xxx

Knuckles didn't relax his grip yet, but, for the first time actually paused as he became aware that certain details suddenly were not quite as he remembered them to be this morning. Sonic's fur was ragged now, and partially covered in dirt and dust, mud-caked grey socks the likes of which he had never owned were frayed and torn around his ankles and the strange, yet vaguely familiar gloves he wore were even stained with something that looked like...dried blood?

Only those trademark sneakers of his were still the same, seeming to have more resistance than their owner. By now the hedgehog was again straining in the grasp Knuckles had on his collar (and where did that come from again? Hadn't they taken that away when Shadow had put one on him?) and the echidna could also see more bleeding cuts and bruises in his fur, blue quills in disarray and a few of them even split or torn. All in all, the entire hedgehog with those still blazing emerald eyes looked as if he had just danced tango with a blender, and to Knuckles, that was a familiar sight he had seen dozens of times before - Sonic the Hedgehog, battered, but by no means broken.

The echidna loosened his grip wordlessly, and Sonic snatched himself away, even the same familiar look in his eyes that always told Knuckles that Sonic was slightly miffed because he knew that the only reason he could get free was because the far stronger echidna permitted him.

"Damn straight it's Sonic," the hedgehog grumbled as soon as he had gotten his footing back, shooting an annoyed glare at Knuckles as he straightened the strange collar around his neck again. "Or how many other ticked-off blue hedgehogs do you know?"

"I...uh..." Knuckles had trouble forming a proper sentence here, mostly because there were so many unanswered questions and questionable details fighting for attention, that he finally focused on at least one thing that was right in front of him and he had finally remembered where he had seen it before.

"...wait, are those Shadow's gloves? Where did you get them?"

This, for some reason, seemed to prompt a rather immediate and interesting blush on the blue hedgehog's part.

Sonic stared at Knuckles for a second, having completely forgotten that he was still wearing the other's gloves and his mind now of course also had the curtesy of flashing back to the dark, blurry, slightly painful but hot memory of the night Shadow had put them on him.

The hero of Mobius' mind now worked very fast.

"Er...LONG story. ANYWAY...!"

There was a crash! as suddenly the previously locked door of Tails' house banged open and the aforementioned fox burst out of it, waving his arms (and, slightly more worryingly, a fire extinguisher).

"Knuckles! Knux! You won't believe it, everything's stabilized, it's – Sonic?!"

"Kiddo!"

Within a second of Tails' appearance, the blue hedgehog's eyes had already lit up with a familiar, unbridled joy at seeing the kid fox in a way that Knuckles thought no one could fake. Immediately, the small vulpine was buried in a bear hug by the blue hedgehog, who proceeded to lift the two-tail off his feet and was now holding onto him as if he had come back from the dead.

"Tails..." Sonic had buried his face in the crook of the fox' shoulder, his voice just for a moment shaking just ever so slightly. The younger Mobian was obviously a bit confused at first, but then instinct seemed to take over and he hugged back, dropping the extinguisher on the ground.

"S...Sonic?" He asked timidly. "Is - are you you again?"

"Never more me than today, I promise," Sonic finally laughed, setting Tails down again, running a hand through his head fur, and even if he grinned, emerald eyes were just for moment shining a bit too brightly to be completely dry. Of course, there would soon be questions he'd need to ask, about elapsed time and things that happened, but for now, he was content with just what he had just held in his arms. "Chaos, li'l bro, I'm so glad you're okay, I thought I'd never see you again, I missed you so much it wasn't funny..."

"Right," Knuckles cleared his throat behind the pair, tipping Sonic on the shoulder. "Excuse me for interrupting this touching reunion scene, but I'm more interested in what managed to get you back inside your brain and the world back in order." He crossed his arms. "And also, how'd you get out? And where's Shadow? Has he escaped, too?"

"Huh?" Sonic asked, blinking and only now turning his attention back from Tails to Knuckles, but then, a few things were slowly beginning to click into place...

Knuckles telling him he was supposed to be locked up, for example.

"Oh no..." Sonic could feel the dread inside rising. "Why, Knux, what was I doing until now?"

"Well, uh, up until now you were in my lab where I, er, actually just came from and, also you looked different just ten seconds ago...wait, Sonic, is there two of you?!" Tails stared at him with wide eyes. "Did you just come from somewhere else?"

"Ah," Sonic managed. "Erm. Yeah, but...okay, well, see, there's not really two of me here – anymore, anyway, it's like-"

"Yes, there are!" Tails grabbed his wrist, the small fox now full of agitation. "Come on! There's an impostor or something down there!"

"Tails, wait-!" Sonic tried to calm his kid brother down, but the small two-tail had already started pulling him inside the house and down the stairs toward the laboratory before the hedgehog had had any chance of explaining how yes, there were doppelgangers but they had just managed to Switch back-

"See?!" Tails called, shoving the door to the lab open and pointing at the Chaos containment tank area.

And Sonic saw. Saw a glass cage with one pair of red and one pair of green eyes looking like straight from a mirror staring right back at him and now they were also as wide and as absolutely flabbergasted as his own.

Sonic shut the door of the laboratory with a bang!

"Um," he began, staring at both Tails and Knuckles looking at him utterly confused, "...can we wait until Shadow gets here...?"

To be continued...