𝐒𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜: 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬

      Sonic the Hedgehog ran out onto the good old green hills and, stretching before the run, as if preparing for a race start, said to himself. — Okay, let's start! In general, I haven’t run here for a long time. — “If you follow my instructions, Sonic, I will help you find the fragment right now.” — said Watchguardian's voice in Sonic's head. — Yeah! So he's around here somewhere? — Sonic suggested out loud and Watchguardian answers him: — "Exactly!" — What can you do? I can’t refuse an elderly and ancient deity who still monitors the order of the worlds! Guide me, Watchguardian! — "Fine. To begin the search, you must run along this path and accelerate to superluminal speed." — Wait! Is this related to my running? — "Not really. There will be obstacles along the way that you will need to jump over. And at the end there will be a wall, along which you must quickly climb up while running and under no circumstances stop!” — Now I understand. — Sonic answers, gets on all fours and gets ready to run from place like a bullet. — "Ready? GO!!!" — the announcer’s voice sounded exactly like Sonic’s voice, and Sonic, on command, ran from his spot, jumping over small boulders. As Watchguardian told him, there was a wall on the way that went up and which Sonic managed to climb, after which he stopped at the top. — "Well done! And now I will give you an additional ability, echolocation vision. You can not only sense danger in advance, but also see through objects, recognize where enemies are and notice easily destroyed objects around you. It will be used only at your own request." — Co-o-o-ol! — Sonic said out loud, closed his eyes for a second, and when he opened them, the whole world around him became black and white, as if he had become color blind. But now he saw around, very far behind the trees and hills, how somewhere far away little animals were running and having fun, and also, as always, Dr. Eggman’s robots were walking everywhere, kidnapping the little animals. Sonic wanted to intervene and run there, but Watchguardian made him stop: — “What are you doing? Don’t you want to keep our universe safe?” — he asked Sonic in his head and Sonic immediately stopped. — But, Watchguardian, there are Dr. Eggman’s robots there again... — "Nothing! Dr. Eggman will wait for you, he's not the main problem. Now the main problem is the universe and the fact that it will die sooner or later. So don’t be distracted by anything other than searching for fragments of the Chaos Tablet and don’t use echolocation vision only for your own personal business. I have given you this power so that you use it wisely. Think first, and then act!” Sonic initially wanted to object, but changed his mind, deciding that it might be true. While he is distracted by Eggman, his universe may perish. Considering also the fact that Eggman is in no hurry to fulfill his plans and can wait for him for now. — Okay! Let's continue the search! — he agreed and activated his new gift again. Using his echolocation vision, he looked around and noticed something flying and glowing between this huge pile of rock crap. Turning off his vision, he saw only a blockage of stones in the form of a small hill. — "Fabulous! I will teach other hedgehogs to use this vision. It will help both you and them to quickly find all the fragments of the tablet, wherever they are.” — explains Watchguardian, and at this time Sonic followed his advice and decided to think a little about what to do with this pile of stones. — “So you will think for a long time. I believe that you can easily remove this whole pile of stones and get a fragment. The main thing is to remove the stones one at a time and take your time!” Sonic listened to Watchguardian's advice and for a long time, without hesitation, took one huge stone at a time and dismantled the mountain until he found that same glowing and levitating fragment in the air. — Look what I found. — Sonic boasted, picking up the fragment in his hands. — "Well done. A start has begun! Now — let's move on to the next Sonic! He will receive another gift."

Meanwhile in a parallel universe

      An alternate version of Sonic was somewhere in the desert in full daylight. But at the same time he was in the guise of a werewolf, from which he himself was shocked. — AM I A WEREWOLF??? WHY AM I A WEREWOLF??? I HATE THIS LOOK!!! — Sonic shouted. — "Calm down, young Sonic." — Watchguardian reassured him. — “I know that in this guise you are no longer as fast as before. But you have additional abilities in it that you will need.” — What are these? Control my mind? — the werewolf was indignant until Watchguardian reined him in: — “I said — quietly! My telepathy will not allow the werewolf personality to take over your body. So that only you will control yourself at the moment, and not the werewolf you.” — Is that so? I hope you saved the receipt. — “You?... Never address me as you! I'm much older than you, young man." — Watchguardian lightly scolded him. — Okay, sorry! I hope you saved the receipt. — the werewolf corrected himself. — “Find the next shard in this area! Hurry up!” — You... Oh, sorry! Did you say hurry up? — “First of all: Your ability to stretch allows you to stretch your arms to an infinite length. With their help you can move from one ledge to another. Try." — said Watchguardian and Sonic the werewolf, finding himself at the cliff, stretches his right hand forward, without expecting it, his hand stretches out and grabs the other edge of the cliff opposite its cliff. Having grabbed the hand, it began to stretch back, pulling the werewolf himself towards the outstretched hand. As a result, Sonic found himself on the other edge of the ravine. — “Sometimes, to get to a particular ledge, you will have to use this ability while jumping.” — Okay, okay, I understand. What's next? — the werewolf asked impatiently. — “Patience, young Sonic! Never rush and think before you act. Also, first wait for my next instructions and listen to what to do next.” — Watchguardian calmly explained, and the impatient one already hissed to the side, since he did not like to stand still and wait all the time. — “The fragment is in the center of quicksand. You can grab onto that tree branch, stretch out your arm and swing and fly through the quicksand.” — Uncle, this is my signature trick. — Sonic boasted, stretched out his left hand for variety, then unhooked his feet from the ground and flew, not forgetting to scream like Tarzan. At the same time, screaming like Tarzan and flying, he still grabs a fragment of the tablet in his right hand. But the branch cannot support the weight of the werewolf and breaks, after which the werewolf falls into quicksand and begins to drown. — "Quicker! Use your super jump to free yourself before you drown!” — Watchguardian said worriedly. Sonic listened to the advice and jumped from the quicksand to a height of fifty meters, which even flew a little far from the quicksand. — I have to admit, I’m already starting to like this look. Even though I move slowly, I have become more agile and strong... Maybe he will really be useful! Listen, will all the fragments be just as easy to find? — "No." — Well damn... — “Now I must turn my consciousness to the future and I see...”

Meanwhile in the distant future

      Using psychokinesis, Silver the Hedgehog flew across the city and landed on the roof of a skyscraper owned by a certain rich company. — “...Silver the Hedgehog. A perfect life form from a possible future." — It's me. I ready to save the universe and conquer everyone with your sense of smell! — Silver boasted to Watchguardian, standing in an epic pose and even running his left hand over the needles on his head. — “The next fragment is close. Right in front of us! — I'll pick it up now. True, you need to be careful here. This is the territory of the Nega Corporation. His public patrol is everywhere here. — “What is a public patrol?” — Private police controlled by Dr. Nega. In short, they are bribe takers, just like ordinary cops. — Silver explained and walked forward with slow and confident steps. At that moment, a helicopter with soldiers flew up and the soldiers began to jump from the helicopter onto the roof, surrounding the white hedgehog with fire rays. The guns looked like Kalashnikov assault rifles. Only instead of bullets they fired lasers. — This is a protected area! You are under arrest for attempted trespassing. — said one of them and they all opened fire at the hedgehog. Silver, as if Neo, stretched his hand slightly forward, stopping all the lasers that were flying directly at him, then lowered his hand and all the lasers in the form of balls fell on the floor, evaporating upon contact with a hard surface. — Now it's my turn! — he told them, stretching out his arms at his sides and with the help of psychokinesis, he grabbed the iron boxes, starting to move them along the roof, pushing and knocking the soldiers down. Everyone was now unconscious and the helicopter was left jostling. Silver threw these boxes directly onto the helicopter's propeller and he and the pilot flew down. The helicopter pilot suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a ripple effect in the sky, and the helicopter itself crashed into a building and exploded. — No! I didn't want him to die. — “Don’t worry, naive hero. I teleported him to a safe place and he won't get hurt. So you don’t have to worry about the fact that if, for example, during a battle you suddenly throw someone, for example, into a bottomless pit.” — Watchguardian reassured him and the hedgehog moved on, approaching the hatch cover and climbing inside through it. Once inside, he was first in a dark corridor, then suddenly the light turned on and Silver found himself in a long gray corridor, where there was a single path across a bridge from one door to another. Black spherical cannons immediately stuck out from the sides and began shooting at the hedgehog with black spherical and sticky mucus. Fortunately, Silver, with the help of psychokinesis, did not allow these balls to touch him and calmly walked across the bridge, taking his time and leaving a huge pile of black crap behind from the guns. Then Silver walked along a dark corridor, but thanks to the vision that Watchguardian had given him, he saw what he was looking for through the left wall. Walking out into a large room, he was surrounded by a guard of eight soldiers with shotguns. However, Silver psychokinetically takes away everyone's gun and knocks them all out at once, hitting them in the face with the butts. — My mother always told me that guns are for cowards. — Silver joked and went through the left door into the laboratory, where there was no one yet and the hedgehog easily took the fragment from the table. — It was a great warm-up. When will something more difficult happen? — “I’m afraid sooner than you think. I leave the future and turn to the past..."

Meanwhile in the past

      Some bandits found a capsule with Shadow the Hedgehog and noticed that it was not under suspended animation. When they opened it and the black-scarlet hedgehog immediately opened his eyes, he scattered all the bandits at once with one kick. — G.U.N. will pay very dearly for Maria. — “Your thirst for revenge cannot be quenched.” Shadow heard Watchguardian's voice in his head and began to look around. — Who is speaking? — “Don't be afraid of me, Shadow. I am the Guardian of the multiverse. I awakened you from the capsule ahead of time so that you could help the universe in your time and give people a chance.” — Hearing Watchguardian’s last words, Shadow’s memories immediately flashed through his head, where Maria told him the same words: “Give people a chance!” — What should I do?

Two hours later

— “...Now you are in the lair of bandits from the R.U.N gang. And I feel that one of the fragments of the tablet is somewhere here, which means they have already found it!” — “They have taken a very dangerous path.” — Shadow said to himself about the bandits, picked up a machine gun from one of the knocked-out men and went to the exit. — "Be careful! Now, due to the lack of suspended animation in the capsule, you are a little weakened and you won’t have a second chance to knock everyone out at once.” — said Watchguardian and by that time Shadow opened the door slightly, sticking his head out. A man with a shotgun stood nearby and made sure that no one went inside. — “Try to neutralize him silently and unnoticed!” Shadow, oddly enough, obeyed. He abruptly grabbed the man by the mouth, preventing him from screaming, and pulled him into his room through the door, after which he brutally beat him in the face inside and knocked him out. He also took his shotgun with him. Coming out of hiding, Shadow began to slowly sneak through the warehouse with boxes, not forgetting to hide from the armed guards. Thanks to the vision that Watchguardian also endowed him with, Shadow saw through the boxes where, how and when which bandit would look somewhere in order to slip past him unnoticed. Thus, he calculated everything and quickly rushed through. — "Strange! I feel like someone is sneaking behind me.” — thought one of them as Shadow moved behind him from one shelter to another. Then he turned and shined his flashlight. There seemed to be no one there, but for some reason he suspected that someone was hiding there. — I know you're there! Come out! — he said out loud and prepared his weapon for battle. — “Hide in the shadows before you are discovered!” — said Watchguardian and Shadow did not come out of hiding, because it was already dark enough here. The bandit himself moved very slowly and approached him. Shadow saw this through the box and was preparing to attack him in advance. When the bandit got too close, Shadow jumped out of hiding and attacked him, beating him in the face and saving him. The bandit didn’t even have time to scream and call his comrades for help. Here Shadow already felt how tired he was and began to slowly catch his breath. — What's wrong with me? — “I warned you. You slept in a capsule without suspended animation and spent a lot of energy. Don’t waste your energy until you recover!” — Fine. — Shadow did not argue through his shortness of breath, calmed his breathing and moved on. — I’m so tired of these six hour shifts, four times a day. — one of the bandits was indignant loudly, while Shadow also sneaked past him. - I want to go home so bad! — Brother, don’t you think that someone is next to us and is sneaking around? — one of them addressed his partner, and he answered him: — Stop doing that! You work too much and don't spend enough time with your family! You better go and rest, and I'll guard this part of the warehouse for you! This time, Shadow was just lucky and went unnoticed to the iron stairs, along which he climbed to the security room above, where the surveillance cameras were located. There was one guard inside, but he did not monitor the monitors, but stupidly slept at his workplace and snored from boredom. Next to him lay a mug with half-filled coffee, which spilled on the floor, and a fragment of the tablet, which he, at the request of the voice in his head, was looking for. Black-scarlet approaches the fragment and takes it in his hand. — And that is all? — “No, Shadow. This is just the beginning! Four fearless hedgehogs from different universes must piece together all the fragments of the Chaos Tablet. Otherwise, your world, just like all other parallel worlds, is doomed to destruction! Good luck, hero! I'm counting on all of you. Now try to sneak out into the street unnoticed. Make sure no one sees you. Then I will move you to me along with the rest of the hedgehogs from other worlds.” — You might think that I am not the only perfect form of life. — Shadow was indignant, but still did not argue with the voice. After all, since he awakened him, it means that he clearly must obey him and do for him whatever he asks.

Returning to the original universe

      Sonic ran to an abandoned old wooden house, where Watchguardian was temporarily hiding and waiting for Sonic. When he came running and brought his obtained fragment, the bearded man smiled. — You returned the first part of the tablet. Great. — he said. — Of course, I like to collect all sorts of junk, but not to the same extent. — the blue hedgehog explained and gave the fragment to Watchguardian. The latter took the fragment and levitated it to the top. — The villains strive to take possession of the tablet, they flock to the fragments like moths to a flame, acquiring new terrifying abilities. So far you have been lucky, none of the fragments have yet fallen into the hands of the enemy. — Watchguardian explained. — Well, why did you tell me this right now? Did you want to jinx it? — Sonic was indignant. Suddenly, four white glows appeared on the sides of Sonic, and from these glows appeared the still young Shadow, Silver, Sonic’s double in the guise of a werewolf, and the same man in a wig and a blue sleeveless shirt, who, oddly enough, was also able to find and get the fragment. — It wasn’t easy, but it turned out that this fragment was lying among the props and trash, but no one paid attention to it. — he said and also handed over a fragment to Watchguardian along with the rest of the hedgehogs. — Hello, Sonic. — Silver turned to the original blue hedgehog, smiling. The latter, with his mouth slightly open, just waved his hand. Then he turned his gaze to Shadow, and he, oddly enough, also looked at him gloomily and sternly. — Please, Shadow, just don’t start! — Sonic growled at him immediately. He expected to see him at least more or less calm, since this is Shadow from the past. The latter, however, only raised his upper eyelids, as if surprised, and asked: — Do we know each other? — Yes! — Watchguardian answered for Sonic. — You were supposed to wake up only fifty years later and meet him face to face, after which you would first be in conflict, fight, but then you would find a common language with each other and begin to work together against a common enemy. But you are unique, Shadow, since you woke up in your dimension earlier than planned. — You want to say that each of you is as genuine as me and my friends. Do you have the same powers? — Sonic asked. — Not everyone. I have my own life and don’t have your abilities. — the man explained. — Then who are you? — the werewolf asked. — You still won’t understand. Basically, I'm here to help you. Even though I can’t do anything that each of you can do. — he explained to them.

At the same time

      Weasel Neg hid in his lair with his fragment of the tablet and beat his head against the wall for a long time. — Ugh. All this useless junk... Stop! What is this? — he asked himself, stopping banging his head against the wall and noticing that the fragment began to shine brightly. He touched it. The radiance began to pass through the hands of the weasel and the latter felt something inside himself that he did not expect. He immediately remembered that he had felt the same thing there in the museum, that very night when he touched the tablet. — Oh, POWER! This is a TRUE superpower! I won't need those cheap tricks with pistols and cannons anymore! Weasel Neg has mastered REAL POWER!!! — he screamed and knocked out the door of his house with one blow of his hand, breaking it into splinters. He walked out of his house and grinned evilly, covering his legs in a purple cloud that lifted Nega into the air, allowing him to move through the air. — And this is just the beginning!