MirrorVerse

Synopsis:  A Sonic Underground AU fanfic, crossing over with Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts as well as tons of other nostalgic franchises.

Chapter 1—Viva La Resistance 

‘We’ll beat you, Robutnick !  That’s what we always do ! You and your armada !  Send all the droids you want !  You can’t snuff us out !’, Sonic called.   It was then, out of the blue, that a Jaguar girl, a younger girl in a wolf pelt, a cool kid with a cassette player, a buff bug, and a mutant pig were zapped into Mobius.   Kipo knew how to control her inner jaguar.  It had helped her find her half mutant mother and save her dad.   

‘I have no idea how we got here, but it’s so cool !’, she commented.   One by one the bots went down and were decommissioned by her mighty paw swipe.   Wolf was holding her own with deadly Deathstalker bo staff in hand.   Mondu had gained the power of speech.   At first, she found it odd, but after seeing other anthropromorphic beasts that could speak, it wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg according to weirdness.   

Tad Mulholland knew what this was, and it was clear it was only just a vision of the past.  The fact that Kipo and her friends had appeared wasn’t clear or even discernable, but he could see even more clearly as he sunk into a deeper trance.   He saw echidnas scrambling to knit together breaks and tears in the galactic fibers.   The master chaos emerald had begun to corrupt.   He could see one that had been responsible, and his name was Murk.   He had always been jealous of Knuckles since he was next to be ruler of the Floating Isle.   Murk was a supposed ‘bastard child’.   Murk had no ties to the royal echidnas, was jealous that Knuckles was chosen and had been delusional since a young age, thinking he could overtake what he had no right to.    Having studied necromancy for years, he knew how he could bend the will of anyone or anything to push them to do something morally or ethically against their conscious.    Realizing that the Emerald was sentient, he would ‘shroud’ it and possess it.   He didn’t know doing so would enact disastrous consequences that would set the wheels in motion for a mass multiverse hysteria that would need much time and patience to heal.    

Chapter 2—Reaching Across the Multiverse 

A ripple in the waters shook Tad to his tardigrade soul.    Since assisting Kipo in her journey to reconnect with her parents, he had quit absorbing energy from placing others in dream states.   At least now, he could speak to others even in the realm of dreams.   Across the stretch of time, he found that indeed, all waterways are connected in the galaxy.   He flowed seamlessly into Mobius’ pipes, ending in Cecil Tinker’s home.  He spoke to the scientist and his family first, and eventually he was directed to Sonic. 

‘So, you saw the past, only your friends were there helping us ?   That’s a bit unusual.’, Sonia noted.   Manic scratched his head.  

‘All this quantum babble has my brain in a twist !’, Manic said, rubbing his temples.   Even for advanced minds like Rotor’s, Cecil’s or Bunnie’s it was quite a lot of information to process. 

‘I saw the future, though.   It all dealt with the Master Emerald.’, Tad explained.   

‘Does Knuckles know ?’, Amy questioned.   

‘I tried omnilocation but I don’t know if my dream message was intercepted.   It was blurred, thready at best concerning connection from here.’, Tad said, sadly. 

‘Keep trying.   We can’t have this catastrophe happen.  It’ll mean our universes will begin to collapse…’, Rogue agreed.    Tad went into a deep trance and spoke to Knuckles, but he hadn’t been as open or receptive as Sonic and his friends had been. 

‘I’ve got good and bad news.   Good news is they were friendly, but the bad news is they rejected my soothsaying.’, Mulholland retorted, lowering his head sadly.   

‘Ugh, that knucklehead !  Why does he have to be that way !   Last I heard Murk got into some trouble doing some petty crimes but with what you told us, it’s only a matter of time before…’, Sonic said, before he was cut off by a rather sizeable earthquake.   At that exact moment, everyone knew Murk had used necromancy to release himself from confinement.  He had taken out all opposition and now, he had the Master Chaos Emerald in his sights.   For only a picosecond, all was suspended in a time lapse.   What happened next, none of them could’ve predicted, but it meant the pendulum would need to shift back into the favor of harmony and balance before upheaval destroyed each universe little by little.   

Chapter 3—Other Universes Respond 

Murk was a force to be contended with.   He had fashioned the master emerald into a splendid, shimmering pendant.   He wore his prize with confidence and his arrogance swelled.  

‘This is how it should be.   I don’t know why I didn’t do this long ago, but I deserve so much more than a simple throne on the Floating Isle.   No.  Why stop there when I can have countless subjects across myriads of galaxies !’, Murk said.   Dramatically, he drew his velveteen sable cape around him.   His dress was reminiscent of French courts in the gilded age, and he represented the Sun King in the finest of his raiment.    For the time, with his unholy power, he stood unopposed, but his actions set off chain reactions, both good and bad.  

Knuckles and his family tried their hardest to thwart Murk, but there was no quelling the darkness that surged within him.   Knuckles, Julie-Su and many others were expelled from the Floating Isle.  Using what left he had of his power, Knuckles shielded them all from a hard landing.    From that moment, he felt a twang in the Universe he couldn’t trace or explain.  

‘Someone is trying to communicate with me, but I’ve never had contact with him.’, Knuckles said.  He knew it wasn’t his ally, Sonic.   They had used holographic communication via crystals.   This dove deeper, into his very mind.   Mulholland made a plea.

‘It’s as I feared.   The orphan necromancer is becoming too strong.   There’s only one way to stop him, and it’s going to take everyone from all corners of the Universe to do so.’, the tardigrade said, ominously.    Knuckles had no idea what the implications of Mulholland’s words had meant, but everything became increasingly more unusual as soon as portals gathered all around them.  

Chapter 4—So Many Champions 

In they came from each of their different realms.   The Mane Six had come, ready to battle.   The Tropical Precure bunch, followed by W.I.T.C.H., the High Guardians, Kids Next Door, Winx, Powerpuff Girls, and even Samurai Jack. 

‘I really have no clue how we even arrived here.   This place is crazy !’, Tuca said, still in a state of disbelief.    It had been pleasant to see other anthropomorphic creatures like themselves, but seeing animals become more human was quite miraculous.    Battlecat could speak, as well as Mondu, Kipo’s mutant pig pet and best friend.    

‘I’ve seen plenty of unusual things.   This tops them all.’, Pike said.   Shorthalt felt like belting out a song based on their circumstance.    Percy, thankfully, stopped that nonsense. 

‘No time for Vox Machina to serenade the masses.  We’re here for another purpose.’, he stated, resolutely, snapping them to attention.  

‘We don’t know why we’re here though !’, one of the Snorks protested.  Unlike their fellow magical creatures, the Smurfs, they had never fought against anyone.  

‘You’re a team, though !  You’re going to be fine.  We all will.  We just need a leader, and we need a plan.’, Cheer Bear added.    Others like the myriads of Jostars, the heroes of My Hero Academia and its isekai equal, My Witch Academia, agreed.    They were all different in their abilities.  Some were human, feeling less bizarre once they had seen Mobius indeed had an Earthling population, though it was smaller than the anthro one.    

‘You guys ready ?’, Sonic inquired.    Jacob Jay balked and shuddered, hiding behind his friends Gloria Gopher and Iggy Iguana.   Like so many other of the puppet beings from their multiverses, they were petrified.   None of them had ever seen fighting.  The closest they had come to that were disagreements and arguments that turned out peaceful.  

‘Treelo don’t know, Sonic.   Treelo scared of fighting.’, Treelo trilled in fright.   

Sonia patted the eclectic creature’s fur to calm her.   They were all about to face dark versions of themselves, brought on by Murk’s lust for ultimate control.   Luckily, they had plenty of wizards, heroes and time manipulators to assist them.   

Chapter 5—Their Darker Natures 

While every champion faced their dark sides, which were manifesting rapidly, Sonic and his family found Murk heading to the Crystal Palace’s throne room.   Fortunately, the hedgehog triplets had their crystals, and none other could link to that vast array of power other than them.    

Lots of musicians had Murk cornered.   Using a simple song, they subdued him. 

Our power cannot be contained 

We know it though it is unnamed 

The force of alliance, nonviolence 

And you know you cannot deny it ! 

Murk grumbled and countered using dark magic, trying to summon a staircase created out of everyday items, like chairs, books, ottomans, poufs, and the like until the crystal was taken from him by distraction and given to an echidna healer named Reseda and spirited away to be ‘cleansed’.     Although the crystal had been teleported back to its original home and was safe from Murk’s influence, the darkness crackled around him, violently.   

The ‘reflection’ selves began to dissipate.   The oaths Murk made were what created them as living beings, and seeing his power wasn’t what it once was, nothing could hold them together.   They were destroyed, no longer able to exist on their own.     

‘No !   No, I can still have this pathetic world !   Even if I cannot have the Emerald Isle, the Crystal Palace will be mine !’, he yelled.   

‘You can’t inherit either of them, my friend !’, Knuckles said, barreling in, fists in front of him, pinning Murk against the wall of the castle with his knuckles.     

‘It was going FINE, but I had minor setbacks…My rule of BOTH these places would’ve been an improvement.’, Murk said, flipping Knuckles over and pinning him to deliver a hard haymaker to his right jaw.    Sonic and his friends saw it wasn’t right to impede the fight.  It was between the Echidnas now.     

Chapter 6—The Ancestors Arrive 

Locke had come to collect both Murk and Knuckles in the middle of their fight, finding Knuckles had once again, flipped Murk on his back and pinned him.   He sought no need to ‘deliver a message’ by punching his enemy, but Murk knew he had been defeated.    Since the portals were gone, Cecil, Rotor and their new ingenious friends would have to get to designing exitways back to their own home dimensions before anyone knew they had gone.  

Lambchop looked at her friends and she let out a relieved sigh. 

‘Fighting my mirror self was a lot more difficult than I bargained for.’, she confessed. 

‘But, you did such a great job, Lambchop !’, Charley Horse praised.    The other puppet characters and their human counterparts who had never seen fighting had all held their own.  Even the Snorks had been taught a few things by their cousins, the Smurfs.   

‘To think it was the Echidnas who would put this to rest.’, Walter Melon marveled.   A substitute hero like Walter found it easier to let others do the fighting for him, but he had been a team player this time around.    Besides, it was far better now, seeing that Murk’s abilities had subsided completely and he was incarcerated.   

Before long, exit portals had been formulated and triangulated to pinpoint their origins.   One by one, each character made their exit and said their farewells.    Many of them wondered how they would maintain contact like Sonic did with Knuckles and could call on him or Bronto whenever they had need of them.    

‘We’re still figuring out the kinks of our Holophone system.   It can tap into many galactic frequencies.   Some are easier to tune into than others.’, Rotor mentioned.   The whole Holophone had been created thanks to one Rubens.   He had fought and vanished long before the other animals and humans were sucked back into their own worlds. 

‘We didn’t even get to say goodbye.’, one of the teenage hedgehoglets lamented.

‘I doubt that’s the last we’ll see of Herman.   He’s always been on our side.  If anyone is a closer ally, I would say it’d be him, or the Power Rangers.’, Sonic said with a massive smile.   

                     Epilogue 

          Although the darkness had dissipated and there was no lingering shadow left from the influence of necromancy, there was a lingering tendril of doubt, fear and entropy that had become sentient from Murk’s dabbling in evil magic.    ‘Stygian.’, it felt in its tubular, energetic, electrified state.   Stygian didn’t know what to do with itself with no host, so for the time being able to link onto and possess another lifeform, it scavenged.     Stygian laid in wait.   It knew its time would come soon enough… 

To Be Continued…