EEnE Z Universe 1: Interdimensional Crisis

Now, before I post anything at all here, I would first like to say that some of the events in this one were influenced and/or used differently than in the co-written Universe 2 "Crisis of Multiple Earths".
If that's not a problem, then enjoy. Remember, this story will make you wonder just how I can come up with my crossovers. Some chapters, such as the ones like Chapter 5, may end up being longer than others. Sorry for that.

A chapter denoted with a star (*) may be lengthened.

At the edge of the Universe, there is a void that marks where all the other universes meet. Some of these universes are hero-dominated, while others are evil-dominated. And some of these universes have physics that make absolutely zero sense, such as the universes of awful fan fiction. Over time, there has been a buildup of evil energy from across the multiverse, from defeated villains bitter for revenge. There has also been a buildup of good energy from across the multiverse, from defeated heroes wondering how they died despite their best efforts. Recently, however the negative energy was building at a much faster rate than that of the positive.

For many years, a group of god-like figures in this void have tried to suppress both forces, knowing that if one built up enough energy, the energy could become unstable and take a physical form. While the positive energy wouldn't be too much of a threat due to being comprised of dead heroes' energy, the negative energy would seek to destroy the good-dominated universes to restore what it considered to be balance.

There was another option to the negative energy as well. In order to promote this balance, the god-like figures had developed five mystical objects, called the Dimensional Stones. Four of the five were based on the elements of Earth, Water, Fire and Wind, and if one were to wield these stones, they would be given power to attack or defend with the power of these elements. These four were spread across the other universes at random. However, the fifth stone was so powerful it had to stay at this sanctuary.

This stone was known only as the White Stone, capable of breaching dimensional walls and transporting almost anything from one dimension to the next. If its power was misused, it could shatter the barriers between the universes and cause reality to fall apart at the seams. When all five Stones' powers were united, they could fix this disturbance according to the user's wishes, making it all the more important that the negative energy and positive energy balance be kept in check.

However, over the past two years, the evil energy was really starting to build, almost to the point that it was impossible to keep up. On one day, the energy from the multiverse finally reached that danger level. It became unstable, and with a dramatic bang, it took on the physical form of a member of dead villain Frieza's race. In fact, his only difference in appearance from Frieza was having different coloration. Where the skin was purple, it was dark blue. Where the skin was white, it was dark gray. And where it was a pinkish color, it now was a red color. He also "grew" dark red armor matching that of what Frieza used. As for his eyes, they were yellow in color.

Immediately on realizing he was free, he made a beeline for where he knew the White Stone was kept. The god-like figures were too stunned to stop him, and by the time they realized he had it, it was too late. With a tremendous burst of dark energy, the dark being shattered all the interuniversal barriers at once, using the White Stone's power.

Now, the dark being has escaped the void, one of the five Stones in tow. He searches for the other four. However, reality is not yet screwed, for there is a group of people in a certain universe with enough power to put a stop to this evil energy before it can "fix" what it broke.

A battle cry echoed through the air. Ed and Eddy, both in their False Super Saiyan states, began to fight each other while Double-D looked on, awaiting his turn to fight. Ed wore his usual outfit, a green jacket, a red-and-white striped T-shirt underneath it, and a pair of blue jeans. On his feet were black shoes. His buzzcut hair had turned an orange-brown color, and his eyes were blank, signifying his transformation. Eddy also wore his usual outfit, a yellow T-shirt with purple at the collar and on the ends of the sleeves with a red stripe down the right side with light blue jeans and red shoes. His eyes were blank and his hair was also brown. It had slightly spiked up from his base form as well.

Double-D also wore his usual outfit, a red shirt with sleeves stopping at his elbows, a blue pair of pants, and blue shoes. He also wore his trademark hat as he observed his childhood friends battle. Ed swung at Eddy with a punch, which Eddy dodged with his superior speed. He attempted to counterattack Ed with a jab of his own, but he parried the blow and successfully kicked Eddy in the side. Eddy made sure to pay back his friend's blow, however, with a punch of his own. The two then went at high speeds, such that only the unaided eye could see them.

However, Double-D, having the ability to sense energy, was able to follow them. They charged each other and collided, causing a shockwave. After a bit of going back and forth like this, Ed eventually managed to strike Eddy and send him to the ground. The two False Super Saiyans continued their fight for three minutes until Eddy began to focus, a green ball of energy forming on his forehead. This ball of energy had a single dollar sign inside of it. Ed put out his hand and formed a blue ball of energy.

"Ray of Riches!" came Eddy's shout. A green beam came from his forehead. Around his head, four dollar signs orbited.

"Sphere of the Sphinx!" Ed countered, shooting down a blue energy ball. The energy attacks met in the middle, and pushed against each other. The energy attacks seemed to be at a stalemate, until Eddy put in more energy to his, pushing it back. Ed tossed in a few more energy balls, adding Ki to his attack.

The beam struggle ended in a draw with a massive explosion that sent Ed flying back and upward, while Eddy flew back until he hit one of their training site's rocks. Both of the Saiyans reverted to normal.

"Looks like I win again, Eddy!" Ed confirmed, his pupils returning.

"You lucked out, Monobrow," Eddy said, his three hairs returning to normal and turning black.

"Well, it looks like I'm next," Double-D broke the post-battle celebration. "Eddy, would you like to spar with me?"

"OK, Sockhead..." Eddy reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green bean. He then ate this bean. "Just let me take a Senzu bean," he continued as he started to chew. He swallowed the bean after a while, and instantly, his strength was restored, evidenced by the short burst of green-yellow energy around him. He then powered up to False Super Saiyan, causing his aura to turn golden-yellow.

Edd followed, and as he powered up, his pupils disappeared. The rush of Ki caused his hat to fly off, revealing spiky black hair. His hair was spiking out a bit and turning an orange-brown color. The two friends then lifted off from the rocky cliff as Ed began to land.

On another part of the hill, Zach and Drew were supervising Corey's training.

"Come on," Zach began. He was wearing a red version of Vegeta's outfit from his fight with Buu years ago. He also had the same hairstyle, right down to the color. "You can do this. Just think about all the anger."

"If we can, there's no reason why you can't..." Drew summarized. He wore a black and green version of Goku's Turtle school fighting outfit. He also had the same hairstyle. "So show us that power."

"Alright, here I go..." Corey replied to his cousins' words of encouragement. He then shifted to a power-up pose, his brown spiky hair not shifting. He opened his brown eyes, and then let out a yell as he began to power up, a green aura appearing around him. This aura began to get bigger, and became a yellowish color. He focused on his anger as he continued to do this. He wore a teal gi, green wristbands, and green sash. On his forehead was a blue bandanna and on his feet were Namekian-style shoes.

Loose rocks began to levitate and float into the air.

"That's it, Corey!" Zach said. "You're almost there..."

On this session went for another thirty seconds, before finally, Corey let out one final yell, but suddenly, his aura faded, rocks fell, and his features returned to normal. He fell to one knee.

"Damn it, what am I doing wrong?" He said, disappointed.

"One day, you will become a Super Saiyan," replied Drew, crossing his arms. As Double-D and Eddy's spar continued to rage behind them, he pointed to them. "And so will they..."

"When that time comes, you will have the motivation." Zach encouraged. Corey rose to his feet. Just then, Double-D crashed into the ground behind them, and reverted to normal. Eddy landed a few moments later, as Ed caught up. Suddenly, there was a loud growling noise. Ed lifted up his shirt slightly. The noise repeated itself, and Ed's stomach visibly twitched.

"Ha-ha, I'm hungry," he said stupidly.

"Well, let's go back to my house and have some Chinese food!" Corey said, to which the Saiyans shouted, "hurrah!" They all flew back to Corey's apartment in Peach Creek.
---
Meanwhile, Sonic was running along Green Hill Zone, without a care in the world as it blurred past him. He began to hum a tune from one of his games, when suddenly, he tripped, rolling along the ground like a playground ball. Eventually, he stopped, green eyes searching the area. His blue fur and quills blew slightly in a wind.

"Who just tripped me?" he asked, looking behind him. Behind him was a black and red hedgehog with red eyes. "Shadow?! Why did you?"

"Not now, Sonic, there's something more important than your daily runs going on." Shadow replied, arms folded across his chest.

"Well, you could said 'Sonic, something's up'!" Sonic got to his feet, still a little angry.

"You wouldn't have heard me if you broke the sound barrier. Besides, I couldn't resist." Shadow turned his back to Sonic, chuckling just a little. Sonic growled a bit in annoyance. "Let's go to Peach Creek and get the attention of the Saiyans. We'll need backup."

Sonic rose to his feet, almost shocked. Did Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Lifeform, just admit to needing help from the Saiyans?

Shadow skated off into the distance, and at one point, he yelled out to Sonic: "Get a move on!"

Sonic then took off running after him, heading towards Peach Creek...
---
Corey, Drew, Zach, and the Eds each leaned back after eating their food, perfectly content with what they ate. The six then went into the living room, Corey getting the remote. Before they could turn on the TV, however, a knock was heard at the door.

"I'll get it," said Double-D, his hat back on his head. He walked towards the door, and was met with two hedgehogs. "Sonic, Shadow! What brings you here?"

"Important business," Shadow replied, walking inside with Sonic. The others turned to them.

"Oh, really?" Drew asked, "What do you have with us?"

"Turn it on the news, and see for yourself," answered the black hedgehog.

Corey raised his arm to the television, remote in hand, turned it on, and changed it to CBS News.

And it was here, a routine day was shattered, as news of the latest disaster swept through the room.

"This is CBS News reporting in," the male reporter said. "We've received news that severe flooding has just struck the Hawaiian islands. The waters are so high it appears that there are no survivors, barely any land not submerged by these waves. This sudden spike in water has also had impacts on ocean waves, with coastlines in Japan and California getting pounded by waves of fifty feet or more."

"That can't be natural," Edd said, very shocked at what was going on.

"No shit, Sockhead," Drew replied, though he was unable to mask his own surprise at such a tragic occurrence.

"We're flying over what's left of the islands now..." Suddenly, the reporter stopped, and the helicopter he was in went into hover mode. "W-What's that?!" he yelled, focusing in on a strange creature with dark gray skin, some blue spots on it, strange armor. Its yellow eyes met the reporter. The next thing the heroes saw was a purple light, then static.

"We have to get over there now!" Corey yelled.

"That Rathlok will fall to the hands of the jelly of justice!" Ed declared, leading the charge.

"We'll catch up!" Sonic yelled after them. "We have to go get some power first."

The six Saiyans flew west, heading straight for the flooded islands, leaving Sonic and Shadow behind to get what they needed. Once there, they saw the alien lifeform clutching on to a brown gem-like object.

"The Stone of Earth," it spoke in a gravelly voice. It then turned around, as though to acknowledge their presence. It got very angry. "Heroes..." came the hiss.

"What the hell are you?!" yelled Drew upon the Saiyans' arrival.

"Why waste time explaining when I can just kill you?!" With this, the being shot a large purple energy blast at Drew, who tried to fly away from it. It homed in on him, however, and chased him all about. Eventually, the Saiyan had had enough.

"Kaioken times twenty!" Drew screamed, neutralizing the attack with the force of his aura, which had become red along with his body.

"Kaioken times twenty!" yelled Corey and the Eds, erupting in a red aura, and became red colors as well.

"Galick Energy!" Zach activated his purple Kaioken-like technique. This done, Corey was the first to charge forward, and struck a hard left on the being, drawing a black liquid from the creature's lip. Zach followed up with a kick that sent their enemy into the water. Double-D held his hands high above his head, charging a blue energy ball.

"Here it comes!" he screeched, throwing it down after the being with an explosion that result from an impact. For a moment, all considered the battle to be already won. However, a flame shot out from the water, which Edd dodged, at the cost of his hat. "My hat!"

Meanwhile, Eddy and Ed charged into the water. Moments later, three figures floated up out of the water. Eddy and Ed were clobbering the being. Eventually, they sent it flying away.

"Damn you!" it yelled. Just then, everything seemed to flash blue. Sonic and Shadow were there, in their super forms. Sonic's fur had turned gold while Shadow's had turned a cream-gold cross color. "Grrr..." Two stones appeared around the being as he growled, one of then the brown one and the other a red stone. First, several rocks shot up from the water below, and formed a shield around the being. After a few seconds, the rocks exploded outward in all directions, flames bursting out of the being. Though its appearance hadn't changed much, it was obvious the being had gotten stronger.

"Leave this to us," Shadow told the Saiyans, just before kicking the being across the head, only to be met with a punch to the stomach. Sonic was up next, and used his speed to deliver a jab. However, he was grabbed by the arm and thrown a distance away. Sonic and Shadow then combined their efforts, and began to beat the strange life form back.

The Saiyans returned to their normal states, watching the battle. Shadow began to glow red. Sonic flew back a few yards, before the former grabbed the being and yelled:

"Chaos Blast!" With that, a large red field of Chaos Energy emitted from Shadow's body. The being returned, however, with two purple energy balls, which Shadow blocked. Without warning, it appeared at Shadow's side and blasted him with a large purple energy wave. Sonic, however, was the next to attack.

He side-kicked the being in the side, to which the alien responded with a punch to Sonic's ribs. The two exchanged punches and kicks for a while, with Sonic starting to lose ground after a little while. Finally, the alien kicked Sonic back into Shadow. The fight went on for five minutes, with neither side gaining any real ground. Finally, Corey and the Eds had enough.

"Let's go help them!" Double-D said, transforming into a False Super Saiyan. Corey, Ed and Eddy followed suit, while Drew and Zach stayed behind.

"Those six alone should be more than enough to take care of this guy," Drew said.

"Maybe, but I feel this is just the beginning of a far greater problem..." Zach replied.

Eddy was the first to reach the fight, and kicked the dark-skinned alien with enough force to send it flying. Ed flew ahead of the being, his back turned to it. The creature impacted hard against what he perceived to be a brick wall. Edd flew in at this point, and then the two Eds began to pummel the being. Corey began to form a Rasengan, which was a red-gold color because of the level of power he held. Once it was complete, he flew to the Eds' battle.

"Rasengan!" he yelled, shoving the energy ball into the enemy. The ball expanded into a violent spiral of pure Ki, and began to skim the surface of the water. The heroes went off in pursuit of the ball, which eventually hit a deserted beach area, kicking up sand. Finally, it came to rest against a rock wall with a violent explosion of dust.

Corey, the Eds, Drew, Zach, and the hedgehogs all converged on the location, Corey in front. When the dust finally settled, however, it was revealed that their opponent was still alive, but badly bruised.

"Well, that's that," Corey said, walking towards the enemy slowly, and extending his hand. "Just one last thing before we finish. Who and what are you?"

"...I have no name," the alien started, "but you can call me Oskuro."

"You are very strong," contributed Double-D, "however, you were misusing your power to do harm."

"That's what I'm supposed to do..." Oskuro said. "I am not an alien. I am a being made of pure negative energy, formed from eons' worth of defeated villains..." A collective gasp came from the heroes. "Not just from your universe, but every good-dominated universe as well."

"What were those gems that you were using, then?" Sonic asked.

"They are the Dimensional Stones, artifacts created by the Gods themselves for peace across the multiverse." Oskuro then laughed. Four gems appeared around him now. They were white, brown, red, and green in color. "I already have four of them, as you can see...and once I have the fifth, reality will be mine to control..."

"What do you mean?" Corey questioned, losing his focus.

"I mean that soon, your universe will be a haven for villains to rule, just as it should be with all hero-dominated universes..." Suddenly, Oskuro began to absorb the stones. The armor on his chest shattered. Dark energy appeared around him, blue and black in color. His power up session forced the heroes to shield themselves, for sand was being kicked up. They watched in horror as the horns on his head elongated and his legs and arms lengthened. His height increased quite a bit as well. With one final yell, his power-up finished.

"What...?" Corey asked, taking a step back out of shock.

"Your time is now!" The being made of negative energy screamed, punching out with his left arm into the young Saiyan's ribcage, causing him to hack up blood. Corey was sent flying back. Oskuro kicked down on Corey's stomach, however, and rode him like a surfboard across the sand and eventually the ocean. He then kicked hard down, sending Corey deep in the water.

Double-D rushed forward, followed by his two friends, ready to attack Oskuro. However, he spun around like a miniature tornado, kicking all three in the face one-by-one on each spin. Each of the Eds fell back, blood dripping from their lip. Sonic and Shadow also tried to jump in. Sonic tried to kick Oskuro's shoulder, but the dark being merely grabbed his leg and tossed him into Shadow.

"Die!" he yelled, tossing a large purple energy blast into them, causing a moderate explosion. Sonic and Shadow rolled out from the smoke, injured.

"That's enough!" Drew shouted, his hair spiking up and turning a gold color. His eyes became emerald-green and a bright yellow aura of flame erupted around him. He had just transformed into a Super Saiyan. Zach yelled from his side, his hair only turning gold and eyes turning green. The two Super Saiyans then tried to charge Oskuro, and punched and kicked at him.

He merely stood there, dodging every strike they tried to land on him. Corey flew up out of the water, his gi slightly tattered, and then tried again as well. Eventually, Oskuro released a purple discharge of energy, sending the three flying back. He pursued Drew, grabbed him by the face, and slammed him into the ground. He then threw him off to the side just as Zach flew up behind him.

"Take this!" He threw a small yellow Ki ball at Oskuro, which went up in an explosion. However, a portal opened up behind the warrior, and out came the dark entity, which tossed him lightly into the air, and began to punch his stomach repeatedly. As Drew came up behind him, the being merely rotated and used one hand to beat up Drew as well. Shadow had gotten back on his feet by this point, and tried to throw a blast at Oskuro's back. The trick worked, but Shadow recieved a kick that sent him into the water.

"Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack!" yelled Ed, releasing three white ghosts. He then pointed at the enemy. "Go!" The three ghosts charged, latching on to Oskuro with all of their might. Upon the contact, they glowed yellow, and exploded violently. The force kicked up sand, and caused the ocean to stir nearby. A wave crashed down on the beach.

"I can still sense him..." said Double-D. Suddenly, a black mist formed behind the Saiyan. Within moments, it re-formed into Oskuro. Before anyone could warn him, the being pushed Edd forward, and blasted him with a large purple energy ball. The ball collided with Eddy, causing a huge explosion.

"Double-D! Eddy!" Ed tried to kick Oskuro in response, but the being grabbed his leg, spun him around, and slammed him into the ground. He kicked Ed away just as the other two Eds leapt back into the action along with Sonic. Sonic tried to use the Light Speed Attack in conjunction with Eddy, but Oskuro took no damage from their attacks.

"Galactic Donut!" Edd created a large energy ring and attempted to bind Oskuro with it. At first, it seemed like his tactic was working. Corey got next to him, and began to charge a Kamehameha.

"Ka...me..." As he said the incantation for the attack, a blue ball formed in between his hands, and swelled in size as energy was put into it. "Ha....me...."

"I don't think so..." Oskuro then struggled with the donut, and, much to Edd's horror, shattered it, scattering tainted energy balls in all directions. This didn't deter Corey however, even as Oskuro swatted Edd to the side and began to walk toward him.

"HA!!!" Corey screamed, throwing the energy attack almost directly into Oskuro as it erupted into a huge blue beam, causing a massive explosion right in front of him. When the dust cleared, however, Oskuro wasn't even scratched. "Not again..."

Oskuro then picked the young Saiyan up by the hair, punched him hard in the gut, dropped him, and kneed him in the back.

"I've had enough of this..." Oskuro's aura re-appeared. He flew back at high speeds, while the eight heroes regrouped next to the recovering Corey. The dark being stuck both his hands above his head. A purple energy ball began to take form. "Let's see you stop this!"

Drew was the first to react, his gi torn in half on both layers, black gi remaining on his right side and green on his left. He put both his index and middle fingers to his head.

"Special Beam..." he began, an orange energy ball beginning to form on his fingers, accompanied by purple lightning. Zach's gi was tattered on the lower layer. His gloves had also lost their fingers.

"Final..." Zach spread his arms out, yellow energy balls forming in each of his hands. Corey began to charge another Kamehameha.

"Masenko!" Edd roared, putting both his hands above his head as a yellow ball of Ki formed on the upturned palm. His shirt was torn in half and his pants were tattered.

Eddy said nothing, but a green ball of energy with a dollar sign in it had formed on his forehead. His shirt had been torn in half from the beating he had endured.

Ed formed his hands into a gun form, and electricity began to form on the fingertips. His jacket had been destroyed completely, his left pantleg torn up to his knee.

"Chaos...!!" Sonic and Shadow spoke together, green balls of energy forming on their outstretched hands. Storms formed overhead, and the ocean began to rage, repelled only by the force of the energy. Loose particles of sand levitated from the ground as the two groups continued to charge.

"Negative Energy Ball!" yelled Oskuro, releasing his energy ball.

"HA!!" Corey and Double-D yelled together, releasing their Kamehameha and Masenko blasts, respectively.

"Flash!!!" Zach yelled, bringing his hands together and letting loose a violent yellow beam from them.

"Cannon!!" Drew screamed, firing a spiraling beam that acted like a drill.

"Ray of Riches!!" Eddy called out, firing a large green energy beam. Dollar signs revolved around his head.

"Zappity Zap Zap!" said Ed, firing a large lightning beam.

"Beam!!" Sonic and Shadow finished, sending out green beams. Each of the attacks united into a large blast that smashed against the evil's attack, causing the storms and debris to increase in volume and intensity. For a moment, the two sides appeared to be at a stalemate, until each of the heroes put more power in their attacks, sending the struggle slowly back towards Oskuro. He growled in irritation.

"No you don't!!" screamed Oskuro, tossing in three purple energy balls. This caused the struggle to shift back in the heroes' direction.

"C-come on!" Drew cursed. "Everyone, give it your all!!"

The group eventually mustered nearly everything they had left, and pushed it into their beams, sending the struggle once more back to the dark being.

"You filthy do-gooders will never, ever win! I've waited eons for this moment, and I won't let you take it away from me!" he yelled, as he struggled to regain control over his attack. "Now get ready...it's time to end this!"

Suddenly, black lightning raged throughout the scene. The ball seemed to be getting bigger, and closer, way too quick.

"Damn it!!" Drew yelled.

"That was everything we had!" Zach echoed.

"What do we do now?!" Eddy was panicking.

During the bickering that ensued, Corey and Sonic met eyes. Somehow, the two knew what they had to do.

"Drew, Zach...Eds!" Corey called out, struggling to maintain his part of the beam. "Get out of here! Sonic and I will handle it!"

"W-what?!" Zach replied, growling. "Don't be stupid!"

"If we leave you two alone, you'll get killed for sure!" Double-D said, abandoning his high-end vocabulary.

"If you six stay here, we'll all die, and only Knuckles will be left as the remaining fighter!" Sonic screamed over the rushing energy. "It's better if two of us die than if all of us die!"

Shadow didn't seem to want to right away, but slowly, he came to understand, as did Drew.

"They're right...they have a point...we have to get out of here...it's a pain to lose someone, but we'll simply have to make sure their sacrifices weren't in vain." Shadow stated, releasing his blast, causing the struggle to shift a little closer to them. "Let's go!" He flew off. Drew soon followed, returning to his base form.

"Damn it..." Zach mumbled. "I guess he has a point...Eds, let's go!"

Zach, Ed, and Eddy each reluctantly broke off from the struggle and got to safety amid the rushing winds and debris. Only Corey, Sonic, and Double-D were left now. Double-D was rooted to the spot.

"I'm not leaving my friends to die!" Double-D countered, holding on to his beam as the Negative Energy Ball inched closer and closer. Finally, it broke through the beams. Corey rushed forward, and took hold of it. His aura flared as he tried desperately to hold it away.

"Go, Sockhead!" Corey commanded. By this point, Sonic had flown past Corey, and curled up into a ball.

"I can't--" The Saiyan was cut off by Super Sonic hitting him hard with a spindash, right to the stomach, sending him flying across the waters to safety. Sonic then assisted Corey in holding the massive purple energy ball.

"If we're going down," the hedgehog said, one of his gloves starting to burn off. "we're going down fighting..."

"Yeah," Corey concurred, straining to hold the ball back. "You won't win, Oskuro!"

"I think I already have!" Oskuro shifted poses. Everything slowed down. The ball grew bigger, and a purple light began to take hold. Corey and Sonic were swallowed up.

"Corey! S-Sonic!" Double-D yelled, just before he was once again lifted off into the air, but he recovered.

"No!" yelled Zach. The ball went off into the distance, and with a large flash of purple light, disappeared without a trace.

Zach, Drew, Ed, Edd, Eddy and Shadow were all shocked. Sonic and Corey had just took the full-force of Oskuro's Negative Energy Ball, and had been killed, to protect the rest of them. Shadow reverted to normal, landing on a rock, his Super form used up. The Saiyans also reverted to normal, completely shocked beyond anything. Oskuro's aura faded as well. He also went back to his original form, albeit without the armor.

"You...you monster!" Double-D fought back the stinging tears as he screamed. "You killed them!"

"You will pay for that!" Drew echoed, grinding his teeth.

"They're not dead..." Oskuro stated, turning to them. "None of us have any energy left. It took all I had to push that into them. But it wasn't a lethal blast."

"Then where the hell are they?!" Zach exploded. "I can't sense them!"

The other Saiyans shared similar sentiments. At this, the dark being scoffed.

"Of course, you can't sense them...they're in another dimension!" he yelled over the heroes, getting their attention. "That attack wasn't meant to kill you outright."

"A...another dimension?!" Edd called out. "What do you mean by that?"

"...Very well, I suppose I should explain this before I leave..."

"Leave?!" Eddy asked. "Why are you leaving, you coward?"

"Because I got what I came for. The Dimensional Stone of Water, which controls the flow of events in daily life across the universes. There are four others as well. The last one I have to find is the Stone of Wind, which controls the storms that disrupt the flow. The Stone of Earth controls the quakes that also disrupt the flow. The last of the elemental Stones, the Stone of Fire, stands for the conflict burning in all universes, at all times." Oskuro explained. "The fifth one, and the one whose energy I put into that Negative Energy Ball, was the White Stone. It is capable of shattering the dimensional barriers and transportation between dimensions. It's how I got here."

"But why?" Ed asked, his serious side showing through for the first time in months. "Why send us to another dimension?"

"Even I, a culmination of eons of negative energy from across the multiverse, have to follow the rules of what dimension I go to, at least until I have all five Stones. Even the White Stone alone, powerful as it is, can't defy the basic logic of that universe. Even my power level might be affected, as well as my ability to absorb the Stones, until I get all five."

"So..." Shadow traced, trying to make sense. "Corey and Sonic..."

"Have been sent to another dimension." Oskuro finished. "That's right. The Negative Energy Ball gets this effect only when it explodes as it did there. I have to go get the other Stone now, and while I'm at it, I'll exterminate your friends..."

Ed was no longer listening. Up in the sky, he saw something strange.

"What's that, Double-D?" He pointed up as he asked his friend. Up there in the sky, the heroes and villain saw, was a light show.

"An aurora borealis?" Edd asked, before freaking out. "What could that possibly mean...?"

"I shattered the dimensional barriers." Oskuro said simply. "If this goes unchecked, it means that reality will collapse in one to two months, approximately of course."

"What?!" Drew yelled. "Damn you..."

"Don't worry...I'll repair this when I make the multiverse a villain's haven..." Oskuro taunted, closing his monologue. Drew rushed up to attack the being, as he spoke again. "See you in hell..."

As Drew swung out with a left hook, Oskuro's body turned into a black mist, which vanished into thin air. The Saiyans and Shadow looked around.

"I can't sense him..." Zach said. "True to his word, he left the dimension..."

"He's going to pay for this..." Drew grumbled.

"I suppose we should go back to the guardian, and tell him what happened here. Maybe he or his ancestors might know something..." Shadow said.

"I still think he's a schizophrenic..." replied Drew, "but I'll go with that plan."

Soon, all the heroes except Double-D were up and away, heading east for Angel Island.

If Corey and Sonic were sent straight to an alternative dimension, then which one could they have gone to...? Will they still be able to fight if Oskuro comes for them? Edd fretted in his mind.

"Coming, Double-D?" Eddy asked.

"Y-yes, coming, Eddy." Edd then lifted off and followed his allies, still thinking about where Corey and Sonic could be amid the distorted reality.

The first thing Corey and Sonic were both thinking when the Negative Energy Ball was swallowing them up whole like a hungry shark can be said in one word:

"Shit!!!" the two had said, almost simultaneously. At this point, both of their energies had run dry as well, forcing them to revert back to normal. And yet, the two found themselves devoid of pain. They weren't even having out-of-body experiences, something that seemed odd to them at that moment. Suddenly, as the light filled their vision, and numbed every sense they had, it turned from purple to white. They suddenly started spinning, and that's when it became clear to them that they weren't dying just yet.

All at once, Sonic felt pain, but he wasn't sure what was happening to his body.

Corey felt an unpleasant sensation, all at once. His spine felt the most unpleasant sensation as it curved around and around, until it was no longer like the spine of a humanoid. He felt his arms and legs also change, but he was too much in such pain to figure out what was happening to him. The next thing he knew, he was gasping for strangled air, along with Sonic, as they fell a short distance, into something cold and powdery.

For about three minutes, neither of them said anything. Finally, Sonic groaned loudly:

"Corey, wouldja get off?!" he said, irritated. "You're smothering me!"

"Sonic?! Where are you?" Corey replied, concerned. He tried to get up on two legs, but found himself slipping backwards. As he fell backwards, he saw his arms, were now thin, brown-furred legs, at the end of which were hooves. "What the heck?" He then looked down at himself, and saw nothing but sand-colored fur, from his chest all the way down to another pair of legs. But past his back legs, he saw a blue hedgehog with a shocked expression on its face, mirroring Corey's inner emotions exactly.

"C-Corey?!" Sonic rubbed his eyes with his new paws, as though to determine what he was seeing was real. Corey would have mimicked him in a heartbeat, but he couldn't get his front legs to do so. "Y-You're a...a...a deer?!"

The mighty young warrior had now become as equally threatening as a young deer. In fact, he had become a fawn, not even antlers to show for his maturity. A patch on his head extending down to his tail was jet black, the majority of his fur being brown, like his normal hair color. The rest of his fur on his stomach, around his eyes and on his mouth area was a sand-color of brown, only slightly darker. Much like the spots that ran down his back. Also, his blue bandanna was still on his body, but it was wrapped around his left front leg as opposed to his head. His ears would have gotten in the way. His brown eyes were wide with fright, but he soon realized that Sonic had changed.

"Yeah, and you've become..." Corey paused, trying to get his footing. Once he was done, he tried to walk. When he walked, he stumbled around stupidly, not at all used to walking on four legs. He nearly stomped on Sonic, tripped over him instead, and took a face plant into more powdery snow. "...an animal hedgehog..."

Sonic was, well, looking like the woodland creature that we refer to as a hedgehog. The only real difference was the fact his eyes were green and his fur was still blue.

"What happened?!" Sonic asked himself.

"How should I know? We didn't die, that's for sure..." Corey replied, struggling back to his feet. The two would have continued to bicker had it not been for a sudden commotion from behind a few trees. "What's that?" the Saiyan stuck in a deer's body asked, struggling to turn in the direction of the sound without tripping over his own two-no, four-feet.

"I don't know...but I think we should find out." Sonic spoke, and led the way. Corey had no objections, and staggered off after his ally. Eventually, the two saw quite a few small woodland creatures heading up a hill, down a path. They obviously weren't hibernating.

"Hey! Hold up!" Sonic called out. A brown squirrel halted, heeding the call. When he saw the blue hedgehog, he almost rubbed his eyes, as though trying to determine if what he was seeing was real. Sonic, unfazed, continued on. "What's going on?"

"Haven't you heard? The groundhog festival is underway!" said the squirrel, trying his hardest to keep the shock out of his voice. Immediately, both Saiyan and hedgehog connected the dots: it was like Groundhog Day where they came from. "Those who can come do so every year!" he then ran off, trying to catch up with the rest of the small crowd.

Corey said nothing to this. Sonic merely nodded to him.

"Let's follow." said Sonic. At first, the young Saiyan wanted to say no, that they should be concentrating on finding out how the hell they got here, why the hell they had become complete animals, and what the hell they should do about it. But he then considered Oskuro. Now, Sonic would stick out like a sore thumb, but Corey was more normal-colored, and more noticeable by size, and by the strap of cloth he wore on his shoulder. He knew they would be looking for them, and thus offered no objections, merely nodding. It would be wise, he decided, to go with the flow for now, and stumbled off to follow his friend, nearly tripping over several tree roots. The locals who saw him thought him to be a very young fawn, who hadn't even learned to walk or talk properly. They thought Sonic, who was leading him a fair amount, was babysitting him. They didn't think too much about the strap of cloth he wore, but it did earn him a few looks.

As for Corey, he kept his tongue in-cheek, trying his hardest to suppress his anger at his naturally decelerated Saiyan aging. At the same time, he felt it was a blessing-it meant that parts of him hadn't changed. Then again, he considered, he would likely have some form of antlers if he had aged like a human, making him stick out even more. Sonic said nothing to confirm or contradict the locals' theory, though they were speaking in hushed voices about it.

Eventually, the two came to where the burrow was located. An owl had just got his head stuck in the burrow, muffling all sounds from whatever might have been going on. The young Saiyan surveyed the scene. Off to his right were more assorted woodland creatures, here to see the festival. Suddenly, his ear pricked up. His Ki sense was coming back to him, and he wasn't sure why, but he felt a comparatively strong signature coming from his left. He looked over, and saw two other deer, accompanied by five rabbits and a rather sleepy-looking skunk.

"What is it, Corey?" Sonic asked, climbing up on his friend's head, only further aggravating the Saiyan. He continued to say nothing, trying to keep up his charade of being nearly a newborn, even though logically, it wouldn't make sense. Both began to tune in to the conversation that the two deer were having.

"...and my antlers are starting to come in," said the darker colored one. Its fur was shades of brown and orange, with a wheat-brown color where Corey had a sand-color. Where Corey had black fur, it had a neutral brown color, and where Corey was neutral brown, it was a light, almost orange, brown. It was obviously a male, considering its statement. "Can you see them?" He was lowering his head to the other, lighter-colored deer with blue eyes. It had a pinkish hue to its fur. To both of the dimensionally swapped heroes, it was clearly a female.

To this, a gray rabbit spoke up, looking at the male fawn's head. After a thorough inspection, it had only one thing to say:

"I don't see anything!" it said, to which the male deer took offense, starting to glare at him. "Well, I don't..."

Corey felt a sudden feeling of warmth enter him. Sonic had since gotten down from his head, obviously feeling the "deer" no longer pay attention to his footing. Suddenly, Corey tripped, making a small noise as he slipped over the tree root on his right, such that he went face-first into the snow, and eventually ended up on his side.

"Is he alright?" the male deer asked, concern reflected in his orange eyes. Sonic looked at him directly, feeling that soon, Corey would blow the charade.

"If he's even younger than us, he really shouldn't be out walking like he is..." the female responded.

"He must be a baby," Sonic whirled around to see the rabbit start mouthing off again, this time about Corey. He swallowed hard, knowing that the Saiyan wouldn't take it so well. "He's awfully wobbly..." The four brown rabbits looked concerned at the gray one, almost as if he violated a family rule. But everyone's attention momentarily shifted to the fallen, darker-colored deer, for he got up, his head glaring at those staring at him.

"I'm not a baby!" Corey yelled. When everyone stared at him, mouths wide open, not expecting him to be able to talk back, he quickly threw together a story. "I'm just having...a little trouble with walking today..."

"Good job, Corey," said Sonic, sarcastically. But before anyone could say anything else, the owl had finally managed to pull his head from the burrow. After some grumbling, he became jolly, and thus flew up back to his perch. Taking the ample opportunity to divert the attention away from themselves, Sonic and Corey moved to a spot slightly behind the deer, rabbits, and skunk, and to their left. Corey stumbled, Sonic didn't.

"Heh, heh, the groundhog!" said the owl as he flew. A small groundhog came out from the burrow, shaking from head to toe in fear, mumbling his fear of his own shadow aloud for all to hear. As he did so, all the animals present noticed a rather long shadow.

Corey and Sonic noticed it too, but chose not to say anything. However, the other animals sure did:

"Look at that shadow..." said one of the brown rabbits, all of which Corey abruptly identified as female, recalling his days of schooling and how the young girls sounded. The boys had a barely lower pitch to their voice at that age. The gray rabbit, which Corey identified as a male now, whined in response.

"More winter," he complained. The skunk yawned however. By voice alone, Corey could not tell if it was a male or female. Even as he communicated non-verbally to Sonic, who was nodding his head without speaking, he made a mental note that Tails, at times, sounded like a young girl, so he took the incentive and assumed that the skunk was a boy as well.

"More hibernatin'..." But as he finished, the two dimensionally swapped heroes suddenly noticed a cloud buildup in the sky, obstructing the sun.

"So much for that..." Sonic whispered, to which Corey nodded. But Corey was no longer paying that much attention. For some reason, he sensed a presence nearby. The vibe it gave off wasn't of pure evil, like that of Utonium or Eggman. But it had the air of malicious intent - that is, not truly evil, but that of someone who just wanted to amuse himself by antagonizing others. No one seemed to notice, however.

Finally, the groundhog opened his eyes, still mumbling timidly to himself. But when he saw the lack of his shadow, he began to cheer up:

"No...shad...no shad...no shadow!" the groundhog exclaimed. He then began to dance around, proclaiming: "Let's sing a gay little spring song!"

While the other animals began to sing with joy, Corey and Sonic didn't know what to think. Sonic lightly chuckled, trying his hardest to keep the rest of it in. Now why were two heroes so moved to laughter by the use of that word? Well, where they come from, "gay" doesn't mean "happy". Corey snapped out of his trance upon hearing the groundhog say that, and began to feel a lump of laughter swell in his stomach. Realizing that such an outburst was going to get him noticed for sure, he held it in.

As the chorus peaked, Corey made like an ostrich, shoving his head deep into a snowbank. He laughed directly into it, muffling any sound he would give off.

Sonic, on the other hand, shook off the laughter that had welled up inside of him, and went back to at least pretending to be normal-that is, lip syncing and moving back and forth as though he were dancing.

"Oh, I'll never be frightened again!" the groundhog exclaimed as the chorus died down. Just then, Sonic witnessed, a fawn jumped down, green eyes blazing with malicious intent. Its fur was darker than that of the first unknown male fawn. However, unlike either Corey or that fawn, its spots were gone, and had two stubby antlers with two points in their place. He leaned forward, staring right into the eyes of the groundhog.

"Boo." he said, absolutely terrifying the groundhog, sending it bouncing off animals, tree roots, and the ground as it went back to its burrow. The other animals groaned in disappointment and began to disperse, the pack of animals included. The fawn behind this incident, on the other hand, began laughing. Sonic was confused, and went to go see his friend. He leapt up on the quaking body and poked at his tail, getting Corey's attention instantly.

"What?" he said, still a little wired from the usage of the word. However, when he saw the laughing fawn and the disappointed look on the faces of the other animals, something within him clicked. That dark-colored fawn was the source of that vibe.

Who is this guy? I've seen his kind of mannerisms before... Corey thought, flashing back to his days before he was a fighter. When he had his tail, it was a monstrous weak point, one that bullies would constantly abuse, and beat him up, because he was different. Up until half a year before the School Wars, he never knew why he was the way he was, sheltered from the reality by his parents. The memory of the bullies burned anew, fresh in his mind. Back in those days... He masked his anger, however, even as the fawn chortled:

"It looks like I scared the shadow right out of him!" However, he seemed to realize that aside from Corey and Sonic, no one was around to see it. When he looked from fawn to hedgehog, and stared at the hedgehog a bit as though to determine if the hedgehog was really there, he still looked as though he were longing for something. Thus, he took off after the two deer, five rabbits, and the skunk. "Whoa, whoa, whoa..."

As he ran to follow them, snow was blown in copious amounts right into Corey's face and all over Sonic's body, turning him into a miniature snowman. He stopped right in front of the two other deer, blowing more snow over the gray rabbit and skunk and nearly running over the brown rabbits.

"That punk..." Corey growled, shaking off the snow.

"Corey," Sonic began, shaking off the snow, "Don't do it..."

"Too late," was Corey's reply, as he stumbled towards the dark-colored fawn.

Drew, Zach, Ed, Edd and Eddy flew across vast miles of land towards Angel Island in silence. No one really had anything to say regarding this incident. But as they began to cross the ocean water, Edd finally spoke up.

"Where could they be in the multiverse?" Though this was more to himself than anything, Drew felt the need to comment.

"Hopefully, they're somewhere where their Ki attacks could at least be used properly. I just hope they didn't have to change species. After all, Oskuro said that even he had to follow dimensional rules." Drew spoke up. "Our problem should be trying to figure out where we can go from here."

"But we don't even have one of the Dimensional Stones!" interjected Eddy. "How can we try to stop this?" he pointed up to the sky, where the aurora borealis was still glowing strong.

"Maybe Knuckles has a solution," piped in Edd. "After all, he has an ancestor in the Master Emerald."

"And how do we even know if that information would be good?" Drew asked.

"Still think he's a schizophrenic, Drew?" Zach questioned.

"Damn right, I do..." the older Saiyan replied.

"We need to train as soon as we can," said Ed, seriousness showing through. "Or else the sky will fall, gravity will shut down, and my gravy will turn sour..."

"Isn't it sour already?" asked Edd, face turning green from the thought of Ed's gravy tub.

"Says you!" replied the tallest Ed.

"This is not the time for infighting!" said Drew, shooting a weak Ki blast between the two. "You say you're concerned for the welfare of Corey......and Sonic......then prove it!"

The rest of the route to Angel Island was flown in dead silence. Eventually, the five-man group flew up towards the floating landmass, heading straight for the shrine of the Master Emerald. When they landed, they saw Shadow and Knuckles finishing up a conversation.

"Knuckles already knows of the situation," said Shadow. "It's hard to not notice the aurora borealis. It's been appearing irregularly all over the Earth."

"We came here to see if your ancestors knew anything of the Dimensional Stones." said Zach.

"I was just about to see if they do or not..." Knuckles then went up to the Master Emerald, and laid his huge, spiked hands on it. He closed his eyes in concentration.

Tense moments passed, until the red echidna got up, a look of terror etched into his blue-violet eyes.

"Well?" Drew asked, suppressing any hostile feelings he had towards Sonic's group.

"It's worse than we thought..." Knuckles stated. "My ancestor has ties to them, but only because she's dead on a technical level."

"How so?" asked Zach.

"Oskuro comes from the void where her new colleagues tried to suppress him. They all failed however, and they were destroyed. Even Chaos tried, but he was too stunned from the breakage of the dimensional barriers. Also...they have reason to believe Corey and Sonic are in a universe where they would be at a disadvantage."

"One where their powers are locked away?" Ed asked.

"Exactly. Even their bodies have changed somewhat, but that's all we can get. For all we know, it could be just a coincidence."
---------
Meanwhile, back in Peach Creek, the Kids were all watching TV in Kevin's house, which had basically turned into the "Crisis Hideout" since the closing of the Heritage Saga. They were keeping up with the recent happenings, at least until Kevin spoke his mind.

"This is so non-canon it hurts..." he grumbled, trying his hardest to forget what he had read in the script.
---------
"We have no leads on Oskuro's current location, or the location of the last Dimensional Stone..." Edd summarized. "To top it all off, Corey and Sonic could be in a universe where death could come swiftly to their species, or otherwise be at a disadvantage to fight him should he appear."

"We can only hope...Eds!" Drew said. "You two as well, Shadow, Knuckles...we have to train."

"How much gravity?" Zach asked.

"As much as we can take," replied the older Saiyan. "We have to get stronger for the next time we face Oskuro."

Knuckles had since touched the Master Emerald with his hand, and was once more concentrating. Suddenly, his face paled.

"...No...it can't be..." he loudly grumbled.

"What is it, Knuckles?" asked Shadow.

"It has something to do with reality, doesn't it?" Zach questioned. Knuckles nodded.

"Villains that we've previously killed may be resurrected. Be on your guard."

The Saiyan stuck in a deer's body staggered forward, lead by a reluctant Sonic. Corey was going to teach that darker-colored fawn a lesson in common manners.

"You have no idea how much I deplore that behavior..." Corey continued through gritted teeth to his friend.

"Corey, you can't even walk right..." Sonic growled at him. Both stopped, however, when the target of Corey's quiet fury began to speak.

"Where you goin'?" He asked, a smile plastered on his face, obviously speaking his next words in jest. "Forest on fire?" There was an awkward silence as all considered his punchline. Eventually, everyone who wasn't the fawn mentally realized that was in horrific taste. However, it was the female fawn who spoke next.

"Who...are you?" she asked of the dark-colored fawn, voicing Corey's thoughts almost exactly. Since, well, she didn't sound angry about anything, while Corey would have voiced it more...angrily, to say the least. Remaining silent, Corey continued forward slowly, so that way if push came to shove, he wouldn't look completely stupid trying to arrive on the scene.

"Are you sure you're going to go through with this?" Sonic asked, already knowing the answer. Corey would have voiced this, but the questioned fawn decided again to speak.

"The name's Ronno..." he started, and then he looked up to his head, "...and these are the boys," He nodded towards his antlers, and stabbed one of them into a tree close to him, "Stab..." Then he used the other antler to scrape some of the bark off the tree. It was here, Corey noticed a notch on the fawn's ear. "and Jab!" He posed triumphantly, obviously proud of himself, until snow fell on him copiously. The other animals simply walked past him.

"Well, hope the three of you have a nice day," said the female, walking past him. Corey held back laughter, and almost stopped dead in his tracks, until the buried fawn shook off the snow and spoke again.

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you," he said in a warning voice. "I saw Man..."

It was the male deer who spoke for his group: "You saw Man?" he was clearly in disbelief. Both Sonic and Corey stopped, obviously confused.

"Man?" Corey asked himself, trying his hardest to think of what they would be referring to.

"My best guess is hunters..." Sonic mumbled back in reply.

"I see...so does this guy actually have some credibility?"

"Looks like we're about to find out..." At this point, the two had slowed to a virtual crawl, barely shuffling their feet towards the scene before them.

"Yeah..." said the fawn now identified as Ronno, turning towards the pack of animals, a smile on his face. He suddenly leapt forward, starting his story. "So there I was, down in the meadow..."

Already Corey and Sonic saw a massive hole in this story.

"In the dead of winter?" Corey asked himself, voice hushed, almost feeling the need to see how far his new enemy would go. Sonic shook his head.

"...I've never heard of this." Sonic replied.

"When I heard a voice, luring me in..." with this, the darkest of the three natives to the dimension immediately picked up a small stick in his mouth. "I'm here, I'm here..." He then spit it out, continuing his story. "See...Man's got this stick that can make his voice sound like one of us." Ronno said looking from animal to animal. "But I'm way too smart for that..." Ronno continued, he was now mimicking a cheetah creeping up on it's prey.

"...In a pig's eye..." Corey grumbled, starting to quicken his pace ever so slightly.

"Well, at least he's right on one thing: I've heard hunters use that kind of trick..." Sonic echoed, nearly getting stepped on by Corey.

"Pick up the pace, Sonic..." the Saiyan stuck in an animal body whispered, but of course, Corey nearly fell down again, almost eating a faceful of frost. At this point, Sonic climbed up on Corey's head.

"Well, you're the one who almost tripped on me, Mr. Powder Keg!" Sonic whispered back. As the two began to bicker quietly, Ronno continued his story.

"So I crept up on him, real quiet." he stopped behind a hill. He peeked his head out to look at a hanging branch. He charged out ramming the branch shouting: "And BAM! Knocked him out with my trusty antlers" He said triumphantly, a smile on his face, until the branch slapped him back. This caused Ronno to get two pine cones stuck in his mouth, which triggered laughter from the rabbits.

It also caused Corey and Sonic to stop dead. Now, both were once more trying their hardest to control their laughter. However, this time, they both succeeded in controlling themselves. After hearing the story to its fullest, Corey and Sonic were thinking the exact same thing: Ronno is a complete tool, and can't spin a story to save his life.

"That was...quite a story..." said the female. Both of the dimensionally swapped heroes could tell she wasn't believing it at all. Ronno, on the other hand, thought her compliment was completely sincere. "Almost...unbelievable..."

"Yeah! Unbelievable..." said the male, to which the other male deer who wasn't Corey immediately took offense. From the tone of the former's voice, however, Corey and Sonic guessed that he believed every word of it.

"You callin' me a liar?" Ronno questioned, sounding completely offended. Now, maybe if Ronno hadn't already pissed off Corey from throwing snow indiscriminately into his already half-frostbitten face, and maybe if his own childhood wasn't filled with similar occurences with what Corey was seeing before him, maybe Corey would have finally stopped fooling around and got his head back in the game. But something about this situation was rubbing him the wrong way.

Well, if it isn't monkey boy! Corey remembered. Following this was the very unpleasant sensation of having his tail grabbed. It was a critical weakness in Saiyan biology, and only few recorded Saiyans had overcome it. He gritted his teeth, and nearly tripped over his own four feet due to his anger.

"Corey?" Sonic asked from atop Corey's head, regaining his balance. "You okay?"

Before Corey could even begin to clear his head, however, the confrontation only escalated.

As the lighter colored male deer denied calling Ronno a liar, the latter only continued to push him back. "You wanna spar, do you?"

"N...no!" said the orange-eyed deer, backing away slightly.

"Clobber him, Bambi!" yelled the gray rabbit, clearly getting excited. At first, it seemed to the duo that the situation would be resolved without Corey's limited assistance. Though, that still didn't matter to Corey. He was pissed beyond all reason, but he had yet to find a possible opener. However, soon, even that wouldn't matter.

"Bambi? Isn't that a girl's name?"

And just like that, Corey was whisked back to his pre-war days, when most of his classmates were still pressed against him. Every day, it was the same routine, over and over: if Corey's tail was present, they would grab his tail and beat him up, insulting him all the while. In those days, Corey hadn't even known of his true heritage, and certainly didn't know how to defend himself. Hell, he didn't want to fight. If his tail wasn't present, they'd still find ways to torment him. Corey had even heard a few insults and phrases similar to what had just unfolded in front of him.

"No way..." he growled, drawing Sonic's attention immediately.

"Corey...no...please don't do this!" Sonic whispered straight into Corey's ear. However, the Saiyan wasn't hearing any of it.

"No way am I letting it happen to someone else..." And with that, Corey's attention turned to the scene before him. Holding back the sympathetic rage that had welled up inside him, he made a move to speak.

"Really?" he began, loud enough for the animal pack to hear him. They all turned to him, as though seeing him for the first time. He searched himself for a follow-up to that statement: "It sounded like he believed that story of yours...Too bad I don't."

And in that instant, Corey changed everything. The animals, and Sonic with them, collectively gasped, while Ronno took total offense to what Corey said. He turned to Corey, now angry...
"And just who are you?" he asked.

"My name..." the Saiyan started, "Is Corey!"

"'Corey'?" Ronno began, his anger seeming to die out. "Wait, so you have a girl's name too?"

Corey face-faulted, almost believing it himself. This wasn't going to be an easy verbal confrontation after all. However, just as Ronno remarked about his parents' bad sense of humor, voice full of false pity, the Saiyan stuck in a deer body remembered his name was used by both genders. With this in mind, the young Saiyan's constitution restored.

"No, it's gender-neutral-both genders can have it." Corey resisted the urge to say anything about Bambi's name, not even taking chances with himself. Sonic, meanwhile, had since climbed onto Corey's head, and began to whisper into his ear.

"While you were laughing..." Sonic then, as quietly as possible, told Corey about what Ronno did to the groundhog. However, as the hedgehog finished, Ronno noticed something.

"And why is your little friend blue? He cold or something?" he mocked. Now thoroughly pissed-off, Corey wasted absolutely no time in attacking Ronno verbally.

"Never mind the blue." said Corey, his voice becoming incredibly bitter and harsh; something even Double-D knew was needed for trash-talking, "So tell me, Ronno, why did you scare the groundhog back into its hole? Don't tell me that you like winter, either. Was it for attention, you..." Corey found himself suddenly unable to continue his statement, the offensive word on the tip of his tongue, but would not leave his mouth. However, it wasn't needed; in response, all the animals, Ronno included, gave a gasp, but only the latter really got angry.

"So, you wanna spar, do you? Because you've earned it, you punk..." said Ronno, getting down low. Now, Corey and Sonic were not experts on animal behavior, but they knew enough to know when someone was wanting to fight. Sonic got down from Corey's head, feeling that everything was under control. So did Corey. He mimicked Ronno's posture, but then changed. He began to gather Ki. He could see the look on Ronno's face change from anger to confusion. He continued to grunt, feeling something building up inside of him.

He had fully expected Ronno to be intimidated to the point of running away. After all, Corey felt he had gained an aura of pure energy around himself. Sure, it would have completely terrified Bambi and his friends as well, and even blown his cover, but at that time, he didn't care. All he could think about was stopping what he perceived to be anything but a simple game. However, all at once, he felt something...amiss. Ronno's look gradually changed from confused to arrogant once again.

"Oh, c'mon...I'm not intimidated that easily..." Ronno then charged. Corey was shocked.

Intimidated? Corey thought. But...I should be glowing with energy by now! This asshole should be bailing out of this situation faster than Super Sonic's max flight speed! Ronno's head was lowered, and he was within striking range, when a womanly voice rang out along the scene.

"Ronno! Time to go!" came the voice, causing Ronno to brake to a halt within inches of Corey's own head. Ronno straightened up and turned to the originator of the voice. With a subtle turn of the head, Corey saw what his new enemy was seeing: a fully grown doe.

"Coming, mother..." he said reluctantly, and a lot less arrogantly. At this point, the still unknown female fawn walked up to Ronno along with the one called Bambi.

"Yeah, uh, maybe it's best if you get going..." she said to him.

"Geez, I was just...playing around with the young Prince..." The dark fawn then nodded to Corey, "but he just..."

"Ronno!" his mother said, louder and firmer than before.

"I'm coming!" He yelled in response, immediately scampering off after her while complaining to her about how he was making new friends.

Even Corey knew he was lucky to not be damaged at all, that the fight was headed off before it begun, but now he knew he had some explaining to do, as soon as all taunts were exchanged. For example, the gray rabbit could not resist a parting shot.

"Ya big momma's boy! Why don't you run home to your momma, you big momma's boy?!" he said, completely mocking out Ronno, and echoing Corey's inner thoughts once again. At least, until another female voice rang out.

"Thumper!" it called.

"...coming mother..." Thumper replied, scampering off and taking the brown rabbits with him. Within seconds, an adult female skunk came by and picked up the unnamed skunk that loved to hibernate. Sonic had since climbed up onto Corey's head once again, now that the conflict was over and Corey clearly wasn't moving anytime soon.

Corey's attention, however, was returned to the two deer that were still there, when the male now identified as Bambi began to speak.

"Who are you?" he asked, a cross between scared and curious-a cross that Corey could understand perfectly. The Saiyan and hedgehog now had to explain quite a bit about themselves in order to get out of their situation.

Chapter 8: The Gravity of the Situation

"As I said before, my name is Corey." Corey began, not even caring if Oskuro knew him by name alone. "The hedgehog on my head is..." At this point, Sonic took over.

"Sonic," he began. However, just as quickly as he were about to continue, he realized that in this world, adding "the Hedgehog" to his name would be redundant, and quickly finished, "Never mind, just Sonic."

"Now then, who are the two of you?" Corey asked, for the moment forgetting about his power-up sequence. Thankfully, neither of them seemed to want to bring it up at that moment.

"I..." the female deer started. She seemed to be shaking off something, but that feeling soon faded as she continued: "I'm Faline..."

The male deer only just seemed to come to his senses. Corey knew his name already, having overheard the whole incident, but he didn't have to know that.

"Oh, right! I'm, uh, Bambi." he said, seeming to hang his head in a bit of an unspoken shame. At first, neither Corey nor Sonic really understood, but then Corey seemed to understand that perhaps, Bambi shouldn't have needed his help to ward off Ronno. Before any further awkwardness could be followed through on, another adult doe came along.

"Bambi," Faline said, acting for the moment as though Corey and Sonic weren't even there, "Want us to walk you home?"

"Oh, no, uh, my father's coming to get me," responded Bambi, though Corey detected a slight hint of uncertainty in his voice. But why would the fawn be so uncertain about his parent coming to get him? And where in the hell was his mother? Faline and Ronno were picked up by deer that couldn't be anyone other than their moms.

"I see...well, it was nice seeing you again, Bambi." Faline said, walking off to her mother, who in turn, walked off with her, leaving the deer all alone with two strangers.

"....So, are you two...?" Sonic began.

"Sonic!" Corey grumbled, already knowing where Sonic was going with that. There was no question between the two of them whether or not that particular brand of awkwardness was there, but... "They're...not like the humanoid animals...I don't think they 'date'."

"What are you two whispering about over there?" Bambi asked, obviously curious. However, then his eyes caught sight of something else: "Hey, why do you have that scarf?"

Both heroes knew instantly he was referring to Corey's bandanna, which was now wrapped around his neck since it couldn't have fit around his head. For possibly the first time in his life, Corey had to pull a story out of his ass quickly. Unfortunately, he wasn't as gifted with this skill as his cousins or Edd was, and had to strain. Just then, something within him clicked.

"I... don't like to talk about it..." Corey began, making sure to pour as much moroseness behind his words as he could, and doubly sure to hang his head in such emotion. He then remembered that little story Ronno told, and, whilst slightly hating himself for doing so, added: "It...has to do with Man...I was lucky enough to escape, along with my friend here..."

"Is that why he's blue?" the younger deer asked, only furthering Corey's irritation. Thankfully, Sonic took over for a bit.

"Yeah, that's what happened to me...as for my name, since I have a feeling you'll be asking about that next, my parents...uh, named me this for my slightly higher than normal running speed as a child." Sonic replied, taking Corey's cue and acting as though it were a deep cut being probed by a Q-tip soaked in Bactine. Bambi, however, had only one last question.

"Why were you..." Bambi began, tilting his head to face Corey directly. "...grunting so weirdly back there?"

This nearly caused Corey to face-fault; had he not seen this one coming, it would have. Thankfully, by this time, this question was easy to answer with a half-truth.

"I've never fought before in my life, wouldn't know where to start." Corey stated, knowing it was also a half-lie: he had fought as a Saiyan, but not as a deer. In fact, up until now, he was a Saiyan.

"Well, if you don't mind, we'll be leaving now..." Sonic said.

"OK," Bambi said. "Oh, and by the way, thank you for helping me out...back there..." Once again, that edge of self-hate returned to the deer's voice, but still neither Saiyan nor hedgehog could understand why. The two began to leave, Sonic getting down from Corey's head as he did so.

As they began to really get distance from Bambi, Corey had a sudden nagging feeling-that deer he had met earlier could get himself in trouble. After all, he bought the bullshit that Ronno was giving him earlier on.

"Sonic?" Corey asked, stopping in his tracks, stumbling a bit as he turned towards where they had left.

"What?" Sonic read his friend's posture and non-verbal language, and figured it out in an instant: "You're worried about him, aren't you?"

"Somewhat, considering how easily he fell for Ronno's story earlier. He could easily be lead right into a trap..."

For a second, neither of them said anything.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt," said Sonic at last, and both began to walk back to the groundhog's burrow. When they got there, they found Bambi asleep on a snowbank. They decided to hang out in hiding behind the root where Corey had earlier fallen over.
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A few hours passed, and the sun set completely. Bambi seemed to be mumbling something, nuzzling a snowbank until it melted, mumbling incoherently.

"Must be having a heck of a lucid dream," said Corey.

"Learned it from Double-D?" Sonic asked in response.

"Yeah, learned that term from Double-D." Corey mumbled. They watched him in silence after this, at least until a disembodied voice echoed throughout the forest.

"I'm here," came the eerie sound of a feminine animal's calling.

"...Mother...?" Bambi asked, waking up. Instinctively, Corey and Sonic ducked down below the root, avoiding Bambi's vision.

Sonic perched on Corey's head again, and began to look around.

"I don't see her around," he whispered. The voice echoed again, the same two words.

Bambi began to take off in the direction of the voice.

"Why would she be way out that way, if she was his mother..." Corey halted, remembering all at once what he had observed just a few hours ago. Faline had a mother that picked her up, Ronno had a mother that picked him up...and Bambi was supposedly going to get picked up by his father.

Sonic seemed to come to the same realization himself... "Why his mother?"

"In this world, it seems, hunters aren't regulated by federal law on what they can and can't hunt-though it's mere common sense not to take out...his...mother...ah......crap......." Corey suddenly realized what Bambi was walking right into... "Or a fawn or two!"

"You don't think--?" Sonic asked, but was soon bunted off Corey's head as he took off after the younger one, and landed into a snowbank. Sonic soon recovered, and began to run after him. Both animals skidded to a halt. Bambi had stopped, and was looking around. The three were confused, and the eerie voice echoed again.

"I'm here...it's me..." At this, Bambi began to creep forward, when suddenly, a large yellow light was cast on Bambi. The growling of attack dogs could be heard.

"Darn it...we have to help him out...even if we can't do much!" Corey said, charging in. Sonic could do nothing, except watch, knowing that in his current state, the only thing a hedgehog can really do is avoid death by crawling into a ball.

Corey managed to reach the space between Bambi and the dogs, noting that Bambi had frozen solid. Crows had flown out, abruptly and without warning, squawking the cry: "MAN" repeatedly, informing the forest that hunters were here and looking for blood.

Meanwhile, Corey had dodged a few of the dogs, head-bunting them in the chest as they passed over his head. This worked for a few short moments, until one of them almost clubbed him right in the eye. Pure reflex allowed him to evade that defeat, but soon enough he was forced back. He was backing off. When one of the dogs leapt for the kill, in this instant, Corey realized how outmatched he was, and resolved to do what he could...if he lived. And yet, there was no impact. No feeling of warmth as blood oozed from his neck.

Sonic let out a small gasp of shock.

"Corey......it's...!"

Corey opened his eyes to see an adult buck, with antlers that had eight...no, twelve points total. His antlers were huge in comparison to his head. He noted that this deer was a mix of Ronno's and Bambi's coloration, but when the adult turned around, he'd noticed his eyes were red.

"Go! Take my son and get back into the forest!" There was a strong sense of urgency in his voice. In this moment, Corey knew for sure Bambi was the young Prince, leaving the deer before him to be the Great Prince. As for his request, Corey was already on it, but no matter what he said, Bambi was frozen.

Click.

Corey's ears pricked up. He recognized the sound of a gun being cocked. In pure desperation now, Corey circled around Bambi and gave him a shove.

"Run!" Corey yelled. Now the four animals were running into the forest.

BANG.

A gunshot rippled throughout the forest, and the four animals narrowly avoided the bullet. In the chaos of returning to the forest, Corey momentarily forgot how to brake while in a deer's body. Thus, his run was forcibly halted when he slammed into a tree with his ribs leading the charge. Sonic slid to a halt next to him.

"Corey! You alright?" Sonic asked of Corey. "That was a pretty hard hit."

"Yeah, I think so, Sonic..." Corey replied, deciding to lie down in the snow to soothe the pain. Meanwhile, Bambi and the Great Prince continued.

"What were you doing out there?" the Great Prince asked.

"But it was Mother! I heard her voice!" Bambi affirmed.

"That was one of Man's tricks!" the Great Prince angrily retorted, in full-blown scold mode. "What if I hadn't gotten there in time?! Any one of you could have been..." he trailed off, unable to finish. "When something like this happens, when I tell you to run, you RUN! Don't ever freeze up like that, ever!"

"I'm sorry..." Bambi responded, hanging his head in shame.

"......At least no one was hurt." The Great Prince said, turning to Corey and Sonic. He did a double take on Sonic, apparently not quite seeing the scarf around Corey's neck as an indicator of anything to be worried about. "What's with his color..."

"Same with Corey's family...Man caught us both. Corey was rescued by...those that have sympathy for the animals. I was dyed this color as some sort of experiment. They let him wear that scarf so that he could be identified as a rescued animal." said Sonic.

"I suppose that fits. Sorry for your loss."

"It's fine. With Sonic here, I've been able to at least keep myself up." Corey responded quickly. "In a way, he's my guide." In the back of his head, all the Saiyan could think of was how incredibly unlikely his and Sonic's back-stories were, and yet they were at least appearing to buy it.

"Bambi, let's go home." ordered the Great Prince. He turned to the Saiyan and the hedgehog. "Try to stay out of trouble."

The Great Prince and Bambi left. Corey, in this instant, as Bambi looked back at him slightly sadly, realized something.

"I've messed things up for him," he said sadly. "Somehow, I feel that by standing up to Ronno on his behalf has wrecked other things besides his self-esteem, but I can't quite put my finger...well, hoof...on it."

At this point, rain started to fall, melting some of the snow.

"Rain...? Is the groundhog actually true in this dimension?" asked Sonic, getting up on Corey's head to keep out of the melting snow.

"I guess so, Sonic. Let's find a place we can call home while we're here..." Corey replied, walking off.

After about ten minutes of walking, Sonic found a perfect place, sheltered from the rain. It was a small thicket, perfect for a wandering fawn and a small woodland creature. Sonic settled into a corner and went right to sleep, but Corey stayed up, staring out into the rain.

"I have a feeling that right now, Oskuro is just one of the problems I have to solve while I'm here..." he said, then finally went to sleep himself.

Back in Corey's home universe, his cousins Drew and Zach were sparring with one another at their Super Saiyan transformations. Ed sparred with Knuckles while Eddy sparred with Shadow. Double-D made a clone of himself to spar with. The Eds used their False Super Saiyan transformations while the animals used their super forms.

Drew and Zach exchanged punches and kicks, flashes of gold and white coming from each impact point. Occasionally, one of the two would land a hit on the other. Finally, Drew smashed Zach towards the ground, but Zach recovered and launched himself at Drew to land a kick on his chin, followed by a fast kick to his stomach, but Drew managed to evade, leaving an afterimage in his place. As Zach's kick soared through the image, Drew caught Zach in a full nelson and began to piledrive him into the ground, spinning fast enough to leave a tornado in his wake.

"Primary Lotus!" Drew roared as he and Zach continued to spin towards the ground. Eventually, Zach was slammed into the ground. Drew, meanwhile, jumped up and landed on his feet. Zach broke out of the ground and continued his fight with Drew.

Eddy and Shadow sped along the lower parts of Angel Island, shooting small blasts at each other. Eventually, Shadow used Chaos Control to warp over to Eddy and try to kick him, but the Saiyan jumped over the kick. Eddy tried to punch Shadow, but Shadow blocked the kick, plus the punch that followed when Eddy spun to redistribute his weight.

Shadow threw Eddy off him, and shot two Chaos Spears at him. Eddy countered by putting up an energy shield, which erupted into a 360-degree saw. In response, Shadow did a spindash. The two zipped around the enclosed space, clashing. Eventually, Eddy broke Shadow's guard, and his barrier, and peppered him with punches.

Knuckles and Ed clashed punches. Each time they did so, the ground shook beneath them. Eventually, Ed and Knuckles put enough force between them to kick up rocks and dirt. The rocks shattered. The two then took another swing, but hit each other with their punches. Ed was the first to recover, and he kicked Knuckles hard back.

Knuckles used Chaos Control to escape Ed's strike that would have slammed him deep into the ground-maybe even straight through Angel Island if he was unlucky enough to get hit by it, and returned the favor with a punch that expelled an energy ball that exploded, leaving a decent crater. Ed burrowed underground to pop up behind Knuckles, aura flared, and immediately used a kiai cannon to blast the echidna away.

Somewhere else on the island, the two Double-D's exchanged blows, completely even in power and speed. Upon connecting kicks, the two flipped away from each other and shot several Ki blasts, all of which were neutralized by each other.

The spar went on for an hour, with no real winner. The fighters reconvened at the shrine on Angel Island, where they ate Senzu beans to recover their stamina.

"Odd, isn't it?" Ed asked after swallowing his bean.

"What do you mean, Ed?" Edd responded, turning to his longtime friend while adjusting his hat.

"Monobrow's right. These training sessions just ain't the same without Corey and Sonic around to help." Eddy concurred, sitting down on the marble.

"Well, wherever they are, all we can hope is that they don't mess around with other universes' timelines." Zach said, looking off into the distance. "After all, when they were sent into that other dimension, they could have ended up anywhere, even back in time to our universe. If they mess up that time, it could mean a cosmic backlash in that universe's terms."

"What the hell are you going on about?" Drew questioned, turning to his longtime rival.

"...How to explain this in layman's terms..." Zach mumbled. "Hey, don't look at me. A friend of mine before the School Wars told me about the adventures of a boy from the future named 'Trunks', who wound up creating three different timelines by coming back to the past-or, our timeline."

"...I understand what Zach's saying," said Shadow, leaning up against the spire on which the green Chaos Emerald rested. "If Corey or Sonic were to upstage that universe's hero, it could have disastrous consequences in the long run for all parties involved."

"Well, whatever the case, all we can do is--" Drew began, just before cutting himself off. "What the hell?! Please tell me I'm not the only one feeling that energy!"

"No, and whatever it is, it's not just one. It's...strange. Five of them in total..." Edd replied. "One of them far weaker than the others, the strongest nine times stronger than that. We should be able to take them with no problem."

"It must be a result of the ripple in reality, then." Zach concluded, preparing to battle.

A dimensional portal opened up just above Angel Island, and five figures dropped down. They all stood perfectly still. The shortest one of all had four eyes, each one with a red pupil, black skin, and strange armor and stood at the far left. The tallest one had dark blue skin, coal black eyes, a "shell" of silver on the top of his head, and wore the same armor as the tallest. Second shortest had gray hair, jet black skin, and wore another style of the armor, this one having no "legs". The second tallest of the group had lightened skin, blue hair and red eyes, and wore the same style armor, just with shorts.

At the middle of the group, a dark-purple skinned alien stood, horns sharp and shining in the sunlight. Like the second shortest, he had no legs on the bottom part of his armor. His eyes were red as well. Suddenly, the shortest began to move.

"Guldo!" he shouted his name, striking a pose.

"Recoome!" the second tallest began, striking a different pose.

The other two aliens without horns moved as well, shouting their names, "Jeice" (who struck a pose similar to Guldo's), and "Burter" (striking a pose similar to Recoome's).

"Those names...!" Edd started, shocked. "But--!"

"Captain Ginyu!" the middle alien shouted, essentially mooning the heroes as he struck the poses. "And together we are...!"

The five aliens moved, striking a host of different poses as they converged together.

"The Ginyu Force!!" they finished.

"They're...they're supposed to be dead!" Edd finished. "How are they alive again?!"

"Oskuro said the dimensions would be falling apart. The afterlife may have also been affected as well. Explains why these clowns have been brought back to life," Drew spat in disgust, almost wanting to walk up to Ginyu and snap his neck for mooning him like that.

Ginyu surveyed the opponents. He halted briefly on Shadow and Knuckles, and did a double take on Drew and Zach.

"Vegeta...? Goku?" Ginyu began, almost at a loss for words.

"No. They've been long gone. Why are you here?" Drew responded shortly.

"We escaped from Hell, awful place that was..." Jeice began. "During our trip here to get revenge on Goku, we ran into someone that looked an awful lot like Lord Frieza. He powered us up and sent us on our way."

"Oskuro really is a swell guy." Recoome said, and the heroes nearly froze.

"So that's it..." Shadow said.

"Alright, men, you know the drill. Rock-Paper-Scissors for order." Ginyu ordered, before setting his eyes on Drew and Zach. "As for me, being the Captain, I want the lookalikes to Goku and Vegeta over there, as both of them were responsible for our deaths the first time in some way. It's only fitting."

As the four others of the newly revived Ginyu Force began to determine the picking order, the heroes began to look to each other.

"I guess we have no choice."

"One, two, three!" On this round, Jeice and Burter had both picked paper, while Guldo and Recoome both picked scissors.

"Deja vu," mumbled Guldo as he began to square off with Recoome once again. "One, two, three!"

Unlike 1,000 years before, it was Guldo who won this time. Unfortunately, the one Saiyan he wanted to kill most, Vegeta, was long gone, and his lookalike from this millenium was already taken. He surveyed the remaining six fighters, and stopped on Edd and Eddy. Both of them looked......weak. He had made the same mistake before of taking on two people at once, but it was only due to Vegeta's interference that he had lost to them in the first place.

"I'll take the one with the red shirt and the short one over there at once!" he announced.

"In that case, I will take...hmm...the one in the green jacket with the buzzcut!"

"Well, Jeice, which one of the ones left do you think we should take as the Purple comet?" Burter asked.

"I say we take on the red and black rats. Look like they could be fun to tangle with." Jeice responded.

".......You just signed your death warrant." Shadow retorted. "I am the Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"Oh God, you just got him started..." Drew clutched both sides of his heads as he spoke. "Let's get this over with...Pick an arena, Ginyu." He immediately resumed a normal fighting pose. "This island is quite expansive for an island, I will grant it that."

"As you wish." Ginyu said, and he, along with the Saiyan recolo--I mean, lookalikes, took off into the air. Recoome decided to let Ed lead him to where the former assumed he'd be killing the latter. Burter, Jeice, Shadow and Knuckles flew, or ran off, to another part of the island. This left Guldo, Edd and Eddy at the Master Emerald shrine.

"I'll end this in the blink of an eye," said Guldo, striking another pose.

"If I remember from Gohan's account released sometime in the year 810, he mentioned this one had psychic powers--" Edd began.

"Wait, Gohan released a book of all his adventures?" Eddy asked.

"It's a plothole, Eddy, these non-canon specials have to have at least one..." Edd replied. "Anyway, he mentioned that he was telekinetic and could stop time. Of course, our power highly eclipses his, so if we get the drop on him-very difficult due to that second ability-a good clean shot will take him out."

While the two were conversing, they failed to notice several black energy blasts that randomly appeared around them, until Eddy broke his concentration on the conversation.

"...Double-D, it looks like he stopped time." Eddy said. Just then, the barrage of blasts crashed down at them. In the blink of an eye, the two were once more False Super Saiyans, Edd's hat being blown off as a result of the power-up. Eddy immediately put up a barrier while Double-D charged a Masenko.

"Eddy! Go!" Double-D said, in 'combat strategy' mode. "One good shot with a fully charged Masenko attack, and...well, you know the rest."

Eddy absorbed the energy from his shield, and converted that energy into a Light Speed Attack. Guldo couldn't react quickly enough, and thus met with a kick that nearly went straight through Guldo's body. Eddy pulled out of the way, noting Guldo's extreme pain and the fact Double-D had finished his Masenko, sending out a vortex of yellow death at Guldo.

The attack made an impact. Guldo had no time to react whatsoever. Both of the two Eds felt the weakest Ginyu's life force fade to nothing. He was sent back to Hell. Edd and Eddy powered down.

"Well, that was anti-climactic." Edd commented.
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Jeice and Burter decided to stop in Angel Island's Mushroom Hill Zone, a part of the island that was a lush green forest, inhabited by orange fungus that act as trampolines if a person were to jump on the top. The mushrooms varied in height from short to tall. Knuckles and Shadow stopped moving upon the Ginyus' landing.

"This will do nicely for a battleground..." Jeice commented. He turned to Burter. "Let's give these overgrown muskrats a proper fight!"

"Let's shut these two up," said Shadow. In response, Knuckles called the power of the Master Emerald, though he was far away from the artifact. Since he was the guardian, this ability came naturally to him as long as he remained on Angel Island. Once he received this power, he passed some of it on to Shadow. Of course, not having scouters and lacking the ability to sense any energy at all, Burter and Jeice had few constructive thoughts to voice.

".........Are they trying to take a dump?" Burter asked. His question was soon answered, however, when Knuckles finished his power up with a pink burst of energy and Shadow with a lemon-yellow burst of energy. When the light cleared, they were now facing off with Super Knuckles and Super Shadow.

"Since when can animals turn Super Saiyan?!" Jeice asked. He was soon cut off, however, by Shadow's fist ramming into his face. "Argh! You punched me in the--aike!" Shadow did it again.

"Are you ready to admit your own foolishness?" Shadow asked, jumping around to Jeice's back and kicking him away. This left Knuckles with Burter. Burter proceeded to fly in circles around Knuckles at breakneck speeds.

"How do you like that? I'm at Mach 5 now! Try to keep up, pinky!" Burter mocked. Knuckles merely scoffed at this blatant display of showmanship.

"It doesn't matter how fast you go. You can't outrun Chaos Control." With that, Knuckles used Chaos Control to stop Burter in place. He approached the frozen Burter, and swung a barrage of punches and kicks at the alien.

Once Knuckles disabled Chaos Control, Burter went flying, bits of his armor flying off as the punches and kicks all hit at once. Knuckles flew off after the villain, hands glowing with green energy.

"Chaos Fist!" Knuckles yelled out, hammering Burter to the ground, a green ball of Chaos Energy exploding off the point of impact and dragging Burter underground. Knuckles followed once the energy ball exploded and engaged in an exchange of blows with Burter underground, with him taking an advantage due to the power behind his attacks.

Meanwhile, Shadow was continuing to beat up Jeice, who was barely able to get any hits in. Clearly, much like before, Jeice and Burter had underestimated their opponents. Only this time, they wouldn't be saved by a merciful Saiyan warrior from Earth. No, they would get eviscerated by two anthropomorphic animals. And that, my friends, is the most humiliating defeat for a Dragonball Z villain to suffer.

"PISS!" Jeice yelled after being kicked in the face by Shadow, the force of the attack breaking his nose. He struck the pose he took at the start of this skirmish, and followed it up by a different pose, back of the hand facing Shadow, other arm bent at his side, and one leg up. A blue and black energy ball began to form.

"Let's see how you handle the Crusher Ball!" said Jeice, throwing the ball at Shadow. Shadow responded by teleporting away with Chaos Control. At this moment, Burter and Knuckles erupted from the ground, Knuckles delivering an uppercut that stunned Burter and sent him directly in the path of the Crusher Ball--

Boom! The Crusher Ball exploded as it made contact with Burter's back, critcally injuring him and knocking him unconscious. While Knuckles moved to finish off Burter by obliterating him completely with a Chaos Beam, Jeice had one thing to say:

"Dammit! Burter, you okay?" But that should have been the least of his worries. Shadow teleported behind him and ruptured his back with a punch. His hand was lodged in his spine.

"Hold off on the execution!" Shadow called out to Knuckles, who merely held his blast. Aiming Jeice at Burter, Shadow spoke two words.

"Chaos..." he started, charging a Chaos Spear in his hand.

"Nooo..." Jeice groaned, in too much pain to put forth more effort than that.

"Spear!" Shadow finished, blasting a hole straight through Jeice as a yellow blast ripped out the other end. Jeice's body landed on Burter's. If he wasn't dead, he was about to die anyway, for Knuckles finished up what he intended to do from the start:

"Chaos Beam!" Knuckles yelled, obliterating both of the aliens in one strike with a large green beam. The beam exploded, leaving a nice crater in the ground where the bodies were. Both Shadow and Knuckles reverted back to normal and began to make their way back to the shrine.

"Is this chapter a plot filler?" asked Knuckles as they began to make their way back to the site.

"Partly. It's also so SSJ5G doesn't overload the readers on the actions in Universe 1942..." Shadow replied.

"Universe 1942? What's that supposed to mean?" Knuckles responded with another question.

"I'm sure Corey'll tell you when he gets back if we survive all this..." Shadow responded, bringing an end to this chapter.

Recoome and Ed had landed in another part of Angel Island, the Sandopolis Zone. The area looked like the Egyptian desert, including the pyramids that likely contained the sarcophagus of at least one of Knuckles' ancestors. Well, the one major exception is that the Sandopolis Zone had mountains as well.

"I'm going to enjoy wiping the floor with you, burrhead," taunted Recoome as he struck another pose, this time balancing on one leg while imitating a bird.

"I think it is you who will be dragged in the soap of defeat!" Ed countered, immediately transforming to a False Super Saiyan as his pupils disappeared and his power surged. Of course, just like his teammates, Recoome seemed completely unphased by the change.

"You think putting in white contacts will save you?" Recoome once again mocked. He leapt forward and kicked Ed in the neck. However, Ed was largely unaffected by the kick to the neck. Recoome and Ed went into an exchange of blows, Ed managing to land a great deal of hits and slam Recoome into the ground. He then followed it up with a shower of small Ki blasts.

When the smoke from Ed's ferocious attack finally died down, Recoome was lying down, ass in the air. His jumpsuit had been torn just as it had been back on Namek, various spots torn off, including the spot over his rear end. The armor had been blown off. Also, the hair on his head seemed to have been burned off.

"Ugh, what the hell?" questioned Recoome. He then struck a series of poses, as he turned to face Ed. He ended them with his arms crossed over his head. "Recoome: Eraser Gun!" He then shot a purple blast from his mouth. To this, Ed had only one thing to say.

"I'm-a-firin' my laser!!" Ed yelled, shooting a large yellow beam from his mouth. The two beams collided in the middle, and began pushing against one another. Of course, a few moments later, the struggle once again turned towards the formerly deceased henchman. The beams both blew back in his face, and another large explosion started up, blowing sand everywhere. Ed had to shield his eyes from the sheer volume of the sand. When it cleared, Recoome was rising back to his feet, very mad at how easily he was being defeated.

"This time, I will finish this!" Recoome shouted. "I won't be interrupted! Recoome!" He began, crouching low to form a new pose, "Ultra!" He pulled his hands straight up, making his body a straight line, "Fighting!!" The formerly dead began to charge a black energy field around himself. This whole time, however, Ed seemed to be bored with the whole thing. He held his hand straight down, appearing to crouch while in mid-air. On his right hand, a yellow electric sphere started to charge up. A little bit of his sleeve shredded due to the nearby energy. Once he was done charging, he charged straight at Recoome, extending that hand when in range...

"BOMB--!" Recoome never quite finished his sentence, for before he could complete the attack with a devastating field of black energy, Ed made impact with his Chidori, ripping his way through Recoome's torso with little trouble at all. Ed continued running, the Chidori growing bigger still...

"Chirping Birds Attack: Lightning Death!" Ed called out, releasing the Chidori as it expanded completely, ripping Recoome to ribbons as it did so. The Chidori exploded, taking whatever was left of Recoome with it.

Following this, Ed reverted to normal, and flew back to the shrine.

"These guys just stunk!" Ed noted in his dull-witted voice as he flew.
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"HYAAAHHH!!!"

The battle cry resonated throughout the Marble Garden Zone on Angel Island, as Super Saiyan Zach battled with Dark Ginyu. Like his friends, Ginyu was being beaten about the head like a punching bag. Drew stood off to the side, also in his Super Saiyan form, but he was observing the fight.

"If their captain's shitty performance against us is anything to go on, apparently, these guys are just a distraction or something. Or part of a plot filler." Drew said, unknowing that Shadow already unmasked this part as one of those pesky fillers. "Hopefully we don't get enough of these that this text OVA makes about as much sense as Dragonball GT..."

Ginyu broke free from Zach's combo by this point, and barely managed to get in a few punches of his own. However, Zach seemed mostly unaffected, though a little blood did drip from a split lip. In response, Ginyu backed off.

"You...your friend..." Ginyu began. "Could it be? The legend's...just like Frieza told me, isn't it?!"

"Frieza?" Zach began. "Oh, your old boss. Yeah, he fought Goku. During their fight, Frieza caused Goku's ascension to Super Saiyan in an attempt to illustrate how hopeless the prospect of escaping his wrath was."

"But...how could you be alive? The Saiyans were wiped out by Frieza himself, and by now, the ones we fought should have died of old age!" Ginyu continued. Zach's eyes widened.

"What?" Zach asked, though his memory soon returned. "Frieza destroyed our homeworld...you raise an excellent point, Ginyu, but that's the only good thing you've raised all along. We'll find it out soon enough..."

Ginyu's eyes widened, realizing Zach was about to go back on the attack. He knew, deep down, he wouldn't survive this battle, unless he did...that...technique. Before he could attempt to set up an opening to use his secret technique previously used on Goku, however, Zach had already initiated a deadly assault, a golden ball of electricity surging straight into Ginyu's chest and pushing him back. Zach followed, smacking Ginyu all around the skies, leaving behind a golden lightning trail, a Lightning Blade on his opposite hand.

"Lightning Blade: Double Lightning Quake!" Zach called out the name of his attack, as he shoved the other ball straight into Ginyu's left chest, going completely through as he cut through the trail he himself had made and slammed Ginyu into the ground. Upon completing his maneuver, Zach leapt off.

Seeing the fight at an end, Drew flew over to the end.

"Now, for some answers," said Zach. "Where did you and your squad get such power? Really, you guys shouldn't have been this strong, even with the thousand years-no way in Hell you could have trained. No pun intended."

"...I believe you know him...Oskuro, was it, met my team somewhere in space and time...he gave us this power-up." Ginyu started. "He said this was part of a distraction. He must believe you're trying to formulate a plan to stop him."

"Of course...!" Zach said. He subtly motioned for Drew to keep quiet. "Anything else you know?"

"I would tell you, but I think it wouldn't matter...heh, heh..." Ginyu croaked weakly. "CHANGE...!"

Before he could finish the incantation to his Body Change technique, Ginyu's head violently exploded. Drew had raised his hand, smoke coming off of his palm. With that, Drew and Zach reverted to normal.

"Bastard would have taken my body." Zach observed.

"Perhaps you'd like to announce the sky is blue?" Drew asked sarcastically. "Well, we should rest, discuss what's happened, and then get back to training. We need to be in top condition for when we confront Oskuro again."

"There could be something we could do with the Chaos Emeralds, " Zach suggested.

"Not until the Final Saga," said Drew, "and even then, it's not our power-up. Now let's head back to the shrine. I'm sure the others had less trouble than we did..."

"Well, that's the end of that filler chapter," Zach expostulated, he and Drew starting their flight.

"Hope this story isn't overloaded with them..." Drew replied, and soon, the two flew off to where they had left.

After explanations were exchanged, plans were started, and much more training was accomplished, the heroes called it a day, unaware of what challenges their friends were facing in the universe they had been sent to.

The sun rose above the forest. Light danced off of what little snow was left in the forest. It all had melted overnight as the rain fell. Droplets of water dripped down from the soaked branches, which were still barren from the preceding winter. One of them dropped down, straight onto Corey's nose.

"Ah-ah-ah..." Corey said, sniffling a little. He tried to raise an arm to stop himself, but then remembered he was a deer, and could do nothing about it. In short, his situation was not a dream as he would have liked to believe; it was very real. "Choo!!"

He sneezed, waking himself up with a bit of grogginess in his eyes. Struggling to his feet, noting that it was far easier than yesterday, Corey staggered around, trying to wake himself up. In so doing, he accidentally kicked the still fast-asleep Sonic into a tree. Sonic woke up, not in much of a better mood than Corey was.

"What the huckleberry, Corey?!" Sonic asked, not even noticing something wrong with his speech. "You kicked me!"

"Don't be a whiny son of a bird," countered Corey sleepily. Neither of them were in their best moods. At this moment, the two of them realized they weren't talking like they usually would. "Wait...son of a...'bird'?"

"'Huckleberry'?" Sonic questioned. "What universe were we sent to where swearing is automatically censored..."

"All of a sudden, Sonic, I'm getting the feeling this universe is prejudiced against those of the Jewish faith..." Corey responded, really thanking his stars that there are no religious references whatsoever in his host universe, at least as far as everyone he knew personally. Both Saiyan and hedgehog shivered at the thought, and then realized there was a subtle fourth wall break.

"Well, what do we do now?" Sonic asked. "Hey, Corey, are you still able to sense energy levels? Like before?"

"Not sure. Didn't have much time to check before sap hit the fan..." Corey replied, bypassing the fact "shit" got replaced with "sap". "Maybe I can try right now. I plan to find Bambi..."

"After that stunt you pulled yesterday...I don't know if that'd be a good idea," Sonic advised. "But the two of us naturally attract trouble anyway, so what's the use in saying that?"

"Maybe I'll be able to channel Ki a little more properly. I wasn't able to do it at all yesterday, so I don't expect any results from this." the Saiyan responded, closing his eyes in focus. He first focused deeply, trying to find his own inner strength. After what seemed like an eternity of tense silence, he was able to find it, a dimly glowing green flame of pure energy.

"Found mine...now, to see if I can re-learn the skill in time..." He attempted to tap into the resources he needed to sense others' Ki. After a few more minutes, he found himself to be able to use his Ki sense. "There..."

"You get it?" the hedgehog asked.

"Yeah, but it's limited. I'd ballpark it at about five to seven miles of area of effect. I'd say maybe ten, but that's pushing it." Corey answered. "Still, better than nothing. Maybe when I get more used to this body, I'll be able to use most of my powers again."

"Alright, well, in that case, I guess we'd better start looking for him again..." said Sonic. The two left their makeshift home in the forest and began wandering around aimlessly. The sun rose higher and higher into the sky as the two wandered around. At about midday, Sonic's stomach started growling.

"Ugh...man...do you know what they do for food around here?" asked Sonic, taking a breather. Corey, on the other hand, stared off into space, focusing on something.

"Odd..." Corey stated, drawing confusion from Sonic.

"Hey! Did you hear what I said?!" Sonic questioned, a bit pissed that Corey hadn't regarded his hunger issue yet.

"...Ronno and Faline's Ki energies are unusually close together." the Saiyan responded. Double-checking how that rolled off his tongue, he frowned. "Why is it that way?"

"Could it be that he convinced her of something?" Sonic asked.

"I'd have to ask her in order to figure that whole thing out." Corey replied.

"Wait, you're actually going to ask her something? Isn't that just going to complicate things?" Sonic answered with another question.

"Complicate things? How would it complicate things, Sonic?" His turn to ask a question at hand, Corey turned his head to face Sonic. "It's a simple question, really. Shouldn't screw things up too much."

"It's...nothing..." Sonic responded, looking slightly away. I can't tell him what I noticed earlier...

"I have a feeling you're not telling me something, Sonic." The Saiyan took a few steps closer to his friend. Look, Sonic, if you noticed something about Faline earlier, and how that could possibly hurt things, now would be a pretty good time because I'm damnably curious to know about this...

"No, just..."

Just then, a painfully loud scream echoed through their ears.

"What was that?" Sonic asked, forgetting all about his hunger. "It sounded like someone passed a kidney stone..."

"Well, whatever it was, it sounded like trouble. However, since those crazy-rear crows failed to appear, I don't think it's anything serious..." Corey replied. It was then, Sonic remembered something.

"Corey, I'm hungry..." Sonic finally was able to state without incident.

"Well...I don't know what real hedgehogs eat. I'm sure you do though. You'd look retarded and suspicious with a chili dog anyway, Sonic." Corey countered almost immediately, almost laughing at the thought of a 'real hedgehog' holding a chili dog.

"Eugh...insects..." Sonic groaned.

"Beggars can't be choosers. At least you get protein. I think I have to eat grass whenever I get hungry. How the heck do you think I feel?" Corey answered to the complaints.

"Well..." Before Sonic could finish, an even louder scream echoed throughout the forest. This time, somehow, Corey knew who it was.

"...Bambi...?! What the huckleberry is he doing that's causing him to scream like that?!" Bypassing any sexual innuendo created by that exclamation, Corey turned to Sonic. "I can sense him now. Not too far from here. If you're going to eat bugs, that's fine, but I have something I need to fix!"

"Wait! Corey!" Sonic called after him, but Corey was long gone... "I don't know which bugs to eat..."
--------------
Corey ran through the forest, following the Ki he could vaguely identify as Bambi's. The screams guided him in the necessary direction as well. He skidded to a halt at the top of the hill, looking down on a stream and an old log. Off to the left on the riverbank, was the fawn with his two little friends. Bambi appeared to be having something pulled out of his ass that was causing him pain.

At this point, a voice called out from his backside. He turned to see Sonic hauling himself along.

"Jeez, thanks for leaving me behind. I had myself a cricket. Worst meal I've ever had in my life!" Sonic shouted. "Hey, what's going on down there?"

"Looks like he had a mishap with a porcupine..." Corey responded, squinting. "Though wherever it is, it's gone now. Well, this is my chance to fix what I've broken before it gets out of hand..." As the Saiyan continued forward, he noticed Faline walking out. Though he couldn't make out the conversation details, Bambi seemed to be hiding the rear-end injury while Thumper was doing...something, Corey was sure. Eventually, Thumper grabbed onto something and pulled it out, causing Bambi to jump with a slightly audible sound.

Then things got bad. Corey sighted Ronno, and growled low under his breath. Sonic, apparently not noticing the latter, had to pose a certain question.

"What is it this time?" Sonic asked.

"Our latest 'friend', that's what." Corey responded, nodding towards Ronno, who by now was squinting at Bambi. Once again, Corey could barely hear the conversation, but from the looks of it things were going to hell in a conveniently organized handbasket. No longer paying mind to his footing, Corey charged forward, and soon tripped over his own feet, and began doing barrel rolls. As pain seared throughout his body, Corey gave a yell. The next thing he heard left him with no doubt as to what the hell Bambi had been doing around here.

"Hey, what are you doing on my log!?" came a grizzled, old-sounding voice. Corey turned, and while the image was very distorted due to the repeated head impact, he definitely saw a porcupine with quills extended glaring at him. Knowing that there was nothing he could do with respect to avoiding the incoming pain, the Saiyan stuck in a deer's body could only think of one thing: brace for impact.
----------------
I must level with you at this point, my readers: we were all too young to remember getting a needle or a thermometer in the one place where you don't want things shoved these days under most circumstances. I don't recall the moment very well, either. But, I'd imagine it hurt like a bitch. Imagine whatever pain I'm sure is felt at that moment, repeated ten to fifteen times over all in varying places on the ass. Picture the idiot that gave you that many shots leaving those needles lodged in the tender muscles.

Do you understand the pain the horrifically disadvantaged hero felt at this point? No? Well, then, let me resume the story so that you can see.
----------------
Corey gave a sharp yell in pain, leaping an unrealistic distance in the air, slightly to his left. Over his yell, though barely, he could hear the most beautiful, radiant sounds of the forest.

Oh, sorry, my mistake. He could only hear the grunts of the porcupine, and the laughter of his least favorite deer in the forest. Then he heard the sound of water filling his ears. He had jumped off towards the animals he had met yesterday, and landed with a splash in the brook. Seeing this, Sonic immediately began to run down towards Corey.

The Saiyan, meanwhile, remained underwater while he assessed the damage he had taken from that little accident. Other than that, he was alright. Except, when he decided to allow himself to float back to the surface, in so doing moving his right hind leg, he felt the points dig into his rear end a little more. He fought back the pain that arose from that action, and finally allowed himself to break the surface. After shaking his head clear of stars and water, Corey took in the scene for the first time.

Ronno was still laughing a ridiculous laugh, making almost no attempt to compose himself. The smaller animals were there, the skunk with both hands over...its mouth. He still didn't know which gender it was. The rabbit was also shocked, but had an underlying look of amazement in his eyes. Corey couldn't blame him. To the inhabitants of this universe, an average deer simply could not roll like that and still be standing. Bambi was concerned, and a sympathetic look was in his eye.

Understanding the scene before him, Corey's eyes finally fell on Faline. Time stopped. Something wasn't right here. Why was he, supposedly still a very powerful force to be reckoned with, nature's bitch? And why in the hell was he so humiliated to have done that in front of her?! He sunk slightly below the water, still deep in dreamland. Just then, Sonic landed on his head, almost driving his nose under the water.

"I hope I'll never have to do this again," said Sonic, looking towards the spot of injury. Corey decided on his course of action. He was going to walk towards the group. Hopefully Sonic would get that injury worked out before things got hairy. Or furry, whichever makes more sense in this situation.

Corey began to make his way up to the riverbank where Bambi and company were. As he was walking, Sonic, perched on his back, working as fast as he could in dislodging the porcupine's quills from Corey's rear end. Every time another one came loose, Corey would wince in pain somewhat. The whole time, Ronno continued to laugh and snort, not even coming close to trying to act composed.

"Are you alright?" Bambi asked, still looking at him.

"I've been through worse," Corey replied instinctively, without even thinking about it. Sonic smacked his forehead as he continued to work on the de-quilling of Corey's rump.

"Smooth one..." the hedgehog grumbled, now on the third to last quill. He gave that a sharp tug, dislodging it from the muscle.

"Wha--?" Corey whispered back. He then realized his error. Sure, it was true, as a Saiyan, he had been through hell and back, almost daily, but as a deer...how could he have said that. "Oh..."

"What are you whispering about?" Bambi asked. "And...uh, what could be worse than that?"

Shit on a stick... Corey thought to himself as Sonic finished his job and dismounted.

"How 'bout all those fights you got into back in our previous forest, Corey?" Sonic asked, winking with the eye not facing the others.

"Oh, right...yeah, when I was young, people challenged me to a lot of fights. Playing, of course, but sometimes they really got rough. I fell down a lot." Corey lied, playing along with Sonic. Nice save there, Sonic...

Ronno was finally starting to calm down, still chortling lightly. "Oh man, that was gold...! You need to trip over your back legs more often, Stumbles!"

Corey's nose wrinkled visibly, and it looked to Sonic like he had just been on the business end of one of Sonic's post chili-dog gas attacks. It wasn't his fault-Ed and Zach had challenged him to that damn contest, which he lost miserably at. Ed won that contest outright. Either way, when all was said and done, a few windows broke, car alarms went off, and the entire city of Peach Creek smelled like hell for quite a few hours. Eddy later made an El Mongo Stink Bomb out of the resultant gas, I hear, which contains the stink to this day--fuck, I got off track there, got to stop that.

"'Stumbles'? Really?" Corey questioned. "That doesn't really make any sense..."

"It does to me. Are you here to stand up for the young prince again?" It was Ronno's turn to ask a question. When Corey failed to answer, he shook his head slowly, in mock disappointment. "Pitiful. Faline, let's go and leave these two alone."

Corey bit back a retort, since he didn't know if homosexuality even existed here in this universe, and decided it wouldn't be prudent to issue a defensive statement on his behalf. Faline, on the other hand, responded to Ronno's statement.

"I'm staying here," she said sternly, blue eyes locked on Ronno's. Corey felt something flutter within himself, like a butterfly. He couldn't identify this feeling, however. He closed one eye and half-closed the other, sort of understanding what was happening inside him.

"Aw, come on..." Ronno lowered his head, and appeared to try and force Faline back. She looked at Ronno, and told him to quit it. Unconsciously, Corey bared his teeth, and wasn't aware of it. Something inside was welling up within him, but he couldn't release it. For some reason, all the morphed Saiyan could think of was yelling at Ronno to fuck off.

D-damn, what's wrong with me? Don't you say a word, don't you say--

"Leave her alone!" a voice shouted.

Please, please, tell me that wasn't me... Corey thought, having lost awareness in his haze.

"Did you..." Ronno turned from Faline to Bambi and his friends. "...say something..."

Oh mother of a fuck...

"Bambi?"

Corey let out a suppressed sigh of relief, thanking the stars in the sky, Spider-Man, and God himself that he didn't let out his inner thoughts. He scowled inwardly, trying to find why he felt that urge to shout at Ronno when he started trying to force Faline to leave. Sonic, of course, noticed his friend's disgusted expression.

Don't...don't tell me he's...! Sonic thought, a disturbed scowl on his face taking form. It's like Sonic '06 all over again!

Ronno, meanwhile, had begun to walk slowly toward Bambi, a smug look on his face. The latter, on the other hand, began shrinking back.

"No..." Bambi began, before regaining steam slightly. "I mean, yes! Leave her alone!" When Ronno leaned over Bambi in an intimidating way, he quickly lost all the steam he had gathered, and resorted to "Please?"

Corey snapped back into focus. He could sort out his mixed feelings later. Right now, he had something more important to pay attention to. That is, mediating the average bully versus victim situation in the middle of a forest, without access to Ki. Not that he would have used it to attack anyway given that he might mortally wound someone without meaning to.

"You tell 'im, Bambi!" said Thumper, once again trying to get his friend to fight back a little harder. Ronno was amused by the smaller animal's display of ferocity, and lowered his head to allow more words to spout out from the orifice we refer to as a mouth.

"Oh, wook," Ronno said, reminding the Saiyan stuck in a fawn's body of baby talk, serving to aggravate him to no end. "it's the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk." He then raised his head to Bambi, still using that same headache-inducing baby voice, "Does the young pwince pway with the wittle bunny and the wittle skunk?"

Before Corey could act, however, Thumper acted first, pushing Bambi's back legs. This in turn, caused Bambi to suddenly lean forward, in so doing headbutting Ronno into a small mudpit nearby. As the Saiyan and hedgehog both suppressed their laughter at that event, the other animals gave a surprised gasp. The darkest-colored fawn lay stunned, not expecting this. Finally, he began to rise up, obviously pissed that Bambi had done as he had. Instantly, the gray rabbit chose to take a practical and mature solution to this problem.

"Run!" he yelled, immediately turning tail and hopping away. At this moment, Ronno straightened up on all four of his legs and gave an angry yell. Bambi froze for an instant before following Thumper's lead. Meanwhile, the skunk passed out from the excitement, falling over tail-first. As Faline called out to Bambi, telling him to run, the Saiyan stuck in a foreign universe decided to act on this before things got worse in his eyes.

"That's my cue..." Corey grunted, allowing Sonic to jump off his head.

"Corey, you're just going to make things worse..." Sonic whispered, agitated that his friend was once again going to butt in where he really didn't need to be.

"When I was young, Zach and Drew told me that it always gets worse before it gets better." said the Saiyafawn in response, breaking into a run after Ronno.

"You're insane!" Sonic yelled after him.

Thankfully, not all of Corey's Saiyan skills were completely negated by his new body. In the space of a few seconds, with his above-average agility still very much intact, he was able to head off Ronno, who immediately applied the brake, skidding slightly, now glaring at the younger-appearing fawn.

"Out of the way, bodyguard!" he yelled, attempting to intimidate Corey by pretending to charge. The Saiyan didn't even move, even though he was still at a bit of a disadvantage. "How do you expect to do anything to protect him when you can't even maintain your footing?!"

"You and I have some unfinished business," said Corey, deflecting the unneeded question entirely. "You know, from before when you scared the poor groundhog to no end..."
----
As the two squared off, the Young Prince of the Forest, Bambi, realized he was no longer able to hear Ronno dashing behind him. In fact, he could hear voices talking to each other.

"What's it to you?" asked Ronno, obviously mad. Thumper, who had since hopped on Bambi's head to serve as some sort of navigator, had to say something.

"Who's he talking to?" the rabbit asked. The two decided to creep slowly back where they came.

"Well, it's a pretty big deal whether or not he sees his shadow, right? You're not his shadow, so you can't scare him." replied the animal that had cut him off. And both rabbit and fawn knew exactly who did.

"C-Corey?" Bambi asked. "What's he doing?"

"Looks like he's about to take up the fight, or something," Thumper replied. "If you ask me, with his footing troubles, he really shouldn't try to fight other fawns' battles."

"He knows what he's doing..." Bambi spoke up, a mix of confidence and sadness in his voice. Who was this fawn, anyway? And why was he so...strange? What was with that grunting, and why does he seem to pick fights more often than even Ronno? More importantly, a slight feeling of betrayal welled up in his heart...
------------
Back at the riverbank, behind Sonic, Faline, and the still unnamed unconscious skunk, was another, having gone unnoticed due to all the commotion. He was looking up past the animals towards the bickering fawns at the top of the hill. He chuckled lightly to himself.

"That fool knows not what he's doing...he may make my job that much easier if Master permits..." said the being, an older fawn than even Ronno, judging by his slightly bigger body and larger stubs for antlers. His fur, unlike every other deer seen up until this point, was shades of gray and jet black. His eyes were also an odd color, one was an amber color and the other was a blood red color.

"I will not fail my master's wishes..." he said, continuing to watch the fawn with the scarf bicker with the older looking fawn...
------------
Faline and Sonic looked up as well, towards the two fawns about to fight. Sonic looked over to the doe and noticed she was staring in Corey's direction. Instantly, the blue hedgehog realized Corey was doing far more harm than he realized he was doing.

While the blue blur couldn't accurately deduce Faline's emotional balance, he knew enough of females to know that the look Faline was shooting in the Saiyan's direction meant one thing and one thing alone: "I'm going to tackle you to the ground and hug you half to death."

Or something like that, anyway. Sonic still didn't understand why Amy felt the need to glomp him seemingly every single time he was within running distance.
-------------
"Before we begin, Ronno," Corey finished, apparently seeing the talking was going nowhere. "I have to tell you something I really think you should know."

"What's that, Stumbles?" asked Ronno, already recycling the same derogatory nicknames he had on reserve for his new nemesis.

"You just lost the game." answered the Saiyan, delving into internet memes he had read up on while waiting for the gravity room so he could train. It had been a wonderful experience for him. Then it turned to crap when he discovered word-based memes weren't the only memes on the internet, but that's a different story for a different day, because I wish to avoid pissing anyone off.

Ronno face-faulted, apparently not expecting Corey's little taunt to be one of that variety.

"I...lost...the game...?! What game?" the older fawn yelled, confused. During the short time in which Ronno's full attention was on the meaning of Corey's words, the swapped Saiyan quietly considered what he should do in this scuffle. He quietly tried to gather Ki, but realized he had barely any control over it.

Damn, going to have to do this the old-fashioned way, Corey thought as Ronno recovered from the ingenious and meme-tastic taunt. "Alright, let's go." the Saiyan said aloud, getting into a fighting stance. Ronno was, once again, allowed to make the first move. Corey braced for impact as a skull collided with his own. The impact sent vibrations down his spine, but the Saiyan began pushing back against Ronno aggressively. The two were evenly matched for the moment, and Corey was able to put pressure on his new enemy.

However, a natural born deer always has the advantage in a fight over a "forced-swap" deal, so with one mighty lunge, the darker-colored fawn was able to push the scarf-wearing one away. Corey stumbled back, and began his own offensive strike, charging a little too fast and almost sending Ronno sprawling onto one side again.

Even if he's a dick, he's still a bully, so really, I shouldn't beat him too hard... Corey thought, analyzing the situation further. Especially if I want to help Bambi. I have to hold back on him or I might do even more harm to the timeline than I already have!

Ronno recovered, and this was where Corey decided to pull his punches. The former wouldn't know-he'd just write it off as a lucky hit and nothing more. With this in mind, Corey tanked a headbutt and went on his side. The Saiyan made sure to slowly rise to his four feet.

"Hmmm..." Corey said.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" asked Ronno, taunting him.

"You tell me." Corey replied, attacking again, but this time consciously holding back his attack so that Ronno would only stumble back from the force of the hit as opposed to lying down.

"Not bad...I guess you got lucky on that first one..." the natural-born fawn commented. He charged Corey, and soon both were on their back legs. Corey had absolutely no idea what to do, and just decided to mimic whatever Ronno was doing. Eventually, Corey allowed Ronno to push him over.

"Darn!" Corey grunted, in mock surprise.

Ronno prepared to attack again while Corey was down, but he caught sight of something that sent chills down his spine. Corey decided to rise to his feet.

What's with him? Corey asked, looking into Ronno's face and seeing a slight fear. Ronno began to take a few steps back, giving Corey room to step forward a bit so that he could look behind him. When he did, he saw that same adult deer from earlier, the one that had rescued him from the attack dogs. Oh...

At this point, the fawn, who had not five seconds ago been an antagonistic prick in Corey's eyes, turned tail and ran out, causing the swapped Saiyan's eye to twitch involuntarily in irritation.

That's right, run, run, run like a little bitch... the Saiyan thought in frustration. He was now faced with something else: how to inform the Great Prince of what happened. At this point, Faline, Sonic, and the skunk from earlier walked up, having seen what happened. Corey decided to turn to face the Great Prince directly, and await whatever came.

"You..." the Great Prince began, in obvious deep thought. There was a slight edge of irritation to his voice. "You're that fawn from earlier, aren't you? Why were you...fighting him..."

"He was..." Corey began, trying to find a way to indicate that Ronno saw something he really shouldn't have without injuring the fourth wall as he was so used to doing. "He must have seen that incident out on the meadow last night."

"Erm..." said a timid voice. Corey followed the sound to see Bambi, Thumper still perched on his head. Both looked as though they knew that he wasn't supposed to be out and about.

"Bambi, I thought I told you to stay at the den, where it was safe...when I give you an order, I expect you..." the Great Prince trailed off, as though finally realizing what Corey said. "You say that fawn somehow saw that incident?"

"No mistaking it. He brought it up. Attempted to make him look bad in front of his friends." Corey summarized, calling upon his experience in giving incident reports from the School Wars. The Great Prince seemed somewhat disturbed by this speech pattern change, but otherwise sighed. Suddenly, he stiffened.

"Something's...wrong here." he said matter-of-factly, looking around. "Bambi, let's head back to the den. I have a strange feeling. It's like nothing I've ever felt before, and I want to teach you how to feel for it."

"O...Okay!" Bambi affirmed, allowing Thumper to hop of his head, apparently relieved that something more dire than a case of disobedience had caught his father's attention. Corey noticed Bambi seemed to be looking to him, then to someone behind him. The shifted Saiyan decided to turn around, and saw Faline.

That's right...from the looks of it...she's supposed to be someone of importance to him in the future... Corey thought, then noticed the hurt, betrayed look on Bambi's face for just a split-second. Oh...oh no. Don't tell me... A second look at Faline and this time, he distinctly noticed she somewhat shyly looked away from his gaze. ...Things just got a hell of a lot harder...!

As soon as Thumper and the skunk went off following their friend, Sonic went up to Corey, jumping on his head.

"You do know you've messed up, right?" Sonic whispered into his ear.

"I noticed..." Corey responded through gritted teeth.

"Noticed what?" Faline asked, the Saiyan having apparently forgotten the doe was there. Instantly, both hedgehog and Saiyan froze. Deciding to segway into his question from this mumbled statement, and hoping she didn't hear the hedgehog's quiet protest, Corey turned to face her directly.

"That, you and Ronno were hanging out together," the morphed warrior lied, "I thought that you two weren't..."

"Oh. No. No, we aren't." the young doe immediately asserted. "He just decided to force me into watching him talk about himself. Funny thing, he ran into a tree trying to impress me...I'm just not that easily impressed."

"I see..." Corey responded, nodding slightly.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'll go see if Bambi's dad will let me see him. I just want to make sure he's alright." Faline spoke up after a silence. She began to walk past Corey, smiling slightly at him, causing Corey to feel incredibly awkward, part of which stemmed from the fact he knew full well what Drew would think of this development. The other part, he still couldn't rightfully identify why. Suddenly, a flood of previous memories came to the surface. The strange way in which he had first announced that Ronno and Faline were close to each other, the feeling of utter embarrassment he had experienced when he realized he had failed at footing right in front of her, and wanting to tell Ronno to fuck off when he started forcing her to leave...

"N-no..." Corey mouthed, being sure to look at the floor. "It can't be..."

"What's wrong, Corey?" asked Sonic, quietly, noticing his friend's vigor had almost vanished in that moment.

"So, see you later," said Faline, walking into the distance.

"Yeah, see you!" Corey called back, uncontrollably, unexpectedly, and, to the dimensionally displaced heroes' horror, a bit of energy behind it. The doe heard his comment, and the smile grew wider. The Saiyan looked away, a mixture of self-hate and shyness kicking in. The doe proceeded to walk away, a spring very much in her step.

Sonic's jaw dropped when Corey had his unexpected, energetic outburst. He jumped off Corey's head, and stared him dead in the eyes, brown eyes meeting green.

"What the heck was that about?!" he demanded as soon as Faline left earshot. "Don't tell me...you're...?!"

"...I don't know why. I don't know how. But..." Corey looked away from Sonic at this point, trying to find appropriate words for this. "...but...I can't deny it. Somehow, I'm attracted to her...or at least I think I am..."

"What makes you think that?" the hedgehog asked, disgusted yet curious.

"Well..." Corey began. After he had explained what had happened to him during certain moments of this day, Sonic shook his head.

"No matter what, Corey, do not act on these feelings." the hedgehog directed. "We already have a questionable story to tell to Drew when we next see him, and I don't want to get killed when he hears you fell in love with an animal."

"Uh, Sonic..." the Saiyan began, but the blue hedgehog quickly cut him off.

"It never happened, Corey. Sonic '06 never happened, and don't you forget it!" he almost screamed in an angry voice.

"...Not that. But aren't you and your friends...technically, animals?" Corey asked.

"One even more animal than I am..." Sonic responded again. "...So what do you plan to do..."

The young Saiyan thought it over for a moment, looking in the direction Bambi had left.

"I think I know." Corey said after this, "I have to...train him. I have to teach him what I know from personal experience, without actually describing said personal experience, even if it means I'll have to allow him to kick my rear end up and down this forest. It's the only way I can see that'll restore his universe."

"Alright. So, I guess we'll be going back to our sleeping area, then?" asked Sonic, jumping on to Corey's head.

"Yeah. Speaking of training, I think we'd better start. I have a feeling that the Great Prince is sensing trouble that only we can handle." Corey responded. "Regain our control over our abilities. We can't let our bodies limit us."

Sonic agreed, as they continued to walk back to their base, completely unaware they were being watched...

Drew's eyebrows arched at the hedgehog opposite of him. What made this orange hedgehog different from all the other furries he had met so far? Well, for one thing, even though he was male, he wore white pants and green shoes. Also, he seemed to specialize in elemental energy control, as he demonstrated when sparring with Zach when they found him.

Just how did they wind up with this new ally? Well, after a hard day's training in the gravity room, Tails and Amy came up with a plan for the fighters to improve their numbers, to compensate for the two dimensionally misplaced. Drew, Zach, and Eddy set out in the world, combing every area. Eventually, they found a forested area, where the orange hedgehog in question was busy fighting off other dead villains. They proved to be no match for him at all. Curious about his skill, Zach, the one who found him, had a quick spar, and was happy to lead the hedgehog back to base.

"I just don't get it..." Drew said. "Of all the fighters we could have found, why did it have to be him?"

"I'll have you know I am among the top ranked of the Lightning Animal Clan." the orange hedgehog responded. "I want to offer assistance, since we too, in the elemental clans, have seen the dimensional disturbances."

"What's your name?" Edd asked, who had, up until recently, been helping Tails make calibrations to the gravity chamber.

"Streak," said the orange hedgehog in response, "Streak the Hedgehog."

"That is the most original surname I've heard." Drew answered with sarcasm.

"Look, do you want me to prove that I can help you all out, 'Drew', was it?" Streak questioned, having had his fill of Drew's mouth.

"Fine," said Drew. "In one hour, we will spar in that gravity room. Since I'm in a relatively good mood at the moment, I will only use the ten-fold Kaioken against you. The gravity level will be fifty times that of Earth, so you'd best be preparing yourself for that..."

"Agreed," replied the orange hedgehog, "So, am I allowed to get used to lighter gravities before this?"

"I'm not merciless. I may have a disdain for anthros, furries, like you, but as long as you are our ally, I will treat you like I do any other-as a student, and to some extent, as a man." the angular-haired Saiyan confirmed. "Don't take it too serious, though."

With that, Streak walked towards the gravity chamber.

"You're going to spend the whole hour in there?" asked Tails, already moving toward the panel.

"I don't have a choice," the elementalist responded, already inside. "I've never been in any gravity other than our own. Start me off at ten, and increase it every fifteen minutes until it's time for the spar with Drew."
---
The hour came and went, and Drew cracked his knuckles.

"Alright, let's see what he's made of..." the Saiyan said, entering the chamber. When he processed the interior of the room, just the same as it had been since its creation in Episode 20, he noticed the orange hedgehog from before, walking along slowly.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be..." Streak responded to the unspoken question, crossing his arms in front of his face with some difficulty, "Raiken!" As he yelled out the name of his move, a yellow lightning bolt appeared in his left middle quill.

"Hm, so it's just like the Kaioken...but it seems to increase your speed more than your power..." Drew observed as he sensed the power spike. Without a word, he went to the tenfold Kaioken, just as he had promised. "Show me what you've got, Streak!"

With the starting bell rung, the anthromorph immediately got into range, leaving behind only a yellow lightning bolt. Before Drew realized it, a punch was thrown, and he was hit by it. This was followed by a kick to the chest that sent him back. The Saiyan soon recovered, and began to attack back, but some of his strikes were fended off.

His speed has increased, but his power has jumped as well...this is actually interesting... Drew noted. He dodged a hay-bale punch after a bit more of the melee exchange, and axe-heel kicked the anthromorph away, letting loose a few small blue ki balls. Streak recovered, and discharged several lightning-based attacks, canceling out the Saiyan's attack.

20 times his base power...but his speed's been enhanced a lot more...! the Saiyan observed as once again, a mass of light came through the smoke. He stuck out his hands, and found himself actually having to struggle with the hedgehog's power. Suddenly, Drew felt an unspeakable pain as an unknown amount of lightning-based energy was streamed directly into him from the anthro's hands. He was then thrown back, but recovered in time to kick Streak in the head.

"Have I proven myself to you yet?" the hedgehog asked of him, clearly tired of the filler chapter at hand. For the first time since meeting Streak, Drew felt he had agreed with him. This chapter was filler, but important filler, for they had found Sonic's replacement while the cobalt hedgehog was off-world with his cousin.

Briefly, Drew's thoughts returned to his cousin. Wherever he was, he'd hoped he was safe, and not falling in love with interdimensional characters. Not only would that lead to heartbreak on their parts, if said character was any form of furry, Corey would have to answer to him! But mostly, he'd hoped he and Sonic were safe. And he'd also hoped they'd carry on the fight, try to find new teammates, and Streak was strong enough to be one of them, anthro or not!

"Yes, you have. You can join us in our training," Drew dropped the hostility, relaxing his stance. Streak and Drew both powered down, and exited the chamber, where they were soon replaced by Zach, Knuckles and Ed, ready for another go-around.
---
However, much like with Corey and Sonic in the forested world, all was not well with this group either. In this case, a human-looking male, with jet black hair and pale skin was watching them with dark purple eyes. Like the deer mentioned previously, he too, was an agent of Oskuro sent to interfere with any possible plans the heroes had. And he too, was forced to adapt to the universal physics.

"For my master...I will put a halt to their plans, should they figure out what their Chaos Emeralds can do..." he murmured, vanishing in a shroud of black and purple mist.

A few hours had passed since Corey and Sonic elected to train themselves to get as used to their bodies as they could before the former tackled the problems he'd caused while confronting Ronno. Sonic was running about the duo's "base of operations", as it were, practicing his jumps and running ability. Corey, on the other hand, had been intensely meditating, trying to regain control over his energy.

Despite their limitations, the former anthro and Saiyafawn were somehow able to make some progress on regaining their innate skills. Before long, the hedgehog was running at an accelerated pace - about 200 miles an hour - a far cry from Mach 1, but it would do for him. The swapped Saiyan soon gained a dim green glow as he finally made contact with his energy, and opened his eyes. A pair of lasers shot forth - painfully - and almost clipped Sonic as he jumped to avoid them.

This event soon got the two of them into a very awkward spar, which turned to the hedgehog's favor, as he'd needed to work on attempting his Homing Attack anyway, and the misdirected eye lasers gave him the perfect segue. The altered warrior would create shields, which the hedgehog would attempt to attack.

"Come on, Sonic, you can do better than that!" the Saiyan taunted, shooting another pair of eye lasers that the hedgehog evaded. "You're not going to break the shield like that!"

"You wanna bet!?" yelled the hedgehog in response, taking another potshot at the Saiyan's shield, only to get bounced off again due to the less-than-perfect homing attack. After a couple of minutes of the two trading insults and techniques, both of them made a breakthrough: it no longer hurt Corey to use his eye lasers, and Sonic was able to use a perfected hedgehog homing attack despite his limited body. The impact shattered the shield, causing the former to stumble back.

"Phew, not bad, Sonic..." Corey said, breathing hard. "These bodies aren't quite used to such stress, though...we'd better take a break..."

"Good idea...if you'll excuse me, I have to go eat some insects now..." Sonic responded, his stomach growling a few moments later. Just then, an even louder growl sounded nearby. The Saiyan's brow creased, but he smirked slightly.

"Hopefully I won't be an ecological disaster..." noted the Saiyan, mentally remarking that Double-D's vocabulary was rubbing off on him. And so, after the hedgehog gagged down another insectivore meal and for possibly the first time in his thirteen years of life, the Saiyan ate a complete vegetarian meal made out of grass, the two marveled at what happened to them.

"Nope, I don't think I'll ever get used to that," the morphed runner commented, wiping at his tongue with his paws as though it would help out.

"...At least I didn't eat that much grass," the Saiyan responded, sticking his own organ out and rubbing it against his teeth to try and scrape off any excess. He then looked at his own handiwork, and gave a low whistle. "OK, I take it back...I ate more than the average deer."

Just then, his Ki sense kicked in, sensing a nearby enemy presence. The Saiyan bared his teeth, thinking it was Ronno.

"How did he find--?" Corey started, whirling around to the direction he detected the Ki signal, not seeing the fawn in question, but a different fawn. He looked older than Ronno - slightly larger, and antlers grown out a little more. His fur color was odd considering all the other deer in the forest - shades of gray and black dotted his body, and he had two differently-colored eyes: one orangish, the other crimson.

"So, you're the ones that Master sent here..." the fawn said, his voice very ashy-sounding when compared to the average. "I see. You too were affected by the change in dimensions."

"Hey, who are you?" Sonic asked, jumping next to the Saiyan and straightening up to his full height. Which, considering he was a blue "real-life" hedgehog, wasn't all that intimidating. His voice was filled with an angry concern.

"Well," said the mysterious new deer, taking a few steps forward. Corey immediately braced himself, as did Sonic, both taking "feral" battle positions. "Since my objective is to kill you, I guess I can tell you what I am. I am a minion of Oskuro...my name is Terror."

"'Terror'?" Corey asked, looking directly at the now named black deer.

"Yes..." a malevolent smile spread across his face, "I represent the terror that comes with the latest evil. I am the fear that seizes the average man, woman and child in their tracks. And...I am the horror that comes with assassination..."

"Wait...?" Sonic began. "Assassination?"

"I do not wish to be discovered yet. I hope to just take you both out now, and get my mission complete. I am not to interfere with the denizens of this universe...something you two have failed at, I see." Terror observed, that smirk turning into a darkly triumphant one. And with that, the fight was on.

"Shut up! I'll fix what I've broken!" Corey yelled, immediately going in for a headbutt. Oskuro's minion mimicked the charge, and pain shot through the Saiyafawn's every nerve as the impact went dramatically against him. He momentarily forgot how to walk on four legs, which left him open to another charge to the side, sending him rolling.

Seeing this, Sonic immediately launched forward at his running speed, and tried to go for a homing attack. However, Terror raised a dark purple energy shield that bounced the hedgehog harmlessly off him - and then hit him with a burst of dark Ki that emanated from the shield's bursting.

"How did he have trouble with you guys? I'll never understand," the minion observed, going over to the morphed Saiyan, who was still coughing from the last assault. "Then again, it's probably because you're not used to your BODIES!" On the last word, he raised his voice and slammed both his front hooves down on Corey's ribs, causing the Saiyan to hack up blood.

Before the young warrior could be completely crushed by the enemy, however, he rolled out of the way of a follow-up strike, combat adrenaline rushing through his veins. The battle continued, but both Corey and Sonic were very outclassed by the fawn's power.

Sonic went in for another homing attack once the Saiyan was forcibly slammed into a tree by yet another headbutt, causing further injury to his ribs. This time, however, Terror completely focused on him, leaving Corey time to recover from his wounds. Since the hedgehog was a considerably smaller target than he would have been if this adventure took place in the heroes' own universe, Oskuro's minion had decided to use small mouth beams to try and nail the hedgehog.

The hedgehog zipped around the blasts using his restrained speed, and tried to go in for another homing attack, which connected squarely with the bridge of Terror's nose, causing some pain. However, this small victory didn't last long, for when the black deer resumed the fight, he was unfazed and smiling.

"You've got to be kidding!" the blue hedgehog yelled. Taking advantage of his confusion, the fear-named henchman decided to shoot him with a weak mouth blast, which sent the hedgehog flying back, tumbling end over end, until he finally smacked into a tree, badly hurt, but still able to continue.
----
Elsewhere in the forest, the Great Prince, having left his son at the den, suddenly stiffened up while watching over the deer in the East Meadow. He turned to the direction he sensed the vibrations. Though he tried to remain stoic in posture, his eyes betrayed his inner emotions.

"That feeling..." he observed. "I felt this before, back at the log...something...darker than Man...?! ...Sonic...Corey...they're in grave danger. They're strange animals, indeed..."

Something about the two had always bothered the stag to his core, though he never showed it. It just didn't add up. Corey, an orphan, by what Bambi had told him, being lead around by Sonic, a blue hedgehog. Both of them had somehow escaped from Man, and Sonic was dyed that blue hue. Corey was wearing cloth around his neck, which may well have been an indicator that not all members of Man were bad, but even with this in mind, it didn't make any sense.

"...Ever since they've showed up, things have been getting stranger and stranger....I have to follow this through!" he grunted, finally sprinting towards the location of the heroes.
--------
Corey struggled to his feet, and glared at Terror, who was now inching his way towards the shaken Sonic. He bared his teeth, knowing full well what the result of this next attack would be. He began to concentrate, feeling backed into a corner.

I've got no choice...I hope this deer body can still use it...! he thought to himself, as his small deer muscles began to bulge as he began to tap into a power he had not used since he was able to access the False Super Saiyan transformation. Green sparks danced off his body, but those soon changed in color to a red hue as he continued to grow in size and strength. Veins danced on his temples and strained muscles as he tried to channel the power...
-------
Sonic held his ground, even as the new enemy stepped closer and closer, trying his hardest to think of what he can do. He saw Corey rise to his feet, and scrunch up his face in anger. Terror soon called back to him, however.

"Now, hedgehog, it's time to say good night..." he whispered, beginning to charge an attack meant especially for him. The hedgehog in question turned back to Corey, only to see that his body was bulging, and he looked strained. His green eyes widened in realization and concern as it dawned on him what his Saiyan compatriot was trying to do in his limited body.

C-Corey?! You've got to be kidding me...! Can he really pull it off in his current state? And if he can, will it be enough...? The blue hedgehog's introspection was cut off, however, by the yell of the Saiyafawn, who reared up.

"K-K-Kaioken!!!" Corey stuttered, in an apparent amount of pain as the red sparks around him began to take the form of a more coherent aura, his body turning crimson in turn. Terror turned to the morphed warrior, a surprised look on his face, his attack diminishing. Sonic could only watch in awe as the Saiyan proved exactly how overpowered his race could be even while limited by sprinting straight at Oskuro's minion full force, the force of his ki causing blades of grass to come loose - or at least, what was left of them from his feeding frenzy.

"H-how the...!?" Terror mused aloud, surprised. "...Master told me you could do this move...you mean to tell me you can--" He was cut off when Corey's head violently crashed against his own, causing his eyes to momentarily roll up blank from the impact. He staggered, and the Saiyan took full advantage, charging into him and knocking him over. He immediately returned the favor twice to Terror's ribs with his legs, causing him to hack up blood, which was a dark red as opposed to Corey's bright red.

How long can he keep this up...?! Sonic thought to himself, watching the aura around Corey fade fast, his friend's brown eyes showing clear exhaustion, his breathing shallow and frequent, in clear pain. Terror had been given enough time to roll out of the way of a third strike. He stared at the Saiyafawn, who now looked as though he were about to pass out.

"Slowing down?" the minion asked, still in a bit of pain from his last assault.

"...N-no!" Corey yelled, catching the minion by surprise with a pair of green eye lasers. The impact of one of the lasers scorched his chest, but failed to penetrate it, for his energy had run dry on him. Panting, the Saiyan lost his muscle definition, going back to being on the scrawnier side (though muscles were visible when compared to the likes of Bambi or Ronno), his eyes rolled up blank. He collapsed flat on his stomach, passing out.

"D-darn it...!" the hedgehog called out, uncontrollably. "We're done for now...!"

"...Not exactly..." Terror said, looking off to his left, down the way which he had came. "...Have fun explaining things, blue hedgehog."

"'Have fun explaining things'?" he questioned, looking over to his left. In the distance, he saw a pair of larger antlers - the Great Prince was coming! "...Oh...no...!"

With a sinister snicker, the black fawn vanished, no doubt transporting himself away as the Great Prince arrived on the scene, somehow able to know this was happening. Sonic was not going to question that, for he had a much bigger problem on his hands: how was he going to explain what the king deer undoubtedly saw - and obviously sensed - judging by how he knew exactly where the fight was going on?

"What...?" the adult asked - the hedgehog could tell it was a conscious effort on his part to stay composed. "...What's going on here?!"

"...Sir..." Sonic spoke up, looking over to his friend's body. He saw him still breathing, but he obviously had a ways to go before he recovered from the Kaioken usage. The Great Prince regarded him with a look that reflected clear anger, but it was masked under the stoic exterior he always seemed to try to exude.

"You...you're that blue hedgehog..." he spoke up, with deadly control. "...What are the two of you, exactly? Don't lie to me this time. I saw that black fawn vanish. Ever since that incident down at the log, I'd felt something...evil..."

"Y-you have?" the hedgehog asked, shocked at the fact the deer had some sensory power.

"Yes, I have. You two aren't evil, but ever since the two of you have shown up, I have had a feeling that things were going to go even further south in a hurry. You two seem to be able to handle yourselves in a situation, but I want the truth. What are you two, and what's going on?" The Great Prince asked, narrowing his eyes on the last part. Sonic sighed.

"Alright, I won't mince words, but the truth may be hard to believe..." the blue speedster began, launching into the real account of events. He started off by explaining his coloration. It took him two tries to explain how bipedal hedgehogs exist, and three tries to explain that Corey was in fact a humanoid similar to "Man", only an alien from their world. It wasn't any fault on the Great Prince's behalf - it was a story that was even harder to swallow than the ones they had told before, but after he reconsidered everything that had happened since they arrived, he found there was no other explanation.

So when Sonic finally revealed the meat of the situation, and how they ended up here, the hedgehog was convinced the regal figure's complexion would have visibly paled were it not for the fur covering his face. He stumbled about, clearly not knowing what else to believe. His red-brown eyes showed thinly veiled surprise and apprehension, and more importantly, confusion.

"I-I see..." the Great Prince said, still trying to remain composed. "So you two...are by no means normal. You two are fighters, fight for what you believe is right. You got sent here by some sort of energy-I'll ask Corey over there to demonstrate what it is later. You two walk on two legs, him being an alien that resembles Man. And...you have no way of getting back other than that minion, who is here to kill you and do who knows what else while he's here..."

The king deer hung his head, and for a moment, Sonic could have sworn he whispered his son's name under his breath.

"That is the whole truth, sir. I understand if you can't believe it." the hedgehog responded.

"No. No...it all makes sense now..." The adult sighed, looking down to Sonic. "...I...I don't know what to do. You two can handle this situation - if word of THIS gets out in the forest...it might cause a panic unlike any this forest has ever known. However...does Corey really feel that he can help my son with what he knows...?"

"He has always been headstrong. He's trained other people like him before, and he's convinced that he can set things right. Corey feels that he's wronged your son, and he is trying to set things right." the hedgehog nodded over to his friend with this statement. "Will you allow him?"

"I...I don't know, Sonic. I'll have to think about it...he's...he's not of this world...and Bambi views him as some sort of idol. He wants to be like him, if only slightly. He wants to be able to stand up for himself..." the Great Prince sighed. "...Alright. I'll have to go back to my duties now. Be careful."

"You too," Sonic said, watching the deer walk off. After this, he immediately scurried over to his friend's body, and waited for signs of life.
-----
An hour after his senses were overwhelmed with pain, Corey awoke at last with a gasp. His muscles cried out in agony from the use of the Kaioken, and for a moment, he was certain he could not move. He struggled to his feet, and found his legs were still in terrible shape. He almost fell on his stomach again, but willed himself to stand.

"You're finally awake..." came Sonic's voice from his left. "The Great Prince came along right after you lost consciousness..."

"He did?" Fear struck through the boy's every nerve as he questioned his friend's statement. "...That means...you had to..."

"Yes. I had to tell him...no other way...it took a while for him to digest the whole of the info, but when he did, the guy actually showed signs of fear." Sonic observed, his own voice showing signs of concern. "He might not let you see Bambi now that he knows what you are...but he's thinkin' about it. By the way, if he sees you, you're going to have to give a demonstration of energy."

"....Great." Corey deflated slightly. Now he had little choice. If shit hits the fan - which it undoubtedly would now that Terror had shown himself - things were going to get out of hand quickly. "...I'm going to try and meditate. No way I can keep doing physical training as I am now. I need to give my muscles time to build up."

"Alright, I'll keep working on trying to regain my trademark speed, then." the hedgehog said. "Don't sweat it, Corey. You need your rest anyway. You're crazy enough to use the Kaioken in that body, after all...could have very well gotten yourself killed!"

"Better than watching a friend die," the Saiyafawn retorted, stumbling off with pain still in his legs to the base of a tree. He lay down, and resumed meditation. Sonic continued to scamper around the group's base of operations, gaining speed and endurance in his new body.

Eventually, after a few hours had passed, the two settled down their training activities. Sonic hopped into the burrow he had made for himself after that first night. Corey remained in the position he'd been in since regaining consciousness.

"How's your muscles?" Sonic asked, looking over to him. The Saiyan turned his head.

"Still not at one hundred percent, but I think I'll be fine after a night's rest. Tomorrow...I find Bambi's den, since the Great Prince is not letting him out of there, and I begin my lessons. If it comes to it...I'll allow him to beat the heck out of me." Corey announced, finally resting his head down. "After Bambi's troubles are resolved, we'll focus on Terror in full."

"Somehow, I don't think it's gonna be that easy," the hedgehog retorted. "We don't know what Terror's capable of, and if he's going to stay undercover after that. In addition...you have that situation with Faline..."

"If I'm careful enough, Faline won't be that much of an issue." the spiky-haired fawn responded. "You could be right on Terror, though. He was very strong, and I never so much as sensed him until he revealed himself to us. Oskuro has got one heck of a cunning minion."

"Do you think he has someone keeping an eye on everyone back home?" Sonic asked.

"Undoubtedly. The only thing we can do is wait and try to fix things here if possible."

With that conversation over, both of the forcibly changed heroes went into an animal-appropriate sleep posture, and the calm embrace of sleep soon overwhelmed them.

It was early the following morning. Sonic was up earlier than he usually was, trying to regain another one of his trademark moves: the Sonic Boost. Though he didn't exactly use it all that often in battle, but more or less while on his daily runs or races with Eddy, the hedgehog figured it'd be useful all the same in combat. He dashed around their makeshift home, his small body soon becoming a blur as he continued his solo training.

When running, the blue blur thought, going through how he usually winds up pushing himself into the boost. Dig deep, find the energy...dig deep...and find it... He'd been trying this approach since yesterday, and because of it, he'd re-learned the homing attack for his animal body. Now he had to apply it to his running motion. For two hours, he'd been at it, the sun peeking over the horizon in the east.

"One more time...!" Sonic grunted, launching forth into his laps once again. By now, his legs

His body began to glow a light blue as he applied this principle, and just as he passed in front of Corey, his burst of speed activated, allowing him to surge forth, uprooting more grass and kicking up some dust as well.
---
The Saiyan slept through the night without much incident. However, he did not expect such a rude awakening. The dust Sonic had kicked up got into his nose, irritating it. He had absolutely no hope of returning to sleep.

"A-a-ah..." The strained breaths came to the Saiyan as he struggled to his four feet. "...choo!" The sneeze finished, leaving the morphed warrior feeling slightly drowsy, but unable to fall asleep. After all, his thoughts were on one thing: setting things right for Bambi.

"Did I wake you up?" asked Sonic, walking towards the fawn. "Sorry about that. Was getting back into the speed of things..."

"It's fine, Sonic..." Corey replied, blinking the sleep from his eyes with limited success. "I planned to get an early start anyway. By the way," his ki sense picked Sonic's level up. "your small body has gotten a big power bonus."

"Quit kiddin' around!" said Sonic. "You feelin' up to it?"

"Truth be told, I am." the Saiyan responded simply. It was true. His muscles no longer ached, and he felt healthy once again. Certainly an improvement from when he had woken up from his first Kaioken usage. "I'll go find a stream, then try to locate Bambi."

"Use your Ki sense to locate him?" the hedgehog asked.

"Unless a certain doe finds me out and about..." Corey said. For some reason, he felt even more embarrassed at the thought of her, but why? "...Why does that leave me embarrassed? I know that my body's bringing on changes I don't want...could it be deer instinct setting in?"

"Could be. Then again, I don't know your girl of preference anyway." the blue-furred animal teased.

"Well, I know yours. Someone that enjoys going fast as much as you, if not more. Might even be blue herself." the Saiyafawn retorted, drawing slight irritation - and laughter - from his friend.

"Hey, I ain't dating a Mary Sue!" Sonic yelled. "...That...reminds me..."

"No, I am not taking that litmus test. Yes, I get it, I've been taking the spotlight from the Eds. And this is called Ed Edd n Eddy Z: Interdimensional Crisis..." Realizing their conversation had wound up breaking the fourth wall, both of the dimensionally swapped heroes shared a small laugh.

"Alright, go on and do what you think is right. I'll just be running about. Since you're a trouble magnet, I'm sure we'll meet up before the day is out..." Sonic said. "I don't exactly have the freedom I used to, though."

With that, he blazed off into the distance, obviously eager to be running about. The Saiyan shook his head. He soon walked off to find a stream, so he could wash the sleep out of his eyes, and get a small drink; knock the taste of grass out of his mouth. It didn't take him too long to find the water he was looking for. After looking around to make sure no one was looking, he dunked almost his whole head into the shallow stream.

The cold water woke him up, the nerves stimulated by the sudden chill. While his face was still under, he decided to take in some of the water for sustenance.

Tastes strangely good for water in the wild...cool, crisp, actually sort of nice.... Corey noted, enjoying the experience. His ears, which were above the water at this point in time, then picked up a familiar voice.

"Hi! Uh...what are you doing?" It was feminine in nature, and he knew exactly who that was.

Shit! Faline!! the Saiyan thought, immediately picking his head out of the water and stumbling backwards just a little bit. The strange, hot feeling that had earlier licked at his face after his fall once again emerged. ...Say something, stupid, don't just stand there!

"...Oh, uh, hello there, Faline," Corey stuttered, trying his hardest to maintain control. What was wrong with him? Granted, woodland creatures do have their charm, but this was taking things way too far, even if they were expressing sentience. The young warrior knew Drew would have his head if he ever found out what had happened to his younger cousin's psyche while here in this forest. "Erm, I was getting a drink, and trying to wake myself up."

The doe responded with a small giggle and an "Oh, I see." The Saiyafawn's body twitched slightly, and one of his eyes half-closed in self-irritation. No matter what, he could not allow this strange change of hormones to screw things up anymore. So when she asked if he had any plans, the cunning of the male came out to play.

"A-actually," the Saiyan began, trying his hardest to mask any feelings. "Would you happen to know where Bambi's den is? I sort of need to talk to him. And his father too." It was a convenient truth, seeing as how the Great Prince would eventually have to see his power in action, and he'd figured he'd get that out of the way before trying to teach Bambi anything. He searched the female's face for any indication he'd said something incorrect.

"Yeah, I do," she said. She didn't seem the least bit flustered or upset about his question. In fact, it looked like the smile Faline had only got wider. This made Corey even more unsure and awkward. "I'll show you the way."

"T-thanks." he responded, and soon the two were walking towards Bambi's den - at Faline's direction, of course. Though the Saiyan knew he could have searched out the young Prince's energy signature on his own, he knew his father would find it odd that he knew where to go. That, and he wanted to speak with Faline soon. After all, she knew Bambi first, so why exactly did she change so quick to him? No, he had to set things right, starting right now.

"So..." Corey started, drawing Faline's attention immediately. The sight of the blue eyes triggered that damned subconscious part of him, and thus he said "...about that Bambi, huh?" The tone was not at all how he had imagined it to be - he sounded nervous about saying it, and on top of that, he could feel some underlying dickheadedness in his words.

"Yeah," the female frowned. "He's ok, but..." Her brows creased, as though she couldn't believe what she was saying herself, "...you're...exciting..." To his horror, Corey found her batting her eyelashes at him, but a question forced its way out of his mouth.

"E - ecks - exciting?!" he stammered, his face burning hot from the comment. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that underneath his fur he was a shade of pink rather than whatever the natural skin color of a deer was.

"Yeah...I'd been meaning to ask you, why do you just throw yourself into situations like with Ronno?" Faline transitioned, changing the subject to ask about the personality.

"Well, I...I...just don't feel right standing there, you know..." Corey replied, trying his hardest to not look flattered - and sort of succeeding.

"I wasn't sure the first time...but now I know." she said in turn. The Saiyan felt his heartstrings pull in opposite directions at this point, but both of the directions were equally interested in what Faline had to say about the subject. The half that formed our hero's true psyche wanted to know exactly what to point Bambi to in terms of development. The other half, the half that had been forged unexpectedly under the circumstances, was making the fawn's heart beat exponentially. "...When I first met Bambi, we were both real young. I thought it was cute, how he chased a frog about without even a second thought. I'd always had a crush on him. But...I don't know...he is standing up for himself...however..." She trailed off, apparently unable to form her words.

"H-however...?" the Saiyan stuttered unintentionally. The fact his psyche was becoming pulled in two different directions did not help matters.

"...y-you..." she continued, obviously struggling to find words for her (obvious) new feelings for him. "...You came into the picture both times, for someone you didn't even know too well. Only after you explained things, I got it. You're...noble, you stick up even if you know it's hopeless...I can't...describe it any clearer than that..." The sentences broke off in her mouth, but the connotation was clear, at least to Corey.

"I can't either..."

The words were out before he was aware he was saying them, and he was horrified at what he had heard leave his mouth. If he'd still had his hands, he'd have immediately clapped both of them over his mouth. He was fairly sure his face was burning bright red, just like his anger at himself for allowing that statement to be released. And his gut was telling him, through the way it undulated, that Faline would have been flushed a shade of red deeper than the blood flowing through her veins if her face fur didn't hide it. When he steeled his nerves, he looked up.

...Oh God, I've seen that look before...on Amy's face when she's fawning over Sonic! Well, not fawning in this case, but...fuck it, point is, I've never seen a girl look that happily at me before... Corey thought, seeing the suppressed joy on her face at having heard his comment.

You have me to thank... boomed a second mental voice within his mind, one that sounded exactly like his own mental voice. However, something was slightly off.

Wha? Who are you? the Saiyan responded to the second voice. It chuckled lightly, still in his voice.

I am the new instincts within, brought on by your formation, Corey. I am you, but not you. Then just as suddenly as it had appeared, it vanished, laughing all the while. That laugh sounded more like Ronno than Corey could ever hope to pull.

"Well, we're here!" Faline announced, calling Corey's attention back to reality. "Hope it turns out good for you!"

"Uh, yeah, sure," the Saiyafawn said nervously. "...I'll be seeing you around!" He meant to say that, but given the energy behind it, Corey realized something all too quickly.

...This primal part of my mind...it's destroying the real me bit by bit! I don't have much time before I fade out completely! he thought, gathering his thoughts. The doe departed, leaving Corey at the entrance. Let's get this over with!

He took a few uneasy steps forward. An adult voice called out to him before he could go any farther into Bambi's residence.

"Stop!" Corey whirled around to see the Great Prince walking up to him. "...Sonic told me everything...is it true? Are you two from...not this...universe...?"

"Yes. It is." the Saiyan responded.

"...I wish to see for myself this 'energy' Sonic spoke of. Your fight with that strange fawn earlier...I felt it. I've felt his presence for a while, but I didn't know until after I saw that vanishing thing he did." the Great Prince summarized.

"...Understood. If you wish to see it up close..." Corey replied, focusing to bring out his Ki. His hedgehog friend had warned him it would come to this, and thus, he had been ready to demonstrate.

"I want to see if what I feel when you're channeling whatever it is you're channeling feels the same way as 'Terror' does when he does it." the king deer said, his gaze transfixed on Corey.

"Is Bambi paying attention?" Corey asked, about ready to demonstrate. It was considerably easier to channel energy now that he'd had that fight, but he wanted to be sure no one was watching other than the Great Prince.

"No, he's...been down on himself lately. He's paying attention to what I tell him, but as far as I know, he has not left the den. He's...allowed, but he's been staying there with his friends to keep him company." The father confirmed. "...Even though he doesn't seem to think too kindly of you - I've heard him mumbling in his sleep - he does look up to you all the same."

"...I see." the Saiyan said in response. "Shall I demonstrate now?"

"Very well." With this segue, Corey immediately gave a sharp grunt. Green ki coated him. The Great Prince's eyes narrowed, as though analyzing the aura carefully. "...These...vibrations...this feeling...it's different...it's not...so dark...so evil as the ones that fawn had from earlier. But...what I feel right now just standing here next to you is...unheard of by this forest's standards! You two are in the same league...but...this confirms it...there's more good in you than evil."

Nodding, Corey ceased flaring his Ki up, and the aura around him vanished. The Great Prince continued to stare, as though analyzing the situation.

"So, sir...is it alright now if I talk to your son, to see if I can help any?" the scarf-wearing fawn asked, trying his hardest to remain formal given his time limit. The Great Prince appeared to be thinking very hard about this.

"Just...what do you intend to do?" he finally asked after a few moments' silence.

"I only intend to make things right. I will not teach him what I know about fighting, if that's your concern." His formal tone was becoming harder to keep up, but the Saiyan had to. It was how he was raised, and no matter how dire it was he set things right before this new, instinct-driven psyche of his took over, he would not violate his manners. The Great Prince sighed.

"Very well. I will allow this. But I want him to be safe too. If things are going to get too rough, and I'm not around, please, do not hesitate to step in." the adult said. "This is a battle this forest will only feel once...as long as this darkness is trying to take over all the 'universes'...it will continue."

"If Bambi is in grave danger, I will." Corey assured. The two merely nodded, and soon, the Great Prince walked off, still seemingly angry about the situation. The Saiyafawn could not blame him. This was supposed to be his forest to protect, and he was placing it in the hands of a complete freak like him. He was sure the leaders of the world felt the same way about the Saiyans back in his universe, but at least there, they had earned the respect of the world.

Pushing recollections of his home world out of his mind, Corey turned, and began walking into the den. After a few seconds, he could see Bambi, back turned to him, looking down on himself, just as the Great Prince said. Slightly ahead, his friends, Thumper and the skunk whose name he still did not know, were watching him, standing on their back legs. Before he could proceed further into the den, he heard a "fwoosh" nearby. Two seconds later, Sonic was standing at his side.

"How's it goin'?" he asked. "...Looks like you found your way here okay..."

"Now, the question is...does the young prince hate me?" the Saiyan questioned in turn. "He's been down on himself. According to his dad, he looks up to me in some way."

"Well, I guess I'll just be here to talk to the other two if you need me to..." said Sonic.

"I'll talk to them first. They're his closest friends, after all." With that, the two animals once again trudged forward into the situation. As they drew closer, he whispered to them directly. "Hey, you two!"

When he saw the glares of the rabbit and the skunk, he knew right then and there he'd messed up big time. They looked angry at him specifically, not so much Sonic when they caught sight of the blue hedgehog standing next to his leg.

"Oh, it's you..." Thumper spoke up. He crossed both of his...arms...in front of his chest. "He's just been standing over there since that thing back at the log! We've never seen him like this." This statement disturbed Corey to his core. His friends had even said that him being this sad was out of character.

"He..." the skunk spoke up. "He doesn't think that good of you..."

"Is that right?" Corey asked. He attempted to take a step forward, but the two smaller animals braced themselves.

"We can't let you see him!" the rabbit called out. "He's already down on himself now, and we don't need you makin' it worse!"

"Please, Thumper..." Sonic said, stepping forward on his friend's behalf. "Uh...what's your name?" He pointed to the skunk.

"Everyone calls me Flower..." the skunk said.

"Thumper, Flower," the hedgehog continued. "Corey feels terrible about what he has done. He wants to set things right..."

After a couple of minutes of the two going back and forth like this, it was the gray rabbit who once again spoke up.

"Fine, you want to meet him, but if you just go out there and start acting mean, don't think we won't be jumping in..." he spoke. The Saiyan could hear the iron in his words, for an animal so small.

"Don't worry. If my previous run-ins are anything to go on, I'm not like Ronno at all." Corey assured, and he was at last allowed to pass. Sonic, on the other hand, stayed with the smaller animals. Bambi, having heard the entire conversation, turned to face him. For a long moment, neither one said anything, the morphed Saiyan not knowing where to start, and the young Prince apparently not having anything to say.

"What are you doing here?" Bambi finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Nothing. I just feel like I've slipped up somewhere. I'm here to apologize, and to make things right here." the darker-colored fawn replied. "Those were your fights, not mine, but I didn't feel like standing there and watching it happen to someone else."

"...You said that before...but..." The younger deer quickly looked away. Corey understood why. However, unlike with the Eds and Nazz, he could not hold Faline over Bambi's head like an asshole. In part due to his psyche still being slowly torn in half, but because it was adding insult to insult.

"Listen...um..." The Saiyan was trying to filter his words, trying to find a way to say what Faline found interesting about him while keeping his own condition veiled, but Bambi cut him off.

"...It's not that you jumped in at all. I understand that part...but you lied to me." the younger deer said. "You said you didn't know how to fight, but...back there, after the incident at the log...you fought Ronno and you pushed him over when he was on-guard..." Corey was struck silent. He had lied. "...Faline's impressed with you...but..." Once again, Bambi broke off mid-sentence.

"You don't want it to be that way, right?" Corey asked. "I'm here to help out."

"...Help...?" Bambi questioned. "...If it came to it, I'd honestly rather it be you than Ronno...because you actually know when you're stepping on others...this proves it..."

Instantly, Corey's mind flared again.

"N-no..." Corey shook his head. "It...can't be that way between us. I can't see it working out at all." Half-truths were saving the day once again here. "If it turns out that way, it'll only lead to disappointment. But the two of you...seem to have a connection buried by the mess I've made of things for you."

"Corey...?" the younger deer asked.

"She walked me here..." the Saiyafawn responded without thinking. Seeing the look of bewilderment on the young prince's face, he quickly covered. "I didn't come here to tell you that." Just then, he sensed something familiar, through his Ki sense.

Ronno and Faline...together...again?! Corey thought. He can't stop bugging her, can he?

Go show him up, monkey bastard! said the other him, voice sounding even louder than before.

Oh no, it won't be me showing up Ronno again... as he thought, a smile formed on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" Bambi asked.

"...Follow me." Corey responded. "I have an idea as to how you can regain Faline's attention..."

And so, without explaining, Corey turned to leave, that same complacent look on his face.

"Hey, what did you say to him?!" Thumper yelled, noticing the expression.

"I have an idea to pull him out of this rut..."
------
Sonic took one look into Corey's face. The brown eyes had a certain spark to them. He usually only had that spark when he believed he'd found a plan, or when he was fighting a particularly strong opponent. Since he had just finished talking to Bambi, who was now beginning to follow his lead, the hedgehog knew it was the former. He began to follow the smaller animals, but given his fast pace, he was soon walking parallel to his morphed friend.

What's going on in your head, Corey? What do you plan to do that involves Bambi...?

The Saiyan lead the group of five animals, though Sonic was not that far behind his forelegs. He checked over his shoulder, seeing Bambi, Thumper and Flower following his lead. At this point, his hedgehog friend poked at one of his legs.

"What are you doing?" he whispered in question. Corey leaned down so the hedgehog could hop up on his head as they passed the halfway point. The energy signatures of Ronno and Faline were getting closer and closer. Quietly, the Saiyan informed the blue hedgehog of this. When Sonic began to pry as to what Corey was planning, he began to explain in detail...
-------
Bambi was beyond confused as to why his latest friend had decided to lead him this far from the den. He and the strange colored hedgehog were whispering about something. If he didn't know better, he'd have outright accused them of something downright awful. Besides, his father had seemed a lot more stressed about something when he returned from his rounds. However, just as quickly as these thoughts emerged in the young stag's mind, he shrugged them off. Corey was a good guy, and if he had meant any harm, he wouldn't have gone to the trouble of apologizing for his actions.

"Hey, Bambi, what's the matter?" asked Thumper, drawing his attention.

"It's nothing. Just seems a little weird that he'd take us this far out. And they're whispering to each other, again." the young prince replied, still wondering why they were doing that.

"What could they be talkin' about?" questioned Flower, concern in his blue eyes. The buck looked from friend to friend, not really knowing what to say.

"If they're up to anythin', I swear I'll-!" The rabbit was unable to finish his statement, having seen Corey stick his head into a bush, Sonic still very much on top of his head. "What's he up to now?"

"Search me," responded the skunk.

"I don't know either," Bambi responded.
------
Perfect. They haven't noticed us. Apparently only those like the Great Prince can "sense" things. thought the Saiyan as he gazed down on the scene. He chuckled lightly, watching Ronno bound about Faline in a show-offy manner. From this distance, Corey couldn't make out what they were saying, and from the look that he exchanged with Sonic, neither could he. Of course, seeing the oldest fawn with the doe made him angrier than it should have.

Knowing the psyche representing his true self could fade out at any moment with this information, he pulled his head from the bushes, making sure to look as confused as possible.

"You won't believe this..." said Corey, looking from deer to rabbit to skunk. All three of them seemed interested. Bambi stepped forward, followed by his friends. They followed his and Sonic's lead, sticking their heads individually into the foliage. It took the trio about fifteen seconds to process the scene and withdraw their heads.

"...Again...?" Bambi asked. "He's not giving up, is he?"

"How'd you know...?" the rabbit questioned, looking up to Corey with suspicion reflected in his brown eyes.

"Lucky guess?" the Saiyan said, keeping his expression to the best of his ability. "Anyway, I think this might work out to your advantage." He smiled. "From what I can tell, he's trying to impress her."

"But how...how would it work out?" the lighter-colored deer asked.

"You show him up." At this point, Sonic cut in.

"Show him what you're really made of!" the hedgehog encouraged, leaping off Corey's head and straightening up to his full height.

"I took that chance from you before, I think," spoke up Corey. "Well, now, you have a second chance! If it all goes well, you won't have to worry about anyone else stealing the heart of Faline!" He paused, and his speedy friend also took the time to remain silent.

Come on...Bambi, go for it... the Saiyafawn thought, waiting for the natural-born fawn's answer. The Eds all went for this, too...!

"Alright, I'll try it..." said Bambi, breaking the heavy silence. "Are you sure this is going to work?"

Ignoring the part of his psyche urging him to abandon this plan and go down there on his own, Corey gave a smile.

"I'm positive."
------
Corey once again took the lead, showing them down a hilly path that would take the fivesome straight to Ronno and Faline. The young prince's mind was ready to make an honest attempt at showing his rival up, but his heart was elsewhere. Nothing seemed to be making any sense to Bambi. Thumper seemed to have his doubt cast in the right spot; the way the scarf-wearing fawn lead them all here seemed to point that he knew they were here. Now that he was thinking about it, Man didn't usually dye anything a certain color, especially small animals. They killed everything in sight, as they had proven with his own mother. And while somewhere in his child's mindset something told him that not all of Man possessed the same bloodlust, all his experience pointed to that. So Corey having that scarf around his neck seemed fishy to him too.

He willed these thoughts out of his mind, however, when he heard Ronno speaking clearly.

"But yeah, as I was saying, he got lucky. No one can take me, especially not when I get warmed up!" he called out, his voice full of confidence. Bambi looked, and saw Ronno appear to be stretching, or something like that. The five were now concealed behind some thin bushes. Corey stopped, and motioned for the young prince to join him at his side.

"Hmm, this could work to your advantage..." he observed, watching Ronno warm up. "Say, how good do you think you are at jumping?" He turned to face Bambi directly on this question. The young fawn was at a loss for words. He couldn't really say.

"Uh, very good, I guess," he said, wondering exactly where Corey was going. He seemed to be peering in the same direction as Ronno was. Bambi followed his gaze to see a small jump, which he was sure he could manage. The young prince then turned to Corey again, but he was still trailing off into the distance, squinting. Following his lead, Bambi saw what his eye was on: a large jump, one that was seemingly impossible for him to clear. "You want me to...?!"

"I don't think he'll proceed past that first one..." Corey observed, a sickeningly triumphant smile plastered on his face. "All you have to do is believe in yourself, and get a running start. Don't hold back. I'll be going out there as well, but I don't know if I can either."

Bambi was stunned by his hypocritical admission. How could he believe in himself when Corey was full of self-doubt of his own? This question repeated in his head again, but a voice suddenly shouted louder in his mind than anything else.

He's giving you a chance to get Faline back! Don't blow it! His crush on Faline had only been recently discovered, back at the groundhog festival. After Corey had fought Ronno, he was almost convinced he wouldn't get a chance. Considering what Corey was doing, Bambi decided to take the chance. He breathed deeply, to steady himself, then began to prepare to rush out.

"Are you gonna do it?!" Flower yelped aside him, full of concern.

"G-go get 'em, Bambi...!" Thumper encouraged, though his voice shook, unveiling his own fear of the event that was going to happen.

"Watch this!" Ronno called out, running forward. As he reached the small jump, he bounded over it. Bambi couldn't help but notice his rival was winded from the exertion.

"Let's see another deer top that!" he called out, clearly having let the fivesome go unnoticed.

"Ready?" Corey asked. Bambi nodded with some reluctance. With that, Corey turned ahead, a smirk plastered on his face. There was no question about it - he was eager to see how this would turn out. The young prince tried desperately to find it in him to be eager and optimistic about a risky jump, as the fawn aside him signaled the start. "GO!"
---------
No sooner had he signaled Bambi did he dart forth from the underbrush, startling Faline and Ronno. A moment later, he heard a rustle, and quickly checked behind him to see his latest trainee had followed his lead, taking off at a full sprint. He began to catch up just as the pair reached the first jump, easily clearing it, though Corey feigned difficulty in this task with a stumble on his landing.

"What the--" Ronno began indignantly, but already he was soon out of earshot from Corey. The two began to approach the massive jump that the Saiyan had picked out for Bambi to jump over. The younger deer began to pull ahead, Corey already falling back, acting as though he knew he wouldn't make that jump, just as Bambi reached the edge and took his leap of faith.

The young deer screamed - from past experience, the Saiyafawn guessed it was from adrenaline and fear - as he crossed over the gap. For just a moment, the morphed warrior second-guessed himself, thinking that Bambi would come up short, but that soon faded once the real fawn landed on his stomach, safe and sound on the other side with a couple of feet to spare.

"Hey, you did it!" encouraged Corey as he turned his body completely to face Bambi, who was still recovering from the rush of the job. "Nice job! Now, just, uh, get back over here or something!"

"Oh...okay...!" said Bambi, breathing deeply from the exertion. He struggled to his feet, obviously still in shock from the jump. It was then, Corey sensed two energies swelling nearby. He turned to see Faline, who looked impressed with Bambi's jump, and Ronno, who looked pissed about the intrusion. But only one of their energies was swelling...
-----
Sonic's ears stiffened. He wasn't sure why, but his innate sense of danger was going off like a car alarm. Thumper and Flower began to feel it too. They were looking at Ronno, as though something wasn't quite right with the way he was acting. Instantly, the hedgehog could only think of one thing.

Terror...he's here! Cursing his current inability to sense Ki, he began to speed about, the rabbit and skunk not seeming to notice the sudden disappearance. Now that he was moving about, he could see the energy moving towards Ronno. He began to backtrace it to the source, feeling his sense of danger growing stronger and stronger.

After a few moments, he found Terror. His eyes were closed in complete concentration, and he hadn't seemed to notice the hedgehog's appearance. Somehow, he knew the minion of Oskuro was doing something that wasn't good at all. With this in mind, Sonic began to curl up into a ball, building up serious RPMs. Then, as he reached his maximum speed capacity, he leapt up, and began to perform a homing attack...

"So, Stumbles..." Ronno began, walking towards him, "...What was that all about? Scared to make that jump?" He had that "I'm going to bully you" sneer on his face again as he continued to move towards the Saiyan, who stood his ground.

"Not my jump to make," retorted Corey, unknowing he was actually telling more of the truth that he cared to know.

"Not your jump? C'mon, you know you'd fall like a rock if you tried to make any jumps longer than a few trees in length!" the darker-colored fawn continued. The Saiyafawn, on the other hand, continued to notice that his energy was rising. For a moment, he'd wondered if Ronno was experiencing a rage boost, until Corey suddenly noticed the antagonistic fawn was changing fur color and eye color.

Then, a loud crack was heard in the distance. Faline looked towards it, and out of instinct, Corey whirled to the source of the sound. A moment later, the Saiyan sensed something terrible: Terror's energy signal was nearby, and Sonic's was close to him!

"Your fight is with me," Ronno sounded unusually demanding, but what he said next shocked Corey to his very core. "And I'm going to kill you!" The Saiyan whirled around, but not quick enough to catch a headbutt to the ribs. He stumbled back from the force of the hit, and one of his legs suddenly slipped. However, he stood his ground, his ribs stunned.

"R-Ronno...?! What the-?" Faline began, and almost immediately, the battle instinct of Corey took over.

"Faline, stay back!!" he called out, his psyche once more almost tearing itself in two; his battle focus, however, prevented his new self from taking control mid-fight. "...I don't know how to say it, but Ronno's not himself...!"

Ronno charged again, but this time, the Saiyan was ready for the assault, his skull bashing against the now-aggressive fawn's own. Both began to push, knowing that if Corey lost, he'd be taking a nasty plunge. It was the seemingly disadvantaged scarf-wearing fawn that was able to push the now darker-furred fawn back, his resolve burning brighter than ever to resolve this mess.

Dark Ronno seemed to realize his attack wasn't working, and thus began to go on his back legs, but this time, Corey was prepared for such a tactic, and was able to control his strikes much more effectively. However, Ronno still had a small power advantage, and thus he was able to shove the Saiyafawn over.

This power is insane...! And yet...Terror can do this to those with evil in their hearts?! he thought, going out on his back. When Ronno tried to do a leg thrust, he rolled out of the way, opting not to use Ki attacks. Unless he uses energy, I will not attack him with Ki. At heart, he's still not as bad as any of the other villains I've fought to date.

As the battle continued, Corey sensed Bambi's presence, coming closer rather than running.

Wha-what does he hope to do...? He has to feel these vibrations...!
---------
Sonic grunted as he dodged more purple energy balls from Terror, who was still reflecting his attacks using a shield rather than physically bunting him aside. From his vantage point, the hedgehog could now see his friend fighting a darker-colored Ronno. The fawn in question was more aggressive than he usually was, considering how much it took to actually get him to fight directly.

"What did you do to him?!" asked Sonic as he went in for another attack, only to be bounced back and have to use his speed to dodge more incoming energy bolts.

"It is quite simple, a power of mine bestowed on me from Master Oskuro." Terror began, continuing to shower energy attacks. "If someone's heart is tainted enough, and they can't resist, either by not knowing or by will, they become a dark form. Soul Corruption is the name. I would have been able to complete the process, but you interfered. And now for that, you die!"

With this, the dark minion opened his mouth and fired a dark purple energy blast. The blue speedster responded by coiling into a ball, and spindashing, jumping INTO the blast with a Sonic Boost. A brief powerstruggle began. For a moment, it appeared Terror would win.

"I...don't...think...so...!" grunted the hedgehog, feeling the pressure of the attack pushing against him. With a war cry, he pushed hard against the attack, pushing his small body to its absolute limits. The resulting explosion was deafening, and Sonic himself was thrown back into a tree, leaving a nice crack in the bark. He had taken his fair share of damage, but he was still conscious, and battle-ready.

Terror's body lay smoking, having been thrown back from the explosion. For a moment, Sonic began to believe he'd won the battle, until the black fawn's body began to move once more.

"Urgh, not bad, you little rodent," he said, getting back to his feet, burn marks prevalent on his face, and one of his eyes blackened completely from the explosion. "But don't think for an instant that this is over..."

With this, he began to try and use physical attacks. Keeping in mind his friend's situation, Sonic began to backtrack to the site of the other battle, so that the denizens of the forest could see what was going on.

The crap's hit the fan, Corey...we don't have any choice now but to reveal what we can do... he thought, dodging a foreleg thrust from the minion that was meant to skewer him.

"Hold still!!" Terror cried out, trying to headbutt the jumping Sonic, only to receive a homing attack to the head.
------
Bambi was absolutely stunned at what he was seeing in Ronno and Corey. They were fighting again, yes, with Faline as a witness along with his friends, but there was something dangerously wrong with the former. He'd noticed that the vibrations he'd got from Ronno were darker than usual, and he was also feeling the same vibrations that his father told him of. Corey tanked another headbutt, but was able to return with a shoulder-charge to the side. They had gotten a fair distance away from the cliff by this point.

"This ain't normal!" cried Thumper, who was holding Flower underneath the pits of his forelegs/arms, for the skunk had fainted away again. "C'mon, Flower, wake up!"

"...This is what Father was talking about...?" Bambi asked to no one in particular, not even listening to his friends' plight. "I have to get Faline out of there before she gets hurt!"

"Bambi, wait, it's dangerous!" his rabbit friend called out to him, but Bambi wasn't listening.

I feel...strange... thought the young prince as he began to run out to his crush, I'm scared...yes, I am. But at the same time, I know I should do this...for her and for the forest...is this what being brave is...?

"B-Bambi...!" Faline stammered, looking at him, then back to the fight, where Corey received a small injury to the side from Ronno's antler stub. "He'll be...killed...Ronno's...not himself..."

"I know...you need to get out of here, Faline!" Bambi responded, now looking in the direction of the battling fawns, Corey looking a little more beat than Ronno. "...This....isn't a safe place for you to watch this..."

It was then, there was a pause in the battle. Ronno was looking past Corey to Bambi. There was no mistaking the amount of anger he saw reflected in his eyes. It was even more of an evil eye than he had been given when he had accidentally pushed Ronno into a puddle of mud. But what made this gaze even more terrifying was that his eyes seemed to be glowing.
------
Confused by what Ronno was aiming at, Corey whirled around. His teeth grit in anger - he was looking straight at Bambi, and judging from the glow in his eyes, it was probably enough energy for a clean kill shot on him! With this in mind, Corey ran over to the young prince.

"Corey?! What's going on!?" Bambi yelled to him. Turning to him, the Saiyan could only say one thing:

"Bambi, you need to get Faline and get out of here--" Corey started, but was cut off.

"I'm staying here...I can help you...!" argued the young prince of the forest.

"This isn't a time to-" The unmistakable sound of eye lasers being fired, followed by Faline's surprised gasp, punctuated the fact Bambi was about to get shot at. With only two seconds to act, Corey stepped in front of the attack, taking the energy attack head-on to his shoulder, drawing blood from the incision. However, it stopped short of any of his internal organs.

Shuddering, Corey hit the ground. Faline and Bambi were both stunned.

"W-what...?" Bambi asked, stunned into silence. "W-what was that, C-Corey?!"

"The reason you two should leave, now. Find your father, he'll be sure to explain everything..." Corey grunted, working his way back to his feet. "Alright, Ronno, you want to play that way?" Making sure to hold back such that the attack would explode on impact, Corey blinked, and after only one second, shot his own green eye lasers towards the off-guard Ronno.

"What?!" He turned his body, and took the explosive attack to the side, taking a burn on his side. "...N-not bad. But you'll have to do better than that...!"

"See?" Corey asked. "You two need to get out of here! I'm not going to ask again..."

"...Corey..." Faline whispered. The mere voice caused Corey's insides to turn into loops. With this, the Saiyan knew he didn't have much time before his second psyche would get complete control of his thoughts, and his body.

"...O...Okay." Bambi finally relented. "F-Faline. Let's go. This...I can't explain it, but Corey's got this under control..." With that, the two fawns quickly began to shuffle away, leaving Corey alone.

Saddened slightly by the fact that he had to undo Bambi's self-esteem, Corey turned back to the corrupted Ronno, who was now glowing with a purple aura. In turn, the Saiyafawn let out a yell, and his green aura flared up in response.

As the battle between the fawns continued to rage, auras clashing violently as hooves and headbutts were exchanged, Sonic continued to leap backwards, evading physical attacks. The hedgehog knew that he and Terror, as the latter was at that time, were evenly matched, but his inner sense of danger was telling him that if he didn't try to knock him senseless soon, things would quickly go bad for him.

First thing's first...I have to draw him to the scene of the fighting fawns! thought Sonic as he continued to evade the attacks. Occasionally, he would launch a Homing Attack to Terror's sides, serving to keep his attention solely on their fight.

"C'mon, Terror, step it up!" the speedster taunted, leaping backwards in a ball once more. Oskuro's minion growled in annoyance.

"You little rat!" he yelled, shooting two beams from his eyes, which Sonic narrowly dodged by the spines on his back. "Don't think you can outrun me forever!"

"I don't plan on it!" retorted Sonic, managing to strike another attack on Terror's shoulder with a Homing Attack. He was getting closer and closer, and he could hear Corey shouting in anger as he laid another attack on Ronno, though from sounds it sounded as though his fight was barely going any better than his own with Terror.

"What's wrong, Stumbles, can't keep up?!" came Ronno's voice, sounding deeper and more evil than it usually did. "C'mon, you can't be losing steam on me now! We're just warming up!"

"I can still fight! You think you can win just because I have a hole in my shoulder!?" the Saiyan shot back. Concern rampaged through Sonic's conscious mind, allowing Terror to swat him aside, causing pain to shoot through all the nerves on his small body.

"Why don't you worry about yourself?!" the dark minion yelled, walking over to the hedgehog. However, the hedgehog in question was already readying himself. He was close enough to the fight now...now he just needed to score a clean hit. From personal experience, and from observing how his Saiyan compatriots fought, he would only get one chance now at earning that strike. He curled up into a ball, and began to spin, seeing his opportunity.

"Terror, it's time for you to understand how I earned my name!" he called out, managing to push himself off the ground, and boosting just as a hoof crashed down where he used to be. Homing in on Terror's head, he quickly slammed into his target, pushing him back, before finally Sonic went flying in one direction and his target in the other. Terror thudded against a tree, completely stunned from the attack.

Sonic, on the other hand, air-recovered on a tree. He breathed deeply, and looked over to the black fawn. He lay still, but it looked like he'd live. With this in mind, Sonic began to run towards the other fight, breathing hard.
----------
Another butting of heads stunned the morphed Saiyan warrior. He was beginning to lose ground, but only slightly in the ongoing battle. His opponent also appeared to be tiring out, but more than eager to put an antler or two in his eyes. So far, the fight hadn't been going anywhere. There was a small break in the action following the impact, allowing Corey to catch his breath.

This deer body isn't used to such heavy combat... he thought, looking over to Ronno, who was suffering from a similar condition. Both of the fawns were breathing hard, and indeed, it had been a strenuous battle.

Ronno gave another sharp grunt, and a pair of eye lasers once more shot from his eyes, leaving Corey to counter with some of his own, causing a small explosion to occur between the two. Through the fire and smoke, they charged each other once again, auras of dark purple and green clashing once again as the two fawns pushed against each other, not getting any real ground.

"Take this!" the darker fawn yelled, causing the scarf-wearing one to brace himself for what was to come. The dark purple aura of his opponent suddenly flared, and he was sent stumbling back. Before he knew it, Ronno had circled around to his side, and the next thing Corey knew, he felt an unpleasant pain in his right rear leg, as another set of eye lasers made their injuries.

"COREY!!!" Three voices, all sounding young in age, simultaneously called out to him.

Corey's head whirled to see Bambi, Faline, Thumper and a fainted Flower still within distance, the former three wide-eyed and horrified at the battle they were witnessing. Sonic had finally arrived on the scene, and appeared equally concerned. Using his Ki sense, he sensed Terror's energy signal, which for the moment was still and low. He understood in that moment that no matter what, the forest was going to find out of these awesome battles.

It was time to stop holding back.

"No choice, then..." the Saiyafawn mumbled. "I'll have to once again risk using the Kaioken..." Concentrating his energy, he found it significantly less painful and strenuous than the first time - not to say it wasn't taking a conscious effort to bring out the power up all the same, and not to say that it wasn't hurting him at all - pain was still shooting through his scrawny deer muscles as he channeled Ki through them.

"Kaio-what?" asked Ronno, advancing on the injured fawn. "C'mon Stumbles, quit kiddin' around! It's time I put this behind me!"

"My thoughts exactly, Ronno...!" grunted Corey in response, his power ready. "Kaioken!!!" His aura erupted around him, his body turning the same crimson color as his aura. Even in a corrupted state, it was clear that his opponent was surprised nonetheless by this change, but remained undaunted.

"You think turning a shade of red will save you?" questioned the corrupted fawn, that crooked smile spreading across his face.

"You're not the first one to make that mistake!" the Saiyan retorted, already knowing at least one animal in this forest besides Sonic knew the truth of where he and Corey were from. With a war cry, the Saiyan rushed forward, as did Ronno. Making sure to hold back, the scarf-wearing fawn headbutted his opponent with enough force to send him back several yards, into a tree, knocking him stupid.

I have to try and shake the evil energy out of him...! thought the Saiyan. Despite the acts he's done towards me and Bambi, he's still fundamentally not the worst possible character!

Opening his mouth, he began to channel energy towards the hole. He tried to focus his thoughts on only positive emotions, thoughts, memories. If he could just hit Ronno with a moderately charged version of this attack, surely it would purge the negative energy from hi--

A vision of Faline suddenly brought his other psyche out of hiding once more, disrupting his concentration. He quickly canceled the energy attack, guilt wrenching at every nerve.

What?! What the hell do you want from me?! Corey shouted at his inner self once again.

I am the deer instinct, remember? Bambi's not good enough for her! Even he said so! his inner self roared back.

No! The whole point of this trip was to give Bambi his self-esteem back! It was to help him win over Faline once more! Or at least start on that!

Yeah, but now that's useless! She's seen the Saiyan you in action, and now it's time for the deer you to get some!

Damn it...you just want all of it, and none of the work...! We're only pre-teens at best, you sick freak! I don't want to steal another's girl from him!

Sooner or later, you're going to look into those liquid blue eyes, and when you do, it's all over for you, you train-aholic! Later!

"Corey! You OK?" asked Sonic, looking over to Ronno. "He's getting up!!"

"Sonic...help me form this attack...!" Pain suddenly shot through Corey's every nerve as he remembered he was still in Kaioken state. "That other me could gain control at any minute...!"

Sonic's eyes widened, but he didn't seem to understand exactly what the Saiyan meant. He quickly leapt up onto Corey's head, and soon, the energy transfer was occurring. In Corey's once-more gaping mouth, a rainbow energy ball began to form. Ronno began to recover.

"Hey, no outside help, you coward!" shouted Ronno, getting back to his feet. At this point, the attack was as complete as it was going to get, and thus he crunched the ball into a mass of stars. He breathed the energy into Ronno's direction, who made no effort to evade. The darkened fawn stopped dead in his tracks, an expression of absolute pain in his eyes.

There was a composed silence for what seemed like hours, though Corey's innate combat senses told him that only ten seconds had elapsed, before the darker-furred Ronno seemed to look more like a shell - visibly cracking away to reveal the normal Ronno underneath. In a shower of energy stars, the corrupted shell that was once Corey's opponent faded from existence. At the same time, the Saiyan disengaged his Kaioken, feeling his muscles start to give out on him.

"Wha-?" Ronno started, looking around. "...I got real mad, then..." He caught sight of Corey, and seemed to actually be concerned. "...What...?"

"...are you looking at?" the Saiyan finished. He looked up to see his former opponent look somewhere between curious and terrified, as though he didn't understand how Corey had been injured. The confused fawn before him backed away, before scampering slowly off.

"...What do you mean, the 'other you'?" asked Sonic, whispering into his ear.

"The part of me...that..." Corey trailed off, uncomfortable at the thought. Sonic fell silent. "Where's Terror...?"

Sonic motioned to the recovering black fawn. With the blue hedgehog still on his head, Corey began to make his way towards the dark minion in question.

"By the way, what kind of move was that?" asked his smaller friend. "It seemed like you were having trouble charging it when your other self invaded your thoughts."

"It is meant to be composed of pure positive energy. When it comes into contact with those infected with evil, it disinfects them, in theory, also banishing the evil within them if they have any. Ronno is not inherently bad. He just needed someone to push him over the edge," Corey explained. "Looks like you got him good without my help..."

"Hey, I know how to fight even in this body!" retorted Sonic with a chuckle. "You forget that even Drew was impressed by our power."

"Hope we can return to our regular bodies before we see him again."

"Tell me about it."

Terror was struggling to his feet. He glared at the injured Corey and Sonic. However, this glare was not angry - it seemed to read that he was pleased about something.

"Admitting defeat, are you?" questioned Sonic.

"Not on your short-lived victory..." Terror retorted. "...Master Oskuro has just contacted me...he says he's getting closer and closer to the final Stone. And Tumult...my brother in your dimension, is preparing to make his move..."

"B-brother?!" Corey stuttered.

"In our home universe?!" Sonic finished.

"Close...to the final Stone?! Damn it all!" the Saiyafawn yelled. His eyes widened. "Wait...there's supposed to be some sort of filter in place...what's going on?!"

"The multiverse is becoming more and more unstable..." Terror said. "Not that it matters..."

"Get us back home, you dimension-hopping screwhead!" the blue hedgehog growled from atop Corey's head.

"You're not in the position to be making demands, you pure-hearted fools!" With that, Terror suddenly disappeared, a pulse of dark energy replacing his image. Corey and Sonic were both stunned.

"Urgh...damn it...!" the Saiyan grumbled, falling back on his rear in dread. "He's fled again..." His Ki sense picked up something a few miles away. "Wait...he's still here...? But why?"

"Maybe he wants to finish us off here?" Sonic asked, getting down from Corey's head. At this point, the extent of the injuries to his deer body made themselves known to the boy.

"Ugh...!" Corey grunted, feeling the pain from the eye laser wounds at last as he tried to get back to his four legs.

"Are you okay?!" Bambi's voice came to his ears. He and Faline were currently running up to him.

"F-fine! I thought I told you to--"

"This is a big problem for the forest, and I can't just leave all on the two of you! That dark-furred deer...he did that to Ronno, didn't he?" Bambi was going a mile a minute, trying desperately to process what was going on.

"Y-yeah, he did, but it's taken care of..." Struggling to his feet again, Corey began to limp in the direction of Terror's energy signature.

"Stop!" Faline called out to him, running over to the injured Saiyafawn's side as his back leg gave out, almost causing him to fall over.

He felt a warm body up against his. In shock, the Saiyan opened his eyes, and looked to his right. He saw a pair of blue eyes, looking with unexplainable concern into his own. It was obvious to Corey that she had saw all the things he'd done: eye lasers, the Kaioken, and the Stardust Breaker! And yet, despite the fact he knew that not even the Great Prince could safely pull off any single one of these feats, the fact that she'd seen him engaging in un-deer-like combat and was still significantly worried about him...His mind began to pull in two.

I told you! She finds you more attractive than the young prince! Now let me do the talking! said his deer half, which was clear and strong in volume in his mind.

N-no! I can't let myself...succumb to you...! Even if I wind up heartbroken in part...I can't let it stop...I've got no choice...! I've got to play that card from my past...!

Corey inhaled, ready to tell all of his past, his heritage, give them grounds to run from him-anything to get away from the current situation! But the sight of the blue eyes again was exaggerated by that dubious older half. Faline mouthed something to him, but he couldn't even read her lips much less hear her, for pain shot through his head. His brain burned as he realized at last what was about to happen to him. He felt his body weakening, as though responding to the change in personalities.

Drew...forgive me...but I can't fight my inner self anymore...! Sonic...Bambi...sorry, I can't...can't keep fighting this second psyche...it's become too powerful...too strong for me to keep in-check! I'm...fading...!

Heh! So you finally gave in, huh, train-aholic?! It's about time...from now on, I'M the Corey that inhabits this body!

And with that, the Saiyan personality that was Corey ceased to exist.
----------
Sonic watched his friend's facial cues after looking into Faline's eyes, and deduced that the Saiyan's strong will had somehow been broken by the second psyche he'd spoken of. Looking into the brown eyes, he could see that the life behind them had changed - rather than being quietly fierce, they were now soft and gentle, like most of the more pure-hearted denizens of this universe.

Bambi sighed beside him, and turned to Sonic. Strangely, he didn't seem as upset as he should've been over the fact that Corey essentially took his girl from him.

"I guess there's no helping it...thanks for tryin', though." he whispered, a small smile on his face. "Hey, you were fightin' too, weren't you?" This question was phrased to Sonic, who nodded.

"Yeah, I was, fighting that guy that just left, why?" Bambi lowered his head, asking the hedgehog to climb on board. "You know, I can run fast on my own..."

"C'mon, Sonic, let's leave these two alone," said Bambi, already moving with Sonic on his head.

What...just happened...? He's cool with Corey being with Faline, and now he's trying to fight Terror on his own? Is he...trying to die, or is he going to protect his kingdom? Either way, it looks like I won't be able to talk him out of it...Corey, if you're still in there, you've got to break its hold on you!

Back in Corey and Sonic's home universe, their friends had come up with a risky plan to try and find Oskuro and cut him off before the negative energy being could find the final Dimensional Stone. While they were at it, they would also see if they could find their displaced friends. The dimensional disturbances had been progressively getting worse, to the point even non-fighting civilians could see them and be frightened.

The Chaos Emeralds were to be gathered at the shrine on Angel Island. From there, Shadow, Edd, and Knuckles would all combine their powers and use Chaos Control to sear portals into the fabric of space and time, one for each Emerald. From there, each fighter would jump in a portal and see if they could find anything. However, the fighters did know that they might not be able to hold their humanoid forms for long given the physics of some universes - and some universes may not be habitable at all.

It was a huge gamble, but in the end, the group realized that they had no other choice. Within a few hours, thanks to the fact that there wasn't a major villain tracking them down, the heroes had amassed all seven Chaos Emeralds and put them on the spires surrounding the Master Emerald shrine.
------
Eddy was ready for anything that might come up as a result of the heroes' latest plan. Knuckles, Shadow, and Edd were all standing up on the Master Emerald's altar, each of them with one hand on the massive jewel of power. He cracked his knuckles.

It's time, he thought, watching the Chaos Emeralds glow. It's something we gotta do, or else nothing will go our way ever again...

"You ready, Eddy?" Drew asked from beside him.

"I was born ready," said the young boy cockily. To his other side were Ed, Zach and Streak. All of them looked over, and nodded. The Emeralds' glow began to burn brighter as the guardian of the Emeralds and the two best energy manipulators concentrated hard.

"The servers are the seven Chaos," Knuckles began. "Chaos is power...power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."

The Emeralds began to glow brighter and brighter, crackling with excess energy. The process was nearly complete. However, before they could finish, suddenly, Edd and Shadow stiffened. Not half a moment later, Eddy felt a rush of energy.

One split-second later, a black energy blast rushed at the altar, aimed straight at Knuckles. With no other option, the trio had to abandon the chant for the moment. Instantly, the Emeralds' powers ceased fluctuating, and they returned to glowing brightly without any energy crackling around them. All heads whirled around to see a humanoid male with pale skin, black hair, and dark purple eyes glaring down at them, floating in the air with a complacent smirk on his face. He wore a light gray T-shirt with black jeans.

"Who the hell are you?!" interrogated Drew, immediately going into his battle position.

"An agent of Master Oskuro," the man said, and with that, Eddy immediately went into alert. He looked to his friends, including Knuckles, Edd and Shadow, who had filled in positions to his left and right as well. They all seemed very alarmed. "I am Tumult. The chaos that is created when villains come and wreck things." He chuckled lightly. "My brother, Terror, is in another world right now with your friends."

"Terror and Tumult..." said Edd, as though thinking. "Truly fitting names for twins of darkness."

"Yes, isn't it though?" asked Tumult sarcastically. "In a sense, Master is our father, and we are twin brothers, both sowing seeds of destruction." As he spoke, Eddy noticed that Tumult's energy was rising. "Oskuro is already within grasp of the final Dimensional Stone. You're too late to stop him now!" The skies suddenly darkened slightly, and a moment later, the minion gave a loud yell. A jet black aura flared around him. His hair grew in length and spiked up and out. His muscles bulged and his eyes changed from purple to crimson.

Almost immediately, Streak, Shadow and Knuckles went to their super forms. Shadow's quills once more assumed the light gold color, while Knuckles turned from red to pink. Streak's quills spiked up and back, turning a light gold. A light orange lightning bolt appeared in his quills, and glowed when he finished powering up.

Ed, Edd, and himself all went to their False Super Saiyan forms, their attempts at reaching Drew and Zach's level still coming up short. Their appearances didn't change, though when Sockhead powered up, his hat seemingly burned to cinders due to the rush of power.

Zach and Drew once more went to the level of Super Saiyan. Tumult merely gave a laugh.

"Come at me then. I promise I will show you all to your doom!"

With that, the fight was on. Streak was the first to reach Tumult, having turned into an orange mass of light. He performed a lightning kick, which the minion avoided with ease. Streak began to strike out with more punches and kicks. Knuckles soon joined him, but neither one were landing any good hits. In fact,Tumult didn't even seem to be affected by their assault!

"Come on, is this all you animals can do?" he asked, grinning malevolently. "Hardly worth my time!" He grabbed them both by the throat, and chucked them in the direction of the Master Emerald shrine. He followed their falling bodies, seemingly shooting a black Ki bolt into the air at random. Just as the echidna and hedgehog recovered, he slammed them into the shrine hard enough to stun them.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow roared as he shot yellow bolts of light to Tumult. Eddy watched as the Ki bolt that was shot into the air suddenly came streaking back down to the scene, blasting the hedgehog in the back and straight towards Tumult. The Chaos Spears drew closer, but the minion quickly batted those to the side, before grabbing Shadow by his chest fur, and piledriving him next to Streak and Knuckles. He then sped out of the shrine, and raised his hand.

"I'll deal with you later..." he grunted, a black orb on his head. It pulsed, and so did the Emeralds. For a moment, not a single Saiyan moved. Just then, a dark energy field appeared around the Emeralds and the animals. Shadow, Knuckles, and Streak attacked at the barrier, but their attacks were utterly useless - too weak to even crack the energy.

Tumult laughed once again, during which Eddy made his move, rushing forth with the Light Speed Attack. He flew around and around, seemingly too fast for the minion to keep up. While he did this, Edd began to charge a Fire Masenko. As he saw Ed also go in for a distracting shot, he decided to move in close. He went in for a punch, but his wrist was caught by the minion.

"They won't be in this fight now," Tumult said. "And at this rate, neither will you!" With that, he began to punch at Eddy's ribs, causing intense pain. In this moment, as the minion continued to beat him senseless, something occurred in Eddy's mind as he began to plot power levels for the first time in a while.

The...only ones who...can defeat...him are...Zach and Drew...?! G-give me a break...! Eddy thought, his anger at the fact he was being upstaged in a show with his name in the title still fresh in his mind.

"LET HIM GO YOU MONSTER!" Ed yelled in anger, increasing his flight speed. In response, Tumult began to cock his arm back. Almost immediately, the boy knew where this was going.

"Wait...!" he grunted, but it was too late. A moment later, Eddy saw an extreme close-up of Ed's shirt, his head firmly rammed into his friend's gut. Then he felt the burning pain of a ki blast exploding on his back.

"MASENKO-HA!" Edd screeched, unleashing his attack. At this point, Ed and Eddy recovered, though due to the damage that last attack alone did to them, reverted to normal. Eddy watched as his lifelong friend blasted a beam of fire to the enemy, only to have it be charged into by the enemy. A few short moments later, Ol' Sockhead was just as beat up as he and Ed were, reverting to normal as he crashed to the ground.

"Ow..." Ed groaned. "My everything hurts..."

"...Gentlemen...Drew and Zach...they're the only ones that can stand up to him..." the smartest of the trio observed, getting up on his hands and knees following his spill. The three watched as the two Super Saiyans began to fight Tumult, and were faring far better than any of the other six heroes that fought so far.

"When are we going to get our turn to kill major villains?!" Eddy grunted weakly, trying to stand on his two feet. "This series is named after us, and we're being shafted painfully!"

"Eddy..." Double-D said, turning to him. "While I share your sentiments on the matter, I'm afraid that since this isn't canon to the main continuity and is in fact very different as a whole, it qualifies more as a spinoff."

Drew landed a punch that sent Tumult back as the the three Eds continued to banter about their roles in this fanfic. This was followed by the dark minion intercepting a few of Zach's kicks with his own, before punting him away and punching the Goku lookalike in the jaw before getting into a heated exchange of punches and kicks. Ultimately, neither side could win out, and thus both jumped away from each other's position. At this point, Zach teleported in to Tumult's side, and caught him offguard with a large golden energy blast at point-blank range.

"Spinoff, schminoff," Eddy mused as he continued to watch the fight.

"Why do you think not many chapters have taken place here?" Edd questioned. "These chapters are almost filler!"

"Does this mean we become back as part of the main plot?" Ed interrogated dumbly, having since gotten to his feet despite his injuries.

"Yes, indeed we do Ed. And, uh, Eddy, if you dislike the lack of a role we have in this spinoff, wait until you hear this..." At this point, Edd began to whisper something into both his and Ed's ears. For a moment, the former scammer was disinterested in the idea of a sequel to this, but when he heard what that sequel was, his eyes widened considerably. And not because of the fact that Tumult recovered from a point-blank ki blast.

"What kind of drugs are they on?!" asked Eddy, almost yelling it out at the top of his lungs, just as Tumult managed to dash Drew and Zach's heads together in a comical fashion, only to be kicked in the face by both the Saiyans at once, sending him cartwheeling through the air. Ed shrugged, but laughed giddily in spite of what he had just heard. The smartest of the Saiyans, meanwhile, shrugged and said:

"After all that's transpired so far in this series and all the other works by SSJRandomMaster, I'm only moderately surprised by the content of the sequel. But, Eddy, I do agree that we're being shuffled out of the spotlight just a little too much, even given the fact we're still trainees in this continuity."

With this in mind, the short Saiyan finally decided to drop the subject. He continued to watch the ongoing fight bitterly, not noticing the skies of his world were getting to be a darker color...
--------
Zach charged forward, chasing after Tumult's cartwheeling form. As he drew in close for a gut punch, suddenly, his opponent transformed into a dark mist and seemed to vanish into thin air. However, the Vegeta lookalike knew better, and began to search out his opponent's energy. Thankfully, Drew was watching out for him.

"Behind you!" he called out. Zach whirled around to see the minion ready to hammer him into the ground, and quickly moved to defend from this. Air pressure exploded around the combatants as contact was made. From behind his enemy, he could see Drew charging a Super Kamehameha, and thus opted to engage Tumult in some one-on-one melee combat, both combatants moving at hypersonic speeds as they clashed against each other, leaving golden and black trails of energy in the skies above.

The combatants were evenly matched, though the Saiyan in the fight began to struggle within a few moments, as Tumult was a hair stronger than he was. Zach landed a punch, but Tumult gave him a good karate-chop in return. Eventually, both the combatants hit the dirt on Angel Island, in a test of strength. A crater began to form at their feet due to the sheer pressure the two were exerting on one another. Just then, a blue pulse radiated from Drew's direction.

"HA!!" Drew yelled, firing the blue beam down. Taking advantage of the minion's confusion, Zach hammered him across the face to stun him long enough for the attack to seemingly hit. The explosion lit up the skies surrounding the island. Smoke billowed from the crater. For a moment, it seemed like the fight was over, until a raspy laugh sounded from inside the smoke. Tumult didn't seem to be harmed that much from the blast, and raised his hand into the air.

"It'll take more than that for you to kill me..." he taunted, firing multiple black energy blasts into the air. They seemed to hover for just a moment, but when Tumult casually waved his hand down, the blasts streaked towards the Saiyans. Gazing quickly over to the Eds, he saw they were combining their powers at False Super Saiyan to shield themselves from the blast with a large barrier. Drew was deflecting the bolts at random as they moved to him. Zach crossed his arms and legs and tanked all of the blasts that were headed for him, stunning him long enough for Tumult to blindside him with a kick to the back.

"Same here, Tumult!" Drew taunted, lowering his barrier as Zach recovered. "You alright?"

"Yeah, I am. Eds are OK, too." said the Saiyan in response, as he prepared to commence the second round...

The unclear world in the young prince's mind finally began to make sense. Ronno's change, Corey's strange behaviors, that strange dark-colored fawn...it all was slowly being pieced together. Bambi could not comprehend it, and yet, somehow, it made more sense than all the other conclusions he and his friends had come to regarding the strange pair, Corey and Sonic.

They weren't forest animals at all. Bambi felt it through the vibrations - his father had told him to feel the forest; and now that he could feel it, he could see clear as day that there was something big going on here in this forest - something beyond even the threat of Man. And when he'd asked Sonic about the truth, he saw resignation in his eyes - the blue hedgehog had clearly known that there was no use denying it anymore.

"...and that's the whole story of how we got here," Sonic finished relaying his story. The young prince, still running in the direction where he sensed the fawn named Terror, was absolutely bewildered by the tale, and yet, even though his father had told him to not believe every single thing he heard, it made a lot more sense when he considered Corey's scarf and Sonic's coloration - not to mention the former's prowess at fighting or the strange grunts he'd done when he first confronted Ronno.

"So you're telling me that whole thing with the lights and explosions happens all the time where you're from?" Continuing to run, Bambi questioned Sonic. "You guys must be...!"

"Monsters?" Sonic asked. "Not so much me, but Corey and his Saiyan friends-"

"Well, I was going to say 'superheroes', but that works too!" Bambi responded. "...But the deer you were fighting is not even the biggest problem?"

"No, it isn't," the hedgehog continued. "Hey, are you OK? You look like you're really exerting yourself."

"I'll be fine," the young fawn assured, though one could tell by looking into his eyes that his eyes were bloodshot with determination, and his breathing was still very shallow from a mix of fear, uncertainty, and anger. Vibrations ran through Bambi's hooves again, and he stopped dead in his tracks for a few moments.

What's he doing there?! Corey did something to him that made him go back to normal, but what is he doing with Terror?! For the first time since meeting him, Bambi distinctly felt concern for Ronno, wondering what his rival was doing with the worst enemy the forest had ever seen.
---
Well, that's that, Bambi now knows what's really going on here...but why does he look concerned only now...? Sonic thought, watching the young deer's actions.

"We've gotta find out what's up with this..." Bambi seemed to be saying this more to himself than anything, but the resolve was clear in his voice. The rest of the trip to the location in question went without major incident, but when they got there, both hedgehog and deer gave a gasp.

"That's...Ronno...!" Sonic grunted, leaping off Bambi's head. "What are you doing here?"

Ronno turned to regard the newcomers, a wicked smile reflected on his face. His eyes, once green, were now red. A black smoke seemed to dance off his features.

"Ah, the Young Prince...and Little Blue too..." he said. "Looks like Stumbles couldn't make it to the party...oh well, guess he'll just have to live with what'll happen here..."

Terror looked directly at Sonic, a wicked smile on his face.

"What have you done to him?!" the hedgehog angrily yelled, taking his feral battle pose.

"Nothing. He came to find me on his own...it seems your attack hadn't completely succeeded in exorcising the progress of his rage, his resentment. As long as a negative emotion exists within my target's heart, it is rather easy to turn that into power..." Terror summarized.

"When I saw what I had done to Stumbles," Ronno interrupted, looking from his rival to Sonic as he continued, the black smoke still growing in volume around his body. "I knew it had something to do with power. Then he did something weird," he nodded to Terror, "and brought me here..."

It all made sense: Corey's interference had caused extra anger to well up in Ronno's heart. Terror's power could manipulate it. The second psyche's interference had leaked its own...Sonic could call it lustful...influence into Corey's heart, tainting the attack. And Sonic was basically adding ones to tens since Corey was using the Kaioken at the time.

"This time, I was able to complete the procedure. You, and all of those with pure good in their hearts, will finally be destroyed!" Oskuro's minion continued, black smoke appearing around him. His antlers extended, and were tipped with black. The rest of them were tinted blue, as was his fur. "This should be enough to take care of you, hedgehog..."

Ronno was finally engulfed in the black smoke, but for only a moment. His antlers extended a fair amount, and were tipped with red. His brown fur was now shades of gray and black. The malevolent smile that usually coated his face was now almost pure evil in nature.

"C'mon, Bambi, let's see what you've got this time! No running!" Ronno called out. Bambi gave a sudden growl in annoyance-no, Sonic thought, not annoyance. Rage.

"I...I...I will not..." The fear of the unfolding event before him was evident in his voice, but the rage was canceling out the physical cues of his fear. To this day, Sonic maintains, that in this moment, seeing as how he dealt with Ki in some way every single time, that he saw the young deer start to glow a light brown color, faint, but still there. "I...I will not let you destroy anything here! This is my home! And even if I have to take down Ronno, I will!"

"Take me down? Bambi, I don't think you get it!" his rival responded. "The only ones being taken down are both of you!" With that, Ronno and Bambi charged one another, and butted heads. As the deer began to fight, the latter doing surprisingly well given the former's explicit power-up, Sonic decided to make the first move against Terror, who once again began preparing his defenses, a blue-black shield of energy once again surrounding his form as he charged towards the hedgehog. In response, Sonic curled up into a ball and began to do what he did best: spindashing.

He lurched forward once he felt he had attained enough momentum, but made hard contact with the shield. Though Sonic couldn't see anything from his position, he could feel some inexplicably impossible-to-overcome pressure on his body as he tried to break through. He attempted a mid-air Sonic Boost, and felt the barrier give for only a moment. Then, pain shocked throughout his body as the dark minion forced energy into his shield.

"Come on, little rat, what happened to all that power you tried to use on me earlier?" he asked as Sonic finally bounced off, body smoking from the impact. The hedgehog rolled to his feet again, intensely dazed from the attack.

He's strong!! Way stronger than before! If I don't watch it, I'll be in bad shape! Sonic thought, going in for more attacks, only to be rebuffed with not even the slightest effort from Terror. And each time, the pain in his body only grew, while his opponent wasn't even winded.

Bambi was not faring any better against Ronno, however, his will and his anger kept him going. Since the latter was unable to manipulate Ki well, he was going blow-for-blow with the former, who was hanging in there. The deer seemed to be on the losing end though, but was doing better overall, given he was making Ronno wince occasionally.

It's going to take a miracle if we're going to get out of this alive...! Corey, come to your senses man! the cobalt hedgehog thought, already winded severely from his previous attempts at attacking Terror, who was unfazed by the repeated assaults. He glanced over to the other battle, to find Bambi was starting to become winded. It's not just the fate of this world at stake anymore! It's everyone's world!
---
Corey and Faline, the latter supporting the former's weight due to the fact he'd sustained terrible injuries only a minute or so prior, began to make their way slowly towards the fight. Both of them were pretty much in love with the other, or so it seemed. The Saiyan's body was no longer his, his psyche having been destroyed by the newly formed deer psyche.

"Corey, with all that muscle, you weigh a little more than you think you do..." Faline groaned against the added weight. "I know you're not going to like this idea, but I need to rest for just a little bit."

"You do look pretty tired," Corey noted, though his words were only part-his. He would have said those anyway, but something was preventing the second psyche from turning that into a pick-up line. Undeterred, the dormant instinct continued. "We should stop for a moment, but I've got to help my friends all the same."

"I just don't understand you," the doe observed with a pained smile. "Even though you're hurt that bad, you still want to fight anyway?"

"Of course. It's what I do." the fawn responded. "I fight for those I care about...and against those that don't care for others. I don't exactly care what happens to me in the process..."

"Corey..." Faline whispered, closing her eyes in thought. A moment later, Corey was faced with an unmistakable kiss-face.

Finally, this is what I've been waiting for! the deer psyche said, and began to operate the body it had taken.

I don't think so! Fading into existence again, was the true Corey. Though his psyche had been eroded moments prior, he was still able to sense Ki just as he was used to do...and he could sense Sonic and Bambi were in great danger! There are far more important things than whatever you have in mind! Besides, she's not yours!

What?! The "Saiyan spark" in Corey's eyes began to return, as did his real personality. His deer personality was now fading, but was struggling to resist the resurgence. Get back in there! This is no longer your body now!

Like hell you're taking my body for a selfish gain! Bambi is the only deer that truly deserves her heart! This is just not the right time or the right place! Corey's body drew back.

"Corey...?" the doe observed, confused. "Are you...?"

"Never better...!" Corey responded aloud. "Just got a bug to work out is all!"

"Bug...?"

Now listen here, you prick! You're not me! I don't know where the hell you came from, but I do know that even if Drew wouldn't kill me if he found out about this, I'm not even sure if I'm ready for any serious relationships! And in the forest, things are either nonexistent, or serious, if home is anything to go on! Corey screamed at his inner second psyche.

D-damn...you...! I...I... The second psyche began to fade, and soon its voice was nothing more than a whisper, and finally, nothing at all.

"What's going on?" Faline asked. Corey turned to her, and noticed that whatever attraction he'd held for her had completely faded out with his second psyche.

"Faline, I know this is obvious, but Sonic and me, shouldn't be here in your forest. This is probably not handling things in the best way possible, but...I do know, that we just don't work." The Saiyan almost wanted to slam his head into a tree from how that sounded, but he couldn't find any better way to put what he was trying to say. "It's true, I am noble, sometimes to a fault, and sometimes I try risky things even if I don't think they work."

Faline appeared to be upset, but was in some sort of trance, her eyes reflecting this deeply.

"Right now, Bambi's laying down his life for this forest, and possibly even for you, even though right now, he thinks we're pretty much into each other." Trying to keep up his speedy summary, Corey disregarded any innuendo his statements were causing. "But he's fighting an enemy only I can handle. But he needs you there. Don't ask how I know...I'm going ahead...for some reason, I feel I can run miles, even with these wounds. Look inside yourself...and you'll see that Bambi's the one that's meant for you. I don't know how I know this. I'm no Cupid, but I know."

"'Cupid'?" Faline asked. "That's right...you really aren't from this forest, are you? No deer I know can shoot lights from his eyes..."

"There's no time...I've got to get to the scene of battle!" Corey blurted out. "You can follow as soon as you've searched your heart and mind, and found what I'm asking you to look at."

With that, the Saiyafawn ran out of the clearing, following his Ki sense, leaving the doe alone with her thoughts.
----
Back in Corey's home universe, his cousins were continuing to wage their attack on Terror's brother, Tumult, while the other heroes watched. Tumult was beat up, bleeding dark blue in a few places, but so were Drew and Zach, the former's upper shirt ripped off and the latter's shirt torn across the left side of his torso. They were both bleeding red from cuts on their arms, legs and faces.

"No matter how much we throw at him, he's just not dying!" Drew yelled. "I swear I punctured a hole in his chest with my Special Beam Cannon!"

"Looks like we've got to extinguish every cell of his being in order to kill him," Zach observed. "Quite powerful for a minion."

"You can't hope to overcome my power...and it's only getting worse for you..." Tumult taunted. "Get a load of this: even if you do manage to kill me, it's already too late. Master is closing in on the final Dimensional Stone now, and soon he will have the powers of all five...it is time a multiverse of purity ends..."

"Like hell it will!" the older of the Super Saiyans yelled, his aura flaring bright yellow around him as he charged Tumult, landing a kick to the minion's throat, catching him by surprise. He then caught him in a full nelson, and piledrived him into the ground, letting go just milliseconds before impact. Zach took up the fight by grabbing the negative energy being by the ankle and chucking him back into the air, before firing a one-handed Galick Gun into his back, causing a moderate explosion.

As the fight continued, Zach and Drew working together to gain a slight upper-hand on Tumult, the Eds and the animal fighters, from their respective locations, could only watch, the former knowing they were outclassed due to not being Super Saiyans, and the latter trapped with a barrier created by the minion.

"Come on, guys, if you're the only ones that can beat him, at least do it quick!" Eddy called out.
----
Meanwhile, in another universe, Oskuro was firmly locked-on to the signature of the final Dimensional Stone. He'd already secured the other four, and had been impeded in his search by the energy drain from fighting the Saiyans, Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles before. But recently, he'd been able to fully recover, and with Terror and Tumult dispatched to eliminate and stall the heroes, respectively, he knew his plan was coming to fruition.

I sense two weak power levels close to the final Stone's location... the pure evil thought to himself as he continued his flight, killing anything that got too close to him with his aura alone. As previously stated, he resembled Frieza's second form, with black where the white would be, red where the pinkish-purple would be, and dark blue where the purple would be. Eventually, the Frieza-lookalike reached the final Stone.

"Hold it right there, you ugly freakin' son-of-a-bitch!" one of the energy sources yelled, a green gecko. "Me and my friend here know what you're all about, and we don't like it! This is a first, isn't it? Two heroes from completely different universes, having battled different types of enemies as per their different arch-nemeses, working together to defeat a common foe? What do you say, Crash, wanna take this guy down a peg?"

The orange bandicoot, Crash, said nothing - or at least, nothing in English, speaking in high-pitched garbled gibberish.

"I'll take that as a yes..."

"Fools! You couldn't even beat one of my minions, let alone me! Do you really think you can stop me from taking the final Dimensional Stone?" Oskuro asked, floating down to eye level, flaring his inky dark blue aura in a threatening manner.

"We've got our own secret weapons! Here, let's show you what we can do!" the gecko continued, sneering-or smiling, Oskuro couldn't tell-at him.

"Hm, you've got spirit at least. The one on the left is named 'Crash', what about you, reptile?"

"The name's Gecko," the lizard replied-strangely, three remote-like objects, red, silver, and gold, began to revolve around him. "Gex Gecko!" He absorbed the objects, and suddenly, his scales began to fluctuate in color between the hues of the objects he'd just absorbed. "And I'm...in control!"

"YEE-HAW!" Crash squealed, several glowing purple crystals appearing around him. A few moments later, six gems of varying colors and shapes appeared around him, and three...Oskuro assumed they were relics...sapphire, gold, and platinum. Like Gex, he too, absorbed these mysterious items, and powered up. His mohawk was purple, and spiked up a bit. His eyes, once green, now flashed with the colors of the relics he'd absorbed. His fur fluctuated between the colors of the gems.

"Fine then, if you want to suffer and die!" Oskuro yelled, and all three of them flew into battle, each side determined to stop the other from fulfilling its plans.
----
The young prince of the forest could not believe what was happening now. Ronno had given in to his darkness, and that strange fawn, Terror, was clobbering Sonic worse and worse as the scene progressed. Bambi himself was injured, but stubbornly continued to stand. He couldn't place why he was getting up again right away. He'd already sustained terrible puncture wounds to his right side and a nasty-looking cut on the other, caused by Ronno's antlers.

"Finally admitting defeat, Bambi?" his opponent asked, his nature not masked at all by the nature of his transformation. "About time you realized how hopeless it really is for you!"

Something stirred within Bambi once again. He knew this feeling was anger, but it was a lot stronger. He had realized the hopelessness of his situation, but even as he considered this, it only made his indignation grow rather than deplete.

"...It may be hopeless..." Bambi grunted through his clenched teeth. "But...I can't...I won't give up...! He wouldn't..." Thoughts of his new friend encouraged him. Images of all that Corey had done for him ran through his mind - he had tried his hardest to get Bambi to bring his best, even if that best was something he'd never thought he'd had. "...Even though...even though I find his story, hard to believe, he still has more character than you'll ever have..."

"You talking about Stumbles, princess? Why isn't he here then? Guess he must have been too scared to come this way!"

"Take that back, Ronno..." The anger ran hot through his aching muscles, soothing the pain, his muscles tensed up.

"I'm sorry, was that a royal command?"

"I said...TAKE IT BACK!!" Bambi roared with rage. He charged, and crashed his head against Ronno's, dazing them both. The smoky shroud that had covered Ronno a few moments before faded, and his opponent had clearly taken a heavy hit. However, the young prince's own vision began to blur.

"Bambi!" he heard Sonic yell. This was then followed a weird sound, then Terror speaking.

"Worry about yourself!" he said. There was a small explosion, and Sonic gave an audible groan of agony as he was thrown back.

"Why...you..." Ronno grunted, having recovered from the attack. "...I actually felt that...it's been a good run Bambi, but I'm afraid I'll have to run you through for that one!"

"R-run me thr--"

Ronno headbutted his head up before he could finish, with enough force to send Bambi on his back legs. A few moments later, the young prince felt an unspeakable pressure in his torso, his chest. He looked down. Piercing the flesh was Ronno's antler, and fresh blood...his blood...began to run down the bone.

The young prince's vision began to blur as he realized the mortality of his wound.

Father...Corey...Faline...everyone...I'm sorry...I couldn't do it...Mother...it looks like...I'll be seeing you soon...after all...please...finish this fight...someone... he thought, feeling the antler be removed from the chasm it had caused.
-------
Ronno gave a terrible victory shout, the blood of his rival still flowing freshly down his elongated antler. Sonic, critically injured, could only watch as Corey's latest trainee was felled by the very deer he had pissed off when he first arrived. Terror watched the scene, a malevolent smile on his face.

"See that over there?" Terror asked. "That is but a sample of the impending, permanent evil victory that is so rightly ours!"

"...Bambi...!" Sonic groaned, trying to get up.

"It looks like Corey's either given in to his second psyche, or he's just not fast enough with those injuries...now, you rat, it's time to say good night."

"Well, well..." Ronno started, looking past the unconscious body of Bambi to a clearing in the thicket. He began backing away from the body. "If it isn't Stumbles himself...and Faline too...you brought her back for me? Great, you're actually good for something..."

Corey and Faline both weren't paying attention. Faline looked toward the body of Bambi, tears desperately welling up in her eyes. Corey walked towards the body.

"What have you done...Terror...?" he said, his voice wavering between anger and sadness. He sounded terribly off key.

"Take a look at his body, Corey. As far as I know, this was Oskuro's intention...to use those impure of heart to kill those with nothing but pure good in their hearts...you and Sonic are next! As for Faline..."

"...You...psychotic...bastards...!"

Sonic heard the unbridled fury in Corey's words, and almost recoiled were it not for the fact it wasn't directed at him specifically. He then noticed something strange...was Corey's fur starting to change color?

The morphed Saiyan gazed down upon Bambi's unconscious, severely if not mortally wounded form. He watched the blood, fresh as new spring grass, flow from the impalement wound, and as he continued to stare, he felt his anger grow, piercing every cell of his body. It was a mixture of self-resentment, which had been welling up in him ever since his first confrontation with Ronno, joined with righteous rage, which he had so often felt since he had started fighting.

"...Damn it all...!" he fell to his stomach, next to Bambi, his body glowing with green sparks of Ki. "...If only my will had been stronger...!" He banged his chin on the ground. Emotions pulled at his vocal cords, forcing him to say things his rational mind already knew would make no sense. "I should have taught him more of what I knew...!" Again, his chin hit the dirt. Beside him, he could hear the sobs of the doe, Faline, who ran to the side of the young prince, trying desperately to rouse him, nothing short of screaming his name, shaking his body.

Watching the scene unfold right in front of his eyes caused Corey's rage to further in depth. And at the same time, a certain hopelessness began to well up in his heart. The only thing he could really do in this body to increase his power was the Kaioken, and even then, he'd be lucky if he could take it even one-tenth as far as he needed to take it to beat the powered-up Ronno and Terror.

What can I do now? What the hell can I do now?! At this point, a voice within his psyche, no, two, came forth in his head.

Listen to yourself, Corey! This was Drew's voice. The fact you can manage Ki attacks in that hideous body should be enough for you to see you're not at your limit!

Remember your training with us right before all this happened? You were trying to be a Super Saiyan, but couldn't do it! You lacked the right motivation! When it happened to me and Drew, we were subjected to intense rage, and yes, the same hopelessness you're feeling now! Zach's voice rang loud and clear in his head.

But in a deer's body?! I don't know if I can... Corey began to think back to what he had managed to do in his current physical state.

Terror is concealing more power than you think he is... said the older of his cousins in response, and just as he finished that statement, the young Saiyafawn could just sense it. Are you going to let Terror and that deer prove they're better than you?!

Are you going to let them get away with what they did to him?! He could tell Zach was referring to Bambi on that statement.

"...No...I won't..." Corey said aloud, getting back to his feet. His body was suddenly overflowing with new power, and he could feel the anger strengthening it, making it stronger. The vision of his cousins faded, and he could see the scene before him clearly again. His muscles bulged visibly, but the sparks coating his body began to change from green to yellow. His fur began to change color as well, from shades of brown and black to varying shades of gold.

"Won't what, Stumbles?" Ronno asked, furthering his rage.

"...I...I won't...I won't let you get away with this...! This nightmare ends...now..." The fur on his head began to stand on end, and his eyes changed color - the iris light green, the pupil taking on a very dark green tone. The sparks began to solidify into flecks of flame, and traveled erratically around his body. Seeing Ronno laughing, almost perfectly in tune with Terror finally pushed him past his limit. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! THIS ENDS NOW!!" The features of his body, which had been fluctuating, finally solidified, his aura a golden flame wreathed around his body...
-----
Faline gazed over to Corey, her expression agape, tears still flowing. He had completely changed his appearance, and she could tell just by the tone of his voice he was beyond furious. Somehow, she understood something was happening, and threw herself over Bambi's body, shielding the wound from the dust the deer before her had kicked up.

What...are they...Corey and Sonic? was her only other thought as the dust settled.
-----
A pulse of energy radiated through his mind. It was so familiar that it was unmistakably his displaced friend, and yet it felt alien somehow all the same. Double-D stood up after sensing this, and called out:

"Gentlemen, I think that was Corey I just sensed! But...at the same time...it wasn't him...he was..." It dawned on him. "He was a Super Saiyan...!"

"What?!" Eddy piped in. "Heh...maybe this whole thing against Oskuro isn't such a lost cause after all..."

Little did any of the heroes know, Corey's little transformation had caused a further weakening in the dimensional barriers. Above them, the sky became more cracked, dark red lines against the light blue.
-----
Corey's body was overflowing with new power. He looked down at himself, in disbelief. No matter which way he had tried to put it, inside, he was still a Saiyan, and when that Saiyan got pissed, filled with a mix of hopelessness and rage, the Super Saiyan within him fully emerged. The newly formed Super Saiyan looked down again on the scene in front of him. He charged golden energy in his mouth, aiming to heal Bambi with his own Ki.

"...You've...changed...!" Faline observed. The Super Saiyafawn paid no mind to it, breathing the energy directly down on the injured Bambi. The energy went towards the wounds on his body, and began speeding up the healing process. The bleeding stopped, the wounds healed, and displaced, matted fur began to become clean.

"...W..." Bambi began, not expecting the turn of events. "...What...? I'm...alive...?"

"...B...Bam..." Faline looked down upon the newly healed fawn, tears welling up in her eyes as she squealed his name in joy, burying her face in his matted fur.

"Sonic." Corey merely said, turning to the injured hedgehog. Using the same energy he had used on Bambi, he shot it long distance to the blue speedster, and within moments, whatever injuries he had suffered while Corey wasn't in control of his body were healed, as though they'd never been inflicted.

"...Y-you..." Ronno started. He then only seemed to realize what was going on between Bambi and Faline, and snarled. "Hey! Get away from her!" He charged the couple.

It happened quicker than any of the assembled animals could bat an eye. Before Ronno could realize it, Corey had appeared right in front of his path. Far before he could even think to launch a counter-attack on him, the Super Saiyafawn had landed a counterstrike of his own, landing a critical headbutt on the deer, causing his eyes to roll up blank as he was sent flying back. One tree impact later, the rival of the young prince was at last knocked out. His fur reverted to normal, but something strange happened. The dark energy that had filled his being seemed to leak out through his fur, and trail towards Terror.

"......Master warned me of this transformation. I don't know how you attained it, and I don't care...but I am going to end you right here..." Terror said, for the first time looking as though he were taking things seriously. His fur darkened in color, his eyes became pure white, and his entire body gained a purple glow. He appeared like a specter more than a deer now. "I'll use my full power to kill you, Super Saiyan!"

"Bring it on then! It's time I finished things here anyway!" said Corey, and soon the two charged each other, a yellow aura clashing with a black one...
-------
Bambi was absolutely shocked by two things: one, that he had been brought back from certain death; two, that Corey was now bigger than he was before, and was golden in color! He was sure of it now more than ever; whatever Corey and Sonic were, they weren't exactly represented well by their current bodies. What shocked him equally as much, however, was that Faline was nuzzling him in the manner she had.

"...F-Faline..." he whispered. "...I thought you...I thought you and Corey were..."

"...There is something we've all learned from all this," responded the doe after some silence as the clashing of wills echoed throughout the forest, uprooting individual grass blades as flecks of light danced off the warring fawns. "Nothing is ever as it seems. Yes, I did think for a little bit that maybe he was the one for me. But...I don't think I could live with someone so...brutal. He's gotten himself into more fights than I think he's letting on..."

"But I ran over here and I almost...I almost..." Bambi was even more confused right now.

"...You did what you had to do. Corey probably is in the same thing, but he probably has to deal with it on a lot bigger scale. This is the kind of thing I'd expect out of a story told by Thumper..." observed Faline, recalling how the rabbit tended to exaggerate details when it came to things. It was then, Bambi remembered what Sonic had told him: they really weren't what they appeared.

"S-Sonic...told me everything..." Bambi started.

As he delved into what the hedgehog had informed him of, he was sure of it, especially when, amidst the chaotic battle unfolding nearby, they shared a hug, and even laughter. They were back together, and no one from this world or the next could drive them apart...

No one, that is, except one...
--------
The fight was going mostly even. Crash and Gex thought they could hold him off long enough for their energy to combine with the artifact they had both been tasked to guard from their respective universes. In fact, their attacks were causing the dark energy being to stagger back and take damage. Gex used a crescent wave energy wave with his tail to hit Oskuro back. Crash then proceeded to use a Death Tornado Spin on Oskuro, smacking him with each rotation of his body. Energy whirled around him, adding to the damage.

But in a moment's breath, all their efforts were negated. Oskuro appeared behind Gex, grabbing him by the tail, which caused the tail to be pulled off. He then grabbed a kick from the bandicoot and threw him into the gecko. While the two were reeling from the big hit, the dark being made a beeline for the final Dimensional Stone.

By the time they realized what had happened, it was too late. He absorbed its power instantly, and his body began to undergo another transformation. His body began to fill with white cracks from top to bottom as he continued to gather his strength. Finally, as a vortex of black energy seemed to fill the very universe they were in, the body broke away. Now, he resembled Frieza's final form, with a black main body, yellow eyes and blue "armor" spots on his head, shoulders, and abdomen. The scariest part of this? He wasn't even at full power.

"Your efforts have failed, Crash, Gex." he said, with a self-confident smirk on his face. "Now, it's time for you to be the first victims of this, the one who will permanently alter the fate of all evil in reality itself!"

"Like hell you will!" the gecko yelled, both of them charging together.

"You damned fools..." he said, raising his hands and knocking them back with a gust of air. Gex recovered from this attack, but Oskuro was behind him in an instant. With one push forward, Gex was totally off-guard. With a black energy blast into the gecko's back, the gecko was incinerated by the point-blank blast to the back. The blast exploded in the distance, taking whatever was left. Blasting the tail that was earlier discarded and had reverted to its regular green hue, he turned his attention to the stunned Crash.

He rushed in. The bandicoot stood no chance. Punches and kicks seemed to spill quart after quart of blood from the bandicoot. He then took out another black energy blast, and punched the bandicoot in the gut with his free hand. Proceeding to shove the ball down his throat, it was clear: No survivors would be left of this battle except for Oskuro.

"Now you die!" Oskuro yelled, releasing the blast. The body of the hero expanded until finally, the body exploded in blood and gore, leaving Oskuro alone to channel the five Stones' powers. He reflected on what power he had just used.

"This...this is the power to change dimensions. Reality is mine to command and control now!" The Dimensional Stones began to revolve around him, and began to take the form of blurs of light as he channeled their power. "I will transport all of them, Terror, Tumult, and those who opposed me before, as well as anyone nearby...to the center of the multiverse. It is time I deal with all of them personally. I want to vanquish the final hope...with my own hands!!"

With that, the Stones released pulse after pulse of negative energy, breaking the weakened dimensional barriers as they continued to undulate...Oskuro himself vanished in white light...
------
Back in Corey's home universe, Zach and Drew, using their Super Saiyan forms, were beginning to overwhelm Tumult with their combined attacks. The minion was notably fatigued from the repeated attacks. Corey's cousins were too, but they had strength in numbers, considering each one individually was around Tumult's level of power.

"We've got to finish this now..." Drew said. Just then, something loud sounded above them.

"The sky is falling!" Ed yelled stupidly. All heads went to the sky, just in time to see the sky fully shatter like a pane of glass, and appear more like a swirling vortex. White light came out of this vortex, and as it burned brighter, another sound-sort of like glass breaking, sounded out loud. Before the light completely blinded him, Drew looked over to see that Shadow, Streak and Knuckles had been freed from the prison.

Tumult laughed, horrible and victorious.

"It's too late...nothing will save any of you now!"

And the light exploded around the heroes. When it cleared, there wasn't a trace. The Master Emerald had been taken by the light too. That portal...sucked them right in.
------
Despite his power-up, Terror was still not much of a match for the powered-up Corey. He kept getting knocked back every time the Super Saiyan landed a hit, and each energy blast the Saiyan landed only served to add to his injuries. He was dominating him nearly the entire time, only his earlier injuries, which he could ignore now, and a few additional scuffs and cuts, serving to indicate he had lost control of his destiny.

Now, however, he had never been more in control of a fight. With one final headbutt, Terror was laid out in front of him.

"It's time to end you." Corey said, opening his mouth to channel a golden energy blast. Just then, a wave of energy pulsed through the universe. A moment later, the sky cracked, and broke audibly. Like back in his home universe, this sky was transformed into a vortex emitting light as well. Seeing this, Terror laughed insanely.

"What's so funny?!" Sonic yelled from where he was.

"It's over for you...Master...he has located the final stone...at last, it is time...but I guess he wants this to be sporting. After all, this will be the last fight you'll ever be in...and you WILL lose this one!" Terror continued, as the light engulfed everyone.

"What's going on?!" Bambi yelled against the energy.

"I don't--" Corey began to respond, but then pain shot through his body. His body structure once more began to reshape. Beside him, in the light, he could see Sonic regaining height.

But that was all the Super Saiyan could discern before the light enveloped everything around him.

Corey and Sonic once again were flung into a dimensional rift, the feeling still very new to them. They felt their bodies changing once again, both of them gaining height and the ability to walk on two legs again. Fingers instead of hooves or claws grew back on their hands, hair began to return to their normal styles.

Indeed, they were returning to normal, Corey still retaining his Super Saiyan transformation, his hair very slightly spiked up from his normal state, light blond in color, eyes a single shade of green. His muscles were also slightly expanded from his normal form as well. For some reason, whatever damage both he and Sonic had suffered previously was repaired.

Both hedgehog and Super Saiyan felt something entering their bodies, energizing them further. It took the two fighters a few moments to realize that there was residual energy created from the disruption, or something like that, and they were receiving quite a great deal, possibly due to the fact they'd changed bodies to something more able to handle their colossal ability - their normal bodies.
-----
The Saiyan boy opened his eyes, the light still clearing from his vision. The first thing he did was survey himself. Amazingly, his clothing, which had been tattered and dirtied somewhat during his last fight in his outfit, was repaired. Once he realized he was back in his body, and still a Super Saiyan (he could tell from the golden spikes in front of his face), he celebrated. However, upon taking in his surroundings fully, he realized he was nowhere in the vicinity of Earth. Not even his own Earth.

The area he was in was littered with rocky, spiky, gray platforms. The "sky", if it could be called that, could only be described as fluctuating. The color of the void was changing through random patterns. Trying to focus, Corey soon realized that he was able to sense Ki...but something was wrong. It felt like he was sensing hundreds of clusters of Ki energies all around him. He looked, and saw nothing.

"Corey!" Sonic's voice called out. Turning to the origin, he saw a blue bipedal hedgehog, looking like he hadn't just held back a massive energy ball, coming to him. "You too, huh?"

"Yeah," the Super Saiyan responded, looking around the void. "...Wonder if Bambi and Faline changed too."

"...Ough...ugh..." a boy's voice groaned. Corey turned to see two very familiar fawns crashed onto each other. The darker one was Bambi, the one groaning loudly, the other was Faline, lighter in color.

"They haven't changed." Sonic observed. "Where are we?"

"...I can't tell, Sonic!" Corey paused. He usually wasn't this irritable, even in crisis mode. Was it a side-effect of the Super Saiyan transformation? "All I know is, my Ki sense isn't working for shit! I feel like I'm sensing 100, no, 1,000 civilizations at once! And yet, I can't see any of them!"

"Did you just swear?" the blue blur asked. Before either of them could pursue this avenue, however, a familiar voice called out to them.

"Corey, Sonic!" It was Drew, followed by Zach and the Eds. On the ground behind them were Shadow, Knuckles, and a male hedgehog with pants. All of them were in a transformation of some sort, and looked as though they had recently been involved in a battle. "You guys alright?!"

"Never felt better," answered Sonic. "I didn't know you cared, Drew."

"Eat me," responded the eldest of the trio, looking over to Corey. "Corey, you've done it! You've become a Super Saiyan!"

"...Who's the hedgehog there?" Corey pointed to the unnamed hedgehog with pants. "Didn't think you'd be admitting any other anthro warriors to the team."

"We needed recruits to replace the two of you while we were gone." Zach cut in, before Drew could get any more pissed. "Corey, Sonic, this is Streak the Hedgehog. He's from a lightning element clan. It's all animals, according to him. They use an elemental Kaioken known as the 'Raiken', from what I've seen."

"Nice to see the two of you have made it out of wherever you were safely." Streak commented. Bypassing the fact that Streak was the only male anthromorph wearing pants there, Ed piped in with something totally irrelevant.

"Hey, where'd those deer come from?" he asked, pointing a yellowed finger to them. Corey looked back to the deer, and despite the rage he knew he was leaking into his heart, he winced, recalling what he had allowed to overcome him.

"...Yeah..." Sonic said hesitantly. "Where we were sent, Corey and me were...reduced. He was a deer, I...well, I became...a real hedgehog. No other way to put it."

"That's exactly how it happened...but for some reason, towards the end, when I was fighting Terror, Oskuro's minion...and someone else that was corrupted through his power, I somehow managed to become a Super Saiyan, despite still being a deer." the young Saiyan observed, still in doubt about how that happened.

"...F-Faline! L-look! I-it's...more of those guys from Sonic's s-story...!" Bambi squeaked, causing everyone there except Corey and Sonic to gasp.

"...It talks..." Drew groaned, holding his head in pain.

"I-it's true...Corey and Sonic..." the female observed, looking at the assembled heroes for the first time. "They...are from a different world..."

"...What's going on? I'm...feeling all sorts of vibrations...I don't understand. It's like there are a million forests around me...and yet I'm not in any of them..."

"That is because you are at the center of reality itself, fawn!" yelled an all too familiar voice. The young Super Saiyan turned to see a Frieza Final Form palette swap - Oskuro. At his sides were two humanoids with black hair. One of them had to be Terror - probably the one with heterochromia: a red eye and an amber-colored eye. That one had wild, shoulder-length hair with a prominent widow's peak. Both of the humanoids looked powered-up.

"So that's where you went!" Zach called out, adapting his fighting pose. He then turned to Oskuro. "And I take that form you're assuming now is the one you adapt when you have all five Stones?"

"Perceptive, Saiyan." said Oskuro simply. "I brought you all here...so that you could die at my hands. When I fought you all earlier, I sensed you had potential to defeat me...foil my plans. Obviously, it would have been simpler to just teleport here and leave Terror and Tumult, but the dimensions would have shattered anyway before I had time to fully carry it out. I had to pull us all here. In part because Corey's Super Saiyan transformation completely broke the rules of the dimension he was sent to, weakening the barriers of that universe greatly."

"So...when we sensed Corey earlier..." Eddy said.

"Correct. The barrier of the universe was further weakened when Terror powered up. In the end, that universe would have started a chain-reaction. While the universe is functionally the same as your world, it isn't meant to handle the same level of power."

"Then where are we now?" Bambi asked.

"As I just said, we are at the center of reality. To be more specific, this is the focal point at which all universes converge." Oskuro continued. "It is here, the final battle will commence."

Oskuro's body was suddenly covered by an orb of black, pulsating energy. Five gems - the Dimensional Stones - brown, green, blue, red and white in color, began revolving around him, glowing. Suddenly, the pure negative energy being roared with power, as the orb changed into an inky black aura, crackling with red lightning. The five Dimensional Stones suddenly split across the void in different directions. That, however, was the least of the heroes' worries.

"...His power...!" Edd gasped, stepping back, but not abandoning his stance. "...It's...enormous!"

"We have to try...!" grunted Drew. None of the heroes objected to the notion.
----------
"F-Faline, we'd better take cover!" Bambi stuttered, as the powers of Corey and friends flared up.

"R-right...!" Faline responded. Both began running, as the heroes all charged the trio at once.

"Halt right there!" Oskuro released a pulse of dark energy. "As the new God Above All, I now pick and choose who I want to fight. Hmmm...you, with the large green jewel...and the hedgehogs. You will fight me...The rest of you, have fun. Heroes, this WILL be your last fight...since you will lose this one!"

Sonic, Shadow, Streak, and Knuckles vanished, the echidna still holding on to the Master Emerald. Oskuro vanished too, to another part of the center of the Multiverse.

"Corey! Zach and I will take care of Tumult!" commanded Drew. "You take care of the other one!"

"What about us?" asked Ed, concern evident in his voice, his serious side showing through.

"...The Dimensional Stones...there were five of them!" Drew responded after a few moments of thinking, parrying a punch from Tumult. "You need to-ooF!" He got kicked in the gut.

"...Split up, and find the Dimensional Stones! The gemstones that were floating around him a moment ago...!" Zach took over. "If we can get those back, we might still have a chance to turn this situation around!" He then kicked Tumult back, with a lightning kick.

As Corey and Terror clashed in a high-speed exchange of punches and kicks, picking up where they left off, the Eds decided to take flight, searching for any one of the gems.
-------
Elsewhere in the void, Oskuro appeared, the animals he hand-picked also there close by. He wore a smirk on his face, while the animals grimaced.

"I don't think there's a whole lot you can do against me..." Oskuro's hands gained a black mist around them. He then turned, and sliced the air. A purple flash suddenly occurred. "You'd best do something though...each time I cause this pulse, I may just corrupt a universe...it might even be yours!"

"...Damn you..." Streak groaned, getting back to his feet. Just then, he noticed the Master Emerald was pulsing, as did Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles.

"Is it...always doing that?" Sonic asked. "Has it been doing that since the start of this?"

"No..." Knuckles answered. The four stood in silence for a moment, when Knuckles realized what may have happened. "...Wait...maybe...the Master Emerald can absorb energy..."

"Of course!" Shadow cut in. "When we were warped here, to this void, a lot of residual energy was created. That's why Sonic and Corey are stronger than they were before they left-their bodies automatically absorbed it as they were morphing back to normal..."

"...Then all I've gotta do is channel it, and mix it with Chaos Energy!" Knuckles said, resting both of his large, spiked hands on the large green jewel. "...The servers are the seven Chaos...Chaos is power...power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos...Hear my wish, Master Emerald!" The jewel began to spin, and white stars of energy began to flow into it. "Allow the powers of Chaos to mix with compatible energy sources!"

The Master Emerald glowed bright green, and shot beams of light into the hedgehogs and echidna. Their Super form fur began to glow a brighter color, and small stars began to crackle around them at a small frequency.

"...Hm. Apparently there was enough residual energy to push your Super forms past their normal bounds..." Oskuro observed. "But will you be able to keep me distracted for long? That, is the question..."
-----
The sounds of battle echoed throughout the void. Bambi and Faline watched the ongoing battles around them. Corey was fighting Terror, both now in their normal bodies. The spiky-haired ones wearing similar outfits to Corey were fighting against another one, no doubt Terror's "brother" he mentioned earlier. Both of them appeared to be at a stalemate; however, the other guy was outnumbered two-to-one.

The "animals" from before were barely visible, bright yellow and pink orbs of light, colliding with a jet black orb in the distance. Just being there sent shivers down Bambi's spine. He was dramatically out of place among the chaos. And yet...and yet he just didn't feel right standing there.

"...Faline, we can't just sit here..." he mumbled. "...From how it all looks, everything's at stake..."

"...W-what...? Bambi, what can we do...?" Faline asked, looking up to him.

"...Remember what the..." The young prince struggled to remember what it was that Sonic had called Corey, "...Saiyan, with black and green on said? There were five of those gems around that guy..."

"...So...what you're saying is...we should help find them?" questioned the doe. "...We're...hopelessly out of place here..."

"It's...it's better than doing nothing..."

"...Okay then, Bambi..." She leaned in close to his ear. "...This is the bravest thing I've ever seen a deer do...even though...we both know we're out of place here...we still want to help..."

"You're coming along too?"

"I can't let you go out there all alone, can I?"

And with that, the two deer began to run about, trying to find shiny objects lying about on the ground.

These two deer, the six Saiyans, and four anthromorphs, were the last hope of all the multiverse. If Oskuro won, it meant that darkness would rule over all reality for an indeterminate amount of time...

Sonic sped towards Oskuro first, leaving behind stars as he flew. He threw a punch into Oskuro's back, causing an explosion of air pressure. However, the only one of the two feeling pain was Sonic. But he knew he couldn't give up, and began to barrage Oskuro with melee attacks. Knuckles soon joined in, also leaving behind stars when he charged, and began punching the negative energy being with all of his might. Oskuro wasn't even budging from the combined efforts of the hedgehog and echidna.

"I guess I should have expected as much from you," commented the Frieza recolor, releasing a miniscule, purple pulse of energy. This small burst of energy sent Knuckles and Sonic spiraling away in opposite directions, though they both recovered from this quickly. "This is boring! You'd best hope your friends can reach you in time...in the meantime, why don't we have a little fun?"

"Fun?" Sonic asked. "This is hardly fair, you know, we can't even hit you and you're able to send us flying away."

"Of course you won't be able to hit me, that's not the point..." Oskuro responded, a black ball of energy forming in the palm of his hand. "...But just try and stop me from corrupting other universes, will you? Corruption Release: Consumed by Darkness!"

The black ball expanded as he threw it, and it crackled with negative energy. It was clear that if it travelled for very long, it would corrupt a random universe simply by dissipating. The only way that it could be stopped was...

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow yelled, sending five white streaks of light into the negative energy ball, canceling it out and destroying the energy before it could consume a universe with darkness.

"He's just toying with us...damn it all!" said the echidna, making an observation.

"...Anyone got any ideas?" Sonic asked, just before catching the enemy charge another attack. "There he goes again! Sonic Wind!" This time, a razor wind sliced another Corruption Release attack in half, causing the energy to destabilize and explode.

"Why don't we double the fun?!" Oskuro yelled, tossing two attacks at once!

"YAUGH!" cried Streak, releasing orange lightning from his palms to counter one of the energy attacks.

"Chaos Sphere!" Knuckles yelled, tossing a green energy attack into Oskuro's black one. Both of the attacks were foiled, exploding into nothing.

"Impressive, you're actually countering my attacks," commented Oskuro, an inky black aura forming around him. "I guess I'm underestimating you...a little..."

"That's it!" Knuckles yelled, flying in with a punch.

"Knuckles, wait!" Sonic called out, but too late. Oskuro easily evaded the punch, and slammed Knuckles into the platform they were standing on, causing cracks to form on it from the sheer force of the attack. The negative energy being then jumped into the air, kicking Knuckles in the back and causing the platform to crumble.

"...I think I know what to do..." Streak said, curling into a fetal position. "I'll have to combine my elemental energy with this Chaos Energy...and unleash my ultimate attack...it's probably going to take a while to charge..."

"Will it even work?" Shadow asked. "...It's not like we can put much stock in anything until the others can get those Dimensional Stones back though...urgh...if you're sure it'll work...just leave it to the three of us!"

Sonic nodded, not knowing what to say for one of the few times in his life. With that, both hedgehogs charged after Oskuro, leaving Streak to charge with an orange static aura...
----------------------------------
The older two of the cousin trio continued their fight against Tumult, both sides seemingly replenished since their battle on Angel Island. Drew landed a couple of punches on the minion, only to be met with a kick to the gut that sent him flying back. Zach took up the fight from here, landing a strong punch to Tumult's torso, causing him to hack up blood, followed by a kick in Drew's direction.

However, when Drew reached out for another offensive strike, Tumult's body vanished into a black mist, causing the Saiyan to take a defensive stance, barely blocking a hook kick from his opponent. He then grabbed the leg, and began spinning around, angling himself towards the ground. After a few revolutions, Drew chucked Tumult towards the platforms, and threw a few light blue Ki blasts down on the impact site, only to see his attacks deflected by a dark purple energy shield.

"You're going to have to try harder!" Tumult called up, dissipating his shield.

"Obliged," responded Zach, appearing next to Tumult and uppercutting him into the air with enough force to shatter the bones in his jaw. He then extended his hand to his enemy, and charged a whitish-blue energy ball. "Big Bang Attack!" The ball left dark shockwaves as it travelled to its target. The Big Bang Attack, with Tumult inside it, travelled for a distance before exploding in a brilliant white light. When the smoke cleared, the victim of the attack was steaming, burned from the attack, but had his arms and legs crossed in a defensive position.

"Damn it! Just stay down, Tumult!" Drew grumbled, putting his index and middle fingers to his forehead, and then clenching that fist at his side. A ball with lightning shooting out of it formed on that fist. Tumult and Drew charged one another, with the former throwing a punch. Drew dodged it by several golden hairs, and planted the energy fist in the torso of his enemy, puncturing the skin. "Bullet Beam Cannon!!"

Tumult's expression was that of unexplainable agony as Drew released his deadly attack within his body.

"D-damn you...this a-attack...!" As Tumult finished, a hole opened on his back, blood spraying out of the new wound. A few meters away, a small explosion took place. "...Ugh...the beam bounced all over my insides...!"

"...Why aren't you dying?! Those were direct hits to your vitals! At the very least, you should be more winded than this!!"

"Y-you fool...it's true, you did strike vital points in my body...but...!" Tumult double-kicked Drew in the chest back. "Terror and myself are not built like you flesh and blood creatures. You'll have to more than likely destroy my entire body before I die...and the same goes for Oskuro. While our bodies physically take a while to heal, we can survive most mortal injuries. How about you...?"

Zach floated next to Drew, nodding.

"It looks like we'll just have to hit him even harder than before. You still willing to open the Gates, Drew?" he asked.

"...Don't have much choice...if we can get those Dimensional Stones in time, I should be able to repair whatever damage I do to myself by energizing my body with them..." Drew responded, looking to Zach with a nod. "...Alright. I've got the Lotus if you've got the Lightning..."
----------------------------------
Corey kicked up into Terror's neck, stunning the dark minion with the impact of the attack. He then grabbed his opponent in a full nelson, and proceeded to dive into the nearest platform, tossing him into the rock. With a series of Kiai cannons, Terror was not only shoved through the rock, but the rock itself broke. It was clear that Corey, as a Super Saiyan, was pressing a furious attack.

"This is just like how we left off, Terror! But this time, you won't be able to get away!" Corey shouted, wreathed in a golden aura as he flew straight toward Terror.

"I won't lose to you!" yelled the minion, engulfed in a dark blue aura as he charged the Super Saiyan. The two fighters met in the middle, releasing flecks of yellow and navy energy from the area of impact. The two exchanged punches and kicks for a few moments. They both went in for a punch, but wound up knocking each other back from the shockwave.

The two charged each other again, with Terror landing a knee in Corey's ribcage, followed by a haymaker to the Saiyan child's cheek that caused the Super Saiyan to float back. For a moment, nothing happened.

"How'd that feel?" Terror asked, relaxing his fighting stance properly.

"I barely even felt that," Corey responded, turning back to his opponent and wiping the blood from his lip. "It looks like the trip here made me a little too strong for you. Or maybe it's the near-death increases taking full effect from the forest scene. Whatever the case...it's your end."

"...Curse you!" growled the dark minion. "You shouldn't have gotten so strong, even with all your near-death increases!" With this, Terror stuck his hand stiffly out to the side, a dark blue blade of energy forming from the forearm down. "I'll kill you, Saiyan!"

"Come on and try it!" the Super Saiyan taunted, rushing IN for an attack. Just as Terror slashed at him with the energy blade, however, he found himself slicing through a fading image of Corey. Before he realized it, his arm was ensnared by another. Before Terror could wrestle free of Corey's grip, Corey raised his elbow, and brought it down in a disarming strike. The snap of bone was clearly audible, and Terror floated backward in agony as the grip on his arm was released.

"Why you...wha-?" Terror was confused, Corey having already seemingly vanished from where he was once again. A moment later, the sound of energy rotating, almost like a buzzsaw, was heard. Corey was using the Destructo-Disc.

"Take this!" Corey yelled, tossing the golden saw of energy toward his opponent. Terror whirled around, and leapt back, trying to dodge the onrushing deadly attack. However, the attack unexpectedly split into several discs. While Terror was able to dodge the first two of the five discs, the third glanced his broken arm, leaving a deep gash on it. The fourth sliced off his good arm, and the fifth cut off his left leg. Terror screamed in absolute agony, but then rushed in for a kick, which Corey easily blocked.

"...You're going to have to obliterate me..." Terror said, his face momentarily covered in shadows, looking away from Corey. When he looked back, his face was contorted in a demonic glare, which would have frightened just about anyone with the look. The Super Saiyan flinched from the facial contortion. The minion continued on, his voice dramatically changed. "Do I frighten you, young one?!"

"Shut up!" Corey yelled, blasting Terror back with a quick blast.
----------------------------------
"Why are we stuck with the fetch quest?!" Eddy grumbled, flying around the multiversal void as sounds of battle erupted around him. There was a red glare and a whole bunch of Ki blasts bursting in air. Now if only there were a flag, this would make a great Star-Spangled Banner reference. Anyway, the Saiyan continued his flight, searching the platforms for any gem-like objects.

"Don't stop now, lock and load!" Ed yelled, flying past, looking in any possible direction for the Dimensional Stones. Paying no attention to where he was flying, the tall, yellow-skinned warrior soon found himself crashing through a platform, and quite literally flew through it, coming out of it in the center. He looked around, head sticking up out of the platform. As he hauled the rest of his body out of the platform, he did enough structural damage to cause it to completely crumble.

"Hey Lumpy, look!" Eddy called out, pointing to a brown gem-like object among the debris. Ed sighted the falling Dimensional Stone of Earth, and with a terrible war cry, flew straight down at it, snatching it out of its descent with his hand.

"That's one down, four to go..." Ed's serious personality temporarily returned once again as he made a trenchant observation. "Eddy, we need to keep looking..."

"Who's the boss of the Eds again?" Eddy asked, his pride slowly eroding under the pressure of Ed's rarely-seen serious personality. "...I am! Ugh! But the sooner we can get out of this, the sooner things can get back to normal!"

With this in mind, the short Saiyan quickly flew around, wreathed in a gold aura due to his False Super Saiyan transformation. Hearing the sounds of fists colliding, he turned his head to see Corey and Terror, the latter of whom appeared to have just been on the receiving end of a chainsaw mauling. He realized that his newly transformed trainer was just trying to keep Terror away from him - he only had one leg, his other arm appeared to be broken.

"F-Faline, we've gotta find it soon!" came a child's voice from below.

"Over here, Bambi, hurry!" a female child's voice answered. Eddy looked to see the two deer Corey and Sonic were with earlier, running about. The lighter-colored one was standing near a deep blue gem...
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The young prince of the forest, hopelessly out of place in this chaos, began running over to Faline, seeing the blue shiny gem at her feet. When he got over to the gem in question, both Bambi and his future mate suddenly realized something drastic: they had absolutely no idea what to do after this. They couldn't carry it in their mouths, especially since Bambi swore he was hearing the sounds of battle nearing closer...

"...Gotta think of something..." the young stag whispered to himself, closing his eyes in thought. Suddenly, he heard Faline gasp, and he felt...strange. Like the gem was inside of him, and yet it wasn't...but the feeling was fleeting at best.

"...It...went inside of you...?" Faline asked, looking at him strangely.

"...Honestly, Faline, I'm not even sure what's going on at this point," said Bambi in response. And it was true: one moment, Corey was a strangely violent deer, the next moment, his nature was explained as being...a Saiyan from another world...which now made perfect sense. Trying to consider all this on such short notice was giving the young prince a headache, so he quickly moved on, "We've just gotta keep moving, and find more of these..."

"Hey, deer!" an unfamiliar voice called out. Bambi whirled to see a short humanoid with three orange-tinted hairs protruding from the top of his flat head, wearing...clothes, that weren't like Corey's at all. "...You were with Corey earlier, right?"

"Yes..." Bambi responded. "...You must be one of his friends back in his world...none of this is making any sense..."

"Yeah, preachin' to the choir on that one..." the bipedal...Bambi assumed Saiyan, responded. "We...we really need to get a move on here..."

The sound of air pressure exploding filled Bambi's ears, stunning him for a moment. Corey and the mangled humanoid were suspended a few yards above, the latter being sent flying back from a kick to the gut.

As the golden-haired boy flew after him, Eddy pushed Bambi and Faline, yelling: "MOVE IT!"

None of them objected, the three of them soon jetting it through the multiversal void. As they moved, Bambi caught notice of a distant being, appearing to wear red and blue, and had dramatically spiked-up orange hair on his head.

"Look!" said the first of the orange-haired boys, "It's a green one dead ahead!"

The sounds of battle continued to erupt throughout the multiversal void, but Bambi saw it. Willing himself to keep running forward, his muscles starting to ache from the continued use, he heard a roar that caused his fur to stand on end.

"I WON'T LET YOU GRAB THAT STONE!!" Immediately, Bambi, Faline, and Eddy turned around.

Faline screamed, Eddy gave a disgusted groan, and Bambi shivered. Terror now had a hole punctured through the remainder of his body, and it appeared his other leg was sliced off as well. He opened his mouth - were his teeth sharper than before, and a very familiar glow began to work its way up his throat.

Something happened within Bambi at this point. He didn't know why, but suddenly, he felt as though he were on top of the world. No, not even that, above the world. Eddy's eyes widened, Faline gasped, and the distant orange-haired boy halted in midair.

"...B-Bambi...y-your fur...!!" Faline stuttered, obviously in shock. The young stag's fur had indeed changed color, from shades of orange and brown to shades of gray-blue and sky blue. Also, his antlers really were coming in: in the form of ice.

"W-wha..." Bambi stuttered, as the antlers shot OFF his head, and straight into Terror's eyes, completely stunning him.

"ARGGHHHH! MY EYES!!" Terror screamed, floating backward off-balance.
-------------
"...He reacted to a need...what kind of power is that...?" Edd observed, seeing Bambi stab out Terror's eyes with ice antlers. "...he should not be able to manipulate energy like that! How many plotholes can this movie possibly have?"

Realizing he was violating the fourth wall, the False Super Saiyan began flying about, looking for any Dimensional Stone that was in clear sight. Suddenly, he heard someone flying up close to him. Turning his head, he saw Corey, still very much a Super Saiyan, flying after him.

"C-Corey?! What are you doing!? Shouldn't you be trying to protect them?!" screamed the red-shirt wearing boy.

"I need a little more power to kill Terror. Otherwise, he'll just keep coming back, and look even worse each time..." said the Super Saiyan. "The next Stone you find, I'll use to do it..."

With this, the two flew about, the distant sounds of battle still echoing throughout the platforms in the center of the multiverse. Both teacher and student searched the platforms below, when Edd sighted a red glint on one of them.

"Corey, there! I've located one!" Edd pointed. Soon, Corey flew down at it, and Edd soon landed next to him. The instant Corey grabbed it, he absorbed its power. Corey's hair changed into an orange color and spiked up such that only one lock of hair dangled in front of his face. His eyes turned yellow, and his gi and bandanna turned red. His sash and wristbands turned yellow, and his shoes turned black. Also, his aura resembled a flame, with gold sparks within.

"...Alright, combining the Stone with our Super Saiyan forms should work. Still need to monitor the amount of power we draw, so we don't wind up destroying our bodies with the elemental energy..." Corey observed, sticking his hand to his side to perform a Rasengan. A golden swirling ball formed on the palm. "As soon as we finish Terror, all we need now is the final Stone, the White Stone..." The flames in his aura then began to mix into the ball, changing its color to orange.

"...You're going to try and use that technique?" Double-D asked, looking at the energy attack. "O-of course...! With the elemental powers granted to us by the Stones, we can use the aura...as the elemental energy...!"

"...and keep it perfectly balanced..." the Fire Super Saiyan finished, as the flame aura finished mixing with the Rasengan. The attack's surface resembled that of liquid fire, mixing orange and red. "...Fire Release: Napalm Spiral!"

After shouting out the name of his attack, Corey charged forth, leaving behind a host of flames in his wake...
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The Super Saiyan continued to charge, wreathed in a flame aura and carrying his newly formed attack in his hand. Terror was finally starting to recover, his eyes dripping blood, clearly blinded and disoriented.

"You damned deer! Prepare to die!!" he yelled, opening his mouth.

"Take this!" Corey screamed louder, as he jetted between a confused Bambi and Faline, and just past Eddy, who appeared to be pissed. Ramming the Napalm Spiral into his opponent's chest, he knew enough to realize that there was no way the injured Terror could survive. Throwing the Rasengan into the distance, Corey smiled slightly.

"...Done." Eddy grumbled, as the Napalm Spiral exploded in one large fireball, causing all present to shield their eyes from the heat released from the blast. When the fireball cleared, the impact zone was wreathed in flame, the platform slowly beginning to crumble into fiery pieces.

"...Whew..." Corey said simply. "That was close...Almost had you guys there. Nice one, Bambi. Though I don't think you meant to do it on your own. I'm going to need that gem you picked up. Stay safe, you two..."

Bypassing any innuendo generated by that last statement, the Dimensional Stone of Water went from Bambi's hammerspace to Corey's. Eddy then claimed the Stone of Wind that was recovered.

"Alright--" Corey halted, sensing, in the distance, the waning power levels of the anthromorphs. "Damn! Looks like we're going to have to get moving. Eds, we need to find the White Stone now..."

"Be careful out there!" Bambi yelled. "...If you can..."

"...At this point, staying alive is our main concern..." Ed observed, appearing from nowhere at Corey's side.

"...Let's move!" Corey yelled, flying off.

"Can I give the orders for once?!" Eddy bellyached, following Corey. None of the Saiyans, however, continued to talk about issues of pride and something about a litmus test, quickly busying themselves with the plot at hand. All Saiyan eyes were searching the void. Suddenly, Edd broke off from the group. At first, the Super Saiyan did not understand why...and then he noticed a white glint out of the corner of his eye...
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Drew, meanwhile, finally finished stalling Tumult. The fight went somewhat evenly, though it had tilted in Drew's favor once he opened up two of his inner gates. But now that Zach's attack was nearly finished, and with Sonic and the other anthros getting beaten fast-except Streak, whose power actually seemed to be building-he decided to assist Zach in finishing off the minion.

"3rd Gate: Gate of Life, release!" Drew called out, his gold aura becoming mixed with a blue-green coating of energy. His hair spiked out of his face completely, and his flesh turned bright red. "...Going to have to make this quick...!" His face contorted in pain, as his body realized the massive amount of energy he was using up between the Gates and his Super Saiyan transformation. He could already feel his muscles vibrating in pain.

With this in mind, he charged Tumult, breaking the sound barrier in less than two seconds and reaching his target in three. With nothing more than a thought, Drew was punching Tumult back with a flurry of fists. Soon he reached a platform, but Drew didn't stop beating up the minion as rocks began to crack and break under the pressure. Finally, Drew changed his pattern, grabbing Tumult with both hands around the minion's neck. With a roar, the Super Saiyan chucked his unfortunate target away, and once again flew up past him.

"I'm ready!" Zach's distant yell came, accompanied by a golden flare of lightning mixed with purple sparks.

"Get ready to intercept then!" Drew commanded, already flying down towards Tumult, fist extended. "HIDDEN LOTUS!!" Drew's entire body was covered in a glowing blue-green aura, his body looking more like a laser bolt than a humanoid. Tumult had no time to react before the full-force of the attack slammed straight into his chest, sending him flying back through platforms.

Zach, seeing this, soon charged after the sailing enemy, leaving behind golden bolts as he traveled. It was going to be close, his Super Raikiri already showing signs of being difficult to maintain as sweat began to drip down the Saiyan's face. Drew, meanwhile, released the Gates, and reverted to normal, his body exhausted from the effort.

"No...!" Tumult groaned, as Zach extended his hand, making contact with his attack. However, this particular variation of the Lightning Blade beginning to glow brighter and brighter after it impaled the minion. The Super Saiyan extended his foot, briefly kicking Tumult away from the impact point.

"Super Lightning Blade: Galick Devastator!" As the Super Saiyan yelled out the name of his technique, the Lightning Blade changed color from gold with purple sparks to purple with gold sparks. From the former Lightning Blade, an elementally-charged Galick Gun shot forth, engulfing Tumult within the beam and quite literally slicing him up atom-by-atom. Each atom peeled from his body was then disintegrated by the energy. By the time Zach finished pumping energy into the attack, no more atoms were left to the dark minion.

"That takes care of him..." Drew panted, floating down next to Zach, his body clearly having taken internal damage from the use of the Inner Gates and his Super Saiyan form. "...don't know if I can help against Oskuro, though..." He glanced over to where he could see, in the distance, three vague shapes dashing around trying to stop a darker vague shape from doing something. "...What the hell is Streak doing...his energy is pumping up..."

"...Here, take some of my energy. It'll have to do..." Zach said, transferring some of his energy to Drew. A few moments later, Drew was once again able to attain his Super Saiyan form, though his exhaustion was still apparent.

"...Can you sense the other guy...Terror?" asked Drew. "It's hard to tell, but I don't think he's here any more."

"...Corey and the Eds are heading our way..." Zach pointed out, seeing the flame-coated Corey and the Eds in the distance. "...Looks like they've got 'em all back..."

About ten seconds later, Corey and the Eds, the former of whom had already used the Stones to power up his affinity for Fire, floated in front of the remaining Cousin Trio.

"...Well, good...all five, then, right?"

"Yep." Corey pulled out the Stone of Fire, the red gem as he spoke, as well as the Stone of Water, deep blue in color. Edd pulled out the White Stone, Eddy doing the same with the green Stone of Wind. Ed pulled out the brown gem, the Stone of Earth. "All five of them are here, and the deer are trying to find a safe spot."

"...They're losing," noted Edd. "...We'd best go and assist them immediately...I do not care to know what happens to those that meet their end here, but we're at the center of reality..."

With this thought considered, the six Saiyans flew towards the site of battle, seeing more orange lightning gather in the distance...
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Sonic gave a shout of pain as he was knocked to the platforms below. His spirit was willing to continue the battle, but his body was exhausted. Shadow and Knuckles weren't faring much better.

Is it done yet? Sonic wondered, noticing the orange static beginning to crackle at random in the area. That looks good...

"Hoping something will come to save you, rodents?" asked Oskuro, floating down in front of them. "Your best bet is to just surrender already...it won't be long before I succeed in corrupting a world..."

Knuckles charged Oskuro, but was met with a knee to the stomach, which knocked the wind out of him and caused him to revert to normal.

"Kn-Knuckles!" Sonic shouted, pushing himself back to his feet. The echidna in question dropped to the ground, limp.

"Don't worry. He's alive...for now," the negative energy being continued, rushing in for an attack of his own. "Worry about yourself!"

Sonic had no time to react, his injuries already getting to him. With Oskuro's elbow planted firmly in his face, the hedgehog was sent flying back, his fur turning back to blue from its gold hue. He too, reverted to his base form.

"I'm done toying with you!" said Oskuro, kicking Shadow as the hedgehog charged him, also knocking him out of his Super form.

"...It's ready..." said Streak, to himself, entire body crackling with orange electricity. "Streak Storm!!"

"What?!" Oskuro roared, turning to Streak. "How the Hell did I forget...?"

He didn't finish that sentence, however, for orange blasts of lightning began to rain down, fired from Streak's aura into the air. Oskuro decided to take the attack head-on, going into the fetal position as the blasts began to hit him. This rampant blasting went on for thirty seconds, during which copious amounts of smoke were kicked up. Streak panted, floating down to the nearest platform, his fur resuming its orange hue and the lightning bolt in his quill vanishing.

"...That..." said Oskuro, through the smoke. "...actually hurt...just a little...but if that's your best...then you will meet your end here!"

He then let out a small black Ki blast in Streak's direction. The anthromorphs were too beaten to move about much. It seemed that the orange hedgehog was doomed, at least until a blast of fire element energy hit the weak Ki ball, causing it to be negated.

"...They did it..." Shadow observed, seeing the Saiyans with the Dimensional Stones. "...We might still have a chance..."

Oskuro snorted, but none of the heroes paid him any mind. No further words were exchanged between the heroes, as the Dimensional Stones once again began to re-energize their bodies, repairing any damage that they may have taken from the preceding fights. Streak, Zach, and Edd gained the White Stone's power as the majority of the power they were absorbing. While their appearance didn't change much when compared to their base form, their eyes appeared to glow a milky white, and their auras flowed as white smoke. Eddy and Sonic took the Stone of Wind's power, hair/fur turning white and their eyes losing their pupils. Their auras resembled visible waves of air pressure fluctuating around them, for lack of a better description. Ed and Knuckles gained the power from the Stone of Earth, his aura resembling a mudslide, and respective hair colors turning a muddy brown. Corey, having already absorbed the Stone of Fire's power earlier, had its absorption maximized. His aura became like that of a fire. Drew and Shadow, meanwhile, absorbed the Stone of Water, gaining control over that element. Their respective hair colors became a light blue and their eyes turned a light blue as well.

"Let's get this started!" Drew yelled. Suddenly, the Stones went into the air above the heroes. "What?"

"Are they going to split up again?" Edd asked. Something strange happened after the Saiyan finished his query. Rather than just scatter again, the Dimensional Stones suddenly turned to energy, and then budded off into different directions. And by "directions", I mean "individuals". A red streak of light caught Corey square in the chest, but the Saiyan felt no pain. A brown streak went into Ed's chest, a white streak into Edd's forehead, and a green streak found its mark in Eddy's body.

"What the--?" Eddy asked. "...That's four of them...but where's the Stone of Water going?!"
---------
"...B-Bambi, what's that?!" Faline asked, from the two's "safe spot". They had been watching the power-up session, when the Stones budded off. Now, they saw a dark blue streak of light heading straight for them. Specifically, it was about to hit Bambi dead-on. "L-look out!"

Too late. The streak went into Bambi's forehead, but just like with the Eds and Corey, he didn't feel any pain from the shot.

"...W-what was that...?" Bambi asked to no one in particular. "It's about to start..." He decided to put it aside for now, engrossing himself in the battle that was to unfold...
----------
"So you've managed to find all 5 Stones, and now that you're powered-up to be on almost equal terms with one another, you think you can actually beat me?" Oskuro asked. His muscles began to bulge, as his inky black aura flared again. "Up until now, I've only been using 10% of my real power...50% then, should be enough to wipe you out where you STAND!!!" His muscles bulged outward further on the last word, veins standing out on each of them. Basically, he was now a 100% Full Power Frieza recolor.

"Damn it..." Shadow grunted. "His power shot up again..."

"We have to keep trying. If we lose, every bit of reality is at stake here..." observed Drew.

The remaining heroes offered no objections.